Duck Dynasty Cups & Granny Tshirt

Walmart Finds!

Duck Dynasty cups - pink for me and green camo for Art

How cute is this Halloween tshirt? I can't wait to wear it! 

Kaleb ~ 9 Months

 

Look at the little hunk! He looks like a little boy and not a baby. Teeny tiny jeans, hoodie and vans. I didn't get a picture of the shoes. They were soooo tiny and adorable.

 

I recently bought Tommee Tippee bibs. I like plastic bibs I can wipe up instead of washing bibs. I had to search all over the place to find the boy colors. Every where had the pink and purple ones. Finally one of the Babies R Us had the boy colors. I put the bib on Kaleb for the first time and he was NOT happy. The picture above he is trying to get the thing off. lol I had to lay it flat and push it down in front of him. Once he realized it wasn't going to get in the way of his food he was ok. I love these bibs because I just throw them in the sink and wash them with a sponge.

 

 Art calls Kaleb Fry Guy. This shirt was fitting for the little Fry Guy!

 

Target $1 bins are my BFF. I get all types of props for Kaleb. lol

 

 

Hey, is that my favorite doggie singing?

 

I could barely get a picture while he was jumping up and down to the music.

 

Mesmerized by the singing dog.

 

Hard to believe he is 9 months already! This little guy gets all over the place. He army crawls. The coffee table, dog bowls, dog toys, DVD's, video games and anything else he shouldn't get into are the first things he goes for. The only thing that gets his attention is the little white dog that sings Justin Bieber. He LOVES that dog. The minute he see it he starts laughing and jumping around.

 

Art got Kaleb from Marcus the last time he came over. I was trying to still wake up at 5:30am. When I came to the livingroom he almost jumped out of Art's arms to get to me. I took Kaleb back to bed hoping he would go to sleep. He cuddled right up to me and started snoring. It made me melt!

 

 

 

Kaleb favorite nap place is the couch. Most of the time when he is tired he will climb onto my lap or lay on the couch with my hot pink fuzzy blanket. If he doesn't sleep on the couch the only other place he will sleep is on my side of the bed.

Bart Happenings

Poor little pooch was NOT happy to be on Bart. 

Please look closely....this woman had on open toe shoes with little footies. I couldn't get a very good picture. I just had to crack up with this outfit. Last week on Bart the outfits belonged on Fashion Police. 

Wordless Wednesday

A house is not a home without a dog!

On Saturday Art said Sammy was acting funny. I didn't notice he was acting funny because he was laying down when Art told me. Art got up & left the room. Sammy decided to jump off the couch. He looked like he was drunk. He couldn't walk straight, leaning to one side and could barely walk. I yelled for Art. We decided to take him to the vet. Sammy got excited when I put his collar on, so I thought he might want to walk with me to the truck. That is when it got worse. He started to run, fell over and couldn't walk. 

Art & I were a mess! We left him at the vet for about 2 hours. They called to say they weren't sure if he hurt his leg or if it was neurological. If he hurt his leg it would repair itself in a couple weeks. The vet was running a bunch of tests and would call us on Sunday with the results. The thought of losing our little furbaby was just waaaay too much to even think about. I was in tears until we picked him up. Once I saw him I felt a lot better. 

Sunday Sammy seemed to get worse. He was yelping like crazy when he moved or we moved him. He was in so much pain. He was shaking in pain after he snapped at a fly. He LOVES to chase bugs. The vet called us later in the afternoon to go over his blood work. All his blood work was completely fine. I started to tell her what was going on. She was very concerned and told us to take him to a vet that was open. 

Oh boy was the second vet a disaster. She pretty much told us he needed surgery or we would need to put him down. I was in tears trying to hold it together. We were sent to the specialty hospital. I held Sammy the whole way there bawling. Thank goodness because vet #3 Dr. Finster was simply AMAZING! She examined Sammy and came to us with options. We did not want to do surgery. Dr. Finster told us he had a ruptured disk in his neck. She was very optimist he would return to almost normal with steroids and complete bed rest for 4-6 weeks. 

Sammy laid on the couch all night Saturday. We fed him on the couch. He was himself - alert and cuddly. He wasn't happy he had to lay around. When he would get up he would whine and yelp with pain. 

Saturday night was rough! Every time we left Sammy side he would whine & cry. Neither of us got much sleep. When Art would leave the room he didn't whine as much. I think he played Art more since he has Art wrapped around his paw. 

I stayed home with him on Monday and took him for a follow up appointment. I felt so much more hopeful on Monday that he will recover. He was NOT happy with the fact he was in doggy jail. He spent most of the day sleeping or whining. I would hold in occasionally to reassure him we love him. I just want him to recover the best he can, so he will be living in the kennel up to 6 weeks. I am going to be the strict mean parent who will enforce the rules. The mother in law will get strict instructions later today on what she must do when Sammy is at her house. 

