POtato PoTAto

I LOVE Le Madeliene French Country Cafe. It's a little cafe chain that has restaurants all over Texas (but not in my town), Oklahoma, Louisiana, Maryland, and Virginia.  I have yet to have anything there that I don't like.  I could happily swim in a pool of their Strawberry Romanoff and eat my way out (it's my favorite dessert).

When I was a kid, I only knew of Le Madeliene by name.  They sponsored a lot of my favorite shows (chiefly the Granada Sherlock Holmes) on KERA, the PBS station beamed all the way in from the then-mysterious big cities known as the Metroplex (Dallas-Fort Worth).

As a teen, I worked in a restaurant that had several "inspired by La Madeliene" recipes, but with the managers' own twists. That's where my love affair with their food started.

I didn't actually get to visit an actual Le Mad's restaurant until my Best Friend relocated to Dallas just a few years ago.  It was my very first real trip to Dallas and it was one of the first restaurants we visited (at my request).  I sat just outside the ice rink  at the Galleria, oblivious to anything but my Caesar salad, Strawberry Romanoff, and my potato soup.  I think my teen and my Bestie were talking, but I can't be sure. I was too into my food.

Now I love potato soup, and I have had lots of great soups (McAlister's, Jason's Deli, and others), and some not so great (canned and some restaurants burned from memory), but the McLemore Bass/ Le Madeliene potato soup is my measuring standard.

Staring down the barrel of yet another ice storm and potential snow day yesterday, I found that my thoughts were firmly on anything potato soup.  I even popped by McAlisters for a cup at lunch, but that didn't fix my craving. It only strengthened my desire to have it for dinner.  I was going to have to make it. And I couldn't quite remember how to make it. 

I straight up typed, "la madeliene's potato soup copycat recipe" [sic] into Google and found this recipe:  link

After deciding I had enough of the ingredients at home to wing it, I set my mind on doing the afore mentioned recipe, with modifications, of course.  We never used leeks at McLemore Bass (at least to my knowledge), and I think I remembered it had celery, garlic, and bacon.

That's when I realized I didn't have potatoes. I had to go to the store. $@%#!  Do you know what it's like to go to the store in the south in the hours preceeding any storm system that brings more than a 3% chance of any kind of precipitation?

"Stanz: What [s]he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff!

Venkman: Exactly.

Stanz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling!

Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes!

Winston Zeddmore: The dead rising from the grave!

Venkman: Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats, living together! Mass hysteria!"

(Ghostbuster, 1984.)

We'd already had a surprise from the slick stuff during the morning hours. There were tons of wrecks because the school system decided that the kids had already had two snow days and didn't need a third, and went about life as normal, as roads deteriorated. So, yeah, the town was crazier than normal.

I strengthened my resolve to stop at the grocery after picking up the teen.  The grocery store between my house and my mom's is a special kind of stupid on a normal day: selection stinks, the staff is rude, selection stinks, and the majority of customers are awful. I was, however, only going in for the one kind of potatoes they stock, so I promised myself I had to do it.

Until....

My wonderful Mommy came to my rescue with a bag of Steam and Mash.  I don't normally buy these. I can buy potatoes and boil and mash with almost as much effort as tossing this bag in the microwave, and I can control the ingredients.  BUT, beggars who wish to avoid interacting with some of the troglodytes at that grocery and the mass hysteria of impending ice doom cannot be choosers.  I snatched up that bag of Steam and Mash and made a Dash out the door before Mom could change her mind.

Here is my recipe:

2 cans of chicken broth or stock (regular can sized)

Future Potato Soup Friends, Unite!

1 bag of Steam and Mash russets (or, preferably real russets, but it will lengthen cooking time drastically). Mine were still frozen.
2 stalks celery (not from source recipe, but delicious)
1/2 med sweet or yellow onion (mine was sweet because they were on sale at last trip to grocery)
1/2 package of turkey sausage link (not from original recipes at all, added for teen; bacon or ham would be better)
1/2 cup (aprox) of half and half (more/less based on preference)
2-3 tbs real butter, divided into tablespoons, more or less to suit your tastes (Don't use the fake crap. Remember, "Real Butter is Love.")

