Saturday, December 31, 2011

My baby boy is a teenager now!

Well, Monk tuned 13 today. I can't believe it. He's grown into such a young man.

He has gone through a lot in his short 13 years.

He's come so far! Three years ago he was diagnosed as dyslexic, and this year he pulled his reading level up to 5th grade! They weren't sure that he would ever be able to read past a 3rd grade level, but he showed them!

I'm so very proud of my little man. He has such a great love for the simpiler things. He is always trying to help. I can't wait to see what the future holds for my little man!

Happy birthday Monkey! I love you!


Saturday, December 24, 2011

It's today! It's today!

We pick up Momma and Kevin from the airport today! We are all SO excited!! I've still got a lot to do today tho!

I've got the NORAD Santa Tracker up for when Monk wakes up, Bug spent the night with one of her cheerleading buddies last night. They wanted to sleep in her treehouse last night, but it got too cold so they came inside. LOL



Monk and I decided that we were going to make the pumpkin pies last night. We used The Pioneer Womans' recipe for the perfect pie crust. Of course, we only had 1 cup of Crisco, so we had to use butter for the rest, so I hope it turns out okay! Monkey made the pie filling pretty much all by himself! I helped him open some cans, and got the right spices for him. He was SO proud! I then showed him how to roll out the crust and put it in the pie tin. We then rolled out the 2nd crust and he filled it and crimped the edges all by himself!


Sorry for the crappy picture, but I took it with my cell phone. Can't even hardly tell the difference can you? That's right... because my boy is the next Jamie Oliver! (I tried for Gordon Ramsay, but Monk said he cusses too much... LOL)

Anyways! I just wanted to share our baking adventures today! Still lots to do before Momma arrives!

I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours!


Thursday, December 22, 2011

Parker House Rolls... or not!

So, I've made these rolls for a couple of years. They are FANTASTIC!! I found the recipe online somewhere and it said "Parker House rolls" so I believed it!


For those of you that don't know, The Parker House is a beautiful hotel in Boston. They have a gorgeous restaurant inside and they serve these fantastic little rolls. Obviously I've never been there, but some day I WILL go!


So, like I said, I found this recipe online, and who was I to say "No way! That's not the recipe!" considering I've never even BEEN to the Parker House. These rolls are seriously phenomenal, and well worth the work that it takes to make them. I halved this recipe this time and it still made 50 rolls, tho I did roll them a little thinner than 1/2" thick. Just keep that in mind! ;-)


Parker House rolls

Ingredients
  • 4 cups whole milk
  • 1 cup butter (2 sticks)'
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons active yeast
  • 8 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 scant teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 heaping Tablespoon salt
  • 1 cup (additional) flour
Instructions
  1. Combine 4 cups milk, butter, and sugar in a large pot. Bring to simmer. When mixture is hot, (but not boiling) turn off heat & cool to lukewarm (~30 minutes)
  2. Sprinkle in yeast & 8 cups flour. Stir to combine then cover and allow to rise 1 hour.
  3. After 1 hour, add baking powder, baking soda, salt & 1 cup flour. Stir top combine. Divide dough in half. Turn out on floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, form a ball & cover for 30-45 minutes
  4. Preheat oven 400. Also melt a small amount of butter in a bowl.
  5. Roll dough to 1/2" thickness and cut circles with 2 1/2" cutter. Dip 2 edges in butter and fold together. Place on cookie sheet, flat side down. Press lightly to encourage sealing. Cover and allow rolls 30-45 minutes to rest
  6. Bake 15 minutes or until golden.
Now... if you want the REAL recipe for the Parker House rolls, they have offered it online here. There are some serious differences in these 2 recipes! I'm not sure how MY recipe was labeled as Parker House rolls, but, they are good none the less!! 

I do have 1 more blog post between now and Christmas, so hopefully I will actually get to it!! :-P 

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Christmas Times a'comin!

So, Christmas is 5 days away, (or as Bug says "4 days really!") and we're getting ready for my Momma and Step-dad to arrive! We can't wait for them to get here! We have Christmas dinner all planned, and since we didn't do Thanksgiving dinner, it's almost exactly the same! Turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, deviled eggs, Parker House rolls, and pumpkin pie!

We already got the turkey. Sam picked it up last night at Piggly Wiggly. I was trying to convince him to get the 89 cent a pound turkey while we were talking on the phone, and he said no way because it was injected with a solution, then something about only the best for his mother-in-law, but I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. Things have been going well here tho.

Sam put off checking into getting in to ECU for so long that he missed talking to them before they left for break. Now he has to wait until NEXT semester to pick up the classes at the community college, if they even offer the classes then. I tried to tell him that he needed to get on that several times, but I was accused of being too motherly and let it go. Now it's too late. Not my problem I guess, but that does put us behind schedule to get our farmette by a about a year. That means instead of 2.5 years here, we have about 3.5 years here. I guess that does give it time to build value, for us to fix more things and to pay off more debts so we can afford to get more land/nicer house! I guess everything will work out in the end, it's just hard to see things off that far!
Christmas this year was a bit better than last year. We have more presents under the tree, we're more involved with our church, and even managed to get Sam and I some presents! Hopefully next year we will be able to afford presents for the rest of our family, even tho we know that's not what it's about.

