Sick baby

Crap. Sorry it's been so long. I worked 11 days in a row, had one day off, and was scheduled to work another 7 in a row, but I called in today b/c we we very nearly had to take Bugman to the hospital last night. He's okay, but here's what happened.

Last month he had a asthma thing that never completely went away. On Wednesday he started in with a wierd cough, we kept him home from school Friday and snagged the doc's last appointment of the day. He looked okay, acted like himself, kept saying he was okay, but when they checked his oxygen with the little finger alligator thingey the doc got real quiet. His oxygen was 88....normal is around 98. So we did some breathing and steroid stuff right there at the office and got the oxygen up to 92. I think if this wasn't his regular pediatrician, we would have been sent straight to the hospital. But since this doc knows us he made a plan, trusted us to stick to it and scheduled us for first thing this morning.

Needless to say, I was freaking terrified. How can he look and act so normal and be so incredibly sick? And of course I always have my Grandma in the back of my head and though I know the treatments and technology is far superior now compared to when she died, it still scares the hell out of me.

This morning his oxygen level was 98. *sheeww*

So other than being a little bored of sitting on the couch and sick of having this mask stuck to his face for a half hour four times a day and slurping down nasty tasting steroids, Bugman's fine.

More later. Promise!

Halloween!

We love Halloween around here. Hubby and I watch lots and lots of scary movies. As a kid I scared way too easily and avoided all those spooky movies, so I've got a lot of catching up to do. The other night Hubby and I stayed up way too late watching 'Freddy vs. Jason' and Oh My Goodness was that funny! Though there is something slightly disturbing when you find yourself cracking up over someone losing their head.

Anyhoo...this past Sunday we spent a bit of time getting our yard decorated for the season. We're not quite done just yet, still have the jack o'lanterns to do, but here's how it looks thus far....

This is my ode to Martha Stewart. Just a plastic urn that I painted with that special paint that makes things look like stone. I just picked up a bunch of sticks from the yard and covered the bottom with fallen leaves.

The deck 'bedecked' with the Martha-ey urn tree thingies and Quinn bottom. There's Jason laying in the front yard by the cemetery. You can barely see them but there's bones hanging from the tree too. If you look in the lower left corner you'll see the newest addition to the decoration collection, also Hubby's anniversary gift, light up hands coming up from the flower...er, weed garden.

Close up of Jason. Hubby came up with him last year. You wouldn't believe how many people drive slowly by the house to check him out.

Lastly, the lovely graveyard and our beautiful firey bushes. Isn't that an awesome deck? My Daddy did that.

Greasy attitude

I should be in bed. Oh yes, yes I should. But I'm not. Tomorrow's a day off, so I can get Bugman on the bus and go back to bed if I like. So there.

Tonight I treated Bugman and myself to Paula Deen's mac & cheese and fried chicken. Actually it wasn't Paula's chicken recipe. Her's calls for hot sauce and Bugman doesn't like things hot, so I just made it like Grandma did, and with chicken breasts since I had a couple in the freezer. I can't even remember the last time I made fried chicken. Hubby's not too fond of chicken, though I can occassionally get him to eat it if it's in small bits mixed with a bunch of other stuff. So when I took that first bite and tasted that greasy, salty, peppery floury breading I nearly had tears in my eyes it tasted so good...and so much like Grandma. Course there are many who'd rightfully disagree, but I was the only one eating it with the memory of Sunday afternoon fried chicken dinner at Grandma's house and I'm saying it tasted close enough. So there.

Got a bit of an attitude tonight, don't I? Guess maybe I *should* go to bed.

The mac & cheese was alright. Too many eggs in the recipe I think. It wasn't nearly as creamy as I figured it would be. I followed the recipe exactly too, except I used reduced fat cheese (for crying out loud, when you're using a bag of cheese, sour cream and 1/2 a stick of butter and plan to eat fried chicken too...you gotta reduce somewhere). So next time I'll try it with one less egg and perhaps a bit more sour cream and maybe I'll have it with rice cakes and carrot sticks so I can use regular cheese.

Tomorrow Bugman and I are making Monkey Bread. Mmmmmmmm.....monkey bread.....

Bad Mommy Day

Today Bugman has swimming at school. I'm always really conscious of the underwear he chooses to wear on swimming days, not wanting them to be too 'little kid' (like Bob the Builder or something) so he doesn't get picked on, but today the only clean pair he had was a 'Finding Nemo' pair.

Guess I'm doing laundry today. : )

A single little mitten

Sooooo....here's my half done mitten.

At this point I'm a little stuck. I'm not sure if I should keep going. I need Bugman to come home from school so I can size it. I think it's gonna be too small for him, he's got extra long fingers like his mama, but it'll fit some orphan somewhere, right?

The yarn is my favorite, Malabrigo 100% wool, but it's the softest stuff you'll ever touch. It's like a cloud, I swear...not that I've actually touched a cloud, but you know... The first time I bought a ball, a variegated red, pink and white, I didn't know what to do with it, so I'd occasionally just take it out and pet it. Eventually it became a hair do-dad that I'm going to have to frog (that knitter speak for rip out...rip it, rip it...get it? hah! knitters are funny! really!) because it's too big for a hair do-dad and I've never actually worn it.

The second ball, a variegated blue, became an ipod case for my mother-in-law and a pair of wrist warmers. Well now, to be honest, it's not yet a pair...it's a single wrist warmer waiting for my lazy bum to make the match. That single wrist warmer should hook up with the single sock I made and tie me up until I make their mates.

Bad Bugs

Now see, I totally intended to keep up with this now that I know ya'll are reading, but that whole 'life' thing, not to mention this lovely bug that I've caught, keeps getting in the way.

