Getting Healthy? New Life, Reading and Old Friends

 Thursday (6/12) The day started with an exercise class taught by Sheri one of the book club memebers. We meet Tuesdays and Thursdays. She's kicking our butts but hopefully it'll make us more fit and stronger. Right Sheri? She hears lots of groaning and moaning when she says 30 more seconds and we think it's the longest minute ever already.  I wonder if she's rigged the timer. Just kidding.

I get home and start picking things up and when I look out the back door something catches my attention. A cow! Imagine that but she has a tiny cow with her! Oh wow we have a new baby calf and it's Momma's first one. 

Momma seems to be taking good care of baby. Yay she's going to be a good Momma. 

I run outside and holler at David  'Did you know we have a new calf?'   He didn't. We had no clue she was pregnant. New calves are fun to watch especially when they get the zoomies.

Book club time. . This month G3 met at Pony Express in Hearne to discuss our latest read "The Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles. It was a rough discussion this month. LOL. People were busy, in a funk whatever but I ended up being the only one who read the entire book so the discussion was one sided but that's okay because the 9 of us present had a great time. The food and the service was great.

The book wasn't bad and it did get better about half way through. The book is about the life of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov. He wrote a poem back in his college days and now years later it was offensive to Stalin and the government so the Count was put under house arrest in a luxury hotel for almost 3 decades. The Count accepted his predicament and during this time he found friendship, love, and purpose. 

Friday(6/13) Samara got a group of us from CFISD technology together. Some of us retired, some moved on and some still with Cyfair. I hadn't seen most of them since I left in 2018. Hard to imagine it's been almost 7 years. We met up at Lupe Tortilla's in Cypress. Lots of fun, good food, great company, good service and lots of catching up. Thanks Samara for getting us together. It was fun seeing everyone and catching up.  Even Barb joined us. 

 

Hopefully we can get together again before summer is over.

On Saturday (6/14) David and I did a road trip. We left here and our first stop is a country quilt shop outside Hearne but it's address is Bryan. Bryan reaches way out here. Anyway I went to a shop called The Railroad Cotton Exchange.  

Now they are currently only open the 2nd & 4th Saturdays of the month but they are working on setting more hours. The first picture is one of theirs taken of some of the fabric and this next picture of my purchase. Small cute shop and the ladies are super friendly.  

Our next destination was the Waco Winery but first I told David I'd buy lunch but he had to pick. I already knew what he would pick... BBQ. But I didn't know where so I was surprised when we drove to Mart and we tried a new place called Victorian BBQ on Main in Mart. It's sold by the pound so you get as much or little as you want. I almost got a smile out David. LOL. He claims he was worried about food stuck in his teeth. I call BS on that.

We had Brisket, ribs, Cajun corn, cucumber n onion salad.  It was all really tasty good.  I think my fav was the ribs but I'm with David I want to go back and try the tri-tips and chicken next. And I want to try the mac n cheese if he has it when we go back.  Joey Victorian is the pitmaster.  He's on Pitmaster Season 2. I saw some of the clips and now I can't find them to share. I know it's on Netflix. 

The decor on the walls was pretty cool too.

  

We definitely have to go back to this place.

After getting 

From here we headed to the Waco Winery on Hwy 6. I didn't get any pictures but I'll say that the wine was tasty. We both got a bottle of wine we liked. The inside was nice but the outside area needed to be more inviting with some much needed shade and the entrance needed to be more announced. Driving down Hwy 6 you have never know there was a winery there. The only indication is if you google wineries near me and once you find the driveway, there were a 1 1/2' wooden wine bottle cut outs on each side of the gate. Not really big enough to see if driving 70mph going south on hwy 6. They need a flag sign or bigger sign closer to the highway.  The ladies there were super nice and like I said the wine was tasty. Both dry and semi sweet.  Currently they don't have any vines so purchase their grapes from High Plains I believe. They lost their vines in the freeze. We enjoyed our time there chatting with the ladies but it was time to head home.

On the way up we noticed plenty water along Hwy 6 from flooding creeks. From the Mart area and further north the creeks were covering lots of the pastures. This area has gotten lots more rain than our area has. Dang it.

We celebrated Father's Day at the farm. Kaleb, Pamela, Braxton, Killian and Bri came up. We had lasagna, garlic bread, salad, apple crumble pie with blue bell ice cream.  It was a great day.  David and Kaleb were the stars of the day even if they were both ornery. LOL. Bri got to play with her cousins Bruno and Sadie. Our fur babies are family.

The raised flower bed is thriving. A new color pops up ever so often.  

It's a tradition that when the boys have to go feed Jerry carrots. That definitely makes Jerry a happy boy.  Fat and sassy especially since the grass is still green since we have had just enough rain to keep things green.

As you can see  Killian eats at least a bit of every carrot before passing it on to Jerry. LOL

Then it was time for a game of toss and tug of war.  I'm not sure who was more tired,,,, the boys or Bruno but I know they all had fun.

That's it for now.

Hope everyone is staying cool and healthy.

Until next Blog post...The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." ~ Mark Twain

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