Making A Favorite Memory With Dad

My father was diagnosed with grade 4 glioblastoma the day after Easter 2014.  He and Mom had been in the Keys with friends on Easter when he suffered from a grand mal seizure. He was air lifted to Miami.  A friend drove mom up to the hospital.  My sisters, brother and I all flew in to be there for his brain surgery.  We were all there when the Dr. gave us the news.  With my job I new immediately what the diagnosis meant. Only 2% of glio patients live 12-15 months after diagnosis.  We all take turns flying out to see dad and the whole family got together for Christmas here in KC.

It's been 16 months.  Last week I went for a quick trip, Thursday - Saturday, to see him.  He can no longer walk, he doesn't talk much maybe two or three words at a time and his short term memory is all but gone.  Dad's long term memory is sharp.  He introduced my youngest sister and I to the staff and even told them where we were from Kansas and New York.   We watched a John Wayne marathon, he remembered actors names and he would quote lines before John Wayne would speak. We took him outside each day for fresh air and some quiet as his roommate is a talker.

As the fates would have it I got caught up in the East Coast FAA computer shut down Saturday and was rescheduled to head home Monday.  I was sad that I would miss college move in for the girls, but my hubby assured me they could handled it. I knew they could, I just wanted to be there.  I believe everything happens for a reason. My sister picked me back up from the airport and we headed back to hang out with dad.  If I had flown home on time I would have missed what has turned out to be my favorite memory from our visit.  Dad is ornery and loves to play with the call button.  This time my sister told him he looked like he was ready to sing karaoke.  He smiled, with a twinkle in his eye and we asked him to sing for us.  To our surprise he held the call button up to his face and sang a line of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". We all clapped and the smile on his face was priceless.  Him being a Marine and us being Top Gun fans, it was the perfect song.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVNWSEX-WqU&list=RDHVNWSEX-WqU

Nightmare on Prairie Star

If the title conjures up visions of Freedy Krueger, we're on the same page. It was the 1st week of summer vacation 2012. My oldest is back from college, the middle one has graduated High School and the youngest is now officially a Junior. Friday was the 1st day none of them had to work. I requested they clean their rooms. I know mean mom. Rooms did get cleaned, but when the work actually started, no one knows. I arrived home around 4:30, usually the puppy greats all who enter at the top of the stairs with a toy. No toy, no puppy. My husband was on the couch talking to her and wondering why she was acting like she was in a trance like state. After about another hour she suddenly snapped out of it. We asked the girls about their day and what the pup had been doing. Well my youngest and the pup watched the "Nightmare on Elm Street" marathon. You can check out http://www.freddykrueger.com. Every night for a week the pup had nightmares. Last night she was so scared she hyperventilated. I guess in one of the movies he killed a dog. Who knew a dog could get scared by a movie. I remember the 1st time our oldest dog saw "101 Dalmations" the live action version, she would bark back at the dogs on TV. Advise I was given is to watch a happy doggy movie with her.

Fast forward 3 years I'm making dinner and my youngest now a sophomore in college informs me that my hubby and the pup are watching "Annabelle" another scary movie.
After being warned by all of us, that he would be responsible for caring for the traumatized dog the rest of the week, they continued to watch the movie. Luckily for us this one did not effect her to badly.   Tho she does still freaks out if she sees Freddy on TV.

DYI Laptop skins

My youngest has been wanting to decorate her laptop for months, but the skins and kits are pricey. This week I had to pick her up from school, sick 2 days in a row.  Day 3 I told her she had better stay home.  Her reasoning for going to school... Standardized testing. She couldn't miss.  So I would pick her up each day after the test. Day 3 no testing she stayed home.  So what to do w/ a bored sick teenager? Have them make a laptop skin.  On our way home from school I stopped at the hardware store for Contact Paper, and permanent makers. I use to use Contact Paper in my daycare days to decorate the walls.

What you will need.:
Contact Paper.  Choice a color or print you like or get white or clear and draw your own design.
Pencil
Scissors or rotary cutter
Utility knife
Ruler
Permanent markers
Light box or window (for tracing)

1. Measure the top of your laptop.
2. Cut contact paper a little larger than measurements (easier to cut if to big than to piece if to small.)
3.If making your own design, now is the time.
4. Clean surface of laptop w/ a baby wipe or a paper towel w/ a small amount of alcohol on it.
5. Decide the placement and start on one side peeling back an inch or 2 of the backing  at a time and smoothing with your hand.
6. Once you are happy w/ the placement trim edges with the utility knife, smooth corners and rounded edges.
7. Go over the surface w/ credit/gift card to burnish and remove air bubbles. Stubborn air bubbles can be pricked w/ a straight pin.


Ideas and hints:

I used a rotary cutter and ruler, I can't cut a straight line w/ scissors.

