Jennifer Apodaca's Blog, page 57

Friday Five

TGIF! Hope 2022 is going well for you! Okay let’s jump into sharing five random things about our week.

No sign of the gopher’s return as of yet. Maggie is on the job!Turbo’s home from school all week with a virus. He was tested for Covid  as a precaution in Urgent Care over the weekend and  it came back negative. It’s just a run of the mill virus, but the preschool has very strict rules for good reason these days so it’s best if he stays home until next week.  Anyway, yesterday Wizard and I tagged-teamed babysitting him. I went out and took first shift, then Wizard arrived for second shift in the afternoon to relieve me. Our son and daughter-in-law were so appreciative, which is nice but we don’t mind helping out. Of course, they wouldn’t let us help until the Covid test came back negative. I totally understand that, and yet, I felt bad for them–they are both trying to work high pressure jobs from home with a toddler.There was no traffic yesterday. It was really freaky. I knew Covid was really bad in CA again, but I left here at 8am and should have been in gridlock.  I’ve done this enough time to know that. Instead, there was light traffic and I made it to their house in record time. Our state has not shut down, but a ton of companies and government offices have been forced to close due to so many people being sick.I bought some cake dummies–they are Styrofoam rounds that I can cover in fondant and practice on. I’m looking forward to trying a few things with my airbrush. These dummies let me practice decorating with much less waste as I can reuse them.Through sheer determination, I got my food processor at the price I wished to pay. Yay. Then I got it home, tried it and washed it all up and….it didn’t fit in the cupboard, LOL. Sometimes, the best laid plans are thwarted by something we don’t think about. In this case, there’s a central pole that stays on the base and it never occurred to me it’d make it too tall to go in the designated cupboard. But it’s all good, I found it another spot and now I have my food processor when I need it.

So that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! Have a great weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Uh Oh…We Have an Uninvited Visitor

Oh noes! It’s a gopher!

I don’t know if any of you recall Wizard’s epic battle with a gopher several years ago. It spanned weeks, and the thing traveled through the hills that run along  one side our property before Wizard finally won. I still laugh remembering that battle. Wizard was obsessed, and every time he was triumphant that he’d gotten rid of the creature, another mound of dirt would appear and the whole battle would start over.

But that was before we had Maggie. So we discovered this gopher hole along the back fence. But it looks like Maggie has chased him back to the other side of the fence. Maggie checks every hour or so to see if she can find him. She clearly believes she’s got this handled. And Wizard is hoping that Maggie will be enough to keep him off our property.

Let’s just say I’m skeptical. Did my sweet little Maggie actually scare the wily and determined gopher away? Or is he regrouping for an epic Return of the Gopher to annoy Wizard? I can already picture the gopher burrowed somewhere waiting for night to fall and the big dog (Maggie must look big to a gopher) to go to sleep in the house so he can create enough havoc to drive Wizard into warrior mode?

Stay tuned…

Happy Wednesday!

The post Uh Oh…We Have an Uninvited Visitor first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

Happy New Year! I’m posting this a little early on Sunday night. Anyhow, it’s a brand new year! Let’s make 2022 our best year yet. They’re are always challenges, and sometimes there’s sadness and sorrow, but there’s also the joys we embrace and the happiness we choose to live.

Okay, now for my weekend roundup.

Friday, Wizard and I went to dinner…here we are beginning our New Year’s Resolution to take more pictures as a couple before we left for the restaurant:

We just went to Red Lobster, but it was really nice to have dinner out. We also split a key lime pie. Then we came home and watched an interesting movie (Identity), and had a lowkey but fun night.

Until Wizard checked his phone and found out that a good friend suddenly passed away from Covid. We were both completely shocked. It was so quick and so sudden. Wizard has now lost three friends, two whom he was pretty close to. And I just feel freaking helpless. Wizard manages to stay so positive lately while dealing with some real and painful stress. I admire his grit, I really do.

Saturday, we planned to babysit Turbo, but I got a middle of the night text that he was running a fever. He hasn’t been too sick, but they took him to the doctor as a precaution. So since I was home Saturday, I tried the non dairy version of Hot Chocolate Bombs.

Sunday I took the HC Bombs to Youngest and his wife. Wizard stayed home to do some stuff, and I hung out two hours at Youngest’s house. I got to hang out with two of my grandpuppies. By the time I got around to taking pictures, they were both sound asleep

This is Roxy. She’s pretty old, but smart as ever, and always shows me where her treats are in case I forgot (she also shows me at MY house too, LOL):

 

And this is Phoebe, the Queen of Eating the Wrong Thing, and the Great Rat and Lizard Huntress:

 

So there was good and bad over the last few days, but life is filled with shades of both, isn’t it?

So how was your New Year’s and your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five!

TGIF! And Happy New Year’s Eve! Wherever you are, I wish you a safe New Years Eve and a Nery Happy 2022! Now let’s do Friday Five, sharing any combination of our week and/or plans for the New Year. You’re welcome to do more than five if you feel so moved!

