Us time, Dog time and the week isn't over.

 On May 28th we were ready to get out of the house and have lunch somewhere and since it was Wednesday, David figured I would be happy to go to Dale's Essenhaus for their lunch specials. 

My fav is the chicken n dumplings and his was the grilled pork chop. We both brought home leftovers.  They were good both times. LOL

Then Thursday was steak night at Wilson Valley Mercantile & Distillery.  

You got 12oz ribeye or an 8oz fillet with twice baked potatoes, green beans, roll, salad and a dessert. 

All very tasty along with some live music by a local. I didn't catch his name.  No complaints from us. This week was about us and quality time. LOL

 Kaleb's parents rented a beach house in Galveston for the family so Pamela and Kaleb took the boys to the beach for a few days and we watched the Grand Floof, Bri.  

Bri, Bruno and Sadie are pretty good friends now. Didn't start off that way. Bri wasn't always sure about these 2  80# clod hoppers. 

They've rolled her over several times playing. Of course I had to send Pamela a picture of her baby ever so often like this one saying "Good Morning! Rise and Shine."  LOL

One day I was in my zone and sewing away but Sadie decided at one point that she needed to be a part of my sewing experience. She usually comes in and lays right behind my chair so I can't roll back and all I can do is spin left and right but this time she challenged me.  She came in and laid down between me and the machine pedal and wrapped herself around and on the chair legs to so I couldn't move.  Basically my leg was resting on her to reach over to the pedal. She was happy. What a goof ball.

David got our raised garden planted the way he wanted but he had 2 beds left with nothing. He finished cleaning them out about 3 weeks ago and in the first bed he threw flower seeds out that he had to see what would happen. Would any come up or not was a good question and to our surprise this is the start of them.

Lots of color. Very pretty to look at. We believe there are some sunflowers in the bunch but they haven't bloomed yet.  Maybe in another 2 weeks.

On Saturday (6/7) David and I drove to Baytown for the Celebration of Life for Kevin's sister. He is one of the Bell Gang Guys. His sister sounded like a pretty remarkable gal. Wish I had known her. I believe I had met her at least once at Kevin and Pam's home but that's it.

As we were walking in the church auditorium I looked over and saw someone from the Lakewood neighborhood, Vicki and her husband Karl. Our daughters swam and played water polo in high school together and I don't think I've seen them since the girls graduated. Vicki's cousin was married to Kevin's sister. Small world. Wish it had been a better time for a chance meeting but it was nice seeing and talking with them.  

After the service David and I went to the Monument Inn for lunch since we were on this side of town. We hadn't been there since before we were married and that my friends was a really really long time ago. LOL. He got the seafood plater and I got fried shrimp. Mine was the best. His was okay but the shrimp was the best. 

Sadie has found that she likes sitting in David's lap. Maybe not as much as Bruno but this day she got real comfy.  She's never got this comfy before.

She was making sure she had her furless Dad's full attention and not Bri or Bruno. She was all comfy until I walked around the chair to snap another picture and she looked at me like 'What the hell Mom?'  LOL

I tried to sew again another day and made myself a wallet. It's do-able but not great. I just used various scraps of fabric I had laying around.  The pattern I had was 32 pages long and I didn't feel like reading it so I winged it. I made lots of spots for credit cards and business cards. And slots for a checkbook and cash but I need to make a spot for coins on the next one.

 

But I guess I'll use the pattern when I make the next one and make a few adjustments for my liking. I know where all the boo boos are on this but for now it works. My leather wallet made my purse heavy and made my shoulder hurt. Wish it was because of lots of money but alas it was empty as usual.

Oh and I had help. Sadie, Bruno, and Bri were all close by if I needed their help. LOL Then again Bruno and Bri were passed out but Sadie was right beside my chair.  

 

On Tuesday (6/10) I took Bri back home. She was exhausted from playing with her cousins Bruno and Sadie and could hardly keep her eyes open.  I dropped her off and went to meet my friend Sheryl while her car was being serviced at the dealership. We hadn't been together since March so we had plenty to catch up on. Our time flew by and it was time for me to return to Pamela and Kaleb's.

Pamela was at work and Kaleb had an interview that day so I stayed for a couple hours to watch the boys. They kept me entertained. At one point they each wanted what the other one had and whined about it. So I put a time limit on how long each one could use the leggo toy they wanted. 

Then Killian got a wild hair and decided he'd make his bed and he did a pretty decent job for a 5 year. The toy was forgotten. I had to laugh because Braxton asked if I was going to tell his Dad that they wouldn't share and whined. I told him nope. Then Braxton picked up all the leggo's and we went back to the den so they could watch some cartoon. It was a good time. They were good for Cici (that's me). 

