Saturday, December 27, 2008
Woohoo!
I'm sitting on Matt's parents' couch right now, typing on my new laptop I got for Christmas. Santa was very good to me this year. And Matt. And Natalee. Santa still has a present waiting for Natalee at our apartment, something that was too big to bring in the car with all of the presents we had to bring with us. And Natalee has a new mattress waiting for her from Grandma Julie that we need to purchase a bed frame and maybe a foundation for. Hopefully we'll find a good deal this coming week. I'll be off until the 5th, so I'll have time to write more hopefully, in between finally organizing the new apartment, finishing unpacking, hanging things on the walls and switching around the contents of the closets, getting ready for company on New Year's Eve and making the food for it, and being a lazy bum. Hopefully I'll have pictures then, too.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
New places, snotty faces
So, we're moved into the new apartment. Hurrah! A little farther north now, so it only takes me ten to fifteen minutes to get to work, and Matt about fifteen to twenty. Mucho improv-a-mento (<- bad Spanglish) over the hour drive. Though there are days like yesterday when there's traffic and wrecks and it still takes me an hour to get home. The new place is really, really nice. It's on a keel with the first apartment Matt and I had, pre-Natalee, if not nicer than it. My uncle still loves me lots (and my cooking and baking) and hired some day laborers and a flunky or two to haul our stuff to the new place in his trailer, and then haul it up to the second floor and put it where I told them to (usually). We're starting to settle in, though the dining room has a layer of boxes in it rather than a table. I actually need to get those unpacked today for Thanksgiving tomorrow. It's seeming to become a tradition for some odd reason, that when we move into a new place, it's always within a week of Thanksgiving and we cook and invite people over for it. Despite the boxes and oddly disposed belongings and the incipient exhaustion.
There's an added hurdle this year because Natalee has been sick almost non-stop for a week now. She threw up last Thursday, she's had a fever all week, her nose is in a marathon and leaves its tracks all over her face and in her hair when she sleeps, and she's hacking and coughing now. My poor baby. They say it's a virus, but I'm taking her back to the doctor today (b/c the fever's lasted so long) and will ask if it could be allergies. She's just been sick SO much lately. I know it's to be expected, starting out at daycare, but Matt and I have already missed nearly ten days of work altogether. Plus there have been quite a few days that Mom has taken care of her. She's been sick a lot! We can't afford to keep this up, for several reasons, not even considering how wearing this is on her poor little body. If it's allergies, we need to find out and take care of it. Or figure out whatever the heck keeps making her sick and if there's anything we can do to prevent it. And the medicines we can give her for all the different symptoms are so hard on her, too. Argh. I wish I knew how to make her better. In some ways I miss the days when I could solve her problems by just putting her to my breast and feeding her.
We also have to finish cleaning up the old apartment before the first. Matt's been working his tail off trying to spackle and paint and clean over there when he gets off from work every day, but there's still a lot to do. He cares more about cleaning it all up than I do, seeing as how badly the complex has treated us over the past year, the problems that are inherent to the apartment, and the fact that after three years of living in the place, the likelihood of getting any of our deposit back is nil. Bleh, oh well. We'll be putting on our 'cleaning caps' and getting to work after Natalee and I get back from her doctor's visit.
There's still a lot to be thankful for. Like a nice, new apartment. I'll be spending tomorrow with my mother, her new husband, and my baby sis. I have a nephew we're waiting for to be born any day. A good, loving, funny family. And sharing my life with my best friend and the most wonderful little girl the world has known.
Oh!oh!oh! and turkey! And the leftovers are mine!!!! Bwahaha! *victory dance* I knew there was a good reason to be happy. Happy Thanksgiving!
There's an added hurdle this year because Natalee has been sick almost non-stop for a week now. She threw up last Thursday, she's had a fever all week, her nose is in a marathon and leaves its tracks all over her face and in her hair when she sleeps, and she's hacking and coughing now. My poor baby. They say it's a virus, but I'm taking her back to the doctor today (b/c the fever's lasted so long) and will ask if it could be allergies. She's just been sick SO much lately. I know it's to be expected, starting out at daycare, but Matt and I have already missed nearly ten days of work altogether. Plus there have been quite a few days that Mom has taken care of her. She's been sick a lot! We can't afford to keep this up, for several reasons, not even considering how wearing this is on her poor little body. If it's allergies, we need to find out and take care of it. Or figure out whatever the heck keeps making her sick and if there's anything we can do to prevent it. And the medicines we can give her for all the different symptoms are so hard on her, too. Argh. I wish I knew how to make her better. In some ways I miss the days when I could solve her problems by just putting her to my breast and feeding her.
We also have to finish cleaning up the old apartment before the first. Matt's been working his tail off trying to spackle and paint and clean over there when he gets off from work every day, but there's still a lot to do. He cares more about cleaning it all up than I do, seeing as how badly the complex has treated us over the past year, the problems that are inherent to the apartment, and the fact that after three years of living in the place, the likelihood of getting any of our deposit back is nil. Bleh, oh well. We'll be putting on our 'cleaning caps' and getting to work after Natalee and I get back from her doctor's visit.
There's still a lot to be thankful for. Like a nice, new apartment. I'll be spending tomorrow with my mother, her new husband, and my baby sis. I have a nephew we're waiting for to be born any day. A good, loving, funny family. And sharing my life with my best friend and the most wonderful little girl the world has known.
Oh!oh!oh! and turkey! And the leftovers are mine!!!! Bwahaha! *victory dance* I knew there was a good reason to be happy. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Smug
Smugness is finding the $5 and under section of http://www.bn.com/ when you have a $50 gift card for your birthday. With $6 tacked on to that, I ordered nine books with free shipping. All brand-spanking-new books, sans suspicious yellow stains, odd smells, and/or mouse poop. (I found out I'm allergic to mouse poop in college from mysterious used books.) They should get here by Tuesday of next week, if not before. How frickin' awesome is that? I'm fighting not to grin like an idiot or do a pointless booty dance in my computer chair. I feel like He-Man must've felt after winning a battle. There must have been a reason for that silly looking grin of his, right? Oh, yeah....
*grin*
*grin*
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Post Ike
I can't believe I can say I've lived through a hurricane. I think, I was in a hurricane, what? And then I remember Saturday around 4 a.m., hearing the wind blowing outside our apartment, hearing things being picked up and hurled outside our windows. And then I know, yes, I've lived through a hurricane. I knew those winds were around 100 mph and not just 80 to 85 mph. And I didn't dare look out the window to see the devastation the winds were causing because I was afraid of that being the moment something came crashing through the glass. We moved to a pallet in the hallway around 2 a.m. when the winds started picking up and Natalee woke up scared. We pulled the mattress off of her bed and stuck it in the end of the hallway; she slept after that as if nothing was out of the ordinary. The power flickered on and off for a few hours before it finally went out around 4 o'clock.
When it was bright enough to see outside, the parking lot was filling with water. Leaves, twigs, and branches were (and still are) everywhere. The ground seemed preternaturally green with the leaves. Leaves and twigs were jammed between boards on the buildings and glued to cars and windows. The gutter on the neighboring building was ripped off and leaned against our neighbors' porch at a low slant. Nothing crashed through our windows, thank God, but an ornamental tree maybe a foot and a half away from our front window lost the top half of its main trunk. Its secondary trunk is still attached, but the winds were so crazy and violent that the little trunk was twisted around and around before it finally shredded and fell over. With its top trunk sticking up into the air broken and the other trunk and branches leaning down to touch the ground, it looks like the tree is flipping us off.
It rained hard for 12 to 13 hours straight. We got about 18 inches of rain in less than a day. The water in the parking lot was starting to spill over the curbs and was reaching over wheels when a group of residents pulled open a storm drain in the middle of the lot. I thought it was the worst kind of stupid at the time because all the debris would start washing down into the drain and possibly block it up worse, but I was wrong and the open drain kept the lot from flooding the whole complex. We've always had a problem with Natalee's closet leaking when it rains hard. This time the water reached almost to the door of her room, covering 3/4 of her floor. Where the exterior rebuilding crew hammered holes through our wall and cracked portions of it, water leaked through onto our bedroom floor under our bed.