I'm FINALLY getting my household notebook together! There's still quite a few things that I want to put in there, but, it's slowly coming together. Starting in January, I'm hoping that we will be able to start "freezer" cooking. We're going to be getting paid once a month, so I thought that we should buy enough stuff to make dinners for the entire month. That way we can just grab something from the freezer and put it together, or finish cooking it. I've been gathering lots of recipes for this for the past week or two. If I find some that I really like, I might even share them with you guys!! ;-)

Another month and we will start some of our seeds for Ivy Hill. I think we are going to do row covers for a couple of them, and start some greens, carrots, and onions. I'm really hoping that this year we can keep the bugs away! I know that it will be a bit tough, because we haven't established the balance yet, but, eventually I want to get there!

I'll be starting the Project365 again on 01January. Lets hope that I can get farther than I did this year! i guess the life of being a housewife isn't really all that exciting, or picture worthy! ;-)

I think that's about it for now. But I'll update soon! :-)

Friday, December 9, 2011

Laying in bed

So, the last time I posted someting like this, I was sitting in the parking lot waiting for an MRI. What I didn't tell all of you is that the reason I was having an MRI was because they were trying to rule out MS.
Thankfully, they have indeed ruled that out. They're still not sure what is wrong with my eye tho. I have to go back in 6 months for a check up. Let's hope that everything is better by then.
In about  2 weeks my parents will be here for Christmas. I'm actually pretty excited about this. It will be the first time I've celebrated Christmas with my momma in a few years. I miss spending time with her. We've gotten just about eveything we need to get, other than a cd player for Jillian and some stocking stuffers. We also have to get a coffee maker. We rarely drink coffee in this house, but my parents do, so we will have to get one for their sake! (Or... to save my own life! Lol)
Sam has a birthday coming up on the 18th, then we have Christmas, our anniversary, then Monks 13th birthday. He surely cannot be 13 already! It seems like just yesterday he was a small bundle of wiggly cuteness with no teeth and a great set of lungs. The no teeth bit didn't last long, but his cuteness never did wear off!
Ivy Hill is in her planning stages already. We have our seed picked, all mapped out, and planting/transplanting/sowing dates are marked on the calander. This year we're really hoping Ivy Hill will take off! I even started a blog for it, so, go check it out. I'll try to update things about Ivy Hill there from now on.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

3 bean turkey chili

So, I forgot to take a picture because this was SO good and it was made in the crock pot so I smelled it cooking all day and I just couldn't wait any more. Sorry. :-/
This is a low calorie dinner, but it doesn't short on taste! It's VERY tasty!


  • 1.3 lb fat free turkey
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 28oz can diced tomatoes 
  • 16 oz tomato sauce
  • 1 4.5oz copped chilies, drained
  • 1 25oz can  chickepeas, undrained
  • 1 15.5oz can black beans, undrained
  • 1 15.5oz can small red beans, undrained
  • 1 Tbspn chili powder
Brown turkey and onion. Discard fat and add to crock pot. Add remaining ingredients and cook on low for 6-8 hours

EVERYONE loved this! There were very few leftovers, just enough for Sam and I to have for lunch today. I didn't think that it would be very good because of the chickpeas, but it was AWESOME! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Sitting in the parkin lot

The title isn't just figurative. I'm siting in the parking lot waiting for my MRI. (So forgive me if there are any typos! :-P)

I going to get a little poor pitiful me here for a bit, just a warning.

I feel like my life is sitting in a parking lot right now. My husband is on terminal leave from the Marine Corps, his last day being the day after our 3rd wedding anniversary, the day before Monks 13th birthday. I have no idea where we will get enough money to pay all our bills and keep our household rolling. He keeps saying that his disability will cover most of it, but what about the rest?

He has plans for us to move to Raleigh and him to go to NC State, but he's not thinking about about the house we have to sell before we can buy another one. He's not thinking of the TWO houses on our steet that have sat for a year and not sold yet. He's only thinking of where he wants to be, not how to get there. Its like trying to get to a city on the other side of the river, but no plan on how to cross it.

I feel like I have failed here lately. That I've missed a very important step somewhere. Have you ever built anyting from IKEA? I feel like my life is an IKEA desk and I've forgotten to put a screw in somewhere. I look okay, but really I'm only a telephone book way from falling apart.

*********

So, my MRI wet okay. I was dehydrated so they had to stick me 4 times to even get a vein to put the contrast in. I'm hoping that they can pin point more accurately what is going on. I have an appointment with another doctor tomorrow, so I hope they get him the scans by then, tho it is for somthing different, I don't think they would mind getting the results back sooner than later.

Monk should be home any tim now, and then Bug, and then we can start a 4 day weekend! Wooo!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Learning Simish

Sorry guys! I've been super duper busy here lately!

Okay... that's a lie. I've been addicted to Sim Medieval.

I've played The Sims since it first came out. I know its just about the silliest game you could play, but for some reason I just love my little Sims.

In other news, Thanksgiving is this week. We're not doing anything special. I know we sould, but we're not. I think we're just going to do chicken, green beans, mashed taters, and then I'll make pumpkin pudding pie for dessert. Monkey LOVES pumpkin anything. We found pumpkin pudding at the store and he's been chomping at the bit to eat it ever since!

