Sunday, June 29, 2014

What can I say

Well I found out what this bird was thanks to my cousin Gayle in Florida.
This is a Helmeted Guinea Foul.  Read that they generally mate for life and are very social and hang in groups of at least 4.
Yesterday while out driving and looking at more property we saw one and it was hilarious. It was running fast with that big body and tiny legs. Didn't see what it was running from but it didn't stop when it got to the road. It kept going. Since we saw the first ones last weekend we saw them every where yesterday. And I can see why. They eat ticks like the kind that cause lyme disease, snails, spiders, worms insects, frogs, lizards, small snakes (that I assume could become big ones) and small mammals. Bad thing about them I understand is that they make this loud noise and can be annoying.  mmmm Loud harsh calls verses the eating of ticks, spiders and snakes...... Does the benefit out weight the noise? 

And I continued my quest to determine what this plant was and found it. It's called a Texas Plume.

My picture doesn't do it justice. It's a bright reddish orange on a tall wispy stalk. It's really pretty.

David nor I remember ever seeing them before this year.









Then yesterday when we were out on a back county road we had 2 small birds fluttering around in the road in front of the truck and as we came up on them they didn't move so David stopped. As I went to get out of the car that's when of course they decided to move but I got a good enough look at them that I found a picture of them on-line.
I tried to get my own picture but the windshield was too splattered with bugs and as I said it flew into the trees as I got out of the car. Dang it. It's called a painted bunting. Isn't it beautiful? I had seen pictures but never one in person now I have. Maybe I should buy that land so I could see it more often.  Maybe that should be one of our new criteria for buying property. The birds..

Unfortunately it has fallen on my little sister to help to get our dad to and from treatments which is about a 100 mile drive each way. She checks in on him and my step-mother regularly. Which they are doing fine. The rest of of us live out of town or as for me out of state. I'm not much help at all. 
So the latest news is good. Dad's bone marrow only has about 3% cancer cells present. But its a double edged sword there because he has very few cells or bone marrow left. The treatment is kills good and bad so it's a tricky balance. Starting Monday June 30th he begins his 2nd phase of chemo and they'll re-evaluate at the end of July. Jerri Lynn reports that he is showing improvement and is having good days but the battle isn't over yet. He walks around the pond, takes in few outside activities as long as he wears his mask. That's another story I'm told. 
But with this new status he has to be even more cautious around people. His body has nothing to fight infection with. Another good thing is that he's keeping weight on and not losing.


He keeps smiling and fighting on. So keep up the prayers for my Dad on this journey. 




My little sister and our other two sisters think he's pretty special and want to keep him around.




Guess what I won something and I didn't even know it. Various bloggers offer give aways on their blogs and apparently I won a Messenger Tote from Susan @ Artful MusingHow exciting! 
The package came in the mail this past week. 

Susan is a talented mixed media artist living right here in Texas. You should go check out her blog. 
But first I want to show you the neat messenger bag and the cute card that I'm guessing she made. Thanks Susan it will get used. I love it. 

My last blog about the anonymous writer got several hits and comments. A few were from other anonymous folks. My fav was the one who said "Anonymous can kiss my Texas Ass"  I wasn't really upset but I thought I'd address it anyway but Thanks to all my readers for their support.

I've found that I like taking pictures of windmills. So you may be seeing more pictures in my blogs.
I hoped to share my TO DO LIST and it's progressive which isn't big but I've got to find it. Oops. I'm sure I can figure out a few things to do while I look for it 

Well until next blog...Any man can be a father.  It takes someone special to be a dad. 
I love my father as the stars - he's a a bright shining example and a happy twinkling in my heart. 

Monday, June 23, 2014

Dear Anonymous and more

Dear Anonymous
Since I can't email you I figure you might read my blog again to see what other errors I might make  so I wanted to Thank You for worrying about whether I sound like a Texan with no "learnin". While I do have some college education I still make grammar, spelling and typo errors. But thanks for the education. Next time please leave a name and an email address.
I know some of my friends have commented via anonymous because they haven't quite figured out how the comment box works but these people you spam blogs are annoying as hell.

Moving on..............
David's procedure went well. The Doctor was able to break up the massive stone and went ahead and removed the stent while David was out. David felt 75% better before we ever left the doctors office. As of today he's back to normal I think. Well normal for him. LOL
We wanted go to Puffabelly's recently to see Davin James and his guest Texas Artist David Perez from the Tejas Brothers Band. He plays an accordion, sings and performs. This guy is awesome. But getting my David well was more important. 
This past Wednesday night Jesse Dayton one of our favorite Texas artist was a guest on the David Letterman Show. 

