Sunday December 11

[dpf]

Morning! Grands were here overnight and just left, so I’m sitting here drinking a cup of coffee in peace and quiet. Yikes…can they bicker in the morning. Karen, I think that front that’s heading east is supposed to hit us Monday night or Tuesday morning with rain and snow for two days. I hope we just get snow because I have nightmares about 2005 when we had ice then snow and were without power and water from Monday morning to late Friday afternoon. By Wednesday the roads were cleared so I went to work at the prison just to take a shower and eat a hot meal! Do you have any idea how much snow you have to melt to flush a toilet??? Also makes me think of one of the inmates who worked for me. He was from Florida and one morning in October it was 35 and he was complaining about the cold…had to tell him to just 00] \wait because in January when it is 10 below, he’d think 35 was a nice day.


I’m trying to decide what I’m going to accomplish today. Yesterday I made some of my food gifts and delivered them rather doing it the last couple days before Christmas. The family who lives next door has three children the two in high school are busy with basketball and other extra-curricular activities and their youngest is a special needs child. The mother teaches and the dad has an auto repair shop. I usually make a meal for them on an evening that I know that they will be rushed to get back to school for some event. That will probably be Tuesday night this week unless the storm hits, and everything is canceled. Haddie and Bronc were supposed to have their elementary operetta Thursday night, but it was canceled because of impeding weather and is now on the 16th. Maybe I’ll wrap presents today, the kids were a little disappointed that there weren’t any gifts under the tree.


Missy’s family is having their Christmas on the 17th. They always have Faye and I plan a scavenger hunt for them. This year we’re mixing it up and it’s a combination of Amazing Race and a scavenger hunt. Last year they said it was too easy, they’re going to hate us this year. They get one clue to start and have to crack that before they find the list for the scavenger hunt, and we have embarrassing things that they have to do and video on their phone along with the list of items to gather.


I’m attaching a picture of Miss Haddie and Opie (Braxton) from the night of coronation. Braxton is one of my son Ryan’s classmates. Both Nathan and Autumn are blonds, and they have four children all of them are carrot tops…. hence the nick name Opie.



Have a good week!

[Bethers]

Love seeing your posts Pat. Those kids are growing up too fast! And speaking of kids, or pets, Shirl sent me this picture to share as her smile of the day. And I smiled.


Off to walk Ty. Happy Sunday!

[Cudedog]

Love seeing your posts Pat. Those kids are growing up too fast! And speaking of kids, or pets, Shirl sent me this picture to share as her smile of the day. And I smiled.

Off to walk Ty. Happy Sunday!

Thanks, Beth!

Made me laugh, good way to start my morning. One can never get too many laughs these days!

Anne

[Shirlv]

Morning All, it’s cloudy, rainy and I forgot the temperature. Pat, always enjoy your post. Beth, thanks for posting the picture. I might print it and prop it next to Elmer gnome. I bought a new toaster oven when I moved here and directions for use were complicated so just used it for toast. Received cute colorful 10” ramekins from Amazon yesterday. Can not imagine heating the large oven and using it to bake a tiny apple crisp for one. Lol Read the toaster oven directions twice so will hooe it works. I like to cook, try new recipes and serve my meals on pretty dishes. #2 granddaughter and I text each other pictures when we try new recipes. She also sent a picture of her laying on her side in bed with her dog behind her and his head resting on her head. It was titled “I said get in YOUR bed” Be safe

[BarbaraRose]

Good morning gals!

There is a major winter storm moving thru southern CA today into tomorrow. Lots of rain along the coast and heavy snow in the mountains. We are only supposed to get some light rain here. I just heard 5 drops hit the awning now. Highs in the low to mid 50's all week. Definitely unseasonably cool.

it was 35 and he was complaining about the cold…had to tell him to just wait because in January when it is 10 below, he’d think 35 was a nice day.

I can relate to that!

Just got done watching the church service. Too much talk about quantum physics so I didn't get much out of it.

Need to get laundry done some time today. Romeow is sleeping under the covers with me now so I don't want to disturb him (as good of an excuse as any, right?).

