Category: Grandma Ruddell

A GIRL’S WEEKEND IN HOUSTON

Houston is a lot more than big skyscrapers. Check out all of the fun things to see and do.

A couple of weekends ago, my daughter and I took a girl’s trip to visit my sister, who lives in Houston. She recently moved there, and she’s still discovering the city. Her name is Toni, and she treated us royally, taking us to so many wonderful places. Jessi and I had sent her a list of odd things that we wanted to see, and Toni had her own things to show us. Plus she had a nice, new apartment that we were thrilled to see.

We drove there on Friday and spent the night. On Saturday, we packed it all in. Toni started our day by going to Tiny’s for Brunch. I felt so elegant! I rarely go to brunch. This was a nice place with great food. It sure beat my usual cheerios and diet coke!

Next, we went to The Beer Can House. (This, of course, was on my list.) The whole outside of the house was covered in Beer Cans that had been smashed and adhered to the house. The couple had drank 50,000 cans of beer to help their art. The man had also made wind chimes out of the cans, and he had a cement sidewalk, with designs in it of marbles and cans. It all started because he didn’t like to do outside work. So he covered it all in Beer Cans. Pretty fun…you should definitely go see this!

Next on our list of quirky attractions, was the fenced lot of Giant President Heads. The artist, David Adickes, is known for his heroic scale sculptures of historic figures. If you’ve ever driven on highway 45, from Dallas to Houston, you probably passed the giant statue of Sam Houston. That is by the same artist. We saw one of the heads in Branson, last year, of President Kennedy. This was really fun to see all of the President heads in Houston. Just wished we could have been able to go inside the fence.

Toni had a great place for us to explore. It was a huge park and grounds of Ima Hogg’s beautiful house. Bayou Bend is gorgeous, and we took a tour of the house and her grounds. Ima was a great benefactor to Houston, and her father was Governor Hogg. Ima was a society lady and collected art. The park and house are now owned by the Houston Museum of Arts.

And from there, we toured the Houston Museum of Arts. We didn’t have a lot of time before they closed, but my sister is the Marketing Director there, so she took us to lots of cool places and things to see. The Museum has 3 or 4 buildings at this site, and they are connected by tunnels that are artsy in themselves. This is one of the best museums I’ve seen in a long time. My favorite thing was laying down on a building, and it is projected up on the wall to look like we were hanging from the building. There was a really neat exhibit when you first come in, that is interactive. I need to go back when I have more time, and explore the rest of the museum.

Our Sunday finale , before driving back to Ft. Worth, was going to Joel Osteen’s church. My word!! It was like a huge theater, with several layers of balconies. We sat pretty close to the front. The first thirty minutes were praise music, with lights and singers. It was kind of like going to a concert. Then Joel came out and preached an uplifting sermon. Don’t know your feelings about this church, but it was something we wanted to experience. Pretty cool!

We had such a good time! Hope this gives you some ideas for when you go to Houston. It’s not just big buildings downtown. But then, again, I like to look for kooky things that are a little different. What do you like to do in Houston? Leave me a comment.

Hugs,

Grandma Ruddell

Grandkids Are Fun and Silly!

No matter their age, my grandkids have their silly sides. Gotta love ’em!

My Silly Grandkids!

The last few months, we’ve had some good times with our grandkids. They are growing up, and they are all in school, so we don’t see them as much as we used to. Add to that, someone in each of their families has had bad cases of Covid. So our time has been restricted. They are all at that age where they would prefer to be on their electronics. It’s just a great thing when we get them interested in something else.

Isaac and Nana the Spy
Winter concert

Libby and Liam live in Hutto, TX. That’s about three hours away for us. They stayed with us, awhile back. We decided it would be fun to go to the Fossil Rim Animal Park, in Glenrose, TX. The animals come right up to your car, wanting some food. At one point, Liam stood up through the roof of the car, and a Giraffe came right up to him. I looked up through the roof, and it looked right back at me, licking my hand. It was a fun time and the kids really had lots of giggles and stories to tell their parents.

Buddies….through the top of the car!

A new friend

Another day, we took a hike at the Airfield Falls Trailhead and Conservation Park. There was a great waterfall feature. The kids climbed on the big rocks and had a good hike.

Sitting on the big rocks at the park.

Two cutie pies sitting on big rocks.

Liam came to stay for a couple of days, with his mom. It was great to spend time with him, without others around. He did get to spend time with his cousin, Isaac. Isaac usually plays with Liam’s sister, Libby, while Liam is on his electronics. It was nice to see them bonding. They played electronic games too.

After Isaac left, Liam decided to fix my hair. This is the first time he’s ever done this. He kept taking my brush into the bathroom, and getting it wet, dripping water all over the bathroom, and rushing back to try to fix a big spike in my hair. It was just LOVELY! LOL Oh…it was lovely the next morning too!

My hairdresser, creating a Spike for me.

The next morning…try not to judge!

WARNING!!! DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER, IF YOU ARE HORRIFIED OR OFFENDED BY A PICTURE OF MY UNDERWEAR!!!

