'Tis the Season (to be Freezin')

Hello Winter!

Yes, it's been below freezing at night here... some people think San Diego is tropical all year, well we live far enough inland that it gets cooooold at night! Better than 100 degrees though!

We did make it to Sedona for the Thanksgiving holiday. We stayed in my friend Thelma's new house. Gorgeous two story house with great views, a wrap around deck, and we had the entire downstairs as living quarters. Ally got a walking shoe on her cast, so she still had to use crutches for things like shopping, but was able to hobble around the house with the cast and shoe on. Tonight she goes to the doctor again, hopefully to get a full-on walking cast.

I found these glass candies for my collection at an antique shop in Cottonwood.

We ate twice at Cracker Barrel while in Arizona. We don't have those in California -- they are a MUST VISIT while out of state. Had chicken friend steak (shared with Ally) once and the french toast (shared with Chris) in Yuma on the way back. I picked up a big jar candle in their shop and went to put it back while holding onto the lid (not advisable), and the whole thing shattered on the floor just missing Ally's toe in her cast! She would only let me hold the sock monkey after that. I love these from their candy shop. I ate these all the time when I was little, but can rarely find them now. I haven't mastered the marshmallow filling technique yet, so I can't make these myself... but someday! They have a little coconut on the top mixed in with the chocolate, so Chris won't eat them. MWAH HA HA!

Weight Watcher's has revamped their entire program. More points are allowed, more activity points are earned, but some foods (less healthy) have more points that before. However, all fruit is now zero points, so I am loading up!

Looking forward to decorating this weekend for Christmas!

On the Mend...

At least I hope we are on the mend. Amy is doing much better, she is planning to go back to work and school after Friday. She has heard a few comments about taking two weeks off just because of her throat. Yeah, those are from people who have not had their tonsils out when they are an adult. It was worse than we ever expected. I did tell Amy that we would have probably said the same thing before we went through it.

Unfortunately, Ally fell down a half flight of stairs at her school with her cast and crutches. Her other ankle is swollen, and she had to CRAWL to the bathroom yesterday. But it looks a little better today. We have been icing it and got an Ace bandage to give it some support. The bad thing is that all of her weight has to be on that ankle, because she is not to put any weight on the cast. We are hoping she will be well enough to travel to Arizona for Thanksgiving next week. She said sadly, "You can go without me." I said, "Ally, we can't leave you if you can't walk on either leg!"

On Tuesday, while we were in the exam room waiting for the doctor to discuss the original injury on the other foot, we pulled up these x-rays of the shattered bone in her toe. I was surprised our cell phones took such good photos. As long as these bones don't move, surgery won't be necessary. That's what we are counting on. Of course, falling down stairs does not bode well for the bones. Ha ha!

I never tire of our cats or taking pics of them. Here's one more of fat Tigger -- he is fat, but not as fat as this angle makes him out to be...



I might not get a chance to post again until after Thanksgiving. Looking forward to the break.

Tough Break

Aaaaahhhhh... good news, Amy is on the mend. Bad news, Ally has broken her left big toe in at least three places. It's pretty much shattered, and we meet with orthopedics in the morning to determine if it will be casted or needs surgery. The pieces are pretty much in place, so the general practioner who looked at it says it might not need surgery, so we are praying for that!

Tigger is happy that Amy lays around all day...

So far, we are still planning to be in Sedona for T-Day. We got two new tires on the Civic and will have the oil and transmission fluid changed this week. Ally will come along on crutches -- that is the plan so far.

Amy was able to come with me to Wal-Mart just to get out of the house. It was her first time out in eight days. We also went to Bob's Big Boy for soup and ice cream, but the soup was too spicy, and she ended up getting salmon instead. I expect she will be back at work and school by the end of the week.

I scanned some pics for posting on Facebook for Veteran's Day. Good memories!

1987/88 just after I got out of the Navy, I was still in the Reserves...

I think 1984, I was 18 or just turned 19 at the time. This is my farewell, leaving Norfolk to join my new hubby in San Diego.

Me and my dad, 1988

1988 Wharton, Ohio -- big time Memorial Day parade.

And I made these candies which had cranberries and crisped rice in them.

I made my first attempt at biscotti also and was it fabulous!

After waiting eight months trying to find just the right corner cabinet with just the right measurements (or close to it), I finally found one on Craig's List. This now sits at the bottom of my stairway. Hurray!

Chris was able to come play volleyball with us for a couple hours on Thursday, and some of us went out to Coco's after... a great time! I am probably best at setting. I rarely miss a serve (underhand), but hitting and spiking, yeah, not my forte -- I usually just bump it over if it's third hit and try for the back lines...

A crazy week and each week gets crazier than the one before!