Better stop for now but this was a busy week. I did something almost every day but I'll continue the week on my next blog post.

Until then... What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.~Timothy Ferriss

More Celebration Time. It's that time of Year

Our youngest niece in Texas decided to get married to the love of her life with just their immediate family back on April 4th.  So happy for Kendall & Christian as they start this next chapter in their life. She made a beautiful bride and Christian made a handsome groom. 

This weekend her best friend Rachel of 15 years gave her a bridal shower with some other friends in Cypress. I drove down to share in her special day. Just a few pictures from the day.

Kendall with her sister Shelby and Mom Lynn.

Me, Aunt Glenda, Shelby, Kendall, Momma, Jordan's sister & Jordan her brothers wife.

Sister in laws: Lynn is David's brothers wife and Glenda is David's sister.

Just a couple of pictures of Kendall opening gifts. 

While we're in Texas having celebrations Missouri family was celebrating the graduation of my nephew's beautiful girlfriend Kayson. Congratulations and best wishes to Kayson as she ventures in the next chapter of her life. That's my nephew Josiah and my little sister Jerri Lynn with Kayson. Can't wait to see what's in her future.

Monday (5/19) was Sassy Stitchers Bee time and they had 2 ladies do Show & Tell. 

Cordelia showed off her finished Wonky Star Challenge Quilt. When we started this challenge I wasn't sure about the block but after seeing them and completely one, I want to make another one. Very Pretty Cordelia. The 2nd one is by Lori. It was a block of the month from Stitchin Heaven. Too Cute. 

Okay so back in March of 2024 Kaleb took Killian and Braxton to watch Gpa race his motorcycle. They had a blast apparently. While watching him work on the bike he was telling them to not touch the exhaust pipe because it would burn them badly. So by the time they went to school the story was told that Gpa burned his leg and it fell off.  Big Imaginations. LOL.

Well Saturday (5/24) his pant leg got close to that hot exhaust pipe. These pants are thick so he didn't even realize it until he sat down to rest between races.  The boys would have had fun at school with this story.

These pictures are from 1982. Honda back then

verses 2025  Harley time.  a 2000 Harley Sportster 883

He drag races 1/4 mile and some 1/8 mile tracks.

I had to share my friend Donna Marie's exciting news. She entered a quilted postcard challenge with the theme of travel and she got published in Fons & Porter Love of Quilting Magazine the Summer edition. How sweet is that? I told her that I'm going to buy the magazine and have her autograph it.

Now the last thing to share here is my Texas Flag Quilt! IT's DONE and on the bed. YAHOO And Thanks to Peggy for letting me photograph it off her porch. A king size quilt was too long for most places I wanted to snap a picture of it at. I tried to get a picture of the quilting by Donna's Lavender Nest. If you look hard to can see the stars and the state of Texas.

And I need to thank Maddie for letting me snap her picture. Belle, Peggy's other dog was too tired for a photo shoot and Hazel the cat said nay not interested if you're not petting me. LOL  Maddie is very photogenic

And here it is on the bed!  Compliments the photo on the wall.

That's it for now... Sooooo

Until next blog....o   “Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty.” — Sicilian Proverb

Celebration 🎜🎝 Come On

🎜🎝 Remember the song "Celebration" by Kool and the gang. It came to mind when I started this blog. If you tap on Celebration you can hopefully see and hear the song. It also reminds of a dance I was in when I took jazz dance classes back in the 90's. That costume could hurt with the beads we added. hmm I digress. 

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with Mark and Kathy and I took no pictures but we had fun. Bad me

But our next Celebration was for a young lady named Gabby. She persevered, graduated from Texas A&M Vetinary School and become a Vet and has a job already.  We've been friends with her parents for many years now. Larry worked with David and I became friends with his wife Sylvia. Super cool people. 

Proud parents and Gabby.  Now know as Dr. Gabby

Sylvia made it easy to find the right house with the cool banner out front of the house. I thought I had taken pictures of some of her other decorations but I didn't. It was all about animals of course. But I got this tub filled with Reveille pups for adoption. 

Cute idea and they each had a bone dog tag that said Dr Gabby on them. I came home with one. One of her friends came in with a bouquet of flowers with black graduation caps mingled among the flowers. 

I was being silly and 

snapped a picture of me with the life size cut out of Gabby. 

Gabby was enjoying opening all her gifts.

 Before leaving I snapped a picture of me and her Momma Sylvia. Maybe now we've both slowed down with activities and health stuff we can all get together for some more fun.   