I’m loving my new airbrush. I’ve started practicing, but like most things, it’s going to take a lot of practice and I’m okay with that. True Story–my middle son called and I was telling him about my airbrush. Then I said, “It’s for fun, I don’t have to be good at it.” Dead Silence. I don’t think he’s ever heard me say something like that in his entire life. It was all I could do not to laugh. I know he was thinking, “Who are you and what did you do with my mom?” It’s possible that I’ve been a little driven over the years, LOLI made Hot Chocolate Bombs this week. If you’re not familiar with them, they’re a chocolate shell around a powdered hot chocolate mix and marshmallows. Then when you pour hot milk over one, it begins to melt and kind of explodes marshmallows like a little bomb going off in your milk. If you add in sprinkles it’s even more fun. And man it was super rich and delicious, but I need to get the shell thinner to cut down on some of the richness (Wizard disagrees, he LOVED it). Here’s a pic of my first attempt:Yesterday, I found a food processor I wanted at Target. I was happy that I found an 8 cup size with all I need at a good price and that I had enough extra cash squirrelled away to buy it. It was all wins for me until I got home and a piece of the set was missing. I’ll return it today. It’s Target so that should be easy enough, but it was the last one they had in stock. However, since I’m not in any critical need for a food processor, this is just a mild inconvenience so I can’t really complain.So 2022, I don’t have any professional goals at the moment. I’ve made a deal with myself to not think about, or try to write for awhile. I spent too long trying and feeling so bad not doing what I felt I should be able to that I created a painful block. It was so bad that every time I saw down to write I tensed up with anxiety and frustration at myself. So I’m focusing now on doing things that I enjoy and not stressing. Personally, our goal is to make a life change happen I’ll talk more about that if and when we get closer, and I’d say there’s a fair change it won’t happen. So how’s that for vague??? LOL!For New Years Eve, we’re going out for an early dinner then we’ll hang out at home with Maggie. On New Year’s Day we’re going to Turbo’s house to babysit him so his parents can go to a movie. That’s pretty much the sum of our wild and crazy New Year’s celebration plans.

Okay that’s my assorted five, now I’d love to hear yours! Happy New Year!

The post Friday Five! first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

How Wizard and I Got Played by Maggie

I should write something clever about the 2022, but I don’t feel moved to do that. Instead, let’s talk about Maggie. We love her, but she’s a pain sometimes, LOL.

So Sunday night, it was cold and wet, and she starts acting weird. She’s going in and out over and over despite the weather she usually hates, and she won’t settle down. She’s acting weirdly restless when normally she’d be cuddled up on the couch with me and sleeping. It’s so odd we start to worry.

At night pm, I was outside in the back–in the rain–trying to see if my dog can pee. She’s had three huge bladder stones and we hadn’t known it until it was critical. And her backend glands abscessed and burst before we realized anything was wrong. Even the vets and techs said she’s really good at hiding her pain.

Finally I put her to bed, and she woke us barking at 2am. She never does that. I let her out of her kennel and she raced to the back door like she was dying to go to the bathroom. By then, Wizard and I were really concerned. In the morning she was still going out repeatedly in the rain and cold.

Then, because I don’t look dumb enough, I take her for a walk in the rain until she peed, desperate to see if she can void at all, and if there’s blood in it. Good news, no blood. Bad news…I looked like a crazy woman doing this.

I get back to the house, and called the vet. They are going to try to work me in and will call me back in a couple hours.

We were worried enough that we put out extra energy into taking down the Christmas tree and cleaning the house. When we paused for lunch, Wizard let Maggie in from another trip out back, and I heard him say, “No you can’t bring your stick inside.”

I’m like…huh? Maggie doesn’t carrying sticks. I looked and it’s not a stick but a small bird feather. Suspicious, I went outside to the side hill where she goes potty, and saw spots on the  top of the short retaining wall. I looked closer and there’s a bunch of feathers from a bird and more blood spots.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Some cat or creature must have caught and killed a bird there, and hopefully hauled that off, leaving the feathers and splatters. Which means Maggie wasn’t sick with a UTI or worse, more bladder stones. She’s OBSESSED WITH THE REMAINS OF THE POOR BIRD! So much so, she woke in the middle of the night and barked to go see it.

Of course this is when the vet office called back with an appointment for that afternoon. I explained my suspicions and they had me bring her in anyway because of her history. The did the urine test, and cleaned out her glands, both of which needed to be done anyway. And it was well worth the cost to know they didn’t see any stones on the ultrasound. That was our biggest worry.

So the moral of this story is Wizard and I got played by sweet little Maggie who evidently likes dead things. However, we got the last laugh since she endured a vet visit filled with indignities, LOLOL!!

The vet told me that through the entire exam, Maggie never once stopped wagging her tail. The vet’s final words were, “I just love her.”

So do I, even though she’s a PIA sometimes.

Happy Wednesday! (It’s happy for us because what really matters is Maggie is fine).

