Pip comes along + the Northpark Center Mall

Wednesday morning, we headed out for Mitchell's 17th treatment. Ashley and Toby had just gotten into town at around 6am so we took Piper with us. She napped in the car on the way over and woke up just as we were pulling in. I have to admit, the drive is starting to get pretty old. Our mantra is "another day, another 100+ miles", lol. Coming from a small town in southwest Kansas - it's quite the jaunt to drive an hour each way for 20 minutes worth of treatment!


Piper loves the fish tank in the waiting room. She just points and smiles and says (in Piper-speak, of course), "this! this!". It's so cute. I typically hold her while she's looking at the fish so she has a better view, but she had been playing with a small toy in the kids' corner when she noticed the fish tank and made a beeline straight for it. I couldn't resist snapping a picture before giving her a lift. (Please don't mind the poor photo quality - these were all taken with my cellphone.)



Just a funny side story - Piper has a new little quirk. She started doing it about a month ago and it's equally adorable and frustrating. Once she's done playing with a toy, she is d.o.n.e. She will immediately pick up the toy and put it in your lap. This trend will continue until you literally cannot fit one more toy on your lap. If you dare put it down, she notices right away, retrieves her misplaced toy, and immediately puts it back in your lap. This is rather comical until you need to move or run out of space for toy storage in your lap. She gets really, really mad if she can't pick the toy up because it's too heavy. Photo evidence:


You can't tell, but in this picture, she is grunting and trying her hardest to pick up the (admittedly weighty) wooden toy. Not long after this picture was taken, she spotted the fish tank, so that was a nice little distraction. :)


After Mitchell was finished, we headed out to the NorthPark Center Mall. We drive past it every day and talk about going in some day. Wednesday was the perfect day for that since we had Piper in-tow. It was quite the experience. I can definitely say it is unlike any other mall I have ever been to, that's for sure!


We made our entrance on the upscale end of the mall. I walked in wearing my faded blue Levis, plain t-shirt, and pushing Piper in her Graco stroller. Within minutes, I immediately felt like a plebeian. To be honest, I've never felt that way in my life. Everywhere I looked, there were security guards walking throughout the stores such as Oscar de la Renta, Louis Vuitton (where you can purchase a beanie for the low price of $250! What a steal!), Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, Versace, Valentino, and countless others. I saw a few moms with their children, but they were dressed to the nines, pushing their high-end strollers while wearing 4" pumps. All I could think was "get me outta here!". This is so NOT me and I wasn't enjoying myself at all.


After about an hour of wandering around feeling totally misplaced, we encountered a mall kiosk that designated the normal section of the mall. Stores I had actually heard of! Express, Billabong, Brookstone, Bath & Body Works, and Footlocker. That's a little more my style! For the first time in my life, I spent several hours in a mall and didn't purchase a single thing. I'm pretty proud of myself for that one, ha! Well, to be honest, we did grab lunch, but that doesn't really count. We tried Panda Express for the first time and it was decent. Not great, but not bad.


The mall was filled with interesting art. I've never seen such a thing! I really enjoyed the different feel inside the mall - it was pretty and unique. There weren't any vendors cluttering the walk-ways and vying for your attention either. I really appreciated that - I didn't have to perfect my polite blow-off. "Sorry, sir, I'm not interested in an electronic cigarette - I don't smoke. Have a nice day!"


Just before leaving, we grabbed a sweet treat. Mitchell is an ice cream addict and he had never tried Coldstone Creamery! I have been baffled by this for a while, so I finally convinced him to try it. We each got a small waffle cone and he really enjoyed it! I got chocolate almond and he got mint ice cream with Oreo (of course), Heath bar, and chocolate chips - ew! We both enjoyed our treat, but I think Piper enjoyed it more! She doesn't get the opportunity to eat "junk food" very often, but she loves ice cream. I tried to snap a picture of her enjoying my ice cream, but this was her response:



She had no patience for a photo-op. There was ice cream to be eaten! You can see melted ice cream caked on her lips and smeared on the tip of her finger. I thought I was being sneaky by slipping in slivers of almond in every bite. Little did I know, I was the one being fooled. After several bites, Piper stuck her fingers in her mouth, gathered the almonds, and placed them all in her stroller tray. She must have been doing her squirrel impersonation and trying to store those puppies for winter because I was none the wiser until she emptied the contents of her mouth onto the stroller. She's such a silly girl!


