The Last Day Of The Year

2015 has been one hell of a ride.

It has been a year of grieving, of change, and starting over.

Its been a year of insanity.

I said goodbye to two of my kitties in 2015

I moved into a new house

I've tried to keep up this blog, but as you can see, I've mostly failed at that, and I don't know why.

It has been an interesting year. I can't believe it will be the second New Year's Eve that I'll be spending without my dad. and the 7th without my grandmother.

Where does time go?

I'm 41 years old and I feel everything slipping away from me.

Here's hoping 2016 will be more stabilizing.

I wish you all a joyous New Year!

Merry After Christmas

I hope all of my friends had a lovely holiday yesterday. Yes, I've been MIA for a bit, but holidays are always crazy and I don't think sleep happened a lot in the last week.

Here's what I've been doing. My cats, have a good sense of humor!

More Decorations

Tree

Getting Ready To Make Cookies

I'm still not sure how I feel about doing cookies this year. Cookies were my dad's favorite thing. He ate more cookies than anyone, I swear. We used to call him the cookie monster.

I didn't make many last year, as my heart just wasn't there.

I'm going to try this year.

I'm going to make about 4 or 5 different kinds, depending on the time I have and depending on what the cats will let me make without pulling out my hair too much.

Pictures will be forthcoming

What cookies do you have at your holiday gatherings?

Making Meal Plans

Trying to find ways of making economical meals that everyone in the family will like is damn hard. It is also hard to find things that are economical that aren't related to pasta.

I have so many pasta dishes that I could make, but eating noodles every day is pretty rough.

So far I know before Christmas I can make

Tuna casserole or tuna patties

Fish tacos

scrambled eggs with noodles

bacon ranch mac

pasta bake

Still trying to come up with some other cheap dinners

~sigh~

Merry Minions!

If this doesn't make you smile...well...I don't know what to say.




I freaking love minions!

The Crud Has Found Me Again

I have gone years without getting much more than a sinus cold. This year, I've had two bouts of the crud in less than a month.

Blech

Blergh

ARGH!

I am totally miserable and nothing I take is making it any better.

I think I need to sleep for about 48 hours, not that even 12 hours of sleep is possible

Starting the Decortating

I'm hoping the tree will be up next week, but this is what I've got up so far.

Its Been A Rough Week

I'm depressed.

There, I've said it.

Its out there.

I'm having a rough time coping with my dad's death, even though it has been a year. People tell me it is time to move on, but I'm really having trouble with that.

Then there's mom. She's beginning to like the hospital as much as my dad and that really scares me. I was close with my dad, but my mom is truly my best friend. The thought of her not being around scares the crap out of me for many reasons.

I guess with everything that has been going on lately I've been finding it hard to do much of anything, besides the care giving that is part of our daily routine.

I really just need a break from everything.

Surviving Leftovers

Thankgiving always brings a lot of leftovers. I hate getting sick of turkey so quickly after the holiday.

The secret is to shake things up a bit and don't overdo it.

The day after Thanksgiving I refuse to make anything with turkey for a main meal. if anyone wants a sandwich, that's fine with me, but I won't do the turkey thing two days in a row.

I always make stuffed shells, because since discovering that simple recipe, it has been a bigger tradition than the main dinner itself.

Today dinner is just mom and me, so there will be an absence of leftovers.

Tomorrow, I'm going to do turkey pot pie, coz I'm not not a fan of tetrazini. (did I even spell that correctly)

The secret to surviving leftovers is to not force feed your family them every day. If you need any of my recipes, just give me a holler and I'll share.

So Much For The 30 Days Of Blogging

Tuesday night mom had a CHF spell and that just sent me into a tail spin. I don't know how I managed to get Thanksgiving done.

It sure as hell wasn't easy.

I'm still so tired from all the running and work I did in the last few days.

I just hope this is the last time for a long while that I have to deal with hospital stuff. I'm getting too old for this.

Stupid Cough

About a week ago I ended up with a cold. I was totally miserable. I had a cough, but it seemed to go away.

