Visitors for Dinner

Having visitors over for dinner .. why do you do it?

For the the company and socialisation?
Or because you like cooking for people and hosting a dinner?

For me it's all about the company and catching up with friends and family! 
It's actually the hosting part of it that I hate!! 

Like come on, you invite people over for dinner and then what, you end up spending the majority of the time in the kitchen preparing and cooking dinner, and then cleaning up afterwards ... and then to get the socialisation you have to have your friends or family in the kitchen with you! 

We invited my parents for dinner on Thursday night (which is why I was thinking about it all this) and I wanted to actually catch up with my parents rather than be in the kitchen the whole time. So I decided on Pasta Cabonara for dinner :) because it's reasonably quick and very easy.

I prepared all the ingredients before my parents even came around. I cut up the mushrooms & bacon, put the beans in a steam bag etc, so when my parents arrived I only had to actually cook the dinner and only spent half the time in the kitchen that I would have if I needed to prepare everything too. 

I think I only had to spend about 15 minutes in the kitchen :) putting on the pasta (& checking on it), cooking the bacon & mushrooms in the frypan, microwaving the beans & sauce :) and then just mix it all together and serving EASY!!! 

Which meant I got to spend the rest of the time catching up with my parents, even though we weren't all fully focused on each other and just talking ... it was still great spending time with them :)

Dad - Watched a movie (Bourne Identity)
Mum - Watched movie, talked & did paperwork (great multi-tasker she is)
Grant  - Watched the movie & did work on his laptop (for my dad)
Me - Repaired necklace of Mum's, talked & watched the movie! (Multi-tasker like my mum!)

My Birthday!

I celebrated my 27th Birthday last week (1st March) and was going to post this on my Birthday, but was waiting for another nice day to get photos of my garden stakes lol

My day started off with Weight Watchers where I quickly weighed in (and lost 1.7kgs whoop whoop!) then headed home got changed and Mum picked me up for a Mother Daughter day at Martinborough Fair! 

 

We had a great day, wandering around all the stalls, we stopped into a few of the different cafes to find some lunch. We walked out of a few places as the line was too long, there were no free tables, or we didn't understand a word of the menu lol. We ended up in a cute bakery, where we had a chicken kebab and shared a punnet of chips & a egg sandwich. We then also had berries and ice-cream later on from one of the stalls .. mm yum :)

I bought an awesome coloured pencil necklace from Colour In Your Garden, a dragonfly & flower garden stake for my garden & a random rubber toy for Atlas
(who destroyed it in about an hour!!) 

 

Once home I got my Birthday present from Grant, which was my old laptop completely rebuilt and upgraded :) so it's now pretty much a brand new laptop, in my old laptop case! Plus some Girl Guide Biscuits & an erasable Pink ink pen :) 

We then headed out for dinner with Mum & Dad to Bethany's, where I knew exactly what I wanted for dinner before I even told Mum where I wanted to go! "Chicken Breast" -Wrapped in bacon, gourmet large shell pasta, sweet corn, button mushrooms, red onions, baby spinach, crushed cashew nuts and cherry tomatoes, sundried tomato pesto and apple syrup. YUM!!! and then "Death by Chocolate" for dessert and my goodness, that was a lot of chocolate, even for me who just LOVES chocolate lol :)

 

While out for dinner I got given my presents from my parents, my brother (who lives in Australia) and my Grandparents (who are away travelling the south island). I was very spoilt and am very grateful to have such a wonderful family and a great bunch of friends (who txted a posted messages on Facebook) xxx

Grant's 30th Halloween Birthday Party!

This was going to be my very next post, but I have been waiting on photo's from Grant's Dad who is more of a photographer than I am, still haven't got his photos but thought I would post this now anyways :)

The Birthday Boy - Grant 

  Grant only decided on his costume the week before his party. He originally wanted to go a Gomez Addams, but we didn't know if the costume he found online would fit, so he decides to go as "Michael Corleone" from the movie "The Godfather" he bought the Hat & Spenders on Trade Me and the Suit, Shirt & Tie from Hallensteins all the week before his party.

 

The Cake - Simply Scrumptious

The Cake - I had been a liker on Simply Scrumptious' Facebook page for a while when I saw her post a Wedding cake that had white skulls & red roses on it, so I contacted her about making Grant's cake, but instead of been a white 3 tier cake, being a black 1 tier cake. Isn't it amazing!!

