Update on the fly....

Our neighbor called us on Sunday: our house is fine, with fencing down on one side, and lots of tree limbs in the yard. The big pines are damaged and will likely need to come down.

I've talked with Hope and Marie and Janitha. Last night Hope said Kingwood was absolutely crazy; gas is not to be found (for those with generators this is a huge problem) and the few places with food have line snaking around the block. Kingwood alone has 55,000 people; and eventually most families will run out of food this week...imagine the mess.

Marie is back at work (a huge building owned by a significant company; they got power restored) but she has a tree in her living room , as you might have read in her post. She is still living in that house.

Janitha was closest to the coast, and said it was the most terrifying night of her life.

It really is just starting to dawn on me what it means to be in Houston. You likely can't leave, either because there is no place to fill up your tank again on the way to the next major city (Dallas, Austin, San Antonio.) Many businesses can't work; employees will have no paycheck for awhile. There is no sewer or water or power in Galveston.

I know Florida and Louisiana has been through this before, and areas have done without power for month(s) at a time. The difference is the amount of people. If you look at a map you will see that there is nothing much around Houston to go to.

And as Ike headed north, other smaller towns were suddenly flooded, and wind damaged, and without power too.

I've got a bit of survivor guilt going. Glad I'm not there, yet feel like I should be doing something. Of course I pray....

This storm will make the sale of our house be pushed back at least a month, even if we did have a buyer, which we don't, so we will have to plan to be in the apartment at least through Christmas.

Off to work!

My Colorful World

Hurricane Ike went directly over Kingwood. Power is out all over Houston; we don't know how our house is, but we are sure our neighbors would have called us if something was terribly amiss. We don't want to call and use up their cell phone charge (maybe they can use their car to recharge it?), so what else is there to do but go on about our life, and pray for those who have a lot of clean up ahead of them.

It isn't going to be pretty in the Houston area for quite awhile.

Marie, Lin, Janitha, Hope...I am thinking of you today....I hope you are doing OK..

Life here in SLC is fine. Wisteria is blooming-now that is an oddity isn't it Sara? So Calif wisteria blooms in the spring and makes pods in the fall. This wisteria was blooming around the local Olive Garden restaurant entrance.

We were able to rent an apartment and get the cats out of storage after ten days. They had kind of gotten used to the kennel, all their "pal" had gone home except Hallee, and a new bipolar cat was busy hissing and lashing out at us as we left. Good riddence to that poor fellow; he managed to nick both our boy's noses when they were doing neighborly snoopervising while they were out of their kennels on their exercise break.

Getting the cats used to a new empty apartment did nothing for their frayed nerves. B. held them, and petted them, trying to reassure them.

When they get a bit more used to the place we will let them go out on the balcony.

The balcony had a great view that first day; the sky was beautiful.

Tiggie preferred a different view. Later Hart took up residence in the corner area...frankly, anything that makes them feel more secure works for us right now.

We don't intend to invite anyone over who would judge us on our cat's lack of manners anyway.

The next day we visited them again, and there was a rainbow over the city.
We have a view of the Key Bank building, Wells Fargo bank building, the US bank building, and the Chase bank building. And the Hilton. Let us know where you bank and we'll keep an eye on your money!

The other end of the rainbow was arching over Jeff's place. Nice symbolism, huh?

(Acutally I followed the rainbow all the way home, stopping several times to try to get a better shot.)

Last night we had a FABULOUS date! We had had movers move Jeff's guest bed, small chest of drawers, a lamp, an end table, three bar stools and a grey recliner. Since we needed everything else for daily household goods, we headed out to IKEA.

I LOVE Ikea!!!!

Here's the kitchen supplies.
See Lovella? I did get a bunch of red things! The red wisk was cheaper than the stainless ones; and the red apple corer was just too fun to pass up. Red measuring spoons and cups and strainer.
IKEA prices are just cool. The big clear glass bowl in the corner was under $4.

Our "love nest" now has table settings for two. We had so much fun figuring out what dishes to get...B. picked the white, I added the green bowls and the printed side dish. And colorful placemats (at $1.49 per placemat, why not have a little fun with that?)

I told B. to pick out the shower curtain; he picked the one I was eyeing! Flashback to Kate's orange themed apartment in Switzerland! Of course we had to get an orange cotton bath mat and towels too!

That's going to be a cheery wake up place to be each morning.

So here we are, having our first meal in our apartment, watching the news about Ike on the Internet.

Ike...Ikea....hum, isn't that odd how much difference a single letter can make?

