Bracing....

(image from google, modified by me)

I have friends, family, and friends with family all along the northern half of the Texas Gulf Coast. Ike is gaining intensity and headed right for them. It will probably strike in the dead of night Friday. We have some air mattresses and an extra queen bed if anyone needs a place to crash. The hotels are all booked.

We'll be getting rain for the weekend and early next week. I'm going grocery shopping today for bread and non-perishables.

In other news...

We had a freaking BOMB SCARE yesterday!

Some maroon(aka James Earl Faye, I mean if you're gonna be making deadly weapons you need a good strong Texas name don't you?) in our neighborhood apparently had a PIPE BOMB in his apartment! The kids and I were on the driveway waiting for Mark to pick us up to go out for some dinner. Our neighbor across from our driveway came out and was yelling something. There were too many cars passing between us so finally I had to run across to see what she was saying. It had sounded like "bob cat" or something. She told me there was a bomb somewhere at the end of our street and the ATF was on their way to detonate it and we might not want to be standing on our driveway. Soooo, we went back inside and got Mark to pull up to the front of the house. The story was not on the news we watched last night but we did find it in the paper today.

I seriously doubt I'll get any crafting done before the hurricane. Too much to see to, but didn't we just do this? We have park day tomorrow for our homeschool group, that will be a nice distraction.

Oh, remember when I had my little heart attack scare that turned out to be Costochondritis? Well, I had it again last night and have figured out the trigger! My first episode happened while I was cleaning off the entertainment center and watching a show about a very sick baby in a NICU. After reading that Costochondritis can be triggered by emotional events as well as physical, I kinda had a hunch that was part of it. So last night, after the bomb scare, we were watching a show about a lesbian couple who had fertilized eggs implanted and both were pregnant with twins. One of the baby boys was having breathing problems and had to be intubated and ended up with a brain bleed, etc, etc. Anyway, about 10 minutes before the end of the show, I got shortness of breath, flush feeling, heart palpitations and weak feeling. I had to lay down and just could not get it to go away. It was a panic attack!!! Now I truly believe that these attacks are the direct result of me subconciously reliving the time when Ryan was born with lung issues and had to be flown on a helicopter to the NICU at Willis-Knighton in Shreveport. He was there for 5 days and has suffered no lasting effects from his difficulties but apparently I have. Definitely no more NICU shows for me, thanks! Maybe I should swing by the healthfood store for some Rescue Remedy too. hmmm.

Oh yeah, one more thing. We rescued a baby mouse from the pool yesterday. No pictures as it is TINY. This baby could sit on a nickel and wouldn't cover it. We have it in the snake habitat(no snake) and plan to release it after all the rains are gone. It is getting bird seed for meals and a wash cloth to hide under. The kitties are completely enchanted.

Another One!

I wish I knew how to make it bigger so yall could read it. I copied and pasted a handful of prayers from Interlude Retreat and it came out SO neat! ****edited to add that if you click it you'll get the bigger version.

In other news....

A report from Mark about his new job! They are doing online training and hands-on equipment stuff. He says it is REALLY low-key, so much so that I fear he'll get bored. But, knowing Mark, he'll advance quickly and not be bothered with the management portion for long. For those of you wondering what he is doing now, he is the operations manager of a medical equipment company that leases diagnostic and bariatric equipment to hospitals and other care facilities. This particular location is the top(most active?) in the region and I think they are located in 24 states.

Our A/C is still working just like it is supposed to. I now wonder if the filter was too icky. It hasn't been changed since June so it is definitely due. We haven't heard from the pool fixer guy yet(2:40pm) so I'll probably call him later this afternoon or in the morning. We can still operate the pump but the leak causes it to lose pressure after several hours.

I have started another ripple afghan. This time in "I Love This Yarn" from Hobby Lobby. My colors are azure, sea foam(a green-blue, lighter version of the azure), celery green, light gray(almost white), black, dark brown, and camel tan(now these are MY names for the colors, I don't have the yarn in front of me to tell you the real names). I'm doing 4 rows of each color except the black. It is too stark so I'm just doing 2 rows of it. The azure matches the color I painted our back door over the weekend. I mixed the dark blue from our hutches and the sky blue wall color from the girls' room and got a beautiful brighter blue. It is gorgeous and really does wonders in tying that side of the room together.(pictures later, hopefully after I get all the paint scraped from the glass inserts).

