I'm so tired I can't sleep

I was tired a long time ago but I just can't get comfortable because my back is hurting.  I think I did too much.  My RLS (restless leg syndrome) is making me crazy too and I already took my medicine for it.  ugh.

Anyway, I am really happy though. My baby will be 20 on the 19th. I just can't believe he's so old (and I'm so much older). His birthday always sneaks up on me since it is so soon after Christmas but I always want to make sure he doesn't get cheated because of that. I just got him a bunch of clothes for Christmas so I was quizzing him out to try to figure out what to get him for his birthday. He is not very picky and doesn't care that much about details (which really drives me nuts). If he needs pants or a shirt he just says that's what he needs and doesn't care about the color or style as long as it isn't crazy. He doesn't want bright colors or designs he said. He just says what he doesn't want but never exactly what he does want. He finally said he would like a couple polo shirts like his dad wears to work because he is trying to get a job. He wants to make sure he has things he can wear at work even though he has no idea where it will be at or what they will require.

I do know that he needs a new cell phone though.  He has my old iphone 4 and the speakers are messed up so people calling can't hear him. He really likes music and likes using itunes. I talked to my husband and he just bought him an iphone 7 for his birthday. It will probably be a little bit late but my son will be so surprised. I can't wait to see his face when he gets it.

He is such a good kid and always jumps up to help me when I am in pain. So many times I've woken up and staggered out of my room in so much pain and he jumps into action to help. He grabs my medicine and gets me a glass of water and takes care of whatever else needs to be done. Our beagle puppy sees me and gets all excited and starts whining and jumping up and down in his pin. My son takes care of him and gets him settled down. I appreciate him so much and I'm so glad that he can have something like this that I know he really wants. He also things it is too much and doesn't expect more than whichever phone is free or at the most a refurbished older model iphone. I love that boy.

Okay, I'm going to try to lay down again and maybe try to read a few lines if possible.

I almost hate to say it...

.......but I think I actually feel better starting this evening.  I just made a stirfry for me and my older son.  I have been feeling like doing more and that is really nice.  I am thinking I might make the m&m cookies my older son requested.

Happy birthday to you the dog got sick on your shoe

It wasn't my birthday.  My youngest son turned 18 on the 19th of January.  So that means it is official now.  I am old.  I've been looking at lots and lots of pictures of him (I always do this when one of my boys has a birthday) and I feel like I've had an army of kids.  They change so much at each stage of their lives and I always think I really miss when they were a baby or when they were 2 or 4.  They were both very special at different ages and I feel sad when the stage is over and that child is gone. There was always a new wonderful older child in their place that I enjoyed getting to know.  They both have such wonderful personalities.  Now that they are both grown I miss all of those children they used to be.  It makes me sad but now I have these two young men that I love and I am proud to call my sons.

Made it through the fire

I had a horrible.... really terrible horrible no good (3) days.  It was a fibro flare up that had me begging for mercy.  It finally let up and even though I'm still achy the worst of that pain has lifted. I hardly slept for that time or slept poorly but I finally crashed and slept hard for a long, long time.  I woke up feeling so much better.  

I have been up cleaning in my kitchen and cooking the best snickerdoodles EVER!  I love snickerdoodles and anything cinnamon.  I used this recipe here.  I wasn't as happy with the first batch because my son yanked them out of the oven as soon as the timer went off and they really needed another minute or two.  They were just too doughy inside for me.  I just cooked another batch (since the kid is at school now) and this time I put a sheet of parchment on a tray and sprinkled it with a little of the cinnamon-sugar.  I put the cookies on that and then sprinkled them with some more sugar and then put them in the fridge to chill.  It coated the cookies so much easier than the first batch that were cold already.  I cooked these cookies 10 to 11 minutes (the tray on the bottom took a minute longer) but they are oh so very tasty!

Scratch & Sniff

Crisis averted

So a few days ago I turned on my computer and noticed it was running really slow.  It had been doing that for a while and I deleted a few things to see if it helped.  I restarted and after just a few minutes I got this blue screen of death.  The windows 8 version of the blue screen of death even has a frownie face like this ---> ; (  So did I.    My husband was leaving for work when it happened so he saw it but he had to go.  He works in IT so I was so sad to see him go.  Anyway, my computer restarted and after about a minute it crashed again and wouldn't turn back on.  This was early in the morning so I had all day to find things to do.

