The past couple years of my life have been interesting. It got bad for awhile, but that turned out to be a good thing. That doesn't sound very logical on the surface, so let me explain.

The bad:

One of my best friends moved away. Not only was she the one who planned all the exciting activities that we would participate in, she was also the glue that tied everyone together.  I think she far underestimated her value.

My husband's father passed away. I could see the pain in my husband's eyes that I was unable to make go away. 

My grandmother passed away. I found it amazing that after her passing I took time to really reflect back on her life. Even a woman who spends her life at home, can be one heck of a fascinating person. I wish I would have seen it sooner.

The biggest blow of the year was when my son moved to Montana to join the fire department. I encouraged him to go because it was good for him.  Depression dug in and I  barely got out of bed for 2 months.

We left the church that was filled people that I loved like family. It was my choice to leave and I don't regret my decision. Even though my heart has been broken, I will always have a great love for those people.

So much has changed since I packed up my heart and left that little church on the corner. I have had a lot of time to think. Eventually that thinking lead to action.

The good:

Through the transition of being "a mom" and seeing that my son was a grown up and didn't need mothering so much anymore, I needed to learn how to "be me" again. 

The first thing I decided to do was to go back to school and finish my degree. I just finished my first semester back. I loved it! I took 3 classes worth 7 credits. That's full time for a summer session. It was a lot of work, but I managed to get straight A's in fly fishing, English, and psychology. My hubbie was awesome in helping me study and proofing my papers. 

Hubbie and I have both decided to change our way of living. Through changing the way we eat and getting out and doing things more, we have both lost over 30 pounds. WooHoo! 

We have already been to so many places around our local area this year. I am feeling more alive then I have in probably 15 years. 

My dad's uncle is currently in the hospital. He was out 4-wheeling and having a good time. He ended up having a pretty bad 4 wheeling accident. He is 89. I want to live the next 50 years of my life like that. (Without the accidents, of course). 

If I had never gone through the previous trials, I would have been content with the life I was living and never realized how much better it could be. So this is where I am in life, like it or not. 

What do you do with leftover turkey?
 
We typically start with open faced hot turkey sandwiches with leftover mashed potatoes and gravy.  After that we usually go with the cold turkey sandwich.  Then when we start getting down to the scraps we make turkey noodle soup.

This year I decided to use the turkey scraps for my favorite...turkey rolls. I even took pictures so I could share, because they are so good.

So here are the directions:

First you need bread dough. Any recipe will work just fine or even the frozen stuff from the grocery store. Whatever you choose, follow the directions for that up the the point of shaping into loaves and baking. Instead of making a loaf shape you will roll it out until it is just under 1/2 inch.

Then you will smear butter on the top of your flattened bread dough.

Next, I smash about 5 chicken boullion cubes and then sprinkle it on top of the dough.
     I use chicken boullion because I have never seen or even heard of turkey bouillion and it tastes good.

Finally, I take my remaining turkey and shred it. Then I spread it out on top of my smashed boullion.
     We had a small turkey this year and I didn't have a lot of  turkey scraps left. It worked out anyway.

 

 

Next, you roll it up and cut just like cinnamon rolls. I am hoping that anyone who reads this knows what a cinnamon roll is becasue I don't know how to explain that any differently.

 

Put rolls into a greased baking dish, leaving a little bit of space between the rolls so they will have room to rise.

 

Now don't forget to let them rise a bit.

 

Bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour.

 

Serve with mashed potatoes and gravy. A little gravy on your turkey roll is good too.

 

 

 

It is so so good. If you don't try it then I am sorry. I would make it for you if you were here....OK no I wouldn't, but it is really good. I sprinkled a little parsley on top so it didn't look so blah. Also I made a apple and raisin salad to go with it. I thought it complimented it nicely. 

 



 

We went for a walk this evening. This is some of what we saw.

We went for a walk this evening. This is what we saw.

Ducks Peacefully Swimming

  

Surging Water

More Surging Water

Rising Mist

White Water and Blooming Bushes.

Ol' Fashion Bridge.

Distant Fountain

Calm Waters

The Corbin Ditch

Head Gate from the 1880's

I love going for walks with my husband and being surrounded by such beauty.

It all started with a germ that was being passed from one person to the next. My turn had come but, this germ refused to leave me. It dug in for the long haul. Then one day I woke up with the feeling of heaviness on my chest. My lungs were full of something because there wasn't enough room for oxygen. This was not an emergency situation, just uncomfortable and tiring. Fortunately I was able to get right into my doctor's office. The PA diagnosed me with bronchitis and prescribed Keflex.

Cephalexin a cephalosporin antibiotic has many names: Keftab, Biocef, Cefanex, Ceporex, Keflect, Keflex, Novolexin, and Zartan. Apparently it is related to Penicillin, only stronger. (Side note: my dad is allergic to penicillin, but I have never had any problems taking it.)

