Birthday Breakfast

Stan got up and made me a wonderful breakfast - perfectly fried egg, toast, suasage and hash browns - and the most important beverage of the day, COFFEE!  Our joint birthday present is the irrigation system that should be complete today.

Our neighbors and friends across the street will be leaving Monday to move back to Madison.  It has been so much fun having them here and they will really be missed.  This year, the Blands sold their house and moved nearer their children and grandchildren.  We almost lost the twins and their older brother next door to relocation, but they decided to stay.  Jennifer sold her house to be better able to help care for her mom.  We have new neighbors in Bill's house and in the Blands and they seem to be really nice people.  Stella, Armando, Kathy and Troy are the longest-term neighbors.  Sherry is still two houses down and is such a joy to know.  She is still recovering from a bad fall a few months ago.  We closed on our house December 29, 1981.  In those years we've had some really great neighbors.  Terry and Mary who had the house across the street built are still two of our favorite people as are Mike and Carrie who who purchased the house after a couple from Burlington Northern purchased it then moved away.  We seem to really like the couples that move into the yellow house across the street. 

I think we knew from the start that this was our forever home.   We've shared 35 birthdays, anniversaries, Christmases, Thanksgivings, and Halloweens here.  We've always said we'd never move because we'd have to clean out the attic.  The real reason is that we have made so many memories here.  We've hosted more or my family's events here than anyone else in my family except my mother and grandmother.  Those memories fill every corner.

It's nice to reflect on those memories on my birthday. 

 

Wonderful Day

The irrigation system is about 2/3 complete.  The lines are all in for the back yard and they are beginning to cover the trenches.  They spent several hours trying to get under the driveway.  The water lines was about 4' below the surface and the man digging it was about 5' tall.  

I made Pasta E Fagiola a couple of weeks ago.  I had enough left over for several meals that I put in the freezer.  Stan made cornbread and I got the soup out and thawed/heated it for lunch.  Freezing made it even better than it was the day I made it.  This is a recipe I will be making every time I run out of frozen.

I am having such a wonderful fall.   

 

Weekend Trip to Weatherford

I saw a FB event posting for Fright Night in Weatherford so I booked a hotel room and purchased tickets for the event at the Pythian Home.  (https://www.pythianhome.org/History.html)

The event was well planned and quite nice.  We stayed at the Hampton Inn and the staff there is really wonderful.  The hotel was completely full, partially due to a wedding, but it was so quiet we thought we were the only ones there.  The room came with breakfast and that got us on our way home with even more smiles.

We purchased a book called Unexpected Texas by Tui Snider from the author who quite graciously singed it for us. Yes, when we got back to the hotel, I immediately started reading about all the unexpected places in Texas.  The author is a really outgoing and fascinating lady and an award winning author.   Check out her website at http://tuisnider.com/.

Other than the burger place (Justice Burger) that had their doors open for business but told us they didn't open until 12:00 - it was 11:50 (we left and had lunch at Cracker Barrel), and the Dairy Queen who thought it was perfectly acceptable to serve fries that had black holes in them, we had a really great time. 

Where's Fall?

After a week of nice temperatures, we are back into the 90s until Sunday.  I've been trying to update our web page so I've not been updating my blog.  It was down due to something with the servers for about a week.  Tripod has done a really great job resolving issues I've had as I've gotten back into both the blog and the web page.  

I am doing the photo album buy years and the closer to present I get, the more digital suff I have available.  I shared some of the photos on FB and didn't have to wory about naming protocol.  To put them on the web page using Cute FTP, I have to make sure I am following protocol exactly or the photos won't transfer.  When I was learning all this, we had to use protocols but eventually, windows made it mostly unnecessary.  Spaces, dashes, etc. were OK.  Glad I remember the old-school way of doing everything, even html coding, because some of it still applies! 

Our neighbors across the street, Shana and Jeff, are going home to Wisconsin this month.  She accepted a job with the University of Wisconsin and while I am so happy for her, I am sad for us.  On the other hand, we want to take an extended trip to Wisconsin, so we will see them again pretty soon!

After 36 years of hand watering, we are finally installing a drip irrigation system.  I think it will be a good improvement.  The past several years, we've had stone walls and steps installed at the sides and across the back of our yard to terrace the steep slope.  I can now easily walk to the bottom of the yard.  The terrace gives us more opportunity for flower beds and borders.  The result has been an influx of bird, butterflies, and a plethora of honey bees.  We haven't had that many bees in years!

I am so happy with the many choices we've made over the years.  We actively planned for retirement for many years.  We have some minor health issues, but hey, we're old!  There's little else we really worry about.  We are doing a lot more together now that we are both retired.  We are doing things that we hadn't considered previously because they fall on a weekend and we had too much "work" to do at home.  I plan to sign up for classes in the Spring and reserve Summer and Fall for having fun.

I really want to pinch myself sometimes because this seems like such a dream after so many years of working.

 

Retirement

I retired on July 7, 2017.  Lots of family, friends, co-workers and tenants came to wish me well.  So far, it has been wonderful.  I have time to sit outside and enjoy relaxing, taking time to do things I've always had to put off, and just enjoying life.

