Debbie Delozier :: A Casual Affair

This is what happens around here if you leave a box open for just a few moments.

J brought the tree and the boxes of decorations in from the shed this afternoon.  We spent the rest of the day putting all of our special baubles on the tree.  We usually do the tree the day after Thanksgiving but this year we decided to stay at the lake an extra day and get a little extra “us” time.

Saturday brought a trip to the hospital for J’s dad.  It seems he had a little episode with diverticulitis or maybe some colon polyps combined with his being on the blood thinner Coumadin after his heart surgery.  After a very, very rough night and getting 2 units of blood he was doing somewhat better when we visited him after church today.  He thinks he’ll get to come home tomorrow.  We hope so, the past few months have been pretty rough on him, not to mention Mom.

Right now seems to be a rough time for both J’s dad and mine.  My dad has been suffering with a bout of the shingles for the last week.  I talked to him today and he says he has times when he is fine but then a short time later he’ll find himself in pain.  Hopefully the medicine he is on will help him to feel better soon.

Fortunately I do not have jury duty this first week of December and I only have 1 lunch to cater.  But I know I can fill my time and I’m looking forward to doing something other than cooking.   Although I love to cook (that is the reason I began catering in the first place you know) it seems like it is all that I do.  And even when you have a passion for something, if it takes over every part of your life and leaves you no time for other things you enjoy, it is no longer a passion but an obsession.  From an obsession it turns into work and then it is no longer “fun”.  So, this week,  I will enjoy  delving into other things that interest me or maybe cooking just for fun.

Comments(0)

Thanksgiving 2008 is over and done.  Well, except for the turkey sandwiches and leftover desserts.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving which actually began for us Wednesday evening when we dined and visited with friends V&R who were up from Houston.  Most of the family were able to gather at the lake cabin.  We had plenty of hugs and kisses, multiple discussions and more than enough food, even with our plan to cut back this year.  We visited, played guitars and sang and even played (sort of, after all, who needs rules) a game before heading off to bed for the evening.

Now Friday evening we are once again at home and ready to get started on our Christmas decorating.  Maybe tomorrow.

Comments(0)

As is custom, Dad was up early, early to prepare the turkey.  He has done it every year (as long as I can remember) under Mom’s tutorial.  Even though he isn’t feeling as spry as in previous years he still thinks it isn’t Thanksgiving unless HE prepares the stuffing and the turkey.

One of the blessings we (J, the teenager and I) are counting today is the news we received yesterday about our Jade.  Dr. Rick called and said the biopsy had returned and it is not cancer.  The masses are oral lesions caused by some damage or trauma.  J and I can not imagine what she had done to damage her mouth or suffer oral trauma, but it is there.  We have contacted a vet that does laser surgery and thinks he can remove the lesions with little effort.  We have an appointment on Monday.  J will take her over to Bartlesville in the morning and Dr. Newby will have a look at her.  If he thinks it can be done he will keep her and do the surgery.  I would take her but I will most likely be at the Tulsa Federal Courthouse beginning my month-long obligation of jury duty.

J and I are very blessed today as we will have all 3 of our children with us.  It would have been an all around perfect holiday if my parents had been able to accept our invitation to join us.  But Daddy is suffering with shingles and Momma’s allergies have really been giving her trouble the last day or two.  Get well fast Momma and Daddy.  We will miss you.

We wish all of our family and friends, near and far, a very Happy Thanksgiving as we thank our Heavenly Father for each of them and for the many other blessings He has bestowed upon us.

Comments(0)

We’re all making plans for Thanksgiving now.  J, the teenager and I may (not quite sure of schedules yet) leave for the cabin this evening.  If we don’t make it tonight we will go first thing in the morning.  We plan on staying through Friday but we’ll see how it goes.

I’m in charge of the baked goods this holiday, so I’ve got rolls ready and I made pie crusts this morning and put them in the freezer.  I also (while I was peeling and cutting them for the Rotary anyway)  cooked and mashed sweet potatoes for a sweet potato custard pie. I will finish the sweet potato custard and  a German Chocolate Pie tomorrow for our desserts on Thursday.  J’s mom, sister and I have planned to cut back this year, we really don’t need all the food and we don’t want leftovers that last forever.

We will be one whole limb and a branch short on the family tree this year.  Nephew Chris, his wife Alice and their girls (a branch off sister, Debbie’s limb) were not able to make the trip this year. I know Chris’ mom will feel their absence more than any of us.  Brother Ed’s whole limb is absent this year.  Ed and Lori will be spending the holiday with her family.  We will miss them but they haven’t been able to spend the holiday with her family in quite a few years so I know they are looking forward to it.  Their 2 branches have gone in different directions too; Lacey to California to AJ’s family’s and Cale to his girlfriend’s family’s.  Happy Thanksgiving Y’all!

