A secondary title for this post could have been, "You know you live in the south when......."  A member of my family/slash very good friend had the nerve to go out of town to New England.  God decided to punish them for leaving His country by sending a very strong wind to knock down the biggest, oldest tree in their front yard.  This tree provided the majority of the shade in their front yard and all the shade for their house. It was a Pin Oak of impressive size and girth.  It was a beautiful tree when it was standing and housing birds and squirrels but, laying over on the ground with its root ball standing straight up, it is just a big mess. 



That is my beautiful daughter perched on top of the root ball!


The local utility company came and cut up the tree where it had fallen across the road and kindly stacked it all up in their yard :) Thank you so much! 

I got a text a few days ago from these family members saying that there would be free food and beer for all those who came to help dispose of the tree mess.  Well, OK!  Giant tree! Chainsaws! FREE food! And umm beer?  Most people might shy away from beer drinkers using equipment that requires some what of a steady hand, else it could cut off a limb!  You know a limb - like an arm or something!  But not me.  I was raised a southern girl and have since turned into a southern woman.  We are tough, strong, and possess a sound mind that is not afraid of work (unless it is housework - but that is different).

I put on a pair of blue jeans with a hole in the knee, loaded up all the kids in the van and off we went.  After breakfast we set to work. There was a total of 15 adults and 15 children. We had to take care of the part of the tree that fell in the neighbors yard first.  The neighbor had told them earlier that he was in no rush to have it taken care of, and evidently he wasn't. He stayed in his house the whole time and did not even come out to offer a cup of coffee!  He was probably raised in Vermont or something and probably drinks coffee with sissy stuff like French vanilla creamer.  He probably even believes it is *actually from* France.
I won't sugarcoat it.  It was hard labor.  But I tried my best to do my share and earn my free lunch, just like my daddy taught me.  The beer made its appearance and everyone proved that this family comes with class and ethics, meaning no one got too sloshed to run the chainsaws.  On a side note, my husband suggested we would have a bad future should I choose to imbibe, so I abstained. But that is ok because he looked totally hot running a chainsaw.


My DH in all his hotness...

This was altogether a full body work out.  I have muscles that I did not know existed.    The satisfaction of taking apart this huge tree, branch by branch, and seeing it all in nice piles of brush or stacked wood, was entirely too gratifying.  But it was fun and I did figure out that I am more cut out to do that kind of stuff than I am to clean my house. And I don't feel near as guilty about french fries I ate today!

In September of 2005, my son was born. I can not tell you his birth weight or what his APGAR scores were or whether or not he was born with hair.  He was born to a woman that would later make an excruciating decision about their future. She would change the way both our families looked.  She would make it possible for me to have a son.  It was our miracle, a realisation of our prayers.  It was her sorrow, regret, and longing for a better life for him and her, all mixed up into one bag of emotion. 

My oldest daughters were born in March of 2000 and January of 2005.  They were born into neglect and abuse, to parents who were caught in the throes of addiction and poverty and seemingly could not find their way out before they lost their children to the bad choices they made.  I struggled to hold back my tears as I watched the juvenile court judge strip the birthmom of her parental rights.  When she appealed the decision, it seemed like I held my breath the entire three months that it took for the appellate court to issue the ruling that affirmed the lower court's decision.

I do not ever forget that my opportunity for motherhood came at the tremendous price of someone else's prayers not being answered.

I always wanted to be a mom.  I never wanted anything else.  When I got married at the age of 21, I fully expected to give birth within the first year.  (Frankly, everyone else thought it would be within the first 8 1/2 months seeing as how I married my spouse after knowing him for 17 short days.)  Instead, a month after our first anniversary I found out that we would not ever have children without expensive medical intervention.  Devastated does not begin to touch what I felt.  Eight years later, I adopted my first child, what would be my only son.  A year after that I adopted my two oldest girls. In between the adoptions, I got pregnant without medical help, and delivered my youngest daughter.  I get the pleasure of living the dreams of my childhood while I am still young. When the children are grown, I will pick a new dream, but for now I will just live the dream.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who are mothers and to those of you that, for now, just dream.

A big hunk of beef - 3 to 5 pounds
12 to 15 ounces of hot pepperocini peppers
water or beef broth if needed
3 to 5 tablespoons of Itatlian seasoning
1 medium onion, chopped
3 to 5 cloves of garlic, minced
Crushed red pepper (optional)
plenty of salt and black pepper
Crusty rolls of some kind.

Put beef roast in slow cooker.  Pour in jar of pepperocini peppers, juice and all. Pour in enough beef broth or water to cover meat half way. Put in 1 tablespoon of italian seasoning per pound of meat. Thow in chopped onion.  Put in 1 minced clove of garlic per pound of meat.  If you want it hotter, put in some crushed red pepper.  Finally, sprinkle on plenty of salt and pepper.  Set the crockpot to high, and cook for 6 to 8 hours.  Cook it until it is shredded EASILY with a fork, and then cook slightly past this stage.  Meat that is easily shredded can still be a bit chewy on a sandwich if it is not super tender. 

