My husband and I just celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary!  What a lot of memories together.  

Al was supposed to meet a friend and go golfing in Richfield, Utah.  His friend cancelled - I think because I was going there, too.  We went anyways and had a lot of fun.  I drove the golf cart.  We met a nice man named Ed - from Arizona there.  It was fun.  We  hung out for a couple of days. 

I went golfing with Al and Al went to the quilt show with me.

We stayed 2 nights at Quality Inn. It was clean.  It had a pool, hot tub and breakfast as well as cookies at the front and coffee, if you drink it.  It was reasonably priced.  We were very happy with it.  

We went back to SLC and stayed 2 nights at Little America.  The room was expensive, not as big as the one in Richfield.  The view they have on the website was NOTHING like our view out of the second story building, outlying the tower.  They charged us 30% for amenities - to be returned if it wasn't used.  NO breakfast.  We did sit in the hot tub.  We were charged $18 to park there each night!!  Who does that!  It was expensive, no personal touch.  It will be our first and last stay there.

 I went to the eye doctor today.  I have cataracts.  The doctor was surprised I could see as well as I can.

A few years ago my mom had cataract surgery.  It's not a hard surgery.  She wanted all five of her girls there with her.  I asked her why we all needed to be there.  She said, "Because I thought it would be fun.  And we can go to lunch after."  That was my mom, she loved a good time.  She always made things fun.  She loved to celebrate the holidays.  I really miss that woman.

I think I shall request the presence of my kiddos when I have my cataract surgery!

 

 After the flood comes the fire.

My Hubby was gone for the week.  We had the flood with disaster control coming in to help clean up.  I was cleaning the front room and "uncovered" the fire place.  This was around midnight on a Friday night.  I wondered if it still worked.  That was a bad idea.

I turned on the gas, and held a barbeque lighter where I thought the gas line was.  I burned up a bunch of cobwebs, but no fire.  Suddenly - KABOOM! There was a big fire flash, but no fire.  I put the lever back in place, went to the bathroom and my face was lightly burned with about half an inch of my hair that framed my face.  Also, now I have no eyebrows!

I slathered on some aloe vera I have in the fridge.  I thought about it and decided to go to emergency to see if everything was OK.  They said I had done the right thing and with time everything would be alright.

I got home about 1:30 a.m.  The house smelt gassy.  I decided to call the gas company just to be safe.  Boy, the rules they have.  I needed to leave my house and walk 350 feet away.  How much is that anyway?  Don't start my car.  Don't turn anything off or on.  It was pretty cold.  I DID turn on the front porch light and open the door and I walked across the street and walked up and down for a while.  I was freezing.  I snuck back in and grabbed a couple of quilts.  Then I waited and waited.  Now it's 2:30 in the morning and a couple of huge trucks slowed down.  I heard heavy metal from the first truck.  We have some crazy neighbors that come home late, so I just thought it was them.  About 10 minutes later the guys hopped out.  I walked over to the truck and saw it was the gas company.  I identified myself and they took out their meters.  They went to the fireplace and there wasn't any gas leaks.  Guess I had turned it off properly.

But, they still detected a gas leak.  They found it in the basement.  They ended up turning off my gas and putting a sticker on that only a qualified technician could remove.  They left about 5:30 a.m.

On Saturday I had made commitments,  so I left for the day.  When I got home the hubs was there.  I had to tell him that we didn't have any gas and I had to tell him about the flood, too.  We called a couple of those 24 hour services to see if they could fix our gas line, but the best any one could do was Monday.

On Monday Nick came out.  He fixed the pipe, after shutting off all of the gas appliances.  When he was done, the water tank wouldn't fire up.  We ended up having to get a new hot water tank, which couldn't be installed until Tuesday.  When Nick got out old tank to the street he said it was the worst one he had ever seen.  Plus it was 18 years old, so it had given more life than most.

All in all - it was an expensive week!  Hopefully not to be repeated anytime soon.

Sometimes, no matter how long we plan - things just don't go our way.

