The McMullens' Stomping Grounds

Smells good!

2009-08-30T15:00:00.003-05:00

I made some zucchini bread that surprisingly smells really awesome. I haven't baked with allspice in a long time, so the refresher is nose-tingling. I started with a recipe from a magazine, but I tweaked a couple of things. I forgot just how watery grated zucchini is. And I was so concerned about being low on flour, wheat flour, and baking spray, that I almost forgot the sugar. Whoops! Being low on flours and baking spray is a big deal for me.

Matt and I are going on a trip for two to Corpus Christi and staying at Emerald Beach this weekend, to celebrate our 5th anniversary. This is the first trip we've been on, just the two of us, since before I got pregnant with Natalee. Loooong overdue. My mom's getting Little Miss Race Car for the weekend, so Natalee's happy, too. Hopefully we'll have some good photos.

And then the day after we get back, I'll be starting my new job at the bakery across the street. I'll be starting out mostly working the counter, but I'm looking forward to playing with industrial size baking toys. Mwahahaha! I'll be working evenings four days a week, from 4 to 8 pm, so I'll get to stay home with Natalee. We'll be saving money and grief from day care. (Natalee had a couple of weeks at school where a classmate decided she was her new chew toy and scratching post. Natalee had teeth-shaped bruises and claw marks on her face that took weeks to heal. I taught Natalee to scream "No, Amara, no! Go away!" any time the kid looked at her twice. It helped. And that's not counting all the sick days.) Plus I have weekends off, so we're free to visit family in Fort Worth area. I'm really happy about working in a bakery, doing something I love, Natalee doesn't have to go to day care, I'll be bringing in a little money, and I'll still have weekends with my family. It seems like a win-win situation right now. As for the long run, I think when Natalee starts pre-school next year, I'm going to go back to school, find a new direction. It gives us a year to save up some money for classes, and I can take them while Natalee's at school, so we won't have the additional expense of day care.

So, anyways, here's the bread recipe.

Choclanutty Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups sugar
3 tsps cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground allspice
3 eggs
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup buttermilk (or sour milk/milk+vinegar = 1/4 cup)
3 tsps vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (I used chopped walnuts)

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray and flour 2 8x4 loaf pans, or 4 2x4 mini pans and 1 8x4 pan. (I like using little pans because they bake faster and more evenly, and they're a good size for giving away.)

2. Combine the dry ingredients (the first eight). In a seperate bowl, combine the eggs, zucchini, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla, beating the eggs a little first before adding the rest.

3. Add the wet ingredients (eggs, zucchini, etc.) to your dry ingredients, using as few strokes as possible. (Muffin method, anyone?) Add the chocolate chips and nuts, and then portion into pans, filling 2/3rds full.

4. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let pans of bread cool on a wire rack for 20 to 30 minutes before cutting into the bread.

2009-08-28T23:59:00.006-05:00

Trying to do this for Layla. Not sure if it will work, so here it goes.

Not that I'm sure this well help, since I don't know of many people who read this thing. But I hope it does!

Having problems with the html. The link won't show, but the website is: http://laylafrances.blogspot.com. Copy and paste that to your address bar for better luck.

Yay, summer

2009-06-07T10:15:00.003-05:00

Yay, school's over. Once again, I'm jobless - my longterm susbstitute/paraprofessional inclusion aide position is done. Once again, I'm on the market for a teaching position. And I'm not going to think about it.

I'm at my in-laws huge new house, watching Phineas and Ferb with Natalee. And, God help me, I love this show. Matt is with his parents trying to finish packing up and cleaning the old house. I'm sort of at a loss of what to do. Natalee can't be there because it's dirty and there are a lot of things she shouldn't touch. So someone has to stay away with her. I'm kind of preempted for it, since Matt's parents know what they want done with everything, and I'm allergic to mouse poo.

Normally, I'd be happy to have all this free time back around our home town buuuuuuuuuut.......my grandparents are in Oregon till mid-July, my dad is up in New England visiting my brother and nephew, and Stephanie's moved. And suddenly all the wonderful things I could be doing are gone. *Sigh* So, we're watching an episode of Phineas and Ferb we've seen ten times. - "The monster of Danville - you ROCK!" - Maybe we'll go wandering around the shops less than five minutes away from here or go for a walk. It's nice knowing we don't have to get up at five am tomorrow. (Matt took two days off.) And we'll go spend tomorrow morning shopping in resale shops and checking out Jennifer's apartment-to-be with her..

Considering what I was doing just a few days ago, a lazy day without a lot to do is pretty awesome.

"Perry the Platypus, you ate all the cheese?!"

"In the mall - I've got a hankering for potaters - in the mall!"

"Curse you, Perry the Platypus!"

I miss you, Steph!

Meant to be

2009-05-02T16:09:00.002-05:00

Have you ever dreamed of what your life might be like, if things had happened differently? Or thought about the whole reincarnation thing, and wondered if you would remember something or someone, even if you were living a new, different life?

I was taking a nap. I dreamed that I was back in college, but my life was different. I dreamed that Elizabeth had never died, that my parents were still together and satisfied. I still had a relationship with my parents like the one I had as a child, one where I could call my mom about anything, thinking she could fix any problem for me, that she would be there for me no matter what. Jennifer and Kara weren't there because Elizabeth hadn't died, but I wasn't very close to her or Brad. I was far away from all of them.

I was in college and feeling so alone and wondering, who's missing? I went through all my family members, checking them against this hole in the heart, but nobody matched up. I knew there was supposed to be someone who I turned to when I needed to talk, when I needed a hug, when I needed a shoulder to cry on, who I shared everything with. But I couldn't find them. I thought Matthew for a moment, but that didn't make sense. Had I dated my cousin? The age gap was way too big. Where was my boyfriend? I visited jail, thinking, I have an uncle who's in jail, maybe I'm missing him? I got tangled in that for a while, tangled in his schemes to help get him out that made only dream-sense, but I was still so sad and frustrated.

And I woke up and knew that I was missing Matt. Matt usually plays on my laptop right next to me in the bed at night. I fall asleep with him next to me. But he was in his little office playing on his computer, so that I could take my nap. I found him and asked for a hug, and as soon as he put his arms around me, I started crying.

