Bruno adventures and happenings

 I'm like a new mother with baby pictures. What can I say. Bruno does provide us with plenty of entertainment. Always landing in David's lap at the end of the day or chasing toads, grasshoppers and flies. And keeping an eye on his cows. He has now had 2 encounters, one with a ribbon snake and a very angry rat snake. Yikes. He never caught them or them him.  

He also likes my blanket I use when sitting in my recliner watching TV. He curled up on it and my feet one morning. When I got up the blanket fell on him but he didn't move so I covered him up a little more.

He was a tired boy and very comfy.

On Saturday, July 2nd Pamela and Kaleb came up to the farm to hang out and have dinner. We had pork steak, baked sweet potatoes and they had a salad.  It was a great day. I believe they had fun and I know we enjoyed having them here. Kaleb had some good stories and jokes and so did David. For dessert Pamela made a yummy Peach dump cake and served it with Blue Bell ice cream. I didn't have any for fear it might make me sick with all the sugar content but I know from past experience it is really yummy. Pamela went salsa and spaghetti sauce shopping in the pantry before they left. Little Brat. LOL But oh Gee I have plenty left.

So for the last 7 days all I've been doing is canning spaghetti sauce and salsa it feels like. Lordy have mercy.  So what you see here is in the pantry even after Pamela went shopping. LOL    24   1/2 pints salsa, 70   pints salsa and 26   quarts of spaghetti sauce

This was my last two batches of salsa on Sunday then David was so sweet and brought a bunch more tomatoes a couple mornings later.  He's so sweet. LOL  I need to turn them into salsa and maybe so sundried tomatoes. He grows and picks them then I get to transform them into something tasty.

On Thursday, July 5th I went to lunch with my friend Kelli Kennedy. No pictures. Oops. We went to the Cast Iron in Calvert. Kelli had never been but she enjoyed her big ole hamburger and I enjoyed my meat loaf and sides. We sat there quite a while after we were finished eating just talking. They were probably glad to see us leave.  I shared my leftovers with David that night. There was plenty leftover. 

David was busy this week. He was the hero for Kelli and our friend Sheryl.  Kelli needed help unloading a new washing machine and getting it hooked up and then Sheryl needed help with the lawnmower that was shooting out blue smoke.   He saved their day. He was glad he could help. 

And this Thursday, July 7th I went to lunch at Giddings Cafe in Giddings with my quilty friends Donna Lynn and Sandy.  There was a dual reason for meeting up. Donna Lynn just finished quilting a quilt for me. Now I need to get the binding done.  I thought Donna Lynn was gonna blow a gasket when we were getting our food. Of course I wasn't so happy either.  We had decided we would share a plate. Well Donna Lynn would share some of her food with me since I don't eat as much these days.  So when we go the plate Donna asked for a second plate the lady goes 'You can't share'. Donna Lynn explained that I couldn't eat a whole plate because of surgery but they lady told me I could get a vegetable plate. The meat isn't and issue it's the quantity so a plate of vegetables would be too much also. In fact I need the meat for protein. And the lady said NO SHARING. Okay fine then give the same plate. She offered me a roll and I said no I can't eat it and she offered me a drink of which I can't have either. Now it wasn't an all you can eat kind of thing so it didn't make sense.  So after eating my 4 or 5 bites of meat and veggies I asked for a doggie box.  With my luck I figured they'd tell me I couldn't have a doggie box but they brought me one..  Next time Donna Lynn can get the plate and then ask for a doggie box and then give it to me.  She would just be sharing her leftovers.

