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Friday, May 24, 2019
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Monday, October 29, 2018
Visiting grandson Dylan at St Andrew's University! Fun with Lynn and Brooke. Scotland, we will be back 🤗
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Thursday, May 24, 2018
Happy birthday sweet Boogie! You have always brought me such joy. I’m blessed to be your mama ♥️♥️♥️
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Saturday, April 28, 2018
Viva Fiesta! When ¾ of your family attends the Pooch Parade that marches down your street, well, it’s a photo op for sure♥️♥️♥️
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Sunday, January 28, 2018
Sacred Story Retreat in Round Top. A great weekend with my St Andrews sisters. ❤️❤️❤️
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Thursday, December 7, 2017
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas! Yep snowing in South Texas! Yep my hanging baskets are uncovered🎄❄️😖
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Monday, August 21, 2017
So cool. You can see the shadows of the eclipse through the leaves of the trees!
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So cool you can look look at the shows of the leaves on a flat surface and see shadows of the eclipse everywhere
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Friday, August 11, 2017
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Friday, August 4, 2017
Thursday, August 3, 2017
Monday, July 10, 2017
Harper found my stash of 90's earrings. Brooke and I actually wore all of these😜
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Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Contact paper...
Growing up, I was always embarrassed that my mother’s name was Syble. I wished her name was Betty, Ann, Mary, Grace, maybe Kathleen… but, Syble, this was simply not a normal mother name. (I, now love her name and wish we had another Syble in the family.)
While I was embarrassed of Syble’s name, I was mortified that she had a good friend named Irmadean. Yikes! Irmadean. I hope she had a beloved grandmother named Irma and a wonderful Uncle Dean. What was her mother thinking?
Syble and Irmadean were two peas in a pod. Being children of The Great Depression caused them to understand and enjoy their frugality. When they weren’t playing bridge, they were bargain shopping or doing some DIY project, way before DIY was popular.
One afternoon, I came home from high school to a bed filled with new neon colored polyester dresses. The year was 1970, so lucky for me, neon was in and Syble and Irmadean had hit the jackpot! Lime green, hot pink, hurt your eyeballs yellow and orange dresses with big zippers, big collars and thankfully, short, just not quite short enough for the’70’s. It seemed Irmadean had found the deal of the century at, none other than, drum roll... Weiner’s. For those of you that didn’t grow up in Texas in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, Weiner’s was a department store that might have competed with K-Mart or Walmart, not quite up to Target standards. Weiner’s, even the name was appalling. Being the teenager I was, I was a bit of a store snob and to think I now had a bed full of Weiner’s dresses, gag.
Well, I assure you, mother made sure I wore each and every one of those polyester designs and while I glowed in the dark, compliments were given and inquiry into where had I found these precious, Goldie Hawn type outfits. I lied and mumbled something about the junior department at Foley’s.
Another folly that Irmadean introduced to my mother was contact paper. Their first project was contact papering the top of our wooden coffee table. They had found this faux marble paper (probably at Weiner’s) and decided to slap that vinyl type plasticky paper onto our rather battered coffee table. Unfortunately, this table was round and contact paper is much like fly paper, it sticks to whatever it touches and becomes permanent. They spent hours measuring, tucking, cutting and smoothing out air bubbles until, “Voila!” we had an almost new, marble top coffee table. Next, oh they didn’t stop at a simple table, no, they went on to contact paper the top of our washer and dryer in none other that a lovely neon floral design. Next, the tops of every bedside table in our house, the built-in wooden topped desk in our kitchen was papered in a contact paper that was made to look like…wood! Syble and Irmadean were out of control and two households were slowly being beset by contact paper.
Where Syble and Irmadean were concerned, I never knew what I would come home to find. The final straw was the day I came home to Syble and Irmadean on the floor of the hall bathroom, both leaning over the toilet. I knew immediately they were contact papering not only our toilet lids, but the seats as well. Three bathrooms, three toilets all in stunning color coordination with the pea green tile in bathroom #1, the pink/peach tile in bathroom #2 and of course, the guest bathroom was papered in left over and pieced together faux marble. Who doesn’t want a marble toilet seat!
The worst part of contact papering toilet seats is that once the contact paper is worn thin, the result is the sticky residue from underneath. Yep, our family walked around for the longest time with underwear stuck to our behinds.
I know I haven’t written in a while and I have no idea why this memory of my mother and Irmadean and neon dresses and contact papered toilet seats came to mind, but it made me smile.
