This and That

I have been trying very hard to lose a few kilos before our cruise next month so it's been all about healthy eating this week.  I made a delicious Chicken Noodle Soup for lunch yesterday and today I made a vegetarian lasagne.  Both were very delicious and healthy and the added bonus is that most of the ingredients came straight from our garden.
The vegetable garden just keeps on giving and I think this year has been the best we have ever grown.  This is what I picked this morning....

and this is what I turned them into.....

Tomato Sauce, Bok Choy & Silverbeet with Pesto, Roasted Zucchini, Eggplant Sweet Potato

And added all those ingredients to a dish to make a lasagne (this is halfway through the layering)

I received another anniversary present (2nd) from HSV in the mail today.  This time it is a gorgeous leather overnight bag.  How good is that!

I had an overnight stay in hospital last week to remove a very large ganglion from my right hand index finger.  I let it go too long and it took the surgeon almost an hour to remove it.  It had wrapped itself around the bone and had to be scrapped away.

It's still quite swollen but the swelling is not as uncomfortable as the ganglion had become

Philip is on his way to Townsville to bring his mother home for a few days.  She was admitted into Townsville hospital yesterday with pneumonia so we will give her some TLC and hopefully she will be well enough to go on her holiday to Western Australia at the end of the month.  She has also made the decision to leave Magnetic Island and move to Cairns.  The family are very happy that she is doing this.

Thirty seven years.

At midday on the 5th September 1979 I gave birth to our eldest son Kurt Philip McCowen.  The birth of Kurt and then two years later his brother were, and remain, our proudest moments.  There is nothing in the world more beautiful and emotional than holding your newborn child in your arms for the first time.  You love that child more than you ever thought imaginable and you are fiercely protective of that tiny little babe.
Those feelings never stop as you children grow.  You always want to protect them and the love you have for them is unconditional.  So, today Kurt would have turned 37.  I try to picture him as a 37 year old but it is impossible.  He is forever ingrained in my memory as a gorgeous fun loving 21 year old taken from us way to soon.  Love you to the moon and back Kurto. xx

A big surprise.

A couple of weeks ago our son rang to tell me that he had booked flights to come and visit us for Fathers Day.  I was under the strictest instructions to keep it a secret from Philip.  HOW....HARD....WAS....THAT!!!!  Very hard, but I did it.
It took a bit of planning to pick Marco up from Cairns. Firstly, I had to have a reason to go to Cairns without hubby wanting to tag along.  Shopping is always a good reason as hubby hates that.  Next, because Marco's flight was quite late I had to think of a reason to be down there most of the day.  This was harder but it came to me in a brainwave.  I wanted to upgrade my Macbook to a Macbook super light to take on holidays so I told hubby that I was going to purchase the computer and then get the shop to transfer all my data over.  And, of course with such a lot of data,  this could take all day I told hubby.
When I travel to Cairns I normally ring Philip several times to let him know that I'm OK but I just couldn't do that yesterday for fear of "spilling the beans", and I always ring as I leave Cairns so that Philip has an idea of what time I will be home.  Fortunately when I did ring him it went to message bank so that I didn't have to talk directly with hubby.  I'm certain I could not have contained the secret.
Marco's flight got in about 4.30pm and he was to ring me and I would pick him up from the "pick up" area.  Unfortunately, Marco didn't have my mobile number with him! It took him awhile before finally getting on to my goddaughter to give him the number.  She is a lifesaver.  So after all this we didn't actually leave Cairns until well after 5.00 pm and it was dark when we drove up the driveway.  I was confident that Philip would not see the car and I could sneak Marco into the house but as luck would have it Philip just happened to walk outside as I drove towards the house so he walked over to the carport to welcome me home.
The look on his face when he saw Marco and then when he uttered "What the F....K!"was priceless.  They gave each other a big hug (Philip doesn't normally do hugs) and after knocking the top off a couple of beers we talked the night away.  Marco is here until Monday and we are going to savour every minute of it.  We haven't seen Marco since we helped him settle in to his new place at Gundiah quite a few months ago.

How good is this.