2016 Medical/Vacation Trip

Yes we are still alive! We just got home from our annual medical trip/vacation!



Sarah slept a lot!

We first stopped in the  Lancaster PA area.  We stayed in a great hotel right in the middle of everything.  Our first night there we found a community party that we went to. 

 

 

 

And there were swings!

 

 

 

 

 

Shad played with the Amish kids

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started the next moring with a full Amish breakfast and a buggy ride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we went to Kitchen Kettle Village and got several boxes of salsa! 




the kids loved the music!



 

 

 

 

 

 

At Bird 'n the Hand





After a couple of fun days we headed to Rochester to see our favorite doc!


Sam was so cooperative that his exam was done with him awake and they were able to do all the exams. 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Aquevella and Dr Chung

Sam is doing good but they could see his retina has had some damage from glaucoma pressure.  His pressure was perfect that day but obviously some days it's not as good.  We are just continuing on the eye drops. 

We finished early in Rochester so we had more time for Niagara Falls!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was windy!

 

 

 

Top of the Falls restaurant

 

 

 

 

Jon & I went to Canada

Yes we rode the Ferris Wheel!

 

And we stayed till the lights came on!!!!

 

 Then we headed to Cleveland Ohio!

We were there for Jon & Steve to go to Cleveland Clinic's preventive heart clinic.  I also had an appointment with the women's heart section.  But we got to do a lot of fun things while we were there. 

 

 

 We went to the Zoo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you recognize this house?






how about NOW?

 

 Yes the house from the movie "A Christmas Story"




And of course we went to a graveyard!  We love old cemeteries. 

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President Garfield's tomb

 

That Sunday we went to our friends' church and Shad got to ring the bell....or it rang him!  LOL it was quite a job!

Then a boat ride on Lake Erie

 

 

 

We are still waiting on all the results so I'll share the doctor stuff later....

 

 

Then we headed home through the mountains of West VA

 

 

 

 

 

It was beautiful!  The clouds were so low.......


We were so glad to get home....it was an almost 2 week trip  and thousands of miles of driving.   We took hundreds of pictures but I just showed you the highlights of it!

I'll be updating soon and trying to stay more consistent on my posting.....I even got a reminder from BlogSpot LOL!!!!

Kia- the resuce!

My last post was about animals and this one is starting with our newest kitten story!

One night last week we had a bad storm and after it was over Shad told us that one of our indoor/outdoor cats was still outside.  Jon and I went out calling for her.  We could hear a cat across the street who would respond to us, we thought it was our cat Vermont and that she had been hurt or was freaked out by the storm.  That area is a swampy area so Jon got his boots on and head light and went wading out there.  Nope no cat to be seen, we kept hearing it but it was moving so we hoped that she was just freaked out and would come in later....

We went inside for a bit and to our surprise Vermont was sitting on the couch looking at us like we were CRAZY!  Obviously Shad had not counted heads very good.  So we figured it was a stray that was meowing at us and didn't think anything else about it. 

The next morning my oldest son was leaving for work and I asked him to take out the back seats of the van so he could pick up my bike.  Well I had asked him to do it the night before but you know how that goes right?  So he's hurrying to leave for work and I reminded him to take the seats out.  He drove the van up to the garage and when he turned it off we heard a cat SCREAMING!  We could tell from the sounds that it was in the hood of the car.  We didn't even want to open the hood because we were afraid of what we'd see.....  Thankfully she was unharmed!  It took Steve about 20 minutes to get her out, she'd wedged herself into a small shelf under the engine!  If he'd just left for work, he probably wouldn't have heard her and she would have been killed.  So I guess it was good he didn't do what I asked the night before. 

We named her Kia (since we found her in a Kia)  She is a sweet kitten and immediately took over the house.  She looks big in this picture but she's a tiny girl! 6-8 weeks old at the most - she potty trained easily and loves to be held.  The first day she'd cry if we put her down but she got over that and now runs around the house much to the chagrin of the other three cats!  We've looked for her mother and other litter mates but haven't' seen anything,  We are sure she is the same cat we heard crying the night before, she has a loud voice! 

Just had to share this cute picture.  Jon was sitting with Sarah watching tv and Sam decided it was time for him to get some daddy time too!  Daddy is in demand :)



We got our back patio done last week and are already enjoying it  I love to be outside especially where the bugs can't get me.  We've actually been neglecting the front porch to sit back here and watch the rain.  The roof is aluminum and when it rains it sounds like my it did when I was a kid living in a house with a tin roof.  And we have had some RAIN lately with Tropical Storm Colin!



