Blake faceplanted yesterday during a game of chase and got his first busted lip. He was pretty upset about it, until I offered him alittle TLC (read: watching WonderPets in Mommy’s bed). He was quite content and nearly fell asleep here:
Notice all of the vital comfort objects: Lovie, Monkey, Sippie cup, Paci, and even (though you can’t really see him) little Max from Where the Wild Things Are. Heaven.
If you are a fan of queso, stop what you’re doing and make this. And a screech is heard across the state of Texas. One of my most shocking moments here in Maryland was regarding queso. Weird, I know. One of my favorite places to eat here is Baja Fresh, very good burritos, but up until a couple of years ago, no queso. Well you can imagine my excitement when they added it to their menu. I was sitting at my desk at work, placing an order for a sales meeting, and they asked if I would like queso with that! Would I?!?
I hung up and promptly announced this to my boss and the entire accounting department. I just figured it was that important. Baja Fresh has queso!! You should have seen the blank looks on their sad, Tex-Mex deprived faces. Finally someone says, “what’s queso?”
Deep Breath. I am so confused. Where am I? Am I really that far from Texas? How did I find myself in a land where people have not heard of the single best food-creation known to man (baked-goods excluded). Anyways, after a thorough explanation, including pictures, we were all just as confused as when we started. BTW, don’t bother with Baja’s queso.
And if you have confusion on your sad, Tex-Mex deprived face right now, please call me. I will make you some.
Anyways, this weekend I tried out some new recipes, including Mexican shredded beef and a peach-basil sangria that I hope to make again soon! The new queso recipe was the big winner though. Here is the recipe for the best queso I have ever had (it’s from the Everything Mexican Cookbook-but I have adjusted the proportions to such an extent that I would venture to say they just gave me the general idea):
One big block of Velveeta (2lbs I think)
1 diced jalepeno (seeds and insides removed)
1/2 cup milk -more if you want it a little runnier, which I did)
2 ounce jar of diced pimientos
1 medium sized red tomato chopped into small pieces
1 chopped onion
1/2 package of frozen chopped spinach
Thaw the spinach and drain as much water from it as possible. Combine onion and milk in a large saucepan first, cooking just enough to soften the onion. Be careful not to let the milk boil much. Add cheese and pimientos, and cook on low heat until cheese melts (this will go faster if you cut the cheese into blocks). Stir in the spinach and tomato.
Grab some tortilla chips and enjoy!
…hovering over the honey trees.
I’ve been humming Winnie the Pooh’s song often this past week as I’ve felt like there was a “cloud” hanging over our house. We’ve had terrible bouts of sickness (see the “bugs” blog before this one-I do believe we took a couple home. ugh) and emergency room visits and I have often looked up and asked God if He would please tell me the point. Because the thing is, I know that there is always a point. My God doesn’t believe in coincidences or fate. He has a plan. And thankfully, he revealed just enough to comfort me this week. He knew I was tired and beat up and needed just an inkling of an “atta boy!” and He gave it to me. Whew.
For those of you here to keep up with Mom’s progress, it’s going very slow. She is considered a “special case” when it comes to the oral surgery she needs and we found a place in Beaumont who can deal with it. Thankfully we didn’t go forward with the oral surgery here on Tuesday or we would have had major problems. If the weekend hadn’t been filled with crises we would have gone through with it, and would probably be in big trouble now. That’s no coincidence. She’s going home Sunday to begin dealing with the teeth issue, and a couple other things that need to be taken care of before her heart surgery. Hopefully she’ll be back in about 6 weeks for it though. She is so excited.
🙂
Guy waiting to be treated in the ER today loudly announces to the waiting room:
“I’z down there at the shelter and them bugs be everywhere! You all can find out about them bugs? They don’t be taking care of their personal hygiene down there. I STILL be itchin!!”
Yes, he was sitting next to us. No, I will not be bringing my mother back to Baltimore for emergency care.
Frankly, I still be itchin myself.
