WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO

 Hello, friends!  I know I've been missing for a while now.  Let me tell you why.  In the beginning of June my computer crashed.  I lost everything.  Pictures, posts, and access to this and my YouTube channel.  It's been quite a time getting everything set up again.  I had close to 550 subscribers on YouTube and now I am down to 15.  But I am so glad to have those 15!  I still haven't recovered all my pictures.  If you were a subscriber (or know someone who was), please tell them the name of my new YouTube channel is Kathy's Happy Home 2.

In any case, I am glad to be back here.  So much is going on.  I am busy all the time.

We finally emptied out our storage unit from when we moved and got rid of that bill.  We expected to have it for two months tops and ended up with 18 months!  Unfortunately, now the house is full again with all the cartons and bags we had to bring in.  I'm working through them one at a time.

Yay we got rid of a bill.  But...

I had to get the car inspected.  We found out we needed an oil change, new rotors, and four new tires.  It never ends, does it?  But now that is all taken care of and we are broke again.  2026 is going to be better.

I saw a new to me cardiologist.  I like him better than the one I had been seeing.  But he wants me to have all kinds of tests and perhaps a surgery or two (or three).  And see some specialists.  *sigh*

One good thing is since my sister retired this year, I've been able to see more of her, and we talk almost every day.  This is good!

I have to show you a cute picture I took tonight.  I had salmon for dinner with broccoli and macaroni salad.  George must have smelled the fish, because he jumped right up in Joe's chair and it looked as if he was waiting for his dinner too.  So cute!

I know this is kind of short, but it's late and I still have things to do before I get ready for bed.  I'll be back soon to continue with telling you about June, July, August, etc.

Kathy

MAY

Hello, friends!  I'm back with the catch-up from May.  May was a busy month but full of good food.

We got these wonderful strawberries from Lidl.  I ate mine with some Cool Whip and they were so good!

Another day we got hoagies from Wawa.  I love ham hoagies.  Joe likes Italian.

Joe outgrew his tie-dyed shirt so I took it.  It's so nice even though it's very old.

We decorated our front porch for Memorial Day.  Well, Joe did.  I think he did a good job.

I got a tomato plant and since we don't have a yard anymore, I put it in the big pot on the front porch.  It did really well for awhile, but then something ate it.  *sigh*

One of our neighbors had his porch decorated so beautifully.  I just had to take a picture of it.

The end of the month was Joe's birthday.  We went back and forth on what to do to celebrate.  Finally we decided to go to our favorite Japanese restaurant, Yamato.

We both got a bento box -- Joe a beef and me a chicken.  They were so good.  And Joe got mango mochi (like ice cream) for dessert.

I made Joe a chocolate cake for his birthday.  It turned out good.

Finally, at the end of the month we had another luncheon at church.  This time the theme was salads.  I made potato salad.  There were other potato salads, a green salad, two chicken salads, a tuna salad and a seven layer salad.  Everything was so good.

And that's another month in the books.  I'll be back soon to tell you about June.

 

APRIL

 

Hello, friends!  I'm back with the month of April.  I'm catching up!

April was a month full of activity.  The main thing was that Joe had to go to physical therapy.  I took him and one time I went inside with him.  But the place for people to sit is small and crowded.  It wasn't very comfortable.  So the rest of the time I sat in the car in the parking lot.  The rehab center was in a shopping center so there was always lots of people around.  I felt totally safe and ended up reading lots of books.  An hour twice a week gives you time for reading!

Easter was in April too.  We invited our friends Rosemary and Carol to come over for dinner.  We had ham (free one from spending enough money at Shoprite to get their reward), mashed potatoes, rolls, salad, veggies and apple pie.  Lots of good food.   And it was fun seeing them too.  We try to invite people who would be alone on a holiday to come over.

I had some appetizers on the coffee table when they came in and took a picture of it.

I also decorated some.  I have tons of bunnies but couldn't find them.  Probably still in a box somewhere.  But I did find a few and put them around the house.  This is what I put on the bookcase I have on the front porch.  Our Dollar General was going out of business and everything was 90% off.  Of course everything was well picked over by the time I got there.  The little blue, white and yellow flowers were the only ones left in the store.  Just three little beat up stems.  I put them in the vase with the red rose Joe gave me for Valentine's Day and fluffed them out.  They looked great.  Not bad for 5 cents each.

Joe was on a baking kick this month.  He just kept baking cake after cake.  Some we ate and some he gave away.  Here's two of them.

Since Joe was a baker in a former life, they were really good.  Yellow with chocolate icing and devil's food with white icing.

That's about it for this month.  I'll be back soon with the month of May and Joe's birthday.

MARCH

 

Hello, everyone!  How did it get to be the end of July already?  I really meant to keep up with this, but time gets away from me.  I will work hard, though, so that I can post more up to date information.

But let me tell you about March.

Many of you might have heard about the airplane crash in Northeast Philadelphia.  It was a medical plane.  A little girl had been very sick and was in Children's Hospital in Philadelphia for months.  Her mother was with her.  They were from Mexico.  Finally, she was well enough to go home.  They were in a commuter plane which was taking them and four other people (doctor, pilot, etc.) to the Midwest where they would refuel and then fly to Mexico.  But just minutes after taking off, the plane crashed and everyone on board was killed.  So tragic!  The place where they crashed was across the street from the library I used to work at.  Just 5 miles from my home.  Several families lost their homes and some people on the ground were killed or severely injured.  Of course, the streets were closed for awhile following this.  When the streets finally reopened, Joe and I were able to get to our eye doctor appointment.  The doctor's office is just two blocks from where the plane crashed.  I was driving, so Joe took some pictures of the site as we passed.