I've always had strange dreams. I've dreamed that I was in a group that, like Lehi and his family, found the tree of life, and felt that I gained my own spiritual message from the dream. But I feel like, with this one, that I would miss Matt, that I wouldn't be whole, if my life had gone any other way. And somehow I'd know that it hadn't gone right, because I was missing the most vital person in my life. I am so lucky to be married to my best friend and the love of my life. And I am so happy that things have turned out the way they have.

Woohoo!

2008-12-27T15:00:00.002-06:00

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.

New places, snotty faces

2008-11-26T10:43:00.002-06:00

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!

Smug

2008-09-18T22:06:00.003-05:00

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*

Post Ike

2008-09-17T09:56:00.002-05:00

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

Ike

2008-09-12T19:27:00.003-05:00

Friggin', stupid hurricane crap...

(moment of silence for bleeped out rant)

.....

.....

....

..

.

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...........

Baby Shower

2008-08-12T12:35:00.004-05:00

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.

There and Back Again

2008-07-21T14:05:00.003-05:00

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. Arkansas and Missouri were absolutely breathtaking to drive through, especially after driving through humdrum Texas and Oklahoma. We went through the Mark Twain National Forest on the way in. Matt and I had headaches from the constant earpopping hills, but the views made it worth it. Our friend who got married rented a big two bedroom condo at a resort right on Table Rock Lake. It was so beautiful! We could look out on the lake right off our balcony and through a big picture window in our bathroom. There were ducks and geese that would come up off the water looking for handouts, but Natalee was more interested in throwing rocks into the lake.

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 Arkansas. And then the ringleader of the show would tell us what to do from there. So, Matt and I go out, and when they gave the signal, Matt and the other guys raced down to the other end of the arena and stood by a horse with a rider. And then the ringleader looked at the guys and said, "These girls have been training these horses for years. There's no way they're going to let some yokels off the street ride their horses. Go back to the barrels." So the guys come back over to line up with us at the barrels. And then they bring out their specially shipped....stick horses....for us to ride. Matt and I climbed onto one, me behind him. The ringleader told us ladies that if the guys started going off course, we were supposed to pull up on the brake, i.e. the stick horse, and smack the guys in the crotch. So we got to race three other couples around the barrels in front of a thousand people on stick horses. I think we came in second. Too bad they didn't let us take pictures. It was definitely an experience.

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.

Prep Time:30 min

Start to Finish:2 hr 15 min

Makes:12 servings

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.

Hmmm...layout changes

2008-06-10T14:12:00.002-05:00

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:

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.

These are supposed to stay good for up to two weeks in an airtight container. I would recommend keeping them somewhere cool, like the fridge, because of the chocolate. And if you find the peanut butter Kisses, try those - I liked them even better.
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.

This recipe is from: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=29619
(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.)

Hurray for Pee Time!

2008-05-14T21:43:00.002-05:00

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

First comes love, then comes marriage...

2008-05-14T09:06:00.003-05:00

...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.

You are now a NINJA

2008-03-24T18:15:00.003-06:00

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*

On a better note...

2008-03-13T18:39:00.003-06:00

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.

Hurled a big lemon..take that as you like

2008-03-10T19:43:00.006-06:00

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.

Newsweek

2008-01-29T10:21:00.000-06:00

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

Wow!

2008-01-28T09:59:00.000-06:00

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

Happy 2008

2008-01-09T14:41:00.000-06:00

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.

Post Surgery

2007-12-15T23:29:00.000-06:00

Matt's doing okay. The surgery was Thursday - Dr. Bonner removed a cyst from Matt's sublingual gland, and hopefully most of the gland so that it won't happen again. It was agonizing, nerve-wracking, and painful Thursday and Friday, but today's been better. Matt's doing a lot better than he was at first. He was so pale when we first got to see him after the surgery that I just wanted to curl up in the bed with him and hold him. And yell and smack around the nurse staff and doctors who had kept me and his parents away from him. But, aside from wanting some real food and not liquid stuff, he's doing pretty good now. He's helped me with Natalee some today and helped me make out all the Christmas cards. As long as he doesn't try to wolf down anything harder than a smashed ravioli, takes his painkillers, and takes it easy, he'll be fine. I keep repeating this in the hopes that I'll remember.

Matt's parents and Jennifer were a big help. Natalee hardly missed us having her best pal Aunt Jenna here. (She was pretty unhappy when Jennifer left this morning.) Matt and I didn't worry about Natalee since we knew she was happy and with someone responsible looking out for her. And it was a relief having Matt's parents here, having somebody else to agonize with during the wait, run errands for Matt's needs, and laugh and talk about less stressful things with. My mother came by to check on Matt (but mostly to see Natalee and Jennifer). And Brent came by and visited with us for a few hours. (He was in town interviewing for residency programs.) We've been very blessed to have friends and family around us when we needed them.

My early baking-and-freezing cookies regimen has been going slow, needless to say. I made a double batch of Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels (recipe courtesy of Alton Brown's "Good Eats") this week. The first half of the batch only came out so-so, but the other half came out really well. I'll have to make another batch to make up for the less-than-stellar ones and for the ones that everybody who visited scarfed. I'll post the recipe at the end. Here's my take on them - they take a long time to make, so be certain you have plenty of time or plan on spreading them out over a while. Make certain you put the chocolate dough on bottom, or it really won't look right. And you have to have parchment paper. HAVE TO. And plastic wrap is good too. The dough, possibly because of the chocolate, is hard to roll out. It falls apart and sticks to everything that's supposed to be nonstick. Putting a layer of plastic wrap on top helped a lot. You have to have parchment paper to put on the cookie sheets when you bake them. I tried spraying the pans really well, and I tried silicone mats. Parchment works best because the candy cane bits in the cookies melt and adhere to the pan/mat and won't come off without breaking. So be certain you have parchment paper for these, or you'll waste a lot of time making pretty cookie....crumbles. Oh, and if you have the food-safe gloves/whatever for hand mixing the dough, wear 'em. The little chunks of candy cane are sharp. But hey, they're really pretty and taste pretty good when you do them the right way.

Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels

1 batch Sugar Cookies, recipe follows

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted (I used Ghiradelli chips)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

1/2 cup crushed candy canes or peppermint candies

Divide the dough in half and add chocolate and vanilla to 1 half and incorporate with hands. Add egg yolk, peppermint extract, and crushed candy to other half of dough and incorporate with hands. Cover both with plastic and chill for approximately 5 minutes. Roll out doughs separately to approximately 1/4-inch thickness. Place peppermint dough on top of chocolate and press together around the edges. Using waxed paper or flexible cutting board underneath, roll dough into log. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Remove dough from the refrigerator and cut into 1/2-inch slices. Place cookies 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat and bake for 12 to 13 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through cooking time. Remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Sugar Cookie:

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon milk

Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice, as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.

