Quad Thursday, a Fort Worth Friday and a Stay at Home Saturday! Catching up!!

I don't like getting behind in my Journal posts! One reason I journal and keep a diary is because I can't even remember what I did yesterday unless I have something to reference back to!
While I haven't taken many photos lately, the ones I have will give me a blueprint of the last few days.

Thursday morning Harrison and I inspected what's left of our summer garden.

We harvested TWO tiny cherry tomatoes, a few small purple onions, one white onion and several jalapeno and banana peppers! Flowers are still blooming on several plants so I guess we are not quite ready to pull them all up and start a fall garden just yet.

I noticed the change in the light that morning.

It's subtle but it's there.

Harrison had spent the night on Wednesday so he woke up before I did and set right back to work on his Lego building.

I think he did a pretty impressive job - especially since he did not have instructions.

These are all Legos from Benjamin's childhood and there's a TON of them!

Harrison's favorite breakfast food is Hash Browns so that's what I fixed!

We ate and prepared for the girls to arrive for 'Quad Thursday.'

The day was filled with lots of play and activities.

We never have time to do all the things I have planned - so some of them will spill over to the next Quad Day!

Dean and Sherry sent me home with a couple of bags filled with treasures from the ranch.

Trystan and Kailey made this necklace from the vertebrae of a snake that was caught in the netting used to protect the peacock pen. Trystan and I used a length of strong horse hair to sew a patch on a tear in the gazebo netting. Harrison signed his name using a goose quill for a pen.

All the kids took turns playing the pink Disney guitar Louis Dean bought at a Goodwill in Waco.

It has real strings and can be tuned.

I made Taco Pizzas for lunch and then we all took good long naps in the darkened den with the AC blasting out cold air. Makes for good sleep and that's what we all did!

For dinner we had a combination Pizza/Tea Party!

We were brushing our hair before going to the table when we got in a bit of a tangle.

This took awhile to undo!

Look who's happy about this meal???

We used the tea set Uncle Dean gave us AND I had sugar cubes AND sweet little silver tongs to use with them - thanks to our friend, Lynn!

We ran out of time before we ran out of things to do but we did manage to eat our homemade Popsicles!

I used a V8 Smoothie juice and they were GOOD!

And they're gone! Thus ends Quad Thursday!

Louis Dean and I sat out for a few more minutes just visiting with each other and when we went back inside - it felt like all the oxygen had just been sucked out of the house!

Before I went to bed that night, I made a batch of Pumpkin Spice Muffins.

These are for the staff at the nursing home where Mother is.

They smelled good and they tasted okay - but in my haste to make them - I forgot the salt. 

AND I was out of ginger!

I took my shower and washed my hair and even set out my clothes for the next morning before I crawled into bed and turned out the light.

I was bound and determined to pick Ruth Ann up at 10:30 Friday morning.

We had a full day planned and I downed one cup of coffee and a Stella D' Oro Cookie and headed out the door. I was only 15 minutes late!

Our first stop was to see Reaoma.

She continues to decline and Friday was the first time we have seen her in distress.

It is heartbreaking.

From there we drove straight to Fort Worth where we lunched at La Madeleine's!

I love Ruth Ann and we have such a good time together!

Ladies Food!!

We even set by the lit fireplace!

Trader Joe's and Hobby Lobby followed and then we visited the nursing home.

We found Mother in the dining room where they were preparing for some entertainment.

Mother was glad to see us.

They are doing physical and speech therapy with her and she can now say her full name - Pauline Doss. She is also stronger in her legs and walks better now.

She chipped her front teeth so she was EXTRA excited to see me because I brought over her second set which had been left at my house.

Mother is happy in this place and we are all so grateful.

Once again, she is working hard on exercising and staying as active as possible.

I ironed all the name tags in her hanging clothes before I left and will slowly tag the rest with each subsequent visit. We left in the 5:00 traffic so I had not been home long before it was time to get over to Quadville! Amber and Mike were hosting a Friday Night Dinner and Movie and Harrison was cooking the meal! His menu was 'Breakfast' and it was a GOOD one!!

Hash browns, eggs, sausage, fruit, and cinnamon rolls!

The fruit was 'Chic Fil A oranges.' That's what they call mandarin oranges.

All four kids helped me 'ball my yarn' for my knitting projects and they took the job seriously, too!

In record time, they had four skeins of yarn all in neat tidy balls.

I promised them I would teach them how to knit once I am a bit more sure of myself.

The movie was 'Secretariat' and it was excellent.

Of course this was one Amber had seen when she was a child and we did Popcorn, Movie and Cokes on Friday nights. It was after 1:00 in the morning when we got in bed but thankfully we did not have to get up early!

I always make a fresh batch of tea for the day first thing when I get up and when I went outside to cut some mint for it, I noticed the Texas Sage was blooming.

That's a sure sign of weather changes coming and we are expecting a cold front in a couple of days! 

Cold front in Texas in August!

Amazing!

This will lower our temperatures to the 80's!

I also noticed a crepe myrtle tree has sprung up and started blooming!

Early in our marriage, Louis Dean dug up ALL the crepe myrtles that lined the driveway.

They still fight to come back and now I am going to let them.

He'll just have to get a grip and get over it.

This is the first summer EVER that I can remember when the liriope hasn't at least scorched on the tips! Thanks to my beautiful little neighbor girls for watering them so well!

I have spent a lovely Saturday right here at home.

No make up. No hair do. Shabby clothes. I loved it!

Most of the day was spent in the den cleaning and fluffing and watching back to back episodes of Dirty Jobs.

Summer came over and helped me with some reservations for our upcoming beach trip.

She's not going but she makes an excellent travel agent and we are now booked in the same hotel in New Orleans that she booked for us back in 2010. The reason we found this hotel again was my Country Diary. I couldn't remember the name but I had clipped the info and a photo in the diary!

We continued to celebrate Saturday with a special cocktail!

Simple and easy and DELICIOUS!!

We even had this as an appetizer before dinner.

I bought the chips and salsa at Trader Joe's and may buy more to take with us to the Beach House!

Dinner was steak, baked potatoes, garlic toast and fruit.

What made it like a party was having Summer and Pam here together.

Pam is Reaoma's daughter and she and Summer grew up here with each other. 

Reaoma and Doug lived right next door for 17 years.

I'm in a hurry to close this journal entry before midnight and I truly hope I don't get behind again any time soon!! Hope it all makes sense!