Grey's Anatomy update and the Floods of NB

Grey's.... I can't believe I didn't blog about Grey's Anatomy last week. And tomorrow is the next one. I had a chance to sit down and talk with my friends Betsie and Shondra just the other day and they gave me a few hints.

First off, the show continues along as if 6 weeks has gone by. In that time, some friendships really percolate like Callie and Erica Hahn, as well as George and Lexie. So apparently over the past 6 weeks, Lexie and George decide to split rent somewhere, and unlike all the others (Christine, Callie, Meridith and Izzy) they do not come from wealthy families and neither are welcome to live in Meridith's house. Therefore, they are living in a CRAP Apt, which is its name. Issy is sort of left feeling blah because she lost the Lion Fight contest that was going on during the show. According to Betsie, these sort of things really go on at some hospitals, but I do find that hard to believe. But the point of this was that Izzy is starting to mature, and gains great confidence when Dr. Webber talks about being in this same competition when he was an intern. It was hilarious when "Cheech" from Cheech and Chong was a victim of Izzy's quest for his "cure". She totally had herself convinced that he was really sick! Another thing that they said is that Meridith is taking a turn for the better, in her new quest for a way to cure people, and winning the sparkly pager is not as meaningful to her... again, maturing. Christine is totally DYING that Callie and Dr. Hahn are buddy buddy, and they won't let her in the friendship....and its happening right in her own apt.... ahhhhhhhh, poor Christine! She just doesn't have good friendship skills. Betsie and Shonda think this is why Christine and Meridith are such good friends, neither of them do that mushy friendship thing. Lexie has found a new way to succeed.... Stealing. Betsy and Shondra said that although Lexie admits to George in the last scene that she has never stolen a thing in her life, our two writer/directors seem to thing that Lexie is either lying or in huge denial. So, on the next Grey's which is tomorrow night..... Addison is back for a visit, and pay attention to the clothing, because they said they blew there costume budget on her wardrobe, and they so wished they were the same size as Addison..

THE FLOODS....

Both my sister and my daughter are truly in the middle of huge flooding of the St. John river. Please check out both their blogs for pictures. Both blogs show streets that are flooded and these streets are very close to their homes. They are not in danger (mostly because Stephanie lives on the second floor of an old building, and Gail is somewhat up hill from the river) but it is certainly exciting just the same. Stephanie has lived in the city for 6 years now, and in her first year of University, she endured the most snow Fredericton had had in years and years, which resulted in flooding that was the worse since 1973 (but not as bad as 73....nothing was ever that bad... 1973 was BAD). She had to listen to, for the past 6 years, oh, 2003 floods were bad, but you should have been here in 1973.... oh, the water was so high, it flooded the public library... and the government building, etc... for 6 years. Again, this year, the worse snows in tons of years, I think... breaking records. They predicted in the winter that the floods that would come to the city would be as bad as 1973. Stephanie began to get excited. She fantasized about kayaking down her street (York) and watching ducks swim by her apt door....

Then last week..the height of the floods was realized, and although they were high, they didn't make it to the 1973 levels. They didn't even make it to the 2003 levels. A little disappointing to Stephanie, who lives on the second floor, remember. And then it happened..... rain, rain and more rain. and the River began to rise... and rise.... and tomorrow morning.... should surpass the 1973 flood..... How nice to celebrate Stephanie's birthday, and the end of her UNB career, with a record breaking flood! Keep checking in with both my sisters' blog and Stephanie's over the next few days.!

There are quite a few pictures at this website of the flood so far.....CBC Flood Photo Gallery

My sister's cottage is on the Grand Lake, which means it floods in a GRAND way. The first picture is in the summer, where you can see the lake in the back ground, and the little cottage which is next to the big cottage. The second two pictures are the flood levels in 2003. So my sister and her hubby or going to try and make it to the cottage on Friday, to check out how high it is this year!

