- 1 1/2 lbs meatloaf mix
- 1 small can Hunts tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup chopped onions
- 3/4 cup oatmeal (regular or quick oats)
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper to taste
Thursday, March 31, 2011
MEATLOAF
I have this really simple meatloaf recipe that I have been using for years. I found it on the lid of the Quaker Oatmeal canister.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
A SICK CHILD
My daughter is 27 years old, but when she is sick I still act like she is 3, 10, 18. She left work early yesterday because she was feeling bad. It sounds to be like what my mother use to call a chest cold, but now a doctor might all it bronchitis. I made her some chicken soup and brought it to her when she got home from work yesterday. I stayed for a while and I think I made her feel better. Her boyfriend was at a volunteer fireman meeting so he could take over when he got there. Today she called me first thing in the morning to say that her boyfriend said she should not go to work. So I went and visit her at lunch time and brought her some lunch. He is doing a good job taking care of my baby It's going to be hard for me to relinquish her care to him. He got her some over the counter medication and she was feeling better. I think she is run down. She is working two jobs. One of her past employers called her back in September and asked her if she would be willing to work a few hours a day until May because is Assistant was going to Germany until then. She of course said yes and it ended up being a lot more than a couple of hours a week. On her only day off this week she still had to go to her full time job for a meeting, so yes she is running herself down. The weather here today was beautiful a sign that yes maybe Spring is coming, but noooo, we are having a major Noreaster here tomorrow night into Friday morning. Our contractor was going to come to start Phase II of the mud/laundry room on Monday the 4th but he now is not coming until the 11th. I think this might be a good thing considering there may be snow on the ground and what a mess that would make. Since the start of Daylight Savings Time I have been trying to go out for a walk at night. I started slow 15 minutes. A couple of days I was not able to go, March weather is so iffy, it was just downright cold. I will try to increase my time to 20 minutes as of April 1. This is the first exercise since my hospital stay in October. I just got back it it feels real good, I just hope it feels this good when I increase to maybe 1/2 hour a day.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
PASSION
Webster includes theses two definitions of the word PASSION Ardent affection: Love Sexual desire I have a friend who just met a really nice guy, they are actually talking about engagement and marriage. She told me the other night that she doesn't feel passion for him. Her biological clock is ticking and I think she would be happy right about now to settle down and have a family. But she is worried about this "Passion" thing. I had no sound advice for her and I have been thinking about the word "Passion" since we had this conversation. I did tell her that "Passion" comes and goes in a relationship. Of course I am feeling biased because this guy is a good catch. A real family man, loves children, has a good secure job, and loves being around his extended family, he has a large group of friends who have wives and children and he is just right for her. Their backgrounds a very much alike and he is just about her age. I think "Passion" is over rated. There can be "Passion" in a relationship whether married or not, it just depends on the circumstances. I think the word "Passion" may be misused in her situation. I think what she is looking for is the hormone driven lust that you feel as a young person. When your not in a relationship with anyone in particular, maybe a one night stand. Your inhibitions are hidden and everything is full out. I still don't know how to advise her and telling her how I feel in the words I have written may not make any sense to her.
