Friday!

Wow I haven't written since Monday.  I don't even really want to write now but here I am.  It got up to 106 degrees today!  Yikes!  I didn't think it would get quite that hot.  Luckily I have changed my walking routine to the early morning while it is still in the 70's. 

I am so glad it is Friday!  It has been a very frustrating work week.  I am working a little this weekend but mostly going to try to decompress!  And I am getting my hair done tomorrow. It is about a month overdue and the gray hair is showing more than I like.  So I hope this weekend goes nice and slow.  P l e a s e !!  And I can look forward to the holiday coming up next week too! That will keep me in a good mood!

I am happy to report that I picked a dozen or so cherry tomatoes that I gave to my dad and I picked two small green peppers that were starting to get some brown spots, so I cut the bad part off of them and used them in my crock pot meat loaf.  So that was nice, being able to use some goodies from my own garden.

We got three of the dogs groomed this afternoon.  It was a bit rough picking them up in this heat. I tried to make sure they didn't have to walk much in the parking lot as I was worried they might burn their pads.  They did okay and now that they are done I'm glad they were groomed and thinned out a little.

Hubby got the spare bedroom floor nearly done.  He just has to get the trim up.  I'll post some pictures of that soon.  We are waiting for the bed.  We are picking it up bedpost after it is done with the same color stressed paint (dark), by the manager of our favorite store, Divine Patina.

Garden update..The good and the bad

Well since we had a cool spring that did not turn to 90 degrees by February,  summer is now upon Central Texas with a vengeance, it is getting hotter and staying hot well into the night.  I've been taking my walks in the evening and waiting past 8:00PM to do so but even still it is sometimes still above 90 degrees even then.

This morning I decided to take my walk early while it was still in the 70's. It was a lot nicer but my body doesn't like it quite as much being required to take a mile and a half walk when it has just woken up!   I wish I had the camera with me today though because I spotted the moon. I tried to see it last night on my walk but it was too cloudy. This is suppose to be when the moon is its largest ever.  But I didn't have my camera with me and wasn't about to get all the dogs riled up again.

Anyway I took a few pictures of my balcony garden.  I'm afraid my zucchini is suffering I guess from the heat (or disease). The once flourishing spread of green leaves is dying.  I don't think it will bear anything either before they are all dead.

On a good note, I am seeing some peppers and some more tomatoes.  Hopefully they will continue to withstand the heat.  The plants in the front balcony are all still doing nicely. Maybe I need to plant more there as they don't get hours of sun that the back does that is likely frying my garden.

Empty Nest

Well it is official.  My youngest got a teaching job and it is not around here. So I am forced to admit I have to call myself an empty nester now.  No more countdown.  It was fun keeping a diary of sorts for the last 4 years and since I am so used to blogging I am going to continue with it.

I felt compelled to change the name of my blog though so now it is no longer Empty Nester Countdown but After the Empty Nest.  I will continue to blog about whatever comes to mind and also post pictures I like to take too. 

That ' f ' word

Our elderly neighbors whom we've been friendly with for going on 8 years, as long as we've lived here, finally sold their home and moved into a retirement community. They'd been talking about it for years, actually ever since we moved in but after the first few years I chalked it up to idle talk.

But the nice old man who whistled while working in his garage (like Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain, yes he was that good), and his wife did move, and it was strange for those first few days that they were gone.  No more whistling could be heard from my office window, nor clanking noises from him messing with his tools in his garage. < Sigh >

We met the 'new people' who bought their house and they seem very nice, and more our age.  They are practically gutting the house and re-modeling it.  The house was built in the 80's and so I wasn't surprised with that but instead of going from room to room, every room has carpet stripped, wall paper stripped, etc. It is going to be one major renovation!

My hubby had told me as he met them before I did that they hadn't lived in their previous home all that long, maybe 3 years.  And when we were chatting while over there I heard the word flipping from the wife's lips.  They had flipped their last house.  Now every one is entitled to do whatever they like with a house they purchase but I came away from there wondering if that was the only reason they bought my old neighbor's house. Just to flip it?  I was hoping we could possibly make some new friends in them and maybe get together once in a while, etc.  But now that I think they are just flippers, I'm hesitant to even bother.  If they may be just moving in a few years, no sense in building any kind of friendship. Maybe that is shallow and harsh of me, but there is a certain investment of time, sharing, trust building, etc., that comes with developing friendships and as long as my thoughts are those of transient folks, it just doesn't seem worth it. 

It is somewhat of a shame that my best and only friends are my co-workers and we are all 'virtual' friends except for the occasional corporate meeting where we get to enjoy each other in person for a few days since we all work at home.  There isn't a day that goes by though that I don't thank GOD for those friends! 

Neat!

