A feeling of Deja Vu...........

meaning I feel as though I am getting sick again........to be honest I haven't been 100% since I first started with this cold a couple of weeks ago.  Now my throat is bothering me again.  My energy level is a big fat ZERO.  On Monday it took me to lunch time to actually get dressed.  I even skipped my morning shower, which is so unlike me.

I was talking to my mother who is in Britain and who also has the same cold and the nurse at her doctors office was saying this cold is hitting everyone twice; in that just when you think it's over with back it comes again.  One thing is for sure I can't be blamed for giving it too her, she got it off my younger brother who is also as sick as a dog with it.  So on both sides of the "pond" people are suffering with it.

Yesterday I talked about my bedtime routine, today I will tell you about Molly's morning routine.  She gets up with dh at around 4:30am when he gets up to go to work, and he lets her out.  More often than not she goes and lays down on the sofa and back to sleep.

Now if I am not up by around 6:45am she comes upstairs to see where I am and generally makes a nuisance of herself.  So I generally give in and get up, as by this time I am awake, and once awake I stay awake.

I get up and go downstairs to find her sitting on the ottaman waiting for me to fill her food bowl and water bowl.  She then moves to the kitchen when she hears me getting her pill and the cheese slice.  Once she has had that I put her collar on, and she sometimes wants to go out, but more often than not she goes back on the sofa and back to sleep...................thank you Molly!!!!

That dog has got me wrapped around her finger.........but I wouldn't part with her!

By the way stew on the second day is better than the first day, isn't it?

Book Review and getting ready for bed....

"Another Dawn" by Kathryn Cushman

What Would You Give for a Second Chance to Make Things Right?

When life gets complicated, Grace Graham runs. She's left romantic relationships, friendships, and even her family after the death of her mother. But now her sister, Jana, is giving her once last chance: Come home and help care for their father--whom Grace still blames for her mother's death--or never show her face in Shoal Creek, Tennessee, again. 

With her son, Dylan, in tow, Grace returns home from California. But is she returning for the right reasons? And when costly decisions from the past suddenly put her son's life and the lives of other children in town at risk, will she have the strength to stand strong and await Another Dawn?

This is the first time I have read anything by this author and lets just say I am hooked on her work.  This is an exceptionally well written book on a subject that every parent has talked about and has made a decision about and anyone who will become a parent will have to think about.  I can't say much more about the main theme of this book as it will spoil the story for you.  It also a story that brings a family back together through terrible times.

It was one of those books where I just wanted to keep turning the next page to see what would happen next.  

Stars out of 5: I would say 5, it's well worth buying or borrowing from the library as it is such a great book, exploring a great subject.

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.  Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

I was over at Lakeland Jo's blog and she mentioned a post at Busy Bee Suz about bedtime routines, so I popped over to take a look and was laughing so hard at it, until I realized how much of it is so true in my neck of the woods as well.......

So here is my bedtime routine:

Wake Molly and tell her she has to go for a pee.

Tell Molly another seven times to wake up and go for a pee.........

Wait for Molly by the patio doors while she slowly walks to the door still half a sleep.

Finally let her out.

While she is out:

I sort out the fire

Fill the water pot on top of the fire

Turn off the laptop

Lock the front door

Turn off the fan that pushes hot air to the second floor

Make sure I have the coffee on for dh and his pills are beside the machine so he remembers to take them.

Molly is now barking to be let in.

Let her in and take off her collar

Lock the patio doors

Check Molly's dish to make sure she has enough water

Tell Molly I am going to bed and I'm off upstairs

Generally dh is in bed.....

So I go to the bathroom to pee and have a wash and strip off.

Wander into the bedroom in the dark and close the blind by my side of the bed............dh never ever does that?

Find my pj's and put them on, get into bed.

Put on my elbow brace and my wrist brace on my right arm, having problems with that arm.

Turn over and gently fall asleep..........

Just as I am falling asleep one of two things happen.........

Molly gets a second life and decides to attack her bone or rabbit, squirrel, hedgehog and barks like a crazy dog downstairs while playing with them.  So up I get to round her up and tell her to go to sleep.

Walk back upstairs and decide I have to pee again, otherwise I will be up in another half hour wanting to pee.

