Archive for the Life Category

Surprise visits

By on February 4, 2012

This post is brought to you today because of a Facebook message thread (note: not a public thread) where there was a discussion of someone’s house not being “company ready.” I said “Whatever” followed by “Did I ever tell you about the first 2 visits we got from NLPC?” NLPC = New Life Praise Church = where we go. Anyway, she said, “no, you’ll have to give me those stories! ha!” Now with this in mind, there was some discussion a few days prior about “being real” and “masks” and, well, this is kind of me putting my “ugly” out there.


You can click on the image for the larger size if you just have to go looking for cobwebs. ;)

So this was made Christmas ’07. I think. It’s main purpose is to show the old sectional…for scale. Note that right there in the middle of the floor is a big mess. I decorated for Christmas, but never bothered to put the containers away turning them into a “catch-all” spot. Also notice the dog. That’s Buster as a puppy. His middle name is Deuce because he was always dropping one behind furniture. He is also a big outside dog now. Anyway, a couple of weeks after that Christmas we started attending NLPC.

I’m not sure how long we had been going before we got the visit. One Tuesday night, the dogs started barking, and we heard car doors (plural) outside. One of the Tuesday night visitation teams made a trip to visit us. I know it was Charlie and Sylvia, but I can’t remember who (if anyone) was with them. What I do remember is the sectional was so covered with stuff (laundry, junk, whatever) that you couldn’t sit on it. Oh, and the Christmas stuff was still sitting there in the middle of the room. I was mortified. I am sure everything in the kitchen was dirty and covering all the counters, and, well, my house was a pig stye. And I swore that it would not ever get that bad again just in case we ever got another unannounced visit.

So a few weeks later, dogs bark, car doors slam, and we have visitors again. This time it was Gerald & Bonnie, and Sylvia. Yes, same Sylvia, and guess what? The house was in just as bad a shape as it was before, except that I had put away the Christmas decorations by that time. That was it. They had seen the real us. I don’t think anyone from church has ever been by that the house wasn’t a wreck. It’s not that we don’t both want a clean house, nor do we not know how to keep a clean house. It’s just overwhelming, and it’s easier to let it go.

As an aside, we no longer have the sectional, and we no longer pile laundry up in the living room. We keep those piles in our bedrooms now. LOL

This entry is filed under Confessional, Life, Photos. | 6 Comments

A cookin’ fool

By on February 2, 2012

The DragonLady is at it again. Hopefully for the last time for a few days. That said, I still have a few veggies in the fridge that will need to be cooked or frozen. Actually, I made 2 dishes Monday night, and 2 last night. I called myself done, but there is still some veggies in the fridge that need something done with them. I really hope they will make it until Saturday ’cause I’m tired.

Monday night I made Zesty Lime Shrimp and Avocado Salad and Vegetable Tian. First a confession. I’ve never had any dealings with avocado beyond guacamole (already prepared) and sushi (again, already prepared). So as I started peeling the avocado, I was hit with unexpected sliminess. I had to quickly message the avocado “expert”, Karyn with the question, “Is avocado supposed to be slimy?” She has never had a slimy one, so I tossed that one, and the second one wasn’t quite so bad, but it was still on the soft side. I’m thinking they were just overripe?

Slimy avocado or not, the Zesty Lime Shrimp and Avocado Salad turned out alright:

It’s quite oniony. It would seem as though I saturated myself with onion as that is all I could taste yesterday.

In the meantime, I figured it would probably be a good thing to feed the kids since I bought some chuck steaks just for that purpose. And to be honest, I needed a “main” to go with the Vegetable Tian, which was pretty good, but I couldn’t get it to ring around a squared off dish. So it didn’t look as pretty as the photos in the recipe. Not that I took a photo of the finished dish, just an overflashed bad photo of the serving on my plate.

The taste made up for the presentation, though I sliced a few of the potatoes a bit thick and those didn’t get quite as done as I would like.

Tuesday is run day, so no cooking. Not that there was any running either because 1) I overslept and didn’t have time to pack my gym bag, and 2) I ran over something on the way home that got stuck in one of my tires necessitating me changing the tire. That cost me 45 min, so I would have missed the run anyway.

