Musings of a Reluctant Adult

-no long vegetarian black bean chili-

2012-01-24T17:35:00.001-06:00

Still feeling wonky. The hubs is still hovering. But only when he thinks I'm not paying attention.

Like today. We got up early, ate breakfast together. I didn't fall asleep until 3 am, so i was still a bit sleepy. Seeing how it was only 7am, I decided that while he was in the shower I would catch another few minutes of sleep.

So about fifteen minutes later he's shaking me.
"Are you okay?"
me: "Yes, why?"
"You were unconscious. I thought you passed out again."
me: "I did. i took a nap."
"Oh. Well don't."

lol. Bless him.

I've been making a bit ol pot of vegetarian black bean chili. Well I decided to throw some meat into it, hence it is my -no long vegetarian black bean chili-

I think I'm going to make black bean chili burgers tomorrow. I just need to add some brown rice and panko until they get to burger consistency. I think some cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream and that sounds wonderful for lunch tomorrow.

But I have to go separate the chili into serving size containers. The hubs isn't huge fan of chili, but I like to be able to grab something and warm it up when it's really cold.

hope everyone is doing grand today.

low blood sugar

2012-01-23T14:33:00.001-06:00

still battling this b.s b.s.
lol.
get it?

b.s. blood sugar /b.s. bull schnitzel.

funny stuff.

The hubs is trying to not mother hen me, but i can tell last night freaked him the heck out.

I had forgotten how crummy this feels, the day after a crash like that. The sorry part is that i'm STILL having trouble keeping my blood sugar up.

I'm trying my best to be smart about it....

first thing this morning I had a bowl of some hearty oatmeal right around 8 am.

by ten i was feeling icky, so i grabbed a banana and that helped.

The hubs brought me a sub sandwich for lunch at 12:30. He also insisted on buying a coke "If you're feeling low, just drink a glass. that way it'll get your sugar up faster." He's not wrong. I am just trying to eliminate those things.

He could tell me b.s. had dropped before I ate. I looked "off".

But I ate and I perked back up. Now I'm just trying to figure out if I need to munch on something else in an hour or if I'm fine.

I'm not hungry, but i haven't been all day. Which means I can't go on that. I'm going to just have to schedule out my food, which isn't a horrible idea to begin with.

I have a feeling if the hubs gets his way, that finger pricking is going to be in my near future. Especially if I'm not 100% well by tomorrow.

Scary Stuff

2012-01-23T10:12:00.000-06:00

I scared the hell out of my amazing husband tonight.

How you might ask?

Well, see I've battled with low blood sugar my entire life. I remember wailing as my mom would prick my fingers several times a day, trying to ascertain my blood sugar levels. There were times my levels would be so low that as I was standing in the doctor's office they wouldn't know how I was even coherent. at one point, it was so low it just didn't register.

I would often pass out from low blood sugar as a kid. My mom always had OJ and crackers on her. She was armed with hypoglycemic kid's battle pack. Part of my problem was that I hated breakfast and would skip meals. I was superactive and things like eating correctly and on a schedule would get away from me.

As i've gotten older, i've managed it fine. Normally I can feel it coming on and drink some juice and be fine. It hasn't snuck up on me out the blue in years. I can count on one hand the amount of times it's ever gotten out of control to the point of passing out.

Add today to that count though.

You see, I've started eating amazing, like all organic food, tons of fruit, no more caffeine and no more sugar.

We slept late today, but the hubs had to go to work and he thought he'd be gone for an hour at most, that turned into 11 hours. I hate cooking just for myself, so i ate a banana when i woke up. For lunch I made a sandwich and ate a few crackers. Around six I grabbed another banana, trying to hold off on cooking a real meal ,thinking that the hubs would want to cook dinner or we'd grab something when we went to go get some milk and essentials.

I sat down on the couch at nine to watch iron chef. They revealed the secret ingredient and i remembered thinking that it was going to be cool. Mint, i mean that's hard right? That's the last thing I remember before coming to an hour later. When I passed out I hit my head on the wall behind the couch. luckily i was sitting when i passed out. so i just have a tiny knot.

When I came to I had no idea where I was, I knew my ring was bugging me and I wanted it off, I stumbled to the bedroom to take it off and as soon as I sat down on the edge of the bed the hubs came in. Apparently he'd been calling for an hour and freaked out b/c i ALWAYS answer.

