Before and after, part 2975

I started on this "porch thing" about 5 years ago by campaigning for a new one when I saw ours was rotting. The last 2 years I've been pointing and begging and threatening to cut off the rails.

When there was snow still on the ground we made a list of things we were going to fix in the spring. The porch was at the top of the list. Okay, some of us know that when you make the largest investment of money in your life you're going to have to maintain it. Some people like to buy quality and be done; it's nice enough to stay that way forever. I can show you the car later if you don't believe me. Spring comes and we have our builder-turned-home-improvement-contractor come by and give us separate quotes for all we want/need to have done. Front porch, awnings (the upstairs cooks, Paul's dad freezes in the basement), fixing the dropping driveway, replacing the broken outside water valve, replace the burned out attic fan. I didn't even push for the new windows we need and would pay for themselves the first year. So far, we did the cheapest-we had the attic fan replaced. It's July. We have no future appointments with Robbie at this time. So, while Paul was gone, I took out my saws-all and took those railings down-yes-the ones rotting and missing pickets like lost teeth and loosing more every day. Paul doesn't like it. Ha! If he doesn't like it he'll can have a new porch put on. ;)

Here it was before. The missing pickets on this side are being hidden bye. the fig tree. Bub, bye.

You've Got Hair

This is not going to be as satisfying as you think but please read anyway. I finally, after THREE YEARS, went to get my hair cut. If you weren't here or forgot, exactly three years ago I accidentally burned (chemically) all the hair off my head. I immediately started wearing wigs. Through the first year I would trim and cut and try to style it to no avail. My hair had grown back but thinner (never thought it could be thinner than what I already'd had all my life) and had changed direction in several places (yes, that can actually happen, usually from chemo or extreme stress or African American Hair Care Products), so I didn't know what to do with it. I used to be a hairdresser and I have cut my own hair most of my adult life. Not that it's right, but I was pretty good at it. This was the first time I had no idea what to do. It was down my shoulders and had not been that long in about 25 years and only two or three times in my life. So I didn't want to go back to the pixie cuts I'd had most of my life. I'm usually in control. This is the first time EVER that I have not come home and redone and recut my hair after someone else has done it. I can't seem to get a good photo of myself with it yet but as soon as I can style it right and get a good pic, I'll post it. I'll just tell you that it's a bob. A BOB! I still have hair I can actually run my fingers through and a hairstyle at the same time-ingenious!

I first got really antsy before my reunion. I mean, if it got screwed up I could always slap a wig on like I did anyway but I knew that making a decision before going was going to skew my thinking, so I waited. I'm also sick of, after 3 years, wearing wigs. Thousands of dollars on them, hundreds wasted on ones I ended up not liking when they came in the mail, not being able to find the ones I liked again. Success in Style has benefitted from my mistakes; at least I can feel somewhat good about that. And it's summer, not Texas summer, but summer no less. When I was bald I didn't feel so bad but when it had grown out I felt more and more like a phony. I always wore really tousled-looking ones so that often even my family (critics) would ask if it was my own hair. Boy, had we all forgotten how little had been up there! It Was Time.

So I had been to this hairdresser once years ago. My friend, Glenda, has gone there for 15 years and she kept "nudging" me to go. They just moved into the most fabulous place. Well, they just decorated a new place fabulously. Seats from airplanes, airplane panels as dividers...I promise I'll take photos next time...too shy to do it the first time. Now, I forgot my receipt so, I don't know how much it was but you know if you get a card for a $20 discount on a haircut for anyone you refer, it's expensive. Thirty years of saving money cutting and coloring my own hair-check. Check, not "right". Paul is going next week. He said, "$20 off!!! I can get a haircut for $10". True, but he needs to have it styled, very different. Twenty something years cutting my kids hair, fifteen years of cutting my husband, his father, and my youngest's hair-check. I think I've earned it. And I like it and I feel kinda normal now! P.S. You know when you get a goodie bag with serious goodies in it, that it's expensive. But I'm worth it.

