Ignore this post mom. :)

Dearest Jeromy Shepherd,



Love,
Melia's best friend

I'm a millionaire!

A few years ago... 2 or 3 maybe, my niece Lily sent me a dollar bill. She was 8 or 9 and my sister told me that a dollar from Lily was serious business. She's a huge saver and the fact that she felt it in her heart to send it to me was tugging on my heart strings. This wasn't for my birthday or anything at all, it was just a card from my niece with a dollar in it. What a sweetie.
So, what I did was write her name on it and put it on my fridge and it's been there since the day I got it. When people visit me and see it they always ask me about it and it gives me a minute to brag about her and what a sweetheart she is.
Now, most of you know that my husband is in the military and I'm a disabled housewife. We're not rich. We're not even close to rich. We have a nice roof over our head, reliable transportation, food on the table and my pets are all fed and happy. We both have what we'd like to have within reason and please don't misunderstand, we're not lacking for anything and both of us are happy.
That being said sometimes when the checking account is running low or an unexpected bill rolls in and I'm a little stressed I can always stop and look at the dollar bill on my fridge and know that I have the equivalent of a million dollars in the eyes of a little girl stuck on my fridge with a little magnet. It always seems to ease my mind. My sister has done a marvelous job raising Lily and all of her other children and I'm blessed to be able to call them family. :)

Quagmire's Weekend

Quagmire gave us a little scare over the weekend. By "little" I mean HUGE.
Saturday started off pretty normal. I made breakfast for Gary and I and saved 1/2 an egg for Quagmire to eat with his breakfast. Around 1:30 he had his lunch. I was going in around 5pm to feed him his dinner and noticed he had gotten sick in the living room. It was just all his dry food lunch. Gary went to check on him (love on him and make sure he was OK) and I was cleaning the carpet and all I remember is Gary calling out Quagmire's name pretty frantically. So I look over and I see Quagmire trying to walk but his front legs wouldn't move and then his back legs gave out so *I* of course start to panic and then I don't remember HOW he got to me .. maybe Gary carried him but he was next to me leaning on the wall shaking ... so Gary is running around getting his shoes on and getting the leash out and I'm running around throwing clothes on and calling the vet just to remember they close at 3 on Saturdays and Sundays.
So, we pile in the car and head out to the ER vet. About 3 miles down the road Quagmire seemed to have snapped out of this "seizure" of sorts and was just panting (hot car) and looking pretty tired. We decided, having dealt with the ER Vet before, we'd honestly rather wait to take him to his own vet in the morning since he seemed to have come around and was doing OK (pupils not dilated and responding etc...).
When we got home Quagmire drank a bunch of water and got sick again... all I can think is it's the pancreatitis all over again.
After that we did tablespoons of water at a time and 2 tablespoons of some rice and corn, all of which he handled just fine.
After a crappy night of sleeping and waking up all the time to check on him, we woke up early today to be at the vet by 8am. Quagmire was as hyper as could be. His nose was MUCH cooler than it was the day before. He really just wanted us to get up and give him his breakfast like we do every morning. We skipped it and headed to the vet. He had NO fever, his heart sounded fine and his pupils were fine. They had just done his blood work 2 weeks ago so they didn't want to do any more quite yet. They don't really KNOW what's going on. It's possible that his valley fever (while getting better) has settled in his nervous system or that he's developing epilepsy or something. Really, we just need to keep an eye on him. If it happens again they'll want to do some sort of an MRI on him or something. They changed up his valley fever meds to a higher dose of fluconazole which enters the nervous system (his other medication didn't).
He left the vet a happy puppy and they only charged me HALF of what they said they were going to charge me so I left a very relieved mom. We've been monitoring his water intake all day to make sure he doesn't gorge himself and get sick.
Tomorrow I have to run errands all day and I'm really nervous about leaving him home alone but I think he's doing fine now. I just won't leave an endless supply of water out for him. Just enough to keep him from dehydrating.

So yeah, that was our weekend scare with Quagmire, my little problem child.

Yay!

One more reason why I love my mailman(lady). She brings me fun things in the mail!

I was at Amazon the other day looking for one of these... While I was in there I went ahead and ordered my shiny new pizza wheel. I go through pizza cutters like they're going out of style. Wheels are always falling off, so I was whining about it on Facebook one night and Donna recommended the Pizza Wheel. Well, it was sitting in my box when I checked the mail today and I can't wait to make pizza this week. It was super cheap and looks really sturdy. I'm going to be HIGHLY disappointed if this thing falls apart too. I also picked up this cookbook that must have been sitting in my shopping cart for a LONG time because I haven't been on Amazon in forever. I'm not too sure about it because it seems to use a lot of short-cut ingredients but I'm sure I can find one or two things in there that taste good and for $10 that's a steal. With Mr. Pickypants as a husband that's going to be a challenge.
Over all though it's been a nice weekend.
Yesterday morning (Saturday) I got up bright and early and headed out to downtown Phoenix for a Beauty Control class. Sandra is a consultant and signed me up as a seller. I have no intentions of ever selling but it's a sweet discount and if I went to this class I got a $99 microdermabrasion kit for FREE. Then Gary and I went out to eat at The Parlor. The Parlor is a swanky pizza joint in Tempe. We both ended up eating one of their fantastic salads instead. Mom, next time you're out here remind me to take you there. You'd love it. Really good food. THEN after that Gary and I headed to Melia's house to hang out with her and Riley. Hadn't planned on staying all that long. I just needed to drop something off but they're such great company it ended up being a while. I took advantage of Melia's great photo taking skills and had her snap a few pictures of me and Gary. She got some with her totally fabulous camera which I don't have yet (no hurry lady!!) and I had her take one with my camera so that I could put it on Facebook/Flickr and HERE!
I love it. I hate pictures of me but as far as they go this one turned out great in my opinion. We haven't had pictures taken of each other since .. December '02 (and it was horrible) and then a few here and there with my arm stretched out as far as I could get it.. you know those kind. I saw the ones she took and they're fantastic. I can't wait to get them to print them out and put them in frames! :)