Or Molly comes trotting upstairs to go to bed, but then she realizes she has forgotten to bring her bone, rabbit, squirrel or hedgehog, so off she trots back downstairs to reappear another five minutes later. 

We have wood floors and with her nails she clatters around like a cart horse.

So now that she has settled I turn over just in time for dh to start snoring and his legs to start leaping around (restless leg)

Luckily by this time I am worn out and I do finally get off to sleep............I am worn out just reading this!!

Is your bedtime routine as bad?

Ratty, baggy underwear............

you know the type the ones you are most comfortable in.  The pair's that you wear when you know you are not leaving the house, as you remember what your Mother or Nana used to say:

"Always make sure you wear clean underwear when you go out, as you may be run over by a bus and end up at the hospital, and you don't want to nurses or doctors to see you wearing your old underwear."

Well I had a clean out of my underwear drawer and out they have all gone.  Now I must admit I have about as a much chance of being hit by a bus as winning the lottery, as there is no public bus service where we live, and the only buses I see are the school buses or buses taking people to the ski hills.  All which I see from the safety of my house!!!  However I still make sure I don't wear my old underwear when I leave the house, just in case!!

So now I need to pick up some new underwear.  Luckily I am at a stage in my life where comfort takes precedence over looks.  Gone are the days when I followed fashion and thank goodness for that, as it always baffles my mind how people can wear the equivalent of a postage stamp strung together with material no thicker than dental floss, aka a thong.............

Then there is "VPL," which is visible pantie line......can't say I am worried about that either as who in their right mind will be looking at my butt.  Now granted the larger butt is in fashion; I'm thinking Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian here, but believe I am neither!!!  No, I will stick with my granny panties, that cover everything and are a heck of a lot more comfortable................

I have just realized I will no doubt have every pervert on the internet popping by with that blog title....LOL  Boy they are going to be very disappointed!!

Hard day, I smell nice and the price of milk!!!

Blew out the driveway twice on Friday but I think I have it more or less got it all cleared..........well until the next snowfall.  It was hard going with the wind.  I managed to get it cleared so I could go to town.  My brother's birthday is on the 10th and I hadn't got his card put in the mail.  Should get there in time though as the mail to Britain is pretty good.  I was only out an hour and by the time I got back the driveway was partially covered, so I blew it out again after lunch.

I went for a shower after doing the driveway a second time and after I got out my skin was dry so slathered some Mango and Mandarin Body Lotion by Bath and Bodyworks on my body.  It smells so nice; I love the smell of citrus, very invigorating.  Mind you in my case not invigorating enough, as I couldn't be bothered to put my clothes on and spent the rest of the afternoon in my dressing gown.

While in town this morning I nipped into the grocery store to pick up a couple of things, including milk.  We buy our milk in bags, I talked about it a while back on this post  Anyhow I see that they have put the price of milk up, it is now $4.47 at No Frills  for a 4 litre bag, it was $4.17.........now that is just under a gallon in the Sates and just over a gallon in Britain.  What is the price of milk where you live? 

Everything is going up in price though I am finding...........

Nasty, nasty, nasty

It's just before 5:30am on Friday morning as I am writing this.  I have been up for a little while, helping dh dig out his truck........

We may not have had any more snow since Wednesday, but it is blowing it around like the dickens.  Which has resulted in blocking us in at the top of the driveway.  Dh attempted to drive his pickup through it and got stuck, so we both had to dig him out and it's bitter cold out there.

Luckily I told work I wasn't coming in today, as there isn't a cat in hell's chance of me getting out of the driveway until I blow it all out again.  It was the same yesterday when dh came home from work the driveway was all blocked in.   Although the main roads weren't bad the side roads were not the greatest.

One way of telling that the roads are bad, is when you see me driving the speed limit or under!!!  It's well known in my family I have a lead foot, but even I know to be cautious when there is snow on the roads.  I saw three cars in the ditches on the way home yesterday.  No idea why, other than they were travelling too fast....

So I will have my bowl of cereal and my hot cup of tea and when it gets light head outside with my trusty side kick "SNOW BLOWER," and see if we can get the driveway blown out again.  Mind you with that wind howling, I may be wasting my time, but even I have to go out today.......

