Tawakoni Tales

tap tap Is this thing on?

2011-08-18T18:59:00.002-05:00

I had pulled up this blog today to reference something, and realized that's been a very long time since I posted.

Time for a little catch-up?

The last chatty post was that, at last, we were going to close on our construction loan, so we'll start there for those of you who don't know. The final estimates came in on the house, and we just realized that we didn't want to work until the days we die to pay off a $400,000 home loan! Eeek, time to regroup. Fortunately, the house right next door to our lot came up for sale at only a mildly inflated price, so we bought it, and moved into it. It's tiny - 1430 s.f. on two floors, one tiny bedroom downstairs which is Scott's "office/studio" and a large bedroom upstairs in the loft. The master bath is big enough to sleep in, and there's a half-bath downstairs in the laundry room. The kitchen is a good size. We've had to replace most of the appliances that came with the house, but that's fine. So, here we are, nearly 1.5 acres of land in total.

I lost my job in November of 2009, which didn't bother me at all. I had absolutely loved working for my boss, but her stress levels hit maximum levels from her home life, she brought it to work with her, and our relationship took the hit. It had been miserable for a year before they let me go, so literally, I was upset for the length of time it took to get from the 33rd floor to the parking garage. But....despite sending out well over 100 resumes, here I am, almost two years later, unemployed. Only 3 checks left on my extended unemployment. The money I get isn't significant, but will definitely mean some major cutbacks in the budget when it's gone.

Shannon and her boyfriend, Justin, got married right after she graduated from high school, and are still doing well. Justin is going to Marine boot camp (whatever that's called) this coming Sunday, and Shannon was supposed to join the Marines as well, but is being delayed due to an injury she received while working at Walmart. She's still on the active roster, but they may have to push her out if she can't get healed up in time.

Our dog Rusty is doing great, and I have a fiesty fat cat named Stormy, a Persian Himmie, that I adore. Our boat died a slow and painful (and expensive) death, so we're off the lake for now, which is fine, the water is WAY low anyway.

And there you have it....all caught up :)

I'll try to be better about posting, I see there are still 6 of ya following us!

Traylor Family Reunion Info

2010-05-14T11:32:00.006-05:00

Scott Carey will be hosting this year's Traylor family reunion.

When: June 25-27, 2010
Where: Quinlan, TX - Email for address and map (hlcarey at gmail dot com)
What: BBQ, Horseshoe Tournament, Fireworks, Fishing Tournament, Entertainment

What do you need to bring?
Yourself
Camping gear if staying over
Food for mornings, snacks
Dish to pass for main BBQ
Fishing Tackle (if planning to fish)
Water toys (if desired)

Typically, a few people show up Friday night to get their camp set up, but the majority show up Saturday morning and spend the day, with some staying over to Sunday.

We're flexible, we'll be around on Thursday, if you'd like to come out early and help cook, just let us know!

Helen & Scott Carey

Colleen, please contact

2010-03-02T11:41:00.000-06:00

Please contact us directly at hlcarey at gmail dot com

At last!

2008-07-18T13:00:00.001-05:00

Well, the rumor is that we should close on the construction loan by the end of the month! The appraiser should be done with his part by Monday or Tuesday, then it goes to Underwriting, which should have their part done by next Friday, and then we move to closing! Woohoo!!

I cannot wait!

OK…the journey continues…or does it?

2008-07-03T09:36:00.003-05:00

OK…the journey continues…or does it?

I last left you all with the news of my father’s passing on May 31st. I flew to Syracuse, NY on June 13, and met Kristi there, and we drove to Auburn. The memorial service for my father was on June 14, and then we flew home on the 15th.

The memorial service was beautiful, my step-sisters/brothers did a great job of setting it up. It was emotional for me, realizing that he truly was gone. I did see cousins I hadn’t seen in 20 years, which was nice, but sad too – other than those cousins, for me, that branch of the family tree is gone. Dad was the last of three brothers to pass.

Kristi and I drove to Ovid, where my father’s family lived, and to Seneca Falls, where my mother’s family lived, and I showed her some of the things I remembered from previous visits. When you consider that my last visit was in like 1989, that’s pretty amazing – towns so small that nothing ever changes.

All in all, it was a whirlwind of emotions for me.

Fast forward two weeks:

We still haven’t begun building yet. The general contractor took so long to put in his bid, that the appraiser got backed up. Now watch, he’ll get his part done, and all the subs will be busy because they took other work while we farted around. Yes, I’m feeling slightly pessimistic. Trailer life is starting to suck, and I’m dying to get going, but it’s one delay after another. :(

On the other hand, Scott and I are looking at another wedding anniversary next week, and doing well, thank you very much. If we survive this trailer thing and rebuilding the house – I think we can survive anything!

Oh! And some cool news - One of the girls in the bird forum I used to hang out in read about the fire after I posted there, and she has a 2 year old Quaker Parrot she's going to give me! Of course, we can't take her until the house is built, but I'm very excited about it!

More later.

Bittersweet

2008-05-31T23:28:00.002-05:00

Last night, Shannon graduated from high school....We're so happy for her! Tomorrow, she starts her new job as a camp counselor and will come home on the weekends. We'll miss her a lot :(

Then tonight, I received a phone call telling me that my father had died from a motorcycle accident today. The doctors think he had a stroke.

I think I've had enough loss for the year. Everyone else in my life will please enter the large protective bubble over to my left.

Sigh

2008-05-28T21:03:00.002-05:00

I go through most days taking this whole thing in stride. We lost everything, but we're getting all this good stuff coming out of it, and that's a blessing. So is it really wrong to want it to be done in say...4 months?

Scott told me tonight that he truly believes it's going to be 6-8 months. I've been thinking October...we'll be ok. Now we're looking at what...Christmas? Oh.My.God!!

*sigh*

I bought my appliances last Monday. They're being warehoused until we can take delivery....but when I made that arrangement, I wasn't thinking 6-8 months. I don't know if I can get them held that long. I saved us a fortune by buying them when I did (no sales tax weekend, 10% off, and gift cards coming back to us). I'm just hoping the fortune saved won't be eaten up by storage fees.

*sigh*

This is a big setback to my sense of well-being. Trailer life is ok...my parents lived in a smaller trailer when I was a baby, but...come on...it's not the lifestyle I'm used to.

*sigh*

April was such a bad month....

2008-05-03T06:59:00.001-05:00

I've put off this blog entry as long as I could, because it's just too hard...April began badly, and never let up.

Scott's mom, Linda, had been in the hospital since late January, and the doctors finally said there was nothing more they could do for her without exploratory surgery, which they didn't think she would survive. So we found a beautiful hospice care and moved her over in the last week of March. On April 1st, she quietly passed away.

Our lives were just beginning to settle back down from the time off work and travelling back and forth to Fort Worth that Linda's hospitalization and passing entailed. On April 12th, Shannon and I went into Terrell to get manicures, while Scott attended a crawfish boil at a friend's house four houses down from us. They had just finished Shannon's manicure and my pedicure, and were moving me over to the manicure table when my cell phone rang. I asked Shannon to grab it, which she did. The next words she said changed our lives forever - "What do you mean our house burned to the ground??"

My eyes welled up with tears as I looked at her. "Katie??" She shook her head no. "Misty??" Again, no. The manicurist finished putting on my sandals and helped me to the checkout desk. As I handed over the payment, my knees buckled and I started crying. I just couldn't grasp that my beloved parrot was gone...our cat was gone...and our house was gone.

I drove us home as fast as I could - in fact, the Terrell Fire Department was behind us and I left them in the dust. They were obviously on their way to our house, but as slow as they were driving, I wanted to stop and tell them just to go back - they'd never make it in time.

We pulled into the community and manuevered around the fire trucks and saw the charred remains of the house. Scott walked up to me and put his arms around me and I just broke down.

When the fire had been put out, and the smoke had cleared, this is what was left:

We handled the things that needed to be done, but I don't remember a lot of the next few days. The Red Cross was there, and put us up in a hotel room for a couple of days until our insurance could kick in. They gave us a debit card with money to replace our medications and buy some clothes, and to eat with. Some friends took us out to dinner the next day and gave us Kohl's cards to buy clothes. Thank God for these things...you just don't know how bad it is to be standing there with nothing but the clothes on your back.

On Monday, our insurance company sent an adjuster out, who declared the house a total loss, and gave us a check towards the contents to start rebuilding our lives with.

The insurance company moved us to a nicer hotel until more permanent arrangements could be made, and we were there for 2 weeks.

A week ago, we moved into a 37 ft. travel trailer on the property next door. This is where we'll stay until our house is rebuilt.

This has all been incredibly difficult. I'll be fine, and then all of a sudden, I'll break down. I alternate between anger and grief, and then back to hope.

People have said I've been handling this so "bravely", but really, what choice do you have? You grieve for what you lost, and then you move forward.

The insurance company was incredible...we were treated with kindness and respect, and at the end of it all, we'll have a brand new house....one that will be specifically designed to minimize the risk of fire. The official cause of the fire was "electrical". We suspect that animals got under the house and chewed the wires...we saw a mouse fleeing from the ruins, could have been him. But the new house will have its wiring encased in piping of some type, so the critters can't get to it.

We plan on building a log home. The company we're going to use, Satterwhite, is located about 90 minutes from here and we drove over there last weekend and really liked what we saw. Their representative came out this week to see the land, and make sure that we could actually do it...and of course, we can. It's our hope that we'll be in the new house by the end of summer, at the latest. The official build time is 6-8 weeks from when they actually begin, and then of course, there is the finish time required to do the interior.

Our annual BBQ will go on...it'll just be a bit more difficult, but hey, we're up to the challenge :)

So, work has begun on clearing the land, in fact, they're almost finished.

Rusty has grieved for the loss of his friends....he looked in the ruins for days for them. But as we try to get back into our routine, we've started running him again, and he's coming around.

I'll keep the blog posted as we progress through the build.

A passing

2008-04-01T23:40:00.000-05:00

Linda Gail Carey
September 8, 1943 - April 1, 2008

Bad and sad news

2008-03-29T13:24:00.000-05:00

Scott's mom, as most of you know, has been sick for a very long time. This week, her doctors told Scott there was nothing more they could do for her.

We located a beautiful hospice facility that actually looks like an upscale hotel, and she was transported there last night. After being in the hospital for two months, where we all know that you just don't get any rest, she was utterly exhausted. She wasn't in the hospice for 5 minutes when she fell asleep. The RNs at the facility assured us that she would be kept comfortable - no more lifesaving methods - only keeping her as pain-free and peaceful as possible.

They are guessing that she has 5-7 days left, although with her bad heart, it could be less. We'll keep you posted.

Please pray for her peace.

We're still alive :)

2008-02-02T19:40:00.000-06:00

I've got to admit that I've lost the heart to post in this blog, knowing that every word is probably scrutinized for whatever reason by "some people", but I'm going to try to get over that ;)

The weight loss has finally restarted, after doing what I should be and seeing my doctor ;)

Life has been fairly quiet around our house. Shannon's doing great in school and racing towards graduation with alarming speed! She's driving now (with a permit) so loves going to the store with me so she can drive.

Scott and I have both been sick for the past couple of weeks, so even getting out of bed is almost too much excitement.

