A RECIPE BLOG HOP!

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I wanted to do something a bit fun tonight because I am going to start next week off with a series of blogs about my illness, Dysautonomia, followed by the next week when I will be discussing 'Invisible Illnesses' in general for 'Invisible Illness Awareness Week'. You definitely won't want to miss any of those. This subject is truly what my blog was intended for from the beginning but every time I sit here and try to post about it, I feel a bit overwhelmed and just stop. Now, though, I know that I have to get it done with 'Invisible Illness Awareness Week' quickly approaching!

So, tonight, I am joining my new friend, Traci from Ordinary Inspirations for her RECIPE BLOG HOP! Here are my recipes:

#1 SOUPER EASY QUICHE

4 eggs
1 can condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup
1/2 cup light cream
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 cup diced, cooked ham
1/2 cup drained, cooked, chopped broccoli
1 9 inch unbaked pie crust
Ground nutmeg

In medium bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Gradually add soup and cream, mixing well. Sprinkle cheese, ham and broccoli evenly over pie crust. Pour soup mixture over all. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until center is set. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings.

#2 BRUNSWICK STEW

2 cans BBQ beef (The brand name is Castleberry's)
2 cans BBQ pork
2 cans chicken
2 can whole kernel corn
1 can cream corn
24 oz ketchup
4 oz Worcestershire Sauce
2 tbsp Tabasco Sauce

Put all ingredients in crock pot. Cook for 4-6 hours.

#3 CORN CASSEROLE

1 stick of melted butter
1 small container of sour cream
2 eggs
1 can cream style corn
1 can whole kernel corn (drained)
1 box of Jiffy Corn Bread Mix

Mix all ingredients together and pour into sprayed casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour.

#4 CHOCOLATE ECLAIR PIE

2 small boxes of French Vanilla Pudding
3 cups milk
12 oz Cool Whip thawed
1 box Graham Crackers
1 can instant Chocolate Frosting

Mix together pudding and milk. Fold in Cool Whip. Layer Graham Crackers and pudding mixture. Top off with crackers. Open frosting and put in microwave for 35 seconds. Stir frosting, pour over top of pie. Cool for approximately 1 hour and then serve.

#5 COBBLER

1 cup self rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 can fruit (do not drain)

Melt butter in casserole dish. In seperate bowl, mix sugar, flour and milk. Mix well. Pour on top of melted butter. Pour can of fruit on top. Bake on 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until top is golden brown.

To join in this fun blog hop, the rules are as follows:

Find the top 5-10 recipes that people request THE MOST from you. If you don't have that many, just post whatever you want to share with all of us!

Some suggestions might be your favorite appetizer, dessert, crock pot recipe, drink or holiday special. JUST BE CREATIVE, HAVE FUN and THEN.....

1. Write a post with the recipes
2. Link back to The Recipe Blog Hop on Traci's blog so your readers can "jump" on board down at the bottom
3. Link in using your RECIPE LINK (click on your title post, grab the URL, and paste it into the MKlinky at the bottom of Traci's post). Then everyone can see all the different recipes! Hopefully, you will get lots of new recipes.

If nothing else, please join me at the beginning of the week for my new series about Dysautonomia. Until then, have an awesome weekend!

THANKFUL THURSDAY

Once again, I'm joining Sonya at TRUTH 4 THE JOURNEY as she sets aside one day of the week to blog about 5 special things she is thankful for this week. This week, I am reminded of the very same things I was thankful for last week, and every week, like Jesus, my wonderful family and that my husband still has his really awesome job. However, it would get a little boring if I blogged about the same things every week. So, of course, I am always able to think of a few more things I'm especially thankful to the Lord for!

So, here are the things I am thankful for this week:

1) I am thankful for another week free from doctors offices, hospitals and really bad infections!

2) I am thankful for my mom who continually shows me how much she loves me with all her gracious acts of kindness. Even though she is not in the best health nor is she feeling very well, she continues to send me cards, bring me flowers from her garden, cooks my family homemade, yummy meals and calls and stops by to check on me. She is so very special to me! I love you, Mama!

3) I am thankful that my 95 year old grandmother is still hanging in there and is doing fairly well, although we all know the time is drawing near for her to go meet Jesus face-to-face and to once again be with our Papa, where she has longed to be for nearly 23 years now. We sure will miss her but we know she will be so much happier there than where she is now.