Remember when I wrote about how there was one egg in a birds nest made inside a bag for brush/trimmings? Well there are now 4 eggs! Each day there has been one more! The picture I took of the 4 just now turned out blurry so I'll just post the one hub took of 3 eggs. Turns out some birds (maybe most?) lay there eggs several days in a row. I thought it was a once and done thing! So neat! I am going to have to put a doggy gate up when these babies are getting ready to hatch. I can't have dogs going by this bag, back and forth.  That will freak out the mommy bird!

I noticed it freaking out today as it is just outside my window where this nest is and I went out to the doorway to see what was stressing it out so much. Turns out Ditzy was laying under the glider which sits not too far from the bag. So I called her in so as to not disturb the bird.  She was probably squawking because she wanted to lay another egg!

Nest with 3 EGGS now

                                                                                                       

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Often folks ask me how I can eat yogurt so much.  I have it nearly every day for lunch, when I'm not trying out the Grab N' Go salads that Greenling has like I am now.  You just have to be creative!  Here's what I made on Sunday for lunch. 

Raspberries from my Greenling order, berry yogurt, spearmint leaves from my balcony garden, and peanuts for a little more protein and crunch!  Yum!

I like getting creative with lots of things including dessert!

Here I made the dreamsicle pie that I sell at my website and added some whipped cream and a cherry on top!

Another Monday over..

Glad this day is over.  It wasn't particularly hard, just seemed long.  I did not have to work any O.T. which is good. 

Guess what?  That birds nest in the bag of brush that we have on the porch keeps getting a new egg every day.  There were three in there today! I thought they laid their eggs all at one time but these birds aren't doing that. I'm pretty sure there was only the one egg the other day but sure enough there are three. I'm going to look again tomorrow to see if there may be four.

My zuchini plant is getting some white spots on it and I looked it up on the Internet as to what it may be. Looks a lot like the powdery mildew photos I found. I'm trying a milk/water solution sprayed on the leaves. So hopefully that will help. They are flowering nicely and I sure would like to get some zucchini before the plants die from disease.

I saw some tiny peppers this morning so that was exciting. I've picked a few cherry tomatoes but that's it so far. I'm planning on taking them to my mom's tomorrow when I go visit for an hour or so.

It has been getting really hot these days, although not quite to 100 degrees. I sure hope I can get some vegetables before everything burns up.

Fun Pics!

I am off this weekend. Yippee!  Feels like I'm playing hooky.  But I'll get by.  We went garage sale-ing this morning. I got a neat metal sun (like the kind they have on Sunday Morning), that hubby will paint and hang on our fence where we have a few metals things already.

We were just sitting outside on our back bistro. I call it that because we have two small black bistro tables and chairs out on the back porch that looks like something you'd see at a sidewalk cafe'. Anyway I started to notice all these snails stuck on the columns along the porch.  I had to grab the camera!  These weren't even all of them.  Crazy huh?! 

This has two small ones next to each other down below and one larger one about a foot higher

And another

 

 

 

 

Pretty colors huh?

Then hubby noticed that we had some plant growing through the back side of the fence right where leaves would grow from our metal flower!  Isn't this so funny?!

The flower with leaves!

And I thought there were some birds grabbing twigs from a bag of brush that hubby gathered as he is clearing out the back garden area so we can plant some nice flowers back there. He's had the bag against the back wall about a week or so.  So I thought there was a few birds grabbing good nest making materials. Turns out they built the nest right IN the bag!  Only see one egg but didn't want to snoop around and disturb it too much.

This one shows the opening of the bag for perspective

 See the one egg? Too cute!

 I'll have to spend more time relaxing and observing.  Well off to get some old fashioned cream of wheat.

Last evening...

Got some great shots of the sunset last evening. Now I can't do anything about the telephone wires (and no I don't know how to photoshop them out of a picture).  But here they are. 

And the moon was already showing too so I got it as well

Ups and Downs..

Hump Day!

I am happy to say we pulled out the grill two days in a row this week already!  I forgot to take a photo on Sunday but we did hamburgers, and cheeseburgers for hubby, on the grill. And on Monday we had barbecue pork chops on the grill.  That I remembered to take a picture of. Both nights they were delish!

My youngest was here on Monday night as she went to a job fair held near Austin and decided to spend the night. So we made a apple crumb pie and I let her take half of it with her.

She called me yesterday with good news that she has a job interview on Monday. The bad part is, it is not close to here. But I wish her luck regardless.

Well I have to get back to work. Just took a short lunch break..

