Wednesday, February 25, 2009

When the crap hits the oscilator...

Donna Jendreas (the woman I wrote about it my previous post) is no longer able to swallow anything, and family's making funeral arrangements. The hospital sent her home Monday because there isn't much else they can do for her. She's had several seizures now caused by the pressure in her brain from the bleeding, and it's basically just a waiting game now. Joe is going to be a pallbearer.

I feel crappy cause I'm sick, but I can't complain. She is going to die. Everyone knows it. Honestly, part of me thought that she would just come out of it and be fine! But when I saw her in the hospital, I knew. She looked so strange. Like her body was there but SHE wasn't there...does that make sense? It's so sad. The only good thing I can see in it is that her kids were all with her for her last days. I just hope that she isn't in pain.

:(

Thursday, February 19, 2009

bad.

My sister-in-law Krystle called just a bit ago. Her mom has cancer and is dying. Krystle's brother Jeremy was Joe's best friend growing up, and is on a job in Blytheville with an electric company and can't drive to MH. So we are going to get him tomorrow (1 1/2 hour drive there), and then to Mountain Home (5 and 1/2 hour drive all together).

I feel horrible. This woman was Joe's second mom growing up. Krystle and Jeremy were a part of his life long before Krystle married Joe's brother. While I have personal negative feelings with Krystle, she is family and I love her. It is so sad. Donna is the nicest person. She has always been really quirky and kind of a hippy, but in an endearing way.

Of course I totally don't mind getting Jeremy at all, I just don't know what to say. I've been there. I lost my mother too. And I know how I felt, but I don't have a clue how he feels. He's been trying to avoid the subject, and we are going to be in a car together for several hours...what do you say in that situation?!?

The worse part of it is that it's happened so fast. Six months ago she had a sun spot that turned out to be melanoma. Then it started to spread. It's in her brain now and they've done chemo and radiation and the docter's said if they do anything else it'll just put her in more pain. It's absolutely heart breaking. They gave her a week or so at best.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Hazelnut Truffles

Hazelnut Truffles

Makes 120 candies

Prep: 1 hour Chill: 3 hours
Ingredients

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 13-ounce jar (about 1-1/4 cups) chocolate-hazelnut spread
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon Irish cream liqueur or vanilla
2/3 cup halved hazelnuts (filberts), toasted*
Finely or coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts (filberts)
Unsweetened cocoa powder


Directions

1. In a heavy medium saucepan combine sweetened condensed milk, chocolate-hazelnut spread, and unsweetened chocolate. Cook over low heat until chocolate melts, stirring constantly. Remove saucepan from heat. Cool slightly. Stir in liqueur or vanilla until smooth. Transfer to a mixing bowl; cover and chill about 3 hours or until firm.

2. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. For each truffle, form about 1 teaspoon of the chocolate mixture around 1 toasted hazelnut half to make a 3/4-inch ball. Roll in chopped toasted nuts or cocoa powder.

3. Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for several weeks or freezer up to 3 months. Makes 120 candies.

*To Toast Hazelnuts: Place nuts in a skillet. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring or shaking skillet often for 7 to 10 minutes or until skins begin to flake and nuts are light golden brown. Watch carefully to avoid over-browning. Remove nuts from skillet and place on a clean kitchen towel. When hazelnuts are cool enough to handle, rub the nuts together in the towel, removing as much of the brown skin as possible.


pecan sweet potato casserole

Pecan Sweet Potato Casserole

2 cans (40 ounces each) sweet potatoes, drained.
8 eggs
½ cup sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt

Topping:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans
¼ cup cold butter


In a large bowl, mash the sweet potatoes. Add the eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla and salt; beat until smooth. Transfer to a greased 13x9 inch baking dish.

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, and pecans; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over potato mixture.

Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until thermometer reads 160.
Refrigerate leftovers.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

stand under my umber-ella, ella, ella...

TODAY WAS THE BEST DAY, LIKE EVER!!!

I had one class this morning (Folklore) and I had done the reading plus some extra, and I was one of 3 who was prepared for discussion. So I think I impressed the teacher, which rocked. I'm actually really interested in this class, which is funny cause the first day I was convinced it would suck! haha
If I could, I would look into changing my minor from English to Folklore. But an English minor will do more for me in the end, and I'm almost done with it and I definately don't want to start over on a minor!

