Country Life and loving it.

Whew.. I'm tired and I haven't been doing that much. This post may be all over the place. LOL. When all you do is go to PT and some errands and your knee screams at you.  The pain has subsided to a mild annoying ache and no pain meds needed. I have also gotten 4 hours of sleep at a time. I was waking every hour uncomfortable then I made it 2 hours, then 3 and now 4. 4 hours makes for a happier Carla. Probably David and the Dogs too. But I'll be damn if my sleeping didn't go back to waking up every hour or two.  My range of motion has gotten up to 80 degrees so that's another plus. My PT massaged the muscle around the incision hoping to help loosen things up. We shall see. Cross your fingers. I use the cane after PT but most of the time it hangs on a chair in the kitchen.  I have to concentrate to walk normal and bend my knee. Otherwise I tense up and I walk stiff legged. 

David shared a story about our wild fur child Sadie. She loves the cows and she seems to have a connection with the one I call Woolly Bully. Woolly Bully is at the fence with Sadie barking at him. He doesn't move and one of his horns is sticking through the fence and Sadie literally begins to gnaw on it like a chew toy. Neither one of them were fazed.  Just another day around here.

When I got home from knee surgery I went to sit in my recliner and David begins to build a fort around me so the dogs wouldn't jump on me or my knee. This was my view...

David came in from the front yard saying we lost one of our little trees in the front. How, Why? Apparently it must have had a split in the tree and when we had the freeze it split the tree further and the tree finally lost it's fight in the wind storm we had.  Same thing happened to Pamela's tree in her backyard that had been there for a couple of years. Dang.

David has already replaced it with another tree that he had bought for another location but he decided it was needed here instead.

The farm always supplies us with surprises and new visitors.  David was cleaning off the outdoor kitchen and working in the flower bed outside my north sewing window and saw this nest in the Camelia bush. He watched and it's the eggs of a red bird.  Fun. Only problem is I haven't been in my sewing room since my surgery so I never saw anything happen and when I looked yesterday the nest was destroyed.  Sad.

When David walked around off the patio he found another creature staying cool in my flower bed.  LOL Sadie.  

A couple weeks out from surgery our little book club G3 in Gause was meeting and I couldn't join Dang it.  I could hardly sit in a car for anytime without being uncomfortable so going to dinner and sitting in a hard chair for a couple of hours discussing a book did not sound fun. So I put my co-heart in crime Kelli in charge while I sat at home. Bah hum bug. Kelli did a great charge getting the discussion going for our book Dreamland by Nicholas Sparks. And she wrote up the book and meeting review. Who doesn't like a good Nicholas Sparks book?  This book was about dreams, 2nd chances, and mental health. The book followed Colby as he took a break from the farm to chase his dream of being a musician. He was talented, caring and honorable. Then it jumped to Betty and her young son running from an abusive husband/dad.  It was a good book and it tied up all loose ends. Ahh Kelli let everyone off the hook and they didn't take a group picture. Bad girls. LOL  That's okay... I hope to be back in June and I'll take pictures, the little brats. LOL

So about 3 1/2 almost 4 weeks after the knee surgery I felt like doing something constructive. I managed to sweep all the floors with the dust mop and use the vacuum on the area rugs. That pretty much finished me but I could sit and do some handwork. I mended some pants for Pamela and mended her Tiger who developed a couple of holes. And best of all I put the binding on a small quilt that I had just gotten back from the quilter. My sweet friend put the binding on and I just had to do the handwork to finish the binding while sitting in my recliner and icing my knee.

This little quilt is 42"x43". Perfect for a baby boy. The fabric is bears and trees and the quilting them is called woodland creatures with deer, trees and bears.  

And this is the backing. This quilt does not have a home so if you're interested in buying it. Make a comment or send me an email and I'll let you know the price.  

I need to get better so I can start on a couple of girl quilts for 2 new great nieces that will be arriving later this year. I may be running late. 

I was scrolling through this site that I shop at periodically so I could buy the boys a truck to play with.  I had bought myself a red and yellow one but they like blue and green. When they come up to play at the house next time they'll each find a truck in their favorite color. The truck doors open and close. Plus I found plates that will suction to the table surface. They came with a fork and spoon but they can eat with regular utensils if they like, but I thought the plates were cool.  One is a grey blue and the other green. mmm Favorite colors. 

This is just crazy. Gause sits on Hwy 79 between Hearne and Milano there's no creek or river near by but we've getting a fair amount of rain this year and on May16th we got rain that actually flooded the town. It's literally the wide spot in the road. 79 goes from a 2 lane to 4 lanes when you go through Gause. Thanks to a neighbor, Tammie,  who lives on the other side of the tracks from the town who took these pictures I can share the high water. This is crazy.  

To end the blog for the month... Here's our two 70# lap dogs who are waiting for their furless day to come back inside and trying to look so innocent. Yeah right.   And a picture of the grand floofs Bri and Sophie. Pamela called and asked if I'd stop by the house after PT because she thought she had dropped her chocolate chip cookie on the floor so she wanted to make sure the girls were okay. And as you can see they are just fine.  Come to find out Kaleb ate her cookie that's why she couldn't find it in her lunch bag. LOL.

