Wow, it's been one crazy year and it's hard to believe that it's only half over! In general, we always try to stay positive and have as much fun as possible. After all we did name our blog "Belly Laugh Living"😀. We really do try to enjoy every minute of every day. Well we were.... until 2020!! I don't know about you, but it's been one crazy year and it's hard to believe that it's only half over 😬! Overall January was great! We had some fun snow storms that didn't last long and we never had to have our driveway plowed because the snow melted within 2 days (maybe 4). And our beast of a car can get in and out of anything! In fact she loves the snow!
Dry January
Yes!!! You read that.....We did Dry January! We do enjoy a good cocktail or two, but decided to try the challenge of not drinking any alcohol for the month of January. Believe it or not, we had a lot of fun doing it. We drank more water and had just as many laughs and maybe even slept a little better. Since we weren't drinking for football we wanted to do a Meatball Madness and make multiple batches of our favorite turkey/chicken meatballs (Buffalo Chicken, Italian, Bacon Mushroom Cheeseburger, Greek Turkey Feta).
Meatball Madness!!!!
You have to check these recipes out. We don't use any fillers or binders in the meatballs so there's plenty of "calorie room" for that extra cheese or sauce. 😀
Air Fryer February
February was also great, we had some fun snow storms and did our annual Air Fryer February. We came up with some unique recipes. I think my favorite was when we re-created the Burger King Original Chicken Sandwich in the air fryer! We bought the Burger King sandwich to do a side-by-side chicken sandwich comparison. (Who doesn't love that original chicken sandwich!!) Well, we nailed it! Our version of the sandwich was so good, I almost felt bad for Burger King! 😆 Other fun dishes we made were a crazy good Fish Sandwich, Fried Pork Chops, General Tso's Chicken, we even made French Toast in the air fryer!!! You can find all of our Air Fryer recipes by clicking here or searching for "Air Fryer" on our blog.
MARCH!!!!
We started off March 2020 with some fun ideas and activities. We were featured on New Day Cleveland, which was a blast! After air fryer February (and eating all air fried food), we wanted to switch it up for March. We decided to do some dishes with our frozen pesto and tomato sauce from last summer's garden. Our first dish was Pesto Pasta with Garlic and Lemon Shrimp, Pan Fried Garlic Pork Chops, and we took one of Amy's childhood favorite dishes, Creamy Mushroom Sherry chicken and re-imagined it by cutting out a lot of the calories. So the month was going great.
St. Patrick's Day 2020
We were getting ready for St. Patrick's day recipes by making some Corned Beef Hash and a mouth watering Corned beef with mustard rub which gave us an opportunity to make a Reuben sandwich. On March 11, 2020 we made a Shamrock Martini. It was so good and someday we will put the recipe out. Amy was in the middle of our "taste testing" (there's lots of taste tasting because we used ice cream....Amy can't resist ice cream 😀) and all of a sudden she didn't feel good. I hate talking about this but she was so sick and it was so fast. For about a week she would barley move. Then she got a fever and I was totally fatigued.
I was never so tired in my life. It was strange. We both had fevers and just felt rotten. Amy started getting a really bad cough. So we both called the doctor and were set up with a phone doctor visits because of Covid-19. They gave her some cough pearls and told her to get some cough syrup. I was told to keep the fever down and to call immediately or go to the ER if my symptoms got worse.
We started to see the symptoms of Covid-19 on TV and were getting really worried because we had almost all the same issues. It was strange, we both had similar symptoms with some slight differences. We were both exhausted. I had horrible headaches and Amy had more of a cough. The aches and pains of the fevers we had were just awful! Amy wasn't getting better so we made another call to the doctor. They said they believed she could have Covid but there were not any tests available. So they said to stay quarantined for 14 days or 2 days without a fever and prescribed a Z-Pack antibiotic, additional pearls, a steroid, an inhaler and more cough syrup.
April!!