4) I am thankful to have found a long, lost childhood friend that I have not seen in nearly 25 years! We were so close for many years and then life kind of got in the way and we lost touch. I have searched and searched for her over the years and finally found her on Facebook this week. I ♥ Facebook and I ♥ my friend, Kristy!

5) I am thankful that football season is back! WOOT! I absolutely LOVE all kinds of football (especially Auburn Tigers) and I love to see 2 of my daughters march during the half-time shows at our high school games on Friday nights. I hope and pray that somehow, someway I'll be able to make at least one or two of the half-time shows this year. Please pray about that for me, if you don't mind!

If you'd like to join us for 'THANKFUL THURSDAY', or just read what some of the other bloggers are thankful for this week, you may click HERE to find Sonya's blog. This past week has been especially difficult for Sonya as she lost her father unexpectedly last Saturday, August 22nd, to a heart attack. Please be sure to keep her and her family in your prayers.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and I hope to see ya soon!

'THE FAT BOY CHRONICLES'

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Our town has been the home to the filming of many, many TV shows and movies due to its charm, beauty and picturesque homes and landscape. It is becoming increasingly popular to Hollywood and we are seeing more and more film crews all the time. Some of the filming includes: On The Big Screen - Our Winning Season ('78), The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid ('78), Fried Green Tomatoes ('91), Fluke ('95), Get Low ('09) and Zombieland (To be released in October '09). On the Small Screen - Murder in Coweta County ('83), Decoration Day ('90), Grass Roots ('91), Manhunt in the Dakotas ('91), Wife, Mother, Murderer ('91), I’ll Fly Away Series ('91 - '93), Silent Victim ('93), Passing Glory ('99), The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn ('99), October Road ('07 - '09), Drop Dead Diva ('09) and The Wronged Man ('09 - '10).

We were thrilled to learn a few weeks ago that not only was a new movie going to be filmed here but it would contain scenes from our 2 youngest daughters' high school! As the dates approached for filming, we learned that their high school band would have to be on set in order to be included in the filming of a 'dream scene' in which the band would be performing at a pep rally and a parade.

The movie is going to be called 'The Fat Boy Chronicles', the same as the book on which the movie is based. Here is a little information taken from The Fat Boy Chronicles website:

"Inspired by a true story, The Fat Boy Chronicles reveals the emotionally painful world obese teens experience in the face of a thin-obsessed society. At age fourteen. 5'5 Jimmy weighs 187 pounds. Outside the comfort of his family and church, life for Jimmy is a constant struggle. The cruel taunts of his classmates make going to school or playing sports a humiliating experience. Yet, he still manages to focus on his goals-- to lose weight and win over the girl of his dreams."

We were really excited to learn that our middle daughter, Mo, who is the drum major for the band, will likely be seen at least a few times in the movie. She was involved in a lot of the shots during the filming of the dream scene at the school that day. She said it took all day to film the short scene but it was very much worth it for the experience. She was also able to really talk with the cast, the crew and the producers. Unlike some film crews who have come through here, taking over the town and not being very kind, this crew seemed to be very affable and generous. It really turned out to be a great experience for her and everyone else involved. We are looking forward to seeing the movie when it hits the theaters in early 2010!

If you happen to be a Facebook junkie, you can learn more about the movie on the The Fat Boy Chronicles Fan Page. If you do this, be sure to look at all the photos that are there. Most of the ones that are posted are from our high school and local hospital. In picture #45, you will see the band during the parade with Mo marching backwards, directing the band!

Let me know what you think about the premise of the movie and of the photos - and be sure to come back and let me know if you go to see the movie when it comes out!

See ya soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FIRST BORN

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I have not been feeling well at all, especially the last few days, so I failed to get this posted on time - Saturday, August 22nd.

I can not begin to believe that it has been 23 years since I gave birth to my first born child, my first daughter. 23 years since I held her in my arms for the first time and fell head over heels in love with her. It seems like just yesterday that her father and I brought her home from the hospital in the little blue and white dress my mom picked out for her. I had secretly wanted a really fancy pink and white lacy one that would reveal to everyone that our precious new bundle was a girl. However, my mom had found one she liked first and proudly gave it to me as the new grandmother-to-be. I hadn't the heart to buy another one in its place. I still have that sweet little dress, so simple yet so beautiful. It swallowed her whole! She was a tiny little thing. Like all my baby girls, she was just over 6 lbs.