Take one capsule by mouth three times daily.

The headache was the first side effect to appear. It was quickly followed by tiredness and the awful dizzies. A couple of days passed and I felt like I was getting better, except the headache, tiredness and the increasing dizziness.

Got the medication on Monday. Thursday night I was in the ER.

I had been spending most of my day in bed so there wasn't anything unusual about the way I fell asleep early that night. When my husband went to bed I got up to go to the bathroom, so I wouldn't have to get up in the middle of the night to empty my bladder.

OK here is the embarrassing part.

Things aren't as pretty in real life as they are in the movies.

I barely made it into the bathroom when I felt things were very wrong. My head was spinning and I  called out for my husband. He must have made it to me before I fell. All I know is his account. He says I just fell backward like I died. (he showed me, I had to come up with those words) He said I was out for 1 to 2 minutes. In which time I started twitching and then moaned and woke up. I know nothing until I moaned. I was aware for that. It was like I was pushing through a wall, fighting to get that moan out. I say I passed out, but my mom is convinced by the description of how I woke up, that it was a seizure. She has epilepsy. She says that makes her an expert. I kind of agree with her because I have seen people wake up from passing out. This wasn't like that at all.

Next, all I can manage to get out is "bed". I was really weak. I couldn't stand up, walk, or even hold my head up. My husband amazingly got me to the bed. I laid there in a cold sweat unable to move much for awhile.

Then the nausea hit. Hubby ran for a bucket. Still in a cold sweat, up everything came. And then it came again.

The cold sweat and nausea were over just in time. Still very weak, I needed hubby to help me back to the bathroom.

Somewhere in all that, hubby shared with me that he is thinking of calling an ambulance. I am stubborn. I didn't want an ambulance, but I agreed that I needed to go to the hospital. I was very bad off. At this point, I was seriously afraid that if I just waited it out and went to sleep, then I wasn't going to wake up. He was concerned that I was too bad off to make it to the car. He was leaning toward the ambulance.

I made it to the car. I almost gave in to the ambulance idea, but I was thinking that there was no way I was going to make it to the hospital if they made me lay down again. That's when the dizzies are at their worst.

Made it to the ER, with bucket in hand. I was in bad shape. They put me in a wheel chair and got me in pretty quickly. I rode in the wheel chair with my eyes closed because the dizziness was so bad. I was in tears and I have to admit not very cooperative by the time we reached the triage room. Even the slightest movement sent my head spinning uncontrollably.

So in the ER they gave me an IV with some anti-nausea medicine in it. It worked. It even dramatically reduced the dizziness. They did an X ray of my chest and an EKG.

I have no official diagnosis. Doctors don't seem to want to volunteer that information anymore. You have to ask them and I really wasn't in any mood for that. I know what was wrong.

The doctor did take me off the antibiotics. He told me it would take 5 to 7 days to get it all out of my system. In the mean time he advised me to take some motion sickness tablets.

It is day 4 and I still have the dizziness, however; no where near as extreme as it was Thursday night. I do have one new side effect. When I relax, my body has small little twitches. All other side effects have gone away. I take the motion sickness tablets when I get tired of feeling like my brain is swimming. But then I can do nothing else but sleep. 

I have always avoided antibiotics as much as possible. I believe it is better for our own bodies to fight and develop antibodies. This time I gave in because everyone around me was getting better and I wasn't. I really don't know why this is. I can only guess that it has something to do with having an autoimmune disease. I don't know, it's a guess.

I fully expect to have this drug and all it's nasty effects out of my body by day 7.

I wasn't going to tell you this part, but I decided to just in case someone else has a similar situation. My hubby told me it was making me crazy. While reading through the Possible side effects on the sheet from the pharmacy, it says one of the side effects was mood or mental changes. He says that was a yes on that one. Unfortunately, I think he is right.
Another listed side effect is sore throat. My throat isn't sore, but there is something wrong with it. I sound hoarse. I haven't determined if this is a result of the antibiotics or the bronchitis. I imagine I never will for sure.

So for those of you who want to know what happened to me. Here is your answer. And for those of you who do a google search for side effects of this stuff. I hope you find this information useful.

Take care of yourselves and wash your hands often. 

Update:

I have been off the medication for 8 days now. I still have the occasional dizzy spell. I have only noticed it when I move my head while I am laying down. The frequency is decreasing. 

It also seems that hiccups seem to be a part of this madness. I rarely get the hiccups and when I do I usually can link it to eating too fast or something extra salty. McDonalds french fries always give me the hiccups. Well I got some major hiccups for no apparent reason one time before I went to the ER, so I didn't really think anything of it. But, I have been getting hiccups a lot this last week. There seems to be no reason for these things, so I did a google search. Turns out the vagus or phrenic nerve when damaged can have a link to hiccups. So here is my theory: All my symptoms are nervous system issues. It is not hard to take a leap and come up with the idea that these hiccups are connected to my reaction to Cephalexin.

