BLESSINGS...

This last week I managed to work myself into a tizzy...the temperature has been over 100 for 2 weeks and the buyers of our house had 4 different inspections over the course of 2 days...so what does a girl do when she has worked herself into a tizzy???
She calls her MOM.... and after about 5 minutes of mom-talk.... I was fine... we concluded that all of the events of the past week had been a blessing.... but truthfully... the BIG BLESSING of the week was my MOM ! Thanks MOM !!!



Picture: Old French Armoire that my mom gave me when my parents made the move from their big house to their small house.

BIRTHDAY SON

My house smells good today... there is a cake in the oven... and the aroma of chocolate has spread thru the downstairs. HS son is another year older... wow ! When we returned to the hillcountry in August... I noticed that he was now a hair taller than my 6'3" DH... At 17 he has a big booming voice... but often slips and still calls me mommy... he is driving the car some... but still plays basketball with whomever comes into our yard, regardless of their age.... going to the movie theatre is still his most favorite treat...he's playing golf with his Dad on the weekends... no girls yet... he's still a little shy.... but I know that could change...any minute !! Happy Birthday HS son !
Now I better go get that cake out of the oven before a different aroma fills the house.... and by the way... where is the #*!@ box of kleenex ????

WHY ??? CHAPTER 2

TALK IN OUR HOUSE LAST MONDAY :

College Princes : Why are you selling our house ?

HS Princess : That doesnt look like the right house for us.

HS Son : I like the house we live in.

DH : Why are you kids torturing your Mom ?

Me: Maybe I am buying the new house for ME... and your daddy....

CAN YOU BELIEVE I SAID THAT ????? In the 19 years that I have had kids I have never uttered the words: maybe I am doing
it for ME.... reminds me of Toby Keiths song.... every once in awhile... I wanna talk about me me me me me ! (CAPELLO)

Things have calmed down quite a bit since monday... and one of the reasons is that our new house has one of these

WHY ???

My week in a nutshell :

7= number of nights we ate out
6= number of days the temp was over 100
5= number of times i threw up
4= number of BLOCKS i am moving
3= number of kids who started school this week
2= number of days it took to sell my house
1=number of times i went to the grocery store
0=number of times i slept thru the night.

WHY???? do women torture themselves so ???? This whole real estate move was a spur of the moment thing.... kind of...I love to look at houses... in magazines, on hgtv,on blogs, driving, walking, and in the newspaper. So when a realtor friend called me for the 3rd TIME about a house in our neighborhood that was for sale.... I acquiesed and went to see it...fell iin love... so I took a gamble and put our house on the market the next day . SOLD IN 2 DAYS.... so either I sold way too cheap or........... it was meant to be... I am going with......it was meant to be....serendipitious... I thought of you A. this week !

picture: my piano from childhood... in a room designed to be the dining room... but it is our piano room... and see the white bookshelves? They used to be 3 separate wood colored shelves...we screwed them together, added some trim and painted cream.... being on a budget forces creativity !!

MY Table

This is the table that my mom bought for me at a garage sale years ago.
This is the table where I write to my bloggy friends
This is the table where I eat with my dh and teens
This is the table where we have celebrated 16 years of holidays
This is the table in the heart of our house....
our house that I just SOLD....

I think I am happy, I am sad, I am anxious,
I am confident... I am a little crazy...
but then you all know what I am talkin about !

Guest Blogger

My friend Pattie emailed me the other day .... "if I only had a blog ", she said.... "I would write about how grateful I am for all of these bikes" Pattie has an only child, a young teen son, and at the moment she shot the picture... she had a house full of teen age boys...teen age boys who had found refuge from the hill country heat in her home sweet home...... so no... they didnt come to my house... they went to hers...which says alot about what kind of mom she is.... and the fact that she is grateful for all of those bikes says alot about what kind of person she is..... and the fact that she is my friend, well I am a pretty lucky gal !

I miss you Andrea Edwards !!

