Remember . . .

Chalkboard Steals

Tomorrow, the 25th, on babysteals.com

Polkadots:

Thought Bubbles:

Clouds:

Weekly Calendar:

Our Week in Review

Actually, I guess it all started about 2 weeks ago. . . it's kind of all blurring together. We (meaning Scribble) got an order from one of those "one day only" websites for 400 chalkboard decals. If that doesn't impress you, the biggest one we've ever gotten was for 60 and that seemed huge. Anyway, we spent about a week printing pretty much non-stop. I never did get a picture of all 400 because as soon as we peeled and taped them we packed them up, so this is only about half . . .

Our whole house was taken up with every corner and hall having something to do with the order in them! These are tubes ready and waiting (only about 100) . . .

175 smaller tubes for the Polkadots . . .

Finally! Ready to be shipped. I missed a lot of the process, but we were too busy to even think of pictures. We also had some fam, Jon's brother James and Roxane come in town so we had a couple of days of fun with them. Again, forgot pictures!

One good thing is that our house sure seems bigger now! It reminds me of the story of Sad Mrs. Sam Sack. Remember that sistas? Not sure I ever want to do that again.

Anyway, if you want a screaming deal on some chalkboard vinyl decals - Weekly calendars, Polka Dots, Clouds and Thought bubbles, you can go to BabySteals.com on the 25th, this Thursday and get some.

Mmm. . . Napolitanke's

I got "moved" from being in the RS Presidency at church to being in the Primary Presidency. I am the counselor over scouts. I got called the Sunday before my surgery so I had a couple of weeks to ease into the calling. BUT as soon as I put clothes on (somewhere around day 11 or 12) I hit the ground running and haven't stopped! When the president was telling me about my responsibilities she said, "scouts is a full time job". I chuckled at her joke. I'm not chuckling now. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE scouts. I just didn't think I'd be gone so much from home. And the little free time I had before to do the blog, write in my journal etc. is now pretty much zilch. So, I thought I'd post about these little beauties. We stumbled across them in the international isle of our local HEB, or "heb" as we like to call it. They are made in Croatia. We love to try new things but sometimes what you think will be so good, just isn't. Well, these didn't disappoint. They're nougat (aka gianduja, aka chocolate hazelnut) filled wafer cookies. They are so delectibly delish - not too sweet, very crunchy, low cal and dirt cheap. If you like that type of thing, you have got to scout these out and try them. I think you can also order them on Amazon. Happy eating.

Why Tuna Makes Me Smile

This story happened a few months ago, but every time I see a can of tuna I think of it, and probably always will, so I thought I'd share. . .

Last semester in Co-op, I "taught" PE for the little kids. Ok now, stop snickering!! Notice I put parenthesis around taught?! There is a little boy in there named Kit. I hadn't done anything special to Kit or treated him any different. If anything, I was a little rude because I was always telling him to stop whining and that there was "no sitting down in PE". One day we were sitting around in the morning getting ready for Praise and Worship (I need to do a post on that some time!) to start, and when I turned my head Kit was there. He planted a big kiss on my cheek, gave me a bear hug around the neck and said, "Teacher, I love you". He then said he had brought me something and dug deep in his bag to produce . . . a can of tuna. He then gave me another kiss and hug and told me again that he loved me. I had to excuse myself to the bathroom to shed a tear or two. And I might need to right now too. I love that I have happy thoughts when I see a can of tuna. Thanks Kit!

Yes, I am Vain

I have been thinking lately how grateful I am for a lot of things. I am really glad to live in a day where you can have an organ taken out in about an hour and go home that same day. When my mom had her gall bladder out, they sliced her from "stem to stern" and was in the hospital for 5 days. When my grandma had hers out a few years ago, she had the latest laprascopic or "closed" surgery. They made 4 little incisions to have it taken out. My surgeon does a procedure where he makes only one incision, right around the belly button to get the deed done. I also got glued (or as I like to call it, shellaced) shut. Amazing! I am grateful for pain medicine - no need to say more. I am also really glad for the things of the earth that God made for us like aloe to aid in healing and natural essential oils for healing, soothing heartburn and other such things.