Monday, March 28, 2011
A QUIET MONDAY
No post yesterday, so I will just outline the days events: - Went marketing early in t he morning to pick up the ingredients to make stuffed cabbage - Stopped by my daughter's house to say hello while she got ready to go to a birthday party of the two year daughter of her boyfriend's best friends, got that - Stopped by Home Depot to look at patio chairs - Played two games of Scrabble with my neighbor, one before dinner and one after dinner - Made stuffed cabbage for dinner Today we were up early and went directly to the basement........we are trying to do some Spring cleaning in that area of the house. We usually try to work on it for about an hour every Monday morning because it is trash day and so far we have probably put out 20 bags of trash and made two trips to Unity House...........a local thrift store for homeless people. We had collected so much stuff over the years. Stuff my parents house when my mother died and my father downsized to an apartment, stuff from my father's apartment when he died, stuff from my mother-in-laws house when she moved here into an assisted living facility and stuff from my brother's apartment when he died, geez!!! Yesterday when we were at Home Depot looking at chairs my husband suggested we priced a vacuum cleaner. We have a Dyson but he wanted to get a cheapy one for the basement. We could leave it down there and and not have to lug the Dyson up and down the stairs and besides there was a better chance of the Dyson getting ruined in the basement so we just wanted a cheap vacuum in case it did get ruined. We found a Dirt Devil with thought was priced at $149, I thought it was too much, husband thought it was ok. So we went to the register and it rang up $49.00. We asked the cashier to double check, she did so we scored. I think it was an error in the computer and the bar code was wrong. So now I have something to pick up stray litter with and lint from the dryer and threads from my sewing area and shred of paper from the shredder, etc. Today was a nice sunny day but very deceiving. Wind was blowing about 25 miles an hour and the wind chill was 25 degrees, we still have snow directly under the roof of the front porch, about three feet. I don't think it will every melt. Husband has been going out there every day to knock the snow down a little and throw the snow into the road or on the lawn. We had word from our contractor today that Phase II of the project known as the mud room will convene on April 11th. I can't wait. We will have sheet rocked and painted walls, a tile floor. French doors from the kitchen to the mud room. A single French door to the back hall leading to the basement, the washer and dryer will be brought up from the basement and stacked behind bi fold doors and everything will be freshly painted and beautiful. I will also have a nice storage area beside the washer and dryer with pull out drawers from my electric appliances like the waffle iron, the crock pot, the blender, the rice steamer, etc. My cousin called last night and asked if I wanted to go with a group of our friends to see Michael Buble when he comes to our local arena in June. I said of course. So that is something to look forward to this summer. My 40th high school reunion is this summer. Things are just now getting organized so I don't have any details. Maybe it won't happen. That would not be any skin off my back. My husband and I went to my 10th year reunion right after we were married and that was a complete flop.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
A SATURDAY
When I was working I looked forward to Saturday and Sunday. Now that I am not working I don't look forward to Saturday and Sunday. During the week my husband and I can do errands and move around town unchallenged by traffic and crowded stores. The bank never has a line and the pharmacy you can get in and out in no time. You can also get a quick cafe latte in Starbucks during the week. Now the weekends are a challenge and we try not to go anywhere the masses may be.
This morning we slept in a little and I made from scratch Belgian waffles and bacon. We puttered around a little then I showered and dressed we took a quick trip to the pet store. I know this is against all that I have talked about above but we felt it was important to get flea and tick medication for our one cat, Buddy, who is an indoor/outdoor cat and today was warm enough that we though those nasty fleas and ticks might be lurking. I did manage to get a cafe latte at Starbuck's without having to wait too long so that was a pleasant surprise on a Saturday late morning.
We also took a ride to a little village outside our city to look for a small bridge in need of repair. The head of the highway department in our county is looking to hire my husband to oversee the rebuilding of that bridge. The contractor has not been assigned yet,, but with Spring just around the corner it won't be long.
My neighbor stopped by for a quick game of Scrabble and that was the extent of my rather exciting day.
This morning we slept in a little and I made from scratch Belgian waffles and bacon. We puttered around a little then I showered and dressed we took a quick trip to the pet store. I know this is against all that I have talked about above but we felt it was important to get flea and tick medication for our one cat, Buddy, who is an indoor/outdoor cat and today was warm enough that we though those nasty fleas and ticks might be lurking. I did manage to get a cafe latte at Starbuck's without having to wait too long so that was a pleasant surprise on a Saturday late morning.
We also took a ride to a little village outside our city to look for a small bridge in need of repair. The head of the highway department in our county is looking to hire my husband to oversee the rebuilding of that bridge. The contractor has not been assigned yet,, but with Spring just around the corner it won't be long.
My neighbor stopped by for a quick game of Scrabble and that was the extent of my rather exciting day.
Friday, March 25, 2011
FISH FRY
My daughter's boyfriend (soon to be fiance) is a volunteer fireman. During the Lenten season his firehouse has a fish fry dinner, open to the public, every Friday night. My daughter and him were going to volunteer at the firehouse for tonight's Fish Fry dinner but both of them had to work. My husband and I were going to go to the dinner and have them wait on us. I have met the new boyfriend's mother only once and when I spotted her on Facebook today I told her how much I enjoyed our visit and mentioned that we should do it again. She said that her and her boyfriend (she lost her husband 7 years ago to cancer) Jim were going to go to Fish Fry night even though my daughter and the boyfriend were not going to be there. Would we like to join them. I said yes.