Happy New Year and Sore Back

Wow, so I think I'm going to live.  I caught a cold at Christmas time and I've been sleeping so much since then.  You would think I'd look as good as sleeping beauty.  I haven't been able to do as much as usual and that has been frustrating.  I spent a lot of time with yarn and crochet hook in my hands but not actually making anything.  I just stared into space and occasionally blew my nose.  At least that time that I was sick gave me time to think about things I need to change.

Long time no post

It's been awhile so I thought I should get on here and post something.  I had a great birthday which was Thanksgiving Day this year.  My husband surprised me by getting me 2 things I'd been wanting for a long time.  I had added them to my amazon wishlist and was planning on saving up for them. So far every time I'd saved up some money something would come up and I'd end up spending it on one of my boys.  Of course I could have asked my husband to give them some money but sometimes (and especially some things) I want to come from me.  The look on their face when I give them the money when they thought I didn't have any is priceless.  They know I don't have much money so it means more to them and they are always more than willing to help

me with things around the house to make up for it.  My oldest son had a job for a while and he was always buying me gifts.  He even bought me a Keurig for Christmas and I know that cost a lot.  So that shows that it comes back around and it isn't about the gift but the love.

Anyway, speaking of love, my husband told me there was this big box by the door and I should go check it out.  This was a few days early.  I was shocked that the box was so big.  It was HUGE.  I had been feeling really bad the past few weeks.  My hands hurt and I've very weak all over so both my boys helped me open the box.  They both had this grin on their faces and I could tell they already knew what it was.  They got me a Kitchenaid mixer in the prettiest shade of pistachio green.  I have been wanting one of those since forever.  There was also this small gift and it turned out to be Rocksmith 2014 for the xbox 360. It comes with a cable that has a usb plug on one end and a standard guitar hookup on the other end.  I've wanting to play the guitar for a long time and I have a very nice electric guitar that was another gift from my husband.  It is an Eddie Van Haylen Wolfgang special which they stopped making around 97 I think.

I've been wanting to learn how to play my guitar for so long but something always got in my way. My health was my biggest obstacle and by the time I got the guitar out, hooked up and tuned up I would be exhausted. Rocksmith basically simplifies everything so I can start playing quicker and that helps a lot. I just plug the guitar in to the xbox and it acts like the amp.  You tune the guitar with the program which is very quick.  I'm usually tuned up in less than a minute.  The electric tuner I got is not just for guitar so it could be used for my son's violin as well.  My problem was that I would be trying to tune to the wrong octave (when I first started out) and I'd break strings.  Rocksmith's tuner has this line that moves up and down and you line it up with the string to get it in tune.  It also has numbers that are positive or negative so you can be sure you are turning the peg the right direction. After a week of using it I've already gotten to where I can hear when it is off and can tune it myself.  Mainly the big E string is what I start with and I tune it to what sounds good to me and then I check myself to be sure.  Then I've been tuning the other strings off of that one.  The first few times I checked it with the rocksmith tuner after that and it was in tune.  Now when I feel bad and have no energy I can just sit back on the couch and play without it plugged in.

I am still learning about the Rocksmith program and there are still things to learn but it was bothering me that most of the time it doesn't show the name of the notes or the strings (like the strings played open are E A D G B E in order).  They use a graphic of the neck of a guitar that lies horizontally across the bottom of the screen.  The strings are color coded and they indicate which note to play by color.  I was getting frustrated because I didn't want to learn red string, green string, yellow string.  I wanted to learn by the notes.  I used to play piano in high school and learned to read music so it is weird to not know which note I'm hearing.  I have some books and I've been looking online for more information.

My favorite website so far is www.justinguitar.com.  I have been going through his free beginner lessons and I have been learning a lot.  My fingers are very sore now but I can feel the tips starting to toughen up already.  I've learned two cords now and I really want to play a song!  Maybe I could learn a simple Christmas song before Christmas.

Temperature Scarf and the end of Bones Season 3

I just finished watching the last couple episodes of Bones Season 3.  Somehow, I think I missed watching those two episodes before.  I vaguely remember something happening and I couldn't watch the show where Booth got shot by the crazy stalker lady.  I remember telling my husband not to tell me anything because I was going to watch it later and then somehow I forgot about it.  There were some good older songs used in that episode (Episode 14) but sang by different people as bad karaoke. The surprising thing was the guy that sang Far Away (Nickleback) was Ace Young from American Idol Season 5.  He was pretty good and I liked him singing that song much better than the songs he sang on American Idol.  Also, the black man singing show tunes was Brandon Rogers from American Idol season 6.  He is the one that got too into the groove and missed some lyrics.  I really love his voice. Here he is on Ellen Degeneres right after being eliminated.  He starts singing at 2:36

