Koi watercolor

The cows in Wisconsin don't have those things on their head

Recon

Not much to do on the construction side today, so John and I went undercover in Salado to scout out the competition.

These arrived still smelling like wet paint!!

Donna and Joe

Home for the Holidays

Even though we weren't able to spend Thanksgiving in Minneapolis/Ft. Myers with my clan or in New Mexico/Chicago with any of John's clan, we did spend it at home in Tow with good friends. Donna (best friend in the universe) and Joe (love of her life) spend their winters in Goliad, Texas now and they drove over for Thanksgiving. It is so nice to have them close to us here as well (they are just a few cabins down from our A-frame in Birchwood, Wisconsin during the summers at Kehoe's Northern Retreat). Jeanette's husband, Bob, is on the road so he wasn't able to come over, but Jeanette (our realtor and friend extraordinaire) came and brought their son Andrew. Dinner was marvelous, even without any gravy!

We had another great evening at our neighbors house last night. Carole Ellis' home sits on top of the hill with breathtaking views of Lake Buchanan. She is a wonderful hostess (and cook). We caught up with Carole, Tom, Theo and Kathy and watched the football game by the fire. They were all very positive about our new venture (or too nice to say anything else). We are so lucky to count them as our friends.

Bears won in OT, so life is still good.

Falls #1

We can take the boat from Lake Buchanan and go up the Colorado River. This is the first set of waterfalls on the river. We actually took this picture in August when Em and Dan came to visit.

Our private beach on Lake Buchanan. Seriously, everytime we go there, we are the only people in sight.

DMV Update

No go.

Yesterday, John tried to circumvent Shorty by going to the Marble Falls DMV office with every scrap of paper Shorty had insisted he bring. John even had the title to the car that we licensed several months ago in Texas. The new DMV guy (no nickname that I could discern from Stange's grumbling) wanted to see the receipt to make sure that we paid for the Texas license. Of course, the logical question (or answer) is: how would I have gotten the Texas title and license if I hadn't paid the necessary fee to the other government worker down the hall? Apparently, that is not good enough (however, blue ink is OK in Marble Falls).

By the way, did anyone see the debates the other night? One of the big issues was whether or not to give drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants. Stange stood by the tv shouting "HOW ABOUT LICENSES FOR REAL CITIZENS?"

I found the receipt. We will take everything to a different DMV office in Fredericksburg next week as soon as we figure out which days they give out licenses there.....

Of course, we had to get the hats...

All the hip cowboys and cowgirls wear tennis shoes.

Carmine and Jack

We often pass these two guys on the way in and out of Tow. They are on Highway 1431 and 29 (an intersection known around here as "Fuzzy's Corner" - local bar there).

We have nicknamed the camel "Carmine" and his mule friend "Jack".

I swear - this sign was already here before we moved in

As we are driving from Tow to Marble Falls, this is the view from the car at about the half-way point.

Our new trailer. If this gig doesn't work out, it will then be referred to as our "mobile home".

John standing on our front porch holding a magnificant mosaic made by Crystal - picture does not do the mirror justice.

Storefront - "before"

These two guys are fast too.

Wow - those guys were fast.

Progress at the end of day 1.

Note Rob in the background trying to climb a ladder perched precariously on a pile of wood. This practice is only for professionals - please don't try this at home.

John surveys the progress. Are those electrical wires still live?

The troops and dumpster arrive.

Rob (GC - note the resemblance to Sam Elliott?).

Rob is standing in the parking lot of Patina calling the troops to come start demolition. Note: Highway 1431 is right in front of our store and we are across the street from Bealls and HEB.

o

Every day is an adventure

Thank you for the positive responses to our blog and also for forwarding it on to others.....remember cc: me on those email addresses!

We continue to meet such great people along the way. Today, Lucia (our postmaster) delivered several packages sent to us from a very talented artist we found through the internet. Crystal's mosaics are so beautiful, it took our breath away. Unwrapping each one felt like the best Christmas morning you can remember (or imagine). We haven't met her in person yet, but she has been delightful and we can only hope she will come visit us in Texas some day with her husband and son.

We did have a slight hiccup with social pleasantries today when we went to the Llano DMV (for the fifth time in 2 months) in order to get a Texas drivers license for John. Do you remember the Seinfeld episode where they try to get soup and the Soup Nazi gives them the 5th degree? Well.....Shorty (as Stange likes to affectionately call him) came up with two new things that we now need to retrieve. This is after the last trip when he insisted John go find his original Social Security card and bring it back to llano (thank you Bob for mailing it to him several years ago "just in case" John ever needed it)! Unfortunately, Shorty forgot to tell us last time that (1) he doesn't like blue ballpoint ink and (2) he wants to see the title to the car.......We will go back tomorrow - Shorty only gives drivers licenses out on Thursdays or Fridays. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm confident that Stange will win Shorty over soon and the two will be work-out buds at the Marble Falls Athletic Club soon.

