From Texas to California....from Texas to North Carolina....from Texas to Virginia.....Happy Thanksgiving and I will be thinking of each and everyone of you and wishing we could be together.

Wow!!

This weekend came and went so quickly that I am still spinning around. One moment it was Friday afternoon and the next....it was Monday! I think the days are just clicking off way too quickly. In one month's time it will be Christmas! Can you believe that?

I spent a few hours shopping on Saturday afternoon.....the stores were so crowded. Too crowded or me! I love being around people, but being elbowed and practically pushed is not my idea of a pleasant day of shopping. I gathered a few things and promised myself I would go out again this week during the evening time when less people are out and about. I truly want to finish my Christmas shopping and get all of that behind me so I can do some baking. Yum!!

I will be spending Christmas here in Texas and hopefully will make the trip back to see family and friends some time in January. I will miss the holidays once again, but it seems it will have to be that way due to so many outside things. I still haven't decided if I will decorate the house for Christmas......no one but myself will really enjoy the decorations......it just seems like too much work just for me!! I have thirty or forty boxes of Christmas......so, it isn't like I don't enjoy this time of the year....I really do! I do know I will decorate my front porch.....that is a must!!

I have decorated the porch for the fall and have placed a few fall decorations inside the house. This week I am going to bake a few pies to bring to my friends house for Thanksgiving Day. Mostly my oven has been on solely for the purpose of heating the house....novel idea to think I am actually going to use it for baking!!

The weather has changed out here in Texas. Crisp....colder days and evenings. I still sit outside on the porch, but I usually am wrapped in a blanket to keep that wind off of me! There is something so special about having a front porch.......even when it is colder. Last Thanksgiving Day it snowed here! The weather forcast for this year is possible rain.......I would rather it snowed!!

Over the weekend Beth sent me pictures of Matthew and Becky. My goodness they have gotten so big!! I will have to post them this week so all of you can see the latest pictures of those two. She also sent me some Christmas cards she made.....wait until you see them up close and personal.......very well made! Click over to PaperHellos to see her creations.

I have resigned to the fact that I live in this house with something other than china and roses! Friday I trapped another furry creature and this morning when I woke up.......the trap was sprung and the bait taken, but no mouse!! Actually, as much as I wanted the trap to work....I shuttered to think I was going to have to dispose of yet another yucky creature. Today I am just going to buy Dicon and be done with it!! Tarrant County is having problems with rodents this year because we have not had the rain we normally do........it is time to pull out the big guns!!

It is Friday already! Where did the week go?? I can hardly believe that Thanksgiving is almost here........time is flying past me! How about you? Happy Friday to all of you and have a wonderful weekend.

Important message about getting old....

Wow! I had something to tell you.

But now I forget what I was going to say.

I do know it was important!!

Hope it will come back to me later on in the day.

Your first hunch is usually correct....

I woke up this morning to find the mouse trap I had left baited had sprung! That only means one thing doesn't it??? I have a roommate still!!

One night as I was watching TV I saw the little mouse run across the den floor. I thought he looked longer and leaner than the one I had seen the night before. I was right! Saturday I thought I had 'caught' my one and only roommate, but just to be on the safe side I would leave the second baited trap out. This morning I awoke to find the cheese had been swiped out of the trap.......I figured I had not set the trap the right way and the second (let's hope its only 2) mouse dined on the buffet once again.

Mice don't make me squeamish....I just don't want a roommate of any kind....especially a four legged one! I am hoping the second little furry critter takes the bait from my reset mouse trap and I once again hear the sound of SNAP!

Many years ago while we lived in San Diego county.....and again in the Santa Clarita valley.....our home was invaded by rats!! In San Diego we lived out in the country and the other house butted up against the hills. These little field mice I have running around don't bother me as much as it did way back then. The neighborhood hardware store man told me this area is seeing an abundance of rats and mice this year. I am just praying my roommates are the little kind and not the big kind of 4 legged furry things.

While writing this....a loud, resounding SNAP went off in the front room. Yep, caught another one!! I reset the trap just to be sure......and washed my hands with soap and bleach!!

Hope I am finally done with roommates!!

SNAP!!

Music to my ears!!

Got him!! I am living alone once again. Yay!! No more furry 'it' living with me in my cute little 1919 bungalow!!

Once I learned how I was supposed to set the trap and not just set out a buffet on which my friend could dine......it was all over for 'my roommate'....!! Until just a few minutes ago all I was doing was feeding the critter. How was I supposed to know I had placed the mouse trap bar in the wrong position?? Figured something was up when he was able to get to the food and the trap didn't go off!

