Wishy washy spring weather

Spring weather in these parts is always interesting. The heat is starting to settle in, but we always have these last gasp cool fronts making their way through the area. So that means we're often in the watch zone for severe thunderstorms, hail, straight line winds and tornados.  

Several nights ago we had some serious straight line winds blow through the neighborhood. The next morning I walked down to the dock to check on the outdoor furniture, and ran across this scramble above. I purposely chose our polywood dining set because it's heavier than a lot of other options I considered. However, I knew it would be best to hedge my bets by using a steel cable run through the chairs to secure them with a padlock to a dock beam. And now I've got photographic proof it was a wise precaution.

The rest of the weekend we enjoyed more beautiful "San Diego weather", as my husband calls it. My sister and I did take the time to zip over to the world's largest flea market in Canton, in search of a vintage bait bucket. With two old bait buckets saved from our river house, I thought it would be fun to have a grouping of three painted with fish by a local artist to serve as decor on the boathouse. Or maybe in the kid's bunk room bath (think garbage pails) at the new lake house we'll be building. 

Sunday was another glorious day spent out on the back porch, where we spied one of our local sailboats out for a spin. With our air temps warming, along with the water temps, we're starting to see parents hauling around kids on towables. And the jet ski folks are definitely out in full force again. 

We're goin' hoppin'

Last Saturday night we had a hoppin' and poppin' good time at the American Bandstand-themed party up at the clubhouse. We were seated with a neighbor couple that's really fun, plus some of my mahjong friends. It was touted as a musical tour through the 50s, 60s and 70s. I'm dating myself here, remembering Dick Clark hosting American Bandstand back in the day.

We got a kick out of the pack of candy cigarettes as part of our table decor, and had no clue anybody still made them. I feel like the DJ played more tunes from the 50s and 60s versus 70s. So I was happy when he cranked up Earth, Wind & Fire's "Boogie Wonderland". Dressing for a decade was encouraged, so I went with the 60s since that's when I was born. All in all, it was a great party with fabulous music, and one of our last theme parties as the social season winds down, with folks gearing up to travel for the summer. To quote Dick Clark, "For now, I'm Carrie Louise... so long!"

Real estate rodeo

Heavens to Betsy, y'all, my head is spinning from wrangling real estate the past couple weeks. We FINALLY got our hill country house on the market. I'm praying a large or multigenerational family needing lots of space and breathing room will come along and fall in love with it. Our hope is that it will sell by the time school starts again in August so we can close the door on that chapter of our lives.

https://vimeo.com/1184125956?fl=pl&fe=sh

*click on the link directly above to see the video of our hill country house*

Meanwhile, here at the lake, we (meaning me) decided that our current house on a little lot with big water views just wouldn't work for us long term. And when I say long term, I mean I can't picture us leaving our sweet little community anytime soon. Though the husband and I agree we could definitely see ourselves buying a second home to be near them if our grown daughters move out-of-state. Which remains to be seen. And I digress, as usual.

In considering other lake house options, we've run across a few waterfront properties that would be a better fit for our needs. But I've just felt so welcomed and at home here in our 'hood that I want to continue putting down roots. Honing my mahjong skills. Leading the Monday morning women's Bible study at our community church. Serving as the women's club vice president. When I say I'm getting involved, you can see I'm serious about it.

Since we want to stay here in our golf community, that meant looking at options which would give us more space for a custom build. And ideally a blank slate to create exactly what we want. We discovered a canal lot, as well as a tear down that has golf course and water views. After us hemming and hawing a bit, unsure about committing to a new build, the canal lot was taken off the market by the owner. That left the tear down, which was in a sticky situation, having a reverse mortgage on it with the elderly widowed owner now residing in a nursing home. 

We were afraid we might have to cool our heels months on end if the bank foreclosed on the tear down. But in a quick turn of events earlier this week, the bank opted for a short sale and allowed us plus a couple other potential buyers to make "best and final" offers. We thought we might be destined for a long wait to see how it would all shake out, whether we'd get to purchase it or not. If it was a no, then we'd trust the Good Lord to lead us to an even better property for us in His perfect timing. 

Lo and behold, we got the call from our realtor a couple days later that the tear down was ours. I've already contacted our designer/decorator back in the hill country to let her know I'll be needing her help soon. This will be her 8th house with me, and I'm happy to have her on board. I contemplated using a local person, but just feel more comfortable sticking with someone who understands my aesthetic and I can trust to steer me in the right direction. I've learned a lot from her since we started working together over twenty years ago, and so I feel like this build process from the design end will run very smoothly. Buckle up, because you'll soon be tuning in to approximately 18-24 months of custom home building posts here on the blog.

An April assortment

We've continued to stay busy this spring, checking things off our to-do list. Last weekend we loaded up our small enclosed trailer with one of our hill country dining tables and six chairs to take to the law school daughter in Dallas. She moved out of her apartment into a townhome with a dedicated dining space, and so we were happy to provide a lovely set for her to use since it was just hanging out in storage. I had gone a couple days before that to oversee the actual move. With her new place ranging over three floors, I was huffing and puffing hauling stuff up down two flights of stairs that seemed rather steep to me. Or maybe that's just my knees and back talking! I was happy to lend a hand since she is near the end of her *LAST* semester, busy working on capstone papers plus prepping for final exams.

