Catching up!!

We have SO much going on here and I have fallen so behind in my journal entries!

Here it is on Tuesday night and my last entry was a week ago!!

I am going to do a quick catch up of the last seven days - if I can remember what all has happened.

We had the house painted - from last Tuesday morning to Thursday.

Hector did a good job.

He spray painted and with the extra paint, Louis Dean and I are going back and brush painting some areas. This is SO much easier than having to paint it all from scratch!

I meant for the door to be the Fudge Bar brown but I'm going to try and make the Stone Brown work for me.

He did an excellent job on our den windows!

I have seven more to do when I get the funds plus two French doors!

I'm in love with these windows!

The ambiance is wonderful!

I have been wanting new windows for over 10 years so the 'desire accomplished is sweet to the soul!'

Thank you, Lord!

I do so love all things warm and cozy!

Progress is messy and our house is a wreck but I am taking comfort in knowing it will all sort out in the long run.

I'm still working on Christmas Santas for my grandsons.

This one is for Levi who loves to fish!

I have cooked some good and healthy meals....

trying to make sure Louis Dean gets enough calories.

I eat more than he does!

Jesse and Rachel came to visit on Saturday and she and I worked on our painted horse canvas.

This is her very first oil painting and she is a gifted artist!

I could never have painted this when I first started!

I served ham and cheese sandwiches, potato salad and grapes for our lunch along with mango iced tea.

We watched church online Sunday morning and worked on putting things back in place after the house painting. Everything had to be moved away from the house - deck boxes, hose rollers, all sorts of debris including lights, ivy, decorations, and on and on. It was a HUGE deal!

I voted on Monday!

Louis Dean still can't find his billfold that has his Texas ID.

Brenda told me he can use his passport - even though it is expired but not for more than for 10 years - so I will take him before Friday. Plus I can assist him since he has dementia.

Praying for our country!!

I voted from my Biblical position.

I voted for the platform.

Ilene came over to see our new windows and paint job and we had cocktails on the driveway followed by hamburgers and potato salad. She is such a wonderful friend and neighbor to us!

Tuesday I hung more of my Santa paintings in the den.

And I watched the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden.

I am excited about this election and praying for our country.

We have been working on restoring order to our property and home.

Everything is in dissary and I haven't even kept up my handwritten diary since last Tuesday!

I admit to being overwhelmed with so much to do and everything being in such a mess.

I don't think I even posted much on Facebook this week so I can't document the last seven days properly.

I was so busy that I didn't take pics to reference back.

But trust me - we have been BUSY!

I know that we watched church online on Sunday and did not attend any hockey games.

Monday Louis Dean and I unloaded the deck box that holds my extra frames and canvasses.

He cleaned it out for me!

And it was ready to store my things away.

I've been working on my Santa walls - one in the den and one in the living room - and this was my work station in cleaning the frames and matching them to paintings.

The two large canvasses on the house wall was from a trip to the thrift store

The left one was $5 and the right one was $7!

If they fade I can always restore them!

Today Louis Dean transfered some of my spring decorations to the deck box Summer gave LD!

He rebuilt it and reinforced it and I am so happy to have this storage space for my 'debris.'

I close tonight's journal entry with scenes from our den.

I love my fairy lights around the windows.

Before I had rope lights and I loved those but I wanted something different now.

Setting the scene for Christmas....

I'm thinking red and white for the den this year.

And a Santa theme, of course!

See the organ at the right?

We are taking that to the curb tomorrow along with the easy notes song books.

I'm 76 and no longer interested in trying to play the organ - I was never very good and when I was trying - my family bought me head phones so they didn't have to hear me play!

I'm sure someone will pick it up and hopefully enjoy it!

I am trying to relax and enjoy the transistion of fall to the Christmas season.

I have to start early as I am much slower than I used to be - but it is still important to me to decorate!

Is it too early  to say 'Merry Christmas?'

Hockey Sunday and Home Repairs!!

 The season's changing and there's a feeling of fall - not that it's cool yet.

After a couple of super sweet fall weather days, it's back in the 80's now and for the foreseeable future.

