How July ended and what will August Bring

At night the furry family members go to bed sometimes before we do. We started them off in the crate and that's where they continue to go at night. They even open the door to the crate before we ever get in the room. In the past month Sadie has been getting very comfy. It cracks me up.  We can come in and neither one of them moves. Rarely but sometimes Sadie will wiggle her eye brows but she doesn't lift her head.  This has become her favorite sleeping position wherever she is. Upside down.

So summer break is almost over and my 2 friends from CyFair ISD hadn't made it up for a visit in quite a while so they decided to spend their last Friday off with me. They work 4 tens Monday-Thursday and get Friday's off. So Friday morning Tammie and Donna Marie arrived at my door.  We hung out at the house for a while and decided on a place to go have lunch. We ended up in Hearne at the Pony Express. It used to be the old post office now turned restaurant. Very tasty food.

I forgot to take a group photo so I made them send me a selfie.  LOL After lunch we drove on up the road about 45 minutes to Bremond where Tammie and her husband had a home built. For now it's their weekend get away or family gathering place. Cute Cute. I started taking a various pictures of the house but forgot to walk to the front of it to get a good picture of it. I'm getting bad about taking pictures.  mmmm. Anyway it was a fun time and a good visit.  They brought me back to my house and I hoped into my car to head to Bryan to pick up the grand pups.

On Wednesday the 26th Kelli (the other Kennedy from another mother) joined the gym that I go to so she could go work out with me and we'd keep each other accountable. We did good for our first time together. Now we must keep it up so my knee will continue to heal and she'll get strong and healthy. Hopefully I will too. LOL 

Kaleb and Pamela took the twins to the Guadalupe River in New Braunsfel to hang with their friends Marlaina and Josh with their boys at Marlaina's parents river house. Also there, was Kristina and her husband Ryan and their twin girls. Pamela said they had a blast just hanging out in the water and visiting with friends while the kids played. The first couple pictured were the hosts.

Pamela and Braxton

Kaleb, Killian, Pamela and Braxton.

Everyone looks happy.

This time all the pups got along great. Sophie being the oldest did get a little sassy when Sadie would swat a paw at her to play but Bri, Sadie, and Bruno played well together. They might actually get used to each other. LOL maybe. 

David turned on the patio fans and his big garage fan for the pups while we hung out with our friends Larry and Sylvia. They came to visit and we took them to Lake Belton to eat at the Dead Fish Grill.  Yes the name is something else but the food is really good. We hadn't been together to hang out since like last September maybe so it was time. We ate out on the deck over looking the lake but by the time we left the air had warmed up considerably. Their big fan wasn't much help this time. But we got our tummies full and got lots of visiting in.

From here we drove to Salado and the guys had a beer at Chupacabra. Sylvia and I had water. I found us a table in the middle of all the dogs. It's a dog friendly place. There was one that looked like Sadie and then a Rottweiler, a couple of Aussies, a husky, a big fluffy white dog. They were everywhere. And as long as the owner was okay with it Sylvia and I were loving on them all.   Great day! Hated to see it end but they needed to get home to their dogs too.

Monday July 31st was my last day at physical therapy. Insurance cut me off. My therapist threw the book at me. Well he didn't throw anything but increased the bike level on the bike, now that my knee will do the full rotation, he increased the weight on the leg press and curls, and he had me do my squats on an incline. He said it was my last day so he wanted to make sure I got the most out of it. Thanks. I think I've worked with every PT and intern there at one point or another. Advance Therapy in Bryan/College Station is great.  Even the office staff are super friendly and helpful.

I started with them in 2021 when my knee got so bad that I was using crutches and I came back this year after knee replacement. And when I do the left knee replacement I'll go back again I'm sure.  

So they called today 'graduation day' and I got a T-shirt before leaving.  She asked what size and I said a 2X but when I picked up Pamela and showed her the shirt she made me go back and get an XL. In my mind I'm still a 2 or 3X but I guess maybe not.  Well I'll be damned I can wear an XL..  It hugs the booty a bit but wow. I've cleaned out most of closet of the jeans and dress pants that are too big for now but I guess I need to clean out my shirts too.

I did lose 3 more pounds finally in the last week of July.  

My hair pulled back in a pony tail is so white it blends in with my design wall. LOL

Excuse the baggy shorts. I found them buried in a drawer. I haven't wore shorts in over 5 years. They may be fluffy but for now they're good for wearing around the house.

To the anonymous commenter who enjoys my blog Thank you for following along and your kind words. 

That's it for now.

Until next blog..     When you can't control what's happening, challenge yourself on how you respond.   That's your power ~

Shhh... Do you hear something... Nope .. Crickets

 Shhh... Do you hear something?... Nope .. Crickets.  I've been giving y'all a rest from all my craziness. LOL.

