Sick

I really don't like being sick. Especially when I only have a few days to be home to get things done. Mr. Giggles was sick earlier in the week and he so kindly passed it on to me. Now I am praying that I get over the worst of it before I to go stay with Mom on Sunday. The weather has turned out to be pretty yucky. We got over two inches of rain and it is cold with a very brisk wind. Mr. Giggles and I are sitting in our recliners wrapped in our blankets watching tv. We went out to eat and then ran a few errands, one that included a trip to Big Lots (one of our favorite places to shop) and then came home. We are so an old couple! Well, I don't really have much to talk about so I am going to close. I hope you all have a really great weekend. Ours will be busy as I will be packing for another trip to MDA.

Oh, my Uncle is getting married this weekend. We aren't able to go to the wedding because of the distance, the weather and the fact that I have to go to MDA on Sunday. Best wishes to my Uncle and his wife to be!

FOCUS!!

I have found that the older I get, the more ADD I become. I have a really hard time staying focused while cleaning house and this leads to it not getting done so I think I have found something to help me. I set a timer for 30 minutes and do as much as I can during that time. Then I spend a few minutes doing something non work related like checking my e-mail or facebook or something or I can reset for another 30 minutes and just keep working. I did that all day today and got a lot done. We will see if I can get the entire house done using this method. I will have to let you know at the end of the week if it continued to work.

New Years Resolutions - Revisited (Or something!)

Yes, I know that we are already 25 days into the new year and that you are supposed to start your resolutions at that time but, if you read my blog you know that I never made any. I have decided that I am going to make Monthly Goals. To me, that seems more obtainable but we shall see. And this way I have to look at them more often and change or adjust from month to month as needed.



January Goals:

More Bible study

Make better food choices

Get in a little more exercise

Be a better wife, daughter, sister, friend


WEEKLY MENU
Monday: pizzasghetti, corn, english peas
Tuesday: leftovers
Wednesday: fend for yourself
Thursday: I ate at Arby's with my Dad and sister while the Mr. had leftovers (again)
Friday: out to eat
Saturday: tba

Nothing Much Important

I am back home for a week and I have a lot to do. Between doing things that need to be done at my house, including getting my washing machine fixed (because having to take your clothes elsewhere is pain in the rear), things that need to be done at my parents house and things that I need to get done for church (I am the unofficial secretary and sometimes the work can keep me really busy), I shouldn't get bored this week. And I already have something to do three nights this week (I think I need a vacation!!!). Mr. Giggles is sick so he may be home tomorrow or at least part of the day if he doesn't start feeling better. This could slow me down on my chore list because my man is not a good sick man. He is pretty needy when he doesn't feel good. . . .please don't tell him I said that!!

I am going to try out new twist on a recipe. We call it pizzaseghetti and the twist will be putting cream cheese in the sauce. I can't wait to try it. Anyway, here is the recipe including the twist.
Pizzaseghetti
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 jar mushrooms
1 package spaghetti noodles
shredded cheese (your flavor choice)
pepperoni

Cook spaghetti noodles as directed.
Warm spaghetti sauce and add mushrooms & 4 oz of cream cheese, stir until melted and blended.
Mix noodles and sauce mixture and place in a 9X13 casserole dish.
Cover top with pepperoni and then cheese.
Bake until warmed through and cheese is melted.

Enjoy. I got the basic recipe from Mr. Giggles who got it from one of his room mates. I stayed with said room mate and his wife while taking a two week summer course during college and made this for them for dinner. They enjoyed it because they didn't make it often and we had a good laugh about how it all came about.

Well, that is all for tonight. Hubs and I are hooked on Criminal Mind reruns and we are watching another instead of watching the news so it will probably be a late night!!

Hi Mrs. H's mom. Hope you're having a good week!

Not How I Thought it Would Be

Today was the day Mom was supposed to go home but that didn't happen. I really didn't think that today would be a good day but it turned out pretty good. To find out what we did, go here.

I ran across this verse the other day while looking for a card for my friend Mel who recently lost triplets. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalms 34:18 I thought of this verse this evening when I was writing for my Mom's blog. When we first found out that Mom was not going to be released today, we were all brokenhearted and crushed. We had been holding today as a lifeline, it was our light at the end of the tunnel but now we are back to the unknown. We don't know when we will be back to "normal" but we will get through it because our God is an awesome God. Thankfully he never forgets us even though we sometimes forget what he will do for us if we will turn to him.