We lost Sammy the Cockatiel last weekend. He was 20 years old, so he lived a good life for a birdie. This leaves us with only Katie of the birds. I think she misses Sammy.

Rusty is all grown up now and just the greatest dog. We love him dearly.

So, that's about it for the moment. Everyone is stable and we're loving it :)

Killing God??

2007-11-09T09:10:00.000-06:00

http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

Just read it. I'm appalled.

For the first time in my life, I want to stand with a picket sign outside of a theater!

Please take a moment...

2007-09-10T18:19:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow morning, to remember those who died on September 11, 2001

A picture says a thousand words....

2007-07-17T17:45:00.000-05:00

Whew...busy summer!

2007-07-15T20:24:00.000-05:00

I know I'm horrible about updating, but it has been a really busy summer so far. We've had a ton of rain, and the lake level is so high that most of our dock is underwater!

We had our annual BBQ on June 30, and it was a blast. We had about 60 people...the food was excellent, the weather held out, and all in all, it was wonderful!

My weight loss surgery was five months ago, as of yesterday. I've lost 54.5 lbs, and seem to be holding there. I'd love to lose another 25, but I'm ok with where I am.

Everybody is doing well here...Shannon's having a great time living at the lake. She's been working full-time, babysitting. She's been saving some money, tithing some, and spending some...as it should be :)

Scott is, of course, in his element, smoking and grilling meat all the time, fishing, taking care of the yards (a full-time job!), and having a blast enjoying the summer.

So, we're doing great!

And today's word is...

2007-05-23T20:51:00.000-05:00

Main Entry: hy·poc·ri·sy
Pronunciation: hi-'pä-kr&-sE also hI-
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -sies
Etymology: Middle English ypocrisie, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin hypocrisis, from Greek hypokrisis act of playing a part on the stage, hypocrisy, from hypokrinesthai to answer, act on the stage, from hypo- + krinein to decide -- more at CERTAIN
1 : a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion
2 : an act or instance of hypocrisy

If the word fits....

Rusty

2007-05-10T20:27:00.000-05:00

Our puppy, Rusty, has grown into quite a handsome dog. He's very good...well, all except for digging in the front yard, for which he may die, if Scott ever catches him at it! :X

He's pretty smart too, except for the aforementioned, and has learned sit, stay, down, leave it, and is now learning to catch his toys in mid-air, so I shot some pics tonight.

By the way, if you ever see him riding around in the golf cart, don't laugh...it's his favorite pasttime ;)

Oops! Missed!

I can catch it in my paws - does that count?

Success!

And again!

What goes up...

Sheesh!

2007-05-06T06:32:00.000-05:00

Well, our golf cart got stolen in the middle of the night Friday/Saturday, and Scott spent yesterday trying to find it, and while I was trying to get Shannon ready for her prom and attending our HOA meeting (oh, you're looking at the new Secretary - not quite sure how that happened!).

Scott was able to discover that our cart had been stolen. They left it down the road about 2:15 when it ran out of battery, and 45 minutes later, it was gone, so we think someone saw it, trailered it, and took off. Kind of funny...while Scott was out looking for our cart, he found two other ones that had been stolen too. We know that two girls had stolen one girl's grandmother's car, and it was two girls that stole our cart, so we think it's the same ones. One girl got caught and is in custody. If they admit to it, I'll be going after her parents for the return of the money our cart was worth.

Of course, with the BBQ coming up, and the fact that we really enjoyed owning one, it was imperative that we replace it immediately. So we have a new (used) one. This one has a windshield, new seat covers, and it has a "truck bed", so we can haul small things with it. It's also gas powered instead of battery powered, so that's a nice change. It cost more than I wanted to spend, but from what Scott has been able to research on them, we actually got it for about $1000 less than they normally go for. I'll post pictures after the seats are done, and Scott has

Shannon looked utterly gorgeous for her prom. She's still asleep, so no idea how it went, but from the pictures on my camera, it looks like she had a great time.

This picture was taken just before her boyfriend picked her up:

Well, that was interesting!

2007-04-14T19:47:00.000-05:00

We had a nasty old storm come through the DFW metroplex yesterday, leaving tornadoes all over the place, killing two and hurting five others.

It came right for us out here in Quinlan, but the oddness of living on the lake continues - the seriously bad stuff went around us.

We got an inch of rain in about 10 minutes, a little hail, lots of wind, thunder and lightening, but no tornado, and it was over faster than it took to get here.

But you have to prepare for the worst, so the high school was opened to those who wanted to evacuate. All we could do was put the dog and cat in the bathroom, and the birds in the closet. We stood at the front door listening and watching. It was a helluva storm, that's for sure!

It's been cold, windy and overcast all day...definitely an odd Spring!

We got rain!

2007-04-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

We finally got some great rainfall - 6.45"! We're getting lots of run-off from the creeks and pastures around here, and the water is touching the dock. It's also supposed to rain again next week, but I doubt if it will be as much as we got the other day.

The house is all repaired from the fire damage, except for the storm windows in our bedroom, but they did get the inside windows put in. The AC unit is in, thank God, because it's been in the high 70s and low 80s for the past week.

Scott's been busy working on getting the lawns in shape, and Shannon decided to repair the kettle in our front yard to a darker green, with a white border. She hasn't gotten the border on yet, but when she does, I'll get pictures.

Kristi and her family were here the past two weeks, but I didn't get to see very much of them - as it usually is when they come. But I did get to spend a little time with her and the kids. I'll fly up there later this summer (since I still have a ticket out there in cyberspace, due to canceling my trip right after my surgery).

It's been pretty uneventful around here, for which I'm glad. We go to work, Shannon goes to school, we hang out in the evenings, church on Sunday. We did go to a wedding last night (utterly and totally beautiful service and reception), but that's been pretty much it for social outings lately.

I'm having issues with my camera...not sure if it needs to be replaced or if it can be repaired, but a decision needs to be made soon on it...I'm not thrilled having no camera!

More later :)

A few pics

2007-03-05T08:19:00.000-06:00

Photobucket wasn't cooperating with me last night, so I threw a couple of pictures up on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7226099@N06/

This wasn't how I planned to spend my day...

2007-03-03T17:38:00.000-06:00

Since Scott and Shannon had gone to Oklahoma for the weekend, I had planned to take a little nap and then get up and go to Walmart to stock up on groceries. Little did I know that my day was not going to go quite that way.

About 11:00 this morning, I'm laying in bed dozing, and I hear some rustling between our house and the one next door. Since it's pretty windy, I don't think much about it, and didn't think much about it when I smelled smoke - just opened my eyes and didn't see smoke in the room, so I just figured that because it was windy, I was smelling the fireplace, and I dozed back off. A few minutes later, I'm smelling smoke again and just about the time I decide I better get up and check it out, Rusty starts barking and there's serious pounding on the door. I threw on my robe and went to the door and our neighbor from two doors south of us said "I think the house next door is on fire!!!" I look over to the north, and sure enough, I see smoke and flames and so I tore back in the house, threw on clothes, let Rusty out of his crate, tried to grab the cat, grabbed the birds instead, grabbed my purse and keys and got the hell out of Dodge. Linda had already called 911, but we didn't have any trucks coming, and the fire department is only 5 miles down the road.

One of the guys from down the street realized that the flames were headed for my propane tank, so he ran over and turned it off, then grabbed a hose and started watering down the side of our house, and the grass and trees between the two houses.

By the time the first truck got here, the house next door was 70% engulfed in some very serious flame and it was apparent that there was no putting it out, so they started focusing on saving our house. We have a metal roof, so they had to pry the roof up, because the eaves were on fire. Watching this made me wince, but I'd rather they did it than not!! Then they turned their attention to the woods behind us; which were developing small fires here and there. After they had dragged every available hose up the hill and connected them, it became apparent to me that they weren't aware of the access road behind the hill, so I told them about it and they went up there to shoot water down the hill, instead of trying to shoot it UP the hill.

After it was all over but a few hot spots, which they are still working on at this time, the house next door is completely gone, our house has two broken windows, four sets of melted mini-blinds, a busted up roof and edge piece, and some water and smoke damage. The siding will need to be painted. We lost the wood privacy fence, and a few trees probably will not survive the damage...but our house is standing and in good enough condition to sleep in!!

Sadly, the house north of the house next door took more significant damage than we did. They lost a two story apartment behind their house, and the siding on their main house pretty much melted, but the house was saved. I don't know how much internal damage it received, but it's pretty ugly on the outside now.

I have to tell you - all of the fire departments around here are volunteer fire departments....and these guys were AWESOME. A couple of them, before they got too insane with the water, ran in the house, disconnected my computer and moved everything into the living room...my desk and everything on it, my filing cabinets, my printer, my computer and monitor...everything they could get their hands on and move, so that they didn't get water damaged. How freaking awesome is that?!? I want to thank the Quinlan, Kaufman, Terrell, South Tawakoni, Able Springs, Elmo and Lone Oak Volunteer Fire Departments for doing such an incredible job and saving my house!!

The neighbors are all aware I had surgery two weeks ago, so they were likewise incredible - feeding me, helping me up and down the hill (after the 2nd trip, I was wiped out), and putting plastic over the broken windows. We are truly blessed for the friends we have made in this community.

Pictures will come when my computer is set back up and I find the connector cable for my camera.

*yawn*

All in all...I'd rather have had a nap!

Life is great!

2007-02-16T18:23:00.000-06:00

I had my lapband surgery on Valentine's Day. If you want to read more about that, head on over to Life in Texas, because that's where I'll be posting about my journey.

It's been great around here lately. Scott's daughter is living with us now, and she's a joy to have around. She's helpful, cooperative, funny, and just a great kid...we're delighted to have her with us.

Scott's been sober since December, and that is likewise a joy and a blessing :)

We're still praying for rain, because the lake isn't up nearly enough. I'm positive we'll get it though! (Faith...whew!)

As soon as I can move around good again, and we have some sun, I'll take some pictures of Rusty - he's gotten to be a big boy! He'll be a year old next month - now if he'd just get past this chewing stage! He seems to especially like wood, which concerns me :(

Anyway, life is great! As we move into spring, I'm sure I'll be posting more. When it's winter and you're more or less housebound, there's not a lot to write about ;)

More rain!

2007-01-28T15:51:00.000-06:00

The rain we've gotten has helped a LOT, but it's not nearly enough. It brought the lake up to the same point on our beach as it was when we moved in a year ago last month. Actually, I just looked at the pictures from last January, and the water is up higher than it was in some spots.

I'm putting up some pictures, especially for Cathy :)

This time last year, there was no water this close

So yeah, while we're grateful for what we've gotten, we definitely need more! It was last March when we got all the water that lasted through Spring, so we're hopeful!

What a strange week it's been!

2007-01-20T22:19:00.000-06:00

Winter has hit Dallas with a vengence! We've had rain, sleet, snow, and I've spent more hours on the road in drive time in the past week, than I care to think about!

It's pretty unusual to look out our front door and see this:

Yes, that IS snow down on the beach. I know it's not much, but around here, it's enough to screw up the roads for days...and it did. This picture was taken last Monday (which fortunately, I had off). Last Wednesday, we got more sleet and snow - and it took us 3.5 hours to get to work! It has rained off and on all week, and has been raining slowly and steadily today (just about an inch is all)...but we're hoping the lake will come up another few inches as all the water on the roads and in the creeks makes its way down to the lake.