And lastly, my brother made the painful decision to have his kitty Fluffy Boy Jones put down today. He was very sick, has been for a long, long time. It was the kindest thing to do.

(Fluffy being his cute self- he really was a sweet kitty boy)

We are MeLTinG!!!

Literally!! It was 104 today or some such nonsense. Then we noticed that our a/c was acting weird. And, as of 11pm, it is still not working. Frozen up, we let it thaw out, turn it back on and it freezes back up. Any advice? I bet it is 95 in here right now.

I think I'm going to the doctor tomorrow, Tuesday will be 3 weeks with this crud and I fear its a sinus or ear infection that has taken hold. We also have a pool fixer(not the same one) coming to do some repair work on the pipes that lead from the pool to the filter, he'll probably have to replace them.

The girls are at their friend's house tonight, Mark is going to his new job tomorrow and Ryan and I are sick. Never a dull moment.


(Gypsy and Jasper sharing a bag)

Want More????

Ok, here's a bit more...

We aren't going vegan or joining a commune. I'm not pregnant, we aren't adopting. Things still aren't all the way finished so I can't show yall yet. Sorry!! For now you can enjoy the finished painting of the bedroom the filling up of the pool...





The hardest thing about this color is that I have no idea what to put with it. My plan was for this to be more neutral like a stone or dove grey. It turned out waaaay bluer than I wanted but I do like it. None of my bedding goes at all which means I'll be doing a new quilt(but what colors?). Actually, if I get off my duff and *finish* my Buckeye Beauty repro quilt I'll have one that mostly goes.



I just hate doing the same thing over and over and over(quilt blocks, that is). The Unicorn Storm quilt is still in the planning stages. It will be a Turning Twenty quilt of blues and purples with a pretty unicorn fabric accented with silver as the focal point. I'm sure it will be the perfect match for the paint but probably too wintry for year-round use.

Anyway, we still have to declutter the shelves and decide if we're going to trade them for something else, paint them or what. One idea I have is to take an old round table top, cut it in half and mount it to the wall above the shelves. Then staple fabric skirt to it in pleats with another table cloth on top to hide the staples. This way we could have our junked up shelves(which we need) but we'd have a more polished look. We could also coordinate the headboard with the skirt fabric. I do know that the lamp shades have GOT to go. The maroon ones were on deep clearance at Tarjay a few years ago and were pretty ugly when I got them(but they were on Saaaaale!).

I also have an idea for my curtain rod but that will have to wait until I price some materials. Anyway....



Isn't this liner GORGEOUS???!! I think I did good picking it out! I wish the color of the border would have shown better in the pictures, it is really a nice brown, not washed out greenish-grey(do I need a new monitor?) as you see here.



We aren't sure why there are large pieces of cardboard in the pool. My guess is that they are parts of the liner box that blew in last night.



I think all they have left to do is cut the holes where the jets and intake go and fill it the rest of the way up! We are thinking we'll get about a month of swimming in. This summer has been much dryer than last, we only swam about 7-8 times last year because of all the rain.

Ryan is kinda peeved because he has church camp and thinks he might miss getting to swim in it this weekend. I'm betting it will be too cold for that and might not even be all the way filled(least that's what I'm tellin' him). The girls can hardly stand waiting til tomorrow to get their goggles and noodles.



I'm really glad to have finished painting already. Now I can enjoy the pool without feeling too guilty about stuff needing to be done inside, although something *always* needs done!

Last but not least! A scat update. I sent pictures to five bonafide experts and got replies very promptly. One person(not the one who left the comment) said it was coyote. The other four said it was most likely and/or definitely Ursus Americanus(American Black Bear) scat. Some of these experts have been in the field for decades and know their stuff very well so I will go with "very probably" bear scat. I'm of the conspiracy ilk and think the dissenter probably doesn't want to alarm the public. Sooo, that's the scat report for today. I WISH that could get me a job!!!

What we won't do this summer...

Is enjoy our swimming pool. I'm starting to wish we'd gone ahead and filled it in. Pool fixer guy is submitting a new bid because this damage is way beyond what his first estimate was. We figured that would be the case.


(wall damage, deep end wall)
The 2x4s have completely rotted away on the deep end.


