Life at the Gables

It was gorgeous today.  80F (26.5C)  Just perfect for sitting outside having coffee with new friends before heading off to line dancing.

I need to make the most of it as it's set to rain again this weekend :(

It's been a Laundry Sorting Bed striping Diet Starting (again)

Line Dancing "Pontoon" learning* Dusting and hoovering kind of day
and it's only 3pm!!
Thanks again to Sian at From High in the Skyfor hosting Me on Monday.
* Pontoon is a "new to me" dance which I'm struggling with.  Take a look at the previous post if you want to see what I mean.

Think Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Blondie and more Madonna and you'll have an idea of what last night was about.
There was 12 ladies from the Expat group going and some of us decided to dress up 80s style.  In the whole of the cinema we were the only ones dressed up but we didn't care.  The manager liked the idea so much he asked if he could take our photo and use in their publicity stuff.  We of course said "Hell Yeh".

A trip to Walmart to get a cheap lacy top, some legging and some cheap and nasty necklaces and I was all set.  My hair was easy enough to do.  I just didn't straighten it!!


It was a really great night.  Singing and dancing along to hits from the 80s.

I'm taking a leaf out of my sisters book.

Right now.............


I am love, love, loving line dancing. ♥♥♥ I am excited about getting tickets for the Rodeo in March.

I am looking forward to an 80s night with the girls at the weekend. I am trying to catch up on housework. I am trying to get my Project Life up-to-date.

I am trying not to stress about the medical bill that just came in for the Teenager. I am helping the Teenager with his presentation about Scotland.

I am baking shortbread for that presentation.  (36 bite size pieces)! I am catching up on both series of The Fall. I am about to start watching Wolf Hall with the lovely Damian Lewis (who will forever be Major Dick Winters in Band of Brothers).
I am half way through watching Band of Brothers with Hubby. I am listening to Lady Antebelum and Fall Out Boy. I am not stressing about leaving comments on blogs.  It's just one of those things! and I am totally addicted to fresh Guacamole  :0)


What a long list!! What are you d…

Today was a good day.  It was a day for

Sunshine and high temperatures (64F).  No jackets needed.


 a day for going line dancing and finding a helicopter in the parking lot!!  (They were sorting out new power cables on the pylons.)


a day for NOT buying the delicious cranberry and pistachio bread in the local supermarket.


 a day of having the Teenager at home as the schools are closed for Martin Luther King day. A day of grocery shopping.  A day for looking at tickets for the Rodeo in March.

A good day.

How was your Monday?

Thanks to Sian at from High in the Sky for organising Me on Monday.

It's official.

I am now the mother of an 18 year old.   How?    When?


17 January 1997.


17 January 2015


I guess now though he's not as easy to photograph as he was back then!!  Love that silly face ♥

Oh yeah.  It's the first time ever that he's been outside in a t-shirt, in the sun on his Birthday.  Love that too ♥

Getting busy in the school workroom.

See that BIG pile of yellow card?  I had to make a start on laminating and cutting all that out.  Only managed half before the roll ran out.  Phew!! What a job.

Wednesdays are quickly turning into my favourite day of the week.  They are turning into my day.  A day for me with no housework or shopping.

Take today for example.  I said goodbye to hubby and the Teenager and by 7am I was back in bed with my new book.  I had intended to get up at 8am after reading a chapter or two but ended up laying around until 9.30am.  I only got up then as I had to get ready to go out and meet the girls for coffee.

Old picture.  Same girls. Sarah, Emma and Pamela.
11am I'm sat in Oh La La Dessert Boutique having coffee and, for the others, cake.  We chatted and swapped dentist horror stories, talked about cool TV shows that were worth watching (Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones and Broadchurch to name but a few).  The time passed really quickly and it was soon time for ...................... Line Dancing.

Oh how I love the hours from 12.30 to 2.30 on a Wednesday.  We set off for the Westland Baptist Church to Boot Scoot our hearts out for the next few hours.…

I've just finished "Shifty's War" by Marcus Brotherton and really enjoyed it.  Anyone who's seen Band of Brothers will know who Shifty Powers is.

Now I'm just about to start The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel.  Living so close to Houston and visiting the Space Center over the holidays, how could I miss reading this one.

Thanks to my lovely sister Ruth for sending it to me xx

Do you think he was trying to tell his 8 year old cousin and his 9 year old friend something?

I found this in the Teenagers closet when I was putting the towels away!!  Good handwriting though  :0)

When I first arrived in Texas I had no idea what I was going to do or what I'd do to fill my days now I wasn't working.

I needn't have worried.  America relies a LOT on it's volunteers and when the Teenager came home from school with a pile of paperwork I applied for the school workroom.  It was perfect for me.  Photocopying, laminating, die cutting. Right up my street.

So here we are 3 months later and I do 2 hours a week in the school.  I'm getting to know the ladies in the office and hope that if a job opening comes up I'll be a face they recognise.

Not that I'm in any rush to get back to work!!!

Last year I joined my friend Sarah and a few other ladies for walks around George Bush Park.  Today I did my first walk of 2015 and walked 8.5 miles (or 13.73 km).
It took nearly 3 hours and it was below freezing when we started but we managed it and afterwards went to a local cafe for coffee and lunch!!
What a great morning  :0)

They made 88,246 and I get to be proud owner of one of them  :0)

I had good intentions today of cracking on and finishing the tidying up.  I didn't get around to hoovering, dusting or mopping the floors yesterday.
Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) my friend asked if I was free for coffee at 11 and maybe an early lunch before she picked her daughter up from school.
Like a good friend I said I was!!

Two hours of chatting soon passes.  She went to collect her daughter and I popped to the shop.  When I got back after 2pm I told myself there was no point in starting the hoovering as the Teenager would be home in an hour.  I sat in my craft room and did a few more pages of my Turkey journal (which has been a work in progress since summer 2012!!)

It's now time to make supper and the hoovering will wait till tomorrow and lunch will be re-arranged for next week  :0)

What's a girl to do when her visitors have gone home?

Does she get her nails done and then sit and drink coffee?                         I wish!!

No!!

She does the laundry...............


she empties out the storage room...................


then puts it all back again................................


she Face Times with her visitors back in London then empties the dishwasher..............


she changes the bed in the spare room then texts her pal to tell her "It's ready when you are" much to her pals delight :0)


she puts the sofa bed back in the games room and gives it a tidy up.............


she cleans two bathrooms................


(two to go!!)


then she doesn't need to go to the gym as she's too tired!!

Thanks to Sian at From High in the Sky for hosting Me on Monday again this year.

How was your Monday?

It's way to early for this.  Don't they realise it's only the 4th of January and some people still have their Christmas decorations up.  We don't need this out on display yet!!

So there we have it.  The quickest fortnight of 2014.  It only seems like five minutes since they arrived and today we had to take them back to the airport.
It's been a great two weeks with trips to the Space Centre, the Zoo to feed the Giraffes, Blue Bell Creamery to taste the ice cream, an afternoon of pampering for the girls and a trip to the gun range for the older boys plus half a dozen other things I've probably forgotten.

Missing you already (although my house is quiet!!)  See you later in the year.  Love you all xxx

Six months ago going out for a streak dinner with the Teenager would have been a No No.  He didn't like steak he told us.
Fast forward six months and he L♥ves them!!
They obviously grow them differently here in Texas.

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it"
-Oscar Wilde

Happy New Year to all my family and friends in Blogland.  May 2015 be a wonderful year for you all.  With love from the Texas Division xxx