G3 -Gause Girls book club met up on Wednesday July 12th at East Bell Tap House in Rockdale. They serve beer, wine and seltzer. No Liquor. We met up to discuss our latest book "The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laua Dave.  The book is about Hannah who married a man of her dreams with a teenage daughter but He, Owen disappears with no explanation and his only message was "Protect Her"  Hannah couldn't understand so she and Bailey the teenage daughter set out to do their own detective work after the US Marshall and the FBI came around and questioning her.  What she learned was that she didn't really know the man she married but trusted him to know he wouldn't have left if he didn't have too. Everyone loved the book.   We all got up from the table and left. Got almost out of Rockdale when I realized I let everyone get away without a picture. Good Grief.  Next time

July has been rather uneventful. I've been going to PT 3 days a week with my chauffer, meaning David. I drove once at 4 weeks and then at 6 weeks I drove to PT a couple of different times and by 8 weeks David set this butterfly free. LOL. Riding and driving 40 minutes to Bryan and back again is plenty enough.  The knee starts to get uncomfortable. No pain just uncomfortable. Now the week of the 4th the clinic was closed a couple days which meant they had to cram all their appointments in 3 days. I only got to go one day but they threw every exercise at me that I've been doing since the surgery. My knee was exhausted along with the rest of me. This Friday was evaluation day.... First measurement was 102 degrees for the range of motion but while laying there I kept scooting my knee in and she remeasured.... 110 degrees range of motion. YAHOO! I did it. I'll keep working and maybe I'll get closer to the 135 like my left knee. I didn't think I'd get the 110 but finally. I go back to the surgeon Thursday the 20th which is 11 weeks out. Doctor should be happy.  I only have 4 more sessions left of PT that insurance will pay for so I'll continue working out at the gym closer to home. They re-activated my membership.  I might be on the mend.  I'm even back to sewing again. My knee tells me when I need to stop.

So I finished my niece's quilt for her baby girl arriving in August sometime.  My sister told me her theme was highland cows and I got lucky and found the fabric. Pamela helped me pick out the coordinating colors. I think it turned out really cute. 

My quilter Donna @ Donna's Lavender Nest picked out the quilting theme.  It's called Purple Meadow. It's not purple so I'm not sure how they came up with the name but you'll be able to see it in the close up photo here.  

I think the flower pattern looks great on the quilt. It went together really fast. It'll actually be to Emily before the baby arrives. YAY!  My niece has texted me that she loves the quilt. Winner.

While I was outside taking pictures I snapped a couple of my desert willow tree outside my sewing room on the north east side of the house. It has lots of blooms on it right now. The hummingbirds love it.  The freeze took out all my gardenia bushes but the Camilla bush is still going strong to the right of the tree in the corner. David just finished putting out over 24 yards of mulch and 2 pallets of the stones you see some stacked in front of the tree The rest are lining the beds in the front of the house.  He has been working and sweating his butt off in this 101+ heat. It's gonna be beautiful if he doesn't fall out first.

A couple of years ago I posted on FB marketplace that " If you bring the buckets and the shovel then you can dig up as many crepe myrtles you want from our pasture." Well even with folks digging them up by the truck full we still have 100's & 100's of these things growing. This group is blooming now.  There's others blooming but this is by our gate to the north pasture where I was taking pictures.  We need to get them out so the cows can have more grass to graze on. One day but for now they're pretty.

Up front David got us some new hanging baskets and new plants for our whiskey barrels.

This is the Moss Rose purslane. They open in the mornings but start closing as the day go on.

Next is an Ice flower.  The petals are feathery.

The same potted plants are hanging on both sides of the front porch.

In the whiskey barrels he put Flame acanthus along with some moss roses that he put after I took the picture. 

David has been a busy HOT bee. 

On the East end of the house David planted a Peggy Marten Rose climber with Russian and Texas Sage. Can't wait until they're all blooming and kind hide the propane tank, AC unit and the satellite dishes. He's plans on adding more smaller colorful plants around.  After he finishes planting he's going to work on the placing and leveling the stones. Wish I could convince him to wait until it's not 100 plus degrees out. 

I caught this pretty guy hanging out on our lantana.

And under our Belinda's Dream roses we had a volunteer marigold.

 Friday, 7/21 I had a nail appointment in Bryan. Pamela told me to come in earlier and I could go to her gym with her. So I did since I didn't have PT this Friday. She had told the girls that I might come so they had a workout routine already on the board for me. OH BOY!

I started with a warm up of lift a bar up, over my head 15 times then took 5# weights and lifted them 10 or 15 times over my head. Then we moved on to squats with the TRX straps, lunges and then pushing the box with a 25# weight on it up and down the studio twice... Then repeated that 2 more times.  Oh yes I was down after that. My knee wasn't happy on Saturday during the day.  To top it off that on Wednesday the therapist increased the weight on my leg presses to 135#. 