As you can see above Sammy ignored me when I put him in his kennel. lol Pouter! Needless to say our weekend was crazy emotional. I am so glad he seems to be doing better. He is barking at the mailman, eating, responding when his paws are turned upside down, pouting because we are mean. He will not eat or drink in his kennel. When I put water in there he dumped it over. I put some food it there he took his nose and pushed it away. Typical toddler behavior when he doesn't get his way. 

Eggplant Parmigiana Alla Scalini's

I have found one of the best eggplant recipes EVER! I could eat this on a weekly basis it is sooooo yummy! We receive eggplant in our weekly fruit & veggie boxes. I have used eggplant in stir fry, roasted it, baked it, but I haven't ever been crazy about it. My cousin was raving about this recipe on Facebook, so I decided to try it.


Eggplant Parmigiana Alla Scalini's

Ingredients:
• 3 medium sized eggplants 
• 1 cup flour 
• 6 eggs, beaten 
• 4 cups fine Italian bread crumbs, seasoned 
• Olive oil for sautéing 
• 8 cups of marinara sauce 
• 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese 
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 pounds of mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 cups of ricotta cheese

Directions:
1. Slice the eggplant into ¼-inch thick slices. I did not peel the eggplant because the skin contains the most vitamins. I actually liked the skin.  

2. I skipped this step and everything turned out fine. 
Place the eggplant slices on a layer of paper towels and sprinkle with a little salt, then cover with another layer of paper towels and hold it down with something heavy to drain the excess moisture. Let them sit for about an hour. 

3. I sprinkled salt and flour over about 10 pieces at a time, dip each piece in beaten eggs and coated with breadcrumbs. 

4. Sauté in preheated olive oil on both sides until golden brown. 

5. In baking dish, alternate layers of marinara sauce (I used homemade canned sauce), eggplant slices, ricotta, parmesan and Romano cheeses, until you fill the baking dish, about 1/8 inch from the top. Cover with shredded mozzarella cheese, and bake for 25 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

John 9:2&3

And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 

Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 

John 9:2, 3 KJV

What the....

Last week I was shopping at one of my favorite places Tarjay. As I was walking through the clothes I stopped dead in my tracks - flying cat leggings. What in the world was the buyer thinking when they decided Tarjay needed to sell these horrendous cat leggings? The fact that someone will buy these and wear these obnoxious leggings in public is terrifying!  

Front Yard DIY Rock Work

We have finally finished the front yard! Art has been working on cleaning the rocks for a couple months. We needed to add in additional rocks for awhile. We debated for awhile on what to do. When we made up our mind to get more rocks we ran into an issues regarding endangered rocks. Well we haven't been able to get the same rocks, so we went with another color to mix in with the old rocks. 

First load of rocks - half ton for the first load. The second load we bought three quarters of a ton.

We sorted through all the rocks pulling out all the dirt clumps, weeds etc. 

Art did most of the work above by sorting the rocks and laying down the fabric.

The rock company would have delivered the rocks to our house, but they charge $50. I am waaaaay too cheap to pay $50 when we could do it ourselves. 

I shoveled about 75% of the 1.25 ton of rocks we bought. I looked like I had been rolling around in the dirt for a month by the time we were done. I was soaking wet, muddy, and sore. 

We washed all the dust off the rocks. There was soooo much dirt in the rocks. I told Art he was a city boy to think of washing rocks before we lay them down. On the farm there is no way we would have washed any rocks. lol

DONE!!! 

It felt so amazing to have this job done. Next up we will be finishing the backyard. We have finally agreed to level the backyard and plant grass. My goal is to have it done in the month of September. Unfortunately I do not have the energy like I did before surgery/cancer. I was exhausted for an entire week after the front yard job. I just have to learn to do a little and rest. I barely rested while we were doing the front yard because I just wanted the job DONE. It was worth it in the end. 

We bought our rocks from Clark's U Save Rockery. It cost us about $80 for 1.25 tons of rock. If you are in the area I highly recommend checking out Clark's. They are very friendly and reasonable. 

8 Months

Top left: 2 days after surgery

Top right: 1 week after surgery

Middle left: around Easter

Bottom left: July

Bottom right: last weekend

 

Yesterday was 8 months since surgery. Looking back at pictures it is amazing to see how much has changed. In July the surgeon was not happy at all with how my scar was healing. She decided to put a steroid shot along the incision to get rid of the raised scar. I still am debating if this was a good decision or not. One of the side effects could be varicose veins, but normally it happens after 2 or 3 steroid shots. Well I don't follow any rules. I got varicose veins after one stinkin shot. The raised area is almost completely gone. The color is slowly fading back into my normal skin color.  I think the surgeon will be very happy with the results since July.

