Happy Thanksgiving

I really have a lot to be thankful for. Although the things I am thankful for can be quite trying. LOL!!!!


This year Jim and I are spending Thanksgiving day alone with Shadow. No having to travel all over the world visiting relatives etc. I do however, feel bad that we are leaving my mom and sister alone this year. Money just got to tight this month. *Sigh* But I am thankful that Jim has a job and we are not one of the many homeless that have to struggle so much.

I am thankful for:

My friends both online and in person. Without all of you, there would be many times that I would have retreated back into myself. You have all been so supportive of me in all of my many endeavors this year.

My family. No matter how strange, stressful, or neurotic things got you were always there to take my mind off of things. However by adding to the stress is not my favorite way of getting my mind off of things, you all do it so well! LOL!! Just kidding. I love you all for all of your flaws, faults, but most of all your hearts.

My husband and child (fur person). Without Jim and Shadow I wouldn't have any calm within the storm. Shadow is my shoulder to cry on, a good lick on the face, and unconditional love that goes on forever. Jim is my strength, my reason, my love deeper than any ocean, and the one that completes me. I have not been easy to deal with and yet he stands strong behind me no matter the outcome. I can not fathom living without either of them.

And then there is my health, mind, soul, and all of the material things that we have, but without my friends, family, Jim and Shadow it would seem so pointless.

So I thank you all!!!! I love you all!!! And I wish you all the best Thanksgiving ever!!

My birthday...oh what a day!!!

I was having mixed feelings about my birthday this year. Money was REALLY tight, and I was going to have to see my surgeon a couple of weeks after. So I was treating it like any other day. Little did I know, it was going to be far from any other day.

Jim and I had planned on getting our blood work done first thing in the morning, coming home to eat breakfast, going to his CPAP class, then off to mom's to fix her washing machine. Well everything was going as planned up to getting our blood work done.

On our way to the hospital, we had to go around a car that was stranded in the intersection. We went around it and I asked Jim to go back. I had no idea who was in the car or what their situation was, I just knew that I had to help this person out of the street. So we turned around. I got out of the car, Jim pulled up behind it, and I went to the drivers side window. The person that was in the car was a young lady about 18 or so. She was crying while on the phone. I so felt for her. I told her that I was going to push her out of the intersection. I would push her wherever she needed to go. I could have pushed her onto a side street or into the gas station. We decided on the gas station. She asked me what should she do and I told her just put it in neutral and stay off the break.

Now, I want you to picture this....I am 6 feet tall and weigh somewhere around 340 pounds. I'm dressed all in black (black t-shirt and jeans) and I'm getting ready to push this car through an intersection. Jim is following behind me in the van so no one runs over me. And for clarification, the reason Jim is driving and I'm pushing is because Jim has had a heart attack and I have not!!! I also didn't want Jim to push the car with the van because it was a newer car and I didn't want to scratch it up with our van. Anyway, I get pushing and this black gentleman comes running from the gas station yelling at me that he is coming to help. I could have done it by myself, but I was thankful for his help.

While we are pushing this car, the gentleman is asking me what is wrong with her car. I didn't know, only that it wasn't out of gas. She was on the phone to AAA when I told her I would push her car. Now this whole time that we are pushing and talking, we have accelerated to sort of a slow jog. I can hear my belly slap the tops of my thighs with every step. I was dying a little bit every time they hit and made a plop plopping sound. But I stayed strong and continued pushing. She was more important than I was at this point. Well we got to the entrance of the gas stations driveway. You know how when you go from a sidewalk to a parking lot you go from smooth concrete to rough asphalt. Well there was a little bit of a lip and I tripped on it. I went down to my knees the whole time trying to catch my balance. Well it didn't work. I had to fall all the way down on my side in order to get up. I got up quickly and was able to walk to the car. The whole time I was falling I was thinking...oh please don't rip my pants, I only have three pair. Luckily they didn't rip but I could tell my knees were skinned up, and the right knee was bloody.

Anyway I walked over to the car, the black gentleman asked if I was ok and said he was sorry ( it wasn't his fault but it was nice to hear). I asked the girl if she was ok and she said yes but then she got out of the car and thanked me. In fact her words were..oh my god you don't even know me and you helped me. You are so awesome, thank you! She gave me a huge hug. I felt like I was on cloud nine!!! I couldn't have felt better about myself than if I had won a huge reward.

