P is for...Please make up your mind!

Day 16. Fall fashion

This is West Texas. Our fall lasts about a blink of an eye. For example, it was 90 degrees today. But its getting to that time of year where it's cold in the morning and hot by the afternoon. So a girl has to learn how to dress herself.

I'll be honest, I haven't always been a fan of the scarf. I just didn't feel like I could pull them off very well. I don't know if I felt like they were too large for my petite (as in shorty) frame or what. But they are starting to grow on me. And anything that can be added on for warmth and then easily taken off when it gets too hot is a must around here.

So, scarves and cardigans are my go-to fall fashion picks. Easy to throw on and/or take off, because our weather is so crazy this time of year. You can find both of them in all kinds of patterns and colors, which is fun and you can find something that goes with everything.

Here are two of my current favorites...

This is one of my infinity scarves. As my good friend Jonessa says, infinity scarves are great because you don't have to worry about how to tie them. I got this one at Charming Charlies. You can see my other scarves hanging on my mirror over there. This was Monday, by the way, long sleeves...long pants...close toed shoes..it was cold! The next picture is from today..

I love my little light weight cardigan! This one isn't going to be able to carry me into the end of the year but I have a few other fun cardigans in my closet. They are just so easy to throw on and go. Y'all can see here that I have short sleeve...short pants...and sandals on today..because it was HOT!

Texas is like a woman..first she's hot and then she's cold.

Is anyone still here?

Hi.

I'm Jinny. You may remember me from back in the day when I actually posted regularly to this blog. Work totally and utterly devoured my life for about four months. Most everything outside of work came to a screeching halt. But that doesn't mean that nothing has been going on.

So, let me get you all caught up.

The hallway project we started in March has finally come to a (almost) finish. It's down to painting doors, so I'm calling it finished.

We've started on the bedroom but it's going at a snails pace. Which is fine, we aren't on any time schedule here.

We spruced up our outdoor space. The café table and chairs was actually a surprise birthday present from Jeremy. I went out of town for a weekend and when I got home this was waiting for me. I cried, I was so surprised.

I've been out of town a few times. I went to a wedding in Austin. So, Kenedi, the bride, met my sister when they were both in college. This is how I met Kenedi. Eventually Kenedi ended up in San Marcos and started going to the same church that my cousin and her husband work at. So now Kenedi is practically part of the family so when she got hitched this summer we all had to be there.

I went to Canyon, TX to see Texas, the musical, at Palo Duro Canyon. It was a charter bus trip and my Grandma invited me to go (who says no to their Grandma? Not this girl). It was a fun trip and I had a good time spending the weekend with the ladies of my family. I'm very thankful that my aunt Gail didn't laugh at me while I had a death grip on her hand when the charter bus drove us down into the canyon. It was pretty hair raising.

Aunt Bev, Grandma, Great Aunt Lynette

 My Mom and I went to Dallas to help my sister get her new apartment situated. She's lived in Dallas for many years now but this is the first time she has ever had an apartment by herself. After living with our cousin for years we have jokingly compared it to a divorce. I wasn't sure what she got to keep or what she needed to replace. So we went shopping and did manly things, like put together furniture.

We adopted a new family member! Ferguson, the fish. He's pretty low maintenance, doesn't make a peep, and doesn't need a lot of attention...no nail clippings or insulin shots, no grooming or heart guard meds, no walks or toys required. And he is pretty to look at.

We had to take Harley to get her teeth cleaned. I wouldn't even mention this but her recovery from the anesthesia and pain meds was unlike anything we've had to deal with before. If any of y'all have had to have a pet put under to have any type of work done, I'm sure you are familiar with the little speech the office people give you on the way out. "Keep them quiet", "They might not feel like eating", "They will probably be drowsy", etc. In the past, all of our pets have bounced back from being put under with ease, not even a hitch. But poor Harley girl, she's old and doesn't bounce like that. She couldn't walk, but she sure did try, and when she fell over she would just lay very still like 'I'm just going to stay right here'. She was the funniest little drunk kitty ever. But while it was funny, it was sad at the same time because we could tell her mouth was bothering her. They extracted 5 teeth and noted that there were others already missing. So now we call her Toothless.

So, you see, I haven't been a complete couch potato this summer (although there was plenty of couch wallowing). Overtime at work is easing off, for now, and I really hope to have more time to come back to this space. I've missed it.

 





Do you feel that?

Living in west Texas all my life, I'm fairly use to severe weather. It's feast or famine around here...if you want to call severe thunderstorms a feast. Really, around here, any type of wet stuff falling from the sky is enough cause for celebration.