After we finished our yummy (albeit messy) treat, we decided it was time to head back home. It was a fun day, especially once we made our way to the lively, less stuffy side of the mall. It's quite interesting how vastly different one mall can be depending on your location within it. Seeing ritzy, highfalutin stores juxtaposed with Sonic and Build-A-Bear was interesting to say the least!


I love this. Piper had been holding his hand but she let go just seconds before I snapped the picture. Figures!


And one last picture to round out the day - Piper goin' for a cruise with Fiona. She loves that car and she loves my sister's dog!

Merry Christmas!

Zzz. Or lack thereof.

Dear Piper,


It's nearly 1am.


Go. To. Sleep.


I know you may not believe me, but some day, you will long for the days when people begged you to sleep 12 hours a night and take 2-3 hour naps during the day. Seize the opportunity. Just trust me on this one!


Remember when you used to snooze the day away happily? Let me jog your memory - I have photographic evidence!



Mommy and daddy will gladly party with you in the morning. We really don't need to do it right now. We'll still be here when the sun is shining so just relax and take a long siesta. We won't hold it against you. Really.


Love,
The Management
(aka Mommy & Daddy)

Christmas lights, back to Curves, appointment update.

I found my temporary Curves location a couple weeks ago! I've only had the chance to go a few times but it's better than nothing. :) I'm using a travel pass so I don't get to use my Curves Smart which really stinks, but it's better than nothing! This location is pretty nice - a lot different than my "home" Curves back in GC, though! I like my regular location better but I'm a creature of habit and don't like change so that's probably a big part of it. Plus, it's not the same without my favorite leaders, Lenora & Sonya! There is a really nice lady that works during the time of day I go, though - she's super friendly and welcoming so that's nice. Back home, I usually go with my mom so that's a big difference as well. Anyway, I still get a good workout in so that's what matters. I love Curves! Never in a million years did I think I would love Curves at 22 years old, but I like it a lot. I can't wait to get home, get back into the regular swing of things again, and get back on track!


We also finished up the Christmas lights on Ashley & Toby's house a week or so ago! I think they look cute for no more than it ended up costing. This is Ashley and Toby's first year in their new house for Christmas so I think it adds a cheery Christmas touch for sure. It's not perfect, but it's a whole lot better than nothin'! My mama has always said that if every home put out ONE strand of lights at Christmas time, it would make such a difference and be so pretty. I think she's right! It doesn't have to be Chevy Chase Christmas style to look pretty! :) It would be really, really difficult to line their entire house in lights (and require a HUGE ladder) so they just put the lights up where they could easily reach and it looks so festive! It's really hard to get a good picture of Christmas lights, especially when it's windy, but here's the best I could do:


Mitchell had his appointment with Dr. Maale on Thursday afternoon! The waiting room was packed and I was starting to think I should have brought my sleeping bag because I was just certain we'd never get in by closing time. Every chair in the waiting room was full. But, thankfully, within an hour and a half we got in and it went well. They took X-Rays of his hip and his ankle. Praise God, his ankle seems fine! It hasn't grown or changed so hopefully it's not another desmoid tumor. We still aren't sure exactly what this abnormal lesion is, but Dr. Maale doesn't seem too concerned because it isn't causing Mitchell any pain so that's reassuring! He wants to see Mitchell again in about 6-8 weeks so we'll see about that. If the only thing he's going to do is take an X-Ray, we can get that done in Garden and send it his way. ;-)

Still no update on the insurance situation but we're just giving this one to God! We're hoping and praying that the decision they reach is in our favor, but it's completely out of our hands so we will just wait and see. It would be a fabulous Christmas present to find out that we don't have to uproot and find a new doctor/hospital again!