I hope that everyone has had a good week. I know I have even if it has been a week of hospital schedule (or lack of a schedule) chaos!

What do you do. . . . .

for your husband for Valentines day? I want to do something special (and inexpensive) for Mr. Giggles because he has been so awesome about me being gone every other week for a week to be with my Mom. He comes down on Friday with my Dad on the weeks that I am gone so I don't have to drive home by myself. I have the greatest husband. I don't talk about him much on here because he is a very private person and doesn't even let me put pics of him on my facebook page and you will never see one of him here. But, he loves me for me even if sometimes I am pretty goofy. He has been with me through the loss of three babies, the loss of my grandfather the loss of my dog, going back to school and finishing my degree and so many other things that have gone on in our lives over the past 12 years. So with all that said, I want to do something special for him and I need to do it early rather than later because I will be heading out of town on Valentines day to stay with my Mom. If you have any ideas, please leave me a comment.

Movie Review

Today I finally watched The Game Plan with "The Rock". I really enjoyed this movie. It was laugh out loud funny. I love Dwayne Johnson and can't wait to see him in the Tooth Fairy.

This weekend Mr. Giggles and I went to see It's Complicated. It was funny and we enjoyed it. There was a tween girl sitting next to my hubby and I don't think it was an appropriate movie for her. She kept asking her mom the explain the very adult situations (which embarrassed the hubster).

We may go see Sherlock Holmes this weekend. If you have seen it, let me know what you thought about it.

Well, that is it for tonight. Have a good week.

Another Week

Well, this week I am at MD Anderson with my Mom. It seems that right now her recovery is at a stand still. We were supposed to get out this Thursday but that won't be happening. Now we don't know when that will happen. Today while bringing in my last load of stuff from the parking garage, I ran into a friend of mine from college. Her nine year old son has been fighting cancer for a year and a half, he is in the hospital right now because his appendix ruptured and so they are trying to get him healthy from the appendix so he can fight the cancer. Please say a prayer for Warren. Another lady that I have talked to in passing is now back in here with her son who had a bone marrow transplant and he has been released twice but has had to come back both times.
Well, I hope each of you has a great week.

Help Needed

If you are in the MD Anderson area, they are low on platelets. If you have time, please donate. Cancer never takes a holiday. If you would like to donate in my Mom's name to be credited towards her, please leave me a comment and and email address and I will give you the info needed.

You can help save a life!

I was so surprised yesterday to find that I had received a blog award from my new blogger friend Donna. Please take a minute to check out her blog here.

I am supposed to tell you seven things about me and then give this award to seven other bloggers.

1. I am the oldest and tallest of three girls.

2. My husband and I are total opposites except for the important things in life.

3. I am a country girl who loves horses and dogs and can not bear the thought of ever having to live in town (my husband is a city boy).

4. I enjoy reading and read a variety of different genres.

5. I enjoy singing and for our wedding I recorded a song for the lighting of the unity candle (Mr. Giggles didn't know about it until it was played during the ceremony).

6. I enjoy browsing through antique stores and wonder about the people who owned the items that are there and wonder why their relatives didn't keep their stuff (like pictures, jewelry, heirlooms, etc).

7. I love my husband very much and love to spend as much time with him as possible. Whether it is just being at home, going with him to work, camping or whatever else we do as long as we are together!

So, there are seven things about me. Now I am to nominate 7 more award winners!

1. Mrs. H at Heritage Schoolhouse

2. Heather at Family Forever

3. Felicia at The Neville Family

4. Alyson at The Steiner Life

5. Jenny at Slice of My Life

6. Larissa at You Make My Life So Beautiful

and there isn't a number 7. So sorry about that.

My hubby is wanting my computer to see if he can figure something out and I really need to get this posted!

Gingerbread House

This huge gingerbread house was at the hospital during the holidays. I really wish that my Mom would have been able to come down and see it. She would have enjoyed it. She has been in the hospital for three months and seven days and all of it has been spent on the same floor (transplant patients have to stay on their floor) and a lot of it has been spent within the four walls of her room (except for the two nights she had to spend in ICU). She can't, can not, CAN NOT wait to get off that floor! Anyway, back to the house, it was created by a local chef and if I remember correctly, he donates one to the hospital every year. Really neat to look at (before it started coming apart!). Just to give you an idea on the size of the house, it was sitting on a six foot table and it covered the table! To see a more details, click on the picture.