Yield: approximately 3 dozen, 2 1/2-inch cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes (they lie!!)

Cook Time: 7 to 9 minutes (they lie!!)

Inactive Prep Time: 2 hours (they lie!!)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_25190,00.html

Christmas Cheer

2007-12-06T18:49:00.000-06:00

I keep forgetting to update this thing. I know it's been a while. It always feels as if I've been so much busier than normal. I've come to the realization that busier than expected IS normal. *sigh*

It's that time of year again, when the kids channels are inundated with horrible toy commercials, people go around humming carols under their breath rather than curses, and neighbors compete to see who can put up the best Christmas lights. Yes, I know this, even in my apartment. But the neighbors only tease me a little about my 2 strings of badly put up lights and tiny lit up tree, because they know my time is much better spent baking. I've started baking earlier this year, baking and freezing cookies ahead of time so I won't be dashing around for a day or two trying to make three different kinds of breads and sweets and deliver them before the goods aren't fresh. And I've started baking cookies this year rather than all sweet breads, but I'll still bake my Pumpkin-Glazed Walnut bread. I'll try to include a recipe or two at the end of this.

We bought our first Christmas tree this year, a pre-lit fake one from Wal-Mart. Natalee seems to be enjoying it. She's been pointing to to it a lot, saying 'Wha'z'at?!' The tree we had prior to this was the little two footer that's now on the porch. There aren't a lot of ornaments on it, but it leaves room for the ones Natalee'll hopefully make herself one day in Primary or kindergarten, and the ones we receive as gifts. We have about two dozen ornaments on the tree, and all but maybe three have been gifts from family and friends celebrating Matt's and my first Christmas together, our engagement, our first Christmas as parents, and several celebrating Natalee's first Christmas, along with gifted Aggie ornaments. It doesn't seem right to just buy a box full of balls without any sentimental value behind them. It's been really nice to see the tree glowing in the living room, feeling like we're starting our own memories as a family. Plus now we actually have a place to tuck our gifts.

Things haven't all been rosy lately with Matt's surgery coming up. It shouldn't be too bad since it's outpatient surgery. But it's a little nerve-wracking since he'll have to stay overnight for observation regardless, in case his airways get blocked. But Jennifer's supposed to be coming to take care of Natalee for us and help around the apartment for a day or two. And Matt's parents are coming for moral support. That's been a big relief to us. We won't have to deal with this by ourselves, with a child to take care of and a scary experience ahead of us. It felt like that when I had Natalee, since there wasn't anybody here to help us and give support till the day after. (That couldn't be helped though, since she came almost four weeks early.) But it'll be nice to have some of our family here. If we just think about our family visiting and Christmas coming up and avoid the surgery stuff, we can pretend that it's an early holiday celebration.

Natalee has been growing so much! Suddenly since she turned two, she's shot up and lost a lot of weight. She used to have chubby little legs that were short below her torso. In the last week or two they've stretched out and thinned out. No more chubby little legs for sure. And her little pot belly is gone. Her ribs are visible most of the time now. I hate that - I loved her little belly, but it's natural. I'll just have to repress my urges to constantly feed her cheese and milkshakes. She likes to sing "Jingle Bells" and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and "Once There Was a Snowman." She doesn't know all the words but definitely has the tunes down. And she loves to be picked up and held and hugged and kissed and give kisses and play hide-and-seek. She's a lot of fun right now, unless she's throwing one of her fits. Matt and I've gotten to be old hands at that in some ways. We've learned to just tune her out. Unless she decides to slap you in the face and bite you a few times. Which she did at the ENT's office last week. Good times...

I'm happy that Christmas is almost here, enjoying the excitement of getting all the shopping done and the anticipation of visiting loved ones and receiving gifts. But it's always a bit sad this time of year too. I like having Christmas and New Year's to look forward to. Once they're over, it's kind of bleak and cold and broke for weeks after. But Christmas seems to be extra special this year, experiencing it with my sweet little girl. And I'm definitely enjoying making my Christmas goodies in my big, powerful stand mixer. Eat your heart out, Tim the Toolman Taylor. I got a real machine in my kitchen this year! I can make 13 dozen cookies at a time in this baby. Which is why I'm making cookies. *gloat-gloat-gloat*

Here's one of the recipes I'm using. The ones I've made so far are really good. The texture reminds me of pecan sandies. Just make sure you grease your cookie sheet well enough, or the cookies will explode when you try to pull them off.

Swirled Holiday Snowball Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® SWIRLED™ Holiday Morsels
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts
Powdered sugar

Directions: PREHEAT oven to 375° F. BEAT butter, 3/4 cup sugar, vanilla extract and salt in large mixer bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in flour. Stir in morsels and nuts. Shape level tablespoons of dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place on ungreased baking sheets. BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies are set and lightly browned. Remove from oven. Sift powdered sugar over hot cookies on baking sheets. Cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar, if desired. Store in airtight containers.

Estimated Times: Preparation - 15 min Cooking - 10 min Cooling Time - 10 min cooling Yields - 54 cookies (4 1/2 dozen)

I got this recipe off of Nestle's website, http://www.verybestbaking.com/. It's also available on the back of the packages of the swirled holiday morsels. They're really easy to make, it's pretty much just powdered sugar, butter, swirled morsels, and nuts. Just watch them so they don't crisp up - they bake pretty fast. Hope they turn out as well for you as they did for me.

Mormonism

2007-10-25T13:45:00.000-05:00

Okay, I usually try to stick to making posts about the fam, what we're doing, what's new with Natalee, talking about seeing the rest of our family. This post really doesn't have anything to do with my immediate family.

I'm getting a little annoyed lately with the hype about the LDS church and Mitt Romney. I don't know Mitt Romney. I don't know what he is like, what he likes, what his particular beliefs are, because yes, beliefs can vary even within one religion, because each person's faith can vary. I've heard some astouding things at church that really aren't part of the Scriptures, but are the personal beliefs of the individual, take 'em or leave 'em. Because that's the beautiful thing about faith - it's unique, it's individual, it's about each person's very special, very personal relationship with God, and nobody's relationship with God is identical.

