Thursday, October 30, 2014

Fun- Food- Friends and Wine

Last week was my book club meeting. It was a small gathering this time but it was a fun night. Our books to discuss was The Alchemist and Heaven is for Real. We don't read two books normally but both were short and we felt it would be easy for folks to finish reading in 6 weeks.  Both books were uplifting. When your faith waivers these books can give you hope. Now I have to admit I've lost my reading mojo and I really want to get it back. I have lots of books I need/want to read.  LOTS!

Update on my Dad
On the 21st Dad's doctor told him his cancer is controlled and as long as there are no surprises we can actually hope for a cure. Dad has to continue to take medicine but he's getting a reprieve and won't have to travel to the city until December. Dad is beating cancer instead of weekly. The doctor told Dad that the cancer won't be what kills him but most likely it will be his heart.  For now we can celebrate right?
Short celebration
Last night my little sister called me and tells me that Dad was having cramping in his legs. Come to find out he has a blood clot in his left leg. My little sister is keeping him at her house so he won't have to climb any stairs and she's having to give him injections. So please keep my my Dad in your prayers.  Say one for my little Sister who is having to give him the injections to help dissolve the clot.

Now for a little lots of fun. A couple of weeks ago I agreed to go to a place called Crazy Frogs. Some of my co-workers and a few others wanted to go there for karaoke night. It doesn't start until 9:30. Holy cow. I forgot what it was like to go out at that time of night. 
Fun and crazy group.


The gang.
Me, Ashley's mom Tammy, Ashley, Cassie, and Leonard and Tim in the back.
 
Tammy could belt out a tune. Whoa. Unfortunately my phone died so I couldn't catch everything. Ashley and I are the only two who stayed off that stage. But others did and WOW I was blown away. Okay they might not be Alannah Miles or The Proclaimers but I personally think my co-workers have talent and so do their relatives. Oh yes Leonard and Cassie I posted on my blog your awesomeness. I hope the sound works on these videos otherwise I may need to get a tutorial on how to make the videos have sound.

The evening went by way to quickly. Too much fun. You missed a fun evening Samara. I know you're reading this.

This past weekend David and I went to Fredericksburg to relax and have fun. 
We met up with our friends Pam and Kevin from Austin. That Friday night we hit Hondo's for a jalapeno margarita. 
Yep a jalapeno margaritas. First sip was like mmm maybe then you try another sip and realize this is good.  
Instead of fruit on the the cute little sword there was 5 jalapeno slices. I was skeptical at first but the jalapeno cuts the sweetness of the margarita. Bring on the heat.  What you don't realize is how strong they are until you stand up. Whoa.  I'll go back for another on our next trip.     
Saturday we did some Chrismas shopping and shopping for me. David had said he owed me a necklace for our anniversary so I was on a mission.  This is what he bought me and it's really pretty. My selfie doesn't do it justice. I love it. After he purchased it he wouldn't let me wear it. Said I had to wait for Christmas but you see here I got it once we got home and promptly wore it the next day.
We hit the food and wine festive at the veterans park after shopping but was slightly disappointed.  While there I found another necklace and earrings that I bought myself. Pam called me the turquoise lady after that.  What can I say I like turquoise.  After roaming around for a while we decided to head out to Comfort, Texas to the Bending Branch Winery. This was a whole new experience for our friends but they had a blast. 
When we walked in I saw Dana who is studying to be a Somebody. Okay she's already a somebody but she wants to become a Sommelier which I thought she already was. 
I had never heard the term until our Friends the Ragans introduced us to Dana. Not only does she know her wine she is a blast.  Actually the whole staff was a fun and informative.
It was a great afternoon tasting wine and then sitting out on their patio sharing a bottle of wine with friends.   
Pam hadn't drank this much wine in her life. She's a Miller Lite kind of girl.
The Staff made several suggestions for dinner and we ended up at a dive called Guenthers Creekside Grill in Comfort. We all had steak and it was so tender and juicy. They even had live music. Didn't get the guys name but he was pretty good and played a wide range of songs.
We weren't ready for the night to end so we went to Luckenbach in search of more music. Yahoo we were in luck we found Thomas Michael Riley playing. He's one of the Texas musicians we like to listen to. We might have worn Pam and Kevin out and kept them up past their bedtime.  Oops!  
 Sunday morning we all went out for breakfast at the Sunrise Grill on hwy 16. We all said our goodbyes and head off in our separate directions.
Before getting too far down the road David and I stopped at 

the Wildseed Farm.
It's always fun to see what they have growing. We love this place.





 I snapped some pictures in the Monarch Butterfly Garden of butterflies and flowers. Someone was walking by and offered to take our picture in front of the Esparanza's that were really tall and full of blooms.

 We went home the long way to go check out a couple of properties. No Luck. When we finally arrived home we were hungry and tired.
Pamela had come in to watch the dogs so after unloading the car and hugging the her and giving due attention to the Pups we went to grab a bite of Mexican food our favorite. 

After dinner Pamela asked if I'd help her create her Christmas wreathe. We got this far before going to bed. She had flowers for it but they were too big so she'll have to hit our favorite store Hobby Lobby to find the right size of flower. 