Last night, though, I went back into the kitchen like a mad woman. Mad because it was day 4 of a headache (which I still have, but I think today’s is weather and not food withdrawl), and I’m ready for the detox to be over and to start feeling great like this healthy, chemical-free diet is supposed to produce. So I started in first on the Quinoa Cakes. I eat quinoa and amaranth for breakfast with bananas, blueberries, and cranberries. I love quinoa, and it’s all kinds of protein & nutrient rich.

Makes a sticky mess of a “batter”:

Made the patties by scooping it out with a 1/4 cup measuring cup per hint in the recipe.

The first batch was iffy because the skillet wasn’t quite hot enough. Nothing sticks to that pan unless you drop something in oil that isn’t all the way hot. FYI…

The second and third batches turned out fine with no sticking, and this stuff is the BOMB!!! I know I said that about the taco salad too. But this is all fried. I love fried.

So finally, I was ready to finish off the last of the recipes I had picked and printed out. Roasted Eggplant Salad with Smoked Almonds and Goat Cheese. Ok, I didn’t have any smoked almonds, nor the desire to turn the almonds I had into smoked almonds, so I used raw almond slivers…because I have way more than I needed for the one recipe that called for almond slivers. I also did not have fresh parsley. I don’t think either of those would have made any difference. However, there wasn’t anything in the ingredients list I didn’t like, and the picture looked appetizing so, I went for it.

Pre-roast:

Post-roast:

Final product:

Not so great. Not bad, and I’ll be able to eat it, but I won’t be making it again. It’s not that good.

This entry is filed under Diet, Life, LinkWhoring. | 6 Comments

Challenged

By on January 30, 2012

Petra sent me a message the other day with a link followed by “Click on ‘the 6 week challenge’.” I groaned like I had just taken a kidney punch because I just knew whatever was in that 6 week challenge was going to hurt in some way. Our Family Eats. I am doing weeks 1-3 together, or cold turkey, as it were. I had quite the headache yesterday, and was sure a Coke would have taken care of it blaming it on MSG withdrawl. But, I took 800 mg ibuprofen and drank a cup of hot tea, and it lessened considerably so perhaps it was just sinus. But back to the topic.

Around the same time as she sent the link, I got sucked into Pinterest. I had managed to avoid it for quite some time, and was quite proud of myself, but, alas, to no avail. I found some interesting recipes on it, and spent half of Sunday cooking. The first thing I tried was Fall-Vegetable and Quinoa Hash with Poached Eggs…minus the poached eggs because DragonLady only eats eggs fried, scrambled, or deviled…and Quinoa Salad with Toasted Almonds making the endeavor an added challenge by cooking from 2 recipes at the same time.

The finished Fall Vegetable and Quinoa Hash:

I want to state for the record, that those were some dinky servings, and is clearly a side with or without a poached egg on top.

The finished Quinoa Salad with Toasted Almonds (still in the pan):

That made more than I was expecting, which was a good thing.

So after church, I remembered that I still hadn’t done laundry, and absolutely had to, so I figured since I was going to be up late washing clothes, I might as well cook up a couple more things. Oh, yeah, because I am cooking ahead so I have food prepared and ready to heat throughout the week that is artificial color, flavor, preservative, and “-ate” free.

Anyway, Karyn had given me a link to Taco Salad, and I was itching to try it. I managed to get absolutely no pictures of it because I apparently cannot do 2 recipes at the same time while I am about half brain-dead. It turned out great though, and I have lunch set for all this week.

Then I started on Wild Rice Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Lemon-Tahini Dressing.

I did take a couple final photos with the whole thing mixed up, but I can’t hold a camera steady after midnight. As I was mixing the dressing together I thought, “This has the potential to taste like crap.” But it actually turned out quite nice, after I added that last half a lemon of juice to it.

