Pink Squirrel Farmstead

So, I thought I would share an easy weeknight meal that I made tonight. Everyone in my house loves this meal, especially Carla! She would have this multiple times a week, if I would make it. It’s not only easy but it’s a meal that will make your family think you are an amazing cook!

This is called French Country Chicken and we usually serve it over rice, mashed potatoes, or noodles with a side of veggies. I am not sure where I got the original recipe but I have tweaked it a few times to the way our family likes it.

French Country Chicken

3 chicken breast butterfly sliced in half

16 oz sour cream

1 tbsp dill weed

Garlic powder

Tony chacheres spice and herb

Knorr vegetable recipe mix

1 cup water

4 tbsp butter

Pour the Knorr vegetable mix into the water.

Season both sides of the chicken breast’s with garlic powder and Tony’s seasoning.

In a large deep skillet melt butter on medium high heat then place chicken breast in.

Cook on each side for 5 minutes until chicken on cooked completely and browned.

Move all the chicken breast to one side and pour the vegetable water mixture in and about 3/4 of the container of sour cream in to the pan and whisk until combined. You might have to move the chicken around a bit to get the juice from under the chicken. You can use the whole container of sour cream if you want but I generally like using only about 3/4 of the container. (Make tacos the next night and you have the rest for tacos 😛🌮)

Then cover the chicken breast in the sauce and add 1 tbsp dill weed and stir.

Put a lid on it and let simmer on low for 15 minutes and then enjoy!

I hope you take the chance and try out this recipe! Please let me know if you do and how you like it! I will try to share more recipes with you in the future 😊

For years I have been talking about wanting to make marshmallows. And for years I have talked myself out of it because I thought that it would end up being a gigantic sticky mess that would take forever to clean up and would just be a waste of my time and money. This year I made it a Christmas goal to make marshmallows.

Yes, I have unrealistic Hallmark Christmas movie goals that I set out to achieve each year but I don’t try to do them all in one year at least! 🤷🏻‍♀️ I love Christmas time and I love Christmas festivities and doing Christmas things as a family. If I didn’t get one gift for Christmas I would be fine with it, I just want to do all the Christmas things with my family!

Yesterday I made gingerbread cookies and Royal icing and we decorated the cookies after dinner. It was so nice sitting around the table watching everyone’s creativity in action and listening to the laughter, it definitely warmed my heart ❤️.

In addition I made marshmallows for the first time yesterday!!!! And let me tell you a big secret…… IT IS SO EASY!!!! I did do my research and read a gazillion and one recipes and blogs about it before hand but settled on a recipe that I thought would be the best to try. I will link the recipe below if you want to give it a try.

How to Make Homemade Marshmallows

After making the marshmallows I let them sit for about 3 hours before touching them, then lightly sprinkled them with powdered sugar and cut a few out with cookie cutters to eat immediately then covered and let them sit overnight. I noticed after sitting overnight they had more of the outside texture of a store bought marshmallow and were less sticky but the taste is soooo much better.

This recipe is a keeper in our house and is going to be laminated and kept for years to come. I am sure I will be making this recipe very often to go in our homemade hot chocolate.

What are some of your favorite Christmas activities that you and your family enjoy?

Doing things together as a family means more to me than anything else at Christmas time. I saw this craft and immediately thought, how fun it would be for Cheyenne and I to do together. Today was the day we tried it out! Cheyenne had a blast and said it was so soft and was better than play dough. So I guess if all else fails we have an amazing new “snow play dough” recipe!!

Recipe

2 cups baking soda

1 cup corn starch

1 1/2 cup water

Pour all ingredients into sauce pan and mix until combined. Turn on medium heat and stir continuously until mixture is thick like play dough. Remove from heat and let cool on a dough mat or parchment paper. Roll out dough until approximately 4mm thick. Cut with small cookie cutters place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet and use toothpick to cut holes into each one. Bake at 200 degrees until dry ( approximately 2 hours)

So, I found this recipe a lot less detailed on TikTok and learned a little bit so you don’t have to 🤪. The dough was a bit sticky at first and I thought maybe I should have cooked it longer but turns out I should have just been patient and let it cool completely 😂…. Also, after cutting out a cookie sheet full with Cheyenne we only poked one hole in each one but I would recommend to poke 2 holes in each one so that they won’t move as much, on the garland once strung up.

