Yippee!!

The youngest is coming home for the long holiday weekend and I am so glad. I think the first time she leaves for school in August it is the hardest adjustment. This is because she's been home all summer and got used to her being around daily...sorry if I am repeating myself but since I'm feeling it..have to say it again.

Anyway...thrilled she is coming this weekend. We are having a garage sale too so she can help with that.

I am actually so happy about the garage sale. We have gone through so many stuffed drawers and cabinets and it just feels so great to have things de-cluttered. I went through half of my office too and so half of it looks really nice, the other half..well not so nice.  But I will get to it when I get a chance.

I was looking ahead at the fall schedule on television and it is still about 3 weeks away until the new shows start..oh the pain of it all....yes I know .. have no life but hey, at least takes very little to entertain me! :)

Empty nest..again...for a bit...

The pain of it all... we took the youngest to college today for her to start the adventure of sophomore year.  I took a few pictures.  Here are two of the dining room table.....BEFORE we headed out and AFTER we got back home.  Only thing left was a lonely hanger left behind.

Hubby came with me this time to get her to college since the store is closed and for once he was able to come along.  We had some fun in the car singing some songs together with some nice harmony if I do say so myself ;-).  It made the trip go faster.  I found a picture of our youngest from last year on her first day, so I am posting day one last year and day one this year.  Think she is going to enjoy this year!

                                                            DAY 1        2009

                                                         

                                                               DAY  1     2010
....so anyway, we got a good parking spot for unloading our cars...and carted all her stuff into her room.  Her roommate was already moved in but not in the room when we got there.  We walked around campus some since hubby had not seen it before and got some much needed lunch at the student center.  It was really a hot day to be walking around..about 105 degrees!

So time to get used to being back to hubby and me without any kids around.  I can do it... < Sigh>  really I can.   ;-)

More critter pictures....

I cannot take credit for these pictures as my hubby took these.. but hey he has more time right now since we closed the store and I am still working every day. The first pictures I am surprised he even spotted the snake on the bushes/vines next to the back porch. It blends right in with the green!! See it? See in the first picture the cement background, our porch is right there next to that bush it is wrapped around.

The next one may be the same lizard that was visiting on one of the patio tables before. This one is traveling down one of the porch supports and then sunning itself in the nearly 100 degree heat! :)

We also have at least 3 or 4 tiny things (geckos I think or salamanders) that are in and about the house.  They are only about 2-3 inches long and are really quick!  But I'll try to get a picture soon.

Back to school soon...

As my youngest gets ready to head back to college...and I get ready to feel the empty nest again for a bit anyway until she comes back for a weekend...I see how my emphasis on money or lack of it in the past when they were younger had a good influence on both my kids.  For a while there I was a single mom and so shopping at second hand stores and getting haircuts done by mom (me) were part of life back then.  I would often feel bad when I had to say "No, we can't afford that".

So..when textbooks and ordering them came up the other day I was prepared to shell out hundreds once again for them but my youngest searched and found some wonderful bargains and even one required reading book at .01 plus $3.99 shipping!  And a few others she found for less than $5.00 each.  I was floored at the bargains she found and although she did have to resort to the school book store for a few of them, the total was well below what I expected the cost to be! 

And my oldest who got married in March pulled together a very nice wedding with a budget of around $6000.  In today's age of costly weddings that was a real savings and she did an excellent job of looking for bargains and making some things by hand.  Her wedding dress was less than $900 and it was beautiful!  Anyone who has seen those bridal dress shows on television know that they can run upwards of $10,000+ just for a wedding dress!  So I am proud how wonderful her wedding turned out 'on a budget'. 

So instead of feeling guilty about bringing up money all the time...I can actually be happy that I did!

~Exotic Oatmeal ~

First of all YES there is Oatmeal under all that fruit!  I have oatmeal nearly every morning for breakfast.  It is great for our bodies.  Besides having all important fiber, it has Vitamin E, zinc, and other important nutrients.  I make the old fashioned oatmeal, not the kinds with tons of sugar and flavoring added.

