Hotpants for Halloween

My time with Jesse and the workshop at MSU was great fun. As promised, I took more photos. Friday was the second day of the workshop with Amy Cordova.
We finished our glass paintings.
Jesse's frog. My beetle. As you can see they are they are simple. We drew on paper first. Then traced the image on plexiglass (cheaper than real glass and easier to deal with in the workshop) with a Sharpie pen. Next we turned the plexiglass over and painted. It took several layers of paint starting with the lightest parts first. Even with the several layers there was a nice stained-glass effect.

Later in the afternoon, Ms Cordova did a walk through the gallery and discussed her art explaining the stories behind her art, the process of some works, etc. Jesse's art history class and a few other people showed up for the tour. I really liked hearing about Amy's art. She has a great sense of humor, which comes out in her art. She is very folksy using saints and stories from her Spanish Catholic and Indian backgrounds. So you get a little Catholic mixed with a bit of pagan and lots of color. By the way, look at this photo taken of Amy talking with the students. The young lady with the hat and ripped clothes was a student, and she was not wearing a Halloween costume. It made me think of someone who wants to look artsy and thrown together, but that outfit took some work. Cute girl, though. This photo was not flattering of Amy, but she's actually one pretty woman.

If you know me well, then you know that my eyes roll at some of the Taosy people and their talk of peace and spirits and mother earth, etc. - what I call people looking for inner peace in outer space. But Amy was very sincere. She was not a pretender; she was the real thang. Maybe it was the fact that she is Spanish/Indian/Catholic, so she could own it. Maybe it was her sense of humor and fun that made her art work well. Even Toby was smiling as he walked around and looked at her art.

Friday night was the student art show along with a showing of Amy Cordova's work and the art of her partner, Dan Enger. The students dressed up in Halloween costumes.
Jesse wore her grandmother's hotpants outfit from the early 70's. We Googled "Jackie Kennedy hairstyles" to help with Jesse's hair. Then my mom donated some gaudy jewelry to be more Elizabeth Taylor-ish. I had to use some Karo syrup to help the false eyelashes stay glued - worked well. Toby's mom was there at the art show and told us that she had worn the hotpants to the 72 NM Democratic convention. She said that Strom Thurmond had been at that convention. I love little pieces of info like that - makes life interesting. Toby's mom was one pretty woman, too. Of course she wore white go-go boots back in the 70's, but Jesse still looked great.Here is a few pics from the evening. Jesse with her grandmothers. Jesse with her aunts. The dog photo in the background was taken by Jes of our dog Ranger.

The rest of the weekend was spent working on the house and bit of resting up from a rather busy week.

Refreshing Rain.

It rained here all day yesterday. It was raining on me when I drove to WF at the crack of dawn, and it was still raining last night - a slow steady rain. Puhfect! Jesse and I went to a workshop at Midwestern State University put on by a visiting artist from Taos, NM. The artists, Amy Cordova, is very Taosy. She paints in a Mexican folk style and also does illustrating for children's books.

Although she did not grow up in Taos, her "father's family had been there for three hundred years." She did not have much of an accent, but now and then she fell in to the Taos sing-song way of speaking. She read one of her children's books called "Abuelita's Heart" and it so reminded me of Taos. Both Jesse and I were lulled like little children while Amy read - like a refreshing rain.

Ms. Cordova also did a bit of a workshop teaching us to paint acrylic on glass. Sitting next to Jesse and meeting her friends was fun. The workshop was fun - simple, but fun. Today, we finish our glass paintings. I will take more photos of the work and post them. Tonight is the Jesse's student art show along with art from the visiting artists. I will take lots of photos.

Wandering Wondering

Warning: slight rant.

With all the sports on TV, fall is my favorite time for reading. I've never been good at just sitting and watching. My hands need to be busy or my mind wanders. So while Toby watches football, I like to read. I can look up now and then and watch the replays. Same with baseball, although I love watching the World Series - especially this one. Still, baseball can be boring at times, and a good book can be handy. I just finished "The Help" which was a good read. I'm not sure I liked the ending, but it was a thought provoking book. It does make you laugh, and yet it was such a terrible time in our history. Many of my friends went to see the movie and loved it. When it comes out on video, I will watch it.