Being without power got old fast. I grew up in a family that went without power for a few days at a time when we couldn't afford our electric bill, but I don't remember it ever being this hard dealing with the food situation. Or dealing with the amount of things to be done with little ability to do any of them. And we usually had a phone line growing up even if we didn't have power, or vice versa. It was rarely both. But we have digital phone service now, so when the cable/internet goes down, so does our phone. And the cell phones all over were (and I think still are) in digital roam. So we lacked a way to contact our family to tell them we were okay (without incurring huge charges) or to check on family or friends who weathered the storm. Matt has a tv/radio/lantern combo that we watched TV on for updates on the storm and the power. We have windup radios to listen to the news and music on, one of which we loaned to a neighbor who had no way to hear the news about boiling and conserving water and other updates. We napped a lot in the humidity and rain. I finished Kara's baby shower invitations with embellishments. Natalee decorated an envelope, too. We took a walk but had to turn back almost immediately because of downed powerlines and debris blocking the way. We tried to leave in the car around dinnertime to see if there was anything open, to survey the damage, etc. We got about 50 feet before we had to turn back - huge knocked down trees blocking our way, and power lines dangling from posts and trailing across the street like jungle vines or ribbons. I got terribly antsy, being trapped inside the apartment with all the windows closed because of the rain and no air circulating, and so many things to be done and no way to do them. We finally made a stirfry on the butane-powered single burner stove I bought Thursday. It seemed sinfully luxurious to eat a hot meal. We finished it off with melting ice cream from the freezer. We caved and called family to check in briefly. And just as we were settling in with our melted ice cream, watching the news in black and white on a three inch screen, the power came back on.
We have been so truly blessed throughout this. We are all safe and well, as is my family. My grandfather is still without power, but has a generator. My mother's house didn't lose power during the storm, but yesterday when they fixed the lines so all of their neighbors got their power back, they lost it. They have a generator, too, though. Gas lines are awful, but more and more stations are getting their power back, so more will be opening. Please understand, when we got our power back after 18 hours without, there were still 16,000 people without it, and closer to 2 million in Houston without. Only after last night did our town get most of its power back. We were able to buy groceries Sunday. We felt guilty, able to buy food that has to be cooked, when so many people are struggling to find food that doesn't have to be heated, or can be heated on a little charcoal grill. There were no frozen or cold items at the store. None. No milk, no eggs, no meat, nothing. But the line to check out was still 30 minutes long. A small portion of our town never lost power, so for my birthday on Sunday we were able to get Arby's sandwiches through the drive-thru after waiting half an hour. (That's all they were serving - Arby's roast beef sandwiches in three sizes, fries, and soft drinks. Chili's was packed with a line out the door and down the sidewalk in the late afternoon.)
Matt (and I to a smaller degree) spent the past few days pulling up carpets, drying up the wet padding and the concrete below, airing rooms out to get rid of the mildew stink, shifting furniture around to accomodate the carpet clean up. Matt still doesn't have work today. And Willis ISD, where I work now, is closed through the end of the week. I'm hoping nothing terrible has happened to the school where I work, or to any of the kids or employees. I know Willis residents are still without power or phones. Hopefully they have running water and sewage. So many people are without even that. It's seemed like a vacation, all being home together, and sleeping in, that I occasionally forget the reason. I feel like a terrible person for that, watching the news and seeing what so many people are dealing with and going without, but there's not much I can do to change that. We don't have money to share - I'm not getting paid for the work we're missing. We've offered our home to friends and family and coworkers with no result. There's not much else we can do. So I'm enjoying this time with my family and thanking God with a very sincere heart that we have so very much and that we made it through the storm without harm.
I've been teasing Matt that getting our power back was God's birthday present to me. Because He loves me. Don't know about Matt. :-p
When it was bright enough to see outside, the parking lot was filling with water. Leaves, twigs, and branches were (and still are) everywhere. The ground seemed preternaturally green with the leaves. Leaves and twigs were jammed between boards on the buildings and glued to cars and windows. The gutter on the neighboring building was ripped off and leaned against our neighbors' porch at a low slant. Nothing crashed through our windows, thank God, but an ornamental tree maybe a foot and a half away from our front window lost the top half of its main trunk. Its secondary trunk is still attached, but the winds were so crazy and violent that the little trunk was twisted around and around before it finally shredded and fell over. With its top trunk sticking up into the air broken and the other trunk and branches leaning down to touch the ground, it looks like the tree is flipping us off.
It rained hard for 12 to 13 hours straight. We got about 18 inches of rain in less than a day. The water in the parking lot was starting to spill over the curbs and was reaching over wheels when a group of residents pulled open a storm drain in the middle of the lot. I thought it was the worst kind of stupid at the time because all the debris would start washing down into the drain and possibly block it up worse, but I was wrong and the open drain kept the lot from flooding the whole complex. We've always had a problem with Natalee's closet leaking when it rains hard. This time the water reached almost to the door of her room, covering 3/4 of her floor. Where the exterior rebuilding crew hammered holes through our wall and cracked portions of it, water leaked through onto our bedroom floor under our bed.
Being without power got old fast. I grew up in a family that went without power for a few days at a time when we couldn't afford our electric bill, but I don't remember it ever being this hard dealing with the food situation. Or dealing with the amount of things to be done with little ability to do any of them. And we usually had a phone line growing up even if we didn't have power, or vice versa. It was rarely both. But we have digital phone service now, so when the cable/internet goes down, so does our phone. And the cell phones all over were (and I think still are) in digital roam. So we lacked a way to contact our family to tell them we were okay (without incurring huge charges) or to check on family or friends who weathered the storm. Matt has a tv/radio/lantern combo that we watched TV on for updates on the storm and the power. We have windup radios to listen to the news and music on, one of which we loaned to a neighbor who had no way to hear the news about boiling and conserving water and other updates. We napped a lot in the humidity and rain. I finished Kara's baby shower invitations with embellishments. Natalee decorated an envelope, too. We took a walk but had to turn back almost immediately because of downed powerlines and debris blocking the way. We tried to leave in the car around dinnertime to see if there was anything open, to survey the damage, etc. We got about 50 feet before we had to turn back - huge knocked down trees blocking our way, and power lines dangling from posts and trailing across the street like jungle vines or ribbons. I got terribly antsy, being trapped inside the apartment with all the windows closed because of the rain and no air circulating, and so many things to be done and no way to do them. We finally made a stirfry on the butane-powered single burner stove I bought Thursday. It seemed sinfully luxurious to eat a hot meal. We finished it off with melting ice cream from the freezer. We caved and called family to check in briefly. And just as we were settling in with our melted ice cream, watching the news in black and white on a three inch screen, the power came back on.
We have been so truly blessed throughout this. We are all safe and well, as is my family. My grandfather is still without power, but has a generator. My mother's house didn't lose power during the storm, but yesterday when they fixed the lines so all of their neighbors got their power back, they lost it. They have a generator, too, though. Gas lines are awful, but more and more stations are getting their power back, so more will be opening. Please understand, when we got our power back after 18 hours without, there were still 16,000 people without it, and closer to 2 million in Houston without. Only after last night did our town get most of its power back. We were able to buy groceries Sunday. We felt guilty, able to buy food that has to be cooked, when so many people are struggling to find food that doesn't have to be heated, or can be heated on a little charcoal grill. There were no frozen or cold items at the store. None. No milk, no eggs, no meat, nothing. But the line to check out was still 30 minutes long. A small portion of our town never lost power, so for my birthday on Sunday we were able to get Arby's sandwiches through the drive-thru after waiting half an hour. (That's all they were serving - Arby's roast beef sandwiches in three sizes, fries, and soft drinks. Chili's was packed with a line out the door and down the sidewalk in the late afternoon.)
Matt (and I to a smaller degree) spent the past few days pulling up carpets, drying up the wet padding and the concrete below, airing rooms out to get rid of the mildew stink, shifting furniture around to accomodate the carpet clean up. Matt still doesn't have work today. And Willis ISD, where I work now, is closed through the end of the week. I'm hoping nothing terrible has happened to the school where I work, or to any of the kids or employees. I know Willis residents are still without power or phones. Hopefully they have running water and sewage. So many people are without even that. It's seemed like a vacation, all being home together, and sleeping in, that I occasionally forget the reason. I feel like a terrible person for that, watching the news and seeing what so many people are dealing with and going without, but there's not much I can do to change that. We don't have money to share - I'm not getting paid for the work we're missing. We've offered our home to friends and family and coworkers with no result. There's not much else we can do. So I'm enjoying this time with my family and thanking God with a very sincere heart that we have so very much and that we made it through the storm without harm.
I've been teasing Matt that getting our power back was God's birthday present to me. Because He loves me. Don't know about Matt. :-p
Friday, September 12, 2008
Ike
Friggin', stupid hurricane crap...
(moment of silence for bleeped out rant)
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Hopefully I'll have more to tell you after the storm. Hopefully I'll have power after the storm. Cross your fingers and say some prayers for us, please.
hmmurrrphretickingschmurfinmuckerstinkingoinwidoutpoweronmybirthdayikeblurginflurpin...........
