Age of Majority B-day

There are EIGHTEEN candles on that cake. How did that many years go by so quickly? My "little boy" can now legally vote, marry, join the military, participate in contracts, purchase cigarettes, buy a lottery ticket... the list goes on! (Choose wisely, my son.)

Make a wish!

This year's cake of choice was a "Blackout" cake from The Cheesecake Factory. It is HUGE!!! Despite the fact that 12 people enjoyed a slice of chocolatey goodness, we still have way toooo much cake left over.

The b-day boy received several cards, gifts, and phone calls -- not to mention all of the Facebook well wishes. ;-) As M. unwrapped each gift, he correctly guessed what was inside before actually opening it. Either that boy's hard to surprise, or we give predictable gifts. Or both.

Happy birthday, Mr. Smith Jr.!

Dozen-year-old

At precisely 7:22 a.m. this morning, the b-day girl was awakened from her slumber by receiving a dozen kisses. The wake-up kiss is a birthday tradition.

SMOOCH X 12!

Millie Girl was born at 5:22 a.m. (California time), so we had a time zone adjustment. We all got to sleep in this year. Ahhhh!

Millie harvested one dozen tree-ripened bagels -- yet another b-day ritual. Yes, the bagel tree survived being uprooted from CA. ;-)

TWO dozen roses, one dozen phone calls, a half dozen b-day cards & gifts were added to the mix, and it all added up to a VERY happy birthday indeed. Oh, and tossing in one laptop definitely made Millie smile. (Thankfully, not everything has to come in twelves on the dozenth birthday!)

Katie baked & decorated a cake for her friend. Sweet!

A German Chocolate Cat capped off the celebration in a tasty manner.

Two Smithling b-days down, one more to go...

SiXtEeN!

And so begins the seemingly endless succession of celebrations & birthday festivities at our house. It is September, after all.

Liesey Lou is SiXtEeN!

Our daughter's traditional b-day dinner is chicken pot pie. We had to have the pie a day early since the birthday celebrant requested an evening out at The Cheesecake Factory for her actual "sweet" celebration.

Jemima helped wrap & unwrap the gifts. Maine Coons are helpers.

Everything's comin' up roses...

There are not 16 blossoms -- only a dozen. ;-)

Say, "Cheese!" (As in cheesecake.)

Things certainly were up in the air (literally & figuratively) a year ago on September 9th. Last year Lou spent her b-day on a plane en route to Keller, TX, (with the whole family) "just to visit." This b-day was again spent in Keller, but this time as residents. We are feeling a little more grounded this time around. The past twelve months have been FULL to overflowing, to say the least. We're going to fasten our seat belts & hang on for another interesting year.

Sixteen is looking pretty sweet indeed.

August 31st? Really?!

My, how time flies when you're havin' fun... &/or when there is much work to be done. It's hard for me to believe that this is the last day of August. I must get something written before the clock strikes midnight so I can claim at least one blog update for the month.

I have heard from a few friends who have gently reminded me that I have not posted any new blog entries in weeks and weeks. It's nice to be missed. One friend told me that she's sick of visiting the blog only to find that Danda is still resting in peace. Okay, okay. I get the message.
FYI, Danda is continuing to receive mail at our address, despite our best efforts to eliminate her. Oh, well! At least the phone calls for Danda have ceased.

So, what's new with us? Lots! Each day has been full to overflowing with activities. Almost all of the walls in the Smith Haus are painted, the shutters are installed, and it is beginning to look, feel, and smell like home. Ahhh.

We have managed to get the garages cleaned out & organized enough to get one car inside AND be able to close the overhead door. It will only be a few more days until we can get both cars under the same roof. That will be a major victory.

We have made at least six trips to Goodwill over the past few weeks. Each trip has been a carload full, so we have eliminated a lot of junk... er, uh... I mean really useful stuff that someone else should be happy to have. One man's trash is another man's treasure, or at least I hope it will work that way. :-)

Our "recycle guys" have got to love us. Each week we put more recyclable stuff out by the curb than the entire neighborhood combined. The recycling guys even poke through the trash that we set out to make sure that we don't overlook something that could be recycled. Now that's service! Our trash men are likely praying that we will soon be at a point where we won't be throwing so much away. The volume (of trash) at the Smith house has been on HIGH for weeks. The garbage men happily make their rounds twice a week & load it all up -- bag after bag of trash. No complaints, either. They even took a old queen-sized mattress & box springs without flinching. Oh, sure -- they smile & wave at us, but I know that deep down inside they are tired of loading the huge quantities of discarded stuff that we leave out for them 2X/week. I attempt to "artfully" arrange our refuse for their enjoyment. I'm certain they have noticed... HA! (Sorry, no photos of how white trashy we really are.)