At least the nights are cool enough to turn the AC off!

We spend a little time most evenings sitting on the driveway, often with our dear neighbor, Ilene.

If we eat a larger meal during the day, a light supper with our wine works for us.

After doing some serious thinking and praying about things here at home that need to be done, Louis Dean and I decided to take some of our resources and hire professionals to trim our trees and paint the house and replace the den windows. LD is old school and it's been hard for him to accept the fact that he can't do all the things he used to do. He really can't keep his focus long enough these days to stay on task.

He still likes to work and DO things so he's been busy moving debris away from the storage building and he's been pretty creative about it!

He put up some boards along the fence and relocated his pvc pipes, boards and what have you up there.

All the way down the fence line!

He worked all day long on Saturday and it made him feel good!

Sunday morning I was up early and at Home Depot by 9:00!

NO make up but I did wear earrings, a cap and perfume.

We made it to Valley Ranch for not one but TWO hockey games!

The first one was Trystan, Kailey and Logan's Texas Heat .

They played so well and won their game against a Houston team.

I wore my red sweater and had a gray blanket in keeping with their colors.

Then we stayed for Harrison's game.

I had gone to the car and switched my colors to purple!

Complete with a purple water bottle.

This particular rink is THE coldest one they play on.

As soon as the game was over, we were waiting to see Harrison and, since Louis Dean was freezing, he went outside to stand in the sunshine.

Kailey keeps a close eye on her granddad and when she went to check on him and he wasn't there!

He had walked around the buiilding and was sitting on the hood of our car.

I teared up to see Kailey sitting with him!

She and her Granddad have a truly special bond but she loves me, too!

And I love how SHE loves HIM!

Another light Sunday night supper!

I had asked our lawn guy for an estimate to trim all the overgrown tress in the back yard.

He arrived at 8:00 and went right to work.

Louis Dean came in and asked me, "What in the world is going on out there???"

He starts every day with a clean slate and that's not always a bad thing.

This old elm tree died several years ago and the stump has rotted and slowly started dropping off huge chuncks of bark. 

Now we have firewood for the winter and plenty of kindling.

The overgrown jungle is no longer there!

Louis Dean is going to make the remaining stump into a table top to set plants on.

The grown cover back there will come back and I hope to do some landscaping as well.

NO limbs over the gazebo!

This is what I call a trash tree and I pull them up all the time, but this one is in my neighbor's yard and it has grown and grown!

Same way with the tree over the storage building (where I store my seasonal decorations - or SOME of them!) as it's in our neighbor's yard next door.

The catalpa tree is huge and also in our neighbor's yard. I enjoy looking at it but am glad it's trimmed back now. Bruno does work for them as well as for Stephanie on the other side of us.

Here's Bruno!!

He is so good and did a great job!

Brenda uses him, too!

It's wonderful to know good people who do good work and I highly recommend him to all in the DFW area.

When he gave me the estimate for the yard and for the two pecan trees in the front - which he will trim after the pecan harvest is over - I asked him if he knew anyone who did painting.

He did and the next day Hector came over and gave us an estimate for painting our house and outbuildings as well as replacing the four front den windows!

He arrived at 9:00 this morning and worked hard all day!

Replacing the windows was the first order of business.

I love to see guys working!

First window IN!

I absolutley LOVE these!!!

They are so cool - no mini blinds needed now.

Just my sheers. They are the paned look and cream colored.

I did NOT want white.

Windows IN and the front is ready to to paint in the morning.

These guys are the BEST!

They took down all the lights and debris for me.

When they left for lunch, Louis Dean and I went out to admire the work and that's when LD spied all their Ryobi tools and chargers and batteries and instinctively started gathering them all up!!

I told him they all belonged to the workers so he put them back and then said, "I better not come out here until they are finished."

I agreed. I don't want to take a chance on him taking and losing their tools!!

Tomorrow the painting begins!!

I ordered 5 gallons of Fudge Bar for trim and 5 gallons of Stone Brown for the house - 

the same colors I have because I love them!