I'll post more of our apartment pull together as it happens. We are trying to decide on a second seating option (IKEA Poang chair or Ektorp couch? Or...????)

Outside our apartment the church bells are chiming the hour, just like they did in St. Gallen Switzerland.

Seriously, how cool is that?

Thank everyone for praying for our house in Kingwood and all that is going on with us.

It has been really something being on this adventure.

But rainbows are to be seen, and would you believe this: as I type this it is noon, and the church chimes are ringing one of my favorite hymns:

Oh Sing a Song of Bethlehem:

~

O sing a song of Bethlehem, of shepherds watching there,
And of the news that came to them from angels in the air.
The light that shone on Bethlehem fills all the world today;
Of Jesus’ birth and peace on earth the angels sing alway.

~

O sing a song of Nazareth, of sunny days of joy;
O sing of fragrant flowers’ breath, and of the sinless Boy.
For now the flowers of Nazareth in every heart may grow;
Now spreads the fame of His dear Name on all the winds that blow.

~

O sing a song of Galilee, of lake and woods and hill,
Of Him Who walked upon the sea and bade the waves be still.
For though like waves on Galilee, dark seas of trouble roll,
When faith has heard the Master’s Word, falls peace upon the soul.

~

O sing a song of Calvary, its glory and dismay,
Of Him Who hung upon the tree, and took our sins away.
For He Who died on Calvary is risen from the grave,
And Christ, our Lord, by Heaven adored, is mighty now to save.

~

A-men!

Inside, outside, upside down...

While my inside space is all a-whirl, I'm still taking breaks to see the outside space.

A trip to the water spigot was diverted by this tiny fellow leaping across my path.

The yellow rock is about the size of a golf ball; Mr. Toad could easily sit on my thumb nail and still have room to spare. A baby bracelet sized black ribbon snake with a white stripe the length of his body slithered away when I went in for a closer look at Toad; the snake was so very tiny I hadn't even noticed him as he was sneaking up on what I'm sure he was hoping would be dinner.

Inside amidst the carpet crew tearing up old carpet and painting crews jabbering away, Tiggie is relaxing in an interesting pose. It must be some kind of kitty yoga stretch; front paw between back knees....

I'm glad both cats are taking all this upheaval in stride.

I just wish they wouldn't snore.

They are parked next to where Bernie is working at the guest room desk, and it gets hard to stay focused when it is warm, and the cats are gently snoring away in the afternoon.

Tiggie did get up to welcome the man who came to give us a bid on moving costs.

Tiggie just fell in love on the spot; followed the fellow from room to room, making circles around him as he jotted notes on his clipboard.

When the man finished his survey, he had tears running down his face.

Poor man...totally allergic to cats.

He really should of said something.

And Tiggie really needs to lighten up with the "I'm here to love you through this" routine whenever he meets cat allergic people.

Back outside: The neighbor around the corner has a Pride of Barbados plant in bloom.

I'm all about the stamen, as usual And the fact that some of the flowers are orange and red while others are just red.

While I was running an errand I spotted this splatter of flag blue flowers beside the road.
I parked and got out with my trusty camera to get a better shot.

The blue stars with white sparkler stamen makes it a perfect Fourth of July garden candidate.

I'm not sure what the name of this flower is, or if it is even available in nurseries. Or even how it came to be growing in a drainage ditch.

I do know that I should know better than to not watch where I am going when I am trying to take a picture while wearing sandals.

I got multiple fire ant bites on my right foot; I who have been so proud of avoiding fire ant bites the entire ten years that we've lived in fire ant territory.

(I figured it was nature's way of making up for the fact that probably every mosquito that has ever lived in Texas has had a shot at my blood.)

Back inside.

The dust from all the counter buffing, wall sanding, and carpet tear up has created a fog of dust in the air.

I soon realized that even my camera lens was affected by the dust.

Today the floor tile guy comes to clean the grout on the kitchen and sun room floors, and to clean the tiles as well. I suspect more dust will be generated; I am trying to hold off on wiping things down until everything is finished.

This is harder to do than you might think.

This week has been all about turning a blind eye to messes every where; next week everything must be examined with laser vision. The house will be on the market, and even a speck of dust will not be tolerated.

~~~

The new carpet looks great, and the new pad beneath the carpet makes walking on it feel like I am wearing the softest shoes ever. I love how it looks.

The soft yellow paint in the sun room looks great, as well as the Khaki in the kitchen.

The counter tops shine as do the sinks and tubs. They look brand new!

~~~

My interview went well. I should hear by Monday if I have the job.

It would be a very cool librarian job if I get it!

I'll miss this....