Time magazine recently put out on an article about a Southern Baptist leader named Land's opinion on Mormonism, especially in relation to Mitt Romney. Time has been making a big deal about Romney and his religion, almost like a witch hunt. Maybe I'm more sensitive because I'm Mormon (though inactive), and of course I'm going to be defensive if every time I see a Time article linked to CNN.com, it's putting Mormons in a bad light. It's starting to feel like some of their writers and editors have a serious problem with Mormons. (My reading of it: They don't want a Mormon as president, no ifs, ands, or buts.) Regardless of all that, I'm talking about this SBC oriented article. Which to give them credit, is better than some of the others they've put out. Land was consulted by Romney to help him figure out how to get his religion out of the political limelight. Land hasn't exactly jumped on the Romney and LDS boat, but he's toeing the line between right now. What he says is this: the LDS church should be considered outside of Christianity, in the way that Judaism and Islam is, within the Abraham-matriculated faiths. So, give the LDS church more respect like you would the Islamic and Jewish faiths, but it's not exactly Christian. They feel that Mormons are a lot like the Muslims, in that Joseph Smith is comparable to Mohammed in Islam.

What bothers Christian-based worshippers about the LDS church? They think we're polytheistic. Wow. Give them their due, they did not say we worship Joseph Smith and the prophets, or believe them to be gods, something I have heard before, many times. (Ha!) But because we believe that each individual person, by living the Gospel and following the teachings of Jesus Christ and our church, can become gods. Thus we're polytheistic. Even though we don't worship any additional gods, we've never said there are other gods out there right now, just because we believe godhood is the ultimate reward for living the Gospel. But hey, it's okay for other Christian religions to believe that they'll die and become angels. Even though it doesn't say anywhere in the Bible that so-and-so is an angel or meant to be an angel. Look, buddy, you can say you're going to be an angel when you die, but show me where it says, you, Joe Blow, are to be an angel. I don't see your name anywhere in here. Can you tell me the page? Isn't that the same concept? That I'm supposed to revere somebody who's passed away because they're an angel now? No. I will respect them for the choices they made in their life, they things they have achieved, and yes, I believe they are waiting in Paradise in a place near God. But no, I don't believe they're an angel. Just like I don't believe there are any gods besides God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost out there right now. Judgement Day has not arrived yet. And many things will happen after that day that will change our complete perception of life, the world. Our views will be opened, the Veil lifted, and we will know and understand God's plan. Yes, people may become angels after that day. And others may, through true faith and obedience, may become gods. I believe all things are possible through God. I believe we are all God's children, that Jesus Christ is our example to follow, through life and death. And yes, I am a Christian.

I hate when people tell me Mormons aren't Christian. Because it makes no sense to me. We believe in Jesus Christ, we believe in God the Father, and we believe in the Holy Ghost. We try to follow the tenets set down for us through the prophets, both the old ones of the Old and New Testament, and the ones who lead our church today. I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe he is my Savior, and the Redeemer of this world. But some guy off the street, who knows nothing about me, can hear that I'm Mormon and say, "Hey, you're not Christian." As if he has the right to determine that. To me, it's like somebody walking up to me and saying, "Hey, you're not human." How do you respond to that? "Huh, you mean all this time I was a Neanderthal? Duuuude." No. My first thought is to look at them and think, "Gee, you're not very bright, are you?"

I respect Land for trying to give us a separate place with its own due respect, something that might help other 'Christians' understand us. Because Mormons are different. We understand that. We have learned to savor some of those differences. But it's still wrong about us not being Christian.

As for Mitt Romney, yes, he's Mormon. That doesn't mean I'll be rushing out to vote for him next year. I'm undecided right now, but leaning towards some of the Democrats. But at least Mitt Romney wouldn't tell me I'm not Christian.

Butterflies

2007-10-24T13:58:00.001-05:00

Natalee and I saw something amazing today, monarch butterflies on their migration south to Mexico (I'm assuming). We didn't see clouds of them or huge masses of them. Just monarchs fluttering here and there, all over the southern end of FM 2920. They fluttered through the Target and Academy parking lots, swooped through busy intersections, stopping to rest on cars and landscaping. Natalee was fascinated by them. Suddenly she was pointing to "bu'erbyes" everywhere. And I kept worrying about the ones I saw struggling through the intersections or dipping down into the road, afraid I might hit one. I hate to see dead butterflies flattened in car and truck grills. It feels like such a waste, to see such fragile beauty smashed against someone's speeding vehicle. But what can you do to prevent it? I hate to hit them, but I have an even more special cargo in my backseat that I might put in danger if I'm swerving on the road to avoid hitting insects. Maybe that's why we consider butterflies so beautiful, since they're such fragile creatures who only live for a few months. I'm glad Natalee and I got to see them together. And got to hear her say "bu'erbye."

Bedtime fun

2007-10-01T21:22:00.000-05:00

Matt and I are listening to Natalee crying in the doorway of her room right now. It's kind of sad, but a 'have to' situation. We switched Natalee's crib over to a toddler bed today. She thought it was a lot of fun, climbing in and out of her bed and arranging her animals in it and reading in it. And, in preparation for spending the weekend at my dad's and stepmom's house, we bought an inflatable bed/sleeping bag combo for her, with Dora and Boots on it. It's laid out on the floor of her room, inflated and ready to go, should she decide she would rather sleep there. Matt and I followed the normal bedtime routine - small meal, bath, getting jammies on and hair combed, read her one of her bedtime books in the rocking chair in her room, and then put her into her bed after kisses and hugs. But, less than a minute after we laid her down and came into our room, a Thump! out of her bed and the door was pushed open by a very smug little girl. We put her back to bed with hugs and kisses twice. And still she smugly pushed open our door. So, we put up the baby gate in her doorway, tucked her in bed, and pulled her door to. I've been listening to her crying in the doorway since.

I know she's tired. She and I woke up after Matt left for work at 5:10 this morning. She decided for both of us that we didn't need to go back to sleep. We had a busy morning with a trip to the bank and Walmart. And then we both took a good nap. But I know she's still tired. She's been fussy and edgy and biting things all evening. So we gave her Tylenol prior to putting her to bed, in case she's teething. Still, I can hear her crying and mumbling to herself in the doorway. I'm dreading finding her asleep on the floor with tears and snot dried on her face and trying to shift her to her bed without waking her up and starting over.

