We been busy!!

It's been a busy few days for me and Sister.  Saturday dawned cold and rainy, so Belinda and Mits met me up at Sheli's and we helped her paint her bedroom.  She'd done all the preliminary work (moving furniture and taping) so our part was a piece of cake.  Well... not for Mits; I think she's still got a backache from all the rolling!! Thank goodness for Biofreeze, eh?  We managed to get the first coat on and lunch finished (meatball sub sandwich with fresh shaved Parmesan cheese on toasted French bread)

in time to spend the afternoon doing the one thing we all enjoy almost as much as eating... antiquing!!  Sheli has discovered a little oasis a short drive from her new house that has pretty much all the requirements for a perfect day of shopping with her girls.  Historic Downtown Grapevine is an easy walk chock full of shops and sights and eateries.  Our favorite spot to kick off any visit is The Red Shed where Sheli's love for white and French has found it's muse.  On our first trip there we stumbled upon an iron bed so narrow you couldn't possibly turn over in it.  Intrigued enough to check the tag, I discovered it was a hospital bed thus proving once and for all that hospitals really aren't meant to be places for rest.  YIKES!!

Another stop brought this discovery.  A ladies writing desk (or should it be called a Lassie's writing desk?) complete with bagpipes in ormolu.  Normally I don't go for the prissy stuff; I raised kids in a house where prissy wasn't allowed.  But if I'd had a cool $2,400 on me the desk would now be my own!!  Aw well, I don't write much anyway...

After making a coffee purchase (any two flavors in half-pound for the full-pound price!!) from Holy Grounds we headed back to the car and the drive back to our painting job.  Another coat on the now dry walls and we called it beautifully done!!  Reports are coming in daily that Sheli is totally in love with her new sanctuary.  Can't say I blame her; very soothing color choice.

Sunday was rainy and downright cold so I stayed pretty close to the fire.  Luckily, the wood is much drier now so I didn't have to wear a respirator!!  Since becoming a grandmother and wife of a traveling man, my Mondays have been tagged "Recovery Monday" wherein I do all the picking up and straightening and cleaning required to allow the boys full use of their weekends here.  However, I'm still one-half of a pair of pretty busy sisters, so this Monday was "Packing Up At Norma's Monday" instead.  After almost fourteen years, my mother's little apartment is getting some much needed new flooring.  We're ecstatic about it - Norma, not so much.  But I think once she no longer has the worn out and dingy carpet and floors to look at, she'll change her mind!!

Mom moved into her apartment in December of 1997 after Daddy passed away.  The buildings were brand new and she bought new furniture and made a new start.  In the beginning she had lots of friends ("The Biddies" as we called her group) to play cards and yammer and travel with.  But as time has gone by, one by one the Biddies have passed away or moved and Mom no longer plays cards or travels (unless you count the odd trip with B to buy groceries).  Her little apartment is a constant reminder to us all that things wear out and wear down and stop being as pretty and shiny as they used to be.  So I feel like the new floors will serve as yet another new beginning for her!!  While the crew is inside working their magic, we'll load mom up in Vanna and head south to visit another old friend in another old neighborhood.  We'll spend some time driving around Lake Whitney where Mom and Dad once lived and let her see how much things have changed (or not) in the old town.  We'll meet my younger brother for lunch at a Mexican food restaurant that wasn't there in all the years my dad lived near Whitney and complained "Why can't somebody put in a good Mexican food place down here?"  Should prove to be another adventure worth blogging about I think!!