The Handy Girl

Friday early afternoon I headed south....destination...

The Beach House.

My friend Fonda was able to get away and join me...Stacy wasn't able too. Fonda got out to the house somewhere around 5:30....as soon as she got there we poured a drink and found our spot on the deck. That's where we stayed until a little after 10...just visiting and catching up.

The next morning we got up and did our routine....coffee on the deck...walks on the beach with Bailey....just relaxing with good company,

We were in the kitchen and I was fixing BLT's and Bailey started barking towards the sink....I looked over and there was water coming out of the cabinet under the sink. So....I opened the door and found that it was flooded underneath and by the looks of it that sink had been leaking for sometime because of the mildew under neath. We were thinking that the pipe may of come loose during the storm. After all I have only been here a couple days since the storm and the water wasn't used that much.

So...I thought about calling a plumber and Fonda called Jim (her husband)cause she was almost positive that we could fix it ourselves. So, she made the call, she took a piece of the pipe off and to Home Depot we headed. We got what we needed and headed back to the house for the repairs.

Below is the where the pipe came out of the wall...and the mildew gathering on the pipes.

And here's my fix it girl making the repairs.....my motto now when it comes to repairs....who needs a handy man when you got Fonda!
Fonda did a wonderful job but after fixing 2 parts of the pipe she discovered another piece was loose and needs to be fixed better than what it is right now...it just wasn't noticed because of the other issues....I guess these means Fonda HAS to come back to the beach to finish the job!

After the fix it repairs we went back to the deck until dark.
These pictures are what I woke up to Saturday morning...the whole structure of the beach has changed since Hurricane Ike made his visit and these pictures show you how....as you can see the line of a rebuilt dune the water is right behind it....with wind, high tide, not as much beach as before and low spots it makes it easy for water to come in and stay awhile and looks as though there is no beach.

And here I am on the beach looking down...very few sand areas and even those are so soft with the feel of water underneath. If you did know better you would wonder if their was a storm brewing in the Gulf...last time I saw the beach look like this Dolly was brewing in the Gulf and I think she was just a tropical storm.

Today I'm still at the beach....Fonda left close to noon yesterday and I decided to stay one more day...just couldn't tear myself away. This morning I will clean up and then head back home and prepare for the arrival of Colton while Tammy goes to school.

Hope your weekend was as relaxing

A Baby Shower for Jenn

April 18, 2009

Jenn's baby shower was held at Texas Land and Cattle and had a wonderful turn. Thank you to all who came it...especially since it was a very nasty rainy day.

Here's a sample of what the tables looked like. It was a baseball the theme.

And here's the cake to look like a baseball with baseball cupcakes. Kroger did a wonderful job and the cake was very good.
Here's the mommy to be with her friend Sarah. She's pinning on Jenn's corsage. Sarah was Jenn's college room-mate and one of her brides maid. They hadn't seen each other since Jenn got married as Sarah is still in Nashville so needless to say we were all so happy Sarah could share in the joy of preparing for little Liam's arrival.

And the pregnant sisters....Tammy and Jenn

Another picture of our mommy to be by her cake

Time to open presents....the items below are items Tammy made and embroidered for her soon to be nephew....Just to let you know...Tammy taught herself to sew and then taught herself how to use an embroider machine....I can hardly believe did and she does a good job.

some more goodies for Liam

The jersey below is what guest used to sign their names. Paul showed up at the end of the shower to help load all the gifts.

They also went and got a frame and had a special mat made and had the jersey framed to hang in the nursery...it is so cute....and such a cleaver idea.

And Jenn with Hayden (Joshua's daughter...Jenn's niece...my grand-daughter...just in case you didn't know) ....she was so good at the shower...and so cute too!

We all had a good time...good food, good company,fun games and so much more...now all we need is Liam to makes is arrival....estimated day of arrival....

July 2nd....can hardly wait!

A Day With Grams (AKA....Muggy)

April 20, 2009

Colton

The above picture is Colton deciding he didn't want his picture taken so he threw a fit....so I decide to document his fits for when he gets older.
On his train...now wanting his picture taken.
This is what his t-shirt said....I remember being out not this past Christmas but the one before and seeing this shirt and just had to buy it....I had forgotten all about it until he showed up in it.

And again above...another fit moment.

