TURKEY TURKEY TURKEY

 Well we got home Monday, safe and sound and kind of tired.  Monte did super well.  He sometimes has trouble out there in the big old noisy world.

On my birthday, Friday, Dorothy, my niece, came to visit for the day.  She is such an amazing person!  So interesting and mature.  She is very confident and so full of amazing info.  So we got lots of catch up in and she helped me, well actually did it all, clear a space on the deck for the new freezer.  Which at the moment is sporting one lonely frozen turkey.  Monte found one at Walmart for 22 bucks.  Once the holiday turkeys are sold, thats it for turkey purchases in this town until the next holiday.  Anyway Do was here til about three then had to skedaddle to Cowichan Bay to visit with a friend.  I was very grateful that she would take the time to come up out of her way to visit her old blister Auntie H!

I then dove in to making a mega turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  I did have to sit every now and then to let my tailbone stop burning and hurting.  So freaking annoying.  Anyway turkey and dinner was on the table by seven and it was delicious.

  After dinner I had Monte package all the leftovers and then everybody left.  I was kind of disheartened.  The kitchen and table were a predictable mess and, giving it some thought, that was the very first time in my 70 years of making massive dinners, I had to do almost entirely all the cleanup. And on my birthday.  Whine!!!!  Jesus!  By the time I finished it all, the next morning, I was whacked.  I couldn't walk.  So I went to bed and watched tv and read all day!  A nice reward I feel.

Tonight is our 90 Day Fiancé party.  But we are down one.  Monique can't make it.  So I suggested to Ange that I fry up a leftover hash, heat up the gravy, haul out the cranberry and eat off paper plates in the living room.  I am NOT doing a kitchen clean up again for a long time.  Lol!!!  We love to eat and make horrible fun of that horrible show!!!

So I am in the middle of doctor hell.  I have a new one, another newbie that wants to see me in person!!!  I am panicking.  She wants to poke my kidneys to see if she can tell if something is going on.  And she wants to poke my tailbone.  Gahhhhh!!!!!  Nooooo!!!  I am going to have to warn her that I hate being touched.  I see all these people these days running around with this head bone problem, and that head bone problem, anxiety, ptsd, depression etc...why can't I have one.  Don't freaking touch me!!!!!!!  Stick a needle in me but don't touch my arm with your finger.  I have learned to tolerate hugging but that's it!  Plus another colonoscopy on the 17th.  But that's okay.  I am asleep.  And an eye retinal doctor appointment between now and the colonoscopy.  Plus a mammogram.    The next month is going to be my personal hell.

Anywhoo, I see the day is well started and I have only cleaned another mess in the kitchen that Monte left from early this morning.  It's time to get busy.  I need to unpack from the trip and maybe get some laundry on the go.  Maybe.

Take care people.  Wear a mask if you can.  New variants are out there and they ain't nice ones. Plus they have warned that if the hospitals keep loading up like they are right now, we could be looking at mandatory masking, distancing and lockdowns.  We sure don't want that.  I think the truckers would go nuts.  TTYL

Okay, this quote on self pity absolutely hit home.  I am so grateful that I had the means to provide a big dinner, the energy to do it and the amazing people at my table to share it with.  This far outweighs stupid dishes and cleanup.

'Gratitude is a dialysis of sorts.....it flushes the self-pity out of our systems'  Max Lucado

MY BIRTHDAY DINNER

EXHALE....

Well I am sitting on the couch, watching Nascar and blogging with Myles.  April is at the table getting a website together with examples of her work and a resume of sorts.  Monte is staying at Graeme's and today they are off to Ikea for a meal of meatballs and lingonberries and stopping at T&T market for pork and dim sum, frozen, for us to take home tomorrow.  He is dropping it here later to put in April's freezer.

And you would NOT believe what April and Myles are doing NOW!  They are out on the deck with a giant huge Hubbard squash, arguing about how to open it up.  Myles wants to cut it crosswise.  No no no.  April wants to take it out to the lawn and take an axe to it.  I would like to cut just through the tough skin and make long incisions on each of the four sides then smack it with a hammer.  It will fall apart. Youtube said so.  But it didn't!  We finally dropped it off the deck onto the sidewalk below.  hahahaha!!!  It exploded!!!!  Pics to follow.