Today's (Monday 7/24) PT session went fine and I survived the new weights. I only have one more PT left so I'll be hitting the gym I joined on my own starting August 1st.

Kennedy's Night out

Saturday 7/22 called the other Kennedy's to see if they wanted to go out for dinner and they passed.  Then by the time we got in the car David's phone rang and it was Kelli going we're on our way if you haven't left yet. LOL  We waited on them. We ended up a place outside Rockdale called Apache Pass Steak House. The service was great and the food was tasty. No complaints from any of us.

That's it for now.

Until next blog...Happiness is an inside job. Don’t assign anyone else that much power over your life.

Still Trudging Along & Special Visitors

 Let me start with a Yahoo.  Went to my 8 week follow up visit with the surgeon Thursday 6/22 and he's not gonna hurt me. LOL. He had scared me at my 6 week visit that if I didn't get to a range of motion of 110 degrees that he was going to stick me back in the hospital, sedate me and manipulate my knee himself. Scared me to tears. I didn't get to 110 but he said 95 was a good start. He feels certain I'll get there or close to it by the 12 week visit.  I sure hope so because my knee wants to bend. But he suggested the physical therapist increase the intensity.  Yay not so much.

I wanted to do something for David on Father's Day even though we had celebrated the weekend before with Pamela and Kaleb. So I suggested I take him to lunch and maybe go to the Rising Sun Vineyards in McDade to pick up our wine. And off we went. We went to the winery first and ordered a drink. I got a Red Wine Sangria and David got a Watermelon Cooler. Both were very tasty.  We walked over to the event barn to get our wine bottles and apparently food. As members we got free food.   We were served a combo of brisket and pulled pork sandwich with a spicy mac n cheese with beans.  I ate what I could and passed the rest to David. He didn't decline. 

After we ate we walked outside to one of the picnic tables that was in the shade to finish our drinks. It was a bit breezier out there than in the barn. Because yes it was HOT everywhere.

So David got him some wine and we got feed but I still owe him lunch or dinner since this one was free.  Which he got the next day. I took him to dinner at El Charro in Cameron. 

Of course I can't post a blog with something about the pups. (Over sized lap dogs)  Well David tossed the ball down the hall toward the front door of which Bruno retrieved and promptly jumped onto the recliner arms. He literally straddled David by balancing on the arms of the chair. Can you see the yellow ball behind David's neck? Bruno dropped the ball on top of David's head and proceeded to give him kisses. Crazy dog.. Never a dull moment.

Friday, 6/23 I went to PT on my own. I've driven myself to PT about 3 times and I think David is ready to turn me loose. LOL. Anyway I had a nail appointment set up and I knew he wouldn't want to wait around for that. Pamela also had an appointment at the same time so we met up and she took me to lunch at a new place to me anyway. A place called the Taco Bar.

I ordered two street tacos. One was beef fajita and the other was shrimp. I was thinking since that they are small like they'd fit in the palm of my hand I could handle two. 

Nope, only 1 1/2 and basically even the half I ate. I primarily ate the shrimp inside.  They were very tasty though.  I'll go back again.  

Last week I got an email from one of my book club members letting me know the band she plays in would be playing Saturday, 6/24 at the Pony Express. I asked David if we could go and we did. Peggy is the drummer. When she plays with them the band name is known as the Southern Groove but when the regular drummer plays, the band is called the Road Kings.  Whatever the name the band is good. They played a lot of oldie but goldies. Really enjoyed listening to them. Thanks to Peggy for letting me know.

David loves to landscape. The Belinda Dream roses line the front of the house and have been blooming like crazy. I'll have to catch them blooming when they're fresh but I took this one of a single bloom. The heat is turning the petals brown semi quickly. 

Tuesday, 6/27 we had a special visitor, well several visitors. Our Godchild Michelle was in from Indiana visiting her parents and she came up for a visit. We got to meet her baby girl Eloise for the first time. She's even cuter in person.  Michelle, Eloise, Michelle's Mom: Gigi and her Abuela: Selma came to the farm for a visit.  They took Eloise out to feed the donkey, Jerry. I was working on finishing up lunch. I should have told David to take pictures.  I heard Eloise did a great job feeding Jerry and Jerry behaved himself too.  It was so great seeing them all. Pamela came up and joined us too. Gigi is Pamela's Godmother.

It was a wonderful day. 

Well I finished a quilt top and it's on its way to the quilter. I'll share pictures when it's done and the recipient has received it. It came out really cute and can't wait to share. 

