Four things...

1. COFFEE & CHOCOLATE...are my love language!  I really have the BEST people to call friends.  One gave me some really yummy chocolate and the other a Keurig!  I'm not even kidding!  I was so excited.  Everybody that has seen me with it around the hospital says, "Oh...that's such a good idea."   I'm also quite certain that the coffee place in the hospital has noticed my lack of business. And yes, I'm THAT mom with her kids' pic on her coffee mug.  ;)

2. CHARACTER COUNTS!  Brody was awarded his very first Character Counts award at an assembly last Friday morning.  I was so sad I wasn't there for his award, but luckily Aaron got to head over to the elementary and not only got this picture, but videoed it for me too!  So proud of Brody!

3. THE WEEKEND/BLAKE UPDATE:  Because of the snow, it delayed Aaron and the kids coming down early Saturday morning.  Aaron told me they were going to come down for the day Sunday and I understood, but was still bummed.  Well...they surprised us!  They walked in Blake's room just before 3:00 PM.  We were both so happy to see them!

So, we are just kind of hanging out at the hospital.  "Tweaking things," the doctors like to say.  Blake's blood pressures appear to be under better control.  His weight went down and then back up. They are giving him some lasix (a diuretic) to help his kidney pee some more to get off the excess fluid. 

Really...that's about the extent of things.  He is still on large doses of steroids (see the proof in his cheeks!).  His creatinine has been around 1.0 and BUN in the 50's for a few days now.  The nephrology team thinks it may just be his new normal.  He may never get to that creatinine of 0.3 or 0.4 again.  They are starting to talk about a plan for home, but we know how that goes, don't we?  No getting my hopes up until I'm pulling out of that parking garage!

 

4. COOKING Among a million other things that I miss about being home, I miss cooking!!  I can't remember the last time I actually cooked a meal in my own home.  Three months ago probably?  Anyway, I've occupied some of my time here at UIHC coming up with some meals that I want to cook when I get home, like these for example...

Salsa Verde Burgers,  Mini BBQ Cheddar Meatloaves, and Chicken Tortilla Soup!

So anyway, when they let us bust out of this joint, I am READY! And now I'm hungry... :)

Apple Crisp

Last Easter we had the sad job of cleaning out my Grandma Beadle's closet. Not surprisingly, one of the things we found in there was a stack of cookbooks. That was the one thing that I wanted from her, a cookbook. It was just so "her."

I'd been looking through it lately trying decide what I should make. One of the things my grandma did was mark in her cookbooks if she tried recipes and make little notes by them.

I found this recipe for apple crisp with her beautiful-script by it and knew this was the winner. I made it last weekend and it didn't last long at all, it was delicious!

Someday....

My precious blond-haired, blue-eyed baby boy is going to make some girl very happy because he will be able to cook.


And someday....she'll thank his mom for that! :)

One of my summer loves...

One of my new favorite loves of the summertime season is zuchinni. I had never eaten it before in my life, but a couple of years ago I found a recipe for zuchinni bread and I thought I'd give it a try. SO GOOD!! Ever since then, I have to make bread and muffins during the summer.

The State Center Farmer's Market is small (7-10 vendors), but I've gotten to know the gal who sells zuchinni and she knows I love to make bread, so she always saves me the biggest one that she has.

She completely outdid herself last Friday! The second she saw me, her eyes lit up and she pulled out from under her table this...

...it is GINORMOUS! I think it looks like a caveman's club or something. Keep in mind I only need two cups of zuchinni for my bread, which leaves me wondering: A. How much bread I'll be making or B. How much zuchinni I'll be freezing.

Fast forward to Brody and I making chocolate-zuchinni muffins. The kid is crazy in the kitchen and always loves to help and have his hands in everything, literally....

Doesn't he look surprised that I caught him "taste-testing" the batter?


He's giving me the, "what are you gonna do now, mom?" look. :)