Tony's Surprise "Over The Hill" Birthday Party!

Today has been so much fun, because this past week I've been secretly scheming, behind Tony's back, with Eileen and our great friends/dog-walking-volunteers.

Earlier this week sweet Eileen sent me an e-mail, wanting to give Tony a surprise birthday party, at the Medina Highpoint Resort's Koyote Grill and she also offered to bring his birthday cake. I loved her idea, so we set the wheels in motion.

Then Eileen and I secretly invited all of our great friends/dog-walking-volunteers to come to Tony's surprise birthday party today, even though his real birthday is actually this coming Sunday.

Eileen and I were thrilled with our good friend's response—everyone was going to come to it, except for our friends that are currently out-of-town vacationing.

It is very hard for people to surprise Tony and we did it! In fact, this morning Tony came inside The Cabin, and said, "Jim & Diane and Dawn are outside and want to join us for lunch. Where do you want to go?"

I casually looked up, from my computer, and said, "Let's go to Koyote. Around 11:30." And with that said Tony went back outside to tell everyone where we were going to eat lunch.

A few minutes later Tony came back inside, and announced, "Everyone is fine with that, but Jim told me that he was hoping that we'd go to Fuddrucker's for a change."

And my response was casual again, "Hmm." Even though I actually wanted to laugh out loud, because Jim was helping us "pull the wool" over Tony's eyes and Tony had fallen for it.

Around 11:30, Tony and I walked inside the Koyote Grill and our great friends hollered, "Surprise! Happy Birthday Tony!" And Tony had the funniest look on his face, because he was totally surprised.
And before Tony and I went to place our orders, Lisa said, "Happy Birthday, Tony! Your and Nance's lunch is on me today and I've already paid for it."

After Tone and I thanked Lisa for treating us to lunch. I pulled out my cell phone and snapped this picture of Eileen's cute "Over The Hill" chocolate birthday cake for Tony, that she had ordered from the little H-E-B, in Kerrville.

Our lunch was a lot of fun and it was filled with non-stop laughter. And Tony's birthday cards were hilarious. And Kris' & Jim aka "The Mineral Man's" birthday card got the award for giving Tony the funniest birthday card of all.

After we finished eating lunch, Kay, Dawn and Eileen helped light the black & white OVER THE Hill candles, on top of Tony's delicious birthday cake. And Lisa took this short, 15 second video, of us singing happy birthday to him, before Tony blew out the candles.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Tonight's The Night!

Chet O'Keeefe & Liz are here! They arrived around 2:00 this afternoon and we've had a total blast catching up with them. And in case you may have forgotten—tonight's the night that Chet will be playing his awesome music, at the Medina Highpoint Resort, in Medina.

And tonight's the night that the Medina Highpoint Resort will be hosting their weekly "All You Can Eat Pizza."

I am fixin' to take a short nap with our dogs, so I can rest and get recharged, because tonight is going to be a total blast. See y'all there!

Backup!

Today has been great. This morning our great friends/volunteers came out to walk our dogs for us. And so did Phyllis, our newest volunteer. And Jim M. kindly "showed her the ropes" on how we do things out here. "Thank you, Jim!"

After the dogs went on their fun walks and before we went up to the Medina Highpoint Resort's Koyote Grill to eat lunch together, we showed off our awesome keyhole garden. And to say the least, "they loved it and some of them even took pictures of it."

As always our lunch was fun and the food, at the Medina Highpoint Resort's Koyote Grill, was absolutely delicious. Everyone loves to eat there, because their menu has so many food choices to choose from, instead of just plain old burgers and hot dogs.

After our super fun lunch with the best volunteers in Texas, Tony and I came back home and I discovered that Chet had left his silver, spray paint bottle, on the kitchen table, so I could use it to  spray paint Little Debbie's tiny, Alien-attracting helmet silver, like mine.

Her helmet was so easy to spray paint. It only took me a couple of seconds to paint the inside and the outside and the paint dried quickly. So before returning Chet's spray paint to him I decided to make Little Debbie a backup, Alien-attracting helmet. Just in case something should happen to her official helmet, that has the pretty, pink ribbons tied to it, so it will stay put, between her ears, when we film our Texas-style, Longmire skit. And this is a picture I took of Little Debbie wearing her official, silver Alien-attracting helmet.