After lunch her, I and Sandy went to two quilt stores. Go Figure. LOL  First Stop was at All Around the Block. If you can't find what you want there you probably won't find it. The shop looks small but it's very deceiving. Next we drove down the road to Texas Quilt Barn. We'll be going there in April and October next year for quilt retreats. They are in the process of expanding their shop and adding many new fabric lines.  Before we left the Texas Quilt Barn, Donna Lynn gave me my quilt she finished. It came out sew cute. No pictures until the binding is on and the recipient sees it.  Donna Lynn then asked me if I had finished binding my Vintage Santa quilt to which I had to say No I hadn't. I'm working on it. Honest. LOL

While I was gone David had a lady call and show up interested in a couple cows and she bought two of our 1 year old heifers. Bringing our herd count down to 18. When I got home they were heading to the pasture to get the cows to the coral so they could load up the two she bought. While moving the cows David got ran over by one of the older cows who wanted the cubes he had in the bucket he was carrying and hooked him on the arm with her horn. I never knew it. He wasn't in sight when it happened. I thought he looked tired but it was 100+ degrees out. Thank God he's sort of okay.  His arm is a little banged up and his back is a little more sore than usual. But knowing this man he may not be telling me how much he really hurts. I know he's got to be sore.

Then Friday morning, July 8th he had the young man down the road name Garrett come down and pick up another 11 cows and take them to the sell barn. That leaves us with 3 cows, 2 steers and 2 bulls. One of these bulls is a baby. He was to young to get banded in March to become a steer.  oh and we still have charming Jerry the donkey.  I think I got that count right. We needed to do something. Our pastures are brown and feeding 21 critters adds up.  No rain and this heat made hay prices soar and in short supply.  Now Ferdinand can do his thing and give us new little ones.

My Maintenance Phase which will be for the rest of my life has been going okay. So far so good. I keep reading about some of the bariatric patients  not being able to eat most foods without getting sick or their taste buds have changed and it tastes bad.  On Monday I was down 31 pounds. Yay. Let's hope I can meet the Doctors goal of losing another 14 pounds by August 23rd.  Right now that sounds like a lot.  Challenge on. 

That's it for now.

Until the next blog post: Always remember you’re unique. Just like everyone else.

Father's Day - Early Celebration

In 1987 David got to celebrate his first Father's Day. He had the help of Nikki and Natasha making sure he took care of that new little girl.  This little girl loves her Daddy. 

Her first steps were running to her Daddy. And she hasn't stopped running. She's always got somewhere to go.

That little girl has grown up and still loves her Daddy. Now they share their love of wine and beer and harassing me. LOLI 

I love him too.

Pamela had to work Father's Day weekend so we celebrated David on Friday the 17th. We took him to Koppe Bridge Bar & Grill for lunch. It was really good. They each had burgers of some kind but I got fish tacos. I ate some of the tortilla but mostly I ate the fish. Very tasty and a lot of food. 

After lunch we took him to Black Water Draw Brewing Company for a beer. I carried my jug of water in. I was to be the DD if anyone got drunk.  No chance of that this time. They were so full that one beer filled them up. I think we were all ready for a nap.

David did want to run to Farm Patch to pick up some veggies I'll be needing for canning next week and a couple plants. They have the best looking veggies and plants. They are a little more pricy but worth it.

We think he enjoyed his day with his two favorite girls. We took Pamela back home and he got some grand floofs loving from Bri and Sophie and then we headed home. 

On Sunday for Father's Day I took David out to eat so he wasn't neglected on the actual date. Love you David.

David has built us several raised garden beds and the tomatoes are red and his a picking them like crazy and it's my job to get them canned.  They became 12 jars of spaghetti sauce and still working on the salsa but at that time I had made like 18 jars of salsa. And there is still more tomatoes. I even gave some away.  

I used some of that spaghetti sauce to make a fast and easy Eggplant Pizzette aka Eggplant Parmagenia for supper one night. It's not heavily breaded or fried. It's baked. And the eggplant was from David's garden. It was so good!

I didn't eat the whole piece. My stomach said 'no'. So about 3/4 the way through or so David my left overs.

Bruno baby is such a Daddy's boy.  Daddy went out to pick some more tomatoes and Bruno hung out by the back door.  And after about 5 minutes he went and climbed up into David's recliner to wait.  He's the first dog we've had in years that actually enjoys laying in the grass.  And he loves to play with the cows n Jerry through the fence.