I go back to the van panting like a bad dog. I was so out of breath it wasn't funny. But I was able to do it and follow through. I got in the van calmed down a bit, drank some water, and felt my knees. Yep the right one was bloody it was sticking to my pants, the other knee felt ok, it was just a little tender. Wow all of this and it was barely 7:30am!!!

Jim and I headed over to the hospital to have our lab work done. There was no one there so we were taken in right away! With that out of the way, Jim asked if I wanted to go out to breakfast. I told him no, I will cook breakfast at home. That way we were saving money and I wouldn't have to worry about what I was eating. Ever since my last fill, it's been a challenge to eat in the morning. My esophagus is tight and it's hard to swallow some foods. So we went home.

When we got home, my mom and sister called to wish me a happy birthday with a song. I'm surprised that my answering machine didn't die!! lol. It was pretty bad. I picked up the phone and talked with them for a little while then had to go or we were going to be late for Jim's CPAP class.

We went to a different hospital for his class and of course it didn't start on time. But no worries, we had nothing planned anyway. The lady and gentleman that were running the class said that if I wanted to sit in on the class that it would be ok. I'm glad I did because it was a ton more informative than my class ever was!!

Finally our duties are almost over. Now all we have to do is go out to moms to fix her washing machine. She had gotten some clothes stuck under the agitator and couldn't get them out. We got out to mom's and I fixed the washer. No problem, she just wasn't strong enough to pull the agitator up. Then she takes me into the kitchen and bless her heart, she and my sister had made me a cake and a birthday card. We sat around a little bit and had some cake. We talked for about an hour then it was time to go. Mom had given me $40 to do whatever with. It was supposed to go for a haircut, but it ended up going towards Jim and I going out to lunch at Golden Corral.

The day's events ended around 3pm. We finally got home and both Jim and I crashed. When I woke up, I got on the computer to check my e-mail. In my e-mail box was 209 birthday wishes!!! Then a little later on, I got a phone call from a friend I haven't seen in ages wishing me a happy birthday. Wow!

I had a complete day. So much for a hum drum day. Everyone made my day fantastic in some little way. It really gave me a reason to be thankful. I had a good day!!!

A day of cooking and cleaning

This book is my new best friend!!! This is what I have been cooking out of. Most of the recipes I can eat, but there are some that I have to tweak so I can eat them. But I have nothing but success with all of the recipes in here. This is volume #2. Volume #1 is fantastic also!!!!

After being bed bound with some type of bug, I am finally up and on my feet again. Since I've been sick, we haven't been eating really good. So today I am making it a day of cooking, freezing, and cleaning. I have two recipes right off the bat that I want to make. One is "Cajun Style Chicken Leg Quarters" and the other is "Broccoli Rice Casserole".

By 10:30am I had the chicken all done and starting to freeze in the freezer! Wahoo!!!

Here's the recipe for that. Not to mention....it's low calorie and good for you too!!! Such a bonus deal!!!

Cajun Stule Chicken Leg Quarters

4 chicken leg quarters

14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup green bell pepper, finely chopped (I left this out since the hubby doesn't like it)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (I used a full teaspoon...I like things with a bite)

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 bay leaf, crumbled

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Cooking day

Combine all ingredients except chicken. Place chicken quarters in a freezer bag and pour marinade over chicken. Freeze

Serving day

Thaw completely. Brush chicken with marinade and grill over medium heat, until chicken is tender and cooked through.

(per serving): 184 calories, 15g total fat, 31mg cholesterol, 143mg sodium, 4g total carbs, 1g dietary fiber. 8g protein.

This is the finished product ready to go into the freezer. The way I freeze mine is to line a dish with non-stick foil. Put everything in it and stick it in the freezer. When it is frozen (depends on what it is weather it's hours or a day) then I take it out of the dish and vacuum seal it in my FoodSaver machine. That way there is no air to make ice crystals or freezer burn.

Now it's time to make the Broccoli Casserole. Here is the recipe for that one:

Broccoli Rice Casserole

4 cups fresh broccoli florets
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup onion, chopped
10 ounce can cream of mushroom soup
8 ounces Velveeta cheese, cubed
1 cup cooked rice

Cooking day
In a large, covered saucepan, cook broccoli in a small amount of boiling water for 6-8 minutes, until crisp tender. Drain well. In a large skillet, saute onion in melted butter over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add soup, then cheese, stirring until cheese is melted and well blended. Add broccoli and rice to soup mixture. Place in a lined 9 x 13 baking dish and freeze.