Thursday (5/8) was book club night. The Gause Gals Guild started with almost  full attendance but the day of we dropped like leaves. LOL. There ended up only being 4 of us plus a guest. The book we discussed was called A Simple Plan by Scott Smith. The simple plan spiraled out of control and you couldn't stop reading because you just had to know which character would do something stupid. The book started off slow but once the first domino fell it kept you reading.  

Saturday (5/10) was Kaleb's birthday so I went down to celebrate with him and Pamela while David went racing.  We went to Cookshack for lunch . I got a chicken bowl with chicken, coleslaw and macaroni n cheese with their sauce. It was tasty.

Pamela and Kaleb both got a chicken and waffle plate.   We all had a full tummy. As long as the birthday boy was happy we're happy.

From here Pamela and I decided to take him for some alcohol.

We took Kaleb to Rio Brazos Distillery for some whiskey.  Fun day celebrating Kaleb.  

See the straw in Pamela's drink.  She kept kinda tasting it going is this edible? And it was.  Taste kinda like a sweet tart without the tartness.

Cheers to the Birthday boy. That's the owner in the background and I've forgotten his name. Bad me. My drink was the Lemon creme de cream. Well something like that and it was tasty.

And David got lucky and won 1st place at the race. 

His reaction times on the line were great. He finally got to beat the guy that has beaten him out of first place more than once.  Yahoo David!

So Sunday (5/11) was Mother's Day. I didn't really have any special requests. Instead of going out to eat I asked David to cook a steak. We celebrated with the kids the weekend before so it was just me and my honey bunny.   The kids went to Kaleb's parents. David and I didn't get much anything done but that's just fine with me. 💓

I tried something different for dinner one night. If you do Pampered Chef you've probably made the Taco Ring well I made the spicy Italian Ring.  Layered on the crescent roll ring - provolone cheese, deli ham, pepperoni and I used italian sausage and canadian bacon, I grilled red bell pepper, banana pepper rings, mozzarella cheese and I used some italian seasoning. I meant to put it on the inside but I forgot so I sprinkled on top of the ring before baking. 

This recipe has been husband and son in law approved.

Now you can add whatever you want obviously but I started with the recipe off Pinterest for a guide line.

Now in trying to be better at my exercise routine I joined a couple our my book club friends Sheri and Peggy for exercise. I think at two more will be joining eventually. Sheri was our Coach and she had her routine all down. Whew!! She had me working muscles I sure wasn't working at the gym.  If it hadn't been so humid outside we would have exercised on her deck. Check out the view we would of had. It's a beautiful piece of property for sure. Thanks Peggy and Sheri for making me accountable.

I came home, showered and I might have taken a short nap. That evening Kelli and I were heading to the Rising Sun Vineyard for a bottle painting class. Weellll that didn't happened.  We did drive the hour there but when we pulled in and was walking up to the building Kelli goes "What do you want to bet the class was canceled". Nay no way. Yes way.  Kelli had called at 3:30 and everything was good but by 4pm things changed. The teacher got hurt and they tried to call to let us know the class was canceled.  Oh well Kelli bought us wine and charcutier board and we sat out on their big patio and relaxed for a while. After an hour or so we headed back home. Girls Wine Night out with no bottle painting. lol

    

On Friday the 16th Me, Kelli and Pamela we on a mission.

Pamela found out that our favorite restaurant was open again so we wanted to take Kelli to Madden's for lunch before we go drink some wine. We weren't disappointed and Kelli enjoyed her taco's, Pamela enjoyed her Salmon Tostada and I, my poblano taco soup. Yum. From here we headed to a fairly new winery called 36 North Vineyards just outside Brenham. 

What a cool place. The winery on one side and her sister runs the bakery on the other side. Tracy and her sister were really nice. The outside areas are really nice too. They even have a playground out back for kids. 

You can do a tasting of 3 or 5 but for a few bucks more they will pair your wine with a small bite size dessert. This is my plate but I might of ate the Pear crumble cake before I took the picture. Oops. And that was the only picture I took. I didn't get one with the 3 of us. Even Pamela didn't take a picture. Anyway the wine was really good and so were the desserts.

They also offer beer, soda and some snack trays.  If you go on a Saturday you might want to throw a chair in the car just in case. Pamela and I have already agreed that we want to here to celebrate our birthday next year with our friends like we have in the past. 

We promised Kelli we'd take her one more place called the Rio Brazos Distillery. So off we went. That's where we took Kaleb for his birthday. Kelli did a tasting but we didn't have time for a cocktail because we had to get Pamela back to the dealership to pick up her car. Kelli was so impressed with the tasting so I'm not sure about a cocktail anyway and that's fine. At that point I was done drinking if they wanted me to drive. LOL  We all have our own tastes and preferences. 

So until next blog post... “A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.”