Weekend Recovery

There were so many things I should have done this weekend. More of the house needed to be cleaned. The winter decorations in the bathroom needed to be taken down (though, Mother Nature made them seem not SOOO out of place). We need some basic groceries in the house (got milk?). Car needs inspected. Work could have been made up. All of these things could have made up my Friday Plans/To-Do list.

Instead, I recovered. I haven't posted the entire weeklong saga of B and the pulmonary embolism and the prolonged hospital stay. It's half typed out, just waiting to be finished. Maybe I'll do that later today. But, bottom line was, after the week and half we had, I, we, needed to recover.

I slept in both days (when did 9:00 am become "sleeping in"? must be that aging thing)--even the pups didn't feel the need to get up early, which is very unusual for them. Sleeping in, I think, I was the biggest thing for me. I was exhausted--mentally, physically, emotionally. I needed some long, uninterrupted, restful sleep.

Before I continue, I here are pictures of the babies from this weekend. They are very upset that they have only made blog appearances once before.








Dash                    

Raspy

I did some shopping. Bought myself a shiney new 20" monitor (that would be a computer monitor, Scott--hehe) that not only makes personal use of the home computer so much better than the old, clunky monitor, but will also make working from home soooo much easier. Also went shopping for our goddaughter's 6th birthday. Emmy's daddy said she is into play makeup and dolls. I sooo wanted to get her some play makeup because loved that stuff when I was her age. [Tangent:  When I was about  her age, maybe a little older, I love makeup and playing with hair. At that age, I was still an only child when with my mom and stepdad, so not always someone around to play with. So, my stepdad, God bless him, let me play with his hair. Now, I NEVER put makeup on him, but he did let me brush his hair and put hair clips in his hair. Thinking back, I am not sure how the heck I got away with that!] Back to Emmy. So, I went to Target in search of play makeup. None to be found. So, I got her a really cute doll that looks just a little like her.

Saturday, we went to Emmy's birthday party and to eat with Scotty P. again. Emmy's party was so much fun. We hadn't seen her in awhile, so that was great. B also got to catch up with some old friends. And by old friends, I mean, these guys have know each other since birth--almost literally in some of the cases.

Adam, B, Scott, Ben, Ritchie


Ritchie is B's oldest friend in the world--quite literally. Ritchie is exactly 9 months to the day older than B. They grew up across the street together and 37 years later are still great friends. Adam is Ritchie's younger brother, so B's known Adam his whole life. Ben is another neighborhood friend. Scotty P., as previously, mentioned is the best friend. He and B met back when they worked at Oshman's 15 years ago. Scotty was quickly just one of the guys.

Anyway, it was so much fun for the guys to see each other and catch up after all these years. Of course, we see and talk to Scott practically everyday and we see Ritchie on a regular basis too. But, Adam, we only get to see a few times a year, so it was great to finally meet his wife and his kiddos. Ben actually came up to the hospital to see B, but B was so out of it, he barely even remembered! And it was so much fun watching Emmy open presents and play with her cousins and friends. I am SO glad we were able to go to the party.

Emmy trying on a new outfit from Grandma. Isn't she the cutest?

Emmy playing with her Daddy.

Today is Sunday and my Sunday is usually very packed with grocery shopping and laundry and ironing and just getting ready for the week. So far, I have slept in, put ribs in the slow cooker for dinner, watched a movie with B, and not much else. I will do some ironing because I HATE doing that on weeknights and I should at least go buy some milk--it just feels weird to have no milk in the house.

But, I really think this the way I needed to spend this weekend. I needed the rest and I needed to spend some real time with my husband. I think I will be a much better person for it later this week!

Happy Sunday!
A

Things I Love Thursday: Mexican Food

So, I still have the whole account of B's ordeal with the pulmonary embolism to post. It is half typed out, but it's long and a lot to get out, so I'm still processing. In the meantime, I'm going to try to keep up with my weekly posts, meaning today is Things I Love Thursday.

I love Mexican food. LLLLLOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEE Mexican food. I could eat Mexican food every meal, every day, no question. There is very little about Mexican food I don't love. I used to not be so much of a hot and spicy kinda girl, but over the years, I have developed a tolerance. I still can't, say, eat a pepper or even just a slice of a jalapeno, but I don't think that makes me any lesser of a Mexican food lover.

