Candlelight Afterglow x 3

Celebrating THREE birthdays within a two-week time period is crazy! It's fun, but crazy busy.

I suppose we could have attempted to plan to have our kids' birthdays spread out a bit... Nah! We like things exactly the way they are.

September 9

 Nineteen years of time spent with the Louster has been pure joy!

One of the gems from the birthday celebration was seeing our girl open and read this letter that she wrote to herself back in 2003. I had it tucked away in a safe place just for this occasion. It was supposed to be written on her birthday in 2003, but for some reason, she didn't fill it out until November of that year. (Yes, I have blurred her name to protect the innocent!)

 Yay for gifts!

Next up: the bagel tree!
September 18

 Tradition!

 I-N-O for dinner = no cookin' for mama :-)

A Baskin-Robbins Peanut Butter and Chocolate ice cream cake was disguised as a stylish handbag...

Someone sneaked a taste of the frosting BEFORE we sang the obligatory "Happy Birthday" song. Millie was busted because the food coloring turned her teeth and tongue turquoise!

 Party animal?

September 22

XXI!

My "little boy" is now legal -- proceed with caution!

What exciting things did the birthday boy do on "his" day? He baked his own cake. I think he spent just over $30 on ingredients for his four layer creation.

We went out to eat dinner at Uncle Julio's. Fajitas!!!! The 21-year-old ordered a Long Island iced tea, but never got carded. :-(

Hooray! Grandpa and AJ were in town for the big b-day bash. FYI, they didn't get carded either.

 Grandpa T. posed with all of his September b-day Smithlings.

 I think it's safe to say that it was a happy day!

Let's go, Rangers!

 It's baseball time in Texas...

Four out of five Smiths headed to The Ballpark in Arlington for this Friday night baseball game/fireworks show, sans peanuts and crackerjack.

Although they are standing in the picture, the cutest couple sat in front of us -- LOVE it!

It was not a terribly exciting game during the first several innings. Boredom crept in, so I used Find My Friends to see where my family was located. (You have to understand that they were seated right next to me. I knew where they were. I am the blue dot.) You can imagine my surprise when I "found" all three of 'em on the ball field. Perhaps they were teleported to third base for an instant. Cool! Despite having a few extra players for a brief moment, the Oakland A's still handed the Rangers a loss with a final score of 9-8.

What's Wrong with a Little Sax and Violins Now and Then?

We got dressed up and headed out for a healthy dose of culture in downtown Cow Town. (This was an early birthday present for our middle child -- not the dressing up part; the going to the symphony part!)

Oh, how we love the symphony! Despite the fact that the conductor threw a tempo tantrum, and the violinists were fiddling around, it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

Sorry about the bad puns. I must scale back, because it only leads to treble. :-P

My parting shots are of the Bass angels or heralds. Winged trumpeters? 

They are really BIG and impressive looking -- from any angle. Any angel?
I think that these two ginormous seraphs, are really cool looking; however, just to be on the safe side, I never close my eyes as I enter Bass Hall.

 Don't blink.

(The maybe-not-so-obvious nod goes to Dr. Who.)

Hittin' the Books

Despite early morning, first-day-of-school departures, I was able to get a smile, or two, or three out of the Smithlings. 

Each week, this girl has 16 hours of her own honors program classes, 9 additional hours of class that she works taking notes for student disability services, 13+ hours of ballet class/rehearsals, 4 hours of teaching little ballerinas, 6 hours of work at the driving school on Fridays, and many other volunteer hours for various clubs and organizations on campus and at church. Oh, let's not forget time for studying... She's busy.

It's freshman year at KHS for Daughter #2! Yay! Along with the usual "Reading, Writing, and 'rithmatic," Millie Girl is enrolled in Spanish, Biology, World Geo., Theatre, and Pre-AP Art. Who knows what extracurricular activities she will get involved with? Wed. night youth group is a given... One thing's for sure, she loves the social aspect of school, and is blessed with many wonderful friends.

This guy is working full time, so he is only taking one class this semester. #1 Son volunteers many hours at our church helping set-up and tear-down each weekend. He also runs lights and helps with sound &/or video for the weekend services -- whatever is needed.

