It's been a while...

Since you last joined the Long adventures... Yeah, so it's been over a month this time, but while I hate giving excuses I actually have a decent one this time. Aside from the busyness of the Christmas season and many migraine and dizzy days I briefly lost a close companion of mine. Yes, that's right... sometime around the new year my faithful laptop took a nosedive off of the couch and sat in disrepair for almost three weeks. While no tears were shed, prayers were prayed as it is difficult to replace such a priceless friend. Fortunately, my tech-savvy husband diagnosed the problem and took it to the proper treatment center and for a mere $50 my friend is back on my lap purring like a.. well, like an older model laptop that had a fall but still works great.

In other news, we had a lovely Christmas in Greensboro with the Longs, although we missed seeing the Lipsetts. This being my second married Christmas at the Long home I was able to notice a few more differences between our two families. Drew and I quietly began a mental list of things that "would never happen at the Lipsett home." I say this carefully knowing both families are some of my main blog readers and I will be questioned intensely on this, but it is still worth the interrogation.
Overall, the best moment of things that "would never happen at the Lipsett home" began harmlessly enough after dinner; when all the Longs, plus cousins, were talking about the rudeness of some noisy neighbors who have band practice in a shed that backs up to their backyard. The band happened to be practicing that night so the conversation quickly turned to what could be done to quiet them down. [note- I don't exclude myself from any blame in this scene, but I was focused on more pressing matters.. I really wanted Rice Krispy Treats.] Anyway, it was resolved that what was needed was a certain type of fireworks, a cigarette fuse, dark clothing, and an element of swiftness. So within a few minutes we all reassembled in the living room with one cigarette fuse & lighter, dark-enough clothing, and an entire bag of fireworks... but unfortunately, of all of the explosives found in the home [this is also on the "never happen" list] we did not find the precise type of firework that would make the band know we were annoyed with them. So it was back to the idea stage... almost a twenty minute conversation of how to prank the neighbors. Amazing. My favorite highlight came following my suggestion to make Rice Krispy treats and take them to the band. I figured they would all have to stop playing and we could talk to them and ask them nicely to stop playing so loud. Guess how that went over? Yeah, I think one response was, "Okay, Martha," quickly followed by, "Does anyone have any smoke bombs?" Ah, what a wonderful family. I truly love being a Long, but anyone who knows my maiden-name sakes are well aware that this could/would/will never happen in the good land of Lipsett.

K

Purple Toes

My most recent attempt at blogging began last week as a medical update saying how great I'd been feeling the last couple weeks, but was delayed due to illness. So, after a week of migraines and pre-9pm bedtimes, the dizziness returned to join in the fun. Thanks to some new magical red pills my doctor called in a few days ago my migraines seem to be gone and I even got to go in for another visit to Dr. S. That made two visits in two weeks! And, to note I am doing pretty well today.

So, since I haven't really given much of a straight-forward medical update in a while here it is. I have POTS, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, which is most likely [for me] a chronic heart condition that can be treated but not cured through medicine and exercise. The exercise part is still slow going, but I'm not on the couch all the time anymore so that leads in to the great improvements made in my medicine regime. I take a fair amount and it is clearly helping me to be able to be more functional, less dizzy, and do more. The drugs won't "fix me" but as an example this week I got dizzy Tuesday with a migraine and felt as though someone had kicked my head, sent it spinning off then reattached it improperly so it was a bit rickety and then stomped on it for good measure. Wednesday, was better, I took my special liquid medicine, of which my doctor is having me learn how to titrate my own dosage during bad spells, and I also got a magic red pill that put me to sleep and took away my migraines. By Thursday no one was drop-kicking my head, it wasn't spinning, I could walk into the kitchen and make a sandwich [albeit with a strong desire to be sitting]. And now on Friday, my head is alright and after upping my liquid meds [still within doctor limits] I was able to take Digory dog for a brief half-block walk today by myself. oh, and did I mention I'm blogging? Tuesday reminded me of last year before I was dizzy for a 2-3 month spell, but praise God I'm doing much much better, much quicker.

