Getting Ready For Thanksgiving

Photo from Pixaby

Hi,

 I hope all are doing well. We are ok but I think a stomach bug is going around because Karyn came in tonight feeling sick to her stomach and a coup[e of times the baby Damien has thrown up. No fever but general nausea and no appetite.

 I was sick last night. Laurie gave me bottle of Pedialyte for me to drink to replace my fluids. I don't want to get dehydrated. 

 I chose this photo because I love how the woman is displayed in with the moon and stars. I think that it is so pretty and I really wanted to watch the Unicorn Meteor Showers last night but I didn't get to because we had too much cloud cover and rain. 

 I am hoping that I can see them in December. It just hasn't been my year to watch any of them. Maybe I can in 2020.

 I am sorry I was in a semi pissy mood in my last post. I don't like discussing politics but I don't hound others that have different opinions than I do.

 Everyone should have their own opinions and if they differ from others, family included it should be fine. 

 Anyway I want to apologize for my mood. I was just irritated.

 So that pretty much covered the last two days. I really haven't done much or have much going on here but I am hoping that the next few days are smooth as I am going to have several extra guests this year for Thanksgiving. 
 My son Matthew has a student driver with him and he wouldn't feel right  knowing he had no where to go and so Matt called and asked if he could bring his student over for Thanksgiving.
 He also asked me to run it by everyone to make sure it was ok and everyone in this house said... "Of course bring him".
 One thing about my family is that anyone alone is always welcome at our table.
 Then a friend of mine hasn't made any plans but she may have something at her church but she said she would be delighted if her church wasn't doing anything so we will see. 

 Gosh I remember my kids growing up and all of the meals we had that someone's kids besides my own were at the table. 
 Then there were other guests and our holiday meals we had around 30 40 or more people. 
 We always had more than enough food. Everyone brought food or paper plates etc... We never had anyone go hungry and of course it was also ways to communicate and socialize and be thankful for what we had to be able to share.

 Steve will you and Dave have your own Thanksgiving since your in London and not home? 
 I know that it isn't a holiday there but I didn't know if you planned on cooking a turkey or not lol...

 Miss Edna you know I do not open boxes except on that special day. I will put it with my other boxes. I want to put the tree up Thanksgiving night while I have all my kids under one roof. Matthew will be going to Reno for Christmas. So I want to make sure that I have at least one Photo with all 5 under the Christmas Tree. Or at least one with all 5 of them together.

 I have a dish that I am going to make. It probably isn't one that is going to pair with turkey and stuffing but I am going to make it anyway.

 When my daughter Laurie lived in Pasadena California she and I would go outside and let Adrian play while we waited for this man who had a cart that he pushed. 
 In this cart he had the most wonderful Elotes and she and I would get one. They were a dollar each.
 Elotes are Mexican Street Corn. The large ears of corn were on a long stick. He would have them in a tray of butter. We could tell him what we wanted on it.
 He would roll them in mayonnaise and sprinkle them with garlic salt and then roll them in Parmesan cheese and add a sprinkle of spices. We always chose chili powder, a creamy kind of cheese and lime juice. 
 All of that deliciousness for a dollar. I know I must have told it out of order somewhat, but oh they are so good.
Anyway I found a recipe for it in a casserole form. So I am going to make that for my special dish this year.

 Anyway I am going to get off here and get ready for bed. Sweet dreams to everyone and Be Blessed!!! BB

Headache Reigns

Free Photo From Free Site...
I found this a couple of years ago on one of the free sites I go to looking for something to scrap. I have used this image as a wall paper, on my computer and phone because I just love it.
 I can imagine myself sitting there, reading a book in that lovely room and drinking a large glass of tea. (I enjoy ice in my glass however).

 I have a headache. Not related to a headache like a real one or a migraine. My headache is a metaphor for Unreasonable Conversations in my house or a pain in the butt!

