Autumn Chowder

I haven't blogged in forever, I know. I bought a blog digi kit and really messed it up. I finally think that I have fixed it. My Mom is still okay in the nursing home. The last time I saw her was her birthday, October 18th. Since then, we have had William's (greatgrandson), Kaitlin (granddaughter) and James' (grandson) birthday. Next weekend we are headed to Rockport for Adeline's (ggd) birthday party. She is having a Princess Party. She is turning three.

Britianny emailed pictures of Halloween so I scrapped several layouts of Adeline. Stupid me posted them on FB and said she is my favorite ggd. At the time, I was thinking she was the only one. That's what happens when you become a greatgrandparent. I swear I get more like my DH everyday. I do apologize to Lexie.

We have been remodeling the house in hopes of selling. We need to move to a smaller place with a smaller yard. Hope to put the house on the market next year. That is it in a nutshell as far as what we have been up to.

I have been making a lot of different soups lately. Shrimp bisque was the worst! This is sorta, kinda Bin 555's recipe for Autumn Chowder only I used lactose free, skim milk instead of cream.
Butternut squash, onion, celery, carrots, salt, pepper and nutmeg. It was Yummy!

I hate cats!

Actually, the truth is, I am scared to death of cats. It is because of my childhood. We had an ice machine in our garage. One of my chores was to get the tea every night for supper. I would have to go to the garage to get ice. (My Dad sold ice machines and COKE machines.) My sister, Debbie was an animal lover. She had so many animals she picked up off the street. My younger sister, Judi, who was born on Halloween, (just sayin') was so mean to Debbie's cats. She would grab them by the tail and spin around and let them go flying. The cats lived in the raftors of the garage. When I would go out and get ice at night the cats would jump down on me. FREAKY! To this day, I am terrified of cats. But I have gotten better in my old age. I can actually visit people who have cats. When they start to rub on my legs, I get up and walk away. I don't freak. I also let my exchange student have a cat in my house. I didn't like it, but I did.

So yesterday, my friend Patricia calls me and says do you know you have cats? Yes! We have wild cats in our garage that my DH feeds. He says they keep the snakes and scorpions away. Well we have had several litters of kittens this summer. I carried one to work under my car. It mewed all day. Brought it home and it came out from under the car. We have 3 kittens that have NO MAMMA. We don't know what happened to the Momma. We bought baby bottles at the store today, but the nipple was too big. Trying a squirt bottle, but they aren't getting a whole lot. They are too small to even eat. Why do I care? I don't like cats!

Yes, it has been forever since I updated......

The summer has been so busy with grandkids that I have lots of photos and no scrapbook pages. I had better get busy.

Mother's Day

I have lost 40 lbs but it wasn't by eating like I did last weekend. Jim and I went to the Coast. We did nothing at all on Saturday but lay on the beach. Saturday evening, we took our grandaughter, Krystyna out for Mexican food and a Margarita to celebrate her 21st birthday. I forgot my camera. This is the only one I got with my phone. Adaline at 2. We hurried home Sunday morning to make our 1:30 reservations at Bin 555. My son, Chef Pj Edwards was cooking for 150 Mothers but especially me. We had a mixed greens salad with dried cherries and goat cheese. It was goooood! Then we had Halibut with peas and roasted scallions. The cheese after the meal was goat cheese rolled in herb with Spanish tortas, honeycomb and almonds.My dessert was whipped cream frozen by liquid nitrogen, berries and mint salad. I had the most wonderful Mother's Day you could possibly imagine. I not only got lunch but I got a very cool sewing machine and a Zable pandora style bracelet. I talked to Kaden on the phone and Brady actually got on the phone and talked to his Gamma for quite a while. You know he is 7 now and too cool for that

Surprise!

Today, we went to a Paella Cookoff at the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio. PJ was cooking with his boss Chef Jason Dady. They should have won. They definately had the best presentation. Ben Ford, who I understand is Harrison Ford's son, who owns a restuarant in CA, won. He even told them afterwards that they got robbed.

Yesterday, we had a surprise 40th birthday party for Jim Jr. at our house. He was completely surprised. It was a lot of fun and the whole family was here. Jim built a playset in one of our many trees. The kids had so much fun playing on it. We ended up with about 10 people spending the night, so there were blankets and pillows everywhere.

It happened to me:(

Well, it finally happened. I ate a piece of fish too fast. It got stuck. It hurt so bad. I had heard all about it, but thought, I will do what I am supposed to do and that won't ever happen to me. Ha! It was the most horrible experience. I went outside and walked while everyone else ate. It helped a little, very little, so I came back in and sat down. I tried to be pleasant until everyone finished but when I got in Jim's truck, all heck broke loose. I had no idea I was about to throw up and it went everywhere. Thank goodness, I have such a wonderful husband. He cleaned it all up. I couldn't. The more I looked at it, the more I wanted to do it again. So, if anyone of you are considering lapband surgery, just know that one day it will happen to you and it is NOT fun. Don't let that discourage you in any way, just know to expect it.

64 Degrees

Jim and I took our grandaughter Kaitlin to the Coast this weekend. She and Adeline wanted to go to the beach. They rode with Aunt Jodi, Adeline's grandmother. When they got out of the truck they had on swimsuits, ready to play in the water. Omg, I was cold and I had on clothes. Those girls had so much fun. Their laughter could be heard all around the beach.

I decided to get my excercise in and walk on the beach. I wore myself out, really quick. When I got back, the girls had decided to sit down and eat some chips. That is when the shivering started. Everyone was trying to wrap them up in the 6 towels we happened to bring. Finally, Britainey took them to the truck and turned the heater on. It was a fun, fun day.

Jim and I rode our bikes when we got back, while Jodi had the girls and Britainey cooked for us. What we thought would be a weekend of entertaining Kaitlin, turned out to be a very relaxing weekend for us. We rode our bikes again this morning. I just have a real problem riding with the traffic. I want to see what is coming towards me. We rode along the road that follows the Coastline in Fulton. I did great with my diet. I am on soft foods now and if I didn't think I could digest it, I just drank a protein drink instead. Never got hungry. Anxious to see how much weight I have lost this week.