Shingles are not just for the Roof!

I have been feeling under the weather for about 2 months.  If you have spent any time with me, you probably quickly saw it.  I was not good at hiding it but tried to take a "non-whining" stance.  A lot of days, I was unsuccessful in that endeavor.  I couldn't really explain it.  I didn't feel "sick" but I didn't feel good either.  It was like this achiness all over my body.  Some days it was my stomach.  Some days it was my head.  Sometimes it was...well, you get the point.

Anyway, I have felt worse the last week or so.  Very tired and lethargic.  I felt so bad on Friday that I decided I was going to the doctor.  The first call was to the Chiropractor (increased headaches and a really bad backache).  They were closed.  What about a massage?  That should help for those same symptoms.  I called her.  She was booked until Monday evening.

I then activated Plan C (to go to the actual doctor).  I called them.  But of course with it being Friday, they couldn't see me until Monday.  But Monday I had 3 meetings and a court hearing (for one of my clients).  So, I set my appointment for Tuesday morning.

My boss convinced me that I just needed to relax and drink a beer.  (Let me tell you, it did not take a lot of convincing).  To Farley's I went.  We sat on the patio and drank a (used very loosely) beer.  Let me tell you, it didn't take long for my headache to fade, along with my aches and pains.  So, I enjoyed my time out on Friday.  I haven't been going out because I just haven't felt good.  It was brought to my attention that I hadn't been out since before my birthday.

Anyway, when I woke on Saturday, my nose was a little sore/sensitive.  I knew I probably had a sinus infection but had already made the doctor's appt.  I didn't think much about it.  On Sunday, it felt like I had several small cuts on my nose.  I kept complaining to Amber about them hurting.  Monday morning my nose was red (like I had a cold).  By Monday evening, those little "cuts" had turned into blisters.  Let me just give you a little idea of what I am talking about in pictures:  (scroll fast if you are sensitive)

Monday @ 10:24pm (see the blisters?)

Tuesday @ 7:32am (see the pouty lips)

Tuesday @ 9:50am (as I sit and wait for the Doctor)
My appt was at 8:45am.  I was getting irritated.
(see the yellow crusty puss?)

Well, I saw the doctor.  Guess what!  I was right.  I have a sinus infection.  But guess what else!  SHINGLES.  Yup.  I have never heard of shingles on the face.  Usually people who get them, have them on their torso or abdominal area.  Well, we began talking about it because I just couldn't believe I had the Shingles.  She (a very great doctor) said that my immune system had been fighting this active virus for a while.  The Shingles virus is in your body if you have ever had the chicken pox.  Well, something activated it.  So, my body has been fighting it.  That explains all of the "not well" feelings I have had over the last two months.  She said that was about the right time frame.  My body was trying to tell me to stop and help fight this viral infection.  But finally, it wore out my immune system.  She said it could have come out on my nose due to the sinus infection.  That sinus infection left my nose and facial area compromised.  So, the virus hit hard and just came out at the weakest spot.

I was treated with an Antibiotic (take 1 tab 2xs daily for 10 days) and another medication specific for the Shingles (take 1 tab 5xs daily for 10 days - but not at the same time as the antibiotic).  REALLY?  Are you SERIOUS?

So, I know take a pill at 7am; another at 8am; another at 11am; then again at 3:00pm; 7:00pm; then the night ones at 8:00pm and the last one at 11:00pm.  That is utterly ridiculous!

Are you grossed out yet?  Well here is the progress:

Tuesday @ 12:30pm

Wednesday morning  

Wednesday @ 6:50pm

I am glad to report that since this is my 3rd day (well 2 1/2 days) my nose is hurting less.  It is also pussing less.  Which are both really good things.  Of course, the medication is making me really sick to my stomach but hopefully, that will clear up really soon.

