Ice House Baby

Larry and I have spent the last three weekends down in Macon County helping my folks out and I know it's crazy but every time I go "home", I cry.  I cry for days gone by, people I've loved who are no longer with us, my schools that are no longer there, the general rundownness (is that a word??) of it all.  Yesterday, we went to the store for Mama and there it was.  My granddaddy's ice house.  Been there forever.  Ain't making plans to go anywhere now either.

Well, my granddaddy's ice house makes me cry, too.

When I got finished shopping for the things Mama needed, I got back to the truck and Larry says, "hold on a minute" and when I asked where he was going, he says, "I'm going in the store".  He comes out a few minutes later and goes to the ice freezer and gets a bag of ice, comes back to the truck and tells me he doesn't want me to cry anymore.  Awwww.

We drive over to the ice house and he takes my picture holding that bag of ice in front of it.  

Another Clark with ice there.  We've come full circle.

Larry said there was a bad glare from the sun but that wasn't it.

That was my granddaddy smiling down on me.  

All the Pyrex!

If you know me, you know I've been collecting vintage Pyrex for a while now.  Over five years.  It all started when my Maw passed away and I took her Amish Butterprint home with me.  When Larry and I discovered estate sales in 2014, it just took off from there and now we've got 238 pieces!  Whaaaaaa???  

I usually take them all down and clean them and the shelves a couple times a year, and rearrange them for the seasons.  I haven't been able to do that since before my first surgery.  I've just been dusting around them.  I don't let our housekeeper near the Pyrex.  They are off limits.  If one breaks, it's ME that broke it.

I started physical therapy this week.  I'm going two days a week for about an hour at a time, doing strengthening exercises, mostly, because I'm not going to be growing back any ligaments or tendons.  We're working on building my muscles up to help support where the ligaments and tendon can't anymore.  I was feeling up to it yesterday so down came all the Pyrex and I cleaned them, dusted the shelves and put them all back, rearranging them and putting fall patterns and colors front and center.  Larry helped me and I think we did a great job!  We also moved the dining room table next to the wall so now we have all this space in the kitchen!  Our kitchen and dining room are one big room open to the living room and I love that layout.

Here's how it looked once I got them all down off the shelves.  I blocked myself in and I had to make a maze to get through.  Banjo wouldn't even come in there!

Here's me, hard at work!

  Here's after!

Soooo much room now!  I told Larry we got lots of room for dancing in there now!

I moved the chicken lamp from the counter to the table and we like it there.  I just love a lamp in the kitchen.  It makes things so cozy.

I go back to work after Labor Day.  I feel like I'm nesting getting ready for a baby!  There's so much I want and need to do before I go back to work.  I'll be cleaning and organizing something every day!

He's my heartbeat

Larry had his ablation Monday.  We got there at 6:00 AM and they took him back at 8:00 sharp. They had told us the procedure would last anywhere from two to four hours.  I went to the family waiting room with our overnight bag, my pillow and my new Nordstrom blanket and I laid down on a small couch in there, watched a little of the morning national news and snoozed a bit.  I had zero anxiety over this procedure.  I was completely at peace.  Oh, I prayed, don't get me wrong, but I just had peace about it.  I knew he'd be okay.  The patient rep lets you know what's going on every hour so at 8:17, she came and told me they had started, at 9:15, he was doing great and at 9:45, he was done!  I grabbed our stuff and went to the recovery room where they were bringing him back to.  He was coming off the anesthesia while I talked to the doctor and found out that everything went great, the area that was causing all the trouble was located and frozen and hopefully, there would be no more AFib.  Larry's had an irregular heartbeat as long as he can remember, since he was a little boy, but as he's gotten older, it's gotten worse and a recent monitoring session we did through the VA showed that he was in AFib 70% of the time.  No wonder he felt so bad!  He wasn't getting very much of that really good oxygen-filled blood flow.  We got to a room around 12:00 and we just spent the night.  My sweet friend, Debbie, came twice to check on the boys and let Banjo out to potty.  (I am so very grateful for my friends.  They have been amazing, through all that's gone on the past year, always there to help out and bring food and coffee or whatever.)  I took a few pictures while we were camping out in the "Heart Tower".  We got NO sleep.  You know you can't sleep in a hospital!  It wasn't bad at all, though.  I slept on a pullout sofa next to Larry's bed with my blanket and pillow.  He was in a lot of pain at first, chest pain from the procedure and having to lay flat for four hours. The AFib showed back up Tuesday morning and his heart rate zoomed to scary levels!  It brought all the nurses in our room.  They told us that was to be expected, though, at first, and it should calm down but they still monitored him very closely over the next several hours.  They put Larry on another med to help with that and sent us home around 2:00.  All in all, I think we both received excellent care at the Luce Heart Institute.  Couldn't ask for better!  They should add my mama's name to a wing in that heart center.  She had two open heart surgeries and countless heart caths and angioplasties there.  Long before the "Heart Tower" came to be.  

