actipton80

Christmas prep at my house started before Thanksgiving this year. We had the tree up the weekend before. I'm not sure what I think about the new tree. It didn't take long to set up, but it took a long time to straighten out the branches. Putting on the lights was about the same, except the old star didn't fit. We put an angel that we have had for years on top of the tree instead. The new tree is also a little narrower than the old one, so a little less room for ornaments. The branches also are not as well shaped for setting things in them, so the smallest rubber ducky I had wouldn't sit on one. I stuffed him in a little stocking. I also accidentally broke two glass balls, one of which was a green one that was one of my favorites.

We were not expecting any company on Thanksgiving day this year so Dad didn't fix a whole turkey. Then Nick and Laura decided to come up at the very last minute. They had just had their baby on the Monday before Thanksgiving, and she was six weeks early. After dinner everybody but me went down to the hospital to see the baby. I stayed home and watched the dog show. I dozed though most of it.

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas has mostly been a blur. I don't remember doing much the week after Thanksgiving except to finish decorating the rest of the house, and mixing up gingerbread dough. I also mixed up my cranberry jellies and my peanut butter fudge early. Some time in there I made Butterfingers and malted milk balls too. The first week of December was a blur of baking. I remember on the 2nd, I went to a child friendly performance of The Nutcracker with Mom, Laura, and Eden. Then I worked on the fourth at Flyin' Lion making cranberry white chocolate chip cookies. On the fifth, I spent the afternoon at Samaritan's Purse with my Sunday School class processing shoeboxes. My job was to tape them shut so they could be put in the big cartons.

A couple days later, on the 8th, I was decorating gingerbread cookies, and I heard Mom gasp and yell from the family room. Izzy was dying, and she thought he was already dead. I picked him up, and he started moving. I was able to hold him. He had been cuddled up against Nitro that morning, and they had been preening each other for several days. After that we had to bury him. Nitro got very chirpy after that. That weekend sucked because I also got a bad letter from Medicaid so I had to scan and send a whole bunch of Medicare statements to the DSS. I still haven't heard back from them so I don't know if they will pay for my dentist appointment in January. I also need to know If I still have Medicaid because if not, I need to be given the opportunity to switch to a different Medicare plan. Up until recently, I had both Medicare and Medicaid. I've been praying about that and had others praying too. The Sunday School Christmas party was that weekend too, but it was fun.

I had another full week the second week of December. Mom and I took a day trip to Troy, NC to meet some friends who live in Sanford, NC. We ate lunch and exchanged gifts and then hit the little shops. I bought a novel and a jar of pickled watermelon rinds at one of the shops. We stopped at Ollie's on the way home, but I didn't get anything there this time. I didn't get anything at the variety store we stopped at either.

Then we had a party at our house that Thursday for one of Mom's church groups. Dad fixed Ecuadorian potato soup, curried chicken salad, and mincemeat cobbler. I passed out caramels as well.

The church Christmas concert was on the 17th, and I enjoyed it. They didn't have any numbers that really blew me away this year though. Most of the week of the 18th was spent doing last minute Christmas stuff like wrapping presents, but I did have budgie visitors arrive on the 21st. I think Nitro likes having them here. She and Maximus greeted each other when they got here, and she likes his singing. Sweet Caroline doesn't say much.

Christmas eve was church and Christmas dinner. It was ham, cranberry sauce, scalloped potatoes, brussels sprouts, jello, and bourbon cake. It took me three days to make that cake because it had to be glazed three times.

We started in early on Christmas morning. Dad and I get up early every day, but Mom was up by 7:30 so we opened our stockings then. I got mostly bath stuff in mine. Then we opened presents. I got more bath stuff, some hummus, built bars, and phone cards for the consumables. For non -consumables, I got an exercise ball, a towel with velcro on it so it stays on when I wrap it around myself, a sweater, a gel pack that can be made into a hot pack or an ice pack, a kaleidoscope, and two nice things from Des. A little crank radio, and a cute budgie pillow that I still need to stuff.

