Another lesson from the garden: you never know what is really dead, or what just might pop back up. I was gone to Corpus for two weeks - and my pansies suffered terribly for it. When I came back and saw the damage - I thought they were all goners. But I watered the rest of the plants that were alive - and some water happened upon the dead panies. But the next morning - one of the plants popped by up! It was great. They were back up flowering in no time at all.

I’ve learned that the same goes for people - you never know what few words or a hug will do to help them perk back up. So hand out a little love - and watch the garden grow!

It was ladies night here in Houston, and the party was hopping at Becky’s. We had a smashing good time at Fondue and Friends last night (sorry the party was so hoppin’ that I forgot to take pictures.) Hosted by my friend Becky, there was a feast of fondues, and dippers, and also the ever loved game, Dr. Mario. The fondues were fabulous with the ever loved chocolate, and a zippy cheese fondue. We dipped, ate, talked and dipped again. Life had not tasted that sweet in a long time.

Then the real action started up with Dr. Mario on the four player mode and I was up against some fierce competition. For those of you unfamiliar with the Dr. Mario cult, it is like Tetaris but instead of avoiding piling up, you have to get rid of certain spaces faster than others in order to win. You may think it sounds like it might be an ok game, but once you try it, you are just hooked. It is a life changing experience. I was a little rusty at my game, but I did end up winning a few games, and held my own. Overall we had some serious good times, and we even have a new convert to Dr. Mario - my teacher friend Tamara. She has discovered the therapeutic effect of Dr. Mario after a long day of teaching, and is now vowing to get a Nintendo 64. If Bob’s not careful, I might end up with one too. It’s therapeutic for people that don’t work too…

It’s 9:30 - where are you? If you try to ask Bob that questions, you will probably getting a snoring response (or one of his long and loud moaning sounds) ’cause he’ll be snoozing away. So if you call here after 9:00, be prepared to sing him a lullaby, because he will probably be hittin’ the hay. So much for the Mexican “stay up late” blood!

It was amazing - I had to break out a sweater to drive Bob to work on last Thursday. Never mind that it was still 75 degrees outside. That feels pretty cool after all the days of 100+.

We even have a couple of trees in our courtyard that have leaves that are changing color. If I can get the digital camera to work, I will post some pictures later.

Fall to me also seems to be a great time to spend money and have some adventures. That is just what Bob and I have been up to. We found an nice entertainment armoire off of Craigslist that we bought, and we also got a TV on Saturday too. And yesterday, Bob and I went and picked up a Game Cube for $60 that was hardly used off of Craigslist too. It came with a memory card and travel bag - and it is in great condition.

I actually made some of that money for the Game Cube purchase by selling some old oil painting stretcher bars on Craigslists list last week. (I know - I didn’t think I was capable of actually making money either.) It feels good to sell something that you aren’t going to use to someone that will.

Maybe some of you are wondering what this whole Craigslist stuff is all about. Craigslist.com is a site that houses a free online classified ads, and also job postings. They have a seperate site for most of the major cities across the US, and in other select countries. Bob and I have both had great experiences buying from people off of Craigslist.

That’s the happenings at the Bolsters. Look soon for Bob’s blog about his clean up efforts in the Beaumont area after Hurricane Rita. Even though we were spared, others were not. We pray for them, and offer our assistance in any way that we can.

Cheers!

There are a few places you just want to avoid in life. I found out that while I escaping the hurricane - that I unknowingly landed myself in the middle of my in-laws stormy decorating battles. I didn’t realize all the dangers until I was in too deep. And by then, the wall was already working toward its third paint color. Let me explain…

On Saturday, Pop decides that he wanted an accent wall in the game room. He was determined to change that color, and that is just what he did. He pulled out a can of sky blue paint, and had at it. So I walk upstairs, and find a big blue patch in the middle of the wall. It was really blue, and pretty sharp, considering it was a sky blue, and I said I didn’t really like it. That was the point where it was too late to turn back. I don’t know where I got the idea that I could have an opinion, but it was a bad idea to voice it. (If I was just like Bob - I could have just played Madden the whole time, and not really care).

Soon the Mama came up to the room and got involved too. She didn’t like it either. So then instantly I am on her side, and the battle has begun. We tried another spot on the wall of a more muted turquoise (it had to be painted now, Pop put that paint spot where the whole world could see it) which I liked better. But I knew the Mama didn’t really like it either. And somehow I knew that whatever she would pick, Pop wouldn’t like. We mulled over the colors that day, and decided to wait until Monday to do anything about it. I was saved for at least a day.

But the Sabbath was hardly a day of rest for me. Besides pushing Bob in the pool, I had this color war looming in my head. Are there any colors that are middle ground? What color would I choose? Why on earth did I open my big fat mouth? Questions loomed in my head, as I tossed and turned for sleep. (Ok - so I might have really tossed and turned because the a/c was out, but saying it this way adds to the dramatic effect).

On Monday, the emotions came all back up, as I started to tape the wall. Both agendas started to emerge more clearly, and unfortunately I was still stuck in the middle, supposedly needing to change everyone’s mind. However, I knew that no matter what I did, I would end up being hated by one side. Both the Popo and the Mama came up to me privately at different times, trying to get me to persuade the other to change their mind. I was just wondering what I should do about it all… and so I pulled a classic Anna and just went with the flow (now I know some of you are laughing because you know exactly what that entails.) I just steered clear of the conflict and agreed to whatever was said. I knew that I was merely a pawn in this game anyway, and my actually opinion wouldn’t really matter anyway.

But then mid-afternoon, just before the paint shopping was to begin, the Popo seemed to have a change of heart. He said “I don’t care what the color is, I just want a different color on that wall” and even suggested having a reddish/peachish sort of color (like the color of the bricks on the house). I felt a sigh of relief. I knew that was something I could pull off with the Mama. I started to feel ok again and maybe I could be hailed as a hero in all of this. Well, one could wish…

I went out paint shopping with the Mama later that afternoon. I started to steer easily toward a peach color, and the Mama whole-heartedly agreed (any of you that know her know that is not a hard sell). But I couldn’t get her to go dark. In fact, not dark at all. She was worried it would look too dark from downstairs. But the colors we looked at were barely shades of peach. I was trying to push for a shade darker, but I didn’t want to over step my bounds. I wasn’t the one that was going to look at this color everyday, that I would just let it go. But letting go this late in the game can be costly, as I soon found out.

When we put the color up on the wall, it was such a light tint of peach to the wall color, it was almost undetectable until you looked at the neighboring ivory colored wall. Not quite an accent, if you will. Comments in it ranged from “it makes the other walls look dirty” (Pop) to “I could poop something out and put it on the wall and it would look better than that” (Bryan). Ouch.

When the Mama called on me to defend the color, I had no arguments left in me. What do you say by the end of all of that? It just really wasn’t an accent. I couldn’t lie. So then I made her a little mad too. Ouch again.

Needless to say, hero status was definitely not achieved, and in fact I was demoted from my position. Pop even said, “You failed. You have both and art degree and a psychology degree. You should have been able to pick out a good color, or at least changed her mind.” Double ouch.

So that was a painful lesson to be learned. My middle ground antics really do stink, and being the daughter-in-law pawn just isn’t for me. Next time I will let Becky help them pick the color. I’ll just duck out, and see if I can push Bob in the pool again…