(moment of silence for bleeped out rant)
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Hopefully I'll have more to tell you after the storm. Hopefully I'll have power after the storm. Cross your fingers and say some prayers for us, please.
hmmurrrphretickingschmurfinmuckerstinkingoinwidoutpoweronmybirthdayikeblurginflurpin...........
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Baby Shower
My sister Kara is having a little boy in December. And I told her I'm throwing the baby shower. Fun thing, I haven't been to a baby shower in around fifteen years. And I was a kid in the background then. (My baby shower(s) didn't happen, not for lack of trying on friends' and family's part - some of them.) So I'm trying to remember what all you do at baby showers, what's cool, what's not. Where the heck to hold the shower if we can't use Kara's ward's Relief Society room. (Boy, Relief Society looks weird when you write it out. I always pronounced it Reeleeephssuh-sigh-eee-tee as a kid. It wasn't two words; it was one nonsensical word smush. It wasn't meant to make sense. So I now that I write it down and look at it as an adult, I think to myself, "Huh? A society for relief? When did that happen?") I don't have oodles of money to spend on some posh banquet room or even enough to pay for everyones drinks and food at a decent restaurant. If I had to hold it at some kind of restaurant, with the cha-ching going in my wallet, we'd be having it in the McDonald's playground, and everyone would be ordering off the dollar menu. "What? They don't have cheese on the double burger here on the dollar menu? Can you add cheese for more?......No." No fun all around, if you include shrieking kids running amok around you.
Soooo....what to do? Any advice? Anything you loved or hated at a baby shower you attended? And yes, you'll be invited, Steph. I run the show this time, so I get to invite who I want. I'm going to make this cake hopefully:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?recipeID=45539&Source=SearchResultPage
Our friends who are supposed to teach me the fine arts of cake decorating are finally coming over this Friday. And there's even a video to show you how to make the cake. (Kara's theme for little Tristan Nicholas is ducks.) So, I figure if I really want to go cheap, I can buy one or two cake mix boxes to make the cake, make my own frosting sans trans fats. And make the rest of the refreshments or beg a few off on a few other people. I know I want to make a brownie pie. And I'm thinking I'm going to buy a couple cute little ducky ice cube trays, set up a cute punch bowl with little rubber duckies on top, and just serve water or blue Kool-Aid with duckie ice cubes, possibly flavored ones. That way, my budget can go for decorating the room so it won't be quite so blah. (Church rooms always seem so blah at a party, to me at least.) And for the prizes and Kara's gifts. And stamps and invitations. And party favors. Gack. The cheaper I can do stuff, the better. If I have to, I'll send round the hat for donations from family members if the costs build up too much. Or just tell someone to do something. *coughjennifercough*
I found a pretty cool website that's helped me plan so far.
http://www.babyshower101.com/index.html
It has a lot of great games. I've already gone through and picked out some for review by my shower sidekick. I just know, if I don't go through and plan out and do a bunch of this now, things are going to happen in between, and then I'll have an avalance of things to do the week before the party. Which will be mid October.
And Natalee's getting her pink princess glove off on Friday. She got a buckle fracture in her right wrist three weeks ago from falling off the bed. So she's had a pink waterproof cast on since mid July. We call it her princess glove. She hasn't minded it so much - she's gotten lots of attention from it. Kids at the playground come up just to ask about her owie. And adults always seem to have stickers or cookies or candy tucked away somewhere for her and kitty cat since this happened. There's a long story about why she broke her wrist, and I could rant and rave for a while about the evil apartment complex and the new manager. But I won't, and Natalee's been doing okay with the cast.
I have an interview tomorrow. Hopefully it'll go well, and it'll be something I want. And maybe I'll get some more invitations for interviews in the next week or two. We'll see. Wish me luck.
Monday, July 21, 2008
There and Back Again
Our trip to Branson was wonderful. It made us start dreaming about other trips we'll try to take Natalee on, when she's older. The drive was horribly long - 10 hours, but Dad let us borrow his big F-150 extended cab pickup truck and his portable DVD player. So we had a lot more space for both cargo and us, and when Natalee got too restless we could pop Finding Nemo or Elmo's World episodes in for her.
Branson itself seemed like a huge tourist trap with horrific traffic, with one lane of traffic each way. But we had fun walking around old town Branson and visiting the candy store and leather shops, etc. We went with all our friends to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. That was an experience. It's sort of dinner theatre, where you sit around a big arena, watching a rodeo-type show while eating without utensils. There were about a thousand people there for the show, and they divided one half of the arena as the North/Union side, and the other half the South/Confederacy. And so half of the performers (horse riders, trick riders, cattle herders, actors, singers, etc.) were competing for the North's side and the other half for the South. Natalee got a little gray flag she got to wave for the South and try to trip the waiters with. And then while we were eating our meal, one of the waiters came up and asked if Matt and I would like to be in the show, they needed a couple. So Matt and I went down to wait outside the arena with three other couples and were prepped. The performer who prepped us told us we'd be riding horses. We'd go out, line up by a barrel, two couples per side, and when they were told to, the guys would run down to the end of the arena to get a horse. These were special horses that they had just shipped in from
We also took Natalee to see her first movie, WALL-E. She loved it, and is still talking about robots and "Wa-wee" and "E-ba." But mostly we spent time visiting with all our friends there for the wedding. We hardly ever get to spend much time with them anymore, since we live so far apart now, so we really appreciated the opportunity to visit. The wedding went well. The day stayed nice, and the setting out in a field among the mountains was absolutely beautiful. It was really special. But it did rain. A lot. It leaked through our bathroom ceiling for two nights, the first night so badly that we worried about it spreading across the floor to the bedroom carpet. Thankfully, it didn't keep us from doing anything on our trip, and the resort refunded a portion of the rent to our friend. We're talking about going back again someday, but I think we'll spend more time enjoying the parks and the lake than going through Branson next time.
We've been trying to get back into the swing of things since then. I bought a copy of Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day by Teri Crane. In some ways, the book is great. It forces you to spend the entire day giving your kid the attention they need to make the scary transition to pottying in the potty chair. And it provides you with lots of ideas. But, on the other hand, it's very improbable, nigh to impossible to manage this feat in one day. What they don't mention is how much time you have to spend (weeks, months) preparing your child to get to the point where they can do the whole procedure on their own. And they still probably won't manage to be potty trained in one day. And the second problem with this book is.....to do all the things they tell you to do, you have to have a lot of money to throw the silly party with all their little party favors and treats and books and movies and decorations and potty doll. Plus free time to buy all the things, make all the items and decorations (such as diapers for the dolly, which takes a lot longer than you'd think), and decorate your home, on top of having an entire day free to devote all your attention to your child and their party. I cannot imagine accomplishing this if I had another kid, especially one under the age of six.
But.....Natalee is pottying in her potty chair. She hasn't had an accident in nearly four days. She still wears a diaper during naptime and bedtime, which is when she poops now since she's not comfortable doing it in her potty chair yet. And she's terrified of sitting on the big potty chair, even with a seat adjuster. But Matt and I are very impressed by how much she's progressed in little over a week. She gets to watch an episode of Little Einsteins every time she pees in the potty chair. So we've watched a lot of LE lately, and we're very happy to do so.
We have some friends who are really awesome cake makers and decorators. I mean, Tommy and Kristen make better looking cakes than you'll find at the bakery of your grocery store. So I'm trying to persuade them to come to dinner this weekend and teach me how to frost and decorate cakes. Cuz I stink at it. Horribly. Matt's better at it than I am, honestly. So, I'm going to make my very excellent breaded pork tenderloin with homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, grilled corn, and salad. And hopefully Tommy and Kristen will teach me how to decorate a chocolate cherry cola cake. I've been dying for an excuse to make this thing, it sounds and looks so good. I'm foregoing the frosting decorations for T&K's teachings, but oh, man...I have all the stuff to make this cake now. Don't know how I'm going to last the whole week without making it and eating it. I'll let you know how it comes out, and maybe have some pictures of a prettily decorated cake....
Cross your fingers for me.
