A BIG Surprise

While we were out walking on the beach this morning my cellphone rang.  It was our granddaughter Laci telling us she got married yesterday!!!  Talk about surprised!  We wish she and John all the best.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  

A sunshiny morning had us heading for the beach after breakfast.  I found a tiny sand dollar, Emmi ran and ran, we walked and walked.  The perfect morning! It was time for lunch when we got back—peanut butter and jelly for Michael, ham and cheese for me—big dinner planned!  Mike was then off to Lowe’s to purchase lumber for his project—new steps for the trailer.

Current step for getting into the quilting studio trailer—it’s a big step up into the trailer and hard for Mom.  So my handy/dandy husband built us new steps:

What a difference it makes getting into the trailer now!

Mom’s husband Chuck celebrates his birthday on Valentine’s Day—so tonight we had a birthday party!  Pork tenderloin on the grill, potatoes, grilled asparagus, pinto beans and Mom made him a chocolate pie!  A delicious meal!!  Rollie joined us, a perfect ending to our day.  Happy Birthday Chuck—we are glad you came into our family!

While Michael was building the steps I decided to get some sun—something I don’t do very often—just sit and enjoy the sunshine.  Rollie took notice and said he had to get a photo of me doing absolutely nothing!

Angel and Zoey found laps when everyone gathered for the party:

A great Valentine’s Day!

Another One Of Those Days

When it is 55 degrees outside and a cold north wind is blowing your instinct is to hunker down inside and take care of inside business.  That’s what we did today, Michael worked on our taxes and I went to the quilting studio and did some applique on a little quilt I am doing for myself. 

Here’s my goals for Michael’s next two weeks of work—maybe if I say it in the blog I will feel more accountable??  I have three quilts to quilt for my friend Mary P.  I want to get all three quilted in that two weeks. 

For lunch we enjoyed pasta with a homemade tomato/garlic sauce, large salads and homemade bread.  Our beef consumption over the last few days has been a little excessive so we went veggie today! 

After lunch we drove over to Rockport to do a little grocery shopping—I was looking for a heart shaped cookie cutter and while I didn’t find a cookie cutter I did find a little candy container in the shape of a heart I think will work!   We enjoyed ice cream at McDonald’s before coming home.

On the way home Michael got a call from our accountant and we were able to get some questions answered—soon we will put all the stuff in a big envelope and send it off to Bob, our accountant.  He has done Michael’s taxes for years and ours for the 18 years we have been married.  Yes, it is expensive but as we have three different businesses with each having its own set of tax issues, we feel it is worth every dime. 

Today was a little more exciting than yesterday at least for Emmi and me!!  When we got home from Rockport Emmi and I set off on a walk to take Mom some chocolate for the pie she is making (thank you Gina).  As we rounded the corner I saw two elderly women with four dogs, all on leash.  The minute the smallest of the dogs, a Boston terrier looking dog, saw us he begin lunging to the end of his retractable leash, snarling and barking.  All four dogs began barking and snarling, Emmi (she doesn’t bark at other dogs) and I gave them a wide berth but it wasn’t enough.  The little terrier dog jerks his leash out of the hand of the owner and jumps on Emmi, biting and snarling—with instinct I kicked his little butt and he sailed about a foot away.  She is struggling with the larger, snarling barking dog but finally manages to get her foot on the leash of the little obnoxious one who is still trying to get to Emmi.  I manage to get Emmi in my arms, the woman apologizes, I say it’s OK but I’m thinking, “lady, you need to get a handle on these dogs before something really bad happens.”  This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this happen with these four dogs.  For one thing, two of the dogs are too large for these elderly ladies to handle.  For another they have no leash manners.  An accident looking for a place to happen.

My sweet niece sent me a text message this morning after she read last night’s blog, “Keep Calm and Shop Small Business.”  Good advice after my little episode in Sam’s Club yesterday!

The sun is out this afternoon, it has warmed up a touch and tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful—maybe we will get out with the camera!

Taken March, 2012

August, 2010

Not An Exciting Day

Unless you count my meltdown in Sam’s Club which came about as a result of their totally incompetent employees, long, long checkout lines and then they want me to stand in line to leave the store too!!  Corpus Christi needs a Costco in the worst way!

Michael did some puttering—when the water heater is on propane and re-ignites there is a surge or momentary pause in our power supply.  It’s enough to kick off the microwave and sometimes the modem, router and printer.  Other times the propane re-ignites and we have no problem.  Strange situation and Michael though he might have fixed it this morning but this evening as I was preparing dinner the water heater ignited and everything blinked???

He did get the lights working in the jeep again, YEA!  That little problem was caused by a bulb with a short inside itself—took him a while to figure that one out too!

Emmi and I took walks as did the other two pooches.  The sun came out this afternoon for a brief while and we walked over to visit Mom for a bit.  She seems to have caught this bug.

Rollie is finally getting some days off—his counterpart has been stranded in the northeast by that terrible snow storm—he was supposed to have arrived on Saturday to begin work on Sunday but didn’t get out until today.  I have a bottle of wine open, appetizers ready and big steaks to go on the grill for he and Michael tonight. 

We need to get out with the camera!  Montana photos tonight, sorry.