Yesterday my hubby left for a 5 day hunting trip.  Perfect.  I had so many plans!  What should I do first?  Quilt? Rubber stamp?  Clean out that closet I can never get to, because he is in his chair and I can't throw all of my clothes over him (lol).  Hummm

I had a friend come over to visit, and we had to go in the back yard because killer dog wouldn't let  her enter my house.  It was great.  I noticed my plants needed some water, so I watered them.  I was just putting around.  I tried to start my dishwasher.  I like to get the water hot first.  I had the water on for longer than usual, and no hot water!  

I went downstairs to see if the hot water heater was working - and I had a fountain shooting out of my washing machine!  Or so it seemed.  Luckily I know where the water valve is to the house, so I shut off all of the water.  We had 2 inches of water all over the basement - well in 3 rooms.  I called any hour services and they sent someone out within the hour.  

Guess it wasn't the first time he had seen something like this.  He had to replace the hoses to my washing machine.  He also called out a disaster company.  That company was out within the next hour.

After turning off the water, some of it actually went down the drain, but AllPro Services brought in a water vac, some big fans and gave me an estimate of what it will cost to get the basement back in order.  I have so much fabric and rubber stamps.  The water saturated all the cardboard boxes. I have been "running" up and down the stairs putting what I can into the garbage cans.

I have a knee replacement scheduled in a month, so the stairs have been doubly fun.  I am so thankful for plastic containers.  Anything in those don't have a problem.

I have bolts of fabric stretched across the deck.  It looks like a big festival is headed my way.

I'm trying to be a mature adult about this.  I decided to NOT call my hubby, and ruin his hunt.  If he is lucky, he will get a deer - and have no other worries.

Life - it's not for the faint of heart.   

Another 2 hour casserole my mom would make is:

Texas Hash

1 pound ground beef

2 sliced onions

2 chopped green peppers

2 cups canned tomatoes

1 cup water

1 cup uncooked rice

1 t. chili powder

1 t. salt

Saute' beef, onions and peppers until beef is browned.  Add rest of the ingredients and cook in an instant pot for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!    💜

 Tonight I'm making my Mom's (Joyce Welch)

Sausage and Rice Casserole

1 chopped onion                4 ribs celery, chopped

1 chopped green pepper    2 pkgs. Lipton chicken noodle soup dry mix

2 pounds sausage (I use 1 lb.)

2 cups uncooked rice        3 1/2 cups water

Saute' sausage, onion, green pepper and celery until sausage is brown.  Add rest of ingredients and put into an instant pot (I suggest a 6 quart) for 20 minutes.  Natural release 10 minutes and you are done!  Add slivered almonds on top when serving.

Enjoy!    ❤

This recipe took my Mom 2 hours to cook in the oven.  I'm so grateful for our modern appliances!

 Wow!  I haven't blogged for so long.  I felt inspired to try something I heard about - dying eggs for Easter.

I used tissue paper - red, dark blue, bright green and orange.  I cut each piece of paper into 6 pieces.

Wrap each egg in the tissue.  The first batch was just red.  I put the blue, orange and green into the next batch.  I used my instant pot, using 1 cup of water each time.  Add your wrapped eggs.  Put on pressure for 5 minutes.  After that, let it sit for 5 more minutes.  Put into an ice water bath for 5 more minutes.  Remove the tissue paper.

Enjoy!

The red and blue turned out the best.  Green was the worst.

 This covid-19/pandemic is not fun.  We are doing what most people are doing.  Trying to stay home, washing our hands, sanitizing, cooking more and baking.

Tonight I tried a new recipe for our family.  I made shrimp-bacon alfredo

Alfredo Sauce

1 cup heavy cream, or evaporated milk

4 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup shredded Paramesan cheese

Melt butter.  Add milk.  Simmer - not boil - 4 - 5 minutes.  Add cheese until melted.

Saute peeled shrimp (1 pound) in 1 tablespoon butter until pink.

Cook 1 package bacon in the oven 400 degrees 18 - 20 minutes or until crispy.  Drain on a paper towel.

Boil a package of fettuccine pasta, or pasta of your choice until tender.  Pour sauce, shrimp and crumbled bacon over the top and mix.

I think we will be having this again sometime soon!