He was being frantic trying to figure out if I needed a trip to the ER. I was just trying to think, and it wasn't working very well. Anyway, he gets some food in me and I perk up. I still feel like ass. Anytime your blood sugar goes that low, you're just going to feel like crap for a while.

anyway i am fine now. just thought i'd share my crazy night. fingers crossed the bad weather doesn't get me.

if you have nothing nice to say

2012-01-22T00:13:00.002-06:00

if you have nothing nice to say, then you should say nothing at all.

I'm going to keep that in mind.

Top Chef etc

2012-01-18T21:16:00.001-06:00

Top Chef is by far my favorite show. I should just go to culinary school and get it over with. It's not like my degree is serving me very well at the moment. The show always inspires me to cook something yummy. Right now, I have panko breaded pork chops in the oven baking, still trying to decide what veggies will go with it. Probably going to saute some zucchini and squash.

I have mad kitchen skills. lol
Plus I may or may not have a culinary crush on Tom Colicchio.

I am pretty excited, ya'll. I am having lunch with my Aunt P and my cousin Gin, which means i get to see her baby, my niece Maci Mac! The hubs is also ordering a copy of shimmy for me. I'm trying to get fit and I lost like 40 lbs a couple years ago, doing the shimmy work out on fit tv. So if it ain't broke.. Right?

What else?

Oh I am taking a free pottery class on Saturday. I've been wanting to take a pottery class forever and this is a good way to see if it's going to be worth my time and money. I"m excited. I'm dragging Mike to the initial class, but after that, it's all me. I have to find some ME things to do.

Finally,

I had a literary cathartic breakthrough yesterday. No lie, I woke up and started writing. I hit 11k words.

11k words in one day.

I am awesome.

I hope you are all having an awesome week.

my muse

2012-01-17T16:01:00.001-06:00

my muse is back.

woke up with a fantastic idea for a book and have been writing like a crazy person.

let's hope this continues.

Spring Cleaning: Part 1

2012-01-16T11:32:00.000-06:00

Yes, we did roughly fifteen loads of laundry yesterday.

You may be wondering, why the insane amount of laundry and how were we even walking around our tiny apartment with that many dirty clothes?

well since we've been alternating between being sick, hospitalizations and the holidays things got out of control. Plus I HAD TO WASH MY BLANKETS!!!! I couldn't stand it anymore, the whole, there must be tons of germs living in my comforter thing, was making it hard to sleep. So that was like 5 of the loads in and of itself.

Every article of clothing we own is clean. Now we're going to space save some stuff, donate some other stuff and put up the rest.

We also put up the Christmas tree, packed up all the Christmas KnickKnacks! I'm about to go rearrange the living room and throw away two pieces of furniture. A desk that I think we can eliminate and cupboard I'm pretty sure we can live without.

I am streamlining our lives, getting rid of any clutter possible and just living more simply.

Essentially I've made Spring Cleaning my Beeyatch. I know it's January, but what better time to cleanse your place, than the start of the new year?

now i can insult folks in russian

2012-01-15T01:47:00.000-06:00

you all know that I took a few years of Russian, right? What you may not know is that only one of my professors taught me any slang. Really not that much of it either. So tonight I was super excited when I saw a russian slang book for just a few dollars.

Most things in the book I will probably not ever speak, because it's just plain rude. But certain things are handy.

For example,

I may or may not have proposition my lovely spouse in the middle of the bookstore.

*keep you fingers crossed that no one near us understood what I was saying*

67% better

2012-01-13T15:09:00.001-06:00

I'm feel 67% better, don't worry about how i did my math. It's special. lol.

but no really, i feel a whole lot better until i start moving around and then my body is like "hey you're still sick, don't believe me? oh here's a huge coughing fit for you".

The apartment is so wrecked and it's killing me. I keep getting up, washing a couple dishes, wrapping up a few more christmas knickknacks. I have the tree completely stripped, it just need to be put up in the box and taken over to the in-laws and stored up in their attic. But in my head, i'm better. i'm still hating food. which is a lovely by product. how about we keep that around?

oh they are putting a new roof on our apartment building. Remember when the roof got blown off and we had to relocate for a week back in August? Apparently tarps have been the only thing between the third floor and the elements. I live on the bottom floor, so it hasn't really affected me since they replaced the a/c's. but now it's really loud, lots of heavy machinery, and only one way in and out of our apartment building.

i have really awesome job applications out there right now. so if you happen to want to throw some prayers my way, that would be awesome. they're for two positions at a local college. I'd have to commute, but it would be a really great, stable job.

