biscuit's perspective...

Before My Sweet Hubby (MSH) and I got sick, we had picked up Little Leighton (aka LL aka Biscuit) from her Mama and Baby Elle at a Target store in Colleyville last Friday. (Or Euless. Or Grapevine. I have no clue what the town is—they all run together over there in the Big Metroplex.) We brought her home with us for two nights.

Friday afternoon, I took her into our beauty shop for a trim of her bangs. (We love our Ms. Deb—Biscuit’s Fabulous Hairdesigner!)

After the cut and chat, we went to a FUN store owned by a precious friend of mine (and TLC’s) to purchase a surprise for TLC. She’d commented on FB a couple of days prior that she loved a certain blouse/top this little boutique/shop/salon had pictured. I knew when I saw what she said, LL and I would have to go purchase it for her! (TLC was, by the way, quite surprised when LL gave it to her Sunday! Or, was she? Hmmm…)

Saturday morn, we spent four (4!) hours outside! We stayed in our jammies the entire time. Well, Biscuit and Grammy did. Not Pa-Pa. It drives him NuTs when we do this. We’re on 33 acres out in the country. No one but the buzzards and birds can see us.  We simply don’t care. (Winky. Wink.)

Pa-Pa took LL out to see The Hope Tree (and see my recent post on October 18th to explain this...). He’s holding her because there are lots and lots of weeds and wildflowers in that area—possibly fireants and chiggers. We aren’t allowed, as per TLC, to take any chances with LL, in terms of getting insect bites or poison ivy or oak. I completely get it. (Twice in the past 18 months, LL and her Grammy have been bitten by evil chiggers. We’ve been shocked that it happened and in complete misery for two days each incident. We risk this possibility NO MORE. Period. End of Story.)

After two or three trips in and out of the house, LL put two of her “babies” in a stroller—filled her diaper bag—and brought them out for some good ole’ country fresh air.

Yes. That is LL pulling her babies/her stroller in her wagon. We don’t question her choices. At least, not most of them.

We had a lovely, leisurely lunch outside on the back patio (prepared by our own Chef Pa-Pa). We decided it was time to head in and rest. We watched a little Princess Elena on Disney JR, and then got ready to go to a school “Fall Festival Carnival.”

The school in our little community is for kids from K to Grade 8. I’d guess it’s probably about 150 that attend. It’s a truly charming country school. Great teachers and parents. TLC was too old to go there when we moved out here. She was in 10^th grade. But we live less than two miles from it and see it every time we leave our home for our (bigger/close by) town or the Metroplex, etc. We’re proud of it! MSH and I had never been to the Carnival. We felt confident, however, LL would have a great time.

We found a great parking spot in front of the school and the place to buy our tickets (for all of the games). At which point, LL refused to go in. She saw a “Skeleton” at the main door and had a total meltdown. It was quite sad.

Grammy: LL, do you want to go back home?

LL: No. (Said terribly pitifully, through many tears.)
Grammy: Well, then, can we go in?
LL: No.
Pa-Pa: Biscuit, if we aren’t going in, we need to go home.
LL: NO, PA-PA…I don’t want to go home!

Sigh.

This went on for almost twenty minutes. It took us, another grandmother watching what was happening, and a dear friend of mine (whose son is an 8^th grader at the school) to finally talk LL into going through a side door. She was super leery. (Okay, maybe we kind of gently dragged her in. Mission Accomplished.)

Here is Pa-Pa and LL playing BINGO! She loved it.  She and I both had cards that won. She'd never played it before. (I think I’ve found me a future partner for Flamingo Bingo!)

There were approximately fifteen different games in the Gym. (And approximately 200 kids/adults.) LL played five of them that were age appropriate for her. Here she is throwing little beanbags into the pumpkin. At each game, one could win more tickets that one could trade for prizes/candy/treasures. LL picked out some GOOD STUFF. (Gluten-free candy, naturally.)

For someone who almost missed said Carnival, we then had a hard time getting LL to leave!

The next three pictures were taken by LL. I call them: “Biscuit’s Perspective of an Amazing October Saturday Morning at our Texas Country Casa.”

The pumpkins over at our Barn Apartment:

Hunter the Cat:

(He adores LL and is always happy when she’s staying with us! You can see my foot as I enjoy my rocking chair on the porch and watch Biscuit in action. I might have had to crop myself out of this picture. Jammies. No makeup. Hair not brushed. I did Y'all a HUGE favor doing that. Trust me.)