We went to Nick's house after that and we intended to stay for only a couple hours, but we ended up staying all day. He had fixed eggnog pancakes and bacon for brunch along with mimosas. We had brought shrimp, a cheese ball, crackers, olives, and leftover cake. We exchanged gifts after breakfast, and I got a cookie sheet and some ginger candy. Then we took naps, and Mochi took hers with me on Nick's sofa. We put on Christmas Vacation after that, but had several interruptions. First, Mom paused the movie and put on a Christmas playlist for Eden. That messed up the sound on the TV because it runs though Alexa. It took Nick a while to get the sound from the movie back on. Then Eden wanted to watch the Snowman, which is a Christmas cartoon that I hadn't seen since I was a kid and we had taped it on VHS. We finished the movie after that. We also passed the baby around during the movie. I don't know if we will ever watch Christmas Vacation again. There was quite a bit of cussing in it that Mom had forgotten about. My family doesn't have patience for that anymore.

The day after Christmas, we left for Pipestem, West Virginia to meet Dad's family. It rained really bad and was foggy, so Dad missed a turn to stay on 77 and instead got on 81. He went 20 miles out of the way before he realized why the GPS kept telling him to turn around. I played with my kaleidoscope and crank radio in the car. When we got to the park, we checked into our cabin, and the roof leaked. I'm glad it did because we were moved from the cabin, which was even farther away from the lodge than last year's cabin was, to rooms on the same floor of the lodge as most of the family. We spent most of our time up in the lobby. We had some bad things happen though. Uncle Kevin and Aunt Cindy hadn't been there for 24 hours, and her oxygen machine broke. Kevin and Dad couldn't fix it so they had to go home. We didn't get much chance to witness to Cindy. Later that day, Mom and I hiked down to the lake with some other family members and the dogs. Cindy's sister, Cherri, and her husband, Brian, had come and they brought their dog, Skittles. After the hike, was a nap, and then we played catchprase until dinner. We got pizza that night and the hotel staff let us use the room off the side of the lobby to have our dinner.

Yesterday morning was rough on me. I clogged my toilet up and had to wait a couple hours for housekeeping to bring a plunger. I got nasty water all over my bathroom floor. Then we had breakfast in Mom and Dad's room. We finished up the cake and had leftover pizza. I made one last stop at the gift shop and bough a honey bear. After we packed up and left, we stopped at the southwest Virginia farmer's market on the way home. I didn't buy anything this time, but Dad bought black walnuts to snack on and a bag of beans for Laura's grandmother. They were a kind she likes.

Last night Mom got really sick with throwing up and diarrhea. Dad thinks she got food poisoning, but we don't know what from since he and I ate the same things she did and we aren't sick. I hope she gets better soon because I would like to go to CVS and Walgreen's and see if they have any Christmas stuff left. I'm pretty sure Walmart and Target are cleaned out of theirs.

I'm tired right now. Everyone is napping but me. I've had a good Christmas today. I tried to make this past week a little more relaxing since BSF is over for the semester, my baking was finished, and all the packages and cards had been sent. Last Sunday, I visited St. Mark's Episcopal Church for their 10:30 service. That is the church that my work is affiliated with, so I knew quite a few people there. They were honoring Linda and Sue who are retiring from Flyin Lion Ministries (the kitchen where I work). They also had their kids' Christmas pageant. It was a traditional pageant unlike the fancy productions I was in when I was a kid. I enjoyed it.

This week, I had work on Friday, and I baked all the cookies left in the freezer. Then I helped package buche de noels for pickup. Friday was also the day that Mom, Dad, and I went to look at lights. The dogs went too. Colby stayed with us this past week for a few days while Nick and Laura went down to her family's for Christmas. They got back yesterday. Sweet Caroline and Maximus are here too until after New Year's.

We went to church yesterday and had a power outage last night. I was in a bath when the power went off so I had to get dressed in the dark. It wasn't off for very long, and we all sat by the fire until it came back on.

This morning, I got up early and did laundry because we are leaving tomorrow for Pipestem park. I also started packing. Then I came downstairs, fed the birds, did some dishes, and brought in Mom's sweet rolls. After everyone was up, we opened stockings and gifts while the rolls baked. We gave each other mostly consumables. I did get some soft alpaca slippers with a pumpkin pattern on them. I also got the next year subscription for the antivirus software. I also got (from Des) a cute plush budgie that records what people say and says it back in a high squeaky voice. It's blue like Rudy was. I also got two nice cookbooks, a Middle Earth one from Nick and Laura, and a dessert book from Sue.