As you can see from this last picture, the site was still behind a temporary fence.

On a happier note, we began a new thing at church.  Once a month we have a lunch at church.  Each time it is a different theme.  In March it was casseroles.  People brought all kinds of cassseroles.  I made chicken and stuffing.  There wasn't a lot to bring home.  I'm glad it turned out so good.  There was also mac and cheese, corn souffle, beef and noodles, a salad, homemade bread, and all kinds of desserts.

I just had to take this picture of George winking.  He is so cute.

Finally, on the 30th we went to Cape May Courthouse, NJ and went to church with our friends at Cape Community Church.  It was an easy drive.  We've been trying to get down the shore again ever since, but it hasn't worked out.

That's it for March.  I will do my best to get April up soon.  Thanks for reading and I will see you soon.

Kathy

FEBRUARY

 

Hello, friends!  As promised, here is what was going on in February.  It was a cold month.  The first winter in the new house was interesting.  We found this is a cold house, even with the heat on.  Definitely a "wear your sweater" type of place.  I thought having an enclosed front porch would help, but that porch has no heat and so it's like being outside.

Joe was very sweet for Valentine's Day.  When I came downstairs, there was a silk rose laying by my breakfast plate.  So nice!  And I can keep it forever.

Money has been very tight.  At one point I had 16 cents to my name for two weeks.  Church has been very kind in helping us out with some gift cards for food.  I don't know what we would have done without that.

I found some of my outdoor flags and put the holder up in the flower pot on my front stoop.  It looked so cute.

I love that I can look at the Delaware River from my front stoop.

There is a lot of businesses around here and those pipes are caring fuel to load on ships.  But there is the river with New Jersey in the background.  We are just one block from the water.

Back in February was when we had that terrible plane crash in Northeast Philly.  It was just a couple of blocks from the library I used to work at.  Such a tragedy!  It really hit me that plane crashes can happen anywhere.

Well, that's about it for February.  On to March next time.

JANUARY

 

Hello, friends.  I bet you didn't expect to hear from me.  I have been very into my YouTube channel along with still trying to get the house in order.  I think that is a never-ending job.  We are still going through boxes and bags.  The good thing is that things I thought I had left behind are showing up.  Like my Betty Crocker cookbook that I thought was gone forever.  I found it this morning and I am so happy!

I thought I would just go through my pictures and catch you up on some of the happenings.  Let's start with January since I seem to have left off in December.

The beginning of the month Joe and I went to visit my brother Larry for his (and my) birthday.  It was a very uneventful trip, which is a good thing!  I got just a little lost this time, but the GPS helped a lot. 

Larry has a new cat named Isa.  She is so cute and so sweet.

We went to the Collegeville Dinner for lunch.  Larry and I had burgers and fries that were so good.  Joe opted for lunch:  eggs, scrapple and pancakes.

I tried lots of new recipes in January.  I see so many good recipes on facebook and that inspired me.  Everything I tried turned out so good.  And I got tons of use out of my slow cooker.

And that's about it for January.  I'll come back soon with February.

DECEMBER 23

 Hello, friends!  Welcome back.  Thanks for all your great comments.

For those of you who asked about my YouTube channel, go to youtube.com and search for either Kathy's Happy Home (my old name and easier to find) or This is Kathy's Life (my new name).  You will see my picture next to the title and it's pretty far down on the page.

Here is a link to my latest video.

This is going to be a quick post.  I am sitting by the kitchen window and it is COLD.  It is 18*F (-8*C) outside right now.  That is up from -2*F (-19*C) this morning.  I am planning on having grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner tonight.  I hope that will warm us up.

So let me continue on with my story about the holidays.  Because my sister works in a hospital and had to work on Christmas Day, we celebrated early.  We went to her house on the 23rd so we could sleep over and celebrate on the 24th before we returned to our own home.  It was a long drive.  There was lots of traffic and instead of the usual 2 to 2 1/2 hours, it took us 3 hours to get there.  We were trying to get to her area before dark and we just made it.

There was snow in the mountains where she lives.  And we saw beautiful Christmas lights along the way.

We got settled and hung around for a bit before we got in her new car to go to dinner at a local diner.  Her car is so nice!

We met our friend Frank there and the four of us got seated in a booth.  Both of the men had burgers.  Elaine and I had the homemade chicken pot pie.  The guys said their burgers weren't that good, but the pot pie was wonderful.  We both finished the entire thing, which we rarely do.  When we were checking out, the owner was telling Elaine that it was his grandmother's recipe.  The crust was puff pastry which I had never seen before.

When we got back to my sister's house it was dark and her lights were on.  They looked so pretty.

I tried to take a picture of her neighbor's house which was beautiful too, but it didn't turn out.

Frank came back to the house too and we sat around talking for about an hour and then he left to go home.  We played with her dog, Ace, for awhile.  But it wasn't long before we headed to bed too.

And that is where I'll end for today.  I'm just too cold to sit here and type anymore.  I will be back soon with another post.

Kathy