Appt w/ Dr. S and good news for Christmas!

We meet with Dr S, the Radiation Oncologist, every Monday morning before Mitchell's appt. He likes to sit with each of his patients and see how they are feeling, see if they have any questions, etc. The appointment went well. Mitchell needs to start using aloe vera on his skin now before it gets too raw. He's starting to experience some minor discomfort so that's kind of a stinker. He's got another month left so it's bound to get worse ... I just hope it won't get too bad. Radiation affects everyone in different ways - some worse than others, so I really hope his experience isn't too awful.

Once the radiation is over, he'll get a full CAT scan a month later, then again in another 6 months, and then another six months after that. We won't know if the radiation worked for at least a year - it takes quite a while to see if the tumor is coming back. The radiation may shrink the tumor just a little, but it won't get rid of it completely. Chances are good that Mitchell will still need surgery due to the location of the tumor. Normally, they don't remove them because it poses no risk to the patient and is just another hassle. However, because it's very large and located on his hip, it definitely interferes with his everyday life so it will be in his best interest to have it surgically removed. Mitchell cannot lay on his left side and it makes work (as an aircraft mechanic) very difficult because he sometimes needs to lay on that side and can't.

We have another appointment with Dr. M (the other "original" Dallas surgeon) on Thursday. He is monitoring the "abnormal lesion" he found on Mitchell's ankle. He'll probably order another X-Ray and maybe a few other scans, so please be praying that those come back in the clear. The Dr. doesn't know what it is, but we're sincerely hoping it isn't another desmoid tumor. Please, God, please!

The good news is that we get to go home for Christmas! We are so happy. Their office will be closed on the Thursday AND Friday before Christmas so we will get to spend it with our family. They also gave us first priority for Wednesday's appointments so we can get on the road and head back as soon as possible! :) Mitchell's appointment is scheduled for 12pm every day and they're moving it up to 7:30am for us so we can get home early! The staff at the Cancer Center are so friendly and accommodating. They help make a crappy situation a little easier to deal with. We will leave from the radiation appointment so hopefully we make good time. That will make for one very long day (we'll have to leave the house by 6:30am) but it's worth it for sure.

So, that's my insanely long update regarding Mitchell and everything regarding his treatment! Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, and support. We appreciate it more than you know. :)

Piper J, my favorite little under-the-door wiggler.

Piper is going through a very clingy, "velcro baby" stage at the moment. She is quite the little firecracker and likes to holler and get rather animated if she doesn't get her way. Thankfully, instead of whining outside the restroom door like she had been, she's discovered a fun new game instead. It was rather humorous the first time I noticed her tiny little fingers wiggling at me from under the door. :)

My sister caught her on camera with her cell phone the first time she did this, coincidentally enough :



This afternoon, I decided it would make for a cute photo op to try and catch her "wiggling" from the other side of the door. Worked like a charm!






:) She's a funny little gal. She keeps life fun & interesting, that's for sure!

Christmas Shopping & Piper's second ornament.

I finished the Christmas shopping this morning, thank goodness! Luckily, I had the bulk of the shopping done before I ever knew we were going to have to come to DFW for 6 weeks during the holidays for radiation! That was a huge God-send because it's just one less thing I had to worry about. Anyhow, I had just a few more small things to get so we ventured out early this morning. I was kind of dreading it, thinking the mall would be packed with hoards of eager Christmas shoppers. Evidently, everyone else decided to sleep in. The mall was quiet with very few shoppers when we first arrived. In less than two hours, I had almost all of my shopping done! Christmas is going to be on a much smaller scale this year because finances are really tight w/ all of the medical bills we have rolling in left and right, but it's the thought that counts and gifts aren't the focus of the holiday anyway. I'm sure our family and friends will understand.