From Episode 15 - Bad Luck by Social Distortion

 

I certainly don't need any Bad Luck.  I haven't been feeling so hot but hopefully catching up on some rest will help.  I've been working on my temperature scarf and just finished the month of October.  I got the idea from a blog post I read a few years ago.  I was going to link to it but it is gone now. Anyway, the idea is you figure out the range of possible temperatures for your area and divide it between colors of yarn you choose.  You choose how many and the colors can be whatever you want. Each day you check the temperature and work one row in the color for that temperature.  Son #1 helped me pick out the colors.  There are 12 different colors including black which will just be used to divide each month. We arranged the balls of yarn in a line to make a rainbow that would go from coldest temperatures to warmest and then he made a chart for me.



I was going to start with Jan 1st and do the whole year but my OCD tendencies kicked in and some things were bugging me. First of all that would be starting in the middle of the winter and the second thing was that temperature can fluctuate a lot during the day and night and varies between sources too. Do I use the temperature from noon or night or use the days high, low or mien temp? Anyway, to keep this on the shorter side I decided to use the Almanac website which will allow you to put in your zip code and look at past temperatures for your area.  Since this is a project I started with my son I asked him about the other questions.  We decided to start Aug 1st, 2014 because that is pretty much considered to be the beginning of fall for this area.  We decided to use the low temps during the cold months (Aug - March) and then switch to the high temps for the warmer months (April - July) to show the extremes in temperatures we get here.  We are calling it "Alaskan Extremes"


I am just doing 22 stitches of single crochet using a size G hook (4mm). I started with two rows of black and I'll be adding two rows of black between each month.  After I'm finished I'll add an edge in black all the way around.  My son helped me figure out that my scarf should end up being about 7 feet long.  It is a good idea to think about that before you get started.  I was originally going to crochet two rows for each day and adding 4 rows of black between each month and it would have been way too long.  Dr. Who would have been envious.

Below you can see a bad picture of the whole thing to this point.  We will definitely choose better colors next time.  We were limited to the colors the store had in stock at the time so it was hard to pick good colors to go together.  We definitely have too much green for this part of the scarf.  It looks like a military scarf.  Oh well, ya live and learn.

Fishy Business and Bones

I finally started feeling better yesterday and then I promptly overdid it.  Since the shoes with the arch support seemed to keep my feet from hurting I decided to get some exercise on my stationary bike.  I did 15 minutes while I read.  15 minutes is a lot for me.  I also did a load of laundry, mopped the bathroom floor and cleaned a little in the bathtub.  Then I told my husband we should go on a little date tomorrow and go eat somewhere.  I should never do that because every time I do I can never get out of bed the next day.  I hurt all night and couldn't sleep for a long, long time.  After I finally fell asleep I was out all day.

I woke up to an asthma attack around 7 pm.  That was fun.  <-- sarcasm  I can only assume it was set off by the bleach I used.  I really need to quit using that stuff.  

My husband was super sweet and made dinner.  He made potato soup in the crock pot and has Rhodes (frozen) bread rising.  If he didn't make something one of my boys would have.  Son #2 likes to cook things like pizza and spaghetti.  Son #1 often makes stir fry/fried rice or chicken fettuccine. I'm very blessed.  

I've been sitting here staring at my 55 gallon fish tank for a few minutes and trying to count my fish. Not long ago I bought about 16 or so new fish, including 6 male guppies. The prettiest one with the royal blue body and aqua tail was dead by morning but that was the only guppy I've removed.  Now there are only 2 swimming around but no floaters or sinkers.  I think Sid, the Bala shark, is getting hungry or something.  They said they should be fine in with him but since I'm not finding any dead guppies....  or parts of guppies...  hmmm  I need to turn the castle over but I hate to freak out Waldo the upside-down catfish and Raymond the super-skittish plecostomus.  I checked the water and things look good there.  I don't think I'll be buying any more guppies.  They were not intended to be feeder fish.  

