January 1, 2011

1-1-11.  It's a new year, and I wanted to start out right and post on the first day of 2011.

I've been off work since Thursday, with family visiting from Vacaville and celebrating our whole family Christmas at my son's house on Thursday.

My daughter Kristy and her husband Matt, and kids Andrew and Lauren arrived Wednesday evening.  I don't how I'm ever going to keep track of what day it is when I'm retired.  I'm having a problem remembering what we did and which day while the kids were here.  : )

Kristy's family stayed with me, but we all met at Tom and Trish's house since it's a large home and had lots of room for meals, opening more gifts, the kids had lots of room to play, etc.

 Tom making the Eggs Benedict - a family specialty

The eggs were PERFECT, and the bacon crisp!

We had Eggs Benedict for breakfast at Tom and Trish's one morning - delicious!  Tom is a great cook and did most of the meal cooking, with everyone else helping out when needed.

Afterward we opened more presents and got lots of great photos for the scrapbooks.  The kids played and had a great time together.

Thursday evening everyone except me and my youngest granddaughter, Lauren, went to the Holiday Bowl. Lauren and I had a "girls night." I got some great one-on-one time with Lauren, but didn't spend a lot of quality time individually with the other grandkids.  They were so happy to see each other, the adults faded into the background the whole visit.  But I did get the next best thing, watching them all having fun and enjoying each other.  Lots of running, lots of playing, lots of noise, lots of fun.  I got lots of good photos of Lauren, here are a few:

Lauren, 3, loves to cook. We made chocolate pudding.

Lauren did her puzzle "all by herself!"

I love this photo. Lauren looks great in hats.

We had Christmas and everyone got lots of great presents.  I don't get all the grandchildren together very much during the year, so I lined them up and snapped.  They are so good about it:

They are such good "posers" except for Graydin - maybe next year : )

Another group shot.

Andrew, Kennedy, Lauren, Gavin, Graydin

Before opening presents.

Both boys like Star Wars - they loved this book.

Graydin loved his new chair!

Even Katie loves her new sweater.

Friday we all again met up at Tom and Trish's house. We ate Chili Reano, Chicken Enchiladas,  a huge salad that friends brought, beans and rice. Home made guac and sour cream - it was delicious.  Pies, boxes of See's Candies, and my home-made fudge completed the dinner.  Another great meal at Tom's house.  

We had an East Coast New Years with Champagne and Sparkling Cider, and a bit after 9:00 I drove home, followed by Kristy and her family.  They were up and on the road by 6:00 am this morning.

Katie and I pretty much took it easy all day today. The house is so quiet with everyone gone.  

We had a wonderful couple of weeks of holidays with family, and now I'm looking forward to 2011.  I wonder what it will bring.  Lots of good things for everyone, I hope.

(This is the year we're buying our first RV!)

So, on the first day of 2011, Me and My Dog, Katie wish you all a Happy New Year!  : )

Hallelujah, it's Christmas Day

Hallelujah - The Canadian Tenors

 I love this song by these guys! 

The tempo seems a bit slow,  but this is the best version I could get on YouTube.

Thank you all for the nice (and funny) comments about Katie in her Christmas Reindeer outfit - She DOES look like a deer in the headlights - that was a good one!  Exactly what she looks like.  And I'm SURE she was thinking, "Hurry up with the damn picture and get me out of these things!"  She is such a good sport.  She looks kind of scared, but she was really okay with it.  I have written before that, although I think she is a really good dog and I love her madly, she doesn't get cute expressions on her face like a lot of dogs do.  But once in a while...  like in the reindeer stuff, she actually has an expression!  LOL  (Even if she looks miserable.)