Does that make me unAmerican to not have a huge dinner on Thanksgiving? Sam and I are both trying to trim down our middles, so having a giant dinner where I know I will continue to shove food in my mouth until I have to put on sweats because my pants don't fit any more just doesn't appeal to me right now.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on right now! So, I guess I'm back to my Sims! One just got thrown in the stocks, so I'm off to throw eggs at them! Hooray!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Pizza Casserole



So, I know I ddnt post this yesterday, and I'm very sorry, but I was so very tired, and then I started getting a headache and felt sick, so I spent most of my day watching a marathon of Storage Wars and drinking Chai.

So, I made Pizza Casserole on Wednesday night, and invited our friend JD over as well. The kids love him to death! I made the same Olive Garden breadsticks as the other night. As always, JD brought wine for the occasion. A bottle of red by the name of Glory Days and another bottle of Australian red by the name of Layer Cake. Both were excellent! I also made a small side salad as well. I THOUGHT I had 2 hearts of romaine lettuce, but it turns out I only had one.

The Spread!


Sam and JD being the "rustic" men that they are.



JD and the kids.

This was a REALLY easy recipe to throw together.

  • Wide egg noodles
  • 1 1/2 pound ground beef
  • 3 cups grated mozzerella cheese (more or less depending on how much you like cheese!)
  • bottle of spaghetti sauce
  • pepperoni

  1. In a pan, brown meat and in a pot boil water for noodles and add when water is boiling, cook until tender and drain water.
  2. In the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish, put a thin layer of sauce. Layer with noodles, meat, cheese twice.
  3. Add pepperoni to top and cover with foil
  4. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes and remove foil, bake for additional 15 minutes uncovered.
  5. Let settle for 5 minutes, dish out, and eat!!
JD and the kids decided that they liked theirs with a generous helping of Parmesan cheese, but Sam and I decided not to.

Final thoughts? Everyone loved it!! If we could all agree on toppings, I would have loved to add onions, and possibly green olives to the top, but I know that would never fly!!

Tonight is Pasta Tacos, which were leftover from another time I made them. All I need to do is boil the shells, stuff them, and shove them in the oven! Gotta love easy meal night! :-)

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Going Away






So, last night was Sams' going away party.

Sam has been in the Marine Corps for 8.5 years, on a 5 year contract. Right before we met, he was injured, and he has been on a medical hold ever since then. Sam has been with the same Battalion since we met.

Since we have a very interesting last name, it's really easy to make nicknames from it. Which is what they did on his plaque. And there were stories to match every nickname. I think my favorite story was behind "The Honorable Mr. Charwood," but there is also Char-Wizzle, Char-Deezy, Char Char Binks, Char-izard, and Charmeleon. They also got him a REALLY nice pen that I will steal I'm sure he will get lots of use out of!

I got to meet more of the guys, some of them I knew already. JD was there as well. Bug LOVES JD. All the guys were calling him "Uncle" because of Bug and Monkey! LOL

We all left with full bellies from the Mongolian House here in Jacksonville. Sorry I didn't get many pictures of the actual event, but, I was too busy eating, then listening to all the guys stories of Sam.

Tonight, JD is coming over for dinner. So, that means I need to go and get Monkey working on his homework! 

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Cane's Sauce!

While we were in Texas visiting Momma, dear ol' Step-dad was trying to win a new guitar from a place called Raising Cane's. I'd never even heard of it before, but, that didn't stop Kevin from having us all eat there one night in the hope that they would draw his ticket when the time came. (I don't think he won, btw)

Raising Cane's is a chicken joint. In the one that we visited, they had all kinds of movie memorabilia where there was a yellow labs' head in the place of one of the actor or actresses faces. That yellow lab is Cane. It was a pretty neat place, and their chicken was pretty awesome, and I really liked their fries! 

The one thing that I really liked about Raising Cane's was this AMAZING sauce that they had. I knew it was mostly katsup, mayo, and pepper, but the other things I just couldn't put my finger on. 

Until today. 

Cane's Sauce

  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup katsup
  • 1/2 Tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 Tablespoon Worcestershire 
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • LOTS of black pepper (and then some more)
  1. Put all ingredients in bowl
  2. Mix
  3. Refrigerate several hours before using
This recipe makes enough for 2-3 people. It's SO good! It's REALLY high in calories tho, so, just be careful if you're on a diet! ;-)
 

Monday, November 7, 2011

Red beans and rice

So, tonight I made red beans and rice. Don't get too excited, it came from a box. ;-)
Sam and Monkey spent the day on base. I called them at lunch time and apparently they had decided to have lunch at the bowling alley. About 3 hours later, Monkey calls me and tellsme he doesn't feel well. They finally got home a little less than 2 hours later, and Monkey sat on the front porch and got sick in my flower bed. :-\ Poor fella! After he got sick,he said he felt much better. I guess we will see how he feels in the morning.
Bug came rushing in the door and said he was goin to the neighbors because it was her birthday. Way to let me know ahead of time so we could get a card. Frustrating!
Tomorrow is Sams going away party. We're going to his FAVORITE place in all of Jacksonville, Mongolian BBQ. I'm not quite sure if we've ever taken the kids here or not. If not, I guess it will be a new experience for them. Let's hope they don't throw a fit and actually eat!
I'll try and get some pictures from the Going Away/Retirement party tomorrow and post them! :-)

Welcome back!

