Tea Time!

Today was one of the nicest days I've had in a long time. But I'll start this post by reporting about my back. We went to NY yesterday (Saturday) and my problem finally has an official label!! I am so excited- and yet so not excited, because in order for me to heal, I need to slow down and take it easy for 6-8 weeks, do physical therapy and wear a support belt. It may seem like a silly thing to "complain" about when I've been praying for relief for two years, but it's very overwhelming. Being still, resting much and moving little, is a hard thing to do when you have a toddler, and sometimes even impossible. As I've found in the past, one false move and I will set myself back to the beginning again, and have to re-start the healing process. Maybe it will help now that I know what the problem is, and it will make me more aware of every move I make.
We are currently praying, together with a friend, about her coming to stay with us during this time, to help me around the house and with Joshua, and basically to be my hands and feet while I heal. I will know tomorrow.

Before anybody misinterprets this, let me say "PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!" and thank You Jesus for guiding me to Dr B. I am so, so grateful. But also feeling like I'm standing at the foot of a very high mountain.

So, moving on to today. As mentioned in an earlier post, today was the day of my tea party. I had so much fun preparing for it, little by little over the week. I tried out two new recipes, used a few tried and true ones and bought shortbread from the grocery store. We had egg salad, ham salad and cucumber mint sandwiches and fresh fruit. For dessert there were butterballs, double chocolate chip cookies, pretzels dipped in white chocolate, lazy daisy cake and shortbread tarts with lemon cream filling.

I used the matching tea set that my parents gave me for graduation and between the dishes and the food, I didn't need much decoration except for candles.

I made chocolate truffles for favours/place settings: (the truffles were way too rich- I'll stick to buying them after this):

This is the table once the three-tier thingy was piled high with food- not the greatest picture, but the only one I have:

Posing: (please don't shoot me for posting this picture!!)

John and his dad took the kids bowling after lunch. Everybody but Jen and her kids left shortlyish (I'm allowed to make up new words) after they got back from the bowling alley, and we had dinner, talked, took pictures and just had a really nice time. I've always wanted a sister and I think my sister-in-law is just fine!

Now for a little time with John before the night turns into early morning. Good night!

Makeover in the Living Room

Some of you are asking for pictures of our new house. Besides our bathroom, I have not done this yet, because the camera makes the rooms appear very...odd. Mostly the colour. But there were many sunny days this weekend and I was able to get some good ones by turning the flash off. See? I'm learning something!

When we moved in, I told John where I wanted the furniture, hung a few pictures, put curtains on the windows and felt that something was wrong with the general appearance of things and the living room was not very cozy, as living rooms ought to be. Something needed to pull the room together. I've spent many minutes mentally re-arranging things, moving pictures and trying out different angles. I think I got it right, this time. That's the fun thing about decorating. Sometimes you only have to take what you already have, mess it up, move it around, and the change can be dramatic. So for fun, here is our new and improved living room, preceded by "before" pictures.

Our living room before we moved in:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Philly is a long ways away for most of you, but I hope our home will one day be a comfortable place for you to come and visit. Our doors are always open.

Picnic

What more could one ask for in April than a GORGEOUS spring day- balmy breezes, blue skies and sunshine. Flowers, buds on the trees, birds building nests. Kids on their bikes, baseball games. And what better way to spend such a day than with a picnic lunch in the park? So that's what we did.I went to the hospital for low back x-rays on Saturday morning. An MFR appointment in the early afternoon. With doctors and appointments out of the way, we went to a nice park on the river about five minutes from home. We had a few different ones in mind, but our plans got a little messed up when my x-rays took so long.

I spent Friday preparing our menu...sometimes a simple picnic lunch holds a great deal of charm, but for the first one of the year, I wanted to do something a little more special than peanut butter and jelly. Mayo with capers, olives, olive oil, dill pickle juice and roasted red peppers, havarti, provolone, turkey, ham, bacon, green peppers and red onion.

Five cup salad: 1c sour cream, 1c minimarshmallows, small can pineapple chunks-drained, small can of mandarin pieces-drained and 1c shredded coconut.

Whoopie pies for dessert- which I will never make again, as they were a little too sweet for my taste. John did say they got better with time, though, as he enjoyed them more on the fourth day than the first.

We had a lovely time.

By the time we finished eating at 4pm, the weather had cooled down considerably, but not too cool to take Joshua to a playground located only a few blocks from our home. It was his first time playing outdoors for such a long time. Also his first time on a swing:He was distracted by the other children in the playground at first, but when they moved on, he realized that he was not in a "normal" place and didn't care too much for it.