As I mentioned above, I was peeling and cutting sweet potatoes for the Rotary’s lunch.    Their lunch consisted of Maple glazed pork loin, Roasted sweet potatoes, mixed Italian vegetables and the individual lemon cakes filled with a lemon custard.

I do want to say “Thanks, Ken”.  Ken came to my rescue (from a very red face) when he disconnected the smoke detector in the bank’s kitchen.  The indoor grill I was using to grill the Maple glazed pork loin was really sending up smoke.  We ended up turning on the exhaust fan and opening the door to the community room to try to clear the air.  The Maple glazed pork loin is delicious, but next time we’ll do it on the outdoor grill or in the oven.

In cat-chatter;  Nickel is getting better every day.  I think he is due for another kidney screen tomorrow.   As for our Jade, we’re still waiting.  We hold her and love her as much as we can, dreading the news we are waiting for.  The good news is:  she doesn’t act like she is in any pain although she sleeps alot, she is able to eat a little bit and she has good times when she is playful for a little while.  Hopefully the news will be that something can be done for her.

I need to start gathering things up to take to the cabin.  Wishing you all a wonderfully Happy Thanksgiving.

Comments(0)

Yep, it’s my niece Courtney.  We all gathered at Courtney’s house to celebrate her 1st birthday.  Her momma had been planning and preparing for weeks.  There were butterflies hanging from the ceiling, butterfly jigglers, butterfly cakes and even a butterfly pinata.  All the birthday girl had to do was pull a cord and candy fell from the sky for her and her little cousins.

Christina (Courtney’s momma) threw a really nice party for the birthday girl.   There were  little sandwiches, little smokies, bow pasta salad, mini pretzels, pink deviled eggs, 2 buckets of dessert dirt, and brightly colored cupcakes.  Everything a 1 year old could want.

She had a fantastic time opening all her presents. 

Everyone must have known how crazy she is about babies  because she got more baby dolls than you could shake a stick at. Of course, Courtney wanted to stop and play with each and every one before opening the next one, so we had to keep her rolling or we would have been there all night long.

At the end of the evening, Courtney needed her bath (as you can tell by the first picture) and everyone went home with a butterfly thank you card made from Courtney’s hand print.

Comments(0)

This was our Courtney near the end of November 2007.  She is 1 year old today.  Tonight we will attend her first birthday party which I am sure is going to be a festive affair with both Grandmas and most of her aunts & uncles in attendance.  I’m  not sure if her Grandpa M will be able to attend.  We just found out he has a bad case of the shingles.  Let me tell you, I know from experience those are painful.  He is trying to get a doctor’s appointment as we speak.

Things have piled up around here even though I tend to things on a daily basis.  I have piles of laundry (last done on Monday), piles of paperwork (last done Wednesday) and piles of presents to wrap (the majority of these were wrapped until I bought more yesterday) all awaiting my attention.

The shopping part of yesterday went very well, I daresay I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  However, the trip home was shocking, dramatic and very distressing.  I had been following an older woman most of the way from Owasso.  There was a large rig behind the two of us.  As we neared the south end of Oologah, at the Liberty church for you locals, the woman ahead of me was just approaching the intersection when a man drove up to the stop sign at the Liberty church.  You could tell by watching him he was not going to stop.  In fact, he picked up speed.  He plowed into this woman, directly in front of me.

Because I had seen him I had hit the brake to turn off my cruise and was just slowing down.  We were all in the right hand lane, so I swerved into the left lane to avoid being hit  by flying debris.  I then swerved back to the right lane and to the shoulder, threw my car in park, grabbed my cell phone and called 911.  As I ran back to the man’s car he fell out of the driver’s side door and sat on the ground.  The impact was so hard it knocked his shoes off his feet.  I asked if he was alright, he nodded.  I then ran to the woman in the car, the man who was driving the rig was running right behind me.  The poor woman in the car was so frightened.  The air bags were smoking and she was yelling for us to get her out.  The driver’s door was jammed so we couldn’t get in to her.

More people were showing up, fortunately one woman was training to be a medic (Thank You God).  With all of us there we were able to pry the woman’s door open to get to her.  Her right leg was pinned under the dash but with a little maneuvering she was able to dislodge it.  After seeing that there were no external injuries that needed to be cared for, under instructions from the medic trainee we mainly just covered them with blankets we had in our vehicles, held their heads straight and still (in case of neck and spinal injuries), held their hands and made cell phone calls to wives and daughters.