We ate our rolls before Nick and his family got here, but we saved some for them. Then we exchanged presents with them. Eden got the most presents, but all she wanted to play with was the wrapping paper because it was shiny. She was also trying to get ornaments off the Christmas tree. She likes Mom's bells and also my soft red and green bird ornament. Mom gave her a little snowman plush to play with that had been stuck in the branches of the tree.

We had brisket, corn casserole, peas, dinner rolls, and twice baked potatoes for lunch. There was mincemeat cobbler, cookies, and candy for dessert. We put "It's a Wonderful Life" on TV, and tried to keep Eden corralled. After the movie, Dad and Nick broke out the expensive Irish Whiskey, and a new bottle of bourbon, and we taste tested them. Then Eden was tired so they had to go home.

I have to finish packing. I've also eaten too much today. I've been picking out of various candy dishes all day.

We had a good Thanksgiving. I made cranberry pie and cranberry jelly candy for it. In the morning, I took Colby for a walk early. He had been staying with us while Nick and Laura visited her grandmother for Thanksgiving on the day before. Then I got to watch the parade in its entirety, and I had both dogs with me for most of it. I saw some familiar bands from my marching band days in the parade. They were Carmel (IN), Bourbon County (KY), and Tarpon Springs (FL). I also enjoy seeing the Rockettes in the parade, and the dance team that is made up of high school students all over the country, and a college dance team from Texas who kick line kicks higher than the Rockettes do. They either didn't have or didn't show the Mt. Rushmore float this year, and Lindt didn't have a float in the parade either. My favorite of the musicals they had excerpts of was The Lion King. They sang Circle of Life and had all these neat animal puppets. I had seen that musical when it came to Charlotte, but it's been years. Mom went between watching the parade and making rolls.

After the parade was the dog show, which Mochi and Colby watched with me. Mochi ran at the screen and barked at one of the dogs in the show. None of my favorites ever win except a few years ago when a greyhound did. A french bulldog won the show. The terrier group was won by an AmStaff, and he was a happy dog. In the working group, the Doberman was pulled for a second look, but didn't win. He was a red one. Dad watched quite a bit of the dog show with me in between cooking the noodles and the dressing, and we made jokes about how Mochi would hate all the grooming that the dogs on the show have to have done. We also made jokes when the judges looked a a dog's teeth or feet.

After the dog show, we packed up the food and the dogs and went down to Nick's house. He had cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green bean casserole. We brought dressing, noodles, broccoli salad, fruit salad, rolls, pie, and cranberry candy. Dad had also brought shrimp for appetizers because most of the food needed to be heated up. I took candy corn for the "five things you are thankful for" tradition we started a few years ago. Mom also brought conversation starter questions, but I wish she had brought Thanksgiving trivia instead.

After dinner, Laura and I watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Then we played a new game called Canvas, where you use clear cards to make paintings. There were some funny ones.

Our tree is already up. I plugged in the outside lights that I put up Monday. I got out the Christmas stuffed animals and set them up on the stair landing this morning. Mom is going to put away the fall decorations today. We are going to put up a few more Christmas decorations. We don't put up nearly as many as we used to. I am going to put up my ceramic tree, but I need to figure out where to put it. I'm also mixing up gingerbread dough today.

I had a good birthday this year. I went to Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens with Mom and Cambree. We enjoyed the gardens although some of the fountains were turned off. There were these cute round flowers outside the orchid house, but no frangipanis this time. We also walked the prairie trail which I hadn't been on before, and there were cute butterflies and sunflowers on it. There was also a new bog garden over by the fountain arches with lots of pretty Sarracenias in it. The garden where the big spinning cage and the little cave has a frog pond at it now, and lots of little frogs were emerging out of the pond. Cambree caught a tiny toad and carried it around for a while. The ladies at the butterfly pavilion kept it in a bug box for us while we were in there. We saw mostly viceroy butterflies in there, but there were other kinds too. They had little sponges with nectar on them that we could use to feed the butterflies. Then we went to release the little toad, and Cambree found a little tiny green frog. She was the one who noticed the tiny frogs everywhere. I didn't see any of them because my eyes are terrible.

