The Boob Report – The Dirty Little Secret about Alcohol

Spreading the word! I’m just the messenger too.

Susie Lindau's Wild Ride

Don’t shoot! I am about to deliver a dirty little secret kept by doctors. Why? I don’t think anyone wants to know. I’ve held this post for a year while waiting to get up the nerve. My hand shook while pressing publish.

I had only heard rumblings about it and that was long ago, after Paul McCartney’s wife, Linda, died of breast cancer. I quickly forgot, until last summer.

The bomb was dropped into the conversation while enjoying lunch al fresco with a friend who had just finished radiation treatment for stage I breast cancer.

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Goldilocks & The Three Little Birds

This is my favorite picture of the grandkids on Billy Bob’s side of the family.  B only had one brother – D.  B & D each had two children.  Us first, Pony Boy was born in 1988, then bingo banjo … October 1997, December 1997 and April of 1999. H, Lulu and G.

Sh!t! had not hit the fan yet when this picture was taken.  Well, some maybe but not the full motherload.  Timestamp 3/23/05 … five months before H’s diagnosis of cancer, a year and four months before D’s death, a year and seven months before our unfortunate event aka addict steals truck, drives into house and proceeds to destroy everything in his wake.

Here is a glimpse of the best of times.  Even my stoic Pony Boy, the oldest grandchild with flowing locks in his Kiss T-shirt was happy on this day.  You may not be able to tell easily since he refuses to smile in any and all pictures.  Still because he loves us will at least agree to take them.  If you’re lucky you may even catch his grin.  Same grin as his Uncle D.  A smirk really.

Pony quit cutting his hair after mom died as an homage to his Gran.  She loved his curls and frequently told him how I forced him to get hair cuts.  How she would have let his hair grow.  I am not sure she knew what century we were living in.  Pony finally donated his mane to Locks of Love for a better cause when H was suffering through chemo and getting a wig of her own.

This post is brought to you by if only … If only I knew then what I know now.  If only I had enjoyed those days more.  If only, I had lived life in the moment.  If only, you now the drill.

I leave you now with the musical stylings of one Bob Marley. Three Little Birds.  

As Always, More To Come.

 

Dealing With My Empty Nest

Thank goodness I still have my fur babies at home with me.  They may be grown up but they will always look like this to me.  Then I have my trees and plants.  Filling the void somehow.  Finally, I am officially off the WW wagon.  WW = Weight Watchers.  Cinnamon rolls and almond croissants are a perfect distraction.  I may even start baking again.   I am after all a renaissance woman. Lol 🙂   Mmmmm Life is good!

As always, more to come.

Struggle together, succeed together..

Just lovely 😊. And yes your mom is good people. Truly the best! Thanks for sharing. I’m passing along this goodness. Love the music too.

La Feliciana Got Her First Hair Cut Plus Other Tales From Billy Bob And J-Dub’s Nursery

If you’re not a gardening geek, this post is likely knot for you. You may want to leave now. However, if mulching about floras spikes your interest, you should stick  around. Get it?   I slay me.  😂

No we are not original. We named our peach tree (who we adopted from Jammin Jams) la Feliciana because that is the variety of peach she will produce. In 3 to 4 years.  We got time on our side.  So much for downsizing, selling the house and moving.   I think I’m planting my roots instead of sowing wild oats.  

Well Feliciana needed a haircut. And that really just means she needed to be pruned. You see the distance from her roots to her top was too far apart for her age.  She’s a twig after all.  She has enough hard work to do growing up without any added pressure to overachieve.

A lot of people don’t believe this. That pruning the tree and cutting it down to where it looks like you’ve taken all the good stuff off really does help promote growth. That which doesn’t kill her makes her stronger. Or this may hurt but it’s for the best as they say.

Feliciana did such a good job at the barber. But she’s lonely.  Billy Bob and I went and done did it, now Feliciana has siblings. 😂 I know I know don’t quit my day job.

New to the nursery are:

Alma the Almond. She is a nutty gal but we love her. Especially with milk chocolate 🍫.

Along with Lee Royal and Minnie Royal who hail from Cherry City aka Bing-ville. Lee is up close while Minnie … well she is shy. Also we’ve been told they must stay at least 25 feet to no more than 100 feet apart at all times. Something about a love hate relationship. Can’t live with her/him, can’t live without her/him. Things are so bad that they use bees 🐝 to carry any messages back-and-forth.

Additional changes in the nursery include moving Ollie the orange tree to a new whiskey barrel to see if he does better because citrus trees do really well in pots. And Ollie produced some pretty sour fruit last year. We’re going to see if he becomes sweeter in his new bloomer. Kinda like a time out.

Finally there’s Alvin the avocado. He’s not new. Alvin’s been in the nursery about 2-3 years. Unfortunately he isn’t doing well. He lost his bud Ava the other Avocado tree and has been pining for her ever since.  The spot Alvin called home was a perfect spot for Lee Royal. Alvin gladly gave up his ground for new territory.  He is so excited to be getting new bloomers too.    Just like Ollie!!

In a nutshell, today was balsam!!!!    Rhymes with awesome!!!  The B-balm-diggity.  A day for the memory books I tell ya.  Our nest maybe empty but our nursery is FULL!

As always, more to come.

Audrey Has New Bloomers

And by bloomers I mean we finally put her pants on by transplanting her into this new pot. 

Here she is in all her glory!  😊 

As always, more to come.

I came home to this …

​​​​​No wonder his shoulder hurts… should I be worried?  Nope of course not 😂

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As always, more to come.  