Well, that is it for tonight. I hope you are all having a great week.

Hi Mrs. H's mom!

Smile

Doesn't this guy make you want to smile? Mom was feeling down last week and I thought she needed something to brighten her day and I found this little guy in the gift shop. He makes me think of a song we used to sing in Bible class when I was little. It isn't any trouble just to S M I L E! Hope he makes you smile!

Sunday Sermon, Daily Bible Reading and Other Random Ramblings

Today at church we had two really good sermons. The one this morning was on the Lord's supper. We have been on this topic for a couple of weeks and has been very interesting. The sermon tonight was on truth and the last questions the preacher ask were ones to really make you think. What are we to do with the truth? Is it sufficient just to know the truth? No, we must believe, obey, practice or walk in, defend, rightly divide, worship according to and speak the truth in love. Here is my question. . . .do you hold the truth close to you or do you share it with others?

I am going to try to keep up with daily Bible reading this year. Mr. Giggles has already started and I am going to have to catch up and hopefully since he is doing it, I will be able to keep up. Here is the schedule for this week if you have been wanting to read and need a jumping off start. I will try to get the other days that are past up tomorrow so you can catch up along with me!
January 10: Genesis 22:1-23:20, Matthew 7:21-8:14
January 11: Genesis 24:1-67, Matthew 8:14-34
January 12: Genesis 25:1-26:35, Matthew 9:1-17
January 13: Genesis 27:1-28:22, Matthew 9:18-38
January 14: Genesis 29:1-30:43, Matthew 10:1-15
January 15: Genesis 31:1-55, Matthew 10:16-42
January 16: Genesis 32:1-30:20, Matthew 11:1-24

I am hoping to get a lot of things done this week. Tomorrow I am working 1/2 day as a sub in music at one of the elementary schools and I am kind of excited about it. Last Thursday and Friday I subbed for my Dad and he has another great group of kids.


Weekly Menu:
Monday: stroganoff, english peas, corn and garlic bread
Tuesday: breaded fish fillets, potato salad
Wednesday: out to dinner at Wings~N~More with good friends! I had chicken fried steak with a salad, fries and garlic bread (Mr. Giggles will be gone)
Thursday: chinese take out at my sisters house
Friday: out to eat - mexican - Los Cucos
Saturday: Mr. Giggles made homemade chili and we made frito pies. YUMMO!

Nothing in particular

We had a new record low last night - 18 degrees and in our house it warmed up to 58 degrees. We slept warm though because we put lots of cover on the bed! I am loving the Arctic blast but sure do wish we had a fireplace to help keep us warm! I love sitting by the fireplace and it has been such a long time since I have been able to do that. Well, we have a fireplace in our house but it has a piece of plywood in it because it doesn't have a chimney and it is coming away from the house. AND my parents took theirs out of their house during a remodel a couple of years ago and haven't had the chance to put one back in yet (theirs is sitting in the barn!). One day we will have one.

We spent New Year's Eve with my in-laws and we had snack foods. I made corn dip and tortilla roll-ups. I have to say that they both turned out to be very yummy. I changed up my tortilla roll-up recipe because I do not really like chunky picante sauce and that is all we ever have at home. I have found Hunts diced fire roasted tomatoes with garlic (I don't like tomatoes but I do like using these in recipes) and decided to use that instead of the picante sauce. They turned out really good and didn't last too long! I thought that I would share the recipes for both.

Tortilla Roll-ups
1 package cream cheese - softened (I just leave mine sitting on the cabinet overnight)
1 can Hunts diced fire roasted tomatoes with garlic (I put in the food processor so the tomatoes aren't so big)
1 package flour tortillas

Mix cream cheese and tomatoes
Spoon onto tortillas
Roll tortillas
Cut tortilla into fourths
Enjoy

Corn Dip
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise
2 (11 ounce) cans Mexican-style corn (I used shoepeg corn and added diced fire roasted tomatoes because I couldn't find mexi-corn and I run the tomatoes through the food processor)
4 green onions, chopped
3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 (7 ounce) can diced green chiles (I don't like green chiles so I upped the jalapenos)
1 1/4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (I used Kroger brand nacho and taco shredded cheese)

Directions
In a medium bowl, mix together sour cream, mayonnaise, corn, green onions, jalapeno chile peppers, green chile peppers and cheese. Ready to serve! Very tasty with fritos.