Katie had a fantastic Christmas with Tom and Trish and the kids.  The baby Graydin, who is going to be two in April, LOVES her and loves to chase her. At their house, which is huge, he chases her around and around the downstairs, which Katie loves, and Graydin just giggles and keeps running.  The only problem at my place, which is about 1,100 sf including the small kitchen, two bedrooms, a dressing room, and two baths, which leaves a very small living/dining room, is that HERE, Graydin can catch her!  At first he tried to kick and hit her, he is very aggressive, but it didn't take long for him to learn that he needed to be nice and gentle with Katie, and by the end of the day he was playing ball with her.  So cute!

Every one liked their presents, the turkey dinner turned out great, and we all took a walk down to the lake to feed the ducks. After dinner and presents everyone settled down to watch a Christmas movie, during which Gavin, six, and I found some peace and quiet in my room and I read him a dinosaur pop-up book that I got him.  It's a beautiful book with very intricate dinosaurs that pop up on each page, with 4 to six little booklets with little pop-ups on each page, too.  Wonderfully done and he loved it.  Hard to pronounce those dinosaur names, though.  They were spelled phonetically also, but were still hard to pronounce.

  Trish and Tom at dinner

 Kennedy, Me and Gavin (recognize the antlers and scarf?)

 Graydin wearing his sister's Uggs - Katie with her ball

And everyone loved the Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes!

With all the rain we've had, I noticed a leak in my bedroom yesterday.  I e-mailed the home owner's association and got the go ahead to contact the man they use for leaks, so I sent him an e-mail to call me.  I couldn't believe I got a phone call this morning at 8:30 am, and he was here at 9:30 to check it out, on Christmas!  He said there's a two day window to check it out because of the mold possibilities.

We've had some real issues here, because for at least 15 years our absolutely, positively, awful board that was representing us for 15 years (we have a new one now) did absolutelly positively nothing in the area of maintenance to our condos. We're just all learning that not only did they do pretty much nothing, when the did any maintenance or repairs they used "bandaids" and the wrong kind of bandaids.  Nothing was done correctly, and now the current owners are paying, and are going to be REALLY paying soon for all those years of deferred maintenance.  Our entire roofing system is bad, was done wrong.  Roofer went bankrupt, and the current HOA board can't even find the paperwork.

So, what I found out this morning is that the poorly done roof and gutter system on my condo is gushing water that's getting into my walls, under the concrete that my place is built on, it's all wet, my carpet is wet underneath, etc.  Part of my living room underflooring has shifted.  I, along with others in my model, will probably have walls taken down and re-built, the underflooring redone, etc.  Some are already in progress.

The only good part is that I may get a new carpet in the bedroom and a new sliding door in the living room.  But you can bet we are all going to get a huge assessment in the next month or two.  There goes my RV fund!

From Me and Katie, Merry Christmas evening, everyone!  Hope your holiday was the BEST!  : )

Merry Christmas to All!

A big WELCOME to our new Follower, Laurel King.  Laurel, I don't see a blog listed for you, if you have one (or start one) leave me a message so I can also follow you. : )  I hope you enjoy following along with us on our adventure to full-timing. 

I haven't been posting regularly lately, but have been keeping up with you.  I have a couple of photos to show you.  Finally, on my way home from work yesterday, I saw the surfer sculpture with clothes.  But check this out - kind of disappointing.  A torn tee-shirt?  I'm not sure what it is.

I don't know what it means, but he was also in the news tonight, so I Googled and found this most recent offering - he's being attacked by a spider.  Not very Christmasy.

 Cardiff Kook - December 12, 2010

I love the photos you all get of lots of birds on the overhead wires, and on the same trip home I was stopped at a light and looked up and:

I got one!  I love these photos!

The last thing is...  I'm cooking the turkey tomorrow for my son and his family.  I've been very busy all week shopping, wrapping last minute gifts, picking up the last of the food I needed, cleaning, etc.  I love making turkey and dressing and gravy, but it seems like just when things are really busy in the kitchen, the MASHED POTATOES need to be mashed.  And I have a small galley kitchen.  So I looked on line for a make ahead recipe for the potatoes and found one that looked good.  I tried it out tonight so that I could just pop it in the oven tomorrow.  There was extra after I filled the casserole dish, so I had some for MY dinner tonight. 