The reason I ended up with a Bala shark is because I went into Petco (only place in town to get fish now besides Walmart) and they had some small ones.  My tank was almost empty since the ones I had were very old.  I asked about the Bala sharks (which were only about an inch long) and told them the size of my tank etc.  Well, she sold me 6 of them but didn't think it was important to tell me they could each get 10"!  My tank is not big enough for that but next morning a few were dead and I went back in to talk to them.  Turns out their tank had ich and a bunch at the store had died too.  I started to notice some white spots on a few of them and I treated the tank.  I ended up with only this one surviving out of the 6 and Sid still acts a little weird at times like it affected his widdle-bitty fish brain.  Sometimes he looks like he is chasing his tail going in tight circles.  He could be a circus fish! They told me to wait a certain amount of time (weeks) to let things normalize in the tank before getting more but insisted that I get at least 4 more so he can school.  When I finally went back in there there was a different girl and she looked at me like I was crazy.  She said they are like tinfoil barbs and get the same size (10 - 12").   So now I just have the one and he seems to doing okay. Since the other girl was obviously clueless I don't know if the weird spinning in circles thing is normal for that type of fish or not.  I *think* he seems to get agitated and swim around fast while kind of flipping side to side when he is hungry.  That is a guess but usually I put food in there and then he seems to settle down.  He eats a lot and seems to like blood worms the most.  I really like him so I'll keep him as long as I can.  If he starts eating or picking on my larger fishes I'll have to take him back for adopting out.  I'd be sad though.

Anyway, here are a few songs from Bones Season 3.

From Episode 5 - Young Men Dead by Black Angels 

I like the 70's psychedelic feel this group has.  If you like it and have some time you can keep listening.  This is a playlist with a TON of their music.

From Episode 7 - Bandstand in the Sky by Pete Yorn

 

It turns out that this song was written after the death of Jeff Buckley who drowned.  Very sad.

From Episode 8 - Sail Away by Madrugada

I just want to sail away

From it all

Freedom is impossible

This I know

From Episode 10 - a very fitting video called Bones by the Killers

My favorite part is at 3:10 - 3:12

From Episode 13- Fountain by Sara Lov

I hate to say it but I really find this song annoying.

 

You

The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your own universe. You relinquish that position to your children. -Jessica Lange 

This is a beautiful song.  It was on Bones Season 2 episode 16.  I know I have at least one other song by this singer but I can't believe I've never heard this one before now.  It is about a baby and it is so touching.  I remember feeling like this when my boys were little and still do now that they are young men.... only know they know.  I used to take care of them but now my boys take care of me.  When I am in pain and can't get out of bed they make sure I have eaten or drink enough water.  They check on me like I used to check on them.  They are my life and will always be.

This song from Episode 17 is very sad.  It makes me think back to those times when I held my babies and the times I listened to them giggle, the times I cleaned up skinned knees or read bedtime stories.  Later, as they grew I admired them for their thinking and ability to do things for themselves.  Now that they are pretty much grown I know that eventually they will leave home and I'll be alone again.  Of course, I do have my husband but my heart will always long for my boys.  Right now I have a special bond with my youngest son, Son #2 who is 17.  He is a night owl like I am and sometimes when he can't sleep he will come out here and talk to me for hours.  He tells me about things that happened in school, things he learned, things he saw online and found funny, sad or interesting.  I love that boy so much.  He is very much like his dad and also looks like him. He is also like my younger brother though and he always makes me laugh.  

I just hope that when my boys leave home that they will always come back.  

 

Stuck on the Couch

Since the temperature has dropped and the landscape has become whiter I've been having a lot more pain, especially in my feet and my shoulders.  The meds do help somewhat  except for my feet.  I just want to sit on the couch and never stand up unless absolutely necessary.  This could be my new diet plan.  Anyway, I'm pretty set here.  I've got my husband's wool socks on, my laptop and I've been watching episodes of Bones season 2 and looking up the music from the shows and crocheting like a mad woman.

I can't really think straight so I just made up a pattern for these little wash cloths.  I like them to be about the size of my hand and to have some texture but still look nice.  They come out to about 5" square before washing so just a little bigger than a sponge.  I am making them color coded so I know which ones are for which purpose.  I'm using this green and white cotton yarn to make cloths for cleaning in the kitchen and I'll choose a different color for cleaning in the bathrooms.  I made some with some peach and natural colors for my face cloths.  I'll make some in blues for the boys face cloths etc.

I'm addicted to this show.  I read this story in the news about a man that was killing women and leaving them in abandoned buildings and right away I was thinking about Bones and wished I could watch that episode.

Anyway, these songs are from Episode 9 - Aliens in a Spaceship.  

Next to You by Tim Easton

This song which says it is by Bob Gentry was apparently produced by him but not sang by him.... unless Bob has a very high pitched voice.  This youtube video says "Amie" so maybe that is who the singer is.  It is called Never Know.  This song was playing on the radio when Brennan and Hodgins woke up to find themselves buried alive in a car (at the start of the show).  It is such a pretty song but they somehow made it sound eerie with it getting fuzzy and breaking up.  Of course, it then goes back to explain how they got there and what happened after.