We had to start this transition soon. She's nearly two. We really need to start potty training her soon. She's a tall girl. And she's grown out of the travel crib/playard she usually sleeps in on trips. So, it's either start this here, with all the familiar routines and almost the same bed, or Friday night after a very long trip in a place she's never stayed the night at before. Urgh. My poor little booger baby.

Edit: I'm impressed. She fussed for a while, but she put herself back in bed to sleep. So I didn't smack a sleeping baby when I opened the door to check on her. Hurray!

Busy bees get the what? Not worm, I hope.

2007-09-11T14:34:00.000-05:00

Busy, busy, busy lately. Matt's and my anniversary was last week. My birthday is this week. We had some friends over Friday night for homemade fried chicken, homemade fries, homemade rolls, salad, corn on the cob, cherry pie, and ice cream. I've been doing some editing/proofreading for Brent and a friend of his on their personal statements to get into a residency program in NYC. The Aggie football season has started. And Jennifer's, my grandfather's, and Eric's birthdays were all in the past two weeks. So, with cleaning up the apartment for company, learning how to make homemade rolls and chicken, screaming at the TV during football games, and straining my brain trying to not rewrite but fix up doctor-to-be statements, I think I and Matt are ready for a break. But it's all good. It's fall. If only the cooler weather would hurry up and get here. And I got a Professional 600 series KitchenAid stand mixer for my birthday-versary. Very, very awesome when you're learning to make yeast dough and you stink at kneading, and when you're known for giving out vast quantities of pumpkin nut and banana nut bread around the holidays. I'm so in love with the thing that I'm ready to paint it Alton-Brown style. But instead of flames, I'd paint WHOOP! on it.

So we're all doing good, just things are hectic right now. Or maybe I just like to think we're all doing good, because my birthday is in a few days and I have an awesome, magical appliance sitting on my kitchen counter. And it's fall.

When it rains, it pours...

2007-08-20T10:49:00.000-05:00

It's rained. And rained. And rained some more around here lately. And that's just been the stuff we got off of Tropical Storm Erin. I am very thankful Dean won't be heading our way. I'm sure we'll still feel the backlash of it though. Houston seems to hold up a special magnet to draw storms our way. My grandfather always jokes about the rainy weather down here since they came to visit last year, about how we need an ark to get around. Usually the rain doesn't faze us anymore, but the constant downpours have been a definite frustration.

The rain wouldn't have been such a bother if other things hadn't been happening, too. At least one of the fuel injectors have gone bad on my car. The car rattles, throbs, fights you, and groans at an idle and when you try to accelerate. I had noticed a slight hesitation when I accelerated for the past week or two, but Friday, in the middle of really bad traffic in a really awful downpour, it decided to show its true colors. With all my childhood memories of car troubles and their consequences, I was ready to cry. Natalee heard a few words she should never repeat, to say the least. Thankfully, Matt was able to get the car to settle down a little bit by putting a higher grade gasoline and some fuel injector cleaner into the tank. It doesn't make such a racket now, but it still hums, making sure we don't forget to take it in to the mechanic. Unfortunately, this is something we've had a problem with before. We had one of the fuel injectors replaced with a brand new one this past spring. It makes us wonder if maybe they didn't do a very good job replacing it, or if they didn't replace it with a new one, like we paid them to do. I called up the same mechanic today, hinting at the fact that we brought the car in before for the same problem. They said they couldn't get us in till Wednesday or Thursday. Wonderful, since we're supposed to be heading up to Fort Worth on Thursday. Matt has already taken Friday off as a personal day.

Because of our car troubles now, and because the last few times we've driven up to Fort Worth has caused us car trouble, I asked my dad to rent us a car. Matt and I both felt pretty awkward about it, but Dad has offered to rent us a vehicle before for the trip up there. It would be nice to not have to worry about car troubles for at least one of our trips. Plus money is really tight for us right now, with the semi-annual insurance payment due next month, however much it'll cost to get the car fixed this time around, our anniversary, my birthday, Matt's and Natalee's birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all coming up. If we did manage to get the car fixed in time to drive up to Fort Worth, it'd really hurt us if something started acting up in the car once we got there, or once we got home, which has happened a lot recently with these trips. We've been staying afloat lately because Matt's been working as much overtime as he can, and we have a little money saved in case of emergency, but it's not very much. And we have my student loan payments and we've been putting money into Natalee's 529 for college every month and Mom's not always regular about paying the credit card... so we really don't have much leeway financially, especially right now with all these future spendings looming. I've even told Matt not to get me anything for my birthday or our anniversary. Right now we can't afford it.

Normally, all this wouldn't get me down much. The car is acting better for the time being, so maybe it won't be as bad as last time we had to take it in to the mechanic. And although money is tight, it almost always is, and I always look forward to the excitement of fall and winter holidays. But I started getting sick Thursday after babysitting my four year old cousin. I thought it was just something I ate, until I started getting really bad cramps Friday night (inconveniently, when the car started acting up). Saturday and Sunday I was taking regular doses of Peptobismal Max and Immodium AD and ibuprofen for the really bad joint pain in my hips and knees, and my GI tract was completely out of whack. I'm feeling better today, thankfully, but my stomach is still very sensitive and sore, and my hips still ache. I think I had some kind of virus that hit my intestines hard for a few days. I'm doing a lot better, but I haven't exactly felt chipper with everything going on.

To top it all off, the ceiling in the bathroom started dripping last night, and Natalee woke up at four a.m., I'm guessing because of gas or her four teeth coming in bothering her. I'm really hoping this doesn't mean she'll be waking up in the middle of the night on a regular basis again. I'm hoping it was a one night thing, and the repairman will be able to fix the leak no problem.

On the bright side of things, Matt has glasses now to help with his bad vision and is pretty healthy. Natalee is in good health aside from the teething pain. She's absolutely wonderful. She loves to go in her room and sit down at the little table that I stacked all her books on and go through them, looking at the pictures, pretending to read them to herself. Everything is "what's that?" from her. She always wants to know about colors and shapes and letters and numbers. She likes to run up and give you hugs and kisses sometimes. She loves to color in the bathtub with her bath crayons and fling bubbles all over or smear them on the tiles. She pretends to talk on the phone, with her little fist as the phone. She's so silly and sweet and smart and adorable. And she's all ours, Matt's and mine. Now that's a happy thought.

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades...

