I'm Back...

Monday, May 11, 2020

One of the great things about quarantining during the corona virus is the opportunity and time to try new recipes. Claude is our resident chef. He really does all the cooking these last few years. And that is a good thing. The other thing that is happening is an eMail I get every week or so from BD Mongolian Grill. They eMail fun recipes. I forward them to Claude and he determines if the recipe is interesting enough to keep and try. This day he cooked Fire Cracker Shrimp. It so just delicious.

We posted this picture on our neighborhood Facebook page. Then Claude went back and posted the recipe for our neighbors. Here is the recipe. Keep in mind, Claude tweeked it a little the first time he made it. 

FIRE CRACKER SHRIMP

THE INGREDIENTS:
2 Tbl oil (vegetable, peanut, soybean, etc.
16 oz shrimp (or choice of protein)
½ cup green onions
½ cup roasted red peppers
½ cup snap peas or pea pods
½ cup mushrooms (canned or fresh)
½ cup fresh garlic (chopped)
½ tsp salt
½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
½ cup sweet chili sauce

THE DIRECTIONS:
1. With stir-fry, timing is everything. Prepare all of the ingredients and seasonings before doing the cooking and have them set up in a handy place.
2. Slice or chop vegetables to the desired size. If you want to remove the tails from the shrimp, now is the time. Also, cook the rice or noodles so it/they will be ready when the stir fry is done.
3. Heat a large stir-fry or sauté pan over high heat, add the oil and allow to heat for about 30 seconds. (If you add the bacon chunks, cook them first, then add the shrimp to the oil and bacon drippings.)
4. Add the shrimp and cook until just pink, about 2-3 minutes.
5. Add all of the vegetables and seasoning, except for the sauce and cook until the vegetables are just tender.
6. Remove from heat and stir in the chili sauce until everything is coated then serve immediately over rice or noodles.

OPTIONS/SUBSTITUTIONS
1. You can change protein portions and ingredients as needed.
2. I added some chopped up bacon, several slices, to the mix just because…
3. If you want to cut down a little on the heat, reduce or eliminate the crushed red pepper.
YIELD: 2 Servings – This is a slightly modified version of the BD Mongolian Grill's recipe recently published on line.

This day I started making a PowerPoint out of the scrapbook from our May 2007 Michigan trip.  Bonnie, Claude's mother, joined us for this road trip. These projects just take lots of time and quarantine time is the best time for this to happen. My plan is to get this done and save the printed pages with all the pictures I took and the narrative Claude wrote and give it to Papa for Father's Day. He enjoys the travel scrapbooks so much and I know he will like this one of Michigan.

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Spent my morning sewing masks. I learned that our neighbors, Herb and Charlotte Archer, did not have masks. All of Kentucky is encouraged to wear masks when they are out. Herb is actually the contractor that built our home. I made each of them a mask. Then I made two more masks for Jake with the shoe laces (pictured below). I made extra masks for Claude and I so we keep one for each of us in each of our cars and we also have one for each of us on the gossip bench by the front door. I cleaned up the sewing table but I put everything in a container under the sewing table because I'm not sure this kind of sewing is done yet. We walked to Herb and Charlotte's home and left their masks on their front porch. 

In the morning I also learned that Max Person and his family have the corona virus. Max was one of the teens when we lived in Maryland. He is the age of our children. It felt like the virus was getting closer since we really now knew someone with the virus. I also ordered the Father's Day gifts. Nissa contacted me to thank me for the bracelet we sent her for Mother's Day. So it was a full, productive morning.

We had hoped to visit the Marx family in the afternoon. I sent Andie a text and it turned out...wait for it...they had appointments on their calendars. What in the world is happening?? The kids had orthodontist appointment at 2pm and Hayden had to take his AP test on-line at 4pm. I determined visiting at 5pm was just a bit too late. We had a box full of things to go to them so it would just sit in our breakfast room for a bit longer.

In the evening I received a sweet text from Bailey. She wore the mask I made to the orthodontist. The orthodontist complimented her mask and Bailey was sweet enough to let me know about that compliment. 

