Monday, February 26, 2007

Our Fuzzy Son


I had taken Cosmo, the original fuzzy son, to the vet for his annual checkup no more than one month ago. At the appointment, he had a clean bill of health, everything was normal & he received the annual vaccines and we went on our way.

After that, we noticed that Cosmo seemed to be getting thinner. The food didn't seem to be disappearing as fast. We started getting very concerned, especially when he stopped grooming himself. Cosmo has always been a bit pretentious with his grooming...he took great pride in his appearance! So for him to stop grooming really was a red flag that something wasn't quite right.

I took the day off work today to recoup from the long trip to St. Louis and called to see if Cosmo could go into the vet for a checkup. Thankfully, they were able to get him in this morning. Imagine how it felt to hear that your baby had lost about 1 1/2 lbs in a month!! :-( The vet did compliment Jim & I on our parenting skills...they said it was commendable that we had noticed that weight loss so soon. Cosmo's heart and lungs sounded fine, and he didn't have a temperature. So from the outside, everything looks ok. But...because the outside looks ok, it seems that Cosmo has something else wrong with him, the vet is sure of it. So Cosmo is staying for a few days at the hospital so they can do the complete checkup on him, bloodwork and all. It was SO HARD for me to have them take Cosmo from me! Our kitty boys are our children, seriously! So through tears I told Cozy goodbye and then tried to call Jim. When Jim called me back, I was a blubbering mess, but Jim does such a good job at calming me down. We're supposed to find out something either tomorrow or Wed, so there is really no reason for me to worry until then. The vet did say that it is very possible that we caught the issue early, whatever it is.

So please pray for our fuzzy son! We will be!!!

A New Life Begins!

This past weekend, Jim & I traveled to St. Louis for a wedding that I was a bridesmaid in. Everything was beautiful, K did a great job planning 95% of it herself, while her now husband was traveling for work. It was a good time, although the drive was long, but worth it of course!!

One great thing about friends getting married is the opportunity to hang out with all of one's OTHER friends! Jim & I received wonderful hospitality from N & B for the weekend....MUCH better than staying at a hotel! They are so fun to be around and hang out with - we always have so much fun with them! We truly appreciate how real they are, and how much we have in common with them. They are so happy together - and N being happy makes ME happy!

It was also great to see J & R there! J is a crazy lady - SO MUCH FUN! Back in my single days when all of us girls went out dancing together, she was one of my favorite dancing partners. When she was out with us, it was guaranteed that we would all have a good time. She is one of those people that would do anything for a friend, and has really been there for me through some rough times. There is one thing for certain...she'll always be honest with you & she'll tell you how it really is. I do respect that about her. Seeing her made me realize how much I miss her. We got to do some dancing at the reception & I have some great pics to show for it! :)

Some details about the wedding....the priest forgot to say "You may now kiss the bride". How does that happen?! Talk about a weird ending to a wedding! He redeemed himself at the reception though, where he announced the error and said the famous line. The salads at the reception were awesome...spring mix, with sun dried tomatoes and pistachios, with an orange-ginger/sesame dressing. Interesting & flavorful! The bridesmaid dresses were strapless, floor-length, black dresses and were beautiful. All of us have the same body-type, so that helps a bride when picking out dresses that will flatter all! Of course, K looked gorgeous, just like we knew she would!!

I have been friends with K for about 12 years now, and love her to pieces. I just want nothing more for her to be happy. So to the husband in her life....I know where you live! Treat her like the queen that she is or I will hunt you down! :)

K - Love you, you looked beautiful. Thank you so much for having me be a part of the most special day in your life. I'll treasure it forever! Have fun on the honeymoon, I want to hear all about it when you get back! (Ok...not ALL about it...just the PG version)

Southern California....a Different Country?

Last weekend, I traveled to LA for a one-day meeting. Talk about a different lifestyle! I have been to Los Angeles quite a few times, but I don't think I had ever really noticed just how different the people are there.

While in LA, I made a mental list of why I wouldn't really fit the "Southern Cal" bill....
1 - Everything on (or in) my body is real
2 - I couldn't go swimming in the Pacific while outside temp is 70 and who knows how cold the water is!
3 - All that 'bling' wouldn't look right on me
4 - I am not a big fan of sitting in 6 lanes of traffic for hours at a time
5 - I refuse to wear bug shields on my face and call them sunglasses

These are just a few...I am sure that if I had spent even more time there, I would have a longer list.

ps - have you ever noticed how people out there call the interstates or major freeways "The 405" or "The PCH", etc? Why is it not I405? Hmmm...

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Making Biscuits

Is it really Monday tomorrow?