Wanna hear a funny story?  After we left the doctor's office (in Artesia) Tuesday morning, we headed home (back to Roswell).  We had found 6.8 acres for sale that we wanted to check out.  So, we took the old Dexter Highway back (it was on the way).  Well, it had been raining here off and on for about a day and a half.  We turn on the road to where the acres were supposed to be.  It had been a dirt road, but now was more of a mud road.  I thought I did well, navigating around the water puddles, but just as everyone in the car, besides me, started questioning whether we should continue on this very muddy road, we see an Aaron's Delivery Truck.  He is obviously stuck in the mud.  I immediately (about 2 minutes to late) try to turn around.  Nope!  Stuck in the mud.  Not only do I have Shingles on my FACE but now we are stuck in the mud.  No one in the car had on tennis shoes or boots.  No, Amber and I were wearing flip flops and Gladys was wearing dress shoes.  

This did not go over well!  Amber began to get pretty upset.  And just then, Gladys jumps out of the car and is in the front pushing.  Amber jumped out in her flip flops and began pushing as well.  We made a little head way, but then lost traction.  Amber used some weeds under the tire and we made some more headway.  We finally got out.  I questioned whether we should give the Aaron's guy a ride back to town.  But do you know, he did not even get down to help Amber and Gladys push.  We were only feet away from him and he not once, offered to help.  Ugh!  Anyway, the car has more mud on the inside than the outside - how funny!  

So, hope you guys have a great day!   

Cooking Is A Skill

Over the weekend I got a wild hair and decided to cook for a change.  By cook I mean like dinner and a dessert. I remembered back to my sister's blog about a week ago. She had posted about Sausage & Corn Chowder.  It sounded good. (I love anything made with breakfast sausage).
Saturday was drizzly and cool.  It was the perfect day for a soup.  Also, when I got to thinking about it, I remembered the kids favorite vegetable is cream corn(which is a main ingredient in the chowder).  So I decided that the chowder was the perfect choice. As I thought about it, I thought mmmmm.... Cake.  Coffee cake! So, that is what I decided to make.

I started my day with a great conversation with my sister. During that conversation We had a pretty good laugh when Jaxen hung up on me.  After out I took care of a few errands.  Then I went and had lunch with Mom and Scotty.  After lunch I got in a few wins with 5 Crowns.  

After a quick trip to the grocery store, I started cooking.  It wasn't long after that I realized cooking is a skill!  

Like every other skill if you don't use it, you will loose it.

I started out with the cake.  Everything went beautifully with the cake.  I made my mom's Chocolate Coffee Cake (in a long pan instead of a Bundt pan).  Then I made it my own by adding mini chocolate chips to the batter.  It looked lovely going into the oven.  (I didn't even make a mess).

As I placed it in the oven and reread the recipe card to make sure I hadn't missed any steps, I realized it didn't say how long to cook (see I told you I haven't done this in a while) bake the cake for.  So, I thought of the easiest fix I could - text my sister.  (CARLA TO THE RESCUE!)

But before that, I began the soup.  I started by browning the sausage.  As soon as I got the sausage to start cooking (which was a trick in itself because of my mom's stove), I washed the potatoes.  Now, I say trick because when I did cook, I cooked on gas - you know, actually flames you can see and adjust.  My mom's stove is electric.  Without fail, every time I go to cook something it takes like 10 minutes before I realize it isn't cooking.  Then I turn up the burner and it REALLY begins to cook.  I will tell you what then happens in just a moment....
After I washed the potatoes, I started texting my sister about the cake.  Her final answer, after a few texts and a quick call was to start checking the cake after half an hour.  I realized at this point - during our conversation that the sausage is REALLY cooking - by that I mean in a fast hurry it is getting really crispy and really dark - I refuse to use the word burnt at this point!

So, I very quickly end our conversation and rescue the sausage.  (While on the phone, I decided to double the recipe).  I rescued the sausage by throwing in another pound.  Ha!  Just for a reference point I used one regular and one hot - because I have some people in my family who do not like hot.  They don't even like spice or black pepper, or anything of the sort.  So, as the sausage continues to cook and NOT burn, I start peeling the potatoes.  I peel potatoes pretty well with a peeler.  I am not ashamed to admit that I just figured out what the pointed end on the peeler was for.  So, as I was making this discovery, I realized - I HADN'T TENDED TO THE SAUSAGE IN A BIT.  Then thought poured into my brain - THE CAKE!!!!!

