Continued:

I can't believe another whole week has passed and I am just now have time to blog!!
On to the leg story.........
I went to the doctor on Monday, 3rd and he thought I might have a blood clot so he sent me to a cardiologist. Luckily, there was not a blood clot but they had to do an ultra sound to make sure. Apparently, I have a Baker's Cyst behind my right knee and it had partially ruptured and that is what happened when I fell. The fluid leaked into the muscle and tissue in the calf of my leg and caused bruising and swelling. Not a bad thing to have, just not sure when it will completely go away or whatever. As of yesterday, I can now walk without a limp!!
Now, on to last weekend.
Saturday:
Dwayne and I head over to St. Elizabeth to help April and Mike on the house. Everything is coming together so well. It is a very cute house and with April's decorating it looks great. She has a real talent there.
Sunday:
I got up to go to church but didn't feel good and my leg was hurting again so I went back to bed. I DEFINITELY want to go to church this week, I've missed way too much this winter.
At noon, we headed up to Mom and Dad's for Sunday dinner. Wayne's 63rd birthday was on Saturday, the 8th and Kate's 42nd birthday was on Sunday, the 9th. Mom fixed pork loin, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, salad, home made rolls, apple pie, banana bread. She's eighty-one years old and still does huge family meals!! What a Momma! We had a great afternoon.
Spent the rest of the day relaxing.

I am most grateful for my parents and the love they have for each of us.

New Year's Weekend:

A whole week has passed and I haven't had time to blog until now. Still not sure I have the time, but I'm taking it.
Friday New Year's Eve:Dwayne and a guy he works with went over to April and Mike's to paint. I was going to fix lasagne and go over later. We had a storm and the electric went off. So, I pack up everything to fix lasagne with and head over to St. Elizabeth. Dwayne, John, April and Mike were busy painting and doing odd jobs. We had lasagne mid- afternoon along with salad, corn and french bread. It turned out pretty good if I say so myself...
We went home and watched TV. We were in bed by 8:30 and I was almost asleep when my Mom called to tell me of the tornado that touched down earlier and all of the damage it had done. A friend of mine, Ethel Price died along with her good friend who was visiting. Other neighbors, Faye and Charles Grisham lost their home and their son's. They were very lucky as their homes were demolished and they barely escaped without injury. It was hard to sleep sound, I kept waking up off and on thinking about Ethel.
Saturday:
Todd came over and rode with me to April's. Todd painted doors and helped to paint the spare bedroom. April fixed chili and grilled cheese for lunch. It was very good. Later in the day, I decide to paint the utility room. I'm painting away and all of a sudden, I buckle and completly go down (along with scraping the wall of fresh paint with my body). I didn't know what happened, it felt like something hit me in the back of the leg below my knee. I couldn't put any weight on my right leg and it hurt alot. I had Todd drive my truck home and I rode with Dwayne. I tried the heating pad on my leg and that helped. Then Dwayne tried rubbing my leg as I thought I must have pulled a muscle or just had a really bad charlie horse that wouldn't go away. I slept good, as long as I didn't move my leg, it didn't hurt.
Well, that's it for now as John just said to shut our computers down, we're going home. So until next week.................

Christmas:

We get up Friday morning to a snow storm that followed ice during the night. April and Mike were going to go on over to their house and we were going to come over later. They couldn't make it up the big hill so they came back to the house. After coffee, (for me!!)Dwayne decided we would all go over in his 4x4. The closer we got to St. Elizabeth, the less snow there was.
It was exciting to see my little girl's house for the first time. April and I spent the day cleaning. I took over the ingredients to make my food for the evening at Mom's and at home. Dwayne and Mike started painting the living room. We finished up mid-afternoon so we could to Mom's.
We had a wonderful get together at Mom and Dad's on Christmas Eve. Liz had planned a Christmas play for us to do. It was a cute play and we had a lot of fun. Todd and Zach played ornery kids in the play and they were both a natural at it. lol
We then went home for our family time. Dwayne got me a camera and I have pictures I need to post but I haven't figured that out yet.
April put together scrap books for the boys and a couple photo albums a piece of pictures though out their childhood. They both seemed to like book/albums a lot and talked about looking at them more over the weekend.
Saturday morning, Dwayne and I take out again for St. Elizabeth. April and I did some of the priming and painting trim. Todd came over mid-afternoon and helped. Dwayne said he wasn't leaving until he got the living room done, so he made Todd take me home around 8 p.m. I felt like a baby, I had to go home and get some rest. Which, actually I really did, I was pretty tired. I took a shower and then watched TV for awhile. Sleep came pretty fast that night.
Sunday morning, a repeat of the day before. We went over and Dwayne, Todd and Mike finished up the kitchen painting and a lot of the trim. The house is looking very nice and with fresh paint it seems new.
Monday:
I had the day off and I really needed it. I rested quite a bit and just had a lazy day.