I posted this pic on Instagram and commented that I don't have any tattoos but if I was to get one someday, it'll be Larry's heartbeat over my left breast.  His heartbeat over mine.  There's no other tattoo I'd want.

This picture made me laugh so hard.  This boy was ready to GO!

Thank you, Lord, for modern medical technology, that allows doctors to know how to fix things and help us when our bodies fail.  

August

And the foot saga continues.  

I had an MRI last Friday because I'm still in pain and my foot is swelling.  I went for my last (I hope!) appointment at the Wound Care Center yesterday and my wound has finally closed up and healed, just a couple of tiny scabbies but I think it's going to be okay now.  It's scarred so badly that the doctor said yesterday when she looked at it, "Look at your poor little foot".  

I was supposed to get the PICC line out yesterday, too, but the doc decided to wait until I see my foot doctor (tomorrow) as the MRI showed fluid still in the joint AND a torn ligament.  The same ligament that was repaired in November.  The repair didn't work.  He put in two corkscrew anchors and sutured the tear but the ligament just didn't attach.  I guess we knew that was a possibility but after everything I've been through, ending up with the same torn ligament was not what I expected.  I'll see the doctor tomorrow and we'll talk about my options.  I think it's time for another set of eyes to look at me and my MRI.  We'll see.

Larry's having a cardiac ablation next week, Monday, I hope.  We were set to go last week but there was a hiccup with the insurance and the VA and the doctor's office so we had to reschedule.  I cannot tell y'all how irritated that made me.  I cannot STAND incompetence.  Don't schedule a procedure until you have all your little ducks lined up.  Just me??

School started back here today.  That's just crazy early to me.  We always went back at the end of August.  Oh well, no back to school at our house!  Except the kids who wait at the bus stop Larry made for them.  Our house is a neighborhood bus stop and Larry made a little bench for the kids to wait on.  And the bus actually stops there!  Soooo cute.

It's still summer here!  I hope we get to the beach this month or at least by the time I start lighting pumpkin candles.  I need some vitamin SEA!!

***UPDATE***  I have TWO completely torn ligaments and a torn tendon.  The same ones that were repaired in November.  The repairs did not take.  Or hold.  Or what-the-hell-ever.  I'm DONE.  Doc says he did everything that could be done and I'm going to start physical therapy and pray that helps.  Six weeks of it did not help seven years ago when I first broke my foot but I'm willing to try again.  Maybe there's different care now.  Different things they can do.  I'm going back to work next month and we reserved a villa at the beach for later this month.  Life is gonna go on around here.

How y'all durrin'?

Me?  I'm still at home, six months now.  Never, in my wildest of dreams, would I have thought I'd still be home, healing, six months after my surgery.  

I had the MRI on the 29th, a week and two days ago.  Still haven't heard anything back from my doctor.  I called Monday to get an update as I still have bone pain and now it's starting to creep up my leg.  I was told he had to have the images.  Well, he ordered the MRI, he should get the images with the report.  They're really trying my patience these days.  My wound is still draining and that means it has NOT closed and is draining with a speck of blood every single day.  My home health nurse contract ended so they're not coming anymore and Larry and I are pretty much on our own now.  

Poor Larry has been stricken with gout in his big toe and has been in excruciating pain.  Just one more thing to add to his laundry list of issues.  Afib, COPD, pituitary gland tumor (or enlargement that looks like a tumor and since his mama had two, yeah, it's a tumor), osteoarthritis in his lower back from an injury 30 years ago (and probably a little bit of jumping out of planes for Uncle Sam when he was 18), a completely blocked carotid artery that we cannot do anything about...bless his heart, he does not need this new thing that's going on.  He goes to work EVERY day, though, determined to provide for us and our little family.  

