Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

Hello, friends.  I thought I'd talk about the TX road trip this time.  All year we had been planning a trip to New Orleans in September.  The week before our trip, Hurricane Ida hit and took out a lot of NOLA.  Instead of canceling, we decided to pivot and go west to TX instead.  We were going to keep our flight to Dallas, drive through Tyler and down to Pineville but they canceled our flight as soon as we arrived at the airport.  Okay, pivot #2, we grab a rental car and decide to drive to Pineville, instead.

Ten hours later (quicker than the next flight), we made it to the fabulous Purdyville.  I have a lot of siblings but Luke and I are the only two that share our same Mom and Dad.  Basically, he's special and so is his wife Lillian.

The next day, we went to Avery Island and the Tabasco Museum.  Very cool place if you've never been.  No husbands were hurt in the making of this next photo.  Girl!  Look at those white legs!

It was a wonderful, relaxing day.  I got to hang out with my big brother and enjoy the sweltering heat.

Avery Island is owned by the McIlhenny family and they've turned it into a nature preserve.  It's just a really beautiful, peaceful area.  Don't you just LOVE the live oaks?!

You do have to keep your eyes open for alligators and such but we didn't see any.

We made a quick trip into Lafayette for a late lunch.  Lafayette is really cute and I wish we'd been able to spend more time there.

Luke took us to Spoonbill for a late lunch.  The loaded fries are AMAZING!  Rich liked his burger so much, he bought the t-shirt.  The true sign that some place passed his food test.

We decided to check into our hotel after lunch only to find that the state of LA canceled our reservation without informing us.  Apparently, they were reserving all the rooms in a certain parameter from NOLA for emergency workers.  I get it, but dang!  Luckily, the hotel felt bad for us and pretended we were first line workers so we wouldn't be homeless for the night.  Then we decided to stop for gas before meeting Lillian for dinner.  Guess what!  95% of the gas stations in Lafayette were now out of gasoline!

Poor Lillian had to wait an hour or more for us at Prejean's while we tried to un**ck our situation.  Rich was able to finally get the Cajun meal he'd been looking forward to.  They even had a live band while we were there.  It all worked out in the end but we were emotionally exhausted when we finally called it a night.

So TX traffic; it's crazy.  The minute we entered the state, it was constant construction and tons of people.  Our next stop was NASA in Houston.  Houston has LOTS of bridges.  LOTS of bridges.  I'm terrified of heights.  Between the construction, the bridges, Rich's aggressive driving, I had a melt down.  Rich loved to tease people.  He teased everyone. If he liked you, he was giving you shit about something.  He chose the wrong day to tease me about my fear of heights.  We had our final fight in a residential neighborhood right outside of NASA.  Then we went to Whataburger for lunch.  We both needed to decompress.  Also, I wasn't too impressed with Whataburger.  Not because of the fight...

The afternoon at NASA was amazing!  We had such a good time there.

We took the Apollo 13 Mission Control tour.  Houston, we have a problem.  The tour was in a tower, with 4 flights of stairs.  Dang TX and their love of heights... Yes, I wore Star Wars to NASA, I'm a nerd with a fear of heights and a fascination with outer space.  I am what I am.

After our eventful day, we went to a random restaurant down the street from our hotel.  Frenchie's is a hole in the wall that doesn't look like much from the outside, or inside for that matter, but has the best Italian food I've eaten in my entire life!  The owners spoke Italian, they were hosting a priest from Italy.  The meal & atmosphere were perfection. 

We finished the evening with a walk around the near by Nassau Bay.  It was so beautiful.

Next stop, Austin.  We had to stop at Buckee's or they would have kicked us out of TX.

Then, In n' Out or Rich would have left me on the side of the road.

Second stop was the Capital building.  The grounds and architecture were lovely.  Rich  made best friends with all the armed guards because he never met a stranger.

We toured downtown Austin, did some shopping.

