I am in utter love!

 

*233* <---that is what the gastro`s scale says


   I am in love for a couple reasons and one of them is not that my Zyrtec is working against the allergens. not!
 First lets talk about these huge pinwheels that I bought the other day. I bought four of them, all the patterns, at 5 below. They were $4 a piece. Yes, I spent $16 plus tax on pinwheels. But they are amazing and they make me happy! 

 Wednesday I got a new phone! Yay! iPhone! Yay! It is not the latest but it is fresh, new and mine. My Samsung was limping so she had to go. Easy transition cause I am used to the iPad.
  Kid #1 got me hooked up with Snapchat. I actually kind of like it. I follow this guy called Cian Twomey. I also follow him on FB and YouTube. Dont judge. I am one of them. He is hilariously funny!

 So I love me some Snapchat. Give it a try and have some fun with it. I wanted to share a widget on here with my snap story but I couldnt figure it out. But I did add my Instagram. I do that almost every day so you can see that at least. Another peek into my soul. It is over there <---- on the left. I also wanted to share a new app I heard about. It is called Couch to 5k. It is a trainer. I have to lay on the couch and fiddle with it. You can find it in your app store on your phone. I want to step up my walking and this might help.

  I am busy cooking and cleaning today. Tonight I am making Rocky Point Clam Cakes with corn on cob, salad, and possibly tater tots. These fritters aka cakes are tha bomb. They taste better then all the local clam places around here. They are so tasty that you could eat them naked...the food is naked. Get your mind out of the gutter. Unless that is your fancy. 

I will be making tartar sauce though cause that has to happen to. I also have a soup in progress cause Kid #1 is over tired from over working. I will post the recipe but I did tweak it. It is Chicken, Lentils, and Rice Soup. 
The changes that I made were a teaspoon of grated ginger, 3 cloves of minced garlic, no mushrooms, a can of no salt diced tomato, low salt chicken broth, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, and 2 bay leaves. I added about 6-7 cups of water on top of the broth. The rice and lentils will soak up with water so you may have to add more.

  I went to the gastro. He is worried that the cdiff is getting a little aggressive. I had to send out a *sample* and I started up Flagyl today. Yuck. I hate that shit. He asked if it makes me nauseated. I cant answer that. When I took it the first time, I was very very sick already. So this will be a new sensation. I am already nauseated, in pain in colon, and have to force to eat.  Hopefully this stuff passes quickly and I dont get a luxury stay at the hospital again.

   Stopped at the pharmacy to pick up the Flaaaaaa-gyl and the pharmacist wanted to have an in depth convo with me about c-diff. He even asked me if I had the time to chat. He had been reading and listening to podcasts. He wants to know more about it because more people are coming in with it. He wants to order different probiotics and I will be the Guinea pig. Not for free, mind you, but he is trying to help. Then he tells me that he wants to help because he heard several times that the longer you have c-diff, or colonization, or multiple reoccurrences..you could end up with slow motility and possible hardening/scarring of the colon.  Like dammit, I came in there with a good mood. He tanked that real quick. It is good to know though. I always want to be informed. 

That is about it. I am gonna poke around to see what i am gonna eat for lunch and maybe take a nap.

Update: As I was stirring the soup, it looked like it needed a few things. I added two chopped potatoes and the last of the frozen spinach which was probably more then a 1/2 cup. I do that. I follow a recipe and then I just twist it around until it is unrecognizable. 

Spoonie soup

Sucks is: When you have a bunch of ailments but you don't really know which one is making you feel like shit today.

   I need to call the gastro dr but I want to see if this too shall pass. So far, no bueno. I did take a 1/4 tab of the diamox and I don't feel dizzy anymore. The leaves are birthing and my allergies are in full force. Oh well. It is life.

  Every time I make a pot or crockpot of soup, I freeze some. I have a large sleeve of those plastic chinese soup containers with lids that a chef friend gave me. Usually a big crockpot of soup, stew, or chili will yield me dinner plus two-three of those containers. I write what it is on a post it, and tape it to the lid. In the deep freezer they go. Then when I feel like shit, I can heat up some soup. I take the lid off, defrost microwave for two rounds of 4 minutes each. Then it is easy to slide out of container into a little soup pot with a lid. It is the perfect Spoonie lunch or dinner.

