Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Update

Hog Man is improving. Slowly. He had a little trouble with swelling right after we came home from the hospital. They sent us  home from the hospital with a device that looks like a mini ice chest with a pump and a hose attached and the end has a wrap a round knee pad that you fasten with velcro. You fill the "ice chest" with ice and water and turn it on and it pumps cold water through the "knee pad". Pretty cool. Literally. It was quite fun to see Hog Man's face when the cold reached his knee. Hee hee. Yeah. I'm into pain. Just not me. I'm joking.
Maybe. You know playing nurse is overrated. LOL Kinda like when we were little girls and loved to play house. Yeah.


His appetite was way off this surgery. Must be the pain meds. I have been making him healthy smoothies with my new hand held stick blender. In this weather a cool smoothie is very nice! We hit 100 degrees yesterday. Today we are even higher. : (  Thank God for air conditioning.  And why is it lawn movers know when the man of the house is not functioning at 100% and decide they need to break down? Mine always would quit either when he was out of town or something. And why is it that pigs decide to escape from their pens when Hog Man isn't 100%? It's a conspiracy I tell you! Score: Marilyn 2 Pigs 0  That's what I'm talking about. I had the heat on my side and pigs that wanted to get back into their pen and that had cool mud. The Score is what counts. Now if the lawn mower would take note.

I have been spending time on Pinterest. ADDICTIVE! It's endless! It's wonderful.
Sigh. I can explain. I've been on a mission. I'm gathering ideas to embellish that denim jacket I got at Goodwill. Who needs a jacket in this heat?!




Well, I know me. Do it now so I CAN have it to wear when the weather is cooler. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Have you ever done a search through Google for hand embroidery? AMAZING. And yes embroidery is on my mind these days. And no I haven't found those embroidery patterns I've been looking for.
AND my pincushion is missing now. Huh?! Weird. It's a conspiracy I tell you!

Blessings,

Friday, June 22, 2012

Playing Nurse



Dispensing meds, adjusting pillows, bringing meals, etc. etc.

Blessings,

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

He's Home!



He has a brand new knee--not that it feels like it yet. But after the wound sight is healed and all the swelling goes down and he can get around better --- it's all going to be so much better than before.

Blessings everyone,

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

More Rain

We woke to thunder and lightning early this morning. And rain. So nice. We welcome every drop.

Yesterday while picking up tree branches I noticed we had an abundant crop of grass burrs. : (  It was overcast and cooler so I got out the hoe and went to work. It sprinkled on me a couple of times while I worked. After supper I went out with the weedeater and Hog Man got on the riding lawn mower. The yard looks so nice now! We were gone two days this weekend and I do believe the grass grew four inches in that time. Amazing what rain can do.

It's Wednesday and that usually means Kraz-z Quilters. Today I will go by to drop off some things but I don't have time to stay. Too much to do before the "little munchins" come tomorrow. Yes, DGS Mason and DGD Paisley are going to spend a few days with us. So I have to "make ready" my sewing room and get ready for other company coming this weekend. AND get my quilt guild BOM sewn. AND . . .     You get the picture. So if you don't hear from me for-- oh, say a week -- you'll know I'm just extremely busy.

Blessings,

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Nothing like a little wind and rain!

And boy did it blow last night. The electricity blinked off a couple of times and then went off.  I went to sleep and I'm not sure when it came back on. I started resetting clocks this morning.  And with the wind came lots of tree branches on the ground.  Good news--the two large dead limbs in the upper parts of the sycamore tree fell down.  So, that's what I did this morning. I picked up tree branches and took them to the burn pile that we will eventually burn some day.  We may have more storms later today. We will take all the rain that comes our way!

Yesterday Hog Man had his pre-op appointments before knee replacement surgery. We had a couple of hours between the hospital appointments and the Dr. appointment so we ate lunch, shopped at Sam's and had a few minutes and stopped by Goodwill. I found the denim jacket above. I love denim jackets to wear when you need just a little something instead of a heavy jacket. We found Hog Man another pair of lounge/pajama pants to wear. The Goodwill is pretty close to the hospital. Sounds like I may need to look again while he's there. And I won a gift certificate on the bus trip to a quilt shop there so that will be another stop on the list. There was NO WAY I was taking Hog Man to spend my gift certificate. A girl needs time to shop--and I know ya'll know exactly what I mean. LOL

Over the weekend we drove to San Angelo/Ballinger to visit family. It was nice seeing everyone. Our oldest son didn't get to go--he had a migraine. We were going to celebrate his 35th birthday. 35 years--how did that happen? It doesn't seem like that long ago. It is still very dry in the San Angelo/Ballinger area.

