An Experiment

My front yard is a big problem.  There are two huge mulberry trees which are beautiful and provide shade (a rarity in El Paso), but they also don't allow any grass to grow.  So what I have around the trees is a dust bowl.  Otherwise there is wonderful grass in the sunshine.  I planted mondo grass which should be tolerant to the heat, shade, and poor soil.    I don't expect that the mondo will make the area lush, but I'm hoping to eliminate a great deal of the dust.  The landscaping guys just smile when I talk with them about solutions to make this area green. 

You can see how dry the yard is - powdery sandy soil.

Just a few yards away is this tree with the "experiment".  I added just a bit of topsoil with the dwarf mondo grass.  Time will tell if some green will grow...

 

Hike in the Franklin Mountains

Here are some pics from a hike in the mountains near our home.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful with lots of color for this time of year.  The Franklin Mountain State Park is the largest urban  wilderness park in the Nation (it's within the El Paso city limits)  comprised of 24,000 acres and an entire Chihuahuan Desert mountain range.  This day we hiked the West Cottonwood Spring trail.  The elevation is about 5,000 to 6,000 feet for this hike. 

Alex calls this "Sphinx Rock"

Just after breaking for lunch.

Alex lends this yucca great perspective.

Sarah turns 10

Water cannon battles in January!

Alex taking on the dance machine.

Sarah and Alex.

Oh, yeah!  Sarah ready to devour the "El Matador" burger!

Ready to party.

My beautiful girl chose a skull and crossbones - go figure.

Sarah turned 10 this week.  We celebrated with a dinner out at her choice of Toro Burger Bar, (look back at that burger - it's as big as her head!) and then she took friends to the Adventure Zone on Saturday.  It's hard to believe my baby is 10.  She has declared this the "most awesome" birthday ever and is one happy girl!

TGIF and an amazing sunset

View from our backyard at sunset.

Same view just moments later.

This pic was snapped from our front porch.  Look at that wall of flame!

End of Franklin Mountains, El Paso, and then the beginning of the Juarez Mountains (right to left).

David chopping wood.

David and neighbor, Seth, playing cornhole.

Inspiration

This book is full of beautiful and inspiring photos.

The billowy curtains and shades of white drew me in.

The kids are adorable - but how about that amazing glass counter top?!!

My sunroom with shades of white, a touch of texture, and color.

I've gotten more mileage out of these old wine crates and my wooden angel.

Corner of the sun room helps to bring in the blue thanks to a repainted old chicken coop door I nabbed in Germany during "junking."

When I was a kid...

It would be great to say I wrote this, but I didn't.  It was sent to me in an e-mail and I had to share.  Man, we had it tough, didn't we?

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning...Uphill...Barefoot... BOTH ways yadda, yadda, yadda...

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!  
 
But now that I'm over the ripe old age of forty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.  You've got it so easy!  I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!   And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it! 

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet.  If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!! 

  
There was no email!!  We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen!   Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there!  Stamps were 10 cents! 

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us.  As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes!  If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! 

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!  There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car..We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby!  Dig? 

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting!  If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD!!!  Think of the horror...not being in touch with someone 24/7!!!  And then there's TEXTING.  Yeah, right.  Please!  You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was!  It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent...you just d idn't know!!!  You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics!  We had the Atari 2600!  With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'.  Your screen guy was a little square!  You actually had to use your imagination!!!  And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen...Forever!  And you could never win.  The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!  Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing!  You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!!  NO REMOTES!!!  Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning.  Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves.  If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove!  Imagine that!   

And our parents told us to stay outside and play...all day long.  Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort.  And if you came back inside...you were doing chores!   

  
And car seats - oh, please!   Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on.  If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place! 

See!  That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten!  You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

 

Back to the Beach (themed room)

I still have no great find for the beachy curtains.  They'll turn up eventually.  Looking through coastal artwork, I found these paintings of kids at the beach - one of my favorite themes. Can you pick out mine?

This last painting is an early one of Alex and Sarah at the OBX of NC.  Makes it easy to add a touch of brighter colors to the room.

TGIF - the first of 2011!

David as Robin Hood.

Hi friends and family.  Today was a gorgeous day here, sunny and warm for this time of year.  I spent some time in the garden (lots to do in a high desert winter garden), still taking down decor from Christmas, doctors appointment, nice visit with neighbor, and lots to do around the house (laundry, cleaning, picture hanging (still), and prep for weekend.  I'm cooking chili for dinner and making a HUGE pot of lentil stew with ham for another time.  David is still at work - he had a case yesterday and today and now that he is done with sentencing he is doing "bridging the gap" with the attorneys (teaching session where he can point out strengths and weaknesses for the prosecution and defense - good learning experience).
Tomorrow brings the Commanding General's New Year Reception (woohoo - get to get dressed up!).  We are in stage 4 - so many folks to wish happy new year to!  I think we'll do that, but concentrate on a fun evening with the girls, maybe a bonfire in the fire pit, friends over for a cornhole competition, and some karaoke with the new singing machine.  Maybe some Mexican Train Dominoes.

Belated birthday wishes to Luke.  We're thinking snowboarding weather is heading your way!

Here are some photos from a trip to Holland a few years back.  These pics are from Zaanse Schans where the air smells of chocolate(i.e.-HEAVEN!) because of the Dutch chocolate factories nearby.

Girls looking from the "Hiding Place", home of Corrie ten Boom.  Wonderful WWII read for kids this age.

  

Sarah in the clog factory.

Me on an old-fashioned tricycle.  Sorry but I prefer my "alte Frau" bicycle.

 

Love to you all!

Someplace besides Here and Now

Although today has been a beautiful day here in El Paso, I can't help but think of times past where it would be nice to be NOW - maybe a little warmer, a slower pace.  I'm feeling nostalgic.

Boone, NC at the Robertson family cabin.

Richmond, VA with cousins

Mathews, VA at the "Rivah" house

Beach theme curtains....where are you?

I am lucky enough to have a wonderful sun room that I'm giving a beach/coastal look.  Instead of painting a beautiful, watery sea glass blue or green, I thought I would do some type of breezy curtains to give the same feel to the room.  I can't seem to search for something like this without being drawn to some really unique design.  Tord Boontje in a Dutch textile designer who has created these amazing panels out of laser-cut Tyvek!  Love them!

 They are not the beach theme, but I love the play of light through them.  Well, as I'm looking for more cool curtains, I came across these other fun window treatments.

These are fisheye window stickers.  Maybe not beachy curtains, but certainly an "under the sea" aspect to them.  Maybe I'll save these for the bathroom?



Next we have the industrial blackout welding curtain.  Great look, and blocks out UV rays as well.

  And finally, my favorite.  Aren't silk curtains elegant?  These are BLOND Silk curtains by designer Nicolette Brunklaus.

Winter fun, Virginia-style

The kids, both young and older, had a great time being towed behind a car in the snow.  

I can't wait to get these kids to Ski Apache or Cloudcroft, NM for some skiing and snowboarding!