Oh, how I sometimes wish she was still a baby and could wear that little dress again. How I often wish I could go back in time with the knowledge and wisdom that is now mine but was so lacking when I became her Mama at age 17. She would have had such a better mom than she did.

There has been so much that I have wished very badly I could have changed about the last 23 years. So much water that has passed under the bridge that I can't get back. So many things I would say and do differently. Many things I wouldn't. No, I know I have not been the best mom in the world but I surely have tried to be. I truly wanted to be. Don't most mothers have that desire?

I desperately want her to know that I have always loved her more than life itself, even when it did not seem like it at the time, especially in her mind. There have been choices and decisions and misunderstandings and mistakes and many, many other things that she and I both have made and have done that neither of us have understood. Maybe we never will.

But when all is said and done, all I want is for her to know that I love her. I have always loved her. With everything that I am. I will ALWAYS love her. No matter what. I want her to be a very real part of my life. Always.

I am so very proud of the wonderful young woman and the amazing mother she has become. She has created two incredible little boys who I love so very much, even though I very seldom see them. My prayer is that my renewed relationship with her over the last few months will strengthen over time and that one day the great divide that is between us will become less grand. I can only hope and pray that one day those beautiful boys will really know me and know my tremendous love for them.

So for now, I want to wish her a very happy 23rd birthday and tell her that I love her with all my heart and soul.

Happy Birthday, Whit.

(You may click on any of the photos on my blog to enlarge them.)

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I found this totally awesome blog called TRUTH 4 THE JOURNEY.  She sets aside one day a week to blog about the 5 things she is most thankful for that week.  She calls it THANKFUL THURSDAY.  This is especially exciting to me this week because I am about to bust at the seams to tell someone our latest good news.  It's wouldn't be overly huge under normal circumstances but it means a ton to us at this point!

The 5 things I MOST thankful for this week are:

1) Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.  My Forever Friend.  I'm thankful that He loves me so much that He gave His life so that I could live for all eternity.

2) THE most amazing husband in the world who treats me like a queen every single day and my 2 youngest daughters who also sacrifice a huge part of their lives to helping me and caring for me.  I honestly do not know where I would be without all of them.

3) My mom and dad who are always ready at a moment’s notice to help out, no matter what I/we need.  They never, ever say no!

4) The fact that my oldest daughter, Whit, and I have been talking a lot more lately.  She will turn 23 years old this weekend and I couldn't be more proud of the woman and mother she has become.  

and last but certainly not least.....

5)  Our good news.....today we learned that my husband will DEFINITELY be keeping his job for at least the next 12-18 months!!  (We were afraid he was about to be laid off.)  Not only is it an incredible job but they provide us with truly amazing benefits, including our health insurance which they pay for 100%.  This is an amazing answer to prayer!  Hallelujah!

If you'd like to participate in THANKFUL THURSDAY or just read what others are so thankful for, hop on over to SONYA'S BLOG and check it out!

See ya soon!

INVISIBLE CHRONIC ILLNESSES

 

Find more videos like this on Illness-Disability-Healthcare-Caregiver Ministry Network

September 14-20th, 2009   

I will be a participating blogger during this special week.  Please be sure to join me then!  See ya soon!

SUNDAY CITAR - 'America the Beautiful'

 

"O beautiful for spacious skies,

for Amber waves of grain,

 

For purple mountains majesties,

above the fruited plain.

America! America! God shed His grace on thee,

and crown thy good with brotherhood,

From sea to shining sea."

 

 

~ written by Katherine Lee Bates 1913

 

I love this song/quote.  It always touches my heart and brings tears to my eyes.  I love this country with all of my heart and soul.  It literally hurts me to my core to see what is happening to our great land and our people.  We all need to come together and return to the roots on which this country was founded.  We need to pray like we have never prayed before - for each other, for our President and for all the rest of our leaders.  Regardless the circumstances, we ALL need to pray - for EVERYONE.

Thank you for stopping by Sunday Citar! This blog quote meme was created by Fresh Mommy.  You can stop by her blog to see the quotes and photos that she and everyone else is loving right now. 

See ya soon!

(You may click on any photos on my blog to enlarge them.)