2007-08-01T13:44:00.000-05:00

July has been a pretty good month for us. Nothing catastrophic happened that I can remember off the top of my head, always a good sign. And a few good things happened, like the last Harry Potter book came out, our friend Brent stayed with us for a few days, and we got to visit a lot of our friends and family at the beginning of the month.

Matt's mom is doing well, all things considered. She's looking down the home stretch regarding the end of her chemotherapy. Thereafter, she'll have to start taking chemical injections. We really haven't heard anything about how those affect you. Hopefully they won't be as bad as the chemo, which has left her very fatigued lately. A lot of her friends have rallied around her lately, offering to accompany or drive her to her treatments, visiting and taking her shopping and out to have fun, baking goodies, sending cards or calling to check on her, in an effort to keep her in good spirits. It pains Matt and me that we can't be there to help more right now, but we are very, very thankful for those who have helped out and just loved Mom so much. It has really made a difference in how these treatments have affected her and Dad.

We saw Matt's parents, of course, while we were visiting the beginning of the month. We spent July 4th with Eric, Pam, and Kaitlyn, and some of Pam's family at her house. It was really a neat experience, because this was Natalee's first real Independence Day (since last year she was too young to enjoy anything), and Matt and I hadn't done anything to celebrate the 4th in a few years. Pam's daughter Kaitlyn worked at her dad's firework stand for several days preceding the 4th, and so got a lot of fireworks as payment. Plus I think Eric and Pam bought quite a few too. So we got to watch Matt and Eric light off fireworks and watch the fireworks being shot off over the lake in the distance. Natalee at first was a little stunned by all the noise and light and smoke, but she was having fun and pointing out the explosions to everybody by the end. But she enjoyed playing with Kaitlyn, who's ten, and her friend, the most. She even left my lap halfway through the fireworks to go to Kaitlyn's. It was really special to sit and watch fireworks with Natalee and enjoy the holiday with friends.

Natalee and I also spent a day with Kara and Jennifer, and got to visit with Dad and Brenda a little bit at the end of the day. It's hard adjusting to the idea of Jennifer driving her own car. I still slip up once in a while and call Natalee Jennifer, since Jenn was my baby when she was little. We had a good time running all over the Lake Dallas area with them, meeting Kara's long time boyfriend Trevor, getting my haircut, eating ice cream at Coldstone's, chatting at their house. I know it's been a while now since we lived in the same house, but I still miss my sisters and wish that we lived a lot closer.

We attended Brent's birthday party and visited with Brent and Rachel, Pam and Eric, Tamara and Michael Quick, and some of Brent's family. And Natalee got to run amok with a herd of little kids around her age in a house full of toys. We also got to see Brad and my family a few times over at my grandparents', once just to eat lunch and the second time at the obligatory family get together with lots of family photos. Brad seemed a little tense from stress lately, but I think being home with the family helped give him back some confidence. It's hard to imagine Brad being down for long. He's still my buff, cocky, sensitive firefighter brother, and I'm very proud of him and what he's done with his life.

Since then, things have been pretty easy going. Matt's had to work a lot of overtime, since two of his co-workers' wives were due to give birth this month and another co-worker resigned. Natalee's had three or four teeth coming in, which has thrown a knot into our schedule. If she doesn't take a good nap, she doesn't sleep well at night, and neither do I as consequence. And if she doesn't sleep well at night, she usually won't take a good nap the next day. It's been frustrating, but Matt and I've re-adjusted to giving Natalee something for the teething pain, just letting her fuss at times, and knowing when and how to catch back up on missed sleep.

Brent came to stay with us a few days this past week while he took one of his exams in downtown Houston for becoming a doctor. This one involved visiting with 12 professional fake patients, spending no more than 15 minutes with each, and diagnosing their 'medical problem' while being watched by a review board on camera. It sounded pretty frustrating to do within the time limits, but I've got faith that Brent handled it well. Matt was glad to see him, even if it was during his work week. As Matt described it, we're pretty insular here at home, so company is always a good thing. We also got to meet Brent downtown with one of our old friends, Sam, from college. Sam was Matt's RA in Eppright for a few years, and was one of the groomsmen in Brent's wedding. It was good to see him again, but a little bittersweet as well. We don't have as many things to connect on as we used to, since Sam's a successful career-focused guy without the responsibilities of a family. And Matt and I . . . pretty much focus and depend on and support our family unit. It made me miss the kinship we once had in college with our college buddies, where we were all young and silly and somewhat smart (some more than others) and with the same sort of moral code and willing to have fun. We've had to grow up since then. Maybe it's just me. Brent has a family and still connects pretty well with Sam, and I think Matt would fit in if he had a little more free time just to hang out and visit. But as for me, what can I discuss that has any relevance for someone with a business world career and no real home ties? Harry Potter and Aggie sports was about it. *wry smile* C'est la vie.

As for me this past month, I've mostly been dealing with the changes in Natalee's nap and bedtime routine, scrubbing floors and wiping down cabinets for company, and trying to find a recipe I liked for banana bread. I'll try to post it at the end of this. I think I finally found one, after some trial and error, that is moist and sweet and nutty and good. And, I got glasses this past weekend. I've been having headaches for months now, usually right around the time I lay Natalee down for her nap, and I sit down, drink my one caffeinated beverage for the day and read. For a while now, I thought the headaches were a result of the caffeine. And then I had headaches while I stayed up at night to read Harry Potter, when I hadn't had a soda in hours. That tipped me off that I needed to have my eyes checked. My eyes aren't bad. I don't technically need glasses. But I have an astigmatism in my left eye that gives me eyestrain and headaches, especially in dim light. Bad news when I'm a readaholic, try to keep the lights off as much as possible during the day, and with all the funky, cloudy weather this summer, there hasn't been much sunlight to light up the apartment. I don't have a problem if I'm in a very well-lit area or I'm outside in broad daylight, so let's say when I'm driving during the day, I don't need them. But pretty much anytime, anywhere else, they help a lot. They've sharpened my vision some, and I haven't had a headache since I got them, except when I take them off for long periods of time in the apartment. So, hurray! I'm just crossing my fingers that Matt'll go get his eyes checked, now that he knows what to do and where to go from me. His eyes are much worse than mine.

So, all in all, July hasn't been bad. Hopefully August will go as well.

Banana Bread

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium)
1/2 cup buttermilk (this helps keep it moist)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts, if desired

1. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans, 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2 inches, or 1 loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches.

2. Mix sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Add bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Stir in nuts. Pour into pans.