That's enough rambling for one day. My goal is to update with something other than recipes at least once a week. This one has been excruciating because I spilled Pepsi on my keyboard this morning and as it dries my keys are getting stickier and stickier. It might be time to nag that handsome man up there for a new one.. *hint hint*
I bought him a really really nice one for our anniversary last year (the craptastic one) and so I think it's my turn right?!?!

Meet Jack

This is Jack (short for Jackson). He's the newest member of our little furry family. A few months ago my best friend Sandra's dog had puppies and although I told myself I WOULD NOT take one when I met this little guy I couldn't resist, and at the time I really needed something to cheer me up.
He's about 10 weeks old in this picture and about 15 weeks old now. He's growing like a weed!
We still have his brother, JD. JD was supposed to be a present for Melia and we're bummed out about it but her landlords aren't too happy about her having a puppy so I'm currently looking for a home for JD. I THINK I have one lined up but until I get the money in my hands I'm not holding my breath and unfortunately if the man doesn't get back to me soon I'm going to have to bring him to the No-Kill shelter. He will make a great pet for someone I'm sure but he's just too much for me to handle, especially already having 2 cats and 2 other dogs.
It took a little bit for Quagmire to warm up to them but he's hanging in there. He's not quite sure how to play with them because he's been an only dog for so long so he kinda just stands there and barks at them while they're rolling around on the floor. Right now having both puppies they entertain themselves so I'm hoping when JD is gone Jack can find his place in the family and that him and Quagmire become good friends.
So yes, he's my newest fur-baby and I just love him to death. (Gary is even falling for him, although he won't admit it! LOL).

Yeah Lisa, I said RUMP ROAST!

The rump roast recipe I used yesterday turned out DELICIOUS so as promised here is what I did.

First off, it's very important to use a rump roast or the texture is just not going to be the same. They're a little more pricey than a pot roast so yeah. I used a 2.75 lb one for just Gary and I and there was enough left over for leftovers for a person or 2.

In a small bowl mix the following:
1/2 Tablespoon of black pepper
1 Tablespoon of paprika
2 teaspoons of chili powder
1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
1/4 teaspoon of mustard powder

Rub it all over the rump roast and throw it in your crock pot with 1/2 a cup of water.
Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. (I did 8 hours with the size that I had and it was perfect)

When it's done you have a delicious rump roast. Strain out the juices and you have a great Au Jus. :)

Enjoy!!!

(sorry, no pics this time)

It's summer time: Pedicures and Cooking!

So, once again it got pretty dusty in here but it's been a pretty ... traumatic year to say the least.
By now most of you know that Gary asked for a divorce last August and after putting me through absolute hell for the better part of 8 months he decided that he really wants to work things out and I've decided that I'm willing to do this (again) but this will be the last time. Obviously there are a lot of stories and details that I'm leaving out but I'd rather just move on. :)

I have a new pain doctor. I started seeing him about 2 months ago for my fibro and I'm in love with him. He told me that the hip pain and the lower back pain that I have is NOT related to my fibro but .. well he explained with a bunch of medical jargon and talked so fast I barely remember what it was but it boils down to the fact that a few injections in my hips (every 3 to 6 months) and in my back (ever 12 to 18 months) will wipe the pain out. So far I've had the hip ones done and he's right. It's amazing. I"m having the back ones done in about an hour and I'm looking forward to being able to sit or stand for long periods of time without the dull ache I always have in my back.

I had a chest Xray in December to clear me for the surgery I had then (tubes tied and a cyst removed). During the xray my doctor found some lung "nodules". She went ahead and cleared me for the surgery but wanted a follow up Chest CT 3 months later. It appears they are growing. She isn't 100% sure that they are growing or if this CT was at a slightly different angle. I panicked from the initial phone call til I actually saw her a few days ago. She isn't too worried and said she'll deal with a follow up CT in 3 months (July) and we'll go from there.

As far as all my health goes I think that's it for now.

So, I've pretty much been busy hanging out with my best friends/sisters Melia and Sandra. Taking care of the house and Gary and the zoo we have acquired here (2 new puppies, however one of them is leaving soon). Playing WoW in my downtime and a little bit of reading. Also a LOT of cooking.
I'm trying a new rump roast recipe tonight and if it doesn't turn out like absolute dog poo then I'll post it tomorrow!

Love you guys and thanks for being patient and understanding with me. :)