Photo Me Me

My seester tagged me for this particular meme thang. Its simple go to the 5th folder in you pictures, select the 5th photo and put on here and talk about it, so with further ado. I give photo number 5. In this particular photo you will find my son Andrew. Doing what our family does best, eating. He is partaking of the annual christmas feast in 2003. We are at my mother-in-law's old house. Seeing the ham there is making my salivary glands go into hyper drive. I must go get something to eat now.

ABC's of Me.....E

I was talking to my seester the other day. I was saying I was having a difficult time sorting through the rubble of my life and trying to come up with something for the letter E in the ABC's of me. Elephants was not going to work since I know nothing of these pachyderms. Then I thought of everything. Well, that may be a bit long to write about EVERYTHING. I would for sure have carpal tunnel or something after doing that. I also tried coming up with a word that begins with E for sleeping. Yeah I couldn't think of one either.
Then it downed to me that an important part of me is eating. Which so happens to begin with the letter in question. You see, I love to eat probably as much, if not more than I love to cook. I guess the saying my bio dad says is true, "Never trust a skinny cook!" So after taking a look at myself in the mirror one morning after getting out of the shower I am very trustworthy.
I thinking cooking and eating are just about synonymous as words can be. My family wonder why I am no longer hungry once I have finished cooking dinner.
I have come to the realization that I eat way too much while I am cooking.
Eating to me is more important than breathing. one can hold their breath for long periods of time. I have tried not to eat, but it does not last very long. I eat with all 5 senses. Maybe even all 6.
I can sense good food is around from long distances.
Food that I am going to eat has to look good, first. A pile of gray mush on a plate is not very appealing to the eyes.The nice bright green color of freshly chopped cilantro before it is placed in with the other ingredients of homemade pico de gallo.
How does one eat with one's sense of hearing? Remember the sound of the first bite into a crisp, juicy apple? That crunch is as important as the sweet juice running down your chin.
Touch? The feeling of ice cream on the back of your tongue on a hot summer day? 'nuff said.
Smell? That's easy. Mom's banana bread cooking in the oven. Mmmmm. I can smell it now. Anticipating the first slice while it is still hot of of the oven with butter melting everywhere. Not many things are better than that.
Taste. Eating with a sense of taste? Need I mention anything about this? How can I describe the sense of taste. Is there anything better than a bite of nice red, juicy, cold watermelon on a hot summer day? Or the sweet juice of a just ripe peach. How about the garlicky, salty, briny taste of a crunchy pickle from a deli on 2nd avenue in NYC.
I feel like Anthony Bourdain right now talking about food like this. He is a food hero of mine.

ABC's of Me

D would be the next letter. It did not take much thought to come up with a d word. Dogs! Love them. Hate cleaning up after them. Love the look they give you when you come home from work and they are all jumping on me. When we moved down her 3 years ago we had 3: Blackjack, Jenni, and Lexi.
Blackjack was Genny's dog before we met. He was the funniest dog ever. His ears were on crooked, he had a tooth that stuck out and made him look like Elvis. I always imagined him saying, "thank you. Thank you very much." You know you heard Elvis' voice when you read that.
Genny had a Rottie named Baby. She died 2 weeks after having pups. Blackjack was the only one to survive. All the other puppies and Mom died. So Genny became Blackjack's momy. Literally and figuratively. This is Blackjack.

Blackjack is, unfortunately not with us anymore. He ran away and we have not seen him since. Its been about 8 months. It was very sad when we realized he was not coming back to us. It took about 3 months before Genny could walk in the house and not cry. He was definitely her dog. I do feel privileged though. I was the one man Genny dated that he did not want to attack upon entering her house. He and I would play for hours. It sounds like he was tearing my arms off, but it was always funny. My joke about him is he was so close to Genny, that when she burped it sounded like him barking.

While live here in Indiana we adopted a rottie. Her name was Jezzybelle. We spelled her name different because she was no Jezebel. She was so sweet. We rescued her from a local shelter. SHe was seized during the raiding of a meth lab. The vet told me that she was pregnant more often then she should have been. I guess the best way to describe how she was treated would be to call her a puppy mill. She was so funny. She would not beg for food unless it was pizza. We had the funny idea that her previous owners ate a lot of pizza. Probably a stretch for the owners of a meth lab. Here's Jezzy giving Amberlin some love.
The story with Jezzy takes a sad turn. You see she had bad hips. We knew we were bringing her home to live out her last days. Over time it began to get harder and harder for her to even stand up. It got to the point she stopped eating. I didn't have the heart to take her to some cold, sterile vet office. So I kept her home and kept her as comfortable as possible. With her head on my lap she passed away peacefully in Nov 2008.