   It was a Chicken Kale soup. Into the crockpot, I dumped 1 small chopped onion, 2 chopped carrots or a handful of chopped baby carrots, 3 cloves of peeled garlic whole, all the breast and thigh meat (chopped) from a rotisserie chicken, container of low sodium chicken broth, 2 low sodium chicken bouillon, 1 can of tomato paste, garlic powder, thyme, black pepper and salt to taste. I pour about 4 cups of water to cover. Then topped it with 3 cups of chopped kale. I cooked it on low for 4 hours. I added a cup of ditalini pasta to cook for 1 hour more.

 You could add more veggies if you like. Sometimes I will put corn or peas or cut up tomatoes. The kale makes to soup nice and murky.


  I made that about a month ago. I felt like crap today (still do) but I had something to eat! When I am feeling  good, I should do a bunch of soups at once and freeze them up.

  The phone comes by Fedex today. I think I will patiently wait outside while I do yard work.

Have a great Wednesday!

Svelte is the way to be

Dovima

*231*

   It will hard to be positive with this post. The only thing good I can say about my two endoscopies is that he didnt see anything that would make him think cancer. Which I am thankful for. I was told as per procedure, I have to wait for the card to come in the mail with my results. That will either be Friday-Monday. He wants to see me. He said to call after I get the card to make appointment so we can talk. Yup.
 The nurse that was attending me was reading the instructions and such and told me what his initial findings were. It said ulcerative esophagitis and colitis. I stopped her. Do you mean colitis as in inflammatory bowel diseases? She gave me a look and said to wait for the biopsy results. He took biospies from everywhere. If you have a IBD, the biopsy can tell them so.
  On top of everything else, I have either Crohn`s disease or Ulcerative Colitis. I am thinking it is the CD. I have what you would call Gastroduodenal Crohn`s..I am guessing from my symptoms.
I had a small introduction into it from the Gastro`s np. So I am not totally surprised and I am not freaking out. It is just another nail in my coffin. That is all. For some reason, the cosmo`s want me to suffer. There is not a part on my body that is not suffering. What am I supposed to do? Cry about it? I probably will later.
  But for now I am just going to live my life. And save up for a plastic surgeon cause as I lose weight, the skin will continue to sag. I will only look like Dovima with a body shaper to squish all the excess skin. My two besties were shocked at my appearance. You could read it on their faces. I have dropped some major stomach inches.

  We finally got some snow. Two big storms a week apart. It is a cold and wet wonderland out there. I did slide on my butt while brushing off the car. I ha a good laugh to myself. I was okay. There is going to be 1-2 inches falling every day for the next couple days. And then a major freeze. Ugh.
 Kid #1 turns 27 yrs old on Monday. I am going to make her a cheese cake with strawberry sauce. Her favorite. That is my gift to her. I didnt get a birthday gift this year from anyone so I will do my best to treat them as they have treated me. I will celebrate their day but I wont buy a gift.

 

Arent these gorg? I have to find a place to get river rocks either free or cheap. This has to be done for my house garden. Here is the link if you want to do it too. I could see those all over my raised beds outside. Oh yes, the raised beds are going to happen. That is one thing that is going to happen, the raised beds out front with a cute fence to keep people away, kinda sorta.  I want to be able to go out in my slippers to water and weed!

BRB D.O.G. wants out again...ugh.

I saw this on FB the other day. My Aunt made this once when her family came to visit mine when I was a kid. It is funny the things you remember. I posted it on her wall. She is in her 80s. She and her daughter (my cousin) were laughing. The grand daughter makes it all the time. She passed it down like I will pass down my bon bons.

I really need to find someone or someplace that can help me organize a big binder full of everything they will  need to know when I am not here. Passwords, banking, account numbers, how much things have to be paid and when, recipes. All of it. I have to do it for my own peace of mind.. Wow that got sad real quick...sorry about that.
I have dishes to do and they are screaming to get done. I hope you are having a delightful February so far.