After carefully selecting all the gifts, I needed to find one more thing before we called it a day. Growing up, my mom purchased a special ornament for my sister and I every Christmas (starting the year we were born). When we were really young, she chose the ornaments, but as we grew older, she had us pick out our own ornaments. It is such a special tradition and I've always known I was going to do the same with my children. It's so fun to look through the various ornament selections from year to year and see yourself grow up by looking through the ornament collection. By the time I got married and moved out, I had quite the collection and they are all very near and dear to my heart.


Last year, for Piper's first Christmas, I purchased her this Hallmark keepsake ornament, "B" is for Babies (and Booties!). The picture doesn't do it justice - it is so much cuter in person.



(Side note: thank God I purchased the ornament last year! A quick Google search shows this ornament selling for well over $70 now. Ouch! Kind of wish I had bought a dozen now, LOL)


Back to this year's ornament! I found a cute, blown glass ornament at Dillards that was awfully cute, but I just couldn't make up my mind - I wasn't convinced that it was "it". My mama always says "if you can't make up your mind, there's probably a reason why!" - and that sealed the deal and I moved on. A few stores later, we wandered into a Hallmark gift store and I laid my eyes on just the ornament I was looking for. I had seen the picture online, but wasn't entirely convinced, but it's precious in person, so this is Piper's 2nd keepsake ornament. :)



This is "Daffodil" and she is the 23rd ornament in the Mary's Angels series. It's extra special because my mom purchased an ornament very similar to this when I was a young girl and now Piper has one, too! I'm almost positive that the angel my mom bought was also one of the ornaments in the Mary's Angels series, but I would have to double check to be sure. Nevertheless, it's nice to know I found "the" ornament and I don't have to scour the stores again until next year when it's time for ornament number three! :0)


We don't have many plans for the rest of the day. I plan to start wrapping the rest of the gifts here in just a bit and hopefully I'll make a good dent in that. I typically go all out with gift wrapping but A.) that costs a lot more money, B.) we're going to have to travel with the gifts and it's hard to get a bunch of fancy packages from Texas to Kansas without messing them all up, & C.) it takes a lot of time. Piper makes wrapping gifts a much more interesting task so I have to hurry (as I'm sure many moms can understand!).

Radiation delay

On Wednesday, Mitchell's radiation appointment was canceled because they did another full CAT scan on him Tuesday and realized they needed to reconfigure the machine. He must have been a little tense on his first day of treatment (understandably so) which caused the readings to be off just a hair. They postponed the Tuesday appt one day so they could tweak the machines and we were back to our normal routine again yesterday. If nothing else changes (not holding my breath!), the last appointment should be January 12th. He hasn't been nauseous at all this week so hopefully it was just a fluke.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza

We tried a new recipe over the weekend for Chicken Alfredo Pizza. It was so yummy! I tend to be a pretty harsh critic for new recipes so in order for me to say it's good, I really mean it! :) Of course, I love pizza AND chicken alfredo, so a combo of the two? Sounds like a winner to me!



Chicken Alfredo Pizza

Ingredients:

• 1 (3/4 pound) boneless skinless chicken breast
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced (I used two cloves)
  
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 (16-ounce) ball pizza dough, store-bought
• 2 cups baby spinach, well washed and dried
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, red and yellow
• 1 cup grated mozzarella
• Olive oil, for brushing crust

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Adjust racks to the middle of the oven. Put pizza stone in the oven to preheat while you begin the sauce.

Preheat a grill pan over medium heat.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. Put the chicken on the grill pan and grill until cooked through. Remove to a cutting board and dice. Set aside. (I cooked my chicken on the George Foreman because I don't have a grill pan. Worked great!)

Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant. Add the flour and cook until light blonde in color.