 We do not agree on our political views and I am not going to go into a rant here but we should be able to agree to disagree and let it be.
 Everyone is entitled into their own beliefs.
 All I want to do is listen to the inquiry. I want to hear the inquiry and make up my own mind. 
 Apparently my entire household except Jonathan because he never comments on way or another but obviously it is all a witch hunt and there should not be any listening to all the lies being told!
 Well ok then but I want to listen and make up my own mind. I have learned quiet a bit during the 20 minutes I got to sit quietly and listen to the witness and council today before the conversations began to interrupt me.
 Telling me that I am hearing all lies does not make it so. Several witness's that say the same thing is worth listening to. How did they get their information? Who were they with? What form did the information come from? In person? By text? From a colleague? 
 Shut up and let me listen to the damn inquiry. Over an hour has passed now and I am to aggravated to try again because my house is too noisy and maybe I will try to stream it again later but right now I am going to finish my post and lay down.

 Not much going on with me other than just not feeling well.  My fibromyalgia is acting up really bad. I had to call my doctor yesterday and get an ok for me to increase my Lyrica. Even tho I can and did I have not felt much relief.
 My nerve endings hurt and has affected my entire body. I am not sure what has brought this on. I don't have to have a reason but it's been a good while since I have had a flare up. 
 I got up in the middle of the night and took a warm bath and that helped some. I was able to go back to sleep but woke up at 5 this morning hurting. I took a pain pill and some Tylenol and that lasted about 3 hours. 
 After that I just got up and stayed up. I think that I can rest for a little while.

 Take care and I will try and be back soon with a blog worthy post. Until then BB

Friday TGIF

Kit is called Geraldine's Winter....

 Hi,

 It is cool out this morning, 59 degrees but the sun is shining and the gray and wet skies have finally moved out.

 This day is simply gorgeous and is suppose to just get prettier with days getting warmer. Monday is to be in the 70's so we will see.

 Nathan cooked brunch for us this morning. He made rice and veggies with some scrambled eggs. It was all perfect until we grabbed the gluten free soy sauce and discovered that it was left over Mongolian sauce that someone had cooked and poured into a left over soy sauce bottle. Our brunch had to be thrown away because it has been weeks since Laurie and Karyn made the Mongolian Beef and so yeah, better safe than sorry. 

 I mentioned it first... "Who put sugar in the rice stir fry?" When no one admitted to doing it then we had to investigate. "Since when does soy sauce come sweetened?"

 Well the good news is that we have plenty of rice ready to eat.

 Nothing new here to report so this blog post might be shorter than I antiicipated it being. I had a doctor appointment today and found out that my pain management now has office hours for Saturday but they were booked so now I have it scheduled for Monday morning at 10:00am.

 I was wanting to get it over with today but Jonathan and Karyn are both having to work full days today so I was able to move it. I am lucky to have enough pain meds to last me thru the weekend but that is it. Monday I will be out so I have to go to the new appointment.

 I am in so much pain the last couple of days. It is because of the weather being cold and damp.

 Nathan is off on Friday's now so we are going to watch our series in a little while. I will be super happy to enjoy these programs with my son. 

 I will also enjoy just relaxing on the sofa after this is done. It will educate my mind and in the meantime I will be able to try and ease my bones. I am sure that it is my fibromyalgia acting up. I can feel the soreness all over.

 

 It has been a confusing couple of weeks at my house in terms of who is doing dishes, who is not, how they are done. Laurie of course is trying to make things easier but I have my own way of doing dishes and laundry.

 So basically I have just stopped with the exception of my laundry as I prefer to do a prewash in cold water with my clothes and then wash in hot or warm water for the main cycle.

 The reason I prefer a cold prewash is easy. Cold water lifts stains and then a warm or a hot wash will get clothes cleaner.

 I use to work in a laundry matt and this was pointed out to us on the first day so I have always done this where I can.

 As for dishes I am not going to change how I do dishes. As long as they are clean when I go to eat out of it that is all that matters to me.

 But Laurie would like to see anything dirty stacked on the counter and rinsed so it is easier for the one doing the dishes. I don't know why everyone has an issue with her over it. Since she is mainly the dishwasher, just do it the way she wants it done.

 I am about ready to knock all of these kids across the head! Who cares as long as the dishes are clean and they are done and the laundry is done and put away? I sure don't.

