Debbie Delozier :: A Casual Affair

That is my goal for today.  I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.  We all know I’m not a patient person, or a person who sits around and does nothing very well.  I’ve laid around and slept just about all I can tolerate. I’ve had 3 doses of the Augmentin and am no longer running a temperature, so I’m feeling a tiny, wee bit better.  So, I’m thinking I’ll put on a happy face and change my attitude. Yep, it is the ol’ fake it till you make it idea.

My plan:

Step 1 – a shower and washing my hair.  This in itself is a step forward as I haven’t even touched water, other than brushing my teeth, since late Sunday night when I took a steamy bath and then I just soaked.  I think everyone around me will appreciate this first step in my  plan.

Step 2 – put on clean pajamas.   This will probably help me feel a bit better too.

Step 3 – make dinner.  It may take me all day, I figure I’ll have to do it in steps, but the last thing I did before getting sick was stock up on groceries for Rotary’s lunch (which I had to cancel out on yesterday “I promise I’ll make it up to you”) and lots of fresh veggies and fruits that are all now going to waste.  I’m planning a low-fat turkey tettrazzini so we can use up some of that left over turkey.  I’ll see if the teenager can do a green salad with broccoli florets, caulifower and snap peas added and some nice toasty whole grain bread on the side.

Monday (when I was feeling okay) I made turkey wraps with the leftovers and served baked chips on the side for our lunch. 

J and the teenager loved them so much they made them again last night for their supper, although last night they threw them on the panni press.

So, that is my plan.  Yeah, I know there are only 3 steps to it, but I figure it is more than I’ve done in a few days.  I also think that these 3 steps will  probably be pushing myself a bit. And I don’t want to over-do and be back in bed instead of up on the couch where I am now.

So, if you’re feeling a bit under the weather as I am or you’re just not sure how you feel about ushering in the year 2009, let us put a smile on our faces, fake it til’ we make it and maybe, just maybe, the attitude change will bring on other changes as well.

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Yes; after another restless, feverish night with aches and chills I made an appointment with Dr. Jeff first thing this morning.  I’m sure if I had stuck with the tomato tea remedy the infection would have eventually gone away, but we all know that patience is not high on my list of personal traits, don’t we.

Actually, I felt pretty good yesterday (after the acv & honey and the tomato tea) but after 2 or 3 cups of tomato tea that was just about all I could handle.  When the infection causing the stopped up head and the sore throat decided to make itself known again, you can believe me when I say it returned with a vengeance.   I could sense that retaliation was utmost in its mind, almost as if there was a score to settle and my throat and head was the battlefield.

I pulled my hair back, brushed my teeth, changed from sweaty/2 nights (actually 2 nights and 1 day) pjs into a jogging suit (yeah, I’m going jogging, bwahahahaha) and slipped my big, pink fuzzy slippers on, threw my big fuzzy shawl around me and headed out the door to make my appointment with young Dr. Jeff.   Believe it or not, the first thing Dr. Jeff said to me was “Wow, you look sick”.  Bless his heart!

Looking back through his records (they weren’t too extensive, I think I’ve been to the doctor twice this year, 1st after Thanksgiving and now), he found I was in his office on December 28, 2007 for this exact same thing.  So we’ve decided that I’m around something or someone each Christmas holiday that makes me sick.  He gave me a prescription for 875 mg of Augmentin twice a day.  He strongly urged me to take it with food and that if I couldn’t handle it to call him and he’d get me something else.  But it is the same stuff he game me last year, and as I have what seems to be a cast-iron stomach I imagine I’ll have no problem with it.

Dr. Jeff kindly added that if I called him prior to Christmas next year he’d give me a prescription for CanCun.  I figure (you know how my mind makes sense of certain things) that if it is a prescription our insurance will have to cover part of it.  And Pharmacist Rob said he could figure out the details of getting it filled.  You know, living in a small town where you know almost everyone, is really nice.  Everyone works together to make things happen for you.  But then you also have to put up with your doctor saying “Wow, you look sick” or your pharmacist saying “looks like death would be a step up for you”.  Well, you gotta take the good with the bad.

