Great Paint Party Day #1

Day #1 is done and so is the living/dining room.  We love the transition and the darker color.  I will show you before and afters later this week.  Here is what it looks like today!  We are headed to dinner....it's hot and muggy here today.  

Dallas

What can I say about Dallas??? He is my second child and my oldest boy.  He has the biggest smile and always has.  He is caring and will always help you when you need help.  He loves attention and being totally silly and crazy.  He doesn't care what anyone thinks, he lives life to the fullest.  He is frugal, a recycler and always has $$ in the bank.   He is a great father to Bella and Dylan.  He tries to do it all for Selena.  He loves dogs and gives Speed the most attention.  I'm glad he lives nearby and I get to see him and his family often.  I don't know what I would do if they decided to move out of town.  I now know what my mom felt when I left town and never realized the benefit of living near family.  I just wanted out of town.   I love that Dallas and Selena just drop by for dinner, play softball with me, drop by for a quick visit or they call us to meet them for dinner.  I love it!  Dallas also runs our small business and has done a great job.  Thanks Dal for all you do and I love you!

Great Paint Party!

Saturday we are painting!!!  Dwight is taking a few vacation days and we are going to paint together. (I found out he had some vacation days to use and threw the thought out there and he bit!!) We are going to paint the living/room dining room and the kitchen/family room and up the stairs and down the upstairs hall~it all runs together.  Dwight taught me to paint and I love it!  I am in my own world and it's therapy for me.  It will be an adventure I'm sure with Dwight. It usually is!! He is a very early riser(usually 4:45am--I don't even hear him get ready in the morning!) so we will start early.  I can do that!  I am not too social first thing in the morning and he is very happy and talkative.  I can handle that!   Thank you Lowe's for having paint on sale this weekend.  We did our dinner and date nite to Lowe's and picked out some paint samples.  We have them drying on the walls to see if we like what we've chosen.  We've learned a few things over the years.  I am ready....painting starts Saturday 8am in the living/dining room which is a pretty easy room to start with.  I'm excited.  I will share pictures soon!  Have a good weekend everyone!

It's Bella and Dylan Day!

It's my day with my precious grandchildren and we are having fun!  Bella is playing in the backyard with the sand and water table and with  Speed(our dog).  Dylan is trying to crawl at 5 months....up on all fours all the time and a very happy baby who smiles ALL the time!  He has the biggest brown eyes.  Speed can't get enough of Dylan so I've got to watch him when he's in the walker on the back porch with us.  Speed likes to give too many kisses!  

We started drawing and writing on paper with Bella before she was one.  She continues to love to draw with markers, crayons and colored pencils.  We introduced her to finger paints recently but doesn't like her hands dirty(like her grandma) so we use a brush.  She is so proud of her art work!!!

They are both napping!  It's a glorious day!

To Know Me is to.......

Nina over at Just Enjoying Life tagged all of us who visit her site to share the following:

Joys

1.  Time with family

2.  Looking at photos 

3.  Sitting on the beach

Fears

1.  Snakes

2.  The economy(it's affecting us all)

3.  I really don't think about my fears much...I just live my life!

Goals

1.  Clean up my piles in my computer room

2.  Repaint the downstairs-scheduled for week of 9/4

3.  Simplify my life-working on it....selling our junk on ebay netted us $500 last week!!

Current Obsessions

1.  Photography

2.  Blogging

3.  My grandchildren--love spending time with them!

Surprise Facts About Me

1.  I have lived in California, Florida, England, Spain, Turkey and Arizona

2.  I was on the game show Supermarket Sweep years ago

3.  I dance around the house when no one is around!  

Hope that helps you to get to know me a little bit better!  Gotta go write a contract~ Hopefully it means $$$ in 30 days!  That would make me :)!

Busy ! Busy!

Our first weekend as empty nesters has been a full one.  Friday night we stayed in, ate chicken tacos, took Speed for a walk, stopped for a cup of coffee at Jazz 'N Java who had a band playing. We drank our coffee, let Speed catch her breath and walked home.  A nice nite!  Dwight caught up on some work on Saturday morning while I took a couple out to look at homes.  We went to the running store for some new tennis shoes.  Dwight needs good tennis shoes as his feet and knees hurt if he doesn't.  The staff watch how you walk or run and then assess which shoes fit you best.  I decided to get a new pair too and they asked me to run, which I did and then the young girl asked me how many miles I run each week.  I laughed and said "None!"  I walk on the treadmill and have tried running.  She felt bad and said why did you run?  I said"Because I could!"  Anyway, I got a cute pair of running shoes for my future running on the treadmill.  After that, we made our way to the Corvette show downtown, had some Chinese food and watched one of our favorite local bands....The Cadillac Cats.  They are so entertaining and good!

