Valentine's Day

It has been a very interesting Valentine's Day. I am still dizzy, but am trying to do as much as I can to get ready to go to the wedding. We have to leave Friday morning just as soon as I get my hair cut and blown dry. I hope the girl that cuts my hair on a regular basis can blow dry it so that I don't end up not looking like myself. I can only hope.

Dick did give me a beautiful Valentine Cake, which I know is REALLY good because someone brought it to our Relief Society Birthday luncheon last week. I NEVER buy cake at a bakery but I had to ask her where she got this one. Dick was there as the resident priesthood holder so he heard her say where she got it. He surprised me with it and you can see above how beautiful it looks. You'll have to take my word for the fact that it tastes as good as it looks.

We have both been trying to lose a couple of pounds or so before the wedding, so we decided to wait until tomorrow to serve it to our company. We are expecting my nephew and his wife to spend the day and the night with us. I'm afraid Dick is going to do all the cooking because I don't think I will be much help. He is going to do turkey salad sandwiches and salad for lunch tomorrow, a wonderful chicken cassarole that is Sue's recipe (I am going to post it in the next couple of weeks as I know you will all love it.) for dinner, along with rice and my oriental salad, plus the cake for dinner. Then Thursday morning he will make eggs benedick(notice the spelling), his own version which is even better than the original, which he can also do well. So I think we will be covered for meals while they are here. Thursday when they leave we are going to have to do all our packing and laundry. What a busy time. I will be glad when this wedding is over.

Family and Food

This is the picture of my darling granddaughter, Kristin and her oh so handsome husband, Craig. Kristin is the mother of my adorable great grandson, Sullivan, of whom I have written, my adorable miracle child. Sullivan and his mom have been visiting in Southern California with my daughter, Nikki, and we were going to go and see them. Nikki lives about 2 1/2 hours from here, so every time Kris goes to see her mom, we drive in to spend a night and have fun playing with our sweet Sullivan.

Unfortunately, Nikki and Kristin both caught his cold and they had to go to urgent care. They found out it was strep throat, so we couldn't go because I would be sure to catch it. I was just sick about it, because he is such a favorite of mine. I am totally besotted with this child. He is just the best little boy, and will be celebrating his two year old birthday this month. She just posted a picture of him getting his first guitar from his Uncle Tyler, who I will be blogging about on the 4th Tuesday this month. I would love to be able to post this picture, but don't know how to transfer it from face book to here, so will have to wait for Dick to get home and hopefully do it for me. I will be doing a post on Kristin next month so you will learn more about this amazing woman.

This past week has been a bad one for me. I am still dizzy and am beginning to feel like this is going to be my "new normal". I'm surely not liking it much. It is worse at times, when great waves of nausea come over me and I get sick to my stomach as well. But, since I determined I wasn't going to be negative on my posts, I will say no more about this. Needless to say though, I am not feeling much up to doing this. I did want to post another wonderful recipe though, so will tell you a bit about it first:

I made this for the missionaries one time and one of the young men got a weird look on his face when he took his first bite. I asked him if anything was wrong and his response was, " Oh my gosh, this is the best thing I have ever tasted in my whole life!" Well, you can imagine how happy I was to hear that. Then he said, "I just HAVE to have the recipe for this!!" I told him I would be happy to make him a copy and I asked him if he was going to send it home so his mom could make it for him when he got home and he said, "Are you kidding? I'm going to make it myself next week!!" He actually did too, and was ever so happy, so I am hoping you all will make it and be ever so happy too. As always, I hope you will let me know how you liked it after you make it.

Darlene's Singapore Chicken Stew

l lb skinless boneless chicken breasts
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon hot chili flakes
1/2 teasoon Chinese five spice
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced fine
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced fine
1 can (13.5 oz.) coconut milk
1 can chicken broth
2 cups lightly packed washed baby spinach leaves (about 4 oz.)
1 1/2 cup frozen petite peas
2 Roma tomatoes(about 8 oz. total) rinsed, cored, and chopped
1/4 cup sliced, canned water chestnuts
1/4 cup thinly slisced green onions
1 Tablespoon lime juice
3 Tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

Rinse chicken, pat dry and cut into 1" chunks. In a bowl mix flour, salt, chili flakes and five spice. Add chicken pieces and mix to coat.

