Quick Update

I just wanted to do a quick update. The dermabond has been off my chin for over a week now. I went the Thursday after I had the place removed to have my stitches removed. Everyone told me it was no big deal...and they lied. Why do people always down play things? I only had two stitches but I found it quite painful to have them removed. And I bled, a lot! I was quite surprised by this and by how my arm looked right after they took them out. Frankly, it looked like she might as well have ripped the stitches out instead of cutting them, with the way the holes were gaping open where the stitches had been removed. The PA got onto me for looking, but I didn't think I'd bleed! The put on steri-strips which finally came off yesterday (with a little help). I am not impressed with how my arm looks. It looks to me as if they had taken out the stitches too soon and they weren't careful enough when they put on the steri-strips and the skin came apart. Now, it has healed too much; there's no way I'm going back, but it doesn't look great. Thankfully it is just a small spot, so I'm not really worked up about it. Just disappointed. Why did I go through the stitches if they weren't even going to help? My chin is still really sore to the touch and hurts if I stretch the area too much. But, it is healing quite nicely. And itching. But, I really can't complain. I am extremely thankful I didn't have stitches now that I see how my arm has turned out.

Anywho, that's it. There's my update.

Alton Brown Live

On August 29, Scott and I went to see Alton Brown Live, which was done in celebration of the 10th Anniversary of his Food Network show, Good Eats. It was really good! He didn't actually cook anything because he apparently wasn't allowed to at the Cobb Energy Center, but they had a "talk show" like set up for part of it. Then, he finally did something with a fire extinguisher (used the CO2 to freeze fruit and make smoothies) to make it a "multi-tasker." He always says that everything in his kitchen is a multi-tasker except the fire extinguisher. At the end, they made a huge birthday cake out of premade huge pancakes and glow in the dark icing. He had the band that plays the music for his show there, as well as several other people who are usually on the show. Including his "sister" Marsha whose name is not really Marsha and who isn't really his sister. It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed it. We couldn't take pictures once Alton Brown came out, so we can't really show you any pictures. So, at the top is a picture of us. :)

What happened was...

This weekend has been quite a weekend...starting Thursday. A couple of months ago, I went to the dermatologist for a body scan to make sure my skin is all normal. I try to go every year but usually only end up there every other year. The PA noticed a small blue spot on my arm. I knew it was there, but I wasn't worried about it because it looked like a vein under my skin or something. There was no bumps, no change in the way my skin felt, etc... The PA, Tracy, said that I could have what she called a blue nevus. A blue nevus is usually benign but it could turn into a melanoma. (Let me just say that my blue spot looked NOTHING like these pictures on the link becuase if it did, I would have been in there much sooner.) She did a biopsy and it came back as just a sun spot according to the lab. I had to go back in on Thursday for a follow up and Tracy still said that she didn't like the look of it and she wanted to remove the whole thing. I told her that was fine as long as she took the whole thing, because I wasn't going to come back, I just can't handle that kind of stress. Now, just so you know, this is not a "no big deal" kind of thing for me. I have serious issues with needles and well, any type of medical thing. When they did the original biopsy, I did okay because they made me lay down, sit up slowly, gave me water, etc...then when I went out to pay, Scott, who had come for an appointment as well, came over to me and asked me what they did to me and I was telling him what they did and that I may have to come back for them to remove it and I almost passed out right there at the check out counter. So, I think it's more the thought of medical stuff and not really pain that I have issues with. I mean, I don't like pain, but I do much better with pain that just happens than with pain that is purposefully inflicted in a doctor's office.

Okay, so all of that was back story to fill you in. Here's the real story. Thursday I went in and she said she wanted to take the whole thing off. I did okay but I did want to run screaming from the room when she started doing the stitches. My arm was numb, but only in the one area so I could feel the pressure and tugging and ew it was just disgusting. I drove myself home and was fine. They had put a "pressure dressing" on my arm which is a fat piece of gauze over the actual stitches and then this disposable ace bandage type thing that sticks to itself wrapped tightly around my arm. They told me to leave the pressure dressing on there until the next morning and to remove it, take a shower and wash it as usual and then just put vaseline and a band aid on it.

Here are the stitches. Ew.