Today, we headed to church and then up to my niece, Taryn's(1-1/2 hr drive one way) to see the house she and her husband put a bid on.  They wanted someone to assure them that it was a good move.  They found a really nice home.  We ate lunch at Olive Garden and got home at 4pm.  Dwight is uploading more of our precious stuff on Ebay and I am getting packed to go to a conference for work for two days.  We made it through a weekend together with no children or grandchildren.  It's gonna be okay!!

Tears of joy!

The new apartmentThe tradition continues....these are my everyday dishes when we first got married.  All of my children have moved out with them.  Dustin completes the tradition.  Aren't they so cute???

Dustin(on the right) and his childhood friend, Justin.  He was such a cutie!

Dustin and his girlfriend Kayla in the new apartment decorated by Dustin.
He was so excited to be moving into his own place.

He raced motorcycles for 2 years.  What fun we all had at the races!

As a mother, you never think that this day will come. The day that your last child moves out of your home. It comes all too soon! Yester day was that day...our youngest, Dustin flew the coop so to speak. His wings were strong enough to take the first flight alone...as in moving away from home to an apartment and starting his college classes. This was a big step! My husband has been tearing up for the last two months whenever we talked about Dustin leaving home. Our baby is all grown up. These two have a very special bond....Dwight had time to enjoy Dustin as a baby and remembers many of the early times with Dustin. They are best friends...they think alike, laugh alike, have the same fears, enjoy the dreaming big and have talked through many a hard time. He was not the easiest child but we hung in there with him. We homeschooled him in 6th grade and through high school. He did NOT like school so that was a challenge and many, many other things were always difficult. Through it all...much of it done with much prayer, Dwight's patience and giving in to a strong willed child at times... we now see a maturity that hopefully will help him grow into the adult he wants to be. Dwight and I both wrote him letters of encouragement and before he left, he gave us one back. We were all in tears! Joyful, happy, sad, loving tears! We are now empty nesters!

Update

Thank you for your prayers for Danielle and little Grace. They are both doing well. Grace came home from the hospital two days ago however, the doctors are still not sure what she has. They are watching it and she has some medication to take that doesn't taste real good. So keep praying that this mass on her neck goes away and does not come back! Thank you for caring and praying.

Please Pray!

It's been a crazy busy week with my beautiful daughter who is 6 months pregnant not feeling well went to the hospital on Tuesday nite.  She is on bedrest until she sees her doctor on Monday.  She is doing well and baby is still very active.  I spent Thursday with her putting together a file cabinet and making her lunch and dinner.  I left without having any of the lasagna I made for her and Nate and now I am hungry for my lasagna.  She said it was good!  Then today, little Grace who is 3 years old woke up with a golf ball size lump on the back of her head at her neck and complained of a headache.  She is in the hospital with the doctors trying to figure out what it is and how to treat it.  So please pray for little Grace, her parents Kevin and Katie(she is 8 months pregnant too) and my daughter, Danielle if you would.  We know prayer helps and the more people that pray, miracles of healing do happen.  Thanks and have a great weekend!

Old Friends = Good Times!!

I met some of my old friends(we've known each other for almost 20 years and yes we are all a bit older!) for lunch today in Glendora where we lived for 12 years.  I moved away 7 years ago, Laura now lives in Texas, Karen lives in LaVerne, Diane and Tricia still live in town.  It was Laura's visit to town that got us all together for our annual lunch at Grand Burger.  The food IS NOT why we meet there....it's tradition!!!  It was great catching up on all of our families and remembering good times.  We all met when our children were in elementary school.  Karen and I met sitting in those tiny kindergarten chairs for a volunteer meeting.  Both of us had a kindergartener and a 2 year old.  We ended up watching each others little ones so we could volunteer in the classroom without them.  The boys all became good friends as did Karen and I.  We had the best PTA times together and later enjoyed bunco and eating out once a month for years.  It was good to see everyone and let's do it again soon!  Missed you Jeanne, Susan, Theresa and Debbie!

Ok It's Time!!

Yes, I walk by it every morning and every night and yet I don't get on and go for the ride.  You guessed it....the good ol' treadmill.  I thought putting it by the bed over a year ago would get me on it more often than when it was in the bonus room in the corner where I didn't see it everyday.  So...now I am within a pound of my initial goal with Jenny Craig that I set the end of March and I need to get on that thing to get this last pound off and hit my goal.  I walked on it one time last week for 30 minutes and it felt so good.  The real problem is that I've never made exercise a part of my daily life and it just doesn't run in my family.  They are all good cooks and love to eat!!  For most of my life I have been lucky to not have to worry about what I ate or gaining weight but the last 10 years have added a pound or two each year and yikes.....I hated each picture of me.  Do I really look like that??? I'd ask??? Well yes....so I joined Jenny with my husband has always battled his weight since football ended in college.  I have lost 18 lbs. and feel great.  I still need to lose a few more or get lipo for the small roll around my middle but since I'm a chicken about surgery....I know I will need to work at it.  Fit and Fabulous at 40   is a website I found to encourage me.  Go check it out!  I'm holding a few of my friends accountable to asking me if I've been on my treadmill each day.  I'm gonna do it tomorrow, I promise!  :)  

I love Softball!

