A Beautiful February Week!

President's Day passed uneventful, didn't really celebrate our Presidents. Not sure what was going on in our community, so read a few articles on the Mount Vernon website (since it was originally Washington's Holiday!). AA did have a drippy nose for a few days but is over that (not sure if was cold or allergy).

Breakfast: New sausage, potatoes and veggies:

Tuesday: AA's dentist appointment. Happy Hour at the River House, I made a new chocolate fruit dip, very yummy. Dip fruit and pretzels.

Recipe: Ingredients 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened 1/4 cup butter, softened 2 cups confectioners' sugar 1/3 cup baking cocoa 1/4 cup 2% milk 2 tablespoons brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract M&M's minis, optional Animal crackers, pretzels and/or sliced apples 

Directions 1. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in confectioners' sugar, cocoa, milk, brown sugar and vanilla until smooth. If desired, sprinkle with M&M's minis. Serve with dippers of your choice. 

Wednesday: Now Ford and I both have some type of virus (tired, sore throat, stuffiness) - I used a COVID test, thankfully it was negative. Dinner was a frozen chicken pot pie and store bought broccoli slaw (no home cooking for us today).

Thursday: Another Parkinson's exercise class at the Catholic church and I still have a very bad cold (sneezing/runny nose). Ford is fairing a little better. Beautiful weather, so I did get one walk with Ginger. Took a beautiful picture of a bee in the pond's grapefruit tree.

AA played golf at EH, a regular after school practice. Another store bought dinner of pork dumplings and edamame.
Friday: Ford did some grocery shopping. I worked then rested, stilling feeling CRAPPY! AA has a golf lesson at 5:00 p.m. I did make a new recipe, Taco Bake, in a cast iron skillet. Pretty good, made enough for two meals so leftovers tomorrow!

Taco Bake Recipe:

Saturday: Ford attended the Parkinson's local support group monthly meeting at the Orange Park Library. I am still trying to get rid of this cold! First photo of the class exercises:

Group meeting at OP Library (I stayed home with my cold):

Watched Dylan's dance, she always does a great performance, solo on line (perfect for us!):

I do feel better, so caught up on my work hours, washed kitchen floor, dining room floor (FM vacuumed), washed our shower out, did the dishes and then showered and ready to relax (by 4:00 p.m.)! We missed Liv's performance in Cinderella, will definitely catch the next one in April. We missed our RH happy hour due to my cold, just in case, didn't want to spread my germs. Cleaning our wood floors with "Bona":

AA golfed at 3:30 p.m. and did homework in the morning.

Planted one of Terri's garlic cloves, it's growing!

And more blooms on E-E's Clivia plant:

Sunday: I woke up feeling pretty normal even with a stuffy nose and cough. We went to Home Depot and picked up our order (our "handy-woman" ordered for us - for various tasks around the house). We decided to take a "Sunday Drive", still don't want to be around anyone with this cold. We went to the St. Augustine Outlet shops for AA to try on some new golf clothes and golf shoes (only bought one top). Then picked up Sonny's BBQ sandwiches and drove the five minutes to our favorite microbrewery Ancient City.  Stopped at Maggie's on the way home for herbs and it was a good little trip.

Maggie's: I always take a Daddy-Daughter photo (AA is not thrilled, she doesn't see the beauty in this little "dive" of a plant "farm").

Cilantro, parsley, three kinds of basil, thyme.

AA then went to the golf course for two hours, then homemade pizza for dinner by Ford, then AA's algebra virtual tutor at 7:00 p.m.

Making pizza with onions, peppers, mushrooms and pepperoni:

We listened to a Birth parent search presentation by Brian Stuy (on Zoom). It was basic information but did raise a red flag about finding ads and birth dates, we will recheck AA's information. The DNA is best hope but forgot that the International adoptions were probably less than 5% of all China adoptions so most Chinese birth parents ("first families") don't think of their baby going out of the country. The Chinese culture is such that most Chinese parent NEVER tell their child that they are adopted, so most are not searching for birth parents or siblings since they do not know they are adopted. Learned alot of the obstacles to doing a search. Our first steps in this journey have been done and we know what our next step is (which we knew and was going to do when we had our June 2020 Heritage tour booked).