I will miss our Master Bathroom.
It is a tiny space by Texas standards.
(Except on the days when I am cleaning it. Then it is HUGE!)
I love my garden tub, with two views to the garden.
Right now the stubby looking crape myrtle tree outside the window is flowering brightly.
Today, however, the bathroom is not available for lounging.

The bathroom is cleared of the violets and counter top item, ready for a crew to arrive and polish the tub, counters and re grout the shower.

Split vanities? Oh yes...one where I can sit and apply my makeup, and a taller vanity and sink by the tub where Bernie can brush his teeth and shave.
We often wonder at the many years we shared one bathroom that had a toilet next to the sink which was next to the tub, and you could reach all three from any fixture, and touch all four walls while standing in front of the sink.

Now we think it is just a good health practice to have the toilet in it's own separate room.
(We are going to have get over this notion....)

My African violets love those window sills. I love lolling in the tub where I can see the trees turn color just outside the windows, and the azaleas blooming in the spring time. I've even enjoyed soaking in bubbles up to my chin by flickering candle light while outside a walloping strong thunderstorm pelted the trees and windows.

It is a totally private yard. I have to wonder why more builders plan house placement so each house has no windows facing another house, except in the front of the house?

(By the by...there are pleated shades ready to be dropped from behind the curtains if one wants to.)

This is our second Texas Master Bathroom. Our first Master Bathroom was in our Dallas house. Our first experiences with Texas Master bathrooms was eye opening: Who knew people actually hosted parties in their bathrooms, and had wedding pictures taken next to soaring columns and waterfall features inside what I always had considered to be a rather private room.

We got used to being spoiled by the Texas bathroom concept really fast.
The Older members of our family came to visit, and raised their eyebrows when they saw the clear glass shower doors and all the wall sized mirrors and lighting in the bathroom.
They acted like we were being immodest or something, because we had clear shower doors.

I kept explaining that we had been married for a couple of decades by then, and had ALREADY seen each other naked...and that when you shower in a shower with clear glass doors the doors steam up anyway, but they declared stoutly that if it was THEIR house, they would have to replace the doors with something frosted and more modest.

One relative said she felt it would feel like showering in the middle of the street.
I've never showered in the middle of the street, so I wouldn't know what that might feel like....

A comment was also made that all those mirrors must make you want to keep in shape.
You'd better believe it....

The wall facing the shower is the wall that is actually mirrored sliding doors, which open into the walk-in closet. So, yeah, you do see yourself coming and going when you are going in and out of the shower.

The funny thing is that now when I have to use a shower with a curtain or frosted doors, I feel claustrophobic.

Funny how fast things change.
And change again when you least expect it.

First Day of Summer (as per the calendar)

I feel like it has been summer for a couple of months now, but my desktop calendar begs to differ with me.
It says that TODAY is the first day of summer.
I am not going to argue with that chronological grid.
Instead I'm just going to post a few pictures to mark the official start of this season.

The main thoroughfare in my town: Those trees behind the traffic signals are crape myrtle in bloom.
Enormous aren't they?
Check out how big the trees are compared to the car on the road.
The myrtle leaves turn a vivid butternut blaze orange in autumn, then have lovely bare skin colored limbs in winter.
Then they pull out all the stops to dazzle us with pink,rose, purple, magenta and white blossoms in the summer.
It is interesting to think how much one would regret each passing seasonal phase if one didn't know more wonderfulness was soon to be expected!

Last night I went out to water some of our patio plants. Inside of one pot were two tiny mushrooms, about the size of the last digit of my baby finger. You can see the stem of the second mushroom at the top of the picture.
I had transplanted volunteer tomato seedlings in that pot; at the time I wasn't expecting the makings of tomato and mushroom salad to appear.

They were not the most amazing mushrooms I've ever seen.
(I frequently stop to take mushroom pictures.)

But the pebbly caps caught my interest.

They were kind of cute, being so small and all.

Imagine my surprise when I went outside this morning and discoverer my tiny photo subjects of yesterday had BLOOMED!
I had never thought of mushrooms blooming before.

I was able to get a shot of the mushrooms from the underside as well.
Another magical garden view available to be seen only when kneeling down.

Bernie flagged me that we have a new resident in our garden this morning.
One of the large yellow forest spiders has chosen to settle in along our back fence.
She is practicing her web building skills, creating various web structures in the holly bushes and amidst our crape myrtle tree's branches.

Ms. Spider (I'm thinking of calling her either "Golda" or "Summer") has made one beautiful web, but currently she is hunkered down in a more boxy shaped web effort.

