Hmmm, our house....

Yesterday, I went by Elrod Elementary and stayed over an hour talking to the people I used to work with in the office.  It was so nice to be back there for a while.  I even agreed to come by periodically and volunteer some there in the office.  Working - I don't miss at all, but the people I used to work with, that I do miss so I'm thinking volunteering will be a nice way to keep in touch with everyone.

So, knowing that our house is going to be torn down in a few short months makes it a little hard to feel a need to fix anything anymore.  The last repair we did to this house was in October, which was when we noticed the toilet  leaking at its base.  At first we debated whether to spend the money to fix that, but knowing Rebeca and Jason would be staying with us at Christmas, and knowing we'd have plenty of people here on Christmas Day, well both of those things motivated us to spend the money to fix the leak.  And it was worth it.
But since the start of the new year, it has seemed easy to let everything else go.  The shower drips in the tub, the carpet looks really grungy, the refrigerator gathers water again on the inside forming ice on the shelves, the washer doesn't spin that good anymore, and on and on.  Some of it can be good, though.  I'm still hanging pictures on the wall - especially those prints Fernando brought back from Ghana.  Slowly, I'm getting them all framed and when I go to hang them on the wall, I'm not concerned at all if I put the nail in not quite the right place.  Hey, I just take the nail out and move it over or higher or lower.  Who cares how many holes I make in the wall (as long as the hole is still hidden)!

Backyard is getting there

No pictures, but we did do some work on the backyard this weekend.  Guillermo went up to New Braunfels to help John Fardal on Saturday.  They were burning cedar that had been cut on his property.  While they were doing that, I cut all the dead stuff out in the back.  It was a pretty decent day to be working outside since the day was sunny, but it was still quite cool!  When Guillermo got back, he sure smelled smoky!!   He decided to go ahead and try to start up the riding mower since it was still nice outside, and he cut the field just around the garden.
Then today, on Sunday, Guillermo got the riding mower going again and mowed in our backyard.  It's still not pretty out there, but it sure looks a whole lot better than it did.  And in a few days, the forecast is for sleet again, so back into some seriously chilly days.

Thinking of Anthony and Sarah

Anthony and Sarah left yesterday and drove up to Waco.  There was some debate over whether they should stay one more day, or just head on up to Waco and be close to where Anthony needs to be on Friday.  In the end, it was a good thing they decided to leave yesterday, because today it rained the entire day.  It would have been almost impossible to pack up the car in this weather and their drive wouldn't have been as easy.  At least they were in place, where they needed to be, before all this rain hit.   It was nice to have had the time they stayed with us to get to know all of them so much better.  We had fun talking with Anthony and Sarah, and Sarah makes the absolute best peach cobbler ever!   Kyrielle and Adelae are just the sweetest little girls, and it was such a pleasure having them around here.  We were very impressed with how well Kyrielle behaves - she eats so grown-up at the table and seems to like all foods, she minds her parents well, she is easy to play with, and both she and Adelae always seem to be so happy and always seem to have big smiles on their faces.  Which always put big smiles on OUR faces.  We miss them a lot.  And Simon (the cat), yeah, we miss his craziness, too.

Fixed up the front yard - finally.

Well, Harold took off today for Cancun.  I took him to the airport at 9:00, for his 10:00 flight.  He checked in and got through security with no problem at all.  He's going to some interesting places and here's hoping he has a great trip!

When I got back home, I changed into some gardening clothes and went outside and fixed up our front yard. The day was cold (45 degrees) and it was drizzling, but it didn't matter.  The yard has looked terrible since the freeze back in December, and Feb. 1st had been my goal to work in the yard and get it looking nice again.   So I wasn't going to let the cold and rain stop me.  And actually, it felt really nice to have the mist falling all around and, dressed warmly enough, it didn't even really feel all that cold out there.  All the dead plants were trimmed and/or removed, leaves were raked up around the gardens by the porch, the dead vines were pulled off the front fence and the ugly brown canna leaves were cut off.  Looks much nicer out there now.

And now that all the dead stuff is gone, the daffodils are really standing out!!










Next - getting the backyard fixed up!

It is freezing cold outside!

My goodness it is cold here right now.  It was biting cold all day long today, which felt even worse because the sun never came out.

This morning, Mom and I went to mass at a church close to her house and after that, we had a nice breakfast at IHOP.  It was so cold walking from the car to each of those places even though we were both dressed pretty warmly.  Then we picked up a few things at HEB, drove around the new and improved Hi-Lions Lake, stopped in at Ruben's Tamales for 3 dozen tamales, and then we went back to her house.  A couple of hours later, we drove all the way over to Universal City to attend Lydia's bridal shower.  It was a very enjoyable shower, the food and cake was delicious, and we really had a nice time with everyone.

After the shower, I drove back home and for dinner that evening, Harold, Guillermo and I went out to eat at Rudy's barbecue.  We debated a bit about going there because the fun part of Rudy's is taking your food outside and eating it on the picnic tables.  And since it was so cold, we knew it wasn't going to be any good to eat outside - we would most definitely have to eat inside.  We even thought that maybe we'd go eat at a barbecue joint closer to our house where there's no choice but to eat indoors.  But, everyone who visits us is usually taken to eat at Rudy's and there was no way we were going to leave it open to Harold being able to say later, "Yeah, they take everyone there but me."  :-)  So, cold or not, we went to Rudy's and the food was just as good eaten indoors.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera when we went to Rudy's.  I really felt bad about that.

Relaxing after the good food at Rudy's.  Notice how they "happen" to have the similar pajama bottoms.

Harold is here!

This morning, Anthony and Sarah took their cat, Simon, to a boarding place because they are going to spend the night tonight at Mom's house and then the following two nights, they are going to be spending those in Houston.  They will be back with us on Monday night.
Guillermo's brother, Harold, arrived here this afternoon.  He and Guillermo spent some time looking at a map of Central America and Harold pointed out some of the places he'll be visiting in a few days.  We had an enjoyable evening just sitting around visiting.

In a little while, we're going to El Palmito to have dinner!!!  :-)

Rainy cold weather

Dinner at Cha-Cha's on Monday.

Yesterday, Wednesday, Anthony, Sarah, kids and I went to a nearby park.  I got my walking in while Sarah and Anthony watched Kyrielle play on the playground.  We didn't stay longer than necessary because it was quite windy and cool.  From there we went to HEB, picked up a few things for lunch and dinner and then came home.  Guillermo came home from teaching his two classes a little while later and we had lunch together.

Guillermo taking care of Adelae while we fixed lunch.

Today the weather is cool again but now there's rain, too.  And this weekend it is supposed to get REALLY cold again, so it looks like it's going to be one lousy weekend.  :-(

At least there's the internet, and it'll be the kind of weather to spend some time at the computer and look into what kind of houses are for sale out there.