In 1964, I started first grade. That was the year that they closed the black school in Electra, TX, and put everyone together. As a kid, it didn't matter to me. If there was any controversy in our little town, I didn't know about it. But reading "The Help" did remind me of a story that my dad told me. His first teaching/administrator job was in Chillicothe, TX, in the late 50's. Dad told me that the State of Texas had sent out new textbooks. He counted out all that he needed at his school, and then took the rest to the Black school, which was probably a one-room schoolhouse. When he tried to give the new textbooks to the teacher, the teacher told him that the Black school was not suppose to get NEW textbooks - that they were suppose to get the OLD textbooks. Dad was shocked by this. He said that there was plenty of new textbooks and gave them the books anyway. Such interesting times! If I were a great writer, maybe I could express my feelings about the relationships between people and races - love/hate, power/submission, acceptance/rebellion, etc. But read the book; the writer does it much better than I could in an entertaining way.

In "The Help" one of the characters points out the irony of the Junior Ladies League raising money to send to the Poor Starving Children in Africa while giving their cast off clothing to their help was sufficient. Last week I watched replays of the GOP candidate debates on the news - showing Romney and Perry going at it. Perry accused Romney of hiring illegal aliens to do his yard work. Ooh! Big gasp! Not! Why didn't Romney point out that Texas law states schools must not deny illegal aliens an education? Now there is a gasp. Why don't we gasp over the fact that it is Americans that support the drug cartels in Mexico and South America and cause lots of the problems there? Who else is buying their drugs? And the best we can do is to say, "Put up a fence!" or "Stay out!" while we sit on our sanctimonious butts doing very little for our southern neighbors, and send our military to Muslim countries pushing our government and religion on cultures we do not understand . And then we are shocked when they hate us, or say things like Karzai said about war and Pakistan, or after fighting for their freedom they embrace shair'a law.

Sorry about the rant. You know me. I'm just a dumb blonde who doesn't know much about foreign policy, but I have to wonder about some of America's choices.

Almost Gone and Art Show

October is almost gone - how did that happen? Although it was in my head that Toby had another trip to Houston at the end of this week, I didn't realize that it was also the end of the month. I had planned on going with him this trip so that we could stop in Austin on our way back. I had big hopes to see my brother and his wife, maybe see fellow artist and blogger, Jo Castillo, and of course, eat migas a Magnolia's (possibly drink a beer and go dancing ect). It was also in my head that Jesse would have a student art show around Halloween, but for some reason, I did not put those two things together. It became clear to me on Sunday that I could not go to Houston with Toby and make it to Jesse's art show on Friday. Dang!

Jesse's art show is Friday night at the MSU art building in conjunction with an exhibit by two Taos artists, Amy Cordova and Dan Enger, called Saints and Sinners. By the way, there used to be a bar in Espanola, NM, called Saints and Sinners right on the main highway to Santa Fe. On a school trip years ago, the school bus pulled over to wait on a student who was suppose to be following the bus. The bus parked right in front of S&S. The students and I got a big kick out of that - the Questa ISD school buss in the parking lot of Saints and Sinners! Anyway, the art show should be fun. Some of the students are planning on wearing costumes since it is close to Halloween. There will also be a couple of workshops on Thursday and Friday that I am planning on attending with Jesse. Yep, I chose Jesse.

She is planning on putting this photo of Ranger in the art show along with a painting she did of this photo. I searched and searched for the actual painting, but could not find a photo of it. Maybe she will post it. I wanted her to put this painting in the show, but she did not listen to her mother. Still, her choices were good, and the show should be fun.