I know it bothered April quite a bit that we worked on her house on Christmas Day, but we enjoyed it. Along with Christ's birth, Christmas is also a time when families come together, whether it be a big dinner, an outing to relatives or helping your children start a new life together.
We celebrated the "reason for the season" at Mom and Dad's with our Christmas Play and scripture reading and the rest of the weekend was spent with family.

I am so grateful for my family and the special times together.

I Did It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, people, I did it, I pumped gas!!!!!!! Can you believe it, I'm 53 years old and I actually pumped gas!! For those of you who wonder what the heck I'm talking about, you can go to my post in June titled "Random Acts of Kindness". I sure didn't want to, though (and I really hope Felix doesn't find out I did it). When I stopped at the station in Joplin, I went in and told the guy I didn't know how to pump gas. Well, he gave me step-by-step instructions...... First, he said I needed to unscrew the gas cap on my truck. Duh!! I do know that much!! lol I was really nervous and was scared I would run the tank over so I stopped it when I thought maybe I had enough.
Now, to the reason I pumped gas.
I took Mom to Joplin for a surprise 40th birthday party for her great-niece. Julie moved to MO from California and her sister liked the area so much, her and her family moved, also. Followed by their Mom. It is funny as Julie's grandpa (which is my Uncle Glen Williams) moved to California over fifty years ago and has never wanted to move back to Missouri. His son, Ron has never even come back for a visit since he was a boy. He hasn't even come in the last few years to visit his daughters, he's a die-hard Californian. Mom and Uncle Glen are the only ones left in their family. It made Uncle Glen happy that Mom was able to go to his granddaughter's birthday party.
We got to Joplin okay but needed a little bit of help to find Julie's house. Map Quest doesn't give you the most direct route. A guy at a gas station used the GPS on his phone to get us on to Julies house from there.
Julie was totally surprised by the party, then she saw Mom and almost cried. But to top it all off, her brother, Tony and her best friend from California had flown out and they hid until Julie had been home for about ten minutes or so. THAT really surprised her. It was a fun party and you can't help but have fun around Tony, he is a riot. They had it catered from a local Mexican Restaurant.
When we were leaving, I got very nervous as my gas tank was below a fourth of a tank. I thought about asking someone from the party if they would go with me to get gas but I didn't think that was really fair. So, we take out and Mom said she couldn't pump gas either so I worried about it until we got to the first station we saw. As we were getting ready to leave, the attendant came out and moved the nozzle from where I had put it. Hey, I can't get everything right!!

I had a great day with extended family and was very thankful Mom felt like making a long trip.

Elrod Christmas:

Since my in-laws passed away, I have changed our Christmas Day celebration to a Sunday close to Christmas. I know Dodie would not have liked that, but the kids are adults now and have several other places to be and I would rather have all of them there than fixed on a certain day.
David fixed smoked pork loin and ribs. Yummy!! David is really good at barbecuing. We supplied the side dishes and dessert. It wouldn't be an Elrod Christmas without Grandma Dodie's Punch and Cranberry Sauce.
We were all present except Dustin as he couldn't trade days. We missed him being there.
Chad brought Desmon with him and he had a good time playing with Trevor and Xander (Dustin's little boys).
We had a great day visiting and reminencing.

I'm grateful for having a close relationship with my Elrod Family.

Cauliflower Soup:

I made this soup for supper last night along with grilled cheese sandwiches.
I had made this soup one other time and got it way too salty!! April had been wanting this soup again so I decided to make it last night as she will be moving out next week. This time, it turned out very good.