Whisk in the cream, reduce the heat to low, and let simmer until thickened, about 2 minutes. (It took longer than two minutes on my stove, probably more like 5-7)

Stir in Parmesan and season lightly with salt and pepper, to taste.

Flour your work surface and roll the pizza dough into a 13-inch diameter. Carefully remove the pizza stone from the oven and put the dough on top. Ladle the sauce to cover the bottom of the pizza. Evenly top with the baby spinach, grape tomatoes, grilled chicken and the mozzarella.

Brush the edge of the crust with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bake the pizza until crisp and golden, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately top with another handful of spinach. Slice and serve.

Very quick, very easy, and best of all .. it's very yummy! I didn't use spinach this time because I'm not convinced I like cooked spinach. I also used half as many tomatoes as it called for because I think more than I used would have been overkill. I used a little more chicken, and I doubled the amount of shredded mozzarella because I think one cup of cheese on an entire pizza is really skimpy. I don't have my pizza stone with me here in Texas, so I just used my sister's cookie sheet and did a square pizza instead, lol.

Some day, when I learn how to make my mother-in-law's amazing pizza crust (which would also require a stand mixer, so it could a while, LOL!), I'll use her recipe for the crust instead. The Pillsbury dough worked fine, but homemade is always better. The only change I would make for next time is that I'll use less of the sauce on the crust. I got a little too much of it in the center and it made it really hard to eat without a fork, so next time, I'll go lighter on the sauce. Alfredo sauce is really rich so less is more in this instance.


All this time, I thought alfredo sauce was difficult. And it literally couldn't be easier! 5 ingredients, it takes 10 minutes - that's my kind of recipe! =0) We cooked up some linguine noodles the next day for lunch, made the exact same alfredo sauce, cooked a couple more chicken breasts, and it was supper yummy as a pasta, too! Definitely adding this one to the recipe box.

Random Facts about Mitchell & Danielle

I'm always fascinated by the lists people make citing random facts about themselves, so I thought I'd do one for the two of us!


Mitchell:

• He generally dislikes Christmas music. This is surprising to me because he typically loves all sorts of music!
  
• He never sneezes just once or twice. He sneezes a lot and it's always a minimum of three sneezes per "session".
• He hates olives (green and black). He's also not a big fan of cheese. He doesn't like refried beans, either. Actually, he's a much pickier eater than I ever realized before we got married! He definitely has his own eating eccentricities.
  
• Despite the fact that he's a pilot, he's afraid of heights.
• He used to wash his car (by hand, not drive through) once a week and wax it every other week. This trend pretty much continued until Piper was born. Imagine that. ;-)
• He thinks popcorn for supper is a perfectly acceptable meal.
• He is addicted to chips and salsa. It's one of his favorite foods.
• He is really, really shy and quiet around people he doesn't know well (and it takes him a long time to warm up to people!).
• He's also extremely intelligent. And I'm not just saying that because he's my husband, I promise! He is so knowledgeable about so many things - he never ceases to amaze me!
• He's not a great speller (which is surprising to me considering the previous random fact!).
  

Danielle:

• I won't eat or drink anything blue. Blue usually means it is blueberry, raspberry, or some other wacky "berry" concoction and I don't care for any of that.
• I can't stand to touch my belly button. Washing it in the shower nauseates me. It HURTS!
• One of my biggest fears is getting abducted by aliens. . I know that's ridiculous, but it's true. That's what happens when you watch too many episodes of Unsolved Mysteries. LOL.
  