Back to the specific medical update.. that really is the gist of it. I have this POTS thing and now I have some working medications and a great doctor. Now Drew and I just have to get used to having medications that help some and try to understand how much I can do and be prepared to rest [me, unfortunately not him] when things 'flare-up' again like they have this week. Oh, and on a lighter note I have noticed lately that when I stand up for a while my feet turn purple. They don't hurt and I asked my doctor and he says it's normal.. for me.. so please don't worry, you can think it's cool like I do. I get excited and make Drew come and see. He isn't as impressed as I am, but really, think about it God made me able to stand [at least for a while] with a ton of blood in my legs when it should really be in my brain and I'm not passing out... just able to admire His handiwork. I think it's cool, but then again I'm weird.

K

Casserole

So back the week before thanksgiving I decided to try my hand at making Chicken Pot Pie from scratch. Aside from some confusion with the crust that arose (or lack thereof) from my inexperience it was a hit. I made it again the next week and got the crust right and decided its time for my pepper/chili kick to be over and start a new one.

Casserole.

My first was a turkey tettrazini with leftover thanksgiving bird. Instant hit. But tonight was even better.
Back story.

Katie wanted some chicken for lunch but was unwilling to wait wile it baked so she 'suggested' I cook it in a pan. We longs don't have muck experience frying things. We can grill a shoe and make it taste good but frying just ain't us. But I gave it a try anyway. Three chicken breasts, some olive oil, salt and pepper, lots of splatter, 15 minutes later there was some decent fried chicken. There was also a pan with a wee bit of oil and lots of tasty brown bits. Hummmm. I couldn't waste such a pan full of flavor. I added some butter and more oil and simmered five cloves of minced garlic (I love some garlic). Then I added about a quarter cup of whole wheat flour and stirred it up to get an ugly thick paste. Last went in some milk and chicken broth from Trader Joe's. Then I stirred and simmered till creamy. Now at this point I didn't exactly know what I was going to do with this cream sauce I had just created, so into the fridge it went with the two uneaten pieces of chicken
Tonight all I did to make the final casserole was to chop up the remaining chicken, cook some spaghetti, stir fry a diced green pepper, open some peas, grate some Parmesan cheese, mix it all together, bake it for half an hour, and eat. Next time I'll cover it so the top doesn't get so crunchy.

D

Cookies

Drew has been cooking up a storm lately. I went to Montreat this past weekend with women from my church and while I was away he made his special "Long-cakes," which are very delicious pancakes. He also made himself a small vat of chili this weekend, two pumpkin pies a couple weeks ago, and my favorite was the incredibly delicious chicken pot pie he made from scratch to serve me for dinner when I returned from my mountain retreat.

Tuesday night he decided he needed to make cookies. I'm sure I don't understand what a blessing I have, but I have been having to tell him not to bake more than one item a week.. and he has been begging to make these particular cookies for a while. Maybe it is the holiday season that brings out his desire to bake or he just inherited his mother's exceptional culinary abilities and needs to use them when he has free time. Whatever the reason, the result this week was Lentil Cookies. Yes...there were lentils in the cookies. I honestly enjoy them. We have shared them with others [including children] who all enjoy them. They just have a terrible name for a cookie. He coated them with sugar and some with cinnamon this time so they are sweeter than you might think and even packed with protein, but really.. lentil cookies? I tried to sell that to a 3 year old yesterday. No dice. Want a cookie with sugar on it? Yeah, that worked a few seconds later. If you have any ideas for a better cookie name or for what Drew should make next, feel free to let us know.

K

Good Service and Good Pasta

We finally tried the fresh pasta store. Oh my. I have attempted to go back every day since, but have only gotten away with it once. We got some chicken ravioli and a nice marinara sauce as well as some pumpkin ravioli. Yes that's right Pumpkin. I'm not usually swayed by decor but the place has the feel of an old world market. (no I haven't been to the old world, but I'm sure the markets are like this) The best part was the two employees we were helped by. I haven't been to a store where the people were so genuinely helpful in a very long time. I'm talking way beyond Trader Joe's kind of helpful. I didn't know there were people this passionate about pasta.
Anyway the stuff we got was nothing short of amazing and now I'm hooked for good. If you want good Italian food in Charlotte skip the restaurant (and I do Love Frankie's) and head to Pasta and Provisions on Providence Rd. You'll be glad you did.

