Valentine Surprise

When I answered a knock at the front door on Valentine's Day, I didn't expect to see someone delivering flowers.  The technician who had just finished installing our upgraded Dishnet system had  left moments earlier, so I thought he might have forgotten to give me something relating to the installation.

But no, it was flowers.  My first thought, as I placed it in the kitchen, was "Why the hell did Wayne send flowers?"  I smiled at my bad attitude while I retrieved the large card stuck in the middle of the pink, blue, and white flowers...completely missing the significance of the colors of the flowers and ribbon.

Pink and blue carnations, white daisies, pink and blue ribbon. 

I pulled the card out, took note of the photos of Robin and Chad and then read the upper left hand corner, "Coming soon to a crib near you...August 2012".  Still didn't quite get it.  But, a split second later I jerked my head up to look at the vase of flowers again...then jerked it back down again to reread the card.  (It's a wonder I didn't get whiplash!) 

Baby Hensley, how could I miss that?

Oddly, now that I think of it, my first response was to text Robin to let her know how excited I was and to ask when the due date was.  The odd part was texting instead of calling.  ???  It wasn't until I had already sent that text that I noticed the ultrasound image in the middle of the card.  It was at that time that I also realized that the due date was in August (late August).  She was at 12 weeks on Valentine's Day.  Robin and Chad have known since Christmas Eve, but have managed to keep the secret all this time!

A few weeks ago, Robin  and Chad invited us to come to their house for dinner.  It was in the middle of the week.  I didn't think anything about it, but our smart little Kate (I was at Carolyn's when Robin called to invite us) wondered why we were going there for dinner.  I kept thinking about it and wondered if they were going to announce a pregnancy.  We visited and had drinks before dinner.  I noticed that Robin poured a glass of wine for herself, so we were just there to have dinner...no surprise announcement.

As we were about to leave, I turned to Robin and commented that you can tell who's pregnant these days, because they wouldn't be drinking.  I also told her about my thought that maybe they were making an announcement.  Either I wasn't paying attention, or Robin didn't blush, which would have been her usual response.  She was drinking non-alcoholic wine, by the way.

She told me later that the first person she told was a waiter at a party they went to.  She told him she was pregnant but no one else knew and she didn't want them to figure it out by noticing that she was not drinking.  She told him that whatever she ordered was to be non-alcoholic. 

I do appreciate the fact that they waited until they were at 12 weeks to announce it...to anybody.   It would have been so hard to have to keep that secret for 5 or 6 weeks!

What a wonderful Valentine's Day surprise!

Janna's Pride Build Dedication

I sent an email to the girlfriends that are on the "girl's night out" list.  Well, first I sent the email, forgetting to attach the video.  Then, I sent another email letting everyone know that I noticed my goof and that another email with the video attached was being sent.  Then I sent the video.

This morning I heard from one of the girlfriends who said she did not get the video, so I thought I might just upload it here, since it's a pretty large file.

For background (for the one or two people who read this blog and didn't know Janna), please click here to read Janna's story.

Each of us who contributed to the project, in whatever way, feels a wonderful sense of honoring all that was important to Janna.

I had already published this post when I realized that I should have included some of the earlier pictures of the project.  So, before you get to the dedication video...here's the earlier part of the story in pictures.
 

Launch Party - Sept. 30, 2011

Dee and Wanda at the Launch Party

Me and Wanda

What a pretty venue for a party!

Came the longest distance...Audrey, from Norway...in blue sleeveless on the left

I'm not sure what was going on here...something exciting, I guess!

1st Day of Build - October 1, 2011

Ready to get to work!  Rosayn, Jean, Wanda, Dee

Jim & Carole

First wall up!

Many hands make easy work of moving walls

Good 1st day's work

 October 29, 2011 - Another work day

Window installation instructions

Jim, Scott and Wayne

Scott, in the hat

Natalie on the inside while Virgie and crew install the bathroom window.

Oops! Pay no attention to the fact that we had to uninstall this window due to the lack of tar paper on the left side.

Wanda, Virgie, Hannah and Maggie, me and Dee

Scott and others, on the roof

Natalie, surveying what will be her new home.

Carole and Dee

I think we were cheering someone finally getting a nail hammered in.

Dedication - January 21, 2012

In the house---Wanda

There's that bathroom window we installed!

One of the bedrooms

Wanda had just presented one of Janna's butterfly wing photos to Natalie.

Wanda had just presented the house keys to Natalie

Natalie presents a hammer to the next habitat home owner

And now...finally...the video!

Super-productive

I have been super productive today. Well, "super" might not actually apply, I have been productive...certainly, more so than my usual self.  I set my alarm for 7:30 because Carolyn and I had appointments for facials at 10:30 this morning.

In preparation for being in the proximity of Lowes, I placed items in the car to be returned/exchanged there yesterday.  I ate my usual good breakfast this morning, cleaned up the kitchen and by a little before 9 o'clock I headed upstairs to get ready to leave.

While I hadn't heard from Carolyn about what time we were leaving, which was a bit unusual, I thought "We've done this so many times we don't really need to talk about it".  Suddenly, it occurred to me, though, that maybe our appointment is at 10 instead of 10:30, so I picked up my phone and opened the calendar. Just about the time the calendar opened, I thought to myself, "Wait a minute...maybe that appointment is next week."  And...of course it is.