Same 24 hours

We all have the same 24 hours every single day to do what we choose to fill up those hours right?  Every day we choose whether to grab a granola bar on the way out the door  on the way to work, or whether to sit down to eggs and toast or old fashioned cream of wheat and hope that the traffic isn't too bad. For that matter we choose whether to even go to work that day at all or call in a mental health day.  Well for me I don't commute to work nor do I ever call in 'sick' but I use these examples just to point out that we do all have 24 hours every day that we fill up.

For me, since I've been working so much these days, I pick and choose what I want to do with the few hours I am not working or sleeping.  :-)  My mom, bless her heart gives me all her People magazines when she is done with them.  Have I ever really sat down and looked at one?  NO!  My eyes get strained enough using the computer all day long.  I'm not in any sort of mood to use them again for reading.  Mindless television watching is about all I can take some evenings after looking at a monitor all day.

So I am working this weekend again. But we are also planning on getting in a movie and checking out our favorite shop in town. Unfortunately, this house doesn't get clean by itself.  I pick and choose what is important for me to keep clean!

Dusting?....not so important...

Clean doggie doors...very important!

A clean floor is tops on my list...and this time using carpet powder that helps it to not smell like 5 dogs...at least for a few days. 

That's all I'm getting for now.  Even if I get nothing else done this weekend but the toilets, I'm feeling good about what I've cleaned.  Hey..can't sweat the small stuff.  Okay to work with me.

Friday Photos..

Well I finally got tired of my steri-strips. One had already fallen off and another was loose.  It has been 21 days since I had the skin cancer removed, 9 days since I got my stitches out and those put on.  So here's a picture. Looks worse than it did before I had the procedure...so I guess what I can take away from all this though is that at least that cancer has been cut out. Hope I don't get any more!  I trust it will fade a little better in time and is probably still a little pink from those steri-strips (which were itchy at times)

Here is the After steri-strips photo

The next photo is of my Ditzy who is just the best dog I've ever owned, and I've had (and have) a lot of them. We are coming up on having her one year this month. So glad I went to Craigslist that night last year!

 Here's some updated photos from my balcony garden too

This was that failing plant. See how great the new sprouts are doing?

One of my favorite impatiens

Lush, big zucchini leaves (no flowers just yet though)

The first cherry tomatoes

Honeydew and Cantaloupe vines..they'd rather go up the chicken wire than the trellis!

 

 

 

 

 

Final 'After' Photos

I am so excited!  We got our King Sized bed yesterday and so our bedroom is complete!  It was so neat having tons of room last night when I rolled over.  I didn't have to keep moving over, although my hubby said I still elbowed him in the eye.  I don't remember that!  But it was his fault as he went over the center line.  I know there's a center line because we got two twins instead of a King mattress so that they'd be easier to get up the narrow stairs.  Anyway...here's the final photos with floor completed (transition strips around fireplace tile), our new bed and new bedspread (purchased from The Pyramid Collection).  The room looks so much bigger with the laminate floors and we are both pleased with how nice our 'new' bedroom looks now.

Ditzy and Tika got in this picture

End of Month...

Sorry I haven't posted in the last 3 days but let me sum it up into three words 'End of Month'.  For those in the mortgage business those are the key words that translates to 'work extra hard'.  That is what I've been doing so when that happens I don't do much else although I am glad to say I am thrilled to be back exercising. The first day I was stitch-less and able to exercise was Thursday and I got through it ok. I was wondering if I might get a bit winded from the aerobics part (which is only about 10-13 minutes), but I got through it without heaving or feeling weak in the knees. 

I would post a photo of my post suture area but the nurse put steri-strips on it and they remarkably are still there.  Despite a few showers and sweating in the heat, they are strong buggers.  I've never had them before. Yes I've been lucky in life with only 2 C-sections and some sprained ankles mainly making up my medical history (other than that botched up needle biopsy I don't want to revisit right now).   So when those steri-strips 'fall off' I'll take a photo.

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Ever wonder how you know you really LOVE someone? 

For me that is when the feeling comes over me of just pure love and passion along with a bit of euphoria and light-headedness.  After being married going on 14 years, it doesn't happen to me very often, likely because my brain is so filled with work most of the time that it filters out anything else. ;-)   But yesterday morning I came back from a walk and was singing along with my IPod Shuffle and wanted to finish singing a song I really like.  I need to sing MORE if I'm ever going to do something with this voice!  Anyway, I walked into the kitchen singing and my husband had a twinkle in his eye and a big grin across his face.  That was all it took.  I saw the love in his eyes, and I got that feeling. The love and passion was flooding my brain and body.  I couldn't wait to be romantic last night and it was very nice to once again kiss passionately and hold each other. Hubby said he liked the 'new' me.  It wasn't the new me, it was just the me that gets one of those 'BAM' love moments from time to time. There is likely some scientific explanation for it, some chemically ignited libido boost or something but I'd rather attribute it to just deep rooted love!