Counting down the days to my lapband surgery, but I swear, if I hear "but you don't weigh that much!", one more time, I'm going to scream!! If I didn't need the surgery, I sure wouldn't be putting myself through this. (So, if you love me, for God's sake, please don't say that to me!!)

Scott and I are attending church again, and starting 2/1, will be living on a very strict budget. We'd like to have all of our credit card debt paid off within a year, and my truck paid off 2 years after that. We've been reading Dave Ramsey's books, and on February 24th, will be seeing him live in Dallas. We're really excited about the prospect of being out of debt, and spent several hours this morning laying out our budget for February.

There are other things going on with us, but those aren't for publication. Suffice it to say, our lives got suddenly very busy, but this is a good thing!

That's it for now. Until next time...

Scheduled for surgery!

2007-01-06T10:25:00.000-06:00

I've been working towards having lapband surgery since last March, having put back on all the weight I lost on Nutrisystem a couple of years ago. They make you jump through a lot of hoops to have this surgery, but apparently I performed correctly, because I got the insurance approval and will be having surgery on Valentine's Day, of all days.

I'm excited - but also a little scared. I'm determined that this is going to work for me! Hopefully by summer, I'll be wearing bathing suits again!!

Just a little behind!

2006-12-21T15:29:00.000-06:00

I've been getting chewed out for being so behind on posts, so here's what's been going on.

Let's see -

Jonah has been returned to the SPCA (which is no-kill). As wonderful as he was, our original reasons for giving him up still stood - he was far too big for the house.

Scott and I have both given up smoking cigarettes, although he's still smoking those little cigars, Black & Milds, and I seem to be unable to control myself when I'm in social settings where others are smoking, but do just fine any other time. I'll be working on that one!

Part of the reason for not posting was that the lake had receded to the point where it was a mudhole - which was very depressing! We got some really good hard rain the other day though and it brought the waterline back to the level it was before the really hot summer weather started, although we didn't see that until this morning. (This is not to be mistaken for the actual "lake level". This is only the waterline as it relates to the shoreline at our house.) Rusty's outside running around now, happy to see the beach looking like it used to :)

I'll definitely do a better job of keeping this blog up, I promise!

Certified Texan

2006-10-14T22:30:00.000-05:00

You'll often see bumper stickers around here that say "I may not have been born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could!" I need one :)

But today, I became a certified Texan, when I signed the papers on a 2007 Ford F150 pickup truck! I never thought of myself as a truck kind of gal...but the more I drive it - the more I love it!

Another season

2006-10-10T22:47:00.000-05:00

Judging by the rain we got today, and the low (for us) temps that we're going to have over the next week, autumn is definitely upon us, and Scott is already planning his winter projects.

The pelicans are still with us and it has been so cool having them around the past few weeks. They're amazing to watch - working in complete, graceful unison. I'll be truly sad to see them move on.

I don't think the dogs will be happy about winter. Jonah was reluctant last year to go outside to do his thing - and the two times that Rusty has been subjected to rain, he couldn't wait to get back in the house. Thank God we have laminate flooring - carpeting would be trashed with those two around!

But I can't wait for the rain to start in earnest! The lake is almost 11 feet low. It's going to take a lot of steady rain to get us back to normal. We're anxious to experience actually living on the lake as it was when we put the offer in on the house over a year ago, rather than having 150 feet of beach that was nowhere to be seen last year.

Something mildly interesting happened today - Scott found a rabies tag on our beach dated 1962. Considering the lake was impounded in 1960, and this neighborhood was built in 1964, I have to wonder how it go there. Guess I'll never know, but it's a nice little collector's item. It's in beautiful condition - barely scratched. Wonder if there are rabies tag collectors on ebay ;)

______________________

High Temperature: 73°F (at 4pm)

Low Temperature: 62°F (at 8am )

Avg Temperature: 68°F

Total Precipitation: 1.08in

Too many pictures!

2006-09-16T22:48:00.000-05:00

To post on the blog, so please visit our photo album here. If it asks for a password, use Helen.

We don't do "wait" too well around here, so we got the swing today. Scott stained it and after the welder finished the frame, they hung it. It looks great.

We also had another visit from the pelicans. They're the reason for going out to the photo album, because some of the pictures were grainy and resizing them made them worse.

Hope you enjoy!

Is Summer gone?

2006-09-10T14:43:00.000-05:00

The past week has been gorgeous! While we haven't gotten a lot of rain, we did get some, and the temps are staying in the low 90s.

Scott has been working extremely hard to get the dock finished before the rains do come, and he's almost there. After having new poles put in, he has primered and painted every inch of them, and stained all the wood surfaces. He still wants to put up a swing on the middle dock, but that may happen next year.

A couple of months ago, we paid someone to till our beach area, and they did a great job, but things were still growing, so we needed to do it again. I have this real thing about things touching me in the water, so it was imperative that all weeds be removed from the swimming area. As you can see from the pictures below, that area has been completely cleaned...nothing should grow there now!

Last night, just after dusk, the flock of pelicans which visited us for two weeks in the spring, returned. We watched for about a half hour, while they fed on the shad in the shallow part of the water. It was absolutely incredible to see. I wish I could have gotten pictures, but there just wasn't enough light. We're hoping they stay for two weeks this time, and hopefully, I'll be able to get some pictures. The flock is easily over 200 birds!

Here are the pics :)

The cleaned beach

Newly painted poles and stained dock

New platform leading to the steps, just installed today.

A couple of flowers which just popped up this morning!

My granddaughter, Alyssa, who spent last Friday night with us :)

A couple of happy dogs!

Jonah's home!

2006-08-26T08:30:00.000-05:00

When we rehomed Jonah back in January or February, I made it clear that if it didn't work out for any reason, they should let us know and we'd take him back. Then the girl who took him left the firm, and of course, our department changed firms, and I figured that I better call her and let her know. So, two weeks ago, I tried to call and the number was "not accepting calls at the request of the subscriber". Having no other way to contact her, I let it go and hoped all was well.

Yesterday, I was away from my desk and received a voice mail when I got back saying that these people had Jonah, the girl I gave him to had moved to Arizona and left him, and they couldn't keep him - did I want him back? I said yes and made arrangements to pick him up after work.

When I got there, Jonah was in their wading pool...lol...apparently, he still loves the water, was my first thought, while I was also looking him over to see how he had changed (not much, just larger) and how his demeanor was. He didn't seem to recognize me, and he seemed beaten down and cowered before the guy I was picking him up from. "Uh oh," I thought, "this doesn't look good". I got us both out of there as fast as I could.

All the way home, Jonah just laid in the back seat of the car. He still didn't seem to recognize me, but I'm sure he was thinking "Oh God, where are they taking me now??" Then, we pulled through the gate of the community and he perked up - sat up and was looking out the window with his nose in the air, sniffing.

As I pulled up to the house, he looked out the window on the side with the lake and he got very excited! I opened the door and he got out of the car and he just stood there, looking at the lake, with his tail wagging fast and furious. We went into the house, where Rusty was still crated, since Scott wasn't home, and I heard Rusty bark. The crate is in the bathroom, in the same place it was when we had Jonah the first time, and Jonah headed straight in there. Rusty let out a low warning growl, so I decided that I better leave him in the crate for a few minutes, which I did. When he quit growling, I let him out and then playtime began! Of course, there was the obligatory sniffing (both males) and some "who's going to be top dog" behaviors, but they've been having a blast together since.

When Scott got home, we all went down to the lake - and both dogs immediately headed for the water. After swimming for awhile and running on the beach, they just played together till they wore themselves out.

Jonah is 17 months old now, and he's much calmer than he was. His manners are better than they used to be. He seems genuinely glad to be home, and we're both delighted that he's here. We both initially had reservations and said we'd try it out for the weekend, and if it wasn't working with Rusty, then we'd go ahead and take Jonah back to the SPCA (because he still is really way too big for this house - he's over 100 lbs now, I'm sure!). But it looks like we now have 1 cat (who is not very pleased with us right now), 2 dogs, and 3 birds!

Jonah trying to contain an exhuberant Rusty

Pals :)

Welcome home big boy!

It's been awhile...

2006-08-13T21:20:00.000-05:00

And for that, I'm sorry.

July ended up being a very busy month for us, and hasn't let up yet in August.

We had Scott's daughter from July 7th until July 31st. She's such a great kid that it was absolutely wonderful having her here, and the smoothness with which she normally fits in on the weekend, continued through the month. I think she had a great time - at least she said she did.

There were several barbeques through July which, while fun, do get a little draining, if only for the reason that we need a kitchen down on the deck. That's in our plans to do, eventually.

Since the move to the new law firm, we're busier than ever - and we were already busy before. I go home every night just totally drained, and yet I'm falling further and further behind at work. We're supposed to get a couple of more support staff, and that will ease the load a bit. I sure hope so, anyway!

August has just runaway with us. We've both been working hard and are stressed. In addition, we had to have someone come in and do some repair work on the dock, and then Scott put a lot of work into it. As of this writing, he hasn't finished yet because he got interrupted by a huge water leak this morning. He spent literally all day digging out my gardens, four feet down, and then discovered that the leak was on the back side of the house. Water was pouring out the front though, so it was a legitimate belief when he started digging from the front. Turns out we have a copper pipe that got corroded and split. He's repaired the leak to a managable level, but the pipe has to be replaced, which we can't do until Tuesday.

I've been pretty stressed all day, wondering if and when we'd have to call in a plumber - isn't it double time on Sundays? *gulp*

I know I've promised to put pictures up, and I have some, but still need to take more and then crop them all down...and I just don't have the energy.

Things will get back on track soon, and then I can start keeping this blog more current! :)

Whew!

2006-07-15T19:32:00.000-05:00

What a week it's been after our move to the new firm!

I've spent all week trying to get my bosses organized in the new office, get training on the software the firm uses, go over HR issues, and the while trying to get out my regular amount of work - more really, because we used to use the word processing department pretty extensively and we're just learning how to use the new firm's WP department, which is in Atlanta.

I must have been doing okay on my vacation and sick leave accruals, because my check from the old firm was quite a bit more than I expected. The flex card is still the biggest wild card, but I haven't heard anything on it. The card folks may deal with me directly on that.

We got the golf cart, which my knees truly appreciate. It's been so hot that I've only been through the neighborhood a couple of times, but that's still a couple of times more than I would have been able to do without it. Scott's been teaching Shannon to drive on it....rules of the road kind of thing, and how to make turns, etc., just like if she was in a car.

We got the beach plowed this week too. It looks great and I'll have to get some pictures of it after it cools off and post them. My garden is looking really bad because it's just too freaking hot to weed, and some nights, I can't even stand the thought of going out and watering. It's been over 100 this week, and is still 98 right now, at 7:30 at night.

Anyhow...that's it for now!

A really strange day!

2006-07-10T22:06:00.000-05:00

I got to work this morning about 8, and worked for a couple of hours when my main boss walked up to me and said "Don't freak out and you have to trust me". I said "why? what's going on?" She then said, "we're leaving". Of course, I immediately freaked out.

Turns out that the head of our department has been negotiating with a law firm in Atlanta to open a branch in Dallas...with our department being its first employees.