All I can say is:  DELICIOUS!  Really good.  I minced the onion up really small and it added such flavor to the potatoes!  I didn't do the garlic, but may in the future.  I hope the kids like them, because I made a LOT!

I don't know how many pounds I used - I just used five large russets, with the peels off.  Here's the recipe - if you are interested in it, click and it will be clearer:

 Now I'm going to relax and enjoy my evening, because tomorrow's going to be early and busy!

 Is this the strangest looking Reindeer you've ever seen?

 

From Me and My Dog, Katie, have a Very Merry Christmas, everyone!  : )

I'm almost ready for Christmas

Well, I'm almost ready for Christmas!

My son and his family are coming here for Christmas dinner.  I have a small condo and Tom has a huge house - a really huge house - so he always hosts when we have holidays or family get-togethers.  This year, Kristy and her family are coming the week following Christmas, so on Christmas Day, it will only be me and Tom, his wife, and three kids.  So this will be a great time for me to cook the turkey.

I've got most of the food - just need a few more things including the turkey.

Monday night I made a double batch of my world famous fudge.  I used to make it every year, batches and batches, and bring some to work, give some to friends and family, but I haven't made it in a while.  It's just the Fantasy Fudge recipe on the marshmallow creme jar, but somehow mine is smoother than other people's fudge that I've tasted.  I'm not bragging - it just IS.

I make great turkey dressing, gravy and fudge.  I've always said anyone who can read, can cook.  No excuses.  You just need to be able to read and WANT to follow a recipe.  So, I can cook, and most things I make are pretty good.  But my fudge, turkey dressing, and gravy really are GREAT.  It's nice to have something you're great at.  : )  I'm a good person to have around during the holidays. : ))))

This year I got a container that sprinkles candy cane crumbs, and I sprinkled candy cane crumbs on the tops of the fudge in the pans.  I made two pans without nuts, because my family doesn't like the nuts, but that makes it too sweet for me, and so I made one pan with chopped walnuts.  After the pans had cooled in the fridge, I cut out a tiny piece of the walnut fudge (see top left corner of square pan - really tiny piece gone!) to see what it tastes like with the candy cane sprinkles, and it was the BEST!  I'll see what my family thinks.  If they like it, I have a new twist to my familiar fudge recipe.

I've never used foil before, but it makes sense - less clean-up, the fudge should come out easily.

 The tiny bite I had was delicious - I liked the peppermint on the top.

The pans of fudge don't look very fancy, but once I cut it in squares and put them in pretty boxes, they will look good.  When I make it in a round or oval pan, I always square it off and keep the curved pieces for myself.  Yum.

Since three grandchildren will be here for Christmas, one less than two years old, and then Kristy's family is staying with me this year while they are here for a few days, and some of us will be sleeping on the floor - having a campout in our sleeping bags (I'll let Kristy and Matt have my bed), I thought I'd better shampoo my carpet.  So yesterday after work I got out the carpet shampooer and got all the carpets shampooed.  It looks really nice - and clean.

I was tired and hungry after vacuuming and then shampooing, so I microwaved a fish dinner, made a Waldorf salad, sat in front of the TV and finished every bite.  And fell asleep.  When I woke up, the carpet was dry so I put back all the furniture and things I had moved off the carpet, cleaned up the shampooer, and was done.

Not much else to do.  The presents are bought and wrapped, the house is ready, and just a little food shopping to go.

I always make my own Christmas cards, and usually have them all mailed out by the end of November, but this year...  Well, I'm lagging a bit.  I've put together a couple, printed a sample, and haven't liked them.  I'll have to work on them again and try to get something I like.

When Gavin was here for his Birthday cake baking, I showed him a Christmas tree I made in Photoshop Elements.  He didn't like the way I positioned the buttons (ornaments), so I pulled up the file and asked him how he would have done it.  I moved the buttons where he liked them, and I think I may print it out on photo paper and paste on the front of cardstock, put a greeting inside, and call it a Christmas card for 2010.  I really like the way he positioned the buttons.  Here is what he did.  What do you think?

