Category: lifestyle

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

A BUNDT CAKE FOR FALL

I am always looking for new recipes to add to my collection, and tantalize the taste buds of my friends and family. I recently saw one of my favorite vloggers, Dawn Madsen from the Minimal Mom, make this cake, and knew I needed to try it. It fit the bill, and I took it to a dinner at my kids’ house. We all agreed it was tasty and fun. Part of the appeal was the surprise inside. Here’s the recipe.:

CANDY CORN BUNDT CAKE

–1 white cake mix, 9 X 13

–4 egg whites

–1/2 c. oil

–1/2 c. warm water

–1 1/2 c. sour cream

–1 pkg. cheesecake pudding mix

Preheat oven to 325 F.Blend everything together in a medium bowl. Divide batter into three bowls. Add food coloring to make one bowl orange, one bowl yellow, and leave the other bowl white. Put batter into greased bundt pan in layers of white, orange and yellow. Bake at 325 for 47 – 53 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes, and then remove from pan. Cool until room temperature.

FROSTING

–1 can of Cream Cheese Frosting

–Candy Corn

When the cake has cooled, put the can of cream cheese frosting in a gallon zip lock bag, with a small hole in the corner. Pipe the frosting onto the cake, as shown in the photo. Or if you prefer, just frost the cake with the frosting.

Place candy corn pieces around the top of the cake. Cut, serve. Delicious with ice cream!

I hope you enjoy this recipe. It’s a fun addition to your Fall meals!

Hugs,

Grandma Ruddell

My Garden Update

How does your garden grow???

My husband’s banana plants grow to the top of the windows.

How are you doing with your gardening? Is it your thing, or are you not a gardener? I do a few herbs, but mainly flowers. This week we’ve been weeding the flower beds, and planting new things. It’s starting to get really hot, so we’re working in late mornings or early evenings.

In March, I was just starting to dream about things…OK…I’d been dreaming about my garden since January! I wasn’t even sure that half of my perennials had made it through the winter. I started thinking about what flowers I would plant. I use some seeds, such as zinnias, and some starter plants. In the fall, I had ordered some bulbs and plants from Gilbert and Son Nursery. I hadn’t planted most of them. (Story of my life! I get excited and buy lots and don’t get them all planted!)

Oh I have dreams of a beautiful garden!

In April, the nurseries were full of plants and I went a bit crazy. Oh, the prices of plants have gone WAY up! I decided to plant things in the front flower beds first. I planted petunias in the pots, on the front porch. Then I added a pot of petunias on one flower bed. The other side has shade. So I planted begonias in the bed, and more begonias around the tree. These photos are recently taken. We’ve decided to use black mulch this year. The last photo is how my mums look in the fall.

To the right of the petunia pot, in front, are my phlox. They are beautiful.

My mums in the fall.

The shady side of my flower garden.

On the west side of my house, I have some giant elephant ears. They get humongous. I used to have a couple of little girls who took piano lessons from me. They would go out and sit under the leaves of the elephant ears. Elephant ears remind me of my Daddy. He had some great ones.

My elephant ears on the west side of my house. They have come back every year for 18 years. They’ll get twice as big as this.

Here are some photos from April and now, on areas of my back yard. We just planted a day lily /iris/elephant ear garden. It’s new. Hope it all comes up and does well.

Before I weeded my perennials.
After adding some annuals.
The germ of an idea.

The new day lily bed

Ready to grow!

My hubby built my “casket” several years ago. I have two pepper plants and several herbs that need hair cuts.

I will update my garden , later in May. It should have filled out nicely by then. I also have a huge Rose of Sharon bush, that has a ton of buds on it. Can’t wait until it blooms!

So cheers to gardening! I get so excited in the Spring. But when it gets hot, I kind of poop out. I’m not a very patient gardener . I want quick results.

How many of you have a gardening folder, for ideas? I make a map of my garden. I also belong to a Facebook group, Addicted to Gardening. It shows a lot of gardens in progress, answers questions and is a great site. My favorite YouTube site, in relation to gardening, is Garden Answer. Check them out.

Happy Gardening! Leave me a comment about your Spring activities.

Love,

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