Before the lawyers could give us secretaries any information at all, including the offer letter they had for us, we had to turn in our notice at the existing firm. Let me tell you, that took a gigantic leap of faith for me...but I only hesitated for a split second, because I love the women I work for and I'm very happy with my job, and if I stayed at the existing firm, there wouldn't be a job for me in the long run...we've seen this happen before and the secretaries who stayed ultimately ended up jobless.

So, I turned in my notice and received my offer letter. It gives me a 3% raise on what I'm making right now...and I just got a 4% raise on July 1, so effectively, I just received a 7% raise! The insurance benefits are about the same, and so is the 401k.

The only downside to this transition is that we accrued vacation and sick leave, but they let us take it ahead of the accrual. I've always tried to make sure that I didn't get ahead of myself, but hadn't checked lately. I meant to do it before I left the office today, but a lot of people were waiting for me, so I had to walk away from my computer before I could check. If I'm ahead of the accrual, they can take that out of my last check.

Also, we have a flex medical card that so much of my check goes into each pay period - but again, you can spend ahead of the accrual, and I know I'm ahead of that....and I think they'll take that out of my last check too.

Effectively, I could not receive a paycheck on the 15th, which would hurt us a lot, but thank God, it's not the 1st of the month when the house payment is due, and Scott's vacation check comes in this week...but of course, it's already promised out (we're supposed to be buying a golf cart so I can get up and down this hill without killing my knees). If push came to shove, we could probably cancel the cart. I'm just hoping I'm not TOO far ahead of my flex accrual.

The new offices are really nice...bright, airy and roomy, which, after being in a cubicle for 2 years, are going to be very good for me.

The best part of this whole thing is that because this is a new firm in Dallas, and they're looking to expand, we're getting in on the ground floor, which means there may be some room to advance in the future. Everyone from the Atlanta office (they were there setting us up) has been with the firm for 10, 15, 18 years, and they love to promote from within.

So...a really strange day...but a great one!

BBQ/4th of July

2006-07-07T20:11:00.000-05:00

I've finally recovered enough from the BBQ to update the blog.

We ended up having about 100 people for the BBQ. It went pretty well, with only a few minor glitches - one of which convinced us that turkey legs are forever off the BBQ menu. It's just way too much work for that many people.

We had fireworks every night from June 29th through July 4th and I played with the fireworks and video settings on my camera. You can see the results here. The password is helen, should it ask for one. I don't much care for what photobucket did for the videos though.

The party started Friday night, and in a few cases, continued through Tuesday night. By the time everyone left, we were completely and totally worn out, and spent Wednesday and Thursday nights holed up in our bedroom and sleeping by 10pm.

I've attached a few pictures of me and Kathryn (my granddaughter), and Alex (my grandson) and Morgan (Scott's granddaughter), and a picture of our "grandkid" Jasper. Jasper was an absolute hit at the BBQ - of course, several people just had to ask if he was on the menu :P

In case anyone was wondering how the puppy was doing, I've included a few of him that Scott and I took just tonight.

I decided I can't attach any of the BBQ, because every one of the pictures taken was so bad, that our family and friends would be pissed if we posted them ;)

Enjoy!

Mimi and Kathryn

Kathryn meets Katie

Two of the cutest kids on the planet - Morgan and Alex

Me and the "grandkid"

Rusty loves water!!

Isn't he a good looking boy? :)

Photo Day

2006-06-27T20:40:00.000-05:00

My daughter, Kristi, is in town with my grandchildren Alex (4) and Kathryn (8 months). Alex adores Scott, so they spent time together as you'll see below. For some reason, there's no pictures of Kathryn - an oversight which needs to be rapidly rectified :)

Kristi and me

Me and Alex

Alex and Kristi

What would photo day be without a lake picture...

...or two?

Scott and Alex, preparing to embark on an adventure

Rusty wants to go!!

OK, I'll investigate this dead fish instead!

Alex learns to steer a trolling motor

Male bonding

The weather has been great the past few days and is supposed to be perfect for the BBQ Saturday. Ya'll better be there!!

Updating

2006-06-20T21:45:00.000-05:00

It's been a rough couple of weeks.

My daughter Jenn has been having some major medical issues and was hospitalized for a week and one of the issues resulted in her gallbladder being removed. That caused me a lot of anxiety and stress. She's doing better though, so I'm somewhat relieved.

Then, just as her issues ended, Scott's dad had a heart attack in the early morning hours of Father's Day...fortunately, they were able to insert a stint, and now he's doing better.

I'm hoping that's the end of the medical issues for awhile!

Kristi and her family are coming down next week...it'll be great seeing my grandbabies :)

We're gearing up for our 4th of July BBQ - we're having it here at the house, instead of Lake Whitney. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. We're going to try and fashion it around what we were doing at Whitney, but I'm sure it'll be considerably different, since we don't have the camping spaces. We're splitting the whole thing with our neighbor, who is inviting his friends and family, and we're having a band, so we may end up with more people than ever!

The puppy ("Rusty") is growing fast and just a little sweety...he fits the house much better than Jonah did. We're really enjoying him :)

So, that's it for now!

How does my garden grow?

2006-06-11T13:37:00.000-05:00

Ah...the fruits of my labor!

The hibiscus that we received as a housewarming gift

Don't know what this is called, but it's prettier in person :)

One of the oriental lilies

More oriental lilies

Same one

And yet another oriental lily - I really like this one!

And another...

And finally, my stargazer lilies opened this morning!!

And a picture of me and Scott, taking a little ride in our Jon Boat :)

Yesterday (6/10) in Quinlan

High Temperature: 98° F

Low Temperature: 72° F

Precipitation: 0.00 in

We're still praying for rain!!

No more vacation :(

2006-06-04T17:10:00.000-05:00

I've been on vacation for the past 10 days (including weekends) and this is the end of it. Finito. *sigh*

I'm not quite ready to go back to work. As much as I love my bosses (and I do) and as much as I love my job (and I do), there are still so many hours that I need to play with the puppy, and watch waterskiers on the lake, and open my front door and see the blue water (why does it look blue from my porch, but brown when I'm on the beach?) and green trees and grasses, and stepping outside to look at my plants from morning to afternoon to evening, watching the flowers change throughout the day.
*sigh*

I'm 50...and I want to retire now. I remember when my mom said she had 15 years to retire...it seemed to fly by for me, but I'm sure it didn't for her. I hope mine goes fast. I think it will. My job is busy enough that the days fly by.

On another note, I had more comments about my Dixie Chicks post than ever before. Perhaps this blog needs to become more controversial...lol. As I mentioned in my replies to those comments, I hope nobody takes that little rant so seriously as to not return. This blog is not the place for that. This blog is meant for the joy and sweetness that is my life at Lake Tawakoni. ;)

Dixie Chicks

2006-06-02T07:33:00.000-05:00

I received an email this morning, notifying me that the Dixie Chicks are coming to Dallas. I personally, do not plan to attend.

I still think that the comments that Natalie Maines made in England in 2003 were inappropriate. I think that the lyrics to their new songs on their recently released CD are a literal "up yours" to that portion of the population who support our President and our country's position in the Iraq.

I was a fan before that moment in 2003. Now, I'm still angry at them. I will not buy their CD. I will not buy any of their CDs. I will not attend their concert.

If you love your country, and support your President, I hope you'll do the same.

Photo update

2006-05-30T12:22:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! We were finally blessed with a little rain - no enough to do much, but at least it cooled things off!

I have a couple of photos that have been taken this month, and a surprise at the end :)

This is the first of my oriental lilies to raise its head

I've grown very fond of the herons that frequent the lake.

Here's another of the same one

And this is the newest member of the family. No name yet.
He's less than 2 months old, still has puppy breath, and is adorable.

Actual Nature!

2006-05-28T13:47:00.000-05:00

Scott and I walked the beach this morning, looking for arrowheads. We found a few.

We also saw lots of snakes in the water. Little ones, about 3 feet long, but they were enough to convince me that it will take an act of extreme desparation to get me in that water!

I also saw a lot of butterflies. As soon as I can find some pictures online, I'll post them, with proper credits of course ;)

It's gotten pretty hot out there right now, so I'm thinking a nap just might be in order...Scott's already crashed out on the couch!

I know, I know...

2006-05-20T20:13:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile and I'm getting complaints because I'm not updating often enough.

But truly, how many sunsets can I post for you all? How many perfect days can I describe to you? I'm sure you're bored with them by now.

Last weekend, we stayed in town to attend the Taste of Addison, which is an event where many upscale restaurants come and sell their food, concerts to attend, and of course, vendors. We had a blast, but it was so hot that we had to leave before the concerts started - the GoGos and the Gin Blossoms were playing. But I was starting to feel ill from the heat and we were just exhausted from being out in the sun, so we shut it down early and went back to the hotel. We slept for an hour and then went out to sing karaoke.

This weekend, Scott and our next door neighbor, Rob, and some of the other guys in the neighborhood are off to Broken Bow, OK, to ride 4-wheelers. I heard from him this afternoon and he's having a wonderful time...I suspect there's a new 4-wheeler in our near future!

While the boys were away, Rob's wife, Kristina, their daughter Bethany, and I went to see Da Vinci Code. Everything I had heard about it was true - a bit long and true to the book - but I'm glad I went. I do truly hate to see Tom Hanks aging, and this wasn't his best acting job, but I still enjoyed his performance.

My garden is getting ready to bloom all over the place. When it does, there'll be pictures.

So, that's it for now!

I just can't help it!

2006-05-03T18:52:00.000-05:00

Here are the sunset pics I promised yesterday. They're probably out of order, but I don't care if you don't! :)

It truly was a breathtaking sunset.

Another weekend gone by...

2006-05-02T22:28:00.000-05:00

I've neglected my blog lately :(

It's just that I'm sure you get tired of the same old things. Here' s a couple of new ones though.

I had to spend 3 hours tonight getting my battery changed and an oil change - unplanned. Pulled in to get air put in my tires and turned the car off and that was the end of that. Fortunately, I had pulled into the Walmart in Terrell, and they were able to do the work.

I missed work yesterday - my insomnia has gotten so out of control that I couldn't sleep at all Sunday night (well, maybe 2-3 hours total), and I was literally afraid to drive because I was "seeing things" out of the corner of my eye. It sucked. I've got to get this under control somehow, so I'm seeing my doctor next week. I've been taking Ambien, but I'm now waking up through it, so I'm either going to try that Lunesta or the new Ambien time released pills.

Here are some pictures of the past few days. More will follow tomorrow after I resize them.

Scott found a turtle - like the kind you used to have as a kid (if you're over 50). He's now living in our pond.

And yet another glorious sunset - hope you're not sick of them yet, because I'm posting one tomorrow that was truly breathtaking!

Another weekend at Tawakoni

2006-04-23T13:10:00.000-05:00

We seem to have a lot of company visiting these days - which is fine, we're both pretty social and enjoy the interaction with other people. It's also pretty cool to share the enjoyment of our house with our friends and family.

As I mentioned in the post below, after the storm earlier this week, the Jon boat was a mess. We have to buy new lights for it, and the small lawnmotor battery that we kept in the boat for backup purposes is missing. Other than that, it came through fairly unscathed and got a lot of use this weekend.