I make 1/2 of what is needed for 1 serving and add a squirt of honey (better for me than processed cane sugar and I'm just not sure how healthy those sugar substitutes are)..and also a few shakes if cinnamon. Cinnamon helps keep blood sugar levels down. And NO, I am not a nutritionist...just learning things via the Internet and such.

Anyway...I have been expanding the things I am willing to try as of late and while at the farmers market there was a lady selling Jujube fruit.  I had never heard of this before but it has been around for thousands of years and was used for medicinal purposes in Ancient China.  So I thought I'd get some, it was only $1.00 for a heaping baggie of them.  It tastes to me like an apple that does not have much flavoring.  But the health benefits are worth it not having any exotic taste.  It is the fruit in the center of the picture. 

Surrounding it is a Kiwi fruit that I picked up at the grocery....well they don't have anyone selling that at the farmer market, and around that is a Clementine that I got a bag of when we were visiting my oldest and her hub last weekend.

And yes I do usually have my oatmeal blanketed with some sort of fruit concoction! So nobody can say I am not getting my daily recommended fruit intake. 

So I just wanted to share with you one of my breakfast creations, and urge everyone to try something NEW that is at your farmers market or grocery!  You may be pleasantly surprised.

fruit...er vegetables of my labor..

I have a balcony garden again this year and so far some things have survived and given us something to eat already.  The lettuce didn't make it.  It got too hot too fast, although in hind sight I could have pulled the small single leaves and they probably would have been fine and enough for one salad anyway...but no.. I was waiting for it to grow and look more like the photo on the front of the seed package. 

So okay, lesson learned.  I did get to pull 2 banana peppers and the green pepper wasn't really ready, but the branch had broken over so I had to pull it a little early.  This is the first time I've grown banana peppers and they are turning out very nice!  I have some cucumbers that are tiny so far too, so looking forward to getting some of those. I planted some zucchini but not sure if they'll make it as it is getting upward of 100 degrees these days.  But at least it is something! And I am proud of it!   We had the banana peppers and green pepper tonight in a stir fry I made along with some other veges we got from the local Farmers Market.  I bought Okra for the first time and put some of that in the stir fry.  I love going to the Farmers Market and buying locally grown food.  I will miss it when it is closed from December to April.  I will have to try to freeze some veges. 

Proud Mama...

As I watched my two daughters walking toward the pool steps to get in, I saw how mature, intelligent and attractive young ladies they have become! They grew up before my very eyes! ....

The youngest and I drove up to Dallas area this past weekend to visit my oldest and her hub for the first time since their wedding in March.  It was absolutely wonderful to see them and visit their apartment...that is after I got over going up the stairs to the 3rd floor that lead to their entrance.  I do not like heights and going up open stairways (you know the kind that you can see down to the ground) much past 2 stories...so yeah.. it was a little tough for me to go up that last flight of stairs.  But with my kids cheering me on, I was able to do it without a hitch by the time we were leaving Sunday afternoon.

Their apartment is nice and a lot more roomy that the last one. And it definitely was clean and tidy! We had a very nice visit and got to take in a movie 'Inception' which I recommend. It was good and kept me on the edge of my seat.  We also got to get some nice dining in, spent some time at the pool and just was good to get some chit chat in.

We also got to visit the campus where my oldest is going to start grad school this month. We couldn't get into any of the buildings as it was closed but it looks like a nice campus what we saw. 

The drive home Sunday went without a hitch but there was a lot of other cars on the road too and it was really hot in Dallas.  My car temperature gauge indicated at one time it was 110 degree outside!  It had not gotten that hot yet where I live but it did get up to 100 today.  Well it is summer in Texas !!!

I didn't realize how tired I was from the weekend until I could barely keep my eyes open at 9:00pm Sunday night after we were home a few hours.  Getting old...I know.  Still it was a nice weekend and a nice chance for us to get together before both girls start college again.