Chocolate-Cherry Cola Cake
Try a classic southern cake updated with cake mix and cherry cola.
|  | |||
| 1 | jar (10 oz) maraschino cherries, drained, 1/4 cup liquid reserved |
| 1 | box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® devil's food cake mix |
| 1 | cup cherry cola carbonated beverage |
| 1/2 | cup vegetable oil |
| 3 | eggs |
| 1 | container (12 oz) Betty Crocker® Whipped vanilla frosting |
| 1 | cup marshmallow creme |
| 24 maraschino cherries with stems, well drained, if desired |
| 1. | Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Spray bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with baking spray with flour. Chop cherries; set aside. |
| 2. | In large bowl, beat cake mix, cola beverage, oil, eggs and 1/4 cup reserved cherry liquid with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed beat 2 minutes. Stir in chopped cherries. Pour into pan. |
| 3. | Bake 35 to 43 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour. |
| 4. | In small bowl, mix frosting and marshmallow creme until smooth. Frost cake. Top each piece with 2 cherries. |
From www.bettycrocker.com.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Hmmm...layout changes
I glanced over my blog page today and noticed that the layout was different. It was still the layout I had picked out, but the elements on it were arranged and spaced differently. I had a moment where I worried about my account being hacked. But nothing else seems different, so I'm assuming blogger central changed something to that specific layout that affected mine. I couldn't get it fixed back, and heck, I couldn't remember exactly how it was before. So I just changed the layout.
Busy, busy days are here again. I'm baking today for Kara's wedding, making peanut butter surprise cookies that I'll freeze till the wedding. I'll try to include a link to the recipe at the end. The surprise is the chocolate peanut butter candy melted on top. This time it's a Reese's peanut butter cup, but I liked it better with a peanut butter-filled Hershey's Kiss. Sadly, those were a limited time only thing, so Reese's it is. But the Reese's lose little bits of chocolate on the wrapping, and for some reason, seeing the peanut butter peeking through where the chocolate should be makes me think of plumber's butt and bum cracks on candy pieces. I have maybe two dozen loaves of banana bread frozen in the freezer. God must approve of what I'm doing - I'm assuming He's the reason why I managed to fit all that bread in our tiny freezer and still have okay room for the normal freezer stuff...like an ice maker and frozen meals and garlic bread. I think I'll be able to fit all the cookies in there too. I'm amazed and a little awed. I'll be making cheesecake cookie bites at my grandmother's the day before the wedding. And those I'll definitely try to link the recipe for, because they seem pretty complicated, but they're freakishly easy. And the mess is on the face of the eater, not my kitchen. Hehehe.
I shouldn't be making light of things right now. Or maybe I'm due. Things just seem to be overly complicated right now. Matt's dad had surgery this morning to have one of his hips replaced; he'll have the other replaced in two months time, hopefully. As far as we know right now, he came through the surgery well. We're very grateful that he's finally getting this done. He's been in pain for most of a decade now with his hips - the padding between his bones had worn away and his bones were grinding and scraping each other when he walked. If he had gone much longer without surgery, his femur bone would have broken very badly. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Dad didn't want us to be there for the surgery, but he did ask that we be there when he gets out of the hospital. He's supposed to be in for four or five days. Since we'll be up there for the wedding Thursday night anyways, things work out. Hopefully he'll recuperate well.
But he's just one of the men in my life who are not doing well. My grandfather is possibly dying, my mother's father. He's been an alcoholic for so long that his liver is failing. Failing so bad he's been vomiting blood and can barely reach out of bed for a glass of water. He was in a really awful wreck several years back that he's never been the same from, and with his current condition, they don't think surgery is an option. Maybe that's changed though. Mom has been over there for days at a time, taking care of him, taking him for doctor's visits, changing his sheets and fixing him meals. She's not talking to me much right now, won't tell me really how he's doing. I think she's really afraid and doesn't want to say anything. Mom has been so up and down for the past ten years and more that having her dad's moral support for the past few has given her an anchor. And now she might be losing it. I wish I could help more. We live an hour and a half to two hours apart. And frankly, I don't really know my grandfather that well. I know about him, but I don't know him. Every memory I have of him is with a beer in his hand. We lived five hours away growing up, and an alcoholic grandfather who owns a honkytonk bar and a Mormon granddaughter with her nose usually in a book don't mix too well. But I know he's been the anchor to Mom's family for a long time now, and I wish I could do more to help.
And my dad, who's still reeling a bit from Kara's impending wedding and...situation, is grieving right now. Two of his co-workers, close friends, his hunting and fishing buddies, were murdered earlier this week, by a man with a rap sheet who felt like he was owed more in a deal over a tractor. It's hard to know how Dad's dealing with these sort of things. He's a lot like Matt in that. And Matt and I both know what it's like to lose a friend to the caprice of another human being. Bottom line, I know there's not much I can do for him, but tell him that I'm thinking about him and will do whatever I can for him. If the funeral is held Friday, I'll be going with him for moral support, since Brenda can't get out of leaving town on a business trip tomorrow. I'm glad I can at least do that for him, but it seems small comfort when it's only if the funeral is Friday, when I'll be there already. But not much else to be done.
On the bright side, my grandfather, my father's father, is recovering well from his surgery. I got to see him a few weeks ago. I'm not sure how much my family is talking about it, so I'll stay mum about what it was. I was worried about his mental health (not in serious), since he's not allowed to mow the lawn or do any of his home renovation projects, the things he normally does and enjoys. But it sounded like he's been busy visiting friends and family and enjoying letting Uncle Mark do the yard work. That still brings a grin to my face.
I'm starting to think this is why I've been so eager to bake and give Kara so much for her wedding. Because it's something I can do. There are so many situations regarding our family nowadays for which we can't do anything. I hate that. I hate feeling like I have to sit on my hands to prevent myself from hitting something. I hate feeling so powerless to help my family when I know they need the help. I've been ranting about it a lot. I hope Matt doesn't feel like the target of it. But I'm glad I can do this for Kara right now.
Natalee hasn't peed or pooped in the potty chair since that last post. But she has peed on our bed two or three times, all the way down to the padding covering the feather bed. There has been so much down floating around the apartment lately that my allergies have been going nuts. I think I sneezed at least a dozen times, one right after the other without a pause in between, a few days ago. We have the air purifiers, and the bed's been put back together. But the down gets put right back into the air every time I clean the lint from the dryer. Eurgh...And then it all starts over again whenever she pees on the bed. Needless to say, Natalee's been wearing her diapers a lot the past two weeks.
Matt seems to be doing okay. He's worried about his dad, of course, and working hard every day. But he hasn't had to go in on Saturdays recently. And I think most of the furor about all the people laid off at his work has died down. And I've been cooking bigger meals during the week. He seems to be enjoying having pork tenderloin and homemade biscuits and homemade rolls and tequila lime chicken with sauteed peppers and onions, homemade lasagnas and pasta bakes and focaccia bread...stuff like that. Not boxed macaroni and cheese and frozen chicken nuggets anymore. He's been playing the Conan the Barbarian mmorpg. And we've been playing a little Lego Indiana Jones. I think if the job situation would be resolved, he would be very happy. But he's still applying to jobs up in the Metroplex. And I'm earning a little bit more money, babysitting Samantha, so things are going okay for us right now.
We've still got the wedding to look forward to this weekend. Lots to stress over, but a lot of stuff to be excited about. Wish us and the bride and groom luck!
Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies
Ingredients:
You can find this recipe at: http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/baking/recipes/peanut_butter_surprise_cookies.html
Cheesecake Cookie Cups
Ingredients:
(That's Nestle's recipe web site. They have some good things there, but, like Kraft kitchens, it all involves their products. And their website has problems some days.)
Busy, busy days are here again. I'm baking today for Kara's wedding, making peanut butter surprise cookies that I'll freeze till the wedding. I'll try to include a link to the recipe at the end. The surprise is the chocolate peanut butter candy melted on top. This time it's a Reese's peanut butter cup, but I liked it better with a peanut butter-filled Hershey's Kiss. Sadly, those were a limited time only thing, so Reese's it is. But the Reese's lose little bits of chocolate on the wrapping, and for some reason, seeing the peanut butter peeking through where the chocolate should be makes me think of plumber's butt and bum cracks on candy pieces. I have maybe two dozen loaves of banana bread frozen in the freezer. God must approve of what I'm doing - I'm assuming He's the reason why I managed to fit all that bread in our tiny freezer and still have okay room for the normal freezer stuff...like an ice maker and frozen meals and garlic bread. I think I'll be able to fit all the cookies in there too. I'm amazed and a little awed. I'll be making cheesecake cookie bites at my grandmother's the day before the wedding. And those I'll definitely try to link the recipe for, because they seem pretty complicated, but they're freakishly easy. And the mess is on the face of the eater, not my kitchen. Hehehe.
I shouldn't be making light of things right now. Or maybe I'm due. Things just seem to be overly complicated right now. Matt's dad had surgery this morning to have one of his hips replaced; he'll have the other replaced in two months time, hopefully. As far as we know right now, he came through the surgery well. We're very grateful that he's finally getting this done. He's been in pain for most of a decade now with his hips - the padding between his bones had worn away and his bones were grinding and scraping each other when he walked. If he had gone much longer without surgery, his femur bone would have broken very badly. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Dad didn't want us to be there for the surgery, but he did ask that we be there when he gets out of the hospital. He's supposed to be in for four or five days. Since we'll be up there for the wedding Thursday night anyways, things work out. Hopefully he'll recuperate well.
