Let's wrap it up!

Since this will be my last post for 2021, fair warning it might be a little lengthy. Yikes! Sorry.. I'll start 2022 off with all new adventures and up to date for at least a couple days. LOL Finally got a picture of the tree with presents underneath even.

Our fire place mantle is a cut of a log so the edges aren't smooth so I found a new place to hang stockings for now. ... The bookcase...

My Dad gave me the wagon and Massy tractor when I was little. It's holding 3 small gifts instead of losing them under the tree. The snowman on the motorcycle represents David. The snowman on the right side with a lasso and hat came from my friend Brenda from Cyfaid ISD. A former co-worker. 

I received a couple new ornaments this year from Pamela. She found them in Mexico while there.

       Our tree is becoming more and more Aggie/farm life/fun adventures.       

Even Jerry the Donkey is represented on the tree. Our friend Barbara and realator found a great ornament and showed all the houses she helped us buy/sell over the years.  It's only missing the Rock'n K now.

  Lilley was watching me closely while I was placing packages under the tree. I think she thought there might be a treat for her. 

Pamela's middle/high school friend Rochelle came in from California for Christmas so they met for lunch in Cypress/Houston. It's neat to see these girls have remained friends even though they're separated by many miles.    Rochelle and Pamela played water polo and swam together.  Pamela came up Christmas Eve to spend time with us and stay the night so she could wake up for Santa Christmas morning.  Love that she came up and she even involved me with her baking for Santa and us. Reese's peanut butter cup and chocolate chip cookies. Way too many sweets. The chocolate chip cookies were for David's birthday too. Our little Christmas Baby. LOL  We had tamales, chips and Mexican rice for dinner that night. I'm not sure how hungry we were after snacking on the cookies....Christmas morning Arrived. And so did David's Birthday. Present time.  David had a metal sign made for my sewing room. Love it.

Pamela got 2 dresses she was wanting for her next trip to Mexico in May. And then David opened he's new caps.  He's such a dork.

I mentioned this might be a long post but forgot to mention the photo overload. Oops.

 

This was to be dinner. It was so yummy.  And while this cooked we worked on a new puzzle that Pamela brought with her. Oh man this one is really hard. And she completed almost 1/2 of it. Which my half is basically all one color. No signs, no toys or whatever so her side was 5% easier than mine. LOL

Christmas was hard work for the girls!  LOL

Put on my new Aggie T-shirt for the day. The back had a green pickup truck on it. Me and my trucks.

While working on the puzzle we got a text from Hannah and Phil having a Buc-cee's night. Pamela took them to Buc-cee's on one of their visit's and they fell in love with the place.  So as a housewarming/wedding gift we bought them all kinds of items from Buc-cee's.

On Monday (12/27) Pamela and I headed to Houston for Michelle, my Godchild's baby shower. Pamela and I bought her a couple of goodies for her to open plus she received her unfinished quilt top for Baby  Eloise.   She started laughing when she read the note on the bag with the quilt saying it wasn't finished so she'll have to give it back to me. LOL.  But she showed the top and told everyone that I quilted. More pictures of the quilt in a later post once it's completed.

            Some beautiful ladies here. She's with her Mother, Gigi, and her abuela, Selma

I'm just about done boring you with words and pictures. 

This picture is of the gifts our friends John and Kelli Kennedy gave us at lunch Wednesday at the 4C Brew Barn. Great place for lunch on any Wednesday thru Sunday and a Cold one. The candied pecans are almost gone and I may use the glass tonight to bring in the New Year.

Yesterday (12/30) I went out front to snap some pictures and Lilley took up her spot on the front porch to soak in the sunshine.  She's such a pretty girl and she knows it.

  

And the Copper Canyon Daisy's are blooming like crazy along with the roses.

Pamela already works New Year's Day but picked up an extra shift New Year's Eve.                     And my final picture is of David and I.... We want to wish you a safe and Happy New Year. 

Until next blog post....  The gift of love. The gift of peace. The gift of happiness. May all these be yours in 2022. 

Merry Christmas

 

It's a busy Month

So Pamela flies off to Mexico for a destination wedding of her great friend Hannah in Kansas. Shelley, a friend she met via Hannah also from Kansas flew into Houston and they flew out together.  She woke up the next morning in time to see the sunrise. She had a great view out her window.  Nice.

Of course they had lots of activities between Thursday and the Wedding on Saturday.  Of course there may have been some adult beverages involved. And the beach.

And outings in the late afternoon.  

