Odds and Ends

So I meant to post a few times last week so this post will just be a collaberation of everything from last week!!

On Tuesday last week it marked the one year anniversary of my husband going into the hospital and finding out he had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma…to celebrate how much better he is now we both got matching lavender ribbons which is the awareness ribbon for Hodgkin’s.  Mine is on my arm next to my wedding tattoo and his is on his side next to his wedding tatttoo.  They are exactly the same….it’s by far my favorite tattoo:

Then last week I went to a local bead store that had a yarn section that they were getting rid of so everything was 65% off!!!  They didn’t really have any yarn left  but I got a few needles and notions I needed.  All in all I had $80 worth of stuff…paid $29!!!  Pretty stoked about my finds!

I’ve just been busy making up last minute projects for Ravelry swaps…mostly dishcloths so they knit up quickly but here’s just a few cloths I’ve made within the last week or two:

Then I also made this awesome neckwarmer that I love to death!!!  I really plan on making more in different colors.  It knit up super quickly since it’s done on size US13 needles and made with bulky yarn.  Love it!!

Otherwise I’ve just been working my butt off at work…I’ve really fallen in love with knitting more than I ever thought I would.  I did finally pick up my crochet hook yesterday again to start a beanie but otherwise I will probably go back to knitting very shortly after that!!  I haven’t made supper or anything for a while so no new recipes…life has been nuts!

Here comes March already!!

F*** Cancer!

So today marks the one year anniversary of my husband being in the hospital.  I’ve been having a lot of anxiety and little panic attacks lately just knowing it was coming soon.  I know I should focus on how far he’s come in a year but it still just takes me right back there.  I remember everything.  It was the worst 9 days of our lives.

This day last year we were meeting with doctors as they reviewed his chest x-ray and saw the huge tumor in his chest.  They drained a liter of fluid from his chest cavity and then by lunch he was wheeled to the operating room to have a biopsy of a lymph node taken.  I had no idea how to process it all, it happened so fast!  We just thought he had a digestive problem…not cancer.

The 8 days that followed were insane.  I never knew I could be that strong for the both of us.  I never knew how our families would pull together.  We were also moving out of our apartment at the same time so we had family and friends help us with that, no questions asked.  It was insane.  During his hospital stay he underwent 2 surgeries, blood transfusions, chemo, and a blood clot.  After being sedentary for days I had to help him walk as he was so weak.  I slept on a hospital cot for 9 days, ate hospital food, and got to know the staff very well.  I only left to shower and grab stuff from home.

I hope to never relive this experience and I never wish this upon anyone.  We made it through but I don’t know if I could do it again.  His final diagnosis was Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and he went through 6 months of chemotherapy and then one month of radiation for preventative measures.  His last check-up was last month and it was all positive.  All his counts were normal and he was in remission.  We have come a long way in a year but it’s still fresh to me.  Thankfully he doesn’t remember much of it…but I do.

He is so strong, if the situation would’ve been reversed I don’t know if I could’ve been strong like him.  Our lives have changed forever…he will forever have side effects from the chemo, a chance of it coming back, and it will always be something we went through our first year of marriage.  I think it has made us a better couple though.  We rely on each other more, trust each other more, communicate better, and appreciate what we have.  We rarely fight anymore as the petty things just don’t matter.  I love this man with every breath I take, I would do ANYTHING for him.

Be aware…

Crack-berry world!

Well I always wondered why people called it a “Crack-berry” (instead of Blackberry) Well I have now entered that world and understand it all!!  On Wednesday I was up for renewal on my cell phone contract and was so excited because I despised my EnV2.  I picked out the Blackberry Curve 8530 in smoky violet:

Yup pretty much in love 

It took me a while to kind of get the hang of it, and me being a texting-aholic that was the first thing I mastered!  The keys are definately smaller and placed differently so I tend to hit the wrong keys a lot but hey it works!  The only thing I’m concerned about is the battery seems to drain very very quickly so I don’t know if that’s common or if I have a faulty battery…

Otherwise I’ve just been nuts at work (I have 7 massages today and 5 tomorrow!!) because of Valentine’s Day.  We’re not doing anything, my husband works the late shift, 2pm-11pm, all weekend.  But that’s fine with me cause I have about a million projects I have to make for some of my ravelry groups!!  So this weekend if my hands don’t fall off from massaging so much, I will be inside knitting/crocheting my little heart out!