Pour oil into 4 to 5 quart pan over medium high heat. Add chicken mixture, garlic and ginger. Stir frequently and cook for about 4 minutes. Add coconut milk and cook to blend flavors, about 8 minutes.

Stir in spinach, peas, tomatoes, water chestnuts, green onions and lime juice, and cook, stirring often until spinach is wilted, about 6 minutes. Sprincle with cilantro before serving from pan. Ladle into bowls and put a scoop of rice, that has been cooked separately, in the middle of each bowl. Serves 4.

I often double or triple the recipe as I love to have left overs and company.

Also, I sometimes cook the first two paragraphs before hand and then heat it up to just barely a boil and then continue on with the last paragraph calling for the spinach etc.

Shopping and Dropping

Just read in a magazine the other day about a gal that just kept her Christmas tree up all year and just changed the ornaments on it for whatever holiday it might be, valentine decorations for Valentines Day, colored eggs for Easter (of course you would have to blow the egg out first--that way they would be really light weight on the tree.), flags and other red, white and blue things for July 4th. ect. That would work very well for a small tree, but not so well for my pretty large one. Oh well. All I can say is that it seems really baren and colorless in my living room now. I guess I will just have to get used to it until Christmas come again.

It's been a very uneventful week and I must say that I almost felt like a released prisoner when Dick took me out last Thursday to go to my hematologist to get a blood test. It really seemed like and occaision, something to celebrate. My test was good---11.8, so I don't have to go back now until April. Hurrah! I thought for sure I was going to have to get another iron infusion.

I felt so good that we stopped at the Mall and did a little shopping. I have been looking EVERYWHERE for about three months now to try to find me a nice little black jacket that I could wear over a skirt and blouse for church. My arms always get so cold there. I was lucky to find one(or to be more exact, Dick found it for me, while I looked for the shoe department so that I could find a place to sit down. Why don't department stores have a chair somewhere when old people like me need to sit down pronto.) Anyway, he found one and had me try it on. It fit perfectly so I went back to my chair while he paid for it. On the way out, I had another thought. I asked him if he remembered if he saw any black pants in the same material, same color. Of course he hadn't been looking for that so we went back there. They didn't have any pants, but they had skirts, so I tried one on and it too fit perfectly! A great day for me as now I have a new black suit. Of course it wasn't on sale, but I do love it and I haven't bought any clothes for so long. I keep getting my two daughter's cast offs and my closets are usually bulging, as they are now. I don't think it would be right to wear a black suit to the wedding next month, so still may have to go shopping again. I'm not looking forward to that! I wish Dick had taken a picture of me Sunday, when I wore my new suit, then I could post it tonight.

Wasn't my week an exciting one?

4th Tuesday

At least this week I have something positive to write about. I am truly feeling a whole lot better! I'm almost back to normal.

We actually started taking our Christmas down today. I think we may have about half of the Santas boxed and ready to put back into storage for another year. Why does the house look so barren? We will finish the Santas tomorrow and do the tree the following days, and I do mean days! We are going to take our time with this as it took forever to get it all up and decorated and I'm sure it will take at least that long to put it all away. It's getting closer though.......hurray!

The next big thrust is our grandson, Chris's wedding. It will be February 18. I have absolutely no idea what to wear. I hope I don't have to go shopping as that is torturous for me these days. I can remember when I loved to shop! My, how things have changed. That's why I don't do it, unless I actually have to. I hope we get lots of pictures so that I can post some. He is such a sweetheart and we love Amanda, his fiance, too. That will be one more down and eight to go. The last two are too young though, but the other six really should find someone and settle down. I want lots more great grandchildren before I die.

I'll have to show you some pictures of one of my grandsons, Jordan, who will be graduating from NYU this year. It hardly seems possible, especially when he looks SO YOUNG.

This was taken last month. He looks like he should be in High School. He never reads my blog so I can say that. He would be very offended if he read this.

Another recent picture. At least he is all bundled up as it gets very cold back there.

Here he is with his older brother, Tyler, whom I will write about in another blog, and his dad in the middle.

Jordan and his dad, Perry, at a basketball game, getting in a little father and son time.

