5 thing Friday - home, pumpkin cocoa, birthday girl, dinner, Teddy

A couple of weeks ago, I paused while heading out to the car to take Bubbie to band practice, just noticing how peaceful our street looked.

Then I took a good look at the front of our house from the driveway.  It's a pretty house, with lots of green thanks to recent rain.  With all this talk of our future plans in Burnet, I know I will miss Camp Rustown.  We've raised four kids here in a house we initially thought we'd never be able to afford.  It was like a dream come true moving in.  When the time comes to leave, I'll be a hot mess.

It's feeling more and more like Fall with every morning.  I bought some pumpkin cocoa and set it out by the coffee pot, but so far, my peeps are not ready for all things pumpkin.

The Girl refused to give me a list of things she might want for her birthday.  She's so hard to buy for!  I ended up getting her a pretty top she can wear to work, a dressy hair scrunchie, three bracelets from Charlie Madison Originals with a matching pair of earrings, a giant bag of cashews, and at the wineries on Sunday we bought her a couple bottles of her favorites.  I hope she had a fun time with the "old folks"!

Dinner one day last week:  Parmesan Ranch Chicken thighs, green beans, and a baked potato.  I haven't been doing as much cooking lately as our schedule revolves around band, my job, and Hubby being out of town.

The Girl and Teddy love to lay in my bed - I don't blame them.  All we have for her when she visits is a blow up mattress.  After the first of the year I want to search for a daybed frame for The Lounge.

Then I will order another of those memory foam mattresses for it and anyone will have a place to sleep comfortably, off the floor, when they visit and it won't necessarily take up the whole room.  

Can you believe tomorrow is October??

Gina

What the week holds, and Driftwood wine party with The Girl

Yesterday we took The Girl to the wine pick up party at Driftwood Estates.  We got there early and chose a lovely spot on the patio, then Hubby proceeded to set up his patio umbrella.

The Girl and I overheard some guy talking about "taking down that red umbrella", and low and behold, the owner came over asked Hubby to take it down.  

Well, shoot.

The Girl and I gathered up three stacking chairs and two tiny tables and relocated us down the grassy slope, by the rock wall that overlooks the bluff.  We set our smoked salmon, cheese with cherries, sliced apples, mozzarella and prosciutto, and crackers.  

Hubby also enjoyed a giant cheeseburger!

 It has a nice view, too, and under the trees we didn't need the umbrella.  So we thought.

Hubby came back from getting our wine just in time!  We set up that patio umbrella once again!  We were super glad he hadn't taken it back to the truck.  While everyone around us was scrambling back up the hill to the covered patio, smushed in like sardines, we were enjoying our wine, our large red umbrella, and some impressive rain and thunder.

Cozy and dry.  We had a great time at Driftwood, then we took The Girl over to Wimberley Valley Winery to get us some blackberry wine - I love it!

 We might have also enjoyed a wine tasting.  Then we also might have purchased a bottle of wine to drink on the patio.

Since it had rained so hard, they weren't busy.  Everything was wet but it was peaceful and smelled so nice.

It was a nice day, rain and all!  This week I have a couple of physical therapy appointments, a mammo on Thursday (ugh), and Friday I want to go to my mother's house to help her with housework - she has broken her arm, so she is at a sister's house. I want her to come home to no dirty laundry or dishes, with clean sheets on the bed and swept floors.  It's hard to know what else to do, I wish she lived closer.

What does your week look like?

Gina

New beauties from Scout

Scout is taking a gap year of sorts, to figure out what he really wants to do in college.  

It makes no sense to spend a load of money on college courses when you aren't really sure what you want to do.  There is value in getting out there in the working world and gaining some real life experience.

Which is what he is doing.  He is working full-time as a photographer. 

I think he has an eye for beauty.  I'm glad that he still sees the world this way, as I think it probably easy nowadays for twentysomethings to get discouraged at all they are seeing and hearing in the news.  

Gina

The rest of Mabel's trip, Summer 2016

It's been three months since we returned from our adventure in Mabel, and seeing as Fall is upon us I really need to blog the rest of our adventure!  We traveled from Austin to Palo Duro, then on to Cimarron, Eagle's Nest, and Angel Fire, then through New Mexico to our next stop: Caprock Canyon State Park in Quitaque. 

After leaving Bubbie In Cimarron, we headed back to Angel Fire and enjoyed some beer and calzone from a local joint. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing at he RV resort - hung out at the lodge listening to Dale and Gayle (live music), enjoyed being the only ones in the very large hot tub where we watched the sun go down, then headed to the firepit to enjoy adult beverages until about 10 p.m.  We probably shouldn't have stayed up that late as we had to hit the road so early the next day - July 4th!