Fish Fry I discovered is something that is mostly prepared and served in the Great Northeast. I don't even know how far outside of New York you can get them. I know that when my cousins come up from Florida that's one of the first things they look forward to. It's usually made with cod or any white fish I believe and the restaurants that have them here (and that's be kind to call them restaurants) have to cut the fish fry into shape from a larger piece of fish. Usually they are sold at little roadside stands and they may have hamburgers too. Breaded and deep fried shaped in a long piece that fits into a hot dog bun, hanging out from either side. Served with tartar sauce, chili sauce or cocktail sauce. Usually served with French fries and/onion rings and coleslaw.
We had a really nice visit. The boyfriend's mother talked mostly about how she loves my daughter and it just makes me so proud to hear her talk about her like that. My daughter called while we were still sitting after having our dinner and I told her that the wedding was all planned and we were working on the honeymoon. She laughed and said she trusted us with whatever plans we came up with. We were only kidding of course.
My husband and I are in the market for a shed. We have one car garage that is falling down and we have never used it for a car. I don't even think a car would fit in it even if there was nothing in it but the car. We were hoping that the snow would have taken it down this winter but it looks like we are going to have to take it down ourselves. So anyway back to the shed. We thought since we don't use the garage for a car we would just buy a shed for all of the outdoor stuff we need to store; snow blower, lawn mower, weed wacker etc.. There is a company locally called THE SHED MAN. They make custom made sheds. Lately we have been noticing other sheds in peoples back yards. I will tell you that sheds have a way of taking on their own personalities. There are some really nice sheds out there. I think picking out a design and building it to our liking is going to be a fun and creative thing to do. They don't have to conform to the neighborhood homes and "fit in" because they are in the back yard where usually no one sees them unless of course you are like us and are on a shed hunt. I wish I could take pictures of some of the sheds we have seen they are so unique. I can say that sheds have come a long way from those metal things that people use to erect to extra storage. Most of those blew away with the first strong wind probably landing on the Wicked Witch of the North. Window boxes adorn some some have front doors that look as nice as a front door on a house. The colors sometimes match the houses and sometimes that look like mini barns. I really can't wait to put our ideas into our shed. Sort of like a blank canvas. Isn't this one cute.
Fish Fry I discovered is something that is mostly prepared and served in the Great Northeast. I don't even know how far outside of New York you can get them. I know that when my cousins come up from Florida that's one of the first things they look forward to. It's usually made with cod or any white fish I believe and the restaurants that have them here (and that's be kind to call them restaurants) have to cut the fish fry into shape from a larger piece of fish. Usually they are sold at little roadside stands and they may have hamburgers too. Breaded and deep fried shaped in a long piece that fits into a hot dog bun, hanging out from either side. Served with tartar sauce, chili sauce or cocktail sauce. Usually served with French fries and/onion rings and coleslaw.
We had a really nice visit. The boyfriend's mother talked mostly about how she loves my daughter and it just makes me so proud to hear her talk about her like that. My daughter called while we were still sitting after having our dinner and I told her that the wedding was all planned and we were working on the honeymoon. She laughed and said she trusted us with whatever plans we came up with. We were only kidding of course.
My husband and I are in the market for a shed. We have one car garage that is falling down and we have never used it for a car. I don't even think a car would fit in it even if there was nothing in it but the car. We were hoping that the snow would have taken it down this winter but it looks like we are going to have to take it down ourselves. So anyway back to the shed. We thought since we don't use the garage for a car we would just buy a shed for all of the outdoor stuff we need to store; snow blower, lawn mower, weed wacker etc.. There is a company locally called THE SHED MAN. They make custom made sheds. Lately we have been noticing other sheds in peoples back yards. I will tell you that sheds have a way of taking on their own personalities. There are some really nice sheds out there. I think picking out a design and building it to our liking is going to be a fun and creative thing to do. They don't have to conform to the neighborhood homes and "fit in" because they are in the back yard where usually no one sees them unless of course you are like us and are on a shed hunt. I wish I could take pictures of some of the sheds we have seen they are so unique. I can say that sheds have come a long way from those metal things that people use to erect to extra storage. Most of those blew away with the first strong wind probably landing on the Wicked Witch of the North. Window boxes adorn some some have front doors that look as nice as a front door on a house. The colors sometimes match the houses and sometimes that look like mini barns. I really can't wait to put our ideas into our shed. Sort of like a blank canvas. Isn't this one cute.