Speaking of our little family, we rehomed Kizzi a couple of weeks ago.  He had started peeing on everything and we'd taken him to the vet to check him out for a UTI and our doctor told us that he was "marking his territory" (even though we'd had him fixed) and was telling Tabbie Hoffman that he was the alpha male.  She put him on Valium but it didn't help much.  He just passed out for a couple hours and then he was hell on wheels again.  Tabbie is so sweet, gentle and laidback, he didn't care that Kizzi was running around being alpha.  He did care, however, when Kizzi attacked him in the hallway or jumped on him when he was napping or ran to eat his food or tried to keep him from using the CatGenie.  THAT'S why Tabbie was going on our bathroom rug.  Lightbulb moment!  Well, it got to the point that Kizzi was terrorizing Tabbie relentlessly and Tabbie was miserable.  He stopped eating (even though we separated them at mealtimes) and had started losing weight.  I named Tabbie after Abbie Hoffman and I could not have picked a better name for that sweet baby.  He's a lover, not a fighter.  He's all peace and love and leave me alone, let me sleep.  I loved that little booger, Kizzi, but Tabbie Hoffman is my heart.  He's my baby.  We found each other in a prison parking lot and we have been inseparable ever since.  He had to come first.  Larry had done some work for a couple who own a horse rescue farm and they also rescue and rehome cats.  And bunny rabbits.  So we took him there.  We had planned to get him healthy, neutered and then try to find him a home but I had surgery after surgery and we were so busy with my healing that we just kept him. These folks have about 20 cats who roam the farm and have 85 acres of barns and sheds to explore and lots of mice to catch.  The animals are fed and loved and since Kizzi has been neutered, I'm sure somebody will scoop him up.  Things have returned to normal and Tabbie is his chatty, playful self again.  

I went to another ortho doctor yesterday here in town because of pain I'm having in both my wrists.  It started in March but I've been so preoccupied with my foot that I just ignored it.  Well, I took my last pain meds last Friday and purposely did not get a refill and by Saturday, the pain in my wrists was almost unbearable. I guess the pain meds I was taking for my foot masked the pain in my wrists.  Anyway, I made an appointment and got in and saw somebody.  Tendonitis in both wrists.  He said he'd never seen this in both wrists at the same time.  I am totally not surprised.  It's me, after all.  I got cortisone shots in both hands and today, I can tell such a difference.  They still hurt but not nearly as bad.  I don't know what caused it but I'm sure it has something to do with working with computers for 20 years. 

I told Larry we need to check ourselves into the nursing home.  A place where we can take Tabbie and Banjo and get round-the-clock care.  Ha! 

So that's us today.  Thanks for coming to see us!

Surgery number two

We arrived at Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital at 1:00 Thursday, January 3rd, went straight to the ER as we were directed, I was admitted and I was in surgery by 3:30.  I woke up in recovery to the sounds of nurses and techs talking about real estate and buying new houses this year.  I had bitten my bottom lip sometime while under anesthesia, really, really hard, and I could taste blood in my mouth.  I couldn't feel anything in my foot at all.  
After a while, they took me up to my room on the fourth floor, where Larry was waiting for me.  I was attached to a wound vac to begin this negative pressure wound therapy to try and get this thing to HEAL.  My bloodwork came back positive for staph so I was put on IV antibiotics for a day and a half.  The hole that had formed in my wound was actually one of the anchors coming loose that my doctor put in to secure that tendon in place.  He fixed that as well.

Larry stayed by my side, "sleeping" on a cot one of the nurses brought him.  I put that in quotations because he didn't sleep at all.  He had his own stress test and doctor's appointment on Monday so I sent him home Saturday to get some rest and see about our boys.

Here we are snuggled up in that tiny hospital bed, watching that tiny TV but we were home.

I joked on Instagram that here's me and Nikki in hospital beds at the same time!  I got to watch my story on that tiny little TV but not much else.  It only picked up 18 channels and the only "news" channel it picked up was the fakest news out there.  Oy.  I ended up watching a lot of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "King Of Queens", two of my very favorite old shows anyway.  Probably did me good to take a news break.

