Things I'm Liking Right Now

Well, since it's been 3 months since I've been out of the hospital, I'm finally being able to get out and about...but only about one day a week! Even though it's not much, it's still progress for me, so I'm thankful for just the one day I have strength to be able to get my running around done. I've been usually taking my Mondays and getting my errands and shopping (what little bit I can do) done. Dale is usually home on Mondays and can keep Gentry for me while I go out. The crowds are obviously much less than the weekends and I can move at my own snail's pace! :)

Since I've been freed up a bit from what I call my "house arrest", I've found a few things that I'm liking that I wanted to share if you haven't seen them. So, here's my list of things I'm liking at this point in my life! :)

In no particular order:

* Febreze's new scent called "Brazilian Carnaval"...LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!...and Dale does too. It's got a berry kind of scent, but fresh too and not overpowering.

* My glass milk jugs from Brylane Home's magazine. They are clear glass milk jugs that gives your milk a longer shelf life and looks pretty on the table. Kind of retro looking from "back in the day" when the milkman would deliver milk to family's homes. One side has a cow on it and the other side says "pure milk".

* V-8 Fusion's Gogi-Raspberry Juice...this is the easy way out for people like me who don't get their proper serving of vegetables in a day! I found this combination to be pleasing to my palate. I pour of glass of it and sip on it usually while I'm fixing supper. There may not be anything to it, but it sure does give you a feeling like you're at least TRYING to do something healthy for yourself. I can never think of gogi juice without thinking of MaDonna's late father Rev. James McFall. About a year or two before he passed away he started selling gogi juice and he was CONVINCED it would cure me of my lupus. He was so concerned about my affliction and I always thought it was so kind of him to care for me that way. He sent me a lot of free boxes of Gogi juice for me to try. (He also sent me a ton of juice plus as well). And that stuff wasn't cheap! I don't have anymore left of the gogi juice he sent me, but now with my V-8 fusion drink...every time I have a glass, I think of my friend, James McFall. (You will never be forgotten!)

* Martha Stewart Living Magazine - when I was in the hospital for a month back in November/December, my sister-in-law, Nikki, would bring me up tons of magazines to read. She brought me Gourmet, Bon Appetit & Martha Stewart Living. The funny thing was, I had been put on IV feedings and was not allowed to eat anything except ice for 17 days. All the magazines she brought me were torture because I CRAVED all the food I saw in the magazines. But, I loved looking at them anyway, and made big plans to have a huge test kitchen day once I got out of the hospital. She still brings me the Martha Stewart Magazines when she's done reading them and I have gotten to where I look forward to reading that one in particular. She covers a wide scope of topics and I find myself earmarking lots of pages to put in my own notebook of "tips".

* crazy8.com - My best growing up friend - Tara - connected me with this website. It has great, affordable clothes for babies & toddlers. I'm not sure how big the sizes go, but I think it's somewhere around a 7 or 8? I'm still in 2T-3T with my guy, so I'm good for a while on this site. They are kind of similar to Baby Gap or Gymboree, really trendy, in style, but SO SO affordable. I have been outfitting Gentry in a lot of his casual clothes from this site for the past 2 seasons. Looking forward to getting his spring/summer stuff. Nothing too dressy on this site, but great for casual & play clothes.

* Sam's Club Parkerhouse Rolls - I found these a couple of weeks ago on my grocery shopping excursion. They have this huge bag of 30 rolls...in the freezer section...but the neat thing is you can take out just however many you need and ziplock the bag closed again and pop it back in the freezer. These rolls are as good (or better) than homemade rolls. You just take them straight from the freezer, put them on a cookie sheet, into the oven for 10-15 minutes @ 375* and VOILA! I do a lot of different things to "customize" them. I brush them with melted butter and sprinkle poppy seeds or sesame seeds on them; or make honey butter and spread that on and bake; or melted butter with garlic; or a mixture of chopped fresh herbs such as parsley or thyme. You've GOT to try these babies! Mmm...Mmm Good!

* and last but not least...fresh flower arrangements! I posted a picture on my blog of the orange roses I got at Sam's that day. And since then I've been in the mood of dressing up my dining room table with fresh flower arrangements. I know...this is not a new idea, but I've not done this much before. I have several different silk arrangements for the different seasons that I keep and put out during the appropriate season, but I've just never taken the time to do a fresh flower arrangement much. But since I bought those orange roses and saw how pretty they were and how long they lasted and how much I enjoyed the beauty of them on my table, I thought, "I'm going to try to keep this up." So, I just get an inexpensive bouquet of whatever I think is pretty that week. I spend between $10-20 on them and they last at least 7-10 days. The bouquets I buy have that little "food" packet with it and it really does make a difference in how long the flowers last. My style is usually to just stick with one color and do lots of different flowers but all in the same color scheme. But this week I went with all different colors and still loved the way it turned out.

So, these are my finds, bargains and what I'm enjoying these days. I've tried to post pictures of a lot of these things because I'm a visual person and like to SEE what people are talking about. My best bud & brother, Jared is coming over for dinner tonight. It's kind of a payback dinner because I asked him to pick up a prescription for me that I needed and didn't feel like going to pick up myself. He said he would and I promised him dinner. So, we're having chicken and pork enchiladas with green sauce instead of the red, refried beans & spanish rice. Sugar cookies & grapes for dessert. Can't wait to dig in, but I'm looking forward to the company even more. He's one of my favorite people to hang out with. When I was in the hospital he was there with me almost 24/7...and I'll never forget that. Well, I better get to cookin'!