Everyone's busy and running in different directions. What else is new?! 

We are thankful that all three of our "kids" are all doing well and doing what they enjoy. And best of all, they all are using their talents and abilities to bring glory to the giver of those gifts. 

So, we are off and running in the new semester.

Books, consider yourself hit!

In My Own Backyard

This photo was taken from my own backyard. Pretty, huh?!!! It was actually cool enough for us to be out enjoying the summer beauty on this particular evening. We have been getting out in the evenings to play volleyball, bocce ball, and ladder ball. We may sweat a little, but it's no big deal. We're having a ball!

Despite 100º+ temps for the past couple of weeks, we really cannot complain too much about the heat this summer. It's August, for cryin' out loud! It's supposed to be HOT in Texas this time of year.

Texas summertime temps are really not all that bad. Maybe we're just acclimated now. This is our third summer living in the Lone Star State, and really doesn't bother us. Also, it's not worth whining about something that we cannot change.

Why, yes, Texas does have four seasons: early summer, mid summer, late summer, and more summer. Others have named the Texas seasons: warmish, hot, very hot, and unseasonably warm. 

There are plenty of jokes and sayings about the Texas heat. Here's a sampling of what I've seen and heard.

You know it's summertime in Texas when...

Hot water comes out of both taps.

You can make sun tea instantly.

You realize that asphalt has a liquid state.

The potatoes cook underground, so all you have to do is pull one out and add butter, salt, and pepper.

Farmers in Texas are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs.

It's been sooo hot that the cows are giving evaporated milk. 

The birds have to use potholders to pull worms out of the ground.
(My favorite!)

And now that Miss Millie is enrolled in driver's ed, these next "revelations" apply to her:

The best parking place is determined by shade instead of proximity. 
(Other drivers seldom take those far-off shady spots, so they are always available for me. I don't mind a good hike.)

You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.
You discover that it really only takes 2 fingers to steer your car. 
(Forget trying to adhere to the "10 and 2 o'clock" hand position or "3 and 9 o'clock," or whatever it is they are currently teaching in driver's ed regarding hand positions.)

You discover that you can get sunburned through your car window.

You actually burn your hand opening the car door.


We do enjoy living here, despite the warmish climate. Apparently, others want to live here, too, because there is development activity going on in my backyard. Well, it's not in my literal backyard, but it's just over the fence. 

See the yellow construction equipment through the trees? I get to hear it come to life every morning around 7 AM. They workers want to beat the heat, so they get going as early as they possibly can.

Workers began clearing the "forest" in late July. 

I LOVE this picture that our neighbor snapped. My neighbor girlie, Claire, was protesting the development of this twenty acre tract that is adjacent to her house. She has roamed the wooded acreage for the past two years, so she is especially sad to see her playground destroyed. I understand that she even made the rounds to get signatures on a petition, but her valiant efforts couldn't stop the wheels of progress from turning.

By next year, there will be new neighbors behind us. Out of the 35 future lots, the builder has already sold eight homesites. And they don't even have the roads paved yet!

We recently took a Sunday afternoon walk over to the property to see what all the commotion is about.

You truly cannot see the forest, for the trees have been bulldozed.

This equipment is huge. Surprisingly, the keys were in the ignition, but no one wanted to try operating it.

From the newly cleared property, here's a view of the backside of the Smith Haus. We'll be good neighbors -- I think!


Several critters are displaced as a result of the development. I found this guy in one of my shrubs. Oh, so adorable... The recent influx of snakes, grasshoppers, skunks, and bunnies is adorable, too. Not really. At least the coyotes haven't relocated to our backyard. They went the other direction.

Moving from the backyard view to the front yard, we were surprised to be selected as the August "Yard of the Month" for our neighborhood. We received a gift certificate to Calloway's Nursery. Yay!