Now, I suppose here is where I should point out that when I say Mexican food, I mean Tex-Mex. I'm a Texas girl--born, raised, and never left. I have been outside of Texas and tried Mexican food outside of Texas. It sucks. I don't even know what it is that makes Tex-Mex so much better, but it is. The only Mexican food outside of Tex-Mex that doesn't suck is authentic Mexican food. Living in Texas, you can find that and I have been to Mexico. The meats are different in authentic and often the dishes themselves, but there is something about eating authentic that makes it good even if it is not what you are used to.

So, my very favorite thing to eat at a Mexican food place and usually the thing I order the first time I try a new place is Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas. I love them. If my older brother was reading this, he would take this time to tease me about not liking sour cream. At some point when we were young children, I turned down sour cream on tacos claiming to not like it. While I do remember this incident, I have absolutely no idea why I said it because I do not ever remember a time in my life that I didn't love sour cream. What's not to love? And that is why I love the Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas.

And here is where I would like to discuss enchiladas for a moment. I'm a bit of a cooker myself. Due to my love of chicken enchiladas and B's love of, well, all enchiladas, I have tried my hand at them. My biggest complaint about recipes I see for enchiladas is that the majority call for flour tortillas. Enchiladas are NOT made with flour tortillas. Burritos are made with flour tortillas. You put fajita meat on flour tortillas. You can even make soft tacos out of flour tortillas. Enchiladas, however, are made with corn tortillas. Yummy, slightly fried corn tortillas.

Now that we have that cleared up, I need to tell you why I love Mexican food today.

Today, I had dinner at El Paseo. As you have probably gathered, I have eaten at a lot of Mexican food places in my life. And there are other places that I also love (Mexican Inn--the original locations, not the franchised locations--is a family tradition). But, no other place in many years has come close to rivaling El Paseo when I want real, down home, authentic Mexican/Tex-Mex.

B has been eating there with family for years. His late brother, Johnny, worked there for years. For some reason known only to him, B waited well over a year to share this place with me. I will never forgive him for that year or so I lost. We used to live minutes from the Fort Worth location, which is actually the only location I've been to. When we lived there, I could pretty much convince him to take me anytime I wanted. Now, we live over 30 minutes away, so it's a bit more of a decision if we want to go. But, it's also less than 10 minutes from my in-laws' house, so I have NO problem ever visiting them (I have no problem visiting them anyway; I love my in-laws) because even if B wasn't planning on taking me, odds of my father-in-law taking are pretty good. My father-in-law loves this place as much as I do. We are obsessed with the chips and salsa. We get our own basket, just the two of us. They have to refill it often.

Anyway, our best friend, Scotty P., took us to dinner tonight because B had been craving some Mexican food while in the hospital and, well, we love the place. So, we made the 30 minute trip out there and were not disappointed. In case any of you locals would ever like to try it, the dishes we got tonight (and that we get pretty much every time) were:

Steak Fajitas (Scott) 


Steak a la Mexicana (B)


Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas (A)

Soooo yummy!!! I love the fajitas. Really awesome steak. But, B's dish is their specialty and so worth the extra wait to cook. The steak is absolutely perfect and sooo different from the fajitas. And the SCCE are, hands down, my favorite of any other restaurant.

I need to say here that when I have mentioned my love of El Paseo to others in the past, I have received bad reactions. Other people--reasonable people whose tastes I usually agree with--have said they do not like El Paseo. However, these people have not been to the location I go to. Perhaps there are differences; I don't know. All I know is, the Fort Worth location is so good that I have been known to say I could just stand in the entry way and smell the air!

Happy Thursday!

A

Wordless Wednesday (a day late): Discharged!

Weekend Goals/Projects/Plans

So, I think Friday's blogs are going to be all about things I want to get done on weekend. Not the silly mundane stuff like house cleaning and laundry and grocery shopping. The bigger things--home improvement projects, big organization projects, cooking/baking projects, etc. Sound boring? It probably will be, but I just feel like putting things out there.

This weekend will, of course, be a bit different because it is certainly not a normal weekend.

I'm breaking my first rule by putting house cleaning on this list. But, the house was already in need of a good cleaning after a couple of weeks of overtime at work, which causes me to neglect the house a bit. And, now, I've barely been home in three days and, frankly, it's getting a bit disgusting. I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I can actually see layers of dust. Blech.