Rich insisted I buy a pair of boots at Allen's.  Bethany and I go line dancing pretty often and he wanted me to have appropriate footwear.  

We did some YouTube research to find the best BBQ in Austin.  We watched a guy cry because Valentina's was so good.  So, naturally, we had to find it.  It's a bit out of town and we rolled in as they were closing!!  They took pity on us and let us buy whatever they had left and it was delicious.  Not sure why the guy was crying, but it was really good.  And, owned by a former Marine, so Rich was going to love it no matter what.

Second day in Austin, we hiked McKinney Falls State Park.  My personal favorite of the whole trip.

Not sure what I was proud of here, but I guess I was feeling like a bad ass.

We stopped for lunch at the side of the road and had such good food!  Our waitress was the only one working, she didn't speak English, but she served some damn good tacos!

Buoyed by our delicious lunch, we decided to cook ourselves with a stroll around Lady Bird Lake.

Rich treated me to another amazing meal at 1818 Fusion.  We were WAY under dressed for the fancy experience & I was clearly over heated but the food and entertainment were fantastic.

We drove through Waco after leaving Austin.  We stopped at the In N' Out for lunch but they had a plumbing emergency.  So, to waste time, we went to the Dr Pepper Museum.  I ended up really enjoying it.

I thought it was interesting that Vernors Ginger Soda was invented the same year my house was built.  I love me some Vernors.

Plumbing emergency fixed, Rich got his Double Double, all was well...  I know, we were across the street from The Silos but does this man look like he wanted to spend time in a crowd, shopping.  No, no he does not.

We rolled into Ft Worth in time to see the Bull Run at the Stockyards.

We attended the rodeo on 9/11.  They had a lovely memorial, not a dry eye in the place.  We had plans on going to a honky tonk as a grand finale to the week but decided in the end, we were both too exhausted.

The next morning, we had some time to explore without the crowds.

Rich, trying to sneak in to a brothel...

On our way to the airport, we stopped at Grapevine, TX.  It's a cute little town.

And, they had an In N' Out... 

We had concerns that our flight home would be canceled and we'd have to drive home but we got to STL without a hitch.  Found our car in the hotel parking lot right were we left it, except someone had relieved us of the catalytic converter.  So, we drove home with what sounded like, no muffler and Rich cussing up a storm.

In honor of our trip Rich bought a brass plaque that says Improvidus Quod Victum.  Improvise, Adapt, Overcome but not quite right because it should be Impovidus Apto Quod Victum.  He was probably paying by the letter and saved money by leaving out a word.  And that, my friends, is how two polar opposite people lived together for 29 years and raised 4 kids without killing each other, and managing to have a lot of fun along the way.

I filed a claim on our canceled flight and was denied.  So, I forgot all about it.  The month after he died, they emailed me and said I had a credit on flights but I had 30 days to use it... Well, my husband had just died and I wasn't planning on traveling, so I let it go.  Now they've emailed again that they're extending my credit to the end of the year.  I think I'm going to take myself to Boston this fall.  We'll see how that goes!

Rage Renovations

I think it's safe to say, I have lost my mind.  It's important for everyone to know that Rich took care of everything.  I mean EVERYTHING.  He did stuff before I knew it needed doing.  I can't relate to those jokes about procrastinating husbands, mine was a doer.  So, I can't really tell if all that has gone wrong is basic maintenance stuff or if he's haunting my house to mess with me. If you knew him, right now you're thinking, "Yeah, he's messing with you."

First things first, Rich was famous for rigging things that don't work because he got them for free/ cheap.  He had a passion for a good deal.  That being said, I could NOT figure out what was going on with our security system.  He had an app that I couldn't access, so I got a new one.  Also, non-access to apps that he used is a theme throughout this saga of life unsupervised.

This is the project where I learned the difference between a drill and an impact driver.  I thought I had 2 drills.  I prefer an impact driver, in case you're wondering.  Pro-tip: If you consider buying them, get the same brand so you can use the same battery pack for both tools.  