D

One more video

Thanks to a rather humorous email from our church featuring one of our pastors and two guys promoting man's night with fake mustaches and fake beer guts I found myself once again on YouTube. I did a quick search for any new relevant videos that might be helpful to explain why I don't do much any more and I found one that is pretty good. Again not perfect.. a little dry, but the story is somewhat similar to mine. Hope it proves to be informative. Click here to watch video.
My favorite videos are still these by Chronically Kyli, Part 1 and Part 2.

K

Digory's haircut

Unfortunately my dizziness [& headaches] returned Sunday afternoon and I'm back on the couch for a while, sleeping a lot and Drew is real busy working and taking care of me and the house. So, since we aren't all that interesting at the moment I will share something that is always a source of humor in our home... Digory dog. Here are the photos I've promised of the little guy's first haircut since he's been in our family. Clearly it was about time. .. he was starting to run into things.
I wasn't sure I was getting the right dog at the groomer, but he seemed to like me and they told me he was mine. So I took him home and he pouted a great deal that day as you can see in the photo, but he is now quite content to be short haired. It seems to give him an extra excuse to snuggle up on cold.. or not so cold days.

Digory has also decided that he likes my spot on the couch now that he has a fancy new haircut. Maybe my seat is warm. Every single time I get up, he takes my spot. Here is looking especially adorable as a seat-thief.

Drew and I like our slightly hairless dog, but we must admit we are looking forward to the day when he is our scruffy, scraggly, little Diggy again.

K

Updates on our life

To catch you up on our lives here I will say that things are going rather well. Drew is adjusted to his job and can finally access his schedule on his computer at work and will now know ahead of time [couple weeks or so] when he has days off. He also used for the first time that illusive thing called 'vacation' days which was exciting... for our bank account. He was able to use a week of paid comp-time and a couple vacation days to work a week for his last company on a show in Ohio and be paid twice. He was missed by me and Digory. On one of his recent trips he even got to hear Teller from 'Penn & Teller' speak. I didn't realize this was cool until he told me that Teller is the one that never ever ever says a word. Pretty nifty. Maybe Drew will elaborate when he has more time for blogging.
As for me, I have been somewhat officially diagnosed with a chronic illness, but my doctor [who really is great] isn't 100% sure it is chronic, but pretty sure. Good news, my current treatment is working well and for the first time in forever I left the doctors office today with no new prescriptions! So, we will stay with life as is for a couple months and then reevaluate. I have also been getting out of the house more this past month [thanks to the new treatment] and have made a couple of friends in my neighborhood and even started attending a second bible study with some women from our church. I've even driven on a few occasions when I didn't need to get out of the car much.
So there is our update. We are in a busy season. Drew is working hard, but will finally get a weekend Sunday and Monday and I have been doing a lot of reading (scriptures and medical research) when I can and walking Digory.

K

We are nerds

The real title of this post should be I'm a nerd because officially Drew doesn't like this chair. He thinks it is impractical. I suppose part of me agrees that I would be scared I might spill a drink on my books or that I would lean back and hit my head or the fact that this is incredibly heavy & a bit on the expensive side. Beyond that... doesn't it just make the bookworm inside of you drool with desire of how close you could snuggle up to your books? Aaah. The thought just makes me feel like a warm fire and a cozy sweatshirt-blanket have just been put before me. Ooh, some hot chocolate would go well with this fantasy.

K

The Office weigh-in

Did anyone catch the season premiere of the Office? It was pure comic genious. If you missed it, please do yourself a favor and watch it online on NBC.com. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it [or finished all but the last 15 minutes.. Drew, you are really putting a strain on communication in our marriage. please, finish it.] The episode was all about weight loss as an office and essentially that meant adopting a healthy lifestyle, but really the focus was on the pounds. Each person had some 'great' strategies for trying to shed the pounds.
As one of about five women in the US who wants to gain weight I am trying to brainstorm the opposite problem... how to put the pounds on. It's harder than it seems, well at least to do it in a way that is healthy, i.e. not just eating junk food. If anyone has any tips on how to gain weight feel free to pass them along. Otherwise, just don't hate me for asking and watch the Office for a good laugh to forget I even mentioned it.

K