Still being sick in April was so frustrating! I mean there were nights she could barley make it up the steps. I was so worried she would need to be rushed to the hospital. The doctor kept saying not to go to the hospital unless it was a complete emergency. She talked to two different doctors they both felt like it was a good possibility she had Covid 19 and Pneumonia.
Again, still no tests unless she went to the emergency room which the doctors said they did not recommend unless the shortness of breath required a hospital visit. She said she was sick, but didn't feel "hospital sick". By Mid-April it started to get better but we both still had fevers. We were both exhausted and running fevers, it was so strange. We would go a couple of days without a fever and think, "finally this thing is taking a swing in the right direction."..... then it would come right back. The doctor put Amy on another antibiotic and some additional pearls and cough syrup.
End of April...
To top all this off, we noticed that Oliver, our black lab, had something red on the top of his eye. So off to the vet. Yes, the dogs can visit the vet in person and we can't visit our doctor in person.🤷♀️ Anyway, the growth needed to be removed immediately because it was growing very fast. He's better now. The vet successfully removed the entire growth and it shouldn't impact his eyesight. So that was some great 2020 news!!
May
It was starting to get warm so we were trying to sit outside some to enjoy the nice weather. I finally went a week without a fever. Amy still had a fever and was still coughing. By Mid-May she was finally feeling better and finally went a week without a fever. I'm always so proud of her and the things she does. I think this past few months have been so difficult and really made me worry about her health.
Mother's Day
By Mother's day Amy was able to make me an awesome breakfast and tried to have enough energy to make dinner. We ended up making dinner together which was a blast for me because she was finally feeling some what better.
Our Sweet Frankie
When we thought things were getting back to normal and we were looking forward to a relaxing Memorial Day Weekend. We noticed Frank, our Border Collie Mix, was acting very distressed. It was the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. We noticed he could not pee. Frank has been on medication for a tumor and the vet thought he was getting better or at least the same as in November.
Amy ended up taking Frank to the emergency vet. She was there from 6:00 at night to 3:00 in the morning. They thought he had an infection and he would get better. But the next day we got up and it was even worse. He was so sick. It was sad and we had to make a very hard decision. We found an emergency mobile vet that put Frankie to sleep. We have a horrible hole in our hearts right now. Frank was a huge part of our family. There are no words for how much we miss him.
We rescued Frankie about 9 years ago, he had been bounced around from shelter to shelter. He was a sassy, funny, loving, happy, ball of personality. The boss of our house! The other 3 boys looked for him for several weeks. They would run outside and look around or go upstairs if they heard a noise. It has been heartbreaking. Our whole family misses him. We miss him and his personality so much and know he's in Heaven, pain free, barking (he LOVED to bark), running and chasing squirrels and birds,
June
Are we in June yet? I have to say I'm not happy with 2020. So far June has been back to normal...normal-ish! . We are having fun grilling, planting our garden and looking forward to some fun summer activities.
1st half of 2020
Writing this post is to help me remember the strangeness of the past few months. I know we have all gone through strange times and we are all in this together. Like Brad Paisley's new song, "There Ain't No I in Beer" says "we're all in this together". Staying at home doesn't bother us but we do live on a large lot and are able to get outside for walks and just to enjoy the fresh air. I know many people have had it so much worse than us through the Covid 19 pandemic.
I feel bad writing this post just because so many people have been horribly impacted and their lives changed forever. And we totally support and appreciate the people that are protesting to make this a better country and world.
New Recipes Coming Soon
We just wanted to share with our followers what our past few months have been like and to let you know why we might not have been as engaged. We are looking forward to sharing some fun times over the next few months. Stay tuned in the coming weeks, we're going to share some out of the box thinking when it comes to pizzas and, of course, some recipes using veggies, tomatoes and peppers from our garden.
We hope each of you are having a wonderful healthy 2020 and that the rest of the year is fantastic!!! But come on 2021!
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