David decided to walk out to the mailbox and let Bruno go with him. I was worried because the cows were in the pasture next to the drive and the only thing separately him there is barbed wire that we know he can go under.  Bruno was a very good boy. He stayed with David up to the cattle guard then went exploring further in the area he was at. The couple times he started towards the fence line where the cows were David would tell him No and Bruno listened.  LOL

Well I'll end the month with this post. 

Oh and on my last post the AC guy was supposed to come fix our 2nd AC on the 25th. He came and found out the compressor wasn't the only issue. Sooo he left to order more parts that hopefully will be in Thursday or Friday and put us back on the schedule to get us fixed.  Wish us luck....

Until next post....No matter how much you push the envelope,

it'll still be stationery

I'm Doing Fine.

 Yep I'm doing just fine. No real issues since I had my surgery. I just have to be careful and not eat to fast or too much. I had joined this group of  Bariatric surgery patients on FB thinking I'd learn something but I've found it more entertaining than helpful. So many of them are screaming I didn't sign up for this or when I can I enjoy food. Bad news for those folks you did sign up for this the day you decided to have surgery. Most insurances have an evaluation period where you go through a psychological evaluation and nutrition classes for 3-6 months so these folks must have slept through it. I had to do 3 months and I still put the surgery off for 5 months. Not counting the 5 years prior that I refused to consider the surgery. What I did learn that not everyone got a manual like I did from the doctor and the hospital (or they conveniently tossed it). The manual was and is very helpful. When I decided to have the surgery after I decided to let myself off the hook that I wasn't taking the easy way out. It wasn't an easy decision and the process is not easy. The biggest issue is having your mind in the right mode so that you are ready for the life changing things that will be happening. 

It's even hard for David to get used to how much I don't eat now.  He's always asking what I can or can't eat. We were out one day and he bought me a whole sandwich of which I ate 2 slices of the meat inside and that's it.  

I am in Phase 4 of this process which is soft foods like Chicken, fish or pork and veggies and only 2-3 ounce servings. I can't have seeds or skins until after 3 months after surgery to give my stomach time to handle. I have gone out to eat a few times and brought home leftovers for a couple more meals. LOL  I'm a cheap date now. Pamela shared some of her plate with me and David will be doing the same unless I want the leftovers. The hardest thing for me is not drinking during the meal. I have to wait 30 minutes after to give my stomach time to digest and not over fill it plus time for my body to absorb nutrients. The surgery apparently altered the absorption rate.

On June 28th I move on to the Maintenance Phase where I can start eating all kinds of foods but still small portions. It says I can up the portions sizes some but my stomach says "no you can't". But that's okay. Currently I'm down 26 pounds since May 2nd. I try to only weight on Mondays so I hope I'll see a few more pounds gone by this coming Monday.

David and I ran errands on Wednesday 5/25. First David dropped me off at the gym so I could have a workout while he went to Home Depot etc. My knee is still an issue but I decided to try the tread mill to get my heart rate up. I was riding the elliptical bike for 30 minutes but it didn't get my heart going. Surprisingly the treadmill didn't hurt my knee as bad as I expected. I got my heart rate up but was only able to walk a quarter of a mile. I know I'm a whimp. It does wear my knee out but I'm trying.

David picked me up 45 minutes later and we went to a place called Farm Patch in Bryan. We found some fresh veggies that we don't grow and several pretty plants to add to our tank off the back porch and our other pots.

 They're really filling in nicely. 

On Wednesday 6/8. I had a doctors visit and afterwards I went down to visit Mom and Joe. It had been a while. They were doing pretty good. Mom was fairly talkative as long as I thought of things to talk about. She would get tongue tied and forgot how to construct her sentence but it was a good visit. I took some pictures of us using the Snapchat filters. That usually makes her laugh and it did. 

