Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Happy Hour

It's summer which means my work schedule changes to 4  - 10 hour days with Friday's off. It's not so bad as long as we're busy but at the same time it seems like you just get home, cook, eat, and then get ready for bed. Not much time for anything else. My first 10 hour day was busy but just seemed long. David actually beats me home now and that first night handed me a Bloody Shiner and said "Maybe this will make it  a little better"
What's a Bloody Shiner? It's technically a bloody Mary.
Hill Country Distillery recipe
4oz of Zing Zang Bloody Mary Mix
1 oz of Jalapeno Moonshine
sqeeze of lime
dashes of Tabsco to your liking. Me I use 5-8
Add ice                    Yum........... So good

Thursday night I went to my book club meeting to discuss our latest book "A Man Called Ove" by
Fredrik Backman. At first I didn't know if I even liked the book but then there was something about Ove and about this book. Ove is a 59 year old man who doesn't seem to like people and everything was black or white. And he was always right or at least he thought so. He was alone and wanted to die. This believe it or not is a feel good book. It just doesn't start off as such. I was ready to strangle Ove. But there are twists and turns and I really liked this book. It's always a fun night when I get together with my fellow readers. It was a small group tonight. We had a great discussion and Cheryl fed us well.
Friday David was suppose to go to the farm and we'd meet at Pamela's on Saturday but things around the house came up so David changed his mind only I had made plans to head up to Pamela's and on the way I wanted to stop off at my friend Sandy's house to drop a card and gift in honor of her Dad who just passed. So I went ahead and went up Friday and David went up to the farm on Saturday and then came to Pamela's. Hazards of David going to farm by himself..... He was mowing under the big pecan tree and a branch caught him on the forehead and almost knocked him off the tractor. He's being banned from mowing under the trees when no one is around..  Once he got to Pamela's and before he got cleaned up he fixed Pamela's curtain that was pulling out of the wall all by
itself. Then when he was cleaned up we gave him his Father's day gifts. He got gift cards and Yeti like mug but the best gift was his t-shirt from Pamela. She couldn't resist. It got a good laugh. He wore it Sunday. Then we took him out to eat  at Casa Rodriguez in Bryan. It was pretty tasty. After dinner we headed home because I had to get up and cook breakfast for David and Joe for Father's Day.
 Oh and yes Lilley went up with me to play with Sophie while we did our thing. She loves playing with Sophie and her toys.  She even got to visit at Sandy's house when I stopped Friday. Now Charlie the cat was not happy about that because his furless Mom put him outside on the patio. Charlie laid right at the dining room window with his big eyes flowing Lilley's every move.  Especially when furless Mom gave Lilley a treat... You could just see the flexing claws. Poor baby Kitty. Yes I know I should have taken a picture of Charlie but I didn't have my phone on me. I'll have to give Charlie some special loves when I go back without Lilley.

Sunday I got up and made a breakfast casserole for David, Mom and Joe. They came down around 9:30am and hung out with us until around noon. 
They left just before the little rain storm blew up. It wasn't much of anything but dropped the temperature which was nice and while sitting there on the patio the wind picked up and the flowers on the crepe myrtles made it look like it was snowing.  We have them all around the back yard but this one was the easiest to see all the flowers blowing in the wind. 
I must get to my laundry, a quilt top for baby Hudson, and think about going to bed soon. Like I said the evenings are pretty short after working 10 hours.

Fun Fun
Until next blog....My life is like tofu—it's what gets added that makes it interesting. 