I enjoyed stringing up this garland with some fresh cranberries. Cheyenne painted her little cutouts and enjoyed making it a few days of crafting fun.

This was a new fun project, that might be a new family tradition, where I can make the whole family get involved. My next new adventure is trying to make homemade marshmallows and I can’t wait to share that with you soon! Hope you are all enjoying this magical time of the year!

Merry Christmas!

Woke up to snow on the ground at the farm today! Technically not the first snow of the year but it is the first snow that stuck to the ground. It wasn’t a lot of snow but it is still pretty! I LOVE LOVE LOVE snow! My parents not so much lol!

I always say if it’s going to be cold, then there should be snow! ❄️ Do you like snow? Seems like the perfect weather to decorate for Christmas if you haven’t already and to kick off the Christmas season with a cup of hot chocolate in your hand!

This is the time of year when I, along with most people; reflect upon the year and ponder upon all the things we have been blessed with and to be thankful for.

I have so many things that Heavenly Father has blessed my life with, I would not even know where to begin.

As most of you are aware, if you have followed my post, Chad and I have had more than our fair share of Medical Issues to deal with last year or two.

Everything from broken bones, 🦴 knee surgery, countless trips to the hospital 🏥 and numerous hospitalizations. Even with all of this, we remain thankful. Both of us are extremely grateful and blessed to have found each other and are truly soul mates. We are both there right next to the other to help each other out.

We have been blessed as a family and grateful that Carla has moved in with us. She is a tremendous help and such a wonderful person. We are also extremely excited that we have all decided that she is going to move with us to the Farm. We look forward to converting the “ground floor or 1st floor” {she doesn’t like the idea of it being called the basement 🤣🤣} into her own apartment.

We have also been blessed with Payton becoming a Mother in a few more short months and we will become Oma and Opa!

Luckily, last month in October, I felt well enough to go to the farm for a couple of weeks and spend some time with Dad, Mom, and Hunter. Cheyenne and CoCo also came with me! I was thankful for feeling well enough to get a few things done while I was there. I did get some rest in between, so I didn’t overdo it and didn’t have too many bad headache days.

Now on to the Farm renovation updates. I know this is the part of my blog that most of you come to see anyway 😌.

The Next project I was able to work on, was my sewing/ craft room. This room was also split into two separate rooms. Had to make room for the grand baby!

I had never tried to lay laminate flooring sheet before. Normally Chad does this type of stuff, but he was back in Texas at work and he couldn’t come. I think it came out great 😌

Coco says it’s exhausting supervising all day

We had seen on TikTok videos about a supermarket in Cincinnati Ohio, that is coined the Disney land of grocery stores it’s called Jungle Jims International Market. All of us enjoy stores like World Market and other non traditional stores, so I decided it would be a fun little getaway for all of us to go see. Mom, Dad, Cheyenne, and Hunter went. Cincinnati is only a short 2 hour(ish) drive away. Some of you are probably like a 2 hour drive 😱. But after living in the Texas Panhandle for over 5 years, 2 hours is just a normal commute to the next town 😉

The store is ginormous. It’s over 6 acres or stuff.

Jungle Jim’s, has a ton of links and videos on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and you name it. Nearly every aisle is food from a different country and it is so amazing to see all the different kinds of foods that are available, I cannot wait to live closer so we can try more of the diverse food options.

Here are two links if you are interested seeing more about it:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60993-d7289644-Reviews-Jungle_Jim_s_International_Market-Cincinnati_Ohio.html

Their website link

https://junglejims.com/?

