Fourth Quarter Posts: October through December 2015.
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We were at the doctor yesterday as well. We started at the chiropractor, went out to lunch and then headed for the cardiologist. we stopped to pick up a report at the place that did DH's stress test Monday. The department was closed for the day but the person at the desk thought the cardiologist could get the report off the network. We went to the cardiologist only to find they didn't get the report and DH had to be rescheduled. That part was okay but because of the holidays, the first appointment is January 7th. So I guess we won't be heading south before mid January. I just hope the snow holds off until we're gone. So it sounds we all had similar experiences with scheduling.
Pam..Your cake skills sound really impressive. I like to cook but never had the desire to bake. I was probably spoiled because MIL did all the baking for about 35 years. I had the benefit without having to do it myself. When her arthritis got bad, my job was to carry the cookie sheets over to the oven and to take them out when done.0 -
My mother wasn't much of a cook (although she still beat my efforts) but boy could she bake! She even made the wedding cakes for both my wedding and my sister's wedding.
I ordered some Harry and David pears. With any luck they'll be ripe by Christmas and an incentive to start eating better!0 -
MIL made the wedding cake for BIL's wedding. She made a fruit cake which was one of her specialties. It was actually one people ate and enjoyed. She hired someone who assembled and decorated it. It was very nice. DH and I opted for a very low key wedding so we didn't have a cake.0
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I've made wedding cakes, but none recently. The last one I made was for my niece's wedding, about ten years ago. It was fairly small and we put fresh flowers on top, so the decoration consisted mainly of borders and a simple design on the sides. As I recall, it was only two tiers, which was good because I had to transport it about 100 miles after it was completed. Today I made divinity and spritz butter cookies, which took most of the afternoon.
Our Christmas shopping is done! I would still like to get a toy for our nephew but he won't miss it if I don't get a chance to do it. I have another gift for him so this is an extra gift. I'm waiting for some things to arrive from Amazon, then it will be time to wrap everything. We are driving down to Houston on Thursday and will probably stay until Tuesday.0 -
The report is we did $571 at the flea market yesterday in just 2 spaces, 6 tables. Blows my mind! People must really have been in a shopping mood!!! The other volunteers left me off the hook for this one because of my eye appointment and the huge pile of CROM paperwork I have to do.0
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Maryanne..That's great the flea market did so well. You and the volunteers put so much work into them that it's nice when the $$ justified the efforts. Pam..You sound like you're in great shape. Safe travels on your drive. How many guests are coming?0
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Maryanne--That is super that you did so well on the flea market. It is great to be rewarded for your efforts.
I'm working the next two days and then school will be on a break until after New Year's. I've spent the weekend fighting a cold.
I have a feeling I won't be using this much but I ordered that Garmin Activity Tracker that is a TSV on QVC. I ordered it more for sleep tracking than anything else. I'll have 30 days to see if it is a keeper.0 -
Whew! I'm finally done with all of my holiday baking. Since Saturday, I've baked 7 dozen spritz butter cookies, 4 dozen iced oatmeal cookies, 4 dozen pecan tassies, 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies, and about 4 dozen pieces of divinity. That's a lot of dirty dishes, lol! I'll deliver some of them to the place where I volunteer tomorrow, some will go to Houston with us, and I will probably freeze the rest. I do enjoy baking, as you know, but I'm a little tired of it right now. DH is extremely happy, however. He loves oatmeal cookies and pecan tassies. I waited to make them last so there would be some to take to Houston with us. I was afraid if I made them earlier there wouldn't be any left.
We are waiting for one more gift to be delivered and I still want to pick up something for our baby nephew, then it will be time to start wrapping them. Tomorrow when I'm out delivering the cookies, I will shop for something for the baby.
We are having nice warm weather right now. A white Christmas would be pretty, but right now I'm grateful for warm dry weather since I hate to get out when it's cold or rainy. And I will really appreciate it on Thursday when we head down to Houston.
I hope all of you are doing well and are caught up on your Christmas to do's!0 -
Pam, I'm amazed at how much baking you've done. It reminds me of MIL in her best years. She used to make about 6-8 types of cookies, fruit bread and carrot cakes.
Speaking of that, how is your MIL doing in her assisted living home? I hope she likes it. Will you see her at Christmas?0 -
Pam--I am also amazed at the amount of baking you have done. Perhaps it is because few people in my area do much baking except for immediate family needs. The old tradition of giving cookies, etc. has almost disappeared.
We are expected to have Christmas temps of ten to fifteen degrees above the record high for Christmas. I love the Winter we are having so far.0 -
Helene, my MIL is doing fairly well in her new home. Initially she showed more energy and was participating more in the activities they offered, but she has slowly reverted back to her old habits of sleeping much of the day and not leaving the facility much at all. I think depression is part of the problem and she is still somewhat over-medicated, but it's really hard to change that with her. She is on an antidepressant but it doesn't help as much as I would like. At 88 years of age, I think this is as good as it will get for her. She doesn't have the attitude or temperament to push herself to do anything more than she is doing now.
I bake so many cookies because I enjoy it but also because no one else in the family has the time or inclination to do it. I used to go to a cookie exchange every year which was nice for the variety, but that ended when the organizer moved away and no one else wanted to continue it. In years past I have also made cinnamon rolls to give away to friends, but this year I made small loaves of blueberry lemon bread. It was easier than the cinnamon rolls, for sure!0 -
I'm heading to the city to have a late lunch/early dinner at the Outback with a friend. The individual is not doing well and will have hip replacement surgery in January. I will consider this my Christmas dinner.0
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Pam, you have certainly been on a tear with the baking. I bet your DH does love it. My DH eats very little baked goods. He does love a good cinnamon roll (his dad made the best ever and that's his standard) and snickerdoodle cookies. At Thanksgiving he ate some pumpkin pie (which surprised me) so I bought one for Christmas.