Another yummy recipe and a "Snow Day"

As I was passing a co-workers computer on Tuesday he had a yummy looking recipe on his computer screen.  It turned out his wife was taking part in a casserole exchange and she was making Undone Stuffed Pepper Casserole from the Kraft Recipes Site as her recipe for the exchange.

What You Need

1 lb. lean ground beef

2   green peppers, coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups  cooked long-grain white rice

1 jar (24 oz.) spaghetti sauce

1-1/2 cups  KRAFT Shredded Italian* Five Cheese with a Touch of PHILADELPHIA, divided

Make It

HEAT oven to 350ºF.
BROWN meat with peppers and garlic in large skillet; drain. Stir in rice, spaghetti sauce and 3/4 cup cheese.
SPOON into 2-qt. casserole; top with remaining cheese.
BAKE 25 min. or until heated through.

Now I only had a red pepper in the freezer, so I added a red onion chopped as well.  I had some cream cheese that wanted using up so I put half a packet (4oz) in the casserole instead of the cheese.  Although I did put grated cheddar cheese on the top to finish.  This is an ideal recipe if you have leftover rice, as it requires cooked rice.

It was really good and a keeper.  If you can get red or green peppers cheap, chop them up and pop them in the freezer for use at a later date.  The photo was taken before I put it in the oven.  I made a pear crisp to go into the oven at the same time, the recipe for Apple Crisp is here.

So we had what they are calling the worst winter storm for this winter so far on Wednesday.  We knew it was coming, as the media went over board at telling everyone.  Dh couldn't go to work as it was that bad and there was only the odd car/truck going by on the road.  It was supposed to stop by lunch time.......well the wind calmed down, but it then continued to snow even harder???

Dh was a love and took over snow blowing duties, but there was so much of it, that the poor snow blower was struggling.

Here he is going up the driveway.......

and back down the driveway.....

It was really deep so it's going to take a couple of days to get this all cleaned up.......

Book Review and a neat photo.........

Promises to Keep - Ann Tatlock

Eleven-year-old Roz (Rosalind) Anthony and her family have just moved to Mills River, Illinois, to escape an abusive situation. Only days after settling into their new home, they are surprised to find the previous owner, Tillie Monroe, on their front porch reading the newspaper. Though her sons have sold the house and sent her to a facility for the aged, she is determined to die in the place she lived her life and somehow manages to find her way "home" day after day. Feeling sympathy for the elderly woman, Roz's mother allows Tillie to move back in.


Mara Nightingale becomes Roz's first friend in Mills River. In spite of their many differences, the girls discover they have something in common that binds them together--both are hiding secrets. So they make a promise--cross my heart and hope to die"--never to tell anyone else.

When danger stalks the Anthonys, Tillie exhibits unimaginable courage and selfless love in her determination to protect the family she has adopted as her own.

I loved this book, the story was so easy to relate too and to immerse yourself into.  I wanted to turn the page just to see what was going to happen next.  For anyone who has ever been an 11 year old girl you can so relate to what Roz and Mara feel.  Their total innocence in believing the best in people despite what other people tell you.

I didn't know what was going to happen to the very end; you had an idea but what did happen was still a bit of a surprise.  I have never read any of Ann Tatlock's books before, but I am now a huge fan she is a super writer.  I would really recommend you buying this book or requesting it from your local library as it is a winner.

Stars out of 5: 5 I just loved this book...........

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.  Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".
Where I work is very close to the Toronto airport.  The planes take off and land over the shop area.  When we first moved there I used to duck when the airplanes came over now I never here them.  It's funny now to watch customers duck if they are new to the place.  By the way you only really hear them when the big doors are open in the warehouse in the Summer or if you are standing outside.  Anyhow Alan took this photo of a KLM 747 coming in to land on Monday.  I never saw it as I think he said it came into land just after I left.

It's neat how close they come isn't it, and you can see the landing wheels already down ready to land.  Thank you Alan for letting me use your photo.

It's a snow day for me today so no work.......we are in for a big dumping of snow, so I get the day off from work to snow plow the driveway...............not sure which I would prefer to do?????    Only another 47 days until Spring.............