Don't look tooooo closely. There is one small section of grass that turned yellow after we applied weed killer to the lawn. Ooops! Maybe I'd better hurry up and spend that gift certificate before the landscape committee revokes the title from us. :-)

Extreme Makeover -- Teenager's Bedroom Edition

My fourteen-year-old girl claims that she never has liked her Texas room  -- wall color or decor. For the past year, she has been asking to change things up a bit. I kept telling her, "No, I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait a while longer. It's just not in the budget right now." 

She was not aware that I have been searching for bedding on the sly for the past six months, or so. 

She thinks that I don't listen to her. I do. I just do things more slowly and deliberately than she would like. 

I found a couple of pictures from three years ago when we first moved into the Smith Haus.

See. Millie Girl even had a hand in painting her walls when we first moved in the house. And she appears to be happy about the situation, yet I have been blamed for the bad paint color. I don't mind being the scapegoat. The wall color was chosen because it matched the bedding. She had requested green walls, so I simply found paint that matched her bedding. (To be fair, the lighting in the picture makes the green color look more vivid/neon than it is/was in real life.)

Millie's room was cute, but it was definitely time for an update to a more grown-up motif. Something stylish was in order. It needed to be classy, not too trendy, yet still befitting a teenager. 

Sorry PBteen, this bedding is oh, so yesterday. :-P

Weeks before Millie's departure to California, I asked her a lot of questions -- purely hypothetical questions, mind you -- regarding room color preferences, bedding, etc.  I wanted to get it right this time; however, I did not want her to know that I was poised and ready to take action on the room re-do project. This makeover was a covert operation. Millie figured that she would have to wait another 365 days, or longer, before her mother was ready to do something.

After talking to my youngest, I learned that the desired wall color had to be the right shade of blue; NOT a baby blue that would be better suited for a baby boy's nursery. A light sky blue color was preferred.

Shabby chic was the style that she found most pleasing.

The bird pictures could stay, if the wall color was acceptable.

I learned that a queen-sized bed was on the wish list.

There were a few other details thrown in for good measure, but I felt that I had enough information to go on. 

As soon as Mr. Smith and I returned home from our Calif. jaunt, I was ready to roll -- roll up my sleeves and roll on the paint!

I found the perfect duvet cover and pillow shams on Pier1's website. I had to order it online, since they do not carry bedding in their brick and mortar stores. It arrived two days later, and the color on the computer screen matched what I took out of the box. I also found the perfect white quilt at Anthropologie. And best of all, I was able to use my birthday discount on that purchase. 

Benjamin Moore saw to it that we had the perfect shade of blue for the walls.

 So long, green walls.

There were trips to Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Hobby Lobby, Target, Kirkland's, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond before all of the elements came together to create the perfect shabby and chic teenager retreat.

Are you ready for the big reveal?

Bartholomew approves of the blue hues, because this room now provides a purrfecty calming environment for catnapping. And there are birds in the room. In his opinion, decorating with birds is always in good taste.

I was delighted to find this bird lamp at Kirkland's. And it was under $30! I bought two. One lamp is on the nightstand and one is on the desk. I was planning on making a lampshade like this one, but it was so much more convenient to find it already done. Yay! 

This mirrored cabinet was yet another fabulous find at Kirkland's. It looks great hanging on the wall, but it is what's inside that is a thing of beauty -- finally there is a non-cluttered way to organize all of M's beads, baubles, rings, and fingernail polish. The little shelves were just the perfect size to hold bottles of polish. Score!

The vanity section of my girl's bathroom got made over, too. New drawer pulls/knobs from Anthropologie and a tray from Hobby Lobby are très chic. 
No, wait, it's shabby chic.

Even the closet got a makeover. Organization is the theme here.

The nightlight now has crystals hanging from it that were extras from Grandma Florence's dining room chandelier. Recycling is fashionable.

So, Ace is the place. 

This mirror was found at our local hardware store -- surprise!

I repurposed several of Grandma Florence's old hankies to now be used as a decorating accessory. They are crisply pressed, folded and tucked in between two baskets to add a pop of color. And if my daughter ever has a runny nose, they are handy, I suppose...

Millie's reaction? She was surprised, and she LOVES her new room!

Not too shabby, eh?