Speaking of art, it is time to start my young ladies art class - today as a matter of fact. With the house building, my tutoring, and Mom's health issues, I just haven't started art. When I realized October was almost gone, I thought I needed to just jump in and have art class. Big sigh. I look forward to being with my students. They keep me young, but it just seems like a lot on my plate. I just can't believe it is almost November.

Another Puhfect Weekend - Almost

Other than a big storm that blew my patio furniture and the grill out into the pasture, it was a beautiful weekend. One Adirondack chair was broken to bits when it was rolled by the wind. My iron table with tile usually does okay in the OK wind, but not this time - we will need to replace several broken tiles.

All of that after a perfect Saturday. Toby and I worked on the vent hood and flu pipe during the morning. The GGs arrived around lunchtime. Bo helped his dad to finish installing the ductless ventilation kit and attaching the pipe to the ceiling. When we got that done, we headed outside to enjoy the sunshine with a little kite flying. GBN1 had a little Tinkerbell kite she wanted to try. It was pretty jicky - little plastic thang that came all apart. Everyone tried to make it fly, but it mostly "went crazy" as GBN1 said. I did make a video of GBN2 throwing it up in the air while her dad tried to run with it. By the time he finally got it in the air, GBN2 was more interested in picking flowers. Toby got out the big kite, which I have posted about before. It flew puhfectly. But kite flying was only fun for a little while.
Horses were much more interesting. And of course the 4-wheeler was the best. When the GGs went home, Toby and I worked a bit more, and then settled in to watch baseball and football games.

If you followed the link above to the big kite/kayak story, you will notice how full the pond was back in 2008. It has had its ups and downs since then, but look at this photo taken yesterday. Notice how low the pond is. It was even worse before we got a few rains this fall. If you are wondering, only the two sorrel horses in this photo are ours. The other five horses (various photos) have been staying with us due to the drought. You might note how horrible the grass is too.

You may also be wondering where was Jesse during the kite flying. Well, she went to Norman to kick around and go to the TT vs. OU game. It stormed there Saturday night as well. The game was postponed due to lightening and did not get started until 9:30. Made for a long night.

After the freak storm Saturday night, Sunday was beautiful again. Toby worked on the stove some more - changing it to propane. We got it all hooked up, but it is not in place yet. We ran into another problem - not enough room between the cabinets was left for the stove. It was so close that I thought we could just soap the sides of the stove and squeeze it into its slot. But no. The cabinet maker will need to come work on the cabinets. This morning, Toby asked me to make oatmeal - the first thang to be cooked on the new stove. Yeah, not to exciting, but it was a hot breakfast and Toby was happy.

Too Much Alone Time

Toby is coming home today after spending the week in Houston. With Jesse off in WF, I have been all by myself - not such a bad thing. It was kind of nice being on my own, doing things when I want, eating when and what I want, etc. Last night I flipped back and forth between my favorite TV shows and the World Series. Toby would have done this too, but he would have been in charge of the remote. Sometimes he forgets to go back to the TV show - causing me to nag. We are such an old married couple. I am glad he is coming home.

It has been rather quiet with only me and my pets. To make a little noise, I've been watching the morning news. And let me tell you, you can only watch so much without your eyes rolling back in your head. Although bloggers are all talking about the Wall Street protestors, GMA is not. The wild animal kill in Ohio seems to have captured the attention of Mass Media. Personally, I'm sickened by the killing of so many animals - maybe it was necessary, but still, it was just yuck. Hearing the hearing on how Michael Jackson died, is also sickening. Maybe it is important to prosecute the doctor who gave the deadly drugs, but still, Michael's life was just yuck. And now we get to see graphic photos and videos of Gaddafi's death. Once again, sickening and yuck. In other yuck news is the missing baby Lisa. Once again, it may be important to get the news out in order to find the baby, but it is all the speculation that makes me crazy. And I could care less about Lindsay Lohan - yuck and double yuck. The one thing I did enjoy was their dog contest and these videos.

Spending time with Mom and Jesse yesterday was fun. I got Mom out and about doing a bit of shopping. Then we picked up Jesse at MSU and went to lunch at Chili's. I think the waiter could have been interested in Jesse, but she was an oblivian. That girl (deep sigh)! Not that she needs a waiter/boyfriend, but she does need to pay attention.