Taxes and Other Stuff

Michael has always handled our taxes and I’m happy to let him.  Emmi and I try really hard to be quiet and out of sight!  Until he starts asking questions such as, “do you remember what you bought from Amazon for $17.34 in February, 2012?”  Now really???  John does the same thing to Brenda—I know we have super memories but geez! 

Thank goodness for the internet and Amazon.com—you can pull up your entire buying history—maybe that isn’t such a good thing when your husband is looking but at least you can tell him what that item was way back in 2012!  We survived the beginning of tax season!

After a delicious late lunch of grilled steak filets, roasted potatoes, carrots and a salad we went to run some errands.  I am looking for a specific size table for the quilting studio and Michael had a couple things on his list.  He is searching for a lighter weight pair of steel toed boots—not sure they exist but we are looking. 

I sent Jane’s quilts on their way to Maricopa, AZ after taking lots of photos—once Jane has seen them, then I will post those photos. 

Gloomy weather here, cooler and misting rain most of the day—makes for soggy doggy feet. 

A Slow Sunday

Michael’s first day off—we just took it easy.  We didn’t sleep well and Michael was up at his usual get up time unfortunately.  We walked dogs, Michael did a little work on the jeep lights—seems in the morning when everything is damp his rear lights don’t work.  Later in the day when the lights dry out they work again.  I tidied up the latest quilt and was going to take some photos but the wind was blowing gale force—not conducive to outside photos—the quilts might have been in the next county!

We enjoyed some more shrimp for lunch and I also baked some bread—I shared with Rollie as well as Mom and Chuck. 

Tonight we streamed a movie from Amazon Prime—The Magic of Belle Isle, with Morgan Freeman who I really enjoy watching.  The movie was cute—easy watching. 

And that was our Sunday—just a quiet, easy Sunday. 

Finished Quilt and Another Pictorial

These allergies are kicking my butt—I knew when Michael got up this morning but the next thing I knew it was close to 7:30am.  Still felt crummy, sneezing and coughing so I took one of Michael’s sudafeds—miracle drug, no sneezing since morning, very little cough—let’s hope this crud is gone!

Mom and I went to Rockport today to get groceries at the HEB and to find the shrimp place.  Mom had not been to a HEB since her arrival and she was impressed, much better than the Aransas Pass Wal Mart!   With directions from Rollie we found the shrimp place, too.  $10 per pound, large, beautiful shrimp!

Gina and Rollie’s son Thomas, his wife Ashley, their baby Abigail and Ashley’s brother Austin all arrived here in the last two days.  Thomas is going to work with Michael and Rollie although in a different division.  Ashley is going to start nursing school. 

Remember the big huge oil rig hull which arrived a few weeks ago.  This week the heavy lifting device(HLD), the crane looking things out at the yard lifted a module up onto the hull.  The tugboats floated the hull away from the dock and held it stable while the HLD lifted the module.  The tugboats then pushed the hull under the HLD and the module was lowered in place.  The HLD does not move or rotate like normal cranes, it only lifts.  There were at least five tugboats controlling the hull. 

There is about 100 feet + of the hull above the water. 

Michael is home tonight—he is now off for a week—Emmi and I are very, very glad!

We enjoyed some of those shrimp and grilled pineapple for dinner tonight, YUM!

And I finished Jane’s lonestar quilt today—it is beautiful!

Bathing Suits and Sneezing

I think I’m allergic to the whole state of Texas—I woke when Michael got up this morning at 4:30 sneezing and I’m still sneezing, my eyes are watery and itching—what is in the air around here???  Michael and Chuck are all better now—what’s up with me??? 

I warned my readers last night—I would tell the bathing suit story tonight.  As we will be here through the summer, I thought using the pool might be in order and the last bathing suit I purchased came over on Noah’s ark—not much use for swimsuits in Montana!  My friend Mary out in Spokane is an avid swimmer and has even taught water aerobics.  She swears by Lands End swimsuits.  So about a week ago I viewed the size charts on the website and even ordered one size larger than my measurements said I would need.  WELL-----I couldn’t even get my left leg into that suit much less my rear end!!!  And it was a very ordinary one piece!!!  Geez, back to the drawing board!

As I was typing the above paragraph I almost wrote, “and it was a very conservative one piece.”  That phrase brought a chuckle.  When living in Austin, TX many years ago I was the evening supervisor in the operating room at Seton Hospital, a Catholic hospital.  My immediate supervisor was a Catholic sister named Sister Janet.  I loved this woman, she was the best boss I ever had.  She could bring the greatest of surgeons to his knees, stop his cursing and throwing instruments just by walking into the room.  One day she was telling us a story about floating down the Guadalupe River in an inner tube, drinking strawberry daiquiris and getting very intoxicated.  Well, I was a little intrigued by the “getting intoxicated” part—Catholic sisters do that???  But what I really wanted to know was just what did a Catholic sister wear while floating in an inner tube so I asked her.  Sister Janet replied, “a swimsuit, but a very conservative one piece.”  All of us in the room got a chuckle out of that comment and it still brings a smile to my face—I wonder where Sister Janet is today?

Mom and I quilted today.  Came close to finishing Jane’s lonestar quilt and Mom got started on a special baby quilt for me. 

No photos today—ones I took in the park were just blah!  Michael took some great ones today at the yard and I will do a post on those tomorrow night—my benadryl is kicking in—time for bed!