Is 2020 over yet?

Nope 2020 is still here for a few more days. I've noticed this year when I have ventured into a store, restaurant, or doctors office.... People are actually saying have a Merry Christmas and I love it. No more stumbling over words and happy holidays. It's Merry Christmas.  Thank you world. Well at least in Bryan/College Station. I know there's all kinds of celebrations out there for the season and if you tell me you celebrate Hanukkah or whatever then I will gladly wish you Happy Hanukkah or whatever. I don't mind the Happy Holidays but I just like hearing Merry Christmas for me. 

On December 13th David hollered at me to come outside and bring my camera. Well at that moment my shot a pain up and down my leg so I didn't make it out.  He comes in and tells me I missed a great photo opportunity. I had sat down in the closest chair.  But luckily enough my neighbor across the road Jamie Brown did take pictures. Check out her pictures that turned out great.

  

Between the fog and colors. Wow. 

Thanks Jamie for letting me share your awesome pictures. Several folks in the area caught some great shots. My picture taking has been limited with my messed up knee so I'm depending on others.

Went to Bryan to take Lilley for a spa day with Sophie and Bri. They smelled all clean and was brushed out.  Our pretty girls.

Lilley

Brianna 

Last but not least Sophie.
Thanks for the great service and photos Top Paw Pet Spa.
On Tuesday I had a follow up visit with my family doctor and then a nail appointment.  Just a little boost toward a Merry Christmas. Party nails.

Next day I get a text with " zoom in on the hand".  What my niece turns 21 one day and then she's engaged. How exciting!

On the 18th I had to go back into Bryan for an MRI finally for my knee. I get there and while waiting the clerk comes out to tell me that the Abbott Tech for my pacemaker ran into an issue and won't be there until 3pm. It's now 11 am. Awesome but no way was I gonna wait for them to reschedule. It took over a month to get this appointment so I said I would run (well not really run) some errands and come back at 3pm. Having a pacemaker so early in this game means I have to have a special tech to adjust my pacemaker. In my case they didn't turn it off but speeded it up to 85 beats a minute.  Which wasn't so bad since I was laying down and breathing deep slow breaths.  While I was in the MRI the tech spoke with my Heart Rhythm doctor about some issues I was having getting used to my new heart rate of 60 BPM. So after the MRI he set my pacemaker down to 50 BPM for now. I'll be re-evaluated at my next appointment in late January. 

The MRI results were being sent over to the doctor that moment which was almost 4:30pm.

When I pull in the driveway I notice our Aggie snowman wreath was on the front door. And when I walked into the house I saw my Charlie Brown Tree that David put up. I haven't been the jolliest of people lately so he thought he cheer me up.  It definitely made me smile. And I might have shed a couple of tears. Too sweet.

He even wrapped a couple presents.   

That weekend we agreed to watch our fur grand dogs. Never a dull moment when they are around.  Pamela went to Cypress to celebrate her best friend Marlaina's birthday with Marlaina's husband Josh. Fun Fun...

The next night Pamela met up with her cousin Kevin and his fiance Alyssa for dinner and go see their new house. Sounds awesome. So happy for these two.

Then on Monday Pamela met up with a high school friend Rochelle who was in from California for Christmas with her family.

Pamela had a full weekend. 

Oh regarding my Knee... The ortho called on Monday the 2st to tell me I basically had tons of arthritis and a torn meniscus. A knee replacement would be my next step but not now but I have to wait until mid January for a surgeon consult. Really?! I've been like this since November 3rd. 

So I got on the phone and called our orthopaedic surgeon we used in Spring. They had an appointment the next day. I was able to get copies of my x-rays and MRI on CD to take with me.    I drove to my appointment the next day. This doctor said I will need a replacement but not now it's too soon after my pacemaker implant and he'd like to try an injection of gel that will cushion my knee and hopefully provide relief.  Until the shot he gave me some pain pills.  He got insurance approval and Wednesday the 30th I'll get said injection. Wish me luck.  

Christmas arrived very quietly. Usually I'm up prepping the house and food for all David's family to come up but since I'm having a hard time standing for long plus the Covid stuff we decided that everyone should celebrate on their own.  Plus it's David's birthday. He had to put up with just me. I posted these pictures with these words on FB. 

"You've come a long way Baby. You arrived on December 25, 1955. You were a big brother, (I want to find the picture of him and his siblings when they were much younger but didn't find it )

 

you got married,

 

 

and you became a Dad.

You were a member of a gang. AKA Taco Bell Gang. LOL

You told me numerous times you'd never make it to 65. Guess what you made it!