Being alone this week made me realize how much I have been missing Jes. She sure seems to be enjoying college life. As usual she has become involved in all sorts of stuff. Although she is not taking a pottery class this fall, she spends lots of time in the ceramic dept. The professor asked her to work as his teacher's aid, which means she will learn how to pug the clay and make the glazes. She also joined an art fraternity so that she could participate in student art shows and such. The first show is coming up around Halloween. My mom is greatly enjoying Jes, and it is good to have Jesse looking out for Mom. I guess I can share the Jesse joy with others, but I look forward to having her home this weekend - and Toby too.

Off to WF

It's off to WF today to spend some time with Mom and Jes. Of course, I will squeeze in Sam's Club and maybe a few other fun places. The temps have been in the upper 60's. Puhfect - as GBN2 would say. The wind has been not so puhfect, but it should be better today. I'll let you know how it goes.

When the Cat Is Away

In September of 1992, we bought a small log cabin north of Questa, NM, on the mountain side of the valley. It was very small and only had an Avery wood stove for heat. I remember it being a beautiful fall that year - not much need for that stove. It was probably about this time of year that the kids and I piled into our Dodge truck and took Toby to Albuquerque to catch a plane. On our way home the weather turned rough with a cold front. By Santa Fe, I was getting worried about the roads. We made it to Taos okay, but north of Taos was slow going due to the snow. I had never had to drive the Dodge in the snow - I had never had to lock up the hubs for four-wheel drive. It was worrisome, but we managed. Once we were home, I had to start a fire in that stove - another thing I had never done. I managed that too. The next morning the dog came in with a mouth full of porcupine quills. When I called our friend, John the vet, he told me to get some pliers and pull them out. I put my big girl panties on and managed that too. It all made me feel like a real mountain girl. I also thought, "Why the heck do these things happen when Toby is gone?"

Since then, I could tell you lots of stories of crazy things that have happened while Toby was away. Yesterday I was reminded of that feeling. Toby left for Houston on Sunday afternoon and a cold front blew in on Monday night. The good news is that the temps have been pleasant - no snow like in NM. I'm glad, 'cause I didn't want to have to light the heater. An extra quilt and a snuggly rat terrier worked fine. First thing Tuesday morning, Frankie, the cat, barfed on the couch. Although I tried not to look, I'm pretty sure he had eaten a mouse or possibly a rat. It was not good. Then I looked out the window in time to see Jack, the red heeler, dragging up a dead armadillo. Great. I spent the rest of the morning cleaning out the fridge, because it smelled like something died in there, too. Since my animals love dead things, I fed them lots of left-overs from the fridge. I think we have all the stink taken care of now. But why do these things happen when Toby is away?

Another thang, Toby called me with a list of things he thought up for me to do while he was away. His business meeting must have been pretty dull, 'cause he had lots on his list for me. Then Jesse called and said she needed me to search for her lost and overdue library book. And could I bring it to her on Thursday? I searched her room, but did not find the book. I texted her for hints to the location of the book. She gave me a few more places to look. I still did not find it, and texted her saying as much. She then text (ed?) back that she had found the book in WF. Does my family think I have nothing to do? Then there was the time Toby left and said, "I need you to give that cow a shot..." or the time he said, "You and Jesse need to take that cow to the vet today - just load her in the goose-neck trailer..." What about the time he sent and email asking me to put anti-freeze in the bulldozer? Secret Agent Farmhand has lots of stories.

Children's Sign Class

MUSH ALERT: this video was taken by a parent for a grandparent. It contains grand babies. It may be something only a mushy grandmother can truly understand or enjoy.

