Always Cookin, Saying Goodbye to Friends, Deans list, Father's Day

Wow - Just hard to believe that the month of June is almost over!  Half way through another year!  Well we celebrated my Birthday a few weeks ago..........and just a few days ago we celebrated Father's Day!   I picked up one of Rich's favorite's at Publix for him to enjoy! He (and ME) always enjoy these huge Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

And  on this Day we recognize and celebrate Fatherhood, and parental bonds.  And I am so proud of these four men in my life!  My husband Rich with his son Dennis on the left.  And celebrating in Heaven - Rich's Father, Robert, and my father Jack!  Love your all!!  

 

 And of course I always have to share pictures of mother nature.... and her friends.   We had a variety of visitors the other day....... The two top left are of the resident Anhinga, The bottom two on the left are of a brand new baby Limpkin!  This was the first time we'd seen a bay, and were surprised to see the colors!  As they get older they will become brown and white.  And of course last, but not least is one of the two new baby Blue Heron, who enjoys looking for food on the roof of our boathouse...but still returns to the nest for Mama to feed .

Of course I'm not going to forget to share a few pictures from our weekly dinner menu! Now I did cook a 9 lb Turkey this week, complete with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole....but when I got the camera to take a picture, Rich had pretty much completed the Turkey carving........and when we had left overs for hot Turkey Sandwiches..........I forgot to take a picture.. However below we have Chicken Chile w/Cornbread, Ravioli w/sausage, Chicken Fajitas w/refried beans and rice...........and a refreshing adult beverage!

Picture below is of our next door neighbors, Jim and Patty.  WELL - they were our neighbors!  Yes they have sold their house nextdoor, and will return full time to the other home in Englewood.  We've so enjoyed having them as neighbors, and will truly miss not seeing them sitting on the dock fishing! This picture was taken in December 2018 when they came for dinner the first time!  They were back in Lake Placid  on Saturday, and took us to lunch at Golden Corral.  Nice spending time with them...... and lunch was very good as well!    We will miss them...........but Englewood is not that far away!

OH MY............I can't forget to share more good news! Deans List for the third year in a row for our grand daughter, Chauna!  Good Job!

ption: The University of Iowa recently announced more than 8,500 of its undergraduate students earned dean's list status for the 2020 spring semester.

Chauna Donald

Majoring in Speech And Hearing Science
University of Iowa
From Davenport, IA

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Chauna Donald named to University of Iowa dean's list for spring 2020 semester

June 11, 2020

Chauna Donald of Davenport, IA 52804-2318 was among the more than 8,500 undergraduate students at the University of Iowa named to the dean's list for the 2020 spring semester. Donald is a student in the UI's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and is majoring in Speech and Hearing Science.

Guidelines for inclusion on the list are:

• Courses offered on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U) or pass/non-pass (P/N) basis do not count toward graded credit for inclusion on the dean's list.
• Undergraduate students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Education, the College of Engineering, the Tippie College of Business, and University College who achieve a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.50 or higher on nine semester hours (spring 2020) or more of UI graded coursework during a given semester or summer session and who have no semester hours of "I" (incomplete) or "O" (no grade reported) during the same semester are recognized by inclusion on the dean's list for that semester.
• Undergraduate students in the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine with fewer than nine semester hours (spring 2020) of graded credit, if deemed appropriate by the college.
• College of Nursing students participating in clinical courses who have a total of nine semester hours of earned credit (spring 2020), with eight semester hours of graded credit with a GPA of 3.50 or higher.

Cooking, Baking, Yard work, Doctors, Doctors, Doctors!

Well things started to let up, with the Covid-19 virus, and many states have started to open back up and put people back to work.  But what is now taking place in this country is absolutely frightening.    Antifa has been designated a Terrorist group.......and with the help of other bought and paid for hate groups, our country is literally being destroyed.  Killings, looting,  setting fires, destroying historic statues, wanting to defund the police.............and it goes on and on. 

Fortunately here in our quiet little town, everything remains pretty normal.   I really miss , being at the lake in NY...........but life must go on!  And so Rich and I continue cooking most of our meals in..... and the past couple of weeks, some of our favorites:  Meatballs ....for meatball subs, and the rest put away for another day with pasta.  Fixed and delicious Pork Loin in the crockpot, and  another favorite: Honey-mustard & Beer Chicken, with mashed potatoes and asparagus.  Pasta night with linguine, sausage and garlic bread. We made a big pot of ham & potato soup, that we enjoyed a couple of night.  And of course most of our meals were complimented with Rich's home made yeast risen bread!

We talked about going out to celebrate my birthday.... but neither of us feel comfortable eating in a restaurant yet!  But I still had a joyful day..........Between mailed cards, emails, and Facebook I must have gotten close to 100 Birthday greetings!     That was awesome! Rich surprised me with a gift certificate for a one hour massage at the Spa!   Dinner? Well - we got a Dock Onion (very much like the Bloomin Onion at Outback!)  - take-out from Dock 633.  And we ordered submarine sandwiches from Subway!