While we were gone to Dallas, a late spring cool front passed through the area. In addition to rain, it dropped a couple inches of pea sized hail near the lake house. When we got home and went to put the trailer back at the husband's workshop, I initially thought the white stuff I saw was the guts of some bean bags that had busted apart and been scattered by the wind. But nope... it was just the remnants of the hail storm. 

Last week I sat down and wrapped 180 sets of forks and knives in a napkin and tied them with a yellow ribbon. I'm on the activities committee at our church, and so I volunteered to take care of it in advance of the pancake breakfast we had in-between the traditional and contemporary services on Sunday. After a rainy, hail-ish Saturday, we appreciated a nice cool morning for golf cart church and flapjacks with all the fixin's. 

Finally, I couldn't resist adding a sweet picture of the law student and her med school boyfriend taken earlier this month. They were in Austin attending a wedding, and so it was nice to get a pic of them looking so pretty and handsome for the occasion. It's hard to believe our girl is graduating from law school on May 15, wrapping up her education. As I say on the regular these days - my how time flies!

Here fishy, fishy, fishy

The husband finally got us set up with fishing gear earlier this spring. Sometimes after supper, we'll mosey down to the water and see if anything is biting. I've taken to calling the husband our resident fish whisperer because he's pretty good at reeling them in. This week he landed several little catfish and perch. They weren't large enough to keep, so he tossed them back. Which little man Finn finds quite intriguing, the whole process of catch and release.

We had lunch at one of our favorite local seafood restaurants several days ago. The husband indulged in a big bait of crawfish since they're in season. As you can see below, the mudbugs were quite large. And the husband verified they were quite tasty, too.

A new ride & yeast rolls

Once we moved my husband's parents into our neighborhood at the lake a couple months ago, it became crystal clear that I would need a new vehicle. My SUV was only a couple years old, but it was just too tall for either of his parents to safely get into. At 88 and 89, it's an ongoing concern that we minimize situations where they might fall. To the best of our ability, of course. So that meant shopping to find me a new vehicle.

We started seriously looking about six weeks ago, considering various options. My top choices included several mid-sized SUVs. We checked out the many trim levels, prices and availability. After a few test drives and "sleeping on it", a decision was made. On Thursday, we drove over to Terrell to pick up the winner... a Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy. It's in a sporty silver with dove gray interior, which has historically been my go-to. And it gets great gas mileage because it's a hybrid. 

With my new ride secured, the next day we called up Carvana to sell them my 2024 Yukon Denali. They came to load it up after we signed the paperwork, and it was all a really smooth process. The good news is that my old SUV was worth more than we anticipated, so my new SUV only cost us 1K. Above you can see a pic of them side-by-side when we stopped for late lunch on the way back to the lake house.

Upon leaving the Hyundai dealership, we googled around looking for a place to grab a bite to eat on the ride back home. That's when we discovered a locally owned home cooking place. When they brought out piping hot yeast rolls with butter as our complimentary starter, we were impressed. It reminded me of the old school yeast rolls we enjoyed when I was growing up. My granny was the baker at the elementary school I attended, so this was a home baked blast from the past for me. The refrigerator case of homemade pies sealed the deal for us, and we'll definitely need to return here for another meal at some point.

Easter 2026

We were blessed to have our girls and their guys with us for the Easter holiday weekend, plus the husband's parents for Sunday lunch. The CPA and her husband, plus their fur baby Chorkie, drove up Thursday afternoon so we could hit Canton's first weekend trade days on Friday. 

The moonrise Friday night was just gorgeous, and we enjoyed a bit of stargazing from the back porch, too. Unfortunately, the law student and her boyfriend weren't able to arrive until early Saturday afternoon since they had a wedding to attend Friday night in Austin where he was a groomsman.

Saturday morning, I hopped on over to the church to help set up for the big Easter egg hunt. The kids in attendance really seemed to have a great time with our snacks/activities, and the decor was precious. The Easter bunny even made an appearance to pass out candy and pose for pics.

We decided to try a new local Italian restaurant Saturday night with the younger set, and it did not disappoint. It's always a pleasure to enjoy the company of family while letting somebody else do the cooking. 

We kicked off Easter morning with a sunrise golf cart worship service at what's called "The Point" in our lake community. Afterwards, we came home and I prepped a lunch that featured grilled steaks, shrimp and chicken. The sides were on the simple side: loaded baked potatoes, glazed carrots, corn on the cob, spinach salad, yeast rolls, strawberry cake and lemon icebox pie. And of course the girls got Easter baskets even though they're 25 and 30, because that's how we do it around here. 

We wrapped up a lovely Easter with some boat spotting Sunday afternoon. There were lots of pontoons on the water. Since our rainy Saturday included the arrival of cooler temps, we figure that's why there weren't any takers for jet skiing, tubing or wakeboarding like you'd usually see on a holiday weekend. We did spy a rather uniquely modified older pontoon model cruising past our house. If you look closely at the first pic, you'll see a homemade boat cover that includes a window unit attached to the front of it. It was a truly fine piece of redneck ingenuity I could appreciate as we ramp up to our usual surface of the sun summer temps.