So, I kinda really suck at blogging lately. Sorry about that...
I decided that I would come back with a recipe. A couple of people asked me for this on my facebook page, so, I thought I would share it.

We had Hamburger Soup and homemade Olive Garden bread sticks. They were DELISH!! I don't follow the recipes exactly, because I just cut stuff up and go "Yup... that looks about right" and toss it in for most things (like onions carrots and celery in this recipe)



Hamburger Soup
Ingredients

  • 1-1 1/2 lb ground beef (we used ground chicken)
  • 2 cups diced onions 
  • 1 cup diced carrots
  • 1 cup diced celery
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3 (14.5 oz) cans of chicken broth (I used beef) OR 5 1/6 cup (same measurement)
  • 1 (15 oz) can crushed tomatoes
  • 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce
  • 1 stick (or 1/4 cup) butter
  • 1/2 cup flour
  1. In a large saucepan or soup kettle, cook the beef, onions, carrots, celery, and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink and the veggies are tender; drain fat. Stir in broth, tomatoes, Worcestershire, and hot pepper. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
  2. In another saucepan combine flour and butter on low hear. Cook for 6-8 minutes until golden brown. Be careful not to burn! Carefully stir into soup. Cover and simmer for an additional 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
This yields a fairly thick soup. I added salt and pepper and we still have quite a few left overs. The kids LOVED it and we ate it again for lunch on Sunday. 

Olive Garden Bread Sticks

Ingredients
Dough
  1. 1 1/2 cup hot water
  2. 2 Tablespoons sugar
  3. 1 Tablespoon yeast
  4. 1 Tablespoon salt
  5. 2 Tablespoon butter, softened
  6. 4-5 cups flour
Topping
  1. 3 Tablespoon melted butter
  2. sea salt
  3. 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Stand mixer directions (for those luck enough to have a stand mixer!)
Pour the water into the bowl with the sugar and yeast, let sit for 5 minutes. Add salt, butter, and 2 cups flour. Mix dough on low, adding the rest of the flour half a cup at a time until the dough scrapes the sides of the bowl clean. Mix the dough about 5 minutes on medium speed, until soft and easy to work with. (see below)

By hand directions (for the rest of us.)
Pour the water into the a large mixing bowl with the sugar and yeast, let sit for 5 minutes. Add salt, butter, and 2 cups flour. Mix dough, adding the rest of the flour half a cup until unable to incorporate using spoon. Mix the dough on well floured surface until soft and easy to work with.

Roll the dough out into a log, spray knife with cooking spray and cut dough into 12-14 pieces. Roll those into smaller logs. Spray 2 large cookies sheets with spray and lay the bread sticks out, leaving an1-2 inches between each. Place them in the oven with the temp on about 170. Let them rise for 15 minutes or until doubled in size and remove from oven. turn oven to 400 and let heat. Brush with 1 1/2 Tablespoon of the melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake in 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Combine remainder of butter with 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder and brush the tops of baked bread sticks when they come out of the oven. Serve immediately. 

Sam and Bug both said that they needed more butter, but Monkey and I thought that they were just perfect. These really do taste a lot like the Olive Garden breadsticks! They're very light, and it's REALLY easy to eat the entire batch way too many!! I'm going to try my hand at taking better pictures, and maybe even having some more pictures for a tutorial or something. 

Monday, October 3, 2011

Today is just NOT my day!!

This morning is NOT looking like a good morning for me... not even a little bit.

Our friends Bob and Keona are leaving today, so we had a little cook-out get together here at the house last night. Well, since there were 4 kids and 4 adults, we let the kids sit in the living room and eat. Their lil guy who is 2, was sitting on the floor eating his mac & cheese and hot dog so I decided that all the dogs should be in the dog/laundry room. Now, we were doing some hard core cleaning yesterday and Sam (in all his wisdom) put every single piece of clothing that was on the floor in the dirty clothes. Now, normally I do a fairly decent job of putting clothes up and hanging the ones that need to be, but lately it's gotten away from me. Well, HALF of the clothes that were in the basket were clothes that still needed to be put away and were sitting in front of Sams dresser for him to put away, which were still folded. *sigh* While we were having our little get together, the laundry was sitting in the laundry room, in baskets, waiting for me to run it thru the appropriate cycles of wet and dry, along with the dogs! Well, Dusty must have a love of khaki pants because she pulled a pair of Sams pants right out of the basket, pulled them into her crate, and chewed the button right off the top!!! I discovered that this morning when I went to feed them.

But the first thing that set me off was when I woke up! Doc woke me up an hour early by barking FROM THE LIVING ROOM! Apparently Sam had slept on the couch (again) and shut the door to the bedroom with only Dusty and Lilly in the bedroom (where she has no problem not chewing clothing... strange) and so during the middle of the night he must have gotten cold or something because he went into the kids bathroom and tore out every single bit of TP and everything else that was in the trash can (I have no idea why TP is in the trash can and not being flushed down the toilet) and placed it in various areas of the house ranging from the hall to the bathroom to the living room. There is a nice little trail actually!