But he's just one of the men in my life who are not doing well. My grandfather is possibly dying, my mother's father. He's been an alcoholic for so long that his liver is failing. Failing so bad he's been vomiting blood and can barely reach out of bed for a glass of water. He was in a really awful wreck several years back that he's never been the same from, and with his current condition, they don't think surgery is an option. Maybe that's changed though. Mom has been over there for days at a time, taking care of him, taking him for doctor's visits, changing his sheets and fixing him meals. She's not talking to me much right now, won't tell me really how he's doing. I think she's really afraid and doesn't want to say anything. Mom has been so up and down for the past ten years and more that having her dad's moral support for the past few has given her an anchor. And now she might be losing it. I wish I could help more. We live an hour and a half to two hours apart. And frankly, I don't really know my grandfather that well. I know about him, but I don't know him. Every memory I have of him is with a beer in his hand. We lived five hours away growing up, and an alcoholic grandfather who owns a honkytonk bar and a Mormon granddaughter with her nose usually in a book don't mix too well. But I know he's been the anchor to Mom's family for a long time now, and I wish I could do more to help.
And my dad, who's still reeling a bit from Kara's impending wedding and...situation, is grieving right now. Two of his co-workers, close friends, his hunting and fishing buddies, were murdered earlier this week, by a man with a rap sheet who felt like he was owed more in a deal over a tractor. It's hard to know how Dad's dealing with these sort of things. He's a lot like Matt in that. And Matt and I both know what it's like to lose a friend to the caprice of another human being. Bottom line, I know there's not much I can do for him, but tell him that I'm thinking about him and will do whatever I can for him. If the funeral is held Friday, I'll be going with him for moral support, since Brenda can't get out of leaving town on a business trip tomorrow. I'm glad I can at least do that for him, but it seems small comfort when it's only if the funeral is Friday, when I'll be there already. But not much else to be done.
On the bright side, my grandfather, my father's father, is recovering well from his surgery. I got to see him a few weeks ago. I'm not sure how much my family is talking about it, so I'll stay mum about what it was. I was worried about his mental health (not in serious), since he's not allowed to mow the lawn or do any of his home renovation projects, the things he normally does and enjoys. But it sounded like he's been busy visiting friends and family and enjoying letting Uncle Mark do the yard work. That still brings a grin to my face.
I'm starting to think this is why I've been so eager to bake and give Kara so much for her wedding. Because it's something I can do. There are so many situations regarding our family nowadays for which we can't do anything. I hate that. I hate feeling like I have to sit on my hands to prevent myself from hitting something. I hate feeling so powerless to help my family when I know they need the help. I've been ranting about it a lot. I hope Matt doesn't feel like the target of it. But I'm glad I can do this for Kara right now.
Natalee hasn't peed or pooped in the potty chair since that last post. But she has peed on our bed two or three times, all the way down to the padding covering the feather bed. There has been so much down floating around the apartment lately that my allergies have been going nuts. I think I sneezed at least a dozen times, one right after the other without a pause in between, a few days ago. We have the air purifiers, and the bed's been put back together. But the down gets put right back into the air every time I clean the lint from the dryer. Eurgh...And then it all starts over again whenever she pees on the bed. Needless to say, Natalee's been wearing her diapers a lot the past two weeks.
Matt seems to be doing okay. He's worried about his dad, of course, and working hard every day. But he hasn't had to go in on Saturdays recently. And I think most of the furor about all the people laid off at his work has died down. And I've been cooking bigger meals during the week. He seems to be enjoying having pork tenderloin and homemade biscuits and homemade rolls and tequila lime chicken with sauteed peppers and onions, homemade lasagnas and pasta bakes and focaccia bread...stuff like that. Not boxed macaroni and cheese and frozen chicken nuggets anymore. He's been playing the Conan the Barbarian mmorpg. And we've been playing a little Lego Indiana Jones. I think if the job situation would be resolved, he would be very happy. But he's still applying to jobs up in the Metroplex. And I'm earning a little bit more money, babysitting Samantha, so things are going okay for us right now.
We've still got the wedding to look forward to this weekend. Lots to stress over, but a lot of stuff to be excited about. Wish us and the bride and groom luck!
Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1/2 C creamy peanut butter
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 C packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 C sugar for rolling
- 36 mini peanut butter cups, chilled and unwrapped
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream together the peanut butter and butter until smooth. Add brown sugar until combined. Add eggs and vanilla until incorporated. (Note - they come out better if you add the eggs one at a time, letting each egg be mixed mostly in before adding the next.)
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to first bowl in three installments. Don't overmix.
- Roll dough into tablespoon size balls. Rolls balls in the sugar until covered. Place on cookie sheets with about 2 inches between each - they puff out.
- Bake for 5 minutes or until the cookies have started to puff up a little bit, but are not done baking. Pull the sheets out of the oven and add a candy to the top of each, pressing down slightly on the candy so it won't fall off the cookie. Make sure you have all the candy unwrapped ahead of time, or the cookies will be done before you're done unwrapping, or the cookies might fall while waiting for the candy outside of the oven.
- Let cookies cool on the pan before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. Be careful not to touch the candy - the Reese's I used stay warm and smushy for long after the cookies are out of the oven.
You can find this recipe at: http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/baking/recipes/peanut_butter_surprise_cookies.html
Cheesecake Cookie Cups
Ingredients:
- 1 pkg refrigerated pull apart chocolate chip cookie bar dough (like the Nestle Toll House cookies that are shaped like a rectangle in the package, but knockoff stuff works as well)
- 2 8 oz. pkgs cream cheese, room temperature (I used store brand, fat free stuff.)
- 1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk (Make sure you check the date on those buggers!)
- 2 lg eggs
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
- 1 21 oz. can cherry pie filling (You might want more than this, because half of the can is just gel and not cherries, which is what you want.)
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. (Yes, I know, the package might say a different temperature, but you don't want the same temp and time for this because you don't want the cookies completely done, or they'll be slightly overdone when you bake the cheesecake part.) Paper-line 24 muffin cups. (Believe me, you DO need the paper liner cups for this.) Place one piece of cookie dough in each lined cup.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookie dough has spread to edge of cup. (They puff up during this, but then they'll sink in when you pull them out. You want that, so you'll have room for the cheesecake and cherries.)
- Beat cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, and vanilla extract together until smooth. Pour about 3 Tbsp. worth of cream cheese mixture over each cookie in cup. Try to make sure the cookie part is covered.
- Bake for another 15 to 18 minutes or until set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Top each with level Tbsp. of pie filling. (This is when you start thinking maybe you should have bought another can of cherry pie filling instead of using lots of cherry-flavored glop.) Refrigerate for one hour before devouring.
(That's Nestle's recipe web site. They have some good things there, but, like Kraft kitchens, it all involves their products. And their website has problems some days.)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Hurray for Pee Time!
Natalee peed in the potty chair twice today! YAY!!! And she didn't wet her pants or her diaper in between, so we're thinking she really is getting it now. She was so excited about all the attention, she kept going back to the bathroom and sitting down on the potty chair. Then she'd call for me to come see that she was sitting on it. She'd even sit up, clap her hands, and yell "Yay!" for herself. LOL. I'm so proud of her! We bought a little coloring book with a special marker today just for using on the potty chair. It might've helped, having that to encourage her, but I think things finally clicked for her today. We'll have to work on the candy rewards, too, weaning her off of them eventually, but right now, all I can say is, HURRAY! *crossing fingers that she'll still want to pee in the potty chair tomorrow*
Plus we have to get her comfortable with sitting on the big potty chair. She's terrified that she'll fall in when she sits on it. So, it'll be fun getting her adjusted to not peeing in a diaper when we're away from our potty chair. Especially on trips.
Thanks for the baking offer, Steph. I might be calling you for help! We'll see what happens. If I have to, I can bake and freeze the cookies and banana bread without too much of a problem.
.........
...I don't know who's happier tonight, me or Natalee. :p
Plus we have to get her comfortable with sitting on the big potty chair. She's terrified that she'll fall in when she sits on it. So, it'll be fun getting her adjusted to not peeing in a diaper when we're away from our potty chair. Especially on trips.
Thanks for the baking offer, Steph. I might be calling you for help! We'll see what happens. If I have to, I can bake and freeze the cookies and banana bread without too much of a problem.
.........
