Wacky Wednesday

So ... these first two picture of Mr. Gee are because I promised him some blog time, having been consumed with the fact that my girly grandkids outnumber him 4 to 1. Also ... these pics were taken specifically when he dressed up for Wacky Wednesday for Soccer Camp a couple of weeks ago. Every single, wacky bit was a specific instruction from him to his mother. He is one creative boy.

He is also a very sweet boy. I was babysitting him not long after I had the infamous "blackout" and he said "Oh Nanny. I wish I could have been there to protect you." No lie. Exact words.

Then today ... where apparently the wackiness continues on this mid-week day ... I received these two pictures of the elder Dub Girls. The wackiness is apparently a genetic thing.

Oh, who are we kidding. Wackiness has always been a family trait.

It's one of the many reasons I am so happy to be a part of this family.

My Split Personality

So ... I have big news. I have given birth to another child in the world of blogging. This is due to the fact that I apparently have way too much time on my hands and ... because I have a split personality.

Personality A is what you have seen here more often than not: personal, incredibly proud of my children and grandchildren and not afraid to brag about them incessantly and (as Ms. Gee likes to call it) ... with a little bit of a "snarky" attitude.

Personality B loves anything that is pretty, with pretty pictures and pretty ... prose. This personality is obsessed with the ocean and it's beauty and wants to quilt and tell. This personality likes to decorate.

Over the last 4 years I have tried to combine these two personalities into one measly blog and lately have found that frustrating. So about 2 weeks ago I gave birth to my second blog, aptly titled ...

Sea Quilts
(click here)

I hope you will visit both and visit often. (I hope to be posting on both more often.) If you have linked simplehappy home, I'd love it if you would add Sea Quilts. I am not on Facebook so ... please ... feel free to leave some comments and stop all that lurking.

Thank you for supporting me over these last four years. I'll admit ... I've been a little needy and you helped me more than you will ever know.

Actually ... both of "us" are grateful.

The Parable of the Ants

So ... you deserve to have fair warning: this blog post could possibly involve a wee bit o' whining. As in wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Before I go further, however, I do want you to know that I did learn some lessons from my adversity, I am grateful for all my blessings and I am well aware that these problems are miniscule in the grand scheme of things. Having said that ...

It all started Thursday afternoon while I was innocently doing exactly what I am doing now, working on the computer. Without warning, the screen goes to black and the air conditioning and ceiling fans come to a halt also. I was not concerned because I was just about out the door to get my hair cut and figured the power would be back on by the time I returned. Except that as I pressed the button to open my garage, I came to the immediate revelation that it too, was powered by electricity. Manually opening the garage (not an easy task for a weakling such as myself) I then took 30 minutes to get to my appt. (10 minutes away) because every stop light in town was now a 4-way stop. Alas ... no hair cut for me.

Not all was lost however. That evening I met some neighbors I hadn't known before as we gathered collectively on our front porches to get out of our sticky homes. Several people from church came by to "check on me" which I so appreciated and not long after attempting to go to sleep (and 8 full hours after it was turned off) the power came on and all was good. (You may have read about our little power outtage that affected about 2 million people. I was one of them. I was fine.)

The next morning dawned bright and early as I was expecting my door painter to come, thereby tethering me to my home for the next 8 hours while the door dried. He came. He painted. He left. I went to pour myself a bowl of cereal, but when I opened my pantry door, I discovered that a large colony of ants had taken up residence therein, during the night. I'm not gonna lie -- I shrieked like a girly-girl, while I pulled everything out of my pantry. I knew that I didn't have any ant killers on hand after my move and I knew that I could not leave my house with the door open. I also felt that it might be unwise to call the BugMan and have him spraying so close to my still sticky door. I headed upstairs to the closest thing I could think of that "sprayed" (see hairspray above) and then I came down and coifed those suckers to death one by one.

Eventually, I did call in the professionals who could not come until the next day. Unlike AZ where you just stick around while they spray, these CA exterminators require that you leave the premises. Before I left, he explained that I might still see a few "stragglers" when I returned and not to worry. I went and got my hair cut and then returned to find more stragglers than I was expecting. I fought those (with Windex this time at his suggestion ... and yes he scoffed at my choice of repellent) for the next 2 days, but finally got rid of them all and put my food back in the pantry. Yeah ... that was a mistake.

The next morning while once again reaching for the Honey Nut Chex, I discover the entire side wall was thick with them. All right ... these are definitely not straggling. I called the BugMan who heartily agreed that a return visit was in order and promised to be there in about an hour. Now, officially playing hooky from work, I headed upstairs to sew. About a half hour later I decided to go down and check on my little industrious renters (frankly hoping there were still enough of them to convince the BugMan the error of his ways.) As I stepped off the bottom step and onto the hard wood floors in my dining room ... I found that I was stepping in water.

This time there was no shrieking ... it was more weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. I grabbed towels and a bucket and turned off the valve in the bathroom right above where the leak was (which was actually coming out of a vent and not through dry wall, thank goodness) and the leaking came to a halt. Right then, the BugMan arrives (a different one than before) and explains that I will have to leave while he sprays. I didn't know what to do so I went to a nearby McDonald's while I made the necessary calls to find a plumber. I'm not gonna lie ... I was still a little weepy and I think it was creeping out the nearby children who were munching on their Happy Meals.

Sometime while I was sitting there I had the following thought: If I had not been there waiting for BugMan2, I would have been at work and by the time I returned I would definitely have ruined floors and possibly a giant hole in my ceiling.

I was absolutely stunned by this revelation and yes ... it made me cry even more. I'm pretty certain I will not be returning to that particular McDonalds any time in the near future.