That evening I decided to make pizza...I have these Little Cesears pizza kits and it taste just like having pizza out...so since they needed to be put together I got the idea to have Colton help me after reading Stacy's blog about the cookies with her grandson.

Colton loved it! It was hard getting him to stop licking the spoon from the sauce...he loved the sauce....he kept saying...Mmmmm, Good Pizza!

Now when we were done making the pizza it needed to bake...Colton through a fit once I put them in the oven because he was ready to eat them then...he didn't understand we had to cook them and then wait.

Of course it was another fun night at Muggy's.

The Grandson

I'm trying to catch up on some post and pictures...so...we'll start with Colton....This was taken a couple weeks ago....he loves his tractor....if we can get the turn right and turn left down we'll have it made.

And he's getting a little brave...driving while standing up...that's a boy for ya.

California Day 7

Day 7

April 10, 2009

Our last day in San Diego.....the forecast had called for 70% chance of thunderstorms...it had rained in the middle of the night, By the time we had gotten dressed the clouds had moved out and we had a beautiful day ahead of us.

We headed to Seaport Village to finish up some shopping and spend some time by the bay.
This is a shop that I bought some things for the beach house to hang on the wall. They offered shipping so it all worked out good. Even though I ended up shipping a box home from UPS that day as well.

Here Laura and I are along the bay. See...it's a beautiful day!

The picture below are Navy Seal dudes doing their thing...it was cool to watch them tool around and do their thing.

San Diego is a Navy town....I love this huge statue.

After we were done with Seaport Village we walked over to see The Midway, a Navy aircraft carrier.

After we were done seeing the statue we headed back to the hotel and I packed a box with all my goodies I bought and went to the UPS office in our hotel to get them shipped.

Then we took back the rental car and had a driver drop us off at The Gaslamp District. We did last minute shopping...again...and then headed back to Fred's to have some more Horny Grandma's (the margarita drink...ha...) and the Pomo margarita, which is a pomegranate. We also had dinner. We also ended the night by playing some pool.

Below is a picture of our glasses...now we each had 3 outside on the patio...this is over by the pool table and we had 2 more after this picture was taken...it was a good last night!

I was planning on posting other pictures but on the grounds that someone might be incriminated I decided not too! Trust me it was a fun night and I'll just leave it at that.

Hope you enjoyed the latest adventure.

Until next time....Take care....Robin

California Day 6

Day 6

April 9, 2009

San Diego

Our day started out by heading to Carlsbad to visit The Flower Fields.

It was really neat to see that many flowers. I have never seen that many. Here's just a few pictures.

The picture below is of Poinsettia's...I just love this color.

The picture below I think I'm gonna make note cards out of...I just love those colors.
And below you can see as far as the eye will let you of nothing but fields of flowers.

After The Flower Fields we headed back to San Diego to take a quick visit to the San Diego Zoo. I believe our stay was 2 hours. We were in search of The Panda Bear.

And The Polar Bear

And the Koala Bear. All the Koala Bears were sleeping and they were sleeping in pairs of 2's and their faces were hidden...except for this one that slept alone but was high in his tree covered by the top of the hut. I had decided I wanted a picture of his face...so...I got on the ground, looked up and put my camera through the wooden fence slats and pointed my camera towards the bear....and this was my shot...was a little difficult but I got it!

After leaving the zoo we decided to head towards Old Town before dark to get in one last sight and do a little shopping. I read that you should go and see this part of town and do a little shopping.

Well.....the picture below pretty much sums up Old Town....it was a waste of time. The only good thing may of been the Mexican Restaurant next door that had a wait list to be seated.

We decided to head back towards where we were staying. We went to Seaport Village and walked around the shops and did a little shopping and then stopped at The Harbor House for a late night dinner and drinks...after which we headed back to the hotel.

After all we had a full day.

California Day 5

(Finally Day 5)

April 8, 2009

Beverly Hills

Today we leave and head to San Diego but before doing so we had to make another stop to Rodeo Drive. As we were driving on Rodeo Drive we saw a film crew. We hurried and parked and got out there. Laura said she saw Matt Dillon...she was close...it was Kevin Dillon, his brother. They were filming scenes from the HBO show "Entourage". So we hung out and watched what was going on, took a few pictures and then made our way to the reason why we came in the first place. When we were done the filming was over.