Chop celery, onion, sausage to desired size. 

In your soup pot, sauce pan, whatever-- you can see mine in the pic-- use some butter to saute onion and celery until the onion is translucent. Don't feel pressured to brown them.

Dump in the cans of chicken broth (I would strain if you have lots of fat-nasties on the top).

Dump in frozen potatoes.

Sprinkle with thyme and pepper to taste.

Bring to a boil and reduce to a strong simmer.  Cook until potatoes are thawed, heated, and starting to fall apart.  Mash some with the back of a spoon, as this will start to thicken the soup. It was 10-15 minutes for me.

I sauteed my sausage in a pan, with a tiny smidge of butter (only to keep it from sticking) to brown it just a little. This is an optional step, as the stuff is already cooked, and will heat in the soup.  You could also cook your bacon at this point (a step I totally endorse, and would have done, if we had bacon at the time).

Dump the sausage into the soup pan and add a tablespoon of butter.

This is what my soup looked like at this point.  I haven't added any milk.  The broth reduced a bit and the potatoes fell apart.

Add about 1/2 cup of cream or half and half.  I used a little more than half a cup-ish of half and half.  I don't recommend ust milk. You can use it, but it's not as creamy and you might have to thicken your soup with something.  Some of you may like it. I won't hold it against you... well, I might, but I will be discreet about it. I can't promise I won't give you stink face, though.


Bring the heat back up to a near boil, but don't let it boil. You have a milky product in your pan, and it does funny (gross) things at high heat if you leave it alone at too high a temperature. Stir frequently over the next 10ish minutes, before ladling in bowls and serving.

At this point, a wild teen appeared from her bedroom, drooling and sniffing about.  She dramatically threw herself about the kitchen, claiming starvation.  Apparently, the journey down the hall from her room is perilous and fraught with dragons (if Eryn Grace "be dragons").  If your family reports to the kitchen prematurely, you can fend them off with spoons.  It works at my house-- well, except for the cat looking for a wayward bit of food-- spoons don't work on them.  The spoon gets hairy, too. 

 It was pretty dern good, if I do say so.  As I have alluded, it would be better with bacon (but I am not as big a fan of that sausage as the teen is).  It's also really good with a little cheese on top.  Le Madeliene offers theirs with shredded cheddar and bacon.  Mozzarella is good, too.  I served mine with a little Irish Soda Bread (made it in the crock pot-- that recipe is coming eventually).

Pic of the leftover soup

We each had two good sized bowls last night and I had enough left overs to squeeze three bowls out this afternoon, too. You can easily double this recipe to feed more people.

The recipe reheated well, too.  It's better to reheat on the stove, over med-high heat, stirring frequently.  The pic above is second day soup as I reheated it.

There you have it.  Soup's on.  Make it.  Comment about it.

Oh, and Big Sis has "Real Butter is Love" aprons in her Etsy shop now.  It's quite cute.  She also has a TARDIS apron in her shop that is utterly adorable.

ETA:  I forgot my disclaimers.  I am not receiving any kind of endorsement from the restuarants mentioned above.  I don't think I even know anyone working for those restaurants anymore (and McLemore Bass went away as I knew it in 1998).  I don't own the Ghostbuster's quote either.  Ghostbusters belongs to its respective creative geniuses and studio.  I am simply a huge fangirl who owns a Real Ghostbusters animation still.  I don't make any money from this blog.  Did I cover my hiney enough?

The Microwave Magically Cleans Itself

I have a microwave.

I have a teenager.

Microwave + teenager = DISASTER

I grew up in a household where dinners were cooked in the microwave.  Seriously. Meatloaf was made in the microwave. I always thought it was a little weird. Non of my friends' moms did that, but it worked for my mom.