 

From Episode 14

Tears and Laughter by Jonathan Czerwik

It was very interesting listening to son #2's opinion on what this song is about.  I'm very literal and he is very philosophical.  He tells me I have to think deeper to get to the true meaning.  

 

From Episode 15

The Secret Sun by Jesse Harris

Fault Line by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Quiche Capisce?

A friend of mine posted on her blog about a quiche recipe she was trying.  This month she is trying something new every day so it is pretty interesting.  You should go check it out.  When I read about the quiche I realized I had never tried it either.  I think maybe I ate a tiny little baby party quiche one time but I'm not really sure now.  I have never even thought about making one before.  So I printed up the recipe and told my husband about it.  After I listed off the different ingredients and the changes I was thinking of he was all for trying it.  He does the grocery shopping since it is pretty taxing for me but he got the stuff for it within a few days.

I made the first one last night (meaning Sunday) and I kept messing up and having to cleverly fix a bunch of things.  I don't do a lot of cooking these days because I get so wiped out so fast.  My boys help a LOT with the cooking.  Son #2, who is 17, does the most.  I think he enjoys it like his dad.  Son #1, who is 20, likes to cook also but he is a little OCD and doesn't like to cook or handle certain things because of the consistency or whatever.  He still helps a lot when needed.  I'm very blessed with those two.

Anyway, Sunday when I decided I was going to make this thing they were not available and I had been feeling bad already.  I couldn't get it off my mind though and my husband was hoping I would make it.  So I decided that I could handle it if I planned things and used my on-feet time wisely.  I was so proud of myself when I finally pushed the dish in the oven and then I turned around and saw a measuring cup with milk in it still sitting on the counter.  Oh shoot!  I quickly but not too quickly pulled it back out, dumped the milk in it and used a fork to mix it in.  Then I put it back in the oven even more carefully because it was pretty full.  I set the timer for 19 minutes (which means I have a minute to get up and over to the stove).  The recipe said to reduce the temperature but when I went to do that is was already that temperature.  Ugh.  So I turned it up to where it should have been for 10 minutes and then cooked it for 10 minutes at the lower temperature.  It was obviously done and no way there was any liquid left in that thing.  The crust around the edge was a nice shade of burnt brown and not very tasty but the rest of it, including the quiche itself, was pretty darned good.  I was pretty happy with myself when my husband wanted more and then after a little bit came back and finished it off.  Of course neither one of my boys would even try it.  They wont eat eggs.

Today (Monday) my husband called from work and wanted to know what we needed to have it again. Well, well, well... I think someone likes quiche.  He grabbed some more sausage and two more of the roll out pie crusts from Safeway on the way home.

The original recipe is here if you are interested but I'm going to tell you how I made it BAD (meaning the opposite of healthy)  I was really hoping to get my picky family to like something new.  I can always healthy it up later but if they know it has skim milk and fat free cheese they wouldn't even try it.  It has sausage in it anyway.

Ingredients:

• 1 – 9 inch pie shell  (I used the refrigerated roll out ones from Safeway and they are pretty good)
• 3/4 pounds hot or sweet sausage (I used Jimmie Dean half maple pork and half HOT pork)
• Half white onion chopped
• 1 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese (I mixed in a little mozzarella)
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1/4 cup 2% milk
• Weber Roasted Garlic & Herb seasoning (from walmart)
• A little Garlic Salt in the egg mixture
• Lots of fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Bake shell in for 7 min or until it just golden.
3. While shell is baking, cook sausage with the onion and Weber garlic seasoning.  Drain and mix sausage and cheese in a bowl.  Add pepper to taste.
4. Spread the mixture in the bottom of the pie shell.
5. Whisk together eggs, half and half and milk in bowl.  (Make sure nothing gets left sitting on the counter in a measuring up!)  Add a little garlic salt and pepper.  Pour egg mixture over sausage mixture and bake on baking sheet for 20 minutes.

**At this point I added mozzarella and bacon on top and added foil to the already-starting-to-burn crust

1. Reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until center of quiche is no longer runny.  

AND WAH LA!  Quiche ala FATTENING

This one was at least as good as the first one.  The first one used apple wood smoked sausage and that was darned good too.  The toppings cleverly hid the top and Son #2 actually ate a slice not realizing he was eating eggs.  YAYAYAYAYAY!  <-- This is where I would have done a flip if it wouldn't have killed me.

I figured out a clever little trick while making this and next time I'll do it a little earlier.  I'll make another little demo post for that later since I've been sitting for way too long and not feeling so hot.  

Click here to see my quick picture tutorial.