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This one is for congestion;  it worked wonderfully for me, not so much for J.  I know it doesn’t sound that tasty, but just think of it as having a cup of so-so tomato soup, it really isn’t too bad.  And if you like, maybe add a bit of Worchestershire sauce or celery seed, maybe it would taste like a hot Bloody Mary.

TOMATO TEA RECIPE
2 cups V8 Juice
2-3 cloves Garlic crushed (use more if you can)
2 T Lemon Juice
Hot Sauce (the more the better, so as much as you can handle)
Mix and heat in a pan or in the microwave. Sip slowly and re-warm as needed to get the full effects of the fumes. Let it sit in the back of your throat to bathe it. Suck the fumes through your sinuses and also down into your lungs. Its all natural and healthy, so drink as much of it as you want or need until you are SURE the infection is gone. This is past the time when you “feel better.”

I had to substitute a can of tomatoes that I pureed in the food processor and some cayenne pepper because I didn’t have any hot sauce.  Here is a list of other substitutes that you can use.

V8 Juice – tomato juice, vegetable juice, canned or fresh tomatoes crushed, tomato soup (if really desperate, try another kind of fruit juice, vegetable soup or even chicken soup . you’re aiming for high Vit C content)
Garlic – garlic in olive oil, dehydrated garlic, garlic salt (aiming for the strong anti-bacterial/fungal effects)
Lemon Juice – Fresh lemons, bottled juice, limes, lime juice, oranges, frozen lemonade
Hot Sauce - ANY kind of hot sauce works, fresh hot peppers, cayenne pepper, dried pepper flakes (if really desperate, try horseradish, black pepper or even mustard . you’re aiming for the highly anti-bacterial/fungal properties of capricin which is found in hot peppers, and its effectiveness at clearing out the sinuses.)

Within 5 minutes of drinking my cup of “tomato tea” I was in the bathroom hacking up junk out of my head and I feel as if my head is much lighter.  I will try another cup later in case there is any infection in there.  As for J, it didn’t seem to work for him as well as it did for me, but then I don’t know if he held it and let it linger at the back of his throat.

At any rate, when you feel really, really bad you’re willing to try “almost” anything.  So give this a try and see if it helps you.

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Don’t ask me what that means, I really have no idea.  My Grandma Mitchell would say it whenever myself or one of my siblings would tell her some story.  We’d tell her what some kid may have done in school to get in trouble and she say “Well, I swan”.   We never really knew what it meant other than Grandma found whatever she was being told a little hard to believe.

Now I’m going to tell you something you’ll probably find hard to believe; I certainly found it hard to believe until I tried it.  This morning about 3 am I woke with a horrible sore throat.  I got out of bed and went up front, got a Hall’s throat lozenge to suck on, hoping it would help.  Then I sneezed.  Now I know all of you know what this feels like.  It was like my tonsils had just been ripped from my throat.  I was in terrible pain.

My laptop was sitting there on the couch so I thought I might look up some home remedies for terrible, painful, burning sore throats.  They just came under the heading of sore throats; huh!   There were 2 home remedies that many, many people swore would work.  The 1st remedy included gargling with a mixture of cayenne pepper and warm water.  As bad as my throat hurt, it did not hurt “this” bad.

The second remedy is pictured above. It is 8 oz of hot water with 3 tablespoons of honey and 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.  Lots of readers said it tasted bad but it really didn’t taste that bad.  Don’t gulp it or drink it right down, just sip it, just like hot tea.  Within the first couple of sips you’ll think “hey, I think my throat feels a little better”.  By the time you finish the drink your sore throat will have disappeared.   I’m not kidding.  I have been in bed with a stuffed up head, fever and body aches but NO SORE THROAT.  I know, you’re saying to yourself “Well, I swan”.  But I swear to you my sore throat (if none of the other ails) is totally gone.

