Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Wow! Long Time!

I've been absent.
I've been spending lots of time with Kyle.
And we have been trying to eliminate
electronics from our lives.
At least a little...

We have been visiting our local beach
almost every day.
Walking and the waves crashing
really has been soothing and helpful for him.


It was a beautiful day there today.


On Monday we finally got some little chairs.
We had some "friends" come to visit.


He loves having his picture taken.
Hahahahaha


We've gone from sitting like zombies
just looking at the waves
to building little water walls
to making underground caves with bridges.
And today we walked!

3248 steps!

He is getting better.
And I am VERY pleased.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Little Stinker! (Jake / Buford / Brown)

We have two cows.
You've met them.


We don't really name our beef cows.
But sometimes they earn a nickname.

The white steer is a Charolais - so naturally his name
became Charlie (or Chuck... hahahaha)
And then the Black/Brown Brangus steer became
"Brown". Get it?
Charlie / Brown.
Hahahahaha.

But then we decided to change his name to Buford.

And then last weekend we went to Rod's job
for an open house. It was so much fun to see
where he spends his days and learning what he does.


Aren't they beautiful jets?

The event was catered by a local BBQ place.
Called Charlie & Jakes.

And suddenly Brown / Buford got a new name.
We've been calling him Jake lately.

(We are hysterical.)
(or pathetic)

Anyhow.
Whatever you call him, he was a STINKER
one day last week.

I got up in the morning to feed the animals
and there was a black steer walking around
in the middle of our backyard!


Naughty little guy!
Luckily nobody else figured it out.
The horses were spending the night
in that pasture as well.
And when they get out into the middle yard
I worry about my little trees.
Andy seems to have a fondness for little trees.

He was fairly easy to round up
and push back into a different pasture.
And when Rod got home that evening he
patched it right up. 

And all is right in our little world again.

Friday, October 18, 2019

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mother's birthday!


In honor of her special day,
we had a visit from a "herd -o- birds".


Mom named them Median Birds.
When they came to visit us in Florida
they were everywhere in the medians.
Ergo... Median Birds.


Mom is such an influence in my life.
(Well, in all our lives... but this is my blog... hahaha)

Just sitting in my chair...

Across the room is my piano.
Thank you for years of lessons and making sure
that I actually practiced and learned to play.

On the piano is a framed copy of the Primary Penny song
that she and Dad did for me.

Kyle is snuggling under a blanket that I knit.
Thanks to Mom for her patient teaching of 
another skill I use over and over.
I taught my boys to knit.
Continuing down through the generations.

Cooking, cleaning, driving, all the things we 
do over and over every day without even thinking
wouldn't be possible without her guiding hand.
(Yup, Dad was there too - but mostly I remember 
learning to drive with Mom. Although Dad took me
for my driving test - Twice - and had enough confidence
in me the 2nd time to LEAVE me there so he could
go to work. It was PASS and drive home... or.... 
there was no or.)

Many of her best teaching moments were by example.
I learned to love and serve others through her example.
I watched her entertain people in her home.
I watched her serve other families.
I watched her teach piano lessons to other children.
I watched her play the organ and lead the singing.
(And learned you lead off to the side of your body
so they can see your hand and NOT to wear big jewelry
so they weren't distracted... hahahaha)
(This was the age of the giant flower pins...)

I learned to love your family.
I also learned self care.
It's a fine balance.

I learned to love the Lord.
I learned to study the scriptures.
I learned to lean on my faith when times were tough.
But also to lean on my faith when they weren't.

I learned she is a great lady.
And I learned I want to be like her.

Happy Birthday Mom.


Cutest picture in the whole world.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Post #1111

I'm a pattern person.
Patterns make me happy.

I kind of wished today was 11/11.
That would be a GREAT pattern.
But I can't not blog for a month.
Hahahaha

Anyhow.
Happy Pattern Day.
(Hey, if Hallmark can make up days...)

As always, we are BUSY around here.
The Town Clerk is on vacation this week
and next, so I'm putting in half days 
at the Town Hall.
She handed me a BIG 3" binder crammed FULL
of hand written pages that she needs typed.
4 hours typing on a laptop is the limit
for my back / neck / shoulders.

Kyle is in town, so I'm taking today and tomorrow
and I think we might go for a walk on the beach.

And I'm teaching this weekend,
so there are always lots of things to do
to prepare for that.

I thought a lot about my family making
the sad trip to Calgary earlier in the week.
I'm glad the trip went well.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Crisis Averted

We nearly had a catastrophic crisis this morning.