Until this weekend.

The cough is back with a vengeance.

I have always been a person that gets a cough that lingers and when I cough so hard that my head feels like it is going to explode.

Yay for misery.

Especially when I've got a big dinner to cook this week. Not that it matters, since no one comes for Thanksgiving anymore, and they never did even in the past years.

It is lonely.

I enjoy cooking, but I only cook for the same people all the time and no one comes to visit.

~sigh~

Found In My Sink

This is the first time since we moved into the new house that one of my cats found their way into the bathroom sink.

I'm surprised that it took so long and even more surprised that the cat that decided to nap her was Midnight.

Isn't he a cutie pie?

Home At Last

We brought mom home this afternoon, but not after a huge curfluffle with the wheel chair van. After we got her settled we went over to the old house and started to bring stuff over.

So much stuff.

I swear we'll never have it all out of there.

Almost all of my CDs have made it over and are hiding in the basement. There's still so much to bring over and much to get rid of. I don't know that there will ever be enough time to do it all.

It's been a busy day and I'm totally exhausted now. I feel like I could sleep for a week  or more.

Quick Update

I've spent most of the day in Jefferson Hospital with mom and my sister.

The surgery was done almost an hour late, but all went well and that's all that matters.

So now we can breathe a sigh of relief and take a nice long nap.

YAY!

30 Day Writing Challenge

Today's topic is turn ons and offs

Is it a horrible thing that this isn't something that I think about anymore. How sad is that? I think that over the years I've become totally asexual.

I don't know that anything turns me on anymore.

OK, David Tennant, Benedict Cumberbatch and Peter Capaldi turn me on....but that's just on a general hotness scale.

However when it comes to turn offs

Hatred, bigotry and asshattery turn me off. In fact, if you display these types of qualities, I'm probably not going to want to talk to you let alone anything else.

30 Day Writing Challenges: Concerts

Today's prompt is concerts that I've attended.

Oye, I've been to a lot of concerts, but since my father got sick, I haven't been anywhere let alone concerts.

But let's see here are some of the artists I've seen over the years.

The Monkees, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Def Leppard, Duran Duran, Poison, Stevie Nicks, Elvis Costello, The Moody Blues, Nick Lowe, Ron Sexsmith, Rockapella, Gordon Lightfoot, Lady Antebellum, Deni Bonet, Sarah Marince, Love and Rockets, The Devlins, Cheap Trick, Michael Crawford, Peter Noone, The Grass Roots, The Turtles, Davy Jones..I'm sure I'm missing a few...

Boy do I miss concerts

30 Day Writing Challenge: Places Ive Lived

Today's prompt was actually yesterday's prompt.

Where have I lived?

Charleroi, PA

That's pretty much it.

I've only lived in two houses though. This is my current abode though. Isn't it cute?

1 Year Has Passed

Nov 16 marks one year since my dad passed away.

Anyone that says that things get easier lies. Each day that passes hurts more and more.

The other day, I could hear the sound of my father crying in my head. I wanted to sit on the hospital bed or anywhere and wrap my arms around the man that I've loved all my life, but I can't, because he's not there and he never will be again.

In the year that has gone by, so much has changed in my life. I've bought a house for one. I've left behind a huge part of my life when we left that old house.

My dad was such a huge part of my life. We were together almost every day of our lives and life without him is just so empty. It is very hard to go on. I don't know how my mother, who spent over 60 year of her life with him is holding up as well as she is.

I can offer this advice to those of you who still have parents to hold on to.

1. Never miss an opportunity to say I love you.

2. Don't hide from the illness, some of the best times I had with my father were in his final years. I will always cherish the times I sat on his hospital bed and held him.

3. Have patience. They don't always know what they are doing, and yelling only makes it worse. I know how hard this, especially when the illness is progressing rabidly or that their is dementia involved.

4. Take a lot of deep breaths.

It has been one year since my daddy left us, and the pain is still very very real.