End of story? The plumber came. He fixed stuff. He charged me a lot of money to fix stuff. He did not charge me nearly what it would have cost me to replace floors and ceilings. BugMan2 completely erradicated the ants with one try. I am pretty darn certain that BugMan1 never even sprayed the pantry which was the entire reason he was called to my home.

I will forever be grateful to BugMan1 and his forgetful/slacker habits.

The moral of the story? The Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways and apparently He employs ... ants.

She. Is. One.

So ... can you believe it? L'il Miss Gee turns one year old today. And let me just say that the only thing that grows faster than her ... is her hair. That girl has a head of hair we could all aspire to have. It's thick and curly and beautiful. Just. Like. Her.

She also has a bit of a sassy attitude which only makes the hair thing that much more enjoyable.

She is also one of those rare babies who will keep the hair band IN her hair on a regular basis. (In the picture above she's also sporting a boo-boo on her nose, but it only seems to add to her charm.) Her talented mother makes all the hair bands, fyi.

I call her my "Girly Girl". She absolutely loves it when I say that. I can honestly say that she is rather fond of me. And visa-versa.

Happy Birthday to my Girly Girl. Nanny is very proud of you.

(My front door is drying as we speak and keeps me homebound once again. At least I have power which I didn't for 8 full hours yesterday. Boy ... I sure do love to complain, don't I?)

My Door has a Rash ~

So ... my door has a rash. A bumpy, itchy, ugly rash. I'm sorry to say that it has taken me 7 months (exactly) to tend to my door's poor ... itchy, ugly rash.

The good news is that I don't have to pay a penny for the medical bills. Well ... if you don't count that hefty sum I pay to my HOA which then pays for the medical bills.

Unfortunately the painter came today and could not do his job because it was too dang hot on my porch. (I believe that this explains the bumpy nature of the rash the first time the door was painted.) He could only apply some primer and will come back next week.

If this story bored you beyond belief ... then stick around for next week when ... I will discuss the paint drying in brutal detail.

Girl's Club

One

Two

Three

Four

Four Fabulously Feminine Friends.

sigh

(Don't worry Li'l Mr. Gee ... I'll give you your day too!)

Emma 1977 ~ 2011

When I received the news that Mrs. Dub had just given birth to Dub Girl #3, I was actually already on the way to the airport to go to Utah for another reason. I was going to the funeral of my brilliant and beautiful niece ... Emma ... who was only 34 years old. She died very suddenly of something that normally takes someone 2 or 3 times her age.

Mrs. Gee and I drove straight from the airport to the hospital, held that precious 5-hour old baby for an hour or so and then drove straight to the Viewing.

The circle of life ... and it's ultimate plan ... were not lost on me.

Emma was honored in grand style on Saturday when many, many people came to pay tribute. Her family (my sister's family) did a splendid job and we all came away inspired and uplifted.

Thank you, Emma, for all of your giving. Give our love to the PDaddy.

(You can see her obituary here. I tried to save and transfer the picture, but it just wasn't happening.)

~ A Touch of Femininity ~

So ... just to show you that, although I don't listen to others as much as I should, I do indeed listen to myself. (Trust me, that's a lot of listening.) After I posted here about how odd it was that I decorated my room in such a masculine manner, I began to feel ... well, odd ... about that. Little by little I began to make some changes. I bought some new sheets that added a classic, femine pattern to the mix and exchanged some pillows with the family room.

I put plates on the wall that added some girly-girl-curly-que.

Last, but not least ... some flowers. Yes, they are fake but they still do the trick.

And we can't talk femininity without a look at the Dubster Three. I'm beginning to think that the BIG sisters are pretty fond
of the L'IL one.

I'm loving the new changes. Especially that one in the last picture.

Nanny X 5 !!!

So ... She. Is. Here. Miss Dub3 arrived on Friday, August 12th (8/12) at 3 minutes before noon. She weighed in at 8 pounds, 12 ounces (also 8/12 ... how cool is that?) and measured 21 inches long. She incurred a few battle scars as a result of her "sunny-side-up" delivery but has healed like a champ and is actually opening her eyes on a regular basis.

Oh how we love this precious little Dubster.

Holding her feels pretty close to Heaven.

~ My Morning Walk ~

So ... my morning walk usually involves this view. (Except that I rarely have these delightful 4 year old grandkids in the picture which is just the biggest shame of all!!) Not too shabby. Also keep in mind that while I'm walking it's in the mid 60's. Farenheit.

I have decided to change my route on Saturday mornings. It took me a couple of tries to find the perfect beach walking path, but I'm pretty certain that these views meet a certain standard of perfection.

I was quite enamored with this touch of green among the sea/sand/sky.

I'm just loving my Saturday morning walks. Want to join me??

The newest member of the fam ...

So ... I fooled you didn't I? You thought I was breaking news about Mrs. Dub's impending birth. I really hope that you realized that the picture was not of her darling daughter (to be.) So cute, but not in a Dubbish kind of way.

Nope ... this little guy is the son of Ms. Gee ... aka Riley Noehren. His name is Morrissey. He is a French Bulldog. I am head over heels in love with him.

Ms. Gee is also in love with him, just as she used to be in love with sleeping through the night and having clean floors. Ah ... the life of a new mom.

I will keep you posted on that other delivery.

Seriously ... how cute is he???

Color EXPLODED in Long Beach Yesterday!

So ... I spent the day yesterday at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach. With friends. Some, medium new. Some, brand new. All ... gooooood ... new. The quilts? Spectacular, colorful, and almost mind boggling when one considers the time put into each one.

The food? Meh.

The Stuff to Buy? Salivatingly good.

Of course I came away with some dots ... and some heavenly varigated aqua King Tut thread ... appropriately called Angel Teal.

And some very sore feet.

Thank you Long Beach for the spectacular fireworks. And thank you ... my new friends.