An Unexpected Treat 092509

That's what Monday was for me. I had my plans, my agenda, my schedule planned. After taking Vanessa back to work from lunch I was going to do my grocery shopping. I had put it off to the point I had to drop by the store to pick up just enough items to fix the next meal! I usually go the day of or a few after payday but last week I worked at the store Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I didn't feel like shopping afterwards.
I drop Vanessa off and head to my first stop, Walgreens. When I finished there I planned to go to Walmart. As I got in the truck I realized I didn't make the church's bank deposit when I dropped off Vanessa. So I went back to the bank. While there Doyle called me. Back to the story in a minute.....

Doyle went back to work Sept 1st. but because he had been off work due to injury he was unable to take any vacation. His anniversary date is October. He had to take two weeks or lose it so after working a couple of weeks he was off for two weeks! During this time we had friends who own a lakehouse on PK Lake. They are going to build a new one. Before demolition we were able to go through and take out anything we could use in the Peanut Palace. That was very helpful to us. Doyle has been removing cabinets and fixtures the last several days. On Monday he had got to the lake without a tool he needed. That's where the story picks back up. Doyle, told me he didn't have to have it but if I was were I could bring it to him it would help. He said I could walk the new trail at the lake if I wanted. I gave it some thought and weighed my options. I decided the groceries could wait. The store is open 24 hrs right?! I went home to get the tool he needed. While there I made the decision to take Kaidence with me. I wanted to take all the dogs but I wasn't sure that I wanted to try to keep up with all four on an unfamiliar trail.

Here Kaidence and I stand at the entrance to the trailhead. The irony of this is 2 years ago when Doyle & I stayed here for a mini retreat I hiked this same area but at that time there was no trail. I remember commenting to Doyle there should be a trail. In some ways reflecting back to that time I think I was “prophetically” hiking the new trail! I was truly excited. It is a wonderful trail….although there is no water for man or beast along the route and it was 90 on Monday. I had water with me that I shared with Kaidence.

The trail winds around through mesquite, oak and cedar trees in and around cactus. The trails have very sandy soil.

Some of the last of summer's flowers.

I was so excited to get this photo! So beautiful!

I thought it was taking too long to get to the end of the trail so I did a “no-no” and went off trail to make way to the lake. This photo is taken where I left the designated trail. I just love how you can see the rays of sunlight against the dark clouds.

Blazing my own trail to the lake I hear rumbles of thunder. When I finally got to a clearing enough to see the sky I saw dark clouds. I watched long enough to think that the storm was going to stay west and south of me when a big gust of wind nearly blew me over! I was definitely too far to go back where we came from so I pushed on toward the lake knowing I could find shelter there if it began to rain. So from here we blaze some more trail. This time it was much heavier woods and was all rocks!

Kaidence on a dirt trail we found leading us closer to our destination.

Kaidence didn't seem to be too sure I knew what I was doing! It was pretty rough walking. I really should have had boots on! I'm really surprised I didn't stir up a rattlesnake!

Lake is finally in view!

Sun rays being interrupted by rain clouds. See the "spot of sun" on the water?

Monday, 31 August 2009

Refreshed, Renewed, Rejuvenated

That’s just a few of the words I would used to describe my time at the scrapbook retreat.

I tried all week to decide what I would take and leave behind. As it tends to happen I got overwhelmed and ended up taking nearly everything I own! There wasn’t a store near by that I could run to for last minute items so I had to be prepared! I really need to take the time to match cardstock to patterned paper and the paper to pics so that when I want to go to a crop it’s not a major ordeal! I’ve been putting it off because I know it’s going to take a lot of time!