I know it doesn't look like much but my anxiety was at nuclear level at the time.  Rich had just passed, for the first time I was afraid to be at the house alone at night, and it involved ladders and impact drivers.  It took most of the night and a tutorial on how to change driver bits but I did it!

I've shared this project. already  I worked on it while Rich was still in the hospital.  I was murderously angry with him at the time.  I was angry he hadn't told me he wasn't feeling well.  I was angry he had refused to get medical help when he obviously had needed it for awhile.  I was angry he didn't eat vegetables.  I was angry.  Lots of yelling, cussing and screaming happened while I sanded the walls and re-painted.  Hunter relocated the giant ceiling fan to a bedroom for me but I did the rest myself.  There were like, 32 lag bolt holes in the walls.  Rich bolted every GD thing to the wall that he could and I like change.  A fundamental difference in our personalities.

The room after it was complete.

Unkind things were said in this room that I feel pretty bad about now.  But, damn it, I was mad.  I need to burn some sage or something to restore the energy in here.  One of the bookcases is filled with his books that I'll never read, so I think it's going to be a quilt shelf in the next week or two.  The bird pics are just vintage prints that I downloaded and printed at home.

If you turn around from the loft, it goes to the staircase.  I had to have my future SIL come paint the staircase because my fear of death is still a thing.  I tried to upload a video so you could see how high the ceiling is over the stairs but it didn't work out.  The right pic is the stuff I couldn't reach on my own, meeting the stuff that Marcus did.  SO CLOSE! 

During all of this, I basically evicted my husband.  Did I mention how angry I was?  Seeing pictures of him, seeing his things, it all made me want to vomit.  Honestly, I couldn't look at him or his boots or his tools without throwing up or bawling my eyes out.  The kids and I went through everything in the house, they took what was precious to them and I donated truck loads of stuff.  I removed ALL the family pictures.  ALL OF THEM (don't worry, they're being stored for now), and told myself it was because the whole house had to be painted so I could sell it.  I told you, I'd done lost my mind.

 

And, here's where I turned spiteful.  Rich loved the wood trim in the house.  There wasn't a lot of it left when we moved in.  The entryways from the dining room and kitchen, some random windows.  I've always wanted to paint it because I didn't feel like there was enough of it left to be a feature, he disagreed.  So, on his death bed, I chose to tell him I was painting the trim.  That's right folks, on his death bed... I also said other kind and beautiful things.  I was GD poetic.  But, I did throw in a jab about the trim... I'm not proud but I did what I did.  And, here's a picture of my Karma incarnate as I dropped the paint brush on my hardwood floors.  On a side note, Rich HATED to let me paint because I'm messy.  Here I am, just proving him right, once again.

Before pic, I stand behind my decision.  I think I did the house a favor.

Then I went big!  Rich didn't think that installing new insulation was a good investment.  He figured that it would take 20 years to see the return on the investment and he didn't want to bother.  Here's the thing, the house is 150 years old.  You could hear the traffic like you were standing in the street from all the rooms.  You could feel a breeze in the living room during the winter.  I feel my arguments were valid.

One night, I was like, wait a minute!  I'm making all the decisions now.  So, I contacted the guy on a Thursday night.  He started work Monday morning.  No more traffic or breezes in my living room AND I was able to support a local business.  On a side note, there was NO insulation in my outside walls.  NONE!  We also had plumbing going down those outside walls.  How we never had frozen pipes is beyond me1

So, then I got cocky.  I turned off the heat to test my new walls.  It stayed an even 68 for 2 days, thank you very much.  However, flushed from my success, I tried to connect my thermostat the to the WIFI so I could use a fancy app.  Somehow, I managed to deprogram the heater from my thermostat... why that's even an option, I have no idea.  Hunter came by last night to save me from myself.  Look, this is a process.  Mistakes will be made.

