Regulating

I have a horrible ability to adjust to things easily.  Most people would see this as a good thing and honestly, most of the time it is.  I adapt to new situations without much struggle at all.  It's terrific really but what's not terrific is the fact that my body adjusts quickly as well.  

Over the last 20 years as I've been treated for this and that, I regulate to my doses extremely fast.  My last doctor would switch me between medications every three months because of it.  I thought that since it had been so long since I had been on medication, I'd take awhile this time.

Nope, not even close. 

My RLS is worse.  My muscle spasms are worse.  And the back pain is back.

I have an appointment with my doctor on Monday, but it really sucks!

But onto more interesting stuff.  Monday, Sabrina started her Phelbotomy classes, woohoo!  She's loving them and came home tonight with specimen tubes, needles and a tourniquet.  She's been going around all night practicing with the tourniquet.  Wrapping our arms and pointing out the veins: cephalic vein, basilic vein, median cubital vein.  Then she practices her one-handed removal of the tourniquet.  I'm so happy she's enjoying it that I even volunteered as her first guinea pig.  See?  There's my arm in the picture.  The gorgeous, young thing is Sabrina.  You'd let her practice on you, right?

Saturday night, Zakk stayed with his cousins at his grandparents house and they all went out for pizza.  He and my nephews were so excited to go, they all piled into my brother-in-laws Tahoe way before everyone was ready to leave.  So in Zakk's boredom, he decided to buckle himself into my youngest nephew's car seat and was in quite a hurry to get out of it before I could get a good picture!

The next day while Dustin and my brother-in-law were being nice and doing an emergency brake job on my SUV, Sabrina took Zakk and the nephews to Steed's Dairy.  

Sabrina

Zakk, Corran, and Brennen

After they came home, I snapped a quick pic of the face paintings they had done at the dairy.

Zakk, Brennen, Corran

Today, I finally finished weeding my garden and thinning out the radishes.  I had been almost done on Saturday when Zakk begged me to take him to Grandma's and wasn't being patient at all!  I also trimmed up my basil and since I had lost three broccoli plants, I filled in the bare spots with garlic.  It's really the only thing that can be planted this late in the fall and I wanted a full garden, so now we will have 26 garlic bulbs to dry out and enjoy come summer.

I went out in the early afternoon hoping to avoid the mosquitoes this time but it didn't work out that way.

All that was after taking Dustin to the doctor, I thought he had strep after loosing his voice over the weekend but it was bronchitis.  I'm not happy with him but that's because I'm probably going to end up with it.  

I don't let the kids have soda except for special occasions and the rare treat.  Grandma's doesn't count.  But I drink soda nonstop, trying to keep the kids from developing the habit, and Dustin will pick up my glass and take a long swig off of it.

  

Good thing I don't drink alcohol often and try to disguise it!  I kept telling him to knock it off because he was getting sick and he'd shoo me saying it was just allergies.  So if I get sick, it's completely and totally all his fault!

And what did I do with all the basil I harvested?

I made basil oil and then topped baked chicken breasts with it, tomatoes and mozzarella for some yummy Chicken Caprese.  It was a hit!!  Incredibly easy and incredibly delicious, basil oil is awesome!  I had never tried it but I think it's going to become a staple around here.  In fact, next planting season I will have to at least double the amount of basil plants.  I made mine without straining the basil out afterwards because I like the color and wanted a stronger flavor, but a lot of people like to retain the look of the oil.

Basil Oil

2 cups fresh basil leaves, tightly packed

1 cup good quality extra virgin olive olive

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Blanch leaves in boiling water for one minute.  Remove and place immediately into an ice bath to stop the blanching process. Dry leaves with paper towel.

Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor (I used a smoothie maker just for convenience), pulse for one minute.  Let rest for 30 minutes to let the froth die down then either pour directly into storage jar or strain the basil out, then store.

Oil will last up to one week in refrigerator, but let it warm to room temperature before use.

Baking, Beauty and Bugs

Did well today.  Late last night I ended up making some dark chocolate chip pumpkin bread, which I honestly didn't like but the rest of the family did.  That tends to happen a lot.  I'm a "eat to live" while the rest of the family is "live to eat" and it causes us to have much different tastes at times.  But I like making them things, so I'll keep trying new recipes.

Fridays, my father-in-law and I have a standing "date" where I run him to his Diabetes Dr. followed by lunch.  Had some nice chatting time with him and then we hit Popeye's Chicken afterwards for lunch.  I tried the new Hushpuppy shrimp on his recommendation but wasn't really a fan.  I don't like fried food, but every once in awhile I'll eat it.  Fried shrimp and hushpuppies are both a nice liking of mine, but I didn't like the combination.

I also got out into my garden today.  A couple of weeks ago, I planted green cabbage, garlic, broccoli, radishes, spinach and basil in a raised bed.   I lost a few broccoli plants and one of my cabbages is struggling but other than that, it's growing!  I seriously have a black thumb so I'm surprised it's lasted this long.  I'm doing exceptionally well at growing clover.  If Lucky Charms ever runs out, I can help!  Pink hearts, orange stars, yellow moons, green clovers, ya know?  This afternoon, I thinned my radishes and spinach and pulled all the little tiny clover patches.  In half the garden anyway.  The mosquitoes chased me inside before I could finish.

Sabrina and I also received our favorite shipment of the month: Ipsy!  Below is my haul.  The Warm Love is a pumpkin exfoliate mask.  The Indie Lee is a facial cleanser.  I also received a Tattooed eyeliner in black, Starlooks lip gloss and Rose Berry hand cream in Fig and Rouge.  The eyeliner was full size.  I plan on reviewing them eventually.

Sabrina's haul included Ayres Body Butter, Epice Facial cleanser, the same lip gloss by StarLooks, Volumeyes mascara and Nicole Opi nail polish in On A Gilt Trip.  Both the mascara and nail polish were full size. 

I received my monthly Birchbox as well which included: Vasanti Brighten Up facial exfoliating cleanser, Ellovi butter in vanilla (for body and hair), Ojon Hair Oil Therapy, Jouer Matte Moisture Tint and ModelCo Powerlash mascara.  I'll be reviewing these as well and seeing if I can get Sabrina to review hers.

This evening, it was just me, Sabrina and Zakk in the house.  As a lot of ten year old boys do, Stitches has stinky feet.  So I jumped on the "girl's night +1" bit and did a pedicure on him.  Started with an eucalyptus and spearmint foot soak.  Normally he clips his own toenails, but he's a boy and hates doing it so they always look horrible.  I clipped those, pushed his cuticles slightly back then scrubbed them down with a pumice stone.  I then followed with a peppermint and plum foot scrub.  After he was all rinsed off, I gave him a nice foot massage with Burt's Bees Almond Milk cream, tossed on a clean pair of socks and told him to keep them on til morning.  Zakk has always loved foot rubs so he ate up all the attention big time!

I also finally picked up my used iPhone 4 from my sister-in-law.  I've been fighting getting a touch screen phone and she bought a new one, so handed me her old phone.  I happily accepted it mostly because of the better photos I could get with it, lol.  So, I've been having a little fun playing with it and of course, all pictures in this post were taken with the new phone.  Still don't know if I'll ever turn into an Apple person but we'll have to see.  All in all we had a really nice day.