An Appendix to Remember

Well.... this month went nothing like planned. I was supposed to work 3 days a week each week, go to school including giving a presentation on South Sudan and turning in 2 papers, bake lots of goodies for work and school parties and enjoy a Thanksgiving feast with multiple sets of friends. Oh ya, and do lots of Christmas shopping and genuinely enjoy the start of the holiday season.

In reality... the Wednesday morning  the week before Thanksgiving I woke up not feeling real great and considered calling in to work , but I had a pretty big project due, so I took some tylenol and drug myself into work. After lunch, I started to really not feel good and was pretty sick to my stomach. By the time I got to school for my big Sudan presentation that evening, I was feel so bad that I had Caleb come pick me up and started calling after hours urgent care centers. We were trying to avoid ERs since I really thought it was a stomach bug or food poisoning and didn't want to pay ER fees.

We drove around for more than an hour in the pouring rain trying to find an open urgent care center. Apparently having posted hours means nothing to businesses up here. At one office that was supposed to be open until 7:30, at 7:18 there was a sign on the door that said "we reserve the right to close early if we have reached capacity." Really? What is the point of being an AFTER HOUR, URGENT EMERGENCY care office if you close early? I don't get it.... But that is not the point.

Eventually we found a place in Arlington. After filling out some paperwork and watching about 45 minutes of Tora, Tora, Tora they took me to the back. Unfortunately, in the time we had been waiting, the pain had shifted from my whole stomach, to my lower right abdomen.... and we all knew what that meant. The doctor didn't have to look at me long before she told us to get to the nearest ER, and quickly. We were pretty surprised and flustered. It was already 9pm and neither Caleb nor I had been home since 730 in the morning, we were in our business clothes, the dogs were still locked up and we hadn't eaten dinner. Caleb took me to the ER to get me checked in and left to go get us clothes, get him food, and let my poor dogs out.

By the time he got back at 10, I had a full work up in the ER and had chugged my 2 glasses of contrast for a catscan. Which was then proceeded by an ultrasound and yet another cat scan, and blood work. All of this took place while I was drugged with the ER's strongest narcotic. By 4am we did not have good news. My tests were inconclusive. It did not look like appendicitis, ovarian cyst, bowel obstruction, or anything else they could think of. All we knew was that I was in agonizing pain so the ER admitted me to the hospital up to the 5th floor surgery wing.

The 5th floor was not the kindest to me. They continued to prod around on my increasingly painful stomach, draw more blood, pump me full of painkillers and tell me they had no answers. Okay, no answers is not exactly true. For 24 hours I listened to the doctor tell me that there was no way I had appendicitis and that I was overexaggerating the pain. That just made me mad. At one point the pain in my stomach was so bad I could barely get back into my bed. Embarrassing to admit, but I was sobbing and the doctor looked at me and goes "what do you want me to do about it?" I wanted to say a whole lot of things that were not nice or worth typing up on the blog, but my response was "I want you to do your job and make it stop!" After complaining to the nursing staff and management about my oh so rude doctor, we got several more opinions from different hospital departments. From about 2pm until 8pm, a parade of doctors and specialists came through my room and each one told me that I had appendicitis. BUT, the jerk surgeon maintained that my cat scan from the ER 24 hours ago proved I didn't. In the meantime, the pain continued to increase. Finally we were able to convince my doctor's boss (the actual attending) to consider surgery. I basically told him that it had to be worth at least taking a look? So began my late night surgery.

I went into surgery at 10 and was back in my room by 1am without my appendix : ) I don't like to gloat, but I WAS RIGHT! When they got in there, my appendix looked terrible so they took it out. Of course, I learned this from the nurse the next morning because the doctors were too chicken to come admit they had been wrong and let me suffer for so long! By 930 the next morning, the hospital was already talking about discharging me. Caleb had to go to work for a few hours, so two sweet girls from church came and kept me company for a few hours. We packed up, were discharged, and I was home by 230. And so my 72 hours in the hospital came to an end.

Caleb and I have been joking that it felt like we were there alot longer than 72 hours. Probably the all-nighter in the ER and the late-night surgery threw off our sense of time. I'm not sure who is happier that I'm home, me or my dogs. They are both  curled up together next to me and wouldn't leave my side. I think they were better medicine than the painkillers the hospital gave me.

Our church was so nice to us - they came to visit us and brought us dinner for almost a week. I was pretty worried at first about what we were going to do having a crisis with our families so far away. Our church has really stepped in to fill that gap. They prayed for us, brought us food, checked up on us. I'm not sure what we would have done without them.

The recovery has been WAY tougher than I would have thought. For a week I could barely get myself off of the couch - which gave me a great opportunity to catch up on movies and read Stieg Larrson's Millenium trilogy - fantastic books by the way. I went back to the doctor last week and he gave me the all clear - except that I can't exercise (bummer) and can't pick up heavy things.

