We're HERE!

Louis Dean loaded his tiller in the truck all by himself Monday afternoon and he was one proud guy for knowing how to get it done. He's good at figuring things out and I assisted in a tiny way by pushing in on his back as he used leverage to  get it up there!

By the end of the day we had nearly everything loaded - including two big wooden rocking chairs and a huge empty propane tank!

I had a doctor's appointment Tuesday afternoon so we got a late start in getting on the road around 3:30. Between our last trip and this one - we discovered they were doing massive amounts of roadwork right where we needed to go to get out of town.

I use WAZE navigation tool and she tried to tell us how to go and I tried to give Louis Dean the directions! 

By the time we got to Hillsboro, I was a mess!!

There had been some very loud words and some high pitched sounds on the drive down.

You can see he is now a happy man!

A chicken fried steak and gravy fixes everything!

I had a small dinner salad and am officially on a diet!

I've never been over weight before but I am now and I am going to do something about it!

The rest of the trip was pretty good - we stopped for fuel and HEB for groceries.

It was dark by the time we got to the gate.

Dean and Sherry had been to a bee meeting and they stopped by to visit for a few minutes on their way in.

Tarzan the ranch cat really loves us!

I froze the turkey carcass and brought it down so I could give him a 'hand out' every day.

He eats and then insists on getting up in my lap!

We slept so well last night!

Only night sounds here.

No traffic. No sirens.

In the night Winter decided to come back and pay us a visit!

It was COLD!

No working outside so we each puttered around today doing the odd and end things.

Louis Dean sorted his work room and I put up laundry and made meals.

We both took naps and did some reading.

This afternoon I went down to Sherry's and admired all her blooms!

She and Dean are incubating eggs!

You can see two of them started to crack.

This is day #3 out of the three days so they should be hatching shortly!

As they hatch, you lift them out and carry them over to this box all ready for them.

As you start to set them down, you put their beak into the water dish and then release them.

Two have already hatched since I came back up here to our place!

Starting tomorrow I will be on Chick Watch duty while Dean and Sherry are out of town!

I'm so excited!

Their house is so cozy and they have a huge TV and electric fireplace, fancy popcorn and a cool popper so I'm thinking we will hang out down there and watch movies along with watching the eggs!

Plus Grand dog Rufus will be there!

In other news, Summer arrived safely from Puerto Rico!

She had a great visit but was glad to be back which is a wonderful thing!

To be happy to travel and happy to be home!

She put the door handle on - the dead bolt lock was above the handle so we were still able to lock the door! Thank you, Summer!!

I'll close tonight's journal entry with two pics Amber sent me.

Amber and Benjamin - children of my old age!

Uncle Ben had come to watch the girls play hockey and cheer them on!

They WON and will be heading to the championship game on Friday!!

Yay, QUACKERS!!!

The Dining Room in Her Spring Clothes Complete With Accessories!

 I finally turned the corner and have one more room transformed from Christmas to Spring!

As I envision what I want the room to look like - the first thing that happens is I get a spark of inspiration - in this case I was in the guest room looking for something and noticed the green bedspread.

I decided to use it as a tablecloth and then everything else started falling into place.

I'm still tweaking things here and there and have added a few more 'accessories' over the last day or two.

Yellow is fast becoming a favorite color for me.

Last year was the first time in many many years since I have decorated with Yellow as the focal color point. That was back in the 1970's when we did Summer's bedroom.

I made this wreath several years ago and hung tea cups in amongst the roses.

I have since added a few fresh faux roses to the arrangement after taking this photo.

Since I used a bedspread for a tablecloth - I rummaged around in my dresser drawers and found some pretty green scarves to use on the buffets.

Summer made the rings for me and they look pretty on my recently thrifted green napkins/

I'm feeling the spring vibes in here!

Most everything in this photo is from thrifting!

Can you see the gorgeous flower nodding at the birdhouse?

Amber gave us a dozen roses for Valentine's Day and they fit right in with the floral scheme.

This room came together rather quickly.

No really deep cleaning to do in here so it went fast!

The Bell grands and I have had many a tea party with these.

There's now a garland of roses draped over the steeple of this sign.

The last few days have been pretty busy around here for Louis Dean and me.

We normally spend several days of the week right here at home but not lately!

Friday we did more errands and our last one was to pick up Summer's van at Firestone!

Sounds simple but it was not!

At first - I had all the info needed to put the repairs on Summer's Firestone credit card.

Alas, over and over I put the numbers in and the system rejected them.

My phone was dying so I had to charge it for a little while so I could call Summer and let her know what was going on. The charger didn't work so the guy had to come over and fiddle with that.

Finally it charged enough to call her and that was when another customer had come in and attempted to put HIS repair bill on HIS Firestone credit card and it did the same thing!!

Come to find out - Firestone's computer had a glitch!

So Plan B was to put the info on a paper form and I could go ahead and take the van.

While all this was going on - Louis Dean was sitting patiently waiting in the car to follow me home!

He is THE most patient man I have ever met!

So I go out and tell him to not leave until I drive past him and went back over to the van.

It was dead as a doornail! 

Of course, it was!

The guys there came out with a jump kit and got it started and we made it home!!!

Saturday was a Stay at Home day and it was wonderful!

I went on to work in the kitchen and took out every last bit of Christmas from dishes to glasses to greenery to wreaths!

This morning (Sunday) I watched church online and we fully expected to stay home all day.