As mentioned in yesterday's post, my DIL worked with the children's sign class to teach them several songs, which they performed at camp. Although you cannot see my DIL in the video, you can hear her sing as the children sign - very talented. GBN2 is the youngest in the video. She is actually very good at signing and can do a much better job than she did in the video, but as I mentioned, camp is very wearing on little ones. In many ways, GBN2 reminds me of Jesse when Jes was little. Jesse loved singing with the little church choir, but would act totally bored when she got in front of the church - often sitting down on the stage and propping her head in her hands or leaning on the podium as if too bored/tired too perform. Yet, when she wanted to perform, she was perfectly capable - as is GBN2. After the soccer game on Sunday, GBN2 unexpectedly belted out The Star Spangled Banner. She did an amazing job. People stopped to listen to her and applauded when she finished the song. Although she sits down in the above video and does not sign the second song, she jumped up and sang with the children's choir (different video) who sang after the sign class, and She did a bit of signing while she sang. Who knows what lurks in that little mind!

GBN1 is also signing. She is very much her mother - talented and a perfectionist. That is the Piper's daughters standing near GBN1.

Another talented kid is Jake. I took this video of Jake and his dad playing catch - another mush alert. Both of Jake's parents are athletic.

Weekend Report - Camp Y'shua

Camp was all that it was cracked up to be! We had beautiful weather with temps in the 80's and lots of sunshine. I waited on Jesse to get in from WF before heading over to camp on Friday night. Camp Y'shua is north of Ft. Sill and behind Meers, butting up to the in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. It is a beautiful area, but drought conditions made things ugly, and fire had burned several homes and much of the surrounding land. Luckily the fire did not burn the camping area or the lodge, but actually burned right up to the edge of the camp. As one camper put it, "Wow! It looks like they could have filmed Mordor (Lord of the Rings) here." This is a picture of my good friend Dawn and her husband camping. Just beyond their camp things turn black and ugly.

I was able to play lots of volleyball, but didn't over-do it as I have at past camps. I've made myself sick playing so hard at past camps, but live and learn. I will leave that to the younger crowd. I did played a new three-way volleyball game, which was lots of fun. You can see the tree nets set up here. The rules were a little different - first team to get ten points lost. With the three nets and teams, you really had to be on your toes. Here is a little different angle showing the camp lodge and mountain.
Late in the afternoon, there was the big softball game. I was content to just watch, since there were so many players already.

We also spent lots of time with the GGs. The GGs and other kids play hard and get really dirty. Here is GBN1 and her friends making "toe-pie" in the sand. Here is a pic of GBN1 and her BFF.

Saturday evening at camp is music time. People with talent get to show their stuff. Once again, I am content to just watch. My musical talent is nil, but my DIL is most talented. She has been taking the GGs to ASL class and taught the kids to sign two songs. I'm in the process of uploading a few videos on my YouTube account. When I get them on the computer, I will share them. Kids are always great subjects.

Toby and I came home Saturday night, but Jesse stayed at camp the entire weekend. Toby left for Houston after church. Sunday afternoon, Bo had a soccer game, and I went. It was a good game - this time they only lost by one point. After the game several families went to eat sushi. I went too, and tried the sushi. The fellowship was fun. Several people had me try their favorite sushi. It was all good, but we got there about 5 and did not get out until 8 Pm. I was just too tired for that kind of wait, and I had other expectations - made me a bit grumpy. I had been hoping to spend some time with Jesse before she headed back to school. Although it was 8:30 before I got home, Jes and I did watched a stupid move together and laughed lots - a sure sign we were both worn out.

Word Choice

Sometimes in a conversation, someone will use a specific word or phrase that so fascinates me, that I almost forget what the conversation was about and focus on the phrase or word. For instance, a few weeks ago, I met a local restaurant owner who is from southern Mexico. He was a very interesting man who has done quite well for himself here in the USA. He spoke very good English, but now and then in the conversation, he would say something a little bit off - kind of like Ziva David on NCIS. At one point, he said, "...but I have another card up my slip." It made me blink, but I kept a straight face and kept going with the conversation. In my mind, I kept thinking of the "slip" (pun intended).