I'll recap some of the goings-on for the past several weeks -- mostly through photos. Here goes:

In late July, M&M and I made a road trip to the Hoosier state. We left Mr. Smith home alone with an empty refrigerator & pantry, partially unpacked boxes, & three cats. It was our mission to go help with a few chores at my parents' place. It was a fun "working vacation," but it was HOT!!!! I had forgotten what real humidity feels like, but after about 5 minutes of working outdoors, I remembered. Ugh! It does get hot in Texas, but the humidity level in Texas is nothing compared to what Indiana can dish out. I kept telling the kids that we were building character as we sweated what felt like bucket loads of perspiration. I think this pep talk was for my benefit, as well!

Obviously, the corn in Indiana must thrive with humid weather conditions. This field is picture perfect.

On the trip back to Texas, we made a brief stop in St. Louis to have a Cafe Ventana beignet & coffee break with Uncle Todd.
(FYI, my son is NOT donning a "Twilight" tee. Millie's noggin' is in the way. His shirt says, "The light." And then there's a Scripture verse. It's a great shirt & makes people look twice. No teen vampire foolishness for us, thank you very much!)

There are messy, but very tasty beignets. Let's just say that there was powdered sugar everywhere. It's probably a good thing they do not offer drive-thru service, as I do not think it would be possible to neatly eat one of these beauties while driving. :-)

We were treated to a mini tour of downtown St. L. as an added bonus.

I liked this street sign for some reason. And the brewery sign is pretty cool, too.


While three of us were off in the midwestern part of the US, Mr. Smith went to Austin to visit the ballerina girl for a Sunday afternoon outing. Liesey spent four weeks at the University of Texas campus (Austin, TX) participating in ABT's summer ballet intensive, a.k.a. ballerina boot camp, so she welcomed the opportunity to get off campus for a few hours. Daddy & daughter found all sorts of fun things to do from a paddle boat ride to a quick tour of the TX State Capitol.

Oasis retreat

Lake Travis

Ballet on the lawn of the Capitol? A capital idea! ;-)



We returned to Austin on August 7th to see ABT's final ballet performance & bring our dancer home. It was sooo good to have the family reunited.

We had to take a few more parting shots of the UT campus.

This must be the university's holy ground -- football IS a religion at UT, right?


Liesey and her new ballerina friends posed for one more group shot before we hit the road.


Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Whistle while you work? Or at least smile a while.
All rooms are now painted -- with the exception being the master bedroom & bathroom.

Jemima has tested out the TP holder in the guest bathroom to make sure it rolls smoothly.

Boxes, anyone? We've got 'em.

We were told by a cat breeder that Maine Coons are helpers, and this photo shows it to be true. We found Jemima in this cabinet doing her best to act as a bookend. Comfy & cozy?


Our wine grotto is definitely complete with this somewhat furry sommelier. Instead of calling it a wine grotto, we think a more appropriate name might be the gato grotto.


While there has been a lot of work going on, Miss Millie did take some time out to have fun helping her friend Katie celebrate her 11th b-day American Girl style. :-)

Tea for two?

(Or four, if you count the dolls.)

So there you have it. (And that was the edited, streamlined, Reader's Digest version of what we have been up to.) Did you really read everything or simply scroll to the bottom to see how it ends?

September promises to be another full month with three Smithling birthdays, school, a little more painting, more organizing, and possibly some landscaping, but I vow to update the blog with a few photos of the house & its MANY projects.

Rest in Peace, Danda Smith

Ever since we moved into the new house, we have been receiving phone calls for Danda Smith. I've rather enjoyed telling telemarketers that Danda doesn't live here. It keeps the calls short and sweet, and I don't have to listen to the salesperson's spiel. Thank you, Danda.

Even the USPS is delivering mail to our house for Danda. Dandy! We are the first and only people to have this address, so how does Danda get mail before we do? I'll bet she didn't even have to fill out a change of address form.

After making a few phone calls from our land line, I learned that even our phone number/identity appeared as Danda Smith on other people's caller ID. Our family and friends were confused as to who was calling. Danda is everywhere.

We FINALLY figured out who Danda is... Thankfully, she is NOT a deadbeat. I'm quite sure we'd like her, if we ever met.

