A week of celebrations

This past week we had a lot to celebrate. On Tuesday, our younger daughter found out she passed the Texas bar exam. She'll be sworn in by a Dallas judge in a couple weeks, which we're thrilled to attend. Then I marked the passage of another trip around the sun. This birthday heralded the beginning of my last year as a fifty-something, and I can't wait to see what blessings the Lord has in store for me and my family.

I attended the October mahjong luncheon here in our community, and had my usual good time. It's so enjoyable to sit down for a tasty meal, and then get to play mahjong for a few hours. One of our ladies made these darling mahjong themed cookies as part of the dessert spread. They were as tasty as they were cute. And so I may see about getting her to make me some santa themed cookie gifts for the holiday homes tour I'm participating in again this year.

We wrapped up the week by driving down to the Austin area to attend a wedding in Dripping Springs. The daughter of my husband's best friend from work got married at a beautiful hill country venue. We've known her since she was born, and we've vacationed with this family to such far flung places as South Africa and Italy. They're fun folks, and this wedding reflected that. The beer burros were sweet. And my preferred wedding favor will always be a prettily decorated almond flavored cookie, so that was a lovely takeaway. We wish Tristan and Emmie a lifetime of happiness together.

Ready for hot chocolate weather

In our last couple of houses, we've had a designated coffee bar. So when we started designing cabinets for the new place, I took a picture of our current pod storage drawer (below) for the cabinet maker to be sure we replicated it. Honestly, it's such a nice way to spread out a solid selection of hot beverage options, while getting it off the counter so you have space for all of the various coffee necessities. At our house, coffee is just the beginning. I currently have pods for English breakfast tea, chai latte, chai tea, iced tea, and hot chocolate, in addition to the rotating coffee lineup. I can hardly wait until the weather turns cooler so I can enjoy a big steaming cup of cocoa without it triggering a hot flash.

Furry lake neighbors

When ye olde sciatic nerve isn't acting up, I walk a route in our neighborhood that takes me by the lot where we'll be building our dream retirement home. With our lack of rain the last six weeks or so, water levels have dropped about eighteen inches. When that happens, the large drainage pipes that catch water on the golf course and route it down into the lake are exposed. As you can see below, these pipes become a nutria rat highway they use to travel from the lake up into the hood.

I took these super zoomed-in pics when I spied them a couple houses down from our new place. I usually don't notice them on my walks until they've already seen me. Which means I can't whip out my phone quick enough to snap a pic before they disappear into the pipes once again. Often it's a mother and her two juveniles. Other times it's a large male. When their fur dries completely, I've gotta admit they do look kinda cute. Then I get a load of their long, ratty tails with those springy back feet and develop a case of the heebie jeebies. 

I couldn't resist reaching back into the early 80s movie archives to pull up this collection of clips above from the movie "Caddyshack" that was released when I was in middle school. Every time I see our golf course nutria rats, I think of this movie. Back in the day we got a kick out of watching a young Bill Murray on our brand new VCR as he battled gophers on the golf course. It was almost as funny as the candy bar in the pool scene. 

State fair party

We were invited to the first big social party of the season at the club on Saturday. The theme was state fair, so of course our appetizers were these cute mini corndogs. I thought we might have funnel cake for dessert, but instead we enjoyed some delicious little fried pies in a variety of flavors. The husband got cherry, while I  had banana. Most folks were in jeans and boots, which worked out well since the DJ spun lots of classic country hits for dancing after dinner.

House selects stampede

I've been hanging onto my hat lately, y'all. It has been a wild rush to wrap up all of our selects with vendors for the new lake house build so we can finish the contract. Once we've signed on the dotted line with our builder, he says we'll have the slab poured in 3-4 weeks. That would be a real TREAT for halloween. Our plans have been submitted to the HOA architectural review committee, so we hope to have that approval shortly.  

Over the course of the last ten days or so, we've had second or third appointments to revisit prior selects and/or pick plumbing fixtures, appliances, lighting, doors, flooring, windows, cabinets, blah blah blah. At this point, the only big choice I still need to nail down is the flooring we'll use throughout the house. That's a big swath of flooring, and I want to get it just right. The bath tiles have been chosen and I love them. But the wood flooring has me stymied since I'm tying in beams and a big floor-to-ceiling brick fireplace through the common area spaces. Several times now I've pulled in my San Antonio decorator Robin for consults, and she swears we'll get the flooring chosen asap. 

Then there's the lone light fixture I forgot we added over the floating shelf in the wet bar. As you can see below, I've got a bead on the direction to take with that. I sent these inspiration pics to our lighting consultant and am hoping he'll pull several good options for me to come see in a few days.