I love how she captured Hunter in this last one:

Biscuit/Hunter/Buddy/Pa-Pa: Priceless to this Grammy.

At four years and three months, LL can take the most amazing pictures with my cellphone. She can also send one—by text—to her Mom. With no help from Grammy. Hey, I can barely work this cell I’ve had for almost three years. I realize most kids her age are very familiar with iPads and iPhones. She seems extra brilliant to her grandparents. (Winky Wink and Teeheehee!)

Hope Y’all have a Wonderful Weekend with family and friends you love! Eat outside—weather permitting! Take some pictures! Play some games! Time’s a-Tickin’, Friends…

Smooch...

temporarily out of order...

We’re sick. Me and My Sweet Hubby (MSH). Mostly MSH. He’s much worse than I am. At this point. 102-degree fever last night. I always worry about pneumonia—with his heart condition. (We’ve both had our flu and pneumonia vaccines. But we may have done the flu shots too early. There’s always a danger in the timing.)

I’m taking him to our family doctor after lunch today. (Soonest we could get in.) In the meantime, I have to hope that I don’t get as ill as he currently is. I don’t think Buddy Boo Bear (our dog) or Hunter (our cat) are capable of being our nurses. Sigh.

Y’all stay well! Have a WONDERFUL week. Will be back in touch ASAP…

Smooches.

p.s.: Hope Y'all are reading our "Labels" at the bottom of our posts. No. TLC still doesn't do them. And hers are always, ALWAYS the best. Makes me sad. Hint. Hint, TLC. You can't see them on your iPhones/cells, I don't think. Have to look at our blog web version. Winky. Wink.

lots o'...

...excuses as to why I can't seem to type any coherent sentences lately.

Number One:

Obviously. But aren't they just so darn smoochable?

Then:

Two weekends ago, ELC and My Sweet Dad graciously offered to board Buddy Boo Bear and come "babysit" Little Leighton (LL), Baby Elle and Henry. God bless them! My Hubby and I wanted to see a concert at WinStar Casino in Oklahoma on a Friday night. We were going to spend the night and have all day Saturday to do as we pleased! It was going to be my first night away in MONTHS--long before Baby Elle's arrival. Of course:  Murphy's Law. I get SICK. It started with a scratchy throat the Sunday before. Mid-week, I thought I had turned the corner and was on the mend. Then I woke up Friday feeling just miserable. At this point, I didn't want to cancel. I stuffed my purse full of cough drops, Tylenol and Ibuprofen and powered through. Despite my general malaise, the concert was AWESOME. (Gary Clark, Jr. Blues-y. Rock-y. Country-y. From Austin!) I even won $100 at the slots that night, too! (My Hubby won $1 playing blackjack. LOL!) I hoped to wake up the next morning feeling magically healed, but I think the hours of second-hand smoke made it so. much. worse. We cut our day super short and came home Saturday afternoon. I ended up at the local CareNow clinic first thing Sunday morn and quickly had a prescription. UGH. I clearly should have gone to the doctor before the trip. C'est la vie. Lesson learned.

Finally:

It's been too dadgum hot in Texas! Maybe that's not an excuse. At least a good one. However, it's making me very bitter. It's October. I want scarves around my neck, boots on my feet and soup in my Crock-Pot. Last weekend, we took LL to a little pumpkin patch, and I was sweating. That is simply WRONG. A cold-front blew through yesterday and things have cooled down significantly! In fact, we should be in the 40s tomorrow morning. Hallelujah.

I hope all of you sweet, sweet readers have a wonderful weekend! I will try much harder to come back SOON.

TTFN.

Hope...Wavering Faith...A Minor Miracle!

I refer Y’all to two previous posts:

The Hope Tree—February 9, 2106

Update…to an Update—April 20, 2016

Today's post is about My Sweet Husband’s (MSH) and my “experiment.” (It’s easier to explain if you’ll read these two posts for background.)

But here is A Quick Summary: We planted a “pod” we found at a grocery store in McKinney last Christmas. Had it in a cup. Moved it a couple of times around our house. It came up when we’d almost given up.

A couple of months later, after transplanting it into a bigger pot, MSH planted it outside. It was looking bad/sicky—we had no idea what else to do.

