Lot's Going On!

 Saturday Christi and I visited Round Top Festival Institute to see if it would be the perfect place to have her wedding.  Most of you are familiar with this unique place since I blog about it quite often.

Winter is not the best time for taking pictures of the  Edythe Bates Chapel  (1883) 

The small chapel is amazing inside with gorgeous stained glass windows. 

Seating capacity is only 160 so that might be a problem.

The grounds are spectacular offering various settings. Attached to the other Chapel is the Texas

Mediterranean Herzstein Stone Chapel  and Memorial Plaza where you could have a 

wedding reception.

I persuaded Christi to pose in front of the stone chapel.

Christi and Paul will be visiting several other places mostly in the Austin area for their special day. What a big decision but I know they will pick the perfect location!

So many decisions in the future for these two love birds to make for their day. Just hope you guys don't get tired of my talking about it for months. lol

I wanted to share with you what my grandson Bailey gave me for Christmas. As early as Thanksgiving Bailey was giving me hints as to what he had bought for me. Christmas Day he could not wait to see my reaction to my gift. What a surprise to find a ceramic bust of Elvis! I love it and have it on my book shelf in the sitting area of my bedroom. I thought here I could  look at it every day and smile. 

He told me that they had went to a garage sale and when he saw this he knew it was for his Grandma Yellow Hair. Special to me knowing he picked it out and paid for it himself.

Should I unpack my other Elvis mementos or just let this one shine all by itself? 

Thank you Bailey for such a thoughtful gift!

Tomorrow I am having my vein surgery. It is the VNUS Closure procedure. It is I hope a minimally invasive surgery.  Endovenous thermal ablation is performed using local anesthesia along the course of the diseased vein. 

I decided to just have one leg operated on tomorrow since I am a little nervous about having this done.

If I don't jump off the table and knock the doctor down while racing out the door I will consider having the other leg done in the near future. 

They gave me the option of having a Valium before the procedure and like a dummy I told the doctor I would not need it. Then after talking to family and friends I was persuaded to call them today and order the Valium. Past experiences with this drug made me turn it down but hopefully taking it this time will not be a bad experience. 

Well how many days until Spring? We are now under a winter weather alert. They are saying we might have snow and sleet on Friday. So glad my surgery is Thursday. 

Snow and sleet for us is a big deal. I just pray the weather men don't know what their talking about. I have plenty of Diet Dr. Pepper so I should be okay. I took Julia's advice and spent days hanging plastic sheeting on my windows. I did a bad job hanging it but it's up and I will soon know if it makes a difference. I am sure it will and I appreciate all of your good advice for making my living conditions out here better.

Well I need to close and drink some water and get these old legs ready for in the morning.

Hope your staying warm and well during these winter storms.

Thank you for coming by and saying hello. 

Love to All

Maggie

The paintings displayed in October in the Cloister Gallery are by Mary Ellen Shipnes, a popular and prolific Houston artist in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. They belong to her daughter, Kristi Shipnes Martin, a Cathedral parishioner, and represent the artist’s wide range of style and content.

Her work affirms the artist’s joy of life — from whimsical watercolors of beaches with children and sailboats to large, bright acrylics and paint-laden oils of Texas bluebonnet landscapes, Caribbean basket-laden marketwomen and nuns, joyous street scenes, abundant gardens and rich, floral still lifes. Her canvases radiate color and vitality.

Mary Ellen Shipnes studied art at the Boston School of Fine Arts and moved from Indianapolis, Ind., to Houston with her husband, Stanley Shipnes, and their children in the 1940s. Her one-woman shows became sell-outs at galleries around the country. Many of the artist’s paintings hang in Houston homes.

Following the death of her husband in 1995, Shipnes continued to paint in her Brenham farm studio. Despite the crippling onset of macular degeneration in her late 80s, she learned a new way of painting with limited vision, splashing paint on canvas and wood with palette knife and long-handled brush. A newly finished canvas sat on the easel in her studio when she died in 2001.

I Am Overjoyed To Be Able To Do This Post!

Sometimes something happens in your life that there are not enough words in the dictionary to describe how your feeling!  This is how I felt when Christi and Paul surprised me Christmas Eve night announcing that they were now engaged to be married. Married my baby is getting married. Oh My how good that sounds even as I type it here now I am giddy with delight and excitement.

Paul came back into Christi's life a year ago after they reconnected since their High School Days. Paul is the man I have been praying that Christi would fall in love with and marry. He is everything I ask God for and even more. 

I am also excited that I will not only be getting a new son in my life but two new grand babies. Paul is an amazing Father of  two wonderful children Audrey and Bryan. Their bright beautiful children and they are already calling me Grandma Yellow Hair so how awesome is that.

I have never had a Son-In-Law in my life so I pray God will give me the wisdom to be the Mother-In-Law that Paul so deserves. 

Now I have a gorgeous wedding to plan with Christi. She deserves the love and happiness that is flowing in her life right now. I needed this in my life right now and I am looking forward to 2014!

I have truly missed all of you. It has been a very long time in between post. My biggest excuse is my laptop not working well enough to do post. It is five years old and like myself it is feeling it's age.

So much to my regret I have to see about buying a new one. Not looking forward to having to learn a new toy or spending the money on one.

I have been keeping all of you in my prayers this winter because most of you are experiencing horrific freezing weather. How you manage to cope in below freezing temps is beyond me. I am upset with myself for having pity parties over being so cold in this old farm house. The other day it was 36 outside and 37 in my living room. I have finally convinced my boss to buy a new heating unit but so much cold air comes in the windows and doors that not sure that is the answer. Not sure when the new unit will be installed but hopefully the near future.

My utilities bill was close to $500.00 this past month so I turned the old units off and bought radiator heaters. Hopefully this will cut my bill by maybe $200.00. Trouble with these heaters their not strong enough to heat the front living area because of the high ceilings so I have been living in the back master bedroom which has made me stir crazy. How many days til Spring?

Here in Texas we are not use to 19 degrees which is was the low here the other night. It was below freezing for sixteen hours so I had major water problems out here on the North Forty. The house the cowboy use to live in the pipes froze in the ceiling and caused major damage to the house. Now the ceilings have fallen in so the house is destroyed.

At one time there were weddings and other events out here and there is a bathroom for men and women out here and those pipes burst. So what a mess I have been dealing with. 

Hope all of you are well. This flu going around is really scary. I caught a cold Christmas night and milked it for all it's worth. Did not do anything for a whole week. 

Stay warm and well. Don't let the winter days get you down. I am trying my best to not let it drive me completely over the wall. I have to say I am at the top now hanging on.

As always I can not tell you how much I appreciate your friendship and always coming by to check on me.

Maybe in the next few weeks I will have that new laptop and will be back to blogging full time.

Your friendships bring so much joy into my life I would hate to not be able to enjoy your blogs.

Soon I hope I can announce to you Christi and Paul's wedding day. Thanks for coming by and being my friend. Many Blessings to You for the Happiest of New Years.

Sweet Dreams

Maggie