I noticed before I even got out of bed that Sam didn't hold up on his end of the bargain for having the windows open last night! It was FREEZING! The current temperature is 38 degrees at almost 8AM. It was colder when I woke up.... almost 4 hours ago. Sam was SUPPOSED to close the windows up before he came to bed... but I guess his argument will be that he didn't come to bed so he didn't have to shut the windows. *heavy sigh* When I asked him last night where my big, thick, keeps-me-warm-at-night comforter was he responded with "I threw it away because it had holes in it." *sobbing* So, instead of having a sheet, a throw, and comforter so I can turn my fan on and drown out his TV show... I have a sheet and a throw.... and a Greyhound... LOL There was NO WAY I was turning on that fan... not even pointing away from me! It was already cold enough as it was, but when I tried to get Sam to shut the windows... noooooooo!!! I have a feeling that I'm going to come down with a cold sometime soon... :-/

OH! Remember my last post about going to the eye doctor and needing a CT? Well, the drops are working a bit, but now I'm on 2 drops because the itchiness didn't go away. I was supposed to have a CT with contrast, but apparently my body doesn't want the contrast!

A couple of days before I was supposed to have the CT done, I was having episodes where it felt like someone was punching me in the chest and walking away, complete with the feeling that I couldn't catch my breath. I complained about it to my bestie and she said "Well, you have been anxious a bit lately, maybe it's just anxiety?" I chalked it up and went on about my daily business. That evening I started having REALLY bad chest pains! It felt like I got punched in the chest, no matter how deep I breathed I didn't feel like I had enough oxygen, it hurt to breath, move, my arms were tingling, it felt like someone had their hands around my throat right under my jaw bone and the pain went up into my neck and my jaw was tingling! So, of course, I send my loverly sister the Cardio Nurse a text message asking her what I should do, and she said that if I were one of her patients she would send me to the hospital. So, we packed up and went to the ER. When we got there, there were quite a few people there, but, I was having some SERIOUS chest pains and figured that I would be called back to at least triage right away. NOPE! They gave me a beeper and told me to have a seat. I sat in the ER for more than 2 hours before I got fed up and decided that whatever the ER could do for me right there, they could do for me in the morning, and I walked up to the front to tell them we were leaving, and that I was SHOCKED they hadn't even gotten me into triage in the 2 hours I had been sitting there. So, of course the nurse gives me some crap answer about being busy with other patients while she was looking for my chart.... which she couldn't find! When she finally finds it and looks at it she tells me that if I continue to have discomfort to come back. It was terrible. I thought I was going to die. It hurt so bad! I did eventually fall asleep (after saying my prayers extra well... just in case... ;-P)

The next morning was my CT... and I told them of my chest pains and they told me they couldn't do the contrast and to go to the dr. So... we went back to the ER. It was MUCH better in the daytime! Right into a bed and hooked on about 6 different machines! My starting BP was something like 156/89 (when it's normally about 110/72) with a resting heart beat of 112 (when it's normally about 80). I got some tasty (Seriously! I wanted more!) orange Asprin, blood drawn, chest xray, EKG, all kinds of stuff... and it was all within 10 minutes of walking in the door! Of course, they all asked me why I left and I told them exactly why. If I was going to die, I would rather it be in my own home and not in the ER waiting room. They asked me all kinds of questions that I didn't exactly have the answer too (family history stuff... I'm never good with that stuff....) They said that they were okay, but not normal, and told me to follow up with Cardio. Well.... the way our insurance works is, we have to have EVERYTHING done thru our primary first, and if they can't do it, then we're sent to a specialist. When I made my appointment it was SUPPOSED to be Dr Hott-stuff, but apparently he couldn't make it because it was Dr I'm-50-and-think-I'm-20 Hippy. She told me that there was NOTHING wrong with EKG and that if I insisted on being sent to a Cardio then she would put the referral in but didn't think I needed it. She also told me that the thing that the ER dr was calling "suspicious" could be anxiety... then she changed her mind and said I probably had heartburn and was going to test me for some bacteria via a needle stick, gave me a script for what is basically Malox... then changed her mind again and said it was a heart murmur. I took my 2 EKGs and faxed them to my sister. ;-)

I have to call today to see if they got my referral back yet so I can see who my dr is and get an appointment set up. I was going to try and get back into shape, but I think that I will wait until I get the all clear from cardio before I decide to do any exercising other than some yoga and some squats and crunches!

Overall... It's been a CRAZY last week!!!!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Eye love going to the Dr!

Remember when I scratched my eye? Well, it kept giving me problems. CONSTANT problems, dry itchy, painful almost every day and when the lights are low, there is a dark blurry spot in the middle of me eye!

So, after much pushing and prodding from my friends, I decided that I should probably make an appointment to see the doctor about it. When I did finally go see the doctor he was very helpful . He gave me some eye drops and told me that if my eye didn't get better that he would put in a referral for me to have a medical exam at the eye doctors. It didn't get better and I got my referral. :-/

I go to the eye doctor yesterday and he says that my eye is really red, and I tell him it's also dry and itchy as well. Basically he told me that I have Episcleritis.

