This 'N That

• I had no idea that so much of my scheduling would revolve around the schedules of my 5- and 2-year-olds.
  
• Halloween 2009 netted my kids more candy than you could imagine. So many parties and activities! We definitely got our money's worth out of the costumes this year. One was free, handmade by my aunt about 25 years ago (I bought a $7 hat to complete it) and the other was $6 at a consignment sale.
  
• One had strep throat, the other had a weird stomach/diarrhea thing and both kept me crazy busy. Today, I have this sore throat business, which I know is related to my stuffy head. I'm wondering if I have a sinus infection.
  
• Want to hear something weird/interesting? If you're my friend on Facebook, you've seen my frequent posts lamenting about having pleurisy. Well, I went to the doctor and, besides putting me on Prednisone (yuck! boo!), he did a CT scan. I fully expected him to tell me to stop being a baby and suck it up or something. I mean, when I go to my family doctor, I'm usually told that he doesn't know why I'm having the pain, here try these meds, see you when I see you. So, I kind of expceted that. But, no. No, no, no.
  
  First, he asks if I spend a lot of time in the mountains. And I'm like, doc, we both grew up in southern West Virginia... you LIVE in the mountains. I wasn't trying to be rude or anything, but growing up, I lived on a hill. One year during a huge snowstorm, the snow drifts were at my hips. I mean, you can't really avoid the mountains here. My parents have had to fight forest fires to keep from getting too close to the house. It comes with the territory.
  
  He said I have calcifications on my lungs, which are basically scars due to me having had histoplasmosis at some point or other. After I scooped my jaw off the ground, I was told that there is really nothing we can do about it. Oh, and there's this one calcification near my main airway that we have to watch because if it ever errodes over into the wind pipe, I could start coughing up blood and would need to get to an ER ASAP.
  
  Yeah, freaky, right?
  
  So now I just keep praying that the pleurisy doesn't come back because HOO BOY did I ever gain weight! And I acquired chipmunk cheeks. Just in time for Christmas family photos. LOVELY! Not to mention it REALLY hurts.
  
• And, at the end of October, I decided to go with a work-from-home opportunity that is pretty promising. I'll start training in about a week through New Year's. I'm excited but nervous. Aaannnnd.... I submitted an application to a teaching program. I'm just throwing all my irons in the fire. Just waitin' to see what God wants me to do.
  
• In the middle of all this, Hubby and I decided to start following Dave Ramsey's Financial Freedom program. Even though I know a budget is in no way a punishment, it really FEELS like it, especially at this time of year. I keep seeing things I want, but don't need and some times it bums me out. I keep trying to focus on the goal of financial security and peace of mind. Today, it's not helping. :-P

I've had lots of thoughts and stuff that I wanted to share over the past month or so, but I have this "helper" who literally climbs on to my lap any time I start typing a lot. And then I just get frustrated and quit. But eventually, I'd like to just write and share.

Snow, before Thanksgiving?

That is the forecast. For tomorrow. Thanksgiving is just under two weeks away, and it just seems odd to me to have snow before Turkey Day, though I know that in many places, this is completely normal.

I have this notion that the Christmas holiday season shouldn't be official until the day after Thanksgiving. Despite my notion, we've been playing Christmas songs/videos at work since November 1.

Still coughing like crazy and I didn't accomplish 1 thing today, though I sorely needed to because this week is going to be extremely busy. I'm going to have people here twice, maybe three times, by Thursday, so I've got a lot to get done.

I've been watching the Food Network a lot today, and a part of me would love to cook Thanksgiving dinner myself this year. It's a lot of work, but I enjoy it, even if it gets crazy, like me cutting my thumb pretty badly or the turkey and its juices being so much and so heavy that the rack in my oven bowes and sags. I don't really cook like that often, but I really enjoy it.

I have hopes and goals, culinarily speaking, to learn how to make these things homemade/from scratch:

• Bread
• Chicken and Dumplings
• Fudge
• Pumpkin Rolls
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Dinner rolls
• My mom's potato salad
• My grandma's cole slaw
• My mom's gravy

Some of these things will require me to spend some time in the kitchen with my family, which I love and already do. Most of the time, I help or just keep company and they do the cooking. For me to really learn how to do something, I have to do it myself with them watching and supervising. Usually, there isn't enough time for that.

Anyone out there have a dish (or few) that you'd like to know how to make?