...I don't know who's happier tonight, me or Natalee. :p
First comes love, then comes marriage...
...here comes *wink-wink-not-me* with a baby carriage!
So, this is turning out to be the year of weddings. My uncle JM finally married April in March. My mother is remarrying next week, a nice guy named Brian, a Harley-Davidson rider who drives a lumber truck for a living. He has a 19 year old son and a 14 year old son. The 19 year old lives with them and goes to college, and the 14 year old lives with his mom but visits. Mom and Brian have been together for about a year now, I think. He bought her a nice engagement ring, bought her flowers on Mother's Day, takes her out to dinner, etc. I've got my fingers crossed that things will go well for them. He's the only guy she's dated in a while that I don't worry about being around Natalee.
June 14th, my sister Kara is marrying her boyfriend of three years. Trevor's a nice guy. His family is very Mormon, although he's something of a D&D nerd. (I can say that with love, since my own hub was a D&D nerd. And possibly still is.) But Trevor's still in the thick of being a D&D nerd. Which suits Kara fine. If Trevor was completely whitebread Mormon, Kara would've left it at flirting three years ago. So, after long urging, they're getting married. They're holding a small ceremony in Trevor's family's house. Jennifer will be the maid of honor (which is how it should be, since they've been peanut butter and jelly for most of their lives). Kara's friend Danny and I will be her bridesmaids. And Natalee will be her flower girl. And then Trevor's friends will be the groomsmen. They're holding a bigger reception at their ward. I'll be baking banana bread, rolls, and cookies to help cut down food costs. I'll have to negotiate with my grandmother to invade her kitchen with my stand mixer. Hoping I'll be able to turn her head with the idea of fresh breads and cookies and their aromas in her home. I like baking in my kitchen, where I know where everything is, how clean the counters are behind the appliances, if there are bugs, and how much of the ingredients I have on hand. Since I can't bring my kitchen with me, I'll settle with borrowing Gammie's scrupulously clean and spacious kitchen. Plus I know my way around her kitchen since I lived there on breaks during college. So, with a month to go, my mind is full of recipes, where to get Natalee's dress, where are we going to find matching green dresses, has anyone figured out the flowers yet?...etc.
And then, once all the hoopla of Kara's wedding is over, we'll be going to Branson, Missouri the week of July 4th for Pam and Eric's wedding. We've been looking forward to it for a while. We're going to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede! dinner theatre. Eric has reserved a luxury suite for us to share at a nice lake front resort. Daniel will be the best man, Matt and Brent the groomsmen. It's going to be great, all of us being able to get together and hang out for a few days, in Branson, in awesome rooms, and for a fantastic reason. There's an amusement park and specialty shops selling hand-crafted items like hand-woven baskets, blown glass, homemade ice cream, and bakeries. (I think I'll be visiting the bakeries.) Matt's parents are coming, too, so if Matt and I want some time together without the tot, they've already offered to take her. They're really excited about the trip. They used to go on vacations every year, but haven't really traveled anywhere in a long time. Plus Mom is doing well enough now that she can. This is the first big trip she's gone on since she was diagnosed with cancer last year. (She's doing really well, by the way.) We're all really excited about having a vacation somewhere else, but it'll be great no matter what just to be hang out with our friends. We always have a good time together, and we haven't gotten to spend much time together since we moved from College Station.
So, lots of good things happening this summer!
Lately, we've been working on Natalee's potty training still. I know we've been 'working' on it forever, but Natalee is a very smart little girl who knows how to hold it until she has a diaper on or she's far enough out of our sight to wet her panties...and the bed or the couch or the rug. But we know she knows how! Last week, she and I had taken a shower, and she was sitting in the tub after I dried her off while I dried off, when she told me "I go poo poo," and pointed to the potty chair. She's done this before without results, but I went ahead and stuck her on her potty chair. She got a look of intense concentration on her face...and then practically filled the bowl with pee. You could have heard my shrieks of joy throughout the apartment building. We made a huge deal of it, bought her new panties with kitties and puppies on them, and told everyone about it. And she hasn't done it again since. And anyone who calls now asks if she's peed in the potty chair again. Argh. One step forward and about four back. It's hard because, yes, I was around to help with Kara and Jennifer's potty training, but my parents spanked my sisters if they wet their pants. We don't spank Natalee. We've started putting her nose in the corner, but it doesn't seem right to do that about something she doesn't really understand. But we might have to rethink how much she understands peeing in the potty chair since she managed to do it last week. I think I'm going to try something else first - I'll find a special toy she only gets to play with on the potty chair to encourage her to stay on it until she pees. If that doesn't work, we might have to start putting her nose in the corner for wet panties...and floors and beds and couches. (When I say bed, I'm not talking bedtime. I mean her jumping up and down on our bed and peeing while she's doing it. Urgh.) We'll see.
In the meantime, I have some wedding presents to shop for, dresses to find, and a toy to buy to encourage toilet training. Busy days ahead.
Monday, March 24, 2008
You are now a NINJA
I'm feeling pretty butt-kicking happy right now, so I thought I'd share how to become a true warrior in cotton. This is something that a very good long-distance friend in college shared with me, and it just hasn't gotten old.
Went to the cardiologist today. And hurray! It looks like I have nothing worse than a very irregular heartbeat. Huzzah! I have a little valve regurgitation, but that's not un-normal. The irregular heartbeat can cause the problems I've been having, supposedly, and as long as nothing else is going wrong with my heart, I'm fine. (Meaning as long as I stay healthy and take care of myself, I shouldn't have a problem, is how I understand it.) I'll have to have check-ups every four months for now, but my stress tests and echos, etc., all came back fine. I still have to go in for a carotid exam this Friday to make sure there isn't anything going on in my neck that's causing my dizziness and shoulder pains. And I should still wear my monitor if I have a bad day with my heart, since I've already paid for a full month with the monitoring company. But....YAY! I don't have to wear that evil thing all the time any more. And I can stop making myself sick with worry about my heart spazzes. *happy sigh*
We just got back from a four day visit up in Azle. We ran around a lot, visiting family and going out with family, but we had a really good visit. Matt's mom is in pretty good health, considering she just celebrated having her one year anniversary for her cancer surgery. She's back to shopping with friends and seems to be enjoying her retirement again, and her hair is starting to grow back. And Dad/David seems to be doing better now that Mom is.
We got to see Kara's new apartment and take her out to lunch and bought her a new plunger for her bathroom. (What are big sisters and brother-in-laws for?) Natalee and I saw my grandparents for a little while, playing on the floor with toys and picking flowers out of their yard. We went out to eat with Matt's parents and my own two different nights. And we went Easter egg hunting with Brent, his two little boys, Eric, Pam, and their daughter Kaitlyn, and Daniel and Gabby. Natalee conquered the Easter egg field, but Matt and I (and all the other guys) stunk it up practicing golf swings in the backyard. Well, I did more than the others. We had a really good time, we're all sunburned, and Natalee's got a whole bunch of Easter goodies. Plus we had Jennifer over for most of last week, helping me with the Natster and shopping for her prom regalia. All-in-all, it's been a really great week.
So now we should all kick butt like ninjas to celebrate. *strikes an interesting, yet threatening ninja pose*
Thursday, March 13, 2008
On a better note...
Check out my bread! I made it two weeks ago or thereabouts, but it kind of got displaced with all the heart stuff. It was my first time to make focacia bread, but I think it came out very well. Next time I'll have to preheat the stone so that the outside crust will be a little crisper. And for some reason, it was a little sweet. I'll have to mess with that some. It made awesome panini sandwiches. Yum! I was so proud, I took pictures of it. The rosemary in it smelled divine, and I daydreamed about having my own little bakery or cafe while it baked. Fat chance though it be. Matt ate a piece every morning for breakfast. We finished off two loaves in less than a week between the three of us.
Natalee has definitely entered the terrible twos. Everything is "MINE!" or "No!" or "I'm stuck!" She rarely eats her meals, vegetables, or fruits nowadays, things that once were her favorites. But she's suddenly liking meat. She was begging for the taco meat that fell out of Matt's tacos at dinner. She used to despise any kind of meat besides McDonald's chicken nuggets, so Matt and I are a little confused. She's learning her colors and still working on her vocabulary. She doesn't speak in her gibberish language so much anymore, thankfully. But oh man, I'm grateful Jennifer's coming to hang out with us next week. Admittedly, Matt's been wrangling the Natster a lot more this week, to help me out. But she's a handful. A much-loved handful. Even when she's her worst, I can still cry with gratitude for her at the end of the day.