Serving day
Unwrap, return to original baking dish, and thaw completely. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until heated through.

Ok so this one is not so figure friendly but the hubby will like it and I can get some veggies in just a little scoop. I used minute rice instead of regular rice because it tends no to get as sticky and clumpy. Since this dish is fairly high in calories, I froze it in smaller batches. The picture above is for tonight's dinner. The rest I froze in a bread loaf size pan.

Well now that I have a couple of dishes under my belt, it's time to wash the dishes so I can fix dinner. Some days I wish for a dishwasher. I've heard if you have kids it's cheaper, lol. But for now, it's me and the sink. *sigh*

I hope you enjoyed today's dishes. Off to another day.....

November's trip to the surgeon

We started out around 5:20am or so on 11/6/09. The rental car place didn't have our usual Pontiac G6 so we had to settle for a Kia Amante. Yeah right...settle....I think not!!! Jim LOVED the car!!! It had every little gadget you could ever think of.

The ride went smoothly, and I actually stayed awake the whole time!!!!

This is Jim enjoying the car just after we paid our toll. He was trying not to smile for the camera. I however had other plans!!! Muwahahahahaha!!!!

The sky was absolutely gorgeous!!! I tried to get a better shot but the cars on the bridge were not cooperating. Darn San Francisco drivers!! lol. This was the best shot I could get. But it's still really pretty.

We have a tradition every month when we go to SF for my doctors appointment. First we stop in at a Denny's and have breakfast, and much needed coffee for Jim. Then we head on over to the Walgreen's that is in the parking lot. I usually get some obnoxious toy to torment Jim on the trip. This time I got myself a HUGE Bobo that squeaked!!! And it was BRIGHT green too!!!! Here is Jim and my Bobo getting acquainted. LOL.

We got to my doctor's office and they took my weight......347!!! I'm down 6 pounds!!!!!! And that is without exercise and WITH eating some chocolate all month!!! Just think of what I could do if I got back on track. One could only hope. Then the nurse took my blood pressure....hee hee hee.....it was 98/49. She asked me how I was feeling....I was feeling fine! I didn't know I was dead. LOL. She took it again on the other arm and it came out 121/79. Now that's better.

Anyway, I talked to my surgeons assistant and he told me that the 6 pounds was good but they want me to loose 8-10 a month. No problem!! So no fill this month and I go back again on 12/4/09. I WILL have a significant weight lose by then. Now where to hide all of that chocolate from me.......wait I can't tell you, then I can find out where I hid it. Okay can you tell I've lost my mind?!?!?! It must be the cold I got. Hee hee hee.

Four cheese Italian Minestrone

I see my surgeon's assistant tomorrow to see how my last fill has been doing. I'm a little anxious about it, as I have been stressing over other things and still eating chocolate. *Sigh* My portion sizes however, have been considerately smaller and I have been eating better, other than the chocolate.

So with that in mind, I decided that I need to get back to making a meal plan for every week, and fixing meals that can be easily fixed or heated for those days when I am gone all day. Today was one of those "cooking" days. I was going to make some other soup but realized that I didn't have enough corn. Then I was going to make some Cajun chicken, and I didn't have enough diced tomatoes. What is this?!?!?! Is the world against me?!?!? Ha ha!!! I shall over come!!!

Ok, so I decided to make some Minestrone instead. A while ago I had found this awesome cookbook called "Don't Panic, Dinner is in the Freezer". It has some fantastic recipes in it and I can tweak them to fit my dietary needs. Since Fall is here and Winter is on the way, I thought that some soups in the freezer would be wonderful. So before I rattle on any further, here is the recipe and how I tweaked it for us.