Once the ambulances, fire trucks and police personnel showed up we stood back and let them handle things.  The man in the rig had been talking to the highway patrol.  When they had finished the officer walked up to me and said the man in the rig had told him I was between his truck and the woman’s car.  I told him that was correct.  He said the truck driver had told him that if I had not been so quick to maneuver my car out of the way that it could have been all of us in the accident.  “Yeah, it was close”, I told him.

After the necessary discussions, etc. I was able to get back into my warm car, thank my Lord for watching over me and asked him to continue to watch over those involved in the accident and their families,  and continued my trip home.  At dinner time I told J I wasn’t cooking so we should go grab something.  But I made sure we went to Bartlesville and not Owasso, I’m not ready to drive back that way yet.

Love & Guardian Angels

Comments(3)

Another morning of waking with this silly congestion in my chest.  It is so weird because I do fine all day long (maybe a cough here and there) but as soon as the sun sets my chest begins to tighten and seems heavier, my breathing becomes labored and a coughing fit ensues.  Before bed I dose myself with Mucinex to help thin and loosen the (get ready for an ugly word) mucus.  I also take Robitussin to help with the hacking cough.  This enables me (and the wonderful man who sleeps by my side) to get some sleep until 5 am each and every morning.

Yesterday was what I call a “teaser day”.  It was warm and sunny and just plain ol’ gorgeous for an Oklahoma November day.  Then comes this morning.  It is a sunny morning, but boy is it cold; boy is it windy.  They (the weather gurus) are calling for a high of 48 for the day.  But then, it is November isn’t it.

Once I returned home from the chauffeuring trip to Tulsa yesterday I poached the chicken for our chicken noodle dinner.  The teenager was home late, later than a normal Wednesday Youth Group and J was even later than the teenager.  It was 7:30 before we were able to set down at the table, hold hands and ask our evening blessing.  They couldn’t sit down at the table fast enough when they saw homemade biscuits, green beans with ham  and chicken with homemade noodles (I will never, ever be able to buy noodles again).

I received some “wish lists” from nieces and nephews last week, so today’s plans include heading out into this chilly day to do some Christmas shopping.  I know it sounds bad but I really (yes, really) enjoy Christmas shopping out in the cold, it makes it “feel” more like Christmas.  I don’t know how people who live in warm climates can do Christmas shopping, other than I guess that is what they know.  I did some shopping via internet last evening.

I “text chatted” with Cass late yesterday.  She and Travis were bringing Nickel home.  They have medicine to give him every day and he has to go back to the vet’s office twice a week to have screenings done on his kidneys.  They are still not sure of the amount of damage that has been done.  I know he will feel somewhat better once he gets home and in his familiar territory.  Our Nickel has turned out to be a very (very) expensive cat, with his yarn fiasco last winter and now this, I think they could have put him through college for a year.

I know you are probably getting bored with my cat-chatter, but that is what has taken the main role in our family at this time.  These animals are so much a part of our family (and have been since they were kittens)  and have captured such large parts of our hearts that this is upsetting and distressing to our family.

As for our Jade; we are waiting.  Waiting for the biopsy results.  Her slobbering has started again so we hold a rag as she sits on us (which she wants to do most of the time) and we wipe her little mouth.  She is eating fine but still not drinking, hopefully she retains enough fluid from her “wet” cat food.  There is nothing we can do right now but wait.

Well, I guess if I’m going shopping I better catch up the checkbook entries before I head out.

Love & Christmas Wish Lists

Comments(0)

Monday’s supper was Pecan Crusted Pork Chops with homemade pumpkin butter and Roasted Sweet Potatoes.

Tuesday night (sorry, no pictures) was Minstrone Soup with Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches.  This was also what the Rotary Club had for their lunch with mini coconut muffins for dessert.

On Tuesday I also made the pictured extra large cupcakes for my 2nd cousin’s 18th birthday.  Her mom (my cousin Brenda) would have made her a cake I’m sure except that she is in Cincinnati with her mom who is having surgery at the Mayo Clinic.

After I finally got out of bed (again, the first time was at 5 am, I was able to return to bed about 6:30 after 1 hour of my hacking cough and finally taking Robitussin for my congestion) and did my normal clerical posting duties, got dressed,  and did a bit of picking up around this much neglected house I took the x-l cupcakes up to the school to give them to Renee.

Tonight’s supper (hopefully, if I’m not too tired) will be chicken with homemade egg noodles which I made this morning and are now drying.