Wednesday Vanessa had her monthly check up. She is doing fine. She’s 128 lbs. The next visit the doctor will do a glucose test to check blood sugar levels. This is standard at this stage of the pregnancy. On our way home from the appointment I get a call from the lady who had invited me to the retreat saying she had a last minute cancellation and did I know of anyone who would want to go on this short notice. I told her “yes, I did!” I called my buddy Teresa. I had told her about my experience the last time I went and she said she would like to go if there was ever an opportunity. I called Teresa and said “do you remember that retreat I went to that you wanted to go if there was ever an opportunity? Well, now’s your opportunity!” She was shocked and told me "I think I can do this. Let me check my calendar, talk to my family and get back with you." It didn’t take her long and she was calling me back to say she could go! We were both like giddy school girls!

We made plans for her to meet me at my house and we would drive there in my vehicle. Doyle told me I could take his which was nice. My old truck runs pretty good but things are beginning to quit working. Like the other day I went to set the emergency break and it broke! That may not be a major deal for most people but when one is driving a manual transmission it is a must! Then the day before I left for the retreat I was going to the post office to pick up the church’s mail and my spare tire fell off!

I packed my stuff in the car Wednesday night. Teresa makes it to the house and we load the car. It is full! We couldn’t have taken anyone else with us! It was about 2 ½ hours to our destination. We get there about 5:30PM. We unload and wait for the others to arrive. When they get there we got into Canton to eat at Ochoa’s Mexican Food. It is an awesome place to eat and they have the VERY BEST PIES I’ve ever eaten! Teresa & I got a piece of Banana Cream. We were going to share it but it was so good I ate it all!

Food at the retreat was good too! I watched several movies, got 22 pages completed, took a couple of walks and had a great time during our devotional when we encouraged and prayed for one another.

Vicki the owner of the retreat mentioned that she discovered a little scrapbook store out in the middle of “nowhere” close to Mabank. She offered to take me there. My curiosity got the better of me and I told her I’d like to go so we went. I’m not sure I would have ever found it! There were no signs, you just had to know where it was! I’ll have to admit I was skeptical but when we arrived and I went inside I was amazed! She had a lot of inventory for the size building she had.  She had some of the new products too like the Tim Holtz alcohol inks, Graphic 45 paper, Stickles glitter glue and more! When I go to a place like this I am always looking for things our local store doesn’t carry. I did find some unique ribbon that reminded me of one of my scrapbooking buddies and bought some for her. I can’t wait to show her either! This place is called Country Scents & More. It is operated by a mother and daughter. They don’t keep regular hours. You must call first before you go because they are not always there. Interesting setup I must admit but considering she is in the “heart” of scrapbook retreat centers it works. There are two close by (Heavenly Acres & Heritage House) and the one I was at (Ragles Retreat) is about 15 minutes away. It’s really nice if you’re in a pinch as there is no other place to shop.

Our group. Back row (L to R) Teresa Montalvo, Andrea Taylor, me. Front row (L to R) Denis McConnell, Marci Purtell and Carol Vickers. (Marci is the one who organized the reatreat.

We had a great time!

Have a good one!

Losing Track of Time

I don't know if any of the rest of you are losing track of time but I just can't seem to stay on top of things. Before I can blink an eye a week has passed. When I try to think of what has happened or what I did, I go blank! Has my life become that monotonous? I haven't gone anywhere (much) or done much because of the heat. We finally did get a little reprieve the end of last week. Temps were in the upper 90's instead of mid 100's! We did get a bit of rain (about 3/10ths) which is kind of like taking a bucket of water out of the lake! You can't tell.
Thursday I worked at the store. It was the last day of Kid's Kamp. So I won't be working on Thursdays the rest of the summer. I signed up for a card class. The kit had paper and embellishments to make 12 cards for $24. That's $2 a card! Can't beat that and it is out of the two new paper lines from Basic Grey (one of my favorite company's!) "Lemonade" and "June Bug".

Friday was the church's Men's Retreat. Doyle left for that about the same time I went to work. After I got off from the office I went by Cathy's store. She was having a 50% off sale and I had a gift card from my birthday I was wanting to spend. I didn't take time to shop when I worked. While shopping the store was pretty busy. Ray & Cathy were both there but Cathy was meeting with a product rep so I helped Ray for a bit. One lady wanted to look at some of the albums we had that required me to get a step ladder and get down for her. I didn't mind at all. I also answered some questions for her. I had already been at the store for 2 hours when I realized what time it was and needed to leave as I had a dat with my friend Suzan again with her grandkids at the pool. As I was checking out I told the lady I was leaving but that Ray would help her check out. She started apologizing for bothering me. I assured her I wouldn't have asked if she needed any help if I didn't intend on helping her!