The day got better when we went to our store. Rob (our GC who looks just like Sam Elliott) was there and demolition is complete! During the conversation, John used the phrase "soup to nuts" and Rob got a puzzled look on his face as he had never heard that phrase before. We moved on to the floor guy (otherwise known as Cory from Element 7 Stone Design) who then used the phrases "dumpster diving" and "soup to nuts" without a Texas twang. Turns out Cory is from Mankato, Minnesota. He is going to acid stain the concrete floor for us in the palette of our logo. He is also going to do our cashwrap countertop in stained cement. Then we walked over to see Marty, the glass guy. Marty brought his grandfather with him to Patina yesterday but Grandpa waited in the car, so we didn't get to meet him until today. Great hat.

This is too much fun to feel like work.

Marnie's version of events:

I absolutely love the internet! We started this blog as a way to keep in touch with family, friends and curious acquaintances while John and I start a new adventure...not sure what it will morph into later.

Where to begin? Our story started at Select Comfort headquarters in Minneapolis in December, 2002. John had just transferred to Minneapolis from Atlanta. Kit and John's three children, Kaitlin, Taylor and Chandler, had moved back to Lovington, New Mexico. I had just started working at Select Comfort after a one year sabbatical. Jeff and I had been married 16 months (after a long courtship) and my children, Sean and Monica, were 13 and 15 at the time. Two weeks later (on New Years Eve Day), Jeff died of a heart attack in his sleep. He was only 44 years old. At that time, John (then known to me as just "Stange") and I had only known each other for 2 weeks as coworkers. He drove back from Chicago to attend the funeral. I was in a stupor at the time (thank God for my sister, Monica) but I do remember thinking that it was so kind of my new coworkers to come and also being slightly embarrassed. Not like my Musicland buds who were a great comfort and they already knew me so well, it didn’t matter I was catatonic. Family, as always, was a God-send particularly my sister. My mom, Judie, channeled from heaven.

I went back to work in an effort to muddle my way through the grief. Each night, I sobbed on the drive home. Sometimes, I had to park the car in the cul-de-sac to finish crying before I went home to the kids. John became a work friend and most importantly, he wasn't afraid to talk to me about Jeff. I don't mean to jump over this part of my story nor negate the tremendous difficulty this chapter entailed. However, I also don't want to wallow in it - Jeff taught me a lot about life, love and living. His legacy encompasses so much: always be kind, pay it forward with random acts of kindness, savor the moment, do your best every time, count your blessings, love deeply and be loyal (and my personal favorite: keep your tools clean and put them away after you use them). In any event, while this was the most difficult time of my life, it was also one of great personal growth. I am forever grateful to all of the caring people in my life, professional counseling and grief support groups.

Months went by and then years. My friendship with John grew. Slowly, my heart accepted that Jeff was gone forever. I remember a cathartic conversation with John about "missing" Jeff. I tried to describe that my thoughts of Jeff now were all about the times we had together and how lucky I was to have those memories rather than waking up each day and missing him all over again. Another legacy: Jeff (and my sister, Monica) taught me not to dwell on things I cannot control. Around this same time, I told John of my plan to get two dogs to keep me company in my old age in my soon-to-be empty nest. Before the puppy plan, I had been sending John 'signals' (you know what I mean) and each time he had politely shut me down. I assumed he was not interested and moved on to the puppy plan.

More months passed. Donna (most wonderful friend in the universe) and I drove to South Dakota to pick up the puppies. Olive and Sweet Pea came home and life went on. Sean and Monica were busy with their lives and the pups and I settled into our routine. Daylight savings time resulted in dark drives home from work each night (occasional tears now) and a dark, quiet house in the evenings. I started to think it would be nice to have someone to go to movies with or talk to about my day. One particular evening I had the bright idea of posting my profile on match.com. I quickly called my sister in Florida (should have called her first) and confessed. She immediately offered great editing advice and support. Within 24 hours, I pulled the profile. The responses (number and type) were almost frightening. I did correspond with 3 matches and eventually met 2 of them in person.

I confided in John at work about the match.com thing. He invited me to lunch (as a habit, I never went to lunch). He hinted that he would be open to doing things socially after work (still very subtle, I might add). I invited him to go with me to the wedding of a dear Diva friend on New Years Eve. John said "Oh, I have plans with a friend that night, but let me check to see if I can rearrange." Of course, I am thinking "Yikes, he was just being nice and now you've made him uncomfortable by putting him in a corner. Way to go." That afternoon, Stange came to my desk and said that he could go the wedding with me. I still wasn't sure that he was romantically interested in me until the stroke of midnight (stroke of genius for a first date!) when we kissed. This event is often referred to by the Divas as "The Kiss". The rest, as they say, is history.....