Liam is 9, and has a very advanced computer brain. He is amazing. BUT…he’s also a typical 9 year old boy. Sometime while he was here, he was playing around in my closet, and I thought he hid a pair of my underwear. It seemed to me, after he left, that half of my undies were missing! I called them and he said that he had hid one under the couch, and some in the closet. After a week or two, I have finally, I HOPE, found about 8 pair of my undies thrown around my closet. Good grief!

The Case of the Underwear Thief!

Isaac is 5, and lives in Benbrook, about 15 minutes from us. What a difference a year makes! Last year, at this time, he stayed with us for 3 days a week. I had “Nana School” and tried to get him ready for kindergarten. This year, he’s in kindergarten, and we don’t get to see him much. As usual, being in kindergarten has introduced him to many germs. He’s had Covid twice, in the last 6 months, plus other colds and viruses.

Isaac is super into Harry Potter. They read the book, and then watched the movie. He went as Harry Potter for Halloween. Just a couple of weeks ago, he found something on Amazon that he wanted to buy. He bought the cutest Harry Potter robe, and he has the glasses. We made Valentine cookies one night, while he was here. They were cute, and very popular.

Harry Potter Robe

Harry Potter does his homework.

Frosting Valentine Cookies.

Isaac and I made Valentine Cookies.

I adore my sweet Grandkids. Do you have Grandkids? What fun things do you do with yours? I just went through the playroom, and decluttered a bunch of toys for younger kids. Kind of made my heart sad. Sigh.

Have a great Spring!

Grandma Sherry

Feeling Better About Life

  • Spring

It’s SPRING!!! Halleluiah. I always feel happier when nature starts greening things up, and flowers start popping out. I’ve been doing some planting. After the coffin flower bed had the bottom collapse, last year, it has been redone. I’ve planted herbs and a few other things in it. I’m liking the looks of it. I’ve also planted flowers in several pots. Dick cleaned out a big, overgrown, dying vine from the patio. We’re trying out ideas for that corner. I always get excited in the Spring, and plant things. Then it gets incredibly hot, in the summer, and I fizzle out. I think we may have lost a couple of things during the Snowmageddon. We’ve already dug up my rosemary bush. Not sure if the Banana Plant survived. We’re playing a waiting game.

My new herb garden, in my coffin planter.

Yes, I still need to weed some, but I like this pot of flowers. Can’t wait until they fill out.

Great news is that we’ve had both of our covid vaccines. That’s a relief and makes me feel safer. We actually went over to our friends’ house, the other night, for dessert and visiting. I hadn’t seen them in so long! That was after we joined them at a restaurant, sitting on the patio. Yes, we’re still using our masks, doing social distancing, and being very selective about where we’re going. Ummm…yes…we did go to Winstar. I won a lot of money but gave it back to the local schools and economy.

We have our vaccines! But we’re still being safe and responsible.

It’s about time to get our Poker groups back up and going. We are all seniors, and have all had our two vaccines. In April, we’ll start back. Maybe Bunco will be next.

Our son, Chris, recently had surgery for Colon Cancer. He’s only 41. Luckily, they got it all, and it hadn’t spread to the Lymph Nodes. He’s still dealing with a stent in his kidneys and some kidney stones, but he seems to be getting better. We thank all of our family and friends for their prayers.

I had the privilege of taking care of my two grandkids, during the surgery time. I stayed with them for two weeks, had a weekend off, and then picked them up and brought them to our house for Spring Break. They had a chance to play with their other cousin, while at our house. We had Nana School, went to a park, and they are masters of Minecraft. It’s actually hard to get them off of electronics. Electronics were my leverage for getting them to brush teeth and go to bed. I felt fortunate to beat my 8 yr. old grandson at Chess. And he’s a beginner.

Big news! We are about to come to the finish line with our bedroom. Yeah! We still need to buy a new bed. We’ve gone from a gold wall to a grey wall. So much calmer and serene. But….you’ll have to wait. Hope to have the big reveal in my next post.

Leave me a comment and let me know how you are enjoying your Spring time. Are you planting things? Have you had both of your vaccines? Are you going out more?

Happy Easter,

Grandma Sherry

A New Class, For The New Me!

Every year, I get the urge to make resolutions. Every year, I accomplish one or two of them. This year, I gave myself a gift for Christmas. It was a class, called “Take Your House Back”, put together by three great vloggers. I love these gals. They are Dana White, of A Slob Comes Clean; Dawn Madsen, of Minimal Mom; and Cassandra Aarssen, of Clutterbug, and she’s also on HGTV’s, “Hot Mess House”. This class is all about decluttering, organizing and minimalizing your house. It’s very helpful and the ladies are funny. I follow the Minimal Mom and Clutterbug, every morning, on You Tube.

