Last Picture of Us

As I was getting ready for work, I realized I still had pumpkin pancake batter in the fridge and in between blogging, getting ready for work, I cooked off two pancakes for work.  It takes a bit longer when the batter is cold so I had to cook them about 4-5 minutes a side.

Am I the only one who ALWAYS makes too much pasta?  I ended up making way to much lo mein noodles, but it worked out fine because then I got to have leftovers for lunch yesterday.  This version is only veggies, as we ate all the pork with dinner.  I love, love, love this stir fry sauce.  If you get asked to go to a Tastefully Simple party you’ll now know at least one thing to buy.

I was excited for 5:00 because then I could leave to meet my long time reader Randi and her wife Julie for dinner.  They flew into Chicago from California on their way to Wisconsin for a long weekend.  It’s Julie’s long time bucket list to go to a GreenBay Packers game and this weekend she’ll be able to cross that off her bucket list.  Although if they don’t win, she said she’d have to do it again!

Because it’s such a long flight, I just suggested we meet at the hotel lobby restaurant.  It was funny because Randi told me when we were planning on where to meet that they would be find taking public transportation to meet me somewhere by me.  I had to laugh and tell her there is no such thing as public transportation in my neck of the woods!  It ended up being only a 35 minute drive from my office and then an hour drive back to my house after dinner – no big.

While I waited for them to come downstairs, I ordered a glass of Pinot Grigio (that tiny pour? $12!) and I ended up getting the pulled pork sliders with a blue cheese slaw – holy cow these were really good!  I got three of them, but ended up only eating one, and brought most of the fries and two sammies home – I’ll have to tell Jacob they are in the fridge because I know he’ll like them.

It was so good catching up with them, the time flew by.  We have been spoiled with our November weather thus far and as soon as a left the hotel, the rains started coming in sideways, it was so windy.  I don’t really like driving at night, but with the storm and construction on the highway so it was hard to make sure I was staying in my lane, I was white knuckle driving for 30 minutes until I could get off the express way.  Whew!  Have fun this weekend ladies!

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I have finally felt okay about reading my blog from last November, so see if I could read anything into what I wrote to see if I had any clue that Tony was not going to live much longer, and the truth is, I didn’t know.  Exactly a year ago today I wrote the post about him being really sick.   He would be in the hospital for three weeks before we would bring him home to die.  When I think back to that time, and really the few weeks (months!) after he died, it all feels like a dream.  I was really just going through the motions and trying to keep one foot in front of the other, much like I am doing today.  This year went by so fast without him.  When I took this last picture of us, I had no idea it would be our last photo together, or that three weeks later I’d have to say goodbye to my best friend forever.

I know these next few weeks leading up to the one year anniversary are going to be a roller coaster of emotions.  But I have to remind myself that life is for the living, and I need to make the most of the life I have now without him.

His sister is coming over for dinner tonight.  She’s going to Tennessee for Thanksgiving to be with her son and his family, and I am going to see if our dogs get along with her dog so we can dog sit while she’s gone.  We’ll see how that goes!  Not sure I can handle three dogs, but we’ll see.

Two days closer to the weekend – make it a great day!