Yup, behind again...

Well, by now I should have had lovely posts, complete with photos, celebrating Timothy, Jenjer, Luke and Miria's birthdays. But I haven't. And I'm sorry (to Tim, Jenjer, Luke and Mirai) for not having done so. And it's not gonna happen anytime soon either as I'm getting a crash course in being a "mom" to two little boys. It's been 20 plus years since I've done this and I'm a bit rusty at it.

You see, Jennifer is pregnant with Baby No. 3. And Baby is making Jennifer sick. Literally. Sick. As. A. Dog. So she and the boys are down here in Katy with me while Jen tries to stay till, keep food down and think happy thoughts. And I am taking care of the boys. I'm getting into a bit of a rythm now and am actually watching a little tv (and, obviously, some blogging) before I head to bed instead of staggering to bed, falling flat on my face and falling into a deep sleep like I've done the previous two nights. :)

So bear with me as I "remediate" on parenting once again. And keep Jennifer and Baby No. 3 in your prayers please.

My secret garden...

Welcome to our home! A view of the front door...

Looking into "The Grotto" onto the outdoor kitchen

Last May, Jennifer and Jason came to Katy to oversee the garden maintenance/overhaul that was long overdue here. I did a pretty decent job of overseeing the building and decoration of this house, planning interior spaces for use and making use of colors and our furniture to create a warm and inviting interior. But I dropped the ball on the exterior totally - due to both lack of time and ignorance. I know now that several things should have been done differently. First of all, I should not have had the pool company be involved with the landscaping at ALL! The pool company promised a landscape plan that their landscaper couldn't provide given the funds he was given by the pool company for this purpose. By then we were too close to closing to do much about it. I should have contacted various local landscaping companies to come and make suggestions based on what our use of the space would be, taking into account what we would be viewing from INSIDE the house and how well it continued style-wise into the outdoor spaces. Then I should have taken several bids from the companies whose ideas we liked and then made a decision.



But I didn't. And have lived to "rue the day". So we were working with a plan that wasn't ideal but one which was already "in" and "paid for". We were forced to work within certain parameters of the current scape and needed knowledgeable help to do that.



Sweet potato vine, roses and ixora, oh my!

That's where Jason comes into the picture. You see, he loves gardening. And he enjoys it. And he knows what he's doing. They all came down on a Tuesday night and for the next 5 days, we sweated, we tore out, we replanted...you name it...and we have a gorgeous garden with growth plans in place. We'd had some trees removed and some new ones installed, three of which are already victims of the Great Hot Texas Summer of 2009, but they have a warranty on them so come fall I'll have them replaced. A flagstone path with ledge stone edges was the biggest project. And it wasn't laying stone and putting down decomposed granite that was the biggest issue - it was getting the established thatch of turf to "budge" to remove it prior to installation that proved to be the real back-breaker! Even the tiller we rented had a hard time gnawing through it. Mike and Jason resorted to using pickaxes to cut through it all. But it turned out beautifully!



Lots of plants were bought at the Brookwood Community. I'd never even heard of this place until my hairdresser, Terri, told me about it. If you're in the west Houston area and have never been, you have to drive out there! We bought things like Butterfly Weed, Knock-out Roses, mosses, sweet potato vine, hibiscus to name but a FEW. I even got a lime tree to put in a container on the patio!





I'd like to add another crape myrtle in the front bed between the front door and the bay window to Mike's study next year as well as adding a play scape in the backyard. But those are projects for another day, another fiscal year. :) For now, I am happy to have a plan, a maintained garden and knowledge of how to do both. And I've also learned that removing a few weeds a day, as they pop up, is infinitely easier to deal with than trying to pull them out after a long while left unattended (not to mention how much BETTER and CLEANER it all looks!).



So thanks to Jason (and Jenny too) - I hope this can be an annual event! I have SUCH plans for NEXT year (run, run...flee while you can!!)

A new member of the family...

Yup, we have a new dog. Call me crazy, but (hello, Crazy Butt!) we decided to take a "semi" rescue dog. She's not truly a rescue dog in that she was abused or abandoned or anything. She's just "made the rounds" of the family and has finally come back to her town of birth, Katy.

Sophie was bought as a pup for Jen and Jason back in 2002 while we were living overseas. I think I was living vicariously in my need for a puppy through them and they enjoyed her, spirited schnauzer that she is, until Ben was born. Sophie is a large miniature - she's more like a small standard really - and has a bark that can put hair on your chest! (so to speak - no gazing at mine next we meet please...) So when Ben was born, between Emma, the barking daschund and Sophie, the barking schnauzer, he was often awakened by the Doggy Chorus Cacophony numerous times a day. Christopher and Jenjer agreed to take Sophie (after all, they had "only" four QUIET ferrets to contend with).