I got another postcard from Postcrossing yesterday, I pretty much LOVE getting em!!  I don’t know what I plan on doing with them yet, if I plan on making a book out of em or what…I’ll have to look up some ideas online.  Here’s the card I got…it’s from Poland:

Well that’s about all I’ve got for right now…Derrick and I are debating on starting to look at houses/mobile homes…so hopefully I will have that update next time!

Super Random Stuff

So I’ve been meaning to update for a few days now but just haven’t gotten around to it!

I went to a Scentsy party a few weeks ago with a friend and ordered some amazing candle stuff.  I got the warmers to match our bedroom and bathroom whenever we move out since we already have those sets from wedding gifts.  They are wall plug ins but I just didn’t put them together for the pictures! haha  and all the scents I got are AMAZING!!

Here’s the warmers:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s the scents I got:

I got:

• Bubblegum
• Lilacs&Violets
• Baked Apple Pie
• Sunkissed Citrus
• Perfectly Pomagranate
• Cucumber Lime

I am super excited about them!!  I still would love to have a bigger warmer too….but we’ll see!

On another note, I’ve been project crazy lately.  I’ve been trying to finish up my Breast Cancer scarf  for a friend…it’s taking longer than I anticipated but I should be done in a few days if I work on it like crazy!!  Here’s an updated photo, it’s turning out amazing!!

Then I’ve also started knitting a sheep dishcloth for a swap I’m in…it was my first time knitting bobbles and it took me a little while but I’m pretty sure I figured it out!  I do really love how it’s turning out so far:

 

It’s so hard to get a good photo of it though cause it’s white!

Otherwise I’ve just been working my butt off and also still reading Dear John by Nicholas Sparks.  My mom wants to go see the movie but I want to wait till I’m done with the book!  It’s really really good so far and I’m only in like the 4th chapter!

Oh I did make some yummy foods for super bowl last night….of course I forgot to take pictures of em though, but here’s all the links!

• Pickle Rolls
• Buffalo Chicken Dip (which was sooo yummy!)
• Veggie Pizza
• Apple Orchard Punch (my favorite!)

So now I’m off to have breakfast and get ready for work!!

Stash-eriffic!

Soooo I’ve somehow developed a yarn stash…they say it happens and I said it wouldn’t happen to me but it did!  Since we are living at my parents house we are very limited on room…we (I) have already taken over parts of the house!  So in an effort to declutter a little I decided it was time to organize this yarn.

I picked up one of those Sterilite drawer things at Big Lots for $16!! Score!  and figured that would be enough, it has 4 smaller drawers on top and then 3 deeper drawers on the bottom.  The plan was to put it in the corner of our bedroom where LuLu has way too many toys that she doesn’t play with and a bed she can’t get to.  Here’s the corner before:

 

So I decided the easiest way for me to organize all of this yarn was to just throw it all on the bed, have a mild heart attack, and then start sorting!  So that’s what I did:

Notice Lu-Lu was going to help but then realized we would be moving her stuff out so she wasn’t very happy!!

So I was filling drawers and putting UFOs (unfinished objects) into ziploc bags to keep them organized until I hit a wall…..all of the sudden every drawer was full and this is what I still had left:

So I was kind of like….wow this doesn’t look any different!!  hahaha  So low and behold I grabbed some of my walmart totes and organized some current projects (granny squares with their corresponding yarns) into separate bags and then the UFOs into a bag of their own and it was clear!

Finished corner:

 

I’m pretty happy with it…I’m just happy everything’s together now and somewhat organized.  I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to get another one though, I might and reorganize what’s in the bags.  We’ll see!