He's also sending me for a CT scan to see what could be causing the dark circle in my vision. I will have more info for you guys in about 3 weeks.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

It's perfect... and I hate that!

So, I know that have been gone for what seems like a zillion years! Sorry about that! Quite a bit has changed since the last time that I wrote.

So... my eye is still acting all wonky (yes... it's a very technical word!) even tho I scratched it all the way in the beginning of JULY!! I go to the eye Dr on Tuesday. I'm hoping that he can look at it and tell me what's wrong. You would think that a scratch would have healed by now!

The garden wasn't a complete loss, but, it wasn't that great either. Hurricane Irene kinda wiped what was left of our garden out. Of course, there wasn't much left after my trip to Houston!!

Hubs has FINALLY got his medical board findings back! he's going to get 100% medical retirement!! WOOOHOOOO! He's basically decided that he wants to go to school for Electrical Engineering. Which is fine. Whatever he wants as long as he follows through with it!

So, like I normally do, I put the cart before the horse and decided to look at some houses. This is super dangerous!!!! 1) because I always find something that I like II) because I have no idea what areas of town are "good" or "bad" and C) because I absolutely found the most beautiful house that I could ever hope to own and it's significantly less than what we paid for our modular!!! I'll show you guys... it's here. If I could, I would drop everything and move right into this house immediately! Why do I do this to myself? I find "the one" and know that by the time we are ready to move it's not going to be there. :'-(

That's all for now... I'll try and come back and update this with a better post... but.. I thought I would revive the ol' blog here tonight. :-)


Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Just wanted to tell you about this

So, just for a little disclosure, I did receive this product as a promotional gift, but all of the opinions are my own and I have no received any compensation other than the free use of their product.




As part of a BzzAgent campaign I received a free year of back up storage from SafeSync.

I often don't back up my information. It's just not something that I do. I figure that if something is REALLY important on my computer, then I've already got it stashed away somewhere online (facebook, myspace, picasa, and photobucket for pictures and gmail for pretty much everything else.)
I started thinking, when this promo came up, about how not everything is safe online, and how SOME things I DON'T put online. In comes SafeSync. I can upload all of my content that I want to save to SafeSync and it's safe! (hence the first part of the name) Now, say that while I'm at my Mommas next week I decide that there is an important document that I need to work on. It's stuck on my computer! Now, I could call Sam and have him email it to me, and risk him not finding the right document, or not even being able to find it at all. With SafeSync, as long as I've uploaded it, I can access it from wherever I am with a web-based interface! No downloading to Mommas computer. (I'm sure she would appreciate that!)
So far this service looks like it will be fairly easy. The interface is simple and easy to navigate. I haven't been able to see about how easy the web interface is when I'm somewhere else to retrieve it, but, I may just do that when I go down to Mommas and let you all know! :-)
Now, if you, my loyal readers, want to have some protection as well, I've got a code that you can use for a discount! If you go to SafeSync and enter the code "BZZ20" you will receive a discount when you sign up! :-)

Monday, July 11, 2011

I wish I was my dog



Doc and Dusty have the EASIEST lives in the world. I guess they deserve it tho.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Oh my eye!!



My eye has been giving me fits. It hurts REALLY badly. I've been trying not to rub it or anything but tht's really hard. It's hard to eep my eyes open! I think i'm going to have Sam drive me to the dr this morning. Maybe they can help. Jesus PLEASE let them be able to  help!!


***UPDATE: I scratched my eye!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Just seeing how this works.



Pay no attention to the girl behind the curtain... just playing with a blogger app on my phone seein how this works!

Oh... and I should be able to add pictures. Lets see if that happens.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Harvest weigh in... with no weight! :-P



So.. I don't have anything coming out of my garden yet, but, we're getting closer!


Here are the cukes this morning. They're really starting to get big!! They do have flowers, but they're inside the tangled mass of vines. :-P



Remember that ity bitty bit of watermelon vine from last week? Yeah... that's this week! And this is inside...


Monks pumpkins are growing well...
and it finally has a flower!! I'm pretty sure that this is a male flower tho... so females can't be far behind.

The strawberries runners have runners! I'm not quite sure if I should cut these off or let them go. :-/

The tomatoes are continuing to get bigger and bigger! We're going to buy some more cages on pay day. They keep SHOOTING up! There is considerable size difference in just a couple of days with these guys. It makes me really happy that we are getting closer to having something edible from our garden.

The corn is getting bigger as well! Should be about another month and we should have some fresh corn on the cob!! WOOOO!

In other news... I've got about 50 newly hatched snails. I gave away 6 (I think) egg clutches and still have about 8 more. Apparently they are starting to hatch as well. The eggs that have already hatched for me are purple and ivory. The ivories are so darling! I did keep another clutch... and I'm thinking about keeping one from Bugs tank as well. She might have some nice blues! That would be really awesome.

Monk has been doing a summer "refresher course" on 6th grade. We worked on some math problems today and he found 2 incorrect answers on the answer sheet! Good job Monk!