We went out to lunch at Bojangles after that and I had a spicy chicken sandwich, while Mom and Cambree had kids meals. Then we rested a little before dinner, and went and got pedicures. Nick, Laura, Eden, and Colby joined us for dinner and so did my neighbor, Christine. We started with presents before dinner. I got matcha and cocoa powders, a rain poncho, some shampoo, and cocoa butter shower gel. Nick got me money and told me to spend it on something nice for myself. Christine got me lottery tickets that I had fun scratching. I won $2 on one and $5 on another so I need to take them to the gas station to redeem them. Dinner was Mexican. We had street tacos, ceviche, mango salsa, guacamole, and roasted plantains. My birthday cake was chocolate cherry.

On Friday, I worked at the kitchen baking cookies for the farmers market. Sue wasn't there, but if she had been, we would have celebrated my birthday again. Saturday was the market. We sold a lot of lime pound cake because we put out samples of it. We also sold all of our cream cheese walnut cookies because the chef who showcases different vendors used them in a recipe. After market, Kathy came and picked me up and we went to an Indian restaurant for lunch. She hadn't had Indian food before, but she really liked it. I was able to steer her away from the spicy things on the buffet. Mochi was happy to see us when I got home. Mom, Dad and Cambree had left for Atlanta that morning because that is where Cambree's flight left from.

Sunday was church, and I came home and fixed eggplant mini pizzas for my lunch. I had eaten some homemade chicken stock that morning that had gone bad. All I had done was taste it and it still made me sick. I was over that by lunch, but still felt bad all day. I called Mom in the afternoon, and she's really tired too. She told me that Cambree missed Mochi so much that she cried in bed. Mochi had been sleeping in bed with her the past week. Her mom doesn't allow her to have pets. Mochi has been sleeping in bed with me while everyone is gone. Mom and Dad get back today.

to do list:
get money out of ATM
Update insurance at CVS and refill prescriptions
get supplies for Nepenthes at Lowes and Petsmart.
If spagum isn't at Petsmart, have Dad order on Amazon and pay him back
repot plants
get address for Thursday doctor appointment
get papers in order for tomorrow lawyer appointment

note to self: copy comments to dw from the lj copy of this post

Equipment Required

Large pot
Good quality blender

Ingredients

1 large head of broccoli
1 large onion
4-6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp of organic, extra virgin coconut oil
Feathery fennel tops from one bulb of fennel
6 cups of filtered water
1 tsp of ground fennel seed
Sea salt to taste

Directions

Chop broccoli and separate stems
Saute onion, garlic, and ground fennel in coconut oil until onion is translucent
Add broccoli florets and stems, as well as fennel and water
Simmer until tender (20 mins)
Blend mixture in blender until smooth
Return to large pot and simmer, adding sea salt to taste

Consumption

Enjoy repeatedly!

knees.
Purpose

The purpose of this recipe is to provide you with a proven formula that will knock out a bacterial and viral infection as quickly as possible. The synergy of all these whole food ingredients makes this a very potent medicine! It definitely is a concoction you want in your natural pharmacy at all times.

Warning: This is not made for taste. It’s made to work.
Equipment Required

A good quality masticating juicer

Ingredients

2 cloves of garlic
1/2 small onion
1 piece of turmeric (1 inch or 1/4 tsp ground)
1 piece of ginger (1/2 inch or 1/4 tsp ground)
1 lemon
1/2 small jalapeño or dash of cayenne pepper
1 oz of apple cider vinegar
1 dash of ground black pepper
Optional: 1 piece of horseradish (1/2 inch)
Optional: 1 tsp raw honey

If you do not have a masticating juicer, use what you have that could juice the ingredients properly (like blending, and straining). Failing that, finely chop or grate first 4 items, or get freshly ground versions (which will not be as potent, but will have benefit).Epoch Times Photo

I got a good haul this year. I got lots of kitchen stuff, knives and sharpeners and edge guards, aprons, a cutting board, and a peeler. I also good lots of bath bombs, some lotion, a couple books, more slippers, phone cards, antivirus software for the computer, and candy, and tums. I got a charging cable from Des, and Nitro got a cute pink dish. Unfortunately my prettiest wrapped present ended up not being for me. Mom had put a T-shirt that was her size in box with my name on it. I got a lot of stuff so I might have forgotten to list something.