• There is a very small "hole/pit" above my right ear that I've also had since birth (similar to a chicken pox scar but smaller). Piper has a matching dip in the exact same place.
• I love the "old maids" in the bottom of the popcorn bowl.
• I don't like my food touching on my plate. At all, ever.
• You know the little "flap" connecting your top lip to your gums? You can feel it when you run your tongue across your top row of teeth. It's called the labial frenum. I don't have one of those! I had it removed when I was younger to help close the gap between my two front teeth.
• I don't like food anywhere close to burnt or "well done"/crispy. My toast is always lightly browned (Mitchell says I make it stale, not toasted), I pop my popcorn for half as long as most people do, etc. I hate, hate, HATE the smell and taste of even *barely* burnt food. Gross!! (Are you noticing a trend? I have weird food issues, too.)
• I dyed my hair dark for about 6 months after Piper was born and hated it. My life is much better as a blonde. ;-)
  

"Photo shoot" : 3 dogs and a baby

Ashley wanted me to get a cute picture of both of her dogs in their little "coats". Their bank lets them put a personalized picture on their debit card and she wants a picture of her fur babies on hers. It was hilarious trying to get them to cooperate (and a good test of my patience!), but I think we did get a few cute pictures. .




Piper just so happened to be wearing a pink hooded shirt (sans pants, oops) as well, so we took a few pictures just for fun. Piper LOVES dogs. She especially loves to pat them on the back..


give them hugs (this is much more gentle than it appears, I assure you - no dogs were injured in the making of this blog entry)...



...and kisses, too. =/ Piper is typically the one doing the kissing, but this time, Midge got the upper hand and I somehow captured it on camera. So gross ... but admit it, it's funny.



Ashley had a third pink "coat" that she tried to squeeze onto our pug, Rio. Midge & Fiona weigh 5 pounds. Rio weighs 18 pounds. Needless to say .. it was just a bit snug on Rio-bo-Bio. We tried to get a picture of all three dogs and Piper "matching", but I'm afraid this is the best we could do. Piper's expression + hand signal in this picture cracks me right up. It's almost like she's telling us we're losers for even trying (get it? The "L" she's making with her fingers? Losers? Ha. Ha. Ha. I'm so punny.)



So yep, that was our entertainment for part of the afternoon. Mindless, silly fun (and only dog people will understand why it was fun!) ... but it sure resulted in a few cute pictures. :0)

Radiation update, weekend happenings, and a marriage proposal!

We've had a pretty chill weekend which is kind of nice because the last couple of weeks have been a bit of whirlwind! :)


Mitchell's radiation treatments have been going okay thus far. Unfortunately, the radiation seems to be making him nauseous and lose his appetite. He's only had three treatments, but he's gotten nauseous within a few hours each time. It seems to help a little if he eats small meals frequently and drinks lots of water. I really hope it doesn't get worse as they begin doing higher doses of radiation in the coming weeks. He says it's manageable for now but is hoping it doesn't get much worse or he's going to be feeling pretty bad. Poor guy. :(


My parents were here the last week and it was so nice to see them. I am so, so close to both my mom and my dad and it's hard to be away from them. They left really early yesterday morning and it was made worse by the fact that Piper was clinging to them for dear life not wanting them to go. She could sense they were heading out and kept lunging for them and shaking her head no. =0( Thankfully, we will be home for Christmas in a few weeks and can be around both sets of our parents again soon. Piper loves her grandparents and Mitchell and I are pretty fond of them also ... haha!


We didn't do much else for the rest of the day. We went grocery shopping and then came back and made supper (a new recipe, Chicken Alfredo pizza), visited with Ashley and went to bed.


This morning, we visited another new church - Hope Church in Fort Worth.


My sister watched Piper for us again and the service started at 11:30. The atmosphere was wonderful. The people were really, really friendly and welcoming. It had a very nice feel to it - it was comfortable and relaxed, not at all uptight and stiff.


The music was decent. It wasn't concert-quality like Gateway was, but it wasn't just an organ and hymnals, either. It was kind of similar to the music at BibleCC in GC ... just not as good (LOL, sorry, it's true). There wasn't a piano/keyboard, you could barely hear the drums, and they sang the (Christmas) songs at a very fast, awkward tempo. It was still good, just not great.