Sunday - went to work, came home to sparkly clean kitchen, which totally put me in the mood to cook, but I threw some ham and potatoes in the oven and called it a night. Frugal tip of the day - when ham goes on sale at Christmas and Easter stock up. We buy one big one and then chop it all up into meal-sized pieces and freeze it. Granted, there's only 3 of us, so we were able to get 5 or 6 meals out of the Easter ham.

I started on a mitten for Children In Common...it's a group that provides lots of things (including knitted items) to orphanges in Russia and Eastern Europe. (www.childrenincommon.org) I think if I was the adopting kind, which, since Bugman is 9, I don't really see myself doing, but if I was, I think I'd look into a Russian foreign adoption. I guess the next best thing is to send mittens, hats and socks knit with love in every stitch. I got this thing about Russia, I don't know where it came from. I had this really crazy Cold War inspired dream when I was 14 that I woke up to knowing I'd have a blond haired son. Then a couple years ago, in the middle of reading the 'Left Behind' series I got me a hankerin for some Russian history...so I found a couple of books at the library book sale for $1 each. Unfortunately by the time I was done with the series I was no longer in the mood for Russian history. I still got 'em though. We'll see if some mad crush on one of our amazing Russian-born Red Wings won't re-awaken that hankerin.

But anyway, see if I was a good little blogger I'd have a picture here of a half done mitten. My first mitten no less! But alas I don't and here's why . . .

Monday - went to work, started feeling kinda nauseus with about 10 minutes left of my shift and it hasn't really stopped til just now. That was one ugly bug. Yesterday I couldn't even keep down a single slice of apple, but today...so far anyway...I've had a piece of toast and a bowl of rice. (knock on wood) Hubby's got it too, but he still somehow managed to drag himself to work today. Bugman? Oh he's fine. Probably getting sick of making himself microwaved pizza bites for dinner though.

Popcorn 101

So today I picked up Julia & Julia

....this gal Julie spent a year spent a year making every recipe in Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' and blogging about it every day. Which got me to thinking that perhaps I could do something similar, but not French cooking, I'm into the whole French thing. I like Italian culture...and it'd go great in my Tuscany-painted kitchen, but I'm not a tomato sauce and pasta kind of girl. I could do it with my new Paula Deen cookbooks! That'd be darn yummy, but I don't think my doctor would like it much. So heck, I still don't know what this blog is about....but since food is on my mind lately today it's going to be about popcorn.

Love popcorn. My Mom told me that as a wedding present someone got my folks a huge tub of popcorn. I imagine there's been very few days since that you couldn't find popcorn kernels in the pantry of my parent's house. That's true for mine as well.

Anyhoo...this week I watched as Giada GoodnessOnlyKnowsHowToSpellHerLastNameItalianChick and Rachael Ray tried to show the world how to make the perfect bowl of popcorn. Nuh uh. My Momma should teach Popcorn Making 101 and seat them both in the front row. Since my Momma is not blogging this and I am and I don't make such a crummy bowl of popcorn myself...here's my recipe....

First you find the cheapest can of shortening....the one your Kroger card will work on and you have a 20 cent coupon for. The shortening that's so white there's no way it comes from nature...Momma would use butter-flavored shortening...so brightly yellow it too doesn't come from nature...or any part of nature you'd want to eat anyway.

Even though you know you can get it 30 cents a pound cheaper at the bulk place near Hubby's work but you always forget to and since you are already in Kroger pick up two bags of Kroger brand popcorn kernels....one white and one yellow (Hubby likes yellow, I like white...mix 'em together - everybody's happy).

So now you're home, getting ready to watch a spooky Halloween movie...or a CSI rerun...or some serious channel-surfing, you don't really need a reason you just want some popcorn! Go grab your 'popcorn pan'....mine is medium-sized with blackened burned grease covering the outside. Melt two or three hefty spoonfuls of shortening (Paula'd be so proud : ) Once completely melted then go ahead and throw in the popcorn kernels and turn the heat up to med-high. Now see, this is where those famous chicks went wrong...their shortening to popcorn ratio was way off. You want those kernals looking like they need to pop or else they'd drown in the shortening.

Now when I pop popcorn, I usually bust the lid open, have to pour out half the pan and quickly throw it back on the fire. It's either that or making two batches and well, I'm lazy.

As soon as it's done you slather that bowl with salt....and butter too if you're adventurous, but I've never been accused of being adventurous, so I haven't been doing the buttah thing lately. ; ) You know, moderation and all. I think my Grandma used to sprinkle her popcorn with Lawry's. Now I love me some Lawry's, but not on my popcorn. Probably the only thing I'd disagree with Grandma about.

So yeah, I just wanted to add that if I'm gonna get harrassed into updating this thing more often, ya'll better start commenting from time to time. Love ya!

UPDATE!

Dang peoples, my ear hurts!

So yeah....update....so you know how I'm a good kid that's never been in trouble? Well I've had the cops called on me twice in the past few weeks. TWICE! ME! COPS!! First time because we had some chairs by the curb hoping that some frat boy would come by and swipe it for his porch. Apparently there's a City code against that. Today the cops were called because Boogie still hasn't brought up our recycle bins from Monday's pickup. There's a code against that too. My tax dollars at work.

Meanwhile....the Junk House in the neighborhood (named such b/c of the large pile of broken tables, aquariums and various other abandoned items that have been there since we moved) sits happily with it's junk.

So yeah, between the neighbors, the taxes, feeling harrassed and having no privacy, we're pretty much ready to move. Problem is where.....If it was up to me I'd go South...Hubby wants to go North...that's a problem.

Okay more tomorrow....My Boys are playing. Love My Boys. Oh yeah...and Hubby and Bugman too. ; )