Our friends, John and Michelle, came out with their two boys, Corbin and Taylor. As you can tell, a lot of fish were caught and we had a fish fry last night.

John and Corbin

Taylor with his 4 lb catfish

Another nice catch!

Collection of fish caught Friday night through Saturday afternoon

Taylor and his 5 lb catfish!

Your's truly with Scott (and people wonder why I hate being photographed - so unflattering!)

John and Michelle

John and Taylor

Shannon and Bethany

Shannon and Bethany

Yesterday (4/22) in Quinlan

High Temperature: 83° F

Low Temperature: 56° F

Precipitation: 0.00 in

Updates

2006-04-20T19:22:00.000-05:00

I haven't written in awhile - not much going on worthy of a post.

The deal on the Suntracker fell through - I'm pretty disappointed about that, but knew it was too good to be true.

The last time we used the Jon boat, Scott rigged the wet dock so that it would hold the boat. Last night (at 2:00 a.m.), we had a storm blow through here that was pretty bad, and when Scott went out this morning, the Jon boat was in the water, upside down. The new marine battery we bought was missing, the chairs had been torn out of it - must have been one helluva storm.

Fortunately, Scott found everything, except the oar, and the battery and Minn Kota trolling motor still work. Needless to say, we're rethinking how to store the Jon boat when we're not using it. ;)

Another storm is rolling through as I write, so I need to shut down. More later.

John comes to visit

2006-04-14T11:05:00.000-05:00

Scott has a friend named John, that he met through work. John came out Wednesday night and stayed over so they could fish all day (while I was at work! hmpf!). They had some interesting catches as you'll see below.

I felt bad about this one :(

Yesterday (4/13) in Quinlan

High Temperature: 83° F

Low Temperature: 62° F

Precipitation: 0.00 in

Sunset

2006-04-12T23:00:00.000-05:00

Truly, the most beautiful time of day around here is sunset. Since my visitor Cathy loves them so much (Hi Cathy!), I thought I'd post a few gorgeous pictures that I took tonight.

On the water

2006-04-10T10:54:00.000-05:00

Before we even closed on our house, my ex-father-in-law, Jeff, gave Scott and I a little boat...a Jon Boat, I think they're called. It's all plastic. Since we got it, we've bought two chairs for it, and Scott's dad gave him a Minn-Kota trolling motor which needed a prop. The prop finally came in this week, and so we got to finally take the boat out! These are pictures I took from the water, most looking towards our neighbors' retaining walls.

Ducks on the water

Housewarming

2006-04-09T00:05:00.000-05:00

Friday night, just before dark, a wind storm came in. We were having 25 mph winds all night, and they continued through Saturday morning. When I woke up, I started freaking out because I was worried the weather wasn't going to straighten up - it was cloudy, overcast, cold, and windy. By noon, the sun came out and it warmed up a little, but it was still pretty windy most of the day. We had really been hoping that the prop for our trolling motor would come in (or alternatively, the news that we could pick up our boat!) before the party, but it didn't happen...dang it!

We had a blast - 16 of our friends and family. Some of them stayed for the whole weekend! Lots of talking, singing, eating and drinking of adult beverages (I wished I owned stock in Budweiser!!)...a good time was had by all! The guys caught a bunch of fish and I caught a baby striper and had to throw it back. Today, a 40 lb catfish washed up on shore...dead. Not sure what killed him, but the guys were disappointed that it wasn't their hooks that killed him!

We made some new friends, welcomed old ones, and spent time with family at our lake house...can life get much better than that? And now, the pictures. Hope you enjoy!

My son, Josh, being...well...Josh!

My boss, Carolyn, and her boyfriend, Steve. To the right is a new friend, Dan.

Our friends, John and Judy

Our friend, Dennis, making a new friend of his own

My ex-brother in law, Joey

My ex-mother in law, Betty (who is probably going to shoot me for putting this up!)

Josh's friend, Spencer

"Papa Scott" and my granddaughter, Alyssa, checking out the day's catch.

"I'm so shy...not!"

No comment.

Dan's wife, Shiela; my daughter, Jennifer; Alyssa, and Betty

Shiela singing karaoke to an appreciative audience

The big one of the day...

...which was actually caught by Joey!

Jennifer, showing a turtle to Alyssa

Josh's dog, named "Quick"

Yesterday (4/8) in Quinlan

High Temperature: 72° F

Low Temperature: 50° F

Precipitation: 0.00 in

Hey, Big Oil!

2006-04-05T22:41:00.000-05:00

Here I am, about to pollute my sweet little blog with politics. Yuck.

Dear Big Oil Companies:

You made billions upon billions of dollars last year. Our combined household income was $100k. Like others, we have house payments, insurance, energy costs, food expenses, and the ever-popular credit card debt.

What the hell is up with a 20 cent increase in gas prices over the course of 4 days? Weren't the billions you made last year enough to give us a little bit of a break? Gas was $2.09 in our area two weeks ago. Today, it's $2.59. I looked - there was no hurricane this time, so what's your justification for raising prices 50 cents in a two week period? Explain to me how your profit lined pockets are more important than the ability for the working people to be able to afford the gas for them to get to work. Please. I'm listening.

Yesterday (4/4) in Quinlan

High Temperature: 78° F

Low Temperature: 51° F

Precipitation: 0.00 in

Backyard

2006-04-02T20:15:00.000-05:00

A ton of work got done around here this weekend. I made significant progress in our laundry room, which has been playing "catch-all" as we put stuff away, and found the tops of both our dressers again - funny how they always seem to end up covered with utter crap.

Scott busted his ass cleaning the backyard this weekend. It was severely overgrown and had been for a number of years. We discovered a few weeks ago that there once was a path from the bottom of the hill to the top, and will eventually restore that, but this weekend's focus was just trying to get it cleaned up enough to tell what was what, and have it look presentable for the housewarming next weekend.

Our yard actually has five different levels. Level one is the patio right outside our guest room, and where I eventually would like to put a hot tub. Then, the yard has three distinct levels, each bordered with railroad ties, which we'll probably have to replace, if we don't do something else with the yard, as they're pretty rotten. Their purpose is/was erosion control, we're sure. The last level is the hill itself.

It turns out we have a 12' x 12' brick patio, that we thought was only about half as wide. We thought the bricks on the other half were broken or missing under all the debris. Nope, all there, and in one piece.

So, here are today's pics.

This was taken from the second level. Behind those two trees used to exist these hideous bushes which were half dead. We think they were originally used to separate that house (shed) from the rest of the yard.

We're not sure what this was supposed to be. It's possible that it was used to hold a statue, or a small table and chairs. It's on the third level.

Although you can't tell from the angle of the picture, this is actually about 12' x 12' square. We didn't know the left half of it was all there and in one piece! This shed and that patio are on the third level.

This was taken from the lower left side of the third level, looking up to the right side of level four.

This was taken from the center right of level three, looking up.

This was taken from the lower right of level one, looking up to the left of level four.

There is still a lot of work to be done, but it looks so much better than it did. It was seriously looking like a jungle.

Does anyone know if Round-Up can be used around here safely?

Finally, I had to drive the Kidlet home today, and passed by the Walmart site. I realize all the negative crap about Walmart, so don't slam me here. But Quinlan is a very small town. If I need to buy anything other than what can be found at the one chain grocery store (which isn't a national chain), then I have to go to Walmart - and the nearest one is 17 miles away. It will be really nice having one here.

Now, I'm off to see what's on the Tivo tonight.

Yesterday (4/1) in Quinlan

High Temperature: 83° F

Low Temperature: 65° F

Precipitation: trace

I want my AC fixed!!!

2006-04-01T19:14:00.000-06:00

Please note that it was 84° F yesterday. I'm not a happy camper :(

Our AC friend is supposed to be out sometime this weekend to recharge the AC (apparently, he did the heat side last time he was here *sigh*). I sure hope he makes it!

Today was spent rediscovering our backyard. There is all kinds of good stuff back there that we weren't aware was there, because it was buried under many years of leaves and dirt. Pics tomorrow.

Yesterday (3/31) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 84° F
Low Temperature: 68° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Just another boring day in paradise

2006-03-30T19:37:00.000-06:00

Haven't posted for the past couple of days because I've actually been off the computer a bit and enjoying our home. Plus, I'm sure you're getting tired of hearing about how wonderful it is here...lol.

Tonight, we had a flock of pelicans in front of the dock and I tried to take pictures, but it was just too dark. But following are a few pics of yet another glorious sunset, and a few that were taken over the weekend, when our friend John and his son Ryan came to visit.

John and Ryan

Ryan, catching a big one!

Scott and Ryan

First boat of the season!

Our cat, Misty

Yesterday (3/29) in Quinlan

High Temperature: 73° F

Low Temperature: 49° F

Precipitation: 0.04 in

Long post :)

2006-03-25T20:32:00.000-06:00

There are about 60 homes in this community. Most of the full-time residents are older. We have a few teenagers and a handful of small kids, but young couples are definitely the minority. Many of the residents have stopped by at one time or another to introduce themselves, and that's really strange, since after living on 2 acres in Combine for 2.5 years, and apartment living prior to that for the previous 7.5, we're not used to having neighbors talking to us. It's a whole new experience and quite pleasant.

Today was utterly gorgeous outside. The lake was smooth as glass, the temperature was 64 degrees. People were outside working on their homes, or just enjoying the beautiful day.

We received some good news and bad news today. The bad news is that our AC unit has a leak, we just don't know yet how bad the leak is. The unit, which is a heat pump, will definitely need to be replaced within the next five years, and probably sooner than later. Not happy about that, but not surprised. We'll have to decide whether to buy another heat pump or a traditional furnace. The heat pump is supposed to be more efficient, but they have a shorter use life. They are also more expensive than a traditional furnace.

The good news is that we may be getting a boat pretty soon, and at a hell of a price. I don't want to go into details right now, and I sure don't want to get my hopes up, but if this goes through, I'll fill you in later. Cross your fingers for us!

This wasn't supposed to be a photoblog, but it sure seems to be turning out that way! I just can't help it - everything here lends itself to being photographed. And since this blog is read by many family members and friends who either don't live nearby....oh, wait, nevermind - that's everybody, since nobody lives nearby!!

I love sharing this part of my life. I love living here. Life on the lake is different. The air is cooler (well, right now anyway) and smells differently than city air. Spring has sprung, and everything is turning green. The view we saw last year when we initially signed the contract to buy this house is reappearing - if you don't know, we signed the contract on 7/31 - summer, with everything lush and green - but didn't actually move in until 12/18 - winter, and everything was bare and brown.

So, that said, here are the current pictures from Lake Tawakoni!

As you can see, everything is turning green. This is our home.

Just a vulture - but I think they're beautiful in flight.

My favorite photographic topic :)

And yet another sunset. Are you sick of them yet??

Yesterday (3/24) in Quinlan

High Temperature: 56° F

Low Temperature: 30° F

Precipitation: 0.00 in

A quiet day

2006-03-24T19:20:00.000-06:00

It appears that our plants survived the low temps last night...thank goodness!

The lake is calm and quiet tonight, so we're thinking the fish won't be jumping on the lines the way they have been the past few days.

Tomorrow morning will be spent cleaning house as we're having a bunch of guys over to...you guessed it...FISH!

