A Time For Everything

 

Image courtesy IMGBIN.

As the title says, there's been a whole lotta building going on in my neck of the woods.

It started several months ago with the refurbishing of one of those computer technician schools into a Rocketship Elementary School. That's been really fun to watch.

We went from this:

South side...

View from the west to the space in the U of the building...

View of the east / front side...

To this:

This appears to be an indoor playground & possible assembly center...and located where the parking lot was between arms of the building.

That dome building is just to the left of this view--in fact that curved walkway follows the curve of the building wall...

And the south view of building showing off the new paint job.

The construction on the school is juuust about done. They're doing the final cleanup outside, and teachers have been inside for a couple of weeks now, getting ready for the upcoming school year.

It's really exciting, and I can't wait to see the little kids enjoying this new facility within the next few weeks to a month.

* * * * *

And then, maybe a month and a half, two months ago, a hotel started getting built over by my local Home Depot. Which was fine. I don't know yet what chain...

And then, maybe three weeks ago, they started clearing the land between the hotel and the corner of the highway interchange....

At this point I have no idea what's going in there. It's too small of a property to be a Buc-ee's. >>wink, wink<< The question is...will it be a gas station or will it be fast food or a restaurant--that could be nice--or just general retail. Only time will tell. I'll keep you posted.

We went from this:

The hotel is being built where the aqua blob is...

This is the old view from the pink X in the picture above.

This is the original view from the aqua X in the picture above.

To this:

Interim view now from the pink X...

Interim view now from the pink X...

Interim view from the aqua X...<.p>

The land sculpting of this property continues apace although I still have no clue what's going in there. For sure it's not a single building, business, etc because they're building different levels. Two for sure, possibly three.

It's certainly interesting to watch and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all turns out and what new food chain or business finds a home there.

Hope you had a great weekend and here's to a great week.

 

Yep, it's that time of year again... We had tax free weekend recently, and back-to-school sales are in full swing, but another sure fire sign of the impending school year, especially if you live near a school. In my case, there are two, no, three elementary schools and the high school in close proximity. The middle school is too far to actually affect us.


So today as I turned onto the main thoroughfare, there were two motorcycle cops in the church parking lot with their eagle eyes and radar guns. School starts next Monday and it's time to remind motorists just exactly what the speed limit is!

School buses will be out en masse soon too! Only Sonshine ever rode the bus to and from school, and that was only during middle school for like a semester. Once he got to high school, it was before-school band practice and after school band practice or football games, or, in the off season, it was his favorite after school activity keeping him there until six o'clock.

Do I miss those days? Not so much the days themselves, but certainly the reason for them: Sonshine.

I'm this close to finally slipping under the 140 lb. mark for good. I keep dipping under, then popping back up. However, the amount I go over gets less and less as the days pass and I keep exercising and watching what I eat. I should make my 137-lb.-by-September-1st goal without a problem.

I've amped up the exercising a bit, so my body's still adjusting, but if I keep on keeping on, then I should be back to my new old self in a few days.

School starts Monday. There will be another round of adjustments as Sonshine gets, not only his class schedule, but his band practice schedule, as well as any other after school club (The Strategy Club) or organization (The National Honor Society) activities on the calender.

I don't know if I've mentioned my love of cross stitch. Back in the day--like twenty/twenty-five years back--I was an avid cross stitcher. I would design samplers and things for new babies and such. I bought pattern booklets and kits. At some point, life got busy and stuff happened and I stopped taking time to work on projects. Several weeks ago, DD started a project and I thought, "You know--I really enjoy cross stitching and I really miss working on crafts."

DD's project:


So I dug out some of my old stuff. I found a project I'd started probably a good twenty years ago, and which is really practically finished, and started working toward getting it done.I spend a little time each evening while I watch TV working on it. And I'm really really enjoying it and I'm looking forward to the project being done so I can put it on display.

My project:


See that little triangular section at the top? That's what I've been working on. I should have it finished in a week, no more than two. Woot!!


Do you do any sort of crafts??

Is why this post is so late.

Momma got to take Sonshine to school this morning.


And, of course, since it is Monday I have all kinds of other Monday morning tasks to get done. But here I am finally.