About six weeks ago, I asked him about Our Hope Tree. (He'd placed it a bit down our “hill”. Not too convenient for me to observe and monitor. All summer long I rarely had shoes and socks on outside—just sandals. I’d refuse to venture through the grass to check on it—as I was afraid of getting chigger bites. They love me and Little Leighton. Sigh.)

He gently broke the news to me: I'm sorry. It’s gone. It didn’t make it.

I'm not going to lie. I was extremely sad. I have to admit—I got a few tears in my eyes. I truly wanted it to make it. I believed it would make a statement to me and MSH: Everything is good. The challenges and changes you face? You’ll make it through all of them. This little tree will be your sign.

He comforted me with a hug and said: Hey, we tried. We had no experience with growing a tree. We’ll try again—sometime.

We moved on.

THEN…drumroll...SUNDAY HAPPENED! I got home that afternoon from an overnight trip East to TLC’s and was chatting/catching up with MSH. It hit him he’d forgotten to tell me the news. The tree is hanging in! He went to take a picture to show me. Here it is!

My heart is SOOOOOOOO HAPPY! I cannot even tell Y’all how excited I was. Am! We shouldn’t ever give up hope for things we really, really, REALLY want to happen! Never. Right?

Have a Wonderful Week, Sweet Friends! Be hopeful. Be faithful. Be patient.

BELIEVE.

two thumbs (and eyes) up...

My Sweet Hubby (MSH) and I are actually going out on a dinner date in a bit. Yippee, Fri-Yay! We haven’t had an evening out in many, many weeks. I realize there are some peeps who think every day is a vacation for us—since we’re retired. That’s simply not accurate. We are busy BUSY 17/7. At least six days a week. Doing what? Well, I'm not sure I can account for every second of every day. By 5:00 o'lock p.m.? We're pooped. We still get excited about simple things like lunch out. A new dinner spot. A night or two away. Even if it's close by.

I’m not going to fib: We do love our Friday nights (And Saturday. Sunday. Monday through Thursday.) at our country casa. On the couch. Watching TV we’ve recorded (Blacklist. Designated Survivor.) Neither of us does great with commercials. No patience. If we can’t locate a show that we both want to watch together? MSH heads to our bedroom and we watch our preferred picks alone. (Don’t feel sorry for us. Truly. Don’t!)

Occasionally we do watch live TV. If we must. There are actually some quite good ads (Witty. Thoughtful. Touching.). Also some quite horrid ones. YUCK.

Tonight, we’re going rogue. Getting adventurous. We’re sampling a new restaurant in Granbury. On The Square. Yes. True: It’s going to be an early din-din. We’ll be home by 9:00. At the latest. No apologies coming from moi. We are who/what we are: Oldish. Proud Senior Citizens! (Winky. Wink.)

Thinking about changing out of my camo pants and 15-year-old t-shirt into something semi-nice-ish, and freshening my makeup (I’ve been up since 5:30.), reminds me of the new mascara I purchased a few weeks ago for myself and TLC. Y’all KNOW I had to try it. Look at the case? Animal print. Duh. No way I could pass this up. (You must admit I’ve done pretty dadgum good this year—so far—with my determination to cut back on mascara purchases.)

I haven’t used this yet—(I’d just opened my favourite mascara a few days before I purchased this.)—but TLC has experimented with it and she LIKES IT! A lot. A LOT. TWO THUMBS UP.

There’s her recommendation. For what it’s worth!

Here’s hoping each of you has a WONDERFUL Weekend—wherever in the World you are! Go somewhere new! Try something new! Do something different! BE SAFE. Be healthy. BE HAPPY!

Smooches and Hugs, Silly Friends…

gentle...loyal...important

Our. PRECIOUS. Dogs.

Henry. (Resting his sweet head on my sister’s leg.) A fancy dog. Has papers and everything. So much personality and energy. At five years old, he’s only slowed down a bit. He drives TLC a bit nuttier each day. But she (secretly) adores him. Little Leighton (LL) thinks he’s her brother. Baby Elle laughs and laughs every single time she looks at him.

Teddy Buddy Boo Bear. Doing what he does every morning of his life: Looking out our bedroom window while he waits for My Sweet Hubby (MSH) to take him for his daily walk. (And, yes. That’s a special hand towel for his chin. It has a pretty little bird on it. He tends to get my windowsills a teensy yucky with, well, dog slobber. Sorry.) Kind. Gentle. Loyal. Jealous (of any and everyone who even looks at MSH—ESPECIALLY LL—even though he does like LL—a lot.) A tidbit lazy—he is nine years old. Which makes him 63. A year older than ELC. That ain’t young.