We got up in the morning (to temps in the 30's!) and cooked up some leftover pork chops and eggs in Mabel - I love that we have a functioning kitchen with fridge - makes breakfast easy.

Leaving Angel Fire, even when it was overcast, it was still pretty.  At each drop in elevation I was able to breathe a little easier - I never did adjust to the elevation, sadly.  Hubby kept saying "wouldn't this be a beautiful place to retire?".  Not without an oxygen tank for me!

 Pretty soon, we were out of the mountains and back into wide open spaces.

 It was a lot like West Texas - miles of flat scenery, the two lane highways bordered by ranches.  But we actually saw very little cattle - or other vehicles, even.

I think this is Lake Sumner - we traveled through Las Vegas, Santa Rosa, Fort Sumner, Clovis...we pretty much powered through until we got to the canyons.  We had only stopped for gas along the way and there was very little choice in the way of places to eat.  So, we snacked on almonds and Gardetto's until Muleshoe, then stopped at a grocery store for things to fix for dinner.

We cooked pan sauteed salmon, some leftover potatoes with bacon and red pepper, and a chopped salad, with white wine.  It was soooo good after a long day of driving.

Both of us, utterly exhausted, cleaned the kitchen up, finished the wine, and passed out!  At some point during the night I remember hearing it raining hard, but I barely moved the whole night.  Hubby said there was torrential rain, wind, and lightening!  The next morning we awoke to a peaceful scene:

There were bunnies hopping around and birds chirping and it was peaceful and calm.  I wish we could have stayed here longer.  It's such a beautiful park.  But we were trying to get to Austin in time to pick up Bubbie from the trip.

We loaded up the trailer and took ourselves to the showers to clean up.  And just down the road from the showers...

 ...we saw the resident bison herd.

 A calf was perilously close to the road!  There are signs everywhere telling you not to fool with the bison - they weigh up to 350 pounds and can outrun you.  

Caprock is as beautiful as Palo Duro, in my opinion.  And the park was far less crowded, even with it being a holiday weekend.

 

It was hot as blazes for the trip back, and due to a problem with the trailer connections we were late getting Bubbie.  All of us were hot, sweaty, and tired when we got home, so all of that is a blur!  We made notes along the way about what we will do differently next time - no hard and fast timelines, for one.  We cleaned and stored everything back in Mabel, go ready for the week ahead.  Whew - what a trip!  So, where can we go next summer?

Gina

What the week holds, and keepin' it real at Highlands

Not all of the "views" on the property look as rustic and untouched as the one below.  Keep it in mind as a reference.

The person who owned it before the person we are currently buying it from had a serious hoarding and trash issue...

He built a little storage shed/carport of sorts on the property, then proceeded to load it up with *crap* both inside and out.  The current owner did his best to remove a bunch of it before he decided to sell.

All of the big trash will be gone before closing.

Yes, we have our work cut out for us!  We have electricity and water there, but no septic tank (yet) and loads of improvements to make, including cutting down some of the cedar, moving a load of mulch to cover some old tires that are serving as erosion control, and hauling off the rest of the trash. So we need cooler weather, please!  This week I have two physical therapy appointments for my elbow, Bubbie has an away game for marching band on Friday and  Bands of America on Saturday, then I'm off on Sunday and Hubby and I are going to a wine pick-up party with The Girl as our guest.

 What does your week look like?

Gina

5 thing Friday - steak, tape, cocoa, BBQ, muffins

Last Saturday I met up with Hubby at Torr Na Lochs for the wine party pick-up.  He had to get back to a campout, so I was on my own for dinner.  No problem...

I'll just pick up a juicy steak to sear, along with a sweet potato, and some sliced baby portabellas.

"Cannary, table for one!"  It was delightful.

Monday I had my first meeting with a PT regarding my tennis elbow.  She taped it up and taught me some exercises to do.  PT will be twice a week until I can regain strength and lose the pain.  

A quick Target run netted me some Fall cocoa to set by the coffee pot - looking forward to cooler mornings.  Let the season of pumpkin begin!

 Hubby and I discovered a BBQ joint in Burnet - lots of friendly locals and lots of lunch for the price.  We left out of there groaning the rest of the afternoon.

It's been ages since I made banana bread or muffins, but The Girl has been telling me all about her baking lately.  I had two over-ripe bananas and about half a cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, so I made a batch of Sunday morning muffins for my peeps using this recipe. (which I'm pretty sure is the one she used, too!)  She had a birthday on Monday, but we will celebrate it on the 25th when we see her here.  Something to look forward to, for sure!

Happy Friday!

Gina