SO, Friday morning, I get up at 5 am like normal. Scott was still asleep in bed, like normal. My arm had been hurting from the tightness of the pressure dressing but I figured that was normal and my fingers weren't blue so it wasn't "too tight". When I unwrapped it, it hurt even worse. I am assuming there was increased blood flow to that area too (which, doesn't that mean decreased blood flow from my head?). Then, there was blood on the gauze and it was more than just if you have had blook drawn or a shot. And, then I saw the stitches. Oh my goodness, they were two nice, neat little stitches with blue plastic-looking thread, but they were IN my skin. Ew. But, I had to look, right? I have to bathe myself and put band aids on it and stuff like that. So, I was like, I am a big girl, can handle this - don't be a baby. I turn on the shower, get in, and start washing my hair as normal. In the process of washing my hair, I start feeling the beginnings of passing out. What was I supposed to do? I mean, I couldn't just sit down, that's not sterile (so maybe that was not the most logical thinking, but I don't think it's normal to be logical when you are about to pass out). I couldn't just turn off the water and get out of the shower because I had shampoo in my hair, right? So, I rinsed my hair (well, mostly rinsed I think) and then turned off the shower planning to dry off and go sit on my towel in the floor. My towel was cleaner than the shower or bathroom floor in my opinion at the moment. This is when my plans went askew. The next thing I recall is waking up from dreaming (I always have very restful dreams in the seconds when I am passed out) to blood spattered all over the floor and I was obviously wet and slipping every time I tried to get up. Scott was over me trying to help me saying we needed to go to the hospital and I looked over and freaked out because I was dirty with some sort of yuckiness that tends to accumulate on the shower door. (We have one of those scrubbing bubbles sprayers to keep our shower cleaner for longer but it doesn't seem to clean the bottom of the shower door. I don't get too worked up over that because it's not like I'm ever going to have bodily contact with the shower door, right? (HA!)) So, I was a little hysterical (maybe that is like saying the Grand Canyon is a little dent in the earth's surface), extremely confused, slipping around in the floor in dirt, shower water, and my own blood. Scott ran for a roll of paper towels when he realized I was going to be okay and handed me a stack of folded up paper towels to hold onto my chin, which was the source of all the blood. He grabbed my towel, threw it on the bed, and made me lay down. He wiped all the shower door dirt off of me, wiped the blood off the floor, then came and looked at my chin. He was like, we need to go to the hospital. I really didn't want to go through the whole stitches experience again, so I needed to tell him I was fine. He helped me get up and look in the mirror. This of course brought on a whole fresh wave of hysterics (I don't know that I had really calmed down that much, even though Scott was trying to get me to calm down). Apparently (and of course there are no witnesses because Scott was asleep and I was unconscious) I passed out while still standing in the shower, fell, hit my chin on the handle of the shower door, which caused the door to open, depositing me on the bathroom floor. I guess the impact of the shower door and then I am sure my chin hit the floor, then the pressure from the paper towels, my skin was all stretched apart, so it looked like this big gaping wound. Poor Scott woke up to the sound of the thud when I hit the floor. Somehow, Scott dressed himself, dried me off, and got me completely dressed before driving me to the hospital. I did calm down enough to stop sobbing out loud, but I still felt very foolish for what happened. When we got to the ER, the waiting room was empty. They saw us very soon. The guy took my blood pressure and heart rate and they were a lot higher than normal. They put us in a room, gave me a tetanus shot, cleaned my wound, and then they glued my chin back together with this stuff called Dermabond. I was so glad they didn't do stitches. Scott had privately asked them if they could do anything besides stitches, since that's what started this whole thing. They checked and I didn't seem to have a concussion. I have no broken bones or broken teeth. I got my tetanus shot, which I was about 2 years overdue for, without having to worry about it before-hand. Did I say I have issues with needles? The tetanus shot makes your arm muscle really sore. I am still kind of sore, but I think that it didn't seem as bad to me because of all my other issues. At some point in time at the hospital, I calmed down enough to realize that my right knee was hurting. I pulled up my jeans leg and had this horrible bruise already forming on my knee. I have since discovered lots of other sore spots and bruises. I am sure I will still find more. I stayed home from work on Friday. Scott did too. He had already planned to take half a day to wait for the AT&T and Direct TV guys, but he decided that I really shouldn't be left alone. I had a headache all day. I still can't chew without it hurting, but I can tell I've healed a lot since Friday. When I brush my teeth my chin will start bleeding. Friday night when I was eating my baked potato, my chin started bleeding. Scott called the ER and talked to a doctor. He said that that was normal with chin injuries and that if I wanted to go back up there they'd look at it but that if it was pulling apart, they probably would want to put in stitches instead of more Dermabond. They also said that if I had to be admitted again we'd have to pay another $100 copay. Um, no thank you. He said that we could put a pressure dressing on it to keep it from bruising. I looked like an idiot. But, at least I wasn't dripping blood everywhere. Well, since my left arm was sore from the tetanus shot and my right arm was sore from stitches, I slept on my back all night. I had put ice on my knee several times on Friday, so it really doesn't look that bad. But, it still hurts. I feel like my knee must have broken my fall and kept me from breaking any teeth.

