Cooking and Family and Mommy Tips Cooking, Mommy Tips 11:04 pm
As moms, we’re all always looking for fast, easy new recipes. A friend of mine has a FANTASTIC blog that she updates regularly with great recipes and pictures of the creations! I’ve cooked a few of the meals and found them great, easy, and yummy!
Check it out! http://cookingmommy-cookingmommy.blogspot.com
Entertainement Lakeland, malls, shopping 1:53 am
I’ll start this out by saying that I may be a bit spoiled when it comes to fantastic malls. I moved to Orlando, Florida from Long Island, NY when I was six years old, literally right into the middle of mall euphoria. For a maximum trip of 30 minutes or so from our home I could arrive at a solid five or six really great malls. I mean really great. They were filled with stores that I loved and came to depend on for my shopping desires and needs. One mall didn’t have what I needed? No problem. I’d simply go to another great, nearby mall. So yeah, I may be spoiled.
Maybe just a little bit.
That being said, living in Lakeland has been wonderful. I truly love this city. I didn’t always, but I have found that over time (I got here to attend SEU 9 years ago!) I have honestly fallen in love with it’s charm.
However…
This city is so ridiculously lacking when it comes to a sufficient mall. I try, I really do, but every time I go to our city’s one real mall, I wind up leaving with a bad taste in my mouth (and I don’t think it’s Perry’s BBQ, either).
In fairness, here’s the good:
- Chick-fil-A
- Victoria’s Secret
- Bath n Body Works
- Macy’s
- Kirkland’s
It just feels like it’s getting worse and worse! In the last few months I’ve seen The Disney Store, The Gap, and the Mexican food place close down! What’s next?! I’m just saying that if Chick-fil-A were to go…*shudder* You know what? I can’t even let my mind go there.
So, Lakeland Square Mall, here are my simple requests. If you could bring in these stores, your mall would go to the next level, not to mention making this girl one happy camper:
- Express
- Guess
- Mac (the cosmetics store, but hey, the other Mac store would make my husband really happy)
- Sephora
- Bebe
- Forever 21
So, Lakeland-ers, what about you? What stores would make you happy?
Life 11:21 pm
It all began Thursday, June 25. Jason had his eye surgery that day and I went over to SEU to participate in a panel on careers in music. I felt fine all day, and then right around dinner time, started to just feel…odd. By Friday when I woke up, I was feeling a fever and was quite tired. By Saturday, I was having hardcore chills decided I needed to go to the doctor. I went to Watson urgent care and was told I had a sinus infection and given antibiotics. By Sunday, I literally could not get out of bed. It felt odd to me, not like a normal sinus infection, because I had this fever that I just could not shake.
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I literally just stayed in bed, but was NOT getting better. In a breakdown moment on Wednesday, I called my mom and begged her to come help me take care of Joey. Thursday I felt a bit better and began to feel bad for asking my mom to come all the way from NY. By Thursday night the fever was back with a vengeance, however, and Friday morning, we decided that since it had been a week, I needed to go back to urgent care.
While there, I got a horrible fever and chills and was just miserable. They did a flu test, blood work, and a chest x-ray. After a long, uncomfortable wait, they told me I had the flu, pneumonia, and most alarming of all, a really, really low white count. They decided to admit me to the hospital.
I was in the hospital Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, and received many tests, cultures, x-rays, etc. I was in an isolation room because of my low white count, and when family wanted to come see me, they had to get fitted in their masks, gloves, and gowns. I really started to go a bit stir crazy not leaving that room, and, of course, was desperate not seeing my son for four days! I was in for the 4th of July, so that was a bit of a bummer, but my nurses and doctors were all extremely kind.
I got released on Monday, July 6, and was home that day by about 3:30 pm. It was lovely being home, taking a long shower, and sleeping in clean, comfy sheets. I slept quite a bit and enjoyed my mom’s yummy cooking.
One thing that kept striking me over and over during my hospital stay, though, and sort of unsettling me was a phrase that I heard a lot from various doctors, nurses, etc. The phrase was “Because of your history…” Just four simple words that I fully understand the implication of, but somehow, I found myself growing quite irritated at hearing so many times. It even went so far as that when I was finally being released, one of my doctors told me that I probably wouldn’t have even been put in the hospital had it not been for my history. I don’t know why, but it sort of angered me. Trust me, I do understand where the medical community is coming from. Though I am now 4 years out from my experience with cancer (PRAISE GOD!), I do realize that certain things like a low white count can raise some flags. I understand that everyone’s intentions are purely for my good. I even appreciate how relaxed they’ve all been, making sure to go out of their way to tell me that they feel this was only the flu, nothing more.
