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This morning we rented a carpet cleaning machine so Jayson could clean all the upstairs carpets. This was the plan for last weekend, or maybe the weekend before, but we had migraines beyond our control. I did get our taxes done though. Jayson handles the carpet cleaning because I am generally baffled by the machines and I'm a little afraid of the whole water/electricity proximity. At least that's what I keep telling him and so far he's buying it. We try to clean our carpets once a year and even though we're renting right now I think it's still a good thing to do. However this particular carpet cleaning episode was necessary as a result of The Big Waffle House Incident of 2012. My 4 year old nephew Presley was here a few weeks ago and, bless his heart, was a victim of own lack of impulse control. He procured himself a bottle of pancake syrup and proceeded to pour it all over the house. And I mean ALL over the house! There were several dinner plate sized blobs in seve...

I read a lot of DIY, design, organizing and homekeeping type blogs. I find a lot of good ideas on them that I can adapt for my own personal use. Some of them are really good, they seem to be written by gals like me who are just trying to make their environment as pleasant as possible with what resources they have. Others are just nuts. Yesterday I ran across one site where the gal makes Martha Stewart look like a slacker. She had a computerized 'floor plan' of her refrigerator showing which shelves and bins each type of food belongs in. I kid you not. It was color coded and everything. I will admit that I sometimes covet a perfectly organized fridge and pantry but if I ever go so far as to draw up a blueprint for them I hope someone loves me enough to just shoot me in the head. Occasionally some of these bloggers will write about once-a-month cooking where they get together with friends and on one day they cook up and freeze enough meals to last them an entire month. Not only d...

A couple of weeks ago I was in Texas Junk Co. and found a box of papers that looked like it had come out of someone's attic. I probably spent half an hour sifting through it, expecting to uncover a brown recluse nest behind every page. Fortunately I didn't find any spiders but I did find this fabulous letter postmarked January 13, 1941. That is exactly 50 years before Taylor was born so I bought the letter, not paying too much attention to any of the other details. Once I got it home and took a good look at it, I noticed the postmark was from Sanatorium, Texas. Sanatorium?? Who in their right mind would want to live in a town called Sanatorium? Thanks to my sister's stealthy Googling skills we discovered that approximately 55,000 adults and children with tuberculosis chose to live there between 1912 and 1969. It was the state's first and largest TB colony. To be honest, I had no idea there were TB colonies. I know about leper colonies but had never heard of TB colonies....

...there were never such devoted sisters... My sister, Shamayn, and her family came for a visit last week. When they left it's like they took all of the life and energy in the house with them. Now it's very quiet and morgue-like around here. I can't remember if I've written about my sister before. I know I've referenced her many times but I can't remember if I've talked about her family and what her life is like from day to day. It's a challenge, the kind that could break most of us. Shamayn is 3-1/2 years younger than me and we hated each other for the first 30 years of my life. She was not well when she was born so she required a lot of time and attention that I was used to having all to myself. This did not sit well with my preschool self. She was a big thorn in my side for many years. We also have completely opposite personalities. I've always been more reserved and quiet with a dry sense of humor. Mayn is outgoing, funny and very animated. I kee...

Yesterday I woke up with 2 white splotches on the iris of my left eye. They look like little blisters but they don't hurt and I can see just fine. I have a recurring viral eye infection in that eye but it usually manifests itself as pain and redness so I thought this might be something different. God (and Jayson's employer) has blessed us with vision insurance so a few weeks ago I researched local optometrists and chose Strong Vision Center . I made my choice based on this important criteria: 1. They must be in my insurance network. 2. They must be conveniently located. 3. They must have a website with pictures of the staff. 4. The staff must look relatively sane. And, most important: 5. There must not be any misspelled words on their website.  I figure if they can't handle proofreading their website, they probably can't file my insurance correctly either. Taylor needs her annual eye exam so when I called I told the guy who answered that I needed to make an appointment ...

My yard guy cracks me up. His name is Mr. Escobar. I never can remember his first name so I keep wanting to call him Pablo which I'm pretty sure isn't correct, politically or otherwise. I wonder if they're related? Not that I think every Escobar is related to Pablo, I just don't know that many Escobars. He showed up at my door a few weeks ago when Jayson was out of town and the grass was in desperate need of grooming. He offered his services at a reasonable price so I accepted. Then shortly afterwards I discovered that the only English words he knows are 'mow yard', the days of the week, and $40. He speaks almost no English and I speak almost no Spanish but we manage to "okay" our way through a conversation. He's even called my cell phone a few times which is particularly difficult since we don't have that body language thing to help us try to translate what the other is saying. He goes on and on in Spanish and I keep saying "okay", t...

I had two epiphanies this morning, almost simultaneously. I usually get excited about one epiphany so multiple epiphanies are a real treat! Epiphany #1 : I am not a hoarder. Hoarders are mental and gross. I may be slightly mental but I am not gross. I am also not a collector. Collector is just a kind way to say hoarder. I am an accumulator. I don't hoard, I don't collect. I accumulate. I'm going to stick with that one until A & E comes out with a show about us then I will quickly separate myself from those accumulating freaks. I had this little epiphany this morning while working on the spring vignette for my foyer table. And that brings me to my second epiphany. Epiphany #2 : It is impossible to say "spring vignette for my foyer table" without sounding like a pretentious jerk. Or a Junior Leaguer. No offense to my Junior League friends, you gals are doing a great job. Keep up the good work! Since I am neither a pretentious jerk nor a Junior Leaguer I have vow...