Cooking, baking, crafting

Well hello there folks!  It is finally supposed to start warming up around here, so I'm super happy about that.  75 tomorrow!  Oh, happy day.

KIM!  She is doing really, really well.  Walking up a storm, off the vent, eating solid food, and talking! She's almost chest tube free too.  She'll be out of the hospital in no time.

So I have been baking and cooking up a storm.  I knew there was a reason why I didn't get into baking before.  Besides having to measure (which I despise), I only want to eat cake and cookies!

I have a couple of yummy recipes.

CAKE!  Link to bomb-diggity lemon cake

Jeff and I couldn't even wait long enough so I could take the pic!  

Delicious pasta.  I used 1/2 tsp of cayenne and it was plenty spicy.  I do try to make these a bit healthier... used half the amount of butter and half and half.  I added chicken artichoke sausage also.  Sorry I didn't take a pic.  We ate it all before I remembered.

And I finally finished the knitting project from hell.  Yes, you are looking at hundreds of pins when I blocked it after washing.  Okay, you're really only seeing about 50, but know there were hundreds.

This thing was a nightmare.  

Oh yes, those are knitted braids.  Don't even ask.  It's insanity.

 Do you want to hear a funny story?  The automatic cat feeder requires batteries.  They died.  We have been forgetting to get batteries for a week.  I was at Home Depot yesterday to buy rope lights and zip ties (which I installed on our patio canopy thingie).  The guy in front of me for some reason turned around and asked how I was doing.  I said I was doing well, blah blah blah.  And then I see him holding batteries!  DUH!  So I grab a huge pack of 9V batteries so we won't run out anytime soon.  I'm so proud of myself.  I tell Jeff how smart I am for remembering the batteries.  Jeff gets home and looks for the batteries to put in the feeder.  I tell him they're right with the other batteries.  He holds up the pack of 9V batteries and says, "You know it uses D batteries, right?"  Ugh.  

I ran 3 minutes three times on Tuesday during my 4 mile walk.  I was so happy I almost cried!  I'm glad I stopped after 3 attempts because I was super sore the next day.  Wow.  But it was what I needed to stay motivated.

I got the okay from my doc to go skiing at the end of this month (YAY!) and to go camping/ kayaking this summer on Lake Superior.  And then after camping I'm going to a Fiber Festival and then The World's Longest Yard Sale.  Because I can.  :-)  Which is so awesome it just makes me grin. 

I'm getting so much stronger, too.  With PH I would get out of breath lifting a heavy pan off the stove.  I'm not kidding.  It was really depressing.  But now I can bend over and put stuff in the oven and take heavy stuff out of the oven.  It makes baking so much easier when I can lift my KitchenAid mixer onto the counter.  I walked up a flight of stairs the other day and didn't even realize it until I got to the top.  I installed the rope lights with ease!  

I need to get outside and go walking.  The sun is shining, the temps are warmer, and I need to burn some calories so I can have a piece of cake after lunch :-)