 Karyn has gone to get some lunch since we just threw ours away earlier. I have to say that I am hungry! 

 I will close for now so that I can have lunch and take my meds. Have a great Friday everyone. BB

 

Christmas Time... Right Around The Corner

Christmas Time 2019 Kits are Baby Xmas, Golden Christmas and Merry Christmas

dreamingwithbella.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=97

Hi,

 This post will be a short one. I am sleepy as my cat! I haven't been to bed yet. I got caught up with making this Christmas page. I don't know why I was in the mood to do a Christmas page but I was and then before I knew it I had been playing at the computer for 2 hours. Then I was looking at this year and last year's pages I had done. 

 Not that many this past year. Only about 10 or 12 but the year isn't over yet.

 I went outside to see if Nathan and Jonathan got the garbage out to the road and they had except for the compost. I wonder why they didn't get that one out?

 Anyway it is wet and gray and drizzling rain. According to my phone app it is 48 and the high is supposed to be 48 lol. Tonight is supposed to get down to 34 degrees but then we start warming up again. Monday we are supposed to be up to 71 degrees. 

 I bet that my entire family will be sick. The change of the weather always makes my family sick with some kind of bug.

 I was going to make coffee but I decided not to. I am out of my sweetener and I have been sucking on some peppermints since I have a sore throat so I don't need to be adding a spoon of sugar to my coffee. I think that I will go to bed as soon as I finish this. I need to sleep.

 I don't sleep well during a full moon. The day before, the day of and the day after the moon gives me all kinds of inspiration and energy. Yesterday Nathan and I gave the living room a really good cleaning. I washed the throws on the sofa and swept out the dirt under the cushions and beat them with a broom to fluff them and to loosen any dirt and vacuumed them.

 Then he and I sat down and started watching Morgan Freemans new documentary called The Story of Us. It is really good and Nathan and I are watching it together. A mom and son thing.

 Funny we were watching Mankind The Story Of Us I think is the name and we were right in the middle of season 1 or 2 when YouTube quit on us. They want us to buy it Nathan said but he said You have Amazon Prime right and I said Yeah and he said we  could watch it from there.

 I tried for a long while to get in but my password is not cooperating. I will have to call them I guess. But not this morning. I am actually seeing double on my laptop lol.

 I guess this means I need to go to sleep. Take care everyone and I will be back soon... BB

GUILTY Until Proven INNOCENT

Does This Look Familiar? 

This post is dedicated to our Brat Girl Foxy and to Stalker Stormy.

 I cannot declare them innocent because both of them are guilty of fighting like Cat's and Dogs and that is the truth.
 Today was gorgeous, almost 70 degrees and the sun was shining and it was really a beautiful day.
 Stormy was outside somewhere. I don't keep tabs on him much. As long as he meets curfew which is my bedtime all is good.
 Anyway Foxy needed to go potty so out we went. I am not sure where Stormy was at this time, but suddenly I saw a flash of gray and white.
 He was laying in the grass and up he stood and in two seconds he transformed into a LION....and Stalker mode at that. 
 Then he pounced! 
 I kid you not, I think my heart stopped for a few seconds but everything was fine. 
 Stormy didn't attack Foxy but he stalked her all around the front yard and back to the doorway. 
 It was so funny but scary at the same time.
 Later I am sitting on the sofa looking thru a magazine with Foxy on one side of me and Stormy on the other. 
 Everything was fine until Foxy spotted Stormy. My Brat Girl went after Stormy and the fight was on and I was in the middle of it.
 Have you ever tried to break up a hissing and snarling cat with claws and a 41/2 pound chihuahua? 
 Cathy grabbed Foxy and she squirmed up in the air while the cat was lunging for her. Dante opened the front door and I ran, ok hobbled to the door as fast as possible and down he went and disappeared around the side of the house.
 5 minutes later I was still in shock and Brat Girl Foxy was looking at me with those eyes that spoke volumes. I could just hear her saying... "But mom HE started it".
 Stormy isn't all that innocent either. 
 He will hide and since it is so quiet we forget he is in the house. He waits for just the right moment and then he will pounce! Usually without the claws baring. But he must think that it is funny to scare someone and watch them jump and hear them scream.
 So far he has gotten Karyn, Laurie and Cathy. I'm sure that my time is coming. 
 I told Foxy today that Karma was a bitch. "How does it feel being stalked like you stalked my sweet Cisco?"
 She use to be so mean to my little boy. He was a few years older than she was when Karyn got her. Cisco was so protective of her and taught her how to eat from her bowl and would cuddle with her and then Karyn had her spayed and she did a complete 360.
 Everyone says that spaying her had nothing to do with her temperament but we disagree. 
 She needs hormones. Problem is we cannot find a vet to give them to her because they are really not good for her. They are given as a last resort.
 Karyn and I took her to Pet Co a few weeks ago and I had to take her and go back to the car with her. She wanted to eat a Great Dane... wait I think that the dog was a Wolf Hound. What ever he was he could have swallowed her whole in one try. Silly dog. (Foxy I mean).