ME ... Jewellery - Jane's Jewels NZ
 Hair, Make Up & Photography - Toxic Tina Creations

Now Me ... I decided and arranged my entire costume about three weeks before the party. I found these amazing wings online, which arrived two weeks before the party, I planned on wearing these with my black lace City Chic Dress and then made my necklace, and bought some new black studded high heel shoes to complete my outfit. 

I found Toxic Tina Creations on Facebook ages ago via a friend and just loved her make up and photography, so messaged her and arranged to have my hair and make up done, I thought that if I'm getting all done up I may as well get photos taken too, and I'm so glad I did, I just Love them!!!

& here are just a few more photos that were snapped from the party :)

My Bestie Nikole & I

Our Friends - David & Rachael

A Few Of The Decorations

Atlas Sound Asleep The Next Day, Completely Shattered From The Party
& Still Wearing His Bow Tie!

Kelly's Story

Kelly Kroll

9 June 2000 - 17 August 2013


Miss Kelly was our family's beloved Miniature Poodle, Mum bought her home when she was just 10 weeks old. I (age 13) was walking home from school when mum pulled up and said she would give me a ride, which was really odd as she always just let me walk & I was only about 10 minutes away from home. When we got home she told my brother Mitchell & I to go over and see Helen, who lived across the road & owned "Dog Workz" a mobile dog washing company. We went across the road & Helen was bathing this tiny adorable little black ball of fluff, "Who's is it?" my brother asked, "yours" Helen replied and since that day we had our first ever pet Miss Kelly (aka Chunky).

Kelly was full of life and always happy, she had a huge smile and her tail was always up and wagging. She just LOVED walkies, playing with balls, especially her red ball and any squeaky toy, except those didn't last long as she would not give up on them until she got the squeaker out. Kelly caused two insurance claims because of tennis balls, she would push them under the couch and end up chewing on the bottom of the couches trying to get the ball back out!

In down time Kelly would sneak into a bedroom to sleep amongst the cushions on the bed, or on top of the cushions on the couch. She would quite often have her paws crossed when she was laying down.  

She had a very sensitive stomach, which caused lots of trouble as she always seemed to find chocolate, which of course caused a few trips to the visit! 

At the age of 6, Kelly started going blind and by the age of 8 she was completely blind. Retinal detachment is what originally caused her to go blind and then further on she developed cataracts. Being blind did not stop or slow down Kelly at all, she was still as happy as could be and as full of life :)

I lived at home with my parents, brother and Kelly until I was 23, and even after I had moved out I would go around to my parents house frequently and quite often just to see Miss Kelly. Even if I knew my parents were out, I would go around and watch TV with Kelly snuggled up with me, or bring her home to my house, where she would spend the afternoon with me.

As the years went on Kelly developed other health issues, kidney failure was one of them. She had lost a lot of weight, but on medication that was helping and there were tests planned for September.

In August 2013 my parents went overseas on a trip to Europe for three weeks. My parents took Grant and I out for dinner the night before they left and Mum told me that if anything happened and Kelly went down hill, that I know her best and that I was to make the decision. 

The plan was that I would have Kelly every weekend, and my grandparents (Nan & Pop) would have her during the week. The first weekend I had both Kelly and my Nan & Pop's miniature poodle staying with us, and although Kelly was quite thin she was her happy usual self. 

Week One, Kelly was staying at Nan & Pop's and I called Wednesday and Friday to see how Kelly was and to arrange having Kelly that weekend. Kelly had been good, except for one visit to the vet because she got into my Nan's handbag and ate chocolate. Kelly ended up staying at Nan & Pop's over the weekend.

Week Two, Kelly stopped eating, she would have small nibbles but not finish any meal. This was normal for her morning biscuits, as she hardly ever finished them, but this was very unusual for Kelly not to eat her meat for dinner. Kelly had a trip to the vet with Nana where she was given special critical care food to try and get her to eat, which she hardly ate.