Fast forward to 2007. Chris and Jenjer became the parents of Mirai. School, jobs, baby, tight budget...and a schnauzer. Sweet schnauzer but loud and barking when someone came to the door. I heard they were looking to rehome her in May and I decided the poor girl should just come back to me, return to the "land of her birth" (aka Katy) and took her on a trial basis. I've had her about a month now and think I can safely say she's home for good. Shelby and Izzie were none to pleased by another interloper but they've learned to get over themselves once they figured Sophie wasn't just visiting. Shelby likes to assert her authority and perceived "superiority" on occasion but for the most part, our "pack" is doing well. Izzie seems to vacillate between "you are at the bottom of the pack and have to bow to me as well" and "you are bigger than Shelby and can overtake her - and I'm here to help". It's funny to watch.

Jennifer said, before I took Sophie back to Katy the first time, "Well, Sophie-girl, you don't now it yet, but you're headed to Dog Heaven down there in Katy!" BIG yard to play in (Chris and Jen live in a condo) and other dogs to play with are just the starters. Sophie has turned out to be a VERY sweet and QUITE obedient lady and I think I've been able to somewhat break her of the "barkies" with a water bottle - she does NOT like getting "spritzed" when she barks! All THREE are much quieter now that I've instituted Operation Dreaded Water Bottle.

I told Megan I should just rename them Small, Medium and Large (Shelby, Izzie and Sophie). She laughed and suggested Tall, Venti and Grande. When I related this to Benjamin on the phone, he said, "Oh Gramma! You can't name those dogs those COFFEE names!" and I realized just how much we must go to Starbucks for a 4 year old to know what that meant. :)

(I thought I had a photo of her but I left my camera in Keller on Saturday so will have to post one later. Today she is having surgery - a teeth cleaning/descaling as well as a "mass removal" (lump on her side). Once she gets home and I have a camera, I'll share a photo our The Lady. When she is groomed, she is WHITE! Evidently her undercoat is white but her hard coat is silver. So more later!)

Mondays in Katy...

I am briefly "home" - I say that loosely since, for most of May and the month of June anyway, I haven't been here much. Between keeping grandsons for parents celebrating a wedding anniversary, birthdays for two grandsons, a birthday upcoming for a granddaughter and Mike's business trips overseas, I've spent the lion's share of my time in Keller, Pflugerville and on the road, specifically in THAT order!

Mike flew into DFW on Friday (following a trip to Kazakhstan, home, then onto D.C.) and we drove back together on Saturday arriving in Katy in time to attend Sarah and Taylor's wedding at 3pm. A RARE dinner out at Houston's Restaurant, just the two of us, followed before a trip to the Galleria to pickup a watch repair that had been waiting for ages. Then it was onto Mike's office to collect his car where it had been left after being collected for his D.C. trip by a service.

We are trying to get caught up (ha! like that will ever happen) before turning around and leaving once again on Wednesday after work for Keller again. Mirai's birthday party is at our house on Saturday so we're getting a jump start so we can have the house ready for not only the party but Tim and Megan's visit from Friday on for said party. Monday we head back here and have a bit of a breather before a reunion with overseas friends back up in Colleyville leaving the 16th. Jen and the boys will be visiting us here in Katy the week leading up to the reunion and we'll all drive up together.

The very next weekend, Tim and Megan et al come to Katy for an Astro's game. Then Mike heads off to Kazakhstan for a couple of weeks and I head to Plugerville and Keller respectively again.

I relate all this NOT to make your head spin but to explain where I'm coming from lately with my non-blogging! Prior to all this has been two trips to Keller, two trips by Jen's family to Katy, two trips by moi to Pflugerville and a major garden renovation wedged in somewhere. We have NOT had any moss growing on us lately. And while it has been run, run, run seemingly, I find that I'd rather be running than sitting home bored (and alone!). I feel very fortunate to be able to be part of the children's lives as well as the grandchildren's lives on such a "grand scale". Nothing beats hearing, out of the blue, an unsolicited "Gamma, I dub ewe!" Be still my beating heart...

So today, Monday, I have my mega-list ready. Dog in for surgery - check. Package to mail. Party bags to find and buy. Cake supplies to purchase. Bills to pay (yuck...) and insurance claims to file. I'll try to get ahead of the game a bit today and tomorrow. So I can enjoy what is really the essence of life - life, liberty and the pursuit of loving on kids and grandkids!

Thursday Morning

Yes, striking title, no? Really grabs your interest I'll bet. :)

The heat has been onerous and my hair is revolting (that's both a verb and an adjective in this sentence, in case you were wondering). So I'm soon heading into the bathroom to attempt to arrange my summer heat frizzled mane into some sort of semi-respectable coif before heading over to Jen's to get her, the boys and Madison (my surrogate granddaughter) for our "Really Big Adventure" to Cabela's and Toys'r'Us this morning.