I'll be ordering more supplies for Charwood Candle in the next couple of days as well. Still not exactly sure what I'm going to order. I guess I better nail that down before I go to order, eh? We still have some of the others left, so if you want to know send me an email here and I can let you know what we have left. :-)

Other than that I think we're pretty much done with news! :-D

Sunday, June 26, 2011

So... I'm just going to say it...

Since Sam is due to get out of the Marine Corps soon... we've been looking into government jobs that he might be able to do. One of those jobs is the Environmental Protection Agency. We LOVE this job. Not only does it make use of his biology degree, we're both passionate about saving the plant. We've planted a few trees in the yard, we're wanting to grow more produce and meats on our own or buy locally so we can cut down on the amount of traveling that our food does, we don't use paper towels, we're looking into putting up a clothes line. Just a few things we've done, or want to do to help just a little bit. (Oh... and Sam bought a Hybrid... LOL)

The thing about this job tho is... we would have to move. The job is about a 2.5 hour drive from here. We're okay with that tho! If we DO move... we want to get a place with more land. When we started talking seriously about this EPA job, of course I got excited and started looking at houses in the area. Of course I just happened to find one that I fell in love with. Head over heels!

It's a 1901 farm house on 8.6 acres! It needs some TLC, but, I think with the right tools, Sam and I could really put it back together... as long as it was structurally sound. I mean... if it needed something done with the foundation or anything like that... we'd be screwed! But I think things like new windows, repairing walls, flooring, things of that nature... I think we could do that! The one thing that I've seen from the description and pictures is... no central air and baseboard heat... ACK! That means that we would need to put in central air... or window units... or just be warm in the summer!

Oh! I did contact a realtor about it... she said that there is train tracks behind the house, but the train only goes through once or twice a week... and that they just opened a rock quarry up the road. Oiy! The rock quarry thing is a bit concerning... but... living here... large blasts mean essentially nothing! I think it would hard to get used to no helios, no busy country road, no Marines, no commissary, and no "lets take a trip to the ocean tomorrow"!! But... I think that living in the country would be so great. (Other than the mosquitoes and ticks..... and JUNE BUGS! *shudder*) There are farmers markets, and it seems to be a quaint little town! The realtor is super nice! She said that she would stop by and take a few pictures for us on Monday. I was really impressed by that! I think that even if we don't get this house... that when we DO move... we will probably use her. She's been super awesome. :-)

Other than that... we have some other crazy news in the area. There's a wild fire blazing about 30 miles from here. They've got it about 20% contained at the moment, and have said that it's not jeopardizing any homes at this time. Which is a great thing!! This past week we went to MCAS New River to have a family fun day and the smoke was just terrible!! When we got home from that it was "snowing" ash at our house! It was hot. muggy, and just all around miserable! Also... every time I walked outside I wanted a s'mores! (Even more terrible!!)

Ivy Hill looks fantastic!! (Other than our "holy" beans... stupid bugs!) I checked on it this morning when I woke up... and before the fog rolled in (where did that come from? wasn't here 10 minutes ago!) and everything looked great! We have a few watermelons going, one of which is already the size of the end of my thumb! Cuh-razy! The first planting of corn is getting really tall! It's already to my hip, and some of it is taller than that! The tassels are starting to come out on a few of them as well. Here in about another month, I'll have me some fresh corn on the cob! Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

How does YOUR garden grow?

So, I've been chatting on this forum called The Easy Garden for some time now. They have some really great people there that are very helpful! I was having an issue with my big box bought tomatoes, everyone tried to help me solve the problem with their best guess. It was almost like a game of Clue... but nobody (card character or otherwise) died. One of the lovely ladies started a Weekly Weigh In to see how much food we are growing. While we don't have anything to harvest for a weigh in yet, I do need to start documenting the garden more!



You, loyal readers, know about Ivy Hill, our little patch of Earth to grow food. It has come quite a ways in the last few weeks! Here are a few new pictures!

Here's the over all. Corn in front, then pumpkins and watermelon, peppers and another mound of pumpkin and watermelon, cucumbers and beans, tomatoes and what should have been onions and carrots, Strawberries in the farthest bed and then behind that 2 blueberries!


Hot peppers! I'm not exactly sure WHERE we're going to put these! I'm leaning towards on the front porch maybe. If we plant them in the garden then our sweet peppers and hot peppers will cross pollinate leaving us with neither hot nor sweet peppers next year! LOL


Here are some herbs! We have basil, oregano, and cilantro. I believe these are going to get put out in the garden. I did notice a few more pepper plants trying to make there way thru the surface (we resowed about 2 weeks ago!) so I might wait a bit longer yet. If nothing else, I'll get some more bigger pots for them to be transplanted into. 


The newer tomato plants that our neighbor gave us. They started out rather small! They're getting pretty big now! I was pretty surprised! I can't wait to have some vine ripe tomatoes!! Mmmmm!!


Cucumbers are starting to look REALLY good! Of course, these are the only 2 that made it, but, I think for not having a CLUE what we were doing... I think we did okay with these! LOL I think we're going to go ahead and start a few more as well by this weekend. I want to direct sow, Sam wants to start them inside. I guess we could do both and see what works for us. (I'm rooting for direct sow! LOL) I also think that the spot we had designated for the "sprawl" cucumbers we might replant the herbs in. 


