I cannot believe

it has been a month since I wrote anything. I keep thinking I will wait till this happens or that happens or I go to the doctor again. Now I will be lucky to remember half of what I did.

I baked cookies to take to Heather’s - her one request was Spritz cookies. I had to, even though I wasn’t supposed to. I put a hat on and sunglasses and spent as little time as possible with the oven door open. I made a double batch and halfway through I realized they only had vanilla for flavoring. I added what I thought was almond and turned out it was peppermint. Then I added almond. 5e next day I made another batch with just almond and added food coloring so we could tell them apart.

My last visit to the doctor was the 21st and he said the inflammation was much better but still some. I go back on Friday. It is still irritated so I don’t know what the report will be.

The 23rd José took me to the airport very early morning and it was al

Toffee

Cookies for Heather 

Domingo wants to come with me

The Paraiso paper 

Our article

The whole group was making bracelets.

most 11pm by the time I got to Heather’s house. We had lunch on the 24th with Kent’s son, Justin and Kent’s mother, Sherry. Christmas Day was at Kent’s mother’s house and it included a wonderful Honey Baked ham. Next on my schedule was a trip to Hutchinson and Little Falls. I have to say first that I thank my lucky stars that nothing bad happened. I picked up the car on Thursday at noon and headed right out. Now remember, I can’t see, it is winter, everything is gray and it is raining and water is splashing up from the road. Traffic wasn’t heavy and I pretty much stayed away from other cars. Made it to Hutch just as it started to snow and by now it is dark.

Saturday Roz  and I drove to Little Falls for lunch with my sister in law, Sandy, and two of my cousins, Yvonne and Alexia. Had a great time and a great meal at the Black and White downtown. I took Roz for a tour of Belle Prairie and we headed back to Hutch. Sunday morning I headed to St. Paul for lunch and a visit with Aunt Janice and then back to Heather’s.

 Now this was a big driving trip for me because it may be my last for a while. My license expires in March and since I don’t live anyplace in the US I can’t renew it. The suggestion was made that I get a license here and use that in the US but the little checking I did says they won’t give a person with  diabetes a license. I need to do more checking to make sure.

Most of my time in Wisconsin was spent trying to get 3 tubs and 2 suitcases full into 2 duffle bags and have them not weigh over 50 pounds. They ended up weighing 49.2 pounds and exactly 50 pounds. That means I wasted 12 ounces. That’s another bag of chocolate chips.It kept getting worse because all the after Christmas sales were on and Heather is the bargain queen.

One of the things I usually make, that Heather loves, is toffee. Tastes just like Heath Bars. This time I watched and gave suggestions and Heather made it. I had brought my cookie press to make more Spritz but she had one too so we used that and again, she made them with my supervision. Everything turned out great.

Our last night I made meatloaf, baked potato for Heather, baked sweet potatoes for Kent and me. Heather did the green beans and we both did the salads. Kent is gluten free so I was careful with the meatloaf. He loved it and for several days she was sending me messages. He wouldn’t let her have any because she didn’t like it as much as he did. He even had it on pizza and for breakfast. I was delighted. A big meatloaf sandwich is what I took with me for the bus ride to Chicago.

The trip back had an hour delay in Houston and it took forever for my bags to show up. For the first time they asked me to open my bag and kept asking about fruit. I said I have lots of chocolate, no fruit. Thank heaven José and Gloriana and Ishmael were right outside waiting for me. I had most of
my things on a cart and I was pulling the duffle with 4 wheels. Ishmael took that and headed for the car. I took a minute to pull out the box of chocolates so they would have something to snack on during the drive home. I had other things for them but those would have to wait till I unpacked.

This is getting very long so I will skip to today. We met at Jeannette’s and Ligia gave us each a copy of a free publication from Paraiso. They had me keep turning the pages and there was half a page on Chicas Buenas. I posted it on the page for the craft ladies in Paraiso and one of them contacted me to say her mother crochets and would like to help.

PS the sewing machine made it safely and Jeannette is so so happy. I did a lesson last week and today she took me around to show me what she has done. When she is comfortable with it she will teach her daughters and granddaughters.