That's it for now.  Off to ice the knee.

Until next blog post.. Even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, in their own way can turn on a small light in a dark room...  From the movie "Small Light". Story from Anne Frank

Finally Part 2 of retreat and a status update.

I know it's taking forever. LOL But Knee replacement got here before I could finish....  

Elly took these squares and turned them into a beautiful top.  I think this is the biggest top she's sewn since she joined our group of quilter bee's. 

It turned out beautiful.

Anna was working on a modern wedding ring type block. Love the scrappy look.                               Connie was working on blue and white quilt blocks.   

Pat finished up her basket weave top. At least that's what I'm calling it. And Jane finish up a cute Jelly roll top. Love the colors.

 

Donna Marie finish her top up. She started it a couple retreats ago and now it's completely done. 

She also finished the back to her round robin quilt from 2018 I think.  The stripe down the middle were some left over blocks.

Kim R. was working on some cute cute bunny blocks. Sew cute

Jane finished up some reading pillow bags. Too sweet.                                                        

Our Friend Donna Lynna made these clappers to sell. You iron your seam and place this wooden block on top and it helps give you a nice flat seam. She had different handles on each one.

Bekki was working a jelly roll bag. It is so cool. Lots of work went into this bag.

Connie made a new bag.  Anna showed us how to make this bag a few retreats ago and Connie made one but gave it away so she made a new one. Very Pretty.

One of Diana's projects.  She put some work into this one and had wash it with color stain catchers. The red bleed into the white.

Donna Kim was determined to finish this top and succeeded.  Came out great.

Several of the ladies escaped on Wednesday evening for a margarita or two. Some came back happy.   Lol. No names released here. 

We played a game of Left Right Center on Wednesday sometime before the margarita's. Several retreats ago Vicki got fancy and did her money in origami shapes. And now they show up at every retreat.  Vicki and Donna Marie are the only two I believe that have gotten fancy with their money. LOL Everyone has a favorite at the games. We started playing with $1 bills so the ladies could spend their winnings on fabric or crafts. Whatever floats their boat.  We have a heart with a bow, a turkey, a dog, candy I think, and a fox. The Fox or was it a cat, was the winner this time. LOL

Just when you think you're out you could become a winner and that is just what happened to Kathy.  

      

Snapped a picture with Kathy and Connie.

You know it's hard to capture a picture of 20 ladies. LOL Jane's sister Donna Christian stopped by for a quick visit and took some pictures for us and then I jumped out and put her in the picture.

What made it more fun was the wind. 

Now look how good everyone one did when Donna Christian jumped in.  LOL

Before we knew it our time together was up. Even though the choice of food being primarily carbs, it was pretty tasty. But we would have preferred a more balance choice of meals. You live and learn.

Everyone was out of the retreat by noon. Folks were trying to beat the rain.

I got home and the stormy weather hit a few hours later and a tornado hit just down the road. Our neighbors were shaken but safe but all their outer buildings were destroyed. It's crazy how tornados work

Our electricity went out at 7pm when the tornado hit down the road and didn't come back until the next morning at 5:30am.  ugh.

When I got up I went to work on finishing my scrappy Kaffe 
Fasset Log cabin.  It's at the quilters now.

Have I mentioned how much I love these ladies I quilt with.

The prizes I came home with from several or all of the ladies. Bekki embroidered my a wall hanging and Donna Lynn made me a heart shaped zipper bag. The ladies gave me a gift card, an African violet that so far is still alive, pin cushion, book mark, finger nail file, handmade bath scrub, lip balm and truck pincushion, a beautiful hand crafted card from Robin with a gift card. I don't know how I got sew blessed with these ladies.

And thanks to several of the ladies who provided door prizes. Our retreats couldn't be without y'all.

Health update: David is doing fine since his heart cath and scare. Now he has been my care giver since 4/26 when I got my knee replacement. I'm on a walker until PT thinks I'm strong enough to move to a cane and so forth. My PT started 2 hours after surgery. I ended up staying two nights in the hospital because I kept getting dizzy but doing okay now. I continue to do PT 3 days a week in College Station. Went to my 2 week follow up and the doctor says my incision is healing up nicely and my progress is where it should be. I have lots of swelling of course around the knee but that's to be expected. I have 8 weeks to get the range of motion from 60 now to 130. Yikes.  David is an awesome awesome caregiver. I've even lost another 8 pounds since surgery. Another win.

Joe, my stepfather got a thumbs up on his pacemaker surgery and can now have this eye surgery but he's on his own since I still can't drive.

He got mom placed in a home in Conroe finally. I haven't got to visit yet but will as soon as I can drive the 2 1/2 hours there. Right now just riding in the car hurts.  Joe said Mom did seem content when he's gone to visit. 

Once we get me moving better it'll be time to get David fixed up. Between his knee, his shoulder and even the hand he had surgery on, he needs some loving care.

Well that's it for now. I've been sitting in my office chair for 25 minutes and my leg is telling me about it.  Hugs to all.

Until next blog post....Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings, and emotions.