gallbladder

I finally finished the tests and Dr. appointments and am having my gallbladder removed today. It seems strange to learn that we function fine without a body part. I could wait but I can't see waiting until I'm sicker. I can eat without making my stomach hurt but even 1 muffin will cause a couple hours of a stomach ache. I've been very careful since my last bad episode to limit any fatty food so I haven't felt really bad since I ate a piece of delicious wedding cake in UT.
I did a google search for images of gallstones; trust me you don't really want to see the images that came up.

On the happy side there are only 7 more days of school. Jeffrey finished 'his' wildflower project. I enjoyed helping him with it but am glad it gets turned in today. I could have really taken over and did more and more flowers... then arranged them artistically... I suggested that he dry a bunch of red, white, and blue flowers to make a flag for his mother for Mother's Day...didn't happen.
On to his next big project, due Friday. The phases of the moon; where he goes out and draws a picture of the moon every night for 30 days. Has that been happening? No, because he decided he could get the information on line and wouldn't actually have to look at the moon. (He did try for several nights and it was overcast so he couldn't see the moon.) I learned yesterday that the moon sites are not perfectly reliable and a computer picture is NOT OK.

works for me wednesday

I decided to go for another 'Works for me Wednesday' post.
I have a trick that has kept my children doing laundry for ...oh about 20 years. I drop a bit of loose change in the washer occasionally and whoever moves the laundry gets to keep it. I know they have no idea that it is planted. The deal is loose change is keepable but bills are not. If you find paper money you try to find the owner or it goes in the family fun dish.

Another 'works for me Wednesday' is a sandwich I just decided I like that is low fat. Tuna mixed with non-fat cottage cheese, add some celery and pickle if you like and it tastes good and helps me stay on this low-fat diet my gall bladder has put me on.

left-over salmon

For Mother's Day My husband fixed me grilled (on the grill) salmon and asparagus, mushrooms and salad. It was so good but we had leftovers... So today I made a pasta dish with it. So good (and it only gave me a little stomach ache-I should have left out the cream).

Shell macaroni (so much easier to get on your fork than fettuccine.)
fry in a bit of olive oil;
onion
red bell pepper
celery
garlic
mushrooms (Andrew didn't pick his out!)
Add;
a jar of 'dried tomato al fredo sauce'
the bit of leftover cream
some milk to thin it a bit
1 grated zucchini
1/4 cup parsley
and left over salmon

so good but I think I could have added spinach...

(no pictures since I left our camera in Utah :( )

gallbladder

I think I'm on the road to having my gallbladder out. At least that is my diagnosis; I wish the doctors would hurry up and figure it out. First

1. Visited with my primary care doctor
2. Then went for a sonogram
3. Next a visit with a specialist
4. Then a bunch of stool samples were required
   
5. Today I had a CT scan
6. Tomorrow an 'upper GI'

So maybe my diagnosis will be soon. Meanwhile I have a perpetual back ache, made worse when I exercise or sew. And I have to be careful about what I eat. Very few fats; I found that a Tablespoon of ice-cream gives me a stomach ache; I can handle a couple of cookies but no more than 2, one piece of cake is to much but I can handle one bite of cheesecake. I had 2 tiny pork ribs while Liz was here and that wasn't on my diet either. By the time the doctors figure out what is wrong I'll have my 'avoid-gallbladder-pain-diet' figured out. The silver lining to all this is a lost of 10 pounds.

visiting

I've had a busy week. I spent a couple of days reorganizing my live so I could leave for a few days. Exactly 3 days. What a lot of work for so little visiting time. It was great though and I'm glad I went. First I flew to Salt Lake City and rented a car to get me down to my sister's. The last coupple of years we had not managed to meet even though I had been to Utah several times. After a 3 hour drive I reached Annabella... (note to self check out the route with a person, not just google maps...I went the slower way)
I enjoyed our chef salad and visit with her friend. Jim's cows have calves and a house was on fire in their town. It was a derelict and was being burned as an exercise by the fire department; of course the whole town went to watch the fire and we had to take the long way to the cemetery.
The next morning I got up and drove to SLC to meet Liz and Carter and attend Eddie's wedding. The wedding went well and we got to visit with our good friends. The wedding took place in the SLC Temple and then we were invited to the family lunch at The Lion House, then 2 hours later the reception in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
I hesitated to go since as the Mother of the bride 5 years ago I did not feel like I got to visit with Mary much. This wedding was so different than Melissa's; first of all I wasn't in charge and second there were all of Eddie's siblings to visit with. We had a great time and then we got to go visit with Roger's folks for the night and a bit in the morning before we cought our flight to Houston Wednesday morning. Liz and Carter came home with me and we were planning on having a great time but I got sick and am just recovering and she leaves in a day! Oh well it's been nice to hang out at home with her.

andrew's poem

Andrew chose and memorized this poem for school.

The Sure-Footed Shoe Finder
By Andrea Perry

How many times has this happened to you?
You’re late for the school bus and can’t find a shoe.
It might take you hours unless you have got
The sure-footed shoe-finder there on the spot

Just lift up the lever and open the gate,
Then toss in the shoe that’s missing it’s mate
With a beep and a clang and a stagger and lurch,
The shoe finder’s off on it’s shoe finding search.

The powerful foot-odor sensitive vent
Tracks down your sneaker by matching it’s scent
And mere seconds later the shoe is retrieved
You won’t miss the school bus,
Now aren’t you relieved?

Most of our customer’s happy to choose
Our standard shoe model for footwear they lose,
Although the new Jumbo shoe-finder can trace
even those snowboots you children misplace!


Did you know that you can buy cd playing shoes?
How about a shoe table?
and here's a shoe you can ride in.
While looking at shoes I found this strange 'viper' made from keyboards.

lemon ice-box cookies

These are the lemon icebox cookies that I spent 3 weeks hunting the ingredients for. The cookbook, said these were very easy and they were IF you could find the ingredients.
Pistachios, already unshelled so that I would use them only looked in 3 stores..
A specific cookie; that I found finally on the internet, I could purchase a case of them but that seems excessive even for me. Especially since I have never tasted them and I'm supposed to be dieting so I compromised with these almond cookies.
a specific lemon curd, found in the third grocery store the first week. And finally creme freche, an ingredient unknown to any grocery store around here. I looked it up on the internet and THEY (the very popular and all-knowing they) said that I could find it in FRANCE! So I made my own; heavy cream with 2 T. buttermilk and made like yogurt. So I thought I had ALL the ingredients and went to make it and I was missing the one simple, easy to find ingredient, a lemon. So 2 days laterI finally got my act together and it only took 3 weeks. EASY and YUMMY!

(Of course one of the kids didn't like them!)