new patient packets aren't nearly as impressive as sweet and low packets

today i was compelled to call a doctor to set up an appointment for my back because it is not getting better. so i called and they told me to download the new patient packet to cut down on the 'wait time'...right, as if i actually believe that i'd have a short wait. so tonight i was filling out the information and i came to this page and wondered if they would accept a 3D visual.

trying to decide which is more effective in portraying how it feels when i move

 one of the questions on the questionnaire is: what do you want to happen as a result of this visit? seems to me that the obvious response would be-i want the pain to go away...so i'm thinking about adding that i'd like to lose 20 lbs and look 10 years younger as the result of this visit.

anyhoo..the good thing about today is that i finished 2 more weeks and just have one left, plus projects. there's something comforting about working at panera, probably because that was my go-to place when i lived in branson.

is that a lady? and is she really cradling the loaf of bread as if it were a baby? that's a little weird. or is it a man with long hair pretending to run with a football for a touchdown? either way..it's still weird.

3..4 cups of coffee-2 packets of sweet and low in each...yes, sweet and low packets are much more useful than new patient packets...

 update on the pinky: looking much better, feeling much better unless i bump it, now it is just numb and funny feeling. thank you neosporin stuff!!

today there is not much else to tell b/c the boys are exhausted from doing all the housework today-they can't wait until i'm feeling better!

blessings-whether you see them or not, they're there!
julie

if only chocolate relieved backpain!

this has been my life the past 48 hours...

yesterday and today have been a little rough-we've gotten together to work on our curriculum calendars for school next year, and it's actually been kinda' nice for pre-planning purposes. we've met at starbucks yesterday and today-which has been nice to keep the caffeine flowing. it's also been great just to have adult conversation!  today was especially nice because we went to maria's house for a home cooked meal (and who doesn't love that?!); and it was fun just being around family interaction.

tomorrow we'll hit panera and hopefully grind out another couple weeks done. it really is a pretty grueling process trying to figure out how we can work together creatively throughout the year, especially knowing that things will probably have to change by the 2nd half of the year anyway. i like panera for the free-flowing coffee! (they used to have this german chocoalate danish that was heavenly, but i haven't seen it in awhile).

the unfortunate part in all of this is that a terrible back pain has returned. the last time i had it this bad was a couple of years ago and i literally had to roll out of bed and and drive to the clinic to get a shot from the doctor. well, it's 2 years later, and the doctor i went to left her practice, so she referred me on to the doctor who worked with her. i never went to him, and actually one of my friends at school said she used to go to him and their family didn't like him-rude, terrible bedside manner (not that i plan on EVER being in a bed near him).

so yesterday and today i was walking slowly and stiffly like frankenstein's monster. in fact, i was thinking about investing in a cane because it hurt so badly! i've been walking like an 80 year old, trying to figure out how to do it inconspicuously-which is a little difficult-i'll stop and look at art-work or out the window, or whatever, but i'm afraid the expression on my face betrays my actions.

i just watched extreme couponers and WOW! that was crazy-nuts! i cannot believe how much they save!!! i'm intrigued (uh oh). now tiaras and toddlers is on, and it is ridiculous! it actually makes me slightly queasy to my stomach and a lot annoyed by the way these parents let their daughters act, dress and walk all over them! yuck. chaco just called them something that only a dog can get away with saying.


don't be a pain-there's already enough to go around~
 julie

diet dr pepper with jam and bread, with jam and bread..

today i finally got to do the jar-lid-test! why is that exciting, you might ask. well, to be honest, it's probably only exciting once, then it probably becomes frustrating. 5 of the 7 jars were sealed correctly, which just means that one went in the freezer and one is ready to go in the fridge (and already i've made a dent)!

better than smuckers? yes, and perhaps i am biased. nothing wrong with that.

so, this afternoon i had some tea with jam and bread, jam and bread, jam and bread..only i didn't have any tea...and i might've added a little peanutbutter to the bread..and i may have substituted diet dr. pepper for the tea i didn't have...but none of that fits into the song, and i don't believe that julie andrews would be pleased with a new rendition of the song.