I made it home long enough to change clothes and headed to the pool. My other friend Kelly joined us with her daughter Kathryn. It was a nice way of cooling off and I figure it's good practice to get me ready to care for a baby again! It's been a really long time!
That evening after Vanessa got off work we went to visit my friend Teresa whose husband fell of the roof two weeks ago. I had not been out since he came home and figured she could use the company. We took pizza to help ease the load of cooking. We enjoyed our time together so much (as we always do) that it was 1AM before I got Vanessa home. Wasn't very smart as we both had to work Saturday morning! Jose is doing okay.
Saturday was a crop at the store and we were full! There were 20 ladies cropping! It was fun though. I was on my feet nearly the entire day! The store was busy on top of that with several customers that had not been before. That is always encouraging to have people come in who've not been before. I left around 1PM to come home to let the dogs out. I went by and picked up Vanessa. She wanted to use the internet and watch some TV. Plus it gave Kajen someone to play with. Because we were full I didn't stay and crop as I will do sometimes. Instead I came home and decided it was cool enough to take the dogs somewhere. Vanessa had gone to a friends for a little while and she left Kajen. So I took all 4 dogs to Dobbs Valley. There is still water in the tanks but they are really low. See how dry and short the grass in the pasture is. Of course there were cows in this pasture last time we went so it's been grazed. Here is Zorro swimming in the tank I call "frog pond". There weren't very many frogs. You can see how low the tank is.

I thought this was peaceful looking.

Kajen at "frog pond".

The other tank across the road from the church. It's really low too. Mercy walking along the water.

I just love this angle of the country church through the trees.

Sunset at Dobbs Valley

The gang ready to go home. Kajen (white), Kaidence next then Zorro (blk) and Mercy. You can see the cemetary in the background. The church is just to the left of the photo on the other side of the fence.

Update on Lil' Peanut: Vanessa wanted me to start recording her weight and measure her middle and take a picture. Last belly pic (last week- 15 weeks)I took she was at 30 inches and weighed 117. She was 115 the first doctors visit. This week (16 weeks) her waist is 33 inches and she weighs 120. This is the side view. She asked me to take on from the front.

She thinks she looks bigger in this view! It won't be long her belly button is going to be an "outy".

I woke up to a pleasant surprise this morning. Thunder! Yep, and not long after it rained. It rained all morning but not heavy. I was disappointed to only find 2.5 tenths in the rain gauge. I was dancing and singing at the office while it was raining. I am still thankful for what we received. It stayed cool too. It was still in the 70's by 11AM. When the cloud cover broke it warmed right up. We do have another shot at some rain.

Ya'll have a good one!

My First Official Baby Purchase

I bought my first items for "Peanut". Vanessa had told me about a website she found with cute baby t-shrits and onesies called http://www.cafepress.com/ . So I checked it out. There are TONS of different sayings and graphics you can choose from. I found a couple I couldn't resist getting. The first one is pretty obvious. This is a little body suit.

I had to get this. It cracked me up! As you can tell it's a bib. Vanessa loved them both. I'm sure these won't be the only ones but they are the "first". It felt pretty good to get them too.
I've also been pondering what I want to be called. I don't want to be "grandma", "granny", Meemaw, nanny. I realize there are just so many names one can be called. My pastor's wife uses "grammie". I've been thinking about maybe "Granna" or "Gma". Vanessa had been calling Mom that but she will be a "great grand" now so was thinking that she could go by "GiGi" and I could go by Gma. I kind of like "Granna" though. I know whatever lil Peanut calls me will melt my heart and it won't matter. Besides I still have plenty of time to either think of or settle on something.