Cauliflower Soup Ingredients
■1 stick Butter, Divided
■½ whole Onion, Finely Diced
■1 whole Carrot Finely Diced
■1 stalk Celery, Finely Diced
■1 whole (to 2 Whole) Cauliflower Heads (roughly Chopped)
■2 Tablespoons Fresh Or Dried Parsley (chopped)
■2 quarts Low-sodium Chicken Broth Or Stock
■6 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour
■2 cups Whole Milk
■1 cup Half-and-half
■2 teaspoons To 4 Teaspoons Salt, To Taste
■1 cup (heaping) Sour Cream, Room Temperature
Preparation Instructions
In a large soup pot or dutch oven, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes, or until it starts to turn brown.
Add the carrots and celery and cook an additional couple of minutes. Add cauliflower and parsley and stir to combine.
Cover and cook over very low heat for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, pour in chicken stock or broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer.
In a medium saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Mix the flour with the milk and whisk to combine. Add flour-milk mixture slowly to the butter, whisking constantly.
Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup half-and-half. Add mixture to the simmering soup. Allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Check seasoning and add more salt or pepper if necessary.
Just before serving, place the sour cream in a serving bowl or soup tureen. Add two to three ladles of hot soup into the tureen and stir to combine with the sour cream. Pour in remaining soup and stir.
Serve immediately.
(I didn't use the sour cream and I added about 1 cup shredded cheese)
EAR:The EAR (aka Elizabeth Ann Rowe) had her Christmas Party at school yesterday and asked if I would come and help. It was a lot of fun and the kids called me, Lizzy's Granny!!
Liz and I then went to Rolla to finish up my Christmas shopping. I had taken the day off work and thought the middle of the afternoon would be a good shopping time. Wrong!! J.C. Penney's was crowded and we had a long line at checkout. Wal-Mart!! Man, I could not believe how busy they were!! I was so glad I went at two in the afternoon, if it was that busy during the day, just think what it would have been like after work!
Liz spent the night with us and we had a good time watching TV and wrapping presents.

12/12/1978:

Chad Anthony Elrod:
What can I say about my son but that he loves to ride horses!! This picture was taken a few years ago during deer season.
It is so hard to believe my first born "baby" is thirty-two years old!! Where has the time gone?
We celebrated Chad's birthday on Sunday, 12th. I pulled together several recipes from online friends. From Sarah, her twice-baked potatoes and from PW, her olive cheese bread. Both were very good. Dwayne grilled steaks and we had a couple other side dishes with homemade cinnamon rolls for Chad's birthday cake. It was Dwayne, Me, Chad, Todd, April and Mike. We had a good time visiting around the table during and after dinner.
April and I left mid-afternoon to go to St. Louis. Poor Dwayne, we left him the whole mess to clean up.

Clayton, MO:
I had a two day seminar in Clayton and April went down with me. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza. Our first night's adventure was quite eventful. I wanted April to drive from the hotel to the mall as I was tired of driving. I had printed out directions from the hotel to the Galleria Mall. On paper it looked pretty easy, in life-not so much!! We left the parking garage the wrong way, April ran a stop light, we got lost, etc. So, then I took over the driving. Not so great on my part either. I did a u-turn in front of a cop, took the wrong street, went the wrong way on a one-way street. After all that, we make it to the mall. It didn't seem very crowded. Well, no wonder, we got there a little after six and the mall closed at 7 p.m.!! What? The mall closes early on Sunday? We're from the country and even our stores stay open late on Sundays!!
Monday, 13th:
We have training all day. We get done at four and head back to the mall. Yeah!! We make it there without getting lost! We're disappointed this mall doesn't have very many stores we like. We leave there and eat at Olive Garden. It was good but I think it's overrated. Here we are in a different location and we wind up shopping at a Wal-Mart. But hey, we will take what we can get!! As we head back to the hotel, I get on a wrong street and we wind up in Shaw Park. It is deserted and scary. I turn around and try to get out, the exit was a dead end and it went under a bridge. I said, I watch CSI and other shows, we're not going under there!! I could just see us being attacked. I said, I don't care if this is a one way street, we're going back out the way we came in. So, that's what I did and luckily no one was coming towards us. When I got to the light, there was a truck trying to turn on the street towards us. So, I just went ahead and turned left at a red light from going the wrong way on a one way street!! But, we were out of Shaw Park!! Most of the traffic lights had cameras but fortunately neither one of us have received a ticket in the mail for our little driving episodes.
Tuesday:
The training was very good and informative, I learned quite a bit. Class let out at 3:30, so we were looking forward to some major shopping. Wrong!! I got directions from someone on how to get to a mall on 270. Well, they left out one of the turns and I wound up going west towards Chesterfield. April and I were both getting a little anxious and crabby with each other. Then I saw a turn off that led to several shopping centers. Finally, day three, and we are at a Target!! We then stopped at Chesterfield Mall and it is a good place to shop. I was hoping I remembered how to get from Chesterfield on over to Hwy 100 to head home. Luckily, I did remember and that saved us a lot of miles of backtracking we would have had to do otherwise. Then we hit pay dirt again, I spied a Kohl's!! I pretty well finished up my Christmas shopping there and got an additional 15% off my items that were already on sale and I got a fifty dollar coupon to use in January 2011. We felt much better about our shopping even though we didn't find too much the first couple of days.

I am so grateful God looked after us on this trip as we made many driving mistakes and made it home safe and sound.