Eureka! We Are Calling Her La Feliciana

Today, Saturday January 28, 2017, Big B squared and I attended the 7th Annual Jammin Jams Fruit Tree Adoption held at the historic Pearl and sponsored by the Alamo Forest Partnership.  First come, first serve, limit one tree per family while supplies last.

Billy Bob was not too keen on going.  But he enjoys gardening.  We have planted tree(s) every February since we built this house 17 years ago.  Plus, the tree was FREE!

He is positive no one will be there because it is rainy.  I tell him, it will be crowded.  He freely continues to give me his opinion  … for the entire drive there … all 12 minutes … this is dumb and we’ll never get a tree … I ask why? If no one will be there? No answer.   Still he is sure of this … despite never having attended before today. 

Starts at 8 am, we get there at 7:50 and the line is already stretching back around the building.  He slows down and I “drop and roll” out of his truck as he goes off to find a parking space. He eventually finds me in line and then we wait.  And we joke around about stuff.  And we laugh.  And we wait some more.  And is he SURE we won’t get a tree.  He suggests we leave.  I am tempted.  But then I think, what else is going on?  Back to the empty nest?  Pffft, nope.  I wanted to stay so I tell him “let’s just see and I don’t care if we don’t get one; I’m having the time of my life”.  I knew that’d get him.  He stayed, for me!

Favorite things overheard while waiting in line:

Random guy a few spaces back from us: “F@ck this Sh*t, we don’t need a tree, I’m going to HEB to get lemons” for non locals – HEB is a grocery store.  Arborist lesson: of all the offerings, lemon is the only tree that fruits immediately.

Man trying to get another card necessary to redeem for a tree: “Hey I didn’t get a card”  

Volunteer: “Your wife got one, it’s only one tree per family”

Man: “Her? She’s not my wife, she’s my sister.”

Volunteer: “I’m not falling for that, please move along sir”

Volunteer (under her breath but loud enough for us to hear: “Must’ve been his sister-wife”

Lol! Yes, I am easily amused.

Now for the piece de resistance of our trip, two hours after getting in line, we arrived to the front.  The tree runner is asking B what kind of tree we want? I am filling out the form, lucky card #959 of 1300. Our original goal was avocado, then peach or olive or orange.  Avocado and apple were gone but everything else was left therefore we got our 2nd choice – PEACH! Not sure what the hell we would’ve done with an olive tree; thank goodness we don’t have to find out.

La Feliciana: Self-pollinating, best to plant in the ground, grows to 18 feet tall.  Produces in 3 years.  How’s that for planning for the future?  🙂

As always, more to come.

 

 

🎶 Sing Along Song of The Day 🎶 in memory of Mary Tyler Moore

Joan Jett on Letterman

Love is All Around ~ 9/1/32 to 1/25/98

As much as MTM deserves a tribute, this is not about her my lovely icon.  Ode to the original modern woman will come in another post.  On this day 19 years ago, my mom died after a short and brutal battle with cancer.

I miss my mommy.  Wow! That’s the first time I have admitted to those feelings “out loud”. Lulu was only five weeks old on January 25, 1998.  A day I will never forget.  Mom died in the nursing home, daddy at her side.

I was in for Mr. Toad’s wild ride … postpartum hormones raging, emotions swirling, grief to my core despite the miracle baby girl who almost was not to be. God bestowed Lulu upon us to keep me from going insane.  I am sure of it!

I spent the first 15 years or so after mom’s passing being angry.  Angry for lots of things that I will not air here.  Surprise!  J-Dub doesn’t always have to tell all.  ooh and that keeping it to myself business is killing me smalls.

Mom did EVERYTHING for ME!  She gave up so much of herself to fall on the sword that is sometimes motherhood.  She gave until she had nothing left to give.  She tried hard to make things perfect.  She was the master controller.  She tried to take the brunt of life’s woes to spare me from what she experienced herself.  Her fierce protection makes me grateful but also, her sacrifice of self makes me sad.

Mom was the youngest of seven:  four boys and three girls; one sister died in childhood.  They lived on a farm in Runge Texas. Times were tough.  At age 15, her father died.  At age 18, her mother died.  She lived with her brother (Salt of the Earth) my uncle R upon their mother’s passing.  My uncle R and aunt C were newlyweds when they took mom in.  The living arrangements were not ideal to say the least.  Arrangements that she remedied by getting quickly married the first time.

Much of the rest of her life before ME remained a mystery.  I always assumed the lack of info was because her parents were gone.  Now I know differently.  My cousin shared details with me of our mothers’ childhoods.  Things previously kept secret from me until both mom and my aunt were long gone. Estrangement and other issues affected mom in ways one could not fully understand.  Her morose feelings secretly crept into our lives.  Knowing what I know now; I can understand and forgive.  As a parent myself, I get she did the best she could under the circumstances. Forgiveness has allowed me to accept the inevitable.

And I am NOT lamenting my childhood though.  Far from it!  From my purview, I had a Mayberry R.F.D. perfect childhood.  Full of memories of love and laughter.  I choose to remember only the best of times.  Despite the duality of life making childhood also the worst of times.  Dickens-esque sentiment for sure.

Do I wear rose colored glasses?  Am I in denial?  Maybe? but none of that matters because what truly matters is that I have taken a step back to realize what is most important in my life and I know what I can’t live without.  Thank you FB friend (who shall remain nameless) for the final parting thoughts.

As always, more to come.