I think the friendships of women are such sweet, precious bonds. Friendships that are formed from having liked interests, from being moms together, side-by-side neighbors, friends that share a work place. It doesn’t really matter how these bonds of friendship are formed, what matters is the lasting memories they leave behind.
When I think of the many friends that have flowed through my life, I marvel at the legacies that have left their impressions on me. It is the friendships shared as young girls, teenagers, college years, newlyweds, young moms, old moms, empty nesters that, well, when you think about it, are much like contact paper. There are times in every good and lasting friendship when it is necessary to smooth out those air bubbles, times when you need to undo and redo and work together until the fit is perfect and the adhesion is lasting.
Syble and Irmadean were right about one thing, it takes two to apply contact paper and to create an everlasting friendship. Thank you ladies for teaching me how to be a good friend.
For what it’s worth,
Janet
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Saturday, March 4, 2017
There's always an Easter snap...
Years ago, Steve and I were visiting Savanah. We planned our trip in early spring thinking the weather would be perfect during our stay. Warm days, cool nights were predicted and we packed accordingly. We arrived to absolutely beautiful weather and enjoyed our first sunny, spring day in this quaint city.
Unfortunately, the following days, our luck didn’t hold as a cold front blew in. The temperature dropped and the rains started. Freezing, as we hadn’t packed appropriate clothing, we sat huddled by a fireplace for lunch on our second day. Our waitress, a lovely older Southern woman, was gracious in every way. I questioned her about the unseasonable cold weather and her reply was without hesitation. “Oh, darlin girl, it’s the Eastaah snap. Here in Savanah, everyone knows we always have an Eastaah snap! Don’t worry, it won’t be long before the good comes back!”
This year, our unpredictably warm San Antonio winter weather has caused Mountain Laurels to bloom early, right along side budding red bud trees and rose bushes busting out in full bloom. Bluebonnets are beginning to appear, sprinkling the hill country and spring green is peeking out from its winter hiatus, all of this weeks earlier than anticipated.
My yard is a mess, as it continues to be “under construction,” still, I was getting antsy to get out and begin planting geraniums, bougainvillea, roses and more that will bring some color into my little space. I have waited and waited these long, almost summer like days for the unpredictable "Easter Snap" to roll in and erase the beautiful bursts of color enabled by this unprecedented warm weather. To-date, Punxsutawney Phil is proving to be very unreliable and so wrong, he saw his shadow, malarkey! As my middle name is Impatience, I bit the bullet yesterday, thumbed my nose at Phil’s forecasting, went against my own good judgement and began planting geraniums and petunias…I simply couldn’t help myself.
As I dug into that warm dark soil, I started thinking how life is much like an Easter snap. I try to predict the unpredictable, wanting to know the unknown, trying to map out days, weeks, months and years…and, before I know it, here comes that dreaded Easter snap and suddenly, the blooms are off the rose…at least, for a little while.
Today, March 4th, would have been Steve’s and my 22nd wedding anniversary. Eight years ago we were making plans for all types of future events. Our bucket list was never ending as we looked forward to a lifetime of trips and grandchildren and enjoying life together. That Easter snap hit us so unexpectedly and sooner than we could have imagined, March 4th would forever take on an entirely new meaning.
Carefully placing my newly purchased geraniums in the ground, my thoughts turned to Christ’s trial and crucifixion. The Easter snap certainly came unexpectedly to his followers. Imagine as his disciples, his friends and his own mother witnessed Christ’s final days. All of the unforeseen and unknown took them surprisingly off guard. That Easter snap was no little cold front, it crashed down on them like a blinding blizzard and their lives changed forever.
Have you ever been invited into a world you didn’t expect? A world that seemed to have turned upside down? A time when you thought those dark, dreary days of winter were behind you, only to be met with the unpredicted, the unexpected, the unwanted?
I keep remembering the last words of that lovely Southern waitress. “This ole Eastaah snap won’t last long before the good comes back.”
Time and life do have a way of leaving winter behind with spring bringing new life, new color, new freshness. While I will no longer be able to share the joy of this anniversary with Steve, I have found there is joy in all the March 4ths that preceded it and the loveliest gift, my memories of this anniversary will always be in full bloom in my mind’s eye.
Sure we will all have our days of dark uncertainties, those days when the unpredicted Easter snap comes along and yanks us out of our comfortable skin, but there's good news, the promise of Easter morning, the promise of new life, new beginnings and unbelievable eternal joy. “Don’t worry, it won’t be long before the good comes back!”
For what it’s worth,
Janet
Romans 6:4 “…just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
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