So then I had an hour off because Photography wasn't meeting today. I went home and ate a Lean Cuisine that I found in Joe's parents' freezer (it was ravioli! super yummy!), and then I worked from 12-2. Work actually wasn't as bad as normal! I did some projects for the first hour, then I went to Payroll and created folders and recovered (organized) the files for the rest of my time. I don't mind being down there because at least I'm doing something productive and it's super quiet!!!

Diana and I had a girl-date today :) I've been excited about it all week! We went to see Bride Wars and went to the mall and wandered around Target. The movie is soooo cute!!! I want to be like Anne Hathaway now. She's always been gorgeous, but her acting doesn't seem at all like acting- it's great!

OOOH! And Diana (finally!! haha!) gave me my Christmas gift! Everytime I've seen her she forgets to bring it. It's the umbrella I've wanted for forever!!! SOOO CUTE!!! I can't wait for it to rain!

I got really shaky and like I was gonna pass out at Target (my blood sugar must have been horribly low! It scared me!), so my first thought when I walked in the door at home was "Food!!"
I was too late getting home to make my original plan for dinner. I was going to do spaghetti and meatballs (meatballs and sauce in the crockpot- yum!), so instead I used the ground turkey and made turkey burgers. They were pretty tasty! The only problem with turkey burgers is they shrink up really bad, so I added some italian seasoned bread crumbs before I made the patties. The flavor was great :) I put in some Adobo and a tiny bit of course sea salt and pepper. Joe ate two! Go figure. And we had a spinach salad.

I guess that's about all I have to say....this weekend is going to rock! Joe and I have a billion things to do around the house, and I'm excited :) We are going to switch over to the new desk, dismantle the old one, and repurpose it!! The bottom part will be our new entertainment center for the living room and the top part will be shelves for the office. We aren't positive how it will work, but I have a vision and Joe seems excited about it too. And I'm going to organize the bathroom Saturday! Yay for Spring Fever!!!!!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Finding my shananana or something

Kandi and I went to our first classes in the Fitness Center tonight! We've been going to the gym again somewhat regularly since classes started back, and thought it'd be fun to learn some new things. Wednesday nights at 6 they have Abs class, then at 7 it's Yoga. Abs class was awesome...awesomely uncomfortable, but I really want to get better at it! It's a challenge. I can do this! My thighs feel like burning, but I'm imagining that it's my fatness burning away!!!

Yoga class was hilarious! It was good, don't get me wrong, but I didn't expect it to be a spiritual yoga class- I assumed it was just the exercise yoga that is pretty mainstream now. Oh, I was wrong. The breathing was cool though; it was just like what we did in Choir (breathing through the diaphram), and a lot of the postures are neat. Some of it was hard- like the Plank and this other thing where you are in a lunge and bring your back foot forward using your ab muscles...but I can get better at these things too.

So overall, today was a great day! At work I ate the most horrible cornbread muffin ever, and I couldn't say anything cause the person who gave it to me was watching! It was HILARIOUS! :)

OH! I booked a photo shoot for Saturday!! I'm super excited! It's my friends Thomas and Sarah in MH. They are expecting a baby soon (very soon, if I remember correctly), and they want family photos before the baby comes. She asked me how much my sitting fee was and would I be interested in taking pictures of people other than them. So I said "It's $$ each." and that yes I would be available if anyone else wanted me Saturday (I think it's his parents probably). We are going to meet at their church and do them there. They live in Flippin and I got the feeling they didn't want to do them there, but I just want to do it wherever they are comfortable. I really wish I had a backdrop already!!!!! Soon. But it would be really helpful in a situation like this. It wouldn't matter at all where we are.

Anywho, this is a LONG rambling post, and I don't have much else to write...so- adios!

Monday, February 2, 2009

meal plan 2/2- 2/7

Monday: Ground turkey sloppy joe's with chopped green peppers in the sauce and topped with spinach leaves (sounds weird, but really, it was fabulous!)

Tuesday: Joe will eat the rest of the sloppy joe's by himself probably, so I'll have a spinach salad with raspberry viniagrette ^_^ yummo!

Wednesday: chicken tacos, black beans, tomato, olives, spinach leaves...I am on a spinach kick this year! It's good on everything!

Thursday: leftover tacos :)

Friday: homemade pizza- you guessed it, with spinach leaves (lol), chedder cheese, basil tomato sauce, and whatever other veggies I can find