Doozey cuteness and a South Florida rant!

Today my little camera shy girl actually turned her face toward me and ...wait..is that a faint smile I see??? I snapped the picture. She likes to get atop this little 12 inch soft microfiber pillow and curl up. It seems so funny to me because she is kinda on her perch! LOL. Anyway...I could not resist and was so happy she charmed me with a look!

Today I turned a leaf with my cold. I can feel like the end is in sight now, which is a big relief. I am sort of becoming one of these people who want to live in a bubble though...to try and avoid sickness. Here in south Florida, we have a huge tourist season that is just starting up for the winter...and I quite frankly don't want to be out with all of the northerners who bring all their evil germs with them! I will certainly avoid large crowds or crowds inside of buildings. I am constantly watching and listening for coughs!!! I am swabbing all electronics in the house and washing hands/toys/towels. What has become of me??? What have I turned into??? It's scaring me. Maybe if I can go a few months without getting a cold, I will relax a little. YIKES!

Yes...next week both family and friends are expecting their first rounds of relatives from the north. There goes our restaurants too...no longer can we walk in to our lovely spots without waiting. There are a few problems involved in living in a tourist state! I guess I should stop my belly aching and just be happy I live in a paradise year round!

I had a lovely day with my granddaughter. She is such a bundle of sugar. Her hair is coming in CURLY...just like mine was as a girl! I can't wait to see what she is looking like by this time next year! She just makes my heart swoon (just like her brother does)!

OK...hope you all have a wonderful week. Sorry no Cactus Monday...I just can't seem to find time to plan anything...maybe one of these days I can get more organized as I learn my new role as a stay at home Grandma!!!
xoxo- Julie

Doozey love!

A few pics of Doozey when she was shivering this morning, and we decided to put on one of her sweaters! This is my favorite one with a Christmas tree with doggy bones on it. It got down to 48 degrees last night. I also put this little fluffy blanket in front of my little electric fireplace and turned on the heat...she loves laying in front of that warm air. Still HATES having her picture taken! Sorry Dooz!

Quick kitchen sketch...the morning after turkey day!

With everyone still asleep this morning following Thanksgiving, Doozey and I are sitting here together on the couch drinking coffee and wondering about the day! The light started to stream into my kitchen window, and I suddenly felt the urge to do a quick sketch of the scene. The tiny Christmas tree as the focal point, with a little brown angel made from seed pods and a golf tee for a trumpet, being the focal point. I love waking up to the little glowing tree that I leave on all night (thanks to LED lights)...it emparts such joy and happiness!

Here is the view from my couch, into my tiny little kitchen with the sun streaming in. It is a scene of hope and peace for me. Happy Black Friday everyone!!!

Being Thankful!

PHOTO CREDIT: TheLegacyBuilder

I am so thankful for so many things...I can't begin to count them all. I am blessed. I am thankful for the things that make my life so amazing, like family and friends, and a roof over my head.....but I'm also thankful for things that may not be so perfect, and that may need some shaping, help, and or time to get resolved. That is what life is all about...ever changing, and ever expecting. I am thankful that I can be a friend, a supporter, a helper and cheerleader to those that need me. I hope I can be remembered for that when I die. Someone asked me once what I would want on my tombstone. It has taken me all these years (I was much younger then) to come up with it. I only hope I can be remembered as a nice person who was there when needed. I know I am sorely lacking in many ways...but I keep trying...and mostly I keep being thankful for everything I have, and everything I am capable of doing. I pray I stay strong, and keep growing and changing every minute. I am very thankful for all my blogger friends and your place in my life is invaluable! Thankyou! I hope and pray you all have the best Thanksgiving day ever!

The good the bad and the ugly!

The good thing to look at and love are Prince Donovan and Princess Emily! They were playing on my couch having fun in the early morning hours (after spending the night with us) and I took a few pics of them being oh so cute!

The bad is that I have a cold again...and not only me, but daughter also!

The ugly is what I saw while laying on my couch trying to drain my head and when I looked up, and saw mildew on my vent. I thought of a little hiaku to go with it!


While on my couch, looking up
I thought to myself..."do I have the strength"?
To clean; I must.

Since my posts are generally all happy and pretty...I thought you would like to see what never seems to end at my house...mold and mildew! AND...I am allergic to bleach! It is always a problem. Well...better get to work. No time to rest. My stepson arrives tonight for Thanksgiving week! Yeahhhh!

My silly crochet for Messyfish to view...and anyone else who cares to!!!