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

I put the masks in the mail to Jake. Yippee!!

We received a cute picture from Bailey. It seems they have 6 chipmunks in the front yard. Claude and I both cautioned her not to feed them. It is a mother and five babies.

This night we missed going to Louisville for Cirque du Soleil OVO. This and all other concerts, etc., have been cancelled.

Thursday, May 14, 2020

This morning was spent at home. While working some more on my PowerPoint presentation of the 2007 Michigan trip, I came across these two postcards with recipes that are fun. They are very Michigan type recipes. We spent time on Mackinac Island and the thing there is fudge. Lots of fudge stores. Then we traveled across the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula headed to Escanaba. We stopped for lunch and had pasties (prounced past-eez). Pasties were a staple for workers in the early years in Michigan and other places. They could be carried easily to work and made a substantial meal for someone who worked hard and long hours. We tried them with ketchup and gravy. I tended to like the gravy over them the best. But they were good either way.

I also came across some pictures that I sent via eMail to Nissa, our daughter. She spent one day with Bonnie, Claude and I at the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan. The first picture is Nissa in a flower bed full of tulips when we took a trolley tour of the area. The second is Nissa with Claude mother, Bonnie. The third picture is Aubrey Anne and Paul, Nissa's youngest children. They are so little and cute. We bought them Dutch hats for a souvenir.

One of the things Claude has been working on for me is a welcome sign we have had in our front flower bed for years. All the color had completed faded and it needed to be repainted to bring the life back to it. Claude took on that task and did an excellent job. He picked the colors for all the pieces on the sign and then put on two coats of clear coat so that, hopefully, it will retain this great color longer. This is the sign and then the sign in the front flower bed.  So very pretty.

I love making puzzles. I have an addiction where puzzles are concerned. I found this one on Facebook and thought it would be great for a Christmas puzzle. Then I went on line to check the cost out. They want $35 for this puzzle. That makes it not something I will purchase, no matter how much fun it would be for our family. I have a hard enough time paying $12 for a 1000 piece puzzle. Not going to pay $35. I like to say I have 'a line in the sand' over which I will not cross. Just won't do it. But it would be a fun puzzle to do.

Had a couple of interactions with Andie, our daughter. Andie teaches first grade. This has been a weird end to their year. She is on her computer everyday in contact with these children to see how they are doing with their work. They are sending her pictures of things they have accomplished so she knows they are getting their assignments accomplished. Now it is the end of the school year. They will not go back to the classroom for instruction. So she is getting little pictures and notes from the kids. This is one of the notes Andie really liked. It says, "Hi Mrs. Marx, I love you." This picture is the student holding Andie's hand. You know it is Andie because she made a side bun on Andie's head. Andie often twists her hair and holds it in place with a huge comb clip. So sweet.

Then Andie got her mail. In the mail was the bracelet we got her for Mother's Day. It is her birthstone. Andie sent this picture. Andie said, "Some folks are super loved and can work from home in style." All the girls loved their bracelets. 

In the afternoon we went to Georgetown to take Papa some treats and refill his bird feeder. As we left the house and headed down Hwy 32, Claude said, "There is a problem with the air pressure in the tire." We pulled over to a spot where Hwy 25 and Hwy 32 part ways.  Claude got out his air pump that we carry in his Jeep and he had started to put air in this tire with only 19 pounds of pressure when it should be 35 pounds of pressure. I was sitting in the Jeep when I heard Claude yell, "Sandi, get out and look at this!" I grabbed my cell phone and hopped out of the Jeep. There was a string of cars coming up the road with balloons and banners and people standing with their bodies out of the sun roof, lots of car horns blaring. It was a parade of the teachers from Northern Elementary School which is where the kids from Sadieville attend. They were making sure the students knew they were loved and appreciated. This explained all the kids sitting out at the entry to Eagle Bend and in Warring Pavilion and park in Sadieville. They were waiting for their teachers to come by to wave at them. We stopped what we were doing and waved to all of these great teachers and they headed into Sadieville. Fun moment in time.

