Saturday, January 19, 2013

Jilly and Lupin

Jilly and Lupin are our dogs.

Jilly is blue merle Australian Shepherd that we rescued from the Delaware Humane Association in June 2009.  I peeked at her file and saw that she was traken from a puppy mill for abuse.  When we got her she was 5 months old. 




Jilly now weighs about 55lbs and is very healthy except for skin allergies that seem to be responding to daily fish oil pills.  She is very emergetic, loves to fetch and play tug of war.  She craves attention and food( we think she was starved at the puppymill since she was very underweight when we got her.





Lupin is a black and white bordercollie/sheltie? mix that we rescued from the Delaware County SPCA in September of 2010.  According to his file he was found wandering on the street with another border collie mix. 

At the shelter he was covered with fleas and desperately needed a bath. The SPCA took care of his fleas and neutered him.  He has a really sweet personality. 

Lupin loves to spin in circles when he walks.  He also wags his tail in a circle.  Running is his favorite thing.  Both dogs get along well and like to play together.  Jilly is the boss, and often has Lupin grooming her coat and ears.

Homemade Pasta

For Christmas, I was given a pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aide mixer.

I was so excited; I couldn't wait to try it out!  Frances and I made homedmade spaghetti for Christmas dinner.

The first batch of dough was a little bit dry and crumbly but we were able to make it work with delicious results.


Later in the week, I made lasagna from scratch.  First, I roasted tomoatoes, onions, red peppers, garlic and oregnao in the i=oven. 


Then I pureed the roasted veggies and added ground meat.


I made the pasta into sheets and quick boiled to tender.






Finally I assembeled the lasagna and baked.  Yummmmmm!

Nutcracker 2012

Nutcracker as performed by the Parkside Performing Arts Company
December 2012 at the Ridley Community Center




This is our final Nutcracker year since Grace is a senior.  She will dance as the Snow Queen, a Party Guest and as a member of the Corps of Flowers.  Henry finally agreed to join his sister on stag as a Party Guest in Act I.

Grace and her friend, Ryan, were the proud "parents" of Henry and Avery in Act I.


Grace was a beautiful Snow Queen!  Her Italian fortes were perfect!  The best part is when it starts to snow!


Thursday, January 3, 2013

Fishing at Pine Flats







For Henry's seventh birthday this year, Grandmom promised him a fishing trip to Pine Flats in the Pocono Mts.  She was also taking Henry's two cousins, Jason and Lucas.


  Meg and I went along as well.  Henry and I drove to meet the others at a Wendy's in Wind Gap for dinner.  We arrived at the cabin in the evening and tried to head to bed at a decent time.  Grandmom woke us up before dawn because "That is when the fish are biting!" We gathered the fishing gear along with the required hot chocolate and doughnuts.  I was tasked with running to the Pickeral Inn for blood worms and mealworms.  When I fianlly arived at the dock, the boys were using salmon eggs and all were getting bites.  Henry reeled in the first fish - a blue gill.  We were practicing catch and release fishing.  Grandmom made the boys fish for awhile before breaking out the hot chocolate and doughnuts.  After a few hours we moved upstream above the beaver dam to try a new fishing hole.  Everyone was able to land a fish - mostly sunnies or bluegill with a perch or two. Henry caught the most.  Henry had a fabulous weekend with his Grandmom, cousins and Aunt Meg (who drove him home in her F150 - a true highlight!).