And, over the years, you sort of get a feel for the weather. The weather sirens can go off for many different reasons, but if you pay attention you don't always needs them to know that things are getting serious. For example, a few years ago, we were having a severe thunderstorm. Lots of rain and wind. I think the sirens went off, but Jeremy and I weren't all that concerned. NOT because we are 'just use to it', but because you just learn the feel of a storm. My aunt, who had just moved to town from Oklahoma, had not been here long enough to understand this. In Oklahoma, when the sirens go off, people hunker down no matter what.

Last night, we had some weather move into the area. We kept ourselves busy watching Doctor Who on Netflix, but both of us kept an eye on the living room windows. We could see the storm coming from the North. It was a dark gray off in the distance, and as the sun started to set in the west everything was cast in an eerie orange glow against the backdrop of an angry gray sky. The wind would pick up and have all the trees swishing around and then die down to a deadly calm.

This...this....did not feel right to me. And I knew, without the sirens telling me, that the weather that was coming was bad. Luckily for us, the worst of it stayed to the east of us. We watched the whole thing move from the North to the East and then to the South. What we did get was a lot of wind. And when Lola wanted to go outside, I went with her just to make sure she didn't get blown away. Honestly, the wind didn't feel too bad to me out there. But it still made me very anxious to be outside. I was telling Lola to hurry up and do her business, but I sure am glad that she didn't even get off the concrete of our patio because a downdraft came out of no where and snapped a huge branch off our mesquite tree. Lola and I both jumped out of our skins and hurried inside.

After I hollered for Jeremy, he stepped outside to check the damage and make sure the branch wasn't snagged on any power lines. I watched from the window, safely inside, as he took down our bird feeders and studied the branch and the sky. It was making me way too nervous to have him out there so I finally cracked the back door and called him inside. Again, I was just feeling all kinds of wrong about the weather. It wasn't a normal thunderstorm, at all.

And once everything settled down and the internet connection came back up, I could see that my spidey-senses were right on. A tornado did touch down, however briefly.

What is this wet stuff falling from the sky?

So, it's been raining.

Doesn't really seem like a big deal to most of y'all, I'm sure. But around here that is all anyone has been able to talk about for months. Water. And how we are running out of it. We haven't had a solid rain in months and months. Burn bans have been in place along with very strict watering restrictions.

But for the last two days it has been raining. Non-stop.

The end of our street on Friday evening.

Catching the rain, also Friday evening.

Our backyard today.

I can't knock the rain, since we need it so badly, but it has kept us home bound for the weekend. There isn't anything, short of a hospital visit, that would warrant driving around in flooded streets. So, we've been keeping ourselves busy inside.

That 'S' has been up there for years and years.

Finally getting around to putting up more letters.

Love it!

As always, I'd like to say that even though I don't usually agree with the politics of war and I could never enlist, I am forever thankful for those that can and do and have served our country. Happy Memorial Day.

Life on the home front.

Every morning, when I walk out of the kitchen to the living room to open the curtains, Lola pops her leg up in the air and insists that I give her a belly rub. A morning belly rub to get her through the day. A day full of lolling and sleeping. Her life is so rough.

Summer is coming at us like a fright train, with temps reaching the 100's already. On days like that the ground gets too hot to take the dogs for walks. So we take them on rides instead, which suits Duke just fine...especially when we roll the window down for him.

Jeremy surprised me with roses, chocolates, and Mother's Day cards from him and the fur kids on Saturday. But that wasn't ALL..he also brought me new plants for our front yard. West Texas is in a serious drought. Just about everyone's lawn is brown and dead due to severe water restrictions. Between no water and the extreme heat in the summer and rare freezing temps we have had the last few winters, many of our trees and shrubs have died. So Jeremy spent his day out in the heat, chopping down trees and digging up plants. And planting new, pretty things.

 

On Sunday, we had my mom and Jeremy's parents over the lunch (next time I promise to have dessert, Mom). Dolly was there too, of course. I didn't get a picture, but I painted her nails a silvery-white (she brought me the polish she wanted to use). We also watched one of her favorite movies, currently, 'Dear Dumb Diary'. I swear the songs will be stuck in my head for days. But it was still a cute movie.

I hope you had a fabulous Mother's Day weekend!

Metal 'Til We Die

We went up to Dallas for a fast and furious trip, go one day and come home the next. Jeremy wanted to go see Iced Earth and they were playing a smaller venue in Downtown Dallas. My little sister, who were staying with, decided to tag along. And thank goodness..because she did all the driving..and driving in downtown Dallas was just stupid confusing.