(whole intake wall)


(just to the right of the intake)


(intake)

Some of the 2x4s are still intact but most are not.


(shallow end, jet corner)
See how the earth has settled? This is what's behind the rotten 4x8 plywood they removed yesterday.


(ant damage, deep end corner near jet)

Blug, blug, blug

We have a bug! I can't complain too much, this is the first time any of us have been sick in months and months! Mine started last Friday with a mild knotty throat thing, then a headache and on and on. The girls felt so bad yesterday that they took naps and we've elected to skip park day tomorrow! Other symptoms are chest congestion, body aches, exhaustion, and now I've got the oogies(feels like I just stepped off a roller coaster). When Mark's alarm clock went off this morning I was hoping he'd get out of bed without too much flopping around because every little movement made me barfy. How fun. So, I have some completely random pictures to share so this won't be a PWOP.

Mark has been working 14-hour days lately because his company acquired the assets of another business with an office about 2 hours or so from here. He's been back and forth a few times so far. This weekend he'll take call for the drivers because one is going on vacation and the other would have had call for 5 weekends in a row. I'm sure he'll get called out at least twice, maybe more, since they have 8 hospice accounts now. Hopefully they'll all be in town. Yes, he is sick too.

My computer is still on the floor in the dining area. I was planning on painting the desk to match the cute little shelf I found at Goodwill but the paint didn't look good to me. Also, I have to move the china hutch somewhere else and plan so that the left side of it is up against a wall. The glass got broken years ago and the cats now get in there and eat the birds' nests and squirrel tails(don't read Anet, lol). It needs to go in a common room but there aren't any walls that suit it for now. Since we moved the metal fabric shelf from our bedroom it could go in that space, and probably will, but that isn't were I really want it. Sigh.

The pool fixer people are here today!!! Woot! They are replacing all the nasty rotted wood that goes between the earth and the new liner. We shall see when that ever gets here. It was ordered way back when but they are behind on putting them together. With custom vinyl liners, they have to have the seams heat sealed and all the corners molded so they are put together as they are ordered. The pool guy cancelled our 1st order and reordered it as a "special" and it is supposed to go ahead of the regular orders, or some such as that. GRRRRR. I HOPE it is done by next weekend but I'm not holding my breath.

Today is also the 19th anniversary of the Blind Date. Mark's friend Jeff and my friend Tami are brother and sister, I met her when I was 15 or so, Mark has known them most of his life. So, how come it took so long for me to meet him? I don't know. What I do know is this. Tami and I were at another girl's place having beer and pizza and primping and doing girly stuff. Tami was trying to get one of Mark's co-workers to notice her so she called Mark up and made a deal. She'd set him up with me if he'd set her up with this guy. I went out with Mark on July 2nd, 2 days later the other guy went out with another girl from work(and got her pregnant!) so that didn't work out so well for Tami, she should consider herself lucky.

July 2nd is also my grandmother's birthday, her wedding anniversary, my mom's late friend's birthday and my bff's birthday. Popular day huh?

Here's the pics:


(Basil last Christmas)


(the girls and dogs this father's day)

Shorn!

The wooly Ryan has finally been shorn! Here are two befores(both from April) and two afters from this afternoon. He isn't happy but I think he secretly likes that it isn't so hot and it won't take six hours to dry(his words). Amy and Sarah got trims(no pix) but I had to do some extra work on Amy's. For some reason they insist on leaving her with these tails hanging down on the sides. I've asked repeatedly for them to not do this but I guess they are programmed to do a certain hairstyle because it is "in". GRRRR. Anyway, I trimmed about an inch off the sides of hers, maybe, and now she's in a snit saying it is too short. TDB.

Anyway, here is Ryan:









In Other News....

We did finally raise the pool guy. He claims the liner is on back order. I don't know if we should believe him or not. It would seem that when he found that out from the maker, he would have called to let us know. Hmmmm. He told Mark that he would call the liner people and see when it will be ready to ship. Mark is going to call him again on Monday to follow up. This is getting stupid, he cashed the check on May 1st. At best he is extremely busy and so successful that he forgets to call people but I think he is just a bad businessman with very poor communication skills, very frustrating to deal with.