Swedish Meatballs AGAIN

ok, if you will remember correctly, I had a problem finding the Swedish meatball recipe a couple of weeks ago. When I finally found it, I made a double batch of the meatballs and froze half, with the plan of taking them our in the future, and making a batch of the sauce and popping meatballs and sauce in the slow cooker for an easy meal.
Well, that day is tomorrow, and this morning I took the frozen meatballs out of the freezer and thawed them in the fridge. I couldn't quite remember what was in the sauce but I know one of the ingredients was no fat sour cream, which I purchased tonight along with all the snacky things for school tomorrow.
Its now 11pm... I decided an hour ago to re check the recipe to get things organized for tomorrow morning... Guess WHAT.... I can't find the recipe. I have looked for no less than 30 minutes and have even gone to my past blogs... hoping I gave all of you the recipe. No such luck.... When I do find it, (before tomorrow morning), I will be writing it out on this blog so when I need it again, I can just ask all of you where it is!!! UGH

after note: Well, I found the recipe but not until this morning around 6:45am. It was crammed behind Michelle's GIANT cookie recipe book, and it was folded into a weird sort of origami fan. No wonder I couldn't find it.(or that's what I am telling myself anyway!)
I went ahead and put all the stuff together and made the Swedish meatballs for supper again tonight and it was rather disappointing.
Isn't that weird. I am not sure if I enjoyed it so much last time and have been anticipating it again so much that I raised the level of how good it really was..... or, the fact that the meatballs were frozen and then thawed and put in the slow cooker.... or.. maybe I didn't thicken the sauce as much...
Anyway, not as good... so...... will I make them again, maybe...but for now, I am back to my regular same ole 10 different things for supper planning. I need to dig out a new recipe this weekend to try.

blah, disappointing

The Darnest thing happened the other morning

After my usual routine this morning of shower, hair, dressed and then coffee... I started to make lunches for dad and I, and when I opened the fridge... something was weird. Terry made stew last night and when I looked it the fridge, the pot was knocked over. Its a fairly large pot and it looked really weird in the fridge, sort of leaning over. I first thought maybe the dog had opened the fridge door and got into it, but then ruled that out for obvious reasons (like having no thumbs).

Then I realized that the pot was down low in the vegetable drawer. Then, I thought, Terry took the glass out of the fridge to make more room for the large pot of stew. Sort of a weird way of doing things but if Terry is going to make stew for tonights' supper the night before, who am I to complain how he stores the pot weirdly in the fridge.

I hollered down the hall to Terry, teasing him for taking out the glass and he responded with confusion. Which then confused me. I repeated the question and he repeated his response and started towards me and the fridge.... just as I noticed all the ice that was in the veggie drawer!

Ice? As Terry turned the corner around the fridge door, it dawned on both of us... that the fridge glass that IS the bottom shelf of the fridge was shattered in a million pieces. I took the stew pot out before I took the picture and the fridge looks perfectly normal. Hard to notice the glass is gone, especially first thing in the morning...

We figure the stew was a little too warm, still, to be put in the fridge.... geesh.Celery sticks anyone... don't mind the crunch!

WHO NEEDS PILATES

When you have a body like MINE!!!!!!



Every year, on Secretaries Day, Ms Casey's class does a portrait of the school Secretaries!!! She goes through a series of questions about what we look like, and what we do for jobs and just about us in general. Then she sets the kids to work at drawing us, LIFE SIZE, coloring the pic and then signing their names around the commons they have for us... Remember, these little ones are between 6 & 7 years old! It is a total CRAP SHOOT as to what we look like from year to year, and some years I have been adorned with gobs of rings, earrings, bracelets and hairbows. Totally unbelievable accessories and clothing. Some years we have over a 100 teeth in our big beautiful smiles, and I have had ankles the size of elephants ankles in the past as well.

BUT this year, they got me bang ON.... LIKE SOOOOO perfectly. Well, except for the blue eyes, the eye makeup, the blush, the orange lipstick and the shirt color, the pants color (although, I might buy that color, since I look sort of slim in them), the tulips on the knees and the poodle dogs on my ankles. But.. besides that, it looks exactly like me..... notice my hair tucked behind one ear only. Notice my off centered head over my very long sexy neck. Notice my strong shoulders with my flat chest, lean hips and green shoes (although, mine are garden shoes and I have never worn them to work)~!
I WANT THIS PICTURE on my drivers licence...... its totally me.

