Summer's Successful Surgery!

 We were up early Thursday morning as we had to be in Frisco, Texas by 7:00!

We ran a tiny bit late and they were waiting on her as she was the first surgery of the day!

Normally it is the patient that must wait!

We went right  in and they were so efficient and kind and allowed me to stay with her right up to the moment they took her to the operating room.

Surgery was scheduled for 8:00 and that's exactly when they started!

Everything went as planned and she spent 30 minutes in recovery!

We were heading to Starbucks at 9:30 for tea and coffee!

I've not seen Summer this happy in a long long time!

She was sore because of the incision but had NO pain!!!

Praise God and thank you for all your prayers!

Louis Dean cooked supper for us last night to celebrate!

Chicken fried steak fingers, garlic green beans and mashed potatoes with gravy!

I made us all small salads.

I absolutely LOVE Happy Endings!!

Monday Critters, Tuesday Treasure, Wednesday Things and Summer's Surgery is in the Morning.....

 We loved our bonus morning at the ranch!

The rescue horses came down to say goodbye!

This one is my favorite!

Can you see the carrot I gave him?

I fed them to the other two also!

Tarzan is going to miss us!

He is a wild cat and muscular and eats the mice/rats around here!

I am so grateful for him and we love him as much as he loves us1

Sweet Tarzan!

We made it home in the early afternoon on Monday with a smooth trip all the way and I was so thankful for that!

Happy Hour on the driveway!

Louis Dean started to worry that he had not remembered to bring his laptop!

I KNEW it was not in the camper and front room when we left!

To keep him from fretting, I crawled up in the truck bed and snapped a pic of it and then showed it to to him! Crisis averted!

Things are changing here with his dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

I am trying to cope with our new normal while at the same time I'm thinking I may not be far behind him in terms of my memory loss and discombobulation!

I am being truthful in that this scares me.

I miss and grieve that I am not able to connect with Deanie anymore.

I will visit Lonnie next Monday and I am grateful he remembers me and asks about me.

It's unreal how life has changed since we lost Nita. 

In the middle of the night I woke up and checked on Louis Dean!

I found him in the bathroom sitting on the toilet with the electric heater on and eating a bowl of ice cream! He said, "Do you have radar and wake up when I am doing something?"

Now I did not even know we HAD ice cream in the freezer!

I need to be more observant!

Tuesday morning I woke up and Louis Dean was running water in the bathtub!

I knew he had taken a bath last night so, once again. I asked him what he was doing!

He loves washing his laundry in the bathtub!

I sent the two pics to his granddaughter Chandy and she said he used to do that all the time when she was little.

It doesn't hurt anything and it kept him busy!

LD needs a project and he is good about finding one!

I admit to being a little blue on Tuesday -maybe more than a little to be truthful.

Change is hard and I am reeling from knowing my sister and my brother and my husband are all suffering the same disease. Relationships are affected and I feel a real grieving in my spirit.

It is a blessing to have Brenda in my life as a best friend. And Billy!

She is a constant to me as are Dean and Sherry and Amber and Summer and Jesse and Benjamin.

I do try to make the best of what I have and the least of what I've not - but it's a good thing to have someone to talk to in the hard moments.

Like some of you who are reading my words right now.

I love our online friendships and am so blessed by them.

My Tuesday treasures are all mixed up but I want to share them....

This candle is on the chest in our bedroom and smells so good!

I found this cup for Louis Dean since he is always missing a lid or the cup.

Alas, he's already lost this one!

Glade products are always good!

These are for Louis Dean! He dearly loves a bubble bath!

This distressed metal tray was just 99 cents!

Win! WIN!!

Yankee pumpkin candle for under $5!

Brenda found this and I will be wearing it a lot!

A new swim cover - or I can wear this over a sleeveless long dress! 

Out of order but my sunflowers are blooming!

A mercury glass vase for 99 cents!

This Wednesday morning was a beautiful time to be outside on the kitchen  deck!

The garden has never been more beautiful!

Love the birdsong and waterfalls in the ponds and all the greenery!

I call this my herb garden......

Louis Dean put up this arbor using an old bedspring from a family home in Comanche!

Our lillies will be blooming any day now!

Mornings on the kitchen deck is my very favorite time of the day.

Coffee and Jesus.

The Bible and prayers.....

My prayer journal and devotional books.

This time with the Lord gives me the strength to go through my day.

My first thing to do this day was to clean and prepare the guest room for Summer!

She arrived late this afternoon.

The second priority was Louis Dean getting a manicure and pedicure.

He was a happy man!

I had the super deluxe pedicure since he was having both!

Time and money well invested!

So much less than visiting a podiatrist every month and SO much more enjoyable!!

Summer is here and this is her 'Last Supper' before surgery in the morning!

Thank you in advance - all my sweet friends in the world of Blog - for your prayers for my daughter.

I love you all and pray that God blesses everyone who reads my words....

Scenes From the Country!

 Thursday morning we were up early and heading to Marlin, Texas to meet up with a sister blogger, Donna, and husband Larry.

Love all the country scenery! Lots of cows and field after field of corn!

They live in the Waco area and love Mexican food like we do!

El Charro in Marlin is really good!

Meet Donna and Larry!