I spent Sunday mopping the writing room, kitchen, and hallway floors. Yes, it took me all day because I have to sweep all the dog hair up, then mop the dirt layer off, then mop a second time, and then put a layer (or two) of Mop N Glo on it. We have laminate, so I try to take care of it.

I also spent an hour online chatting with my fellow Robin Hood fen. If you remember back at the end of June, four ladies came to Texas and we had a meetup. I shared pics here and here. Gathering with fellow fans and watching the movie or an episode of the show that binds you is a lot of fun. The commentary can be hilarious. So yesterday, we did that as well. We agreed on an episode and we watched, some via DVD, others via YouTube, and some via Netflix. Altogether we had seven of us watching and commenting.

From my end:

Well, the first day of school is no longer the big deal it once was, for mom or for the kids, though Sonshine was eager to get back at it. Mostly because (I think) more time he can spend with his girlfriend.

He has a few adjustments to make to his schedule as they put him back into geometry but didn't put him back into JROTC.

Another week and DD begins the fall semester at the local community college. She attended both summer semesters, passing all three classes with flying colors. Let's see how well she does with a full course load. :)

Well, my boy has his school schedule which includes marching band, JROTC, and hopefully baseball (he's trying to transfer in), not to mention three pre-AP/honors classes. The boy will be busy. Which makes his momma happy. Mainly because if he's busy with with school activities, he's less likely to find some other troublesome way of keeping busy.

Of course, with his history of homework the past two years, I'll be riding him hard about getting it done and asking for help when he doesn't understand something. Not that we haven't done that in years past, but this isn't Kansas anymore, Toto. I've tried to impress upon him that while middle school was important this is HIGH SCHOOL and he can't really afford the mistakes or to make the choices he made last year. I know he's smart enough. (The boy can memorize almost anything he hears enough times and then recite it back verbatim. If only he'd apply that effort a bit more to school work.)

Speaking of classes, I'm taking couple, too. A writer is always learning better and new ways to wield their pen, er...keyboard and to tell their story. When you're a beginner, the learning curve is huge. As you grow as a writer, you learn various lessons about writing, the requirements of the genre you've chosen, etc...but even once you become published, there's always something new to learn. Not that I'm there.

I'm no longer a beginner, but I still have a lot to learn. I recently joined a second writers group, Savvy Authors, in order to participate in their Summer Symposium since I couldn't afford to attend the RWA National Conference. ($30 vs $1500, hm...) They offer classes and chats and workshops. Some free, some requiring a small additional fee.

Right now I'm taking a class on "Life in a Medieval Castle" and one called "Cracking the Romance Code." I'm always in search of the light bulb moment for things I still struggle with. Hopefully, I'll have one with the second class. The first is more informational as I'm working on a historical set in the 1100s. I've also participated in a couple of the free chats, one about utilizing online social networking sites to get my name out there and promote myself and eventually my work. But I have to admit, I still really don't get the Twitter thing.

Well, that second class started already, so I better go check it out...try to have that light bulb moment.

What exciting thing have you learned recently?

I have just gotten back from dropping off the second of my two school-age children. My son says he was ready to go back. Not that I doubt he was, even if he didn't admit it, but his reasons were comical: "There's nothing to do around here but play X-Box, watch TV, or play on the computer." And it's not as if there weren't chores to do and real toys to play with.

My daughter, on the other hand, would deny to her dying breath, if asked, that she was looking forward to going back to school. But I think she, too, is tired of the monotony of summer days. She'll be back to daily socializing while carrying a decent load of classes, including an SAT prep class and two AP classes. Now she needs to decide where she wants to go to college and start applying for those scholarships.

I've been looking forward to school being back in session, too. My TV won't be on from 9am to 11pm and my food won't disappear quite so quickly.

On top of that, our business, which is currently residing in our somewhat finished garage, will be getting a new home as well. My electric bill will drop by more than half. At least I'm hoping. Anything I save from having new windows installed will just be gravy.

Our new office space has 3300 sq. feet of warehouse space; I can hardly wait to go clean out from under beds and out of closets and put all that stuff in the warehouse. My home will look positively roomy! The garage will be turned into a TV/family/craft room, and my living room will become just that: a living room. Oh happy days.

I'm even thinking of paring down my work schedule from five days a week to four, taking Wednesdays off to be a housewife and writer. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can pull that off within the next month or so.

So... if you had a room to do with whatever you wanted, what would you do?