This visit Joe let 'Q'  join us. He's part beagle and a terrier of some kind. He can be a handful but this day I was able to get him calmed down and he laid in between me and mom. Of course I had to continuously pet him so he'd stay calm. LOL

When I left Mom and Joe's I went back to Bryan and spent the night with Pamela since I was going to go to the Wildflyer Mead Co. in Navasota the next night for book club meeting. Our book was Jurastic Park. I actually liked the book. Surprised me.

That way I wasn't wasting gas going back home and go back the next day.

Check out Chef Dave's pizza he made for himself while I was at Pamela's. He had a few questions on the construction of it but he made it look pretty. It's made with a cauliflower crust so it's health friendly. Presentation - A+

Nice job and he said it tasted good too.

On Tuesday evening June 14th David asked if I wanted to sit on the front porch for a while. Sure it's happy hour time right. Well I can't drink alcohol/wine currently but it doesn't mean I can't put a protein shake in my sippy cup to keep it cold to drink. So that's what I did. Put it in my sippy cup from Nurse Stephanie. She works with Pamela at the hospital.

And there was a full moon that night.

It was really bright.
And the Belinda's Dream roses in front were in full bloom.

David decided to lay on the couch to watch TV and Bruno decided he would too. He curled up behind David and promptly went to sleep.

This dog is something else. He loves his humans.

Gonna stop for now. 

Everyone stay cool if you can. Our AC for the guest rooms, my sewing room and David's office has been out since April. They finally found a compressor and are coming out Saturday 6/25 to get it fixed. YAY.

Until next blog post: "Mama always said life was like a box a chocolates, never know what you're gonna get."  ~Forrest Gump

My last of April into May

So after the Mother-Daughter trip it was time to squeeze in things I want to do before I can't for the next 6 months. Like drinking wine and eating. 

Monday (4/25)I I went into Bryan to have an Echo.  And then I went to PT. For dinner we had fried the green tomatoes our neighbor Odis gave us to try. They were in a canned jar. So I rinsed them off and I dipped them in egg, flour, and corn meal and fried them up. And I seasoned them. When he gave them to us it never seemed the right time to cook them but tonight was the night. They were soooo good. Thank you Pam & Odis.

Tuesday (4/26) I went to lunch with my friend Kelli, the other Kennedy. We decided on Texas Steak and Seafood in Caldwell. We both decided on crawfish. It was so good. After lunch we headed to her house when I saw Momma Cat and her new kittens. I couldn't believe that Momma had her kittens in the grass bag off the lawn mower on top of the wood pile. They're so cute. One of the little yellow came out to see me, so I got to pet it but Momma kept a close eye on both of us. The critter I really came to meet was Patsy Cline the pot belly pig. That little devil is fast. At least for now. When the dogs came up she'd roll over so they could nuzzle on her tummy. LOL  She go running off just a snorting and oinking. Too cute.

On Wednesday (4/27) David and I went into Bryan and met Pamela, along with friends Cole and Kaleb for an early Mother's Day dinner.  We went to Casa Rodriguez. Hadn't been there in a while and it was pretty tasty. I do like my Mexican food. It'll be a while before I get to nibble on it again.

Thursday (4/28) we met up with Pam and Kevin J. for a lunch at Napa Flats. The weather was nice enough that we ate outside. They were on their way to Houston to take care of their grandchildren for a couple days. We might have occupied the table for a good hour and half. We always have good conversations.

Like I said this week is about going out to eat before I can't for a while.

Friday (4/29) we met up with our good friends Larry and Sylvia for Catfish at Independence General Store. Larry's son is home from Connecticut and was with them. We had planned on eating catfish but the poor girl who took our order had to come back out and tell us they were sold out. Well shoot. So we had to make new choices. But the company was still great and so was our food of which was hamburgers and I had their nachos. Yum.