One of my favorite bloggers was Andrea Edwards, artist, humorist,mother to 4. Her writings made me laugh, her pictures made me ooooh and awe, and her comments always made my day. She stopped blogging suddenly.... and I miss her! She loves pale walls and white slipcovers and bright art and I always wanted to show her how similiar both of our living rooms are. So here ya go A. if you are watching..... I took some pictures of my hill country white slipcovers.... just for you .... and all of my other sweet bloggy buds too !

Serendipity.... indeed....

In July the teens and I flew back to the hill country to attend a wedding. We left the mid 70s of the New England Coast for the high humid 90s of Texas ! It was a special wedding for us... the bride was the teens first babysitter and the mother of the bride was the teens kindergarten teacher and one of my bestest friends. It HAD to be a special day to get me to fly back to this heat.... I never come back here in July.... I usually wait until the day before school starts to come back to the heat. BUT during my July wedding visit, I looked at my DH and announced " I am going to change my reservations and come back 2 weeks early"... well I got full eye conact from DH on that one ! "Why ?" he asked. " I dont know... I just have to get back home "... and I was shaking as I said it.

I won't bore you with the complicated details... but we did get back to the hill country 10 days ago.....
And yesterday morning when I woke up and saw the terrorist airplane plot news.... I was soooo glad I wasnt at the airport with 3 teens...yesterday was the day we were originally scheduled to fly back home..... serendipity indeed.

JUNK IN MY TRUNK

Junk
in
my trunk.
Time to clean.
Clean guilt, sorrow, funk .
Reach to forgive,share, shine....clean .

Photo: old buttons collected from junk jars at flea market

Perfect Party

Going through my pictures today I found this one which reminded me....

Last year The Girls on the Block (well one in particular.. tee hee) asked me if I would have the 2006 New Years Party at our house. I thought: HOW FUN... we were going to be gone for the 2 weeks but, due to fly in on the afternoon of New Years Eve.... a little tight on scheduling... but that is how I tend to live my life.

This was the easiest party that I ever did give, all I had to do was provide the house... everyone else was bringing the food. So I set everything up before we left...easy . The friend (feeling like she owed me....love that hah !) picked us up at the airport, we came home, did a few loads of laundry... and 3 hours later... The Girls on the Block showed up with all of the food and drink. Easiest party evah... we had a blast and DH even made it to midnight !

Picture: my kitchen dining all ready for 2006 !

PS: I get to have lunch with THAT friend this Friday ... havent seen her for a month. We have lots to catch up on and lunch will be on me because now I owe her...hah!

Home Sweet Home

Little blue house... big blue house...
Old house....new house...
In the city.... out of the city
Many rooms...... one room...
Own it...rent it
Fine furniture .... flea market finds...
Stuffed .... sparse...
Flooded with light... dark and cozy
Music...books...art...love
Food...laughter...companions....
Many companions.....one companion
So many possibile combinations to make a
Home Sweet Home...

What is your combination for a Home Sweet Home ? How much or how little do we need to have a happy home ?

Picture: sweet little beachy blue bird house in my front yard

Blue Day

Blue
Day
For me.
Garden girl
Hiding in flowers
Prays for sun,water,nourishment.

A Surprise a year ago..

The College Princess in our life loves surprises. She is frequently planning surprise brithday parties for her friends and I knew she secretly yearned to be surprised herself. In our house it is next to impossible to keep birthday plans a surprise... so I knew planning a surprise birthday for her would not work.

Instead I planned a different surprise for her last year as she was preparing to graduate from high school. I planned a party and invited all of the special people who had a gentle hand in her development during her 18 years. The guests included favorite teachers from preschool, elementary school, junior high, and high school and some of her favorite babysitters . I asked each person to write a short letter to her with their favorite princessmemory and words of advice for her first year away from home. It was soooo top secret... I never made any phone contacts from the house... I told DH at a location away from home.... and miraculously... I pulled it off... the princess was surprised... and almost as important... the younger princess was also surprised.. if you catch my drift.

Anyway... what a special evening we had...we met at an outdoor restaurant in the hill country... we shared we laughed we cried and we celebrated sending our young girl into the world.