No, I'm not turning into a Big Game hunter (although I DID buy the anniversary edition of Monopoly once - the one with the wooden base that spins - whoohoo!) - word on the street is Cabela's carry Keen shoes and I want to see what all the fuss is about them. Disney is looming in my future again and I do NOT want to do the tennis shoe thing again. And all the (taxidermist) stuffed animals at Cabela's sort of makes it like an air-conditioned zoo so the kids like it. Win/win! Cabela's is one of those "last bastions" of the Best of Texas where we are happy stick it to both PETA and the anti-gun lobbyists. I mean, where else can you see fine examples of hunting successes and pick up a fine firearm and ammo all under one roof??

Toys'r'Us however is a venture not for the faint-hearted when toting around 2-2 year olds and a 4 year old under the best of circumstances. "I want..." will be echoed in our ears ALL morning, noon and night following this expedition but Mirai's birthday is coming up soon and moi is hosting her party up here in Keller. A "bounce" vehicle of some sort is called for so we're in search for the "Birthday Girl plus 4 cousins" sized bounce house. And Toys'r'Us is usually filled with parents who have already abdicated any semblence of control on their children and are reduced to the bribing stage where they try to placate their restless (and leaderless) youngsters with material goods in a misguided attempt to buy both favor and silence. Doesn't work folks. Perhaps they should take the kids to Cabela's FIRST ("Yes, Johnny, that bear didn't obey his mother and look what happened to HIM!") before heading over to the Toy Heaven. Might be an effective tool...I'm just saying...

Wish us luck.

I have a feeling it's going to be a BIG Chick-fil-A iced tea day - that's what us Bible Belters drink when stressed instead of bourbon. With Mike in Kazakhstan, I wonder that my family isn't worried that I sit alone at night with my iced tea, drinking alone, adding more slices of lemon.

Better not tell them about the hot fudge sundaes. Don't want to worry them more than necessary.

Have a good one and keep the iced tea flowing!

To blog or not to blog? When to find TIME is the question!

I wonder sometimes what Shakespeare would have done with the internet and blogging. Would he have been a daily blogger, throwing out ideas to his "public" about his next project? Or would he have shared the minutiae of daily life? And how would it have read?

"Anon, must gather unto myself provisions. Away to the Target whilst the day is long and the belly speaks!"

Or "While this vain glory doth take hold, my age belies me as I tread this path of life! Another wrinkle I beheld this day..."

Or would he have been so busy with his life that he would often neglect his blog (or would that be "Blogge"?) I wonder. Now I'm not in ANY way comparing myself to Shakespeare with all the themes and mysterious psychology embedded in his prose. But as a semi-avid blogger, I find that I have sadly lapsed in my blog entries of late.

I was quite gratified however to find that all FIVE of my faithful readers missed me and I got, within the space of 3 days last week, five emails from 'friends of the net' who wondered if I was okay as I had not blogged "in like, forEVER!"

Thank you, my gracious public. I am humbled and honored by your entreaties and have been convicted to rise from my bed of non-bloggiture and once again grace the net with my mundane observations on life, liberty and the pursuit of just about anything at the best possible price.

See you again soon, I promise.

The Case of the Missing Blogger...

"So you want to know where my Gramma Cheri has been? I know!"

It has come to my notice (through emails, phone calls and facebook) that I have been absent from these pages for quite a long time.

Rumors of my demise have been wildly exaggerated. Thank goodness.

I have grandiose plans to enlighten my Blogging Public with news of my recent whereabouts and activities over the next few days (week?) so stay tuned.

It should be riveting.

If you like reading "The Farmer's Almanac" that is...

A teaser...or at the very least, a tranquil scene of great beauty...

Happy Birthday, Lleyton!

Yup, the next "graduating class" of grands is turning two this year and Lleyton leads the pack. Today is his official 2nd birthday although, owing to his daddy being away on a "Training Mission" (fancy talk for "I guess they are going to keep him employed because they're a-sendin' him on a trip far away and at great expense to teach him something"), his actual party will be much later.



Our little man has made GREAT strides this past year and we are pleased as punch with him! And MOI gets to spend a week with him and his mama and sister in a couple of weeks (woohoo!) while his dad continues to train (man, them's gotta be some BIG "corporate abs" after three of the four weeks of training!)



So, for now, Happy Birthday, my man! Hope you and your mom and sis have a GREAT day of fun surprises and we'll see you soon. We'll be sure to "bring the goods" for ye!

We love you, LL!