Dad has been working on several projects around the farm. It’s nice to see the transformation the farm has made since we purchased it. I have spent countless hours researching ideas for how I envision it to be. Luckily, my Dad and Chad have been able to help me turn these ideas into reality. It is really a fun project. I have learned a ton. The best part of all of this and I am truly thankful for is all been renovated by us as a family. It’s just amazing to walk around and see something I know “hey, we did that !” Or “I love how my Dad did that” on and on in every room. I know that it will be memories we will always have.

I am Thankful, that my dreams are coming true.

Well, I have not been to the farm in almost 6 months. This is sad 😞. Thankfully my Dad has been able to work on several projects on the farm so this makes me happy !!😊

(Make sure you read the full post, I have a special announcement at the end 🤫)

As y’all know, if you have been following my blog; I truly LOVE the fact that we bought this Amish Farm. It is like we bought a shell of a house, which gives me the chance to make my home unique and just how I want it.

With this being said, it also means Chad and my Dad, have a blank canvas to create things also. Chad came across an idea that is rather popular lately: “hidden doors”. He knew he wanted one somewhere on the Farm.

Dad and Chad tossed a few ideas around, then presented me with their creative idea for my approval 😜.

In the hallway is a door that opens into the Master Bedroom. There is a separate door that leads into the powder room. Normally, we always go thru that door in the bathroom to enter our Master Bedroom.

We had initially thought to use the master bedroom door, in the hallway, as a closet door. Then we could access coats etc. from the hallway or from the bedroom. Chad decided this would be a neat place for a “hidden door” instead.

Although I am biased, I think this Hidden door turned out fantastic!!

Unfortunately, my medical issues haven’t been great this past year. My migraines have increased significantly. For almost 2 years, I have had a daily headache constantly with no break. Almost 2 years ago, I had Covid for the 2nd time and shortly afterwards my headache began to get worse. The intensity in the past 6 months has increased. At 1st my migraine would be a 2-4 outta 10 pain scale. On occasions the pain would spike up to 8-9 scale. Last 4 or 5 months the pain almost never is below a 5 or 6. It is often a constant 8 or above.

I have been going to a neurologist this entire time and have been on so many different medications and dosages that I can’t keep up some days. I have been to the ER more times than I can count and have been admitted to several hospitals multiple times, just to try and make the pain tolerable.

I have had MRI, CAT scans, X-Rays, EEG, EKG and about a gallon of blood 🩸 has been drawn for labs (or it seems 😉) and numerous other tests and so far I still haven’t gotten a diagnosis. Apparently my symptoms and test results are complicated. (Stop laughing, I know you are shocked, 🫢 that I am considered complicated).

Thankfully, Carla (Chad’s sister) is retired and has been willing to move in with us. She has been such a blessing 🥰. With all my medical issues and Chad’s hurt knee (which he has re-injured again btw 🙄 waiting for another MRI) and Payton pregnancy with Paxton, she has been a tremendous help with all of us 🥰!

We have all decided since she plans to move to Kentucky as well, to just go ahead and move to the Farm with us !!!!

Originally we had no real plans what to do with the basement, so Chad was going to just turn it into a “man cave”. Now we have decided to instead to turn it into Carla’s Apartment. Which will be great for everyone! So we told Dad our plan, so he could start rethinking our original plans and be able to adjust the basement for Carla.

Our last time at the Farm, Dad and Chad had put a bathroom into the basement. Chad had a vision to make that bathroom a “steam punk” theme. Fortunately, Carla also likes that vision (since this will be her bathroom now 🤣).

Dad was able to finish most of the basement bathroom. It’ll still need a little cosmetic work here and there, but it is 💯 functional!! It’s hard to believe, three years ago when we purchased the farm it had no indoor bathroom just the outhouse. Now the farm has 3 fully functioning bathrooms!

Obviously the basement is where the electrical and plumbing are at, so dad was able to close that area off to make a utility closet

Chad came across a picture that he liked of a metal rack to hang cast iron pans and hoped Dad would enjoy hand forging them.

So if you know me at all, then you likely know my favorite thing to do is cooking and baking. With this being said, my biggest “want” for the farm is my DREAM KITCHEN!!!