I'm making zucchini bread and hopefully whole wheat bread this weekend. Maybe even some chocolate whole wheat waffles. (I made some plain whole wheat ones that came out pretty well a few weeks ago.) I'll try to post up a recipe or two of anything that comes out well.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Hurled a big lemon..take that as you like
I have recently been hurled a great big lemon. Figuratively speaking. I've been dealing with symptoms normally associated with heart attacks. Racing heart. Heart palpitations. Heart beating so hard that you can see my chest bouncing. Shortness of breath. Tight feeling in the chest. Soreness in my chest, shoulder, and left arm. Thankfully, this doesn't happen on an everyday basis. Just on days when I take my propranolol late (a low level beta-blocker I originally started taking for my tremors) or I get stressed out, like I was today.
I started seeing a cardiologist last week. Today, I had an echocardiogram, a stress test, another smaller echocardiagram, an ultrasound that is pretty much the same thing as an echocardiagram, and had an event monitor strapped on me. My day, from the moment I got up, till I got out of the doctor's office at nearly three p.m., sucked. No holding the onions or stinky feet cheese.
Heart problems, having all these tests done, waiting for answers, terrify me. I watched my little sister Elizabeth go through so many tests, so many trials due to her heart problems, watched my parents and close relations constantly falling apart with anxiety, during the fourteen months of her life. So much was done to try to help her, so much was done to her tiny, frail little body in the hopes of giving her a semi-normal life, and she still passed away. I was six when she died. And I didn't realize how much of a phobia I had built up about heart problems and the resulting procedures until this past week, and especially today.
So things that shouldn't have been so bad today, were horribly frightening. I feel burpy just thinking about it. (I burp when I'm nervous. Matt has to pee a lot. And I burp and hope that this one won't bring something up with it.) But now that they're over, I'm glad they're done. And pray to God I don't have to do them again.
I had to arrive, fasting, at the hospital at noon. (Pity my poor family who had to deal with me beforehand. I was bad.) We had to get registered at the Heart Center and pay the whopping $400+ bill that was after the insurance covered its part. The registrar was nice, but didn't help saying things like 'you poor thing.' I started getting twitchy thinking I was possibly in for worse if a hospital employee was trying to be sympathetic AFTER she got our money. I clipped off my nails last week after my last bout of heart-related nervousness, so I had to pretend to bite my nails and pretend that that helped. Yes, seriously, I did. Ask Matt.
Thankfully the wait was short once we paid up. We went back to a nuclear lab in the heart center. Matt had to wait in a tiny waiting room next door, because the lab/stress room was hardly bigger than the waiting room. I had to strip my top half and put on one of the ubiquitous thin cotton, back-tied gowns so fashionable at hospitals and lay down on my left side on a very skinny bed. A Russian-accented technician/nurse then proceeded to do my full echocardiagram. An echocardiagram is, as far as I can tell, a lot like an ultrasound. In fact, I really don't know the difference. I watched my heart on the little slice-of-cone window for a few moments before I had to turn my head. The normal heart says something like "lub-dub" for every beat. My heart says "lubdublub." This is because, according to my cardiologist, the lower ventricles of my heart are trying to stay in time with the top ones of my heart. So I get an extra beat every other or so. And let me tell you, my heart beat was already a little high from anxiety. Watching my heart and knowing it wasn't right made it speed up and my breath to become shorter. The echo tech and the lady administering my stress test were both very nice and polite. Unfortunately, the echo tech was of the school of thought that the closer you can get your little ultrasound wand to the heart, the better. So she jammed it as hard as she could against my breast, under my breast, and the thin skin of my chest. It felt like Natalee was elbowing my really painfully and really hard in the chest. Repeatedly. So my chest feels bruised now, and I have some pretty little red spots where I bled just under the skin.
The first echo. took 20 to 30 minutes. Afterwards, once my cardiologist showed up, was my stress test. It should have been a lot easier than it was, but it wasn't. A stress test is where they put you on a tread mill with electrodes to an EKG hooked up on your chest (still wearing only a hospital gown and the bottom half of your clothes), and they try to make you work hard enough that your heart races hard so they can get a really good look at its beats on an echocardiagram. They angle up the treadmill and speed it up every three minutes. Still shouldn't've been hard. But I had been lying there on my left side (which isn't comfortable for me nowadays with my heart probs) for thirty minutes. To lie there for thirty minutes, with my heart phobic-ly racing already, and then be expected to get on a tilted treadmill and start off at a good clip, was beyond my abilities. I was on the treadmill for six minutes before I felt like I was going to pass out from shortness of breath. And so the pictures from my second echocardiagram weren't as good as they could be. Hopefully they'll be well enough. I won't know till I talk to the cardiologist on the 24th. After being jabbed with that ultrasound wand for so long, I was ready to leave.
Matt drove me over to the cardiologist's office after that. I got to sit in the waiting room, wolfing down a Snickers marathon bar while all the cardiology patients glared at me for it. I had an ultrasound on my heart done there at the office by a lady who has been doing it for thirty years. Thankfully, she is not of the school of stabbing you with the wand. Yay. She said she couldn't really say what's wrong with my heart, since she's not a doctor, but it looks like mitral valve prolapse to her. (My aunt has this. You can learn about it here: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mitral-valve-prolapse/DS00504. It has a tendency to run in families, so it's not entirely surprising.) And then, joy of joys, I got outfitted with an event monitor. Three more little electrode stickers with wires were stuck on my chest, attached to a MP3 player-sized electronic recorder that monitors my heart beat. And I get to wear it for thirty days. Maybe more. It's like a class pet that I wear on my hip and poke when I start feeling unwell. And then I write down my side of the story, and I call up the company so it can screech its side of the story to its.....tech on duty, I guess. It's not so terrible. It just makes me focus more on my heart problems, something I've been trying to avoid. And it's so avant-garde-fashionable to go out with a pedometer looking thing attached to my hip, with wires hanging out from the bottom of my shirt. Maybe people will think I'm some greenie nut who powers her pedometer with body heat or heartbeats. Who knows?
Matt's been really wonderful to me, helping me, doing a lot of the dirty work around here, especially with Natalee, taking me out to lunch. But the day still wore me out. So I'm going to finish sipping my nighttime, no-caffeine herbal tea that really isn't tea, and go to bed. Huzzah.
I started seeing a cardiologist last week. Today, I had an echocardiogram, a stress test, another smaller echocardiagram, an ultrasound that is pretty much the same thing as an echocardiagram, and had an event monitor strapped on me. My day, from the moment I got up, till I got out of the doctor's office at nearly three p.m., sucked. No holding the onions or stinky feet cheese.
Heart problems, having all these tests done, waiting for answers, terrify me. I watched my little sister Elizabeth go through so many tests, so many trials due to her heart problems, watched my parents and close relations constantly falling apart with anxiety, during the fourteen months of her life. So much was done to try to help her, so much was done to her tiny, frail little body in the hopes of giving her a semi-normal life, and she still passed away. I was six when she died. And I didn't realize how much of a phobia I had built up about heart problems and the resulting procedures until this past week, and especially today.
So things that shouldn't have been so bad today, were horribly frightening. I feel burpy just thinking about it. (I burp when I'm nervous. Matt has to pee a lot. And I burp and hope that this one won't bring something up with it.) But now that they're over, I'm glad they're done. And pray to God I don't have to do them again.
I had to arrive, fasting, at the hospital at noon. (Pity my poor family who had to deal with me beforehand. I was bad.) We had to get registered at the Heart Center and pay the whopping $400+ bill that was after the insurance covered its part. The registrar was nice, but didn't help saying things like 'you poor thing.' I started getting twitchy thinking I was possibly in for worse if a hospital employee was trying to be sympathetic AFTER she got our money. I clipped off my nails last week after my last bout of heart-related nervousness, so I had to pretend to bite my nails and pretend that that helped. Yes, seriously, I did. Ask Matt.
Thankfully the wait was short once we paid up. We went back to a nuclear lab in the heart center. Matt had to wait in a tiny waiting room next door, because the lab/stress room was hardly bigger than the waiting room. I had to strip my top half and put on one of the ubiquitous thin cotton, back-tied gowns so fashionable at hospitals and lay down on my left side on a very skinny bed. A Russian-accented technician/nurse then proceeded to do my full echocardiagram. An echocardiagram is, as far as I can tell, a lot like an ultrasound. In fact, I really don't know the difference. I watched my heart on the little slice-of-cone window for a few moments before I had to turn my head. The normal heart says something like "lub-dub" for every beat. My heart says "lubdublub." This is because, according to my cardiologist, the lower ventricles of my heart are trying to stay in time with the top ones of my heart. So I get an extra beat every other or so. And let me tell you, my heart beat was already a little high from anxiety. Watching my heart and knowing it wasn't right made it speed up and my breath to become shorter. The echo tech and the lady administering my stress test were both very nice and polite. Unfortunately, the echo tech was of the school of thought that the closer you can get your little ultrasound wand to the heart, the better. So she jammed it as hard as she could against my breast, under my breast, and the thin skin of my chest. It felt like Natalee was elbowing my really painfully and really hard in the chest. Repeatedly. So my chest feels bruised now, and I have some pretty little red spots where I bled just under the skin.