If you are making your own design I suggest drawing it out on blank paper and tracing it onto your Contact Paper using a light box, window or carbon paper. (Yes, I have some good old fashion carbon paper. I think it's older than me.) My design is from a piece of fabric.

If it's a repeating design draw only once and move it around as you trace, you will have a uniform design.

I traced my design onto the Contact Paper thinking I wanted black and white. Once I was done I decided it needed color so I just started coloring, no need to start over.

My daughter decided to do stickers (no measuring).  She drew pictures on clear Contact Paper and cut them out.

Don't use your printer, Contact Paper is to slick and you'll have a smeared mess. Tho I haven't tried to old hair spray trick were you spray the paper after you've printed it w/ airasol hair spray.  I've done that on plastic sheeting and the hair spray sets the ink. I will have to try that.  If anyone tries it please let us know if it works.

Chalk board Contact Paper might be a fun idea. Then you could change your design or write notes as much as you want.

Target and Walmart have a better selection of Contact Paper and permanent markers than the hardware store.

I will be doing my file cabinets next.
I warned my bose I may do this to my PC at work.

Silly Puppy

My oldest got a puppy for her birthday 3 years ago. May (the pup) loves toys, preferably stuffed animals. If you come through our front door you can expect to be greeted by a very happy puppy with a stuffed animal in her mouth that she would like to share with you.  While cleaning there rooms I had the girls go through all there toys and they had 2 large trash bags of stuffed animals to donate. While I was loading the boxes of clothes in the car I noticed May trying her hardest to get a bear bigger than her out of the bag.  She pulled and pushed and managed to get it out oh the bag, She was so excited she brought it to me. It was so much bigger than her and she looked so darn cute, I let her keep it. We actually kept that whole bag for her.  For a while we would alternate the animals.  Her favorite was the Aflack duck. It talked.  My oldest got a giant penguin from the amusement park and brought it home for her. It was hilarious watching her carry this thing around.  One day when I got home from work I walked in on the great penguin massacre.  Down stairs there was white stuffing all over my red rug and the pup was in the penguin. How the kids didn't notice I will never know.  Her next toy was a cow that mooed. May thought this was so cool. She could make it moo.  Soon she tore the poor cows head off and we had to remove the mooer. She still carries the headless cow around and gifts it to people when the enter.  As for the mooer, my hubby loves to hide it in various other stuffed animals. So at any given time we may have a mooing deer, bear or more recently a mooing bunny.  She is not a rip them to shreds pup.  She likes to put them in her food dish to feed them and occasionally she thinks they need water. I appreciate her mothering skills but soggy stuffed animals, yuck. If we aren't watching she also like to take them out to potty.

When my daughter got her Kia we thought she needed a Zuzu pet.  Cuz of the Kia Hamster commercials. The Zuzu fascinated May, they walk and make animal noises. she would watch it and pet it and protect it from danger, i.e. stairs the abyss of under the couch. We kept it up on the bookshelf in the living room. May new she was not aloud to climb on the self. She would stand like a prairie dog and Stretch to try and reach it. We did let her play with it under supervision.  If she started to get rough we would tell her gentle. Zuzu soon became her baby. She groomed it, cuddled it, took it to have food, but because it makes noise we put it up at night.  Each morning she would run out and stand up asking for it.  Once she figured out why we put it up she started butting it to bed on her pillow in the living room. So she could go get it herself in the morning.  One day Zuzu disappeared. May cried and looked everywhere for a couple days. Hubby sent the girls and I to go find another Zuzu. We found an identical one. At first May wasn't sure a bout this new baby, then she started caring for it. Zuzu 1 was found, under the treadmill. go figure, he must of crawled under  when we were working out.  May was thrilled, 2 babies. She immediately built a nest of throw pillows and her blanket.
It's been almost a year and she still thinks they are her babies.  May is a thoughtful pup. If our older dog isn't feeling well she gives her the bear to lay on.  If you look sad she will bring you a stuffed animal and lay her head on your lap. If your being tackled she will protect you by pulling on the offenders clothing. May is also very talented, she opens doors, sometimes w/ her paws, sometimes her mouth and sometimes just by brute force and her hard head.  She can escape from a dog run in less than 6 minutes.  I set up a sting for this one. She'd been getting out of her run and breaking into the house. One morning I left the door into the house open. She thought I had left but I came back in and stood on the stairs just inside and watched her. She pulled on the fencing with her teeth and paws and would take breaks to bark at it till she was able pull just enough to squeeze threw the tiny opening she made. She stopped dead in her tracks when she turned that corner to go up stairs and saw I was standing there.  She backed down the stairs and into the garage.