In another conversation a few weeks ago, someone accused someone else of having a "vendetta" against them. Ooh vendetta! What a great word! You can kind of punch someone with it. There I was in a serious conversation, but my mind was saying, "VenDETTA, VENdetta." Since then, I have used the word several times. Yesterday, Toby said, "You like that word, don't ya?" Ya know, I do! I have a vendetta against AT&T. I like the word "conglomerate" too, but I don't get to use it often. Of course, nothing beats "onomatopoeia," but how often do you get to use that word in a conversation?

Toby and I also discussed silly beauty shop names. You know, like: Cuttin' Up, or my favorite, Curl Up and Dye. I love those!

You would think that I would love vocabulary, but I really don't. In my tutoring these days, we do Abeka vocabulary - pretty tuff stuff. Each unit gives a pretest on the vocabulary words - multiple choice. My little student's eyes nearly roll back in her head when she sees the words. Not only does she not know the vocabulary words, she does not know the multiple choice answers either. So we go over the words. I admit that I don't know all the words and that some of the words are not all that useful. I show her how to look at the prefixes, suffixes, and root words to take an educated guess at the meanings. One day, she said, "How do you know this stuff?" My eyes blinked - I don't know - maybe it was 7th grade Latin class. Truthfully, I use very simple language, but I'm not stupid. Well, okay, I don't really spell very well, and I tend to choose the easiest words to spell. Like the time a student asked me how to spell "corridor" and I answered, "H A L L."

My little student and I have talked about words quite a bit. We discussed connotation and denotation (her eyes blinked on that lesson). We have discussed alliteration, which I love. She asked me, "How do you spell that?

I started, "A L..."

She stopped me, "A!? Doesn't it start with an I?"

Me, "No, that would be 'illertate' - meaning a person who does not know how to read." My little student burst out laughing. She is a smart girl.

Now we are studying figurative language - similies, metaphors, personification, etc. I like this stuff too.

How does that grab ya?
Like a hair hand in the dark!

Shot in the Foot Dead Solid Perfect

We seem to be shot in the foot lately with our house building. We bought all sorts of plumbing pipe to hook the sinks up, but still do not have it done. Toby sat in the floor surrounded by said drain pipes of every shape and form trying to put them together to hook the double sink together and to the drain. It was like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. My job was to hand him parts and put in my womanly two cents now and then. I also sat with pen and paper taking notes on what we needed to buy to make things work, and I used the paper to hide my giggles. In the end, he decided to do something a bit different and will need different pipes.

Toby also had some question about the grout that I bought and thinks that we should take it back for something different. So, we cannot grout the bathroom tile yet. And we cannot tile the kitchen yet, because we have the wrong V-caps. We bought the alhambra tile, but got home with the talavera V-caps. They don't quite match up. The tile store in Austin will exchange the tile, but what we need is back ordered. That is okay; Toby will be in the Houston in a few weeks and can pick up the tile when it comes in. In the meantime...

Last week, we started to put up the vent hood over the stove, but had to stop and put a solid board into the wall where we would hang the hood. This meant cutting into the wall, nailing in a board, taping and bedding, and then painting the spot. I did all of that earlier this week. While in WF on Sunday, we bought some 6" flu pipe to getter' done. The job called for putting pipe up to the ceiling, going through the ceiling, and taking the pipe on through the roof - a fairly big job. Since we cannot work on the tile or the sinks, we decided to hang the vent hood last night. This time, we hung the hood without any problems, but then as we were marking the spot to cut a hole in the ceiling, we discovered that there was a truss exactly where we would have to cut. Who would have thought we could be right on a truss! I mean dead solid perfect! It was definitely a coffee and cigarette moment. We finally decided that we would not go through the ceiling at all, but would use a non-ducted recirculation kit for our vent hood, which will have to be ordered from Sears. After all the coffee and cigarettes, I think this is a great decision and will work well, but it means waiting on the parts.