You never dreamed of buying acreage, building a red house,

drive a (pinK) tractor, have 16 cows, and

an ornery but charming donkey. 

But here you are.  HAPPY 65th BIRTHDAY DAVID. I LOVE YOU

Not long after the FB post he checked on me and gave me a pain pill that the ortho in Spring issued and left me to sleep but instead I got on snapchat and sent him this. He was out in the barn when he got it.

We celebrated Christmas with Pamela on Saturday. She had to work Christmas Eve and Day. Not many pictures taken but here's a couple. I wouldn't take a pain pill because I wanted to drink the homemade wine and sangria that our friends John and Kelli Kennedy made. It was soooo good.  Brianna decided her furless Grampy needed some loves. 

Santa was very good to me, Pamela and David. I don't think any of us can complain. LOL  We didn't have a traditional dinner this year. Instead we had Lasagna, Texas Toast and a salad.  I did sit at the table and made a recipe for easy tarts from Hilary Duff shared on Home and Family. Pamela put them in the oven.  They came out real tasty. I'll try to remember to take pictures of the next batch. 

Hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas and Has a Happy New Year! I know everyone is hoping 2021 is better than 2020.

Until next blog....May this holiday season be filled with laughter, joy, peace , toilet paper and masks.

 

Are we having fun?

     I'm on this FB page called  Texas Birds and Butterflies and a lady name Mary Lloyd Richards posted these  awesome pictures of the Eastern Bluebirds in her yard in Kurten Texas.  It's not far from the Rock'n K actually. Now I have 3-5 flying around here sometimes but I've never seen this many at one place and time.  

She had 20 at one time at her birdbath.  She caught 14 of them in the picture. I asked her permission if I could share the pictures on my blog and she said yes. Aren't they beautiful. Thank you Mary for letting me share.   

On the 5th of December I met up with my book nerd friends of 23 years and 11 months. LOL. That's a long time. We share the love of reading. This meeting was about our latest book "Dear Edward" by Ann Napolitano. This is a picture of club founder, Jan. She shared her home for this meeting. It was big enough we could social distance except for our group pictures. Love these girls and our books we read. Well 99% of the books. LOL.  This book was one of the 99%.  It took a while to understand the reason for the title. Finally it became clear. I won't share any more than that so I won't spoil it in case any of you readers want to read it. Being in this group we read books that we may never have read if someone in the group hadn't picked it.Our next book is "The Pale Faced Lie" by David Crow. I got it on audible and I will start listening as soon as I finish a book called "The Dry Grass of August" by Anna Jean Mayhew. It's not a book I would have picked up to read but I started listening to it as a recommendation from a blog I follow called Jo's Country Junction.   I'm really liking the book. It wasn't at all what I expected. 

Not much happening around here lately. I've been having issues with my right knee since November 3rd. Got a steroid shot and no relief. Finally this Friday (12/18) I get to have an MRI to see what's going on. I hope they can figure out what's wrong and can get me fixed up.  It's hard getting around. It only hurts when I walk. Image that. I'm using one crutch to try to get around and it does help some.  The maddening part is I didn't fall or anything. I'm ready to feel good with no more issues in 2021 please, I'd be thrilled for it to fixed before the end of 2020. 

I Love how my sister in law celebrated her 60th birthday recently.  

This is great. One year her friends hung up a whole lot of bra's in her trees. I think it was for her 40th or 50th and the sign read something like "We're here to support you"  Love it. Now that was a sight to see. But this is pretty good. 

This is Glenda and her man, Thomas. They make a cute couple. She's like Pamela and I, she celebrates for days. Yeah it's the only way to go.

I'm working on 2 quilts to finish off my year. These 2 make 8 quilts this year. Not bad for me who used to just buy the fabric and never sew. LOL. I'll show case them all off in a latter blog. 

Hope everyone is safe and warm. That's it for now...

Until next blog post...Never let yesterday use up too much of today.-  ~ Will Rogers 

 

Aww Come on....and Rock n K news

Back on November 2 I was driving out to go to a quilting bee I joined that meets now in Cameron and had to stop and check out our new Welcome sign that David got hung up.

Looks pretty cool. We had bought this sometime when we'd been in Fredericksburg together. Love it.

As I was driving on out I hollered to David that Rose and her new calf were up front now and then I realized that it wasn't Rose and the calf was brand new. #2 Maddie just had her calf.  

The calf was still wet and so cute. This makes number 5. We now have a heard of 16. Dang.   We will need to start reducing that number. Won't be able to feed everyone when we only have hay to feed them.

 

I guess Ferdinand did do his job.