Well, add this to the list of things I have never done before!!

Most recent photos of my grandchildren............

I am sharing my house with something I don't like....

Oh, my goodness!! For a week or so I have had a

house guest (and I use that term lightly) that has really been driving me CRAZY!!

This morning I went into the kitchen and found 'it'

on top of the sideboard and it CREEPED me out.

I am not scared of it.....but I want it gone and I want it gone

NOW!!

I went to the neighhborhood store and brought home two

traps and set out to get RID of the uninvited house guest

once and for all!

I got creative with what

little I had in my cupboard...I took two pieces

of rice chex out to try to entice the little four legged,

long tail, furry 'it' to dine on

his LAST meal!!

After hot gluing (another bit of creativity) the first piece of cereal

to the trap.....I set the trap and took it

to the living room

leaving the second piece on the table.

I went back into the kitchen to glue

and set the second trap...

GONE!!

That little furry it must have been

waiting for me to

leave the room so he

could help himself!

Well, both traps are set and hopefully

he/she will'take the bait'.

I am waiting to hear one of the traps go......

SNAP!!

Happy Anniversay Mother & Daddy....

Happy 65th Wedding Anniversay...

may you have many more celebrations together!!

Love you both so much...

Fun...fast...weekend with a great California friend...

I picked up Sandi from Dallas Fort Worth Airport on Thursday afternoon and away we went. Four days packed full of adventure and fun. We visited Mattel Toys Friday morning and spent two hours going through the Fort Worth based distribution center.....I have never seen so many boxes of toys in my life. Their plant is the size of five or six football fields!! That is a lot of toys in one place!!! Sandi has worked for Mattel for close to twenty years and she wanted to visit her friends and see the plant. I think I enjoyed it just as much as she did!

From there we headed to the Stockyards for an afternoon of sight seeing. Sandi bought herself a pair of Justin boots......a must have in any Southern California woman's wardrobe (hehehe). We went in and out of gift shops up and down the streets looking for gifts she wanted to bring back to her friends and family. She was able to see a cattle drive up close a personal....real cowboys and horses. Things you don't see every day at the beach where she lives!! We were classic tourist snapping pictures wherever we went. We came back to my little house and got ready to go out for a night on the town. That night Sandi wore her new black cowboy boots and was able to dance the night away in the arms of several Fort Worth cowboys! Needless to say...she had fun and I am sure she will be talking about this visit for months to come!! I know I will!!

The next day we went back to the Stockyards to go through some more shops and once again returned to the Stockyards at night for some more dancing!! Her boots got a work out to say the least! The weekend was also stuffed with more sightseeing around the town and the neighborhood that I have come to love and enjoy so much. Did I mention we ate? Oh, did we eat!! I think I won't have to eat anything for a whole week......that's how much food we ate during the days she was visiting.

The weather was beautiful the entire time she was here.......but last night a big storm blew through North Texas.....I am so glad the weather held out until she was on the airplane going home to California!! Sandi and I laughed and had such a great weekend together.......I am so glad she came to visit........there is an open invitation for ALL of you to come visit me any time you would like to see Texas.

Only in Texas!!

(Click on the first picture to enlarge it so you can really see....Yikes!!)

This gives 'out house' a whole new meaning!! It truly is a real bathroom....found in Houston Texas. Can you imagine yourself inside that mirrored glass cubicle looking out??

Getting ready.......

Today I have been busy getting ready for my girlfriend Sandi.....she is coming to Texas on Thursday from California for a short visit. I have washed windows.....floors...china....and more china. For those who know me.....ya know how much stuff I have sitting around my house so, it is an all day job!! I have my country music blaring and things are almost done! Yay for me!!

I am excited about seeing her...it has been several years since we have seen each other and there's lots to catch up on!! I emailed a picture of her at a party from a million years ago. She got a kick out of it......hopefully when she gets out here and sees the rest of the pictures, she can remember what year the photos were taken. I certainly couldn't tell her and I took the pictures.......lesson here......date all pictures!!

We have a list going of places to see......Stockyards (any doubt on that??).....downtown Fort Worth.....boot places (she wants a pair of Texas Cowboy Boots)........well, the list goes on and on......we will have so much fun!! Sandi works for Mattel so, we will also be stopping by the main office here in Fort Worth so she can visit with her friends from toy land!!

I will take lots of pictures and post them soon............!!