tomorrow i actually have to begin doing something school-related...i have been trying to deny that the time was drawing near, but i'm kind of excited to get it done bc i'll feel like i have a better game-plan going into the year! plus, it'll be nice to be around adults-the boys don't get half of my jokes...and they'll listen to politics, but they won't add to the conversation. except for tonight. cnn had a candidate debate and while we were watching, bruno said, "who is the idiot that keeps interrupting?" "that's john king, the moderator," i explained. "hmph! don't vote for him, mama!" and chaco watched for awhile but decided chewing on a chew toy would be more productive and exciting.

when you get bored with politics, bow out gracefully and find a chew toy-it's totally socially acceptable.
julie

well, what does bruno think?

so before i turn it over to bruno, i was watching the dual survival guys again and to re-enact 'what might have happened when 2 hunters fell down a ravine,' one of the idiots is self-inflicting a laceration on his arm so that they can show the process of cauterization. so he's cutting a large gash in his arm, then putting gunpowder in the wound and then lighting the powder to burn and deaden the capillaries so it will stop bleeding. so, now you know. if you're bleeding...just go to the ER.

oh, and i got my canner today and i made strawberry jam! now i have to wait and see if i actually did it correctly-12-24 hours. i already heard one ping, so hopefully that's a good sign! i absolutely love mom's homemade jam! ok, here he is:

hi! i'm bruno. i asked if i could write sometime on the log. and mama said a log i something i should pee on not write on and then she said this was a BLOG. i don't know what that means exactly. but she said: be my guest. that's my favorite part of the musical with the pretty girl and the big man-dog. when the dishes are singing. mama's dishes sing to me. sometimes when they're sitting there with food on them, they beckon me over and sing, "eat from me! partake in this deliciosity!" and i do and mama never believes me, i get in trouble, but it's real...it really happens like that.


at first mama wasn't sure i'd be very good at this-something about rabbit trails. i've never been on a rabbit trail, but i'll bet it's pretty. i tried to eat some bunny trails ice cream-but it stuck on my whiskers and i got in trouble. mama tried to read watership down to me (it's a book about rabbits and their tunnels..chaco likes tunnels), but i asked her to read velveteen rabbit or peter cottontail or guess how much i love you with those two hares competing. at first i imagined hairs competing and i thought that was crazy..hair cannot hop up high. hair can't even talk and hair cannot go to the moon! didn't a monkey go to the moon or something? i don't like monkeys. they have hairy hands. i saw a picture mama started a long time ago but she never finished it, and the monkey is scary. if i better hands, i could do so much more! but i do pretty good for myself, all things considered.

when mama hurt her finger the other night, i was so scared! so now, i follow her around whenever she goes into the kitchen..or the bathroom..or her room..or anywhere..mostly because i really care about her-ok, not really, mostly because i'm hoping she'll think i'm super loyal and give me treats!! 

today she left for forever and when she came home, we saw her from the window and i started barking like a crazy dog (i'm pretty sure she thinks it's chaco-i always make sure to point at him and roll my eyes when mama walks in). today when she was in the kitchen, chaco started barking like a girl at someone outside and mama said, "that's enough, we don't do that!" he looked at her and said, " you don't because you CAN'T-you're not a dog! but i'll bet if you were a dog, you sure would!"  and then we went to sleep again. that's all i got! oh, and i'm pooping outside a lot more. 


don't bark, be loyal and poop outside,
bruno

pinky gloves-it's all the rave after foot spas

**sorry about last night, i should've given a spoiler alert!

tonight my feet are exhausted- i know i mentioned the foot bath in a previous post, but sadly i never got around to getting it down and ready. well, tonight i really felt the need to pamper myself, and i can't think of a better way than a little foot massage. thank you homedics! the best thing about it is that it was free! my parents received it as a gift and never used it, so they re-gifted it on to me.

relaxing!

hopefully the oil isn't toxic, because not only did bruno think warm water was good, he continued to lick my feet once i had dried them off

i just need to do that more often, because it really is a nice little retreat.