This morning was a lot of waiting, so I went ahead and gave the dogs their presents early. Colby was already here because we dog sat him while Nick and his family were visiting his in-laws. Colby knew exactly what to do. I had wrapped his present in such a way that he could rip it open. I had to open Mochi's for her. I got them both some nice big chew bones, and Colby chewed on his while Mom and I took Mochi for a walk. That was after I had let her chew on hers until she lost interest.

We have snacky food out in the kitchen right now as well as monkey bread and fruit salad that were left over from breakfast. Dad also made homemade eggnog. We have had things cooking all morning. Dad has baked brie that still needs to be baked. We have been getting things out all morning and had Mannheim Steamroller streaming. The budgies have been very excited today. They got millet and two big pieces of celery for their Christmas. Nitro was trying to loop the rings over the perch. Izzy doesn't play with the rings as much now that I replaced the bell, but he watches Nitro intently when she plays with them so he can give her kisses when she pokes her head through the pink ring.

This past week was supposed to be relaxing with the floor people done and gone, but it hasn't been. My Sunday school teacher, Kathy, and I bought some gifts for two class members, Billy and Shon, who live in facilities and can't get out. Dallar Tree was ransacked, but we did find some candy and cute Christmas plushes for their gifts. We took Billy's down to him first. He is at a long term rehab facility in Pineville, and he's in a wheelchair now. We met him in the cafeteria, and he had fallen trying to get from his bed into the wheelchair. He was all worked up and wouldn't calm down. His facility is nice and the staff that work there are too. They had a really pretty Christmas tree in the lobby that was white with blue and silver ornaments, and they had wrapped the pictures next to it to look like silver presents with blue bows. The tree in the cafeteria had lights that twinkled and changed color. There was another resident who was trying to set up a microphone and a speaker on his computer so he could sing karaoke. He was having technical difficulties. I tried to help, but I couldn't get his microphone to work either.

We went to Pinky's for lunch, and their pretty white tree had the lights turned on. My picture of it was from when the lights were off. They were pink which is fitting. After that we took Shon his presents. We couldn't go into his facility, but he was able to come out to meet us. I'm glad they have a Christmas tree in their lounge. I could see it through the window.

My aunt, Emily, visited that day too, and Dad fixed a nice shrimp dinner for her. Honey garlic shrimp, black rice, turban squash, and avocado soup, with cinnaboncello for dessert.

We watched Nativity Story on the evening of the 22nd, and looked at lights on the 23rd. The house with musical lights did their display again this year. We also found lots of other nice displays including a beautiful lighted nativity, a cute row of tiny spiral trees, lots of twinkly red and green sparkles projected up on people's houses, a house with the old fashioned big lights on their bushes, and one that had a color changing arch over their driveway.

Christmas Eve service at church was nice. There was a really funny video of church kids telling the Christmas story and staff members acting it out. The guy that played Gabriel was especially funny. We ended the service by singing Silet Night by candlelight.

Mom misplaced two stocking stuffers I had gotten for Dad. A bottle of sweetened condensed milk for his coffee, and a roll of Necco wafers. I hope she finds them soon. I had told her they were for his stocking, but she must have forgotten.

We leave for Pipestem, West Virginia to meet Dad's family. That will be in the afternoon. I don't know how good of a phone signal I will have when I get there since it is pretty far out.

I just got back from a cabin in the mountains that my family went to for Thanksgiving. It was me, my parents, my youngest brother, his wife and baby, our dogs, and my birds who went. We cooked dinner ahead of time and brought it in. Dad cooked two turkey breasts, one smoked, and the other sous vide and also smoked a sausage. He also cooked twice baked potatoes and dressing balls. Mom made sweet potato casserole, broccoli salad, and pumpkin pie. I made corn casserole, and chocolate bourbon pecan pie, and homemade crusts for both pies. The rolls were frozen rolls, and Nick and Laura brought some cranberry relish her friend had made. Dad also made a pasta salad and shrimp for Wednesday night when we got to the cabin.