Picture :hs teacher,2nd grade,junior high teachers, kindergarten teacher, babysitter..i love them all !

Goodnight Moon

Warm
Day
Perfect
Slow, lazy
Drags into cool dusk
Deep orange moon says goodnight all


Today was what my DH calls one of those "chamber of commerce days " and while driving thru the port tonight... the moon was incredible...alas I did not have my camera with me.. so I downloaded the image from a local inn.

Happy Son

Sweet
Son
Driving
Growing fast
Summer beach,bike, golf
Now camping three weeks no sisters !



Enjoy !!

Aqua Sea

cool
sea
aqua
blue water
too cold for wading
instead walk, gaze, imagine, dream




I love reading Paris Parfait Tara's haikus using the Fibonacci sequence of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8 syllables:. Thank you Tara for helping me to think and stretch. Haikus could be addictive !

PS I DID NOT TAKE THIS PHOTO... DOWNLOADED IT OFF THE INTERNET AFTER TAKING ABOUT 100 PICTURES OF THE OCEAN AND THE OCEAN LOOKING GREY IN MY PICTURES...EVAH HAVE A DAY LIKE THAT ??????? LOL !!!

Red White and Blue Spirit

Let freedom ring....In our hearts, our spirits, and our deeds. We are blessed . Happy Independence Day !

The Quilt

Recently I was ALONE for a 45 minute drive on the highway. NO TALKING ...just me alone with my thoughts ....and my thoughts wandered to my blogworld.

Lately I have been amazed at the TALENT, creativity and richness of my cyber-friend's blogs. Its enough to make a plain jane like me feel a little intimidated. As I thought about the diversity in all of my blog friends, the image of a quilt came to mind.... a patchwork quilt.... with each blog friend representing a square in my lifequilt... and I tried to imagine what it would be like if all of my blog friends met to make a quilt ?

Well, Alicia from Mayfly would come with the cutest fabric , Tara from Paris Parfait might bring some of her european fabric, Corey from Tongue in Cheek would bring some of her french fabric and arrange all of the pieces in the most artistic way for us, Susan from Artstream would come too and bring lots of praise for us budding artists along with her retro fabric, Laura from No Appropriate Behavior would bring great fabric and keep us all laughing while we quilted, Janna would provide the music, Sophia would bring her fabulous secret brownies, Chasity would take photos and make a layout for us... Julie from Suburban Kitchen would bring fabulous things to eat......Andrea could bring her paintbushes and paint a fabulous picture of the quilt... and ME ????

Well we can quilt at MY house and I will make margaritas uh I mean iced tea !

So now I dont feel like such a plain Jane anymore because I know we would have a fabulous time making a quilt at my house ! BUT.... I was so deep in my quiltblog thoughts....
that I missed my exit !


The photo: quilts and vintage fabrics on the bottom shelves of my bedroom armoire

Someones in the kitchen

Summer 06 Teen Cooking School continues. Todays dish is a family favorite...

Jim's Spaghetti

1 lb hamburger
1 box noodles
1 can tomato soup
1 soup can of water
1 can Rotel ( tomato with green chili)
1 grated zuchinni
1 chopped onion
shredded cheese for topping

Cook hamburger,drain and add onion and zuchinni. Add soup and water.. simmer 15 minutes, then add rotel and simmer another 15 minutes. Boil noodles,drain, and pour into oblong pan. Pour hamburger mixture over noodles. Cover with cheese. Bake 350 for 30 minutes. ( Note: I have used a variation of noodles, and sometimes I use more meat and an extra can of soup... teen boys ya know )

Yum..

10 Things that made me smile today

1.The fog this morning.
2.The sun this afternoon.
3.Teens who know how to get places better than I do.
4. Lunch at the pier in the above picture.
5. Having to move inside at the pier bc it was too chilly...can ya believe that ?.
6.Teen Son taunting.. I mean ..encouraging teen daughter to ride bike to play tennis
7.News that IRS building in DC was experiencing flooding...
8. College princess is finished with summer school.
9. Pink toes.
10. Giggles and gossip with my friend Pattie and George tomorrow.