Tuesday, June 28, 2011

abuela and gabey eat cookies

So... Gabey really likes this 'oat crunch square cereal'.  He calls 'em 'cookies'.  So, when I was shopping for food for the Mother, Sister, nephew, doggie visit, I made sure to purchase a box of said 'oat crunch square cereal' so Gabey can have some 'cookies'.  One afternoon after swimming, and Gabey needed a snack, I brought out a bowl of said 'cookies' for Gabey to munch on.  I've found that munching toddlers = happy toddlers.  So, Gabey was sitting on Abuela's lap he wanted to share his 'cookies' with his Abuela.  ( I think he really does love her!)




Here's Abuela admiring Gabey as he eats his 'cookies'.








Here's Gabey shoving a 'cookie' in Abuela's mouth...






Here is Abuela 'pretending' to smile about having the cookie in her mouth!  She immediately spit it out and daintily placed it in an ash tray... without Gabey noticing.


He's so proud of himself!




... and afterward, everyone's happy!  They area so cute together!





Awwww!  I loved my visit with Abuela, Liz and Gabey!

-P

Saturday, June 25, 2011

visit with Liz, Gabey, and Abuela!

Well... This week I had Liz, her precious son, my Nephew, Gabey, and my Mother, Abuela come visit!  We had such a good time entertaining, eating out, fixing food here, and having pool parties!  What a good time was had by all!  I have some good video spots to share with ya...


This one is Gabey 'drumming' in the water... He's so cute.  He likes the bubbles he makes in the water and the train that goes by the back of my house (DART train that is...).









This one is Liz and Gabey talking about the doodle bugs that came out after we got the really sweet rain the night before (like 3 inches, YO!  YEAH!).












...And here is Gabe with his Abuela (Miss Margaret), eating hummus dip together.  They are so cute!!











So... I seriously hope the videos come through... and just know that I had a truly wonderful visit with my family!  Love you guys!
-P




Saturday, June 18, 2011

my project

As I mentioned last week... I've been doing some home remodel of sorts this week, turning the old paige's room for her crap/'guest room' that had no guest facilities into a real  guest room!  It is done and I have the pictures to prove it.  If you remember, and if not, I turned Mikey's man cave #2 to paige studio #1.

So here is what I started with after I moved all of my stuff into my new studio.

Floors full of staples.  I had to remove 100's of staples out of the original 1958 cork floors.




Then there is the wallpaper.  OMG!  This used to be a child's room when we moved in 10 years ago this summer ( I can't believe that one either!).  We didn't want to deal with it when we moved in 'cause we had a lot of other painting to do in the rest of the house, and frankly comparatively, the purple walls and jungle motif was at least livable.




We had to remove it all... but look at those fine re-finished cork floors!  Nice!  Really Really Nice!




So, wallpaper is gone...  and we now have a nice blue accent wall.  I like it.







Here is the purple about to become white.  'White Clay' to be exact.  It's the same color as the studio walls.




I painted this beam the whole length of the house now, in three different colors.




Looking good!




Nice!




And the Murphy bed is now blue...




So once we've finished painting we went to IKEA to get the furniture.

Here's the goods after we checked out.




And... Here is the recycle waste from the packaging after I spent 5 hours assembling the bed and two side tables.  I'm a little banged up and bruised now...




Here is the room as it sat Wednesday night at 11:00 after I finished all my work.  Looking good!




New lamp too... but I forgot to get the right bulbs.  UGH.  IKEA.  I'll be back!




So, Friday, I go back to IKEA and get the bedding, bulbs and a shelf thingie for the printer and UVERSE router, cause this room is the UVERSE hub.




Today, I hung pictures and assembled the shelf thingie for the printer, et cetera.







Looking good!  Got some good pics up.  Dad's in there, as well as Floyd, my grandfather that died when I was 11.  I sure do miss him.




...See, Here's Floyd.



Another shot of the room.




And... This painting is of my by C. Vail, when I was 3.




And the finished bed...




So, Now the guest room is REALLY a guest room.  It's ready for Mother, Liz and Gabey to come visit tomorrow, and it really looks like a real guest room that adults have in their houses.  We've come a long way, Babe!

Happy Father's day to all you Fathers out there in the millions of people reading my little 'ole blog...  Have a great weekend...
-P

Friday, June 17, 2011

dog walk

So... I took the dogs for a walk earlier this week while I was working on my 'project'.  It was a big work day at the house, so I didn't go work out, 'cause I was working out at the house!  Being said... I wore my 'project working shorts' rather than my 'go work out shorts'.  Point... I had a pocket.  I could take my iPhone.  I could take pictures of my dog walk.  Not that that is an easy feat, mind you... Not easy at all.  Keep that in mind.


Here we are as we start our walk...  I find it's easier to take the dogs on the tandem leader when walking them alone.  This allows them to pull each other rather than having 120# of dog pulling independently.