Take me out to the ballgame...in STYLE, I might add...

Those of you who know me well know I'm not a big sports person. Yes, I've been to the Men's Semi-Finals at Wimbledon...and had to have the game of tennis explained to me. So sad. And I watch golf on TV occasionally if Tiger is playing (which means I've watched very little the past year). Still trying to figure out why there are all these birds involved in it. And my idea of a Decathlon is a race through a shopping center to get in and out of 10 stores with a list and a credit card and finish FIRST. (Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it...)



So when Mike told me he could get 4 tickets to an Astros game, I was a bit "blech" about it. Then I thought, why not? I never go - when we get tickets, Tim, Megan and Kennedy usually go with Mike. But this was a Tuesday night, not a weekend. They weren't able to drive in from Pflugerille on a weeknight. So I decided to "give it a go" and we invited our friends Tim and Beth to join us. And off we went.



You've heard the term, "Diamonds are a girl's best friend"? Well, if you're not the world's biggest sports fan and you're headed to Minute Maid Park, that is a true saying indeed! Little did I know that said tickets were (gasp!) in the Diamond Club section!! Oh my - I didn't even know such a place existed. You know where George H and Barbara sit when when go to the Astros games? Just behind home plate? THAT is the Diamond section. But wait - that's not all! Parking was alongside the STADIUM! That's it - park, walk across the drive, show ticket and then enter a special entrance to go downstairs to the Diamond CLUB! Clean bathrooms. Long buffet. Unlimited "chow-down" until the 7th inning. Then out to the seats within "sweating distance" of the players. I mean, I could see which players had acne for goodness sakes - it was THAT close! And when the players came to bat, Beth would give me a brief history along the lines of, "That is so-and-so. He used to play for the Astros but went to the Dodgers last year. He's really tall and cute". All the "histories" had "he's tall and cute". Maybe I should look into this game more seriously?? Who knew? (reminded me of the little known "change shirts between sets" moments at Wimbledon - sorry guys, only at the men's matches...)



So we fill our bellies, trying to act like "yeah, we do this ALL the time" and not jump up and down screaming, "OH MY WORD! THIS IS THE MOST FANTASTIC THING!! WISH I'D TOLD THE KIDS WE'D BE HERE!!! WILL WE BE ON TV??? WHY DIDN'T I WEAR SOMETHING NICER??" (Limited success in that department - I'm sure I stuck out like a sore thumb; or more like a mule in with the Grand Champions...)



We finish eating and head out to our seats - did I mention that those seats are REALLY close? Oh yeah, guess I did. Let me tell you, when you sit where we did, you think twice about picking your nose. (I actually thought about it THREE times...) Anyway, we're sitting there taking it all in and here comes a lady with a tray asking if she can GET US ANYTHING! "Ice cream? Popcorn? Something to drink?" I felt like the chubby kid's first visit to an all-you-can-eat-Chinese Buffet. I DID show admirable restraint and tried to order only that which I would have ordered and PAID for under normal circumstances. Okay, I would not have had 4 diet Cokes with lime nor a plate of nachos with chili and queso. And probably not the popcorn either. We would have bought ONE diet Coke and split it truth be told.

I am so ashamed.



And you know the "fun" experience of trying to get to a ladies' room in the 'where normal people sit' part of the stadium? The waiting in very long lines for a toilet that is one cousin removed from a port-a-potty in cleanliness? Not a problem here - just walk down a hallway, pass by the STILL serving self-serve buffet line of many varieties of food and viola! there are the restrooms - marble and granite floors and walls. Clean stalls. No waiting. No suspicious "spills". Lots of paper towels available after washing of hands with SOAP (not the dregs left when it ran out during the first couple of innings). Depart to return to seat by passing by the dessert section and picking up a cookie or two while weighing the odds of also grabbing some cotton candy or Cracker Jacks. And here's the irony - most of the ladies in the Diamond Club obviously DON'T eat all these foods temptingly arrayed (either that or...well, I won't go there).



So thanks, Bobby (head of company Mike works for). We had a BLAST!! Enjoyed myself IMMENSELY!!! Our guests had a great time too! Thanks for a great evening!! And feel FREE to do it again sometime.

Oh, and I think they also played a game of baseball, but I'm not sure - I wasn't paying attention.

Taking a dive in the gene pool...

This is my mother and her little brother, my Uncle Charlie.



This is Kennedy (2nd from the right), my granddaughter and Mom's great-granddaughter.



Is it just me or do they share a striking resemblance??



I never noticed before today how similar they look at the same ages. My uncle scanned a TON of family photos and copied them onto a hard drive for me. I noticed how they favor each other as I was loading them.

Perhaps I'll find more "genetic patterns" as I delve into the files further!