I am starting to feel better and went back to work and class last week - although it almost killed me. I am starting to feel better and the pain has almost gone but my energy just isn't back yet. I spent last Thursday running a few errands and Christmas shopping and I spent all day Friday sleeping it off.

So, needless to say, this has been a November to forget. I've done nothing that I wanted to get accomplished and definitely did not enjoy my Thanksgiving. Oh well. You can only lose your appendix once :) That being said, I am now looking forward to truly enjoy my December. So far. So good.

I have one more week of school and I am done for the semester! I have 2 more papers to write, but I think I've got them both under control. Thanks to Amazon.com I have just about finished my Christmas shopping. Let's not talk about wrapping.... ask me in a few weeks. The best part is that we GET TO COME HOME IN 2 WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are both really looking forward to getting away for a few weeks. Plus, this will be Rhett Butler's first trip to Arkansas and Texas!

In the Garden: Ladies Tea

Last weekend was our church's annual Ladies Tea. They advertised it for month, but I didn't sign up. It was the middle of a Saturday afternoon and I didn't really know anybody going, and it cost money, so I avoided the sign-up ladies. Wellllll that all caught up to me at my Bible study 2 weeks ago. Each week we have one "lesson" on how to be a nice hostess, and that week's lesson was on etiquette. During our presentation, it came out that I had my own china AND that the tea was short on hostesses. They assured me that it would be easy, all I needed to do was have a centerpiece and show up with my china. A combination of encouragement from the pastor's wife and the fact that I can't say no to anyone and suddenly not only was I attending the tea, but I was hosting a table.

Two days after I signed up for my minimal participation, I received the 3 page hostess handbook via email. Turns out I was supposed to have china, silver, crystal, and a whole bunch of other nice things AND my table should have a decorative theme. STRESS! I was stressed, first, because I'm probably the least creative person in the universe. Seriously, it's true. Second, I don't have silver or crystal. Third, we don't exactly have alot of spare money sitting around for me to spend on decorating a table.

So I immediately did what any girl would do.... I made two S.O.S phone calls - one to my mom and one to my mother in law. They were both FANTASTIC! I'm not sure what I would have done without them. My mom sent me a box full of cute fall decorations for me to borrow, and my mother in law sent me ideas and pictures of cute things to do. In the end I didn't use any of either of their ideas.... (sorry guys!)... but they definitely helped set me on the right track.

My first important decision was deciding whether to use my own china or my great grandma Thelma's. Mine is nice, white with a platinum edge, and it has never been used. My great grandma's china is white with a gold rim and it has green and yellow flowers. It is used, but I love it for the sentimental value. So I had to decide which would be more meaningful to use at the tea. The theme of the tea was, "In the Garden: Spiritual Lessons from the Garden." In my mind, china with flowers on it sounded perfect. And thus, my spring garden themed table emerged.

Instead of having a beautiful serving bowl for my teas, I used a birds nest. Instead of serving platters, I used wicker baskets covered in napkins. Instead of buying a vase, I used my watering can and instead of a real bouquet, I used all of the fake flowers I had around the apartment (and added a few from the sale rack at Michaels).

I've also discovered lately that I have a true love for baking. I LOVE baking and Caleb jokes that I am the happiest when I'm in the kitchen. People at work (who blame me for gaining weight because of all the goodies I feed them) ask me whether I've chosen the write career path in international affairs instead of cooking. Ha! Anyways, I decided that instead of spending alot of money on stuff for my table that I will probably never use again, I decided to bake my decorations! I took small flowering pots and baked brownies in them to look like dirt, then I used pretzel rods and different colors of melting chocolate to mold into flowers to look like flowers in my brownie pots.

I also made apple cupcakes with a caramel filling decorated to actually look like apples in a basket for my ladies to take home as souvenirs.

I also made root beer cupcakes with toasted coconut on top then nested a marshmellow peep on top with a few speckled jelly beans to look like bird eggs and then set the cupcake on the top of a mason jar so it looked like a real birds nest up in my flower arrangement. It turned out awesome!

Okay, well I can't really take credit for everything. As I panicked about 11pm the night before the tea, the best husband in the entire world came to the rescue. Not only was he willing to taste all of my baked decorations, he also made every single one of my homemade napkin rings and all of my place setting cards AND he painted my awesome birdhouses.

The day of the tea was wonderful. I got to the church about 10 am and spent the next 3 hours frantically setting up. At first when people looked at my piece of fabric from walmart used as my table cloth and my watering can with fake flowers, they gave me that pity "oh how nice" and "the color blue is beautiful." But as I started pulling it all together, my table really looked awesome and people started to change their tune. I definitely had the best table and people were shocked that it was my first time ever decorating a table.