Taste your broth. It should taste pretty good, if it is a bit bland, add salt. If it is too spicy, add beef broth.  Now, depending on how fatty your beef was, you may have accumulated a bit fat on the top of the broth. You can remove the meat, pour the broth into a bowl and let it rest for 15 minutes.  The fat will be on the top, just skim it off with a spoon if you want too. 

Put the beef on the rolls, and then dip the whole thing into the broth. YUM!!!!  or just place a small bowl of broth beside each plate for everyone to dip their own sandwiches in.

Do not make this recipe harder than it has to be.  None of the measurements have to be exact. :)

April has brought not only showers of rain, but showers of hard times as well.  My son got very sick again the last of March and continued into april.  We spent the first 3 or 4 days of April in LeBonheur in Memphis, another day in our local hospital, and then 8 days at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio.  Not one of the doctors we have seen are able to tell us what is wrong with him.  Up until now, we thought he had Intracranial Hypertension. That has been called into serious doubt.  Up until now, I could tell people, "At least he doesn't have anything that will take his life."  It has crossed my mind, that although whatever illness he has is not likely to kill him, we don't know that for certain anymore, and the uncertainty is heartbreaking. 

I feel like the rug has been pulled out from beneath me, I am wobbly and confused.  Making the smallest decisions can be difficult and tend to take more thought than I care to give them.  I am overwhelmed by otherwise simple tasks.

I have looked over the house and declared on more than one occasion it was a disaster and needed to be cleaned.  I have found that the state of my home is a pretty direct reflection of my state of mind. It seems to big of a task to take on, so I am doing things slow and trying to be easy on myself and my family.  Yesterday, I went to the grocery store and a friend came to visit in the evening. She brought her two youngest kids with her. It was a fabulous distraction. Tonight, we had pizza and I straightened my daughters' hair with a flat iron. 

Maybe tomorrow I will fold the clean laundry or go get my youngest the birthday present we did not get around to getting for.

Tomorrow is the first day of May.  I am lifting my glass to it with this thought, "Bring on the May flowers."

I had to take my son to Columbus, Ohio, to see a neurologist who specializes in his condition.  It is a full eight hour drive on its own, and when you add a five year old on some serious diuretics and a mommy who has a  bladder that acts like a five year old on diuretics to the mix, you take 10 hours to get there. 

I am generally the whiny one who thinks that going through a drive through will be easier and faster rather than packing sandwiches for everyone whenever we go anywhere.  I like a sandwich okay, but cold slices of meat on bread is not my idea of a meal. 

My wonderful cousin made the drive with me.  She wanted to make sure I did not turn into a hysterical, slobbery mess in front of the doctor got all my questions answered.  An added benefit of bringing her along for the ride is that she travels ALL. THE. TIME.  As in she will say she is going to go running with you tomorrow, but then she won't show up because she will actually be in Tim-buck-to, which she won't think about when she makes the offer, even though she is due to leave as soon as she gets back home.....

Anyway, she knows how to eat cheap on the road. Well, not only eat cheap, but eat GOOD!  So, I am here to offer her wisdom mangled by mingled with my own.

• Do not premake the sandwiches.  Keep the bread seperately from the other fixins'.  This way the sandwiches will be fresh and the bread not soggy.
• Bring what you will eat.  If you love PB&J's then bring bread, peanut butter and jelly. 
• Package fresh fruits and veggies, ready to eat in zipper bags, in individual portions, so whoever wants it can just reach in the cooler and get it.
• Bring a cooler! 
• Bring bottled water or other clear drinks.  If the kids spill water it is generally not a big deal to anyone who did not get wet in the process.  (Drinks packaged in pouches or boxes are generally not a good idea because kids tend to squish the liquid out through the straw, trust me on this.)
• Do premake salads and wraps.  Package them as single servings in Ziploc bags.
• Only use brand name zipper bags.  The generic tend to leak.
• Bring plastic forks (for the salads), paper towels, a regular bath towel (for the serious messes), and a box of baby wipes. 
• Bring yogurt in the plastic tubes, string cheese, baggies of cheese crackers, graham crackers, and single serve bags of cookies for easy snacks.

Here is you a couple of ideas for some wraps.
Ceasar Salad Wraps
Tortillas, Flat Out Bread, or some other kind of wrap that you love
Red Pepper, seeded and cut into strips (optional, but I LOVE it!)
Cooked chicken, chopped
Romaine lettuce
Ceasar Salad dressing
Shredded parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Spread some dressing on the wrap.  Top with some lettuce, chicken, pepper strips, parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper.  Do not overfill, go easy on the toppings, otherwise it will be hard to wrap. 
Fold the bottom of the wrap up over the ingredients about an inch or so.  Flip one side over the whole wrap and roll up while using your fingers to tuck in the sides as you go. 