Now, just for fun, do you remember any home cures or any weird sayings your parents or grandparents had.  If so, let me know about them.

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The company has come and gone; Santa is back in his box; the wreaths are put away, the tree has been stripped of ornaments and put back in it’s box.  The nativities and my massive collection of nutcrackers (to the teenager’s glee) are all wrapped and stored until next year.  So I guess we are back to what we call “normal”.

Our holiday was blessed, to say the least.  I chopped and chopped, sauted, mixed, baked, smoked and roasted most of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Although, on Wednesday I did take a bit of that ever-rare “me” time and went to the hair salon.  Thanks, Vicki for fitting me in.  The “me” time also included a 30 minute nap before I got myself ready for our Christmas Eve service.

Although, J and I used to (just a mere 3 or 4 years ago) not attend the Christmas Eve service, now I can’t imagine not including it in our holiday rituals.  For some reason our church held the service at 5:30 this year (previous years it began at 6:30) and this really cut back on the attendance as most people don’t get off work until 5 I feel it made it difficult (if not impossible) for some to get there in time.  We’ll see what next year holds.

We were able to spend holiday time with each of our families this year.  Christmas Eve (as is our tradition) we spent with the DeLozier side of the family.  J’s sis and her husband welcomed us all into their lovely holiday home for a yummy dinner of ham and (the family favorite) scalloped potato casserole and too (too) many other sides.  Love the newly remodeled kitchen, Deb.  Most of the family were able to attend although there were a few (or 6) that were unable to be with us and they were sorely missed.  But we all know how it is when our babies grow up, find boyfriends/girlfriends or spouses and we then have to share them with their other families.  We all have to do it;  we don’t have to like it but we do have to do it.

After enjoying dinner and gifts at Mike and Debbie’s we returned home and opened gifts to/from our married children.  We let the teenager open her big  “Santa” gift while her sister and brother-in-law were here, but we saved the rest until Christmas morning.

At 6 on Christmas morning J and I were out putting a ham on the smoker and then returned to bed until 7 when the married daughter texted us with the news of what her adoring husband gifted her with.  She was very happy to say the least.  At 8 we put 2 turkey breasts in the roaster and then the 3 of us (J, myself and the teenager opened our gifts to each other).

By 1 pm our guests began to arrive and the stream of guests, parents, sisters, brothers and cousins, nieces, nephews and 2nd cousins didn’t end until  after 8 pm.  Some came for dinner and dessert while others came later  for wine and dessert.

Now a little humor:  I’ve had people that I cook for tell me they don’t think I’ve ever made anything bad (oh, the stories my family could tell them) so here is a story for all of you.  Yesterday I had everything planned so that everything would be done at 1:30.  But at 1:30 we were still waiting on the turkey.  Why?, you ask.   At 12:30 I had mentioned to J that I had no idea why the turkey was no where near done (it had been on since 8 am),  he went in and checked; lo and behold, the little ol’ caterer, me, had only turned the roaster up to 275.  Talk about “slow-roasted”.  We turned the temperature up and it was done by 2 and in time for dinner.  Well, it will be a good story for next year won’t it.

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This is a picture of my sister’s house in Wisconsin.  She said they were forecasting more snow during the night.  I know they are better prepared and more accustomed to dealing with it than we are here in NE Oklahoma, but I know they still are not thrilled about it.

She was telling me the snow plow had been by and done the street in front of their house, which helps when it comes to driving out of the neighborhood.  Still yet, after the plow comes by Mark has to get out and get busy in the driveway after said plow scoops all the snow to the side of the street (a.k.a. in their yard and driveway).

I can just imagine their little terrier would love to get out in this.  He’d probably get lost in all that deep whiteness, but I can see him in my mind’s eye just hopping up and out of the snow and falling back down in and under the snow before bouncing up and out again.

From the pictures Betty sent it looks like the whole neighborhood was out working after dark (Mark being the lucky one with the snowblower).