We also found out that we'll have to load up all the scraps from our fence replacement(posts, lattice and assorted boards) and haul them to the landfill ourselves(to the tune of $100 or so). Our city has stopped doing bulk trash if it includes any sort of boards or fencing. What is up with that you ask? Well, it seems all the lovely home builders had started putting their scrap lumber in piles and calling the city to come pick it up. Isn't that just lovely of them? They aren't residents of the homes they are building but expect the city to come get residential trash from homes that don't even have occupants yet. Its *so nice* that a bunch of jackasses ruin something nice for the majority of us who do things by the rules. And, we'll have at least one or two more loads from this weekend's fence project.

I can't remember if I posted this yet or not but if it rains and we can't do the fence, we're going to PAINT!! How many times have I said this? At least halfadozen. This time Mark is the one who mentioned getting it done. YEAAAH!!! The best thing is that I finally decided(haha-again) what I might do for our bed. I saw a picture in a magazine of a head and foot board similar to ours but they were painted a flat black. It looked soooo nice, very modern but very colonial at the same time. I haven't shown it to Mark yet but I think he'll love it since he likes our headboard.

I promise to have pictures of whatever we end up doing. We'll buy the fencing no matter what and put it in the garage if we can't work outside. I'm hoping we might get to do both.

Drat...

So, instead of enjoying this:



This:



Has become this:







And also there was this from the day before:



***UPDATED*** We went out to pick up glass chips so the dogs won't eat them and I noticed that we lost the top out of our "double tree". It is hard to see in my pictures but the right half of the tree should be as tall as the left half and it is obviously not. You can see the break in the up-close shot, that limb is about 5 inches in diameter and is hanging by a tiny strip right above our new fence and the privacy fence between us and the back neighbors. Yeah.





And of course we can't forget this:

We are still married!....

Must be true love if it survived chain link fence building. And we didn't kill any kids(in fact, they worked as hard as we did, almost). I can't begin to tell you how hard this was to do, and in the rain all day yesterday. We started Saturday morning, early, and didn't get finished til noon on Wednesday. If you ever get an estimate to have one put in and think its too much to pay, trust me it isn't.


(halfway around)


(Ryan and Mark pulling tension)


(hole in the side of pool, about 3 feet across- pool man came today and is gearing up to get started soon-yeah)



This morning during breakfast I noticed these beautiful spiderwebs on the hollies out front.







There were 16 of them!



I also snapped some pictures of these gorgeous flowers this morning. My mom tells me every year what they are and I always forget. Those are grape leaves surrounding the blooms(no relation).






We are headed to Atlanta State Park tomorrow for a few days of camping and boating. Will have some good pics I hope! The kids are geeked. Last time I camped at this place we had tornadoes, fallen trees, snakes, flooded tent, stolen fish and equipment and Mark got two tickets. It was NOT a good time. Of course none of that will happen this time though, will it? NO!

In a few weeks we plan to vist Caddo State Park and take the canoe. Not sure if we'll camp or not, they are known for alligators and snakes(and maybe even bigfoot).

Wednesday Happenings....

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

(this one is odd)

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

(hahaha, this one is too)

I felted several sweaters today but I didn't take pictures yet. Maybe I'll do that tonight. Can't wait to let them tell me what to make of them. I've got at least a dozen different ones now, in a wide range of colors.

And, in the "its about time" category(mom don't faint): I took down some clothes that were destined for something, I know not what, that have been hanging on the back of the laundry room door for YEARS, and I do mean at least 5 years! They are now in the Goodwill bag. I also fixed it so that we can close the door easier. We always have to shut it when the dogs come in to keep them out of the kitty candy boxes. The hanger thingie made that difficult so I TOOK IT DOWN TODAY!!!! WOOOOOHOOOO!!!

We finally heard back from the pool person today after almost 3 weeks of NOT RETURNING MY CALLS! Sheesh!! Now I have to fax the bid to the insurance company and hope we'll have a pool liner by June. We better.

The cats are healing well from having been spayed and neutered yesterday. Jasper is more alert and mobile than Gypsy since his was less invasive. Now we are down to Buttercup!

No clues as to what will be for dinner. Mark came home early so maybe I can get to the grocery store and pick something up that's mostly made.

Fence Plans...