i know i've mentioned my search for a job, like all the time and that we're tight on funds. but i do want you all to know that Mike and I are not in any danger of starving or being kicked to the curb. Being students and living in super cheap student apartments, we're set until at least may on a place to live with all the amenities included. We have heat and electricity and a roof over our head. things are tight, but we manage.

you may have noticed

2012-01-12T18:49:00.000-06:00

you may have noticed over the past week that you've seen a different template on this blog, each time you come here. I had thought I found one I liked, went to tweak it, uninstalled it thinking I wanted a different one. Of course I hated the new one, went to reinstall the old one and bam, it wasn't saved on my computer and I couldn't remember where I downloaded it from.

so now, i have settled upon this one.

for now

i traded in

2012-01-10T20:11:00.000-06:00

i traded in incessant sneezing for unrelenting coughing.

I have spent every day since Saturday sneezing my head off. I've had tons of sinus pressure, running a high fever, my ears have been killing me. It has sucked.

Today however, the sneezing stopped. Oh great! Right?

Not so much, now I'm coughing my head off. Take a deep breath, coughing fit. Say more than 4 sentences, coughing fit. Think about something, coughing fit.

Ridiculous.

The hubs, bless his heart, is relapsing. So he feels like sweaty armpit too.

Which sucks for him, because I just sent him out for some cough drops and soup.

oh i can't taste anything either. i've been thinking about crunching into a jalapeno to test this.

Hold your panties... This is going to be a sports entry

2012-01-10T15:00:00.000-06:00

Roll Tide!

Seriously folks, did you see that game? Oh that was splendorous. A complete shut out. LSU only crossed the 50, one time. A single spanking time. Our defense was on point and our scrawny, tiny little fellow of a kicker, scored the most points. At least Richardson got TD in the end zone. I love Courtney Upshaw. He's my new hereo. I loved how, awesome his acceptance speeches were. Everyone was being very humble, but damn, sometimes, someone needs to just step up and be like "We were awesome and we did what we had to do, to get the job done." and that was Upshaw.
Our QB was awesome, McCarron, he just kept the pace of the game going on his terms. Which honestly, is one reason we won. Poor Maze, pulled the hamstring after an initial run. That game could have been even more epic if he had not had to leave the game.

As a life long Alabama fan, I am just happy. I thought everyone was really classy. I know tons of people didn't want to see this match up. They did not think we should be there, and it was just a wonderful end to an awesome year.

Three years, the National Championship Trophy has made its home in the great state of Alabama. I think it likes it here.

Roll Tide

Roll Tide

2012-01-09T17:53:00.000-06:00

In place of our normally scheduled programming, I am leaving you with this simple message!

ROLL TIDE ROLL

Rammer Jammer, Yellow Hammer,

Give em' hell, Alabama!

Did you know

2012-01-08T01:55:00.001-06:00

That today is Elvis' Birthday? DO you know how I remember this little fact?
well let me tell you...

There was this girl I had drivers' ed with in high school. We were sitting in class, I think maybe the first day back from Christmas Break. Our old football coach of an instructor taps the desk and declares that today we were just going to sit around and talk about driving and listen to Elvis songs, since it was the day he died.

this very soft spoken girl, cleared her throat and corrected this semi over bearing man. "No, today is Elvis' birthday. I know because it's my birthday too."

the coach just laughed and said "okay, we're not celebrating his death. We're celebrating his birthday, which is more festive anyway and now we're also celebrating her birthday too."

As I was perusing facebook, I saw that girls name pop up in the birthday announcement area. I told the hubs the same story and decided ya'll should read it too.

sometimes the things that stick with you are weird.

Doubly so when you're rocking what I'm guessing is a killer case of Strep throat. I don't know for sure and won't until Monday, b/c I had to wake up sick on a Saturday.

if I feel better tomorrow, I'm going to dive into my journey to complete organic/sugar free/gluten light living. been there, done that, felt better, but fell off the wagon and now I'm back on.

wish me luck

It's Friday!

2012-01-06T12:37:00.002-06:00

I love the fact that the hubs has a long weekend. We can get some major things done around the apartment (put christmas decorations up), he can have two seconds to recover from being sick all week and I can have some help with the mass of laundry we have accumulated during the holidays. Win-win for all around. Well a win for me, definitely.