Pilates anyone.....?

ok, so my exercise buddies and myself pledged to each other just a couple of months ago to work together, to exercise regularly and to help each other with healthy eating....
You know, when your driven to do it all. Exercise every day, eat only good foods... no snacks, no nibbles, etc. You know, when you have the strength of an IRONMAN athlete. You know, when you try something new, and connect with like minded people, when you feel you can help someone else during your struggles......
Then... reality hits. Meetings after school, no time to make lunches, nothing taken out for supper, stressful days that cause non stop eating at night.... you know... reality. Every Monday, my exercise buddies and I either look at each other and support each other in our excuses or just try to avoid eye contact. Bottom line is we are letting each other and ourselves down.

This week is a new week and its time... The excuse of "Bored with Debbie Seiber" and hating "Denise Austin's big fake smile" are OVER.
We are onto... PILATES.. yup... a new routine! Windsor Pilates... you know the "100's", the "Body Roll up" ... the "Around the world in 30 lbs of Chocolate" .. wait, no, that's my dream last night.... around the world with your leg or something like that..
so far this week, we have got together to try the "basic" Windsor Pilates tape. We did it two days in the row and the again today after taking a day off. We worked our POWER HOUSE. truly and we are gonna again tomorrow.... We are pumped and ready.. its spring and the clothes need to fit better...

So, already today I have had no snacks before lunch and only one of those cereal bag snacks after lunch.... supper....yummy and healthy (you know fish and veggies) and with two visitors after supper, I didn't have any time to ponder which kind of cookie I would have with my tea.... but later on in the evening, in front of the TV, I weakened and had my "light" ice cream with NON light DARK chocolate PC brand sauce on it..... OH, and THANKS SARAH (Jill's sister) for introducing my newest weakness. But, I swear, when this bottle of the sauce is gone, I am never buying another one again! ooooohhhhhh, I can't resist. So, all in all, a better evening than most evenings, right?

We plan on getting together again tomorrow, and really, by next week, we will be sooooo buff. . It won't be long before the 5 of us star in our own Exercise Video and we will have unique combinations between Denise's routines, Debbie's routines and Windsor Pilates. We will have Sunshine, Rainbows and 100's. OK, time for me to sign off... because I am getting weak from hunger..... wish me luck!!

All around me

... there is excitement, nervousness and joy. My kids are writing exams which explains some of the three feelings...

Stephanie is working extremely hard to finish off her final year, final exam and final paper with conviction and determination. She has been absent from the Internet, from the phone and from the outside world. I accept that and wait patiently for her to emerge into the real world. How glorious it will be when she comes out and sees the sun and the flowers for the first time this spring. Even though she is walking to school each day, past melting snowbanks and freshly raked homes, she is not seeing the crocus peeking out and the tulip leaf spears shooting up from the flower beds. She is looking straight ahead, thinking about the end. The end of school. A way of life for the past 18 years.

Michelle and Scott, both in the middle of exams as well. Not so final, as they have one more year to go at St. FX. But they are filled with excitement, nervousness and joy because they have some big events coming in their lives.... New jobs... both of them... for the summer... at St. FX. A new apartment in the Nish.... their first. They have been compiling furniture, organizing paperwork, scrapping the barrel for first month's rent. They are planning the move from Dorms for Mick, to Scott's basement... then both of their things from Scott's apt to "THE" apt... moving a purchased livingroom set from a friend on a certain day... via cab. Then we arrive early in May with a truck load of things we have collected. They are expecting new arrivals at the end of may and are planning for that as well. Two little girl and one little boy Guinea pigs were born on the weekend and Michelle and Scott will be the proud parents of the two little girls. That means constructing a little home for them, obtaining special permission from the landlord (even though there was a no pet policy) and planning visits to the piggie nursery for visits.

My sister is back home and back to her busy life. A great hubby, 3 daughters, 6 grandchildren all keeping her life full. All are happy, healthy and finding their way.