My Dad is also doing well. He's had 4 chemo treatments.....He either sleeps through them, is bored when awake unless he is teasing the nurses and when he wakes up he's hungry. As of the last pictures I've seen Dad still has his hair. Nothing about my Dad is typical. Spoke with my little sister and she said he won't have it for much longer. It's starting to fall out. Monday the doctors did a bone marrow biopsy and then on Thursday they'll discuss the next phase of this journey my Dad is on. The doctors are amazed how he has tolerated the treatment and how well his cancer is responding. Dad is a unique case. They drew some blood today and plan on using in their classes. I immediately thought of a book I read called "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks". It's a true story of how doctors back in the 50's took her cancer cells to study with out her or the families knowledge. Those cells continued to grow outside the body and and doctors were able to find cures for other cancers and diseases. It's a good read if you get time to read. 
Anyway at least we know the doctors took Dad's blood. 
We take every day a day at a time and hope for the best.

I'm not sure what's going on with the internet but my wireless keyboard is acting stupid. I'll be typing along and look up and realize I've typed nothing and when I try to go back it may erase the whole blog. Oops. This is driving me crazy but hopefully I can finish this post without too many errors but no promises at this point.

Have I told you that David is on a mission. Ahh yes a mission. It's been a while since he's been on a mission. He's decided that he wants to have more property with the option to build a big work shop. His stint as the President of HOA has pushed him to this decision and he's ready for change in time of course. We can't move off to far since our jobs are here. The weekend alone we looked at over 44 properties. Now that we kind of have an idea of what and where we might want to live we've got to start narrowing down our selections and criteria. While out those we ran across some interesting items. One was a Hognosed snake. Well all I could tell you was it was slithering across the road in front of the truck and to think David had just got back into the truck. YIKES. I didn't get a picture because it got to David's side of the truck while I was staring at it. Then David goes cool. He said it stood up and flared it's head like a cobra. I couldn't get him to run over it.  YUCK YUCK YUCK. Yes I know it's harmless but I don't like snakes.

Time for show and tell.....................
We kept seeing this pretty plant. Anyone know what it is? Some of the stalks were 4 foot tall.



And check out this bird. There was about 5 of them around this gate. 
Very unique looking. Does anyone know what it is?




Now this next guy I know what he is. A big mutant frog. As I was pulling into the driveway I saw him in our ditch. He is huge. Any one for some fried frog legs?



This is a rather random post really. We found a new interesting drink called Twisted Tea.
It actually tastes like tea but with a little liquor added. You've heard of Long Island Ice Tea it's sorta the same thing but in a bottle. I like it.......
Have to be careful or you'll forget it's hard ice tea.

I started off the year getting things accomplished on my to do list and have now fallen way behind. I hope to remedy that this next weekend.
I'll share my progress on my list in my next post I hope. That's my goal anyway.

Started working 4 - 10's. Good part is we get Fridays off. My Friday have been spent going out looking for property so not necessarily a bad thing. Work has been very stressful and very business for all of us in technology. It's nice to be busy but at the same time it's a little crazy but I'm sure it will all pass in time.

Well I guess I'll quit rambling for now...

Until next blog...Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure

 










Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Whoop ....

 On May16th David and I picked up my mom and we headed to College Station to watch Pamela graduate from Texas A&M for the 2nd time.  This time she got her BSN. For the past year she has been taking classes for RN to BSN.  Couldn't be prouder of her and all her accomplishments.
 She even walked across the stage with her boot on without tripping or falling.

Her broken foot is healing but with all the walking she wanted to make sure her foot survived.
 
Time to be silly, enjoy life and read a book that's not a text book. No more studying! 
Aren't they the cutest nurses ever? LOL
This is her friend and roommate while going to Blinn. 


And I couldn't pass up on a moment of relaxation and fun when we got back to her apartment.


That's one proud Papa. And she did this 3rd degree on her dime not ours. Even better. 





