[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's Fall! Let's Celebrate Cooler Temperatures and Spectacular Fall Foliage. #16760

Hi Colleen,
I hope Ron wasn’t too disappointed with The Cardinals loss. They played in the series last year and won it two years ago. The Cubs haven’t played in one since the 40’s and haven’t won one since the early 1900’s-so it’s really really really been a long time for them. It’s so weird that in the movie Back to the Future there was mention of the Cubs winning the World Series in 2015. In the meantime I will have an ulcer watching these games my stomach gets so clenched up. I will have to start doing some serious drinking to calm down I guess. lol No wonder they sell so many 7 dollar beers at the ball stadium.
I’m pretty sure Jenny will have Thanksgiving at her house again, She seems to have taken that holiday for herself which is fine with me. It is always tinged with a little sadness now since Kim died on Thanksgiving-even though it’s on a different date each year the day Thanksgiving is still a reminder.
Too bad we missed The Chew at Disney by a week. Maybe we could have gotten into the audience. It looks like it’s still really hot down there. It’s such a fun show that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Didn’t Danyielle do Thanksgiving last year? Of course with her being pregnant she probably doesn’t want to do it this year. Although Jenny did it when she was pregnant with Piper and she was born towards the end of December. Of course I couldn’t have done it that year anyway as I still had mono and all I remember is going to her house and sleeping in a chair the whole time. I don’t think I was finally diagnosed until sometime in December but at least I was not contagious anymore by then. it’s so weird that such a fairly common disease took so long for a diagnosis. I guess because they don’t expect someone in their 60’s to have it. They expect someone in high school or college maybe-I guess because I’m such a youngster at heart. lol You probably like doing Thanksgiving anyway since then you can server the dishes that you want. I usually bring a couple of dishes to Jenny’s anyway. The only thing that she doesn’t have that I miss are candied sweet potatoes. but no one in her family eats them so I just make them for us at home at a different time. Oooops, I can see that I am starting to get one of those ocular migraines again so soon my sight will be all messed up for the next 20 minutes so I will finish up for now.
Gail
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's Fall! Let's Celebrate Cooler Temperatures and Spectacular Fall Foliage. #16748

Cynthia,
I got those new jeans also. I think that I may be wearing them this weekend with the matching shirt. It’s a good thing that no one was driving a drone over your yard while you were out there cleaning. lol
I guess when life hands us losses we have to figure out new ways to celebrate the things that are important to us. Maybe like celebrating certain holidays in honor of the loved ones that we have lost. I feel like if we keep some family traditions it’s a way of remembering the ones who are no longer there with us.
I know around here garage sales don’t work well on Holiday weekends-people will be more concerned about parties and trick or treating on Halloween. I would wait until the next weekend.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's Fall! Let's Celebrate Cooler Temperatures and Spectacular Fall Foliage. #16742

Hi Adele,
My laptop crashed last night so Greg had to reboot it and I’ve been working on putting everything back the way it was before. I knew it was coming as it had been acting funny for a few weeks but I forgot to mention it to Greg (my tech man) because of all the hustle and bustle of vacation.
I used to have several books on Alzheimer’s but they were more geared toward taking care of a person with the disease. I’ll have to see if I still have any material on it. Still Alice is supposed to be a good report of what goes on in the early stages. You can try going to the library and seeing what they have and getting it in an audio book for him to listen to.
I hope Gary’s kidney function tests will turn out well. That is definitely nothing to fool around with.
I’m sorry that those pants didn’t fit. Even their shorts are a bit long on me but I can manage to make them work if they are straight legs. Really 27 inches is about perfect for me. I can’t imagine having legs long enough to wear a tall. I’m glad that you got that love shirt. I ended up with that shirt in all three designs-they are all really cute. I am a ducky piggy! lol
Thanks for the revision on the recipe. I hope Tillie’s back is okay. It doesn’t take much to tweak a back out of shape.
The ankle is okay. I don’t really have very high expectations as he basically told me that in 85% of the cases it won’t get better without surgery. It doesn’t hurt as much as originally. I basically wear the brace when I am going to be somewhere-like shopping or housework-that entails a lot of walking around. So I have worked out my own way of dealing with it as best as I can. The pain is less-I can deal with it generally so I have to be grateful for that.
Greg has dress rehearsal tonight for the concert on Saturday so no cooking tonight. I hope they have a good turnout and lots of people adopt kids to buy gifts for.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's Fall! Let's Celebrate Cooler Temperatures and Spectacular Fall Foliage. #16692