Time Heals All Wounds...

But how MUCH time? Amy had her tonsils out, the surgery went fine, but the recovery is a pain in the neck:P She did fine the first day and a half, then couldn't keep anything down for about a day and a half. No pain meds or food. We were one vomit away from going to the ER, when she started keeping things down. We had been in touch with the advice nurses, and we had to stop the Vicodin. I don't think her stomach could take it. So she has been on just liquid extra-strength Tylenol which isn't helping the pain totally, but she is struggling through. They said she should feel a bit better each day, but Amy says she's feels as bad as she did the first day (five days ago) and every time the Tylenol wears off, she has a bad headache in addition to the throat pain. I think throwing everything up set her back. Hopefully she will start feeling better soon. Don't read this next line if you don't like gross things: Her throat and uvula are totally swollen, covered with a thick milky substance and scabs. Yeah, it's gross, I will barely look at it, but I have to to make sure it doesn't get worse. Oh, and it was only after the prayers of family and my Facebook friends that she started keeping anything down. PTL! I waited on Amy hand and foot for three days, went searching for liquid Tylenol at 4 a.m., etc. and was sooo tired, missed some work, but finally got a good night's sleep last night. Ah, the joy! She has actually kept down some mashed potatoes and soup.

Before surgery

After (she posed for this)

On the way out (all dugged up on Morphine, Vicodin, and Percoset)

There are SOME benefits!

The weather here was so hot, over 100 for three days straight, in NOVEMBER! We set some records, but thankfully it is cool now, I even wore a jacket today. Woo hoo!

We voted last week, but is California ever going to be anything but a debt-ridden liberal hell hole? One of the few good results is that everyone in charge can't smoke pot legally. This is MY blog, and I can rant here if I want to!

Ally and I were in Petco the other day when it got robbed. Okay, well not at gun-point, but some guy tried to sneak out a backpack full of stuff, and one of the female employees, who looked like a bailiff from an Amazon prison was yelling at him, and when he denied taking anything, she grabbed his backpack and ripped the top off, and merchandise went flying. All this happened right in front of me, but I am so oblivious that Ally had to fill me in on what exactly happened. All I wanted to know was why weren't there any cashiers up front to check me out... ha ha! As I walked by the lady on the way out, I said "I paid for these worms." Hee hee. (Live wax worms for our fire belly toad, by the way.)

Ally was driving on our street and said, "Something isn't right." Yeah, we had a flat tire. I mean totally flat as in driving on the rim. We switched drivers, and I pulled into a parking lot near our house. I walked home and woke Chris up. In the meantime some lady had come over and started going to town on our car... turns out she was really nice and trying help, which was good, since for some reason our lug nut wrench and crow bar were missing. All we had were the tire and the jack (with no handle). What a hoot. I guess it's because I never pay any attention to what's in the trunk and just call AAA, but since it was right by the house, and I didn't want to be too late to Bible study, I got Chris. We tried to show Ally how to change a tire, but seriously, it took all of Chris' strength to get those lugnuts to turn... how could we poor young ladies even think of doing such a thing?!?!?!?! This is our third flat recently on our cars, we keep picking up nails and screws, not sure if it's the highway being built close to our house, or if it's from Chris driving down the God-forsaken roads at the airport he flies out of near the border. Discount Tire repairs them all for free since we paid $5 on each tire for road protection.

All we could find in the way of tire changing tools besides the partial jack was this little tiny hammer in with the tire. What in the world?! We laughed our heads off at that.

So, of course, the spare tire was barely inflated, so we took Chris with us to show Ally how to check tire pressure and put air in the tire, and she did great. I, of course, didn't realize how low the tire was and scraped the car a couple times going over dips. Oh, and to top off the comedy session, I washed my hands in Propel (yeah, the drink) and then hand sanitizer. Fortunately I had a plate of chocolates I had made for Bible study, so I gave them to the nice lady and her boyfriend who helped us. He even told us we could keep the lug nut wrench since we didn't have one. Is that even what it's called? Well, that's what I named it.

Anyway, in regard to Amy's health, I am encouraged by these words... "This, too, shall pass."

So Cute It's Scary...

Yeah, I'm scared to let my girls out of the house... why can't they dress up like ugly, scary monsters or something!

Allison Wonderland

Pirate Amy


Ally and Bree

My kitchen window, love my little veggie houses that hold candles...

Ally's cat pumpkin...

Amy's pumpkin and more Party Lite!

Yeah, we give out the good stuff... only because we usually have around 60 treaters.

Some goodies I made this week...

Heard a rumor that a Facebook App might be ready to come out for the iPad... so READY for that... will make it much easier to use the site. Will know later this week.

Amy's surgery is Friday, will post after that...