 i really am slightly miffed that i still have not received my canning stuff! i have some strawberries that i want to make into jam. instead i did potatoes again today so i could finish off enough to make ready-to-go scalloped potato packets.

i cut the fingers off of the plastic gloves to create 5 pinky gloves to keep it clean.

i keep a bunch of plastic gloves on hand because i like to have them around when i make certain dishes; they certainly come in handy for many things!

i think i'm going to go see super 8 sometime because it looks kinda interesting-besides, i need to try out those movie passes and see if they really work.

the boys were fighting tonight, so i gave them each their own concentration chew stick. i love it because it calms them down and they go to opposite sides of the room and forget they were fighting in the first place.  bruno has asked if he could guest write a post sometime, so i might allow him to write one tomorrow, so stay tuned!

 be sure to treat yourself this weekend!
julie

to mandolin slicer: you cut me open and i keep bleeding..

ok, i think this one is going to be interesting-i would like to start by giving you a tip:

there's my marker, but what is that white thing?

that would be the tip of my pinky.  look at that hunk of flesh!

ok. let me tell the story-you might cringe a little, but it was interesting. the game had begun and i had the 2nd batch of chicken going (which turned out quite spicy). well, after we were well into the 2nd quarter, i decided to go ahead and blanch the potatoes so i could dehydrate them (first time i've blanched something and knew that i was doing it [not blanche like golden girls]). so i had to slice the potatoes. well, i got about 5 out of the bag and washed them off, and one of them fell into the garbage disposal-no, don't cringe yet. i reached down to get it out and it is really hard to get a potato out of a disposal drain-kinda like the monkey that grabs something in the bottle and cannot get it out because his hand won't fit. well, it was a tight squeeze, but i finally got it out. that's when i put a stopper in-brilliant.

then i got the little mandolin slicer out. now, it's small but lethal. i began slicing, and when i got down toward the end i carefully finished the first potato. well, i got careless with the 2nd one and before i knew it, i felt  a slice and i knew i had cut myself. it began bleeding so badly that i couldn't actually see the cut. i rinsed it off and put pressure on it with a paper towel (perhaps a couple of choice words came out and bruno and chaco in unison, [like my students if i say the word 'stupid]' said "awww!"). i proceeded to the bathroom, put a bandaid on it and kept the paper towel on to pressure. then when i removed the paper towel, the bandaid was soaked, so i got more paper towel and continued to put pressure on it and keep it above my head. then i went back into the kitchen and picked up the slicer and there underneath it was what i thought was the tip of the potato, but then i realized it didn't have potato skin on the outside...nope. it was unmistakably my fingerprint! it really took that much off. so i guess if i ever commit a crime i'll have to be sure to just use my right pinky, and no other fingers!

 i proceeded to call my mom because i wanted to be reassured that i didn't need to go into the e.r. (my dad is prone to accidents-he likes power tools. and my mom is a nurse, so we're pretty level headed). i tried to explain to her how big the chunk was, but as i sat there staring at it, i couldn't think of anything that was the same size. maybe a baby's contact..half a lima bean? i don't know. she said just keep the pressure on (and i thought, oh, kinda like the mavs?). and she asked if i had gauze-no. note to self-get gauze if i plan on cutting myself again. done. and so i found another bandaid and put tape around it. mom asked if i could get to the e.r. if i needed to. yes, but i didn't want to because i was in the middle of blanching potatoes and finishing chicken and watching the nba finals!

by the end of our conversation, i was convinced that i would be fine. i may need some aspirin tomorrow b/c it is going to hurt like chopping off the tip of your finger! i had to change out one last bandaid which finally didn't bleed through. i think i handled it pretty well, but the dogs are so intuitive. the were following me around from the kitchen to the bathroom, to the kitchen again. i think chaco heard mom and decided i was going to be fine, but bruno (my loyal one) stayed with me wherever i was. i finally reassured him i was fine by giving him a treat of bbq chicken!