That right folks, I am about to expand my homemaking repertoire to include “seamstress”! Don’t get too excited, sometimes I have great ideas, then I see something shiny and the moment’s over. I truly hope that’s not the case, though, because I’m tired of asking Kelli to sew things for me. And it was embarrassing to pay $13 to have a button sewn on my pants once I found out how easy it is. No button will be safe now!
I have rebelled against this skill for quite some time now (28 years, to be precise), and it still makes me nervous. Mostly because crafty-type things just make me nervous. They seem to require such precision, which is not my strong suit. Hence my distaste for baking. But since mom is here with me, and can’t get out and do much, I intend to make use of her. She is going to teach me! I hope this isn’t like when she taught me piano lessons in 2nd grade. I guess the odds of me throwing a temper tantrum until she lets me go swimming with the other kids are probably slim. I like to think I’ve grown as a person since then.
We bought the treadmill. I’m ran on it today. I ate a Cadbury Egg first. I’m pretty sure that is not an efficient “get trim plan.” But I have come full circle and ended up in the place I am usually happiest: Serious exercise combined with zero food restrictions. I am still dedicated to eating well, but once I place any official restrictions on myself, things get hairy.
Here’s the thing.
Dieting makes me very grumpy. Exercise only makes me a tiny bit grumpy. Neither makes me soft. The combination of diet and exercise is very bad for those who have to be around me (ie: husband, son). So it’s settled. I will continue my attempt to outrun my eating habit. Results may vary.
Life is changing for us this week, and my brain is working hard to process everything. Let me explain:
Some of you know about my mother’s heart condition, some don’t, so I’ll start at the beginning. She was diagnosed in 2001 with HOCM (Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy). I will let you google that if you want to know more, because I only have so much time. I’ll just say that until recently, it was considered rare simply because not enough was known about it to be properly diagnosed. It is congenital, something you are simply born with, and the amount of work your heart gets throughout life is usually a factor in how it affects you. It used to be known as “Athlete’s Heart” because athletes would simply drop dead of it without ever even being diagnosed. The fact that you are at risk for sudden death is one of the scarier aspects of this condition. Over time, this condition has caused so much stress on my mom’s heart and she has found herself in a place where she is basically homebound, the tiniest tasks exhaust her and cause her to have a really hard time breathing. For years she has visited doctors in Texas trying to find a way to improve her quality of life and now, after MUCH prodding, she is here in Maryland to be treated at Johns Hopkins. We have found a doctor who knows a great deal about her situation and can help. His only recommendation is open heart surgery. For several reasons she is a very high risk surgery patient, but he did not mince words when he said that her risks without this surgery far outweigh the risks she will face in surgery. Her situation has become too dire to do nothing. And our hope is that on the other side of this, my mom with feel better! It still feels like we’re on a long road, even now. She is facing a bronchitis recovery and a dental surgery before we can move on the the heart surgery. She is going to stay with us here in Maryland for this process though, flying is far too strenuous and she needs to be close to her doctor at Hopkins now.
Since she is being held in Maryland (alittle bit against her will :-)), Stuart, my dad, and I have been spending the weekend trying to turn the basement into a comfy apartment for her. So much to consider! My brain is overwhelmed, but it is slowly but surely coming together. We have fashioned a kitchen “annex” in the basement where she will soon have almost everything she needs to prepare meals, coffee, etc. All kinds of storage is being put together and I am tasking Stuart with building a small set of stairs so she can go out the back door without as much effort as getting upthe stairs to the front door. Thank goodness for Ikea, seriously.
As heavy as this responsibility feels, it is such a blessing. My brother and sister would do this in a heartbeat as well, it’s simply that the help is here. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that we live here, so close to this Hopkins HCM Clinic. It’s no coincidence that I’m not working right now, and free to take care of her and that we have amazing friends who are willing to help with Blake. Mom has struggled with this for so many years, so we are simply grateful to be moving in the right direction. God has His hand in this and that relieves me.
It’s hard to be away from home, and your spouse, especially when facing such life-altering situations. But we have to send Dad home, someone has to finance this operation (wink).
Please say a prayer for my mom and the path she faces here in Maryland.
And now, you are officially updated.
View From The Hills 