In non-house related news, the husband and I enjoyed a recent lunch at one of our favorite hole-in-the-wall seafood restaurants. A new addition to their seasonal menu was fried frog legs. And boy did that trigger some fun memories. Back in the day, my pawpaw would go frog gigging at night with some of his hunting buddies. He'd bring home a sack full of big ol' bullfrogs to my granny, and she'd fry them up. It was a treat my mother always enjoyed. Seeing them on the menu reminded me of these two precious ladies. Just like mother always said, and the husband reiterated... tastes like chicken!

Social season taking off

With the arrival of the BER months, the social season here in our community is taking off once more. Saturday evening we attended the annual benevolence foundation fundraiser. I donated several items for the silent auction. Then we ended up winning a live auction item... a behind-the-scenes custom dinner for us and eight other guests at a local Chinese restaurant, hosted by one of our neighbors. Our girls and their significant others love Chinese, so I'm hoping to include them when we get that on the calendar in the new year.

This next weekend, we're attending the State Fair dinner at the club. But first I've got to clear the hurdle of the annual fall spaghetti covered dish dinner at our church. In addition to wrapping 200 sets of plastic cutlery and tying it with thin ribbon, I volunteered to provide fall decor. Plus I've got to whip up a broccoli salad as well as a chocolate and ricotta cake I've seen several times on the Insta reels. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, y'all. October's fall festival and trunk or treat, November mahjong luncheon and Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas cocktail party and women's club homes tour host, just to name a few. Plus building a brand new home and presenting multiple weeks of Bible study lessons at our church. I keep telling myself that if I can just survive my numerous commitments through the end of December, I'm gonna book a nice, relaxing vacation after we ring in the new year.

Finally, I'd like to share a pic of our pretty little pay raise, seen below. Our sweet bitty bear (the younger daughter's nickname), all grown up and a first year associate at her law firm, kicked off her working girl era on September 14. Which means the husband and I finally got our second and final chick off the parent payroll. No more tuition or living expenses. It's a lovely feeling, when you raise your girls to spread their wings and fly in life, and you get to see them do just that. Praise the Lord for the many blessings He has bestowed on our girls to get them where they are today. What a joy it has been to watch them shine for His glory!

Revisiting new build selects

Things are continuing to move forward with our dream retirement home, though there will be no tangible evidence on our lot until forms get started next week. All of it has been behind-the-scenes with our architect and builder. This week we're wrapping up a couple final tweaks to the light and switch plan for the electrician's bid. All that leaves is the drainage plan from the civil engineer to finish up the packet required for consideration by our HOA's architectural review committee. The floor plan, elevations, truss/framing, windows and doors have already been completed, praise Jesus!

We began working with the architect back in May, so I feel like we've put in the blood, sweat and tears to design the house we need in our golden years. Will it be perfect? Nah. I've got no doubt there will inevitably be at least a couple woulda-shoulda items we'll wish we could backtrack to change. After building two homes and remodeling five others, I've felt like we had a pretty good handle on what we wanted and how to make the space really work for us. But as we all know, what looks good "on paper" doesn't always play out the way you anticipated in reality.

Oh sure, my plans for a MAX 4500 sf home flew out the window. We hit the 5000 sf mark, and ended up with another 500 sf added to that by the time we were done. But who's counting?! I've read several articles about how Gen Xers are building larger homes instead of downsizing. Kids returning to the nest. Parents needing help as they age. Helping with grandkids. Just because you're rocking an empty nest doesn't mean you need a smaller space. I've got mahjong and football game parties to host. Bible study ladies to have over for a luncheon. And most importantly - I'm itching to have grandkids at some point to enjoy the bunk room, pool and fishing off our dock.

This week we've circled back to flooring and screened in porch fireplace stone, as well as the three fireplace boxes we need to address - living room, study and back porch. My top two favorite firelog sets for the living room are below. The back porch will be wood burning for the smell, sounds and s'mores. I'm not sure what the husband will go with for his fireplace in the study, but I'll ring in with my thoughts if he asks. As he loves to tell me, his space = his choice, lol! Lately, the main house flooring has me stymied and on the fence with the direction I want to take since it's a big slice of how the house will look. Which means I need to revisit the lady at the hardware store to contemplate different knob, handle and hinge options based on my wood selects. That's gonna be a story for another day, I'm afraid. 

I wish every decision was as easy as the back porch fireplace stone. With us flooring the entire 33x18' screened in porch with the brick sample in the pic below, I was happy to find this Lueders limestone for the fireplace that's quarried in North Texas. Unlike the hill country limestone we've had in a couple former homes that tended to chip and flake when you even looked at it, this Lueders is reputed to be more durable and thus a good option for a porch space.