We were out early this morning. I went to get my hair cut and then we went to breakfast at one of our local diners. We also shopped around a little for patio furniture.
We had a round wood patio table and chairs in the back yard with an umbrella. We never used it to eat on because all of the neighborhood cats use to like to lay on the table in the sun so every time we decided to eat out on the patio where the gas grill was I had to clean the table and find a tablecloth to fit the table So we got rid of the table and chairs and now I am in the market for just four comfortable chairs and a fire pit. We have a screened in porch on the front of our house were we spend a major of the summer. It is difficult to be outside in the evening because of the bugs and mosquitos. So we would not have the tendancy to use the back yard very much for just sitting and if we had a fire pit it would keep the bugs away in the evening if we did want to sit back there. Our house is bordered in the back by a very old cemetary we gets overgrown in the summer and attracks a lot of bugs.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
THE TAX MAN COMETH
I should say the WE GOETH TO THE TAX MAN. For the first time ever we are having our taxes prepared by a CPA. My brother had used this man in the past and I had to file income tax for my brother's estate so we brought everything to him.
I had my nails done today and while I was sitting I was watching CNN a report came on about income tax and it reported on how you can claim the interest on you children's student loans if you are paying a part of it. We are in fact paying our daughter's student loans. It was a deal we made with her when she went to college. Since her tuition was paid in full because I was employed by the university we told her we would cover the cost of any student loan for books, computer, etc. So I called my husband and reminded him of that and he had to dig out the information from out personal paperwork and get it to the tax man ASAP, since we had already brought all of the stuff to him this morning.
There are some pictures on my blog back in the Spring of 2010 of a beautiful concrete basket that my husband bought for me as a mother's day gift. I put it in my flower garden in the front of the house filled with flowers it is so pretty. I decided today to decorate it for Easter. I went to AC Moore, our local craft store, and bought some artificial Easter basket grass, two wooden bunny rabbits a male and a female, some plastic eggs and the best thing of all the decorations are six hand made wooden tulips. My father in law as a wood worker and he use to make some cute easy to make wooden crafts to sell in his family owned gas station. He made the tulips and my mother in law painted them. We don't have very many things from them that they made and I was doing some cleaning in our basement and came across these just the other day. They were among my mother in laws things that we have stored here from when we broke up her home and moved her here closer to us in an Assisted Living facility. I took a picture of the finished basket and I will try to post it as soon as I can remember how to download it to my computer.
I had my nails done today and while I was sitting I was watching CNN a report came on about income tax and it reported on how you can claim the interest on you children's student loans if you are paying a part of it. We are in fact paying our daughter's student loans. It was a deal we made with her when she went to college. Since her tuition was paid in full because I was employed by the university we told her we would cover the cost of any student loan for books, computer, etc. So I called my husband and reminded him of that and he had to dig out the information from out personal paperwork and get it to the tax man ASAP, since we had already brought all of the stuff to him this morning.
There are some pictures on my blog back in the Spring of 2010 of a beautiful concrete basket that my husband bought for me as a mother's day gift. I put it in my flower garden in the front of the house filled with flowers it is so pretty. I decided today to decorate it for Easter. I went to AC Moore, our local craft store, and bought some artificial Easter basket grass, two wooden bunny rabbits a male and a female, some plastic eggs and the best thing of all the decorations are six hand made wooden tulips. My father in law as a wood worker and he use to make some cute easy to make wooden crafts to sell in his family owned gas station. He made the tulips and my mother in law painted them. We don't have very many things from them that they made and I was doing some cleaning in our basement and came across these just the other day. They were among my mother in laws things that we have stored here from when we broke up her home and moved her here closer to us in an Assisted Living facility. I took a picture of the finished basket and I will try to post it as soon as I can remember how to download it to my computer.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
I AM BACK
My last post was October 3rd, 2010. Yesterday March 23, 2011 I typed my very first post since that day in October. It was a long post full of all the details that caused me to stop posting. Right after I finished the post, somehow I lost it. So now I am debating as to whether or not to write it all over again. It was very painful to live it all again while writing so I don't know whether I can do it or not. But as I mentioned in that post that I lost the only reason why I want to keep a blog is for my daughter to have something to look back on long after I am gone. I regret sometimes that there aren't memories of my mother's life in writing somewhere. She is gone now and the only thing I have of memories are what I can remember she told me verbally.