Monday, June 13, 2016

Soggy with a little Sunshine

I wanted to share this awesome picture my daughter took and shared on her facebook page. She was leaving work after her 3rd shift at the hospital. It looks like a painting. Do you see the piece of rainbow in there. This looks much nicer than the picture she shared last week. It was a video of a tornado that was less than a mile from her house and everything in College Station and Bryan was flooding at the same time. She's getting good at this photography stuff.
Those of us in Texas are getting pretty tired of this weather. We're all so soggy that the tree's are just pulling out of the ground. Trying to go any where is a trick because you never know what road might be closed due to flooding. Areas that have never flooded are flooding. A friend of mine wished for 6 months of sunshine but that would be a long time without rain. Mother Nature really needs to learn to spread out her weather rampages. And now it's hurricane season who knows what we can expect there. We haven't had a hurricane in a while now. Let's hope it's not our turn this year. Rain and More rain. Our yard is so soggy but David finally got to mow on Saturday. It was a very tedious job. The yard was tall and wet. There were areas he still couldn't mow. It rained Friday then again on Saturday and then again Sunday. Eventually we'll be wishing for rain but for right now we could use that break. At least a week or two to dry out.
Pamela is also loving how her backyard is coming together. She now has two bird feeders and hanging planters. She loves watching her fat little birds but she's finding out they could go through a bag of bird seed pretty fast but I think she's finding them entertaining. She can't wait to add more color to the flower bed and a tree in the middle of the yard. She just has to decide what she wants. She's learning what it takes to landscape from her Dad.
Well David is all about the Mini Mansion and the Rockin K so he hasn't really had time to drive or play with Mustang Sally since he bought her so he decided to sell her her.  Sold her within a week of placing the ad. wow. Her sales are gonna pay for some upgrades on the barn and the mini mansion. 
But have no fear we have a new toy... A golf cart. For now it will be great for going around the neighborhood and helping park the trailer on the trailer pad behind the garage. And then at the farm we can ride around the farm down the loop. Or be like one of our neighbors down the highway from the farm they ride on the shoulder to get to the loop to come check on their cows in a pasture across from us. Maybe I could ride it down the shoulder to the BBQ place. Maybe. Not so sure I'm brave enough to try that. Even Lilley likes to ride on it as long as I'm right beside her. 
After all this rain we've been getting check out my hitch hiker when I opened my tailgate on my highlander. Hope he don't move and get squished when I close it one day.
This past Wednesday night we headed out to go to one of the Bell Gang Guys 60th birthday. I got to wear a new outfit. Yep we're all getting older. After listening to some of the stories these guys tell about growing up I wonder how they ever lived long enough to see the age of 20. LOL. Some of the guys have actually known each other since they were 10 years old. Tom's family threw him a party at Kay's lounge off Bissonet. 
Here's the Birthday boy. Photo taken by his sister Erin. That was a huge German chocolate cake. I was a good girl and didn't eat any but everyone was saying it was delicious. It looked really tasty. It was a very pleasant evening. Several of the boys were there with there wives to help celebrate along with many other of Tom's friends.

Friday night David and I got our all we can eat catfish fix by driving out to Cat Springs. We had to cross the Brazos River in Hempstead to get there. Wow it's still high and it's been a couple of weeks since the big rains.  Normally you can't see it this easy going over the bridge. Anyway we met up with our friends Larry and Sylvia for fun and good conversation well and good food.While having a beer another couple walked in the door that we knew. It was Dean and his wife. The guys all work together. At least for now. The oil and gas business is a little scary right now and they aren't real secure in how long they'll have a job. It was the topic of the night at dinner. 
After 2 months of Pamela driving a rent car Honda finally called to tell her they had the parts to fix her air bag on her CRV so she needed some help getting cars dropped off so I headed up to Bryan to help her out early Saturday morning. 
 On my drive up I noticed what I thought to be new construction and then realized that it wasn't new construction at all. It was destruction by the tornado that went through Navasoto a couple of weeks ago. It had uprooted trees, buildings, signs and at least one home along my route. 
I held up my phone and just snapped some pictures as I drove hoping to capture something. 
Here's a couple shots of what I got. 

I do hope no one was hurt. This home always intrigued me. I hope they get to rebuild.  It was a site to behold as I drove down the rode for about a mile or two.

While in Bryan we went to lunch and did some shopping. I needed some shoes and had a gift certificate. 

For lunch we went to Madden's. It's kinda like a tea room in an
antique shop/building. I like meat but it's not always my favorite and they have an awesome southern fried portabello mushroom and that's what I got. Pamela got healthy and had the salmon with a cabbage base on a tostada shell. 
One day I'll have to branch out and try something different. One day.
It was a good day but it was time to head home before the rain started and it was gonna start
Oh and Did I mention that I've become addicted to the Bloody Shiner. It's a bloody Mary made with zing zang mix and Hill Country Distillery Jalapeno moonshine. Oh Yeah.  Even David is impressed I think. I had bought some V8 juice but it just didn't do the trick. The Hill Country recipe called for zing zang and it made the drink along with 5-8 dashes of Tabasco. I used to never like Tabasco. 

Well that's it....
Until next blog post..... 
Nothing lasts forever so live it up, drink it down, laugh it off, 

avoid the drama, take chances,
never have regrets*—and don't forget
to stop and smell the roses.