See the photo below?  That’s an arial shot of our log house in Utah.  We lived there for seven years, longer than I had lived in ANY ONE HOME in my ENTIRE (nearly 45 years of) life.  JD built the smaller structure with the blue roof (upper right in the photo), a barn and garage.  It was a two-story building, much larger than it appears from above.  We could park two SUV’s in there, and JD used the upper story for a woodwork shop (and perhaps an eensy, weensy bit of storage for me).  Three of my babies have their little handprints in the concrete in the front left corner of that garage. 

JD began building that garage in 1999, and when we sold the house and property in 2006, it was not finished.  That’s called HIS Construction Therapy.

And this?  Although it didn’t nearly take me seven years {it’s ok to guffaw here}, it’s HER Quilt Therapy:

And this?

 

This is the beginning of the culmination of our Construction & Quilt Therapy…our engagement photo, taken in 1992 – just before we were married on May 16, 1992.

And I return to my original statement because where I lived has a direct correlation to who I’ve lived with…I have been with my husband longer than I lived with ANY ONE PERSON in my family, EVER.  I have known my brothers my whole life, but I only lived with them for a short time during my youth. 

Two of a kind, working on a full house!  Happy 17th Anniversary to us!

Shiner is an institution in Texas.  Perhaps not as touching to the heart as the Alamo or as historical as the San Jacinto battle, but a home-grown business that has kept the big boys at bay for longer than anyone else (Lone Star was the only other “big” name beer to be brewed in the area, and they sold out years ago).  

The brewery was started in 1909; which incidentally, was the year that my grandfather and JD’s grandmother were born.  Makes us family, doesn’t it?! 

Ya’ll probably know that I’m not the drinker in the family, but someone likes him a brew – though, he IS environmentally conscious enough to save his bottles so he can drop them at the local recycling center when he has a car load (which, if you know him, is laughable - he only recycles because it’s FREE).

I walk out onto my deck, and have a lovely view of our “forest” and chickens, hummingbirds and some potted herbs … then, I turn to go to the other end of the deck and I see the lovely stash below:

And lest anyone worry, this is a few month’s worth of bottles – I *do* keep him on a tight beer budget on purpose!