A side view with a Trumpet Tree planted- that tree will soon grow as tall as the roof with flowers all over it.  I love them and had always wanted one. 

 

 

in front I planted some Elephant Ears I got from our old house.  they also will soon be as tall as the roof ( if you look up at our family picture, those are elephant ears behind us)   I love those, even tho they are NOT a native Florida plant- I just love them.  However if you plant one, twenty will grow up!  I crack up when I see them at a plant nursery for $10 LOL  You can clip the leaves and a plant will sprout up!  We'd cut back some dead leaves and threw them in the woods behind our old house and that whole area is now covered with them.  

I planted this one by the pipe that releases water from our AC unit.  It will be a monster plant soon

 

 

 

 

This is my Mother's Day present:)  Don't laugh- my aunts would not let me learn to ride a bike so I had to get me a 3-wheeler cause I just can't keep my balance.  I love the bright yellow happy color.  We went our last night and rode about 6 miles on wet dirt roads.....What a work out!  It makes the hardest setting on our exercise bike pale LOL  But it's so fun to be outside- we watched a beautiful sunset -it was just a perfect night.  

If you are on FB you know how it shows you your memories.....  Well Four years ago we had just gotten home with our precious girls and I was busy taking and posting pictures.  Lots of bittersweet memories coming up now....

 

These are pictures from 4 years ago today....  I treasure them...

 

 

 

After their baths

 

 

 

 

 

When you think of Selah- please always say a prayer for her....I miss her smiles and how she was changing daily as she realized she was loved and had a family......



What Is Your Priority?

I've really been thinking about this whole animal  situation since this crazy Gorilla  story broke. Remember when we were looking for a dog & none of the Lab rescues we called would let us have a dog unless we planned on it being an inside dog? They had just about as much paperwork to fill out as we did when we adopted our kids. I thought that was crazy as I think this is crazy too

I've always loved animals & have enjoyed the ones we have had. I stop for turtles on the road & even move them  if it's safe &  always feel a little sad when I see a dead animal on the road- even an armadillo.

BUT animals are not people God made them for us not us for them!
 
When I think of the human tragedies of this world the death of an animal is very insignificant. When I think back to the orphanage I've been in.... Animals become a non issue.

Truly I believe this obsession with animals & their care is a deeper root issue of our society. When you spend more money on an animal than on Missions ( if you are a Christian) there is a problem. If you care about animals more than you care about a human who needs help- there's a problem.

Animals will be in heaven it seems per scripture but there's no scripture that says your Rover is going to be there. I hope all my pets go but they don't have a soul ( per scripture) they don't need to hear the gospel message & they should not be our focus. And I'm not looking forward to heaven because of an animal possibly being there!

And I just have to address this attack on the mother of the child-I applaud all the "experts" there in computer land who have NEVER let go of their child's hand and have NEVER taken their eyes off their child for one second.....  Good for you....I imagine you are lying through your crooked teeth!  Every parent has had situations that could have ended badly- things happen especially with curious children.  Obviously if the mom dropped her  four year old son off alone for the day to hang out at the Zoo, that would be neglect.  But just because a small child was able to squeeze through a panel, in probably a split second....don't be so arrogant to blame the mom! 

I've had an original  thought....even Mary & Joseph weren't perfect parents. They didn't know where 12 year old Jesus was for days! Wow can you imagine the shock of THAT in today's world????



So many times I've seen animal memes placed on FB with pleas for help & there is a ton of "likes & shares". Then an orphan's picture is placed on FB & you can hear the crickets chirping.....  Same way on this blog- I get more responders when I share a recipe than when I talk about orphans. I'm not saying to go starve your cat - the bible encourages us to be kind to animals but please remember there are humans in great need & that should be our focus.  What is your priority?  I want mine to be on people who are made in God's image!




I've published a really good article that I thought says what I think much better than I do!   You can go to the link or read it here.  I copied it as I was not sure that this was open on FB.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/gregory-shane-morris/animal-rights-have-driven-us-insane/10154152259573290

Animal Rights Have Driven Us Insane

Gregory Shane Morris·Thursday, June 2, 2016

For those who were wondering, this is what collective insanity looks like. Never mind Harambe, never mind Cecil, never mind Tilikum or the half-dozen other charismatic mammals whose fates have set the internet ablaze. Affluent Westerners, bored and intoxicated by the loudness and lack of accountability on social media do this on a regular basis. And by “this,” I mean whip themselves into a moral frenzy over anthropomorphized megafauna. Let’s just call it what it is: insanity. The kind of mass outrage we’re now witnessing every few news cycles over gorillas, lions, orcas, and elephants was once reserved for the worst human rights abuses. At the same time, human beings are treating each other like garbage, not just literally, as with abortion and euthanasia, but figuratively, in how we interact with those who transgress our new idea of phylum-level rights. The cause of this hysteria is very simple: We’ve decided that animals are people and people are animals. Our culture’s dominant worldview has weakened the divide between humans and the zoo so severely that even a small child could clamber over. And during the last few days, that’s precisely what happened.