 Speaking of Pet Co I was in that area today. Karyn and I went to Red Robin for lunch. We were so easy. We ordered the same thing. The Southern Charm burger and bottomless French fries and Mai Tai's. Yes indeed we each treated ourselves to a cocktail and had a wonderful time.

 We planned on going to Walmart but changed our mind when we couldn't find a parking spot after ten minutes of driving around in the parking lot so we went to Dollar Tree instead.
 Mainly I just looked around but I got each of the kids a little something. Puzzles and a hockey disc launcher that is pocket size. It even came with batteries. I found some chopping mats and I got Karyn some hair scrunchies and combs for both of us and really that is about all.
 We came home and finished working on a couple of boxes out of the garage and watched a movie. Cathy and I did. The baby took a nap and Adrian and Dante played a video game in their room. Karyn went home and Jonathan took a nap and Nathan was at work..
 Laurie was busy working in the garage and David cleaned the back yard and played with Oliver. 

 Oh Cathy and I were outside this morning when we heard this woman yelling at the top of her lungs. We walked around the side of the house and this woman was screaming at this man who was trying to get away from her. He was across the street walking towards a convenient store. 
 Suddenly there were like 7 or 8 other people surrounding her. We couldn't tell if they were there to jump the man or to keep her from jumping the man.
 The man headed into the store, the woman was right behind him and all of the group went into the store. 
 I am sure that the owner called the police and told them to leave because they all came out and the only difference was the woman started hitting a different man and a woman got between them and he put his hands up like he was disgusted and started walking with the man to a small Mexican place.
 The group dispersed really fast when they heard sirens. Everyone went in different directions. 
 It wasn't the police tho. It was an ambulance. So that is the only news I have.
 It is 2 in the morning so I am going to sleep. I should have been in bed a long time ago but I did want to work on my blog post.

 Take care of yourself and I will talk to you later. Have a great holiday if your in the USA. Take time to remember our great Military and those that gave their all for our Freedom... Good Night, and have a great day. BB

Computer Updates And Other Problems

Image from a free site... Quote is so accurate

Hi,
  I am home from Reno Nevada. What an incredible trip. I loved every minute of it and my trip was way to short. I will treasure this trip for as long as I am on this earth.

 Yesterday I spent several hours catching up on blog posts and then I went to work on my own blog and what happened? My computer crashed.
 At first it scared me and then it just ticked me off. I finally had to shut it down and do a new update that took most of the night. I finally just closed it out and went to bed.
 I let it do it's thing this morning which included the update. I have my fingers crossed that whatever little/big problem that it had is fixed. I am hoping that is the case anyway.

 Well it is cold and wet here. The humidity and weather here is so different than in Reno. It is 45 degrees here and wet and rainy and it is cold.
 I didn't take a coat to reno, but I did have my fleece type robe and the last morning I was there I put it on and took my coffee out on the balcony and watched the sun come up. 
 It was 38 degrees and it was just really nice. I come home and it is 45 here and it is COLD... it is just amazing the difference in the humidity between here and there.