Four cheese Italian Minestrone

1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 sprigs flat leaf parsley, chopped ( I used dried parsley)
2 stalks celery, finely chopped (I used celery seed @ 1/4 teaspoon)
3 carrots, sliced (I used baby carrots sliced)
8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
5 cups canned tomatoes (diced or pureed) (I used 2 cans of diced tomatoes and some fresh tomatoes pureed to make up the 5 cups)
2 cups beef broth
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
15 oz can green beans, undrained
15 oz can cannelloni or great northern beans, undrained (I didn't use these, I don't like beans)
1/2 pound sweet Italian turkey sausage, cooked, crumbled, and drained, {optional} (I used a 1 pound chub of ground turkey and added some Italian seasoning to it when I cooked it)

Serving day ~
I cup small tube or elbow pasta

Cooking day ~
In a stockpot, heat olive oil on medium heat and saute onions, garlic, parsley, celery, carrots, and mushrooms until crisp tender. Place tomatoes in a blender and blend until fairly smooth. Add tomato puree, beef broth, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, green beans, cannelloni/northern beans, and seasonings according to personal taste. Add Italian cheese and stir until just melted. Cool completely. Freeze.

Serving day ~
Thaw soup to a slushy consistency. Reheat, simmering, for 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile, cook pasta in water according to package directions. Drain and add to simmering soup. Ladle into bowls and top with additional Italian cheese as desired.

I browned the turkey until it was no longer pink. I didn't want it to dry out and get tough. I added the dried Italian seasoning to the start of cooking the turkey, so the flavor permeated all of the meat.

You can see that I used the baby carrots instead of regular carrots. This way they cook more evenly and they are smaller bites so it is easier for me to chew. I also cut my mushrooms really thick. This way the mushrooms retain their shape and you get a good bite and not some shrivled up little piece.

And the finished product in a tuperware getting ready to be frozen. The way that I freeze soups and things are by freezing them in a tuperware that will fit into my soup pot. Once they are frozen enough to be taken out of the tupperware, I then seal it in one of my FoodSaver bags and take out all of the air so it lasts longer. When it's time to eat it, I can cut open the FoodSaver bag, put the soup in the pot, let it defrost, then simmer to hot. Yumm!!!!

I hope you give this a try and let me know if you like it and how you may have changed the recipe. Photos of your handywork is great too!!!

Enjoy!!!

Halloween's end for 2009

Whew, I made it through another Halloween. Well it wasn't all that bad, because I didn't really do anything but make cards, pumpkins, and goodies. But it was Halloween after all.

This must have been the demon that attached it's self onto me after watching the movie "Paranormal Activity". lol. The movie stunk but at least I got to spend an evening with Jim. That was nice.


These were some of the dog treats I made for the neighbors for their "BOO" bags. As you can see how could I resist that face, Shadow got some too!!!

These are some of the pumpkins I carved for this year. They are funkins, made from foam. The tree and the moon and clouds are one pumpkin. The tree is the front and the moon is the back that casts a shadow. The second pumpkin is one I made for a friend, Spencer. It too has a shadow but it was a little harder to photograph. The shadow for this one was "Trick or Treat". I think they came out kind of cool myself.

Now you know I couldn't have gone without decorating my table!! Just a few little simple things for fun. We went out to eat but it was fun putting stuff on the table anyway!!!

This is a card I made for Spencer. And yes I cut out the zombies by hand!!!! They are only about 21/2" tall!!! It was fun making though. It lays flat to mail and then it pops up to stand when you open it.

Here is another one of the same type of card. This one was my first attempt. Not bad eh?!?

And my last card of the season.

Here are the goodies I sent off to Jim's work. The box with the Hershey bar, I made from scratch. The feet say..."Trick or treat smell my feet give me something good to eat.". The hands are licorice vines to make it look like veins. Ok so you have to use your imagination!!! And the cauldron is filled with chocolate covered marshmallows.

All in all it was fun to do. It was a labor of love this year. Everything that I started to do, something went wrong with. But I prevailed and as always....had my Halloween. So now that this year has come to an end, it's time to start building and crafting for next year. Yep, I said it....I'm starting now for next year!!!!

My one year surgiversary....

My one year surgiversary has come and gone. October 20, 2008 was my surgery date. It's hard to believe that a year has passed and I am still fat. It's by my own doing but man....

I have seen my surgeon (10/7/09) and received another fill. I now have 10ccs in my 14cc band. It is now working more like it should have. I still have to be really careful of what and how much I eat. I am finding that first thing in the morning is the hardest. I think it's because that's when I inhale food to get the rest of my day in motion. It could be too that everything shrinks back down to normal size too. But whatever the reason, I am dealing with it.