Here's Ruby pulling away to sniff something.  What?  I don't know... she sniffs a lot of stuff that I have no idea what the heck she's sniffing...








Here is Ruby again.  She is eating this plant on the corner that she loves to chew on.  I don't know why.  She does it every time we walk the dogs.  It's her thing.  Can't be too tasty!





So, after we round the corner... like clockwork. Luke has to do his business.  I mean EVERY TIME!  He just had his first press at the house earlier on the pool deck.  This dog has some serious shit issues!  Be it pool deck, neighborhood entryway boxwoods, doesn't mater. but it's gotta be good!





So, now, I've gotta bag this shit up.  I use the little blue bags and that's all.  I mean, REALLY???? Why double bag this shit??? Everyone knows it's shit he's carrying!  (and, yes, he's gonna carry his shit.  I'm not!).




So, now we have the dogs smelling stuff... they do that.



The home stretch!





Almost done...



...And we're done!!!!  They are happy dogs!!!!!




So... Dogs like their walk... however it's HOT here... Like really really HOT!  So, we either walk early or late.  They love it though!  When we get home, Luke goes to the fan, Ruby gets in the pool. They know what's up when it's HOT!

More to come tomorrow on our 'project'... Good times!

-P

Sunday, June 12, 2011

what could be in that package???

Well, folks... It's been a while since I've posted since school's been out.  Let me clarify myself...  I started the first unofficial day of Summer Vacation with the beginnings of a summer cold!  SUCK!  You see, I had a very important role in the Graduation ceremony.  As Lollie T. (our visual arts coordinator) is the official name reader during the graduation ceremony, It is my duty as Lollie 2.0 (thanks, Luis for coining this term for me) to be the hand shaker/hugger representative for the visual arts cluster for all the 180 graduating seniors, on stage...  with the other three cluster coordinators.  During the ceremony, I think to myself, geez, you really need to wash your hands before you leave.  The ceremony ends, I turn in my regalia, grab my shit, and book for the door.  My feet hurt, it's late, and I wanna get home to my Mikey.  I get lost finding my car in the bowels of the symphony center... finally find my car, and head home.  We have had a nice night.  Some drinks, some dinner, go to bed... I DIDN'T WASH MY HANDS!!!!

I realize this two days later when I wake up with a tightness in my throat and a dry cough.  UGH.  Summer colds suck!  This was last Friday, our last day of school.  I go to the school's breakfast at Luby's where they give out funny awards and yearly service awards ( I got the 'Jeff Liston dealing' award and have now served at Arts Magnet for a full 14 years!), then head to school where I snapped the following pictures.

So... I've had this cold for the past week, dear Mother and dear Sister are coming to town next weekend, and Mikey wants me to finish the guest room, which was part of the deal when I agreed to turn Mikey man cave #2 to Paigey studio #1.  I have to move my shit out of the 'guest room', clean it out, paint it, etc... More to come on that later.  Long story long...  I've been trying to get this done while dealing with a lingering, not to severe but still there cold.  More on this later... Just sayin' where I've been lately...

SO... Back to the pictures.

So, I'm leaving school with all my summer crap... ready to get summer vacation on... and I see this.




I take a double take and turn around for a better photo... Really?  What in the wall eyed world could this be in a school???  Really?? They're bringing Roses to school faculty?  I never got any! (note taken)




Wait a minute...  Craft bi fold?  Wait a minute, could not be real roses...





NO!  It's friggin' toilet paper, disquised as ROSES!  I don't know about you, but my shit don't smell like roses!  Doesn't matter what the package says or what fancy kind of toilet paper you have, not gonna change things, IN THE LEAST!  Just ask my dear husband!  WOO!  Stay clear, grab some matches, and leave the door closed for at least 30 minutes!

Happy Sunday, Y'all... I'll have more on the guest room re-model soon!
-P

Friday, June 3, 2011

it's summertime! WOOT!


Well... summer vacation just snuck up on me this year... I mean really, really snuck up on me.  I'm still expecting the temps to be in the 70's and I've got a big week next week... but NO!  It's over.  School's out.  It really didn't process until I got home after our faculty breakfast today and proceed to finish the second book of the Hunger Games trilogy!  I'm like... wow... I'm done... wait, really?  So, I got in the pool to read and started watering our plants 'cause the rain faucet is probably turned off for the summer and the temp is in the upper 90's... like almost a 100 degrees... It's starting.  But as I was sayin, with school being so 'on!' all year, it FLEW by!  

So, Before I was done with school, I got my friend, Cassie, to help me again with the video program on my MacBook Air, iMovie.  I'm not so good at it right now, so I'll be practicing.  I've got a video of Gabey talking to Liz and I when I went to see her last month.  It's a little low on the volume aspect so you might need to stick your ear on the speaker to hear him... or it might not even come up, in which case, please let me know!  I'm learning here, y'all!






Happy June!
-P