Let’s get this out of the way: Animals are not people. They are not children, they are not family, they are not prisoners or slaves, and they do not have rights. That’s not a popular position these days, when a third of Americans think animals deserve the same legal protections as us, and most folks call their dogs and cats family. But it’s the truth, and it’s the only way to maintain a sane civilization. For proof, just survey the last several days now that the dust is settling across Twitter and Facebook: Almost before 17-year-old western lowland gorilla “Harambe’s” corpse was still, legions of social media experts on great ape behavior, anesthesiology, exhibit design, and parenting began thundering condemnations. It didn’t really matter who, if anyone, was to blame for the sad loss. An endangered animal had been shot, and someone’s head needed to roll. 


Harambe was merely protecting the three-year-old child as he violently jerked him around, declared thousands of self-diplomad primatologists. Never mind veteran zookeepers and animal experts like Jeff Corwin and Jack Hannah, who said the Cincinnati Zoo made the right decision in taking the silverback’s life as he grasped the tiny child. The rage directed at the zoo’s staff, and at the child’s parents, Deonne Dickerson and Michelle Gregg, was inhuman. Here’s a sampling from Twitter: “Lowland gorillas are an endangered species and stupid people aren’t.” “Arrest the mother and put her kids in state custody. She is unfit to parent.” “Shoot the mother.” “I had MUCH rather see her dead than the gorilla.” “Stupid people should be an endangered species.” “Shooting an endangered animal is worse than murder.” 

These responses were typical. Close to every other tweet under the #JusticeforHarambe hashtag suggested that the mother, both parents, or the three-year-old child should have been killed, rather than the gorilla. Death threats—not just death wishes, but threats—were plentiful. The whole disgraceful spectacle was a rerun of unnumbered others, from Cecil the lion, to Kyndall Jones, to the comments under every YouTube video featuring a captive whale. Of course, as Justine Sacco knows, it’s not just furry critters in pain that raise torches and pitchforks online. Just about any blood in the water can bring out the worst in Twitter and Facebook users. But when animals get involved, something changes. Something primal emerges from behind keyboards across the world, and people begin baying for the blood of their fellow human beings to avenge that of big game. In some cases, of course, the targets of social media fury have mistreated animals or broken the law. But in virtually all cases, internet vigilantes go so far overboard, they become the wild animals. When beasts are treated like people, people act like beasts. Or as Chesterton put it in his essay, “On Seriousness,” “Wherever there is Animal Worship, there is Human Sacrifice.” 

Others have ascribed this reaction to modern society’s isolation from agriculture. And there’s certainly some truth there. As a recent billboard campaign by vegans unwittingly demonstrates, most residents of the first world no longer come into contact with the realities of farm life, especially the blood and gore necessary to make our hamburgers and leather sofas. Our most frequent contact with live animals happens when our purring, tail-wagging companions greet us at the door. So we tend to imagine that deep down, large, powerful wild animals like Harambe the gorilla are just as cuddly and sweet as our cats and dogs. We’ve gone soft, some will say, and don’t remember where our food comes from or what must be done when nature’s deadliest creatures threaten human life. But there’s a lot more to it than that. I think the concept of animal rights, itself, is to blame for the accelerating cycle of outrage. Here’s where I want to get controversial: Animal rights don’t make sense, because animals don’t have rights. If you think they do, you must either live an extreme life or an inconsistent one. Rights are absolute. As the pro-life movement has been so good at pointing out, rights don’t depend on your size, level of development, environment, degree of dependency, or how convenient your death would be. If a cow has a right to life, it has that right regardless of how badly you or I want a Big Mac. If animals have rights, then we must swear off meat and other animal products forever.



But even if we did that—even if we all became strict vegans and advocates for the abolition of all forms of animal slavery, including egg farming, fleecing sheep, and horseback riding—animal rights would still not make sense. Because in order to extend human rights to animals, and insist that humans honor those rights, you must assume the very thing you’re trying to dismiss: human uniqueness. If animals have rights, animals themselves do not honor them. Turn on the Discovery Channel if you’re not sure what I mean. Humans, we’re told, are just another animal. Who are we to claim special significance and value above our fellow primates, mammals, or even vertebrates? That’s “speciesist,” PETA might tell us. But how can we deny human uniqueness, and in the same breath proclaim a unique human duty to respect the rights of fellow creatures? Make up your mind. Are we animals or aren’t we? Sadly, most who assert animal rights don’t recognize the inconsistency at the heart of their beliefs. But overheated internet comments and inconsistency are the milder consequence of breaking down the barrier between humans and animals. The worldview behind this move, Darwinian naturalism, helped make the last 150 years some of the bloodiest ever.