This was more to his liking!He loved the slide, too...he already had practice on the smaller slide in our backyard:The weather was beautiful today, too, and though it's supposed to be a little cooler this coming week, spring is in the air and I'm so excited for a full summer ahead!

Great-Grandma's Surprise Tarts

Oh-so-good! These tarts are sure to be a crowd-pleaser. To the few of you who will stumble across this humble blog in search of yummy eats: this is the first time I have ever handed this recipe out. I have coldly ignored the pitiful victims of their sugary goodness, selfishly hoarding the list of ingredients in my binder of family secrets. Sometimes I just want to keep a good thing to myself. It felt good being the only family that could provide the world with a mouthwatering dessert that would keep them begging for more. Granted, there are likely to be other similar, if not identical recipes somewhere. But I beg the privelege of releasing it under this title, for the first time ever, "Great-Grandma's Surprise Tarts."

You will need:

2 eggs, beaten
3/4 c white sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c coconut
pinch of salt
raspberry jam

Combine all ingredients EXCEPT the raspberry jam. Line 12 muffin tins with pie pastry. Spoon a teaspoon of raspberry jam into each pastry-lined tin and spread it out a little on the bottom. It doesn't need to be perfect. Top with the coconut mixture. Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before enjoying your first, and surely not your last, mouthful.

Homemade Hamburger Buns

I am a burger-lover. If I eat out, there's a good chance that I'm going to order one. So on Friday, I decided to make homemade buns. I took a bite of the finished product and my first thought was "this is the best hamburger I've ever had!" I didn't say anything out loud. I just waited to see what John had to say about it. I never know what he's going to think of my food. He took a bite and made a little grunt. "Good," he said casually. I was disappointed as I watched him take a second bite. But then a strange thing happened- a look of surprise crossed his face. "Wow!" He finished chewing. "This is one of the best hamburgers I've ever had!"

Skeptic that I am, I immediately fired questions at him. "What do you mean? You didn't say a word after your first bite!"

Well, it turns out that the first bite was just the bun. The second bite was bun and burger. It's strange what an tasty combination this creates. I had no idea that a hamburger bun went such a long way in making an AMAZING burger.

I got the recipe from here.

BREAD MACHINE HAMBURGER BUNS

1 1/4 c milk (120*F)

1 beaten egg
2 tbsp butter or olive oil
1/4 c white sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 3/4 c. flour

1 1/4 tsp dry active yeast

Directions

Place all ingredients in pan of bread machine according to manufacturer's directions.

Select dough setting.

When cycle is complete, turn out onto floured surface.

Cut dough in half and roll each half out to a 1" thick circle.

Cut each half into six 3 1/2" rounds with inverted glass as a cutter.

Place on greased baking sheet far apart and brush with melted butter.

Cover and let rise until doubled, about one hour.

Bake at 350° for 9-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Easter 2009

Easter. We did not go to church. I received strict orders from Dr. Burns not to do any lifting over the weekend, which included Joshua. Joshua was teething and constipated and miserable. John would have gone himself, but because of my inability to lift the baby, he had to stay home with both of us. So when Joshua went down for his nap, we had our own service. John played his guitar and we sang a few worship songs and hymns. We read the Bible, did communion and prayed.

The afternoon was filled with preparation for an Easter dinner celebration. We invited John's parents, Gigi (John's stepmom's mom), and my sister-in-law Jen with her family. There were 11 of us altogether.

I made a German-style ham, which is by far my favourite way to enjoy ham, though I've only had it twice. The first time we nearly ten years ago when my family celebrated Christmas with the Cannon family. Lori made ham the way her husband's Oma from Germany taught, and it received rave reviews. My mom copied the recipe out, but as fate would have it, she developed a severe allergy to pork before the next Christmas rolled around, and we were never able to eat it in our home again.

So, when I began planning our Easter dinner, I had no other thought than to get that recipe and make it. It's cooked at a very high temperature and makes a dark, rich gravy. The ham itself is so tender and juicy, and seriously, eating food like that makes me eager to dabble in German cooking some more!

For dessert, I went back to good old Russell Kronkite (the black-bottom banana cream pie guy), and made coconut cream cupcakes and lemon-lime meringue pie with a lemon snap crust. The cupcakes were delightful, especially on Saturday night when they were freshest, and the lemon-lime pie might have been good had it set properly. It was very...runny. Fortunately, little dessert is required to please a crowd of people who had just finished a very large dinner.

One of the most fun parts of the day for me, was decorating the table. I wanted it to be personalized, to let each person know that they were special. Was this accomplished??....I don't know!! But I had a blast preparing things.