DYSAUTONOMIA – POTS DOCUMENTARY

‘CHANGES’

The DYSAUTONOMIA INFORMATION NETWORK (DINET) has been working on a documentary about a particular type of Dysautonomia called POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome).  For those of you who don’t know, POTS is the main type of Dysautonomia that I have.  For more information about it, you can read my post MY ILLNESS EXPLAINED.  I am really looking forward to seeing this documentary and sharing it with all of you!  But for now, you can see the trailer for it.  The documentary is going to be called, ‘CHANGES: Living with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.”

MY BLOG IS FAB-U-LOUS!!!!

Or so says The Redhead Riter! Yesterday, Ms. Red honored me with my very first blog award with the title,

‘YOUR BLOG IS FABULOUS’

I honestly can’t believe she chose me for this award simply because 1) I am still so very new to blogging, so it just never occurred to me that I would already be the recipient of such an award and 2) Ms. Red currently follows AND reads over 800 (yes, you read that correctly, EIGHT HUNDRED) blogs! (She has been blessed with the very special gift of speed reading!) Therefore, I’m very honored and humbled that out of all those blogs, she chose my blog to be awarded as fabulous! Thank you so much, Ms. Red!

As with most awards, this awesome award has certain ‘rules’ that go along with it.

The rules for this award are as follows:

1) List five current obsessions
2) Pass the award on to five fabulous blogs

So without further ado…

My five current obsessions are:

• Jesus Christ, my Savior and Redeemer
• My amazing husband and daughters, who sacrifice a lot to take care of me every single day.
• Design & Decorating – this has truly become a passion of mine over the last couple years.
• Blogging, Facebook and the internet in general
• Coffee, strawberries and bananas – not necessarily together :0)

The blogs I chose to pass this award to are listed below. Please visit their blogs and show them some comment love!

• Rachel at ONE DAY AT A TIME writes very candidly about her life as a disabled wife and mom living with Dysautonomia, the same illness that I have.
• Tabitha at I CHOOSE BLISS is full of inspiration and encouragement. She has even started her own podcasts and they are amazing!
• My amazing friend, Julie, is a wonderful writer and she loves to cross-stitch. You can check her out at I'll CROSS THAT LEG WHEN I GET TO IT.
• Deb at HE GAVE ME A DREAM has a truly wonderful blog. Every day she gives such uplifting, Godly encouragement and it always seems like she wrote it just for me!
• Joan from NOTES FROM OKLAHOMA has just started a new blog, TEACHING ISN'T FOR WIMPS. I have the utmost respect and admiration for teachers, especially for those who teach middle and high school age kids. My hat’s off to them!

If I could, I would give almost every single person I have met through blogging an award. There have been very few who haven’t been friendly, encouraging, funny and/or just plain nice!

Again, I want to thank my new friend at THE REDHEAD RITER for being so kind and giving this award to me. It truly means a lot to me.

I hope you all have a fantastic Sunday and that your week ahead is filled with nothing but joy and sunshine. See ya soon!

HAPPY 15 th BIRTHDAY TO MY BABY GIRL

I still can not believe it has been 15 years since I gave birth to my youngest daughter, Bek.  It just does not seem possible.  It seems like just yesterday that D and I were bringing her home in her little pink, lacy dress and bonnet.  She was a tiny little thing – all 6 lbs and 11 ounces of her. 

Then, she grew…..

and grew….

and grew…

and now she’s a young lady…

 

Tomorrow, Bek enters her sophomore year of high school.  My how time has flown!  She is amazingly smart, witty and talented.  She loves almost anything to do with music.  She is heavily involved in all the bands at school.  She plays the alto sax in their marching band and plays tenor sax in the symphonic and jazz band.  Although the sax is her primary instrument, she can play many others (7, I think!)  She is in many gifted and AP classes and is hopefully headed toward a great collegiate career.  Above all, she loves the Lord and tries hard to put Him first in all that she does.  We couldn’t be more proud of her! 

HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY, BEK!  WE LOVE YOU!

(You may click on any of the photos on my blog to enlarge them.)

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

The beautiful children of Peru I saw during a medical mission trip there. (Click on the photo to enlarge!)

Edit: I know it was supposed to be completely wordLESS but I couldn't help it. I felt it needed some explanation. I'll do better next week. Maybe. :0)

A LITTLE ‘SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY’

SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY is the name of the very first blog that I really became interested in when I got into the blogging world and I still absolutely LOVE it!  Rhoda is a down-to-earth, southern gal who loves God, decorating, thrifty shopping, cooking and gardening.  She is super talented, especially when it comes to finding thrifty items at flea markets and yard sales and then turning them into awesome treasures that are to die for!  She is also an awesome interior designer.  Her home is gorgeous! 