I'm almost completely caught up on 6 weeks worth of soaps...only about 8 days to go, and I should have those knocked out by the end of the weekend. So, my question now is...what will I do next?

Yesterday (3/23) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 43° F
Low Temperature: 31° F
Precipitation: 0.03 in

The biggest one yet!

2006-03-23T19:57:00.000-06:00

I simply cannot keep Scott away from the lake! I don't mind too much though, it gives me time to watch my soaps ;)

However, it has paid off. Following are pictures of his largest catch to date, and a few of the smaller ones he's caught this week. He had to clean these and get them soaking in milk, preparing them for freezing.

This guy weighed 15 lbs!

Scott's had a good week of fishing!

It's supposed to freeze tonight. We discussed it and are taking a caculated risk of not covering the plants, since they made it through last night, and it dipped to 36, with a real feel of 21. I don't know if actual temperature is worse than real feel temperature as far as the plants are concerned, or if real feel is enough to do damage. I guess we'll find out. Prayers being cheerfully accepted for my poor little plants!

Yesterday (3/22) in Quinlan

High Temperature: 52° F

Low Temperature: 36° F

Precipitation: 0.00 in

Last lake post, I promise!

2006-03-22T16:29:00.000-06:00

I'm sure you're all tired of hearing about the lake, but it really has been amazing for this girl who comes from concrete and city noises, to watch the transformation of the lake and our community as Spring is breaking.

Here are some pictures that I took last night, with the lake still filling - although it does seem to have stopped now.

First, is the catfish Scott caught yesterday. He thinks it's around 10 lbs., and is his biggest to date.

The water is now about 30 feet from the shoreline.

Remember the neighbor's dock which is being built? The short poles are almost completely under water on the right (back) - and completely submerged on the left (front).

If you go look at that pictures on 3/19 again, in the distance you can see a barge pointing into the lake, and is completely grounded. It's now moved 90 degrees. I'm sure hoping it's anchored down!

Yesterday (3/21) in Quinlan

High Temperature: 56° F

Low Temperature: 39° F

Precipitation: 0.00 in

City Bees

2006-03-21T21:18:00.000-06:00

Every once in awhile I come across a blog that catches my interest. To me, the only way to read a blog is from back to front, since new posts come out on top.

I just finished reading a blog from back to front, and found it fascinating. It is called City Bees. It is imformative and well written. While this beekeeper is very serious about her colonies, she approaches her writing with a sense of humor. There's some scientific stuff that may bog you down if you're not interested in beekeeping - but at the same time, I read every word of it - and being allergic to bees, I have no interest at all in beekeeping.

Anyway, I encourage you to check her out.

~~~~~~~~~

A very cool day in Dallas, but crisp and clear. No sign of the rains. The lake came up a little more since last night, but not a lot. Sorry, no pictures of it today - maybe tomorrow.

Yesterday (3/20) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 72° F
Low Temperature: 47° F
Precipitation: 0.22 in

After the rains...

2006-03-20T19:09:00.000-06:00

First, please take just a moment of respect for Xin Du, a student at SMU, who lost her life in Dallas last night, because of the flooding at Turtle Creek. Her friend, however, was rescued, in a very amazing story.

Dallas received 9" of rain yesterday, while we received 3.68" yesterday and a total of 5" over the weekend. For the first time in a long time, the Trinity River basin is full, as you can see here.

What did all of this rain do for us? Scott went out at about 7:00 this morning because he realized he needed to move his poles which, yesterday, were about 10 feet from the water's edge. You can see in the picture he took that that was no longer true.

He turned around and took a picture from the water, looking towards our dock and the road, to show how far up the water had gotten. The gray at the back of the picture is our rock retaining wall. As you can see, it was pretty muddy, but the water really hadn't gotten too far up.

These pictures were taken at 11:00. As you can see, the water came up the bank several feet.

These pictures were taken at 6:30. Go take a look at the picture I posted yesterday, of our neighbor's dock that is being built. I'll wait. Notice where the water line is. I took that picture around 3pm. This is what it looks like now.

The poles on the far right of the picture are the last set of tall ones, closest to the shore.

The poles on the left side of the picture are the last set of tall ones.

And then, we got a gorgeous sunset!

We still need at least another 5-10" of rain though, but spread over a couple of weeks would be nice, rather than a couple of days.

And while it was a little difficult with the grass being wet, Scott was able to get the lawn mowed! We apparently have a lot of wild onion in the lawn, because we could smell it when he got done. (I still want to just tear the whole thing up and lay down sod!)

Yesterday (3/19) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 52° F
Low Temperature: 49° F
Precipitation: 3.68 in

And what a storm it's been!

2006-03-19T14:57:00.000-06:00

As I'm looking outside right now, the sky is almost pitch black at 3pm. It's been raining since Friday night. The lake has come up several inches, covering a minimum of 5 feet of the beach. I say that because we had a log placed 5 feet from the water's edge, and it's now getting covered.

In the past 24 hours, we've gotten 3.71" of rain, according to Accuweather.com. Weehaw!

A few pictures. This first one is our neighbor's dock, which is being built. Putting it here for reference purposes.

My fishing addict was positive that the fishing would be great today. I guess he was right!

Yesterday (3/18) in Quinlan

High Temperature: 55° F

Low Temperature: 50° F

Precipitation: 1.19 in

Aren't they adorable?!

2006-03-18T09:31:00.000-06:00

Here's a picture that was taken at Christmas of me with my grandbabies (ugh...I still can't believe I'm a grandmother - three times over!!). I just got the picture yesterday, so I'm sharing ;)

It's an overcast day at Tawakoni - we had a nice light storm overnight. Scott's convinced the fish will be biting...so he's out with his poles. After some light housekeeping duties, I intend to veg all day - later!

Yesterday (3/17) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 67° F
Low Temperature: 45° F
Precipitation: 0.05 in

Happy Birthday Husband, Glad You're Home!

2006-03-17T20:48:00.000-06:00

Dear Scott:

I hope this was a good birthday for you! You already commented happily on the fact that so many people called you today to wish you a happy birthday, and that you got two birthday cards in the mail. It was also very nice having dinner out with our neighbors...they're really nice people. And I know you'll love your present from me ;)

But the best part for me, is the fact that you're back in our home! This place was just an empty shell while you were gone. Since it's supposed to rain all weekend, I guess we'll just have to find something to do inside!

Yesterday (3/16) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 78° F
Low Temperature: 55° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Yay, it's Thursday!!

2006-03-16T11:18:00.000-06:00

Why am I excited about it being Thursday?

Payday!
Last day Scott is on call!
Almost Friday!
Going singing tonight!

I realized this morning, at 6:30 a.m., while I was out watering the gardens, that I have officially become a homeowner. That kind of dedication doesn't come easily...specially for someone who is running late for work ;)

Yesterday (3/15) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 67° F
Low Temperature: 43° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Having fun with Blogshares

2006-03-15T19:47:00.000-06:00

Blogshares is a fantasy stock market, where you buy and sell shares of blogs. I've been a member since 2/22, and I'm just finally starting to get the hang of the game (thank you, BB!) - it's a lot more fun when you know what you're doing.

You start with $500, and through trading, I'm now up to $2.3 BILLION...woohoo! Now, if I could only get my hands on a tenth of that in real cash, I'd be one happy camper! ;)

Anyway, consider checking it out... http://blogshares.com/?referer=43859

Yesterday (3/14) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 66° F
Low Temperature: 39° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Birthdays Galore :)

2006-03-14T19:24:00.000-06:00

March 4th started an avalance of birthdays, and I get insane trying to remember them all, so I'm putting them here. I lost all the birthdays when my computer crashed a couple of months ago...thank God for the birthday alarm for most of them!

March 4 is my step-mother's birthday (and I forgot it!!). March 12 is my mother's birthday, and March 14 is my father's (Happy Birthday to you all!)

March 17 is Scott's birthday, March 19 is my friend Stacey's birthday, and March 21 is my friend Felicia's birthday.

March 26 is my son's birthday (26...OMG!) and March 28 is my daughter's birthday (24...OMG!)

I'm sure I've probably missed a couple.

Other than realizing that I've been a flake again for another year on birthdays, it has been a boring week! I really miss Scott, who is still staying in town. He'll be home Friday night, but I'm planning on spending Thursday night in town with him. But, at least I've had a great opportunity to get nearly caught up on my soaps ;)

Yesterday (3/13) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 74° F
Low Temperature: 47° F
Precipitation: 0.07 in

Yesterday (3/12) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 87° F
Low Temperature: 69° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Uh...is there an A/C guy out there?

2006-03-12T19:05:00.000-06:00

It's been warm here the past couple of days...really warm, since our A/C does not seem to be cooling the place. Fan is running, I can hear it, but I don't feel any air. For the first time, I can hear the fan running on my PC and the weather center we have set up says it's 84 in the house.

Can you say ka-ching?! I'm afraid, very afraid.

Yesterday (3/11) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 83° F
Low Temperature: 68° F
Precipitation: trace

Friday

2006-03-11T17:16:00.000-06:00

We stayed in Plano last night, since Scott is on call this week. He'll be staying at a hotel there all week and it's way too quiet here today! We went out and sang karaoke at this place in McKinney called "Big Tony's"...and it was about what you'd expect. It's a restaurant/bar with cheesy equipment but it was ok, until the DJ decided to take a break and played 5 hip-hop songs in a row...I can handle one or two, but five was 2 too many, so we left.

And of all the weeks for Scott not to be home - our "grass", such as it is - is almost two feet tall in places! It's mostly weeds though, and will still look terrible when it's mowed. I'd like to plow the whole thing under and put in sod...I'll be looking into the price.

In the meantime, the rest of the garden is doing well.

Jonah is settling in nicely to his new home...they just love him, and for that I'm glad. They let him have full house privileges yesterday while they were at work and other than chewing the faux fur off one of my friend's jackets (*gulp*) and dragging a frying pan (??) to her kids' bedrooms, they said he did really well. No "accidents" and I was very worried about that, since he hasn't always been reliable as far as his housetraining. The first night he was there, he tried to climb into bed with them, but last night, laid on the floor all night like a good boy. I think it's going to be just fine :)

Yesterday (3/10) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 83° F
Low Temperature: 50° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Yesterday (3/9) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 71° F
Low Temperature: 53° F
Precipitation: 0.69 in

Of tails and twisters

2006-03-09T20:49:00.000-06:00

Three little girls came bouncing out of a car, and saw Jonah at the same time he saw them. They met somewhere in the middle and Jonah was one happy dog. He got a little overexcited, but I think it's going to be just fine. When it was time to leave, the dog (who I always had to partially lift into the car) jumped into the front seat of my friend's car without even being asked.

I think he's going to be a much happier dog :)

~~~~~

Last night, we had a helluva storm here - thunder and lightening everywhere! It hit us hardest around 4:30 a.m., but had knocked out the power twice before that, like after 1:00 a.m. Around 5:00 a.m., we got nearly an inch of rain. The rain didn't last long though, only about 40 minutes. But the damage around here from the wind was significant - trees were down and a child's 2 story playhouse was knocked over! Scott swears when he was sitting on the steps at 4:30 a.m., he saw a small twister coming across the lake, sound of a freight-train and all!