It's been a year and almost 2 months since my bariatric surgery and I've lost 86 pounds. My goal is to lose another 70 at least. I've hit several plateaus along the way but I'm still working on it. I've hit one now in fact and I'm sure it's due to not walking like I was at the gym. I hope to go back to the gym in the next few days. I'm doing PT 3 days a week but that's mostly for trying to get my range of motion back since my knee replacement. I'll start slow at the gym but they have a few of the same machines at the gym that I can use to help continue those knee bend exercises plus try to walk on the treadmill. Not sure what my knee will think of that but I'll find out. And maybe just maybe I can get off this plateau.

Now off to start another quilt top.

That's it for June.

Until next blog....A quilt is something you make to keep someone you love…Warm!

Landscape, Quilts, and Family

 Hello friends and family

I may get back into the swing of things yet. 

First I want to let the anonymous commenter about my red and white rose is called Scentimental.  Mine doesn't appear to have long stems but I'm happy with it either way. LOL  My first bloom on my rose.  Can't wait for more.  

To my 2nd anonymous commenter on the Doctor, taxes and Chaos post. LOL, you're right no one died and we're all healing up just fine. I understand about the working and dealing with chaos. I was trying to work when my mother's dementia started along with her being paranoid about things while my step-Dad was out of town.  I'd get a call and I'd drive about 40 miles to my Mom and get her settled down. We all do what we have to. Family. It's just me for my Mom.

Recently Pamela's friend Spenser posted a picture of her boys on facebook and I noticed the quilt they were laying on. It's the one I made for her oldest boy Ellis.  Awwww. I believe he has gotten taller than the quilt these days. Emmott is the baby. It's nice to see her using the quilt. That's why I made it. Didn't want her to put in a closet to keep safe. Makes me happy.

We have a big couch and Bruno was taking up most of it but Sadie found the smallest spot to curl up right behind him. LOL   And then she wanted to turn upside down. She's a mess.

Pamela and Kaleb have the boys this month for a couple of weeks. So they took them to the Brazos Expo Center last weekend for the Dinosaur Expo. The boys had a blast.

They were dressed to for a dinosaur exploration..    They were sure about this dinosaur.  They kept looking back at him to make it wasn't trying to get them.

But they had lots of fun!

And that's the important thing.

On June 8 I had to go to my surgeon for a 6 week follow up. Yay. Knee is healing but it's not wanting to bend the required 135 degree range of motion.  I got it up to 100 but doctor wants 110. And as time has progressed the best I've done is 97 lately. So I'm not looking forward to the next visit if the knee doesn't perform properly.  The doctor has told be he would put me back in the hospital and put me out so he could manipulate the knee.  This way he can break up the scar tissue that keeps building up.  Sounds peachy. NOT! I've got two more PT sessions but they're not looking promising.

After our doctor visit we went to find something to eat and ended up in Old Town Spring at our old stomping ground, Puffabelly's. We used to go there to see and listen to Davin James and his various guest.

The place has changed inside but the food was still very tasty.  

Miss going there on Thursday nights for live up close music.

My youngest niece, Emily that I used to call the Tiny Dancer is expecting her first baby. Living in Texas means that I don't get back to Missouri so easily or often. But my sister & Emily shared pictures from the baby shower.  At least I get to live through the pictures.  

       

Recently I went to lunch with my neighbors Linda and Gloria. They came to pick me up since I haven't been driving. When we walked out Linda teased David that he was slacking because these pots had dead plants in them.  She started laughing. She said that he always has the prettiest landscape around. She told me that if she tried to landscape like this they'd have to be plastic and with the Texas heat they'd probably melt. LOL.. So after that David went and bought plants to put in the pots and at this time he has put out multiple yards of mulch. He just went and got another trailer full to finish off all the flower beds. Then he plans to start spreading it.

Tuesday, June 13th the Gause Girls had our book club meeting at Cameron Beer Market in Cameron. Only 6 out of 12 members could make it this time but life does happen.  It was a great place to meet. We could hear everyone's comments and the food was yummy.   Our book this month was Blowback by James Patterson.  Starts semi slow and then it explodes into action. One crazy president with an agenda and ready to push the Red button. Every Chapter seemed to end with a cliffhanger and you couldn't stop reading or listening. We all really liked the book and would recommend it.

So the quilting bee I go to suggested that we all make a log cabin quilt using a fabric of our choice if we didn't want to use Kaffe Fassett fabric. Well I have lots of the fabric so I decided to use it. I think I have enough cut to make another smaller quilt. We'll see. This line of fabric all works well with each other and I made mine very scrappy. The block, the setting triangles and the binding. It's bright and colorful. And I finally finished it. My friend Donna Lynn at Donna's Lavender Nest quilted it with a quilt theme called Double Bubble. I love it. I made a simple triangle label for the back. This one I'm keeping.

   

David drove me into PT early the other day so we could stop at a garden in Bryan called the Idea Garden so I could take pictures of my quilt.

That's it for now. 

Soo until next blog post..    "I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve." ~ Montesquieu