Let me brag on my hubs for a second....
The hubs starts back to class on Monday. He has three more semesters left and I'm just so happy for him. He was super awesome and has gone to school part time while I finished my degree, then had to stay part time when i broke my leg b/c i needed so much help. Last semester he actually got to attend full time and kicked major ass gpa wise. I'm just so proud of him.

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend.

oh snap... wait one second...

I changed the look of the blog... opinions? I miss my owls, but it was getting to cutesy for me. I think i may ask for my own designed page for my birthday present. i want something streamlined, but funky/fun still me. Ok mostly, I want an owl someplace!

Houston.. We have a problem

2012-01-05T18:51:00.000-06:00

I have mentioned in the past that I have horrible allergies. I have seasonal allergies, food allergies, skin allergies, i'm also allergic to fragrances/perfumes. Pretty much I'm a walking disaster. Well to continue this point, I love the store Ulta. It's the only local place that carries my face wash. It's super hypoallergenic and just all around awesome and affordable. I normally only go into Ulta when it first opens, that way I avoid all the sprayers. Ya know, all the people in the world who love to spray multiple perfumes.

Well I had 30 minutes to kill this afternoon and it was before all the teens were out of school. So i figured I was clear and could spend my christmas gift card. B/c to be honest, the most guilty sprayers are teenagers.

I was wrong.

I made it through the store and my head was pounding.

I get home a couple hours later and i'm itching all over and i'm having problems breathing.

Yep I had entered full on allergic reaction territory.

I grabbed a shower and just took a benadryl.

which means, i'm about to pass out for the next twelve hours.

peace out homies

not a lot going on

2012-01-04T22:51:00.000-06:00

still looking for a job. i have sent out a bunch of apps/resumes and i'm still working on some i'm sending out soon.. so please keep me in your prayers.

the hubs has been sick all week, so i've been trying to take care of him. now i've caught his cold and feel like crap. i'm tired of us giving each other the same cold back and forth. so friday, is going to be doctor appointment day.

I hate taking antibiotics. I was a pretty sick kid and was on antibiotics all the time, so much so that as a teen they stopped working. They had to give me those extra bad ass antibiotics. A few years ago I started just letting my body heal itself. Taking the right vitamins and try to eat stuff that will help me get over whatever faster. but we've just been so sick lately.

Tomorrow, i'm having lunch with my pal. which I'm super happy about. she's awesome and i haven't seen her in forever. we're going to start taking some classes together. like knitting and crocheting b/c we're awesome 80 year old women apparently.

i hope everyone is doing awesome.

How ya feelin' tonight? Southern, I'm feelin' Southern.

2012-01-02T00:03:00.001-06:00

If you've read my previous posts, you would find that I had made the traditional new year's fare of beans, cornbread and greens. Well i skipped on the greens and had a bite of salad. all in the festivities right? Well i made enough for my brother to come get about half and some cornbread, b/c i'm an awesome little sister like that.

Anyhoot, I walk out to his truck to take him his portion of the food. After talking for a few minutes, I realized how TACKY I was looking. Let me run down what I was wearing.
A panda knit hat
blue capri sweat pants
Sparkly How Pink blouse
Dress Shoes
Zebra Snuggie

Yep, I walked out to the parking lot of our apartment, where there were lots of folks, dressed in what can only be described as Trailer Park Chic. My brother pointed out, I could have just stepped out of the finest mobile home park that the great state of Alabama has to offer.

yep, I am classy like that ya'll!

Happy New Year!

umm i'm a dummy

2012-01-01T22:55:00.000-06:00

i forgot to take pictures of the cornbread (best batch i've ever made and i didn't use a recipe, just did it off the top of my head) and the beans/greens.

it was yummy though.

i made a ton for my brother to take home b/c that's how i roll.

i hope the first day of your new year is great.

On Task for the day

2012-01-01T15:00:00.001-06:00

I have to run to the store and pick up some ingredients. For what you may be wondering....

Well traditionally in the south, on the first day of the year we eat Black Eyed Peas with ham hock, Greens, and cornbread for good luck. I haven't done this my Nanny passed away, but up until then, I had eaten it every year as far back as I can remember. The black eyed peas are supposed to bring prosperity while the greens are supposed to represent the folding of money, so for cash flow. and the cornbread is just yummy.

anyway, I'm going to go run to the store and pick up some buttermilk and some beans b/c those beasts will be cooking all afternoon and i also have to figure out what greens I'm going to cook. luckily i kept the bone from the ham during christmas. i may just cook some pintos to go as well b/c cornbread and pintos are yummy.

i'll make sure to take pictures.

what are some of ya'lls New Year's Day traditions?

