Beat the Chill

MAN it's cold here! BELOW zero. So I made a big crockpot of my yummy chicken noodle soup to bring to work and sell for lunch. I also brought my grill and some sourdough bread and homemade garlic spread.

For the soup:

Beat 2 eggs with a little water (about 2 TB) and a dash of salt and about 1/8 tea of baking powder. Add 1 cup of flour and mix. Dough will be sticky. Stir in more flour (by hand) until dough is not sticky anymore and you can knead it. Then roll it with a rolling pin till it is VERY thin. This takes about a good 15 minutes of rolling, turn the dough, roll more, flip the dough, roll more.... Then take a knife or pizza cutter and cut into strips, then cut crosswise so you get smaller noodle size pieces. Let this dough SIT on the counter for about an hour.

Meanwhile:

In a large pot chop up

1 bunch of celery

2 large onions

1 pkg of baby carrots (I chop them up even though they are already tiny)

Cover with water, and add a pkg of Lipton Chicken Noodle Soup mix (in the packet). And one can of cream of chicken soup.

Bring to a boil, then turn to low, cover and simmer for about 25 minutes.

If you need to add more water, do so, or add chicken broth. Turn the heat up to high and get it boiling. Then add the noodles and boil for 6 minutes, stirring often.

Turn heat down to low again and throw in about 3 cups of cooked chicken. (To make this easy, I bought a roasted chicken at the store and just pulled the meat off, cut it up and threw it in).

Add salt and pepper to taste and warm through.

YUM YUM

Tuesday thoughts.....

It's been so long since I could access this blog... I have forgotten how to write!

Many thoughts in my head these days. Certain numbers keep popping up EVERYWHERE the past year and this year... Those numbers are 2, 7, 27, 11. George and I see them in EVERYTHING, so much so, that we no longer consider it a coincidence because it happens nearly daily... and in the middle of the night.... We don't know what the numbers mean.... but we know we'll figure it out eventually.

Well, George already thinks he has it figured out. But I'm a bit more skeptical on some of his theories.

Two big trips planned for this year. (well, big for us). George hasn't met my dad yet so we are planning to go visit him when the weather gets warmer. (NO WAY am I heading to New England at this time of year. Been there, done that... and it took 3 days to unbury my rental car).

And George's mom turns 80 this year and I have not met her yet so I would like to do so... so we hope to get to see her.

I'd also really like to go see my "sister" who has cancer, but I'm not sure she's up for visitors, and so we'll hold off on that for a little bit.

My lunch catering business is in high demand. I may have to invest in some more cookware because right now I can only make enough for about 8 people and twice that many want my lunches. We did flautas, beans and rice for our first lunch and it sold out. Tomorrow I am bringing homemade chicken noodle soup and some garlic bread or rolls. (I make the noodles from scratch and they are sooooooooooo good).

Anyhow.... I think this year will be "prosperous" and I hope we save up enough to get into another place. We decided to move, but then everything just blocked our way, and after pondering about it, and discussing it... we decided that we needed to take our time to find the "right" place. We were in such a hurry to just up and leave.... and hasty decisions are never good ones. So we've slowed down... we're going to sell off some stuff, and keep looking and we'll know when the time is right and the location is right because it will all fall into place.

Meanwhile.... we ignore the neighbors as best as we can.

Cancer sucks

Well, my dear sister won the lottery. The chemo lottery that is. She was accepted into a clinical trial for Iniparib. I have access to a lot of journal information on this drug and it is VERY promising for treating triple Negative breast cancer that has metastasized.

Survival rates are almost DOUBLE for women who get Iniparib. That is truly promising.

Meanwhile.... she is keeping a smile on her face and a joke on her lips. She is taking each day as it comes and she has been blessed to have friends and family that can help out with the family and taking care of her.

I wish I lived closer.

I got resurrected!

So my blog disappeared and now it's back. Cool!

Weird, but cool!

This pic was taken in Midland, TX in December. It was a interesting funnel type cloud.

Not giving up hope

Well, my dear "sister" who has cancer, has stage 4 cancer. It's incurable. She has a brain tumor, and a spot on the liver in addition to all the other places mentioned in my previous blog.

HOWEVER.... her team of doctors plan to treat agressively and they are optimistic that while they can't "cure" her... they can buy her YEARS instead of months.

Since I work for a company that deals with recurrent cancer, I read a LOT of research articles about it, and it really is possible to live for years with metastatic cancer. Our company president's wife has had metastatic breast cancer for 5 years!! She gets chemo every single week. (low dose). She is the first person I have actually met in person who has survived so long with metastatic cancer.

There is hope.

There is always a rainbow.

Plus, my dear "sister" has a very positive attitude and is facing this with courage and humor. She has named her brain tumor "Bob" and now she can blame everything on "Bob" when she messes up. LOL.

They are taking care of the brain tumor via surgery and radiation. It's quite small, so they want to deal with that first. It will never be gone, but at least it can be virtually non-existent if it is small enough.

Right now, she is in denial. And she admits she is in denial. And I sure don't blame her at all. But she has hope to cling to, that this won't be her last Christmas, and that she will be able to accomplish the things on her "bucket list".

I wish I didn't live so far away.

Anguish

Someone near and dear to me is facing a challenge. In her words, " My cancer has recurred. There is a huge mass at my mastectomy site, multiple axillary lymph nodes, one nodule in my lung and a mass in my chest cavity. The huge mass has integrated into the chest wall and has begun destruction of my third and fourth ribs. That information is from the chest CT only. I had the core biopsy done today. Bone scan and brain MRI on Wednesday and PET scan on Thurs. We go back to the oncologist on Friday. We won't know any results before Friday when we talk to him."

She is younger than me..... and has 4 children.

What can I do? Well, the company I work for deals with cancer treatment. Especially recurrent cancer treatment. I gave her a contact and hope she is able to get in and get treatment.

Winding down

This has been an amazing year.
Met my George, fell in love, got married, gained a daughter-in-law, watched my work go from dead to hopping, lost 30 pounds. (gained 20 back.... lost 17 again)....

I am blessed. I am happy. I am strong. I am content. I am feeling very positive about the future.

I love my family. I love my life. I love my hubby.