I am headed back to paradise tomorrow. It is a bittersweet leaving. It is time to be gone, and it is hard to leave. I don't remember when I have been this exhausted. I have spent the day in bed, trying to catch up so that I can actually get on the road tomorrow. The really scary thing is I have been sleeping. Rarely do I nap during the day.

Olive is really ready to be back in her yard. She is a funny girl. The longer she is away from her home, the more skittish she becomes. Every noise and blowing leaf catches her off guard. She shies away, she jumps. It is time to take her home.

Going back is always a challenge in winter. You must watch the weather. There is always a window of opportunity to get in. You do not want to push the ice and snow. It is so unforgiving.

I will let you know when I get home!

Thanksgiving was a blast.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I spent yesterday working with Shelby getting ready for this big day. Although it is hectic and frantic, I love working with her. She is so creative. I love that. I look at things in one way and she is so far out of the box it just amazes me. I am an out of the box kind of girl. Always prided myself in being an out of the box girl. She is way out of the box! Maybe she is just a younger version of out of the box?

Today is a day to be thankful. For one thing, I am just thankful to be alive! Never really thought about that before. I am thankful for a family, though fragmented. I am thankful for wonderful memories of my parents, and thankful for selective memory! I am thankful for a country that (at this moment) allows me to write my thoughts on this forum. I am also thankful that I am not going through security at the airport right now! haha!

Enjoy everyone! I hope today is a wonderful food coma day for each of you. I also hope that each of you will pause to think seriously about what is important to you and give thanks for that. It is important!

- noun:
the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.

- verb:
to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence. to believe, desire, or trust.

Complete plagiarism...but so good I had to share this...

Yesterday I made trash. I am going to leave it at that. I am curious if anyone will know what that is...

Today is get the house ready day. It is supposed to be a nice day...the humid kind of yucky day prior to a cold front coming in day. We don't have those kind of days much in Gunnison. It is either one way or another. When a storm comes in - IT COMES IN! Thanksgiving in Gunnison will be a high of 16 degrees! The high in Dallas will be in the 50's. I love keeping the weather of different cities on my phone. I can watch the fronts moving from one part of the country to another. I know it is so nerdy - and yes, I am so nerdy! Hey, I figured out how to email a cover letter and a resume yesterday! Haha.

Shelby has the turkey ready to be brined this morning. I don't think I have ever brined a turkey, but I was never quite the cook that she is! I am going to love watching her thought process on everything. Flowers will be found and arranged today, pups (hers) put in doggie day care for a couple of days, house cleaned. I am sure we will get the table up and arranged. Can't believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving!

This has been a bit bitter sweet.

I have left the lake and am back in Dallas. It is such a fast pace here. What would take half and hour in Gunnison, takes me half a day in Dallas! I have learned to just sit back and enjoy the ride. Shelby has laughed at me a few times..."Mom, this is so unlike you! You would usually be on that guys bumper or pulling out in front of that guy to make that turn"...but I just sit back until I have lots of room for the turn. Yes, the time in the mountains has done my heart such good.

Shelby and I have been working on getting her ready for her first Thanksgiving feast with both families. I'm so excited for her. She is so amazing - which I am sure you all are tired of hearing. Oh well, get over it! She is amazing so I can just keep gushing! It is really fun to have this role with her. She is so creative and she is also such a foodie. I totally expected her to do all new recipes. She has kept a few and thrown out a few. I am sure it will all be perfect.

I have been working on a resume. I don't know if I have done a true resume since college. To be honest, I don't know if I really did one then. I have a wonderful woman helping me. Her name is Tennessee. What a great name. I would love a name like that - she needs to be the heroine of a novel...or the villain - which ever - she would be great as the star! I am wanting to find something in the Oil and Gas industry. Really I want to be a landman. I want to follow a landman for a few months to learn and then go out on my own. I am guessing I will end up having to go to some sort of clinic or school to be taken seriously. You would think at 53 the mileage would be enough to be taken seriously! haha

Olive went to the beauty shop today. She looks absolutely gorgeous. She has been such a great travel companion. I love her comfort and her happiness. I am never quite sure if I should bring her with me or if I should leave her with her favorite friends in Gunny - but I just love to have her with me! I am in a hotel here. The Lumen - and they know her, she knows the hotel. It is so funny how used to it she is. She takes her leash in her mouth and trots around like she owns the joint. Everyone knows her here. Got to love the Olive girl!

Life on a lake is quite interesting. This morning the sunrise was absolutely amazing. The colors, though not the turquoise that I am used to in the mountains, were amazing. I love how the light plays with the water. Olive and I walk around the docks, she sniffs to her hearts content, and I watch the water move and listen to the fish jumping. The first time I heard the splash it took me a bit by surprise. I could not find the rings of water that go along with the jumping fish...so I could not quite figure out what was going on. I had to really watch and strain to find this noise. Finally a fish saved me - and gave a little jump! Whew!

It is a sleepy existence here. I love it. We get up and go for a walk, drink our tea, and listen to the wonderful sounds. This past evening a cloud lazily drifted from one side of the lake to the front of the house...one minute you could see across the lake, the next, you had a cloud! Absolutely gorgeous! The town home is tucked away so unexpectedly. You can still see the highway, hear the cars, but I had no idea these guys were here. I have so enjoyed sitting on the deck and watching the world go by!