So to sum up, hell has frozen over, and I am eating healthy, and as organic as I can. After dropping a load of cash on all those veggies, the hubby said, “You definitely need a garden if you are going to be eating like this.” So I guess I need to get started on that…

This entry is filed under Diet, Life, LinkWhoring, Photos. | 8 Comments

“Preacher’s kid”

By on January 27, 2012

I actually did a small (and lazy) bit of research for this one. And interestingly, what I found on Wikipedia (remember, I said “lazy”), was surprisingly confirming of the correlation I was going to make. But anyway, “preacher’s kids” have always had a bit of a stereotypical reputation. Generally speaking, at least around where I grew up, it was always negative whether the kid was the rebel or the goody-two-shoes. (See what I did there?)

So, anyway, as the link with the creepy painting states, “The existence of these stereotypes is a source of pressure on children of clergy.” The reason being that there are Biblical standards that pastors/elders must uphold in their personal life, and, by familial association, their family as well. As it happens, the standards for a deacon are almost as strict as those of a pastor.

Guess who’s a deacon’s kid…

Guess which stereotype I modeled…

This entry is filed under Life. | 4 Comments

What I run to

By on January 16, 2012

Why? Because it is a post, and this list totally dates me. Yes, I sing many of these at my daughter when she runs with me. :)

Freak Like Me – Sugababes
Round Round – Sugababes
Walking on Sunshine – Katrina & the Waves
Welcome To The Jungle – Guns N’ Roses
Paradise City – Guns N’ Roses
Sweet Child O’ Mine – Guns N’ Roses
Back In Black – AC/DC
You Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC
The Power Of Love – Huey Lewis & The News
Song 2 – Blur
Layla – Derek & The Dominos
China Grove – The Doobie Brothers
Long Train Runnin’ – The Doobie Brothers
Listen To The Music – The Doobie Brothers
Humans Being – Van Halen (Van Hagar)
Love Is a Battlefield – Pat Benatar
Invincible – Pat Benatar
Authority Song – John Mellencamp
Dancing in the Dark – Bruce Springsteen
Glory Days – Bruce Springsteen
The Boys of Summer – Don Henley
Mr. Roboto – Styx
Monkey Wrench – Foo Fighters
Love Shack – The B-52′s
Long Distance Winner – Stevie Nicks
Gold – Stevie Nicks
Light of day – Joan Jett
Go Insane – Lindsey Buckingham
Refugee – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Runnin’ Down a Dream – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Let’s Go Crazy – Prince
1999 – Prince

This entry is filed under Confessional, Humor, Life. | 4 Comments

Coming out of the dark

By on January 5, 2012

If it’s stuck in my head, you get it, too.

Yes, I’m a fan. Or was a fan. Whatever. She can actually sing as opposed to, oh, say, Britney Spears? Haha Regardless, it is totally relevant.

I think I finally bottomed out. I reached a point yesterday morning that I knew I was done…or undone. I sat in traffic with tears streaming, and sent a one word status update to Facebook.

“can’t”

I knew who would see it and know what it meant, and that they would pray…because I couldn’t. I was spent. All my fight was gone. And then I sat at work all morning feeling as though I was going to implode…physically. I had an appointment that afternoon that was going to be ultra super rough in a dark pit because it’s one that every time I have had one it has been utterly draining.

But something happened around the time of the appointment. I didn’t notice it until much later in the afternoon, but when I did it was like, wow. Huh. How about that…

My husband called me right before lunch, and had a totally different tone from what he had that morning. My appointment lasted about half the time estimated, and was the best one ever. And about an hour and a half later, after I had done some research with a co-worker, it hit me. My head felt kind of clear. As I drove home, it was almost surreal at what songs were popping up on shuffle on my iPod. That those particular songs “randomly” played back-to-back could not possibly have been random. Wow. It was like I drank a Coke, only I didn’t have any soda of any kind. But I was cautious. I could wake up with the fog and darkness back.

But it wasn’t there this morning. In fact, once I took a shower and got kind of awake, I could tell there was no fog. I felt normal again for the first time in what seems like forever. Oh, I didn’t, and still don’t, feel all giggly happy (like I got when I drank those glasses of Coke). But there is a distinct peace that’s back. And I learned something other than sometimes I have to learn the same painful lesson over and over.