Until my next blog post............. I have never been convinced there's anything inherently wrong in having fun. ~George Plimpton~
PS: excusea any and all different fonts and sizes. I'm not sure what happened.  Very Very Annoying!



Monday, October 20, 2014

Beautiful Days... October

What a great way to start October....

with a beautiful weekend 



and awesome weather and I found lots of color around the yard this year. David has been busy beautifying our yard. 
 

And get this...
He hasn't been threatening to tear things out if they don't start growing.

That first Saturday of October we went to a co-worker of David's house warming. First let me say the Prudhomme's have a beautiful home. Beautiful. The weather was perfect. They had the glass doors all open from the den to the patio. I’m a loser I didn't take pictures and I should have because our hostess Silvia was giving me these awesome compliments on my photography and she realized she hadn't taken any of the party. The first time I was there they were still finishing the inside details. I thought it was beautiful and now with furniture and decor it’s even more awesome.  There might have been some folks who probably won’t remember much about the night but I do.
LOL. Not that there were any adult beverages involved. The host Larry was trying to be bartender and social which was difficult so my husband stepped in and played bartender. Scary thought. He was responsible for getting us home. He was a good boy though. Don’t get me wrong I didn't say he didn't take a couple of Fire Ball shots or drink a few beers but he did pace himself for the time we were there. He was very entertaining. It was a great evening.

There’s a piece of property across the street from them and they’re trying to convince us to be their neighbors. I had to laugh because being their neighbor would be a blast but I don’t know if any of us would get much accomplished besides have fun.  They are too much fun. The name of their property is “Bayou Ole”. What do you get when you cross a Cajun and a Hispanic….. You get a Party. These 2 folks complement each other perfectly. They are too cute. Who knows we’re still looking for something maybe we'll that property back on our 'possible' list.

Now to my dear friend who runs around her neighborhood in her nightie ..and no undies….everyone couldn't help but laugh at your predicament. I still giggle and shake my head when I think about your story. Yep it was definitely entertaining. At your expense of course.
My dad seems to be doing good considering all that he has been through. This picture is of Dad and my nephew Josiah. Josiah is his right hand man. He had to do a stress test a couple of weeks ago and got a good report. He had to have the medicine injected this time instead of running the treadmill. Yuck. I had to have one when I had my knee scoped because they heard a heart murmur which happens every time. I was not impressed with the procedure. I wanted to come off the table when the medicine started flowing. OMG. It didn’t hurt but did make me very antsy. VERY! but Dad said the only thing that bugged him was having to lay still for so long. The cancer is in remission but he has weekly shots and visits. He takes one day at a time and it seems it’s always with a smile. While I’m not up there I’m sure some days are better/easier than others but he keeps on going with a great attitude.

Our newest addition to the family seems to be adjusting just fine. She's enjoying the checking out of the back yard. 
 She was very reserved but loving that first 5 plus days… but this week has been a transformation. Lilley is getting used to all the new sites and sounds in our home. 
She and Dexter are fine together. She gives him plenty of space. He sleeps a lot in his old age.

Pamela and Sophie (Pam’s sheltie) came home and what a difference. 

Sophie and Lilley are running through the house and oh my… running break neck speeds in the backyard and around the tree.

It’s so funny.
Lilley is such a sweet, lovable and dainty little girl. I’m glad I decided to bring another dog into the family. She's decided to play with a toy Sophie drug out.

They trade off every so often and the chase begins all over again.

Here's a picture of mom and daughter.  Sophie on the left and Lilley on the right.





While Pamela was home we went to have our hair touched up and trimmed. She got more highlights and I got my usual low and highlights but I added some red. Pamela took this picture of me but of course I wasn't allowed to take her picture this little rat.




Pamela's last morning home she looked out her bedroom window and saw this guy eating breakfast. Before she get a better picture he took off.  

Now to brag on a friend of mine who is sew sew very talented whether she admits it or not. You can always check out Janet's blog to see what she is creating next. Janet is the one who built the big yellow bird house that I wanted but didn't win in the Guild Quilt Show raffle..... 
Well she's at it again. Back in March at retreat she found out ATC's. She made her first one back then and now she's on a roll.... 
 She sees something and she thinks "mmm I can do that" and she does.
Talented I tell you. That's Janet.






Then there's my friend Carol who sews all kinds of cute little girls clothing, hats, bows and cute towel sets for Payton's Boutique and finds time to teach sewing classes at a local Quilt Shop called Quilt Works. I wish I had a little girl to dress up in this little dress. I used to make clothes for Pamela when she was little but nothing this cute. That's been a few days ago.

I love having talented friends who can teach me new things or guide me in what I try to do. I need lots of guidance some days..... Plus I can write about them since they accomplish and complete projects unlike me. But guess WHAT I did finish a quilt top this weekend. Yes I did but I can't share it until it's quilted a Little Miss Logan receives. I hope I chose the right fabric for her. I think I did. She's the last little Bell Quad. She's waited patiently well her parents have. Soon very soon. Now I'm ready to complete a couple of other projects on my long list of "to accomplish/complete".