Ahhhhh Sunday.
Love Sundays. Unfortunately, when the alarm went off this morning to get up & get ready to go to church, I had the worst headache ever. I actually thought I was getting sick. I had a little bit of a tickle in my throat last night, and then when I woke up with my entire right side of my face plugged up. I also had a terrible sinus headache to boot. Needless to say, I took some Dayquil and tried to go back to sleep. I absolutely hate to miss church - I feel like my whole week is just a bit off when we aren't there on Sunday mornings. We have only actually skipped once or twice? since we started going to our church, back in 2004. We love it and are so blessed to have found such a great church home.

So I took the Dayquil & ate some breakfast, laid back down & felt quite a bit better by 10 am or so. As you know, Jim & I are training for a run in Nashville the last weekend of April. I am only running the 1/2 marathon (don't need to do the whole thing again!!) and Jim is training for the whole. I run the long runs with him on the weekends. This was the first weekend that the scheduled long training run was probably longer than I need to run, given that I am only training for the half. Jim was scheduled for 15 miles today. I thought I would try to run it with him, or at least 14 of them. However, 12 was plenty for me today. I was happy with that - and we ran quite a quick clip for a training run. We have quite the set up in our driveway on long run weekends...I have tissues, chapstick, water & PowerGels laying there for me, at 4 mile increments. We have a 4 mile loop we run in our neighborhood - so we take a quick 20 seconds every 4 miles to rehydrate & I lube up the lips. We will probably start putting some water at the 2 mile turnaround point too - 4 miles is just too long to run without some water.

After running my 12 miles - I tried 2 new recipes & both were a success! I roasted a whole chicken (my first time cooking a whole chicken! yes - I remembered to take out the neck & "special parts"). The chicken was marinated in worcestshire, dry mustard, olive oil, salt, pepper, and paprika. YUM!!!! I ate a leg, but the rest is for dinner this week. The other recipe I tried was an orange-glazed pork tenderloin. ALSO a success! This is what we had for dinner tonight after coming home from church. The pork was first sprinkled with salt/pepper, then I brushed an orange marmalade, creole mustard & rosemary marinade over it. Once that is baked fully, I pulled the pork out, poured the juices into a pan & made a nice gravy with the orange glaze that was still in the pan. YUM!!! We are going to eat well this week.

Jim is at a case right now - when we were on our way to church tonight, he got paged for a case beginning at 7, but was bumped to 8 due to another emergency. He just called & will be on his way home soon after he gets the instruments cleaned. All in a days work!!

I hope this week goes fast - I am so looking forward to going to St. Louis in a couple of weeks for K's wedding!! I can't wait to share her special day & I can't wait to hang out with N & B! Hopefully we will make it back to STL in time for me to try to hook up with some old friends from my old job. it would be great to see them....it isn't until I see them again that I realize just how much I miss them all!!

My fingers hurt....gotta go to bed! :)

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Cheers to the Chef!

I know, I know...you probably thought I was already over the posting thing! It has been over a week since I posted. To be honest, I just haven't felt like being on a computer after work lately! Working really long days doesn't make me want to boot up at home at about 8 pm while I eat supper!

The interesting thing about blogging though....as I go throughout my day, I can't help but think "hmmm...this would make for an interesting post"! Granted, some things I would LOVE to post about, I choose not to! I know anyone can read it!

I have to brag a bit about my husband! He had been wanting to make some gumbo for a long time. Can you believe we have lived in the South for nearly 3 years, and we are yet to make gumbo...let alone roux from scratch? What is even more amazing is that I had never heard of either one until I moved down here! And I digress....
Anyhoo - Jim was in charge of the roux making, which I am told is the most important part of the gumbo, and the trickiest. It took him longer than he thought it would...and he kept asking me to come look at it to see if it had gotten any darker, or if I thought it was thick enough. He was using a Tony C cookbook that contained a picture of what the roux was supposed to look like. Anyone living down here knows that Tony's is to the South (namely, Louisiana!) as salt is to the rest of the US! While Jim was working on the roux, I was very busy chopping up peppers, onions, celery, and getting the shrimp & garlic & crab ready to go in the mix. The conecuh sausage was also a great addition! Can I just say...YUMMY! That is some of the best gumbo I have ever had! And it is like any other soup...the longer it sits in the fridge, the better it gets. Of course, there is a limit to this phenomenon - which is why we are going to be freezing the rest of it. Kudos to the chef!

I got to talk to my friend, N, tonight on my way home from work! We are staying with them when we go back to the Lou for another friend's (K) wedding! We are both getting really excited about going back & seeing everyone, but we are honestly not looking forward to the drive! It is a good 12 hour drive. But Jim & I enjoy each other's company so much, sometime it is nice to actually have 12 solid hours together without other distractions & commitments (housework, work calls, errands, tv, etc) - so it shouldn't be that bad. The drive home on Sunday will definitely be the worst part of the trip! We will be tired from a late night at the wedding reception!