So, there you have it folks.  The good, the bad and the ugly of rage renovations.  I've decided I'm going to try to keep the house for a few years, at least.  The idea of losing Rich & the house in one go was too much to take in.  Here's a picture of the man, himself, to prove I'm healing.  No vomit occurred during the making of the blog.

Things Did Not Go As Planned

Oops, apparently, I haven't posted in more than a year.  In my defense, it's been a weird year.  So, you know that Miss Lucy Rose was born in Jan '21.  Then on Valentine's Day "21, Hunter & Carmen announced they were having a baby, too!  I was OVER THE MOON!  Naturally, I immediately started on the quilt and toys.  I'm pretty sure I've posted individual shots of those items on FB if you want to take a look.

Her nursery is safari themed, obviously.  I couldn't really blog about them since they were gifts & I'm not sure if she ever reads the blog.  Then I forgot about it after the baby shower.

Over the summer, I took gardening seriously for the first time ever.  We did a lot of landscaping and planting.  I'll try to show more of that later.

Fingers crossed, things have survived the winter.  I've never paid much attention to what things should look like during the winter before but I have started to see a few things with new growth this week.

Rich and I went to a concert.  John 5 is a famous guitar player that Rich was fan boying.  Isn't he handsome?

In early October, we went on vacation.  I had to get it in before Miles was born.  The original plan was to go to New Orleans but the big hurricane hit the week before we left.  So we decided to pivot west to TX after visiting my brother Luke, instead.  That vacation deserves it's own post.  Absolute cluster f**k... but any who, it was great seeing Luke and Lil.

We stopped at NASA.  Super awesome day, if you get the chance.

Got home in time to meet Miles Orion Mantz.  All went well, spoiler alert, he's perfect...

I made some fancy pants for him to be Christened in.  This was a disaster as well, The pattern was HUGE for him.  I ended up having to take 3 inches off each side and shorten them by 2" AFTER they were made... A seamstress, I am not.

Of course I had to make a cake too.  I tried to do a fancy basket weave.  My buttercream was a disaster.  It was so cold out that it was either too stiff to get out of the frosting tip or it was too soft from my hands melting it... It did taste pretty good though.

Mr. Miles in his fancy pants.  Not many can pull off this look, but he did great!

The christening was the last weekend that my life was 'normal'.  The Monday following, Rich came home from work sick but refused to go to the hospital.  By Tuesday, he couldn't breathe well and he finally agreed to go in.  He never came home.  We kept him on life support, against his directive, for 3 weeks, hoping that he would pull through.  He turned 52 while he was there.  So, for the first time in my life, I find myself unsupervised...  The last 6 weeks have been an absolute nightmare.  I have lost my damn mind but can see the humor in me trying to get things done without my husband of 29 years.  So going forward, I've decided that I'm not a widow at 50.  I'm just unsupervised.

After manically rage redecorating my house for 6 weeks, I finally got sick of myself and joined some friends for a weekend of quilting.  I started this quilt sometime this last fall for my brother Luke and his wife Lil.  They've been using a quilt that I made YEARS ago for their bed that isn't bed size!  So, they asked if they could get something that fits a queen bed.  When I say years, I mean years.  It's the first hand applique project that I ever made.  So, 15 years ago, maybe?  While at their house in Oct, I spied a china plate in these colors on their counter and was relieved that the color palette might work for them.  15 years is a big commitment to a look, you know what I mean?

That same weekend, Bethany and I started line dancing again.  We'd been going every Monday over the summer and fall.  It's a lot of fun and good exercise.  You can see B in the back center.  They offer lessons on Monday nights at the Collinsville VFW.  Maybe you'd like to come by and watch me make a fool of myself.

If you want to join me in my new 'adventure' that is life unsupervised, I'll try to post about it.  It might be good therapy for me.  It might be about travel, sewing, cooking, gardening. who knows?  Do I sell the house?  Do I take a solo vacation?  More landscaping?  Buy a longarm machine?  Will I ever find out what all the keys are for?  How does one live on a quarter of the income that they're used to?  These are all questions that need to be answered and it might be funny to see how bad I am at doing things for myself.  I'll try to keep the depression to a minimum because I hate whiners and I don't want to wallow in self pity.