May has adopted me since her mama went off to college.  May sleeps w/ the youngest but as soon as she wakes up she's my shadow. Yes, a Zuzu is generally in tow. We go outside so she can take care of her business then we come n and work-out.  Yes, she works out too, it's the funniest thing. She loves to run on the treadmill w/ me, she does jumping jacks and push-ups. We need to work on sit ups, she seems to think the goal of those is to catch and pull my ponytail.  This morning after our morning work out I decided I had enough time to take a bath.  With 5 people in the house (4 girls) baths are a luxury. May is very talented, she opens doors, sometimes w/ her paws, sometimes her mouth and sometimes just by brute force and her hard head. I had just gotten in the tub and got comfy when all of a sudden there was May's head and she dropped something in the tub.  A foam ladybug.  Guess she thought I needed a toy to play with.  I was glad it wasn't a Zuzu or the giant bear.

Baseball, Pinterest, Crochet

What do baseball, Pinterest and crochet have in common?

My Daughters.

My oldest (19) is obsessed with baseball and has been for years.  Recently she discovered Pinterest and has gotten us all hooked. She found  how to make a bracelet out of a baseball. From lonelycactusflower.tumblr.com.  She has several old baseballs. The youngest (16) and oldest worked on peeling the baseball. This was scary, we had know idea where the Xacto knife was so they got out a large kitchen knife and needle nose pliers and a staple remover.  I told them not to get hurt as it was snowing and I did not want to make a hospital run.  Yes I did supervise. It was a little tougher to peel a baseball than they thought it would be. They only used the huge knife to cut into the leather.  My middle daughter (18) decided she needed to find out what makes a baseball. She unwound the white string layers, unwound the thicker almost yarn layers to discover a small super-ball type center.

Baseball Guts

My youngest decided she must crochet something out of the baseball yarn. When asked what, she doesn't know but she's got a good start on something.  

Baseball  Crochet

I'll have to post pictures once they finish bracelet and crocheted item. 

Thai pork chops minus the peanut oil

The girls and I are getting very creative with recipes now that I am allergic to nut. 

I miss Thai food so here's are latest recipe

Pork Chops (boneless)

Angle Hair Pasta 

1/4 cup Vegetable Oil (you can use 2 tbsp Sesame Oil or 1/4 c peanut oil)

1/2 cup Soy Sauce (low sodium)

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup Cooking Sherry

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 tbsp Cornstarch

2 tsp Minced Onions

Mix liquid ingredients in a bowl. 

Place pork chops in a plastic bag and pour 1/2 cup of mixture over chops, seal bag and refrigerate for an hour or so to marinate.

Heat skillet on med high heat with about 1 tsp oil and toast the minced onions. 

Brown pork chops in skillet.

Place browned chops in a 9 x 11 baking dish. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Add cornstarch to the reserved  liquid and pour in the skillet lower temp to medium, stir often. Sauce is ready when it thickens.

Make pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse.

Place pork chop on bed of pasta and top with sauce.

Our side dish was home grown green beans sauteed w/ minced onion and garlic. Salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

She's off to London

My middle daughter is heading to London to march w/ her high school band in the Queen's New Year's Day Parade.  Lots of planning, saving and fundraising went into this trip.  We are now in the home stretch. Does she have everything she needs? Does she have enough money (cash, debit card and pound)?  I'm sending my baby over the pond.

What you should know is until last year I had never been away from my kids for more than a weekend. So for our 25th Anniversary my husband took me to Key West for 2 full weeks. My over protective husband decided they could stay home by themselves. The man who sets bed time at 10 on most nights and curfew at 11 if they do go out. This shocked us all.  Helps that we have cops and teachers for neighbors.  All was fine and the house sans one big screen TV was intact. No, they didn't break it. We knew it was a matter of time since there was a 3 step ritual to turn it on.

The other two are headed to Key West for some fun in the sun with Grandma and Grandpa.

Today was a melt down day for us all. Every little thing set someone off.
Are all the girls packed? Do they have everything?  Medicine, swimsuits, winter coats, towels, rain gear.  Packing 3 kids for 2 totally different climates gets confusing. So glad they can pack themselves. We ran over the London check list while I did the youngest's hair. Then again while I was finishing up a last minute gift.

Only ran over the Key West check list once, we seem to have forgotten to pack towels. Tomorrow we will run over it again.
We all lived through he day made up and even helped each other get their stuff ready,  and are now in bed. Yes, we were all sent to bed at 10.

I am interested to see how tomorrow goes when  everyone has to say good by and go their separate ways.  The younger two are use to telling the older one by and only seeing her every few weeks since she's left for college.  I guess this will be a trial run for next year when the second one head off to school. The are close  thou they fight once in a while the are also friends.

Better sign off tomorrow's a big day.  I hate goodbyes.