Rhoda is originally from the metropolitan Atlanta area but moved to Birmingham in 2005 after getting married.  She has a huge following on her blog but she is still never too busy to answer an email.  She is just a precious lady and I’m pleased to have her as a blog friend.

Rhoda is currently doing a  RITZ ‘CRACKERFULS’ $100 Gift Card Giveaway on her blog.  Just visit her blog before 5:00PM (PST) on Aug. 16, 2009 and enter to win!                                                                                                              

Today, she’s having a blast over there with TODAY'S THRIFTY TREASURES.  You should go over and check her out!
 

See ya soon!

Blessings,

I AM SPEECHLESS

No really, I am.  Oh, I have plenty to say.  I just can’t ‘speak’.  As if not being able to walk…or stand…or even sit up for an extended period of time wasn’t enough….now I can’t talk either!  HUMPH!

Let me just say, I mean…Let me just write….I never, ever ask this question anymore, “WHAT ELSE COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?!?”  Trust me, I quit asking that question a VERY LONG time ago!  Because I ALWAYS get an answer to it!!  :0)  

I guess you’re probably wondering why I can’t speak.  Well, it all started Tuesday night when I went to bed early because I was feeling very, very yucky.  I was very dizzy, light-headed and nauseated.  That happens often after I eat.  It is just part of this thing called POTS.  Whenever I eat, especially if I eat anything close to a normal size meal, I often develop these type symptoms.  It is mostly because of something called ‘Postprandial Hypotension’.  Postprandial Hypotension is a sudden drop in blood pressure after eating.  Just as blood pools in my lower extremities and abdomen when I stand, a large amount of blood flows to my digestive system after I eat.  Ordinarily, our bodies would keep this from happening by increasing our heart rate and constricting certain blood vessels in order to help maintain a normal blood pressure, thus enough blood to the brain.  However, because of my illness, this mechanism doesn’t work properly in me.  Therefore, it leads to various symptoms like dizziness, light-headedness, nausea and/or vomiting and sometimes even syncope (fainting) because of such low blood pressure and lack of oxygen to the brain.

Tuesday night, because I was feeling so very nauseated, I decided to take some medication for it.  As I attempted to swallow the pill, it got stuck in the back of my throat.  I tried and tried to swallow it but it just wouldn’t go anywhere.  As I continued to try to swallow it, my throat began to burn like crazy!  It literally felt like I had a match lit inside my throat.  I drank more and more water trying to get it to go down but it just wouldn’t budge.  It just continued to burn!  By this time, I was in a state of panic and I was crying like a big baby.  After several minutes, I began to cough pretty violently and this caused the tablet to come flying out of my mouth!  Halleluiah!  Unfortunately, I quickly realized that the burning had not stopped!  I was still in so much pain and no matter what I did, the burning sensation would not stop.  I drank water, tea and milk, and even ate some bread, but it continued to burn.  Finally, I remembered my daughter’s ‘Magic Mouthwash’ that she got when she had Strep a few months ago.  When I worked at the doctors’ office, we used to prescribed this all the time.  It is some awesome stuff!  It generally has Benedryl, Maalox and Lidocaine in it.  It not only soothes and coats your mouth, throat and stomach as you gargle and swallow it, it also numbs everything because of the Lidocaine.  I gargled and gargled with that stuff and finally….some relief!  Praise God!  I was so thankful that some of the pain had finally subsided.

After all the commotion was over, I immediately noticed that I could not speak.  My voice was completely gone.  At that moment, though, I did not care!  All that mattered was that the pain had eased and I could finally rest.  I could go to sleep.  And so I did. 

Since Tuesday night, I have not been able to speak without squawking.  It is very hard to understand me unless you get really, really close and I whisper.  However, I have learned that whispering is really hard on the vocal cords so I’m trying not to do that either.  My doc says that the incident definitely injured my larynx – aka - ‘voice box’.  He called it a ‘pill ulceration’ on my larynx and said it will probably take anywhere from several days to a couple of weeks for everything to be back to normal.  So for now, I have to rest my voice.   I still find myself whispering a lot, which I’m trying to remember not to do, but it’s SO hard!  Like anything else, you don’t realize how much you use something until it’s gone! 

Thanks for checking in!  I would really appreciate your prayers – just like always.  See ya soon!