That all being said, hope to see you soon!

2021 Is Keeping A Heck Of A Pace!

Well, so far 2021 has been SUPER exciting on all accounts!  The day after the Capital Riots, this little Sugar Muffin came into the world.  May I introduce our first Grandchild, Miss Lucy Rose Hernandez.

We're hoping to visit soon, but with the pandemic and such, we don't want to take any chances with her or Alyssa's health.  Look at her little bear Snuggie and matching mittens!  So sweet!  Couldn't you just snuggle her for hours?! I swear, I can smell that baby smell from here.

Carmen's' birthday was just before that, on the 3rd.  I did this paint pour for her.  I felt like it was my first success in awhile.  The paint fluidity on these things is really tricky.

I also decided to refurbish our old end and coffee tables.  We bought these in '01?  The tops are laminated wood and did NOT hold up to 4 kids.  Rather than spend hundreds on new wood tops, I decided to just paint.  This is before.

And, after.  First, I scrubbed them down with Simple Green, then lightly sanded them.  Painted a coat of Sherwin Williams Super Primer, then it took 3 coats of "Breathe" paint.  Green little pumpkin knobs to top it off.  The screws didn't quite fit, so I decided to 'make things easy' by buying shorter ones.  3 trips later to ACE for screws...  I finally got the right size.  Thank God, ACE is right down the street.  The jury is still out on wether or not the paint will last on the laminate.  Paint technology has come a LONG way but I don't know that I trust it. 

LOL, the yoga mat.  I'm still hopeful that I'll use it again...

Then Melissa moved out with 3 days notice and the great room rehab started.  Which led to my office/ studio getting a once over.  We removed the bed and my cutting table came out from behind the doors.  SO MUCH more useful now!  The cute pendant lights were a Christmas present.

The books are now behind the doors and I got my spool bunting hung.

Home office section basically stayed the same.  The overhead lighting makes a huge difference while I'm on the computer or at the cutting table.  SO HAPPY to have them.

The big screen is awesome to watch painting tutorials on while I follow along!

Having a more open studio was like opening the flood gates for creativity.  Painting also helped get my mind off the fact that my youngest was moving out, I'd just become a Grandma but can't visit and the DC craziness that was blowing my mind.  That's a lot to fit in to 2 weeks...

The paint pouring was really frustrating me, so I gave expressionism another shot.  I was pretty happy with my first attempt in about a year.  Elle Byers posted 30 lessons in 30 days last year on YouTube that I plan to get through.  C. Brooke Ring has some great stuff posted as well.  She has a really dreamy color palette.

This is an original of mine.  It's giving me strong United Colors of Benetton vibes.  You can take the girl out of the 80's but you can't take the 80's out of the girl.   I saw a Benetton in Ireland and REALLY wanted to check it out for old times sake but didn't want to drag the kids through it.  Maybe next time.

This isn't exactly what I envisioned but, it's close.  Not sure what's wrong with it, maybe it's finished, maybe it isn't.  Perhaps the silver x is too bold.  I don't know.  Didn't mean for it to be a pastel Jamaican flag, but that's what I got.

Then, Melissa asked for a landscape for her new apartment.  I couldn't decide on dawn or twilight.

So, I did both.  Fairly pedestrian, but I'm proud of them.  I tried a landscape right before the lock down last year that was so bad, I basically quit painting.

And, the excitement doesn't stop there!  Bethany swung by on the way back from HER birthday weekend trip to announce her engagement!  We're so, super excited!  I can't wait to help with the wedding planning.  

That's still not all that I've been up to!  No moss growing on me this month!  I'll share the renovation on Melissa's old room next time.  Until then, take care of yourselves.