On Friday the 16th, I arrange to met Nan & Pop at the vet, to then take Kelly home to spend the weekend with me. When I walked into the vet, I was very surprised, even though I hadn't seen Kelly in almost two weeks, she didn't even resonde to my voice and she usually got overly excited when she heard me. She looked very lost and sad. The vet gave me more critical care food to try at home, and suggested trying plain chicken, rice & cottage cheese. The vet said she was very sick and may not last the weekend.I left the vet with Kelly in my arms and in tears. I drove straight to Grant's work, usually Kelly would stand on the passengers seat and look out the window and whine the entire car trip, but this time she just sat there looking very vacant.

Once home, I cooked up some rice & chicken breast and managed to get Kelly to eat a little bit of the rice & chicken, but ended up hand feeding her, as she would take one or two bites out of her bowl and then leave. She was very weak and tired, I hardly slept that night, I kept waking up to check on her but she was fast asleep. That morning when she did wake up, she made it two steps before peeing on the floor, which was so not like her. I carried her to the kitchen and tried seeing if she would eat anything for me, she just stood there and when she tried to walk it was like one of her feet was stuck to the ground. I burst into tears, picked her up and put her into bed with me and Grant, where we slept for a few more hours. 

When we woke up Kelly was able to walk properly again but was still very weak. She ate half a chicken breast for me that morning, but I had to hand feed it to her while she was laying down. Grant and I decided to take her home to Mum & Dad's so she was in a more familiar surrounding.

Once home at Mum & Dad's I got one of my Mum's old sweatshirts out of her wardrobe, it was a sweatshirt that my Mum had had forever! Kelly was laying in her basket and I put this sweatshirt under her head, said "Goodnight Kelly, Love you" and let her sleep. Every now & then I would check on Kelly, she was still sleeping and would open her eyes when I said her name. 

At about 2pm I looked over and she was awake, I picked her up and she cuddled in and feel asleep again. At about 2.30pm she woke up, so I thought that while she was awake I would see if she would eat anything. I went to put her on the floor and she just flopped, she couldn't stand at all. I screamed at Grant to get him to sit with her, while I called Nan & Pop, I told them very quickly that she couldn't move & that I was going to the vet, they said they would leave now, but as they live in Rangiotu there were a little while away. 

I picked up Kelly, put Mum's sweatshirt around her and got in the car. Grant drove to the vets. I walked into the vets crying my eyes out and they automatically knew I had Kelly, they took us straight into a consultation room and got a vet. The vet, who was the same one we saw the day before, walked in, patted and looked at Kelly and slowly said "She's dying but needs a little help", "Okay" was all I could say, as they got ready the vet & vet nurse talked to me but that's all a blur. All I remember is just crying my eyes out holding our Miss Kelly, as they injected her. I could feel her little heart beating so fast, and then suddenly stop, 2.55pm and she was gone.

The vet let us sit in their staff room as we waited for my Nan & Pop to arrive, while waiting I tried skyping my brother, who lives in Australia, but Skype wouldn't work so I called him. Nan & Pop arrived soon after I got off the phone.
We discussed with the vet nurse what was to happen, Mum had already decided she wanted Kelly cremated and I chose the dark wood for her box.

We all decided not to tell Mum & Dad until they got home, as we didn't want to ruin their holiday. The next day Mum skyped me, this was the hardest conversation I had ever had with my parents, having to sit there and lie straight to their faces about Kelly. The rest week was hard, Mum kept wanting to Skype and ask how Kelly was, I kept avoiding the Skype calls. 

Monday the day my parents got back came, we had arranged for Nan & Pop to be at the airport with us, as Grant & I were meant to be picking Mum & Dad up from the airport with Kelly in the car. I didn't even need to tell Mum, Mum said that as soon as she saw me as she walked inside she knew something was wrong, she gave me the biggest hug and whispered "What's wrong", I burst into tears and whispered "Kelly's gone", Mum asked questions and we stood there in the middle of the airport hugging and crying, while Nan & Pop told Dad. We all then went back to Mum & Dad's house and sat around talking for the next few hours about Kelly and their trip.

The next day I had arranged to have off work, I spent this day at Mum & Dad's house, on their couch watching TV with Mum. Mum slept a lot and that afternoon we went and picked up Kelly from the vet.

Rest In Peace Our Darling Kelly
Forever In Our Hearts, Miss You So Much ..
Have Fun With Jake, Mud, Axel & All The Other Doggies Up There,
See All The Sights & Eat As Much Chocolate As You Like ...
See You Again Someday .. Love You Girl xxx