Pulled the sausage off of the burner - luckily it looked GREAT!  Then to the cake.  It was still soupy.  So, I decided it should bake for an hour.  No, harm there.  PHEW!  I take the sausage out of the pan and then put the onions to saute' in the sausage drippings.  I (like my sister) used frozen onions.  As they sauteed at the same heat as my sausage was cooking (oops) I chopped? diced? cubed?  the potatoes.  As I was getting done, I remembered, the onions.  By this time they were pretty brown.

Ugh!  Isn't this over yet?  I will tell you - I was pretty frustrated.  But I LOVED every minute of it.  I was by myself.  I was cooking for my family.  I knew they would love it if i didn't kill it first.  And I remembered all of the sayings about your emotions effecting the taste of your food.  So, I kept positive through all of the frustration.  I really was enjoying myself.  Back to the food......

Since the onions were turning very brown, I just added the potatoes and milk.  I finished adding what I needed.  Then the recipe said to simmer for 20 minutes.  To me, simmer always meant turn the fire real low and let it just bubble a little (not boil) just bubble some.  (Guess, where I learned that - from making Hamburger Helper as a kid - you boil it and then turn the fire down, cover it, and let it simmer).  Well, I turned the fire down.  After about 10 minutes it didn't do ANYTHING!  So, I turned the burner up a little and covered it.  Again, it did nothing!  So, I thought about it.  Maybe she meant boil for 20 minutes.  Potatoes get soft when they boil!  That was what we were trying to do.  So, the burner went back to the higher side of Med/High.  Then the phone rang.  I took a quick phone call and wrote a note to my mom.  All of a sudden I hear all of this boiling, sizzling, popping noise behind me - YUP!  It had boiled over.  AAAAGGHHHH!!!!!  Turned the burner down.  Nothing.  Turn the burner up.  Boil.  Finally, I get it at the exact right spot and it begins to simmer.  At this point I am pulling all of the BURNT pieces of milk out.  I look at the clock and it is 8:15pm.  I am supposed to pick up Amber from work at 8:15pm.  But I just got the soup cooking the way it is supposed to.  I just keep buying time.  8:20, 8:23.  At 8:25pm I turn the soup off.  I will just have to go get her and then come back.  As I am walking out, My mom and Scotty are walking in. I give a very brief synopsis and a promise to be back.

I get Amber and return to the food.  I finish cooking the soup on a simmer for 10 minutes.  As I clean up, my mom and I try the soup.  I am impressed that it doesn't taste burnt but then on the other hand, neither of us are super impressed with the overall taste.  It was ok but nothing GREAT.  Oh, well.  I put it in 3 Tupperware containers to carry home.  By now, it is too late to eat dinner, so we save it for tomorrow.

At 10am we get up and decide to have Sausage and Corn Chowder for breakfast.  We topped it with some cheese.  OH MY GOSH!  It was SO GOOD!  I don't know, but when my mom and I tasted it, maybe the flavors hadn't finished meshing together.  Or maybe the cheese just brought it all together.  But it was so good.  One of the kids had 3 cups full.  All of the other kids loved it too.  Amber and I were impressed.  Gladys, thought it was too spicy (told ya).  But, we had it for lunch (around 3pm) and then again for dinner.  I took the very last of it Monday to work for lunch!  Yummy!  It is definitely on our list to cook again.

I am making a promise to myself to cook more.  I love to cook.  I love to bake.  I don't want to loose what little skills I have.  I want to be a great cook.  I will keep working at it.

Oh, P.S.  somewhere in the boiling and not boiling of the potatoes, I took out the cake.  It was perfect.  We iced half of it with fudge frosting.  The other half we put cool-whip on.  I don't know which one I liked better.  They both had such a different taste to them - but the chocolate chips worked perfectly!

Happy Cooking Everyone!

Homecoming

This will be short and sweet.  (As I type, I am thinking yeah - right!)

So, Goddard won thier Homecoming Game against Carlsbad.  Score was 18 to 13.  Here are some of the pictures that were taken.  I was hoping to get a few other ones from K'Lynn's mom - but here is what I have:

 This picture was taken on Friday at school (obviously).  But she made his mum.  It was almost as big as hers.  Cute.

Brennen & K'Lynn Homecoming 2014

This was them before the dance.  She couldn't wear her mum because there was nowhere to place it.  I tried to get Brenn to dress up - but he likes his "Swag" his style.  