Sunday (5/1) was a day of liquid. Now to reveal what's going on. Tomorrow I will start my weight loss/ Life journey. After refusing the suggestion by doctors I finally agreed to have bariatric sleeve surgery. It was a decision I struggled with but I've struggled with my weight for years and now I can't get my knee replaced until I lose quite a bit of weight. So it's time. Originally I wasn't going to say anything but I hope you'll start seeing a change and now you'll know why.

Monday (5/2) at 4:30am we headed to the hospital. Oh I forgot to mention that my doctor and surgeon is in the Woodlands which is 2 hours away.

Got all checked in and dressed in my new fashionable warm gown. The gown had a warmer in it. It was great. And IV in and meds already started. Don't remember much after that. 

 

After the surgery when I woke up I expected pain and nausea but to my surprise I didn't have any except when I had to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. Oh yeah there's the pain. And then it was gone. I had to stay the night since I lived so far so they could monitor me. The length of the stay depends on how you handle pain, nausea or if there's any issue with the 5 incisions. Yep there's 5 cuts. All have healed up nicely. Only the main one on the left side is still semi tender but nothing major. 

Tuesday (5/3) Before I got out of hospital they wanted to give me some more meds through my IV before pulling it out. OUCH Ouch. There's a problem and that hurts. I looked at my hand and realized the IV must have pulled out because all the liquid was just under the skin. .

Phase 1 of the is all clear liquids which included Diet cranberry juice and broth for 4 days. Plus a few other things but I did fine. 

Phase 2 is called full liquids and I got to add protein shakes, cream soups, sugar free jello and pudding and yogurt. Start this on the 5th day through May 17th.

On that day the doctor told me I could start Phase 3. Which is adding 2 oz of pureed food. I'll be on this for 3 weeks. So I've tolerated everything I've had. I'm get a protein shake and 2 meals of 2 oz of pureed whatever.

It was nice getting something that wasn't sweet.

Oh and the doctor tells me to start walking and working towards a mile. mmm Small problem with that.... my knee and then Friday I was running the dust mop through the house when I tipped the heavy bar stool to remove puppy fuzz and the chair slipped and fell directly across my toes. At least it's on the same side as my bad knee.  Looks pretty doesn't it. Bruno decided my blanket is his blanket so I used him as a foot stool. Oh you haven't met Bruno yet.

I have to avoid alcohol, caffeine for next 6 months and straws forever. 

That's it for now. I'll update my Phases as I progress. But now about Bruno.

On May 6th David asked if I'd go see a dog in Caldwell. He's 11 months old, a border collie mix and he needs to be rescued. We've been missing Lilley and it's been lonely without a dog so I went with him to check out Bruno. He's pretty cute and friendly.  Soo who could say No to that face. He came home with us. All 61 lbs.

Bruno got a new collar and I got pretty roses for Mother's Day. Win Win! If you ask me.

Bruno was all excited when we opened the door to go outside. And all the cows and Jerry came running to the fence. They couldn't figure out what he was. He's as big as the calves and he wasn't barking. I didn't get a picture of his and Jerry's interaction but they were nose to nose and Bruno even gave him kisses. His favorite spot in the yard to watch the cows.

Bruno also thinks he's a lap dog.  He tries to be real sneaky. He leans up and puts his head in David's lap then he very slowly brings up one paw at a time. It's really funny.

The weekend of the May 12th we babysat the Bri and Sophie. Well the girls weren't impressed with the big guy but he kept trying to play with them. This is one picture of Bri close to Bruno. 

Of course Bruno would try to push her away from us when she was getting attention. Eventually I hope they become friends. He makes even Bri look small.

I went out and took pictures of my Desert Willow and Roses. This is the fullest my desert willow has been since David planted it.  And my roses are looking good on the eastside of the house.

This is a couple of the roses outside my east window in the sewing room.

  

Shock of Shocks, I'm actually all caught on the events in my our life.  Of course I'm sure I'll come up with something to bore you with in my next blog.

Until then...n  Like quilts, Pets bring joy to our lives