A Good Plan

I had a great idea...finally! On July 4th I suggested that we go to the mall which is right across the street from the lake where the fireworks are. Go to the mall early and see movies which we've been wanting to see. Then we could eat dinner and walk over to see the fireworks. Otherwise we would have to go almost as early to find a parking space or end up watching them, as every year, from afar. I HAD AN IDEA EVERYONE LOVED. Historical. So I went to see Larry Crowne. Loved it. They should make most movies like that. No bad language, no violence, and very entertaining. We had recently watched Knight and Day on cable and I couldn't believe the gratuitous cussing-rediculous. And it was a pretty good story and movie and could have been PG if they had wanted to. Couldn't they make more money that way? Even PG-13, but I got so tired of hearing it; it was interfering with the regular dialog. Movies should be like Larry Crowne. Soap box, down. Matt and Paul saw Transformers. Matt had seen it but wanted to see it again with his dad; not my cuppa tea. However, my movie got out 45 minutes before theirs so I snuck in and watched a lot of it. It was okay except when we got up to go afterwards I suddenly felt something soaked through to my skin on my rear end. How I didn't feel it at the time I have no idea because it went through my pants and undies to my skin. Eeeeewwww. Of course, the first thing I thought, after ewe, was new shorts! And, yes, the mall was closed. So I had to live with it through another 1 1/2 hour as a sacrifice to see the fire crackers. Other than that it was great for all!

The fireworks were much nicer that these cheesy photos I took. I just wanted some sort of record but my camera is old and doesn't adjust well to different lighting. Sound familiar?

Coming home and getting busy.

I'm usually the first show up at the big box store buying flowers but this year I knew we were going to be going out of town so I didn't want to burden my father in law with a bunch of watering. So, as soon as we got home I headed out and got some flowers to spruce things up and distract me from being back home.

We're supposed to replace our front porch this year so I'd been formulating a new color scheme, especially because it's been, what, 2 or 3 years since I've painted the shutters and doors. So I replaced the dark green wicker of last year with a couple of bright red things (I'm thinking charcoal for both the door and shutters). Then good friends gave me their fab primitive cabinet to either sell for them or for free if I decided to keep it...

...oh boy! I thought that I had no where to put it so I'd be selling it. Then I decided that, since our garage is still full of furniture and treasures from Uncle Robbie, we would just stick it on the front porch until I had a place to sell it. Well, oopsy, doesn't it look happy there? I thought so too. So more fun rearranging and decorating!

Side view with my daddy's pelican center stage.

Our builder hated the "greenhouse" I'd made as therapy, when Michael Jackson passed away, out of scrap windows and doors and sat out front in the yard. The glass kept breaking whenever we had a storm, loved it anyway but finally decided to let someone else "adopt" it at the shop. The chair I had inside it still remains with a fresh plant inside.

One of my little "funnies" I put together.

Still a "before", the front door...

...shutters still "befores". We'll see what happens over the summer...

What a great time and I'm not as big as you think.

Friends told me that I should shop until I had a fabulous outfit to wear to my 35th high school reunion. I told them that all I cared about was seeing friends and staying as cool as possible in 100 degree Texas heat. Well, I was somewhat wrong. Looking at the photos after the reunion, I might as well have worn a muumuu. I was always made fun of all through school for being too skinny...a problem I no longer struggle with...but still. I hadn't seen a lot of people in 35 years and won't see them again for who knows how long so you really want to feel good about yourself. I didn't panic until we had gone to the hotel where we were staying that night and I tried on what I was going to wear. I had barely payed attention at home when I was packing; now I think of all the cute, smaller-looking outfits I could have worn. Okay, OVER THAT. It was fabulous. No. 1 is above-having my family all together at one time is rare, maybe once a year if we are lucky. So, while this party is going on I just let go and enjoyed it all-soaked it in.

Sans "The Girl", we took this our last day out by Becky's pool.

Justin has a history with goggles...

...Lucas has a history of looking like Tom Cruise.

Bros.

The plaque honoring my dad at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, the church I grew up in. And I saw a couple of VIP's while there who tickled me pink!

Not exactly No. 2 because I consider these folks like family. Probably better because we don't have to live with each other; we are together by choice not by chance! Bro Tim and Sista Becky above.

This is the band who played at the reunion. Three of the guys are from the original Sweetbriar Band from when we were in high school. You would never guess that they are old farts when you hear how they rock. They played so hard and we danced so hard I started thinking that it might have been a good idea to have an ambulance parked nearby like they have at sporting events. That's one of the wonderful things about being our age; we are more interested in seeing each other and having a great time than how we look (we rocked without any dorkiness at all!).

So many memories that are priceless-growing up together in a special place. We are Lord and Lady of Bristol, above.

False starts and not able to agree on a time or place for a class photo...we were as I said, "BHS Class of 1976 A.D....D. It was like herding cats. There were even a couple of white plastic chairs we didn't take the time to move out of the way that I photoshopped out of these.

Just one of our many class clowns!!!!

There are so many more photos that I couldn't download from my Facebook profile onto here...many, many more brothers and sisters. Go here to see a lot more great pics.

No. 3? The food! Jamba Juice and What-A-Burger at least once every day. My heart is full but still alway have the longing...