Following the three-seconds photo shoot, I took this picture of our Alien-attracting helmets, along with Little Debbie's backup helmet.

And that's about it for tonight, because I am going to go play my guitar for awhile.

Y'all have a great evening!

International Day at The Rescue Ranch! or Sunscreen-Sun-Screamed!

Today has been great. Early this morning Dawn was the first volunteer to come out to walk our dogs for us and while she was here, the sweet couple, from Germany, that adopted Bella from us came to pick her up and Bella was more than excited about it.

This nice couple lives in Germany six months and then they spend six months, in Bandera. Last year they officially adopted Bella from us on one condition, that we keep her the six months that they must spend in Germany. Bella loves them as much as they love sweet Bella and seeing Bella so happy, once again, started my day out great.

And ten minutes after Bella had happily left our rescue ranch, this very nice couple came out with their friend Mark, because Mark wanted to adopt one of our super dogs.

After I had introduced him to all of our dogs Mark narrowed it down to Lucille and Walter. So, Tony leashed up Lucille for Mark and then Mark and his friends and I took off. We walked down to the creek and stayed there for about twenty minutes before returning to the rescue ranch.

Then it was Walter's turn to go for a walk with Mark, so Tony leashed him up. And because all of our volunteers had arrived, Mark and his friends suggested that they take Walter for a walk, so I could go visit with our dear friends and June's friend, Jane,  who was down here visiting her from Ontario, Canada. And that's when I declared today, International Day at the rescue ranch.

A little while later, they returned with Walter. Then Mark took Lucille for another walk down to the creek, while his friends stayed behind and visited with all of us. Bottom line: Mark adopted Lucille! And all of us were thrilled about it, so please keep your fingers crossed that Lucille's adoption sticks.

Around 11:30, all of us went to the Medina Highpoint Resort's Koyote Grill to eat lunch and to celebrate my upcoming 64th birthday, which sadly is tomorrow or just five hours from now. 

I had a wonderful time at my birthday party! The birthday cards were hilarious and I love my birthday gifts. And my birthday cake, that Lisa had purchased and sent with Eileen was absolutely delicious and way too cute. Eileen teased me and called it a "caca-cake" and we all had a good laugh about it.

During our fun lunch I was visiting with June and Jane, who were sitting right next to me. June and Jane have been dear friends for over 50 years and June told me this hilarious story about them going kayaking yesterday, in the Guadalupe.

Before they went kayaking, Jane put on a bunch of sunscreen lotion, because she is a fair-skinned Canadian and she thought that her skin would absorb all of it, but that wasn't the case. And the way June described it, "She looked like she had been slimed." 

Because June and Ellen both have such a great sense of humor—they said nothing to their foreigner friend. And after they had kayaked they went to a nearby meat market and because Jane had put her jeans on, over her wet bathing suit, it looked like she had wet her pants. Anyway, June, in between outbursts of laughter, told me that Jane visited with everyone in the store and she didn't seem to notice all of the weird looks people were giving her.

Anyway, when they returned to June's home, Jane visited with Kevin, June's sweet husband and like Ellen and June, he didn't say anything about Jane's unusual appearance. "When I went past the bathroom," Jane said. "I caught a glimpse of my face, dripping of sunscreen lotion and about fainted!..." 

Then June pulls out her phone and shows us the picture she took of Jane's gooie, sunscreen-sun-screamed face and all of us burst out laughing when we saw the photo. So I asked June to please e-mail me the picture, so I could blog about it tonight. And thanks to Jane's great sense of humor she told me to go ahead and do it, because her friends would get a kick out of it.

Late this afternoon, Tony and I went over to visit with Carol & Bill and Tony and I had a blast. And before we left to come back home, Carol gave me a bag of her fresh, homemade cookies and this beautiful Orchid for my birthday present. 

And to change the subject, earlier this afternoon I dumped all of the change out of my purse, because it was so heavy. After I washed the change I asked Tony to guess how much change I'd been carrying around. He guessed four dollars and he was wrong.

It was $18.88 and it weighed 2.3 pounds!

P.S. The "Big Daddy" deal that I told all of the volunteers about today fell through and it ain't happening, which is actually no Big Deal.

Y'all have a great evening!