If you ever try these recipes, let me know how you like them! Well, that is all for tonight. Going to try to get to bed early so getting up for church tomorrow isn't as hard as it usually is!

Frustrated. . . . .

is not even the word to describe how I am feeling at this moment. I just checked in with my Dad who is staying with my Mom and found out that instead of getting to come home on the 21st like we have been told continually, she will have to stay in H-town for at least another month. She will go to an in-patient rehab and depending on how that goes, may be released to our apartment but can't come home home for another month. I am sure that she was crushed when she got that news yesterday. It is all I can do to keep from crying (I am subbing for my dad and don't really want to have to explain why I am crying to the kiddos) and I am so angry. Why couldn't they just say when we first started asking that there was a chance that her time would be extended instead of telling us that yep, she is still on schedule. That would have made it a little easier. I know that they are only doing what is best for her but nothing has been as it should have and 100 days is long enough and adding 30 days doesn't seem like a lot but when it is someone you love and they are not where they should be and nothing seems right in your world. . . .it is a terribly long time. I can only imagine what it was
like for her to hear those words because she has been focused on coming home.

The one bright spot I see for all of this is that I have 30 more days to try to get Mom and Dad's house back together after the foundation work that was completed last year. We have all of the furniture back in the house but that is it. It will be a HUGE job but I hope now I can get it done. If you are heading our way and love to open boxes and figure out where stuff goes. . . .feel free to join me!!

BRRRRR

Wow, we are getting ready to be hit by some super cold weather. I love winter even though it is usually pretty uneventful in our neck of the woods but I am not sure about what we are going to be dealing with for the next few days. My husband and I laughed this morning as we were getting ready to go to work (I am subbing for my Dad today so he can stay with my Mom) because last night we put a sheet over the window in our bathroom to help keep it warm. Let me tell you a little about our bathroom. There is no central heating or cooling in that room so when we got married we purchased a window unit to go in there. We were unable to afford one with heat so in the summer we have the a/c and during the winter we use a little heater. Well the bathroom is on the north side of the house, a house with very thin single pane windows with an a/c in the window. Oh, and an old metal bathtub that gets very, very cold. Needless to say, when the wind is gusting at about 25 miles per hour as it was this morning and it is in the 30's it is cold and we both watched the sheet we had covered the window with blowing in the breeze and it made us laugh. At one point it blew the bathroom door open some. Anyway, it is going to be very nippy in our house with this cold weather. I think that when I get home, I will be pulling out blankets and covering up the fireplace, which doesn't work but lets in a nice breeze, the old fuse box (ditto with the breeze) and whatever else I can do to help insulate or at least stop the breeze. I told my hubby that we could go stay at my sister's house if it got too cold. We will see if we need to make that trip! I will be getting some hay for my parent's cats, no, not for them to eat but to put in their house to help keep them warm. I hope we don't have any baby calves born. I don't think we should but you never know. Thankfully our neighbor will be feeding on Saturday so I don't have to worry about that.

I spent the first part of the week with my Mom at MDA. She is doing so much better these days. We passed the 3rd month in the hospital mark and are hoping that she only has 14 to be away from home. We all miss her so much and she is so ready to be back home and my Dad is so ready for her to be home. If you are wondering why she has been in the hospital, you can go here and read about her fight with leukemia. Praise the Lord that she is winning the fight. Our God is an awesome God for sure. I enjoyed getting to visit with her this week because for so many of the weeks I was there we weren't able to.

Well, I had better go and get something done.

Still Thinking

Well, I am still thinking about what my New Year's Resolutions are going to be. I really want to say forget it and not do anything but there are several things that I really want to do and now is as good a time as any to start. And with that being said. . . . . .I still haven't started. Maybe tomorrow!!

I think that I must have restless leg syndrome but it doesn't bother me at night. My legs bother me when I am riding in the car or sitting for long periods of time in a chair (like I have done today). So with that being said. This will be short and I am going to bed early because my Mom and I have an early morning tomorrow.