I remember her scrubbing the microwave with Windex and paper towels.  I didn't bother her when she did that. I am crazy, but I wasn't stupid.  She had to work hard to clean that gigantic mess.


I have a pretty powerful 1200wt microwave. It's smart enough to cook popcorn without burning it and steam veggies with the push of one button.  With two button pushes, I can defrost meat.  And that's all I care to do with it.  I prefer to cook on my stove and my oven.

The teenager? Ugh! I wish she would cook in the oven or on the stove. She likes the microwave.  A lot.
She's always been hard on it- when she was 8, she set fires inside of it-- twice... in a month.  To be fair, the first time, we have no idea what happened.  A 20 second bread stick reheat turned into an unexplained smoky mess.

Needless to say, my microwave is almost always a DISASTER.

Does the teen clean it?  HA! HA! HA! HA!  You must be joking.  She thinks we have a house elf or that it magically cleans on its own.

I have found a way to clean it almost by magic, though.  You may have even seen the tip floating on Pinterest and Facebook.  I've seen it so many times, I am not linking to a source web page. I also didn't take pictures this time, so I must ask you to paint pictures in your mind. 

Imagine, if you will, a metal cave with light dimmed by... uh, tomato sauce?  The walls are splattered like a culinary Jackson Pollock protege eager to please his master with over-exuberant fervor. There are mystery stains of dubious consistency below the plate.  The interior was once an almond color, but now it is impossible to isolate a single color.

Yuck.  I don't want to scrub this crap.  No wonder my mom was cranky. 

So, I take this tip I find on the Internet where you take a bowl of water, add some vinegar, and basically cook it until it magically turns into a house elf that scrubs your microwave, or something like that. 

Fill a microwave safe bowl (I used a 2c Pyrex bowl) just shy of 1/2 full of water and added enough vinegar to fill it most of the way full and pop it in the microwave. I ran the microwave at full power for 4 minutes and busied myself with dinner construction.  I didn't rush to the microwave when the timer went off, either. I let it sit.

Even after letting it sit for quite some time, all I had to do was wipe the microwave down. No scrubbing. The plate just rinsed clean with hot water-- the crap just melted away.  It was like ice cream melting on the hot, Texas sidewalk.  No lies.  The inside of my microwave looks brand-flipping new.  Take that, Teenage-Mess-Maker.

If only cleaning the rest of my house was that easy. 

Real Butter is Love

"Real Butter is Love.
Real Cheese is Respect.
Real People are Essential."
 -Tao of Scout-


"Real Butter is Love" is a phrase you have seen, and will continue to see, on my blog. I don't believe in margarine. I like ingredients that your average elementary school child can read, not things that remind me of my 10th grade chemistry class (...although, the lab partner I had was pretty hot.. ERR, never mind).  Cooking is enough chemistry for me without getting into complex chemical chains and whatnots. So, you get to read my sass about real food.

I have really creative great-friend (who I am convinced is secretly my sister) that is a Craft Super Hero.  She sews, and paints, and crafts-- all that stuff that I do in my head, but don't really do in real life. I know sometimes she can hear me squeeing over her stuff the entire 4/10 mile between our houses.

Not long after I featured my staunch Pro-Real status in my last blog, Big Sis got my permission to get crafty with my phrase (as if I would deny her!), and she made this apron holder: 

See it here at Whetsel's Wearables

You can't convince me that I haven't hit the big time now-- I have a catch phrase on a sign.  This is right up there with signing autographs after plays--wait, no, that one is a bit weird.  Cool, but weird.  This is a catch phrase on actual product! And it looks awesome.  Woot!  I will try to stay humble, though...  :-P

La Tea Dough

I love bread. I am short. Therefore, I love shortbread. Right?

Well, not really.  But I do love shortbread. Or tea biscuits. Or Danish Butter Cookies.  They are all pretty much variations on the same theme: butter and sugar with enough flour to bind them together. I love it; the teen loves it; the best friend loves it; my coworkers love it. What's not to love? It's butter and sugar.

