New Year's Eve 2009

Waiting for the clock to strike 12, and it is goodbye 2009!

I must admit that I'm glad to see this year go. It has been a good year, but also I've been plagued with little nitpicking physical ailments. Ugh. It is patch, patch, patch after 60.

I've done some exciting projects this year from building a Backyard Botanical Garden as a first veggie/herb garden, to making shades for the utility room, to learning to weave on a loom at The Old Oaks Fiber Arts Center, to redoing the front bath and designing the fused glass back splash, which is on hold since I need to get to the glass shop to use the sandblasting machine. I cracked my right ankle bone on December 15 and am very hesitant to drive with the "boot." Hubby is my source of transportation. I have to gauge my trips, grocery list, etc., and going to the glass shop is not on the trip list. :D



I love to do projects/crafts because I avoid doing those things I really dislike, such as filing the mail. I can hide it in the desk drawers. In getting ready for 2010 and since there is no escape, I'm filing the mail. Things are going to be so organized for the New Year! What chore do you put off?


My stomach has not quite settled down from the virus that hit early, early Christmas morning, and I decided to make chicken noodle soup. Saltine crackers are getting old and chicken soup just about cures everything. lol And, since I am somewhat home bound, I asked hubby to get some egg noodles at the grocery. However, I did not totally trust him to get the correct item and found this egg noodle recipe online. The lack of trust panned out; he came home with elbow macaroni.



The soup and homemade egg noodles turned out very good. Here's the soup recipe:

1 whole chicken
1-2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4-5 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 cup carrots
1 medium red potato, sliced very thin and chopped

Almost cover the chicken with water, add the onions, garlic, and bouillon cubes. When the chicken is done, remove the bones and return the chicken to the broth, add carrots, potatoes and noodles. Cook for about 30 minutes.

Do you have plans for this evening? I hope you have the very best New Year's Eve.

Until next time, God bless.

Straight Out Of The Camera Sunday

I wish I could claim this darling as mine, but, alas, she is the youngest grandchild of a very good friend. She is held by Great Grandma. :D

For more Straight Out of the Camera Sunday, go here: Murrieta 365. The two requirements are 1) you must take the photo yourself, and 2) no tweaking, cropping allowed.

Again, I wish I could talk about my Christmas. In short, I was hit with a virulent 24-hour stomach virus at 2 AM Christmas morning. It was not a good day. I've enjoyed reading various blogs sharing their Christmas. I look forward to New Year's and Christmas 2010.

Until next time, God bless.

Be Not Afraid. . .

Be not afraid;

for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all people;

for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

May your Christmas be blessed.

Luke 2:10, 11

What Not To Do Two Days Before Christmas

After going to the endodontist's yesterday to have stitches removed from the repaired root canal on my front tooth, hubby and I went to Central Market which is across from the dentist office to do some grocery shopping for Christmas dinner. Now, just imagine Central Market two days before Christmas. As it is, Central Market is pretty much of a busy place whenever you go.....double, triple, maybe even quadruple that number. It was a total mad house with me in one of those riding carts. It was hysterical. I do not know the store very well since I only go occasionally when I can walk around to look for whatever I need. Finally, I saw a woman employee, started asking her where some stuff was when she graciously offered to finish up my shopping list. Needless to say, hubby detests shopping so just imagine "Mr. Happy Face" beside me.

We checked out but I could not get out the single door, left hubby to get the car, motored around to the double doors, zoomed (if you can call it zoom for these are quite slow -- I can crawl faster) over to a spot to wait for hubby. He does not come. I do not see him. I wait. Go back to the door where I think I left him -- it looks different from the outside than from the inside. Came back to my spot. Go back to the same door, to another single door, and over to the double doors. No hubby. Go back to my spot. Wait. No hubby. Go back to the double doors and into the store to a customer service counter to ask the woman to call out his name over the loud speaker. Waited while she answered another person's questions when it suddenly occurred to me that we both have cell phones. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, technology. Called him and he was looking for our car. lol We agreed to meet at the stacked pile of wood; fortunately I had seen him park and knew where the car was. In his haste to find me after dropping me off near the motor carts and after parking the car, he forgot to zero in on where he parked. He was about to just wait until the store closed, all the cars except ours had left the lot, and then drive home.