The cabin was nice. I took the queen bedroom which had its own bathroom, and I put the bird cage on the dresser. Mom and Dad took the room with two twin beds (they can't share blankets; also Dad says Mom kicks.) Mochi's crate was in with them. Nick and Laura got the downstairs bedroom, and they put Eden's bassinet in the closet. Colby slept in bed with them. There was also a hot tub downstairs which Mom and I used our first night there.

On Thanksgiving Day, we tried to watch the parade on a Youtube stream, but the stream kept having problems. We did see my old high school band's old rival, Brownsburg, in the parade. I had seen on the internet earlier that they were good this year. We also saw funny things that don't usually show up in the broadcasts of the parade like a lady with a hat that looked like a big bird nest and some stilt walkers. I took a walk when I got tired of watching the skipping livestream, and then I took a nap before dinner. I also pulled the novel, "Seabiscuit," off a bookshelf at the cabin and read it during our stay.

The next day, Mom, Nick, Laura, Eden and I jammed into Nick and Laura's SUV and went over to Burnsville and hit the discount grocery store, and some of the downtown shops. We went in the toy store and a couple gift shops, and Nick bought a cute guinea pig puppet for Eden. She's at the age where she likes to listen to everyone and for us to make faces at her. She really likes me in particular for some reason.

Later Mom and Dad took a walk with Mochi, and then Mom and I took a walk down by the river. We found "Granny's Beach" where there were lots of pretty rocks and little stacks of flat stones. Mom picked up a pretty river rock with mica sparkles in it. I'll have to see if she brought it home. I went to bed really early all three nights, but the rest of the family watched the first two Home Alone movies.

I slept so much on that trip, but I must have needed it. At least ten hours all three nights. The birds had one night fright last night, but I was able to calm them down.

When I got home I unpacked, and checked email and websites. I also put up the outside Christmas lights. The tree is already up. We put that up last weekend.

I've had an eventful last two weeks. I had class on my birthday, but we celebrated at class. One of the ladies gave me some pretty flowers out of her garden, and another gave me a pretty scarf to go with all my plain interview tunics. She had had a fun conversation with me about how to dress for interviews, and since we had the same build we were able to make jokes about it. Lunch that day was really good meatloaf and mashed potatoes that I had made, and my head instructor made an amazing ice cream pie. They put candles on it, and all the people at lunch sang Happy birthday to me. We also had sugar cookies that I had baked the day before, and someone else decorated. Then, that evening, Mom, Dad, Nick, Laura, Eden, and I went out to a Cajun restaurant for dinner. I had really good shrimp and grits with lobster bisque sauce on it. They also brought samples of several dishes because it is a new restaurant in the area. Then we came home and had white Texas Sheet Cake and presents. I got orange protein powder, a heating/cooling pad, a coupon for a pedicure, a pretty t-shirt, and a cute fat seal pillow.

Graduation was a big day because it was also market prep day. I mainly worked on baking cookies for market. Then we had graduation, and Mom, Dad, Laura and Eden came, as well as Kathy, my Sunday school teacher. I got a white chef coat at graduation, and we had cute turquoise chef coat cookies for dessert. They don't want me to completely leave, so I'm going to volunteer there at least once a week until I get a job and work on catering projects as they come up. the job won't be for a while since Mom and Dad are traveling to Korea in September.

The next day, I worked at the Farmer's Market and sold cookies and pies. Dad bought scones and lots of cookies, but he missed the chocolate pecan pie. Then, on Sunday, Sweet Caroline and Maximus came over to stay for a couple weeks. They are here right now, and Maximus likes to sing. He and Izzy chirped back and forth for a while when they arrived. I think they remember each other from previous visits.

On Tuesday, Kathy came to pick me up, and we went to visit Billy only to find out when we got down to the long term care place that they aren't letting in visitors. We were able to send back a laundry basket with a few gifts for him in it. Then we went the long way around 485 to get home.