When Mr. Smith and I set up our phone/internet/TV with Verizon last month, the phone company representative asked how we would like our name to appear in the directory. For twenty-plus years we have always had it listed as D and A Smith with no address. We went with this option again; HOWEVER, it came out like this: DandA Smith! Ahhh -- Danda!

I contacted Verizon and learned that they cannot add spaces or ampersands to their listings, so we will no longer be listed as D & A Smith or D and A Smith. We opted to "kill" Danda while we were at it, so now we will be appearing as plain ol' D Smith. Gee, I wonder how many D Smiths there are in the greater DFW area? Maybe we should have gone with A Smith instead, or Smithlings...

I'm already starting to miss hearing the phone ring for our dearly departed (imaginary) friend. It's kinda quiet here.

I just might have to come up with a new approach for dealing with telemarketers now that Danda is gone. Oh, I'll likely stick to my favorite response of very politely saying, "Thank you soooo much for your call. You have done a masterful job of explaining this AMAZING opportunity to me. You do your job really well, but I am sure that you hear compliments like that all the time. I would certainly be a fool to pass up an offer as wonderful as this, but I must decline... Good bye!" Click.

Busy, Busy, Shockingly Busy...

It's been a very busy time for all of us, but we are not complaining. Busy is good.

I have not had time to post any updates because I am either painting, unpacking, sorting stuff, or running to Lowe's or Ace Hardware. Sitting at my computer does not fit into the daily routine right now, but I am going to take a few minutes to share what's been going on in Texas.

We have been going to bed at midnight (or later) and the alarm jangles at 6 AM. There is no rest for the Smiths. We are pooped, but happy.

Here is a photo update of what we have been doing over the past few weeks:

June 26th -- Ruth came to visit Liesey, or maybe she came to help us work. We certainly appreciated her help... :-) No, she didn't ride this chopper all the way from CA. We made a quick trip to OK to clean and sort things at Grandma Florence's house, and Mr. Smith's cousin dropped by on the big kid's version of a Spiderman bike.

Two trips to the dump barely made a dent in Grandma's basement & attic...

June 27th -- I had a birthday somewhere amidst all the sorting, packing, and moving stuff. Mr. Smith baked a most excellent German Choc. cake for the occasion. :-)

June 28th -- For a belated b-day gift, I got keys to our new home. Hooray!!!

As soon as we had the keys, Mr. Smith and I stopped by the new house to pray over every room.

The empty canvas awaits...

Everything looks so clean! There is no window treatment, no wall color, and no moving boxes -- yet! Oh, there is soooo much work to do, but where do we begin?

We have to install a few more light fixtures, that is, if we can find them packed away with all of our stuff. We currently have a few keyless fixtures in the house -- although they are quite attractive in their own right, we want something a little more interesting looking than a bare light bulb. HA! Who knows, maybe we will start a new trend in lighting design. Less is more...more or less.

Benjamin Moore to the rescue. I think we have 44 gallons of paint to get started with. We will definitely need to purchase Moore.

We were treated to a nice thunderstorm while we were painting. We have not had many storms since we moved to Texas, so the dark clouds were photo-worthy.

Frog tape is invaluable.

Child labor?

Ruth got to help paint, too. The girls decided to have fun painting Scripture verses on the wall before the main color was rolled on. These verses are now hidden under the paint in the guest room. Love it!!!

Hooray for new furniture! We purchased a sectional for the family room, a mattress for the guest room, and office furniture.

Katie and Millie tried out the sectional & confirmed that it's comfy.

July 1st -- We didn't make Ruth paint the entire time she was here. Really!!! The ballerina girls took time for a photo shoot -- something like 250 images were captured. These are a couple of my favorites.



July 3rd -- Mr. Smith had to climb up on the ladder to heights that I didn't care to try. My limit is about 12 feet up, so he got to do the dangerous part.

It was nearly 100 degrees, but the storage unit had to be emptied -- first the furniture, then the boxes. It took six trips in the U-Haul truck, but it is under two miles from All Storage to the new address. We definitely have tooooo much stuff.



Independence Day was spent with our new neighbors. They didn't mind that we were all sweaty & gross from moving, or at least that's what they said!!!! The Thomsons hosted a barbecue & swimming party. All of the kids from the 'hood willingly posed for this photo. Look at all of those beautiful smiles.

July 11 -- We took a break from unpacking, shelf lining, and painting to take the ballerina girl to the UT campus in Austin. Liesey will be gone for a month as she is participating in American Ballet Theatre's Summer Intensive program.

Who knows what today's moving adventure will be! There will be a lot going on, I am sure, but I doubt that I will have much time to blog about it. :-)