I got to bee and set up next to my friend Kim. I had to take a picture of her stuff drifting over into my space. It's a running joke from the retreat. Her stuff kept drifting into Donna Marie's table. So I sent the picture to Donna Marie showing her Kim is still up to taking over all the space she can get.  You know I love you Kim if you're reading. 

Right after retreat I needed to mail a letter and decided to drive back by this old building I saw when David and I went to eat at the Dutchtown cafe. The cafe was very tasty and prices were very

reasonable. I like old buildings and sometimes wonder about the history behind them. I snapped
this picture of it and I have emailed Cameron's Chamber of Commerce to see if  I could find out the history behind the building. No answer yet but here's the picture.

Pamela went to Houston to celebrate with Marlaina's oldest boy Thomas for his 5th birthday and stayed the night to hang out with her long time friend Marlaina and a mutual friend Kristina for a girls night.  I do believe they had a good time.

While she was gone we babysat the fur grand-babies. 

Then She left them with us again the following weekend while she and some of her nurse friends went to Fredericksburg to relax and unwind. 

While the fur babies were here I worked on a aggie christmas throw for Pamela. I had it all up on the design wall as I finished each block. Well Bri must have brushed her fluffy tail across the design wall and knocked a block on the floor.  I guess she decided if it's on the floor it's fair game. I didn't notice right away since I was sewing and when I turned around with the next block

 I saw Bri chewing away. Thank goodness I had extra fabric and was able to make a new block, What a brat! And I finished the top that weekend so I could send it to the quilter along with another quilt top I finished but can't show it yet.  It's a gift.

      

Okay I haven't been an early riser much of ever but capture a picture of the tree David planted a year or 2 ago and it's telling us it's fall. I should have taken the picture a week ago but I didn't but it's leaves are very red.






The weekend of the November 14th marks 30 days since the pacemaker implant and I can now raise my left arm above my shoulder. Yahooo

That means I got in and washed my hair with 2 hands, dried it and actually curled it.  Right now the scarring is minimal.  I wasn't sure what it was gonna look like.

Considering this is how it looked earlier.  As time passes I'm sure it will fade even more..  

 So for the title 'Aww Come on' .. Just when I'm thinking everything is all good my right knee started acting up. And the answer is 'no' if you're thinking of asking if I fell and hurt it. I was thinking it was arthritis but nothing is helping. Even got a steroid shot. Got relief that afternoon due to the numbing meds but nothing since. One day it was so bad I pulled the crutches but those things are such a hassle. But I had to wait 7-10 days to give shot a chance but nothing. So now I wait for an MRI but that is an issue with a pacemaker scheduling. Go figure. I had to wait 45 days, and a manufacture tech to be available which is December 18. Holy crap. So for now I'm hobbling around. No Fun.

On November 20 David asked if I'd like to go to Calvert to the Farmers Market and if I could walk okay. Well yes I'd like to go and the walking is questionable but I'll make it work.  We bought some homemade jellies, peach cobble, spaghetti sauce and some from peppers of some kind. We was gonna hit the Wonky Donkey for some pizza but they didn't open for another hour and we were hungry now. So we ended up at the Cast Iron Bistro another new place in town.  Calvert is starting to show life again. It's great. We both ordered chicken tenders. They were breaded and seasoned just right and the fries were crispy good. 
 

I went outside by my East sewing room window and found some roses still blooming. And under my North facing window in the corner my cute dainty camilla's were blooming.   When this rose blooms it'll be about 4" across. It's big. Can't wait.  The camellia blooms are so cute.

Thanksgiving was spent with us and Pamela and that's it. Between Covid and life everyone else went in other directions. Such is life. I missed everyone. Should of taken some pictures but I was slacking during the day. We had ham, but instead of turkey David cooked us a chicken in his oil less fryer. That chicken was 5 pounds of good. Our friends the Harper's raise broiler chickens.  No water inserted like the ones you buy at the stores or preservatives. All raised on their farm.

About 6pm Thanksgiving evening we all jumped in the car and headed to West which was about an 1hr and 20 minutes away to see some Christmas lights.  We went to see the 'Lights of West'. One of Pamela's nursing friends husband set it up with the property with other 2 partners. In the middle of the property is this huge body of water that they put some decorations/lights in. They plan on growing bigger every year. What they have is impressive. Can't wait to see what it looks like next year.

This is just a few pictures. Pamela took more but these will give you an idea.     

It was a great way to end the evening. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

And now we move on to the Christmas Holidays.....

Until Next Blog post...."Draw your chair up...and I'll tell you  a story..." ~F. Scott Fitzgerald