In his new book, “The Death of Humanity,” California State University history professor Richard Weikart documents the horrors that result when man places himself on a level footing with animals. And let’s not forget that we already live in a society of brutal inconsistencies—one which mounts a criminal investigation three days after a gorilla’s death, but a year after finding out that Planned Parenthood sells the body parts of aborted infants, has indicted only the messenger. Chuck Colson saw naturalism and the conflation of people with animals at the root of these brutalities. He pointed to the oft-cited Dr. Peter Singer of Princeton, who claims that “On the basis of evolution…there is no clear dividing line between humans and animals.” Singer has a point, and that’s one of the most important reasons to reject his naturalistic account of the world, and the insanity it has inspired. The dividing line between humans and animals, reinforced by the Christian concept of God’s image, is the basis of civilization, of law, and yes—even of animal welfare. Only as stewards of a creation entrusted to us to cherish and cultivate can we speak of human responsibility toward animals. Only by embracing our unique role, separated from all other creatures by an insurmountable moat, can we truly look after their welfare. If, however, we are only animals, then we all belong beside that little boy in Harambe’s enclosure, and it doesn’t matter how we treat each other, or the other species in the zoo


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And there are two other articles I felt were very good by Matt Walsh  the second one was written after he and his family got death threats!  Death threats over an ape?  This world is crazy!


http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/while-you-were-crying-over-a-dead-ape-125-thousand-babies-were-just-murdered/

http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/one-human-is-more-important-than-a-million-gorillas-and-we-all-know-it/


So I'm still an animal & nature lover.  I'll slow down for a squirrel, I'll relocate non poisonous spiders and bugs,  I'll feed my cats and take them to a low cost vet if they are sick.  But I will never put an animal's life above a human's in any way shape or form.  I'll not ascribe to this "worship of animals" I'll continue to have cats that go outside and if we ever get a dog that we keep- it'll be an outdoor dog.  BTW we had two dogs within a week's period and rehomed both of them as they did not work out for our family.  I have no issue with that, some animals are better in some families than others.  I didn't dump them on the side of the road but I did find other homes for them.  Pets are great but I don't dishonor my children by calling my pets my "fur babies" .  For some reason that totally grates on my nerves!  I can absolutely promise you that my kids come before any animal in this world!  And guess what?  You and your kids come before any animal too.....


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On to family news.....

I picked Shad up on Tuesday, his last day of school and his knee was swollen to the point of looking like it was dislocated!  He'd gotten bitten by a horsefly on Memorial Day during a bike ride.  He either had cellulitis again or a bad reaction to the bite.  First I took him to our Urgent Care and they sent us right over to the ER!  He got admitted and sent to a hospital with a Children's section!  I was in absolute shock!  The concern was there could be damage to the knee itself from the infection or the inflammation.  Thankfully he quickly responded to medicine and only had to be in for one night.  The doctors couldn't  agree on exactly what it was but he is all back to normal now and glad to be out of school! 

Steve is working as a "pool boy" for the summer- cleaning pools.  It keeps him busy.  He did fall in a pool....the story involved a spider LOL.  I just wished there had been a video! 

Well hope your summer is going good!  We have lots of plans for this summer. 



 

Easy Healthy Cheap Meals! It can be done!

I hear ALL the time how costly it is to cook healthy.  You see those mems on FB that seem to indicate that a value hamburger deal at a fast food place is so much cheaper than the same restaurant's salad....and that may be true BUT you can cook at home good healthy food for CHEAP!  Those little funny pictures irritate me to no end because it's just being LAZY that keeps a person from eating healthy and cheaply! I saw one recently that showed a bag of fries and a bag of fruit & it said something like "don't expect me to eat healthy until the fruit is as cheap as the fries"  REALLY?  I bought a flat of strawberries and cut them and frozen them.  Each bag probably costs me about .25 cents.  Bananas are about .29 cents a pound..... yeah I could eat a bag of fruit for less than a bag of fries if I took the trouble to buy the fruit and prepare it ahead of time. 

So right now I have my crock pot going with tonight's meal.  It's "Mary's Mexican Chicken" I named it after my friend Mary who brought it to us after Jon's surgery.  I tweaked it a little since there are more of us than she has, but the idea came from her. So let me show you how to feed 6 people for just about  $20 and have some left over (maybe) for the next day's lunch!