 My last day was bittersweet. Celeste and I played with her new toys that she got for her birthday and even a couple of ones she already had.
 She had cereal and toast for breakfast and then we waited for her sitter to get there. Pegee is wonderful with Celeste. I do have to say that Celeste has Pegee wrapped around her finger tho. 
 Pegee is six years older than I am, she is built like the Bionic Woman with lots of metal replacements in her knees and shoulders but she can sit on the floor and play all kinds of things with my girl.
 I certainly cannot do it. I sat on the sofa and used the coffee table lol. The floor is way to low for me. And I am short lol.
 Pegee had a doctors appointment at 9:00 that morning and she also got into some gnarly traffic. She always stops at 7-11 for coffee and we had a power outage so the registers wouldn't work. It was obviously a big power outage because it affected most of all of Nevada. 
 Finally the clerks said that if the customers were just getting coffee then it was on them and to have a good day so the coffee was still hot and Pegee was happy until she got to us and she slammed the car door on her hand and cut her finger pretty bad. 
 Pegee got Celeste ready for her doctor and dentist appointment. (After she got the finger bandaged) and her mom came home early so that we could get my luggage and walker into the car and then we grabbed a snack and made sure that our little girl had her teeth brushed, hair brushed and everything she needed in her little purse and then her mom got her buckled in and off we went.
 Celeste got good check ups at both the doctor and the dentist. No cavities! 
 Our next stop was at McDonalds and then to the airport. Kids are so funny.
 When we would go out and Celeste would act up, her mom would tell her "I guess that we will just have to put all this back and go home" to which Celeste would start behaving.
 So when we went to McDonalds she knew that our next stop was to the airport and she started acting up. We figured out that she thought that if she acted up then we would just go home and Nana wouldn't have to go to the airport lol.
 Mom said... "Well Nana I guess that we will just have to take you to the airport early and Celeste and I will drop you off and we will go home".
 Hahaha... She decided she had better eat her Happy Meal and quit messing around and behave.
 Still there were tears on both sides when it was time to say goodbye.. It was hard to close the car door and walk away.

 The trip from Reno to Las Vegas was just an hour and I had to change planes. They claimed a mechanical issue but I really don't believe that because a pilot wheeled me down to the plane and we were chatting and he said that he would make sure I had someone waiting to help me when we got to Vegas and I said, "Oh I have a direct flight" and he informed me that we most definitely would be getting off in Las Vegas. Sure enough we did! 
 So my conclusion is that if there was a mechanical issue that my nice pilot either has a gift of premonition which is doubtful or they always de-plane in Vegas... lol.
 I am not sure if my nice pilot was on duty or off duty but he was very nice and said that it was nice to meet me and to enjoy my flight and then he shook my hand.

 From Las Vegas home to Austin I just sat back and closed my eyes and before I knew it we were landing. I fell asleep. I was very tired because it was late when I went to bed the night before and I got up around 5:00am. Plus our time changed on Sunday and then I crossed time zones so I needed the nap. 
 I arrived at 2:00am and discovered that not only myself but everyone that changed planes in Las Vegas did not have their luggage.
 Yep our luggage it seemed went to Baltimore Maryland... Nice! They called me around lunch time the next day to tell me that they had my luggage and walker. 
 My daughter Laurie and granddaughter Cathy and I went to the airport to pick it up.
 If I made the trip to collect my belongings then they would give me a $200 dollar flight voucher. Otherwise they would deliver it but it could take up to 3 days.
 Luckily we only live about a half hour from the airport. Less than that if traffic is light.
 They had it all ready. I just had to show my Identification and then sign a piece of paper that I picked it up.

One thing that I want to say is "Beware" of what you pack because I had a piece of paper in my suitcase that said a new law states that all bags would be searched.
 Luckily I didn't try to smuggle.....

THE CAT 

                           OR

A GRANDDAUGHTER

I thought that I had taken a photo of my grandson Dante in my suitcase but maybe I just thought that I had taken one. Maybe I didn't.

 In any case since they open the bags now they would have discovered my precious stow-a-ways!