3. Bake 8-inch loaves about 1 hour, 9-inch loaf about 1 1/4 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days. [From bettycrocker.com]

On the road again

2007-07-03T14:21:00.001-05:00

We'll be heading out for Azle again tonight, to celebrate the 4th with our families, to be with Matt's mom for her next dose of chemo, to help with Brent's surprise party, and to visit with Brad. Matt had to pull some strings to get Thursday and Friday off, and I've had to use some mad laundering and packing skills. And we also had to cancel some plans with a couple we've been eating out and playing cards with lately. But I think we'll be ready to blast off once Matt gets home.

I want to say things have been crazy this past month, and that's why I haven't posted. But they haven't been any crazier than normal, besides Kara and Jenn's visits. I've just felt like I had more important things to do than typing an update on our blog. We've been working on getting Natalee potty trained. No where near done with that. Right now we're just trying to plant the seed in her head that going potty in her pottychair is good. We put her hand in a cup of warm water, and we give her a Reese's Piece and a Mini M&M just for sitting down on the little chair and trying. But we've only gotten her to go once. We don't yell or make a big deal if she doesn't. She just doesn't get more candy. When she does potty in the chair, she gets two Reese's Pieces and a Mini M&M of each color, on top of what she got just for trying, plus a lot of hugs and verbal backpatting. Right now I think Matt and I need to learn to watch her better and know when to take her to the potty chair, what my mom calls 'catching her.' And just keep trying.

I've been reading a lot lately, mostly A. C. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. I've problems with both of them for different reasons, but they're still good reads. But I'm very curious to see the U.S.'s reactions if they not only make The Golden Compass into a movie, but the sequels as well. People have always mentioned in conjunction with that series how odd it is that it was so popular in Great Britain and the rest of Europe, but never really caught on in the U.S. There's a reason for that. We'll see how it goes.

Matt's also been picking Magic: The Gathering back up. Matt has a few co-workers who play it, and so he's started getting back into it, going out to play with a few of them almost every weekend for the past month and a half. It's good for him to get out and do something fun and challenging like that with all the stress he has on his plate. Natalee and I just miss him when he's gone, since he's been working so much overtime lately, and then goes out for 6-8 hours one night out of the weekend to play Magic. But he loves it, and he and I play Lego Star Wars on the PS3 the rest of the weekend. There's something wrongly gleeful about ripping the arms off a Lego Stormtrooper, or going around slapping up other Star Wars characters with your little Lego hand.

Hope everybody has a safe and happy Independence Day. (We'll actually be doing something fun this year! Huzzah!)

Recipe websites

2007-06-12T14:57:00.001-05:00

This will be a short post. I just thought I'd post up some of the websites I go to for recipes nowadays. I've tried recipes from all of them except the Betty Crocker one, but then I grew up using Betty Crocker cookbooks, so I don't think that counts. And the LandoLakes one is pretty fattening - go figure, it's a butter website!

http://www.landolakes.com/mealIdeas/RecipeFinder.cfm (Really rich, stomach-growling foods)
http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/2005/11/beyond-easy-beer-bread.html (This gal makes beer bread easy. Just do NOT use sea salt - your bread won't rise and will have a mushy center.)
http://www.bettycrocker.com/ (The tortilla soup recipe looks like the same one I based my famous chicken tortilla soup off of, so this website has my approval thus far. But beware, a lot of the recipes look pretty fattening!)
http://www.foodnetwork.com (I like the fact that you can sift through so many styles for the same recipe here. This is where I got the key lime pie recipe. You like Alton Brown - you can find his recipes here. You detest Emeril, you'll see who each recipe is attributed to and can easily avoid those submitted by chefs you dislike.)
http://www.kraftfoods.com (Pretty good mix of healthy and indulgent recipes. And they have a helpful program where you can type in three things from your pantry or fridge, and they'll give you a list of recipes that you can use them in, quick ideas when you don't have anything planned and you just want to use what you have on hand. But, warning, I haven't used any of these recipes yet. I'm trying out the one-pan beef stroganoff later this week.)

Most of these have a recipe box that you can electronically save your recipes to, so you can retrieve them later. And you can sign up for recipe newsletters, through which you might get inspired with an emailed or linked recipe. Let me know if you have any favorite recipe websites. I'm always looking for good new ones.

And off subject, another interesting website: http://www.getridofthings.com/index.html. I'm not saying to trust their methods wholecloth, but I'm trying out their antkilling methods with the borax cottonballs. Not for certain if it works, but it seems like it might be, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg. Most importantly, it doesn't seem to be as harmful and fumigatory as some commercial antkillers.

Sick again

2007-06-09T09:42:00.000-05:00

Well, it was my turn to be sick this past week. I started feeling headachey and unwell Sunday afternoon; by Sunday night I had a fever of 103.3 F that didn't want to go down. Matt was up all night with me and had to miss work the next day so he could take me to the doctor's office. I came clear on the throat swab test for strep throat, and my white blood cell count was normal, but I was still so sick I had to lay down in the exam room. Mom very reluctantly brought Kara over to help out so Matt wouldn't have to miss any more work. Thankfully, I was feeling better by Tuesday morning, just weak, horribly body achey, with a sore throat. Kara helped out a lot. It was really nice having her here to play with Natalee and help around the apartment. I know Natalee enjoyed having her here to splash water on, waggle her tongue at, and giggle with. When Kara ran up to the store for me Wednesday, Natalee went looking for her all over the apartment, looking in all the rooms while holding a hand to her tummy as if to protect her heart.

Kara and I got to spend some quality sister time together. I haven't done that with just Kara in a long time. She's grown up on me - it's sad that I don't have that sweet baby sister who said "'Doodle-doo!" to the rooster, but it's amazing and a lot of fun too. I showed her how I make my Matt-approved pork chops (Matt's a picky eater), we wandered around Walmart and Palais Royal some. And we played Lego Star Wars all together Wednesday night, which was really funny. And then Natalee and I drove Kara back to Conroe to meet Mom. Hopefully we'll get to see her again soon. With her working a full time job and a long-term boyfriend, we don't see much of each other nowadays.

Jennifer will be coming to visit this next week. I'm looking forward to it. And I'm feeling a lot better now, with just a little bit of a sore throat. Natalee should finish her antibiotics today. As long as Matt doesn't get sick in the meantime, we should all be well and ready for whatever when Jenn gets here, so at least one of my sisters won't have to play nursemaid during their visit.