I have way more pride than I thought.

There were a bunch of individual things I learned about myself, but they all boil down to pride.

James 5:16 (ESV) 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

I had to swallow some of that pride, and admit that I was weak, and that I was having a hard time with some specific problems (circumstances and sins) that I couldn’t/wouldn’t let go of in addition to the depression. Or that caused it. I had to let go of a general distrust of people that I have hung on to like Linus holds onto that blanket for years. Maybe that was the part of the lesson. Regardless, I have no doubt that the prayers of those dear friends carried more weight than mine did. There were a few, but Petra and Molly bore the brunt. Thank you for standing in the gap for me. :hugs:

This entry is filed under Faith, Life. | 3 Comments

Against the wind

By on January 3, 2012

I cannot be held responsible if a Bob Seger song is now stuck in your head.

Party animal that I am, I went running New Year’s Eve around the community where I live. I have a 3.4 mile loop on some back roads where there normally isn’t a lot of traffic, so I can stay on the pavement most of the time. Being a loop, I get to run in every direction at some point, and on the second straight(ish) stretch, I was facing the wind. I was already sucking because I forgot to use my inhaler, but it was made worse trying to run against the wind when I didn’t have much breath left anyway. It wasn’t long before I wanted to just stop.

I started to write this post when I got back home from that run. I got 2 paragraphs written, and then chickened out and deleted it. See, it’s also hard to run while sobbing. I said to a friend something to the effect of “I wonder just how broken I have to be.” Apparently just a bit more. I had a breakdown about 4 weeks or so ago, and I’ve been in the dark pit of depression ever since. Drowning in despair. Angry, and then numb. I’m pretty sure I have cried more in the past week than my whole life. That may or may not be an exaggeration. I’ve prayed, I’ve poured over and through my Bible, I’ve confided in friends who are praying for me, and yet, there is still this overwhelming darkness closed in around me, and I can’t breathe.

But I keep going.

During that run, when I couldn’t breathe, and couldn’t stop crying, I still had to get back home. So I dropped from a run to a walk, and kept going forward.

Yes, I went there. You’re welcome. :)

I am going through the motions. Fake it ’til ya make it. I am full of doubt, and nearly empty of faith. But I know I can’t trust my feelings, well, ever really, but especially now. It’s not my first battle with depression, even though I would call it my worst.

James 1:2-3 New King James Version (NKJV)

2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

I have to be patient, which does not come easy. The light will once again shine into the darkness, and I will keep seeking it…runnin’ on empty, against the wind.

This entry is filed under Confessional, Faith, Life, Trust. | 4 Comments

Breaking

By on December 27, 2011

So I was going to blog yesterday, but I couldn’t get it going. Lots that I wanted to say and pour out, but it was just so heartbreakingly personal that I opted to journal it instead. Yes, that’s right. Pen and paper…and a lot of tears. Oh, and I still don’t have it all out either. See, there is an issue going on that is only going to get worse before it gets better, and the getting better part will be little easier.

My mom has Alzheimer’s. So does one of her brothers and one of their cousins. So did their oldest sister. I’ve seen aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends waste away from cancer, ALS, Parkinson’s, and old age. It’s difficult to watch disease and/or age destroy the body of a loved one whether quickly or slowly. But when the body is being ravaged, deep down (or not so deep down), you can see the end is not so far away. Not so much with Alzheimer’s.

Mom is 79, and except for high blood pressure, she’s healthy as a horse. Her doctor began treating her with medication for Alzheimer’s about 4 years ago, but he said then all it would do would be to delay it. She did really well on it, but this year I have really been noticing the decline again. Her conscious mind is dying much more rapidly than her body. And on good days, she knows it, and hates it. She feared it, and what she feared has come to pass.

My heart breaks. I’m going to lose my Mama before I physically lose her. Oh, I will see her again in heaven, and I take great joy in that. But there is still the pain of loss in the here and now. And my heart also breaks because she so didn’t want this. I think she could have handled any physical ailment, any physical pain, but not the loss of her ability to think and remember…and communicate.

