Oma & Opa's Haus

It was another hot one here in Dallas today...103 degrees/105 with the heat index. No relief in site for at least another week. So I stay inside during the hot part of the day and dream of my recent visits to my Mom and Dad's house at the lake. The Cupcake Princess calls them Oma and Opa.

They live on one of the most beautiful lakes in Central Texas. The house sits on the top of a cliff in a cove, looking out onto the main channel.

This is the grande, Texas Taj Mahal that Oma designed. The fireplace was my idea, to the chagrin of Opa. However, I must say that he enjoys roasting marshmellows for s'mores in that fireplace on cool evenings.

Every morning, this is what we see looking through the breakfast nook window. The hummingbird feeder is very busy during the spring and summer months. Beautiful, yes? When it's not so hot outside, we have breakfast on the upper deck, read the morning paper, visit, and just admire the lake. Most relaxing! More tomorrow........

Could it get any hotter?

Woke up at 4 a.m. Monday morning because I was HOT.......the air conditioner had gone out. Monday's high was 105 degrees......mom is NOT happy! After a series of visits from "Abbot and Costello" air conditioning services, a night sleeping on grandma's couch, and way too many phone calls, it is now 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday and we FINALLY have cool air! Thank the maker!!! Even a cold margarita does not make Momma happy sweating in 100+ degree weather under the Texan sun. I love me some air conditioning!!!

Now What?!

So it turns out that for the past two weeks, the Cupcake Princess has not had strep, she's had MONO! She is supposed to leave for Scotland on August 4.......what a wild ride it's been!! At our doctor visit yesterday, the third one in two weeks, the doctor says that the Cupcake Princess is fighting the mono well and based on what she can see, Scotland is a go. Imagine that! Luckily, the Cupcake Princess has not had such a bad round of it.....not sleepy, not lethargic, no fever....just a sore throat, swollen tonsils with puss on them....yuck! The steroid shot shrunk those bad boy tonsils down in 24 hours. For the past three days, she's said she feels like her normal self. What we really need is a cure for stir crazy as the Cupcake Princess is dying to get out and about with her friends......we've had her quarntined for two weeks. I've gone online to research mono and can find all sorts of info on it but it's all over the board. She could be down two weeks to a year with it...........well, that's helpful, concise information! Please say a prayer that my sweet cupcake will continue to get stronger every day and her body will continue to fight the virus the way it has been. She's worked too hard for a whole year to raise the money for this trip to Scotland with her theatre troupe where they will be doing 4 performances at the Fringe Festival.........I'd hate to see her miss the trip, but I don't want her to get sicker either.......I know we got the doctor ok, but still...............just being a "mom" I guess..........

The Sun & Moon Also Rises....

While visiting my parents at the lake, we actually were up at about 6:30 am and saw the most amazing sun rise come up over the lake. While I'm not a morning person (which really is a bother since I'm a school teacher!....I didn't like getting up early for school as a kid.......and now I have to be at school before the students!!), we happened to be up early in preparation for driving to Austin to visit some colleges with the Cupcake Princess. I've learned it's best to keep my camera near me at all times while we're at the lake......you never know what you might see! I'm definitely an amateur photographer, but I'm pleased with what I captured. It's so still, quiet, and peaceful in the mornings. Weather permitting, we drink coffee, read the paper and eat breakfast out on the deck as the day unfolds.

That particular night was one night before a full moon. The moon rose up over the lake like a white orb, leaving a trail of silver shimmer on the water. My little camera isn't fancy or high tech and I'm still figuring out all of the settings so I was shooting wildly as the moon continued to rise, continually changing settings. I think this is probably the best of the bunch taken that night. What a beautiful evening it was. A cool breeze is always blowing and the night time sounds of nature make the evening magical.......going home is such a welcomed retreat for the soul.

Heading to the lake....

Left the big city of Dallas yesterday and headed to my parent's house on the lake in Central Texas. It's the most peaceful place to be! We just love to sit on the deck and watch the ever changing scenary in front of us. Happy hour is ALWAYS spent on the lower deck counting boats on the lake and partaking of some cool drink and salty snack.

Mom and Dad are great hosts. Life is laid back and everyone sleeps when they want, eats when they're hungry, and swims when they're hot......no schedule, just relaxed fun.

And, of course, the dogs are NEVER too far away from us. Snacks are for EVERYONE!

More later........the pool is calling me!!!

Feeling a bit creative.....

So I've been working these past three weeks on my next Master's course. It's not so bad, Instructional Leadership focusing on technology. Took the midterm on Saturday and finished up this week's project on Sunday. Two more weeks to go.......but it REALLY is biting into my summer fun time! After reading everyone's blogs everyday and seeing all the really creative things people are doing, I just couldn't focus on school work any more! And then my WONDERFUL husband brought home for me my first copy of Somerset Life AND the book by Corey Moortgat called The Art of Personal Imagery!! That's it! No more school work for a while!! I had two small gifts to acquire for two special ladies. One just turned 65 and the other is turning 91. "I'm going to MAKE something!!!" I said with Scottish Terrier determination!!! So here's what I came up with. It's not on the high level that so many of you are creating at, but I'm happy with the results. Here's what they started out looking like................