Everyone on my side of the family misses my mom's soft sugar cookies. My sister and one of my brothers are both excellent cooks, both have mom's recipe, neither has been able to duplicate her cookies. I guess there must be a secret she took with her. When I go to my dad's there's a store I stop at that sells many of the foods I grew up on. Their soft sugar cookies are good but not mom's.
I decided I do NOT have another turkey in me this year so we're having steak for Christmas dinner. Not a peep from any of my family members so I guess we're not meeting up this year.
I have tons and tons of work to do. We're also busy turning the back porch into an air lock since new kitty seems to want to go outside. I also bought computer air to have inside and outside the door. Hopefully we can outsmart him. Just in case he has a microchip and a collar and tag.
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Maryanne--Steak sounds good to me. I was thinking of putting a roast in the crock pot. Outsmarting a cat can be a challenge.0
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Jean - that's adorable!
Happy Christmas Eve everyone!!0 -
Merry Christmas everyone. My pork roast is in the oven and I'm watching Christmas movies while it roasts.0
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Good morning, everyone! I hope each of you had a great Christmas. Today, we are back to almost normal with only 364 days until the big event again.
I see NS has a new shake for the new year or at least I've not heard of it. This shake supposedly has probiotics in it to help get rid of the belly bloat. I just saw an infomercial.
For the first time since June, I climbed on the scales. I have not been in a weight loss mood. I had expected more damage but it is important to weight often to nip gains in the bud. Basically, I've gained 13 pounds since June and the cardiac ablation.0 -
Happy after Christmas! We had so much rain yesterday we have water in the basement. What a strange Christmas.0
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It was a beautiful day here yesterday. We stopped at a local convenience store for coffee after church. They were giving free coffee for Christmas. We didn't know that when we stopped. I added Gingerbread flavoring to mine. We drove down to the beach with the coffee to enjoy the 60 degree weather. We had my pork roast dinner later on. It came out great but I got one surprise. I thought it was a 2.5 pound roast. It was actually 2 pork tenderloins packaged together. I didn't have any kitchen twine so I cooked it as 2 separate pieces. So I have lots of leftovers which is fine with me. I get to reheat and relax today.0
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Maryanne--It has been an odd Christmas. We have had rain, rain, rain to the point that two major highways in my area were covered with water. Needless to say, no one planning to visit and had to travel those roads to do so were not able to do it or had to go another way which added 50 miles to their trip.
Helene--I'm sure that the port roast was good. Leftovers work great. We had temps in the 70s on Christmas accompanied by rain, rain, rain...and it is still raining.0 -
Another dreary rainy day but temps are still expected to be in the 70s. Quaker Weight Control oatmeal for breakfast.0
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If nothing else I got a lot done the last 4 days because there were zero client emails. I'm sure that won't be true tomorrow so hopefully I got enough done.
Caught up on CROM paperwork today.0 -
I decluttered today or attempted to. I'm looking at a perfectly good selection of pants that I haven't worn for several months only because I found a different line I liked and started wearing it. Now, do I keep these in case I will use them or do I donate them?0
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Started the day with the Quaker Weight Control oatmeal. Found a couple of items for donation. Greek yogurt for a snack and Progresso lIght soup for lunch.0
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I had delayed my order as long as possible online, so I called and used the automated system to delay it another 30 days. If you can do it on the automated system, why not online?0
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I hope everyone had a nice holiday. Ours was good until last night. I was helping my SIL clean up the kitchen after dinner and turned around from the refrigerator and tripped over two of her dogs. I went down hard and shattered my left ankle. We spent the next several hours in the ER. They sent me home with it splinted but told me to follow up ASAP with my orthopedic doctor for surgery to put in pins and rebuild it. We drove home today and I have an appointment at 10:30 tomorrow morning. As luck would have it, the orthopedic doctor I saw for my knee and shoulder specializes in ankles. So I'm expecting to finish out the year with surgery, rehab, and lots of pain.0
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Pam--I am so sorry that your holiday ended with an accident. I do hope the ortho appointment goes well but I am so sorry that your New Year will not be pain free. Midnight often darts in front of me and my reflexes are not as good as they once were so I am always concerned something similar might happen to me. Again, so sorry!0
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Oh, no, Pam!!!! I'm glad you have an orthopedic doctor you trust but what a PITA! There were a lot of post broken ankle folks at PT when I was there. Everyone did fine but I know from breaking a heel what a long road it can be to get there. Hopefully they get you some decent pain meds. I have a picture somewhere of me sprawled on the couch in a percocet haze, with a temporary cast on my leg and cats covering me. My biggest problem was my wheelchair couldn't get into the kitchen or the bathroom. And there's no exit from our house that doesn't have at least a few steps. In retrospect I wish we'd put in a wheelchair ramp outside at least.
I think about that period sometimes when I think about how long we can stay in this house as we age. It certainly showed us some of what we might need. The good news is we have a bathroom and kitchen on the same floor although at the moment no bedroom on that floor. The bad news includes narrow doorways into those rooms and laundry equipment in the basement as well as steps outside every door.0
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