Thanksgiving 2009

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Baked Ziti

This is a delicious recipe. It is super easy and so yummy!

2 medium cloves of garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
3 tb of olive oil
2 tbs basil leaves
Salt
1 pound ziti or other tubular pasta
8 oz mozzarella shredded
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat 2 tbs oil and the garlic in a medium saute pan over medium heat until fragrant but not brown, about 2 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes; simmer until thickened slightly, about 10 minutes. Stir in the basil and salt to taste.

Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts water to a boil in a large pot. Add 1 tb salt and the pasta. Cook until almost al dente but still a little firm to the bite. Reserve 1/4 cup cooking water, drain the pasta, and return it to the pot with the reserved liquid. Stir in the tomato sauce.

Brush a 9 by 13 inch baking dish with the remaining tb oil. Pour half the pasta into the dish. Sprinkle with half the the mozzarella and half and half the Parmesan cheese. Pour the remaining pasta into the dish and sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.

Bake until the cheese golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Update

Yea for me! The dr said that he wants to hold off on surgery becasue the gall bladder is not causing a lot of pain. I hope it stays that way. So even though we know it's not working, he dosen't want to take it out until it gets worse. Maybe I can make it through the holidays.

Sick

I thought I had better write a post talking about my health since I have hinted at it here and there. I have been not feeling very well lately. I went to the doctor a month ago. I had many test run and that is when I found out that I was hyper glycemic. I still haven't been feeling great, but I was trying to listen to the diet doctor. Then on Wednesday morning about 2:00 am I woke up with a really bad stomach ache. It hurt and I didn't know what to do. I went to the bathroom and ended up passing out from the pain. After that, Chad took me to the emergency room. I was there from 3 am until about 8 am. They discharged me after running lots of test. They told me to come back in 24 hours to run 2 more tests. I went back and they did an ultra sound on my gall bladder. Nothing looked wrong there. Then they did another test that the put radio active dye into my blood stream and then watch the function of my gall bladder for 1.5 hours. It was discovered that my gall bladder is functioning at 7%. I guess I should be in constant pain, but really I just feel slightly uncomfortable. Anyway, I am scheduled to see a surgeon on Monday. From there we will schedule surgery to remove my gall bladder. By the time this is done, I won't be able to eat anything. I can't have sugary stuff and I need to be careful about my carb intake with my hyper glycemic. Now I can't have fatty foods because of my gall bladder. Oh well, I can make myself follow the rules and be healthy.

Reconstuction is finished

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Reconstruction day 2 looks a lot like day one. I finished painting all 4 walls. Then I took down the blinds. Then we went to the store to buy the rest of the items. Then we went to my sister-in-laws to borrow some tools. I am so grateful for family. My sister-in-law ans her family rock. We are so grateful that they live so close. Hopefully today I will get more done.

Reconstruction-Day 1

Day one of reconstruction. I will post what we finish every day. I hope it looks good by the end. I think I will put together a slide show of the progress as the last day. However, I don't have any pictures of the picking out paint, or pondering over trim at the store. I'm sure you can use your imagination.

My favorite time of the day is morning. I lay in bed waiting for my dear children to wake up. This is why I can't seem to get up and exercises in the morning. It is not worth throwing over our mornings. First, Ariana wakes up and needs a drink and Chad gets up with her to get it. Then he slips her into my arms between us. She lays there staring at us and talking. She pats us and we simply snuggle. Then McKayla will wake up and she loves to come into the pile. She come to my other side and tells me all about what she dreamed about and how her night was. It is a special time when the girls are calm and love abounds with in our home. This morning Ariana was naming our famiy: Nanana, Mama, Daddaddad, and Kaka. McKayla wanted to know why Ariana called her yucky. I couldn't help but laugh. I tried to explain that Ariana needed some more time before she could say our names well. She was in no was insulting McKayla.

This week McKayla has been learning about horses and the wild west in school. Today she was suppose to dress up as a cowgirl. Thankfully my mother-in-law had some cowboy dress up cloths. We sent McKayla off to school looking great. We didn't have a hat for her, so she improvised by wearing the sombrero that my brother and his wife brought her back from Mexico. It looked pretty good.

Movies and Books

When my children were born I came up with a nickname from a children's book that I thought suited them. In both cases it has. McKayla was my Wild Thing from the story Where the Wild Things Are. I have read this book to her since she was born. She Can be wild, but has now grown more social. Ariana was deemed Caterpillar from the book The Very Hungary Caterpillar. This too has deemed to be true. She love to snack and have whatever you are having. Despite her tiny size, she really can eat.

Imagine my pleasure when I learned that McKayla's book had been turned into a movie. I thought it was wonderful. We were both very excited about going to see it. McKayla saved up all of her money to go see it on the big screen. Lucky for us, Chad had free tickets from work and they didn't charge us for the girls. So we went last night in great anticipation. McKayla noted that the movie was not quite it. And in fact she was correct. It followed the book, but took the simple story into complex twist and psyche. There were many levels of mental awareness and understanding that went on in the movie. Really, it went from a fun, imaginative book, to child learning to cope with the changes of life movie. McKayla still said that she liked it, but I don't believe it is one that we will choose to own.

Halloween Party 2009

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