I grieve. I grieve the loss, and I grieve the decisions I will have to make. I grieve that I grieve. I grieve for family who are dealing with the same thing. And I long for the end of the grieving…for no more tears…

This entry is filed under Life. | 8 Comments

Moments of greatness

By on December 12, 2011

I seem to have a predisposition for clumsiness and poor judgement. So consider this a wall of shame of some of my embarrassing moments. There is mostly physical clumsiness involved, but one does involve an incident with the police.

1. 11th grade. One day I was in a hurry at the end of the school day. I had been out on trip that afternoon with the drama club (Thespians for the cultured – lol), and we got back right as school ended. I was rushing because I wanted to ride home with my friend rather than walk home, so I came out of the auditorium at a run, down the stairs, and 3 steps from the bottom…faceplant…in front of the half of the high school that was walking out to the parking lot…now laughing at my clumsy self. Ok, it wasn’t really a faceplant as I was able to keep my face off the sidewalk that I slid across, but I do have a scar on my left hand which hit first and took the brunt of my weight. It was traumatic at 17.

2. This is from college, and it’s not one incident because it happened several times. Whenever I had a class in the “basement” of Main, I seemed to have a class following that one on the 1st floor of Main, requiring traversing up a flight of stairs. I don’t know what it was with that stairwell, but I have fallen up those stairs more times than I can count.

3. Speaking of stairs, when I was in England, I worked on the second floor. One day, I had gone downstairs for a soda and chips, and 4 steps from the top, I tripped. Soda can (unopened) and chip bag (also unopened) went flying into the room (an open bay separated by 5ft cubicle walls), and my upper body landed in a sort of incline push-up position as I was thinking “Please don’t anyone be sitting in that first desk.” As I look to my right, yeah, that was witnessed. They were nice enough to make sure I was ok before they laughed. Did I mention it’s a metal staircase and the fall was very loud?

4. Same stairs, different direction. Heading downstairs with a couple other co-workers, and halfway down, my feet went out from under me. I managed to grab both rails quick enough to catch myself, and pull my arms from my body. Ok, my arms didn’t pull loose, but they hurt bad enough from the save. They were not, however, strong enough to save my pride.

5. Happy birthday. For my daughter’s first birthday, we had photos made, and stopped to eat. We thought it would be cute to have the waitstaff to do the happy birthday thing for her, and it was cute. She looked at them like they were crazy, but we got a kick out of it. We also had a pact (I thought) to never do that to one another. So, fast forward several years…to England. A bunch of us from work decided to do one of the MWR trips to London one night. Just so happened that night was my birthday. I had been very careful not to mention that fact to anyone but the women, because I knew they would have my back. And they kept it quiet, but the hubster did mention it to one of the guys as we picked him and his wife up and dropped our heatherns off with theirs for babysitting. So, here we are sitting down for dinner in some restaurant in London, and the other 2 ladies and I had to go to the bathroom. Yes, we went in a pack. The 4 men kept the table. By desert time, I was leaning toward a certain one, but both our waitress, and a couple of the guys insisted on a different desert, and, well, I was probably pretty toasted by then anyway, and said “Ok, whatever.” Now, let me describe for you, if I can, the room. I’m sure it doubled as a club, and so you had a lower level, and an upper level that surrounded the lower on 3 sides. Being close to Christmas there were several obvious office parties seated at large tables on the lower section. We were seated on the upper level opposite the door against the railing overlooking the lower level. Best seats in the house. And it was happening before I really realized it. At first I didn’t notice that more than just our waitress were serving desert, but as it dawned on me what they were doing, it was waaaay too late to hide as they were making me stand up…as if on a stage…in front of dozens of total English strangers…totally entertained…while I was totally mortified by the waitstaff singing happy birthday to me. And the ring leader of that little bit of fun threatened to do it again later as we waited in another restaurant/bar unless I did tequila shots. Needless to say, I slept the whole way back to base.

