This is my life...a series of dreams come true on a daily basis. Join me as I run down my dream - maybe you will find your dream in the process.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Easy Bake Oven


Miss Scarlett received an Easy Bake Oven from her Uncle Chris, Aunt Becky and Cousin Joshua this Christmas. Although they have updated the color scheme from the late 1960's, the design is the same...one 100 watt light bulb can cook an entire cake in only 10 minutes!
The first project was chocolate brownies. We learned that you really needed to leave brownies to cool before inhaling, as you can burn your tongue. But the brownies were delicious. Tonight we made a white rainbow cake with white icing. Finally, something was too sweet for Miss Scarlett to eat! The cake turned out okay. Nothing ever really looks as nice as the packages when we try them at home.
I looked on-line for recipes we can cook without buying the almost $5.00 packages. There are loads of Do-It-Yourself Easy Bake Oven recipes. I can see this becoming a regular thing for her. She loves to cook, and I love cooking along with her.
Somewhere, I have a photo of me in my mom's kitchen with my old Easy Bake Oven. I will have to add it to this post if I can find it.
Here's to the Easy Bake Oven!

A few of my favorite things...

Most everyone remembers the song from "The Sound of Music" that listed some of Maria's favorite things. In the spirit of that song, here are a few of my favorite things:

Bear hugs from husband and child
Smell of freshly popped popcorn
Cuddling with my daughter
Going for rides in the car (sadly, not as often anymore)
Letters or cards from distant friends and family
Finding a new author and reading his/her books
COLD Diet Coke first thing in the morning
Bed sheets still warm from the drier as I crawl into bed
Snowfall at night
Sound of crickets in summer
Thunderstorms (with no damage)

I am sure that I can come up with a huge list. I may add more if I am inspired.

Friday, December 19, 2008

I miss the cute misstatements...

Hubby and I were talking today about how Miss Scarlett used to say and still says the cutest things. Some I will miss are:

abookabookabooka (no idea...just gibberish, but she said it a long time!)
Poocon (coupon)
Napkim (napkin)
Marack Obama (Barack Obama...odd since we voted opposite)
Marackabama (for Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum in Little Drummer Boy...she thought it was about him!)
Canny coupe (Candy cane)

I know there are more. I just can't remember them all now. Sigh....

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Fingerprinting

Today, Hubby and I drove to the Application Support Center (ASC) about 2 2/1 hours away to be fingerprinted (again) for our adoption. It was foggy and rainy. As we had to be there at 8 a.m., we left home at the crack of dawn. Our fingerprints expire on Saturday, so we were grateful that USCIS was able to get us an appointment so quickly. Even though James is still uncomfortable wearing his brace, he was a trooper on the trip. Fifteen minutes after arriving at the ASC, we were done and on our way back home.

I hope and pray that this will be the last time we will need to update our fingerprints for the second adoption. However, as referrals from China seem to be getting slower and slower, I do not hold out much hope for that!

We keep plodding along, waiting like so many others. I just want my family complete.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Oh, Christmas Tree...


Decorating the tree at Mammaw's House...




Cousins: Miss Scarlett, Kristen and Kaylie



It came from out of nowhere!

It came from out of nowhere, it seemed. I was sitting at my desk working away, when all of the sudden, I heard a small "ahem".

I looked up and saw a sight that you had to see to believe. So I took a picture of it. I am not sure what it is, but it goes around the house yelling, "GO BIG ORANGE!" a lot. I hated to tell it that the Vols had a losing season this year. Didn't want to break its little heart.

If you see one at your house, don't worry. It is basically harmless...just silly and noisy.

Enjoy!

They come in threes...

This week started out as any other week. We had doctor's appointments, therapy, school, work, the daily goings-on. On Tuesday, I noticed that the house seemed a little on the cool side. We'd been keeping the thermostat set to 68 degrees, so I thought, "I'll just knock it on up a couple of degrees and get the place warm."

So I did. But it didn't. Get warm, that is.

The HVAC had a problem. We called the guys at Elite (super folks, by the way), and a fellow was here within 10 minutes. He looked at the unit, rest the thing, and the heat was back on. However, he said that he wasn't sure how long it would last as it looked like it was terminal (he'd been nursing this unit along for about 5 years already). No worries, we just hoped it would make it until Spring.

Wednesday arrives cold and rainy. In fact, it rained about 2 inches. I went to court as usual and came home at lunchtime. The house seemed a little cool. You get the idea? We called Elite back. They had someone here (same gentleman) here within the hour. We discussed the pros and cons, and ended up with a lovely new gas HVAC unit by the end of the day.

So we were all warm, cozy and happy. Until the toilet died on Friday.

So we called James' brother, Ron, who is a contractor. James usually handles such problems, but as he is still in his brace, he couldn't get down to work on the toilet, and I hadn't the hand strength to turn what needed to be turned. So, Ron came over and fixed our toilet for us. We were celebrating the revitalization of the second toilet when I noticed that the washing machine wasn't turning on...

The washing machine was working earlier that morning. I had already done two loads. We checked the breaker box...all seemed fine. We noticed that the pantry light, the garage door opener and outlets to same no longer worked. We flipped every breaker to be sure, but to no avail. It must be a bad circuit. So we are trying to figure out what will come next.

Hopefully there will be no more calamities. I here things like this occur in sets of threes. So I am hoping that is one old wives' tale that holds water!

Monday, December 1, 2008

UT Football Players ROCK!




While James was in rehab, the UT football players came to visit the patients. Here are a couple of photos from the visit. They made James' day. Thank you UT. We are loyal fans no matter what!


We had the players autograph a UT football and sign a card for James. I cannot say enough about how wonderful these young men were to take the time out of their day (and in the middle of a particularly cruddy year for them) to make someone else smile.


James' smile was a mile wide.

Update on Sick and Shut-In...

Sorry. I couldn't resist the old timey term of Sick and Shut-In. Anyway, here is the update on James...

There wasn't a tumor. It just looked like one on the MRI. Once we saw the xray, we could see that the ruptured disc was so bad that pieces of bone were in the spinal fluid area. The thing just looked like a tumor. The surgery was a huge success. His doctors were angels. They knew exactly what to do, and did it with such skill that they could only BE angels.

James is walking normally now, albeit slowly. We expect a full recovery. So we had extra things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord! And thank you to everyone who prayed for James, called, wrote letters and cards, came and cleaned house or watched Miss Scarlett and generally held our hands through this time. We are grateful beyond words.