Sweet momma is in a home in Kingsland. I have spent a bit of time with her today. She is not the same crisp starched woman I remember. She is now a shell of that woman. It is so painful to see. I spent my day wiping her nose, helping feed her. I could not decide if she hated it so very much - remembering that she used to do that for me when I was a baby. I could not decide if she was so relieved to have a familiar face there to do this for her. I don't know if she was so shocked to see me after all this time. She would hold my hand, every once in a while she would kiss it or try to pull me to her to kiss me.

Conversation with mom is pretty much non existent. Once she was one of the sharpest women in the room. She was so quick witted and funny. Today she could fill in a few words about the Thanksgiving dinner she had on Saturday with my dad. It was good, there was a crowd, and dressing is still her favorite. Of course, I had to ask all these things and she would nod her head the response.

I can not decide what part of guilty I feel here. Part of me wants to be here all the time to bring her good food - to feed her and clean her mouth. Part of me wants to run away and only remember the beautiful woman that raised me. And, part of me is so ashamed to have ever had that thought and to have ever shared it. I miss having our talks. We talked quite a bit. I hate not having her to share my antiquing exploits, my guess who I saw things...
She was always so amazing at running into folks and telling Liz and I that it was someone from high school...and going up to them and saying hello...and it being that person!

I just miss her...

Olive and I are headed on a new adventure. She is a traveler, always has been. This is no different. She can lay in the back seat, on her back with her feet in the air, dreaming of so many things. I am not sure if it is the dear from the night before or if it is some new adventure, but, she loves to sleep in the car. Every once in a while I will see her paws and legs jiggle. I know she is in some sort of activity. Trouble no doubt. Funny dog.

I have driven through snow, bitter cold, sunshine, rain, wind and now sunshine. I always thought it was a Texas thing if you do not like the weather just wait a minute as it will change. Not so as it seems to fit everywhere I go! Summers are a bit more predictable. Of course hindsight is 20/20. I have thought of driving from coast to coast. Writing a blog as I go, taking Miss O with me. It would no doubt be a wild ride and some kind of adventure. What treasure, it must be small, would be fun to pick up in each little place I stopped? Not the usual shot glass - no it would have to be something so different! I might consider that this spring if I have not found a job and gotten back into the REAL WORLD...

Yes, I am thinking seriously of re-entering the real world. I love my mountains, but am longing a bit for the sophistication of the cities. I think I miss the food and varied foods the most. Give me a minute and I will be like the weather and change that statement...ha

What does a 50 something woman do at this stage of her life? I am trying to figure out what I can do. I am a teacher by education. I am a jack of all trades by life. I am an adventurer by passion...I am afraid that a desk job would be the undoing of me. Yet, the right desk job would maybe peak my adventuresome spirit? Which way to look - which way to sniff? I am just so unsure. I have put a couple of feelers out there, but, alass, trying to explain to someone, anyone, what I am looking for is almost a joke. Hi, I am a woman with lots of miles, but lots of experience. I love life, I can do anything and am not afraid to try anything. I have managed a home, I have managed a few businesses. Having owned my own companies for the past 20 years, I am obviously a self starter. No job is too big, no job is too demeaning. I have obviously done them all. I just need a shot. Now I don't know if that looks so hot on a resume! Haha

Lots of time to sift through these thoughts as I continue on this big adventure...more thoughts to come!

This morning started with those wonderful turquoise skies but alas they have turned to snow clouds! I am working on loving those too, but there is something about that blue that just catches my heart and runs with it! I do love the billows of the snow clouds, the warmth that comes after the arctic cold. I love the memories of Borger. We would get out at night in the snow and play. It would be so warm. The crunch crunch crunch of our boots stomping down the street.

Olive and I went to the park this morning. She loves to sniff out all the wild animals that have been there before her. I don't know what she is so sure has been there. You can tell by the loft of her tail the scariness of the animal. She is such a funny dog!

I have been doing a bit of cooking. I love to cook. Stew is such a great winter food. I added V8 to it. Who knew it would be such a wonderful addition? Just pouring it in made me feel as if I was add a jar of vitamins! Haha!

I have the fire going (that would be the pellet stove) and the heat going. I can not seem to get warm this year! That may be my problem with the winter coming.... I am going to have to work on that!

I am embarrassed that it has been MONTHS since my last blog. After reading it - you would think the man eating vines had taken me away. Sometimes I wish that had been the case. Maybe I should just pretend that had happened and tell a very adventurous story about such! I know you would all love to see what I would come up with...I know it would have to include something along the lines of Jumanjii and Robin Williams...but I don't think I could get a copy write agreement up here in my little city...

It is already winter here. I can't believe it and I am not ready for it! I have belly laughed at my friends when they have bemoaned the coming of the snow clouds. I have so loved it in the past - but now - I look at them and shake my fist! I want them to wait just a bit longer. I want them to give us just a few more days of this wonderful Indian summer! A few more days to wander outside and do what ever it is we do with out being bundled in 14 layers of coats and long johns! Haha!

I love to wake up to the turquoise skies. It is usually so many colors of that wonderful shade of blue. I am not sure how God gets so many shades in his paint brush, and I totally get it why artists love to try to copy it, but I am mesmerized by it. Today we have bands of wispy clouds thrown in with the mix. It always takes my breath away.

My bird feeders are full of tiny birds today. They are getting ready for the snow that is coming. I think they are dreading it also. I can't blame them! No where warm to go!