Four days after my last post on October 7th, 201o I was scheduled for gall bladder removal surgery. A simply outpatient procedure, so I thought. It was going to be done laperscopically (I am not sure of the spelling). It is a non surgical procedure. Four little holes made in your stomach and the gall bladder removed through a tube. Everything went wrong that could have gone wrong. The gall bladder was horribly diseased and sent poisons through my body as soon as he touched it, there were hundreds of gall stones that he had to removed. The surgeon completed the doctor went ahead and completed the procedure without doing a regular surgery on me, which was probably not a good call but his call after all. So, my liver was bruised and (this is a big AND) MY KIDNEYS SHUT DOWN. This was probably a defense mechanism because if my kidneys had tried to process all of the poison from my gall bladder they would have probably been totally broken, if that's a good word to describe a kidney. So now I have no kidney function poison coursing through my body and a very bruised liver. I don't remember a single thing about the next four or five days. I was on heavy doses of morphine and two different kinds of antibiotics for my infected blood. My husband and my daughter thought they lost me. I was in the hospital for 16 days. While I was there I had to endure three days a week of kidney dialysis for four hours each time and when I finally got home I was on dialysis as an outpatient. Going to the dialysis center three times a week at 7:30 in the morning for four hours each time. The whole month of October and November were a blurr. My family and friends rallied around me a the hospital and never left my daughter alone for one minute. They were such a comfort to me and my family. I must have seen a doctor for each organ in my body; kidney, blood, heart, liver etc. I have had the worse last nine months of my life. Here is a recap:
June - I decided to finally put in my letter of resignation effective July 2nd 2010. It had been almost a year since my father died and I wanted a little break.
June 30 - my brother died, two days before I was due to retire. I left work on the 29th and never went back.
July - I spent the month closing up my brother's apartment and taking care of all of his personal stuff
August - I spent doctoring a bad back which I assume was due to stress from my brother's death and dealing with all of the stuff associated with that
September - My daughter and I got to take a nice cruise, which would have been great if I wasn't dealing with a bad gall bladder. My doctor let me go on my vacation loaded up with antibiotics so my gall bladder would not flare up, the antibiotics caused a yeast infection all this while I was on the cruise hoping to relax and enjoy myself. I had promised my doctor that I would schedule the surgery as soon as I got home. As a matter of fact the appointment to see the surgeon was already scheduled before I left.
October - My surgery and the subsequent aftermath of gall bladder surgery gone bad. When I came home from the hospital is when the contact or started phase I of our back porch reconstruction. It was probably the worse and the best time to start. We had probably been planning this since the first day we moved her over 24 years ago and there was no way I was going to stop this from happening, even if it caused a bit of stress to my already stressed out body. The best part was that I had something to keep me preoccupied while I was busy recuperating. More on the story about the reconstruction in a future post.
November - Dialysis every other day. The days on dialysis were completed wasted. When I got home I was totally wiped out and could do nothing but lay on the sofa. By Thanksgiving I was getting weened off dialysis, kidney function was getting better.
December - I tried to salvage the holiday the best I could. One of the best Christmas gifts I ever gave my daughter resulted in her meeting her now boyfriend and soon to be fiance. The gift that caused the meeting was a three month subscription to MATCH.COM. He is the best thing that ever came her way and there will be a lot more posts about him in the future. By Christmas I was off of dialysis and starting feel better.
January - We dealt with a lot of snowfall. A record 7.5 feet. My husband did a lot of snow blowing and shoveling and I did a lot of thinking about how to keep ourselves from getting cabin fever and forcing us to go out even to go for a little ride to the market.
February - I took a two week vacation to see my cousins in Florida. It was nice relaxing time. It was warm and I was able to wear sandals and capris and no socks. Just ask anyone I hate socks. I have all I can do to keep my feet covered in the winter long enough to keep them warm.