So, pictures weren't great but you get the jist.  They went to the dance and they had a GREAT time.  

Man - That kid is TALL!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. 

Is it Friday Yet?

This week has gone on for so long.  I don't honestly even remember the beginning of the week.  I sat at my desk first thing this morning and looked through my planner to make sure I had accomplished the things I had set out to accomplish this week.

There were a lot of things this week at work I really needed to get done.  I did get through some of them and others I am still working on.  Most of my week was taken up by trainings.  I had an AWMD training on Monday.  For those of you who don't know (which is probably everyone but me) it is Assisting With Medication Delivery.  Basically, how to help people take their medication.  We have to get re-certified every year.  On Wednesday and Thursday, I took my 2 day Person Centered Planning course.  In this class we learn alot about how to write the Plans for each individual's service.  These plans are specifically tailored to each person individually.  I have been reading plans for the last 10years but I have only started writing them since May.  (Looking back at the ones I have written, I did pretty good.  Especially considering that I didn't have any training on how to actually do it.) But now, I know the hows and whys and I have 2 plans sitting on my desk waiting to be written.   So, I am a little anxious to start working on them and to see how they come out.  The wording in these plans is pretty specific and has to be finessed a certain way.    So, what did I do the rest of the week?  On Tuesday I held the 2 meetings for those 2 plans that sit on my desk.  So, as you can probably guess, I have some catching up to do from all of the other stuff that didn't get done.

What did I do in my spare time?  HOMECOMING.  Well, not actually homecoming, but...on my lunch breaks I shopped for homecoming, visited flower shops for homecoming, made little decorations for the mum, made arraignments for this weekend, you know....HOMECOMING.

So, last night the mum was finished and then this morning it was delivered to 2 excited teenagers.  We will see what the rest of the weekend brings.

Here is a picture of the mum (without the date)....

 The pictures really don't do it justice.  It came out really nice.  

Their theme for homecoming (I never knew there was a theme to homecoming besides school spirit) is Super Heroes.  So, Brennen wanted to put an Iron Man on there somewhere.  So, he is a very blurry picture of that.

Here is a very blurry picture of some of the homemade decorations on it.  Brennen's date is on the Color Guard at school and so I made several little flags to incorporate through out the mum (just to kinda personalize and capture a little of her in it).

But I will post more pictures as the weekend goes.  So, I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I am going to stay at the office and hopefully crank out a few more things before a meeting at 2; then picking up Brenn at 4; the game at 7; teenage stuff after that  and finally bed probably about 2am.  

My Ramblings

I always find that there is always so much I COULD blog about but never do.  Then I read some blogs where people just blog about NOTHING everyday.  I really want to find a happy medium.  So, here is what is going on with us:

Really, we are quite boring.  But Brennen does have a date to homecoming this year (in 10 days).  I met her this last weekend and she seems very nice.  So, now the search is on for a Homecoming Mum and Garder.  I would have loved to make them but it is such short notice and although I could probably do it, it would be a lot of stress.  So, I have opted out of making them.  But now on to the hunt for someone else to make them without breaking me (ha ha).

We spent part of this past weekend learning a new card game with Mom & Scotty.  We played 5 Crowns (thanks to Carla and Nik).  It went well.  I enjoyed the game.  I really enjoy spending time with them on the weekends.  It is relaxing to me.

There is something in the air here - I feel flu like but not really SICK.  I don't know what that is - but I don't like it.  Over the last 3 days or so I have been fighting headaches.  I don't know if I am coming down with something or what.

Brennen is doing well.  He had pretty good grades (no D's) on his latest grade report.  So, we will continue to keep an eye and make sure that those don't slide back down.  He has kinda gotten a taste of "social life" and so I am hoping that it will be an encouragement for him to stay on top of things.


Ok, well that is all for now.  I am now off to find or make a mum!  I will let you know how it turns out.  I know I said in an earlier paragraph that I am not going to make it - but of course, I got on Pinterest and am just overloaded with ideas of how I could totally do it.  - I keep thinking about it and then throwing the idea in the trash.  But then here it comes CREEPING again.

I wish I had pictures to put on here but I don't.  Guess I could take a "selfie" and post it but I am totally not going to do that.  (Maybe tomorrow).