This was my sisters first ever heavy metal concert. Before we headed out she asked me, "What should I wear?" She had pulled out a melon colored tank top with flowers on it. "Just wear something black", I told her. So she did...although it still had flowers on it. While we waited in line for the doors to open my sister was checking out the crowd and she says, "Good call on the black". Yeah, this isn't my first rodeo.

This was NOT at our concert.

When the first band started playing, the guitar player started whipping his hair around in a perfect headbangers circle. I yelled in my sisters ear, "We are going to teach you how to do that tonight!" Never mind that I have never headbanged in my life. It was fun to see her eyes get big.

Also NOT at our concert.

Overall, we all had a good time. Well, I mean, of course Jeremy had a good time. He was totally in his element.

Jeremy at the concert.

My sister and I managed to entertain ourselves. Concerts are always good for people watching, at the very least. By the end of the night, our ears were ringing. According to my husband that is very metal. I'm not sure that we completely won my sister over to the heavy metal side but she walked away with a very memorable experience.

Where am I? What day is it?

So...hey.


I think this is the longest I have ever gone without blogging something. To say that the last two months have been crazy hectic is a very sorry understatement. I honestly can't remember another time where our daily routine was so jacked up for such a long time. And it's STILL not back to normal.

First things first...

Precious has gone to another foster home. I am a foster failure. But not the good kind you hear about where they fall so in love with their foster that they adopt them. No, I'm the other kind. Precious was really coming out of her shell, but only as long as she was within the four walls of this house and with Jeremy and me. Take her outside the house, and she totally freaked out or shut down. Bring someone else into the house, total meltdown. And, she was feeling so very comfortable in the house that she started chasing our cats. Precious is a great dog, she was very attached to us and loved being with us. And by with us I mean glued to our side and in our face all of the time. We brought her as far as we could in her journey and I knew that she needed someone else to help her along for the next part. Someone who could work with her to socialize her better. Someone with no kitty cats. So, off she went on a new adventure. I can only hope that she is doing ok.

Second....

Jeremy had surgery. It was day surgery, but still surgery. We spent the first half of the day at the hospital. Thank goodness my Mother-in-law came to sit with me. It made the waiting go by so much faster. That was two weeks ago. Jeremy is doing great. All of his stiches were internal and dissolvable, only two butterfly bandages on the outside (which he was already able to remove). Once his incision heals completely, he and I will have matching belly button scars. Twinsies!

Third...

We are still working on the hallway. Jeremy has pretty much completed his part and so it was time for me to do my part. The words...the words on the wall.

We have Sparrows that come and try to make a nest under our patio every single year. The west Texas wind always blows it down, every single year. Not that it keeps them from trying. So we decided to help the birds out and put up two birdhouses under our patio. The sparrows are already building a nest in one.

And, just to wrap it up,...

We finally made it to Enchanted Rock for our 14th Anniversary this month. We tried going two years ago for our anniversary, but we made the fatal mistake of going on Saturday. The line to get into the park was down the road, so we bailed out. This time we played it safe and went on a Tuesday, our actual anniversary, and getting in was a breeze. No line! The weather was perfect, overcast but not cold. By the time we were leaving the park the clouds were gone and it warmed up, so we picked the perfect time to go. I was a little nervous climbing up that huge rock, it was pretty steep in some spots. But there were other people, some younger and some older than me, out there making the climb. So I kept telling myself if they could do it..I could do it too. Jeremy helped encourage me to keep going. And I'm glad I did. The view from the top was pretty amazing. I hope we get to go back some time to explore the park more.

I am hoping..and praying..that things get back to some type of normal very soon.

Nothing like your toes in the sand

We are back from our first family vacation. This was the first time my mom, sister, husband, and I have gone to a destination without any other family there. Or for some family event. It was just us..going some place different...for fun.

 

And it was fun!

A lot of driving, but fun!

 

Mom singing oldies on the long, long drive.

 

My sisters flight was suppose to be in by 6:15 but it didn't end up taking off from Dallas under 6:50. We found a way to pass the time.

 

 

 

We visited Sea Turtle Inc. They rehabilitate injured sea turtles and return them to the ocean, if they are able. Turtles are really cute..even when they are huge.

 

 

 

And we spent a lot of time on the beach and at the hotel pool.

 

 

 

We went to a sand sculpture competition at Clayton's Bar. That place is a hub of activity. There was a DJ and tons of people and bouncy houses. We went early so we grabbed a table pretty easy.

 

 

 

 

It was such a great time. Exhausting (as only vacations can be) and relaxing. Good company, good laughs, and perfect weather. We are already planning next years trip.