She is still quite young, and maybe going through an experimental/modern phase of home design.

I think it won't be long until she will settle back into the traditional time honored rounded web shaped design.

I am so happy to have her right outside the window above our garden tub where I can watch her at work spinning webs without stepping out into the heat.

While Ms. Spider is tinkering with her home design, I am doing likewise.
This morning we ordered new carpeting. The eggshell colored carpet sample in corner is our choice, not too different than the color of the wool berber that we have lived with since we bought the place.

We ordered paint for the kitchen and the sun room yesterday.
The dots are the color of the accent walls in our house; I was trying to see which color would work best with that.
In the end I flipped a coin...and went with Relaxed Khaki.



When we moved into our house seven and a half years ago, we thought we would replace the then six year old kitchen wall paper.
It was in perfect condition, but seemed rather dark.
(It is a dark green, if your monitor is iffy on color exactness.)
The real estate agent at the time told us that the few people who had seen the house before us were turned off by the all-over-the-kitchen blast of color and pattern.



I loved the house and garden.
I knew I wanted this house the moment I stepped through the front door.
After looking at over a hundred houses, the wall paper in this kitchen didn't bother me at all at the time.
Plus I was too tired from moving and finishing grad school to want to go to the hassle of selecting new paper or painting.
I sure as heck didn't want to strip all that paper myself!

But it is now the six year old wall paper is thirteen year old wall paper.
New eyes seeing it will probably be even more turned off by the dark green color.
Say good bye to the vines, they will be textured and painted over with a nice neutral Relaxed Khaki next week.

Our sun room had wall paper that just THRILLED me the first moment I saw it.
I loved the woven grass cloth design, and how organic and restful it felt in the room with many tall windows and plantation shutters that opened to the view of our garden.

Our *bleep* cats thought it looked restful and organic too.

Just perfect for using to buff their natural organic nails.

I am actually a bit thankful that the paper has faded around the pictures on the wall.

Even if the cats had behaved, the paper would have needed to be replaced anyway.

Next week the room will be painted a soft buttery yellow called Jersey cream.

~~~~

So it is here with us on the first official day of Summer, in the year of our Lord 2008.

It will be our last summer in Texas.

Our house will be going on the market the first week in July and we hope to move to either Salt Lake City or San Diego by autumn.

~~~~

Both Bernie and I are searching for positions in those areas; his position with his company ends August 3rd.

There are a lot of changes ahead for us and the need for positive expectations and prayerful supplications is great.

We are excited that God has a plan for us even if it is not yet fully apparent.

Like the mushrooms, such plans are generated out of view, then appear as tiny things, and then suddenly, become apparent to all who would see.

We kneel to see the wonders, and rise to take on the challenges in faith.

And make preparations for those changes that lie ahead.

The Old Swimming Hole

According to the calendar, it isn't quite summer yet.
According to me, summer is here, and then some.

For me, summer is when the temperature soars to over 80 F for a week.
Or in our case, over 90 degrees for several weeks.
Yup...when the old temperature reading hits 94 degrees everyday like it did last week, spring time is officially over and done with for another year.

In our neighborhood however, summer officially begins the first day that the neighborhood pool is open for business.

AH yesss.....
To get the pool, all we have to do is ride our bikes down the street one block, and then peddle on through the woods (about a five minute ride) and then go across a wooden bridge that spans the small bayou.
Once we get to the pool, we find a lounge chair in the shade, take a dip, and then kick back with a book or a magazine.
Sweet.
The pool even has adults only swim for part of every hour for the grown ups who don't want to dunk with the kiddie set.

We went to the pool yesterday, on a Saturday, at 4 pm and practically had the pool to ourselves.

A couple of families from our block were also cooling off with their kids.

There is a baby wading pool next to the pool house. The tiny tykes were splashing around with enormous paintbrushes that they were using to create drawings on the pool deck using just plain pool water.
Clever idea, wish I had thought of it when I had tadpole sized kids.

On the other side of the fence is a wonderful playground.
No one was playing there at all.
It amazes me how blessed we are with things for kids to do, compared to the rest of the world.
I wished I could have magically transported kids from trouble places for a day of fun with us.

What a pity to have a playground like this and yet there be no one there to enjoy it!

The blue water slides at the side of the pool was a new feature for this season.

We asked the teenage lifeguard if adults could go down the slides too.

He said yes.

Bernie was busy swimming laps when I decided it was time to give the slides a whirl.

I carefully climbed the steps up to the opening of the straight slide, wondering if I would knock my head or clunk my back if I tried it.

(The caution adult mind is an annoying spoil sport at times...)