So, Toby is taking a half-day today. We will be heading to Lowes and Home Depot to take back items that we don't need after-all and exchange them for items we do need. There is always something else to work on. I have been wanting to get the bedroom ready for carpet. We also need to do the dreaded trim work. I am determined not to move into this house without trim work (famous last words)! But we need to buy the wood, and I need to sand and stain it. And there is always the closet shelves. We are still not pleased with the tile sealer we used, which pooled in places. We took some of it off with lacquer thinner, but we need to order more sealer - what else is new? Did I mention that Toby is going to Houston all this next week?

On a lighter note, Toby called Jesse last night so that they could look at the moon and stars together. It was a lovely evening. She has a new post up at her blog with more of her art work and a video of one of my all-time favorite movie bits.

Nothing New

It is a quiet day, and I am puttering around the house doing odd jobs wondering what the heck I can post.
Last year at this time, Jesse was in France having a great time,
found a knight in shining armor, kissed a frog or at least jumped over it, and Toby and I were working on the outdoor kitchen/patio. I went back to Oct. 2010 of my blog archive for the reminder. If you missed Jesse's France photos, you can go take a look-see. In fact, she was in France Oct. 2009 also. If you missed photos of Toby and I working on the house, you didn't miss anything new.

It seems that no matter how close I think we are to finishing the house, there is always something else. Does a house ever really get finished? We had some tile problemas and had to call and order different tile. The v-cap tile for the kitchen did not match the kitchen tile. Although we picked up the tile in Austin last summer, we are just getting to the tiling, and just finding that we do not have what we need. We thought things would go faster, but not. It will be two weeks before we get the right stuff. It is okay; it's not like we don't have lots of other work to do - finishing the bathroom tile, putting down some flooring in the bedroom, and the ever present never done trim boards. Because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, it just makes me a bit more anxious to getter' done.

And of course camp is coming up. This weekend we will stop all work and have fun and fellowship camping with everyone from our church, and we will play some major volleyball. Of course, the GGs will be there. I am so ready for this.

Kitchen and Bathroom

We've been working on the counter tops. We even got some tile down in the bathroom. If you look close, you will notice there is no grout yet. Supposedly you need to let it set up for 24 hours. I added this photo to show you the funky lights above the counter. We have a mirror to go in the big blank spot, but it is still in the barn.

Although we got lots done, we were hoping to get some tile down in the kitchen. Unfortunately, we had a day similar to Andy's. Well, maybe not quite as bad as Andy's. We started to put the vent hood up, but needed a stronger backing for it. That meant cutting into the sheetrock and adding a board. We did some taping and bedding, but it will need texture and paint too. This was something that we should have done early on, but sometimes we forget such things and have to backtrack. We worked on that as much as we could; then moved on to install the dishwasher (not pictured). The kitchen sink pictured was something we picked up at a second-hand store - I love it! A few year ago, our son and DIL picked us up a Mexican sink at the Mercado in San Antonio for our future bathroom. Knowing that we wanted two sinks (Toby is a sink hog) we bought another sink last year while in SA. I love these sinks too - all that color!

Anyway, it is coming along. Last night while working on the bathroom tile, we got to a point where we just could not decide what to do - frustrating. Maybe we were just too tired to think. It was one of those moments when I thought of my dad - it was time to drink a cup of coffee and smoke a cigarette and think on it. Instead, we stopped for the night and went to bed.

Toby, Jesse, and I had a good laugh over my dad's way of doing things, or not doing them. Jesse said she was reminded of Pa this week - had a cigarette/coffee moment at school - when trying to load a kiln with other student's work - some of it big and bulky. Apparently it was frustrating dealing with other students too. She said she wanted to say, "Let's stop and have coffee and a cigarette." She and the other kiln loaders did take a break (no cigarette or coffee) and never got the kiln loaded. Speaking of Jes, she just posted some Air Show pics. Her photos are always so much artsier than mine - better camera.

We did get the tile done. After a restful night, our brains were working much better, and we were able to figure it out. Then we sicced Jesse on it. She finished up the bathroom tile doing a bang-up job.