To say that John and I are on the same wave length would be the understatement of the year. Terms like soul-mates seem so overused. I am not sure how to describe our relationship without sounding trite. A few examples may shed some light: Quirky: John and I discovered that we use the exact same secret PIN number for everything. We both established that PIN number somewhere in the 1980s. Life focus: We both put our children first and foremost in our priorities and have similar loves of nature, photography and art of every medium. Most importantly, we love each other unconditionally. We are partners in life, love and spirit. We are each other's best friend. Our pasts have taught us to celebrate our feelings for each other and count our blessings hourly. Some people never find the love of their life, but I have been blessed twice. It brings me back to a wedding toast Jeff's dad made to us in which he honored the loves of his life. When Bob so poetically toasted LaVerne (Jeff's late mother) and Lonne (Bob's wife), I was not yet aware of the foreshadowing of his sentiments. We all knew that Bob and Laverne were madly in love every day until the day she died. We also knew that Bob's love for Lonne was a once-in-a-lifetime love affair and that these two relationships were a form of ying and yang in Bob’s heart. I could not have known at the time that Jeff was my ying and John would be my yang. I know it now.

Back to the factual details of the story. John and I planned and dreamed of our future as we continued to go to work each day at Select Comfort. We agreed that we wanted to do something with passion and it would involve art in the future. On a more concrete level, we also knew that we wanted to establish a home base closer to John's children (while maintaining a home base close to my children). We came up with a 5 year plan to buy a home in Texas and start a new business. John and I were sitting on our adjustable Sleep Number Bed with the laptop early in March, 2007 when I decided to surf the internet to find out what the real estate market in Texas looked like (translation: don’t go to the pet store unless you are prepared to come home with a pet). I had never been to Texas. John had lived in Texas during his Best Buy days with his family and knew the area. He told me to google the Hill Country area since we both agreed that water is a must in our lives (Aquarius and Pisces). I used the Google Earth map to zoom in on Lake Buchanan. Then, I googled real estate listings around the lake and up popped a listing for a log home in Tow, Texas (which we thought was pronounced "toe"). We googled Tow and learned a lot, including the correct pronunciation (rhymes with "now"). Hmmmm……Beautiful fishing lake, small rural town in the Hill Country, nearby golf, 5 hours from Lovington...
John flew to Austin on business 3 days later and drove to the Hill Country to look at the house. He also met our first new friend, Jeanette Martin (also known as a great realtor). We bought the house immediately (note the recurring theme of "No Dust on Us"). I booked week-end trips from Minneapolis using frequent flyer miles and we started to set up house in Tow to use once a month while our 5 year plan played out.

Tow is everything we were looking for and so much more. The log house is comfortable and cozy with a killer view of the lake. We are out in the booonies and loving it. That aside, we have met such great people here. Our neighbors are awesome. They have made us feel welcome. In the real world, life at Select Comfort was changing. The atmosphere and management style made it no longer enjoyable to go to work. On the other hand, John and I both loved our actual jobs and working with each other on a daily basis. We also enjoyed working with our friends Tom, Erin, Katherine, Meaghan, Julie, Diane, Karen, Jim, Jim, Kelie, Barb, Jerry, Bruce, Mike, Alix, etc. (As for some of our other coworkers and supervisors not named above: not so much). Dinner conversations about work reflected our frustrations. At times, John would put a moratorium on the subject to regain our life balance. The 5 year plan started to change into a 3 year plan...and then we wondered out loud if we would still be working at Select Comfort when they moved into the new headquarters in November, 2007.

Fate stepped in when Select Comfort decided to invoke a nepotism policy (2 years after John and I had started living together). Suddenly, our relationship caused a potential conflict of interest (we have a different theory, but we have let that one go). In a surprise meeting in August, I was told that Select Comfort and I would have to part ways.

OK - this is where "No Dust on Us" turns into what my sister refers to as "Hurling through Space". We knew the 3 or 5 year plan could stay in place if we both got new "day jobs" OR we could choose to follow our bliss now. As John continued to go to work at Select Comfort and I negotiated a severance package, I also incorporated in Texas as "Follow Your Bliss LLC". On a warm Saturday in early September, we were floating in Lake Buchanan on air mattresses when we decided upon the trade name "Patina" for our new retail business (home décor, women’s fashions, art, gifts). A few weeks later, Amy Shalles designed our beautiful logo. After much real estate scouting (hard to believe given our backgrounds right?), we found the perfect spot to open a retail store in Marble Falls, Texas. Once again, new friends Jim and Susie (also known as landlords), Scott, Anthony and Rob entered the picture.

That brings you up to the day this blog was started - November 14, 2007. We have shut the cabin down in Birchwood (drained the hot tub and put antifreeze in the toilet) and sadly waved good-bye. Not sure when we will get back there ourselves, but insist that family and friends use and enjoy the cabin even though we aren't there. Olive and Sweet Pea have been adopted by Scott and Kris Johnson and continue to live in Edina. We cancelled cable and turned the heat down on the house in Minnesota. That wonderful home sheltered Sean, Monica and I through my single mother days, the kids' growing up and the ups and downs of the past 19 years. John and I made it our home with artistic flavor and displays of our photography (as well as the very large TV for viewing Chicago Bears football games). We will return to celebrate Christmas in that house in a few weeks with extended family. Sean has indicated that he wants to live there for the rest of his life. Who knows?

John and I are back in Tow. We drove the Escalade down last week and towed our new trailer full of treasures from Wisconsin furniture-makers Ken Wilson and Ray Bock. Demolition on the store started yesterday and we plan to open the first week in March. It is 80 degrees and sunny in the Hill Country and life is good.