This was the view from my room Saturday afternoon.  There was only me and two other patients on the whole floor.  The food was delicious, the care excellent and the pain meds kept coming.  

And this was my nighttime view.  I always looked forward to those seven little lights glowing across the way.

I came home Monday, on two weeks of strong antibiotics and attached to this.  A portable Genadyne NPWT Pump.  I hate it.  I hate having to carry it around.  I hate the sound it makes when it's sucking fresh good blood up into my wound, I hate everything about it.  I have a home health nurse who comes twice a week to change the dressing and when she was here Thursday, the dad-blamed thing actually looked better to me.  

The treatment has gone 117 hours and 2 minutes so far.  I'm told three to four weeks should do the trick.  After the pump has done all it can for me, a less invasive bandage/dressing will finish it on up.

I'm excited for that.  For spring, for warm weather, for sun on my face and for days spent planting flowers.  Lots and lots of flowers.  Lantana, I think.  And sunflowers.

One thing I've learned through this whole nightmare is hard times show you who loves you.  My Larry has been phenomenal through the whole thing, taking such good care of me and Banjo, Tabbie Hoffman and Kismet.  Our housekeeper came while Larry was with me in Alabama and she fed the boys and let Banjo out to potty.  That sweet boy had NO accidents.  My friends from work call and check on me, text me and come see me, bringing tons of food and love.  My precious mama checks on me every day, even though she's going through her own private hell.  When I tightened my circle, I absolutely kept the right ones inside.  My friend, Debbie, came yesterday bringing coffee, sausage and egg croissants and maple doughnuts and we talked about doing our annual Peaches to the Beaches jaunt March 8th.  

Eight weeks.  Foot, get ready.  

New year, same me...

...because I'm already fabulous!  Ha!  

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions.  I just try to do better than I did the previous year.  I can do that again with 2019.  No need to make weight loss promises to myself, no need to promise to be a better person, kinder and more forgiving.  I just will do what I need to do to feel good about ME, love on those around me, who stand with me and by me.  That's what I'll do.

I have pretty much cut some folks out of my life the last couple of years.  Toxic, abusive and controlling people that I love, still love, but can't tolerate anymore.  It's sad, really, but you gotta do what's good for YOU.  Decades of verbal abuse and just putting up with it, biting my tongue and not defending myself are over.  Completely over.  Apologies that I'll never get and closeness that I'll never feel again, those realizations have been hard but I got through it.  2019 is the year that I move on from it, not looking for apologies anymore and definitely not needing that closeness anymore.  

Oh well.  Life is like that sometimes.  The world continues to turn and life continues to fly by.  I still can't believe how fast 2018 went.  Most of it I spent in pain with my foot.  Oh, how I wish I could go back to that pain!  That pain was nothing compared to what I'm going through now.  The hematoma left my foot with a huge crater and no matter how carefully and lovingly Larry has cared for it, it is not healing.  The pain is unbelievable.  I cry all the time and nothing helps, not narcotics, which I have in abundance, not rest, not staying off it, nothing helps.  It is not healing like it should be so tomorrow, I'm having a second surgery, this one at their Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital in Phenix City, Alabama.  

Debridement.  Google it and cry with me.

Workers' Comp has assigned a nurse to come here to our home and take care of me.  She will come and change this sponge and drain thing that will be put on me tomorrow.  She'll come every 3 to 4 days, I'm told.  This whole experience has been nothing but a nightmare.  I just wanted my foot fixed.  I wanted the nerve pain to go away so that I could walk like a normal human being, go hiking with my husband, walk on the beach with him without hurting.  I had NO idea that this was in my future.  But it was and I know God has me wrapped in His loving arms.  I know that.  I know He's with me during the dark, dark nights that I sit in my recliner and cry.  I know He's with Larry, who feels completely helpless in this whole mess.  God has amazing healing powers and He will heal me, too!  This was part of my journey to get to the next phase in my life.  I know I will survive it and that I will come out on the other side smelling like the pink rose that I am and wearing real shoes again.

I appreciate your prayers and thoughts of us as we continue to fight this.  For better or for worse, in sickness and in health.  Larry has kept those vows like a champ.  I could not have made it without him.