And now. . . .the first week of 2010

I am at MDA with my Mom. I can not tell you how ready she is to get out of this place. I can't believe that it has been three months since she has been outside, held the grandkids, slept in her own bed, slept through the night without someone coming in to do something, ridden in a car and so on and so forth. I really missed doing all the things she and I do together for the holidays. I guess that is why I really never did get into the spirit of things. I am very ready for her to come home. Please continue to pray that she is able to come home on the 21st of this month like they have said.

I am broken hearted tonight as I write this because my precious friend Mel lost her precious triplet girls. I don't even know what to say to her. We have never actually met face to face but have become friends through our losses (we met through a mutual friend), her a baby girl in April 2008 and me, our baby boy in December 2007. She was such a gift from God because she understood what I was going through and I could tell her how I felt about things and not have to worry about what she thought. She knew because she was going through it too. Please pray for peace and comfort for her and her husband during this time. Things will be especially difficult because her sister is pregnant (Mel and her husband have struggled for several years to get pregnant and this was not the case for her sister).

Please pray for me to be the friend that she needs during this time. That I find the right words to help or to know when to just be silent and listen. This brings back so many memories and I realize that even with the passing of time, it hasn't gotten any easier. I still miss my baby terribly and wonder what he would be like now at two years old.

Hi Mrs. H's mom. Sorry we missed you when you were visiting. Hope to see you again soon.

2010 is off to a running start. . . .

Busy days! Yesterday and today we didn't leave the house much except to meet my sister RAW for dinner last night and to meet some friends tonight for dinner and a trip to Wal-Mart. Yesterday we just bummed around for a while and then Mr. Giggles started hooking up our new VCR/DVD recorded. Well, what should have been a quick and very easy job turned out to take four hours and us wondering if it was worth the time or should we return the stupid thing! It is now hooked up but has a quirky way we have to record but it works. Anyway, it is late and I really don't have too much to say!

I hope you are all having a great start to the new year.

2009 Wrap Up and Happy New Year 2010

Wow, it is so hard to believe that 2009 is over. I think the reason it seems to have gone by so quickly is because the last five months have been so focused on getting my Mom through the leukemia diagnosis, many trips back and forth to MDA, chemo treatments, stem cell transplant, graft vs. host disease and everything that has gone a long with the transplant. The holidays have been rather strange for us because we are used to spending them together but we have had to figure out who we were going to celebrate. Although it was different, we figured it out and had a pretty good holiday. One really good thing about this year was our family reunion in March. We all got to be together (except for one cousin spouse) and had a wonderful time. We were able to spend time with my Aunt before she lost her courageous battle with cancer. We were all together again for her funeral which was truly a celebration of her life. The day of her burial was one of the most beautiful days and it was filled with more celebration of her life and being with more family. And that is about all I remember about 2009!

So now on to 2010. We had a sermon at church on Wednesday night about what we should resolve to do this next year. I didn't get my pen out to write them all down but here are the few that I have: Read your Bible daily, pray daily, serve others daily, share your faith with others daily. I haven't committed to my personal resolutions yet but I am working on them and I will be writing them down this year so I can keep them in mind. Here are a couple of things I will be trying to do better this year: be a better wife, daughter, sister, friend, christian, eat better, move more, be a kinder, gentler person. . .well, that is all for now. I may or may not post the completed list. I haven't decided yet. Mrs. H over at heritageschoolhouse.blogspot.com is listing a daily Bible reading so if reading your Bible is one of your resolutions, stop by and read a long with her.

I am starting the year with a couple of prayer requests: my Mom for continued healing from the stem cell transplant, quick release from the hospital and for her kidney to continue to improve it's function. To have healthy and happy 2010. Also for my friend Mel who is pregnant with triplets and she is in the hospital due to complications with her cervix. She is at 21 weeks and their short-term goal is to make it to 23 weeks. Please pray that she is able to make it longer so the babies have a better start in this world. This is a very scary time because they lost a little girl around this time in her pregnancy in 2007 so please also pray for peace and comfort. Also, pray for Mr. Giggles and I, that we understand what God's plan for us is regarding children.

Well, this is getting pretty long so I will stop for now. I do hope that each of you has a wonderful and prosperous 2010. I can't wait to see what it brings for my family!