Hi Colleen,
No you couldn’t buy the hydroponically grown foods. We saw them on a ride about Agriculture through the Ages and Greg said the stuff we saw was actually models not real fruits and vegetables so the actual gardens must have been somewhere else in the area. It was really interesting though.
A lot of the farm fields around here have big rocks too and they pop up more in the spring after the snows. In fact when Brent was in high school the guys would earn pocket money because the farmers would pay them to go out in the fields and collect some of the big boulders in the spring. Plus that’s where we got some of the big rocks for our koi pond-the farmers were more than happy for Greg and Brent to come and take some of them away.
Our kids never liked black and white movies either. I guess it’s just a matter of what you grew up watching. I remember watching black and white TV through all of my childhood. I can’t really remember when we got our first color TV.
I’m so sorry that the doctor sent you to the wrong specialist. That is maddening to spend the time going there and paying the co-pay and then finding out it was the wrong type of doctor.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's Fall! Let's Celebrate Cooler Temperatures and Spectacular Fall Foliage. #16689

Hi Adele,
Thanks for the recipes. They sound so good. Hope Gary’s doctors visits went well yesterday. It’s funny that now we consider a visit to the doctors a “day out.”lol
I think having your BIL staying in the nursing home is really for the best for everyone at this point. I know your SIL feels guilty-everyone does when it comes to this point but realistically she can no longer take care of him on her own without risk to her own health. She has to understand that she is not breaking any promises to him that came with the marriage vows-she is doing what is right and best for him in sickness. It is such a heartbreaking illness because the essence of the person becomes lost inside their own mind. Each visit to see them becomes emotionally exhausting and we grieve for that person who is no longer really there except in body. It is so so sad and your SIL is in my prayers asking for strength and understanding to be sent her way. I’m sure that Gary is feeling very sad too.
How goes the job search for Jhonny? I hope that he’s finding some opportunities with his good recommendations. How is Amanda liking her classes?
They are saying we may be getting a frost this weekend. So I guess fall is coming.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's Fall! Let's Celebrate Cooler Temperatures and Spectacular Fall Foliage. #16644

Hi Adele,
Please post the sauerkraut recipe. We have no German store around here but I’m pretty good at finding substitutions.
I thought all those weekly ingredients would be way too much grocery shopping for both you and Gary. Bobby really earns his keep. Now the next question is how do you plan dinner as it seems you could have anywhere from 2 to 8 people stopping by looking for something to eat. Do you always cook in large quantities?
I never even thought about ordering cleaning stuff from WalMart and having it delivered. I hate lugging around all that stuff. I have enough problems just getting the food shopping done without cleaning and paper products too. I know Jenny orders diapers in a big box from somewhere that she has delivered but it never occurred to me I could do that with tp and paper towels and laundry detergent. Duh!
How is your weather? We went from 78 degrees down to 60 in a very short time yesterday and it was really really windy. By the weekend the highs will only be in the 50’s. The ONP concert is this weekend and it’s kind of bittersweet as I used to go with Brent and Kim and last year Brent and I went together. This year I will have to go with Greg which is a total pain in the butt because then I have to be there at 2 in the afternoon for a concert that won’t start until 7 because he has to be there so early to warm up and stuff. Oh well-it can’t be helped.
How did the pot roast turn out-it looks like it’s getting to be pot roast and stew and chili weather around here soon.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's Fall! Let's Celebrate Cooler Temperatures and Spectacular Fall Foliage. #16642