All I can say is,  if it was me, I’d let all them do the cold work out of doors while I was in doors making a big pot of nice, creamy, hot Swiss chocolate, complete with mini marshmallows for everyone.

So, no doubt, as cold as it is in Wisconsin, this snow (at least most of it) is probably still on the ground and they will be having a White (not to mention cold) Christmas.  We’ll be thinking of you, Betty and Mark, when we are experiencing the 50 degree weather they are forecasting for us for Christmas Day.

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No, No, you are not winning a chicken dinner.  I know I told you I would use the eenie, meenie, miney, moe method, but as we all know the draw a name out of the box method is much more tried and true.  So, I used the draw a name from the Christmas Box method.  My web stats show quite a few readers over the weekend but I guess only 4 were wanting to play.  I wrote those 4 names on a slip of paper and put them in my little Christmas decorated Chinese take-out box,  I closed the box and shook it up and as you can see drew a name.

And the winner is:      And this is what you win: 

These are my very favorite sweet treat.   I first had them when I purchased them as a sweet for our Cass’ wedding.  I’ve been hooked on them every since then.  For those of you who did not win, you can purchase these at WalMart in the candy aisle.  Lori, I hope you enjoy them and I will deliver them in person when I see you Christmas Eve.  Cool, I just realized this will save me having to wrap the thing and going to the post office.

For those of you who are curious I did not finish the book until Sunday afternoon and I did not get the grocery shopping done until late (late) Friday evening.  Between laundry, phone calls, last minute tasks, making a pot of stew for our dinner (which we ended up not eating until Sunday), etc., etc., etc. it seems as if I didn’t get anything done that day.

As for now I need to get to the kitchen and start Chicken Enchiladas and Blackberry Wine Cake for tomorrow’s Rotary lunch.

Have a wonderful day!

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I prepared this stew on Friday thinking we’d enjoy it for supper that evening, but as usually seems to happen around here, our plans changed.  We started running here and there to do this and that Friday evening and kept it up all weekend long.

The married daughter called on Saturday morning and said that she needed her sister to stay all night with her and as the teenager hasn’t driven in Tulsa traffic as of yet, and Tulsa Christmas Shopping Season isn’t the time to start,  J and I needed to take her to her sister’s house.  This fit with my plans as I have been craving (with a deep, passionate need) Pei Wei.  And as it is J’s duty to satisfy all my cravings he agreed to take me.  We headed south about 11:30 and arrived at the Brookside Pei Wei for lunch.  I had the Japanese Terriyaki Bowl with tofu and vegetables, J and the teenager both had Honey-Seared Chicken.  It was just what I’d been needing.

After lunch we headed for the married couple’s house where we visited with them and the grandanimals a little bit.  Our Nickel is doing so well, he has put on weight and it’s as though he was never ill.  The married daughter was having a dinner party (featuring curry) that evening so J and I got out of their way and let them get busy with what they needed to do.

J and I stopped back in the Owasso area and did a bit of… well, I don’t know exactly what we did, but we killed the whole afternoon and evening doing it as we didn’t get home until 8 pm.

Sunday morning we rose and readied ourselves for church where our spirits were nourished and refreshed.  After dropping the video (the one J tapes of the service) off at the television station we headed home for a lunch of stew.  Yes, we are finally going to eat the stew I prepared on Friday.  And it was just what we needed on this blistery cold day.  And, since it was just J and I for lunch we have enough for our dinner tomorrow evening too.

The married couple brought the teenager home during the afternoon and we visited some more before they had to head back to Tulsa and ready themselves for work tomorrow.  This evening J had to run back to Owasso’s Best Buy to get something so braved the cold and went with him.  The teenager had a welcome home party for a friend of hers.  Sam has been in Switzerland since August and was due home yesterday for the holidays.

So that has been our running weekend.  We were able to get a lot of little things finished up and, dare I say, I think I’m ready for the holidays.

