All Is Good Now!

Omg, today has been hectic, but fortunately all is good now. Except I know that I need some peace and quiet, so this is a short post for tonight, because I'm fixin' to go make some delicious, healthy, homemade zucchini bread and try meditating again.

My ✮✮✮✮✮ Allrecipes zucchini bread recipe calls for cooking the loaf for at least 45 minutes to 1 hour, so I am planning to meditate while the bread is baking. And because it has been a beautiful warm day (right now it is 68 degrees outside) I plan to put our dogs outside while I meditate/growl, so not to scare them.

If my bread turns out great I promise to take a picture before we eat it and I'll post it tomorrow night.
Here is the link to Mom's Zucchini Bread (soon to become Cousin Nancy's...) recipe that I found on
allrecipes.com

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

This Lotus Position!

Yesterday and today have been great, except I watched this new movie, Beautiful Boy, on Amazon this afternoon and I loved it. Watching Beautiful Boy was a real eye-opener for me,  but it depressed me until I talked to our dear friends Kris & Jim. And by the time I adios-ed Kris & The Mineral Man—I was no longer depressed and I was back to laughing.

But back to the movie, I must say that Steve Carrell's acting was incredibly great along with the other actors. The story and plot were fabulous, but the subject matter—drug addiction was so scary. I think everyone should watch this movie, because it is a real eye-opener about drug addiction/abuse and it needed to be addressed and become a priority before it kills and destroys so many families.

Now I am off my soapbox. (I know you're saying, "Thank goodness for that.")

This morning, I slept in and it was so wonderful to wake up with all of our dogs snuggling next to me. I was so warm and cozy sleeping with them that when I woke up I stayed in bed with them for over twenty minutes, before doing my habit—"Today is going to be a great day!" Loud clap and then jumped off the bed.

Early this afternoon, after cooking us lunch and cleaning up the kitchen I walked 4 Fast Miles with Leslie Sansone, while Roy and Henry snored on the couch. And while secretly Little Debbie and Big Al(ice) happily tore up and shredded an old throw blanket, in the bedroom.

After I walked the four miles with Leslie, I was so thrilled with myself that I had exercised—I ate the last slice of my homemade cake that I had made the other day. And I washed it down with a glass half-full of 2% milk.

Then of course I felt guilty for indulging myself, but I quickly got over it. But then seeing the sad, upside down smile on Tony's face when he looked into the refrigerator and discovered the cake was history and that was almost too much for me to bear.

So, to bring back some peace and harmony into my life, I decided to try to meditate, again. You see, yesterday afternoon my dear friend, in Costa Rica, sent me this great link to this app for meditation for beginners.

Last night I tried meditating for the very first time and it was weird and pretty cool at the same time and it sort of freaked out our dogs—especially Little Debbie.

I think the reason it freaked her out was I streamed the meditation session for beginners, from my iPad to my awesome harmon/kardon blue-tooth speaker, and it was pretty loud, with this guru's deep voice chanting.

And I probably made her more nervous, because I was sitting on the floor, in front of the wood burning stove, trying to sit in this lotus-position with my palms turned face up and my head tilted upward with my eyes closed—and repeating, after him, these strange sounds.

So all that I can figure is Little Debbie must have thought that I was growling at her or that I was temporarily possessed. Anyway, I only tried to meditate for about 15 minutes. And I did it again today after Tony promised me that he would stay outside with our dogs until I had finished meditating.

And speaking of finishing, I guess that is about all for tonight. Life is good—knock-on-wood.

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

Shangri-La!

Yesterday and today have been great, but not real exciting, so to speak.

Tony and I worked next door yesterday morning and after that he and I cleaned our cabin and then we went to Kerrville to wash and dry a load of clothes.

While our clothes were washing, the next block over, Tony and I went to buy a few groceries at the big H-E-B and we made back in time for the final spin cycle.

After we loaded our clothes into the dryer, I put an extra quarter in so the dryer would go for 40 minutes, because Tony and I had decided to go to Louise Hays Park, so he could take pictures while I went for a walk.

The reason I wanted to go for a walk is because my dear friend Mari and I have vowed (New Year Resolution) to meet at the park, at least once a week to walk-away-the holiday pounds.

Anyway, going to the park yesterday was not such a great idea, because it was so windy—it felt much colder than it actually was.