Hi Colleen,
I don’t think they do showers after the first baby much around here either. Except maybe if there was 10 years or something between babies. A shower for each kid seems like a lot to have. Plus it would not seem quite fair if one person had 2 kids and another had six. It would get quite expensive for the guests who are invited.
I think Michael was talking about the hydroponic gardens that they had at Disney. We went on a ride that showed how they did all that. It was interesting-probably more so for anyone that gardens or comes from farming country like we do. Do they grow a lot of field corn and soybeans in your area of the country? The farmers have started to harvest around here. I was surprised as I hadn’t been out and into town for several days and a lot of the corn fields have been harvested. Greg used to grow some really hot peppers too-I think they were thai peppers but no one ever ate them because they were too hot.
Gosh when I was in college we had one refrigerator that the whole floor shared. I don’t know if they even made those small dorm size refrigerators back then-if they did they were probably really expensive. And of course the microwave wasn’t even invented yet. I remember I got my first microwave for a Christmas present-it must have been sometime in the latter part of the eighties. Our grandkids and maybe even some of our kids will not remember pay telephones. Actually I don’t think the grandkids have ever had a landline in their house. We have to keep a landline because our cell phone reception out here is rather sketchy. I remember when I was five and we first moved from Chicago to the country we had a party line. How funny is that-you could get some good gossip that way. lol
What kind of soup did you make the other night? What is the name of those mixes that you use again? I don’t usually use mixes for soup but that would be a good thing to have on hand in the pantry. I’m at the stage where simpler is better. lol
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's Fall! Let's Celebrate Cooler Temperatures and Spectacular Fall Foliage. #16591

Hi Colleen,
I can understand why Danyielle thought she would not have a shower as usually people just have them for first babies. And she wanted to be prepared for this new one so she just went out and got the stuff herself. Maybe since she has most of what she needs people will just give her a lot of clothes in different sizes. Diapers are always good since you are buying them constantly and I remember how much money that cost when our family was young. Adam’s Mom would often buy then a big box of diapers and I know they appreciated that.
Years ago we went on what’s called an Autumn Drive around here. There are a bunch of houses on the route and you drive around to them and they have different things that they are selling. It’s kind of a fun thing to do on a nice fall day. I think it’s this coming weekend so I doubt that we can do it as it’s the same weekend as the ONP concert. I would like to do it again someday though. It was fun seeing all the different foods and crafts and things for sale.
When a house is decorated too scary for Halloween Jenny’s kids won’t go to it. They are funny.
Tell Owen and Ethan that some of the greatest chefs in the world are men and they are not sissies. lol Tell them they better learn to cook as it’s all part of growing up and learning to take care of themselves-it’s neither a male nor a female activity. When they go off on their own when they grow up they will want to know how to cook or they will get mighty hungry. lol I suppose at their age they never worry about that-they think Mom will always be around to cook for them or they will just subsist on McDonalds or pizza. lol I’ll bet eventually they’ll discover that cooking’s a handy thing to know. I’ll bet all our husbands could whip up several good meals if they needed to. One thing I know-Ron wouldn’t be making potato soup. lol Speaking of soup. Lachlan and Piper love soup which seems unusual for little kids. When we went out to dinner the other night Lachlan said that he just wanted soup-so I am always trying to think of good soups for Jenny to make that the kids might like.
My SIL ended up taking some of her furniture to her finacee’s second home. He just bought it last winter so it wasn’t totally furnished yet so they are using some of her stuff there. I think they gave away her family room furniture on Craig’s List. She is still trying to sell her living room furniture which is older but probably in excellent shape as no one ever went into her living room.
I have seen all the Jurassic Park movies(except the new one) and read all the books. I loved those books-remember I wanted to be an archeologist so a book about someone creating dinosaurs was right up my alley. That reminds me-Have you seen the Indiana Jones movies? One of the things we saw at Disney was an Indiana Jones show where they showed how they did some of the stunts with the fighting and the explosions-it was really interesting.
Well, I guess that’s all from here. I was wide awake in the middle of the night and now I am getting sleepy again so I guess I will go lay back down.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's Fall! Let's Celebrate Cooler Temperatures and Spectacular Fall Foliage. #16588

Hi Adele,
I have not heard of sauerkraut with bacon and ham in it. That is different. Greg loves pot roast and I like to make it as it is such a simple dish to make-everything in one pot and shove in the oven. I still do the old recipe from when I was first married with the cream of mushroom soup and the package of dried onion soup. I was thinking that you cook and bake a lot-often for a group of people. Who does all your grocery shopping and lugging of stuff? When you are cooking for a lot of people that’s a lot of groceries and maybe it’s just me but I find that now grocery shopping just seems to wear me out by the time I have shopped. loaded and unloaded the car and put everything away. I guess that I am just a wimp in my old age. lol But that seems like a lot for you to be doing with a bad back.
Gail

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