The ladies at my tea were so nice. The pastor's wife sat at my table (talk about pressure!), her son's girlfriend who is here temporarily from Colombia, the girl in charge of youth girls (a friend from Bible study), three sweet old ladies, and a Russian woman who didn't speak English. She introduced herself and said she was sorry she could not speak English. I introduced myself back in Russian and started a conversation to find out more about her. The lady who brought her got choked up and told me how happy she was. She told me that Svetlana was very nervous about coming because she would not be able to communicate. What were the chances that she would be at MY table? She really was the sweetest babooshka and when she left she gave me a big hug, two kisses on the cheeks and told me (in Russian) that she was SO glad to have met such a kind, creative, generous and intelligent young Christian woman who spoke Russian. What a blessing! There was clearly a reason that I got roped into hosting that table - and I honestly believe it was to spend those 2 hours with Svetlana.

The ladies were all nice, my table received rave reviews, the speaker was absolutely amazing, but I will always remember my first tea because of Svetlana. As a grandmother herself, she LOVED that I had used my own grandmother's china. It all came full circle!

Luckily cleanup was easy since I could pawn my baked decorations off on everyone else. I told Caleb that it was a great experience and I would probably do it again, but I was so glad it was over. Next year someone remind me to plan ahead and not sign up with only a week to pull it all together!

Wanted: Dead or Alive

We've never really been big halloween celebrators. This year our friends Brooke and Karlo from Sunday School invited us to a murder mystery dinner party. We've never done one before but it sounded like fun, so I signed us up... without telling/asking Caleb. Okay, that's not totally true. I told him a month ago when I committed us, but we both pretty much forgot until the week of when it came time to create our costumes.
For anyone who hasn't played in a murder mystery party before, basically there is a scene and everyone is given a character to play. You eat and play your role and at some point a murder takes place, then the survivors have to figure out who did it. It was a little complicated, but still pretty fun!

Our murder mystery took place in Gravestone, Arizona. It was made up of all sorts of crazy Western characters, including Wavy Willy Bronchus, Abby Oakley, Suzanne B. Anthony, Doc Galaday, James Jessie, Calamity Janie, and Hutch Cassaday, and over course, the Pinkertons.

I should back up and say that last Saturday was the first REALLY cold day we've had up here. In fact.... it snowed!! If you look carefully in the pics you can see how big the flakes are.

Usually, I would have been excited. But, my role for the party was Katie Fishman, a lasso-roping saloon waitress who is a good girl having trouble staying on the right side of the law.

The outfit was awesome, until I had to walk half a mile through the snow in this outfit. I'm afraid some of Brooke and Karlo's neighbors thought I was a not so classy person...

However, as much as I loved my costume, Caleb's was AWESOME! I'm still not sure he's forgiven me for making him where his outfit. Meet Virgo Arp, a former Union soldier who is now a U.S. Marshall out in Arizona. Unfortunately, he was shot in the arm yesterday...

While we were enjoying our dinner and chatting it up with the other characters, unfortunately Wavy Willy was found dead, which was pretty unfortunate for me since we were childhood sweethearts AND he was the one who shot Virgo. So.... we were both suspects

 Luckily, in the end, it wasn't us... it was that wylie Abby Oakley who didn't appreciate Wavy Willy insulting her gun skills and killed him for it! Overall, we had a FANTASTIC time:

 The Pinkertons... I thought they were the murderers and were in it for the gold!

 Virgo and Katie!

 All of the Arp family

 Katie and her boyfriend Doc Galaday (in reality, this is my friend Karlo. He's from El Salvador and when we were talking about that I was from Texas, he asked me if I ate armadillos... I was like, um, no, they are nasty creatures usually found dead and run over on the side of the road. Well... except for the one my dad has stuffed on his shelf... but turns out that in El Salvador armadillo is eaten and he loves it. Ew! So, mom and dad, if you happen to see armadillo anywhere, feel free to send me one. Karlo will cook it for me!)

 The wild west show gang

The whole group!

And that was how we celebrated Halloween this year! Of course, I can't post without giving you a pic of these precious faces

Scarlett is teaching Rhett to lay on the clean laundry. She has also taught her some bad habits, which is why both the dogs start obedience school this week! We are hoping that Scarlett makes it all the way through without getting kicked out for being a disruption this time. We are just hoping Rhett learns something, we'll see. Check back soon to see the table I decorated for our church's ladies tea!

An Apple Bird and the Amish

Well... I got no comments on the blog post. I did get a few emails from relatives... and a complaint from my mom that there was nothing to comment about on a tomato soup recipe.... but I will continue to write for you few faithful followers.

In her complaint about the tomato soup recipe, my mom also made significant fun of my saying that I can carve an apple out of a bird. Just to spite her, please watch as I transform an apple into a bird:

First, I give you the apple: 

And, like magic, I give you..... a bird!