The sermon was decent. Different people like different styles of preaching and this just wasn't my cup of tea. The preacher didn't stand, he sat - which I found a little different. But mostly, it was very monotone and hard to follow. And, well ... when your bulletin insert ends up looking like this (Justin Bieber lyrics and all ... LOL) :



..it's not exactly the most engaging sermon in the world. *giggle* Ok, ok, to be fair, I admit - I'm a doodler by nature. But, for comparison sakes, there was NO doodling last week at Gateway during the sermon - it never even crossed my mind. At Gateway, I was captivated by the message and it really hit home for me. Unfortunately, the message this week didn't have the *oomph* factor to it. It was still a decent message, it just wasn't my style. Overall, Hope Church was a nice experience but it's definitely not a church I would make my home. We'll keep searching (kind of hard to do when you don't know where you'll be living or when, but I digress)!


There's big news in the Parr family this weekend! I was a little surprised to find out about it on Facebook, but that's the "high tech" age we're living in now, I suppose! :) Anyway, my brother-in-law, proposed to his lovely girlfriend this weekend!


Mitchell and I don't know her really well yet, but we had the pleasure of meeting her a few weeks ago and she was very sweet (and Piper agrees!). They plan on getting married sometime next summer so that will be fun! They've asked Piper to be one of the flower girls so that will be awfully cute. They are a great couple ... and I must say, she's marrying into an awesome family. ;-) It will be nice to add another lady to the Parr clan for sure - we need a little estrogen to offset all the testosterone, ha ha. Congratulations, A&W! We are very happy for the two of you!

Chicken Tortilla Soup.

This is a new recipe in my rotation but I love it! To be perfectly honest, I am not a big fan of soup. I can count on one hand the number of soups I like, and this is one of them .. so that's sayin' somethin!

I got this from a leader at my local Curves (well, local in Garden City, that is!). It's a low calorie meal that is super simple to make. I also love recipes that call for normal ingredients - nothing is more irritating than recipes that call for off-the-wall ingredients that you've never heard of and never have on hand.

I will post the recipe as I originally made it. It's the base for the soup - I've tweaked it to my own likings, but it's super yummy as-is, too.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 tablespoons of chili powder

1 tablespoon of italian seasoning

1 (28oz can) of diced tomatoes

1 can chicken broth

1 can water (chicken broth can)

1 can of corn

1 (4oz) can of green chili peppers

1 can of black beans

1/4 cup cilantro

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked/shredded

For garnish (optional) : avocados, Monterrey-Jack shredded cheese, chopped green onions, tortilla chips

(I doubled the recipe so I have 2x the amount the recipe calls for)

Directions:

Dice onions & garlic.

In medium pot, saute onion and garlic in oil.

Stir in chili powder, italian seasoning, tomatoes, broth, and water. Bring to boil and simmer 10 minutes. Add corn, chili peppers, beans, cilantro, and chicken. Simmer 10 minutes.

Serve and garnish with desired toppings.

Mmm! So yummy. Even Piper thinks so!

This is very easy to make. It smells delicious and tastes even better! I used less water than it called for (and more chicken broth). I used just a touch more chili powder than it called for because I added the extra stock. I also added a tad more cilantro and a little salt to taste as well. The first two times I made the recipe, I used separate cans of diced tomatoes and diced green chili peppers like the recipe instructs - however, I now use the equivalent (in ounces) of cans of Rotel and it works great.

Better yet, for the entire soup, it only cost $12.50. Granted, I didn't include the cost of the spices because I always have those on hand, so it's probably more like $13. But for $13, I served six very generous bowls of soup (with enough left over for approximately four more bowls). So, if you break $13 down into ten servings - it comes out to just $1.30/serving (very large servings in this case). That's a bargain! :)

How to leave a comment on a blog entry.

I've had several friends and family members ask me how to leave a comment on the blog so I thought I'd give a quick "tutorial" on how to leave a comment. Bloggers thrive on comments - otherwise, it starts feeling like we're talking to ourselves! :) Everyone loves feedback, so if you get a chance, be sure to comment!