On Wednesday, Mom and I left for our trip. We went to the emerald mine first and saw their gift shop with all the pretty rocks. There were pretty rainbow crystals, but I found out they were just amethyst with a coating on it. They had those neat hematite rocks that are magnetic. I saw a lot of cute carved frogs that I forgot to take a picture of, and some cute carved owls. There were big amethyst geodes there too. Then we went on the self-guided tour into the mine, and fed trout in the river there. After the mine tour we walked down to the museum where they had rooms full of old stuff. There was one pile of stuff that had old cast iron skillets in it that are just like ones we have. There was another neat room with old instruments, organs, pianos, and phonographs. There was a room with model trains in it too.

After the Emerald mine, we went to Little Switzerland. There wasn't much there, but there was a pretty overlook of the mountains, and an ice cream shop. I got "Bigfoot tracks" ice cream, which was homemade with almond milk and honey in it. It also had cinnamon and orange flavors in it. There were some cute dogs walking around there too. I saw two adorable toy fox terriers that were friendly and reminded me of Daisy who was my toy fox terrier. One of them looked so much like her. We also saw a beagle and a yorkie.

We went to our hotel in Burnsville next, and stopped at their farmer's market on the way. After resting, I walked to a general store that was a couple blocks from the hotel. After I got back, we went to dinner at Pig and Grits, a barbecue place that was right next to our hotel. We had pulled pork sandwiches and fried green tomatoes, and I had bacon cheddar grits, and Mom had banana pudding. It was raining after dinner so we had to run back to the hotel in the rain because we had walked to the restaurant. When the rain stopped, we went exploring and found a discount grocery store where we bought things I had not seen anywhere else and things that were really cheap.

The next day, we explored the shops in Burnsville before setting out for home. We went in a couple gift shops and a toy store. I bought spicy challenge Jelly Bellies. We also went to the discount grocery store and bought some more stuff. Then in was off to the waterfalls. We saw two different waterfalls, and I liked the first one better. It was an easier walk and a prettier fall. The second one was in Mt. Mitchell State park, and we passed a trail that went up to Mt. Mitchell. We didn't have time to go up to it, but maybe some other time.

We found the soft serve ice cream place on the way home and stopped there. We had been there before on another road trip and didn't expect to find it again, but we did and now I know how to get there. I had butterscotch soft serve, and Mom had pistachio. They we went into a consignment shop across the street that was in the building that a candy store had been in before. After that we got hot dogs at a gas station, and then went home. Mochi was happy to see us. I found out she likes bird pellets. Maximus and Sweet Caroline are on pellets, and Dad had spilled some of them. Mochi ate them.

I've been resting today, and I'm going to the pool later. I'm still too tired to study ServSafe stuff. Some time today we are going to make up games for Mom's 50th high school reunion. She and Dad both have their 50th reunions this year on the same weekend. i need to get my bike tire pumped up before that if not take it to the shop to get a new back tire to replace the old worn out one. I haven't ridden in so long because of that tire going down quickly and my tendonitis.

I have been cooking up a storm at my class. I have learned several different ways of frying things, and I have also improved my knife skills. I have also had fun working at the farmers' market when my class goes. I made the lattice tops for six pies that were sold there. I also taught the program administrator how to make pie dough because, while she sometimes comes in as an assistant, she hadn't made it before. Our head chef had been gone this past week. I baked all the cookies for it, and they all got sold. I've also earned my Serve Safe certificate and am working on the Manager certificate.

I also made ratatouille for dinner yesterday.

Nick and Laura had their baby this past Wednesday. On that day I was really tired because that was pie making day so I stayed home with the dogs while Mom and Dad went down to the hospital to visit. It stormed that evening too so I had a velcro dog that evening. Colby sat on my lap and panted the whole time they were gone. Mochi was right there too, but she isn't scared of storms. Mom and Dad also visited them at the hospital on Thursday and at their condo on Friday. We all went down on Saturday for dinner and Laura's parents were there too. The baby's name is Eden, and she didn't seem real because she's so little, and she was asleep the whole time we were there. She must have been dreaming when I was holding her because she was twitching a little bit. I wonder what babies that little dream about.

