these two...sheesh...

These two dogs. What a life they each lead. Sleep. Eat. Go outside. Come back in. Beg. (For people food. Neither gets more than a few morsels of that each day. Well, actually, Buddy Bear does get two ginger snaps from My Sweet Hubby, aka MSH, every afternoon around 4:00. We buy them three packages at a time. Occasionally he gets a third snap from moi. I can be manipulated without too much trouble. Believe me: Buddy Bear knows when MSH has passed Cookie Time. He follows him around wherever he goes and wishes, with all of his sweet heart, he could talk and say: Hey! Get me my cookies! STAT. Henry always has Little Leighton ready and willing to give him a treat or two.) Sleep. Eat. Play (in Henry’s case—not so much Buddy Bear’s…Buddy is mostly sedentary...sigh…). Sleep some more. I’d say pretty heavenly, right?

MSH and I cannot quite figure out why Teddy Buddy Boo Bear puts his head under our bed. Does this help him in trying not to hear us while we talk? Is it cooler? Darker? He does this at some point nearly every day.

Then there’s Henry. His favorite place to be is TLC’s and Her Hubby’s bedroom. Either behind that chair or in their closet. He has a monogrammed bed in their Great Room. He does love it—just not quite as much as his Masters’ Bedroom. This dog gives us all such laughs! He has uber personality and extremely sad/expressive eyes. It feels like he’s looking into your soul when he targets you to attempt to wind you around his paw.

Buddy Bear was adopted by us when he was 4. He’s now 8. Henry is quite “Royal” and came to live with TLC and Her Hubby when he was an itty-bitty puppy. He's now 4. They couldn’t be more different if they could consciously try. Both are members of our families and we can’t imagine our lives without them.

ta-ta for now, Dearest Friends…hope you have a lovely week...

Lantana Palooza!

For those of you who might be unfamiliar with lantana—it’s a native plant in Texas. It LOVES the sun and doesn’t require daily water.

Unfortunately, as I've admitted in the past, I’m not the greatest gardener around these parts. I have some plants that I can grow fairly successfully. I don’t always know the names of flowers or plants—I do always know what I like. And I’ve always liked lantana. (Okay. Okay. True Confession: I didn't really know what it was until twenty years ago. Sigh.)

My Sweet Hubby (MSH), on the other hand, never liked lantana until about two years ago. He said it looked like “weeds.” (No. No, it does not, MSH. Sheesh.) I planted some at our wellhouse many moons ago and it comes back, bigger and better, every year. (I’ve put pictures of this lantana on our blog in the past. ) It blooms from May-ish until October or even November-ish. Thank You Lord. Because MSH has decided he can handle my obsession with lantana without complaining.

At the same time TLC and I bought some moss rose plants from Biscuit’s pre-school’s fundraiser in April (See my post on August 16th: Neither rain, wind, hail, or... ), we bought a few lantana plants. They were teeny-tiny. We could pick from a couple of blooms—the solid yellow or a confetti-like bloom that’s pink and yellow. We bought two or three of both.

I put three tiny plants in two biggish pots (for a total of six plants)—as I did with the moss rose. The same storms that damaged the moss rose plants affected the lantana in a sad, sad way. About five weeks ago, when the lantana pots were looking truly pathetic (Oh, how I wish I’d taken pictures of them so you could see their true transformation.), I had MSH move them from our front porch and out into the garden—where I knew they’d get more sun. I had no real hope that they’d come back. But here they are:

You can’t even see the pots! The second picture shows one of the two Monarch butterflies that have enjoyed our lantana, hanging out around the pots and the lantana in the ground at our wellhouse, for over three weeks.

Y’all know how much I’m amazed by Mother Nature. She shocks me. Confuses me. Entertains me. Challenges me. (Yes—sometimes she angers me. Just being honest.) Our experience now with the moss rose and lantana plants that seemed, for certain, to be goners, has given me a renewed faith in Her. I sure do need renewed faith, don’t y’all?

God’s blessings to each of you, wherever in the World you are, this weekend…and forever…

Biscuit Loves H3!

I look at this picture and I just have to smile…

Three Saturdays ago, Little Leighton (LL/aka Biscuit), H3 (his three names all begin with a…wait for it…H!), Sunny (H3’s grandmother), Nellie (H3’s Mama), TLC and I got together at Sunny’s beautiful home to celebrate Biscuit and H3’s birthdays! Their birthday parties had been on the same day a few Saturdays prior and we couldn’t attend each others—so we had a “private” hoop-la. (Sometimes "private" hoop-las are truly the happiest!)

I’ve told y’all about Sunny and Nellie in the past. We’ve known them for about 28 years. Sunny lived next door to a friend of mine when we met.  The three of us carpooled our three girls to pre-school for a few years. Nellie was a year older than TLC and the third Sweet Pea friend.

Sunny is pretty, smart, funny, cute, silly, creative/artistic, kind, and caring. (Her hubby is Peggy—y’all remember him? And that's not his real name. I'll try to find the post about his ELC name and share it again soon...) I admire so many things about Sunny and simply could not make it in this world without her friendship. She has three other gorgeous grandchildren and loves every one of them with all of her spirit and soul.

Nellie is her only daughter—in between two handsome brothers—and is also pretty, smart, funny, cute, silly, creative/artistic, athletic (mucho more than moi and TLC—put together—truth), kind and caring. She oozes with personality and spunk! She is The Premier Dental Hygienist in all of Texas. In fact, let's say in all of the USofA.

Sunny and Nellie first met Biscuit when she was just a few months old. Biscuit met H3 (who turned one a few days after Biscuit turned three) when he was also just a few months old. Biscuit is fascinated by H3. H3 is a hot mess! The CUTEST/HANDSOME-EST Little Fella Ever. Full of smiles, giggles, and energy. (I’m pretty sure he weighs as much as Biscuit!)

This day, Sunny ordered our most favourite pizza—(we brought Biscuit her gluten-free pizza and she never knew the difference…)—and made two of the most amazing/yummo/decadent desserts we’d had in a long, long, LONG time! A Paula Deen keylime pie and a layered Chocolate Truffle. Both TDF (to die for…seriously).

TLC and I love and cherish these two girls and this precious little boy—with all of our hearts. We can’t wait to par-tay again—ASAP!

Hope Y’all are having a Wonderful Week…wherever in the world you are...

This holiday...

Labor Day 2015, has an extra-special meaning to The Leightons. TLC is going to be in LABOR next March! Yes—she and Her Hubby are expecting their second child. Little Leighton (LL/Biscuit) will be a Big Sister! Biscuit's a tidbit confused—at this point. She seems to be as excited as a 3-year-old can be at this new development. When you tell her it could be a boy or a girl, she is adamant the baby will be a “sister.” Perhaps an “Eeekkkkkk!!!!!!!” will be appropriate in a few weeks—if TLC finds out they have a boy on the way. We feel confident LL will adjust…right???

Y’all know what this means: I’ll be doing 3/4ths of our posts for the next year-ish. I’m crossing my fingers most of you didn’t just have this thought: Oh. Geez.

Hope each of you has had a lovely weekend so far…and that you’ll continue to enjoy your time off—if you do, in fact, have time off—and the beginning of TLC’s most favourite season—FALL! Woo Hoo!

love and smooches and hugs…ta-ta for now

p.s.: It's September! Wwhhhaaaattttt??????