How to leave a comment.

Below each blog post, there is a link that shows how many comments the entry has received. Click on the link (shown in the circled area below):


When you click this link, it will take you to a page that looks like this:


The easiest way to leave a comment if you don't have a Google/Gmail account is to select the "Name/URL" bullet (circled in the green). You do not need a website to leave a comment - the URL section is optional so feel free to leave it blank. All you need to do is type what you want to say, select Name/URL, fill in your name, and then click the orange "Publish Your Comment" button.

Voila! That's it. Hopefully that helps solve the great comment-leaving mystery! :) If you do have a Google/Gmail account, feel free to type in your username and password, but otherwise, just keep it simple and select the Name/URL option instead.

First day of radiation.

Mitchell's first radiation appt was scheduled for today at 12pm. They ask us to be there 15 minutes early so we left the house at 10:45. It's always hard for me to leave Piper, especially when she's being especially cute. She was giggling, waving, and licking the front door as I left. LOL. I'm grateful that she's young enough not to know that daddy has a serious medical problem. It would be really hard to explain if she were older and more aware of what was going on!

The drive isn't too bad, thankfully. I mean, it takes almost an hour to get there, but it's not a really complicated, hectic drive. It's pretty much a straight shot and all interstate driving so that's nice.


The Cancer Center is a really nice place. It's quiet, clean, and everyone is really, really friendly. It's still totally surreal to be sitting in a cancer center surrounded by critically ill patients, but I'm thankful for skillful and knowledgeable medical staff here in the DFW area that can treat my husband!

The actual appointment didn't take long at all. Mitchell was only back there for about 20 minutes and it was over. It takes about 5 minutes to do the CAT scan each day and then the other 10-15 minutes is the actual radiation. Thankfully, he said it wasn't painful so I'm glad for that. I think the worst part of it is going to be the skin irritation. I have family and friends who have received radiation for various ailments and by the end of the course of radiation, their skin is really raw, painful, and sore. I'm hoping Mitchell can bypass that but I'm not sure how realistic that expectation is. =( Mitchell has "markers" (stickers, kind of - similar to the birth control patch) on each tumor that stay on 100% of the time, so that's kind of weird for him.


This image is from six months ago, so the tumor is even larger now than it was then, but here's an image of one of the desmoid tumors. It looks large on a radiology scan, but it looks a whole lot bigger in person! I cropped the image to respect my husband's modesty (LOL) but I also circled the tumor so you can see exactly where the tumor is. This is the larger tumor and it's on his left hip.






Just for kicks and giggles, this is my vantage point in the waiting room. I'll get awfully familiar with this view, I'm sure! 6 different people filed in right after I took this picture, so at least nobody was there to witness the picture taking weirdo in the waiting room, ha ha.

The waiting room is actually a lot bigger than this, I sit about right in the middle on a cozy little love seat. To my left there is another waiting area with a TV and large fish tank, and behind me is more seating and then a table/chairs set with shelving full of puzzles, board games, etc. to occupy people in the waiting room.


So, all in all, it was as good of a start to radiation as one could expect! I think we're both pretty calm and at ease with the situation now. We know what needs to be done and we're just doing what we gotta do! I wish I could be the one taking the radiation - I hate that he's the one having to go through it, but I'll be by his side every step of the way. We're definitely fulfilling the "for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health" part of our vows, that much is for sure!

It kind of stinks that we have to drive 2 hours a day for 20 minutes of treatment, but then I remind myself to be grateful for a competent medical staff and that squelches my selfish desire for a shorter commute! As with anything, it could be worse and I need to remember to be thankful for our many blessings from God.

One of the songs I keep singing in my head when I get frustrated is one of my favorites by Martina McBride called "Anyway". The chorus line is


God is great
But sometimes life ain't good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway


So true! :)