I bought these two totes at the dollar store and just used stuff I had stashed around the house to glam them up a bit. My hot glue gun was SO happy to see the light of day for a change!! It's been stuffed away in my cabinet for WAY too long. I filled each of the totes with rose and other floral note cards, note pads, journals, and pens as well as some English Rose body butter and a candle. Here's maybe a better close up of each one of the totes........

I know my lady friends will be pleased and it will definitely brighten their day and that's my goal. My 91 year old Aunt has just given up driving and is finding it hard to rely on others to take her shopping. She always has to have a purpose for shopping now, no longer having the joy of just going and seeing what will "catch her fancy". This tote of paper goods and good smelling "stuff" will bring a smile to her face. I only wish I could be there when she opens it. If I'm lucky enough to reach either one of those birthday milestones, I know something like this would make me feel special.

Alisa, Sherry, and Teresa.........you were the catalyst and the inspiration! Thank you!!

"Epic" Cookies....

"Epic" cookies......that's what Cupcake Princess calls these cookies from our local Kroger bakery. They are about 5 inches in diameter and filled with butter cream frosting. Oh, my teeth curl just thinking about them!

What's even worse is that they are only a dollar a piece and the bakery changes the decorations daily. The Cupcake Princess and Big Daddy have NO self control when it comes to these cookies........which means I have to go to the grocery store by myself or these cookies mysteriously wind up in my basket every time. They can put away the whole thing in one sitting.........I have to cut it up into parts and eat just a little at a time......and then have to add a couple more laps around the track as well. THE JOYS OF SUMMER!!!!!

PRESENTS, PRESENTS, PRESENTS!

Yesterday was such a wonderful day! Not only did I get to spend the day with the Cupcake Princess, but she brought me flowers...........just because she thought of me when she saw them. All together ~~ AAAAAAAAAWWWWWW! What a sweet daughter I have.
And THEN.........the mail came. I won a painting last week in a daily drawing at French Poppy http://teresaksheeley.typepad.com/my_weblog/. (Still trying to figure out how to drop in French Poppy so all you have to do is click on that to get to her website. I'm still new at this!) I was SO excited because I got to choose from all of Teresa's paintings and I just really fell in love with the Vin de la Maison.
It arrived yesterday, beautifully wrapped and with a lovely card attached. The card was just as impressive as the painting. Teresa designs cards, too. I'm taken with Robin's Egg Blue, Chocolate, and Vanilla colors right now.......maybe that's why I was so "in" to the card......don't know. It's silly, I know, but I felt very special to have won this!


Little things make a big difference! I am truly blessed.

Mother/Daughter Day.....Finally!!!

Finally, the Cupcake Princess had some time to spend with her dear, sweet mother! Teenager schedules are so busy these days!! We started out the day getting her hair cut so that we can make an appointment to get her senior pictures done. Still hard to believe that she's about to graduate from high school. As a little extra "something", her hairdresser waxed her eyebrows for her. New experience! She said it didn't hurt much.....maybe I might try it.







With her hair looking lovely, we decided to check out a new off-price, shoe outlet. All of the shoes are $6.99...........could be nothing but "yuck", but maybe some treasures........we're always up for the hunt on shoe bargains! I found some great, cotton fabric, flats with pointy toes.....just love pointy toe shoes...and they even were black and white polka dots.......love that, too.......BUT NONE IN MY SIZE......only in Cupcake Princess's size! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...they came home with us.......the Princess has been trained well!! :)

Of course, I couldn't leave without shoes, too. Found some fun sandals to wear this summer and back to school. Two pairs of shoes for about $15........it was a good shopping day!

Feeling successful in our shopping adventure, we decide to celebrate and the Cupcake Princess took me out to lunch at our favorite, local Mexican restaurant. Enjoyed queso, fajita nachos and a long visit together. She even kept her texting down to a minimum! Hopefully we'll have another chance again this month to spend the day together before she goes to Scotland in August. Summer's going by so fast!!

CELEBRATE!

YES!! I am done with my Master's work today! I've got the rest of the long weekend FREE!!! Going shopping with the Cupcake Princess tomorrow during the day and then we're BBQing with good friends at the house tomorrow evening. They're predicting lots of sunshine and it may be warm, but who cares? IT'S SUMMERTIME!!

FRUSTRATION.......

Don't you just HATE it when you WANT to do one thing but you can't because you HAVE to do another? That's where I've been the last couple of days! I'm off for the summer from teaching school, however, I'm also working on my Master's degree in Education Administration. It's all done on-line through a university here in Texas which is great, but, each week's project and readings and lectures are eating into my summer fun time!!

The good part is that this week's project is to create a blog site. It's supposed to be just an opportunity to try out the technology and we're supposed to leave an opinion piece about one of the other parts of our project. I figured that if I was going to go to all of the trouble to build another blog site, I'd make it something that was fun and that I could use during the school year. My hope is that it can be a place where teachers, new teachers especially, can go for resources, reflection, retreat, and maybe a giggle or two. Maintaining two sites may be more than I can handle, but.........nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Had to get away from school work for a minute and catch up on my "fun" site. So, just about another hour or two on this weeks work and then off to have some fun! Friends just called to have lunch at a Mexican cafe.......you betcha!!!