Saturday hike

A few ladies from Okinawa are in the area, and my friend Brooke is trying to get together to go hiking onSaturdays.  Marian and I met up with her and Lynnette one Saturday morning at Tori Pines.  It was a lovely place to hike and we had a good time.  

It was really pretty!  I wish we had had more time to walk down the trails to the beach, but we didn't have time.  I'd say next time we will, but parking was $20!!!  Which I probably would not have done had I known ahead of time.  Oops.

My single selfie so you know I really was there.

 

A rough day

On Monday night, Rylee had a roller blading fail and broke her arm.  Our awesome neighbor, who is an orthopedic surgeon, came over to look at it and said it was probably broken.  He suggested that if she could, she should wait till morning and come in to his clinic and he would have everything ready for her.  Rylee said she could wait, and we had a soft splint she was able to wear overnight.

Dan took her in in the morning to get it looked at and yes, the X-rays showed a medial distal break.  They put a cast on it.  She picked purple.

Getting fitted for the cast.

They put the cast on, then cut it down the middle and put spacers in to leave room for swelling. 

We went back a week later and they took out the spacers, squeezed the cast tight and put another purple layer over it. 

All set for the next 3 weeks.

On the very same morning that Rylee went in to get her cast, Callie got to go back to the oral surgeon for emergency help.  Her gums on both sides got infected and painful, so she got to go back and deal with that.  It required another iv to sedate her and it was not fun.  Her recovery was less fun as well.  No funny videos this time.

And she got a sore arm and some bruising from the iv.

So, it was a hectic, crazy morning.  But everyone survived and recovered and all is well!

 

Goings ons

Selfie to show my cool jade earrings from Hong Kong.  When I got them, I didn't take into account that I don't have much green to match them. So I was excited to wear them.

One of our New Year's goals was to do a monthly Book Club.  The girls held their first book club meeting.  We all read Little Apocalypse and discussed it over "Sips and Nibbles".

 A sneaky shot of Delaney in her natural habitat.

We met up with cousin Cynthia and her family to hike part of Lake Murray.  It was a good time. She and her family are so cool. And this is the only photo I have of the event.  But trust me, we had fun!

 

Bread Ministry!

Bread Ministry is one of my most favorite things ever!  I had never heard of it until we moved here and my neighbor told me about it.  I love it!  So, the premise is that the local military communities teamed up with the local Food Pantry and the local Vons stores.  The various military neighborhoods each have a designated person for nearly every day of the week.  

I am now the Monday lady for my neighborhood!

This means that Monday mornings, I go to my designated Vons store. I drive to the back and tell them I am there and they bring me the day old food they typically would throw away.  I load it into the van, fill out some paperwork and bring it home.  I set up camp in the driveway and post to our Bread Ministry FB page and the people come and take free food.  

My first day was one of the coldest days we have had here.  Plus, it was rainy and the wind was out of control.  It was quite the adventure!

This was the cart of dairy goods.  Most of the milk expired that day or the day before, and same with the yogurt.  But it is still good stuff!

My cart of produce.  I have discovered that most of the fruit has an odd tase, but hey, free fruit!

There were also 2 carts entirely filled with bread!  This is what my van looked like once we had put everything in it.  Usually there will be sweets too, but there were none this day.  I didn't have room anyway!

I put the stuff out for display in the garage.

So. Much. Bread!!

The milk table.

And my sad little shelf with eggs and baguettes.

Did I mention that this time the bread was GOOD bread?!  Lots of good bread.  Oh yeah, when I post that 'm ready, I post these pictures as well so people know what I have.

I hang out and meet my neighbors and other military folks trolling for goodies for an hour or two.  After the first hour or so, I have to dispose of any unclaimed cold stuff.  I can go inside and keep an eye on things periodically after that.  (After 4-6 hours, whatever is left needs to be tossed.)

I downsized and moved it from inside the garage (while we do have a lovely community, it is still not wise to leave the garage door open and unattended.).  This is what was left after 2 ours.  I closed the garage door and went inside to warm up a bit.  When I finally closed up shop 2 hours after that, I had 35 loaves of bread left.  35!!  I had to throw away that much bread. I almost cried.

So, this is how I spend my Mondays.  I like it.  I like keeping the grocery store waste down.  I like meeting my neighbors. I definitely like free food.  The girls have told me no more cake. But of course, I still keep some cake!  I troll my neighbors when they host Bread Ministry too.  I know most of the places in my neighborhood, so if I'm having soup for dinner, I'll check to see if someone has french bread.  What the stores send out each week varies.  I had no bread at all one week. And sometimes there is a ton of stuff, and sometimes there is not much at all.  My neighbor picked up 7 shopping carts one week.  She begged us to come get cake.  Hence the current cake ban.  Apparently you CAN have too much cake.

Jumping on the Cocoa Bomb Bandwagon

Sometimes you figure if EVERYONE really is doing it, then maybe there is something to it.  After seeing all these cocoa bomb pictures and how-to's and videos, we decided maybe it was time to give it a try ourselves.  

So we did.  Of course we don't have any round molds, and of course they are all told out everywhere.  No problem.  We have this.  We used a silicone muffin one as well  Totally worked! No one said cocoa bombs had to be spheres!  The girls coated the inside of the molds with a thin layer of melted chocolate and stuck them in the fridge to help it set.

Our lovely model Rylee is showing how she scooped the cocoa out of the packet and put it in the mold.  Okay, fine. She's just having a good time, but that's what she's doing!

Once you put the cocoa powder inside, you cover the top with melted chocolate, to encase the cocoa powder.  If you are feeling frisky, you can put a candy cane in it too. Then put them in the fridge or freezer to set the chocolate.

Once the chocolate is solid, pop the shapes out of the milds and finish decorating.

The girls had a marvelous time.

 

And created some lovely and delicious treats.  I confess though..... they were a bit rich.  You heat up milk, and once it is steaming hot, plop your cocoa bomb in it and watch it melt.  Stir it into the milk and ta da.... hot cocoa.