When we got up Saturday morning, Scott hovered while I got ready to make sure we didn't have a repeat from Friday. He pulled off my band aid and when I got ready he put the vaseline and band aid back on my arm for me. He always makes me sit down to do this. Do you think he thinks I might pass out again? It is possible. It does kind of hurt when we pull off the band aid and I have this horrible fear that the pulling sensation of pulling off the band aid is going to pull my stitches or something. What a sweet husband I have.

So, that's my story. My left arm feels much better already from the tetanus shot soreness. The picture above was taken on Saturday evening. Hopefully it won't leave too big of a scar, but at least I didn't break my jaw bone or any teeth. God was truly protecting me.

Kicked Up Pimiento Cheese

On the 4th of July, I made this pimiento cheese. I had promised to post it on my blog so that everyone could have the recipe...then I got busy and forgot. Amy reminded me the other day, so here it is.

This recipe is an Emeril recipe that a man I used to work with at Pike made, but with some "tweaks" (which are in italics). He used 6-8 jalapenos with the seeds, but I only use 2 and I take the seeds out. You just buy a baguette from the grocery store and slice it up. Smear some of this on it and it is a yummy appetizer.

Kicked Up Pimiento Cheese

8 slices bacon, chopped
1/2 lb extra-sharp white cheddar cheese, grated (if you can't find it, use orange)
1/2 lb extra sharp orange cheedar cheese, grated
8 oz. roasted red bell peppers, chopped
3/4 c mayonnaise
1 c. spicy ham - I used deli pepperoni
1/2 c. chopped green onions
2 tsp. minced garlic
2 tsp Essence of Emeril (recipe follows)
salt & pepper (optional)

added:
2-3 fresh jalapeno peppers, chopped (I take the seeds out, but if you want more heat, leave them in there)
1/2 lb pepper jack cheese

In a large skillet, cook the bacon until brown and crisp. Transfer to paper towels and cool.

In a large bowl (very large), combine all ingredients.

I never feel like it gets mixed up enough when I just use a spoon to mix it up, so I put it in a food processor. Mine is kind of small, so it takes several batches.

Essence of Emeril

2 1/2 Tbsp paprika
2 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp dried leaf oregano
1 Tbsp dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container. Yields about 2/3 c.

Still Saving and Losing

Today I went to Kroger and Publix (in the rain). At Kroger, I got $121.28 worth of stuff for $69.74. That's 43% savings! At Publix, I got $57.32 worth of stuff for $32.39. That's 43% savings as well! Wow, I can't believe it turned out that way.

I have a feeling that when I weight myself this evening, I am going to have gained a pound or two as a result of our crazy eating while on vacation. I am kind of dreading it. But, as of last week's weigh-in, I had lost 19.4% of my starting weight. I still have 3-5 pounds left to lose, depending on what it looks like tonight. I really need to do better about exercising, though.

Trip to Louisville

Scott and I just got back from a trip to Louisville, KY to visit Josh, Shana, and Truett. We also got to spend time with Judy and Dean. So, it was a fun, Stringer-filled few days. While we were up there, we saw some of the sites of Louisville and the surrounding areas. Scott and I weren't the best eaters while we were gone. So, it's back on the bandwagon now.







