What's cooking?

Lately, I've been hooked on veggie sandwiches. I like how filling and low calorie they are. However, I'm asking for ideas for low calorie lunch ideas. I know I'l get bored with the same stuff over and over. Jake is happy to eat the usual kid stuff -- pb&j, chicken nuggets, soup, hot dogs, etc. I have a hard time justifying making anything for just me that takes more than 10-15 min at lunch. I am in a lunch rut, I guess. What do you like to eat for lunch? I don't want to be hungry again in an hr, either.

The boys bathroom unveiling

I just finished the boy's bathroom today.  I think it is my second favorite room in the house.  I decided I didn't want to spend a lot of money on paint so I decided to do stripes.  Our walls are textured so it was kind of a pain but I think it turned out really well.  I wanted a bluish grey for the stripe.  

 Next I saw this artwork on Pinterest that I fell in love with and thought, "I can do that" so I copied her whale idea.

 I thought it would be fun to paint a compass on the ceiling.  It WAS a fun idea but the ceiling is also textured so it was hard to get a precise line and it doesn't look very good.  It's ok from a distance.  The North, South, East, West is just some wooden letters I had in my craft room that I painted and hot glued to the ceiling.

 I have some extra frames and when I was looking online for sailor terms I found this old picture of a sail boat.  I love the picture.  It was in back and white and I just printed it off and put it in the frame.  Then I painted the "Anchor's Aweigh" above the door with the anchor.

 This will tell you how dumb I am when it come to sailor terms.  I thought all this time it was "Anchor's Away."  Turns out I was wrong and it is actually, "Anchor's Aweigh" which makes sense when you think about it.

 I found these knobs at hobby lobby and the wheel there as well.  I was too impatient to wait for them to go on sale so I spent about $20 on the wheel, which is better than the other two I really wanted.  But, this one works well because it has a rusted look to it and it's redish so it went well with the knobs and the painted wood letters.

 Another look at the knobs.  These were 50% off so I snatched them up.  Anyway, there's our fun bathroom.  It actually came together very quickly and I only spent about $35 to decorate the room--and had I waited patiently for the wheel to be on sale or used a 40% off coupon that Hobby Lobby sends out, I could have kept the price down even more.  But, I'm depressed and needed a project and didn't want to wait...

I'm very happy with how it turned out.  So now come visit us and you can use the bathroom!

On another note--I'll be short--our van broke down and Mike spent a while last night researching the problem, watching videos of how to fix it, and talking to his mechanic brother-in-law.  Today he got right to work fixing it and it took him five hours.  He felt good about his work and turned on the van and found that the problem was still a problem.  So, now we are down to our little black car for a few days and Mike wasted five hours of his time and we are out some money.  But, we are grateful we have the money to fix the car and that we still have another car.  We are also grateful that this is the week Mike's carpooling buddy drives so I have access to the car and we recognize that if Laila were still here, we could not all fit in the black car.  So, even though it's not awesome that our van is out of commission, we do recognize there are some blessings that help little trials be not so hard.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Geo Quiz for the Weekend

Ok folks. Here's another one. What valley is this? and what other interesting feature is in this image?

Note to Doctor

Yesterday I went to what I thought would be my last post-op check-up with my doctor. It isn't my last - still have to go back in next month to check on the swelling but overall Dr. Wallentine is ok with the progress of the knee. He is one of the nicest, greatest men I've ever met. He is competent and his bedside manner is fantastic! He is funny, kind and caring. I figured he wouldn't be offended if I gave him a few tips on how to prepare his next knee patient. I wrote the following kind of tongue-in-cheek. I can now laugh at a few things. I gave it to him and told him I didn't want him to be offended but I thought he should prepare us better so we could make more informed decisions. He began to read it and then burst out laughing. He would stop and apologize and then laugh again. Finally he said, "I'm sorry I'm laughing. You really did go through all this, didn't you?" I replied, "Yes I did and you didn't warn me about one thing."
Anyway, here's the laugh for the day. (It's all true but I tried to put a funny spin on it.) This is what I wrote and gave to him:

Tomorrow I go in for my last, post-op doctor’s appointment. I am going to have my doctor sit down and I’m going to tell him something that he won’t do but he needs to hear anyway. I’m going to suggest that before someone decides to have a knee replacement that the doctor goes over the list of things they will experience so they won’t be surprised or worried or upset. This is the list:

1. Get on heavy drugs that your body can tolerate and stay on them for at least 5-6 months. Figure out a way not to get hooked on them.
2. Make sure while your knee is still numb and immediately after surgery, the nurses or PTs at the hospital get that CPM machine on your leg and pump it up to 110 – you can’t feel it then but you need to get up to that level ASAP.
3. You will be totally dependent on someone for two weeks. Plan for it and get over it. (Plan on lousy food for a long time.)
4. It’s ok to cry every day and every hour. You’ll get over it.
5. Your knee will swell often – probably at least once a day. You won’t be able to bend it very far when it’s fat under the knee. When it isn’t swollen, bend the crap out of the thing.
6. If the knee swells really big, you might have a blood clot – even a month or two after the surgery. Get to a hospital ASAP. (But don’t worry because it probably isn’t anything serious.)
7. You must lose your vanity – your good looking leg is now lined with a huge scar that isn’t pretty. You might want to wear long skirts – and look like a flower child. No more mini-skirts.
8. Pick a good physical therapist because he will become your best friend and worst enemy.
9. It’s ok to cry in front of everybody in physical therapy.
10. Your entire leg might look like Popeye’s arms – fat, hot, swollen and miserable. But that should only happen every once in a while.
11. If you don’t like wearing support hose, too bad. You should feel better when you pull that hose over that mass of heat and fleshy swelling. Ahhhhh……
12. You have just discarded a part of your body for something fake. You cannot undo or ask for the knee back. It’s done. Your knee has been thrown away – or given to the junk yard dog to chew on. You can’t have it back.
13. You will, forevermore, have to take mega doses of antibiotics before you go to the dentist or have any other medical work done.
14. Your days of climbing fences, kneeling, stooping, running, scaling mountains or even scaling your neighborhood incline will be limited - maybe even impossible.
15. You will spend your nights awake, trying to figure out a comfortable place to put your leg.
16. You will need to save money to buy ice – you will keep the local ice making company in business for the duration of the pain which is way too long for anybody’s sanity. You might consider buying stock in an ice making company.
17. Buy new shoes – anything with a heel has to go. You will now look like Granny.
18. Your hips will start giving you trouble because you will swing them up to get the knee up a stair or on a bed or over the bathtub edge.
19. Don’t sit on the floor – you will not be able to get back up. Ignore your dirty kitchen floors – your days of scrubbing on hands and knees are over.
20. Write down every little change so you will feel good about your progress: i.e., I can sit at my desk for a half hour and not be aware that my knee is there; I can drive my stick-shift car without pain; I can sit on the church bench for an hour without having to get up and leave; I can go upstairs like normal instead of the step-step like old people do…. Those “milestones” will keep you going.
21. Nobody will care how much you whine. In fact, if you don’t stop whining, they may take a gun and shoot you to get you out of your misery, which they should have done before trying to fix a knee in the first place.
22. If you do this, consider yourself really stupid.
23. The best way to get through this recovery is to believe in fairy tales – they end in a happily ever after state.

There are probably 20 other things to add to this list but this should give him an idea of the scope of recovery from the patient’s side. It should be a rule that every doctor should have to go through every procedure they inflict on someone else so they have real empathy.
My doctor will be so sad when he will ask me if I’m glad I did this and I say, “Heck no! This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done or ever will do.” His face will fall. But his pocketbook is bulging because he will do 6-7 knee replacements in one day and not a word about the misery they are about to inflict except in one generic term: “this is tough and it will take a while to recover. Just plan on that.”

So there you go – Wimps don’t get knee replacements. Only stupid people – really stupid people.

Two Birthdays!

It's not only Lance's birthday today, but it is also Daniel's. I think Lance will enjoy his birthday cake more than Dan will since he can't chew anything yet.
I hope, Dan, that you have a great day in spite of the jaw issue. We hope you are getting better -- may your family pamper and spoil you today.

Hey Pancer...Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to Lancer Pancer. Have a good time today! Go find a beach somewhere and get some sun. That would be nice. We have sun here, but no beach. If you were here we'd go golfing. I watched South Florida play last night in your honor, by the way. Nice game.

Adam

the coolest video ever.

kevin showed me this the other night. i think I have listened to this 20 times today. It's so cool that all 5 of them are playing ONE guitar.. it sounds amazing. You really need to listen to this. :)

Another birthday in the house

March is a busy month for birthday's in the extended Clark family. Today is Will's turn. Happy birthday, Will!!!!!

Free Water Drums

I've been meaning to let you know that Brent and I put our name on "the list". We called the Squire company and got our names on the waiting list to receive 10 FREE 33 gallon water drums; food grade quality. The waiting list is about 4 months long, but you can have up to 10. They're a bit smaller than the 55 gallon ones you usually see, but these are FREE! The Squire company is right by Ikea. I don't think we'll need all 10 of ours we're planning on picking up in a few months, so if you want one let us know. We'll get you the number to call if you'd like to get your name on the waiting list too.
For those of you living out of Utah, you can often find these water drums (just make sure they're "food grade" quality) for free from companies close to you. You'll have to do a little investigative work, but it is certainly better than having to spend anywhere from $25-50 for them. Squire happens to make the syrup for Coca-Cola, I think. Hmmm. Maybe our water will be flavored!??? Ha!
Anyway, thought you'd want to know.

Sarah

I do believe that it is Sarah's birthday today. Happy birthday to my oldest niece.

Kony 2012

I just watched this video. I don't know who has heard about Kony 2012 but I have been hearing a lot about it. I didn't know what it was and I finally got annoyed about not knowing. So I gave in. I watched this movie. It is quite lengthy but it is worth it.

Please watch it and see what you can do, even if it is something as small and trivial like sharing it on Facebook, or posting it on a blog like I have, you are still helping others get informed on a very important subject. I have a feeling this is going to be something that the elections are going to talk heavily on.

Kony 2012. He needs to be stopped. PLEASE watch it and pass it on or pass the message along that there is more to life than our own lives here in our precious USA. We are so lucky to have been sent to the United States, so lucky. As a citizen and a voter, I will be watching what the candidates have to say about this. This will be a deciding factor for me that is for sure.