Mary's Mexican Chicken
Bag of frozen chicken
Jar of salsa
can of Fiesta corn
can of Rotel tomato with chilies
3 cups of chicken broth

put in crock pot, cook on high for 7-8 hours and shred the chicken near the end of the cooking time..

In separate dishes we also have
white rice
black beans
fat free refried beans

A serving is really low in fat- probably 2 grams or so since the ONLY thing with fat is the chicken! So that solves the fat/cholesterol problem for us. 

As far as the price goes.....
I bought chicken on sale (without hormones) one packet was $6.27 & one $8.32 + $14.59(I have at least a chicken breast per person)
salsa was buy one get one free- so about $1.27
corn was .89 cents
Rotel tomatoes was about $.69 cents
Chicken broth was also buy one get one so about $1.25
black beans .69 cents
fat free refried beans .69 cents
Rice ( I bought a 5 pound bag) so about .50 cents or less for a cup.  Total $20.57

This meal is becoming once a week for us!  It is so stinking good!!!!  I also like it with Mexican chips but that's higher in fat.  Tonight I have baked Mexican chips- that bag was on sale for 2 for $5 so for another $2.50 we have chips with it.  I buy the things we like when they go on sale- the BOGO Salsa deal....I bought 5 bottles and got 5 free- we will use it up no problem.

There is no fast food place I can feed all 6 of us for under $20 -and have food left over! Fast food for us runs over $30 easily and no one is really full-plus we've eaten CRAP!

BTW a big salad at home is easily made for $5 and you'll have left overs.  The good thing about salad at home is YOU can wash it as much as you want and pick out anything that's not perfect & have the ingredients you want in it.  I do not buy bags of salad- they smell funky and taste funky to me.  I'd much rather buy the lettuce, wash it and cut it myself! 

I like sharing simple, good, healthy and cheap recipes.....do you have any to share?  Please comment!
Crock pot meals ROCK!  All the mess is cleaned up early and at supper time all you have to do is enjoy the meal!

Fun Summer time in Florida

 

 

 

So what have I been doing?

 

One thing has been a painting class

 

No I didn't paint this picture!

 

 

 

That was what it was supposed to look like.....

 

THIS is what it actually looked like!

 

 

 

 

I envied my friend Jan's picture and tried to copy it LOL

 

Fun time with Lynn (our grandmother)

 

 

 

 THIS is where it ended up!  LOL

 

 

 

Happy Sarah in her pool

 

 

 

 

 

And on her swing!

 

 

 

We went back to the Circle B Ranch

(just me and Jon this time which was good as we were up close to a lot of animals)

 

 

 

 

 

This guy made me nervous0 he was bold and it was too early for him to be out.

(rabies alert!)

 

 

 

At one point I could see about 6 gators but couldn't get them all in the same frame to take a picture.

 

Look at the cute baby gator!

BIG Mama~!



Dear Lord I love a good swamp


The bird had a snake  I wanted to save the snake

 

Jon kept singing "The Circle of Life"



 

 

This picture just makes my heart happy.  Could heaven be any more prettier? 

 

 

 

 

I love Florida-can't you tell? My kids (at least Sam is since he was born here)  are 6th generation Florida Crackers!  (And Crackers have NOTHING to do with being white!) 

 

There is just a way of being when you are a real Floridian -it has nothing to do with color- it has to do with knowing your roots & family history and appreciating the REAL Florida. 

 

My hometown of Perry is a REAL Florida town.  It's a "little dot off the beaten path" where folks know each other back for generations.  Even though I've been gone from it since I was 18 years old-that's my roots.  32 years later- it still holds a piece of my heart. 

 

I love swamps and Spanish moss, palm trees and pine trees.  I love the beach rivers, springs and the lakes.  I LOVE gators, manatee and dolphins.  I even love the smell of the swamp, the beach and the smell of a pine tree on a hot day. I love honeysuckle, Confederate Jasmine and azalea bushes.   I love the monsoon rains that come-the excitement and build up of a hurricane...the thunder of a storm.   I even love the heat (as long as I can go inside and get cool!)

 

I love the fact that my family has a grave yard up in north Dixie County that goes back to my great great grandparents!  It's not landscaped, every time I've gone there I've had to pick sands spurs off my pant's leg or shoes.  Most times I've found a snake skin or two since it is far out in the country.  When I'm there I can just sense the generations who have gone on before me....

 

I may have lived in NYC but my roots are in the Florida sand!  I'm grateful for the legacy I've been given.