The "I Don't Do Resolutions", edition.

Good Monday morning!  It's a new year, 2017. And my response is so what. Life goes on.  I don't do new year resolutions. I'm rather pragmatic about that. I've set goals that I'm working toward. Reasonable goals. The goals are set when I need them to be set, not on an arbitrary day. That being said, I wish everyone a happy new year. May you continue on and keep reaching for you goals.  

Last week my cousin Mark and his wife Henrietta passed through town on their way to San Diego. San Diego?  Yes. He's the brother of the cousin we visited for Thanksgiving. Mark drove from southern Ohio. We'll call them snowbirds. And I can understand that!  These are cousins I grew up with and still enjoy their company. Dad treated us to the lunch Buffett at the M Resort on Thursday. We went expecting the regular lunch buffet. Well! Apparently The M along with other casinos had their Sunday brunch and Sunday brunch prices for the entire week between Christmas and New Years. Soooo. We go treated to the seafood buffet!  Crab legs ahoy!!!  We had a great time. Catching up with family, and telling Perry stories. Shawn got chance to hear some of our "legends". Lol. We all had a wonderful time and I enjoyed seeing Mark and Henrietta. <3

I'd planned on red beans and rice and potato salad for New Year's Day but it was Sunday and Dad wanted to take us (Shawn) to PF Changs. He said he owed her the dinner since she couldn't make it when he treated family during the family reunion in September. So off we went. Shawn got tofu...I tried it. It tasted ok, but the texture. Yuk. We made the potato salad on Saturday, so all those flavors have been going on. We did try some last night after treatment. We declared it good!  Later on today I'll fix the beans. 

Saturday we grazed. We had shrimp trays. I baked some chicken wings and used a Frank's/Srichaha hot sauce mix. Yum .. good hot wings. Brian tried his hand at frying wings. For a first time, they came out good. We also had a vegetable tray. And we each had our own bottles. I had moscato. No one but me likes it. It's too sweet. Dad had his champagne. Shawn had her red wine. And Brian had his white wine. Yeah, Dad went to bed early. Lol. At midnight, there were fireworks and gunshots. 

Today we have a few errands to run. Throughout the entire holiday season I continued treatment when I supposed to. And finally Shawn gave a donation to the American Kidney Fund for Christmas. What a wonderful gesture. The American Kidney Fund assists dialysis patients in paying medical expenses. End stage renal disease is expensive. And if the only insurance you have is Medicare, Medicare only pays 80% of the costs. The patients are responsible for the other 20%. Dialysis can cost at least $72,000 per year. And let's add doctors visits and other procedure. People could have pay to pay $20,000 out of pocket. But...most dialysis patients are unable to work due to the disease. The American Kidney Fund can alleviate some of this stress. The disease is horrible enough with knowing one can go bankrupt just trying to stay alive. So. Many thanks to Shawn. And I am so proud of her. 

That's it for today. I'm enjoying having my kid with us and love the fact that her school,has a ridiculously long winter break!  Take care. Stay warm and dry!