WORKERS, WORKERS EVERYWHERE!

Today the sheet rock people are finishing up, the cornice men are working on a few last projects, And the roof people (men and two women!!) made a few adjustments to the roof—all this morning!

The cleanup people are removing all the debris and leveling out the ground around the house.

Oops!  My husband finally found a place to read the morning paper—late this afternoon!

And the taping and floating people just arrived to begin working their magic on the sheet rock.  Soon we will have a whole new look inside our house.  I really love these days when I can see so much progress being made!

PROGRESS IS BEING MADE!

The roof of our house is finally on and the inside secure, so they have finished the insulation and are working on the sheet rock.  Below is the former “green bathroom.”

Below is the hall into the two bedrooms that were not changed.  Note wonderful storage closets on both right (second doorway) and on the left.  Those are new!

 

And the stairway upstairs.  They are nearly finished with the rooms upstairs.

And below is a picture of me “picking cotton” in South Texas yesterday.  The cotton fields were beautiful and in the process of being harvested.  I hope to go up to the Panhandle in October to see cotton being harvested there on some family farms.

A BUSY WEEK!

Last Wednesday evening I flew to Denver so that I could ride back to Texas with my sister.  It was a spur of the moment decision and we had a great time!  I spent two whole days in Colorado where it was gloriously cool.  I tried to soak up as much of the scenery and cool weather as I could but returning to our Texas heat makes me yearn for the mountains again!

 

The view from my sister’s deck above.  And, of course, a picture of Pikes Peak below.

The drive back to Texas was beautiful.  It is amazingly green all the way across the usually brown desert lands.

I returned home to find progress on our house.  The stucco is all on and the roof is almost finished.  Our front yard has been full of trucks all day!

Today they are doing the insulation and then comes the dry wall.  Whoopee!  My art room (below) is now insulated and the sheet rock is in the room.  As soon as the insulation passes inspection, the sheet rock goes on.  The builder tells me that we will have a bee hive of activity next week!  I’m ready!

A HUGE CHANGE!

I came home from the fitness center this morning and had a HUGE surprise.  Much of the red brick of our house is not red brick anymore.  Three young fellows who are artists with their trowels had transformed out red brick into a soft tan stucco that looks wonderful with our new soft green paint.  Note the stucco around and below the siding on the left and the red brick still remaining (and now mostly covered) on the right.  Our house no longer looks like an old red brick house with additions, but is quickly beginning to looks like an integrated whole!

At the rate that those three trowel artists are moving, I suspect that they will be finished with all of the brick by mid-afternoon.

BUSY, BUSY

The past few weeks have been very busy.  We have seen all of our four boys and all seven of our grandchildren.  Last weekend we visited our #3 son who was receiving a “Preceptor of the Year” award that is a type of “teacher of the year” award for the Physicians Assistant school where he trains PA students in a hospital setting.  We were very proud of him.

I also got to see one of my former first grade students graduate from the program and receive his white coat.  Congratulations, Mark!  I am proud of you! 

While there we visited a family farm and I got some good pictures!

Growing cotton.  I found out that the way they plow those perfect circles is by way of a GPS system and not just the perfect steering of the farmer.  The tractor has two (TWO!!) computer screens in it and the farmer has a technology fellow who works for him!  Wow!  I was impressed.

A beautiful field of sunflowers near the family farms.  Looks like another painting idea!

BIG farm equipment for those wide open spaces!  Note the yellow “headlight-looking thing” on the top of the tractor—that is the GPS system hooked up to one of the computer screens in the tractor.

And then we returned home to find that they had started painting the outside of our house.  Yippee!!  And today they are putting on the roof which means that they will begin working on finishing the INSIDE soon!  Whee!

Meanwhile I have finished two paintings. 

One of my friends named the one above “Aggies Rule” because those are maroon bluebonnets developed by Texas A&M in the A&M colors.

And tomorrow I am off on another trip—pictures next week!

DOCTORS IN TRAINING?

A couple of weeks ago my husband cut his thumb badly and had to have six stitches. I had been doctoring the cut every night but while we were on our trip our granddaughters took over the doctoring process. After their initial shocked reaction at seeing the large gash with the stitches, they rallied and became very serious about their doctoring responsibilities. Soph was first and she did an excellent job!

Em took the next night and she also did the job with great care and concern.

When we reached Son #4’s place, the girls decided their 4-year-old cousin, Miss Ella Bella, should have a turn. I was not sure about that, but she stepped up and began without batting an eye. Perhaps we will have some future doctors in the family??

JULY IS OVER!!

Where is the summer going so fast?  We ended the month of July by taking two of our granddaughters (8 and 10 years old--daughters of Son #2) to the beach for a few days.  We had a wonderful time, lots of laughs, some fun at the beach, swimming pool time, and great visiting!  Those two girls were so polite and well-behaved that it made our trip all that more enjoyable.

The girls wanted me to paint a picture of them like I did when we took two of the girls to the beach three years ago.  I like this shot below for the colors, the waves and the sky.  They made sure I took a bunch of pictures to use as a guide for my painting. 

The girls also enjoyed early morning walks on the beach where they gathered sea shells and sand crabs (Eew!) so they could examine their pinchers and blue eyes and then let them go again.

On the way home from the beach we stopped off to visit Son #1 and family, and then went on to visit Son #4 and family.  The cousins all had a grand time seeing each other.

And now we move into August--ALREADY!