Dad has been busy…..

Getting a bunch of the cabinets made. Once he finishes building and installing the cabinets he will go back and build and put the cabinet doors on.

Also, found a nice antique cabinet my Dad picked up for me. I plan to use this cabinet in my master bath to display “pretty, pretties” in my spa theme bathroom.

Things have been growing a lot. The weather has been pretty good except for one bad storm that knocked a tree down in the yard and a bit less rain than normal. Hunter and my Dad were busy cleaning up the debris from the tree branch breaking. It will be good for firewood. The orchard is getting well established. Won’t be long and we outta be getting some fruit.

So now on to the most exciting part of this tale. I’m confident that you know I am absolutely obsessed with squirrels!! 🐿️ If you don’t know how intrigued I am with these amazing creatures, then you should probably start reading all of my blogs from the beginning (🤣🤔🥰😉)

Any ways as you see… I went a lil “squirrelly” and got side tracked. Any who, someone I know happened to rescue an orphaned baby squirrel, whose mama got killed. They knew I like these lil critters and offered it to me so I can try and keep it alive. I first was going to name it Rocky but discovered he was in fact a she, so got an even better name for her instead.

Let me introduce (drum roll,………) here is PINKY !!

Well I was going to keep on working on the blog, but Ms. pinky has a grumbly in her tummy and is insisting it’s chow time!!!

Until the next post…have a blessed 😇 day!! But just one more picture

It’s a Boy!!! We cannot wait to meet our grandson Paxton James, PJ for short! Thank you to everyone for the votes and the love you have shown our family.

We’re having a baby!!! Well a grand baby that is, we are excited to enter into a new phase of life and we’re ready to spoil this baby rotten. Chad might need a couple more jobs to help cover the cost. 🤪

Our daughter Payton and her boyfriend Landon are 14 weeks along and is due February 9, 2025

Chad has decided he is too young to be called grandpa and I am definitely way too young to be called a grandma. So he decided we are going to go by Oma and Opa ☺️

All of the babies, older “siblings” are learning how to be big brother and sisters !

Oh and of course Aunt Carla is excited to become Great Aunt CarCar !

There has been a ton of discussion about is it going to be a boy? Is it going to be girl? The anticipation is dreadful.

In the meantime, there has been a tremendous amount of window shopping and learning about all the new gizmos and gadgets that have come out since there has been a baby around here. Hard to believe that it has been almost two decades!!

On Saturday August 24th we are going to have the Gender Reveal party. Cast your votes now for Team Blue or Team Pink and stay tuned for the outcome in the near future 🙃

We have not been to the farm in quite some time, but we have been here for the last few weeks and it has been spectacular being here.

I did have a meltdown soon after we got here, because I am stuck with my foot in a cast and can’t help with much and well I am a girl. Chad was very loving and understanding and then I felt better. Being in a cast is for the birds! I broke the 5th metatarsal. Which of course knowing me I broke it at very difficult place for it to heal.

This trip so far has been a lot of plumbing, electrical and other slow going projects.With me being in a cast and not supposed to be on my foot, also had several bad days with severe migraines and wasn’t able to get out of bed. Chad still recovering from his knee surgery, and my Dad still recovering from his shoulder surgery, things took longer than expected.

However I am happy to report the master bathroom and toilet closet are finally 💯 finished !!!

In the master bathroom we added a stand up shower with dual shower heads, a storage cabinet on each side, and a niche beside the bathtub. It was amazing to see it all come together each day and watch my Dad and Chad work together to make my dreams come true.

We painted and painted and painted some more. Then we hung wallpaper on one wall in the master bathroom (of course there are squirrels in the wallpaper). I just want you to know hanging wallpaper behind an installed bathtub is more difficult than you could ever imagine, I can guarantee; I was trying to think skinny thoughts, and I felt stuck only a couple times haha.

So, I really wanted a tiled niche in wall next to my beautiful cast iron tub. I love to take a long hot bath and want a place for soap shampoo and somewhere to set a drink. I figured no biggie with Dad and Chad it’ll be easy peasy.