Cajun Chicken Lasagna

So I made Cajun Chicken Lasagna for supper last night.  I thought it sounded interesting and we had most of the ingredients in our cubboard.  I put it together in the morning since I had to go to work and stuck it in the fridge all day.  Then my mom stuck it in the oven so it’d be ready when I got home from work.  The recipe was super easy, just a lot of chopping.  I chopped up an onion all by myself too!!!  I DON’T do onions, I always make someone else cut them up for me!!  It’s not cause they make me cry (well they do but that’s not why I don’t like to cut them) the smell of raw onion literally makes me want to vomit!!  There’s just some smells that tug at your gag reflex and that is one of em for me!!  But I made it through! hahaha

So you first have to cook the sausage and chicken in a skillet with cajun seasoning (I make my own) and some sage.  Then you scoop that out and saute the veggies in the same pan:

Yum!!

Then you mix the chicken and sausage back into it and add the alfredo sauce to it all:

Then you just start stacking it like lasagna!!  I changed mine a little as I never cook my lasagna noodles before so I always add a ton more sauce to make sure that they cook.  So I used 3 jars of alfredo sauce instead of 2.  Plus I added a layer of mozzerella cheese in each layer!  hahaha We like our cheese!

Layers:

 Finished:

Cooked and eaten!!

The only thing I wasn’t too keen on was my celery was still a little crunchy so it added an interesting texture but otherwise it was super tasty.  It wasn’t as spicy as I would’ve liked but I can always add more seasoning next time!!  Everyone loved it so I’d say this recipe is a keeper!!

Then I made a quick dishcloth last night for a Ravelry swap I’m doing.  I think it’s pretty cute, not perfect but I’m my own worst critic:

I used Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Cotton! yarn which I love!!  I will probably make another one???  Maybe! haha

Adventures in Bread Making

So last summer I was able to find a bread machine at the thrift store for $5.00.  It had no instruction book and I honestly had never baked bread, kneaded bread, or anything else that goes along in this category.  But being someone who lusts over kitchen gadgets I HAD to have it!  I googled online for an instruction booklet and found one and proceeded to try my hand at bread.  I made a couple loafs at the time, my husband’s favorite being a peanut butter bread loaf that got stuck in the freezer after only a few slices due to him having swallowing issues during his radiation…

Since then I haven’t turned the machine on again until yesterday. I got this crazy urge to make some bread so I looked on the internet and scoured our cubbords and decided to make Jo’s Rosemary Bread.  It had a great rating on Allrecipes.com and I thought I had all the ingredients until I started gathering everything up realizing we don’t have any rosemary…so this may pose a problem since that seems to be a main ingredient.  But I decided to just up the Italian seasoning a bit and figured it’d be fine…welllll  it’s not terrible but I’m guessing it would be much better with rosemary added to it.

It has a very strong black pepper taste but it’s not bad.  I did buy some rosemary at the grocery store now though so I’m very interested in trying it again!!

Then feeling defeated I wanted another bread for variety.  I originally thought of a cinnamon raisin bread as this is a favorite in the household but then remembered we had just a handful of dried cranberries in the cubbord and stumbled upon this Cranberry Cornmeal Bread recipe.  We also had cornmeal since I LOVE cornbread!!  So I started adding all the ingredients for this and let it go!  This is what I got:

Yum!!!  Look at that amazing yellow color from the cornmeal and all those yummy cranberries (despite the fact they kind of pooled in one area, but they are incorporated into the dough too)  Now since it didn’t get done baking till like 10pm last night I didn’t have any.  But I woke up and someone (probably my husband) dove into it already.  So I cut myself a few pieces for breakfast and toasted them and buttered them and all I can say is OMG SO GOOD!!!  Probably my favorite loaf so far!  I love cornmeal so much, it has that nice gritty texture and then the sweetness of the cranberries.  Yeah I will probably be making this one often!

So that is it so far for bread, I plan on trying it out a lot more often.  A friend of mine wants me to help her make pitas this weekend so I’m pretty excited as I’ve never made these and neither has she so it will be interesting!!

Now I’m off to get ready for work!