It seems like the only picture Scott took of me with Truett I was not wearing make up. Great. But, here we both are holding him.

We visited the Louisville Slugger Museum the first day we were there, Saturday. We visited Josh and Shana's church, Crossings, on Sunday. Afterwards, we all ate at a burger place called Red Robin with Darrell and Jenny Estepp, some friends of ours that we used to go to church with. Monday, we went to the Creation Museum close to Cincinnati (in Petersburg, KY). The Creation Museum was really good. I would definitely recommend it. They have the museum part and then they also have a botanical gardens outside. We drove through Indiana and Ohio just to say we'd been there. We also tried Skyline Chili, since we'd seen it on Food Network. It was an interesting flavor. It is not normal chili. There's cinnamon in it or something like that. We were googling things to do in Louisville, and Scott found that we could take a tour of the Jim Beam distillery. Not that we like bourbon, but processes like that are always interesting. So, we drive the half hour or so out there and it turns out that they are renovating the distillery so that people can tour the distillery, but the current "tour" consists of visiting the Beam house on the property, looking around a gift shop and sampling some Jim Beam chocolates, watching a video about the history of Jim Beam, and a bourbon tasting. Yeah, disappointing. We also went to have lunch at Tony Boombozz, which is the pizza restaurant that Darrell is part owner of. It was really very good pizza. Luckily, Jenny does some marketing for them, so she just happened to swing by to do some marketing so we got to talk to both Darrell and Jenny! It was great. If you ever want good pizza in Louisville, let us know and we'll tell you where Tony Boombozz is. The whole time we were there, we were invited to dinners at Josh and Shana's, cooked by Judy. It was all very good. Last night we visited this place that Josh and Shana love called the Pie Kitchen. Oh, it was good. I almost made myself sick eating half of the piece of pie Scott and I shared because we had had Graeter's Icecream after lunch. Graeters is handmade icecream. There are several locations in Louisville. Man, was that stuff good.

So, that was our trip, lots of good times with the Stringers, lots of good, bad food, and several tourist-y outings.

We drove home today and since we were going to be driving through Nashville around lunchtime, we asked our friends Kari and Eric if they wanted to meet us for lunch. It was so good to get to sit and spend some time with them. We also got to see how big Evan has gotten and meet Grace for the first time. We rarely get to see them now that they are living in TN.

Over all, we had a good trip. It was fun to spend time with old friends and to meet Truett and get to hold him and watch him change every day and see all the cute faces he makes. It is fun to see how Shana has gone from zero to Mom in 60 seconds.

Tomorrow it's back to work for Scott. I took the rest of the week off. I am going to see how much of nothing I can do the next two days. :)

Lauren's Baby Shower

A couple of Fridays ago, we had a baby shower for one of my closest girlfriends, Lauren. It was fun showering her with attention, gifts, and food. Lauren and Zach haven't found out whether they are having a boy or a girl. They got lots of good baby stuff. I think that the pictures say it all!

Two Delicious Treats

Lately I have found two treats that aren't really so bad for me that are really delicious.

The first is Laughing Cow Cheese. I get the Light Garlic and Herb flavor. One triangle of the cheese and 5 whole wheat Ritz Crackers is 2 points. Yum.

Next is something I discovered at Lauren's shower which we recently threw (which I still need to blog about). We had a parfait bar, just to have something different. We had all kinds of fruit, vanilla yogurt, and granola. It was delicious. So, I did some researching and I got strawberries, Activia Vanilla yogurt (the regular, not the light, which has artificial sweeteners in it), and Fiber One Honey Oat Clusters. The whole thing is only 2.5 points on WW. I use 1/2 c strawberries, a carton of yogurt, and about 1/4 c of the cereal. I have been having one for breakfast all but one day this week. Yum-O.

Just wanted to share.

New Hair Cut and Laptop

Here's my new hair cut. (It is a little bouncier earlier in the morning. This is after being up for 12 hours on a hot, muggy day).

Here's a picture of my new laptop.

Why?

A friend of ours posted this link on his Facebook page the other day. I still can't get over it. I thought I would share this with all of you. Who would want this? I mean, even if I was a huge fan, why would you want a terra cotta bust of the president with tendrils of plants growing out of his head sitting around your house?!

http://chiaobama.com/