Speaking of "Lil Peanut", he/she is growing as is evidenced by Vanessa's little "pooch". She's at 14 weeks. She would let me get a pic of her face because she didn't have any makeup on. Give her a little more time and she won't care!

Doyle is steadily working in the two-car garage. I finally thought about getting pics so we could have "befores" and "afters". I wished I had thought to do this before he actually started as he's done quite a bit already. The front of the garage. Our house is to the right. Doyle put in attic ventalation recently. Side view from the house.

The door in the side is where the old "dark room" that was Doyle's brother Doren's when he lived at home. So there is already running water and electricity.

This is looking from the front rollup door (left side) toward the back. At the back of the garage where you see the window was a small area that Doyle's oldest brother, Dan used when he lived at home as a radio room. The family called it the "radio shack". That was back in the hay day of CB radios. Doyle had already torn out those walls before I took pics. See the sink in the foreground left. That was in the dark room.

This is what is left of the dark room. Doyle has already taken down the wall and insulation that separated it from the garage. Stuff we still have to move. Doyle has done a great job of going through, getting rid of and reorganizing stuff. (what else does he have to do?!)

The wall to the left of this photo came down last night. He has plenty of time but the heat has been so oppressive and dangerous that he's not been able to put a lot of time in. He's been trying to work more at night but it's still 90 degrees at 11PM! The coolest it gets is 80 before it starts going back up! There is good news on the horizon. The weather forecast tonight said there is a front on the way that will drop temps back to the upper 90's and give us a chance of rain by the weekend. Hallelujah! Please Lord let it be so!

In the midst of working last night Doyle saw this moth and called me to come look. Very beautiful and pretty good size. I looked on the internet to see if I could identify it. I think it's an Azalea Sphinx. I manage to get really close to it and it wasn't the least bit intimidated.

Then today when I got home Doyle told me about this insect. He is digging a tunnel in my flower bed. It's called a Cicada Killer. They can sting but aren't typically aggressive toward humans. They sting their prey (Cicada) and take them into their burrow. This one wasn't bothered by my presence either.

Have a good one!

Second "Team" Chipboard Album

On the positive side of this oppressive triple digit heat I am getting some scrapbooking done. Unlike the last album I did I have had more time to complete my other niece's album and got it completed this weekend. I must say I like this one even better. My other niece's birthday isn't until 7/22 so I've very pleased to already have it done.

Inside pages 1-2.

Pages 3-4

pages 5-6

pages 7-8.

pages 9-10

Pages 11-12

Pages 13-14 I had forgot that I had made copies of some of the articles in the paper. I didn't find them in time to use for Destiny's book. One of the articles was taller than the book so I mounted it on chipboard (cardboard) to keep it from getting bent and put paper on the back of the chipboard that was above the album edge. That is the dotted paper with PHS that you see in the other pics.

back cover that I remembered to stamp with my name and date it.

All product was purchased from Cats Creations Scrapbooks and More.

I've done some pages too but I'll share them another time.

Have a good one!

The Heat Goes On

Okay I'm complaining again. I didn't feel quit so bad about it when the news man said we had already experienced 10 - 100+ since June! So even though it's not unusual for us to have triple digit heat it is a bit unusual to have this many this early. If this is any indication as to what kind of summer we are going to have....it's going to be a long HOT one! And with NO RAIN vegetation will die quickly. It's supposed to be even hotter tomorrow. We are under a heat advisory until Friday at 7PM. It's 10:30PM and it's still 90 degrees!

This was the sign at the bank from today. I had just left the store and thought I would try to catch Vanessa after she got off work. She is planning to have her garage sale this weekend and was going to see if she needed any help getting ready for it. I was taking this picture when she came out of the bank. She asked me what I was doing. As I walked with her to the car she said it was funny that I had stopped because she was going to call me. Guess I was listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit better than I thought!