All around me....though.... I have friends who are filled with sadness, heartache and despair. The sadness of ailing parents is deep and stressful. When you have to face the reality of your parents' lives changing and yours changing with it. Its so hard. Not one but two of my friends are sitting bedside, holding hands with their parent, waiting for the end. I have friends, not one but two, who are in the middle of marriage break ups, one involving kids, the other involving the fear of being alone, and never being needed. Both issues are so painful and deep in a woman's soul. I have friends who are struggling with health issues and fears. Coming to terms with your own mortality is another one of those life changing events that can go either way...

Within me ..... I am filled with hope, peace and strength... to share with my friends. In their times of trouble and sadness I look at my own life, with its joy, excitement and love and I draw strength. I am thankful for my healthy children who have found independence and happiness, I am thankful for my husband who is calm, understanding and loving. I am thankful for the gift of my dad, who is strong and positive, even in his depleted quality of life, living with his daughter, having to struggle with each movement, always funny...always calm.

How lucky am I to have the friends and family that I do. I can't answer that because there is no way to measure.

Pika is not your ordinary cat

My insanely loveable orange cat is truly the most docile cat in the world. He lays on his back will I clip his belly of mats and he sits up nice and tall while I have electric clippers trimming his overly bushy lion's mane.

He lets me trim him when ever I want, but I usually only attempt this when his big lion mane gets so long he can't clean it.

He is hard to trim when he is laying down so once I can convince him to sit up, it goes much

smoother.

Shopping

.........means so many things to so many people. Shopping to me represents too many negative things to be fun most times.
Clothes shopping is hardest for me, although, I do have a hard time with any type of shopping.
I have always been very careful with the money we make, and yet, we never seem to have an excess of money around. I don't invest a ton, and we own normal belongs, and two small cars (one is 3 years old and the other is coming onto 10 years old). I have helped my kids with their school expenses as much as I can, and I have never taken a trip down south or bought large extravagant luxuries - (you know, boats, Kayaks :(, big screen TV's, cottages,etc)
I think I have a hard time shopping because its so easy to spend money in a hour that takes a month to make. Then in a month, when the car break downs, you struggle to find the money. Blah... I would like to hoard money away but there is always an expense looming around the corner!
So, that is part of my long term hate for shopping. Negative.....
Secondly, the fact that people judge you often for what you're wearing adds a pressure to clothes shopping that scares me. Some people enjoy that challenge, but I seem to get very timid at the thought of people judging me because I wear pink when I have never worn it before, and yet I am a really good organizer of things, and good with accounting, good with kids and fairly easy to work with. I need to get over that..... I know.... but in a nutshell, its the second reason, I hate shopping....Negative
Third, too many rules and choices. Short legs, mean no straight skirts, it means higher heels with open fronts...(at this point, I planned to write down several rules just to overwhelm you the reader.. but I can't even write about all the rules because I just don't know them). So... if you don't know the rules and you enter a clothing store.... you are overwhelmed immediately with all the choices..... who wants to feel like that when they are shopping.... yuck....negative
Fourth...if your not happy with the body you hid under the big tops and jeans... why would you go to a change room with soft curvy sweaters, and skin tight camisoles, form fitting blouses and much too tight looking pants.... Negative