I have a question for you. My mom is needing hearing aids. What is the process to get hearing aids? Doctor? Free hearing aid tests places? What is best? I need info and where to get started. Thanks.

Update: The little barn swallows built another nest on the back porch WHERE they weren't supposed to while we were gone. The nest is no longer there. Thank you very much and what part of NO do they not understand?

Blessings,

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

I hope you're not tired yet . . .

of bird pictures.
He posed so pretty today.

Monday, June 04, 2012

Spotted the Oriole

And took pictures!

 Blessings,

Sunday, June 03, 2012

SOLD




I had a lady that came shopping for embroidery floss and patterns and I showed her this machine. And now she is the proud new owner. I hope she enjoys it and I will be on the lookout for another. I really like the decals on this one.

Extra cooking

I thought I would get some extra cooking done before Hog Man has his knee replacement surgery in a few weeks and freeze for meals during that time. I have pinto beans in the crockpot and I'm thawing five pounds of ground beef. I plan to brown the ground beef in my large electric roaster oven and then place in Ziploc bags for fast meals. I plan to do more cook ahead and freeze meals.

Our daughter prepared meals for us back in January and it was so wonderful. Even though school is out now her time is not her own. She embarks today on a two week training course in OKC. She will be teaching a class next fall (sorry, I can't remember the title of the course) that is like CSI. Pretty cool! Theirs is the only 3A school in the state of Texas teaching this course. I told her others will follow and they will be watching her school district. No pressure.

We picked six cucumbers today and a few squash. They are so good. I can't wait for the tomatoes to start ripening. I love love love vine ripened tomatoes. Can you see the holes in the leaves of the cucumber? Grasshoppers. There are hundreds of them! When we walk in the coastal grass field they scatter and there are multitudes of them.



Can you see the little green tomatoes? Oh, I can't wait until they start turning red.





I made an icebox lemon pie. Jury is still out.  We like our lemon desserts at this house.
Lemon Pudding Cake I Recipe Lemon Pudding Cake
I made this a couple of months ago and really enjoyed it. There is a pudding on the bottom and fluffy sponge cake on top. Good!

I recently received a stick hand blender. I am having fun. Anybody out there have one and can recommend ways to use it? Thanks in advance.

We recently had our roof replaced due to hail damage earlier in spring. Then last Tuesday had some painters come and paint our ceilings. I didn't anticipate all the plastic coverings and rooms that would be taped off. I stepped outside when they arrived to let them get underway. I had a hair cut appointment before lunch. After that I thought I could come in and hibernate in the sewing room. Nope. The way our house is laid out the ceiling from the hall, living area, foyer, dining, and kitchen all run together so it all had to be painted. My sewing room is down the hall and was taped off. SO-I turned around and went back outside.

Can you see the nest? It is in the upper center of the picture.

I sat in the shade under our big sycamore tree and watched a female oriole build her nest. How cool is that?! I would've missed it if I hadn't been out there. It was amazing. The female oriole had a piece of yarn or thin plastic and wove it with her beak like a needle in and around the stems of the leaves. She is still working on it. From my research she will work on it for several weeks until it resembles a sock. Then she will lay her eggs. I believe these may be Bullock orioles. That day as I sat and enjoyed nature I saw not only the orioles but mourning dove, barn swallows, humming birds, and mocking birds. We have noticed that this year there are very few egrets and grackles. The grackles had been coming the last few years and building nest in the top of our pine trees. Not this year. I don't miss them one bit. Noisy birds.

This year we had barn swallows in a nest on the front porch and one on the back porch. The one on the front porch have already hatched and flown and have laid their second set of eggs. The ones on the back porch got a later start. They and I couldn't agree where their nest should be. They wanted it right by the door. I told them -- nope, not going to happen as I knocked it down. Eventually they relinquished and built it at the other end of the porch. Their babies have started to fly in the last couple of days. The parents sure don't like Butterball (the cat) anywhere nearby.  I did find a dead barn swallow a few weeks ago so they probably have good reason. They swoop and fuss at him. One probably got too close with their swooping. What's a cat to do?!

I will see about getting bird pictures and adding to the blog.

Blessings,

Sew Simple Pinwheels

This is the sample I sewed up to demo to groups.  And it is so simple! Karin Hellaby has done it again with Sew Simple Pinwheels -- her latest book.

 
A close-up of the blocks and border and as you can see I haven't quilted it yet.
The book and a block using the curved pinwheel method. The border looks complicated but is so simple.

Blessings,