The van had nothing wrong with it according to Dodge.  They had it for several days and apparently went through it with a fine tooth comb and found nothing wrong.  Well okay.  Now what.  So we are driving it home and hoping for the best.

Kevin ended up not putting up the tent trailer.  Monte took his mattress and stuff and moved to Kevin's back deck.  It is covered and quite a nice size.  He loved it out there!  He has always loved sleeping on outside chilly decks!

On the last day we drove to Oliver, stopping at wineries and fruit stands.  We had so much fun!  And we bought wine and fruit like it was going out of style!  Fifty pounds of apples for Tandy and Kevin and forty pounds for Ange and me.  Applesauce time.

I have three freezers that I complain about being too full...and they are for sure.  Now I need to make room for all the bags of frozen applesauce.  Plus I want to stock up on meat...Monte is about to launch into a paleo diet and will be needing lots of meat and vegetables.  So I solved that problem.  I went on The Brick and bought another chest freezer!  It is being delivered on my birthday.  Very fitting I say.  And that is next Friday!  Best present ever!!!

So now I am at Ape's and Myles til Monday.  Monte will swing by Mon. morn. and pick me up and I have a rest on the one o'clock ferry.  I wanted to leave enough time to stop at Costco on the way home.  I am really looking forward to getting home.  Things to do!!!  

Stay safe, happy and busy!!!!  TTYL

'Swallowing a spoon of squash soup, feeling it coat my throat, and slide down to my belly.' Jennifer Handford

CUTTING ATEMPT

THE AFTERMATH OF THE EXPLOSION

THE AMOUNT SAVED

WELL BLOGSPOT STRIKES AGAIN.  VIDEOS CAN'T BE LOADED I GUESS.  WHY DID I THINK THEY WOULD?

FANTASTIC.....'TIL NOW

AS USUAL THIS STUPID BLOGSPOT HAS PUT THE PICS COMPLETELY OUT OF ORDER AND IN THE WRONG SPOT.

SHARON AND PEACHES

BIRTHDAY GIRL. (ONE OF THREE)

 Well all hell has broken loose.  All I can say is it ain't boring!!!  Not that it was to begin with.

It all started two days ago.  Monte was sleeping in the van.  About eight in the morning his electrical in the dashboard started going crazy.  The windshield wipers were on, buzzing noises happening, alarms going off, and the keys weren't even in the ignition!  Kevin did a deep dive on the state of 2014 Dodge Caravans, only to find out that this has to do with a crimped wire that has been misplaced in the motor in the door in '14 vans.  In fact a lot of owners have started a class action suit.

And let me point out that it's times like this that you are glad you forked out the ninety bucks for a BCAA membership and didn't let the price cheap you out.  One tow and you could have bought memberships.  So it was towed to dodge and we are waiting to hear. Heaven knows how long it's going to take.

The biggest inconvenience is that it was Monte's bed.  Kevin is going to put the tent trailer up for him.  He said he has to put it up anyway to winterize it.  So thank goodness for that or I would really be feeling bad about putting them out.

And this morning we discovered some degenerate f*cking loser hobo brazenly stole Kevin's wallet and keys from just inside the back door from a basket they use for keys etc...  And he/she did it whilst we were all home yesterday!  By the time Kevin found out this morning they had already run up a ton of bills at various places on his cards.  Bit by bit with the info he got we figured out the timeline.  Bastards!  So he has spent the morning phoning all his cards and changing locks on the doors and made an appointment to change the key stuff with the truck.  In the meantime he will disable the truck unless they are use it.  Such a nuisance!!!!  I hate thieves.  More than cheats and liars.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner last night!  I made the meal with some help from Kevin.  I had bought a chicken because there were only three people eating meat.  The others are either vegan or vegetarian.  Then Tandy invited her Aunt and Uncle at the last hour!!!  Which made me super happy as I truly like those two!