Natalee's latest discovery has been her belly button. She walks around with her finger poked into it and will point towards yours, saying "Wazat?" even when your shirt's down. She points to everything and asks "Wazat?" It's a lot worse when she doesn't point and asks. Then we have to name everything within sight and hearing. And right now she's sitting on a bottle of nail polish, wiggling her butt, and saying "weeee, weeee, weeee." She's a stinker, but she's fun, and she's mine. :)

Strep Throat

2007-06-01T14:07:00.000-05:00

Natalee has strep throat. Urgh. She started acting clingy and quiet Wednesday night, which tipped Matt off that something was wrong. She had a 102+ fever that lasted through to the next morning. So I cancelled a follow-up checkup with my doctor and got Natalee in to the pediatrician's yesterday. She's been acting fine for the most part, just cranky, but her throat swab came back positive for strep. Poor baby. She's on antibiotics now, and her fever's been gone for the most part, but she's still got a sore throat. The only way I know something is wrong is that she's so fussy, and she can't say what's bothering her. It's just a matter of dosing her with amoxicillin and painkillers when she gets really fussy and keeping her home and away from other kids. The keeping her home part stinks right now because this weekend our town is throwing a big carnival to celebrate it's 100th anniversary...and the carnival is just halfway down the street from us. She would have got a kick out of going to that. Oh well.

Rain, rain, go away...

2007-05-29T17:16:00.000-05:00

Well, we got back last night from visiting Matt's parents, and friends and family in the Fort Worth area. And it rained. And rained. And rained a great deal more. The whole trip, from the drive up there to the drive home. You get rather inured to rain down here in Southeast Texas, but lots of rain in North Texas is pretty unheard of. We started feeling as if the rain had decided to visit along with us.

Matt's mother is doing pretty well, all things considered. The chemotherapy is no picnic, but thankfully she's been able to take some medication that helps her deal with the worse side effects of the chemo, though even those weren't helping as much as time went along and the chemo started setting in. But we had a really good visit with both Mom and Dad, and Natalee got to charm Grandpa McMullen again. We also got to spend Saturday evening with Brent, Rachel, Pam, Eric, Daniel, Gabby, and kids at Pam's house, visiting, playing with the kids, eating lasagna and cobbler, and gleefully teasing each other, especially during the Wii games. It's a lot of fun when we can all get together. With Rachel and the boys back in Azle and Brent possibly in and out, we might be able to get together more often. *fingers crossed*

I also got to spend some time Sunday with Stephanie while Natalee was napping and Jay watched the boys. (Many thanks to Jay for giving his wife the heave-ho for a few hours of girl time) We ate Chinese food, ogled things we really didn't need, didn't have the extra money for, but played with and pretended we were going to buy, nonetheless. Afterwords, we consoled ourselves with some really fantastic ice cream and were very bad Mormon girls and gossiped about everyone we knew from church - how so and so was doing, where so and so was at, how many kids so and so has, remember him, what happened to her, etc. Good times.

We got to see Dad, Brenda, and my sisters as well. It's always a pleasure when I get to see my family. I'm so proud of the young women my sisters have become, from watching cartoons incessantly, running when it was time to brush their hair, and sneaking into bed with me in the middle of the night, to such poised, beautiful, creative, funny people. It amazes me that they've grown into two of the people I most want to spend my time with. Jennifer's been doing really well with her school work - she was selected for a very special honor group that visited TCU not long ago to discuss their college prospects and try out dorm life. Matt and I are very happy (dare I say it, smug?) that she still plans on attending A&M after high school. And Kara has been working her rear end off to put a new engine in her car, no mean feat. We're all three looking forward to seeing them both in June. Natalee was even looking for the girls afterwards, trying to see around Matt when he loaded her into the car. It was also really good to see Dad and Brenda. Dad is pretty much what you would wish for in a parent as an adult - always there to listen, encourage you, share what's going on with the rest of the family, and help you when you need him. I've grown to appreciate him a lot more as I've gotten older. And Brenda complements Dad perfectly, and has always been a fun and understanding stepmom. Plus she's been putting up with the girls' antics for years now. (Kudos to Brenda!)

Anyways, I'm babbling since it was so good to see everyone. The only ones we didn't visit were my grandparents and Aunt Kim and family. Since they live in Azle, we usually always see them, so I didn't feel terrible trying to set time to visit others we hadn't seen in quite a while. We made it home safely, hurrah!, and we stopped in West at the Czech Stop on the way back, so we got to enjoy very, very good food despite the awful weather. The cream cheese kolaches are divine! Everyone in the state of Texas should at some point try to make their way to West and sample the really fantastic Czech foods.

Until next time, TTFN and all that.

And a one, two, three!

2007-05-23T14:19:00.000-05:00

Well, I like Stephanie's blog so much, I thought I'd give her style a try. I like the layout of this blog a lot better than the MSN My Spaces - I don't think anybody can actually enter those unless they have a Hotmail Live account. Bummer. I'll try to post as regularly as possible here with the McMullens' happenings.

We received very good news last night. Matt's mother has breast cancer, stage 2B. She recently had a radical modified mastectomy. The good news is, her PET scan came back clear. The cancer hasn't spread to anywhere else in her body, and because her lymph nodes are still small, she doesn't have to have radiation. She starts chemotherapy this Friday. We'll be driving up to Azle to be with her and Dad this weekend, to help out and spend some of Memorial Day with them. I think they're looking forward to seeing our little booger baby.

I made a key lime pie this week. It came out pretty well, though I would recommend lessening the amount of lime juice in the recipe - it's very tart! Since Matt is pretty anti-sour cream, mayonaise, etc. we just used cool whip and blackberries as topping, and I bought a pre-made graham cracker pie crust. This is based off of an Emeril recipe from Food Network.

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick butter) melted

2 (14-ounce) cans condensed milk

1 cup key lime or regular lime juice

2 whole eggs

1 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 tablespoon lime zest

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a bowl, mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter with your hands. Press the mixture firmly into a 9-inch pie pan, and bake until brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before filling.
Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.
In a separate bowl, combine the condensed milk, lime juice, and eggs. Whisk until well blended and place the filling in the cooled pie shell. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes and allow to chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Once chilled, combine the sour cream and powdered sugar and spread over the top of the pie using a spatula. Sprinkle the lime zest as a garnish on top of the sour cream and serve chilled.