So,

• House cleaning
• Rest
• Learn more about Pulmonary Embolisms and treatment
• Learn how the heck I'm going to feed B with some of these dietary parameters (seriously, I'm going to kill the guy trying to keep up with servings of foods he should and shouldn't eat).
• Get the full account of what we've been through with Bill this past week written up in a blog post so it's just "out there."

There are a few other things I'd like to do, but between trying to get some rest and spending time with the munchkins and spending time at the hospital, I'm not going to set my sights to high.

A

Things I Love Thursday: My People

"Things I Love Thursday" is supposed to be my own little version of Oprah's Favorite Things--except I won't give anything away and nobody really cares what I love. But, my blog, my perogative!

Anyway, the intent is supposed to be to talk about things I love to do, things I like to read, watch, buy, eat, listen to, etc. But, like "Wordless Wednesday," it just so happens that the first post has to sort of take a different feel given what's going on this week. I'm not going to go into the full story right now, though I will post it later. Short story is B is in the hospital with blood clots in his lung. So, my head and heart are in a very different place right now than usual.

With that being said, the things I love this week are "my people." First, don't give me any crap about people things. You get what I mean. I've been thinking about this for the past few hours, batting around how I would word this: "my friends," "kind-hearted people." I just couldn't quite figure it out until I actually typed out the title. Kind-hearted people was too general. Friends didn't quite encompass everybody and, more importnantly, it didn't quite describe how I feel about the people I'm referring to.

We are very lucky to have so many people in our lives who genuinely care about us. Though I've always known these people care and are true friends, you really see when something like this happens what people are really about. Who will offer to do/help with ANYTHING while you are trying to worry about your husband getting into a real hospital room and getting his medication knowing that you are probably not doing thing for yourself like eating? Who will offer to take care of your beloved doggies? Who will just call to check on you and ask for updates or simply send good thoughts and prayers?

I am literally going to list those people. Mom, Mom, Scott, Julie, Cris, John, Terri, Ritchie, Jamey, Kelly, Marcos, Bernie, Jerry, Dina, Judy, Nora, Ginger, Cobi, Alex, Kyle, Angela, Angela, Melissa, Carol, Melanie, Darren.

I have no doubt there are others, but these people have let me have meltdowns, called or texted for updates, emailed a sister who had been though the same thing to give me some information and insight, came to visit, bought funny gifts, brought me food and took care of my doggies and stayed late to walk me to my car, emailed to tell me they were praying for me, offered prayers through a social networking website to someone they haven't seen since high school and her husband they've never met, offered their heartfelt prayers and good thoughts, took care of loose ends at work, took on full responsiblity of planning an event.

All of these things seem so little, but when you are dealing with so much, these things are huge. These things make the people who are "just friends" so much more. They are extended family. They are "my people." They are the people I can count on, the people I can call.

So, they are what I love today. I highly recommend everybody get their own people!

A

Wordless Wednesday: It's All About Bill Today

Taking it on Tuesday: Hey! Look! I'm Updating the Blog!

I don't even know if anybody even checks to see if this blog gets updated anymore. Doesn't matter, it's one of my new goals. Blogging. I started this blog a year and a half ago and have managed approximately 6 blogs since then. But, I've been inspired as of late. I'm a "bloggie." Don't know if that term has ever been coined before, but in case it hasn't, for my purposes it means I'm a lover of blogs. I will at least check out any blog I come across and you would not believe the number of blogs I check out on a daily basis. I should probably use Google Reader to keep up, but I think it's more fun my way. I will try to get my faves listed on here.

So, are you wondering about the first part of this blog title? In an effort to make myself keep up with blogging, I need some type of motivation or goal. So, each day will be a different "theme." I'll explain them as I go along (no, that doesn't mean I haven't figured out what they all are yet; okay, I haven't; whatever).

Tuesdays are going to be "Taking it on Tuesday." What does that mean? What am I taking on? The plan is for it to be something different each week. Sort of challenging myself to try new things or remembering what I loved about things I've done in the past.

This week, I'm taking on my blogs. Yep, that's right, blogs. I do have the two. I'm working on this one first. See the pretty new background? I love it! Super cute. And here is the post. My goal is to keep up with this blog. I don't promise it will always be interesting, but it's more of an outlet for me. I hope to give B his own day, but we'll have to see about his motivation. Oh, and that second blog, my cooking blog, is next. Be sure to check it out if you haven't already. While I haven't updated it in a while either, it has lots more posts than this one ever did.

See you tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday (to be explained then because I need to watch Lost).

A