They are just the sweetest couple and still deeply in love after 52 years of marriage!

Donna has a blog called Made in Heaven!

It was such a good visit and we plan to get together again soon!

We are already like old friends!

Walmart is right next to the restaurant so we had a list and checked it twice and found everything we were needing.

Back to putter all afternoon.

I took down the denim skirt on the coffee bar and hung this cute fabric I got at the thrift store last month.

Lit the candle and called it pretty!

Friday morning was next to being COLD when I woke up.

Louis Dean had my coffee made and the electric warming blanket all heated up and waiting for me on the front deck.

I suppose the mornings were my favorite times here this week,

So quiet and peaceful and no fire engines, ambulances or police sirens.

Louis Dean absolutely LOVES to play in the dirt!

He's made a campfire every day but Saturday when it rained.

He also enjoys tilling!

Never mind that we aren't putting in a garden or anything!

He was 'making the ground level' he said.

He has been so happy and stayed busy doing all the things he loves to do!

I've been doing several art projects.

Finally got Samantha and Tabitha nearly finished.

One more session for highlights and whiskers!

I based in another Santa couple I'll be giving a friend.

I have painted this colorful horse before but wanted to do it again as a gift to someone special.

Yesterday I wrote 2076 words on Chapter 32 of my memoir....

First time I have sat down and got an entire chapter done in one afternoon!

Plus Amber is editing the early chapters now!

I truly believe I'm going to finish this book and hopefully this year!

We have been eating healthy meals.

One of Louis Dean's favorite meals is chili dogs.

When we came down last Sunday, we stopped at HEB and I bought fancy hotdog buns, grated cheese, onions, 2 cans of chili - no beans - and 2 packages of hot dogs!

Friday I turned on the grill and gathered all my ingredients together - but could NOT find the hotdogs!! Not in the fridge....not in the freezer compartment....not in the deep freezer....not in the beverage fridges.....no where to be found!

I never did find them!

We are heading home in a little while.

Louis Dean is ready and I am not - but we will be back next month and maybe for two weeks instead of one!

PS.... Change of plans!

We were packed up, camper and front room clean and LD ha us all loaded!

But we were tired - so we decided to have a glass of wine and stay an extra night!

Fished out the insulated bags and some potatoes -

put the potatoes on to cook and will take a nap - then loaded baked potatoes and a salad for supper!

It's a Win! WIN!!!

Will stop in Waco for breakfast and head home after traffic!

One more morning at the ranch.....

I'm loving this extra night1

Gentle Country Days.....

It is absolutely WONDERFUL to be here at the ranch!

I can't thank Dean and Sherry enough for their gracious hospitality in allowing us to not only 'squat' here but to enlarge our presence and send down some pretty deep roots in what is -in my opinion - the most perfect spot on the property! 

An evening campfire is just one of the many pleasures here!

I have a funny story to tell - it happened on Sunday!

I flooded my tiny camper bathroom the day we arrived - had the faucet turned on full blast when the water was turned on and since I wasn’t IN the camper - I didn’t notice it until I saw the cats standing at attention! So this is Louis Dean’s idea for drying out the toilet paper!!! He’s a creative thinker!!

Those rolls are STILL wet!

A beautiful bouquet of roses and wildflowers and a scented candle are on the table between our chairs in the front room and I love sitting here for my Quiet Time in the mornings.

We had cereal for breakfast and a delicious supper of Tacos on tostados,

It looked so pretty!

I did the final step on my Christmas truck painting by glazing it with Liquin.

And I finished the companion piece to the Barista for son Jesse.

Just need to let it dry and then glaze.

I worked on my cat painting of Tabitha and Samantha.....

I did okay on Samantha but totally messed up Tabitha - so I will be working on them again!

It was early to bed on Tuesday night  - I did not go to the bee meeting as I could NOT bring myself to leave the ranch!

Wednesday morning and this is my Country look!

No make up - hair pulled up in a twist - hat and apron on - loose clothes and bare feet!

I love it!!

I saw the workers arriving this morning and while Louis Dean was taking a morning nap I decided to walk down here and see what they were doing.

The goats are everywhere!

They are curious creatures and try and chew the clothes right off your body!

The house is HERE and now the movers are putting it in position next to the existing house....with a little help from the goats! NOT!

To me it is like magic that that huge house that was up County Line Road and to the left is now HERE!! Exciting times at the ranch!

Dean is an avid gardener and I am always so impressed with his plantings and with Sherry's house plants. Put together - it's green inside and outside their home!

Son Dean delights in making 'toys' available to his dad!

First this week was the weed whacker! Not it's a Craftsman Alligator tool!

They are having too much FUN!

No----can one have TOO much? I don't think  so!

Son Dean, LD and I were sitting on the deck having happy hour together when guess who joined us???

Tarzan!

Brother to Tabitha and Samantha and Ginger!

Sherry said he has not been seen since the last time we were down here - 35 days ago!

I fed him a rotisserie chicken carcass that I had been saving for him and some cat food and he was STILL hungry! So I added some pepperoni and he finally got full and nestled with me on the slider.

Rufus is our oldest grand dog and we love him.

He's blind and deaf but he knows when we are here and comes up to visit and I always have treats for him.

I'm loving every single minute of BEING here!