I used my very LAST bag of frozen cut Okra.

NOOOOOO!!!

But after a quick trip to the local WalMarts,
(after a stop at the Town Hall to get my
assignments for next week...)

It's all good again.


Whew!
I'm good for a week.
(Yup, I generally use half a bag each day...)


Plus a trip to Aldi yesterday and I'm good for
Cauli-rice and Broccoli.


But I'm going to need more blueberries.
Probably next week.

This is the fruit/veggie freezer.
Plus a box and some bags of random
meat bones.
They are for the dogs.
But there's actually quite a bit of meat on them,
so I sometimes cook them up in the pressure
cooker first and get some good bone broth
and THEN give them to the dogs.

Multi-tasking at its finest!
Hahahaha

I can sleep easier now.
Whew!

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Staycation

Today is the last day of Rod's
"staycation".

So what is he doing?
This morning he went to the airport
and updated his badge.
He has to do it every other year.

Now he and Kyle are loading up a bunch of 
old steel things that have piled up along
the back fence line.
Like the cattle chute made of rebar.
And the chiminea that rusted out.
And a bunch of other stuff.

They are loading it all on to the flatbed
and taking it up to the steel recycle place.

Doesn't that sound like fun?
LOL

We HAVE done some fun stuff though.


We went to the rodeo.

We went for a nice long walk with the dogs.

We enjoyed watching ALL the sessions of conference.
(A first I think...)

He has taken LOTS of naps.
(Important stuff when you work as hard
as he does all the time!)

And last night Kyle took us out to dinner at his
favorite BBQ place.
He is in love with baby back ribs.
After dinner he said
"This might need to be a twice a year thing...
$50 bucks for dinner! Whew! That's like my
entire week's grocery budget!"

Welcome to Adulting.
Hahaha

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

New Ramp

The other day Kyle mowed the far back 
pasture for me. When he put the lawn
mower back into the shed, his foot
went through the rotted board in
the ramp leading to the shed.

So yesterday Rod and I went to Lowe's
and bought a bunch of new wood,
and today he and Kyle rebuilt it.


Doesn't that look better?
Roxie likes it...


It hardly took them any time at all.
And it should last for many years.
Again.

Meanwhile we opened the "green" pasture to
both the horses and the cows.


I like having the cows closer to the house.
They are quite happy there.
Lots of nice shade under the oak tree.


Aren't they lovely?
Hahaha.

Monday, October 7, 2019

Turkey Creek Walk

Kyle and I got out of the house the other day.
It felt good.
It was HOT.


We went to Turkey Creek.
It was nice!


We were trying to identify plants.


At the beginning of the walk there was a wild olive tree.
This is not it... these are Beauty Berries.

We both commented we had never seen an olive tree before.
This must be the only one.

And then there were a billion trillion of them.
We've just never noticed them before!
Hahaha


We really enjoy Turkey Creek.

Friday, October 4, 2019

Doing Ok.

It has been a rough couple of days
but we are starting to see the light
at the end of the tunnel.

The meds they put Kyle on only made
everything worse.
We tried natural things - worse.

So he spent many hours with his feet
in an Epson Salt bath trying to draw
it all back OUT of his body.


His feet are significantly larger than mine, so
his poor toes are all curled up in his bags.

We eventually found some rubbermaid tubs to use
and they worked better, but I forgot to take pictures.

He wasn't able to eat anything so was "living" on
lemon juice with water, stevia and collagen.
One day he had a little yogurt.
Another day he had an apple with some peanut butter.

Yesterday I think we turned a corner.
He spent some time on the phone with Soni
and that really helped.
He has been on the couch since Friday.
Couldn't lay flat (on his bed) or his heart started
to pound and his breathing got shallow.

He actually slept the full night in his bed on
Wednesday night and again last night.
Mowed the back pasture yesterday afternoon
and went to the store with me.
Bought a SUPER COOL coloring book and some
fancy colored pencils.
And (his idea) had Chick Fil A nuggets (that's all)
for dinner. This morning he said he felt like a 
little kid - he was ridiculously pleased he ate
ALL 12 nuggets and didn't throw up.

So thank you to everybody for your prayers
and thoughts on his behalf.
He's improving and even talking about going
back to work.
(He was positive he was going to have to quit
his job earlier in the week...)

Today we are going to try to get him another
chiropractor appointment,
go the the music store and see if I can find
Clair de Lune music for me for the piano
and ... he wanted to do something else...
ummmmmm.
Oh yeah!
He wants to go walk on the Turkey Creek trail.
We'll see if he has that much energy.