The above picture is Kevin Dillon. I took this while walking past him...the crew tried to keep you moving and not stopping.

I don't know the other guys names but if you watch the show then you should know. Below are the other guys. There are 4 total.
And another
This is a scene where they are walking across the street, which is Rodeo Drive...we watched them do this scene at least 10 times.
And below they are standing around waiting for them to say action again. It was all interesting to see and was a great way to end our time in LA.

Now it's time for San Diego.

Our drive was cool...we took the long scenic route...passed through some cool towns. Huntington Beach looked cool. Was surprised about Newport Beach...at least along the coast. was gonna stop but once there didn't see the need to stop. And Laguna Bach was very very crowded but seemed to be a cool place...at least what little I saw driving through. We just kept driving until we reached San Diego.

Below is the view of The Bay in San Diego from our hotel. the hotel was nice but did not compare top where we had just came from.

Once there...we settled in and headed out across the street The Gaslamp Quarter. It's an are with shops, restaurants, clubs and bars....went in a couple shops...I picked up some stuff for Grand-babies and then we settled in at Fred's Mexican Restaurant...we sat outside on the side walk and talked and people watched.

Here is a little of the menu from Fred's...It's hard to see in this picture since it was sized down but on the right side of the menu is the margarita's....4th one down is The Horny Grandma....that's what I had...and 2 under that is The Pomo margarita...that's what Laura had. they were rally good...we had a few with chips and salsa to go with.

This is what our drinks looked like.

Yum-Yum.

After that we hired a bicycle taxi and headed back to the hotel. I will post more later...right no I have Colton and between him and the dog it's really hard to concentrate.

Until next time....

California Day 4

April 7, 2009

Today ended up being a very laid back day for us and a day that we didn't really take any pictures. We went to a different area in Santa Monica and did some street shopping. It was a nice area of lined shops and a few restaurants.

We stopped and had lunch at a Mexican Restaurant. We wanted to see what the Mexican food there tasted like...cause you know when you leave Texas you need to be careful of anything called "Mexican" food. It was good but also different....but the margarita's were good!

We headed back to the hotel to clean up for dinner...we had made a reservation for dinner at a nice place in the Beverly Hills area...right now the name escapes me. We had a early reservation. The picture below shows the traffic we had on the freeway when going back to Beverly Hills. This was the most traffic we hit and it moved so really nothing different than Houston. But we did avoid the 405 which is suppose to be their bad freeway...we were on it once for about 2 minutes but that was late at night and no traffic.

After dinner we decided to go in search of paparazzi and celebrities. We really wanted to see paparazzi...celebrities would of just been icing on the cake. Our concierge helped us in where to go. We didn't really have much luck but we did go to Mr. Chows in Beverly Hills and hung out...only one paparazzi dude.

Jerry Douglas came out of the restaurant. Not a huge star but I knew him. He played John Abbott on The Young and The Restless. It was funny cause the paparazzi dude was taking tons of pictures of him and asking him questions about Paris Hilton and after he got in his car the paparazzi dude was....who was that?
We stayed a little longer just in case...some guy from the movie Watchman showed up but I didn't know who he was so no picture.
After a little more driving around and lots of laughs and a good time...we headed back to our hotel for some sleep...for tomorrow we head to San Diego.

California Day 3

April 6, 2009

Hollywood

First let me say...I love me some P. Diddy!

We headed out this day for lots of sight seeing...first stop...Hollywood and The Hollywood Walk of Fame....where I walked across P. Diddy's star and just had to have my picture taken with that star. Some of you know I just love me some P. Diddy...not sure why...just do!

P. Diddy if your reading this...give a grandma a shout out.

And here's Laura with her picture with one of the stars.....she couldn't find the one she really wanted so she settled for this one.
Grumman's Chinese Theatre

(not sure if that's correct spelling)
And then hand and feet prints in front of the theatre. It was funny seeing those of Marilyn Monroe and Natalie Wood...they had such small feet...I'm guessing a size 4.

And then this is where The Jimmy Kimmel show is taped.

We saw The Kodak Center....visited some tourist gift shops. It was okay...nothing spectacular. I guess it was a little different than I had imagined it would be. Not sure really what I was expecting but I didn't find it. But still enjoyed the time....I had good company. Now off to Beverly Hills.