They had an awesome time. And to think another friend of hers also has a destination wedding in May in Mexico.

Was anyone else having a 2nd growth of veggies? WOW.. David 

brought these in and another box just as full the next day. We ate as many of the cherry tomatoes the peppers, bigger tomatoes went into 12 jars of salsa and 2 big jars of spaghetti sauce.

And then the first frost of the year took the rest out of commission. We need to plant less cherry tomatoes and more roma tomatoes. My garden specialist said that's his plan next spring.

I didn't take any pictures to document but on December 9th I went to a new book club. I'm not giving up my club in Houston of almost 25 years just yet. But I thought I'd try something new and closer. The Wildflyer Mead Co. in Navasota had a book club meeting.  Their book choice was The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. It was about the first wife and the life of Ernest Hemmingway. It was a good book and I recommend the read. Their book club meets the second Thursday every month from 7-9pm. I enjoyed the evening. I'm ready to go back in January.

I finished the puzzle Pamela and I started in time to clean off the table to be ready for our early family Christmas dinner.  The damn thing was missing one puzzle piece in the 'U' in quilts.

Of course the puzzle includes a few of my favorite things.... old trucks, quilts and barns.

On 12/15 the girls had a grooming. Had to look and smell good for Christmas.  As always the groomer took their pictures. So okay I concede Sophie might be the cutest with that little paw outside the cup but the other two are pretty cute too.  Lilley has the look that says "I'm over this so hurry up". And Bri saw a french bull dog that she wanted to go play with.  LOL

  

So epic fail on taking pictures of the family Christmas dinner but I did get a few. Pamela is holding one of the new additions to the family.  Patrick was quite happy and went to sleep in his cousin Pamela's arms. She's got the knack.

And then there's my brother in law Gary. He's David little brother.  He's acting all innocent while telling a big tale of BS.  He can be so ornery.  And then there is Glenda, David's sister with Pamela.

Gary and Lynn's kids and family couldn't make it up this year. Hopefully next year. The youngest daughter, Kendall was on her way to S. Dakota to visit her boyfriends relatives, The middle daughter, Shelby & her family wasn't able to make it up and the oldest son, Nathan was home with his wife and their newest addition to their family. They now have 2 boys. 

Glenda's oldest son Phillip, his wife Jessica and their son Patrick made it up.  

Phillip's younger brother Kevin and his wife Alyssa were stuck at home with Covid.  

The last few weeks seem to have blown by. Cleaning, putting up the tree, the Christmas dinner and working on some projects.  I completed my vintage Santa Christmas blocks but so much more to do. It's semi scrappy which made it fun trying to alternate the blocks so the same fabrics wouldn't be next to each others. I had to stop because I have a special quilt I need to finish at least the top in the next few days.  Cross your fingers.  I'll show more pictures of them later. Lilley thought it looked better with her laying on a couple of the blocks that ended up on the floor since the design wall isn't long enough.  

   

 Now we're down to the count down for Christmas day. Presents are bought,  wrapped and under the tree. Dinner is planned.  Pamela will be up Christmas Eve with the fluffs to spend the night to wake up here Christmas morning. I'll work on my picture taking between now and then.  

Yesterday the 21st marks the 3 year mark of retirement for me and today the 22nd marks Our 3rd year at the farm but our 4th Christmas here.  Hard to believe.  Who would have thunk it? Us on a farm with cows and a donkey no less.  Crazy things happen. 

Gotta stop for now. Must get busy on that special quilt project.  

Until next blot........The gift of love. The gift of peace. The gift of happiness. May all these be yours at Christmas

Yee Haw and fun

 So the last time David asked me to go to breakfast in Calvert and run errands we found everything closed because it was a Wednesday. LOL So this time we planned our activities for a Thursday. Our first stop was the Old Calvert Hotel for breakfast. Cute décor and yummy food. David had an omlet and I had waffles.  We want to go back  for a lunch next time. Their hours are 7am - 4pm. The owners are working on opening up the Bed & Breakfast section of the hotel soon. They do have special events periodically in the late afternoon/evening so I'll be following their facebook page.

Outside just to the left of the entrance to the café is a wall of Morning Glory's. So big and pretty.

     

After this we headed to get our vaccine booster and then on to Lampasas's to pick up David new flatbed trailer.  He sold one of the one's we had so he could get a slightly bigger and stronger trail to carry a car.  The one he sold could hold a car but once you drove the car up you could get out because the trailer rails kept you from opening the door... Oops.