Yesterday (3/8) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 77° F
Low Temperature: 64° F
Precipitation: 0.05 in

Jonah

2006-03-08T19:59:00.000-06:00

We got Jonah as a 6 month old puppy in October of last year, thinking that we were going to be moving any day.

He's now almost a year old, and has to be crated during the day while we're at work (no fenced yard), and then goes down to the lake with Scott after we get home. But he's simply not getting enough "out of crate" time. A friend at work was talking about wanting a dog, and I told her about Jonah, and that if she was interested in him, I'd talk to Scott - who has been asking for the past two weeks that I do something about the dog. Scott agreed.

I was going to sign him up for obedience classes, but frankly, we live 30 miles from the nearest place for classes - and I can't stand the idea of making the drive home, picking up the dog, and then driving back in to town, spend an hour working with the dog, and then driving 30 miles home for 6 weeks. We half-assed looked into residential training (where they keep the dog for a certain time period and return to you a perfectly trained dog), but while the cost is reasonable, it's too much for us to invest in a dog right now. I thought we'd be able to fix the yard where he could be outside all day, but it'd require more work and money than we can put out there right now.

So, the friend and her family will be picking Jonah up tomorrow night and taking him for the weekend to see if it's a good fit.

I'm sad, but I honestly think this is the best thing for him. He'll have a fenced yard, and 3 kids to play with - that should settle him down fast. He's too hyper right now from not getting enough time to run and play, except on the weekends.

I admit it - I haven't made enough of a commitment to this dog to go out of my way for 6 weeks and get him trained - and for that I'm ashamed.

Yesterday (3/7) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 78° F
Low Temperature: 57° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

More photos - "In progress"

2006-03-07T18:34:00.000-06:00

Scott's getting home from work late tonight, and there's no way I'd attempt to finish this job without him, but I did want to get some pictures up of the work in progress.

The upper bed has tulips, oriental lilies, one calla lily, and two Stargazer lilies. Only the tulips are blooming.

Another picture of the same bed. The lower bed has nothing but two varieties of caladium bulbs.

The pond - still in progress. We'll be filling in all the "holes" with Mondo Grass.
This pond sits where the tree used to be.

Another view of the pond. It has a waterfall in it, that falls over the rocks.

This is the circular bed that lines our driveway. Those plants are lamb's ear and
have already doubled in size since we planted them on Sunday.
It's a rapid grower, so this should be filled in soon.

More later!

Yesterday (3/6) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 77° F
Low Temperature: 53° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Photo Day

2006-03-06T19:55:00.000-06:00

Scott went to check his fishing lines this morning and found a heron tangled up in one of them! He had to bring the bird up to the house to cut it loose. It took the procedure very calmly, and thank God, the hook didn't get him! I got a few pictures. I wanted to leave them big so we don't lose any detail, so follow these links to see them. If it asks for a password, it's "helen". You'll have to press the back button on your browser to return to this page.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b127/honey4evr/3-6-06/100_1084.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b127/honey4evr/3-6-06/100_1087.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b127/honey4evr/3-6-06/100_1090.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b127/honey4evr/3-6-06/100_1091.jpg

We didn't have time to work on the yard tonight, so we'll get finished tomorrow and I'll take some "after" shots. But here are some of the "before" shots.

Scott digging out the circular flower bed

Front view of the house "before"

This is the circular bed. The black hose at the bottom of the picture is our gray line. I planted elephant ears there to cover it up.

Scott digging out the tree. You can see some of the tulips I planted.

Another of Scott digging out the tree.

Yesterday (3/5) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 71° F
Low Temperature: 56° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

I'm soooo tired!!

2006-03-05T19:50:00.000-06:00

It has been an exhausting weekend! But we have three new flower beds, one less tree, and a new pond! There is still one flower bed to do, which the plants are already bought for, and one flower bed to do that we had completely forgotten about...LOL.

And idiot that I can sometimes be, I didn't get "before" pictures of the majority of the work! I did get some though, and will post them with the "after" pictures in a day or two...you won't believe the difference!

In between doing all of this digging and planting, which we started Saturday morning, I had to run Shannon to her mom's Saturday afternoon, and then go pick her back up a couple of hours later, and on Sunday, we had to run out to Scott's mom's (70 miles away!), come back 40 miles and take Shannon to her church (visiting Lowe's and Home Depot while she was in church), come home and do more digging and planting.

The lawn itself still looks like hell, because we need to buy a new lawn mower, but the coffers are tapped for this week. Hopefully, we can get one next weekend.

Yesterday (3/4) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 71° F
Low Temperature: 49° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Guest room 90% finished

2006-03-04T08:27:00.000-06:00

Scott added extra shelves to the bookshelves in the guestroom, and new bedding has been put on the bed (the yellow in the previous photos was my old bedding). There is one more shelf to install in the "closet", which will be above the hanger bar and a TV installed. Then we'll need to figure out how to enclose the closet itself. These are tasks that won't be finished for a couple of months, but I wanted to show the 90% finished room.

Today's task is supposed to be clearing out the flower beds that circle our driveway. Right now they are filled with weeds and bushes that I can't stand. I think we'll be putting down some type of flowering ground cover.

Yesterday (3/3) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 73° F
Low Temperature: 51° F
Precipitation: trace

Housewarming?

2006-03-02T19:29:00.001-06:00

Scott is ready to have our housewarming - or at least, start planning it. I'm not sure we're ready. Our yard is trashed. The previous owners had two trees cut out of the front (for which we could cheerfully beat them to death), so there are two very large holes out there which need to be filled. There are brick planters in front of the porch which need to be either repaired or torn down. The driveways need work - they are wayyyy steep and my car bottoms out every time I pull in - but if we wait until they're fixed to have the housewarming, we'll be ready to retire!

Of course, Scott says if we set the date, then he'll be pressured to get these projects done...and admittedly, he is pretty good about that! :)

So, I guess we'll figure out the date this weekend.

Yesterday (3/1) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 85° F
Low Temperature: 59° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

One of the hardest things

2006-03-01T21:09:00.000-06:00

Scott's mom is 63 years old. She has lupus, Sjögren's syndrome, fibromyalgia, and has broken her hip once, and had two heart attacks. As you can imagine, with all that going on, she has many doctor's appointments.

About 18 months ago, she had a small fender bender in Scott's car. It only cost us $572, but it was rather scary because she stated that she had "nodded off". At that point, we suggested that she didn't drive, and finally ended up with the car at our house (we had pretty much given it to her but it was still in Scott's name).

She's been fussing about getting the car back because Scott's been taking her to doctor's appointments, but his job has gotten so busy lately, that he's had to have her cancel several appointments. So tonight, we took the car over there and had her do a test drive with Scott in the car. When they got back, Scott told her he didn't want her driving...she had scared him, and he doesn't scare easily.

Needless to say, she was pretty upset. Our vehicles are our independence - and we were taking her's away. Nevermind that she hadn't driven in 18 months - it's the principle of the thing.

It's deeply disturbing to us to have to do this to her, but the risks are enormous. She lives in Arlington - a community well known for it's disproportionately high number of accidents. In fact, I was watching the news while they did the test drive - and out of the six accidents they showed, five of them were in Arlington...where she lives. It would be bad enough to have her injured in an accident, or God forbid, killed in one, but we would have to live with the guilt forever, if she hurt or killed someone else.

It is not at all easy to reach this point, where the child has to parent their parents. She's not going to be able to live by herself too terribly much longer, and because we're so far out in the country, having her live with us is probably not an option. Assisted living is probably the best way to go, but she's very resistent.

This is definitely one of the hardest things to go through!

Because we just got home a short while ago, my goals for tonight were shot - and now I'm bummed on top of it.

Goals for March

2006-03-01T12:18:00.000-06:00

Finish cleaning up the junk out of storage and reclaim office.
Lose 10 lbs. *gulp*
Get Jonah put into obedience classes before we kill him.
Clear out the front flower beds and replant something.

Hm...That should wear me out!

To do tonight:

Clean out car
Walk 1 mile.

Yesterday (2/28) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 80° F
Low Temperature: 52° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Isn't it beautiful?!

2006-02-28T19:12:00.000-06:00

This is the new design and I absolutely love it! Cat did a terrific job, considering I gave her very little to go on. I highly recommend her and Blog-Togs, should you want to have a personalized skin added to your blog. Just a side note is that the money you pay to her for the work is partly donated to charity!! It doesn't get any better than that :)

Tonight, this was our view:

It was an utterly beautiful day...it's 76 degrees as I write this. Of course, it's February 28, and we really need winter to continue a bit longer - and we really need some rain. We're supposed to get more later in the week. The "oldtimers" around here say we need at least 8" of rain to bring the lake back up. When it does, the beach in the picture above won't exist.

Yesterday (2/27) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 71° F
Low Temperature: 38° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Site undergoing changes

2006-02-27T21:56:00.000-06:00

I've contracted Blog-Togs to redesign the site. They've done work for me before and they're great...I'm positive it will look wonderful :)

Then, maybe I can actually find something to talk about!

Yesterday (2/26) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 61° F
Low Temperature: 36° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

A visit to West Tawakoni

2006-02-26T22:44:00.000-06:00

Last night, we went to West Tawakoni, looking for a place to sing. We found a good sized bar called Jackie's Joint. Initially, I wasn't too impressed, since when I asked for a glass of white zinfandel, the bartender had to send the owner to the store to buy some. *gulp* There were only about 5 people in the place.

But after the singing got started, the place started filling up, and we ended up having a good time. We sang three times in about 3 hours, and enjoyed the others singing in between (always helpful). Yours truly ended up with a pretty good buzz. ;)

Today was spent putting up the rest of my books (Scott put up two additional shelves on each of the two bookshelves in the guestroom), and more sorting out of the crap that came out of storage. I managed to empty two boxes today, which is a lot of progress, considering both boxes were filled with papers which needed to be sorted, filed, or disposed of. OK, I admit it, the sun was shining today and it was warmish, so I did spend a little time down at the lake...so, sue me ;)

Yesterday (2/25) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 56° F
Low Temperature: 47° F
Precipitation: 1.61 in

Meeting new neighbors

2006-02-25T17:31:00.000-06:00

Last night, we were invited to a birthday party at our next door neighbor's house. This is the guy that has spent a bloody fortune rebuilding the house. We met several of the neighbors on the other side of them. Nice people, but I can see that it's gonna be wild here in the summer...those people can slam down the alcohol. We went over there at 5:45 and by 8:30, we were pleasantly buzzed. We've been told repeatedly that this is party central in the summer...I can see it's true ;)

We're going out tonight to see if we can't find some place to sing karaoke. We may end up at the Scoreboard in Rockwall, where they have singers so good that I get intimidated! I hate bar hopping, but I think that the best way for us to find a place to sing is to start at one end of the strip, and work our way to the other end. Then we'll know what's out there.

I need to go burn down some music....ta!

Yesterday (2/24) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 65° F
Low Temperature: 43° F
Precipitation: 0.49 in

The sounds of silence

2006-02-23T21:43:00.000-06:00

It was wonderful coming home tonight and hearing not a sound. It's been weeks since we've been alone for more than a few hours...I can even walk nekkid around my house! ;)

Hey, I'm looking to add links to my side bar, so if you'd like an exchange, let me know!