We've continued to watch the Blue Herons...... the little ones have been fun to watch, and in this past week they are both leaving the nest, flying about, and visiting us quite frequently!.  Got a picture of one of them out on the boathouse roof!   And just happened to look out the back window the other day and there was our resident black snake - sunning himself on the deck. 

Finally got a day that wasn't raining, and not quite as hot as it has been.  So Rich & I got some much needed work done in the yard.   He cleaned out the gutters, and trimmed  topiary in the front yard.  I trimmed the bushes and hedges in the front yard.  Still need to trim the palms out front.... but it looks a lot better. 

And hopefully the doctor visits will slow down.  Guess it's a good thing we cancelled our trip north.... because I've been back and forth one place or the other almost every week...........and still not quite done!   Still seeing the eye doctor.... had laser surgery done in the left eye along with a follow-up.  Then trouble starting with the right eye, so saw the retina doctor for that - and a follow-up is coming up in a couple of weeks.   Had my mammogram, and all is good there,    Had an upper -endoscopy done and got good news at my follow up visit.  NO SIGNS of the Barrett's Esophagus which means the medication is working!!!  Was having some pain in the right arm.....so that was a visit to my primary.  He gave me a steroid shot, and a prescription for a muscle relaxant!  Doing fine!

And that's about it!  I am starting prep today for my colonoscopy!  That is Wednesday!

Can't believe it's June already!! Praying for this country

I swear, the older you get, the faster time goes by.  It's June already, and in just a few more weeks, we will be half way through 20 20!   While our state is opening up pretty quickly ( from the Pandemic) (at least in our area) we still have not ventured out to restaurants, or to spend time with friends.  The past few weeks have been pretty much the same old, same old.... except Hurricane season is here, so we are getting lots of rain...........and we've lost power 5 TIMES in the last 4 weeks.

So ...... since we don't eat out much anymore, it's been pretty busy in the kitchen!  What's been the latest on the menu???   Mojo Rotisserie Chicken (From Publix!)with homemade potato salad.  .Rich spent the goo part of the day, one day, in the kitchen making a cake!  He calls it a modified Boston Cream Pie.  A yellow cake, with vanilla pudding and whip cream filling, and a Chocolate Buttercream icing..........His first ever made from scratch cake!  And it was delicious!  Additionally, we made some delicious oven baked pork chops with fried potatoes and beans, Shrimp pasta, with a garlic butter sauce, and a casserole of baked ziti!

'OH and I forgot.... we did order in delivery from Dominos Pizza!  Excellent!  I had the hand tossed
sausage and pepperoni, and Rich enjoyed the hand tossed chicken and sausage!  Delicious!



Hurricane Season has arrived, and that means Rain, Rain and more Rain............. For several days in a row........this has been the view from the back of the house!  So that means losing the Direct TV signal!!!!

BUT....   with all the rain, the back lanai and the front porch were in desperate need of cleaning!  And as soon as we found a day without rain, the hose and broom and squeegee were hard at work, cleaning!  I still have 2 poinsettia plants from Christmas, on the front porch, that are in need of being planted!

Of course, we can not forget Memorial Day!...... No we did not have our annual get together, or cook out that day........but we did remember ................

Yes - we have seen a lot of rain............but it we also enjoy our resident birds!  The two baby Blue Hereon, we watch every day from the back lanai.........and it looks like after 60 some days they are ready to leave their nest!  Mamma still does a lot of feeding.............but we had the opportunity to watch her rest..............as she perched on the back deck.  I watched from inside, from the kitchen for 2 or three hours!

As you know.... the Graduation ceremonies were cancelled in Iowa...but Dennis sent us the local
Daily Iowan................which included congratulations to many of the 2020 graduates.......That's Dalton in the upper left corner, along with a picture of him with his Dad, Dennis when he was very young.  We are so very proud of Dalton!  We also received a package from Dennis.........that were face masks for us to wear during this pandemic............hand made, University of Iowa!!  WE Love Them!!

And also taking place in Davenport, IA......celebrating Onyx's Birthday
Happy Birthday fella!!  He turned 14 years old on June 1st!!

I guess we are pretty lucky to be living in a small town.  No longer do we hear an awful  about the Pandemic............instead we've seen a Black Man murdered by a police officer!!!  And the whole country reacting!  In deed the whole country mourned the death,  and together want to see justice!

BUT - there are far left organizations that have taken this sad time.............to try and destroy our country.  Taking advantage of those who are in good faith protesting against the police brutality.  (Mind you..........I support our police 100% -  these four are not the norm)   Antifa, and other far left Socialist groups are destroying cities across the country............. Here is link  that explains very well what is going on.  So very sad to see this happening in the USA............

Antifa, Other Far-Left Groups Exploit Protests for ‘Revolution’

Click on this link to read the article"  https://amac.us/antifa-other-far-left-groups-exploit-protests-for-revolution/?campaign=daily-news-email&fbclid=IwAR04TVPU18v42nwr95anBIbmzW-m9adgroWEjSJ2ggy_tABhMYnDhsd4cNs

God Bless our President................and our Country!