When in Georgetown, after leaving Papa his treats and filling that bird feeder again, we drove to a tire store. Claude told them there was definitely a nail in his tire. They set up for him to come on Friday and they would work on his tire.

This evening we missed Bailey's final Band Concert for this school year.

Friday, May 15, 2020

Claude went to Georgetown in the morning to get his tire fixed. He made sure he left early enough to get the chicken mini's he likes from Chick-filA. They were able to put a patch on the inside of the tire that is guaranteed to last. That $28 was a whole lot less than buying tires for the Jeep. That will have to be done in the near future as these tires have more mileage on them than one would expect them to have in their lifetime. Can't complain about how well they have lasted. Then Claude did his walk alone at the park. 

I spent my morning weeding the flower beds. Then I had a little quiet time on the front porch. Then a shower and down to the basement to work on my PowerPoint presentation. 

This evening we finished up watching all the 8 seasons of Psych. We ordered Psych the Movie and watched it. It was fun to see these things again.

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Twice a year we have Stake Conference. This is where several congregations in our area meet at the same time. It is a Saturday and Sunday event with leadership training meetings Saturday afternoon, an adult session in the evening. Then Sunday morning there is another general session. This is always an uplifting time. That didn't happen because of quarantining. 

What to do with this time. We both wanted to take this opportunity to watch Lord of the Rings. We usually only do this on New Year's Eve. It just seemed liked this might be a time to get an extra viewing of these movies we love so much. I have a lot of extra yarn that I want to clear out of our home. So I pulled out all the yarn that is the same weight and started to crocheted a blanket out of them while we viewed the movies. Claude brought down his coloring project and worked on that while we watched the movies. His coloring book is Christmas cards we will send this coming December. We heated up a frozen pizza and just had a lovely afternoon and evening with some of our favorite movies. Good times.

Sunday, May 17, 2020

I really enjoy the fact that Facebook posts pictures and posts from years back. This morning this picture was the one I found. It is Papa sitting in the patio area at Sonic. This was a cool place in the shade that I could take Papa. We each had a soda and as we sat there the birds came to play. If you look closely there is a bird on the ledge. It just chattered away at Papa and he was in heaven. He loved sitting in the woods as a child watching birds and animals. So in his antiquity he reverts back to the joy that experience brought him as a child. He just loved watching the birds. This was another one of those sweet moments in time.

Claude and I had our reading time and completed the Book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon. Then we watched the YouTube of the lesson done by Darin Griffith on this section of the scriptures. Then it was time for us to watch the Worship Service on Zoom. Just as Claude was getting up to get his laptop ready to watch this Zoom meeting, we got a message from Bishop Rex Holt saying Zoom was not working correctly and we wouldn't be able to have our Zoom meeting. We decided Claude would take a quick nap and I would go down to work on my Blog, a letter to the missionaries and a letter to Papa that I do each Sunday. First I sent a text to Andie to see if we might bring Dilly Bars from Dairy Queen to them in the afternoon. 

Claude didn't get a very good nap. He had two phone calls while he was trying to nap. I received a response from Andie that we would be very welcome to come to their home. So we gave up on the nap and me working on my lap top and pointed the Jeep toward LaGrange. We would take the box full of things for them. We had the 3-ring binders I saved for Andie to use in school, the drapes I shortened for them, Bailey's leggings I repaired one more time, recipe books, throw pillows made from the extra drape material. Claude also included two family history journals for the Mini's. I put my Anne of Green Gables books in for Bailey and we took Hayden our Hobbit and Lord of the Rings DVD's. I also returned the puzzle Michael loaned me. We picked up the Dilly Bars for them. Michael invited us in and we sat on one side of the family room and they sat on the other side. It was a nice visit. Then we returned home. 

I am spending my evening finishing up my work with my lap top. Claude is watching things he had DVR'd that I really don't want to watch. It has been a good day.

This week I realized my hair was long enough to go in a pony tail. Two days I have worn a ponytail. Can't believe I am 69 years old and back to wearing pony tails! Thank you Covid-19 for this new adventure.