Memorial Day 2014

Jerry had to work this memorial day. So, I took a volunteer opportunity to photo 12 headstones in a local cemetery. Well, that didn't work out - the office was closed and the cemetery way to big to just happen upon the right headstones. I spent over an hour there but even at 9am it was starting to get hot and very sunny. Lots of fire ants too!

I understand it's a municipal cemetery and the employees get municipal holidays off, just as I do as a municipal employee, but it seems memorial day should be the one day of the year that you can count on a cemetery office open. I would even argue they should have extra staff and provide customer service. Enough whining.

I ended up doing volunteer work for Ratbone instead and then grocery shopping and making a cookout type dinner for jerry even though I don't use the grill (scared of the propane tank).



I put together this little collage of my hubby and dads in their uniforms. Luckily they all came back safely. Jerry is on the left, my dad on top, father in law in middle, and step dad on bottom.

We always line our sidewalk on patriotic holidays. So do some of our neighbors. After 911 pretty much everyone did and it looked awesome!

A peace lily at the front door representing my desire for making peace and not war heros.

Loni Ratbone beat Jerry to his chair this morning.lol

Birthday Weekend

This weekend was Jerry's birthday weekend. In our family birthdays are always celebrated on a Saturday but this year Jerry's really was on a Saturday. My Aunt Hellen (yes, that is how it is spelled) and Uncle Les are visiting from out of state so all 5 of us went to dinner at Basco's Chop House.



My family - Jerry, Les, Hellen, mom

Jerry & me - and I thought I was a bad photographer! lol

Last year for his birthday I signed Jerry up for Medicare part A. I did even better this year and signed him up for social security! 

Loni (Solana)

I keep waiting for the skin issues with my new foster Loni to clear up before I take and post a bunch of photos. Seems one clears and another erupts. She was starting to look pretty good then got something on her nose. That scabbed over yesterday but last night she ripped it open :( Poor baby.

Toda promises to be super busy. Lineage society meeting this morning, then my Aunt Hellen & Uncle Les (who were here to visit Aunt Mary who lives up the road about 2 hours) will be hanging out at our house today. Tonight we all to dinner for Jerry's birthday which is today, a Saturday! That's a sign of good things I am sure.

Happy Mother's Day - Sunday

We went to bed pretty early last night so I was up by 6am. I walked on the beach a bit and collected a few more shells although I have to admit that without the sun it was much harder to see into the water and recognize shells. As I was walking back to the room I saw a rabbit on our "lawn"! I have a new camera and haven't figure out the zoom yet so, can you find the rabbit?

After chasing the rabbit around I changed into my swimsuit, poured myself a soda, grabbed a towel, and camera and headed to an empty pool. It was nice and warm so I grabbed a noodle ad enjoyed the pool from 7am - 8m at which time I noticed the pool rules - no swimming until 9am, no food or drink in the pool area, and no use of floaties. Whoopsie.

Mom and I had a nice breakfast then headed over the bridge to catch our boat for the nature cruise.

Pretty boats at the marina.

While waiting on the boat to arrive - we were early because we had to check out of our room an hour and a half before the cruise - Manatees came into the Marina!

 

We headed home two tired puppies ;)

Happy Mother's Day - Saturday

I hope you all are able to be with your mommas this Mother's day and if not that you think of her often today. Never having been a mom, it looks like an awesome but tiring job.

My mom and I are in Sanibel Island this weekend. We drove up yesterday, had seafood for lunch near the lighthouse, saw the lighthouse, checked in our beachfront room, went shelling, napped under the umbrella, went to dinner at a seafood restaurant, and sat on the screened lanai listening to the gulf breeze before retiring for the night.

Two chicks about ready to roll

My cold seafood salad at the Lighthouse café.

Historic Sanibel Island Lighthouse

There's a huge birdnest...thinking Osprey.

Arrived at our room with mini kitchen and all the needed amenities - the Seaside Inn

Mom on screen lanai looking at the view

Mom is sleeping in this morning but I was on the beach about 6:15 to walk and look for shells, which are everywhere, then I went for a dip in the pool at 7am. Now I'm back on the screen porch drying and hopefully sanding off. We have to check out in a couple of hours then it's off to Ft Meyers for a wildlife adventures cruise (to see dolphins, manatees, whatever decides to say Happy Mother's Day!)

Pinterest Project

I saw this idea on Pinterest for frozen crock pot meals. Since Jerry doesn't like to eat late, and we don't get home from work in time to cook a meal and still eat early, I thought I would give it a try. Apparently this is very popular with expectant moms who fill the freezer in preparation for the days when they will have no time.

Many of the Pinterest photos link to sites that contain receipes and a shopping list for all the ingredients needed to make the featured recipes. In each group of recipes I found things that I wouldn't eat so I ended up collecting my own recipes from different sites. I found 13 recipes, 3 that were for double batches, so I ended up with 16 frozen food packets. Hint - I used a spreadsheet to list my ingredients and total the quantity needed.

I attempted to buy all my groceries at discount prices since I needed so much at once; however, I ended up at 3 stores - Aldi, Walmart & Publix. As it turns out, I could have skipped Walmart and just shopped at Aldi for the available bargains and finished off at Publix for the items Aldi didn't have. Oh wait, Jerry bought some meat for me at Costco as well. I was very disappointed with selection and quality at my nearby Walmart.

 

As you can see I was loaded down with ingredients and we had lots of cleaning and chopping to do.

 

I was at first a little put off with using prepared foods and am perfectly capable of making my own sauces but I worried my homemade recipes might break down in a slow cooker so I went with what the recipe ask.

 

My momma was a sweetheart and chopped and pealed and shelled nuts for ne for 3 hours while I wrote up the name and instructions on the galloon size plastic bags and assembled the ingredients in them. I only had to cook or brown meat for 2 of the recipes.

 

 

The finished product! (gosh, I have an ugly 80's kitchen)

 

It was a lot of work and pretty much took up the majority of the day between shopping and cooking, and assembly. Would I do it again? I would but I would do it differently. I would make only 4 recipes and do a double batch of each. I believe that would be a lot easier on the feet and easier to calculate and shop.

One last hint, I believe when/if I do it again, I will combine all the ingredient for a recipe in a bowl and then put it into the zip lock bags. Reason being the frozen bags have some air space, resulting in ice crystals, in areas where the sauce did not ooze into the veggies or meat. Those bags that have the sauce throughout the ingredients do not seem to have this issue.