 It is time that I got busy around here. I am so behind in everything. Laurie and I are going thru a lot of boxes seeing what they can use when they find a house and I am going to be staying with Jonathan and Nathan and I am not sure if we will stay in this duplex or not. I want to redecorate the kitchen, living room, bathroom and my bedroom. So this is a chance for me to get rid of a lot of old stuff to make room for the new. 

 Even if we don't stay here I still want to redecorate. It is time. I just haven't decided exactly what I want to do. Something fun and whimsical. Something bright and airy with lots of colors.

 Jonathan wants to see if our landlady has another unit like the one that we have.

 I would just like to stay here but every time it rains we are afraid that it is going to flood.

 The new gutters hasn't really helped this issue like the salesman had told her. They help but we expected them to really do a better job of moving the water away from the back to the road and drainage area and there has been a couple of times we had to start getting things off of the floor and get things ready to move just in case water started coming in. (Usually in the middle of the night).

 Thankfully we always had a break in the rain so that the water went down but as we know it can happen and has happened one day it might rain for days without a break.

 That has happened several times living in Austin. The rain just keeps on coming and coming without breaks. One year our entire stadium at UT was flooded all the up and over the seats. 

 We have always lived on a hill that was on a hill. Well not here. So Jonathan is hoping that she might have another place that is not close to a creek like we have a couple of blocks from us and that is on higher ground. We will just have to wait and see.

 Ok time for me to close. I gotta get busy and I really just want to take a nap

 Take care everyone. I will be back soon... BB

Checking In From Reno

Photo Caroline Blue

 Hi, Just a fast and quick post. We are doing well. My little girl Celeste is still running a small temp and still sleeping but she is doing fine.

 It is so good to be here. She told me... Nana You are the very best nana in the whole wide world... that was the first thing she said to me while her little arms were around my neck as she and I met... even before saying hi... What a great introduction... 

 She slept with me the first night for part of the night and then she  went to her moms bed. I loved that too.

 We were sick at the same time. I am sure that I had elevation sickness. It was bad. So I am doubling my water intake to make sure that I am not dehydrated when I fly home. That is one of the things that causes elevation sickness. 

 Her sitter the next day was really sick with throwing up, aches and pains and a few other ails like fever and such but not Celeste. Just a fever. A very high one tho.103 and so we just cuddled a lot that day.

 The next day she was better and her fever down, so she opened a few birthday presents with her daddy watching on video chat, me taking pics and her mom trying to video everything to send to him. It was a busy morning, then we went to Denny's for Breakfast and then back home where I rested until it was time to go to the Children's Discovery Museum. I have never been but I really enjoyed myself as much as she did.

 I would like to go again just to read some of the exhibits but she wanted to play so I let her. She did stop to let me read to her on a few of them. She would ask me what something was and so I said well lets find out. She was really interested too.

 Then she would go and play and two of her favorites was fishing in a little magnetic pond and climbing this mountain and sliding down. We got there about 2:30 and the party started at 5:00pm so we had a great time before the party started. We could tell she was tired so we packed up everything and when we got her home her temp was 99.0 so she opened a few more presents and went to bed. She is sleeping still.

 No fever yesterday but before Courtney went to work this morning she checked her temp and it is the same. No throwing up or anything.

 Her sitter is better this morning so she will be coming about noon. 

 It was 17 degrees here the first night, and 14 the next night. I awoke this morning and it was 25 degrees. So we are getting a bit warmer today.

 We didn't go out last night. I was asleep very early and she was sleeping when her mom came home. We both were. Only difference is I didn't wake up until almost 6:00am this morning. I tend to do that. I have a big day the day before and crash badly the next day. 

 The time change got me too and tomorrow night the time changes again. Then going home I will cross time changes again so I know that when I get home I will crash out again. 

 Courtney said that there was only 1 group of Trick or Treaters. It was really to cold to take Celeste out and since she has been sick and running a slight fever they just stayed in.

 I am glad that Courtney will be off work for the weekend since we can catch up on things and spend time together too.

 It is time for me to close. Have a great weekend and I will share pics soon. I can't share any of my little girl because I promised her mom that I wouldn't put her on the internet but will share other things. Also I am trying to catch up on blogs so I will be back when I can Have a wonderful weekend everyone. BB