I called Carolyn and confirmed that the appointment is not today and that was when I started getting productive.

• I've washed, dried and put away four loads of laundry

• I put away the remains of Zane spending the night with us a couple of weeks ago.

• I've made my bed with freshly laundered sheets.

• I did a sewing repair on a pair of shorts

• I put away a number of items that were in the wrong places

Now I'm in desperate need of a cup of coffee and maybe a slice of the beer bread that I made last night.

I also need to remove the items there were going to Lowe's from the car. Dee and I are going to Austin on Saturday and we are taking my car. Hopefully, I will remember to put them back in the car when we actually do go get our facials next week.

Yay, me!  Although....looking at my accomplishments, I'm sure that "super" isn't necessary.  Just plain "productive" will do.

Helpful Hint

I bought new fancy schmancy landline phones last week. The reviews I read online described the phone as being "easy to use and intuitive". The reviewers must have been way more technically savvy than I, and I don't think I'm a slouch in that department. I'm progressing, however, and I think I'll be fairly proficient in short order.

One of the cool features (maybe the main cool feature) is that it links with another Bluetooth device such as my cell phone or a headset. So if my cell phone rings, I can answer it using my house phone, thus reducing the radiation my poor brain is exposed to.

Once I had registered (paired) my cell phone to the house phone, I was able to transfer all my cell phone contacts to the house phone. The new house phone holds over 3000 numbers. The one it's replacing held only 100. It's still limited to only 16 characters in a name, though. That seems very restrictive to me, as well as puzzling.  One would think that technology had progressed way beyond the 16 character limit.  Maybe it has, but it isn't available for the $120 I paid for the base/answering/4 handset/bluetooth unit I bought. The limit means that while I might have three or four numbers for a contact, (they are all listed separately on the house phone, because that's the way the phone does it) but not enough room to indicate what device ("cell", "home", "work", "fax", etc.) the number calls.  Seriously? It will put the last few characters on a 2nd line and then the rest of the line is blank. Why can't I use the rest of the line?  Makes no sense to me.

I'm still reading the 98 page manual, but I wanted to
share the helpful instruction that might have been necessary in 1875. This could now be filed under the
"phone calls for dummies" section.

Rain!

Whoo-hoo! We actually have water standing all around the yard. It rained really hard for a little while. The English's pasture, across the road from us, has a lot of standing water… It's almost covered. The cows, standing near the hay, look perplexed. Who knows? Maybe they've never seen rain before. They're probably out there discussing it right now.

Meanwhile, I'm just enjoying the sound and the look of the long-awaited rain.

Happy Anniversary!

Apparently I've used Happy Anniversary as a post title before, because it filled itself in.  I'm not sure who it was intended for in the other post, but this time it's for Edie & Glenn, who invited us, along with two other couples, to celebrate their 13th anniversary.

We met at Scheller's in Glen Flora, one of my favorite places to eat.  After several rounds of drinks, lots of laughs and a good dinner, we left the restaurant just before they had to eject us!  We were there at least an hour past closing time.

The traditional 13th anniversary gift is lace.  Edie told Glenn she would give him something lacy. Thinking fast, Glenn asked a couple of good-looking women who had just stood up to leave, "Are either of you named Lacey?"  Fortunately for Glenn, the answer was "No, sorry."

We had a really great time...thanks for including us at your special celebration!

Christmas at the Bubela's

Wayne woke me up at 7:30 this morning...(what the?)...to see what time I wanted to go to Carolyn and Brent's to take our gifts for the little ones.  "Not this early," I replied.  I was thinking of going about 10:00.  "Why do you have a flashlight?", I asked just before I realized it was his iPhone.  Carolyn had texted him a Merry Christmas greeting and he seemed to want to reply...maybe he didn't remember how to do it.  He's fairly new at having a smartphone.

When I got my new iPhone, the 4G-S, I gave him my old one and suggested that he mess around with it and get familiar with it.  He was long overdue for an upgrade and I thought he might want to consider the iPhone.  He had it for about a month before he decided to upgrade.  I went with him to the AT&T store, but they didn't have one in stock.  He's been on the waiting list for several weeks.  When he checked with them a day or two ago they told him he was in the #3 spot.

Even though he wasn't able to buy a new iPhone at that time, we did have them activate my old one (a 3G-S) for him.  Now he's pretty much like the rest of us smartphone users.  See the photos below for the big age difference in users... Jax at 2 and Wayne at 68.

At a soccer match...I love the look on his face

Surrounded by onlookers

Shortly after this, he got out of the wagon and went to a chair surrounded by adults.  He was tired of the boys hovering over him.

Moving from Carlee's match to Kate's match...he never looked up!

Checking the weather or something

The video below shows the girls in the inflatable Karts we gave them for playing Mario Kart on the Wii.  It was a huge help to them.  The remote fits into the steering wheel of the inflatable and they have better control of the Kart onscreen.  Can't wait to give the boys theirs when we go to the Garner's this afternoon!

But first, here's one more shot of Jax.  They had removed the steering wheel from the Karts while they did other activities in the playroom (dancing, I think).  Jax got a new electronic thingy from us for Christmas and he decided the Kart was the perfect place to lounge while he figured it out.