Da foot...Six weeks post-op

Y'all.  This foot.  I have pretty much been in constant pain since I woke up from surgery.  The incision hasn't been bad at all, from what I can tell.  Once I got the staples out, we discovered that it was completely healed.  

The hematoma, however, is a whole new portal of hell.  This blog is not going to be for the squeamish, so fair warning!  I'm posting the complete realness of my situation and what I'm going through.  You know, documenting my life, which is what this blog is supposed to be doing.  The good, the bad and the really, really ugly.

During my surgery, a blood vessel busted near the nerve my doctor was working on.  He cauterized it closed but when they were bandaging me up afterwards, it busted again and I bled pretty profusely, unbeknownst to us, my doctor or the hospital staff.  The blood didn't have anywhere to go so it settled underneath my skin, causing this massive hematoma.

I was in a soft cast for the first two weeks, then a hard cast for another two weeks.  After the first two weeks, the hematoma was discovered.  After the second two weeks, it looked like this.  This is after the staples came out.

After the second two weeks and in that hard cast, it looked like this:

This picture kinda scared my doctor and us, too.  He told me my foot was keeping him up at night.  Ha!  Yeah, me, too.  I have been sitting up in my recliner, crying and praying half the night and watching holiday baking shows for weeks.  WEEKS.  I have Percocet and OxyContin (the king daddy of pain meds!) and they don't even touch this thing.  It has been pure misery for me and for Larry, too, who feels completely helpless in this nightmare.

The hard cast came off and we were instructed to change the dressing every day and watch it very closely.  I was put on double antibiotics and we went back to the doctor last Friday.  He cut off that piece of dead skin on the top there and told us to continue the dressing and the antibiotics.  And to massage it a lot to keep Complex Regional Pain Syndrome from setting in.

So now it looks like this:

Lookin' like some straight outta The Walking Dead.  Y'all know that's my show but I sure don't want nothin' on my body looking like this.

It hurts like nothing I have ever felt.  I don't take the pain meds until I just can't bear it anymore because I am so afraid of addiction.  Addiction runs in my family and while I'm not sure if the tendency is hereditary, I will not allow myself to become addicted and lose everything I have to a damn pill.  I just will not.  Larry changes the dressing every night and sometimes I cry, sometimes I don't.  Most times I do.  I don't know what I would do without him.  He is my ROCK.  This is by far the worst thing I have ever been through in my fifty-one years of spinning around on this planet.

Doc says I'll be out of work until March.  I'm still trying to get workers' comp to pay me.  Our bank account is getting low!

Six weeks down.  I'm not sure how long this healing is going to take but I am sure that I will never have another surgery unless my life depends on it.  I would GLADLY take that nerve pain (which I still have, by the way) over this any day.  I can't go back, though.  None of us can, really.  All we can do is go forward, move forward, slowly and with lots of gumption.  

I can do that.

Things that are keeping me sane right now

After you've had surgery, you need a few things to indulge in to make you feel less icky and more like yourself.  Here are some that I've been using and love.

Avocado Honey Rich Water Balm Cream.  I got a sample in my ipsy bag this month and oh my goodness, it was right on time!  I love anything avocado anyway but this stuff is amazing.  It smells good, it goes on smooth and leaves your face (or anywhere, really) soft and moisturized.  We just turned the heat on in the house for the first time this fall and this stuff keeps my skin super hydrated.  A+++++

Brazilian Bum Bum Cream.  I've been using this cream since early summer.  It's a wonderful body cream that is supposed to tighten skin (on your bum! They pronounce it "boom boom" in Brazil, btw).  I don't know about that but I have used it all over because I adore the scent!  Pistachio, almond, vanilla, salted caramel.  I mean, it smells so good, you'll want to eat it.  Don't, though.  Put it on your booty instead!  And your arms, your legs, everywhere.  I took mine to the beach in September.  LOVE!

99% Mermaid Shea Butter Hand Cream from Bath and Body Works.  I picked up a tube the last time I was in there and I absolutely love it.  

Unfortunately, they're all about Christmas right now so you might not be able to find it in the stores anymore.  

Sunlit Apple Blossom scent.  It's like buttah.