On Monday (11/22) the Robertson County Vet came to vaccinate the cows, to tag and steer our younger bulls. Since I'm not able to get around the pasture or corral smoothly because of my knee and probably because I'm a klutz David asked a neighbor's son to come down and help. When we moved up here Pamela found out her Chief Nursing Officer, Amber lived on our lane and her young son was real handy with cattle and other ranching detail. Oh boy was that the truth. Garrett is awesome. He knew exactly when and what to do and was a great help!  Thank God Garrett was here because I could have never had the strength or coordination to operate the head lock. This young man is full of knowledge, hard working and so polite. Can you tell we were totally impressed and grateful for Garrett's help. David said he learned a lot this day and hopes to pick up a few more tips from this young man.

First the cows had some issues getting through the head lock because of their horns.  When they did, you had to be ready to close the head lock to capture them.

I should have gotten a shot of Garrett in action but I didn't. This Bandit our 1 year old bull. He was not happy at all but then what bull would be.

Our Thanksgiving was small this year. It David, Pamela and I. Pamela bought the pies and sent them home with me the day before Thanksgiving so she wouldn't forget them. LOL.  Well David thought it wouldn't hurt to have a piece of the pecan pie since Pamela doesn't like it anyway. LOL I snapped this picture of him and sent it to Pamela. Didn't take her long to call and say he better not eat all the pumpkin. He didn't touch it.

Thanksgiving morning David and I took a ride out into the pasture to check on the cows and our neighbors cows came to the fence line to see what was going on. They are 3 times the size of our Dexter cows and they love Jerry. Jerry goes up to the fence to get their kisses.  They're so nosey. Those big eyes starring at you.

Then there's Ferdinand. He's been playing in the hay bale David just put out but he was curious what we were up too. He even let David pet his nose quickly before turning away.

Our garden has gone nuts producing tomatoes like crazy so I decided to can some salsa. When I was doing the last step of boiling the jars of salsa I noticed salsa in the pot. Didn't know why until I pulled the jars of salsa out to start sealing.  Has anyone else had this happen? The bottom of the jar just broke off cleanly.  

Wednesday (12/1) I got up and drove down to Pamela's to go into Houston for hair appointment.  I hadn't been in to see Brittany in over a year and half. I was just visiting. It was good seeing her and the shop owner Joyce.  Of course I do need to go get my hair spruced up but I do that in Rockdale at the Talk of the Town with Gene these days but I haven't been for a while. 

I stayed the night because the next morning I had to be up at 5am so I could drive Pamela to Houston Intercontinental Airport for her trip to Mexico. We left her house at 6:15am and got to the airport at 8:05am. We had to make one stop for coffee and a Danish for me.  It was hard dropping her off at the airport.  I can't lie I might have teared up.  I'm such a goofball. Anyway she's on her way to Mexico for the wedding of her friend/my adopted niece Hannah to the love of her life Phil.  Maybe she'll let me share some her pictures from her adventures. 

After dropping her off I was going to try and have lunch with a former co-worker but when I called to see if she was available she was sick. Poor Samara. So I started to work my way back home. I called to see if Mom and Joe minded if I came by for a visit but they didn't answer so I stopped at a quilt shop in Montgomery, TX. I saved several yards of fabric from the shop. LOL It was crying for my help..... 

 The Montgomery Quilt Shop is a sweet shop with a sweet owner, Kimberly. If you get a chance you should go check the shop out.  Can't share pictures of the fabric because it's gonna turn into a quilt for someone special.

While shopping I got a call from Joe and said for me to come on by. So I paid for my fabric and headed down the road.

Today was a good day for my Mom. For the moment she seemed to recognize me and her smile was in place. Joe sat and visited for a while but then he went to take care of some business while I talked and teased my Mom.  I pulled up Snapchat and took some pictures. It made her laugh.

Especially this one.  Aren't we cute?  LOL.  I hung out for almost 2 hours. She started getting tired but it was a good visit. 

I said my goodbyes and headed back toward College Station to run a couple of errands and pick up Pamela's pups who were coming to stay at the farm while their furless Mom plays in the sun in Mexico.

When I crossed the railroad tracks on our road the girls started barking. They know when they're almost to the farm. They get to see their Furless Gramps, Lilley, the cows and Jerry.  Yahoo.

Well that's it for this post. I'm all caught up. I'll see what I can get into over the next few days to write about.  Might be a few things coming up.

Until next blog......Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand. Emily Kimbrough