Great, great grandpappy

Cousins on my mother's side of the family recently gifted me with an old picture of my great, great grandfather taken in the 1880s. It had been restored and framed in a gold oval several decades ago by my great Aunt Jodie. She had written a description on the back so future generations would know who he was. 

Since I had all of the current pics on our walls in the remodel house reframed to compliment each other, I spent about $350 to get the old family picture reframed, too. It now hangs next to the fireplace in the master bedroom and I think it looks great in its new housing. My custom framer cut out the description my aunt wrote on the back and created a pocket in the new backing for us to keep her original note, which I thought was a nice touch.

Nephew's Graduation

Last weekend we celebrated my nephew Garrett's high school graduation. The school district decided a couple years ago to kick it old school in the football stadium. Temps in the 90s and mosquitos once the sun goes down for an 8:00 pm program just seems a little primitive to me when so many other schools opt to rent sufficiently large venues with ample parking (not in the grass along the baseball field) and air conditioning. Thankfully, the wind was pretty brisk and so it saved us all from BO and skeeter bites.

The next day, we hosted a lunch for Garret and a dozen family members at a local Italian restaurant he enjoys. 

A local group of the old lady purple hatters were at the tables next to us and so we had a bit of rubbernecking once we took out the cake for a sugary end to the dining experience.

Can't Beat the Heat

It's only June 10 and yet we're already pushing the triple digits. We've recently kicked off our annual summer drought here in the hill country. I'm in hell and the weather forecast is proof.

Even our local wildlife is miserable in this heat, trying to keep cool on the in-law's back porch in the shade early this afternoon.

The husband is promising me that we will purchase my much anticipated house in the mountains on a lake in the next couple years once we get the second and final chick shuffled off to college. This is what I long for when I'm sweating buckets at seven in the evening while hand watering our new landscape plants... standing in the shade. I'm envisioning cool, clear waters with temps that might call for a light jacket in the early mornings/late evenings. I have this dream of making s'mores by the fire pit in our backyard at the lake with our eventual grandkids and we AREN'T sweating while we do it.

Topping my list are several lakes in North Carolina and Idaho. Because even though we can still do fun things like pick fresh peaches during Texas summers...

I'm thinking temps in the 2000-3000' elevations, with blue lapping lake waters included in the view, will pull me north. I'm hoping we can lure friends and family here in the oven that is Texas from about Memorial Day to Halloween up for visits to enjoy a change of scenery and more moderate temps with us. Lakeward, ho!

Mid-Life's New Mantra

It was like somebody threw a switch when I turned 50. I decided to quit being a slave to society and other's opinions of me. No more worrying if I was skinny enough, had the right outfits and lived in a "good" neighborhood. It was past time to just be me, finally comfortable in my own skin. Plantar fasciitis, poor night vision and all.

I recently ran across this t-shirt that expresses my new motto I've adopted for mid-life and beyond. Only change I'd make is that high heel, because it seriously needs to be replaced with a comfy summer sandal or maybe flip flop. If you're happy and you know it, find a t-shirt in a fav color that shows it!

Senior year summer

The finished junior year but hasn't started senior year daughter headed off to her first commitment for 12th grade this morning... cheer camp at UT Austin. I swear you'd think these girls were competing for some prestigious free ride to a fancy pants university based on how the cheer coach approaches it all. That their lives and livelihood somehow depend upon them landing a perfect stunt. Lots of yelling. Lots of drama. Lots of praise one day, and then you're all slack wits the next. You're not even trying. Go stand in the corner and watch the others for a while. 

This summer the teen has to read some books for AP classes. Plus write the rough draft of her college essay to submit to her counselor by July 15. And her chapel talk rough draft has to be turned in the first day of classes on August 22. So she can't be a total slacker in the wind up to senior year. As a fun way to kick off the last year of high school, I found a vendor on Etsy to make a water bottle for the daughter to carry. While some of her snotty peers at her private school may turn up their noses at her top two university choices that are both public, I think there are no bad decisions for her college experience. Come spring time, we'll have an answer for decision 2019.

FYI - I chose the light blue because the orange and red colors on it pop more.

Girly graduation gift

I turned the calendar page to the first day of June, which means we've entered high school graduation season. This year I've decided to gift several girls with personalized combo wristlet/crossbodies in their college colors because all of the big stadiums and arenas seem to be adopting a clear bag policy these days. And aren't they just darling when they're monogrammed in gameday colors, looking mighty cute for tailgating and such. I don't know about the rest of the country or conferences, but I think this is definitely a Saturday down south in the SEC sorta present.

I looked up eating places around each of their respective colleges on Google maps and will put a few gift cards in each purse to make it complete. I swear it doesn't get much easier than that.

My plate runneth over

Today was one of those days when I was ready for a pitcher of margaritas by 10 am. Landscapers waiting for sod. Grass delivery running late. Sprinkler guy merely setting out colored flags all over yard and not actually starting the trenching until tomorrow. Dealing with doctors for the younger daughter. Arranging for a blood draw on Friday. Zipping to our nearest big box store to buy yet another garden hose and couple new cheapie sprinklers because the freshly laid sod needs water. Dogs wrestled to and from the groomers for a much needed bath. I was sorely tempted to order a shot of tequila at lunch, but refrained. Barely.

And speaking of water, we've already entered Stage 1 drought restrictions here in our neck of Texas. We haven't had any precipitation in over a week and there isn't any in the forecast for the next ten days. So every afternoon I'm hosing down in mosquito repellant before getting busy spinning our water meter up into the big numbers.

Last month, our bill was stamped with the ominous and yet laughable "We think you may have a water leak" message. Ya think? What with the lack of rain, broken old sprinkler system, serious evaporation in the pool and watering in new landscape plants, it's no secret why the water bill was almost $400. And it's not gonna be any better this month. I may need to get a part time job to earn some green so we can keep our front 1.5 acres in the green instead of dry and crispy brown.