As for now, I am waiting for J’s mom and dad to arrive.  They both have eye doctor’s appointments in Tulsa this afternoon and Mom hates driving in Tulsa and Dad still isn’t quite up to driving that far (yet).  So I will be driving them down and back before returning home to finish up the chicken and noodles.  We usually have a  later supper on Wednesday’s anyway as the teenager has youth group at church after school.

While I have some time I will update you on our kitties.  Our grandkitty Nickle is doing quite a bit better and will be coming home in the next day or 2.

Our Jade had a biopsy done on one of the tumors in her mouth and had to stay overnight at the vet’s.  We don’t have the results of the biopsy as of  yet.  I did pick her up yesterday afternoon to bring her home.  She was still bleeding some from her mouth which upset and scared me quite a bit.  Dr. Rick was afraid she would not be eating but once we were home (and she was very happy to be home) she ate 3 bowls of food before we went to bed last night.  By nightfall the oral bleeding (Dr. Rick tried to cut some of the smaller tumor away) had quit which made us all very happy.  Jade is quite clingy right now, but then who can blame her.

That’s the way it is around here, for now.  Have a wonderful day.

Comments(0)

I was sifting through recipes yesterday and I found 2 (well, actually one is a list) that I have never (fortunately) had the opportunity to fix.

Here they are:

ROAST OPOSSUM AND SWEET POTATOES

1  dressed opossum
Salt and pepper
1 pod red pepper
1 sweet potato per person

I am assuming “dressed” means getting it from the state it appears in the picture to being ready for the roaster.  Hopefully you can do this on your own because I have never (and hopefully will never) done it.

Simmer opossum until partially done (I know pork is “done” at 160 degrees, I don’t know the correct “done” temperature for opossum), changing the stock a couple of times according to age of opossum and the amount of “wild taste”.

Add a piece of red pepper, salt & pepper in the final simmer.  Place opossum in roaster. Add a small amount of water.  Sprinkle opossum with flour and baste with fat, if necessary (usually fat on opossum is sufficient).

Surround opossum by sweet potatoes and bake until opossum and potatoes are browned.

Cooking time is usually 1 to 2 hours at 350 degrees.

This will make 6 to 8 servings depending on size of opossum.

The 2nd recipe (list) is if you’re having a barn raising.  As most of us know a barn raising was when all the friends, family & neighbors would gather together to help “raise”/build a barn.  Of course while the men folk were working the women folk kept them supplied with beverages and food.  So, if you’re planning on having a barn raising soon copy this down so you’ll be prepared.

Here’s the list:
115 lemon pies
500 fat cakes (doughnuts)
15 lg. cakes
3 gallons applesauce
3 gallons rice pudding
3 gallons cornstarch pudding
16 chickens
3 hams
50 lb. roast beef
300 light rolls
16 loaves bread
Red beet pickle and pickled eggs
Cucumber pickle
6 lb. dried prunes, stewed
1 lg. crock stewed raisins
5 gallon stone jar white potatoes and the same amount of sweet potatoes
The list finishes by saying “this is enough for 175 men”.  So if this will only feed the men I guess the ladies and children are left with the Roasted Opossum.

Comments(0)

I took Jade for her vet’s appointment this morning.  He wanted to keep her so that he can put her to sleep and do a biopsy on the tumors in her mouth.  It was hard to leave her.  She has never been caged before so she didn’t really know what to think as I laid her and her blankie in there.  It was hard to leave her and I’m afraid I didn’t handle it well.  The ladies in the office hugged and held me while I cried.  I went directly from the vet’s to J’s office where he held me while I cried some more.  Dr. Rick thinks we may be dealing with feline cancer but he doesn’t really know where we stand until he does the biopsy.

J talked to Cass and their vet said that Nickel is showing signs of improvement.  His toxicity levels have dropped a bit but they want to keep him through the week so they can make sure his levels keep dropping and so they can determine the amount of damage (if there is any) to his kidneys.

So, we wait and see, and the waiting is hard.

In the meantime, J keeps pestering me to go to the (human) doctor about this chest congestion I’ve been dealing with for the past 2 weeks.  It really isn’t too bad while I am up and about but boy howdie,  if I happen to step outside and the chill or night air hits me or when I lay down we are just asking for trouble. It gets a little harder to breathe and you can hear a rattle in my chest. I really don’t think about going to see Dr. Jeff during the daytime while I’m up and feeling fine so I am always telling myself, “aw, its nothing”.  That and I always feel like I’m making a mountain out of a mole hill when it comes to myself.  Honestly, I think I can only handle one glitch at a time; so I wait.

Comments(0)