But, when I told them what I wanted, they both just kinda looked at me and blinked, with a lost look on their face. But as you all know, I’m their princess and they magically made it happen haha!

Unfortunately, they had to cut several studs in the wall and reframe it. There also ended up being an electrical outlet in the way, from the other side of the wall. Chad said “only you would find a spot in an Amish, built farmhouse that would require an electrical outlet that we put in there only a few months ago, to be moved” 🤣🤣 oops 😬

Chad was able to shiplap the ceiling after Cheyenne stained all the boards and he hung the new lights up. It looks absolutely amazing! Cheyenne said she is now a construction worker! ❤️

Chad worked hard on putting up his first glass shower door. He asked me several times if I was sure I didn’t just want a shower curtain, instead. He told me several times he was about to throw it over the porch haha. Anger management needed much?! Just kidding and he ended up doing a great job!

We have the toilet closet, separated from our master bathroom. It is the only bathroom on the main floor, that way guest can use the restroom without us having to keep the bathroom picture perfect all the time.

Luckily both Chad and I have similar tastes. We adore the rustic vintage farmhouse look. We also love the old Victorian time period. However, Chad also likes high tech gizmos and gadgets so, in the toilet closet of course he wanted a high tech Bidet toilet seat. I love the fact the seat is heated, to keep my tushy toasty 😉.

In the master bath’s shower he added a high tech shower apparatus. It has a digital display to see the temperature. Additionally, it has different settings and multiple shower massage jets! Which is great after a long day working on the farm. He also installed a “fancy schmancy” waterproof LED light that has a bunch of different colors and brightness. This is great for days I have a migraine. The light also has a Bluetooth speaker built in so we can listen to music 🎶. We were so impressed with the light we ordered two more for the other showers ( one in the basement and one upstairs).

We were also able to finish the Library. I have always dreamed of having my own personal library 📚. I am just thrilled to death how it turned out!!

We were able purchase some rustic looking doors that were actually brand new and pre-hung. My Dad said they were the best and easiest design he ever saw. Him and Chad were able to completely install five of them in just a few short hours. Now mind you, each old door and jam had to be taken out and the area made to fit each of the new doors.

We had originally planned to just add some molding to our current boring doors, until Chad found the doors on facebook marketplace for $30. Yes, you read that correctly only $30 per door !!!! We couldn’t have updated the old doors that cheap.

We were able to finish the library walls and ceiling. I found some Tiffany stained glass lights, which have a hidden built-in fan to put in the library. One for the stairwell and the other was supposed to go in the middle of the library. Well unfortunately, the ceiling is only 8 feet so the one for the room won’t work. If the fan was on it would decapitate any one who walked by it 😒, including me and I am super short. So, after pouting I had to get a different light.

We got the ceiling tiles up and everything finished without any other issues.

So when my Dad and I were going back and forth on how to build the book case, we had different visions. I didn’t want boring plain just straight across shelves. My Dad was wanting to make it all sorta geometric patterns like octagon, and triangles and who all knows what else. Chad said “basement and barn are my areas to design I’m staying out of this 🫣” lol. So Dad and I compromised and he made me an absolutely beautiful book case. When it was all built Chad took one look at it and said “it’s vintage, like 1970’s vintage” 🫠

In between other projects we also worked some on the Master Bedroom. It’s not completely finished yet, but it’s coming along nicely.

Got the wallpaper up and the bead board installed and painted. Chad was able to shiplap the ceiling and get the ceiling fan installed. We didn’t like the small closet which was built in when we bought the farm so we tore it out. We have a few ideas for the closet space to install in the future. A built in wardrobe.

Chad finished the living room. All that was left from previous trips few years ago was shiplapping the ceiling. His poor neck hurt so bad on this trip, after looking up so much doing ceilings.

As y’all probably know the basement will become Chad’s man cave eventually. He gets to design and decorate it as he pleases, while I get to decorate the rest of the house, seems fair right?