Still, I find myself coming to some anger that I guess I never quite realized was there, deep down, still resenting the cancer and how it affects my life now. There is something about “Because of your history” that feels oddly…debilitating, I suppose. No one wants to be constantly reminded of their past. No one wants to feel held back or defined by the things that happened to them four years ago. Again, I’m not ignorant to the idea that this is a unique situation and that those defining things are of scientific importance. Still…
I guess what I wrestled with was just the idea of not allowing my “history” to dictate my responses to life today. I have come a long way with the Lord since that experience four years ago, and we wrestle (sometimes daily) to put these things in their proper place. I just want to humbly say after four days of hearing this phrase, that God’s work has been done in me. I am marked, but it’s not because of my history. I was marked long before that time, when God put His hand on my life and called me forth into His purposes. This is all just part of that. I humbly say today that I am well. God has made me whole, and when He sees me, He sees my future just as much as He sees my history, and His plan for me is good!
Today I went for a follow-up appointment and was humbled to find that my blood counts are all back to normal. I have been advised to take it easy, as this can truly take a long time to recover from, but overall, all is well. I think that I have been given a lot to chew on after this experience. I am thankful, humbled, and challenged. I want to take this experience and somehow allow it to teach me, so that I can grow from it and move forward. As a dear friend of mine said, my experience with cancer does not define me, but it has refined me. I like that. I am refined.
quotes Australia, movies, quotes 1:59 pm
“A life lived in fear is a life have lived.”
quotes Perspective, quotes, Stevie Wonder 8:23 pm
“Did you know that true love asks for nothing?
Her acceptance is the way we pay.
Did you know that life has given love a guarantee
To last through forever and another day?”
- Stevie Wonder, As
Entertainement and Life American Idol 2:47 am
What do you think? Am I Kara’s long lost sister? People keep telling me I look like her!
1 1:13 am
The Office is pure brilliance. Here’s why:
-Michael to Jan, (with hand motions) “You complete me.”
-Andy – “At Cornell, I was in an a cappella group called ‘Here Comes Treble’.”
-Dwight kills Angela’s cat Sprinkles…hilarity ensues.
-Michael’s various ring tones
-Prison Mike to Ryan, “You would be the belle of da ball.”
-Holly thinks Kevin is “slow”
-Michael, “I think someone may have given me some weed at an Alicia Keys concert.”
Alright, alright, this isn’t even scratching the surface, but I wanted to get the ball rolling. This is where you come in. Now you comment and add your favorites. Help me out!
1 3:35 pm
So I’ve been singing with City Walk’s Christmas Angels for the usual extra Christmas cash. It’s a four-girl acapella group that sings up-beat Christmas tunes. Fine. Nothing unusual.
It being Universal, however, they have asked us to throw beads to the people in the audience in an attempt to further spread the “Christmas cheer.” Let me point out that I believe the retail value of a strand of beads like the ones we are throwing is probably less than or equal to approximately $0.03.
Here is where my problem arises. Apparently the people in the audience have decided that the actual value of the beads far surpasses the actual monetary value. I have now witnessed several fully grown adult men throw their bodies in front of small children in an effort to claim their treasured beads.
This bothers me. It just makes me want to look at these bead hungry individuals and say, “Beads. Really?”
1 3:04 pm
I recently heard an idea about why we sometimes feel that God isn’t speaking to us. It was something to the affect of this: When students are taking a test, the teacher is silent. He can’t help his students no matter how much he may want to. He hopes they have studied and know what they need to get them through it. The students may raise their hands and want to ask the teacher something about the test, but the teacher cannot answer their questions. That wouldn’t help the student. He has to sit back and hope they do good.
Sometimes I feel like that student. I raise my hands again and again and ask God for help as I am walking through something hard. Still, He is silent. I get frustrated. I know that He is there, but He won’t say anything. I wish He would speak to me, but still, He is silent. The test gets harder and I start to wave my arms around wildly, now begging for God to speak to me and give me the answers to get out of my test faster, but still, silence.
When the test is over, I am tired. I may be worn from having to fight so hard to mentally get through my test. Mostly, I am a little confused as to why God did not come in and help me out with my test when He so clearly could, because He knows all the answers.
It’s then that He speaks. He tells me that I had to take the test on my own, but that I was never alone. He was there. He was willing me forward, but He, like the wise and silent school teacher, knows that I will never learn what I need for the next part of my life, if I don’t go through the test on my own, being forced to recall all that He has taught me in our times together. These times are so important. They fuel the harder parts of life. They are what He has provided for us so that we can know how to handle the tests when they come. And they will come. But we can close our eyes and lean on what He has already provided. His Word, His amazing grace, and His love, which are with us always.
Don’t wonder why He is not speaking to you during the test. Remember that He already has, and that you need to take the test in order to be able to move on. He has spoken already, and He will continue to do so. He is always perfect in His timing. He won’t forget to give you what you need. Trust Him.
1 2:37 pm
You know the rest. I have realized that sometimes I feel like I’m doing good, because I am getting by pretty well, but lately I think boredom and doing nothing are worse than doing something and failing. I am too manic sometimes, REALLY up when I’m up, but REALLY down when I’m done. I know life is about balance, and I’ve realized that having an idle mind is also an extreme. We have to be listening to God so He can speak to us, and He will speak. The opposite extreme would be to think that I have to be so focused on the Lord that I miss Him in the journey of life that is passing me by while I have my head in the clouds. Balance. It’s hard.