Normally I would not mention college football, but Okie teams sure put it to their opponents today. Now we are watching some Texas Tech vs. A&M and it looks like it might be a good game. I was raised an Aggie fan, but I went to TT. Who to cheer for?? I'll probably be happy no matter who wins.

More Sheppard Air Show Photos

Although you might be tired of all the plane photos, I wanted to share the rest of our day at the Sheppard Air Show. This photo gives you an overview of the air show - Vietnam era helicopter, old Army bi-plane, aerial stunts in the background. Same with this photo - I don't know what this plane is, but in the photo, you get to see lots of air show stuff - people, planes, stunts.
We saw most of these planes fly, but my ability to photograph them in the sky was not good. Thankfully after the planes flew, they posed nicely for us.


This little plane and pilot were amazing. He flew several times throughout the show doing different stunts.
After this plane flew, we followed him to his parking spot and watched as he folded his wings.
The nose art that caught my attention here...and maybe the pilots resting in the shade.
Of course, we took some more silly shots too.
This is Adam, one of Jesse's coworkers from Halliburton.
The show ended with some amazing precision flying by the Canadian Snowbirds.

Air Show Video

I took several short videos at the air show. It was much easier to follow the planes when they had the smoke tail. The sun was so bright that it was difficult to see the screen on my camera. This video is of a bi-plane - the pilot did some amazing flying. I liked it when he flew right on the runway dragging one wing. There is another video of this plane, but I mistakenly said something in my Texas Twang - sounding so stupid that I don't think I will post it. You will see the back of Jesse's head in the video. I may upload (download?) another video of a little jet that was pretty cool. For whatever reason, I did not video the F-16, which was my favorite. Maybe I was just too fascinated - awed - into a stupor. Maybe it was so late in the show that I was just too tired. Although, the Canadian Snowbirds were the last to fly and I did video them - just for Deb.

Another Sneak Peek

Everyone was so nice and said they would like to have a sneak peek at how the house was coming. How could I not comply? I took this photo last week when the top part of the cabinets came. We have had the bottoms for over a month, but no drawers or doors. Those came too. You can see that one drawer is missing and there is no counter top yet. Toby and I will do the counter - next on the list of to-dos.

There is also an island which will set under the three lights. It is in the hall at the present time, because the floor is not finished. Actually, the island is not finished yet either. We have been putting the sealer on the floor this past week - hard, stinky work. Now the floor is much shinier and darker. It really sets off the wood of the cabinets and ceiling now. The stove and dishwasher are also in the hall - waiting to go in their slots. And there is no trim to the windows, doors and around the floor. Toby hates trim work, so that chore maybe slow in happening. I think when we get everything in its place, it will all be great. I am looking forward to cooking and entertaining in my big room. And yes, you are invited.

Air Show 2011

It was a beautiful day for the Air Show at Sheppard Air Force Base, and I took lots of pictures of, well, air. The planes were fast and the sun was bright and I was slow. It was better to take pictures of the planes on the ground. I took so many photos, it was difficult to decide which ones to share with you and what order to put them in. I decided to show the ones with Jes in the pics first - then some of the more interesting planes, which all are interesting. I did some videos, but we will see if I have patience enough to put them on here.
Here is the first plane we saw. The owner was from Amarillo and had flown his plane to the show. This was the second plane we came to, but we did not see either of these planes fly.
We eventually moved on to the jets. We got silly too.
Then there was this big boy with Jesse walking towards it. We did go inside for a look-see. We went in the front and came out the back - lots of people were waiting in line to see the cockpit, but we did not. These planes flew slow enough that I was able to get a picture of one landing.
We spent most of our time sitting and enjoying the show - like a mock dog fight between a Japanese Zero and a Mustang. The presentation of the F-16 was most impressive - the sound was awesome. The Canadian Snow Birds were amazing with their precision flying. The stunt fliers were fun, but a bit scary.
And of course I did some people watching - don't you love these two? I have more pics of planes, but I will save some for tomorrow's post.