Our Lives: Better. Happier. More fun. More interesting. Sillier. Full of lots o’ dog expenses (Yikes. Vet bills, boarding, special diets and meds. Oh. My.). LUCKIER. RICHER. BLESSED.

Thank You, Dear Lord God Almighty, for these cherished family members.

cruisin' and funnelin'...

Y’all know how much I love my DQ Blizzards. And Mickey D’s McFlurries . But my most favourite fast food joint—and the place I adore their ice cream treats the absolute mostest—is Sonic! With their Blasts.

So imagine my excitement, about three months ago, when I cruised into our local Sonic (what I call #1—since we’ve actually had TWO Sonics in our sweet Texas country town for the past seven-ish years) and saw an advertisement for their new creations called Flavor Funnels. Oh. My. Lanta.

No—I haven’t purchased a Blast with a Flavor Funnel. Not. Yet. I came the closest to doing it last Saturday afternoon. At my second favourite Sonic on Earth (the first being Sonic #1 in Stephenville)—the Sonic at Willow Park.

I’d come from TLC’s casa that afternoon and had about an hour to go before I reached home. I knew My Sweet Hubby was going to already have had an early dinner, so I ordered a Sonic Jr. Burger (no cheese—mustard, ketchup and pickles only). Mini Fries. A Large Coke Zero with Vanilla. Then I stared. And stared. And stared. At the picture of the Flavor Funnels on the menu screen. I knew—if I ordered one—it would be a Snickers’ Blast with a Caramel Flavor Funnel.

You can order any flavor of Blast, or Master Blast, and add a “funnel.” They somehow cause a center core (Sonic apparently semi-stole this concept from DQ. I refuse to be judge-y.) in your heavenly treat and fill it with caramel. Or chocolate sauce. Or Oreo cookies. Or peanut butter.

BE STILL MY HEART.

I have yet to order one of these they-have-GOT-to-be-amazingly-sinful delights. I’ve been wanting to order a Sonic Molten Chocolate Cake for years. Literally. Probably five years. Or more. I’ve yet to do it. I gaze at the picture every single time I drive-up for my VCZ. I resist.

If I’d lose ten pounds, I’d reward myself with a Snickers’ Blast with a Caramel Flavor Funnel. (I’d get the mini size—naturally.)

If I’d lose fifteen pounds? A Molten Chocolate Cake. (They only come in one size. I don’t really trust myself to eat only a third to a half of it. I would, however, be HAPPY to share it with you, TLC!)

It's Friday Eve! Have a Wonderful Weekend, Sillies Everywhere! (Have a Snickers' Blast with a Caramel Funnel! Why not? I might.)

smooch...

Quiet Reflection...

From Praying Through the Tough Times by Lloyd John Ogilvie:

Almighty God, ultimate judge of my life, in this moment of quiet reflection, I hold up my motives for Your review. I want to be totally honest with You and with myself about what really motivates my decisions, words, and actions. Sometimes I want You to approve of motives I have not even reviewed in light of Your righteousness, justice, and love. There are times when I am driven by self-serving motives that contradict my better nature.

Most serious of all, I confess that sometimes my motives are dominated by secondary loyalties: ambition blurs my vision; combative competition prompts manipulative methods; negative attitudes foster strained relationships. I ask You to purify my motives and refine them until they are in congruity with Your will and Your vision for my life. When I put You first in my life, You bring results I could not achieve by human methods alone. I thank You in advance for performing these miracles.

Sovereign God, You are my help in all the ups and downs of life, all the triumphs and defeats, and all the changes and challenges. You are my Lord in all seasons and for all reasons. I can come to You when life makes me glad or sad. There is no circumstance beyond Your control. Wherever I go, You are there waiting for me. You are already at work with people before I encounter them. You prepare solutions for my complexities, and You are always ready to help me resolve conflicts even before I ask.

My only goal is to please You in what I say and accomplish. Give me Your strength to endure and Your courage to triumph in things great and small that I attempt for the good of all. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

    Try me, and know my anxieties;

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

  And lead me in the way everlasting.

                                    Psalm 139:23-24

Have a Terrific Tuesday, Dear Friends...

Love and Hugs...

ELC