Fun With Rose and Joe

Rose and Joe stopped by on their way back from vacation.  They were visiting friends and managed to stop and see Joyce, David, us and Tony/Marie.  

Dixie, of course, was as glad to see them as we were.  She got lots of love from Rose and gave Joe a lot of toe kisses and bites.    We had a nice time.  We went to the pool, had lunch there, walked around Wilmington, had dinner at the City Club and had ice cream as we walked along the boardwalk.

They were off the next morning to see Tony, Marie and Cole....(Tyson, too!) before heading back to Cleveland.

It was a nice, but short visit.

What Tony Does Now That He's Retired?

Our kids will recall that Tony was always doing something around the house.  He wasn't one to sit in front of the TV for hours or lounge around in bed until noon.  He used the weekends in the summer to make our yard beautiful and in the winter to fix things had weren't working around the house.

Now that he's retired, he's still doing some yard work and he still fixes things, but now, he's:

 

Doing a little walking...

 

 

 

Checking out the yard....

 

 

 

Watching TV

 

Enjoying the office...

 

 

Doing some cleaning....

 

Enjoying the water....

 

Hanging out on the patio...

 

Having some wine....

 

Taking naps...

 

 

Washing windows.....

 

But, most of all....he's been doing a lot of reading!!!

New Stuff

 

Tony ordered my bookcases last week and they arrived.  The office looks great!!!  We have room on the shelves for additional stuff, it doesn't look cluttered and there is a rhyme and reason to how I have the books arranged.   I absolutely love the white shelves and they look fantastic!  Thanks, Tony for making Dixie's playroom (formally my office!!) look great.  I know putting these things together in warm weather was a pain and I appreciate your efforts so I could have a beautiful office!

 

In other "new stuff" news.....I am a dirty brunette again.  I went to a new hairdresser yesterday and told her I wanted to be "re-blonded" to a bright yellow color.  She talked about covering the dark roots and going down a few levels--I thought she was talking about going down a few levels of blonde--she was talking about going down a few levels of brown.  She was obviously stressed, not to mention being 8 months pregnant, and the only one in the shop, answering phones, helping walk-ins and taking care of me and another lady.   I sensed that she was not good at multi-tasking in her current condition. 

 

What a surprise when I went back to the mirror and saw that I looked like Elvira--remember her???    Jet black hair with streaks of white?  Well, that's what I had.   I asked the stylist how she interpreted that as "blonde?"   "Well," she said, "the ash blonde looked good against the black.  She admitted that she blended the wrong colors and didn't charge me for the process or the hair cut. 

 

We tried again.   Light color doesn't cover black color on the same day you do it, so I ended up with a dirty brown color with some light brown highlights.  I look in the mirror now and say....."I HATE MY HAIR...."  For whatever reason I have had difficulty in getting the color I want....now, being down here, I can't even get a decent haircut.   So, I will deal with this for 5 weeks and go somewhere else to get it BLONDE..... 

 

Here are my shelves....WHITE BLONDE!!!!   Tony did a great job of putting them together...if only he could do hair!!!

 

 

 

 

 

THANKS PURDUMS!

Jenna asked Tony to get me a plant or flowers for our yard for Mothers Day.  We went out today, but I didn't see anything I liked.  But, we stopped by one of our favorite "beachy" stores and I decided to use their gift there.

 

Tony and I have talked about decorating our screened in patio in a nautical/beach theme and this store  had just the things I was looking for.  

 

I got a sign that will hang over the door from the dining area and a really pretty fish that I will put (well Tony will put!!) near the door going out to the yard.

 

Here they are and I will post another picture after Tony hangs them up.

 

Thanks, Purdums for a really nice Mother's Day.

Wonderful Day

I had a wonderful day on Sunday with Mother's Day and our 24th anniversary.  Tony and I went out to dinner on Saturday to Bridge Tender, one of our favorite places.  After that, we went to Holiday Inn on the water and had a quick drink on the terrace.   It was a fun way to celebrate our anniversary.

 

Next year, for our 25th anniversary, we will be renewing our vows in Cleveland.  Mark your calendars now, as it will probably be May 9, 2014.  I'll keep you all posted as we put it together.

 

Mother's Day was so nice.  I got flowers, a book, cards from the kids, a card from Dixie (I didn't realize she could write, too!) and a note from Jenna telling me that their gift is that Tony will be taking me out to get flowers or something I want for the house.  What a nice day!

 

 

 

Mother's Day Flowers, Anniversary Flowers and A Book

 

Close up of the Anniversary Flowers

 

Cards from Ben, Sam, Ellie and Zach and Jenna's note

 

 

THANK YOU ALL FOR MAKING SUNDAY A BEAUTIFUL DAY

Our Little Helper

As the weather is getting better, Tony and I have been doing some extra cleaning inside and out.  Tony power washed the house yesterday and today is working on washing the windows.  I'm preparing for our upcoming guests and just getting rid of clutter. 

In the process of all of this, Dixie has been a real big help.

 

Here's Dixie helping me take out the newspapers in the office.

 

Instead of carrying them out, she decided to bite them into little pieces....

 

....and instead of putting them in the garbage can, she decorated the office.

 

And, of course, she has to help Tony with the windows...here she is checking out the water.

 

And the brush.

 

Now she's really helping....she's in front of Tony making sure he gets all of her nose prints off of the window.

 

Here she is pointing out that he missed a spot.

 

Checking to see if we need to change the water.

 

Offering a "helping head."

 

She went inside to the window Tony just washed to check out his work...and add more nose prints.

 

 

And after all of that help, it was nap time!

 

I Spy...

It's a quiet Sunday here.  Compass Pointe was part of the Parade of Home for New Hanover and Brunswick Counties, so we had people looking at homes again and decided to check out a few that are new.  It's always fun going through the homes and seeing how different they are.  But, it's always nice to come back to our house.

We went to Calabash yesterday with the Chinni's.  Calabash is a cute little sea side town with shops and a ton of restaurants.  They have a huge Christmas store there like the one in Frankenmuth, Michigan.  Somehow, I just couldn't get into the Christmas spirit in May and definitely passed on the Elvis ornaments.  We had a nice dinner and drive.

As always, Tony has been fixing up our yard with nice plants and hung some shelves in the office for me.  If you read a few blogs ago, you know that I am looking for new bookcases in the office thanks to Dixie.  The new ones will be white.  I'm also looking for a new printer table that is also white.  There is always something to fix or do here and I can't wait to get the office finished.

Here are the new things:

 

My new shelves with family photos (top from left:  Tony and Zach, David and Joanna, Jenna and Jon's wedding picture, Ben and Sam, Ellie and Tony. Bottom from left:  Tony and I at Tony and Marie's wedding (with the grandchildren's Christmas gifts of photos of them on blocks hanging down,) Tony and I hugging the house and a palm tree, the 3 cigar guys, a picture of Cole, a picture of Emma, all of us (adults) at Tony and Marie's wedding.)

 

New red roses in the back

 

I call these, "purple things"

 

The red Ti plant

 

Pink azaleas, yellow and purple flowers

 

Pink azaleas and a red Ti plant on the small island

 

Green, purple and red "things"

 

Orange flowers on the porch

 

Red roses in front

 

Red "things" on the porch

 

Like I said, it's a quiet day here.....Dixie and Tony sleeping on the patio with a nice breeze