Last Week of October 2024

Monday 10/28/24: Took Ford to his Parkinson exercises. Back home I made pumpkin centerpieces (see separate post).

I cook a favorite linguini, chicken Florentine (with mushrooms).

Tuesday: Tuesday morning went well. Alyzabeth got up early and took her shower, had breakfast and then off to school. She has a government test today. Tonight, she has Laurie to help her study for her calculus test that is on Thursday. Ford and I got ready to go to his physical therapy at 9:30 and since he forgot to take his morning pills we drove back home at 10:30. We had leftovers for lunch and then drove to our noon haircut appointment with Steve. Steve has been sick with a type of Gastro ulcer, having a hard time finding foods that he can eat that agree with his system, must be lactose free, gluten and free not spicy not fried etc. I did take him my first and only finished pumpkin vase with flowers. After our hair appointment, we stopped at Publix to buy mixed nuts for happy hour today which is what Ford wanted. My hair was wet so I lay down for about an hour to dry it. Alyzabeth stayed after school volunteering as a Spanish tutor. I browned the beef stew meat for Irish beef stew in our slow cooker. It is a beautiful day a little cooler only in the 70s with clouds and a few stray showers.

Last night I listened to the Rick Steves webinar on Edinburgh Scotland. It was a refresher to help us plan our trip to Ireland, Scotland, and England, hopefully in June 2025.

We enjoyed our time at the River House with Hugh, Maureen and daughter, Erin plus Karrie. I brought corn dip again and mixed nuts. We talked a lot about the past times in Connecticut, past holiday traditions, etc. It was a cloudy day and a big rainstorm had just passed so several people had left the River House. We still enjoyed our time sitting inside the house and stay until 6 PM.

Once home, we enjoyed the Irish beef stew I made in the crockpot with fresh bread and butter. 

The next World Series baseball game is on tonight and the Yankees have to win in order to stave off the Dodgers (Yankees won).

Wednesday 30th:

Another typical Wednesday morning Alyzabeth got up Ford made her breakfast. I actually slept until my alarm went off at 5:55 AM. Once up Ginger had her walk which Alyzabeth is doing first thing in the morning now and we saw her off to school. I was committed and going through some storage tubs in our bedroom that had a lot of personal stuff letters from the 80s and 90s and I want to make piecrust to put in the freezer to be ready for Thanksgiving pies. Ford and I then went out to Sweet Sensations for lunch and enjoyed outlaw chicken salad, and a BLT and we brought home pasta salad for Alyzabeth school lunches. Once home, I helped Ford on Ancestry.com. We are researching his Irish ancestors and hoping to find the town and area so we can plan our trip to Ireland next year.  The time will go by quickly and we need to find out what tours or how we want to book our flights, and if we want to just do it all on our own. Back to going through the tubs, the first one took me several hours. Of course I had the TV running in the background which distracted me, but I did find some great letters from Terri, from Deb Gum, from EE and from Ford’s mom, his dad and Joy so we are going through those and deciding what to keep and what to pitch. The second tub was all genealogy papers so I kept it was a later date.

Thursday 31st: Halloween Day! Not too busy day, drove to Ford's Parkinson exercises.

Dinner was leftover Irish Beef Stew, and I made another apple crisp (with vanilla ice cream). 

We stood outside on our driveway with candy, ready for the kids - one family stopped by with three kids. We sat on driveway chatting with Nancy and hearing about her recent trip to Africa.

Friday 11/01/24: We drove to our Trustwell appointment, yearly to review our investments. They answered all our questions, always helpful.

AA met with SOS Dr. Jones's PA Andrew, pre-op appointment at 3:20 pm. All good, hopefully this is the last one!

Saturday: We slept in, me until 6:30 a.m.; AA got us at 7:50. Nice getting a little extra sleep.

AA and I drove to Target to buy dog food and some toys for the Ian toy drive (plus we sent four toys from Amazon directly to the Bailey's). See separate post.

Green Cove Springs 150th Year Celebration, we decided not to go (hard to walk around, will be after dark) - we went to the River House, usual friends, usual conversation - the Florida/Georgia game was in town - Georgia won. Florida actually was playing well until the quarterback was injured in the 2nd quarter.

Sunday: 11/03/24 Time to FALL back one hour. I am not looking forward to the earlier sunsets.

We decided not to drive to UCF to see Liv in her first play (it was rescheduled due to Hurricane Milton).

I woke up a little after 5 a.m. Starting my day early! Did two loads of laundry, worked on this blog and thinking about my trip to Missouri and then to Maine - Ford and Alyzabeth would normally be fine but Ford's legs are swelling again, so need to call a doctor tomorrow.

I made a new pancake recipe Ford found - using a sheet pan - the pancake did not get brown, so if I make again (probably not - only advantage is everyone can eat at the same time) - would put under broiler briefly.

I went to church, took a pumpkin floral arrangement to P. Faith (left in the kitchen, asked Cathy R. to give to her). 

I chatted with Melissa, she was with Terri helping Hilary reduce her storage unit from two to one. I went to Salinas Nails and had a pedicure (took off the blue and put back on my usual color).

Ford and I drove to Spring Park Coffee for a lemonade and iced tea, AA did not want to come. A few rain sprinkles, plus walking Ginger and panzanella for dinner (AA ate the leftover apple crisp too). With the time change, at 6:30 p.m., felt like 9 p.m.!! Watched the Jaguars lose - by 5 points, exciting game after the halftime.