He is trying to look older by wearing a beard. He is shown here with his long time girl friend, Amy, whom we all love. She was with us at Sue's for Christmas. I'm sure they will marry as soon as Jordan gets settled, doing his thing in Hollywood. He has been majoring in film and wants to be a writer/director. He was chosen to make a short movie at NYU and was given quite a bit of funding from the University, but not all it will take, so he has been raising money and I think he just about has enough. He wrote it and will produce and direct it. He will be very successful I'm sure, because he is at the top of his class and has never gotten anything but an A all through school . He has been around film making all his life. His dad is a production designer who does all of Adam Sandler's movies. He has done a few others too, without Adam, but is pretty well type cast for the crazy movies that teens like. Jordan has worked with his dad a lot.

I've decided to write a bit about each of my grandchildren on the 4th Tuesday of each month. That will give me something to write about other than myself.

I did make it to my great grandaughter, Charlotte's first birthday and it was a great success. I was so glad that I was well enough to go. I was quite excited to be able to show you some pictures of the event, but after telling my daughter of my plans, she told me not to show any pictures of Charlotte. She said both her parents did not want any pictures of her to be shown ANYWHERE on the internet. She was very adamant about the fact that I should not do this. I told her that she should have told me before this because I had already posted a couple of her last week. Not that you could see anything of her face in the one where I was rocking her but you can certainly see her face on the other one. I suppose I should take it off.

I also have to report that things were not quite so good with me. I had a really bad fall!!! Yes, idiot that I am, I failed to notice when we went in that Sheena's mother (whose house the party was held) has a raised entry way. It is all tile, as is the room I literally fell into. I saw Charlotte in the most beautiful ruffly dress and her mom waved to me from the family room and I went right to her, without even noicing the step down and of course went right down, falling on my left outer thigh and rear end. It really did twist my body and everyone was asking me if I was okay and all I could answer is "I don't know." My grandson, Charlotte's dad is a paramedic and he came from the kitchen to see himself what happened. I told him that I didn't think anything was broken but I was pretty shook up. He told me that if anything was broken, I would really know it. He put his arms under mine from from my back and lifted all 168 pounds of me as if I were a feather. Guess I was lucky to have some proffessional help. He tells me that a lot of his calls are from older people that have fallen. I managed to make it through the rest of the party, but was awfully glad to get home. I really didn't sleep though until after 4:00a.m. and then only fitfully. It was dejavu (sp?) all over again. My Dallas fall wasn't that long ago, then Dick's fall and now mine again. Sue tells me that we both need to start being very aware of our surroundings, and of course she is right.

Dick is taking very good care of me, bringing me frozen gell packs which help somewhat with my comfort. I must say though, that I am not the least bit comfortable right now so am headed back to my comfortable chair in the living room. Will be back next Tuesday night, hopefully in much better condition. Love to all............

Bugs and Babies

I'm afraid this night's blog is going to be somewhat of a bust. What can I possibly write about when I haven't done much of anything this whole week. I'm afraid I caught Dick's bug after all, so have been feeling pretty punk, then I gave it back to him just when he was almost over it. We finally did go to the doctor yesterday and he put us both on antibiotics and told us that we had bronchitis. I've had it before, but never as light as this time. It has been about six years since I even had so much as a sniffle, and I have been around a lot of sick people lately. I seem to have developed a pretty good imune system along the way. At any rate, neither of us wanted to expose anyone else to our germs, so we weren't able to go to church Sunday. Dick didn't go to his meeting tonight, and I must say it does seem strange for me to be writing this blog as I hear him listening to television in the living room.

The last time I had bronchitis was about ten or more years ago. I had to be hospitalized because it was so bad. My doctor was out of town so her husband, also a doctor who just happened to be the head of the E.R. was on call for her. I was really in bad shape, and he was taking very good care of me. He had planned to quit the E.R. thing and go into private practice with his wife. After being there for a few days, I knew that I really wanted this guy to take care of me forever so I asked him if he thought his wife would mind if I switched. He laughed and promised me that it would be okay. That is how I became his very first patient in his new practice. I absolutely love that man, and it is almost sinful how long we are at his office whenever either Dick or I have to go. He schedules his office visits carefully and we have never had to wait more than five minutes. He is really a funny guy and spends so much time just visiting and joking around. We are usually there about 45 minutes, sometimes more. I knew something was wrong when we had to wait over 45 minutes just to get in. I had a long list of complaints to go over with him, and boy did he have to hurry. He said he was so backed up because so many people were sick. I can believe it too, because a lot of people I know are down with this bug.