I've had physical therapy last week and today and will have one more appointment Wednesday afternoon. I have so many exercises to do now that I can't do then all on one day. I had a rheumatologist appointment today too, but it went well and I only have to go back if my pain worsens. I don't like that I still have to wear a mask in doctor's offices, even though I took Moderna's poison which should render a mask redundant.

I've been craving spicy food like crazy lately, and I can't seem to eat enough garlic either.

The budgies have been extra cute lately. Nitro took a long bath yesterday, and she is very possessive of that green ceramic dish. She chased Izzy away from it and was biting him. I finally put him on my shoulder to get him away from her. She had been playing nicely with him earlier with the spinning bells and the turquoise and yellow ribbon toy. The budgies were cute this morning. Nitro was making quiet little cute sounds, and Izzy let me pet him through the cage bars.

I started my cooking class last Tuesday. In that class, we cook that day's lunch and do various baking. I have been improving knife skills and have had to cut a jalapeno into very tiny pieces and cut onions and peppers into tiny pieces. I've also cut basil leaves into tiny pieces. I cooked quesadillas on a big grill like they have at restaurants. I've also done a lot of fun baking. I made the quiche that we had for lunch last Tuesday. The class prepped the dry ingredients for six batches of brownies, and then we mixed up and baked two of them into a giant batch of brownies. I got an arm workout that day because I mixed while the other baker poured in the melted chocolate. One crazy thing we did was prep corn for soup. There were five of us working on it, and we made a huge mess and got corn bits on our faces, hands and clothes. My job was to rake the corn kernels out of their skins with a spoon. Another fun thing we did was peel tomatoes. First we had to cut out the butt end and then score the bottom of the tomato, then we had to boil them to loosen the skins. They got dropped in ice water to get the skins off, and then we seeded them and tried to save as much juice for soup as possible. That was messy too. The best thing we did was make pie dough. Measuring out Crisco is like playing with play-doh because we got to smash it down into the measuring cups and then smash it some more when getting the balls of Crisco out of the cup onto the cookie sheet. Then, we made 15 batches of pie dough, and getting it out of the food processor is like playing with play-doh too.

Mochi had her first birthday this past week, last Thursday. I gave her dog biscuits that I had made at class. I mixed up the dough for them. and then we got the dough out of the freezer and baked them the next day. I really want to borrow that tiny bone cookie cutter for when I make Christmas dog biscuits. We were going to take Mochi to Bruster's and get her a doggy ice cream cup, but we didn't get around to it.

Nitro has been such a sweet little bird. I offered her and Izzy the budgie bathtub on Saturday, and she went swimming. Izzy ignored it so I sprayed him with the mist bottle. She's been tearing up a lot of confetti too, and she and Izzy play together with the rings and spinning bells.

For Father's day, I made Dad a batch of buckeye balls, and he ate several of them for breakfast yesterday. I also dipped orange slice candies in the leftover chocolate, and that was a big hit with Mom. She wants me to add those to the Christmas candy repetoire. (I don't know how to spell that word.) I went to Sunday school while Mom and Dad went to first service, and then we came home and Dad made cheeseburgers with roasted onions and gruyere cheese, and steak fries deepfried instead of cooked in the oven. We had green beans, salad, and sugar free jello, and poppy seed cake with lemon pudding (made with half and half) for dessert. It was also Nick and Laura's anniversary, so the jello was in heart molds. We set out a plate of buckeyes and chocolate orange slices too.

Today I had a scare with Mochi. A big stray dog approached us on our walk and wanted to play with Mochi. She got scared so I picked her up. Then that stupid dog tried to grab her out of my arms and bit me on the hand trying to get to her. She was screaming the whole time. It followed us for a while while I carried Mochi until I yelled at it to go away. I had to yell at another dog on our walk too. I need to find another place to take shorter walks for a while.

I went with my Sunday school teacher to visit our class member who is in physical rehab. She had gotten some clean clothes for him, and we took those down and she got his dirty ones to wash. We had an adventure trying to find a place to eat lunch but ended up at Bob Evans. I was so tired when I got home that I went down for a nap and was asleep in five minutes.