I'm really loving the Olay Whipped Body Wash, too!  It makes bathing really easy when you're having to sit astraddle the tub with one foot in and one foot out.  I know, you could have gone all day without that visual.  Larry helped me with all that at first but now I can do it by myself.  Yay for progress!

We had to let our housekeeper go just before I had surgery, which caused all kinds of stress for me.  If you know me, you know I keep a clean house.  I didn't want all that extra work put on Larry and what terrible timing to have to do it now.  But she took money from me for work she didn't do and I can't abide that.  I use the Nextdoor app to stay in touch with our neighbors and the goings on in our neighborhood and I was able to find a lady to replace her!  She came over yesterday and met us and she'll clean for us tomorrow while we're gone to Columbus to the doctor to get these blankety-blank stitches out.  She only charges a dollar more an hour, too.  AND she brings her own lavender-scented cleaning supplies. My favorite scent. Thank you, Lord, for all of your blessings!!

I've been doing some Christmas shopping online, too.  QVC is my Santa! 

Recovery

Today is ten days since my ankle surgery.  Except for the horrible burning nerve pain that I'm still feeling, my foot really feels no different than before.  The pain at night is so bad that I can't sleep and only muscle relaxers knock me out.  My doctor in Columbus told me going in that there were no guarantees but I still had to try.  I had to TRY. 

During the procedure, he discovered the cause for my nerve pain.  Two layers of scar tissue was crushing it so he clamped the nerve out of the way while he scraped the scar tissue off and he also repaired the two torn ligaments and reattached a severed tendon (that we didn't know about) with anchors, sewed me up and then a couple of male nurses picked me up and body slammed me to the floor.

The first four days after my surgery were pure hell.  I had this unbearable muscle pain in my stomach, neck and shoulders from the anesthesia.  All I did was cry.  I took just about all of my Percocet but they didn't even help.  It was misery.  I couldn't move.  Mama and Daddy came to stay with us the Monday before my surgery and I don't know what I would have done without them and Larry taking such good care of me.  Larry helped me with my baths and Mama cooked and cleaned and did laundry and helped us take care of our boys.  Banjo loved going outside with Paw Paw!  

This is me before my surgery.  All fresh-faced and full of hope.  

This is me after.  Coming off of Propofol and ready to fight.

Ain't that the stuff that killed Michael Jackson??!!

The boys have kept me company and Kizzi is starting to find his place in our family.  And in our Christmas tree!  Tabbie Hoffman never touched a tree.  Kizzi has been up close and personal six times.  He's so much different from Tabbie.  Tabbie Hoffman is laidback and cool, just like his namesake.  Kizzi is a hurricane.  Climbing and biting and scratching and tearing up the place.  I feel like somebody just put him out in the country where Larry found him.  They couldn't deal with his bad little self.  He just needs to learn the rules.  Mama will teach him.

He better be glad he's so dang cute.

The boys and I have been binge watching "Game of Thrones", too.  Larry watched it earlier this year but I didn't so now I'm watching.  I'm getting hooked!  I want to freakin' kill that Joffrey punk, though.  Or at least take a good old-fashioned switch to him.  He's what??  13??  I'd beat his ass.

I go back to the doctor Monday to get the stitches taken out and I guess they'll put me in a boot of some sort.  It is extremely hard to be non-weightbearing for two weeks and I've done the best I could.  I was using a walker at first but I got my knee scooter yesterday so I'm more mobile and can get around the house.  It feels SO GOOD to be out of bed and in my kitchen again.  

Dear readers, please pray for healing for me.  Pray this nerve will calm down and I'll have a normal life again.  

Kizzi

We welcomed a new member into our family yesterday!  

Larry found this sweet baby at a job site.  All alone, starving and scared to death.  He sent me a pic and then called me.  I said, "bring that baby home!"

After stopping to get the little feller something to eat (which he devoured!), that's exactly what Larry did.  We gave him a flea bath and then made him comfy in the garage last night but today, we moved him to one of our bathrooms to acclimate.

We named him Kismet Rain Schneider.  It was a rainy day when Larry found him and kismet that he found Larry.  

We're head over heels already!

Happy Birthday to me!