Now don't you find all of this just so interesting? I think maybe I had better sign off and try to promise a better blog next week.

We are invited to go to our fifth great-grandchild's first birthday this coming Saturday. I surely do hope that we can go. I have only seen her once since she was born. We've wanted to go more often, but it never seemed to be a good time for the parents. They live about an hour and a half away. Her name is Charlotte, and I think I will get Dick to help me post a picture of her. I will be devastated if we can't go, so I need you all to pray for us to get well by Saturday. BTW, have you noticed how so many new babies are being named the old-fashioned names? I think it is quite nice, after so many odd names that people were naming their children, especially girls.

This picture was taken right after they moved into their new home. She wasn't very old then, and it was the first time we had seen her. How I loved rocking her in her Mom's rocking chair.

This picture was taken a couple of months ago. I don't have very many pictures of her but once in a while her Grandma, my daughter Nancy, sends me one. She doesn't get to see her very often either, but when she does she takes pictures. She seemed to have lopped her head off, but maybe you can see why I am so anxious to see her.

The Days After

I'm beginning to recover just a bit from all the holidays. We really did have a very successful NYNY party. It was well attended, even though we had competition from the stake. All of our people came except for two couples who's wives were both sick. It is so awful to be sick for Christmas and I felt sorry for both of them.

Our question for circle time was " What was one of the nicest things your spouse ever did for you, besides marrying you? It started out in a light hearted manner with my telling about how, when it began to be painful for me to do laundry, that Dick just started to do it all for me. In addition to that, he started doing all my floors, keeping them quite clean, I must say.

As we went around the circle the feeling seemed to change when one of our husbands lost it when talking about his sweet wife, who has been very ill with a brain problem that leaves her severely impaired. He finally had to put her in a nursing home, but he goes to see her at least twice a day. He brought her to the party and she seemed to enjoy it, even though she just stared into space with no expression at all on her face. She can't talk either, although I'm told that occasionally she will say a word or two, which leaves her husband convinced that she understands everything that is going on around her. This is a man who was schooled never to cry as a child and all of a sudden the tears started to come and he really lost it. As a result all of us started to cry and as the circle time kept going around, the husbands AND wives were pretty much crying as they told their stories.

When it came to one of the wives who is the only non member in our group, she said she just had to say that in her whole life she has never been in a group of so many people where she felt so much love. It was amazing to her that the expressions of love and good deeds could leave her so affected. She has terminal cancer and just isn't expected to live for long at all. She told about what her husband did for her by quiting his job and taking care of her full time, and doing such a great job of it too.

Needless to say, it was a very emotional evening as after we had completed our circle, more people had more to say that was very personal. It did seem to draw us all so close...........Dick said afterward that our question next year had to require a funny answer so that we would all be laughing!! I will do my best to think that one up.

Everyone said it was just the neatest experience though and they all seemed to have a great time. The food, as usual, was exceptional so it was very much worth all the effort we put into it to make it a great success.

Dick hasn't let me do a darned thing since the party. He got up early the next day and cleaned up all the mess as someone had spilled a glass of Martinelli's sparkling apple juice (what we used to toast the NYNY in) all over my table and floor. It was REALLY sticky and a job to clean up. When I did get up I found everything is pristine condition. That's my husband for you. What a guy!!

BTW he is getting a bit better but still is suffering from a very sore neck and shoulders. He has gone to three different chiropractors trying to find one that could help and he finally found one on the third try. He went today and got a really big crack on his neck, which is what he really felt he needed. It will be sore for awhile, I'm thinking. I rubbed it once with biofreeze and should have been doing it all along. I think I will do it again when he comes home from his meeting. His face looks a little bit like a raccoon now, with both eyes being rimmed by the black but the color is lightening. He wouldn't let me post another picture so you'll just have to picture it in your mind. In another couple of weeks he should look pretty normal.

I'm so upset that we didn't take one single picture at Christmas. There may be a couple on his I-phone but I don't know how to access them. He put some that he took on New Years Eve on the computer, but I don't know how to get to them from here, so I may wait for him to post one or two when he comes home before publishing this. I will be glad when we both stop hurting. As long as I had to keep going, I managed, but when I stopped, everything started hurting.......go figure.I do hope that all of you had a very fun New Years Eve and that you will all have a great New Year.

All ready for the guests to arrive.