We spent most of Mark's 42nd birthday Spring-cleaning up our pool area. The oak tree drops tons of limbs, leaves, and acorns throughout fall and winter which makes a huge mess. Mark and I raked, scooped and swept until it was clean. The kids helped by fetching things and loading leaves in the wheel barrow to dump on a compost heap. Ryan and Mark cleaned the umbrellas and table while the girls and I folded up the pool cover. Don't worry, we also celebrated with grilled steaks, fried calamari, green salad, scrumptious homemade carrot cake from Divine Domesticity and champagne(he won at a business function). It was a very lovely end to such a busy day!

Anyway... Over dinner we had serious discussion about what to do with the pool area. Since the pool won't be filled in, we want to rearrange the fencing to give the dogs and children more yard. We could take out the front deck and add about 1/3 of the current space to it. The back deck would provide a place for our poolside table but isn't exactly the best location for several reasons. So, we decided that the back deck will come out and a new lattice fence will go diagonally across the turf space(in between the decks) to the back fence. It won't provide quite as much yard but that's ok. The kids are begging for a diving board but it depends on how much they cost. Today we'll be measuring and figuring out exactly what we need to do the job. Of course that will be after Mark and Ryan return from their canoe-fishing trip.

(click pics for bigger views)

(rearranging of the fence after hurricane Rita to include the decks within the pool area)

This picture gives an idea of where the diagonal part will go. It will start at the back corner of the front deck(about 2 feet left of where the current lattice fence ends in the pic), and will come to the corner of the back deck and wooden sidewalk section(about where the end of the fence post is in the lower left of the picture), then continue to the privacy fence.



(the brighter lines show where the new posts will go)

The front deck is bigger with built-in seating. The back deck is about half the size of this one, has a rail but no seating, out of the way, and only used to store exercise equipment and an extra grill. It is also where Mark and I got married almost 18 years ago. Our wedding guests sat in chairs on the front deck and we had an arch on the back deck. Tables were set up closer to the sidewalk for our cakes and other refreshments. Of course, the fence wasn't there back then so the area was much more open. I'm not just a real sentimental person so I don't feel the need to leave it there for posterity.


(the back deck is more visible in this picture)

Currently the fence ends at the corner of the front deck and goes right behind the oak tree to the yard fence. The kids can also enjoy more room during the off season(from September through May). We have plans to trim lots off those bushes this afternoon, they almost touch the ground in places!


(this is how the angle will cut across the yard space)

I think we'll be quite happy having a bit more yard and a little less "pool area" with the new arrangement. Frankly, I am looking forward to planting a little garden where that Canna is. Maybe caladiums.

***piggie update**** Still no babies! Despite being huge and miserable, she cuddled on my chest for 45 minutes this morning, covered by my favorite afghan. She just chilled there, making her little chuttle noises and sighing, it was so sweet. I put her up because she got antsy all the sudden. I'm hoping that means things are moving along, but it was probably just her needing to pee.

Picture Heavy!...

First, some cute stuff! (and a reminder, click any picture to get a larger version)


(Gypsy and Jasper sure know how to nap!)

And the pretty stuff:

(paint color we are going with is the faint squares you see. As you can tell, it is much more neutral than the larger area of paint-which looks bluish on my monitor instead of the lilac that it looks like IRL)

I plan to start painting next week. I'm almost finished with the decluttering in there. What helped was for me to make a detailed list of what needed dealt with, down to the towels, CDs, hangers, and so forth. It gave me more of a sense of how to go about doing things than a list that said, clean bathroom, clean bedroom, clean floor, clean closet. Worked MUCH better. We hauled 7 bags to Goodwill last weekend, hoping for the same thing this time around.

Now to the dirty stuff. Ugh. My photos are bad because my camera appears to be on its last legs. Sometimes the pictures are ok, sometimes they are really weird. These would be in the weird catagory. Anyway, these are the wrinkles in our pool's liner. We have a leak, somewhere, a big one probably. Ryan walked and crawled all over the shallow end and didn't find anything. He also went down the slope and felt more large wrinkles and bubbles under the liner.


(for reference, the leaves in this photo are about 7-8 inches long)


(this is the weirdest of the pictures but shows the wrinkles all the way across the shallow end)

(you can see the biggest air pocket, or bubble, to the right of the trash can)

Mark is on his way home and we're going to cook hamburgers on the grill, then go walk the doggies again.