6. Speaking of birthdays, about 4 years ago while home visiting my mom, we got up and went to church with her. Now this was the first time in nearly 20 years I had been to a full morning’s service there, and funny enough, it is still the same schedule as it was when I was going 20-something years ago. But anyway, there were a few little details I had forgotten, namely that following the morning devotional prior to being released to Sunday School, the church sings Happy Birthday and/or Happy Anniversary to anyone who has celebrated either in the last week. Did I mention this was my first time there in nearly 20 years? Yeah, so Mom elbowed me, and got the dirty look, which was like pouring gas on a flame. She had backup as my aunt and my cousin on the other side of her joined in and by this time all 3 of them are pointing at me. Yeah, they make you stand up there too. Yes, I was the only one…and mortified yet again.

7. Let me back up to junior high…7th grade. At the risk of being named a total dork, I was able (by the skin of my teeth) to compete in our county’s spelling bee. Same auditorium that I would fall down in front of 4 years later. haha So, I was waiting in the lobby with my parents before, and being bored out of my skull, I was checking every thing out I could while checking the parking lot for the other 2 girls from my school to get there. I walked over to the front doors, and had to get up close to the glass to see out as it was getting dark, and misjudged the distance between my face and the glass totally smacking my forehead hard, and being my head, loud. At least the glass didn’t shatter.

And lets wrap this up since I am getting redundant.

8. Yes, I saved the best for last. Back in the day, while we were dating, the hubster and I went parking. At the worst possible moment (or best depending on your perspective), there was the tapping on the side of the van followed by the voice of a deputy announcing his presence and ordering the driver to exit. He just happened to be notoriously hostile toward certain folks (which included my husband), and so he proceeded to search the vehicle. Thankfully, he spared me from having to come out from behind the curtain, but any cover was blown when his backup showed up…who graduated high school with the hubby, and had quite a nice chat catching up with the hubby while deputy #1 frustratingly found no drugs or alcohol. At least there was no citation and just a “Go find someplace else to park” warning. I still don’t think I can look deputy #2 in the eye without getting completely and totally embarrassed.

This entry is filed under Humor, Life. | 4 Comments

Guilty pleasures

By on December 3, 2011

It was a problem. At some point in high school, my best friend got me hooked on Santa Barbara. No, I am not the soap opera watching type. Sure, I did watch General Hospital for a while as a kid, but that was for Rick Springfield only. Clearly, that was a problem, too, given that I was like 10/11 years old at the time I was watching GH. But, I can remember skipping class in college to watch SB, and then getting angry that the “cliff-hanger” wasn’t resolved for like another week. But I digress.

William Shakespeare. We were supposed to read Romeo and Juliet in 10th grade. I never did. I knew the gist of the story. 12th grade I think we had to read Hamlet in AP English? Honestly, I only read 3 of the however many books we were supposed to read in AP, and 2 of those pissed me off because of stupid endings. Actually, those were the first 2 books, and that’s why I refused to read any more. I did read Job (from the Bible), but didn’t really get it. (Because of the languange.) I still have problems getting through Job and I’ve read it 5 times since in 5 different translations. But, again, I digress. I didn’t understand Shakespeare’s plays, and I didn’t get his sonnets either. Nor did I get (for the most part) any other poetry. Yes, I dabbled a bit with writing poetry when I was 18 and idealistic. Before you ask, read that again: “18 and idealistic.”

Now you are probably thinking, “What is your point?” I know. It’s like the “random” posts with paragraphs instead of numbered one/two liners. There is a connection. See, there was a character in Santa Barbara by the name of Mason Capwell who was played by actor Lane Davies for the majority of the soap’s televised life. Mason quoted Shakespeare…a lot…and well. Teenage me was captivated by it, and developed what I dubbed the “Mason Capwell fantasy.” I was particularly enthralled hearing him quote Sonnet 29:

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

I didn’t get the sonnet then, and I mostly don’t get it now (because I really don’t care), but to hear him speak it… Ah, I wish I could find a copy of it somewhere out there on the interwebs…

This entry is filed under Confessional, Funday Friday, Humor, Life. | 2 Comments

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