That been said...... I went shopping yesterday... and presented a challenge for my three friends who are all good shoppers... They helped me through several insecurities and at some points forced me to think outside the box. This is the third such trip I have made with them and although it is getting easier, it is still a mind exhausting day. My first trip was planned when I won the purse at purse club and the basis of a winter work wardrobe was developed. That was about at close to the TV show "What not to Wear" as anything anyone has ever experienced and I came away with some brick walls taken down and some grounds for some soul searching established. The second trip was this past fall and I had a chance to relearn some of the basic rules and add to my already fun wardrobe.
Yesterday's trip was different in that it was our first Spring shopping trip and we didn't stay overnight ... it was an all day trip instead. We spent our entire day at MicMac and my shopping was done early on at Reitmans (which helped with the concern # 1, money!) Truly the highlight of the day was sitting in a large change room and watch the two EXPERT shoppers in our group start with a basic cotton white skirt each, and build a beautiful collection for spring and summer from that one skirt. Two beautiful and very different bodies, two very different tastes and styles. Both ladies came away with amazing outfits except for a hideous coat that didn't get purchased (thank God). Debbie and I sat and watched two clerks feed these ladies some of the sweetest outfits that both would never have looked at on a hanger and they were amazing. A lot can be learned watching people shop who know what they like and what looks good on them.!
After that shopping class, we had a yummy lunch and spent another couple of hours in shoe stores, underwear departments and a couple more clothing stores. We were done and exhausted by 4 and headed home.
We stopped at the Port Pub in Port Williams and enjoyed a drink and some finger foods and were home by 8pm. I didn't take a thing out of the bags until this morning. Just wasn't ready to look at things. But this morning, in the bright sun, I pulled all my purchases out of the bag and am amazed at what was accomplished yesterday. Geesh, I love my shopping friends. They are so patient and know what they are doing. I even like the pink skirt today...
Ok, in the pictures, it doesn't look like much, but man, it was painful. How lucky am I to have these three friends to shop with. I think everyone needs a shopping team. It made a mostly hard day feel like a fun day! Now that is not an easy thing to accomplish!.

Cupcake fun

Michelle and Scott were home for 4 days during the time that classes ended and exams started. Scott and Terry worked hard on finishing the painting of the dressers, and Michelle kept grampa company, groomed the dog (several times) and tried her hand at making cupcakes. Cupcakes are not something I ever made. I am not sure why, except they are a lot of work and mess, and you end up with cake...just smaller versions of it.


while I was at the bonspiel, Michelle stayed home and dirtied ever muffin tin, bowl, spoon and decorating nibs....... all in the name of cupcakes. They were very good and very cute to look at toooooo. She made two kinds... basic cupcakes and basic chocolate cupcakes...

she is now interested in a few lessons on how to decorate cakes and cupcakes....



I remember when I loved doing all those paddalalie things too..... when I was young!

Life starts to calm.....

My Curling bonspiel was last weekend and this time last year I had blogged at least 2 blogs on all the fun and costumes... actually, I had blogged about Jill and Chantal's birthdays and spring in the yard and pets and birds and so much more. I am not sure if I am not blogging as much because its all OLD stuff now, or I am just not in the mood....

But... here is the news....

Our Bonspiel this year was really fun, as usual. The curling part was fun because I curl with my same ole familiar team of Wendy Debbie Hazel and me.... Last year the theme of the spiel was countries and we dressed in kilts and were Scotland. This year the theme of the night was "Holidays". You know, Christmas, Easter, Halloween...etc. So.. I expected to see a few Santa's and reindeer, tons of Easter bunnies and the odd Halloween. Well, I must say, I was pleasantly surprised.

23 teams... of which about 20 of these teams dressed up. There were several St. Patrick's Day teams... and 2 Canada Day teams ( of which I was one of them) Each row of tables ( of which there were 4 ) were decorated differently and we sat at the St. Patrick's day table. Ironically, all the teams who were dressed up for that holiday were seated at that table and the seating was done days before the costumes were ever revealed. But the creativity of some teams was MIND BOGGLING!....

Boxing Day.

Madame Xmas and some of her ..........

HO HO HO's

Now, the identity of these curlers doesn't really matter, but I didn't get permission from them to post this. The important thing is that you applaud their creativity as much as we did....

Now, of all the holidays that there are, we didn't have one Valentines' Day team, or any New Year's Teams. But we had a Ground Hog Day Team, a Thanksgiving day team, two Halloween Teams, a Mother's day team and an Easter team with a twist... we have

Hefner and his (her) Easter Bunnies!!!

We had A "Birthday Holiday" team.... you can try to use your imagination on that team's costumes..... but it was not what your thinking.....
But I must say.... the most creative idea has to be Labor Day. And not one team but three teams took on this amazing holiday. You would think... picnic garb, or maybe BBQ theme!!! Nope, all three teams depicted Labor Day in their own little way...... There is no need to disguise these teams as you wouldn't recognise them if you didn't know who they were already!!!

First we have the Dancing Labor day team. They started our evening off with a dance to something absolutely hilarious like " I am Woman" or something. They were soooo funny.