Love and finishing up

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You lucky devils, I’m writing 2 separate blogs in 1 today.  Why?, you ask, because it is my blog and I want too. Actually, there is just so much on my mind and I feel the need to share.

Number 1:

I was at the bank on Tuesday and the front hall of the loan department had this massively huge, beautiful poinsettia on the coffee table.  Being Debbie/forever with camera (people actually call me this;  ask anyone in town; really, honest, okay, fine, they really don’t), I took a picture of the poinsettia.

Once I had the poinsettia on my computer I couldn’t resist playing with it.  Hey, a little manipulation never hurt anyone.  Here is how I spent the afternoon:

Yes, I know there are many other, more productive things that I could have been doing, but I didn’t really feel very energetic or productive that day.  My inner being was just a little bit on the lazy side, and who am I to question my inner being.

Okay; now on to post number 2.

Right now I am listening to 8 Christmas songs that Oprah gifted me with.  “Oprah”, you ask “The Oprah?”.  Yes, The Oprah gifted me with 8 select Christmas songs from Faith Hill, Tony Bennet, Aretha Franklin and others.  Actually, you can download these same songs for the next 24 hours at Oprah.com too.  Go ahead, you’ll like them.

Also, as long as I’m posting pictures of Christmas flowers;  here is what my J brought home for me yesterday:    He brought the 3 roses, I actually put them in the arrangement because the pine arrangement I had finally gave up and began to drop it’s little needles all over the table.  So I rounded up other little Christmas picks I had and put it all together with my beautiful gift of Christmas roses.

Last evening J and I attended the teenager’s Christmas Choir concert.  They ended up cutting 3 songs from the concert due to not having enough practice time because of the 2 snow days they had to take.  The teenager and her friend Shane had solos in the last song of the evening.  Aren’t they nice looking kids all decked out in their Choir finery?      Speaking (I guess, actually showing) pictures of the teenager, we received the proofs back on the pictures she had taken last week.  They are soooo cute (okay, I might be just a little bit prejudiced about her, but look at her, isn’t she just the cutest thing).  Now comes the very difficult decision of which ones to select for her Senior portrait and which poses to give to grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles.   I think she has already been asked for copies by at least 75 of her dear and near, closest  and best friends.

Now I really need to be getting to the market as I have 20 people showing up here Thursday for Christmas dinner.  But, I also have a book that I am only half way finished with and it is due back at the library today.  Hmmmm, decisions, decisions.  Which do you think is going to get done?    I’ll tell you what:  leave me a comment saying which one you think I’m going to do and on Monday I’ll choose from the comments (using the eenie, meenie, miney, moe method, of course) and whichever comment is chosen I’ll send you a little Christmas surprise.  Okay;  Ready, Set Go!

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Ice blankets northeast Oklahoma.  Nowata joined neighboring towns in canceling schools yesterday and today so the teenager is home staying close to the fire as is our Jade.

Yesterday was Rotary Tuesday and I made gumbo from a mix I had in the cabinet.  I’m glad only 4 people showed up to the meeting.  Actually,  the flavor wasn’t bad, the mix just called for way too much liquid. At least the chocolate cake was tasty.

After cleaning up the kitchen at the Community Room I ran by the church to rehang the tablecloths I had laundered at home only to find more trouble with ice.  The water lines to the ice machine had frozen up and the ice that was in the machine had been melting, probably starting in the wee hours of the night.  So the floor was covered in water.  After contacting the appropriate people I turned the ice machine off, scooped out as much of the remaining ice and the water that I could I’m sure there is a drain hose or something but I don’t know where it is.  Then I mopped up all the water on the floor.

I then drove home on, yes you guessed it, icy roads.

I need to get on the ball now as I have a lunch date and appointment in Bartlesville.

Before closing I do want to ask that you continue to keep the Straggi family (my aunt’s family) in your prayers. as this morning I found out my aunt has suffered a stroke and is now in the same hospital as her grandson.  I have not had any news on Robert other than the doctor’s have told the family not to get their hopes too high. Thanking you!!!

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