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.