I wanted to make these butterflies for all the glasses, but the cups were too tall for the straws. I ended up making only three, one for each of the kids, on the smaller glasses:

And then there were the bird nests that I made as place holders:

On Saturday night we made a quick stop at the grocery store and I saw these flowers that matched the plates, so I bought them and some baby's breath and incorporated them this way:

This is the table before the candles were lit or water and lemon slices were in the pitcher (the picture makes it look a little cluttery, but I don't *think* it did in "real life ":

And the most important part of all...family. Fred and Jen, my beautiful sister-in-law:

A rare shot of PopPop (there's almost a smile on his face!!!!
MomMom and Gigi:
I love this picture of Caitie and Joshua:
Joshua has great cousins- he loves to play with them:And then...the camera battery pretty much died and the memory card was full. If you read old blog on Xanga regularly, and haven't figured it out yet- the camera and I don't get along too well.
He has risen! Happy Easter!

Long Island, NY

I know some of you have been praying for me and my chronic back pain, and I never really gave an update after my trip to Long Island, NY, where I saw Dr. Burns. She is 9th in a long line of doctors and specialists that I have seen regarding my pain.

At five months pregnant, John and I were walking through a baby store in downtown Media and a woman saw me hobbling around, walking very gingerly, and asked if I was in pain because of the pregnancy. She told me about Dr. Burns at PCOM, twenty minutes from where we were living. I did look her up, but decided not to pursue the matter. I was already seeing a chiropractor. The chiropractor was giving me enough relief to take the edge off the pain, so I was content with this, fully believing (based on hours of research online) that the pain would go away once Joshua was born.

Well... it did not. Adjustments from the chiropractor ceased to be helpful, so I moved on to massage, mysofascial release, physical therapy, acupuncture and naturopathy. I also consulted my GP but got very little help from her. I switched doctors, and once again, no help. In fact, in the three visits I have made to his office regarding my back, he has not even looked at it.
So last month I decided to look up Dr. Burns. I called the office and spoke to the secretary. Dr. Burns had moved to New York. My heart sank. "Well," I asked, hopefully, "Do you have anybody there who can treat SPD?" Keep in mind that up to this point, nobody has ever heard of such a thing. Not even the nine other specialists I have seen.

"What's it called?"

"SPD."

"Just a moment, please, I'll ask."

I waited. Breathlessly. A few minutes later she came back on the line and informed me that nobody knew of SPD in the office. I decided to try by it's other names...after all, this was my last option. "Could you ask if they've ever treated--"

"I don't know," she interupted impatiently. "You'll have to come in for a consultation, okay? Good bye." Click.

Well, long story short, we located Dr. Burns' office in NY and scheduled an appointment with a secretary who was confident that Dr. Burns would be able to help, after listening to my list of symptoms.

Saturday morning we packed up the car with diapers, bottles, lunches and the baby, and made the three-hour trip to Long Island. I filled out a bunch of paperwork and had my consultation with the doctor. She made careful notes of everything I told her, felt around my spine, tested the strength of a few muscles and loosened a few muscles up with manual manipulation. She gave me a script for x-rays and an MRI, which I'll be booking appointments for this week.
She suspects that there is a herniated disc, perhaps a bulging disc or a tear in the vertabrae. Whatever the case, I'll finally know, after two long, long years. I was also very much out of alignment and had a lot of compression in my lumbar spine.

One of the biggest blessings in all of this is that she is a D.O and can write scripts right from her office for me to get the MRI, x-rays, etc. My GP here in PA would need to send me to a back surgeon who would conduct his own examination, before deciding whether or not to do an MRI. And there's a good chance that all of my trips will be covered by insurance. This is a first. They also own a house in PA and have expressed a willingness to see me there occassionally, to save us the long trip to Long Island.

I'm feeling hopeful.

We took a slightly accidental detour through the Bronx on the way home. It was incredibly interesting, so many buildings, stores, people, etc. And incredibly terrifying. I was on pins and needles the whole time, expecting to witness dozens of car accidents along the way. We ourselves almost got t-boned. It was insane.

When we got back on a highway of some sorts, there was a man walking down the middle of it, holding a sign that said he was homeless and needed food and money. All we had were a few leftover rolls and two or three slices of lunch meat, but I handed them to him as we drove by. I fought back tears as we drove away. It seemed so...pitiful. I wish we had more to offer him.
Witnessing something like that always makes me think.

It makes it very impossible for me to complain about anything, even as small as being uncomfortable, when I have just looked poverty in the eye. A car may not be the most comfortable place to sit for 3 hours, but that man walking against the traffic flow with a large cardboard sign that proclaimed to the world, "I have nothing," would likely be very grateful for a place like that to rest his tired, hungry body.

I have resolved in my heart to find more to be grateful for, and less to grumble about. Even the little things, like my uncomfortable seat in the car. Which is not so uncomfortable after all.