Friday, 11/6/09, I see my surgeons assistant to see how the last fill is going. I'm hoping to be down at least 10 pounds but we will see. I was a bad girl and ate some Halloween candy this whole last month. It so sucks that candy and sweets go down with absolutely no problem!!!! ARG!!!! So all the candy is packed away now!!

I am also back onto tracking all of my food again. Man I didn't realize how much food I was really eating. When I started logging again, I was paying attention to what I was eating and my tummy was a grumbling all of the time!!!!! Sorry tummy....you're gonna have to deal with it.

So here comes the time of year that is going to be the hardest. We'll see how I make it through. Wish me luck!

I've been a craftin'....

This is a candy box I made for Jim's boss. It will be filled with Rocky Road candy. The skull on the top of the box is embossed. It came out very nicely if I do say so myself and of course I DID!!! lol.

These are a few recipe cards I made to go with the dog treats I made and put in some "BOO" bags for my neighbors. Nothing super special, but I thought that they came out cute.

These are a few of my layered cards. The "Don't Open" card has a picture of a heavy person necked with a pumpkin airbrushed on their bottom. Hee hee. I'm so twisted I even scare myself. LOL.

Here are a few of my 3D cards. There is something on every card that stands out. These are my favorite to make, but they really take time cutting out all of the images. Yep I do them all by hand and not with a fancy die cut machine. I like it better that way.

And this was my first attempt at a pop up card. The image on the left is the cover and the image on the right is the inside. It's too plain for my taste. Something is missing. Well it was a first attempt anyway. Will have to work on this method a little more.

I hope you enjoyed my creations. I enjoyed making them.

Cookin' up some Halloween

I invited mom and Kelly over to make some Halloween goodies. I went out and picked them up first thing in the morning and then we checked out some stores for some sprinkles and frosting. We finally got home and started in. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy some cream cheese for the slime cupcakes. So that project is out.

We decided to make some cutout sugar cookies. I found a fantastic sounding recipe from land o lakes. Lots of butter....should have been my red flag. I made the cookie dough and then wrapped it and put it in the fridge.

While we waited, we decided to make some chocolate covered marshmallows. It was interesting at best. Some of the marshmallows had gotten warm so they got sticky. By them getting sticky, it made them hard to push onto the sticks. We got them on though. I have to admit, some of the ones we made looked like colorful turds on a stick. Good thing we were covering them in chocolate. White chocolate that is. LOL. This is what the good ones looked like before we coated them in chocolate.

The colored marshmallows are fruit flavored and the white ones are regular marshmallows.

After we put them on the sticks, I took them over to the double boiler on the stove and started coating them with chocolate. As I covered them in chocolate, and mom and Kelly put the sprinkles on. Needless to say I still have orange and brown sprinkles all over my stove and counter in the cracks and crevices. LOL. After they dried they finally ended up looking like this.


While I had the double boiler full of chocolate, we ended up making some peanut butter eyeballs. I made the peanut butter balls the day before and had them in the fridge. They are basically peanut butter, butter, and powdered sugar. What is there not to love about these?!?!!

This is as far as we got with them too. We forgot to buy the red frosting to make the veins. It's a good thing that I had some mini M&M's, because we forgot to buy those too. LOL. I guess you could say that we really didn't plan very well!!!

We sat around for a little while reading Halloween cookbooks and magazines. Finally, we thought it was time that the cookie dough was chilled enough. So I grabbed my bucket of flour, and my marble rolling pin and off to the table I go. I dust the table with four and of course I had to dust mom with flour too. It's hard to see in this photo but she didn't even know I did it.

No wonder she looks so happy about being floured. LOL.

This is Kelly before we started rolling out the cookie dough. Get ready watch the progression....

Here's mom cutting out the shapes. Notice Kelly is starting to nod off?!?!?!

Yep, you guessed it. We worked her too hard. I even fed her a bunch of Halloween candy and chocolate!!!!

Well as it turned out the dough was too soft and I couldn't get it off of the table, even with a spatula. So we ended up spending the rest of the day watching television, and Kelly ended up finally getting her nap.

All in all it was a fun day. Talk about a comedy of errors though. Mom and Kelly went home with some chocolate covered marshmallows, peanut butter eyeballs, and half of the sugar dough. As far as I know they have survived thus far. Who knows the fate of the goodies after that.