Red Pepper Avocado Wraps
Red Pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
Avocado
Lime juice
Red pepper hummus
Alfalfa sprouts
Baby Spinach
Turkey slices
salt and pepper
Wraps of some kind

Peel the avocado, half and slice it into thin slices. Dip the slices into lime juice.  Spread a nice layer of hummus on the wrap.  Top with avocado, red pepper slices, sprouts, spinach and turkey. Sprinkle on a little salt and pepper.  Again, go easy on the amount of toppings you use.  Wrap up and place in a ziploc bag. 

Now, a quick update on my son; The neuro is questioning the diagnosis of pseudotumor cerebri.  We are to take him off all his medication and see how he does. If he gets better, we will assume the PTC diagnosis was correct but it is gone now and the medicine was keeping him sick.  If he stays the same, we will be doing an arteriogram.  He has had some really good days as of late, so I am really hopeful. At any rate, we have found a wonderful doctor!!

1 package of rigatoni, penne rigate, or other smallish noodle
3 cans of crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup of water
1 tablespoon of italian seasoning
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of pepper
1/2 tsp of onion powder
1/2 tsp of garlic powder
1 pound italian sausage, casings removed
1 package of italian & herb Philly cream cheese
2 to 3 cups of mozzerella cheese

Start heavily salted water boiling for noodles.
Meanwhile, pour tomatoes, water and seasonings in a pot with a lid.  Bring to a wild simmer.  Put a lid on the pot and let it go, just stir it occasionally.
Start browning your italian sausage.  (If you had the time, you could actually break it up and put it raw into the sauce and let it all cook together, but I did not have the time or the inclination last night.)
When the water for the pasta is at a full rolling boil, pour in the noodles.  Cook them for as long as the package says to, minus 1 minute.  :-D  Stir the pasta right after you put it in the pot and once or twice during cooking, but do not stir it everytime you look at the spoon or the pasta.  The last thing pasta needs is for you to be whacking at it with a spoon all the time.
Pour the cooked sausage into the sauce and drain the pasta.
Now that everything is cooked, it is time to assemble.
Get a 9x13 inch baking dish.  Put the pasta in the pan.  Spread the cream cheese over the pasta.  Sprinkle a cup or so of cheese over the cream cheese.  Pour the sauce over this.  Sprinkle on the rest of the mozzerella and put it in the oven.  Turn the oven on to 350.  It will cook as the oven heats up.  You are not making a cake so it doesn't matter if the oven is cold when you put it in there.  When the cheese is melted and starting to brown and the center of the dish is hot, it is done.  You could even put it in the microwave if you wanted to and had a big enough microwave. 
My family loved this!

I am sitting here at 1:30 in the morning at the children's hospital with my son.  Because my son can not sleep and therefore I can not sleep I had nothing else to do, I opened up the trusty laptop and decided to write a blog post. So here it is:  Ten Facts about Your Child and His Hospital Stay

1. The IV will always be placed in the most inconvenient spot. 
2. Your child will complain about being tired, yet refuse to sleep.
3. You will, at some point, decide sleep is for the weak. 
4. When the doctor makes his/her rounds, it will be after your child has finally "got snuggly" and is getting some serious shut eye. 
5. Because you decide to follow the advice of the well wishers, you will try to sleep when your child sleeps.  To do this comfortably, you will remove the most offensive undergarment you have on - the bra.  For whatever reason, this sends out an invitation to all the doctors, residents and med students, to come and visit your room.  If you are anything like me, this will cause you to hunch over to the point you resemble Quasimoto with his arms crossed.  Hospitals rooms are cold.
6. Hospitals sell burgers for the same price fine dining restaurants sell rack of lamb.  You will pay it, living off Mr. Discover, and cringing when you think about having to make small monthly minimum payments on lunch.
7. There is no such thing as regular meal times while you are a guest of the hospital.  For instance, I ate breakfast, lunch and supper at 9:30 last night. 
8. The food at the hospital is not the whole grains and  fresh food the USDA encourages.  My potato soup was made from instant potatoes, the sandwich was processed deli meat, with processed cheese on white bread.  It is like the hospital is saying they will get you in there one way or the other.  I do have to say though, the chipotle mayonaise was a hit with my taste buds, as were the Dibs ice cream and barbecue flavored Fritos!
9. A 5 year old on lasix will wet through any pull up that is on the market today.  *He will do right after he or you falls asleep, while you don't have a bra on, and when the doctor is due to stop by at any second.*
10. The fold out cot, bed, recliner, or couch in your room, will take a master's degree in engineering to figure out.  At one point of trying to figure out how to make it long enough to sleep on, you will just consider making a pallet on the floor.  You will decide against it though, because sleeping on the floor (with no bra) will broadcast the extra special super signal all over the hospital and nearby towns.  Everyone will visit you, including the hospital social worker.