Patience, waiting, limbo land, self-control, endurance, temperance, forbearance, longaniminty - just a few words that describe my journey with cancer. Two of my favorite words are longaniminity and temperance. Longaniminity means patience enduring of hardship, injuries, or offense. Temperance means moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, self control.

Right now we are not sure what is going to happen. In October I will have another CT scan to see what is going on with the numerous spots on my lungs, liver and my enlarge thymus tissue. My blood work has decided it would be fun to do the wave like it is attending a baseball game. It goes up, it goes down then it goes up, but nothing to be overly concerned with at this time. I am considered stable. There are so many factors that can affect the rise and fall of the specific blood tests I have done. I try to get my blood work done around the same time every quarter, eat the same foods, avoid spicy food, and go to the same lab. Changing one of those things can cause the number to increase or decrease.

I have blood work run on a quarterly basis. The week I have to wait for blood work are 5-7 of the longest days of my entire life. I have learned I will not get blood work run right before a holiday because it delays it an additional 2-3 days. This last time I had to wait 10 days. My body goes through so much stress just waiting for the results. I try not to stress over it, but that is MUCH easier said than done.  I need to work on my longaniminity majorly!
 I had hoped all my blood work would go back to normal at this point, so I could have a few decades of not worrying about cancer. Evidentially God still thinks I need to learn some more longaniminity.

 

Wordless Wednesday

OOTD

Recently I bought another pair of boyfriend jeans from Old Navy. I had a pair from Gap that were distressed. I don't feel distressed jeans are appropriate for a manager to be wearing to work. Boyfriend jeans are some of my favorite jeans because they are super comfy and they fit me really well. 

I am part of a beauty and fashion forum. Each Wednesday we have a different challenge. I love these challenges because make me think outside of the box and my comfort zone. Last week the challenge was to replicate an outfit inspired by Pinterest or Blogger Style. I wanted to wear my boyfriend jeans, so I did a search on Pinterest. I love the outfit that Olivia Palermo is wearing in the picture below. I decided to go with red, white and blue since it was September 11. 

Blazer: Tommy Hilfiger

Tshirt: Target

Jeans: Old Navy

Shoes: Bass

Jewelry: Banana Republic

Jacket & Necklace: Target

Tshirt & Skirt: Gap

Shoes: Michael Kors

Dress: Kmart

Cardigan: Nordstrum Rack

Shoes: Target

Top & Pants: Old Navy

Shoes: Bass

Necklace: Veryjane.com

Top & Jeans: Old Navy

Cardigan: Nordstrom Rack

Sandals: Target

Bracelet: NY & Co

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

I found this recipe on Facebook recently. We have sooooo much pumpkin from our garden. I have pumpkin in my freezer from last year and they are growing like crazy again this year. Kaleb won't need to go to the pumpkin patch. He can just come to grandpa house to pick 10 pumpkins. lol

I made this cheesecake a couple weeks ago with a gluten free crust. I bought gluten free graham crackers. As the cheesecake sat over night the crust kind of caramelized. It was so delicious! One taste and I didn't want to share it at all.  I am planning to make this again with a nut crust instead. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

You Will Need:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 pinch ground cloves

1 pinch ground nutmeg

1/2 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.

Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Cover with whipped topping before serving.

Luke 18: 27

And he said, The things which are impossible 

with men are possible with God. 

Luke 18:27 KJV

Fashion Blogs

I recently found two new blogs I started following. I am always looking for new fashion ideas. I need to mix what I wear or I am known to wear all black. 

One of my friends Carylee has a fabulous blog called More Pieces of Me. I love Carylee fashion and her love for Kate Spade. She has helped me become more brave with colors, mixing patterns, jewerly. She has a FABULOUS shoe collection. My mom would die to have that collection. One day I hope to have a closet half as fabulous as Carylee. 

I found Style Diary because of Carylee blog. I like this blog because she buys reasonable clothes. I don't like blogs that only buy high end clothing that hardly anyone can afford. I just started reading this blog, so I still have a lot of posts to go through. 

Check out More Pieces of Me and Style Diary for some great fashion! 

Buddies already....

At first I wasn't sure what Kaleb was doing when he was moving his arm. I thought he might be trying to pull Art's beard or smack him in the face but.....

he was trying to put his arm around Art. How incredibly sweet is this picture?  Both of us were awing it up.

Kaleb loves his grandpa soooo much! He smiles and laughs at him all the time. It is so sweet to see the bond already. If he is upset I will start asking him "where is grandpa?". He will start looking around for Grandpa and gets excited when he sees him. 

Check out those adorable pjs!