Admit it... you're impressed! This is one of the many things I've learned at my Bible study that I've been going to every Thursday morning. It's actually called apples to gold and there are about 10 older ladies from the church who mentor 6 of us younger ladies in the church. We meet for 3 hours. The first hour is for demonstrations... accessorizing (yes, I learned some things!), how to cook a chicken, flower arrangements, etiquette, and yes, even how to carve an apple out of a bird. If you think this is impressive, you should see me make a pear into a mouse!

But enough about that. Caleb and  I had been looking forward to last weekend since the summer. We really wanted to go on a fun trip over the summer but just didn't have the money. We ended up booking a weekend for a bed and breakfast in Amish country and I have been not so patiently waiting. It actually came at a perfect time. We just finished midterms and could both use a relaxing weekend.

We booked these two crazy ladies for a weekend adventure in the same pen. (luckily they did not kill each other and were quite tired and had clearly bonded when we got them back)

 And we were off to Amish country! We stayed in a bed and breakfast in New Holland, Pennsylvania. It was about 4 miles from Intercourse (no laughter please), 10 miles from Intercourse and right in the heart of farms! We ended up shopping (Caleb's favorite), trying different Amish foods, wandering through the farms to find the perfect pumpkin, and dining at a traditional Amish farm with an Amish family. Of course, I can't forget our true highlight of the weekend...... SONIC!

I don't think I can emphasize how much we miss being able to go get a sonic drink whenever we want. They LITERALLY do not have sonics in Virginia. The closest one is in Baltimore... over an hour a way. But there was one about 15 minutes from our b&b. We may or may not have gone more than once each day... don't judge!

I honestly didn't take many pictures and didn't get any of us - the amish don't like having their picture taken and I felt awkward asking them to take a picture for us... but I did get a pic of our room! It was so nice to be able to turn on the fireplace and just relax!

But this week has been back to reality... work and school for the both of us... and the added drama of the rangers and the world series. I'm watching Game 7 as we speak. I'm so nervous I needed to do something else to distract myself... At the moment its not looking too good...

Well, I think that is all I have for today. Check back on Sunday if you would like to meet Katie Fishman and Virgo Arp. I promise you won't be disappointed....

Top Chef Stephanie: Tomato Soup

As the fall is getting into full swing, I've started experimenting with new recipes, especially soups. I LOVE soup, I always have. But... I haven't always liked tomato soup. I actually don't like tomatoes in general. I never put them on my hamburgers and don't get me started on the nastiness that is ketchup. But, I tried a new tomato soup recipe and it is D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!!! I've eaten it every day for lunch for two weeks. My sister in law Mandy posts the best recipes on her blog, so I thought I would share this awesome tomato soup recipe on my blog! It's super easy too!

You will need:
3 pounds of tomatoes (it calls for plum but I just get whatever is on sale at the store)
4 shallots
2 Tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
Pinch of Sugar
3 Tablespoons butter (I use light butter)
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
4 Cups chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (you can do less if you want it less spicy)
1 Cup Cream

The Steps:
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a baking rack on top.

2. Slice all tomatoes in half and place them flesh up on the rack. (I also make sure that I cut off all the stem areas and any bad spots they may have.) Coat (be generous!) the tomatoes with the olive oil, salt and pepper generously and sprinkle with just a touch of sugar.

3. Bake the tomatoes in the oven for 1 hour. They should turn brown, get really soft and appear to be falling apart - that's normal. After one hour, pull them out and let them cool a bit.

4. In the meantime, cut up the shallots. The first time I focused on really cutting them tiny - the second time I was in a rush and didn't. It made no difference send you blend them in the end anyways.

5. In a large pot, saute the shallots for 2-3 minutes until they start to smell good and look a little brown. Add the tomato paste and cook another minute or two (it looks thick and weird- this is normal)

6. Add the chicken broth and cayenne pepper. The soup definitely has a kick to it, so if you want it to be more mellow, maybe reduce how much cayenne you put in.

7. Add the cream and bring to a boil. Let simmer on low about 10 minutes.

8. Remove from heat and add all of the tomatoes to the soup bowl.

9. Blend the soup either using an immersion blender or by blending in batches in the real blender. The first time I used a real blender and it worked fine. I bought an immersion blender at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $20 with birthday money and used it the second time - that was AMAZING! Both ways obtain the same consistency, but the immersion blender was quicker and easier. I highly recommend it.

10. Enjoy your soup! I use some fresh ground pepper and just a touch of cheese on top. Yum!

Another reason I love this soup is it makes enough for lunch for an entire week and it stores well in the fridge and reheats great in the microwave.

My blog comments have gone silent lately... I'm afraid I lost all my readers in the hiatus. Let me know this week

1) if you still read
2) if you like recipe sharing
3) if you like the tomato soup.

Check back in a few days.... I learned how to carve an apple into the shape of a bird : )