March - Came and is going by really fast. They will be starting phase II of our back/mud room. More on that to come. I am feeling almost 100% and even started doing a daily walk again, slow at first 15 minutes at a time and hoping to increase that as I go along.
Four days after my last post on October 7th, 201o I was scheduled for gall bladder removal surgery. A simply outpatient procedure, so I thought. It was going to be done laperscopically (I am not sure of the spelling). It is a non surgical procedure. Four little holes made in your stomach and the gall bladder removed through a tube. Everything went wrong that could have gone wrong. The gall bladder was horribly diseased and sent poisons through my body as soon as he touched it, there were hundreds of gall stones that he had to removed. The surgeon completed the doctor went ahead and completed the procedure without doing a regular surgery on me, which was probably not a good call but his call after all. So, my liver was bruised and (this is a big AND) MY KIDNEYS SHUT DOWN. This was probably a defense mechanism because if my kidneys had tried to process all of the poison from my gall bladder they would have probably been totally broken, if that's a good word to describe a kidney. So now I have no kidney function poison coursing through my body and a very bruised liver. I don't remember a single thing about the next four or five days. I was on heavy doses of morphine and two different kinds of antibiotics for my infected blood. My husband and my daughter thought they lost me. I was in the hospital for 16 days. While I was there I had to endure three days a week of kidney dialysis for four hours each time and when I finally got home I was on dialysis as an outpatient. Going to the dialysis center three times a week at 7:30 in the morning for four hours each time. The whole month of October and November were a blurr. My family and friends rallied around me a the hospital and never left my daughter alone for one minute. They were such a comfort to me and my family. I must have seen a doctor for each organ in my body; kidney, blood, heart, liver etc. I have had the worse last nine months of my life. Here is a recap:
June - I decided to finally put in my letter of resignation effective July 2nd 2010. It had been almost a year since my father died and I wanted a little break.
June 30 - my brother died, two days before I was due to retire. I left work on the 29th and never went back.
July - I spent the month closing up my brother's apartment and taking care of all of his personal stuff
August - I spent doctoring a bad back which I assume was due to stress from my brother's death and dealing with all of the stuff associated with that
September - My daughter and I got to take a nice cruise, which would have been great if I wasn't dealing with a bad gall bladder. My doctor let me go on my vacation loaded up with antibiotics so my gall bladder would not flare up, the antibiotics caused a yeast infection all this while I was on the cruise hoping to relax and enjoy myself. I had promised my doctor that I would schedule the surgery as soon as I got home. As a matter of fact the appointment to see the surgeon was already scheduled before I left.
October - My surgery and the subsequent aftermath of gall bladder surgery gone bad. When I came home from the hospital is when the contact or started phase I of our back porch reconstruction. It was probably the worse and the best time to start. We had probably been planning this since the first day we moved her over 24 years ago and there was no way I was going to stop this from happening, even if it caused a bit of stress to my already stressed out body. The best part was that I had something to keep me preoccupied while I was busy recuperating. More on the story about the reconstruction in a future post.
November - Dialysis every other day. The days on dialysis were completed wasted. When I got home I was totally wiped out and could do nothing but lay on the sofa. By Thanksgiving I was getting weened off dialysis, kidney function was getting better.
December - I tried to salvage the holiday the best I could. One of the best Christmas gifts I ever gave my daughter resulted in her meeting her now boyfriend and soon to be fiance. The gift that caused the meeting was a three month subscription to MATCH.COM. He is the best thing that ever came her way and there will be a lot more posts about him in the future. By Christmas I was off of dialysis and starting feel better.
January - We dealt with a lot of snowfall. A record 7.5 feet. My husband did a lot of snow blowing and shoveling and I did a lot of thinking about how to keep ourselves from getting cabin fever and forcing us to go out even to go for a little ride to the market.
February - I took a two week vacation to see my cousins in Florida. It was nice relaxing time. It was warm and I was able to wear sandals and capris and no socks. Just ask anyone I hate socks. I have all I can do to keep my feet covered in the winter long enough to keep them warm.
March - Came and is going by really fast. They will be starting phase II of our back/mud room. More on that to come. I am feeling almost 100% and even started doing a daily walk again, slow at first 15 minutes at a time and hoping to increase that as I go along.
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