Have a good day and enjoy the snow!

[Redetotry]

Pat I can't imagine almost a week without power and water in that cold of weather and I hope I never need to figure out how much snow one needs to flush I would love to see the scavenger hunt!

Shirl I hope you figured out your toaster oven. I have a Cuisinart that I use more than my regular oven, which is good as my built in oven broke recently and it's too old to get repair parts. We need all of out kitchen appliances replaced but I don't even want to think about it as they are all built in.

I gave Pippa a bath yesterday and let her partially air dry. Big mistake as it matted terribly oh well I intended to cut it and she is now a work in progress. My hands don't want to hold the clippers very long at a time so it is definitely going to take awhile. She has a lot of hair for such a little dog!

I making red lentil soup for dinner and I have all the chopping finished so shouldn't take long to put together. The recipe I use calls for chopped carrots, celery, onion and a bay leaf. I add chicken thighs and Swanson's chicken broth and sometimes make corn bread to go with.

[Acadianmom]

We had storms come through this morning and I got a half inch of rain. The worst of the storms went North of here. Now it's back up to 83. I cooked the last of the Shrimp Scampi that came from Sam's for lunch. It's good but anything from Sam's is too much.

I went through the bin of pictures that came from my Grandmother's house. There are more unknown pictures than ones I could identify. I pulled the pictures for two of my cousin's and sorted the rest into zip lock bags. There were only 2 pictures of my Grandmother and 2 of my Grandfather. There are a lot of old, nice professional photos. I think they are probably my Grandmother's sisters and their families. I never met them. The cats always think they have to be in the middle of what I'm doing. I kept having to run Stinky off. I still have a box that came from my parents house and a box of my pictures. I'll work on them another day.

Shir's picture make me smile. I can relate to her granddaughter and her dog. Last night I had 5 cats trying to sleep with me in a twin size bed. They are like a bunch of kids and don't want another cat to touch them. A couple will usually have a hissy fit and leave.

Pat, I know how much snow you have to melt to flush a toilet. The two weeks I spent in New Jersey and it snowed 2 feet the water was off for 2 or 3 days. Thank goodness we had power. If anyone says snow I'm going to run. Your grandkids are growing up so fast. I remember when Bronc was a baby.

BJ, I saw a video on Facebook of clippers attached to a vacuum to clip dogs. I don't know how much it cost but it might be worth it. Stinky is not grooming herself enough and is getting mats in her fur. I try to brush her every night but I need a better brush. I don't want to cut the mats out.

I never know what's going on in town. Yesterday when I came home they had the square blocked off. I looked online and they were having a Christmas Celebration and the parade was going to be at 5:00. There were craft booths set up in the square. One of these years I might be in the Lafayette Christmas Parade. It's always the weekend we have our Christmas campout. When I'm coming home people are lining up to watch the parade.

I better go walk Sugar before it gets dark. I hate these short days.

Martha

[OregonLuvr]

I am late to the game today. Been busy all day which is good for me. Was busy being Betty Crocker today getting the last of my "do aheads" finished. Cleaned the fridge and wiped out the oven. It is self cleaning but just had a couple of drip spots on my oven liner. Love that oven liner, I just take it out, wash it off and put it back. Saves on self cleaning mode.
I spent part of my afternoon figuring out my new video doorbell. Think I have it figured out now, just need to mount it outside tomorrow. I dont want to tackle it in the dark.

Our weather today was mostly cloudy but just some rare sprinkles of rain. No rain for a while but we will be in the low 40's for a high and the mid 20's for the lows....brrrrrr. So the storm moved on to you eastward peeps.

I didnt make my Haystack cookies today, ran out of motivation so will make them tomorrow, no hurry I guess other than I want one ha ha or two. They only take like 5 minutes to make. No baking, just put them in the fridge to set up then you can take them out and eat or freeze in an airtight container. Shirl I dont have a toaster oven so I use my Air fryer to bake my stuff in. Comes out fine so that works for me. Pat you are always so busy and doing so much for people. Your grandkids have grown up overnight...that just means I have grown so much older too LOL

[Bethers]

Karen, I gave my toaster oven away shortly after getting my air fryer when I discovered it could do everything I used the toaster oven for and so much more. And that includes toasting!