After her graduation we took a quick trip to New Orleans. Pamela and I had never been. We hit of course the French Quarter, 


had a Hurricane at Pat O'Briens, took a ride on the Mississippi river on a real steam engine paddle boat, 


took a city bus tour through the 9th ward where it flooded so bad, checked out 1 of 6 light houses, 



toured 2 plantations: Oak Alley and Laura with 2 different histories with huge live oaks,









(by the colors on Laura plantation home you would know creoles live here)






went a cemetery and learned a lot about the method of burial and how the tombs work as a natural crematorium.



(the picture is called by some the Mickey Mouse crypt by some)


and went looking for alligators in the swamp.
 Pamela even kissed this little guy. I actually held the little alligator. His tummy was so soft. 
We went to dinner at Emeril  Lagrasse's restaurant on Tchoupitolas. Oh my goodness that was so so so very tasty. I can't say we had any bad food at any of the places we ate. We stayed at the Hilton and our first night we at Draggo's there in the hotel. Lots of food and good.
We also hit Harrah's for a little gambling. None of us did so good. Pamela and David lost all their stake and I was able to hang on to a little over half of my stake. I should have stopped when I was 200 ahead but the gambling bug sucked me hoping for that big win. LOL
It was a wonderful trip but a hell of a lot of walking.


 My Dad's status: He's in good spirits and not about to let this cancer thing get in his way. His 2nd Chemo treatment was delayed due to his numbers being up when they should have been down and up where they should have been down but he finally had that 2nd treatment 5 days after the planned date.  He surprised everyone and had very little side effects during the treatment. He actually slept through 90% of it and woke up hungry. Along with this treatment he was given a medication that will cause him to lose his thick head of hair. I can't imagine my Dad bald but hey maybe he'll be unique again and not lose it. He also had an intrathecal where they inject meds into his spine. I can't find the full description that my little sister Jerri Lynn wrote but the meds are suppose to help keep the cancer from traveling to his brain. 

He has stayed away from large crowds and wore his mask but he has managed to go see my niece at her annual dance recital and caught most of my nephews soccer game. 

He is scheduled for his 3rd treatment on June 5th.  Please keep him in your prayers.

David and I went to Puffabelly's recently to see and listen to Jesse Dayton and Davin James rock the stage with their Texas music and anecdotes. Davin told us one time that isn't that good of a player. Really he's got to be kidding. He and Jesse are awesome. One time I'll have to record a brief section of the show and share it with y'all.

Now for my latest adventure.... My Husband.. I guess he thought my Dad was having all the fun.. NOT!

He's been feeling kinda so so for a couple of weeks but it would come and go. Well Sunday June 1st he woke up and what ever he had been feeling came to stay.  When I got up he was on the computer looking at the medical site trying to self diagnose. By 9am the pain was getting really bad. He hadn't ate or drank anything since the nite before around 9pm. Every time he'd try to sip some water he'd feel sick. By 10 something I had him at the Urgent Care Clinic. He didn't want to go sit in an ER for hours.  The clinic poked him 7 times with 3 different nurses/PA trying to get blood for lab work. Once they did and got the results of some lab work they gave him something for the pain and nausea and sent us to a near by hospital for a CT. An hour after the scan I was calling the clinic to tell the PA that David was worse and now hovered over the trash can. The scan confirmed the PA's suspicion that David had a kidney stone that wasn't going to pass on it's own.
Guess what we ended up at the ER anyway and had to wait 3 hours before making it to triage.  
Now by this time it's been 23 hours since David had eaten or had anything to drink..... Can you say major dehydration? That means more pokes trying to find a good vein for more blood and one for the IV. Only went through 2 nurses and 5-6 new pokes. By 10pm David is in the operating room having a stent put in. Through the stint they will send an electrical current to break up the 9x5 mm stone. Oh wait... the stent is in but they don't have the machine that sends the current. You've got to be kidding. 
Monday afternoon David is released and we're told to wait for a call from the someone who will set up the appointment at the location of the machine. Good grief. So 2 and half hours later I get the call and we go in Wednesday for the ESWL. So poor David has been in pain this whole time. Pain meds are only so good. 
So please add David to your prayers for a smooth procedure and a speedy recovery.
My cousin Gayle figures I might get addicted to the waxed shining floors at hospitals since I've spent so much time in them in the last 45 days. I don't think so.
OKAY FAMILY no one else is allowed to be a patient in a hospital. Notice I clarified that statement with the word patient since I have so many Nurses in the family and one more studying to be one.

The last 45 days have been interesting to say the least.

Until next blog post... Stay healthy
 Sorry I couldn't help myself..... Hugs