I am going to have to start going to bed earlier so I can take the dogs walking early in the morning. That's the only time it is semi-cool. Of course I don't know how much water is going to be available to them with these temps. The water in the creek at the cemetary was nearly dried up last time we went. I most concerned about Zorro getting overheated because he's an older dog and he's black! He tends to soak up heat not repell it!

I worked at the store. Only 4 of the kids showed up today. The project Cathy had them working on was not complicated so I spent time helping Ray price paper and putting up product. When the kids left Cathy's friend and one of many loyal customers came in the store. She showed us a pic that her son had given her of a rattlesnake that was found on a job site in the Odessa area (west Texas). I have been to a "rattlesnake round-up" and I've never seen a rattler this big! The man in this picture is 6ft tall. The snake is headless and measures 7ft! He weighed 35lbs! That is mind boggling to me. It looks more like a Boa than a rattlesnake! I took a pic of the picture to show my husband and all of you! There were two other rattle snakes killed in the same area as this one each over 6 ft! Guess everything is BIGGER in TEXAS!

Have a good one!

It's Hot and I'm Not Here

If I keep telling myself that do you suppose I might convince myself? That's what I thought. Guess it's best to come out of denial. It's Hot and I'm STILL here! The temp peaked at 103 today and 100's predicted the rest of the week. Vanessa made quite the brilliant statement today. She said "All people talk about is how hot it is? It's always hot this time of year in Texas. It gets hot every year. What do they expect?" It really is true though no matter what the weather or anything else that is going on people complain. People complain the roads need repaired. Then when the repair process starts, they complain because they are being inconvenienced by the repair! It's either too hot, or too cold. Too windy or not windy enough. Too wet or too dry. Too sunny or too cloudy. We are so fickle and spoiled to having what we want, when we want it! And I hate to admit it but I've been guilty at times of being one of those who has complained!

Today was Vanessa's hearing with the State of Texas. If you remember when she had her accident, DPS took her drivers license. All she had to legally drive was a pink paper saying this was her license. She had to request a hearing to get her license. Should the State rule against her (in favor of the arrest record by the trooper) her license will be suspended for 90 days. Vanessa presented her case as to why she should not get the suspension. The judge was supposed to decide by the end of the day but when Vanessa had called at 5PM a decision had not been made. So we will wait until tomorrow to learn what has been decided.

Whatever happens I am at peace not matter what the outcome. It will be a bit of an inconvenience should her license be suspended but we can get through it.

After the hearing Vanessa wanted to take advantage of the shopping opportunities available. She's been wearing her pants undone for about a month. She's not big by any stretch but she can't wear her regular pants fastened. She borrowed what is called a "belly band" from a friend who had a baby not too long ago. It allows her to wear her pants undone while concealing and helping hold them up. We went to the mall to see if we could find her some pants and shorts a bit more comfortable. We finally went to an actual maternity shop. She found a couple of things there that will work then we went to a couple of other stores and just bought her some things in a larger size. She has the beginnings of a "small pooch". I really think she can probably get by without wearing actually maternity clothes but just wear larger loose fitting clothing. She wanted to get a couple of bigger bras today. I was quite surprised that she really has developed larger boobs! She's quite happy about that. (She's going to kill me for blogging about this!)

Yesterday Vanessa asked if I could help her during her lunch to get her house ready for a Kino party. She needed chairs and tables for 10-12 people. Doyle had the car to run some errands so I went and picked her up for lunch at 1PM. We frantically swept, vacuumed, set up tables. We were only halfway through when it was time for her to be back at work. I took her to work and came back to the house to finish what we started. I finally finished around 3PM. I had made plans to go to the pool with my friend Suzan and her grandkids Nicholas (2) and Arianna (22 mos) at 4PM. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't more crowded. It was a nice break from the heat! We stayed until 6PM when the pool closed.

I came home and fixed dinner then decided to go to the hospital and check on my friend and her husband. The one who fell off the roof. He was doing well. He will probably go home Thursday.

I work at the store tomorrow. It's Kids Kamp. They have one more week left. They've been a good group.

Have a good one!