Yesterday (2/22) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 51° F
Low Temperature: 42° F
Precipitation: 0.01 in

Shades of gray

2006-02-22T16:22:00.000-06:00

I've discovered one thing about living on a lake in the winter...everything around us is colored in shades of gray. The water, the sky, the clouds...everything.

It's dismal outside - been drizzling all day, along with some light fog. But, then, there is this :)

Yesterday (2/21) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 46° F
Low Temperature: 36° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Brrrrrrr!

2006-02-21T20:40:00.000-06:00

I'm ready for it to be warm again! ;)

Yesterday (2/20) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 39° F
Low Temperature: 29° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Happy President's Day

2006-02-20T17:21:00.000-06:00

I wish I had remembered to post the weather for Saturday. It was freezing cold all day. Yesterday, I drove a 60 mile round-trip and the ice never melted off my side mirror. All the flowers who were confused and bloomed last week are now dead :(

Yesterday (2/19) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 30° F
Low Temperature: 27° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Despite the freezing temps, we went Saturday and got the remainder of our stuff out of our storage unit - glad that expense is out of our lives! Now comes the hard part - finding a home for the rest of the stuff. I either have to find a place for it (and there aren't many "places" in this house), or it is put on ebay, or tossed. A small portion can be kept in the "guest house" (ha!) for now, but eventually, the choices will be the same - may as well pull the band-aid off at once, so to speak.

So, I've spent today, a holiday from work, doing nothing but sorting out boxes, throwing some stuff away, organizing others, sorting through ages old bills, and listing a couple of things on half.com. Got rid of some of the crap, but not nearly enough.

I think I really need to think about whether I really want to do the ebay thing with all this crap or just give it to a thrift shop. Hmmm.

Mother in law is still staying with us, but is going home Thursday. Thank God - We've only been alone in this house for ONE week since we moved in!!!

Its.Freaking.Cold!!

2006-02-18T17:12:00.000-06:00

Fun is NOT getting stuff out of a storage unit 30 miles away when it's sleeting and 27° F!

Fun is NOT having your livingroom full of boxes because it's too damn cold to trot your ass up a hill to the storage shed.

This week in February in any year in Texas = NOT fun!

Currently at 5:10 PM
light fog
Temperature: 27° F
RealFeel®: 14° F
Winds: N at 13 mph (across a lake creating wet wind)

Yesterday (2/17) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 44° F
Low Temperature: 35° F
Precipitation: 0.11 in

Photo Day

2006-02-17T18:45:00.000-06:00

This is me painting the guest room - not the most flattering picture in the world!

This is one of the catfish Scott caught - he was so proud!

The nearly finished guest room:

These bookshelves will eventually have two more shelves added on each bookshelf, and a shelf will be placed just above the hanger bar, and a TV placed on it.

The beautiful afghan on the bed was made by my online friend, Elizabeth, as a housewarming gift. Thank you, Elizabeth!!

And finally, a couple of pictures of the sunset over the lake.

Happy birthday!

2006-02-17T05:36:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday to my darling daughter, Kristi, who is 24 today. I feel so old...lol.

Work progresses on the dock. Scott's son, Travis, is helping him, and yesterday Travis got his truck and trailer stuck in the mud trying to bring in the poles which support the dock. Travis loves to go mudding, but I don't think that was his intent this time! And of course, this happens while I'm at work and can't take pictures of it!

It was 80 degrees yesterday and it's currently 38 with a "real feel" of 28 - and it's getting colder today instead of warmer. I'm really glad I didn't give in to the urge to put my plants outside! It's supposed to be 31 by 5:00, and then to make things really interesting, it's supposed to rain and ice overnight, hovering around 30-32 all day tomorrow.

Gotta love Texas. Don't like the weather? Just hang around for 15 minutes...it'll change ;)

Yesterday (2/16) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 80° F
Low Temperature: 42° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Not much happening

2006-02-16T10:32:00.000-06:00

Yesterday (2/15) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 76° F
Low Temperature: 54° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

What happened to winter??

2006-02-15T08:09:00.000-06:00

It was 70 yesterday, and today it's supposed to be 80! I see flowers blooming all over our neighborhood...sad, since we're headed for a cold snap this weekend! :(

Yesterday (2/14) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 70° F
Low Temperature: 35° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Happy Valentine's Day!

2006-02-14T12:08:00.000-06:00

Scott is cooking me dinner tonight to show me how much he loves me. I think he's a better cook than I am, so I'm always thrilled when he cooks!

Because he had to stay home today to meet with his mother's home health care worker, he undertook rearranging our offices....his will be mine and mine will be his. I need more room than he does and where I was sitting just didn't work. I felt like a turtle, trying to live in a tiny little shell. He's also putting the TIVO in our bedroom so I can watch my soaps while I'm working - yes...soaps. They are my dirty little secret! ;)

Yesterday (2/13) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 58° F
Low Temperature: 21° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Monday, 2/13/06

2006-02-13T10:08:00.000-06:00

Tonight, Scott's mom is coming to stay with us for a week while she recooperates from her recent hospital stay.

It looks like this weekend's big project will be installing new poles for our boat dock!

Yesterday (2/12) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 58° F
Low Temperature: 24° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Busy day!

2006-02-12T19:38:00.000-06:00

Today we went to storage and picked up the majority of our stuff and brought it home. Believe it or not, we actually found a place to put just about everything we brought home! We then spent the rest of the day touching up the paint in the guest room, putting my books up on the built-in bookshelves, and doing decorative touches. It looks pretty nice! We've got a few more decorating things to do in there, but it's pretty much done. Will post some pictures tomorrow.

Yesterday (2/11) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 45° F
Low Temperature: 30° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Today's work

2006-02-11T15:57:00.000-06:00

Every weekend since we've moved in, a project has been worked on. The work accomplished so far has been:

Wall knocked out between our bedroom and the bedroom next to it, creating one large bedroom/dressing area/office. New paint, carpet and tile throughout the two rooms. New blinds hung. Scott and Shannon did this one.

Guest bedroom painted from it's original pepto-pink with neon green and lavendar trim to seafoam blue with white trim. New blinds hung. Our friend Ed, Shannon, and I did this one.

Boat house cleaned out and dock rewired. Scott and Ed got this done.

Now, before you say it doesn't sound like I did much, please remember that I'm 9 years older than my husband, and somebody has to cook, clean the house and do the laundry while the other work is getting done. I've never enjoyed housework more! ;-)

So, today, Scott and I began work on this little project:

When we first saw the house, I thought this would make a cute little guest room - with a bit of work, of course. Everything you see inside that door was left by the previous owners for us to clean up. This picture was taken last August, and if anything, the mess was worse. So, we emptied out that shed, cut back the English Ivy, swept everything, and prepared it to be used as a storage shed for now, until we are ready both physically and financially to begin the remodelling work.

Our house sits on 1.02 acres of land, with most of the land being in the back, past this shed. I don't know how much you can see in the picture below, but it goes up a hill quite aways. Since even before we moved in, I've wanted to go to the top of the property and see how it looked, so today we hiked up to the top of the hill. Unfortunately, I didn't think about bringing my camera, because the view was awesome. The hill is high enough that the view clears our rooftop and is unobstructed out to the lake. Scott ultimately wants to put a deck up there.

The little rain we got yesterday didn't do much for us, except to clear the air. Tonight will be a full moon, but it is very cold out there, so I don't think we'll be sitting outside looking at it.

Yesterday (2/10) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 55° F
Low Temperature: 36° F
Precipitation: 0.12 in

Let it rain!

2006-02-10T08:56:00.000-06:00

When we originally signed the contract on our house in July of 2005, the lake looked like - well, a lake. The water came up to the boat dock the way it should, and we had no beach at all.

August, 2005

By the time we actually moved into our house in December, 2005, we had 100 feet of beach!

(Facing away from the lake)

Lakes are measured in surface acre feet. Last March (2005), Tawakoni held 900,000 surface acre feet of water. Today, it holds 600,000. While it's really nice to have a beach to walk on and run Jonah on, it would be nicer to have the water!

Needless to say, when we hear that we may get rain, we're thrilled beyond belief! Last weekend, we got 4" of rain (or so I'm told), but the ground is so dry that it did nothing for the lake, although it did get the burn ban lifted.

It's raining today and I'm begging, pleading, and bargaining with the weather gods to bring it on and dump as much on us as possible!! The weather is supposed to be really cold this weekend (February in Dallas is always nasty) so let it rain!!

Yesterday (2/9) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 62° F
Low Temperature: 35° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Life at the Lake

2006-02-09T18:12:00.000-06:00

On July 31, 2005, we signed a contract to purchase a house on Lake Tawakoni, in Quinlan, Texas. After living through the escrow from hell, with sellers who should have been drawn and quartered, tarred and feathered, and tied to chairs to watch 138 consecutive hours of American Idol auditions, we finally closed on November 18, 2005 and moved into our new home on December 18, 2005.

So, who are "we"? We are Scott and Helen, a couple who have been married since July 11, 2004. We have one Labrador Retriever named Jonah; one cat, named Misty; one cockatiel, named Sammy; one Quaker Parrot, named Katie; and one Senegal Parrot, named Ozzie.

We have five children between us - Scott has two, Helen has three. All of the kids are adults, except for Shannon, Scott's 15 year old daughter, who visits us on alternating weekends. Scott is an elevator mechanic, and Helen is a legal secretary. We both work in Dallas, Texas, which is about an hour's drive from our home in some of the worst traffic you can imagine...weehaw. Helen is a city girl, while Scott loves the country, but neither of us have ever lived at the lake, so this will be a new experience for us.

We'll be remodelling the house, redesigning the yards and, of course, fishing! Hope you'll come back and visit us from time to time!

Tawakoni Tales

*tap tap* Is this thing on?

Traylor Family Reunion Info

Colleen, please contact

At last!

OK…the journey continues…or does it?

Bittersweet

*Sigh*

April was such a bad month....

A passing

Bad and sad news

We're still alive :)

Killing God??

Please take a moment...

A picture says a thousand words....

Whew...busy summer!

And today's word is...

Rusty

Sheesh!

Well, that was interesting!

We got rain!

A few pics

This wasn't how I planned to spend my day...

Life is great!

More rain!

What a strange week it's been!

Scheduled for surgery!

Just a little behind!

Certified Texan

Another season

Too many pictures!

Is Summer gone?

Jonah's home!

It's been awhile...

Whew!

A really strange day!

BBQ/4th of July

Photo Day

Updating

How does my garden grow?

No more vacation :(

Dixie Chicks

Photo update

Actual Nature!

I know, I know...

I just can't help it!

Another weekend gone by...

Another weekend at Tawakoni

Updates

John comes to visit

Sunset

On the water

Housewarming

Hey, Big Oil!

Backyard

I want my AC fixed!!!

Just another boring day in paradise

Long post :)

A quiet day

The biggest one yet!

Last lake post, I promise!

City Bees

After the rains...

And what a storm it's been!

Aren't they adorable?!

Happy Birthday Husband, Glad You're Home!

Yay, it's Thursday!!

Having fun with Blogshares

Birthdays Galore :)

Uh...is there an A/C guy out there?

Friday

Of tails and twisters

Jonah

More photos - "In progress"

Photo Day

I'm soooo tired!!

Guest room 90% finished

Housewarming?

One of the hardest things

Goals for March

tap tap Is this thing on?

Sigh