Ugh

Ugh.. I am sitting here today with congestion and sore throat. I am one of those people who seldom will take a pill or go to the doctor. However, I knew when I started this coughing and had nasty stuff coming out of my lungs that if I did not go, then I would be sick next week for Thanksgiving. So yesterday I went to the doctor, and he gave me Singular and a Z pack. Last night I experienced achyness and chills. I cannot imagine how bad I was going to get if I had not started on the drugs. I have had alot in my mind that I wanted to blog about, and I should do it now since I am pretty much lying around. I have to charge the battery on my camera, and then I will post a few more blogs of what has been going on here. The temperatures have been cool here in the east Texas piney woods. I just love these kind of days. So today I am going to try to get my pepper jelly made and also saute' onions and peppers for the chili that my husband is making. He is already browning the meat at our camphouse. I would have preferred to have cooked them together, but I guess he did not know that. Now, if I can just get myself up off this sofa..

I Love Chickens

So you probably do not know this about me, but I love chickens. That is plural.. meaning live ones. Yes, I love to eat chicken, but I love to raise chickens. It has been many years since we have had any chickens to raise.. I had some chicks when my chicks were still here growing up. So today I went outside since it was such a nice cool day and began the task of cleaning up around my chicken pen. We thought about moving the location to raise our chickens, but I have been waiting on dh a long time to start this project. I am thinking if I depend on him for this pen, it just "ain't" gonna happen. The reason we wanted to move the pen is because it is about 40 feet into the woods, and we have a hard time with varmits- oppossum, raccoons, and ...yikes.. snakes. But I am going to get it sealed up good and take a chance that my pen will be safe and secure. So today here is what I got done- I cleared some of the trail by chopping some small trees down along with lots of thorny vines. I got a ladder and got the pine straw off the wire roof and also off the tin roof that covers the coop. I raked alot of the pine straw that is in the pen. When I finished for the day, I had scratches with blood running down my legs, lots of mosquito bites, Blisters on my hands, and sweat that soon made me cold. I guess I worked about 3 hours. Dang.. I am in poor shape. So I will have to put this project on hold for a few days because I am helping someone with an estate sale. They have everything all tagged. I just have to put a "Sold" tag on an item when a customer says they want it and put their name on that item. This is a very big sale. They have a Baker dining room hutch priced at $7,200. I think it will be fun as well as seeing lots of people. But back to the chickens.. the reason I like raising them is I love yard eggs! If you have ever eaten a fresh egg, you know the difference in taste from the eggs you buy at the grocery store. I will keep you updated on the chicken pen and hopefully have some photos to share.

Sewing and Repurposing

So lately I have been trying to do more sewing. I have sewed for a long time, and you would think that I would be better than what I am. But the truth is.. I am just not all that great at it. Well, maybe some people would think I was good, but compared to people that sew, I am just below average. I have made many quilts over the years. I have made long curtains, valances, pillows, and some clothes. When my daughter was young, I smocked several dresses for her. I will show you photos later because I kept them all. But I have recently been making jumpers for my granddaughter monogrammed with her intials or her name. I have done several wedding and graduation gifts with monograms. But lately I have become interested in making clothes. I found this great book with this fantastic designer. I have not made items from her book yet. Her name is Kay Whitt, and her book is Sew Serendipity. I love all these funky fabrics and the designer of the fabrics that I really love is Amy Butler. I also bought a book by this designer for making all kinds of bags. And I love the designer Izy and Ivy. I am including a jumper that I made from her pattern. I got the blue jeans for the jumper at Goodwill. I also repurposed a jacket for my granddaughter that came from a thrift shop. I wish I had taken a photo of the jacket before I redid it. Let me describe what it did look like. It had small embroidered flowers on the collar as well as at the top of the embroidered stems. There was pale pink ribbon and eyelet on the waistband and sleeve cuffs. Then there was little bows running down the button tab. So I made the Macy flower that Izy and Ivy designed and I sewed fabric on the waistband and cuffs. How do you like it?

Happy Fall

Wow! Don't you absolutely love this time of year? I love the coolness in the air, the beautiful color of the leaves changing, and just the smells of nature. I found out that I also loving going to Galveston in the fall. I was down there this weekend, and it was the most gorgeous visit I have ever had. I walked on the Seawall two days- 5 miles on Saturday and 6 miles on Sunday. I ate boiled shrimp and also had a fish taco. Since my husband fries up catfish better than any restaurant, I am going to get him to fry some and then I am going to make my own corn tortillas and instead of lettuce, use the shredded cabbage. It will be even more delicious than the one I had at Shrimp and Stuff (my favorite restaurant on the island). After my walk one day, I got in the pool and swam laps. The pool is heated and it was not too cold outside nor too hot- just perfect!

It has been awhile since I posted because I have just been really busy. I will have to post later for y'all the jacket that I repurposed for my granddaughter. And also show you the ironing board that I made. I had visited a local quilt shop and seen this 24" by 60" pressing table. It is just that- a table! So wonderful to do all my quilting projects on. I have also been busy making my youngest son a T-shirt quilt. I need one more shirt on the front. It is not just any shirt- it is when he played baseball for Angelina College. I have several extra shirts that are going on the back, but I need this special one for the front. You see the vinyl letter shirts (which is the one that I have) just are not as pretty as the screen printed ones. I told him to get me a screeen printed one. If he doesn't, I guess I will use the one I have.