Oh, this hit a big spot with me!! For years, I had a terribly kept house. The children were young, and had things everywhere. I was teaching school and my hubby had a job that involved lots of traveling. We were very busy, and my house showed it. I really didn’t know how to organize things. I had also inherited my mother’s teacher mentality….”Oh! I need to keep this…I could use it in the classroom someday!” Yep, that’s me. If you look in my hallway, you’ll find a little bottle of my husband’s giant gallstones. Well…I COULD have used that if I had been teaching science or health or something. It does make a good conversation starter.

Each year, I organize something, here and there. But you don’t want to look in my closets. They are a mess. In this class, you spend a week organizing something and then move to a different area the next week. You use three containers…donate, trash and Quarantine bin. The idea is to consider your shelf, closet, drawer, etc., as your “container”. You may only keep what fits in your container. Your room could be your container. If it doesn’t fit, something has to go. I’m trying to send a lot of things to Goodwill, or other places. I’ve sorted through my kitchen inventory and had a lot of doubles of things. Things that I didn’t need or ever use. Out, they went! My kitchen looks so much better. Some days, I just go and look at it. It gives me peace to have my counters cleaned off.

BEFORE…the Party Closet
AFTER…The Party Closet
Cleaning out the Container cabinet,,,what a ness!
AFTER….Store containers with lids on.
From my African instrument and decor collection
Some of my African instruments

I have a seriously hard time parting with sentimental items. I have a whole closet that is full of my teaching things. I’m a retired teacher. One of the units I did with my students, included African Music. I had collected lots of instruments, masks, fabric and decor. My students loved this unit. I knew I needed to part with these things, but it was very tough. I posted it on Facebook Marketplace. A sweet African American lady bought the whole collection. She has her home decorated with similar things. She was so delighted. It’s nice to think that others can use these things and enjoy them, and they are out of my house.

I’m supposed to be doing my clothes closets. I keep stalling. It looks so overwhelming. It is recommended to set your timer for 10 minutes and do that much. And it usually revs you up and you keep going. But you can stop and know that you did something good. REMEMBER: 5 MINUTES COUNT!

The horrible clothes closet.

We are about to start painting our bedroom. It’s our COVID Project. Right now, all of the furniture is pulled out to the middle of the room. My hubby has put painter’s tape around the edges of most of the room. It has been sitting this way for two weeks or more. We WILL get this blasted room painted this next week! I’m going crazy. It’s a good reminder to me, that a clean, clutter free room makes me calmer. This room is going to be more modern and minimal. I’ll update you soon, whenever we finish.

Off to Goodwill!

Our good news???? We had our first Covid vaccine, a couple of weeks ago. We’ll get our second one on February 13th. Yeah! We’re going to get our shot, and then head to Hill Country, and stay in a condo, for a week, at Canyon Lake. We’re getting away and vegging out. We will celebrate 45 years of marriage, on Valentine’s Day.

Have a great week. Stay safe. If you are in the big snow storm, I hope you are stocked up with food and have electricity. Go build a snowman. Is anyone else doing a major declutter and organizing job?

Leave me a comment. Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!

Toodles,

Grandma Sherry

PROVERBS 31…COVID 19 VERSION

I wrote this back in June, but never put it on my blog. At the end of the Year of Covid, 2020, I think it’s still quite appropriate. Maybe we’ll be coming to the end of this, in the coming year. We are starting to hear that vaccinations are arriving in Texas. We are in group 1B, for 65 and over.

Enjoy. I’ve always loved Proverbs 31. It’s long, but well worth the read.

10: Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is worth more than precious rubies. Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She will not hinder him but provide “helpful suggestions” all her life.

She is like a merchant ship; she brings her food from afar. She orders online and picks it up from curbside pickup or has it delivered. She tries to get up before the children and has her first cup of coffee. Her husband prepares breakfast for her household, because he is on furlough. She plans the day’s work for her children, for they are doing online schooling.

She plants a Victory garden and tends her elevated coffin garden. She prunes her rose bushes and nags her husband about the ground cover.

She is tired and worried, but a hard worker. She watches for bargains. Her lights burn late into the night, looking for deals on Amazon. Her hands are busy making freezer meals; her fingers are texting her friends. Her days and nights are sad, from being confined to the house and missing her friends. She misses going to the Casino to make extra money.

She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy. She wears her mask and leaves food on the doorstep.

She has a fear of the coming winter for her household because of the the virus. She clothes them in hand me downs and online bargains. She wears her stretchy pants of finest cloth. She has cooked more than ever and her girth has expanded.

Her husband is well known, for he sits in Rotary meetings with the other civic leaders. He Zooms with several groups. He beautifies her by putting Root Coverup on her hair.

She teaches piano lessons on Zoom to make extra money. She misses her other piano students.

She is clothed with waning strength and dignity. She laughs, uncontrollably, with thoughts of the future. When she speaks, her words are harried and kindness isn’t always the rule when she gives instructions. She carefully watches all that goes on in her household and wishes everyone would let her take a nap. She wonders when they can go out into the world again.

Her children sit with their Ipads and ask for snacks. Her husband praises her: “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all!”

Charm is deceptive and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised. Reward her for all she has done. Give her the Stimulus Check. Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.

Happy New Year,

Grandma Sherry