Now that my shellac is off, I am not so happy. I know this is petty. I know this is so small in comparison to basically everything else, but I gotta get it out. I thought maybe the misshapeness of my stomach was due to the way they shellaced me shut. I have never been a bikini wearer, and I wasn't planning on it after this. The surgeon even said it was more like plastic surgery this way instead of having a scar over the gallbladder for everyone to see and I said, the only one that will ever see it is Jon. My beef is this: I already have so many issues with my stomach that I don't need or want one more! I had 2 big babies that stretched my stomach to the point of separating my stomach muscles so that a rift the size and depth of the Grand Canyon exists. I got stretch marks from "stem to stern". Those 2 babies (that I LOVE dearly) also gave me 2 C-section scars. I have come to terms that I will never have a naturally flat stomach again, and I can live with that. Those scars are below my waist line and don't interfere much. But now! I have gathers and tucks and puckers where there weren't any before. It looks like they took the pudge around my belly button, turned it a quarter turn, and then had Collin sew it up . . . blind folded. Darn that modern medicine! And I know you really want to see pictures of my stomach, but I am sorry to disappoint you.

Ok. I am done with my complaining. I promise.

Halleluja!!

I am finally back to my normal diet of fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains!! I had a few days of carnivorous eating - I think I needed some protein to aid the healing because all I could think about was meat, but that passed. I am SO glad to be able to be eating salad, citrus and especially my favorite - pineapple! No more heartburn and other unpleasantness. I guess I can finally say I am glad I had the surgery.

I have my follow-up appointment with my surgeon today. I am feeling pretty good. Still kind of weak, but getting better every day. NOW, I have to figure out how to shed the paunch I gained after my rice, potato and bread diet! Argh . . .

Ode To Rice . . .

I sure didn't mean to sound so negative in my last post, so I thought I would offer this one up today in gratitude of something that has been on my mind and in my stomach a lot this week. I am a fairly recent rice convert. If we ate much of it growing up, I don't remember it. We (ok, my dad) grew a cellar full of potatoes every year and they are still my starch/staple of life choice. I love love love potatoes, but I guess I'll do a post of them later. Back to rice . . . I think I never really liked it because it had no flavor.

Well, a couple of years ago my talented Sister-in-law Libbs made rice for us cooked with broth and butter and I was hooked. I then found a GREAT kind of rice:

It smells like popcorn popping when it cooks. Mmmmm. . . popcorn.

So, use broth instead of water, add salt to taste and a pat of butter for each cup you cook. It has been a great friend to my stomach this last week.

Still Recovering . . .

When I saw this picture it reminded me of my cannery experience last fall. Who knew I would be in a hairnet again so soon?! They had this heater hooked up to a tube in my gown that blew warm air onto me. Heaven!

Waking up with worse gallbladder symptom pain than I had before going in!!

Things I am thankful for:

The nurse at the hospital asking me to verify my birthdate and then telling me she thought I was 10 years younger (I had found my first grey hair the night before).

My personal nurse at home. Jon went to the store numerous times, fulfilling my every whim (who knew sugar cones would taste so good???).

Good kids who have been manning the dishwasher.

A warm, comfy robe and nightgown (bought by nurse Jon the day of surgery after coming home and needing something that wouldn't dig into the incision on my belly button).

Good people who have brought meals.

DVR recordings of the new Masterpiece Theater season, Biggest Loser and Meet the Natives.

Things I am looking forward to:

Eating fruit (especially pineapple) without feeling like I drank a pint of battery acid.

The gas they pumped in my abdomen going away and the shoulder pain associated with it.

Being able to turn over at night without being uncomfortable.

Wearing pants again.

So Long . . .

Farewell . . . What a normal gallbladder looks like inside:

Auf Wiedersehen . . . what mine looks like inside (upper right - all the white blobs are big stones):

Good bye!! They will leave, never to return, tomorrow.

I love tradition (que "Fiddler on the Roof"), but would be happy to not have this one, and this one goes back 4 generations, all the way to my great grandma who had hers out too. Sorry, Grace, but I'll be there for you in 30 years when you have yours out!!

10 Years Ago Today . . .

Look at this cute little button!!

We moved to Texas . . . the first time. It was snowing when we left Utah and Houston was having record heat in the 70's.

Other numbers:

Jon and I have lived here for 1/3 our married life.

Collin has lived here for half his life, but was born in Utah.

Grace has lived here for more than 1/3 of her life, but is the only "native" among us.