My exercise of late has been mainly walking. And I have had such pain in my feet. But today, I am actually walking around with no pain. It is not my plantar fascitis, but rather pain on top of my foot. I am wondering if it is arthritis. And also wondering if my diet is contributing to this. Or is it not hurting today because of a weather change. I don't know. But I sure hope it will go away!!

So, I am leaving you with a photo of my little granddaughter taken at the Dallas Arboretum in the pumpkin patch. She is finally getting some hair. Isn't she the sweetest thing? My daughter told her when taking her photo, " Be sweet to the pumpkin." And that is the shot she got!! So I will try to post more often, but with the holiday season on us, you know how busy we can get.

Robert Aaron Smith

I dedicate this post to a man larger than life. As his son stated, " he was like 10 people all rolled up into one, and 9 of them you really loved and admired." What he meant was.. most of Robert Aaron was quite admirable. I told my husband tonight one thing that I most remember about "Dr. Smith" was when you talked to him you had his full attention. He stared you right in the face and listened intently to what you had to say. He was my very first boss as a dental hygienist. I came to work for him when I was 20 years old. He was 34.. of course he might as well have been 60 to me. He was old as far as I was concerned. What a great dentist and boss he was. He was kind, fair, patient.. everything you want in a boss. However, he did have his problems- he tried many times to quit smoking. Our office manager would even lay a pack of cigarettes on his desk after several days of misery for him, but mostly for us!! He also had a problem with his drinking which plaqued him long after I worked for him. His family stuck by him though and he was able to lick this problem. The first time that I met Dr. Smith he came with one of my dad's friends to our house. I was a gangley 14-year old girl and he was 28. Even though he was old to me then, he was not too old for me to think he was the handsomest man I had ever seen. I did not know that six years later I would be working for him. I saw Dr. Smith about a year ago. He had to be housed in a nursing home because his needs became greater than what his wife could do to take care of him. This fantastic dentist developed Parkinson's Disease. But Dr. Smith continued to fight this fight just like he did on the football field, the basketball court or the baseball diamond in his high school and college years. My life was enriched by having known him. My heart is sad that he is gone, but I am also happy to know that he is no longer trapped in that frail body, but instead walking.. or should I say running on the streets of gold! I love you, Dr. Smith!!

Beach Condo for Sale

Okay, I finally got the photos of my family's beach condo uploaded on a blog. You can find it via this blog or just go directly to that blog which is http://www.galvestoncondo-dee.blogspot.com/. It is bitter-sweet to list this condo. My parents bought this condo back in the fall of 1993. At that time my father's health was somewhat altered. He had had angioplasty. This was back in the day when they were not putting the stints in (at least not in this east Texas town), but rather just using the balloon to open the artery up. When they told me they had bought a beach condo I thought they were crazy. I mean that was over 150 miles away, my father was still working.. I just thought they would never get to enjoy it enought. Boy was I wrong!! Over time my father had to have more heart surgeries.. eventually he went into congestive heart failure. But through it all, if he could, he still wanted to go and spend time here at the condo. When he went for the last time, he was unable to even walk out on the beach. However, he was able to sit on that balcony and take in the smells of the gulf, watch the seagulls as well as the people having fun, feel the ocean breeze and listen to waves rolling in. Ahhhh.. can you just feel your senses being awakened right now as I tell you this. My father passed away about 1 1/2 years after they bought this. Before he died, they probably were able to stay there 10 or 12 days of each month. They certainly used this condo. They had many friends meet them down there. Galveston is such a fun place with many delicious restaurants. They had their favorites of course. And most everyone that visited also loved to go shopping on the Strand. Now Galveston has Schlitterbahn. And don't forget Moody Gardens. There are tours of old houses in Galveston. Check out all the points of interest in Galveston. But of course the biggest draw for us is the ocean. My maternal grandfather was a sea captain, so my mother just has had this in her blood to be near the ocean. I think she is the one that has loved Galveston more than anyone. But you see, now my mother is 83 years old. She still loves to go, but it is of course not very often. She does not drive out of town so she must depend on someone to take her. I have been responsible for caring for this investment for about 15 years now. My family does love it, but with everyone so busy, we are unable to go as much as before. We have rented it off and on over the course of the last 15 years. So, if anyone has any questions, you can contact me on this blog or the other blog. I know that God has just the right person that will love this condo as much as what we have.

Blogging Ideas

You know sometimes I just run out of blogging ideas. Especially when my life is pretty ho-hum..nothing extraordinary.... not exciting.. actually pretty boring. However, I like boring. My former boss, a dentist, when he looked at a patient's teeth and nothing was going on that needed treatment would say, "You're boring," and he finished examining them. So, I like boring. But today I went on a 5 mile walk.. yes.. 5 miles.. I did the same thing yesterday. And while I was on my walk which lasted longer than an hour, I had lots of thinking time. I wish I had had a pen and paper or recorder because I had lots of ideas for my blog. I guess it is going to be one of those things though where you know when you forget something you went after in the bedroom, and you had walked back in the kitchen, and you were thinking... what did I want in the bedroom, and you have to go back in the kitchen to remember.. well, I guess when I go down that country road again I will remember some of my blogging ideas. I did remember one, and I will post it with a separate title.