Surgery

REWIND: (Sept 23) Morghan's 3 year check up. I brought up the matter of Morghan's loud snoring and constantly breathing through her mouth. The next step was a trip to the ENT to have her tonsils and adenoids checked.

FAST FORWARD: (October 16) Saw Dr Christian, who is also my doctor. After examining Morghan He said she would need her adenoids removed because they were making it difficult for her to breath through her nose. Then, after comparing her history against mine it was decided that she would also have her tonsils removed to prevent a second surgery down the road.

PRESENT: I just got of the phone from making 4 phone calls that ended with me in tears.

Call #1: Nurse - I scheduled Morghan's appointment and learned that she will be out of school for 2 weeks. Her surgery is scheduled for November 12, with her post-op appointment being the day before Thanksgiving. (awesome) Learned about all the prescriptions she'll be needing and all that good stuff. I still have to drop by the ENT office to sign a few things and pick up her prescriptions and all the paperwork regarding her surgery.

Call #2: Chase - He is having a hard time with getting days off for all of this so I had to let him know the exact dates and length of time she will be out of class.

Call #3: Mom - I couldn't even make it 30 seconds before I started crying because I didn't know how we will be able to make some bills with me not working for 3 1/2 weeks. (We are going to Texas 4 days after her post-op appointment for a week) Finally after she assured me things will be okay I was able to semi-calm down.

Call #4: Dad - While still shaking from my crying episode, I managed to update my dad on everything by combing the 3 previous conversations.

The more I learn about the surgery the harder it is to process. I realize that it's common, but lets face it. Any parent worries when the doctor says surgery. That is my one and only baby and I hate seeing her in pain so it breaks my heart to know she will be miserable for almost a whole 2 weeks.

I still need to talk to my boss about all the time I'm going to need to take off and how/if it will affect my standing.

In the last 4 days it seems like I've had so much information to take in and not near enough time to think through it all.

Pumpkin Recipe

So recently in all my cooking glory I've made 2 things that flooded my inbox with recipe requests so here is the most popular...

The picture isn't to great as my cell phone camera is awful!

Pumpkin Bread muffins with Cream Cheese

3 1/2 cups flour

3 cups sugar

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp Ginger

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Allspice

2 cups canned pumpkin

1 cup oil (I use vegetable)

4 large eggs

1/2 cup water

pecans (the amount is up to you, I usually use 1/2 -3/4 cup)

Filling:

8 oz package of soft cream cheese

4 Tbsp powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F

- Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and spices in a LARGE mixing bowl.

- Make a hole in the center of mixture.

- Add eggs, pumpkin, oil, and water. Mix thoroughly.

-**Add nuts if preferred**

- Grease and Flour pans

Note: This pertains to Muffins and Mini-Muffins only.

- Mix Cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon with hand mixer until blended. It does not have to be perfectly smooth.

- (optional) Place filling mixture in to a zip top bag and snip of corner for easy dispensing. Careful not to make the hole to big so you can control the flow of filling.

- Pour a small amount of pumpkin batter in to the bottom of the pans.

- Place filling in the center, making certain not to touch the sides of the pan.

- Cover filling with remaining batter.

- Sprinkle nuts on top.

Loaf pans bake for approximately 1 hour

12 muffin pan bakes from approx 20 minutes

Mini-muffin pans bake for approx 10 minutes.

Old Friends...

Back in 2005 on my trip to Japan (all alone) I was sitting in LAX airport waiting until midnight to board the flight. Well I was on standby for a military flight along with 13 others. I had been there since around 1pm in the afternoon. Eventually when I was hungry enough I went up to counter to ask for change for a $20 so I could get a luggage cart. Before the ticket agent could say anything, this sweet man (named Dan) smiled at me and said he's share one with me. I laughed and said ok. I figure he was in is late 50's (and I was right). We ended up talking a long time and I found out he was a Master Gunnery Sgt. coming from Cherry Point NC and going to Japan. He conned some poor woman in to watching our luggage and we went to the food court where he bought me dinner. Around 11pm they began the boarding process and announced there were only 4 standy-by seats available and I was number 5 on the list. I was distraught and went to the payphone to call my dad and let him know. As I was in tears on the phone, Dan brought me a sprite and kleenex. When I got done calling he told me that he wasn't going to board the plane without me and proceeded to bribe the man at the counter with a $100 bill. I was floored when my name was called lol. Being that I was still in a walking cast from breaking my foot a couple months earlier Dan let me sit on the luggage cart as we went all the way to the international terminal to check our bags. Once on the plane we discovered we were ROWS apart so he asked the young marine sitting next to him if he would swap with me so that " he could sit with his daughter" lol. From there on we teased that he adopted me. We talked to whole flight and before this gets too long we've stayed in tough for almost 5 years now. On my second trip to Japan we spent so much time at Dan's house with his wife you would think we were family.

My point to all of this is that in January Dan retired from the Marine Corps after 35 years of service. He gave me a yahoo email address to contact him because up until then I e-mailed his military address. February was the last e-mail I sent to him and I never heard back. Several option crossed my mind and after several months I gave up. Late last night my phone went off that I had a new e-mail. I couldn't have cared less because it was so late but first thing this morning I went to check and... it was from Dan. I couldn't have been more thrilled that he was doing ok and was still there! I'd really missed talking to him.

That e-mail has made this miserable rainy day, incredibly tolerable. :)

Frustrated...

So I've been trying for 2 days now to do my own personal background on here. I was irritated because all the other backgrounds I find are too big so I can't see them. Well, now with me designing my own its TOO SMALL and no matter what I do, its not fitting properly. On our regular computer screen it looks fine but on the lap top the background is so small that I have to magnify the screen to 150% for it to look right.

Apparently when I upload the image to photobucket they automatically resize it and that is so....frustrating!