I sent Tandy to the store for another chicken as they are meat eaters.  Well, thrifty Tandy came back with a ham...it was fifty per cent off.  She couldn't resist.  So I made a ton of stuffing, vegan stuffing, stuffed a chicken, glazed and scored the ham, made a casserole of stuffing, eight pounds of potatoes (for leftovers), a ton of carrots and peas, vegan candied yams, vegan gravy with tofurkey, chicken gravy, cranberry sauce...I think thats it.  It was both my and Sharon's birthday. Tandy bought two different birthday cakes for us!!!  We had so much fun.

The best part of being here, other than the peeps, is I get to cook.  So every night I have been making different dinners and it's been so much fun.  But due to a limit on the amount of medication Monte and I have with us we do need to get home.  It's time and I am sure K&T are ready to have us gone.

I have loved being with the kids.  They are so amazing.  I guess all Gma's say this but my grandkids are truly amazing!  So I gotta bounce, take care of yourselves and I shall talk later and let you know how it all turns out!

'If you are really thankful, what do you do?  You share.'  W. Clement Stone

MY BDAY CAKE

STILL AT APRIL'S AND ONE OF HER AMAZING DINNERS

SUSHI NIGHT FOR ELISA'S 12TH BIRTHDAY!

IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO GET A NORMAL PICTURE OF FENTON, THE GOOF!

FANTASTIC WEEK AND A HALF

 Well it has been a slice and a half this last week!!!  To go from never ever seeing any of my kids to seeing two of them in the space of a week is mind boggling!!!  I miss them all so much and just don't get to see them enough!

We packed up the van a week ago Wed.  We managed to fit the twin bed mattress into the back of the van for Monte to sleep in while we were at Kevin's.  The trip back to April's with LeeLoo was uneventful.  And the next two days at her place was amazing.  They fed me extremely well and heard stories of their trip to Scotland.  Clearly they had a most wonderful amazing trip.  They saw so much stuff, stuff I didn't even know was in Scotland!  And they ate toad in a hole, giant yorkies, haggis, blood sausage....and drank copious pints of weird beer.  And they stayed in some of the most amazing B&B's.  April did have to go the studio one day to work and came home so happy.  She met so many people that were important to her.

Monte and I had a fantastic trip up to Penticton to Kevin's.  We mosied.  We did plan to not get there til after supper.

In Princeton we took a few minutes to show Monte the Princeton Castle Resort, the very odd place the women's retreat was held at several times.  You can't describe that place to people.  It is sooooo odd.  We did decide to go home the same way we went up, there are two or three choices of routes, and again mosie so that we can use our cameras and take shots, all the shots we missed on the way up.

The other thing we are going to do is get apples.  The fruit stands are crazy loaded right now.  Ange and I want to make applesauce and can it.  We passed some pretty amazing fruit stands!

And when we got here we could see in the front room window and they were all there waiting.  It was so good to see them.  The kids are growing up so fast and K & T were happy and healthy.  We had a fabulous evening.

I am doing all the cooking, with Elise as sous chef.  It's a challenge!  Kevin is vegan, Tandy is vegetarian and the kids are normal.  Egads!!   But I love a food challenge.  Last night I made beet root spaghetti sauce and noodles.  They all ate it and liked it.  It turned out to be a lot of work!  Almost did me in!  Thank goodness for Elise's help!  And I have no idea what it tasted like.  I cooked it blind as they say.  No tasting.  I was super nauseated last nite, don't know what the heck came over me but there was no way I was going to put even one centilla of a piece in my mouth. But I have made enough spaghetti sauces in my life to just do what I usually do.  And apparently it turned out really good.  They all loved it.

So now I am watching ink master.  They have a tv now!!!!!!!!!!  Amazing!!!!!!!  Kevin and I watch all the reality shows, the competition ones, not the Kardashian type!  He is several episodes into the new season of Ink Master.  So while he is working I am catching up and then we will watch new episodes together.  We totally bond over reality shows!

Well back to the show.  And dinner planning.  This is a fun awesome time!  Stay safe, healthy and happy.  Talk later.

'I sustain myself on the love of family.'  Maya Angelou