Then the Family from last year who were the Beauty Contest winners... well this year they were "Angel" the pregnant wife, The slimy hubby, the "slutty" nurse kitty who was taking care of Angel (and the slimy husband, on the side) and the mom on the team was the doctor. They stayed in character through the whole meal, with slimy guy hitting on all the women within reach, and Nurse Kitty was totally playing the room with her white leather nurse's outfit. Angel went in and out of labor as the meal went on and looked for her hubby's hand to hold during those horrible spells, and often found his hand on Nurse Kitty's parts.... what a bunch.

The third team in labor was Frankie, who already had 18 kids at home and was hoping to hell that this baby was a PONY. beside her was her 13 year old daughter and she had another daughter pregnant as well, and even a doctor on the team. That would be Dr. Seymour Bush, and he delivered Frankies baby before the dance started and yes, indeed, it was a pony.

It was a great time, and I was exhausted from laughing. I had an 8:00am game on Sunday morning so my team headed home at a half descent time and in good health. Our game on Sunday was a well matched game with an extra end needed to determine the winners. We were not them... but happy just the same. We played a Greenwood team and laughed and joked through the whole game and got the rest of the day off because we lost.

My First WILDLIFE picture of the year... well of Spring

The joy of unburying my garden.... my favorite little friend popped up to thank me. He was really quite happy to see me... I took a million pictures of him, but this one is the only one that doesn't look like it was taken underwater.. (blur blur blur.....) My little friend from across the road came over to join me, and its funny how a year can change things. Patrick was a good little friend to me while his mom and sister were gone to Toronto for surgery and we spent every evening together. Now that his mom and sister are back home, he gives me no visits at all. But when I was unburying the other night, it was so fun to have a little visit from him and we had lots to talk about. He was very concerned on where the frog might be hiding and what he did all winter. He waited and watched as I raked out big clumps of soggy leaves from under plants. He was sure a frog would pop out from under them (and I was thinking it might happen too).

Spring has sprung

The sun has been out for 3 days straight. I can not tell you how amazing that feels. And how much we have missed the pure strength of the sun. Its been a busy two weeks (which seems to be what everyone is writing in their blogs as well) and I have been itching to get out in my front yard to dig out the treasures hiding beneath. Each morning when I walk out my door in a tear to the car, I notice a few new bright green sprigs under the bed of dead leaves.... They seem to be calling my name. Ooooooh.....


So, finally, last night... I had supper and put on my outside clothes and rakes, pruned and discovered new growth and color.....
After a large amount of leaves had been removed, and old dead leftovers were pulled off the new stuff... it felt like a new beginning of a very old familiar story.... Oh my, I love spring.

My friend Paula....

is on her way home from one of those trips that one can only dream of. She and her hubby left on Jan 3(ish) with their truck camper, and travelled through the states and ended up in Mexico, where they have been camping and touring for the past 3 months. The stories and pictures are amazing. I have published a few of her pictures so you, too, can enjoy the amazinginess of our beautiful world.

One of the beaches they were camped on is a protected beach for nesting sea turtles. At night, after dark, the females come out of the ocean, up onto the beach and, with their front flippers, make huge nesting ditches in which they lay their eggs. After speaking with some of the policia, to determine what time they might see this and if it was ok to go with flashlights to check it out. This is a quote from Paula's email...

"Off we went the first night, not knowing what to expect! We quickly saw that these nesting ditches (for lack of a better word), were everywhere and we had to be very careful not to step in them, as we would crush the eggs. This is not an easy feat in the pitch dark! We were awed when we saw our first mother turtle hard at work. We actually saw three the first night and on our second night we saw one more, the largest we had seen. It was amazing to see them come up out of the water and make their way up the beach and begin their mission. The baby turtles, we were told, usually hatch between two and four in the morning and make their way to the water in the dark, so they can escape the birds of prey. We did not manage to rouse ourselves to see this event, however, Chon, Leti's husband, did get up on our last night and saw baby turtles all around our camper. He had forgotten to turn a light off under the palapa and they were drawn to the light. When we got up, Leti and the girls presented us with about 24 little turtles in a wash tub that Chon had collected for us to see. How wonderful! They were adorable and Jer and I, of course, snapped some pictures of them after enjoying holding them. Their little tracks were all through the sand. What a thrill!"