Alas, the front door knob came off in Louis Dean's hand and he spent well over an hour to try and put it back together. We finally decided to go to Home Depot and buy a new door handle.

I opted to drive to the south Irving Home Depot - shortest and most direct route.

**Facebook**

Alas the police had blocked off the street to enter the east parking lot!

**Facebook**

It looked like this apartment building was surrounded by police.

We meandered through the neighborhood to reach the other side of the lot and was able to find a space to park and we walked up to the door - and found an employee waving at us from behind the closed and locked door signaling us to leave!

So we maneuvered our way back up to Beltline and went to the North Irving Home Depot!

Wouldn't you know the road narrowed to ONE lane with the police blocking lanes off!

Turns out that was a disabled truck!

We purchased a new handle.....

Arrived safely at home....

And my Knight in Shining Overalls spent a good hour trying to put it together.

He finally gave up!

So here's our shining new door handle and Summer says she will install it when she returns from Puerto Rico!

I'm so thankful that Louis Dean accepts help at times like this.

Hopefully by this time tomorrow night I will have a clean kitchen!

It's already halfway there!

Regarding the police presence at Home Depot -

it seems there was a domestic disturbance that involve a stand off/hostage situation in one of the apartments across  from Home Depot and the police had them lock the doors as a security precaution.

It's been a busy week and we are looking forward to going down to the ranch soon!

Sunday night supper! Mine....

and his!!!

Tuesday Treasures and Car Repair Adventures!

Monday was a 'Stay at Home' day where both Louis Dean and I puttered around doing this and that. 

My Knight in Shining Armor did a major repair to one of last week's Tuesday's treasures.

I broke it when I fell and breaking that upset me more than the fall itself!

Which by the way - only left bruising in beautiful purple colors!

He repaired it Monday night and on Tuesday morning, he proudly showed me how well it held together! Alas, he had used his favorite Gorilla Glue and it looked like yellow snot squiggled all over it! Not to worry! Louis Dean used a chisel edge black marker and colored all the glue and it looked perfect!!

I really do believe there's nothing that Louis Dean can't fix!!

Brenda picked me up on Tuesday to do our weekly treasure hunt!

Between the two of us I scored a lot of good things!

Things that went well with my new decorating scheme.

Plus several Chico's pieces!

All my pics didn't upload to show the capes and other items.

The black shelves were most likely spice racks ...

but I used them in the hall.

I'm loving the look!

Really loving it!

Cleaner and less 'cluttered.'

I'm having so much fun changing my decor style!

And I smile every time I look at the frame and ornaments Brenda gave me.

I hung them on chains....

I cleaned up this corner and I like it!

I love waking up and seeing all my pretty things....

I know that the current 'trend ' says to avoid the 'sign' decorations and especially this one.

But I do not care! I decorate for me - not the trends. I make my own!

I am the Queen of Cover Up and the black and white valance Brenda found for me covers a stack of decorative boxes holding this and that!

This is a reality pic with the vacuum in the hall!

After our Tuesday shopping and the traditional lunch and visit at Chick -fil-A...

she dropped me off at Firestone to pick up Summer's van.

Remember her alternator burned up in Mount Pleasant on Super Bowl Sunday and she had it towed 200 miles to the Firestone here in Irving for repair.

Alas, when we got there - I saw that flat tire!

I called her and she negotiated repairs - again.

She is having and amazing time in Puerto Rico with Rayne!

Hopefully the van will be repaired and in place here at home when she returns.

Wednesday morning Louis Dean and I dropped the car off at Midas for a routine oil change.

We walked down the frontage road of Hwy 183 to the Waffle House ....

We had breakfast for lunch and the food was perfectly cooked and the price was so reasonable that we were able to leave a 25% tip!

The car required more repairs than we originally thought so we walked on down to Big Lots at MacArthur and  183....

That's quite a walk for older people.....

we only bought lightweight things and headed back to Midas. 

Louis Dean needed a breaks so we stopped for a rest and dessert when I checked in with Midas and learned of a delay in getting a part.

Thank the Lord and our sweet neighbor, Stephanie for the ride back home!

We were back at it this Thursday morning!

Our car was ready and Stephanie y drove us up to get it.!

Now on to the errands from yesterday!

We picked up our car and made an appointment with Lovely Nails that gave us time to shop the newly opened Ollie's!

Located at Hwy 183 and Beltline -they have some amazing products at such good prices.

While we were in line for for our pedicures, we ate at Lohas  Teriyajkai.

Buffalo Hot Wings are his favorite and these were exceptionally good!

I had the shrimp tempura!

It's funny I have not noticed this place before.

It's kind of a classy hole in the wall and they had a large urn of water with fresh cucumber and lemon slices. It tasted as good as it looked and reminded me that I should keep a pitcher of that in my fridge!

Lovely Nails is like old home week!

The people love us and we love them and we love being here!

Louis Dean's doctor recommended an appointment with a podiatrist,

Been there and done that!

It cost a good bit of $$ and a high quality pedicure appointment  is so much better1

We did a few errands before heading home..

We decided to go to Kroger for steaks, wine and cucumbers,,,,

Oh, my GOODNESS!! 

$50 steaks for $20!

We bought six packages of three steaks  for a big SCORE!!! 

Dinner was amazing and I'm so grateful for our life  - a steak dinner this evening with baked potatoes.

My friend, Susan, sent us this gift of cocktail napkins  - they reminded her of Louis Dean and his penchant for boxed wine.....

But this is MY box of wine!

Thank you, Susan!!!

Cheers from Texas!!!