I LOVE SOFTBALL!!!   I  have loved softball since I was a little girl.  My dad was my coach until high school.   Dwight and I played on various co-ed teams over the years and I played on a competitive women's team until I had Dustin 19 years ago.  Dwight and I had the opportunity to play on a co-ed team from church a couple months ago and WE LOVE IT!!!  We look forward to Thursday with such anticipation.  I had not pitched in 19 years and still can so I am the pitcher for our team.  Dwight plays first base.  I told my kids many times that they would see me play again in my 60's.  It didn't take that long and I'm glad.  My son, Dallas plays with us on the team now.  What fun!  Don't let me fool you there are sacrifices....a swollen knee every now and then, a sore muscle here and there but nothing that Aleve can't take care of.  Thank God!!!  So for those of you that think that you could never do that again. I am encouraging you to give it a try!!  You never know...you could be having the time of your life like I am!  I am attaching a picture for you to see...in the background is my son, Dallas.  :)  Did I tell you....I love softball!!

Wonderful Wednesday

As we prepare to be empty nesters we are celebrating too the flight our youngest baby bird to fly on his own.  Last night we had a dinner in his honor to encourage him in his endeavor.  His brother and sister and their spouses, his cousin Derek and wife Beth along with Bella, Dylan, Dwight and I enjoyed a BBQ dinner on our back patio.  It was a great nite of filet mignon, cheesy potatoes, green beans, rolls and a yummy fruit salad.  We topped it off with a Mud Pie I made with oreo cookie crust and mocha java icecream and chocolate syrup.  It was a hit!  My husband gave each of the couples the book Living the Extraordinary Life by Charles Stanley.  This book touched his heart and he is sharing it with friends and family.  He started a bible study at work with the guys in management also.  We also talked about going the Harvest Crusade together.  It was a blessed night.  I was a tired but happy mama bird! A special thank you to Sandy at 4 Reluctant Entertainers for her encouragement to entertain and enjoy the time with family and friends often.  Although I forgot to take pictures of he food or the table to share with you.  It was a beach theme with flowers from my garden in little jars for decor.  I am looking forward to the next event already.

Sunday Dinner

For years my mother-in-law would cook the best Sunday dinner ever which included eye of the round roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, a jello salad, corn and rolls.  We always had dessert too. Today I spent the afternoon with my mother-in-law and father-in-law who are both in their late 80's while Dw and his brother were golfing.  Lenie and I hit the local Ross for some fabulous finds.  I bought a roast and the fixin's for dinner.  This time it was my turn to cook the dinner for all of us and Damon too.  It was so good! AND so was dessert!  Doesn't it look yummy???  I made it myself with fresh strawberries from the local fruit and vegetable stand in town.  Now back to Jenny Craig tomorrow...I've lost 16 lbs in 4 months and feel great!

My new baby?

With Dustin leaving home, I am asking myself "Will I now become a dog person?  You see, I'm not a dog person at all...I don't like doggy breath, doggy smell, dog food smells, dog poop, dog hair on everything and a dog constantly wanting to be touched.  But our bassett hound of one year is becoming my buddy as I take care of things in the yard and around the house.  She has calmed down and is finally not chewing every mat I put outside the back door(although she gnawed on it a little this week), she will stay when I say stay and will not run in the door every time it opens.  She loves to play ball and bark at you.  I always thought that bassett hounds were slow dogs....not this one, she lives up to her name....SPEED!  AND she can jump on things that you just wouldn't think a dog could get up on.  I push all of our patio chairs under the patio table so she can't get on them and I don't have to sit in dog hair each time but she has found a way!  She climbs in the planters at the side of the yard and digs....how did she get up there???  Anyway, only time will tell if I become that dog person or just enjoy the dog every now and then.  How can you not love this face though????  I was playing with my new EXILIM camera yesterday and taking random pictures in the yard and she stands in front of me and barks.  So this is SPEED!  She is good company!

Empty Nest

We have a week and a half until we will be official empty nesters.  You never think this day will come when they are little.  It's come too soon.   I'm feeling a bit sad this morning as I'm picking up the house and seeing the stuff we bought for Dustin's apartment yesterday.  It also makes me feel that I have done my job as a mother and my children are raised.  Raised enough anyway to try to make it on their own and isn't that what our job as mothers and fathers are.  Our older two are out on their own and married and starting their families.  It was also sad when they embarked on their own.  Danielle never really did come back home.  Dallas has been back a couple times and stayed as long as he could. (He likes to save his $$$ and he said he was saving ours because we did not have to pay for the dorm/apt.)  So now here I am, feeling sad but triumphant that we have come so far with our child rearing and I feel that we've done a pretty good job.  My husband has had tears this last month or so thinking about this day.  I think of God allowing Jesus to be born and  raised by Mary and Joseph and then they had to let go.  It's a part of life and I too will be better for it with a few tears is all.