He wanted a bathroom down there and apparently that’s easier said than done. Underground bathrooms requires a few special plumbing gizmos. We discovered it needs a macerating toilet. (Basically it’s like a garage disposal for a toilet, I think 🤷‍♀️).

Eventually we are going to have a “canning kitchen” in the basement. This will be used for canning obviously, also where we can process our animals we plan to raise, and to have a place in basement for snacks and stuff. So, Dad and Chad discussed the layout and got started on the bathroom. It is not finished yet. But, luckily they got all the plumbing finished right before we left to come home. Chad didn’t want an everyday man cave bathroom (surprise, surprise).

He decided to have a steampunk theme. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical of his idea at first, but it is his man cave. After seeing all what him and my Dad have completed so far I’m actually impressed.

Pretty neat light switch

The basement loo, still has a ways to go but, luckily it’s functional. When Chad got all the electrical installed few things did not work and he was rather bummed because he didn’t have time to troubleshoot what went wrong. He literally worked up to the minute we had to leave to head back to Texas. Luckily, Dad was able to scratch his head for a few hours and was able to get it fixed.

In addition, Dad and Chad were able to install a utility sink in the mud room. My Dad did let us know of his displeasure of plumbing the entire time we were there.

We have a few ideas for Cheyenne’s room. This trip, we only had time to shiplap her ceiling and install the ceiling fan she picked out. She was super excited about that.

We also purchased a few more fruit trees for our orchard. We have apple, peach, cherry, apricot, plum, pear, blueberries, and wild blackberries planted. I can’t wait to be able to harvest them and be able to can and make pies and jelly off of our own farm !!

It was nice to be able to spend a month at the Farm. While we were there, we had the chance to celebrate Hunter’s 21st birthday 🥳. Since he turned 21 and we have a farm in Kentucky, what better way to celebrate than to take the family on a tour of a bourbon distillery.

If you were unaware Kentucky is well known as the bourbon capital of the world. We had the chance to visit Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, Ky.

It’s a few hours from the farm. So we also got to enjoy some amazing scenery 🙂. We are not much on drinking alcohol and Hunter had never had hard liquor before. So at the end of the tour there is a sampling of a few different types of their bourbons 🥃. It was quite comical to see everyone’s facial expressions. 🤣🤣

All in all it was a fun little break and after the tour we went to a German Restaurant in Lexington.

The food was delicious.

While at the Farm we also had the opportunity to celebrate Easter. We had a great meal and relaxed.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to stay any longer, but it was a fun time on the farm. We didn’t get everything done we had planned but being there for a month we did get a lot accomplished. Also, thank you for Mom feeding us each day which is a tall task for all the picky eaters lol!

We have already started planning for what updates we want to make next trip. We actually started planning this before we even left and headed back to Texas 🤣🤣🤣. Until next time we hope you are enjoying following our journey.

Today was the day !! Finally after waiting for what feels like an eternity I had my knee surgery!!

Back on April 11, 2023, I initially injured my left knee at work. After several months of physical therapy, I was finally released back to work with a full release instead of just sitting at my desk on light duty.

Well just my luck that, very week, I once again injured the same knee on Aug 20th, 2023 (different parts).

I gotta admit I realized , I was a fat a$$ that day 🤣🤣 !! I literally tore my meniscus just standing up from the couch. Casey had cut her finger in the kitchen and requested a band-aid so when I attempted to get her one kaboom 💥 heard a loud pop and it felt like I had been shanked in the back of my knee (so it’s her fault 😉)

So this time obviously Physical Therapy was not going to be enough and it was going to require surgery.

(In my humble opinion, I should have, had surgery in April. However I am not a Surgeon only a Texas Department of Criminal Justice Senior Warden, 😂)

Just like an infomercial “But Wait there is more!!!!”

So towards the end of September Casey had an odd skin rash. Which is not to unusual, at first (She has extremely sensitive skin) however, it quickly spread over various parts of her body. I ended up getting the skin infection also. So we both were on several different medications.

None of them helped. Casey had a biopsy done and the Doctor was finally able to determine what the infection was and we began a different medication.