So while Tony snapped pictures of the adorable geese, etc. I was marching down the path, as fast as I could, in hopes of breaking a sweat and getting warmer. Bottom   Line: It didn't work, because I was so cold and wind-blown that I was miserable. So I guess you could say that wasn't much of a reason to write about it last night. And that is why I didn't.

This morning Tony and I once again went to work, next door at the beautiful Escondida Resort. We love working over there, because the staff is so much fun and super nice. And on top of that the place is so beautiful it is like being in Shangri-La.

After working a few hours each, we came back home and I cooked us lunch. Our lunch was okay, but it wasn't anything to write home about. So, after I cleaned up the kitchen I decided to bake us a cake as a reward for the bland, tasteless, unexciting, healthy lunch that I had prepared.

I made the cake from scratch, from a recipe that I had found in an old issue of Southern Living magazine, at the laundromat. And to my delight—Tony loved the cake.

Early this evening Tony and I went over to visit Kinky and Marcie and to our delight Chet and Willy had already arrived. You see, our dear friend Chet O'Keefe had come in, from Terlingua, to help Kinky and Rick do some recording for Echo Hill Records.

Tony and I had a really great visit with Kinky, Marcie, Dylan and Chet and the best news is they are coming over here tomorrow for a longer fun visit.

As I finish writing this tonight—life is good.(Knock-on-wood.)

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

Big Foot!

Today has been great, even though it has been cold, overcast and rainy for the past couple of days or since last year.

This morning I was getting cabin fever and was badly in need of warmer, dry and sunshiny days.

So, since the weather was nasty and cold outside I decided to do something positive inside—I walked 4 Fast Miles With Leslie Sansone. And sadly that is about all of the latest breaking news from Big Foot Ranch in Medina, Texas.

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

Happy New Year!

Today has been great and I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! It would not take much to make this a happier New Year than last year was for me. And I am not complaining, because 2019 is going to be a great year for all of us.

Of course, seeing is believing it will be a happier New Year. And I already like 2019, because I am so very grateful for so many things. And I already have Little Debbie's care package to look forward to.

You see, a few weeks ago our dear friend Kent Perkins got on Facebook and he told Tony that he and his sweet wife, Ruth Buzzi, know and are good friends with the real Little Debbie that those tasty snacks are named after.

Anyway, Kent told Tony that they were talking to Little Debbie and they had told her about our rescue ranch and about Tony and I rescuing (our) Little Debbie. And their Little Debbie loved it. And our Little Debbie loved it, too. And this is a picture that I took of Little Debbie after we had rescued her and a year before we had to have her eye removed.

And this is a picture of the other Little Debbie and a painting of her that is used on those famous, delicious Little Debbie snacks.

When Kent & Ruthie came to visit us recently Kent told us that their friend Little Debbie and our Little Debbie had a few things in common, but I am not at liberty to disclose. 

Anyway Kent asked me to please send him some pictures of our Little Debbie so they could pass  them on to their famous friend. So I sent Kent the link to Longmire-Texas Style starring Little Debbie and a few pictures including these two along with the one that I took of our Little Debbie sitting with Ruthie & Kent on our couch—and Tony's feet.

After completing that task I Googled their Little Debbie and soon discovered that Debbie McKee-Fowler is the original Little Debbie and then I read this awesome, Huffington Post article; "Real-Life Little Debbie Is All Grown UP (And Doing Well!)." And it made me so proud that I had named our Little Debbie after this great woman. 

As I finish writing this post, on January 1, 2019, I am excited to tell y'all that a few days ago Kent told Tony that Little Debbie (McKee-Fowler) has told Ruthie & Kent that she is honored that we named our Little Debbie after her and that she is sending us a Little Debbie care package filled with Little Debbie snacks, a personal letter from her along with an autographed picture! And I believe that this is proof enough that 2019 is already a great year. Little Debbies Rule!

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

Half Empty!

Today has been great. I've done nothing but write, cook, nap with our dogs and then write some more. So there really isn't anything exciting to talk about, except that after posting on my blog last night—Tony, came into the kitchen and announced, "If you don't mind, I think I'll finish off this bag of Fritos. It's half empty."

I told him fine, because I've hidden the unopened bag of Fritos in the back of our closet.

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

Downtown Cowtown!