A few words of advice: do not ever, ever go to Central Market two days before Christmas if you must use a motor cart. I am getting cabin fever and sent a message to a good friend begging her to come get me next week so we can go to lunch in Johnson City. There is a very nice restaurant over there. lol Yes, even Johnson City has a cool restaurant...we are no longer country bumpkins in this part of the world. For good or bad, everyone is moving out here...Drippin' even has a WALGREENS, for Pete's sake!!!

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Until next time, God bless.

When Life Gives You Lemons. . .

To keep this requires

this.

I made my fourth trip within the last three weeks to the dentist yesterday. While getting my teeth cleaned at the periodontist, an abscessed front tooth was discovered. A tooth that already had a root canal. I went to my regular dentist two days later; I had a fat lip. Antibiotics were prescribed along with a name of an endodontist. Four days later I'm sitting in another dental chair. Then yesterday I was there again for some surgery to see what was causing the tooth to act up given there had been a root canal already.

It was a trip. I was given two little blue gray pills and from that point on I could care less what they did to me. I'll find out tomorrow when the stitches are removed just exactly what was done and if the cause is corrected. I do NOT, do NOT want to lose this front tooth. I think I was told that at this time the tooth does not need to come out, but who can remember what was said while under the influence of those two pills? lol I remember coming home, eating a bowl of tomato soup the dentist sent home with me, and for the life of me I cannot remember how or when I got to bed.

This has not been the best December I've ever lived. On December 1, we had to get a new commode. Hubby and I said well this is our Christmas present. However, considering this recent trip to the endodontist, I got another Christmas present -- my front tooth hopefully. Ooops, I forgot that I also am getting a new (?) ankle...well, a healed one anyway. If you will recall, Luc did a number on me last week while I was trying to lure into my Jeep a young, lost dog running down the road.

How do you turn these lemons into lemonade? Well, I got to meet new people at the dentist office; and since I have to use crutches, I'm strengthening muscles in my arms, upper body, and in one leg. Hopefully, I'll lose a few pounds with all the extra activity. THAT would truly be lemonade.

Once I was told by a lady in her seventies that after sixty, it is patch, patch, patch. I'm beginning to believe her.

Until next time, God bless and Merry Christmas.

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

My good friend's three-year-old granddaughter is totally enchanted with this ice skating rink. Turn it on and the skaters glide around the rink.

For more SOOC, go to Murrieta 365. There are only two rules to participate: 1) photo must be taken by you; and 2) no tweaking, cropping allowed.

Until next time, God bless and Merry Christmas!

Skywatch Friday, 09Dec18

Sunrise in Central Texas. Clear skies and sun are a rarity these days, not that I am complaining since the drought broke this past September.

Then later this morning, I looked out the kitchen window and noticed some clouds had dropped down into a valley with the hills peeking over the top.

Go here or click on Skywatch logo to see skies from around the globe.

Until next time, God bless.

A Small Mishap

Luc is showing me how sorry he is for what he did to me yesterday.


One of my new accessories. Old, muddy work coat for the background. :D


A pair is not required with this accessory, thank God.


Ice pack beside the new accessory.


Knee pads when I get tired using the crutches. Oh, yes, here is the Advil, the anti-inflammatory.

So how did I come by these items and why? Well, yesterday on the way home from the Christmas luncheon, I saw about a year-old English Setter running down the road. I stopped to see if he had a collar and tags; and if so, get him into the car to take him home in order to call the owner. He was young, lost, and scared. He would not come to me.

I decided to go home, pick up Luc, some food, water to see if I could lure him into the car. Hubby decided he would go along too, which was a good idea as it played out. I know Luc goes into hyper-exuberance upon seeing anyone or any dog. However, I thought I could control him with the leash that snaps around my waist.

He was all excited when I got him out of the Jeep, but when he saw the dog, he went nuts. I was on gravel, he was pulling and jumping all over the road, and started pulling me into a barbed wire fence. As I was trying to avoid the fence, I stepped down into a small ditch, the ankle rolled, I went down, and it took about 5 minutes for me to gather the courage to get up. Hubby helped me up, I hopped over to the Jeep, sat down in the tailgate area, and there was a golf-sized swelling on the right ankle. We still tried to get the dog, but he was not having anything to do with us. If I had taken Maggie, who is easier to control, I think we could have gotten the dog into the car.

After about 10 or so minutes, we went home. I hopped from the car to the grass, crawled to the porch, then slid on my backside into the house. As an aside, it is a tad humiliating to be crawling around the ground or floor at 70 years old! We filled a bucket with water and ice into which I plunged my foot. A bit of trivia, I understand that ballet dancers keep a bucket filled with ice water to plunge a foot into if a sprained ankle is suspected.