Your homegirl is 51 today.  Another year on this old planet.  A fun year, a sad year, an unbelievably stressful year.  Things don't always go the way you want them to or even the way that they should go but somehow, you have to keep on keepin' on, keep getting up to welcome the sun every morning, keep reminding yourself that even the bad is not that bad.

Larry made my birthday super special, with our trip today up to Senoia, to get up close and personal with our favorite TV show, The Walking Dead.  We had such a fun day.

This morning, he woke me up with this vintage Pyrex Happy Birthday mug, that I'd never even seen in the wild, only online.  It debuted in 1967, just like me!  I love it!!  

And he had waiting for me this delicious chocolate ganache cake and cards from him and our boys.

Yesterday, I opened this gift from him.  A vintage Pyrex promotional casserole dish in Blue Willow!  Another treasure I have never seen in the wild.  Well, I did see it once, in about a zillion pieces in the bottom of a box my sweet friend, Brandy, sent me.  It didn't make the trip from Virginia.  Dang US mail!  But the lid did and until she reminded me, I'd forgotten all about it! 

51 feels pretty good already.  Now if I could just STOP worrying about things I have no control over, 52 might be even better.

The Easter Bunny still comes to see me...

The Easter Bunny came to see all of us!  Larry and I got baskets of candy and goodies and I got a giant Easter Minnie Mouse and Mickey and Minnie POPs!

Banjo and Tabbie Hoffman got a new water fountain to share (Tabbie drinks out of Banjo's water bowl anyway AND eats his food...oy), Banjo got some new chew bones and Tabbie got some silver vine sticks.  They both got new toys, too.  Yay for the Easter Bunny!!

Souper Bowl Sunday!

I made a Mexican posole (pozole?) today for our Sunday dinner.  Larry found the recipe in the paper last weekend and asked me if I'd make him some for the Super Bowl.

Posole/pozole means "hominy" and there's lots of hominy in it.  Three cups!  Now being the southern girl that I am, I know hominy grits are made from hominy but I don't have any recollection of eating hominy before.  It's nasty.  Bland.  I think you'd remember if you'd had it.

Anyway, I made it and it was too hot for me to eat.  It was PERFECT for Larry. He loves hot spicy stuff.  That's why he married me.  Ha!  He gave it two thumbs up and ate two bowls before his forehead busted out in sweat and his tongue caught on fire.

Here's the recipe if y'all want to try it.  Along with some pictures of a few steps in the process.  It's time consuming because nearly everything has to be minced or chopped.  It's here that your food processor will come in handy!

I think next time we have it, I'll use pinto beans instead of hominy and call it Pinto Combustio soup or something like that.

Ingredients

• 3 cups dried hominy (or canned hominy, drained and rinsed)
• 3 lb pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1½-inch cubes
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 3 Tbsp canola oil
• 2 large yellow onions, minced
• 1 fennel bulb diced
• 1 serrano chile, minced
• 6 garlic cloves, halved
• 1 cup freshly ground mild red chile powder (or a mix of mild and hot)
• 3 Tbsp dried mint
• 3 Tbsp Mexican oregano
• 2 Tbsp ground cumin
• 2 cups halved fresh tomatillos
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes
• 3 Tbsp minced chipotles chiles canned in adobo
• 4 quarts chicken stock (preferably homemade)
• Minced red onion, cilantro leaves, diced avocado and quartered limes, for garnish

Directions

1. Place hominy in a large container; cover with cold water. Refrigerate 24 hours. Drain; reserve.
2. Season pork with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large (8-quart-plus) pot over medium heat until smoking and hot. Working in batches to avoid overcrowding pan, brown pork 5-7 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Transfer pork to a large plate. Add onions to pot; saute 3-5 minutes or until golden. Add fennel and serrano; saute 3 minutes. Stir in garlic; saute 3 minutes. Stir in chile powder, mint, oregano and cumin; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in tomatillos, tomatoes, chipotles and pork. Add stock; bring to a simmer. Stir in hominy; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a very gentle simmer. Cook 2½ hours, stirring every 30 minutes or until pork is almost tender and hominy almost perfectly chewy (kernels will have burst open for the most part by this time).
3. Season and continue to cook 15-30 minutes or until pork is fork-tender. Add more stock or water, if needed (posole should be looser than stew, but sturdier than brothy soup). Serve in bowls accompanied by garnishes.