Those cookies that the little girls in green peddle each year are delicious. Unfortunately they are quite a bother.
First, you must wait for cookie season. What happens when you get a craving in non-cookie season? Hmmm, I see a clever marketing tactic at work.
Second, you need to know a girl scout. OK, they did fix that problem with their turf wars over the Walmart entrance location.
Finally, there is their not so moral political connections. *Sigh* Tragic.

My husband loves the caramel coconut crunchy cookie and I love my husband. So he shall not have to bow down to the girls in green and their mafia tactics. A recipe I shall find.

Yep, I totally made that sound like I went in search of a recipe. Ha! Nope, I just happened to run across one while scrolling through Pinterest one day. Here it is: http://www.onceuponaplate1.com/2008/10/samoas-girl-scout-cookie-clone.html.

So one snowy day in February, you know the day that happens once every 4 years, I decided to make some homemade somoa cookies.

Step One: Make shortbread cookies.

Step Two: Roast Coconut, add to melted caramel, with great difficulty spread on top of shortbread cookie. Hot sticky stuck to fingers, yay.

Step Three: Dip bottom of cookie in melted chocolate chips...Ooops! I dropped one. Scratch that. With a spoon, spread melted chocolate chips onto bottom of cookie.

Step Four: Drizzle melted chocolate on top of cookies, being careful to seal the bag so chocolate doesn't squish out all over your hands.

Step Five: About 5 hours later, let cookie rest until morning, allowing the chocolate to firm up.

My son and I had so much fun making these cookies. I think I will make it an annual tradition. Let's say I make them every year on February 29th.

Good thing those little elves make these now.

There were some things on my mind this morning, so I decided to talk with my husband about them.

So I started telling him about some current events in our lives and how it was making me feel. Wanting his input and his manly non-emotional view point, I ask him what he thinks.

Does a T curve this way or that? It curves this way so that it can be carried right into the h. Then you can take a break and start an a. 

I watch as he writes a t h and then an a in the air.

What! I don't know whether to laugh or punch him. So I laugh and then ask him what he was going to spell. 

That.

Although irritated that he was obviously in another world while I was seeking his counsel, I can't help but find this hilarious. Then I chastise him for his lack of attention. 

Surely he has learned his lesson now. I continue on with my feelings and then again ask what he thinks.

If I hold on right here like this and it spins like this, how many times are you going to go around? How many times are you suppose to go around?

Again he animates his words with his hands flying around in the air.

Seriously!

Half an hour later while we were cooking breakfast, he finally provided the guidance I was seeking. Turns out he was paying attention after all.

My husband is quite musical, like with instruments. 

I am not.

His music makes him happy. 

So does mine.

I just like to make a different kind of "music". 

That is the philosophy I used to convince my husband to help me with my latest creative project.

My bathroom has the blahs.

A new and different kind of ceiling. 

A close up of my hubby's handiwork.

First we went to the store and got the wood. 

Then we hauled it home in the Durango.

I should have taken a picture of that because it was quite the funny sight.

So anyway, we got it home. 

I stained all the wood as it lay out in the freezing cold garage. 

It was very cold.

Fortunately my husband does the precision cutting and I only had to go back out to the way too cold garage long enough to hold the tape measure.

Next we brought the pieces into the house one by one and put it on the ceiling. 

Nice and Easy.

Not!

But we got it done.

Well almost.

I still have to do a little touch up and add a coat or two of polyurethane.

If you want a more complete description of this process, check out the blog I found through Pinterest. It's where I got my motivation.

Ceiling makeover inspiration

Since we used nails on the trim, we didn't need to do any taping. I also don't need to fill as many gaps because my hubby is as big of a perfectionist as I am, so his boards are more likely to be too long vs too short.  However, we often end up either forcing the board in or he takes it back out to the freezing cold garage and trims it ever so slightly.

Hubby says I can't look at

anymore.

He's joking....I hope.


Update: 
You know those small gaps I mentioned? Sigh....Well, I found this stuff at the hardware store that is like drywall spackel but it is for exposed wood and it is stainable. I applied it to the ceiling just like I would drywall mud, blending the two boards together so that if someone was to touch them it would appear to be one continuous  flowing board. 
Then I looked at my work and wondered how it would look once it was stained, Would the stain show as beautifully as it did on the wood grain? That lovely grain that is now covered up in the corners. Hummmm...
So this morning I did a test patch and yep it is stainable, however; because there is no grain it is lighter and less interesting. 
The result is that I have spent my morning sanding off all the excess wood spackel. Off the ceiling! My arms are not so happy with me today.
What have I learned:
This stuff is not drywall mud. There is no need to blend. Just fill the gaps. Oh! and wipe off the excess while it is wet.