My efforts to work with my MIL with crochet were trying but fun for us both. She could not remember how, and I had taken her to the store to pick her own needle and yarn, which she did. She just never could get the hang of it...and this was a woman who crochetted many an afghan! She was very fun though, laughing at herself and saying things like "I think I should win the blue ribbon for this"!!! We really had fun that night. While she fiddled, I started just doing single crochet rows about 12inches across. You can see the final product which was some sort of doily-ish thing for the table. I added a frilly edge on both ends...and it looked semi-decent! LOL!
I did love this variegated yellow cotton yarn though. I have an affinity to Sugar and Cream yarn (the brand name of this stuff). My problem with crochet or knitting is that it doesn't really pay to learn to do much with it, because we certainly cannot wear it down here in south Florida! So I just do a little fiddly-farty project like this on occasion...

Loss of identity, but gain of a greater love!

This is the end of the Shreveport photos. I had more, but lost them in moving my files! I am a techological wreck. These are just a few more of the beautiful trees, and colored leaves on the lawn.



Today was my last day at my job...my LOA ended and I am not going back!!! It seems so weird...a loss of identity for me! Well..I have a new identity called Grandma now. I am keeping my granddaugher all day, and administering her breathing treatments while she is getting over a cold with severe lung congestion and wheezing. Poor thing is getting better now and I am so relieved. I decided I will keep her instead of sending her to nursery...she is only 1 year old. We have a fun time together all day and I am madly in love! Luckily I can take a few months off from a working job, and then try and find a 3 day a week evening job and leave it at that. She will be my little angel to watch every day and I am so blessed!!!

I did discover a great thing to do while following a walking 1 year old going around in your house trying the get into everything. I took my Southern Living Magazine and would read 1-3 sentences before having to intervene in some way...then she would go another direction and I would follow along for a few more sentences! By the time we got tired of all the walking and exploring, I finished my article! She sat in her high chair and had some snacks, and then play with toys while watching me in the kitchen and also being able to see the TV (with her little shows on, of course)...and she was happy as a clam for about 40 minutes while I made dinner! Stuffed peppers, BTW. They turned out very well. I used red peppers so they were very beautiful as well. That dinner was SUCCULENT!!! LOL.

Everyone have a wonderful Thursday tomorrow!

Poke for Mary!

This is a picture of the pavillion in Blanchard, Louisiana...named for a yearly festival(In May)that they have there! As soon as I saw it, I had to pull over for a picture for my blogging friend, Mary at Pokeberry Hill. She always talks about the Pokeberries on the hill (mountainside) of her new home! I am actually still wondering if these two are the same!

Poke Salad. I've never seen it before, but here is a picture I found online. It looks and sounds so interesting!!!
The website for this past years festival...if you are interested, is HERE.

Finnegan, the newest Scottish Terrier in the family!

Here are a few shots of my B and SIL's newest doggy. They love Scotty dogs. We saw their previous little all black coated ST last time we visited Shreveport, and the poor little thing died only a few months after we had been there, sadly.

This new little feller is so adorable, and with a brindle coat, which I just love. They have a HUGE back yard in the country, where he plays and runs with the squirrels...but mostly an indoor dog.

He is very athletic too...be gets very worked up over a basketball, which he pushes up the walls and does a sort of upside-down dribbling of the ball!!! He starts snorting and barking and getting so riled up, they can only let him play with the ball for about 10 minutes!!!

This is him after a wild game of basketball!!!
What a doll. Just thought you would like to see this little cutie pie!

Cactus Monday and a pretty flower!

I thought of Marianne, when I looked at this photo on screen! It looks like something she would feature in one of her gorgeous mandalas!!! To all of you who know and love her, I ask you..."Doesn't it"??? YES!!! I found it growing around a mailbox a few doors down from my MIL's house! I have no idea what it could be, but boy, is it every purdy!!!

For Cactus Monday, I found one in Shreveport, in the form of a decortive plate on the wall. I didn't see any cactus outdoors there, nor did I see any at all at the Lowes there. (I did enjoy walking throught their garden center though...they carry flowers we simply do not grow here...and that in itself was such a glorious time to see...things like cone flowers, and frilly things like snapdragons)! Gorgeous!

This plate was one in a series she bought many many years ago. (Sorry it turned out so darn blurry). One of the other plates was missing and she said it had fallen and cracked. I meant to look at the back of the plates to see who made them and try and locate a new plate for her (I forgot to look before I left, but will have my SIL check it for me). Anyway...Happy Cactus Monday to all!

Artsy American flag, and first images of Shreveport!