I'll share my fun from this weekend in my next blog. 


So until next blog...Just living is not enough, one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower ~Hans Christian Anderson~




Friday, October 3, 2014

OMG Really ..and.....Secret

Okay you see stories on facebook and go that didn't really happen. No Way. And have you ever laughed at someone elses misfortune. And all the time feel their pain but laugh all the same. Sadistic huh?
Well I got an email from a friend telling this story. Now I thought it was a joke but was informed "Nope that was my morning"
I will protect the innocent by removing the name mentioned and won't reveal my friends name.... Could I use this as blackmail? mmm 

Here's the email

OH MY GOD!!!! Was up a 6, made some tea and went out to get my papers and relax. Someone stole both of my newspapers...ok I will just watch the news and drink my tea (since this is the first day in a week I don't have to be up and be someplace early) I can not get the front door open to get back in the house!!! Neighbor across the street gave back key since they moved. Ones next door don't have one. Here I am in my night gown looking up and down the street and the only person I see is a new neighbor I had not met yet.  So I am chasing him down his driveway to see if I can use his phone to call husband who is out of town until Friday.  He has met  husband but not me (the crazy lady in her night gown)  I wanted the code to the big truck to see if I could just use the garage door opener that is built into the truck...NOPE too far to get a signal.   So I go over to the neighbors who bought our other truck ...which was also programmed with the code to open the garage door.  Drive the truck over here...Nope husband had taken the code out when he sold it.  Take the truck back to neighbors and she calls her locksmith that works on her houses.  So I walk back to my house (mind you still in my night gown/ no underwear/sunny about 90 degrees and about 100% humidity/you get the picture!!)  Then I realize I had forgotten my pedometer in the cup holder (didn't want to look stupid ??? With my pedometer clipped to the outside of my nightgown (since no underwear) SO I had to walk back over to the neighbors to get back into the truck to retrieve the pedometer since he was about to be leaving for work and I would have lost a whole day of steps!!!!!  Almost as bad as being locked out of the house!!!!!  So walk back to the house to wait on locksmith. What a picture...90 degrees, 100% humidity, night gown stuck to my body, no underwear, sweat rolling down my back and pouring out of my belly button and a cute locksmith shows up and he can't get the door open either!  We go around the house to the back porch to see if he could get in that way.  NOPE double bolted and the 2 kitties were no help couldn't reach up and open (or were laughing at us and saying No Way!)  back to the front door. It turned out the latch on the handle was just so dry it was just not moving so he shot all kinds of stuff in there and was finally able to get it open.  $70 and 2 hours later I am in the house drinking my now ice tea!!  
 The only bright side is that I had decided last night not to take a stool softener and  promised myself to just get back to drink lots of water today!!!!
Have a great day!
I will protect the innocent and not give away the name of the victim. Gotta love her and her predicament. It still makes me laugh.

So one of the reasons I started blogging was because my friend Linda from Linda's Life Journal encouraged me. Her daughter Amber the mother of quads started when she went across the pond and wrote of her adventures and then she blogged about her pregnancy with quads and now about their life being parents of quads. I watch those 4 little Babies grow up every time she or Linda blog. 
When I shared the above story with a co-worker she asked if my friend blogged too because she could with stories like that. So see MY Crazy FRIEND you should be blogging and you could share your quilting too.

Okay we're still on a mission to find the right property with or without a house. I almost thought I was going to be announcing we had found a piece of property but nope. Several people guessed/asked if we'd found a piece of property and if that was my secret. 
David thought he had found THE property. He was all excited and was almost ready to buy it sight unseen except for the pictures posted on the listing. He found it at like 3:30pm and by 5:30am it showed unavailable. WOW must have been good. So that won't be my secret to share. Not yet any way.

Okay so my secret is exciting to us and was a big decision.  Dexter now has friend. Not sure how excited he is. He checked her out but he's like big whoop and went over and curled up on he pillow. LOL  

He will be 18 years old this Halloween. 



Meet Lilley
She is a Sheltie
4 1/2 years old.
Her birthday is March 4. A day before mine so I guess us girls meaning me, Pamela and Lilley will celebrate our birthdays together. LOL

The breeder that Pamela got Sophie her little sheltie from keeps in touch and has let Pamela know before when she has older Shelties to adopt out. The breeder only breeds her shelties a certain number of times and then she adopts them out so they can have a normal full life. When they asked if I'd like this little girl I had said no but then the breeder threw in this little tidbit.........Lilley is Sophie's mom.
How could I turn that pretty face away:
Sophie thinks she is queen bee and drives Dexter crazy when she's home to visit. She's very rambunctious but ever so lovable. Aren't they all



Lilley is more calm and reserved right now. After she gets acquainted things could change but I'm not sure. Lilley is standing and Sophie is the one laying down.
If you're wondering if it was like a big reunion between mother and daughter ..... it wasn't.
They sniffed and touched noses but that was it. We'll see what happens next time between mother and daughter.

Hopefully I can catch a picture of all three of our babies together o Sophies next visit home.

Okay so you got a funny and you found out the big news.

So until Next Blog...“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand – and melting like a snow flake”
M.B. Ray