 i woke up this morning, and i knew i had to take off the bandaid to clean it. i cut it off, but it was sticking. so i turned on the water and it finally came off. and it started bleeding again, so i blotted it with the paper towel until it stopped.

this is the side view-it's official, i will forever be single now bc i hear the first thing guys notice on a girl is their pinkies. and now, mine is deformed. no perfect rounded tip anymore...

and here is the culprit-mandolin slicer! i found the attachment-life saver

 then i made my way to the cvs to get hydrogen peroxide, gauze and neosporin. then i dropped off some letters at the post office. i got home and cleaned and re-bandaged and got the dogs ready for another early morning walk...all of this before 8:30! woo!

when we got home, i decided that it would be a good idea to finish slicing potatoes to dehydrate for hash browns later on...if you fall off a horse, get back on, right? yes, i did just compare slicing a finger with falling off a horse-sorry equestrians! and then i poached the last set of chicken breasts to make curried chicken salad.

and then i decided to relax a little:

i ABSOLUTELY love this movie!! and yes, i did get razzles for the occasion-first it's candy, then it's gum!

jennifer garner is so adorable in this movie, and mark ruffalo-the ideal man.

i was planning on starting my canning today or tomorrow, but i got a call from a courier guy and he said that they had received my package, but they couldn't deliver it because i wasn't in their delivery area. so now they will ship it back to amazon to find another way to ship it...boo. i totally could've found a half way point to meet him or something.

alrighty then, if you have sharp objects in your home, invest in gauze-
julie

kill 'em with kindness is not self defense...but throwing masa could be

today i decided that i would take my dogs on an early morning walk while it was cool outside. they were much appreciative. we enjoyed the breeze, bruno pooped and life was good. (model citizen that i am, i bagged to toss). on the way back around, we stopped by the mail box, and i had a full box. that's what started my grocery shopping spree.

when i got back to the apt, i looked at the ads, normally i throw them away. and i noticed that albertsons had some great deals on meat, so first i stopped by aldi (love aldi for saving me money!) then i decided i'd grab a sandwich at the drivethru next door-subway...and it wasn't until i got into the drive (no turn arounds or back ups...) and that's when i realized that it was actually a starbucks drive-thru (which was on the opposite side of the stinkin' block of shops). so i got up to the speaker and said "oh, i'm sorry, i thought this was a subway drive thru." no was the answer, but i still had to wait for the idiot in front of me who was flirting with the girl at the window.

finally i got out and went straight to albertsons and i was on a mission. they had deals, deals, deals- so i ended up getting $96 worth of meat (pork, beef, steak, chicken) for $37!! oo-OOH! (double deuces, hands in the air like baby mama! pronounce the oo like boo) yep. i'm beginning to like the 'reduced for quick sale' deals-chicken today. so i decided to make some bbq chicken. it's funny because i'm not like a die-hard bbq lovin' person, but it just makes great sandwiches!

i may have also ordered some canning equipment...hopefully that will arrive tomorrow. new adventures!

oh, and i vac sealed the remainder of the masa and i now have an unconventional weapon-it's a masa brick.

you may not be able to tell, but this masa is rock solid! i don't know sir, all i did was throw some masa at him...maybe he shouldn't have tried to enter my apartment! (for the record, no one has tried to get into my apt...i think they know i have masa)

ok, the raisins are finally done!! how did i know? i heard them humming 'i heard it through the grapevine,' and when i lifted the lid to peek in, there they were dancing with their white gloves and sunglasses! so..which ones are store bought and which ones are mine??

hint, i didn't add crap to mine to give it color!

the crazy thing is that they started out green!! i think i'm doing some potatoes next and fruit roll ups. and as far as the canning goes-strawberry jam. yum...my. on homemade bread please.

by the way, i just pulled out the first batch of chicken (small crockpot..i'm single, remember?) , and it pretty much melted in my mouth...if i had a restaurant, this would be on the menu! with red velvet cake balls bites for desert!

alright, closing it down because the boys are getting restless and want me to join them for the game!

may you get as excited as i do when you find great deals!
julie