This loverly specimen (picture taken this morning at about7AM) now have a lovely yellow flower hidden in it's leaves! :-)


Sams watermelons! There were 6 flowers on this when I went to check on them. There are already a couple that have had their flowers fall off and have teeny tiny watermelons! So exciting! It's our first bit of "food"!


Some of our corn is starting to get tall! There are a few of them that are starting to really shoot up there and are almost hip level already! 


The 2nd round of plants are all (at least I think what will come up) up but are only a few inches tall. 

Our strawberries are doing REALLY well! Quite a few of them have runners! I can't WAIT for next year so we can actually EAT some of them! LOL


Here are the sweet peppers! There are a a few more that are popping up now... even tho we planted them about 2-3 weeks ago! Crazy stuff!! 


And of course the blueberries!! The one in front we got as a teeeeeeeeeny tiny lil thing the beginning of April. We then couldn't get it in the ground for a little while and they almost died before we got them in the ground. One died after we got it in the ground so we bought another from Lowes, which is in the background. Both are doing well actually. 


Our little grapes! There are 3 others just like this one, some as full, some not. I just love the contrast of green tho. The purple thing in the back is the dogs Kong... LOL 


Our apple heavy trees! I can't believe they're actually producing already! They seem so small, but this is the 2nd time that they've produced anything. I just hope that the tree is strong enough to keep all those apples up there! Maybe I'm not giving our little trees enough credit... but still!


Our lone pear is still chuggin away!! You go pear!!


I think the birds ate most of the mulberries this year. :-( It's okay!! Next year!!


Bugs marigolds!! They're doing pretty well. I can't wait for them to bloom! When they start to die I'll cut the flowers and save the seeds for next year. :-)

There it is! Things have done quite a bit of growing in the last few weeks since I posted pictures last. 

Sunday, June 12, 2011

YAY!!!

Happy birthday to me (cha cha cha)

Happy birthday to ME! (cha cha cha!)
Happy birthday dear meeeee!


Happy birthday to me! (Cha cha cha!)

Thursday, June 9, 2011

It's been a while

I'm still here I promise!

I've just been super busy!!

The Ivy Hill is doing well! We've been learning lots of new things about gardening! It's a lot of fun that's for sure. The apple trees are heavy with small green apples! There are quite a few apples for such small trees. Our 1 lonely pear is still workin it's way to maturity! We only have ONE of the original tomato plants left, and it's not even in the ground.. it's in a pot on the back porch. Maybe that's what's saving it.

Last week Sam and I took our neighbor to the doctor because she was complaining of being dizzy. She "repaid" me by giving me some tomato plants for our sad little garden. She started them from seed as well. I guess I just need to be more proficient at sewing seeds!! Sam and I put them in the ground yesterday... but today they are looking a bit sad. :-( I sure hope that todays heat didn't kill them. Of course... I also hope that us putting some shredded paper in the soil with them isn't hurting them either!! If these tomatoes die... I think I'm done with gardening for a while.... LOL

Our beans are doing really well! They're currently being attacked by some bean leaf beetles tho... so.. we're trying to remedy that situation. I think we might be okay tho. Yesterday there were LOADS of them... today I only seen a handful. Of course... this was after I got the grand idea to dilute some dish soap and spray all the plants with it. I think I may have inadvertently killed one of Monks pumpkins.... about an hour after I sprayed them it was looking pretty wilty and not very happy with it's bath. :-/ I guess we will see by tomorrow or so!

The candle biz continues to grow. I think we may add soap to the mix as well!! That way we would be selling candles AND soap! Not sure how I'm going to go about things yet tho.

My birthday is in a few days. My mom has been in a kick of posting photos of us when we were younger on her blog. I'm almost half scared to see what she's going to post of me. I was a rather geeky looking child!! Sam and the kids already got me my birthday presents, but, I'm sure that they won't be able to resist getting at least SOMETHING for my actual birthday. I'm really hoping that it's a day off!! LOL Mom and Kevin got me a BEAUTIFUL picture album from Shutterfly. It will surely be one that I keep forever!

The kids last day of school is tomorrow!! AAAHHHH! From there we're planning a trip to Texas, probably late in July. Buggy starts cheerleading for the pee-wee football team in August as well! She's very excited to start that.

Okay.. well.. I think that's all I have to say for right now!

Monday, May 23, 2011

The Ivy Hill

For those of you that read my blog on a regular basis... know that I had a friend pass not but a few days ago.

I said that we named our garden after Lindsay and Sams daughter, Ivy. The Ivy Hill

I just wanted to put up some pictures I took the other day. I know it's not much, but it will be!

Front bed: strawberries
Right side beds: 1 onions and carrots 2 green and yellow bush beans
Right side ground: potatoes (will be planted) watermelon and corn will be planted in 2 weeks
Left side beds: 1 Tomatoes (planted, but not in this pic) 2 Cucumbers, 3 Red/Green peppers
Left side ground: Pumpkins (Monks) and Corn


View from the house

Apples!!

Our one lonely Pear. The rest of them were blown off with the tornado in April

We planted this mulberry bush about 3 weeks ago. When we planted it, it was a brown twig!!