 I think this is the one!

On nice shiny photo paper, it looks great.  Perfect size.  Gavin specifically liked the "zig-zag" of the diamond buttons.  He took a photo of the tree home to tape to his door.  They are so cute at six years old. 

From Me and My Dog, Katie, have a great Wednesday everyone!  : )

Katie's bike ride, a little Christmas decorating

Last weekend I tried out the bike with Katie in the basket.  Unfortunately there's something wrong - I'm going to have to bring the bike to a bike shop or have the man next store look at it for me.  When I put Katie in the basket and walked the bike, there was a rubbing sound.  I couldn't tell where it was coming from, somewhere in the front, and the front tire looked like it had lost a little air.  I think I'll take it down to a bike shop and have everything checked out.

It was really hard to ride - even downhill - so I decided not to risk wrecking the bike and just walked Katie for a couple of blocks.

 Hey, Mom, this is fun!

I have to tell you - Katie was a natural!  She just loved it.  Never even tried to jump out.

When I walked her back up our little hill I parked it and held on the the handlebars to steady the bike to get her out and she wouldn't budge.  Just looked away from me.  So I checked what I could on the front brake, tried to see where the rubbing was coming from, but - nothing obvious to me.

Don't park - let's going again!

Finally I had to MAKE her get out of the basket, and she let me lift her out.  I have no worries that she'll be fine when we're streaming down the roadway.  If I can get in good enough shape to stream anywhere! : )

 Okay, Okay!  Lift me out already!  But I'm not happy.

Today I did a little Christmas decorating.  I put up a lighted wreath on my mantle mirror and hung my Barbie ornaments from it, a couple of outside decorations, wreath on the front door, etc.  Small things here and there. I have scented candles lit and the fireplace going.  It's very cozy here tonight.

 This is an Electric Fireplace, I love it!

Christmas presents all wrapped -  a few more to buy!

I am going to a Christmas show/service at my friend Alice's "other" church.  Alice is in her 80's, as quick, bright, healthy and busy as any 40 year old I know.  MUCH busier than I am.  She married a man a few years her senior around three years ago.  They had the BEST marriage for close to two years, then he died.  He and his family were very active in a different church, so Alice started going to his church with him.  Now that he is not here with her, she is dividing her time between his church and our church here at the lake.  The service tonight is at her late husband's church.

Alice invited me and Jan, from our church here at the Lake.  I haven't seen Jan for a long while, and am looking forward to seeing them both tonight.

That's it for today.  It's been a busy weekend, and now I have to get ready.  Alice is coming by at 6:00 to pick me up.

From Me and My Dog, Katie, have a nice Sunday evening, everyone! : )

Santa's message to Katie

WELCOME to our new Follower, Taz -  Only a Moment in the Grand Scheme of Things.  Thank you for following along with me and Katie on our journey to future RV full-timing.

My daughter sent me e-mails with messages from Santa to her kids, and I thought they were so cute, I did one for Katie.  Honest, I'm really a normal person with a dog who is a pet.  I really don't think she's a real person,  I just think these things are cute.

This is free, and you can go on the website and make them up for your kids or grandkids.  Or husband or wife.  I'm going to e-mail Katie's to my grandkids.  I doubt they will question that Santa will bring Kristy a present from the North Pole.

 Santa checking his book for Katie's file

My grandson Andrew was doing well, just needed to try a little harder to keep his room clean and help around the house - he's five.  Lauren, on the other hand, little darling Lauren who is three, Santa put her on the "Naughty List" for now, and told her she needed to keep her voice quieter in the house.  Poor thing.  Oh well, maybe she will try harder for Santa.

 Katie's file in Santa's Book

So here it is:

Santa's Message to Katie

Click on the link above; be patient, it takes a minute to load.

Have a happy weekend, everyone, from Me and Katie! : )