Monday, March 12th - I get one more day with the family!

It may not be spring yet - this morning it's -2' and we're headed for a sunny + 4' this afternoon but looking ahead it's predicting 5 to 10 cm of snow on Tuesday.  If that happens, it won't be around long according to the temperatures predicted for the rest of the week. I suppose it's that time of year when it can be anything.

So yesterday Patti got James hockey schedule and  it looks like they can stay one more day. Needless to say we were all pretty happy about that. The day started off chilly but that didn't stop Tristen, the true outdoors man of the group, to be outside sliding on the hill by 7:30 in the morning. At various times of the day, he'll just put his coat and boots and and announce that he's going sliding, usually all by himself. He's definitely gotten the most mileage out of that little hill this trip.

We made fish cakes for breakfast with the left over fish from the medieval feast the night before. I didn't put any salt in the mixture as I assumed there was enough in the brined fish, but in reality they could have used a bit more. But they were still okay. A handful of shrimp tossed in with the the cod and steelhead trout, mashed potatoes and some onions, dipped in flour, egg and panko breadcrumbs - I can just tell papa's mouth is watering right now!

After cleaning up the dishes - again - we got down to prepping the ingredients for our New Orleans feast. Everyone pitched in and the chopping of all the veggies took no time at all. Patti and Meghan made the gumbo, that was really delicious. Then they made the pralines. It's been a while since I had a freshly made praline and I'd forgotten just how tasty they are - but they must have a million calories so no wonder they taste so good.

Once we had all our prep done, it was time to clean up a bit. Patti and the kids took Cooper and went for a walk in the back fields while I swept and mopped the kitchen floor. Then I went out to join them. I found them way back in the woods where they had found what must be a low spot that had flooded because they had their own little skating rink that they spent a lot of time sliding around on. We made our way back and half way up to the house was another flooded area that I ventured over to check out. Not a great idea. I managed to put my foot through the ice and sunk my right boot completely under water. Needless to say my toes were sloshing around inside until we got back. Once back we set about filling up the wood and with so much help it took no time at all.

Then we tackled the inside - cleaning the bathroom, sweeping and generally tidying up before company arrived. Meghan made place cards and there was considerable discussion about the seating arrangements - seems everyone wanted to sit beside Bernie.

When Brenda and Bernie arrived they brought a  game called Apples to Apples for the kids. They had great fun playing it after supper and we all had a game later in the evening after baths. That was really nice of the Van Gaals and the kids really enjoyed it.

Supper was a success. The Gumbo was really delicious and the jambalaya was also very good. It's been a while since I made either of those recipes. Meghan and Patti made beignets for dessert to go with our pralines. Brenda would have really enjoyed them if they hadn't had nuts in them and I never thought that we could have made a couple without nuts. Next time we'll know better.

Napping on the chair

The scary part of the evening came later on. The dog was sleeping on the chair and every once in a while he would open his eyes to see what we were up to. He'd had a busy day romping in the woods. I was in the kitchen when the kids started yelling for me to come quick. We determined that he had some type of seizure.  He was walking across the floor and suddenly collapsed and you could tell from his eyes that he had no awareness of his surroundings and his whole body was shaking. It was pretty scary. Patti picked him up and we laid him on the couch and after a few minutes he was fine again. I called the vet clinic and they had someone call me back. By the time they called back he was okay again. I had a lengthy chat with the vet who called, and she asked me a lot of questions. She suggested that from what we described it was possibly an epileptic seizure. She asked how old he was and when I told her 5 years old, she said that was about the time they start if they are going to develop them - usually between 5 and 7 years. She said to just monitor things and if it happens again to take him to the vets and they will do bloodwork to see what they can find out. But I will call them this morning and make an appointment. He's overdue for his shots anyway. It was a scary few minutes. Thank goodness we had a health care professional on hand. She suggested that it seemed to her like a seizure and it turns out she was right.  But once he came out of it he seemed his old self again in a matter of about 10 minutes total. I'm glad there will be someone home today to monitor the day after.

So this morning I'm off to work so they're all on their own this morning. I'm not positive what we're doing tonight but we may be taking in a movie. We'll see how the day progresses and what everyone wants to do.