Anyway, my ankle looked pretty bad and we decide that perhaps I should go to the doctor for an xray -- just to be on the safe side. That decision was a good one because I did crack the tip of my ankle. Since the bone is still in place, I'm to ice for the rest of today and then start wearing the boot tomorrow for a month. By the weekend, though, I should be back in gear for some more Christmas decorating. :D

I hope I can drive a car since it is the right foot. Anyone had an experience with a right foot in a boot? I will be genuinely cramped if I cannot drive a car. Oh, and when I can walk normally again, Luc is going to have some serious obedience training!

Until next time, God bless and Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2009 - So Far

I've been to three parties this past week: one was a Christmas coffee, one was a surprise birthday party, and yesterday's was a Christmas luncheon. It is so much fun going to different houses to see how people decorate for Christmas. People bring out their very best Christmas decorations which have been collected over the years, dust and clean probably better than the rest of the year, and go into extraordinary detail for the food and presentation,
This guy greeted us at the front door when we went to the Christmas coffee. The hostess hubby is a big hunter.

The rye squares, cream cheese and cucumber tidbits are my favorites.

My friend's daughter gave a surprise birthday party for her. This rose is one of the gifts. There is nothing prettier than a rose.

Waiting for the birthday girl to arrive. BTW, food is everywhere.

Since the birthday party was held at the daughter's apartment club house, the men ultimately wandered over to the pool table while waiting for the birthday girl to arrive. She was told that a craft show was being held. As she walked in, she saw part of her mother who was somewhat hidden behind a wall. She thought, "Goodness, that woman looks so much like my mother."
As she walked closer, she decided it WAS her mother and what was she doing there at the craft show! lol

If so many of you were not doing reflections, I would not have picked up on the Christmas lights reflected in the mirror at the luncheon. Thank you all for calling those photographic details to my attention.

Isn't this tree magnificent?!

Approximately 75 women attended this luncheon. Isn't this a lovely table? Food was everywhere. Another table was devoted to desserts -- I had cheese cake topped with cherries. Yum. I cannot remember the last time I had such a rich dessert; thought I might go into a sugar comma. It was delicious! Cheese cake is one of my favorite desserts, on par with Italian Cream cake.

Loved these angels.

And, also loved these sheep.

One side of an entryway at the birthday girl's house.

This is one of three trees in her house. Wish I had more room to do something so different like this in addition to a traditional tree.

Isn't this the sweetest Christmas town? I could not get all of it in one photo. On the far right is an ice skating rink with skaters doing their thing. :D It is so cute. I am gathering ideas for next year.

Now after all this decorating, where am I in mine? Part of it is up and planned to put a fire in the fireplace then take a new photo for the header. The fire place looks a little ugly without a fire to hide the firebox. Unfortunately, there was a small mishap yesterday which will be detailed in the next blog entry. :D

Until next time, God bless and Merry Christmas!!

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

For more Straight Out of the Camera Sunday go to Murrieta 365. There are two requirements to enter: 1) photo must be taken by you, and 2) no tweaking, cropping allowed.

Until next time, God bless.

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

A winter sunset in Central Texas requires

a cup of hot pomegranate tea with honey.

For more Straight Out of the Camera Sunday, go to Murrieta 365. There are two rules to post on SOOC: 1) photo is taken by you, 2) no tweaking.

Until next time, God bless.

A Word From Our Furry Friends

I haven't the foggiest idea where these photos came from, most likely in an email, or when I received them. If I've crossed over into someone's copyright, let me know and I'll happily give credit where credit is due. However, in going through my computer today, I found them and decided it was time for some laughter.

Enjoy!

Did you see that?

Groan. Hope they don't start kneading.

Am I supposed to use my legs?

Hello.

Good grief! This doesn't look like or smell like any dog I've ever seen.

Excuse me.

Yikes! What is this thing?

I am so humiliated.

See what I have to put up with to get a little chicken feed.

Until next time, God bless.

Skywatch Friday

Which sky?

Backyard?

Front yard, southwest?

Front yard, northwest?

Ta dah, snow.

So far, that is it. Maybe more snow will fall later. Before it started "snowing" here in Central Texas, got a call from my son telling me it was snowing in Houston as well as Bryan-College Station.

To see skies around the world, go to Skywatch, Friday or click on the logo at the top of the page.

Until next time, God bless.