We still have Jenni and Lexi. Jenni was another rescue dog that we have. She is a Dalmatian. I know this going to sound crazy but she's a little neurotic. She is 100% Amberlin's dog. She is very sweet. Our 2 year old niece can crawl all over her, pull on her ears and tail and Jenni will just lay there taking it all in.
Some times she will run around the living room crying, you tell her to lay down and she does. Then 30 seconds later she's up doing it again. She was supposed to be my dog. She is totally Amberlin's though.

The next dog is Lexi. Lexi is a beagle combined with the yellow hair of a lab. She's all beagle though. She barks like one. We got her from a neighbor in Ohio. She was giving them pups away and somehow we ended up with one. She's also Amberlin's dog. She's a little skiddish around little kids, so we keep her away from the nieces when they are here. She recently had puppies. She had atotaly of 10, but 3 didn't make it. So we went from 3 dogs to 10 over night.
The last dogs in my life are the puppies. They were a handful. They were very cute until we let them out of the kennel to eat and do their business. I affectionately referred to them as the poop machines. When I saw one of them in particular she got into my heart. I named her Bella. She just looked like a Bella. I'm not sure what a Bella looks like, but she sure does. She's the 2nd one from the left in this picture. She was/is the last one to go to a new home. I say is because her new family will take her home in one week. Which is okay by me. I get one more week to wake up with a little puppy face looking at me in the morning.
My sister says that dogs come in to your life and leave little muddy paw prints on your heart. I think this is so true. Every dog I have ever had in my life has done the same.

Now to contemplate the letter E. Hmmmm........

C of Me

As I was looking at some blogs of other nurses, I was wondering why I haven't continued the ABC's of me.
I can think of all the excuses that you are thinking right now, but the one I'm going with is I just haven't done it.
So with further ado...
C is for Church
I grew up in a christian church. I went to the same church for about 8 years straight, but we went there off and on since I was 2 or 3 years old.
When I think of great chrsitian men that I have met, I am immediately taken back to that church. Pastor Ole Hanson is the first that comes to mind. I remember how emotional he could get when he was preaching. He was one of the nicest men I have ever met.
The other man that comes to mind is Ray Blakeslee. He would lead the church in singing of hymns. Between verses he would always have a little tidbit of knowledge to bestow on the congregation.
I took a break form church and God for more years than I care to admit. Some things happened that left me with a bad taste in my mouth. A friendship lost, several re locations, not staying in touch with"friends".
I started back to church while living in Toledo, Ohio. I started going to a charismatic church. Pastor Scott was a gifted speaker. He taught me a lot.
Then we moved to Evansville. The Church we attend now has been the greatest church for me ever. I've grown so much and continue to do so. Pastor Rick Van Hoose is a great man of God. He ranks right up there with the previous mentioned.
So how long will it be before I blog 'D'? I dunno....We shall see. Until then...

Me Me Me

4 Things I Did Today:
1. Drank a cup of Dunkin Donuts Coffee
2. Cleaned up after one of our dogs. Reversal of fortune.
3. Made some changes to my retirement accounts
4. Ate an apple toaster strudel


4 Things On My To Do List:
1. Make a Dentist appointment
2. Decide what to cook for dinner
3. Take the girl-child to get a J O B
4. Watch ER tonight

4 Of My Guiltiest Pleasures:
1. the internet
2. M&Ms Dark Chocolate
3. gourmet food - just like my seester
4. Mountain Dew

4 Random Facts About Me:
1. I have restless legs syndrome. It looks like I'm playing soccer while I sleep. But ... better living through pharmacueticals.

2. I'm a trauma junkie- Yes people know I work in the ER, but I'm bored until a real emergency comes in. Its not that I want soemone to get hurt, I just want to be there afterwords.

3. I am a huge Ohio State Footbal fan. I have been since Jr. High. We wore the same colors as the buckeyes. Then I married into a family of buckeye fans. Ahhh Destiny

4. I have been called to the ministry. I'm currently on a little break from Bible college, but I am working towards becoming a minister.

B is for Boat

I was thinking about the abc's of me and I had a relly difficult time thinking of B. I looked through some old photos and found this pic I shot with a el cheapo point and shoot. Genny and I spent our 1st wedding anniversary in Key West. We were riding on a 40 foot katarmoran when I took this.

Greek Food

While getting caught in the rabbit hole that tastespotting is, I came across a great blog for Greek food. If you are a fan of this particular cuisine as we are, you must check this out. Be a little daring and try it. Ya never know you might even enjoy it.