I am back home and so very happy to see my house and take my first shower and good nights sleep last night...it was heavenly! It was sad to leave my MIL, and the kids and grands, but you know how it is getting back home!!!

Here is a HUGE flag that was hanging in the airport...it had been covered (in the red and white areas) with patriotic artwork! It was so great.

The Shreveport watertower...I always try to get shots of watertowers where we visit! Strange, eh?

A few beautiful trees with changing leaf colors in my MIL's neighborhood! They were gorgeous! I have more that I will show in the next few posts!

Have a wonderful Sunday!
Julie

Stuck in Houston!

Our flight out of Shreveport was delayed and we missed our connecting flight to PB by about 20 minutes, and now we are stuck in the Houston airport for 4 hours!!! HELP!!! Thank God I can get online and see what is happening in the world! Will get home now around 11pm. I will be grateful. The airline gave us 24 dollars of meal vouchers, so we had a lovely cajun meal here! We had an appetizer of crawfish cheese dip with buttery little bread toasts (devine)...and then I got my last fried catfish for this trip! (I adore it). I told hubby we need to find any, and then THE BEST catfish in our area. Generally we can only get it in the southern states, and including north Florida (but you must travel up the state to find it).

I AM TRYING TO UPLOAD A FEW PICS, BUT BLOGGER IS SCREWING AROUND WITH ME...SO WILL WORK ON IT ON MY BIGGER LAPTOP at HOME! Sorry for the caps...this is a smaller keyboard and I push buttons by accident!
Later...xoxo- Julie

I know...

I am from south Florida, and we have no acorns laying around...but here in Shreveport, they are EVERYWHERE! I had to have this cute blogger background! Been up all morning since about 6am, all alone while MIL and hubby sleep...reading blogs and then devouring a small bag of salt and vinegar potato chips (my new fav). This is our last full day here...will be home again tomorrow evening. I bet my Doozey has been missing me...I sure have missed her! Will be glad to be back home with the rest of the family also...nice to be here, but there's no place like home! Will get busy posting my pics when I get back!
Happy Thursday!!!
Julie

Hi from Shreveport, Louisiana!

Hello! I finally discovered a way to get online here, so I can check in and say hi. Been staying busy with my MIL, and I have taken pics of the beautiful leaves of red, gold and orange! It is so pretty here, and the smell of the pines and other trees especially in the evening along with the sounds of the crickets and other wildlife, have me in hog heaven!!! I feel like I have entered the twilight zone, in the way that it is so different from home and the slow pace of life just about has me shut down. I feel this trip has to be sent to me straight from God...since I really needed to be shut down for a while. I am so happy to be away from work and enjoying a whole new scenery and loving spending time with my other grands here, MIL, kids and BIL and SIL.

Had Mexican (Tex-Mex) here the first two days, and today I forced my hand at getting some Cajun food...so had some world class crawfish etoufee! It was delicious over rice!

Life has slowed so much, that my MIL is going to teach me a few things about crochet...(she is an expert)...and we went to Michaels today to buy yarn and crochet needles...

Will be reading your blogs, but will probably not have time to comment while I am here...will post pics when I get back home...

Julie

While I'm gone...

play my little Bubble Shooter game in the sidebar...it is addictive and I have gotten a score of over 26,000 while sitting here watching my husband wrestle with his suitcase! Good entertainment on both counts! LOL.

Leaving town!

Flying out of town for a few weeks...may not have internet there...will try to post when i can...

Julie

Julie draws!!! A miracle!

The inspiration for Cactus Monday...continued new growth on my salvaged prickly cactus plant (started from one pad from that chopped down tree in the neighborhood).

I came inside and took out my gel pens...found my homemade sketchbook... (it was buried in a bunch of art crap thrown into a cubby for months now...(sadly)...

And scribbled out this little pad showing some new growth! She is a cute little growth area showing promise for a new pad, and many more for years to come! I had this thought that I wrote out next to it...how can anyone be sad when they see something like new growth??? Impossible!



Happy Cactus Monday!!!

The first of the peppers!

Hey...this was fun...a week ago was the last time I looked at my pepper plants that I have planted by my front door. I walked out yesterday and ba-da-boom...there were 4 nearly ready banana and cubanelle peppers! This is just the beginning!!!

I can hardly wait to let them get just a little bigger and then I will stuff them and make some Hungarian appetizers! It calls for using cream cheese and dried beef...but I think I will use sausage instead...and add cut up red peppers and rice, and cheese to make them really stand out delicious!!!

It's gonna be fun! I can already taste them!