The first echo. took 20 to 30 minutes. Afterwards, once my cardiologist showed up, was my stress test. It should have been a lot easier than it was, but it wasn't. A stress test is where they put you on a tread mill with electrodes to an EKG hooked up on your chest (still wearing only a hospital gown and the bottom half of your clothes), and they try to make you work hard enough that your heart races hard so they can get a really good look at its beats on an echocardiagram. They angle up the treadmill and speed it up every three minutes. Still shouldn't've been hard. But I had been lying there on my left side (which isn't comfortable for me nowadays with my heart probs) for thirty minutes. To lie there for thirty minutes, with my heart phobic-ly racing already, and then be expected to get on a tilted treadmill and start off at a good clip, was beyond my abilities. I was on the treadmill for six minutes before I felt like I was going to pass out from shortness of breath. And so the pictures from my second echocardiagram weren't as good as they could be. Hopefully they'll be well enough. I won't know till I talk to the cardiologist on the 24th. After being jabbed with that ultrasound wand for so long, I was ready to leave.
Matt drove me over to the cardiologist's office after that. I got to sit in the waiting room, wolfing down a Snickers marathon bar while all the cardiology patients glared at me for it. I had an ultrasound on my heart done there at the office by a lady who has been doing it for thirty years. Thankfully, she is not of the school of stabbing you with the wand. Yay. She said she couldn't really say what's wrong with my heart, since she's not a doctor, but it looks like mitral valve prolapse to her. (My aunt has this. You can learn about it here: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mitral-valve-prolapse/DS00504. It has a tendency to run in families, so it's not entirely surprising.) And then, joy of joys, I got outfitted with an event monitor. Three more little electrode stickers with wires were stuck on my chest, attached to a MP3 player-sized electronic recorder that monitors my heart beat. And I get to wear it for thirty days. Maybe more. It's like a class pet that I wear on my hip and poke when I start feeling unwell. And then I write down my side of the story, and I call up the company so it can screech its side of the story to its.....tech on duty, I guess. It's not so terrible. It just makes me focus more on my heart problems, something I've been trying to avoid. And it's so avant-garde-fashionable to go out with a pedometer looking thing attached to my hip, with wires hanging out from the bottom of my shirt. Maybe people will think I'm some greenie nut who powers her pedometer with body heat or heartbeats. Who knows?
Matt's been really wonderful to me, helping me, doing a lot of the dirty work around here, especially with Natalee, taking me out to lunch. But the day still wore me out. So I'm going to finish sipping my nighttime, no-caffeine herbal tea that really isn't tea, and go to bed. Huzzah.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Newsweek
Okay, through some randomly connected links across websites, I came across Newsweek's articles about Mormons and the LDS church. Newsweek reported on the death of the President and Prophet of the Mormon church, Gordon B. Hinckley. And I see it nowhere else on the news websites. You'd think it would make the news, since the LDS church is one of the largest and fastest growing in the nation. It makes you realize which magazines and online news sites turn the proverbial cold shoulder to Mormons.
But, on the other hand, great big kudos to Newsweek. They write articles sensitive and open to the Mormon church. They try to view the topics under discussion objectively, but with respect that is sorely lacking in other online magazines' articles. So I think I might be visiting Newsweek's website a little more often than the other online mags I used to read regularly. *cough*Time*cough*
I haven't been an active church member during a large part of Gordon B. Hinckley's presidency. But I can respect what he did for the church, the changes he made in order to halt the erosion of the moral values of church members and the cohesiveness of the family. He was a good man who spoke with honesty and openness of the church, who encouraged doubts and discussion as a way to build faith. He was an excellent example of what a latter-day prophet should be. He will be missed.
Here are a few of the Newsweek articles I came across about Mormons, Gordon B. Hinckley, and the choosing of a new prophet.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/105857
http://www.newsweek.com/id/50844
http://www.newsweek.com/id/50728
But, on the other hand, great big kudos to Newsweek. They write articles sensitive and open to the Mormon church. They try to view the topics under discussion objectively, but with respect that is sorely lacking in other online magazines' articles. So I think I might be visiting Newsweek's website a little more often than the other online mags I used to read regularly. *cough*Time*cough*
I haven't been an active church member during a large part of Gordon B. Hinckley's presidency. But I can respect what he did for the church, the changes he made in order to halt the erosion of the moral values of church members and the cohesiveness of the family. He was a good man who spoke with honesty and openness of the church, who encouraged doubts and discussion as a way to build faith. He was an excellent example of what a latter-day prophet should be. He will be missed.
Here are a few of the Newsweek articles I came across about Mormons, Gordon B. Hinckley, and the choosing of a new prophet.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/105857
http://www.newsweek.com/id/50844
http://www.newsweek.com/id/50728
Monday, January 28, 2008
Wow!
Wow! Finally, Time magazine has put up an article that isn't wholly aimed at tearing down Mitt Romney.
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1707342,00.html?xid=site-cnn-partner
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1707342,00.html?xid=site-cnn-partner
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Happy 2008
I'm having one of those days when I'm so infuriated by a few people that I feel like I should have steam coming from my ears and tongues of flame from my nostrils, but I'm trying to set it aside.
Happy 2008! 2007 was an eventful year, bad in some ways, but good in others. It's always good to look back as the new year begins and try to remember the good things that have occurred and the obstacles you have overcome in the past year.
We had a very good Christmas. Natalee got a lot of toys and clothes and books that she's littered across our apartment several times now. Matt and I got gift cards along with a lot of other nice things, like kitchen gadgets, new sneakers, computer gadgets, and things for our home. With Christmas money and gift cards I was able to go buy a beautiful new rug, wall sconces, and couch pillows for our living room. And Matt's holding on to his gift card, watching and waiting for a good HDTV to come on sale. It'll be a relief to get a new TV. The one we have in the living room now is nice, but nothing special. The one in our bedroom, on the other hand, is so old and has been moved so often that the shell of it is falling apart. It's been superglued a few times, but the superglue will no longer hold it together. So we can't ever move it again, besides out to the trash. So whenever Matt finally finds a TV to his particular standards and price range, we'll be moving the old TV out of the living room to the bedroom and tossing out the TV in the bedroom. Hurray!
We welcomed another cousin to the family a little over a week ago. My uncle JM and his fiancee April had a healthy little girl named Samantha on December 28th. Matt, Natalee, and I got to visit them and their 6 year old daughter Taylor at the hospital, and I got to be a baby hog and held Samantha for a while. It was a shock to hold a baby small enough to keep in the crook of my arm again. It really is true - you don't realize how big your own kid has gotten until you hold a little one again. Right now it's looking like I'll be babysitting Samantha when April goes back to work in a few months. It'll give me a baby to play with, Natalee some big sister practice, and us some extra money. All nice things. I'm looking forward to taking care of a child that spends most of the day sleeping. Ah, what bliss! I took it too much for granted when Natalee was that young.
Christmas is great and all, and I am sad to see all the anticipation go, but I'm glad the holidays are over. It's good to be home, to sweep and mop and catch up on laundry. To have friends over for dinner. To enjoy cooking and baking for the sake of it again. All the things you really can't do with all the hustle and bustle of the holidays. It's good to be home, away from all the relatives and rude opinions and obligations that visiting during the holidays seem to entail. JM and April recently bought a house and stayed home with Taylor for Christmas. When they told us their plans, I was a little shocked, thinking 'Staying home on Christmas?!' But wow, it sounds divine now. I haven't had a Christmas at home since I was 17 or 18. Maybe someday soon we'll have a Christmas at home ourselves.
So, for 2008, I'm appreciating feathering my nest. My resolution this year, after some instances that caught me in the teeth and made me think, is to take care of myself. Spend more time on myself, doing things like fixing my hair, ironing my clothes, talking to and spending time with my friends, worrying about myself. I will still take care of my family, first and foremost, but I'm going to stop feeling guilty for spending time on myself. It's a luxury I can have now that Natalee's two.
So, what's your new year's resolution? Anything that made you feel really stupid or that you regret from the past year that you resolve not to let happen in the new year? I think my resolution, and my private, half-thought ones, have more to do with that than making a fresh start. Learning from your mistakes and blind spots is always a good resolution.
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