Over the summer wind damaged my screen door, including ripping the screen. Ty discovered he could walk through the damaged screen. One of the maintenance guys bent the door back and replaced the damaged screening on the lower half. I don't want to say he did a bad job, but two days later it was pulling out without Ty helping it. But he helped it along after that. While I was in Benson I measured the area and bought a piece of plexiglass to fit. Today I finally put it in and surprised myself that what I wanted to do worked. But I didn't feel confident that it would stay so I took my white gorilla tape and ran it along the top and bottom for extra support. No more children's gate keeping Ty in now. I almost think I need it because it's so clear! The manager here had offered to help and came by to it being done and says I did a great job.

In a few days temps will go down a tad and I'll probably have to shut windows overnight, maybe even some days.

[JudyJB]

I had a junky toaster when I got my motorhome, but tossed it when I got tired of dragging it out and putting it away, and cleaning up the crumbs it left. Now, I have a flat griddle with a handle, and it does a great job of toasting bread or even bagels. Sometimes for breakfast, I will put a couple of slices dry on the griddle. I have to watch them and turn them over at an appropriate time. WHen the bread is done, I push it to the far end of the griddle where it is not too hot and dump some butter and two eggs on the hot part. Scramble them, and toast and eggs are done at the same time!! One pan for both.

I think I have figured out why there are so many Christmas Hallmark shows. I have looked at a few and decided that they did was take an ordinary romance story that they had sitting in their box of potential shows. Then they stick in a Christmas tree, some snow, and people in winter coats, and maybe add a dinner with relatives. Voila!! You have a Christmas program without much effort on their part. I'll bet they even move the trees and decorations from one show filming to another. In other words, most of the programs really have very little to do with Christmas--some do, but not most. Cheap and efficient.

Made it to Death Valley this afternoon just before the sun set. Just think, in 10 or 11 days, the days will start getting longer. Yea!!

[BarbaraRose]

BJ, I used to use an electric clipper at work but they are heavy and my wrist would start hurting before the end of the day so I got a cordless pair and they are a lot lighter and work just as well and no more pain. That is all I use now. I wonder if you can find cordless ones for your dog?

Never got more than those 5 drops of rain the rest of the day today. I didn't get to my laundry but did some research on line about RVing and boondocking, and different RV clubs. Have any of you used Passport America? I signed up on RVillage just to get more info and advice if needed later. I decided that my new RV name will be Roamin' Romeow.

Back to work tomorrow...

Here is Romeow napping on my laptop earlier. He takes relaxing to a whole 'nother level!

[Pooker]

Hi everyone - it's actually Monday now, but I wanted to put my two cents worth into this conversation. I loved the pics of the kids and the laughing baby and dog sure brightens any gray mood we might have.

Martha - going through old photos is the hardest job! There's something accusing about a picture that makes you think twice before tossing it. Like you're erasing those lives or something. I can't help thinking future generations might be disappointed that I threw away pictures of ancestors they would have wanted. I made it a New Year's project last year to purge all my photo albums and I still have way too many of them!

Toaster/oven debate: I bought a combination toaster/oven/broiler/air fryer and I love it!

Barbie: Cute picture of Romeow. I have had Passport America for years! In fact, we were able to get a lifetime membership way back when they first hit the camping scene. It got used a lot. Actually, most trips Sharon and I took together we used PA exclusively. My hubby and I also had Coast to Coast (along with Good Sam and FMCA) and we criss-crossed the country many times and discovered PA was often more convenient and a lot cheaper. In many cases they were the same RV parks as other memberships. So to me Passport America is definitely worth it. Everyone remember the days when we had to lug around 3 or 4 campground directories? Boy am I old!

[Acadianmom]

Evie, I probably have one of those old directories around here somewhere. They were as big as the old Sears catalogs. I still miss the Sears Christmas catalog.

Martha