To make a short story long, lol, for those who did not know, way back in April of 2022. I had a strep infection in my leg that ended up turning Septic and I was in hospital for over a week.

That was an experience I’d rather not repeat. The doctor said my sepsis was so severe, I was only few hours from Death. At one point, they were even considering a full right leg amputation at the hip.

This infection destroyed the lymph node in my right leg and I will have lymphedema for the rest of my life and have several scars from it. Most of the time now, it is not a big problem. However, if I walk or stand up for extended periods of time my leg will swell up a bunch. I am supposed to wear a special compression leg brace daily and have a special one to wear at nite time.

Also I have a compression machine that I should use for an hour, 3-4 times a week.

Also I am supposed to use a CPAP machine. I also have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and have to wear a wrist brace at night time and occasionally wear it during the day. (Needless to say, if a burglar ever breaks in my house and sees all this fancy attire he will probably go “damn, my bad … here take my wallet” 🤣🤣🤣🤣).

So on with the long story short, apparently the surgeon considered me a High Risk

I’m mean I’m 48 years old, size of a hippo 🦛, Diabetic, High Blood Pressure, Sleep Apnea, no big deal right?

Oh and to add insult to injury due to being 6’6” and 370lbs. I am way too large to fit in a normal MRI machine and have to drive 2 hours away to Lubbock or Amarillo to be able to use the fatty fat fat man MRI machine 🤣🤣🤣🤣. “🐿️ moment”

So the Surgeon decided not to do my surgery way back in the 1st week of October. He wanted me to take the new medication for a month and be off of the medication for two weeks before he would do the surgery.

On Tuesday November 28th, I had my pre-op consultation. That day they did all kinda lab tests and checked me out. The nurse seen I still have a few infection spots. She was like 🤔 hmm let me tattle tale on you and tell the Surgeon. My first thought was “you have got to be F@&$ing kidding me”.

However, the surgeon decided since I had been on medication already for a month, there was less of a risk of the infection going into my surgical areas. So he prescribed me the medication again, to take for the next two months. And gave me the Green Light for surgery !!!

The meniscus tear I had is called a bucket handle tear.

Of course since this is me and my injury, of course it would be the worst possible meniscus injury. The surgeon was hoping to be able to repair it, however my meniscus was shredded and unable to repaired. He salvaged what he was able to and removed what was not repairable.

In addition, He was able to repair my ACL, which was torn totally in half. There was some other cartilage damage that he was able to shave off and clean up to hopefully 🤞 fix the knee for better results.

The surgeon stated eventually I will most likely develop arthritis in this knee and will someday have to get a total knee replacement. Seeing how I already have arthritis in other areas I would assume it will happen. Yay!🙄

Of course now that I am Diabetic and overweight the recovery will take longer. Initially, the Surgeon told me I would not be able to stand or walk or even apply any pressure to that leg for 8 weeks 😩. Due to the damage that wasn’t able to be repaired I hope 🤞 this will not be the case, but will not know for sure until my follow up appointment in two weeks.

Unfortunately, he said he would not be able to give me a full release to work for 6 months 🤬. I am hoping that once I start physical therapy and recover he will allow me to return to work sooner. Not sure if y’all realize it, but I hate just sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I have already been off work for months and absolutely hate that.

I have been lucky, my staff are awesome and they have definitely been taking care of business with me not there. However, it is honestly a terrible feeling sitting at home not being there. Most people can’t wait to get out of Prison and here I am praying 🙏 to go back behind bars as quickly as possible 🤣😂🤣😂.

I am also extremely blessed to have Casey. She has definitely been my angel 😇 thru all of this. I say it all the time and truly mean it “I would not trade her for a Billion dollars 💸” (even though I jokingly tell her, it’s her fault I needed surgery to start with and giving me her cooties and delaying the surgery 🥰)

The only good thing at all out of all this time out from work, is I have been able to grow out my beard and practice for my retirement “look” for Kentucky. And yes Casey absolutely hates the beard.