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T21:26:00.000-06:00

Goodbye 2011

2011-12-31T14:41:00.000-06:00

Dear 2011,

You have been full of stress, pain and lots of learning situations. I spent the first part of you in a cast, unable to walk. So I essentially spent most of my time in a recliner. Totes fun, or not. But I did finally graduate.

I don't think I can fully express how awesome this was. I'm just now really "getting it". I think it was such an anti-climatic point for me because I would have graduated in 2010 if not for breaking my leg, and then the tornadoes came and pushed by the May graduation ceremony to August. By that point, I just did not see a reason to participate, all my friends had scattered across the globe and it just didn't feel right. But regardless of the delays, it was still a huge moment for me. A completion of something. I started college and took a few breaks here and there, I changed majors a couple times, but i finished.

I finally completed the biggest goal I had ever set in my life. I am a college graduate.

I won't lie, that sort of messed with my head. I was left with a "what now?" feeling and I still have that same feeling 4/7 days a week.

On to the leg. I'd like to say my leg 100% better, but on days like today. I can't even say it's 75% better. I still limp, I still have pain and on days like today, it swells up and I can barely walk. it is what it is.

But this whole year has been a great learning experience. I learned to let go and let God. I learned that my husband is a great provider and can take wonderful care of me, when I let him. I learned a lot of great things I won't take up space with on this blog and a few negative ones. The biggest one being that I also learned about regrets. Not saying goodbye to my grandma before she passed, will haunt me forever.

here's something that happened this morning, that I'm going to share and it pretty much sums up 2011. The hubs and I are sitting down to a breakfast he made, and he looks me and says;
"Honey, I'm sorry I've been in a mood lately. I haven't been fun. I've been super stressed out and I've been taking it out on you. I am really sorry, I love you."

me: "I love you too, and I'm sorry too."

him: "For what?"

me: I laugh

him: "Oh YOU'RE sorry that I've been being a butt head?"
me: nods in agreement.
we both busted out laughing. it was an absurd little moment, a fun quip and that has been 2011. An absurd amount of junk happening, surviving, getting through the muck.

But it's all good, we will end it laughing.

Laughing is bringing the joy, and if I can start 2012 off by bringing in the Joy, well that's just wonderful.

elvis lip

2011-12-30T16:12:00.000-06:00

I think i've mentioned but never shown it.

TADA:

i can curl my lip like elvis.

oh and that's totally my zebra stripped snuggie i'm rocking..

and the hubs says that's something that should have continued in anonymity, lol it bothers him so uch.

Proof that I'm strange but my family is just as bad

2011-12-30T14:47:00.000-06:00

We all have come to know that I am a strange cat. It's just accepted in these parts of the interwebs. Amirite? I think I am. But my family is responsible for my strangeness by being strange themselves.

i hopped into my brother's expedition to head to lunch at our favorite Italian restaurant when I brought up the topic of the day.

"Why isn't our family in the mob?" I asked.

It's not like the mob really exists in the south. It's more like Moonshiners left over from the days of prohibition, but not real Italian mob stuff.

"Um, we're not Italian"-the brother

"My life would be so much easier if I could be a mafia princess, and snap my fingers and people do stuff for me. I'd be all capiche and stuff. I'd offer people things they couldn't refuse, and it would be a wonderful place in Dianneland."

"So what you're saying is that you want to start an organized crime syndicate, in order to bring all our wants to fruition." - my brother

"Pretty much."- me

"Okay, I'll start working on it." - my brother

then the next topic-
"Hey dad, I'm gonna start calling you Popsicle. is that cool?"

no response

"Okay, I'm going to take it as that's cool."

Let's see how long he goes before he tells me to stop. I'm thinking a week or so. maybe two if i only start out with a smattering of Popsicles.

The Snuggie

2011-12-29T18:50:00.001-06:00

I don't think I mentioned that I finally got a snuggie!

The hubs got me one and I caught a glimpse of it the night we spent in the hospital so it was not a christmas surprise. but you know what? I don't care that I saw it beforehand because it is epic as I ever believed it was going to be.

It is zebra print and super soft. The hubs may or may not have spilled some coffee on it Christmas Night. No worries, that sort of made it even better, because now it smells like hazelnut. Plus he got the coffee stain out. The nice lingering coffee smell just makes it cozier.

so yay, after a super long time, I finally got my snuggie and it was everything I imagined!

Thanks for the image Google!