Swedish Meatballs and Hot Flashes

Yup.... they are both here. First, hot flashes. Ok, I often thought I was having "Hot Flashes" in the past. You know, because I am never cold...never. Linda and Cricket both use the little heater when they are working in the same room as I am, and I am rarely cold. Then, this week, I ragged on Terry several times because our furnace is acting wankie.... Fired up to 100 degrees sometimes and freezing at other times.... man.
Then... last night, it dawned on me.... I kicked the covers off of me because my body temperature was burning to touch, and I thought I was going to cook. I reached over to see how hot Terry was. There he lay, covered to his eyeballs in our feather duvet, and he was cool to touch. I was void of covers, almost void of pajamas and my skin was on fire. I got up to check the temperature of the room, since I figured Terry must be sick (still in denial, at this point) and the room was 68 degrees. Then, it started to make sense. I lay on the bed and started to put it all together. A couple of times this week, I striped off the sweater and opened the office windows, while Linda and/0r Cricket sat curled near the space heating blowing into their cold fingers. The crazy furnace in our house, is really the crazy furnace in my body.
And so it begins!!

Last weekend, the family put a real ditch effort into making a menu for last weeks suppers. We are soooo caught in a rut of making the same 10 meals every couple of weeks.... spaghetti, chili, stew.... blah blah blah. With spring here, coupled with the supply of cook books I own, it was time to make the effort. As we went through the week in my day planner, along with flipping through some cookbooks... we came up with several things to try. From that came a list of groceries, and the planning began. We decided to try two different things in the slow cooker this week, which was fun. We had Swiss steak on Tuesday, and then Terry made stew and soup on Tuesday night for future meals. I came across "Swedish Meatballs" in one of my little "crock pot" cookbooks and added it to the menu but actually ran out of days to have it, so I added it on for Sunday (which I don't usually plan in my day planner, Sunday suppers are dreamt up sometime over the weekend). As the week progressed, and all the suppers where successful, I started to plan for the weekend. I needed the recipe book for the Swedish Meatballs, but I couldn't remember which book. I spent literally from Thursday night to Saturday night tearing apart all my cookbooks.... and I have tons. I specifically remember that there was a picture of the finished meal (which I love to see) and that it was both pork and beef in the meatballs. I went through EVER book I own. I searched the Indexes, and scanned pictures.. yesterday afternoon I lamented about how mad I was I couldn't find the book. With both Dad and Terry trying to give me visual help... what did the book look like ( how am I suppose to know), was it a big book, small book (again, who can remember), where were you sitting when you were looking (just about in every spot in the livingroom you can look), did you put the books away (like NOOOO, since they were all over the coffee table)... and then, over on dad's end table, under the magnifying glass and a few bandaids, sat a small little booklet that was from the grocery store checkout section... all folded back to the right page and everything!!! SWEDISH MEATBALLS....
Ya ya ya ya....

Between hot flashes and memory loss, I am going to be a poster child for menopausal symptoms!

Funny thing... at church today, I was sitting next to the same man I have sat next to for the past 6 months. A few weeks ago, I figured out we were neighbours on the same street. Every week we talk about the weather and the flooding and our common complains about Father Tim. So this week, I thought I would be a good neighbour and actually tell him my name, and get his name too. Sooooo, in a quiet moment I turned to him and said "by the way...my name is Donna, and I really would like to know your name." To which he said... " Well, my name is Doug and we did this about 2 weeks ago, don't you remember. He said I told you I wouldn't forget your name, cause its the name of my daughter." Ugh. Then I remembered the conversation, but still didn't remember him telling me his name!... geesh.... How embarrassing. Then 5 minutes later I leaned over to him and said, "Doug, is it hot in here?" He said it was ROASTING in here, and that it was ok, I wasn't Flashing! Thank God.

Anyway, the Swedish Meatballs are brewing upstairs and the sun is shining outside. So I am off to survey the property and see whats growing.