I whooshed down the slide with a hearty scream.

(What fun is it to go down a slide without screaming?)

Bernie swam over to me.

"I heard you scream before I saw you come out."

"Yeah, I know. Screaming is part of the fun."

"Yeah, you are right. You've got to scream if you want to have all the fun."

I gave the twisty slide a try next.

(Secretly worried about how low the exit point was to the edge of the pool.)

I had hardly gotten whee! past my lips when I was already rocketing into the water.

Bernie was waiting in the water near the edge of the pool.

"So it was fun?"

"Yeah!"

"Which one did you like better?"

"The straight one."

"Really?"

"I just like coming out higher above the water. Come on, let's both go down the slides together, you take the curved one, I'll take the straight one."

We pulled ourselves out of the pool and walked over to the slides. Bernie climbed up and out of sight before I had put one foot on the stairs.

Just as I grabbed the hand rail to start climbing I heard the lifeguard speak.

"Ma'am...only one person on the slide at a time."

"Oh. I'm sorry...I didn't know."

"You will have to wait until he is through the slide before you can go."

"OK."

(I felt rather foolish that as a 54 year old woman I was being admonished by a kid probably not even old enough to drive....)

At that point Bernie came whooshing out the end of the slide head first and careened into the water with a huge splash.

"Sir...."

Bernie righted himself and shook his head.

"Sir...it is against regulations to go down the slide head first. You can only go down the slide feet first."

"Oh. OK. Sorry. I didn't know."

We sheepishly climbed out of the pool, under the watchful eye of the polite young man in the lifeguard chair.

This is getting to be a disturbing trend. Bernie and I have always tried to live in a law abiding, non-rebelling fashion.

Lately thought, whenever we get around holes filled with water, we some how find ourselves in trouble with the law.

I scarcely know how this can be.

(We didn't bother to point out to the young man in the red suit that obviously you actually could go down the slide head first just fine, and the correct word to use should have been "may" instead of "can." I figured we should just lay low and stay out of trouble, we've got a long summer still ahead of us, and the last thing we need is to be blackballed from the neighborhood swimming pool just for the sake of semantics!)

It's hot...and it's here!

How hot is it? 100 degree F. (37.7 C.)

The weather.com site informs me it feels like it is 112 F. (44.4 C.)

It is THAT hot.

The grackles are standing around in the parking lots with their beaks hanging open. The way I caught him against the background of trees makes him look like he has his beak propped open with a little stick.
A little stick is not necessary. They stand around with the beaks hanging open without any help at all.

I want to tell them to head for the trees where it is a little bit cooler, but they seem to prefer to stand on baking hot cars and look pathetic.

I have no sympathy for them if they are going to be that stubborn.


I had to go to the grocery store. I've been putting it off for several days.
When Bernie is out of town it is possible to fake it and just nosh on what ever is in the fridge or in the cupboard. But I just couldn't fake laundry detergent, so off I went, on a Sunday afternoon, on probably the hottest day of the year.

Serves me right, shopping on a Sunday.

The place was packed with other Sabbath scoffers, and that made shopping even more difficult.


At least I can always count on H-E-B to have something amusing to offer in their store.

Today it was an alligator and a turtle made from pineapple skin, residing in the deli case.

Gotta admit, they were kind of cute!

I felt like I had shopped for an hour; my cart was overflowing with paper towels and flats of water bottles and kitty litter and such, and I was almost going to skip the ice cream aisle, when my common sense kicked in.
When the weather is this hot, at the very least I want to have limeade or lemonade fruit Popsicles available to me.
At 80 calories per Popsicle, they are a sensible treat.

Then my "common sense" handed me over to "Pay Attention!" which reminded me that Blue Bell Ice Cream had not yet released this year's limited edition of cantaloupe ice cream, and it would be a really good idea to check the Blue Bell Ice Cream section, just in case it was here.

IT WAS!

( I don't get it: "Still a 1/2 Gal." )

Sorry I can't do more than provide you with pictures.
Maybe you can fake it with vanilla ice cream mixed with your own fresh cantaloupe.
It's a treat worth waiting for.
Especially on a VERY hot day.

And it is now 101 degrees F. outside, and it is 4:15 pm.
It actually could get a few degrees hotter before night fall.

Dear God:
Thank you so much for blessing me with air conditioning.
Thank you for Blue Bell Cantaloupe Ice Cream.

And I apologize for grocery shopping on Sunday.
Amen.

PS: If you could let me go somewhere where it is a little cooler, soon, I'd appreciate it.
Thank you in advance.
Jill