Today has been great. This morning right after doing my new habit and then thanking God for everything—including the Fritos—the dogs and I marched into the kitchen, so I could make myself a delicious cup of coffee.

The Cabin was warm enough inside and it was 67 degrees inside and 41 degrees outside. As I sipped my coffee I checked my e-mails and this one that my dear friend Mari sent to me made me laugh out loud, because when I was in my early twenties I used to hitchhike with Boomer, my very first Great Pyrenees.

We used to hitch rides from Crested Butte, Colorado to Gunnison all of the time to get groceries. We also hitched rides from Crested Butte to my parent's home in Fort Worth for surprise visits. Which was not always a great thing, because one time, right before Christmas, when Boomer and I knocked on my parent's front door—Mom fainted when she opened the door and saw us standing there.

And that was scary, because Mom had this metal plate inside her head, because when she was five-years-old she was hit by an eighteen-wheeler, in downtown Cowtown and y'all already know that story, because I wrote about in one of my books and I also blogged about it many years ago.

Anyway, Boomer and I also frequently hitched rides from Fort Worth to Austin too and the best part about it is—we never had one problem.

With one exception happening in Walsenberg, Colorado. When this highway patrolman, warned us that it was illegal to hitchhike in Colorado and he wrote us a warning ticket, while Boomer ran off and jumped inside his vehicle. Anyway, I am still laughing about Mari's e-mail and this is what she sent to me:

"Picked up a hitchhiker last night. He said thanks how do you know I'm not a serial killer? I replied the chances of two serial killer's being in the same car are astronomical."

After I wrote Gaby a thank you note for the delicious chocolate treats she had sent to us from Germany and I had answered a few more e-mails I shut down my laptop and drank another cup of coffee, before gluing my dentures back inside my pie-hole.

This afternoon Tony and I went to see Sandy & Jon at Wolfmueller's Books. Omg, they had so many customers in their store buying books, we barely squeezed through their store's front door.

Jean, (Jon's sweet sister aka "My Pink-Potholder Finisher" and my short-lived potholder business partner) was busy ringing up sales as fast as she could, as a long—line of book-buying customers patiently stood in line to pay for their books. And Sandy & Jon were also busy waiting on one customer after another to help them find the books that they were searching for.

As busy as Jean, Jon and Sandy were they each took the time to wave at us, so Tony and I waved back to them.

While I was checking out the cookbooks, Jon was the first to come greet us. After greetings, I said, "Good grief y'all are busy in here."

"I know," Jon replied, followed by a chuckle. "It's been like this since Thanksgiving and...."
Then Jean, who is always wearing a beautiful smile on her face walked up and joined us.

And before Tony and I could say howdy to her, Jean said, "Today's going to be a great day!" And then she clapped her hands together, and said, "Sorry, I can't jump anymore."

We all laughed, because I knew that they had been reading my blog. "And it is a great day," I said, as Sandy walked up and greeted us.

"Hi Nancy and Tony," Sandy said. "What's great?" And we all laughed, because we know that Sandy doesn't regularly read my blog.

Anyway, Tony and I had a fun, but very short, visit with our dear friends and then we adios-ed them, so they could get back to taking care of their customers.

On our way back home, Tony and I talked about our new year resolutions. He told me that he plans to quit snacking so much, which thrilled me to death, because that means I won't have to worry so much about our Fritos. And needless to say, I said nothing about our survival chips.

Then I told Tony that yesterday Mari had sent me this great video about new year resolutions and that she and I were planning to do everything on that list, along while continuing to do my new habits. Here's that short video that Mari found and sent to me, about New Year resolutions—Going Into 2019 Like.

And when we got back home Tony watched that video while I put another log(s) on the fire. He liked the new year video and after he watched it twice, he said,, "2019 is going to be a great year!" Then he clapped his hands together and jumped out of my chair. And that scared Little Debbie, but I know she'll get used to it.

So now, thanks to Tony, it looks like I've got another new habit to add to my to do list, because 2019 is going to be a great year!

And that's about it for now, because last week, after Fourth encouraged me to paint a rocket ship or something cool, on the front of our 2,500 gallon water holding tank, I've finally decided what I am going to paint on it. So now I am going to do some researching on the computer to find out what kind of paint I will need to paint my upcoming, giant, water tank mural.

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