The post How Wizard and I Got Played by Maggie first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

I hope everyone had a great Christmas or whatever holiday you and your celebrates! I can’t honestly remember all that we’ve done, so I think I’ll do this Weekend Roundup in the Friday Five format

We got out new phones last week. It’s been less stressful than I imagined so that’s a win. The phone covers we chose aren’t ideal, but that’s an easy fix.We spent Christmas Eve at my sister’s and had a great time. We got to see a couple nephews and a great nephew that I haven’t seen in a while. It was a lot of fun.Wizard got me an airbrush (for cake/cookie decorating) for Christmas. I’m super excited. The only thing I have to do now is learn to use it. Bwhahahaha! I’ve played with it without the food colors, and tomorrow, I’ll try it with the color and see what happens. I’m, umm, going to test it in the garage, not my kitchen, LOL!We went to see Turbo yesterday. Turbo noticed that Grandpa had Band-Aids on both his thumbs. Wizard had problems with his thumbs cracking open in the cold and from all the work he does on his RC cars and models. He just told Turbo he’d gotten little cuts but was fine. Turbo was so concerned he ran in the bathroom and got Grandpa his special PAW Patrol Band-Aids. Then he gave him another Band-Aid to take him when we left. So sweet!It’s been cold and raining here! After being so hot for so long, we’re having a real winter. Yesterday was a really nice break in the rain. Maggie and I took advantage of the clear, sunny and cold day yesterday to go for a walk. We were gone so long, Wizard called to make sure we were okay We were fine, just enjoying the walk.

Okay that’s some of the last few days I can think of at the moment. While I’m loving the weather, I’m also having sinus headaches (allergies) and a little tired, so who knows what I forgot. Now I’d love to hear how your holiday and weekend were!

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Merry Christmas!

Wish you all…

I’ll be back on Monday!

The post Merry Christmas! first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

You Are Enough

Well, I pretty much have done the best I can for Christmas this year. Will it be enough?

The answer is yes.

And yet…so many of us feel like it’s not enough.

I’m here to remind all of us, that we are enough. We give enough gifts, we bake enough treats, we decorate enough, we clean enough. But we are not machines, we are all people doing the best we can in whatever circumstances that define our lives at the moment. And it’s enough.

We’re enough.

We love with out whole hearts, we try our best most times, we fall short or fail sometimes, and through it all, we are enough.

For all these we love, I think (and I’m talking to myself here too) the best gift we can give to our family and friends is to love and respect ourselves as much we do others. We’ll be stronger, more confident and better friends, lovers and relatives for it.

You are enough. In fact, you’re better than enough–you are the one and only YOU.

The post You Are Enough first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

Whew, that was a marathon week and weekend. Today is going to be busy too. But the weekend was good. Saturday I baked (surprise, LOL). Sunday we had the family Christmas Party. Awesome food and priceless family time.

I won’t put pictures of all my baking because no one has time to look at all that I’ll just show you the cupcakes:

This is the chocolate cupcakes and mint frosting (green frosting) and the white chocolate raspberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (the white frosting):

And these ones aren’t as pretty, but they are tasty non-dairy chocolate chip cookie cupcakes with cookie dough icing. Youngest son was thrilled. These are for the cookie + dough lovers

Watching Turbo with his dad, grandpa and two uncles setting off pop rockets (Nerf ones that are totally safe for little kids) made me laugh watching. My grown up executive-type sons turned into little boys right along side Turbo. Kids can really help us shed the skin of adulthood to feel that unfiltered joy.

Oh when Wizard and I were putting wrapping Turbo’s big gift, Maggie realized it was for Turbo, ran to the front window, stood on her hind legs and looked for him. Most of the time, Maggie is just Maggie, but every now and again she amazes us as she makes these logical leaps. If Wizard and I are getting toys out for Turbo then he must be coming over. Of course, then we feel bad for her because she looks sad when we tell her he’s not coming over. And then Wizard and I realized we’ve lost our minds like every other dog (or cat!) owner

So that was our weekend, how was yours?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF! Time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

It rained! And it’s been cold here. I’m really enjoying the cooler weather.Apps on Wizard’s phone started corrupting last weekend. Both our phones are old and his has been glitching for awhile now. Sigh. In my mind, my phone was fine, but Wizard thought it was better to just replace both of them at once. He’s right, I just didn’t want to deal with it Anyhow, that process ate a few large chunks out of our week. The upside is that we have two new phones coming into the shop on Monday and we should be able to finish the process then. Well except after that we will have to learn how to use our new phones, and that’s always a fun time.I’ve baked a lot. So far I’ve made mocha cookies, lemon cookies, chocolate mint checkerboard cookies, chocolate chip muffins (they’ll get a cookie dough icing eventually), a dozen loaves of pumpkin bread and a dozen loaves of zucchini bread.Turbos big Christmas gift had a missing piece when Wizard went to assemble it. I scrambled to get the company to send the missing part–it’s suppose to be here Saturday. We are doing our family Christmas this Sunday so fingers crossed it gets here. But if it doesn’t, we have a couple little things, and since he’s three, it’ll be okay. But still frustrating.As I mentioned earlier. Sunday is our family Christmas party with our kids. Then Christmas Eve we are having my side at Biker Witches (my sister), and Christmas Day we will probably try to go see Wizard’s mom. I feel like I’ll blink once and it’ll be the New Year. Time is flying by right now.

That’s my fine (written after a really LONG day!), now I’d love to hear yours. I hope everyone has a good and safe weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.