Friday
I'm glad it's Friday so I can spend time with Stan this weekend.  He is getting his "workshop" set up and every day he goes to one or another hardware store and picks up another something.  He's building work benches, putting up stuff to hold stuff, assembling tools he got for Christmas and generally is like a kid with a new playhouse.  I'm glad he's enjoying retirement.  Life is good.

Thoughts

Love really is the answer to everything.  Hate is self-consuming.  Haters, bullies, fake Christians spiral down into an abyss of their own creation - lonely even in a crowd.  We are, after all, the person we create. 

Happy New Year

Hope the new year finds my friends well.  I am planning my retirement for the last week of December this year.  I love my job but want to spend quality time with the hubbs.  We have been so blessed for so many years. 

Stan's foot issues are finally behind us.  He did about two months of casts in November and December to keep him from flexing his foot and at the same time did  hyperbaric treatment every day.  He is now released from restrictions and is celebrating his full recovery.  We started the ordeal in September of 2014 and finished in December 2015.  He is well worth the effort!

We addressed the back yard slope with rock walls this fall.  I can now get to the bottom of the yard on very large rock steps (about 5 x 5) and am so happy with the added safety and beauty. 

We lost Trixy this fall.  She was partially paralyzed and used a cart to get around when we weren't carrying her.  She was a brave and sweet little Boston but the nerve damage apparently started causing seizures.  It is hard to be without a dog but we don't plan on pets for a while. 

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.  Christmas Eve was at Mother's with friends and family.  Christmas Day was very special, getting to spend it with two very special young ladies we hadn't seen for a while.  New Year's Day, Walter came over for ham and black eyed peas. 

Again, Happy New Year.  May it bring all the joys life can hold. 

Wonder If I Can Get Back to This

It has been such a busy weekend for me.  Stan isn't allowed much time on his feet so that he will heal faster.  My surgery for a small skin cancer on my shin went well last week and is gradually becoming less of a bother.

 I have everything either in the fridge or in the crock post for the week.  I made meat loaf, beef vegetable soup, Beef stroganoff, and slow-cooked three huge chicken breasts.  We are having roast this evening, soup tomorrow, stroganoff Wednesday, salmon croquettes Thursday, trout on Friday, and chicken & dumplings on Saturday.  I made a breakfast pizza this morning - sausage, egg, pepper-jack cheese, and jalapenos.  It makes 8 servings so we will be seeing it later.

Stan has been making dinner since he is retired, but with the new restrictions, I thought it best to get as much done as possible.  I really want him to get past this final small hurdle so we can get back to doing things.

We tried last weekend to go to the Leonard's museum.  Because of the slide thing, the restaurant that operates the museum was closed so they could set up a booth at the slide.  It would have been nice if they'd put a notice on their web page.  I'd have found something else with very little walking for us to do rather than waste the only entertainment time we had for the week on a closed event.  We had lunch at Lucille's and that was nice.  We haven't been able to do things along the Camp Bowie corridor for a while.  I love that area of Fort Worth, but then, I love most areas west of 161.

We grew lettuce in a container this spring and had our first salad from the garden last weekend.  Home-grown leaf lettuce is so delicate - not like the commercial stuff you buy at the grocery stores.  Even the organic stuff isn't as delicate.  We may try to get several similar containers and keep a crop in rotation all year.  The peas are pretty well done for the year and the beans are just about dormant for now.  I am going to try to get out and pull up the stalks and send them to the composter so I can get a okra and corn in the beds. 

Stan planted 100 gladiolas for me after the rain had slowed down some.  They are all about 2' tall now and we should have flowers all over the house before long.  The yellow and red roses out front are on their second round of blooms as is the pink honeysuckle.  I wintered over most of the potted flowers and they are all out front and glorious.  I rooted four mock strawberries from an existing plant and it is almost as big as it's parent plant.  They are amazing if you like foliage. 

I hope I can find a few minutes every week to blog.  It is so relaxing!  Sometimes you just need to sit down and make a list of what you got done so you don't feel like you aren't accomplishing much.  I work at a job I love and come home to a life I love.   I don't always feel like  I'm keepin up with everything though.  I'm pretty much a type A person with not quite enough energy.

Hope your week goes well to anyone reading this. 

New Year's Eve

We will be staying in for New Year's Eve.  Stan is fixing "hobo dinners" for us - it's a hamburger patty, potatos and onion wrapped in foil with seasonings and baked in the oven for a couple of hours. 

Although Stan is well enough to go out tonight, I don't want to leave Trixy alone.  She knows she is helpless and if she wakes up while we are gone, I'm afraid she will be scared. 

We had a wonderful Christmas.  The best present this year was that Stan was released to drive and do do more walking, but only in a limited way.  He did not need a skin graft when he went in on the 22nd.  He doesn't go back to see the doctor until January 19.  He's been going in every week, so that is a real improvement.

We are so blessed.  The ten days I was off around Christmas were so much fun.  We love being together and doing things together.  We have great neighbors so it was fun being outside on the nicer days.  One neighbor baked us a pecan pie using pecans from her tree.  It was truly the best pecan pie we've ever had.  MUST get the recipe.