After binging on Walker's Shortbread, Danish Butter Cookies and honey almond tea biscuits the week before and week of Christmas, you would think I had shorted out my craving? HA! As If.  More like I was on a mission to get fat... er, find more cookies.  Thus, I took to Pinterest looking for a tea biscuit recipe.

I did a little research because most of the recipes for shortbread and tea biscuits are nearly identical. Ask.com says it's a matter of flour and sugars. I didn't see that in the recipes I read.  There is a texture difference, however, between tea cookies and the Walker's Shortbread I picked up at the British Import store in my home town.

Remember that a biscuit is a cookie.

This is the recipe that I bounced off of:  Inspiration Recipe. 


Three ingredients?  Three common ingredients? Three common ingredients that were in my kitchen at the moment I found the recipe and I was home alone... and bored?  That oven was preheating before you could say, "Jolly Good."

I made cookies.  I didn't take pictures.  They weren't pretty anyway.   But never fear, reader. I made them again, taking liberties of my own, and I took pictures along the way.

According to the original recipe, you will need:

2 sticks of real butter, softened. I've told you before- do not use that fake crap. Real Butter is love.
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 cups of flour

I also add about a teaspoon of almond extract. I love the flavor it adds.  I made three variations this time, so there are two other ingredients (one for each variation) that I will mention in a bit.

I use an electric hand mixer, mixing bowl, rolling pin, and cookie cutters.  I measure the flour out into a separate bowl, have extra flour on hand for dusting, and bake my cookies on a pan covered in aluminum foil.

Preheat your oven to 300.  My oven thinks I should only bake at 350, so I really have to watch the temperature.  350 is too hot and you will end up with tan cookies (Not the "good tan," either).

Grated butter

I have no patience for waiting for my butter to sit around and soften, it works better slightly cool, so I grated it with a cheese grater.  It's a LOT faster than waiting for the butter to soften. It also makes working with the electric mixer easier. No jerky killing of butter sticks. 

Butter + Sugar +Mixer = Good

I pour the almond extract over the sugar after I dump the sugar in the butter.  Add to taste; I used about a teaspoon this time.  The flavor was pretty mild.  I like overkill. 

Creme the butter and sugar. I use my hand mixer starting on slow and then increasing to medium.

After combining the sugar and butter, I took a tip from a different recipe and popped the bowl in the fridge to chill the butter again for just a couple of minutes.  While that was in the fridge, I measured out my flour in a separate bowl

Slowly add the flour. The first time I made this, I added about a 1/4 a cup at a time.  The second time I made it, I dumped too much at one time. Do it slow, trust me.  Oh, and go lightly on the mixer switch-- don't accidentally turn it to 2 or 3 in a bowl full of flour.  Don't ask why.  Just trust me.

The original recipe says the recipe will be flaky.  My turns out to the consistency of bread crumbs.  It will stick to itself if I work it by hand, though.  If I were making my cheese straw recipe, I would add more butter. I don't have anyone guiding me, and I have made this recipe all of twice, so I just go with it.  It turns out ok. 

Once everything was combined, I gave the dough a time out in the fridge for a few minutes and cleared a space for the next step.  You need space. I didn't allow for the the space the first time. It was a pain in the ass.  The second time, I scrubbed my counters within an inch of sanity and just worked the dough directly on my floured counter top.

REALLY flaky dough right out of bowl

After kneading 4 mintues

You MUST knead the dough, just like the inspiration post says. I mean, REALLY work the dough. Squish. Punch. Smash. Pulverize. It will start to come together the longer it's worked with. I kneaded the big dough ball for about 8 minutes total, before dividing into three sections for different additions.

I kept one section plain and kneaded it another 3-5 minutes before rolling it in a ball and popping it back into the fridge.


If you are not adding anything, kneading a total of 10 minutes-ish, until the dough is a solid mass. I let mine rest a couple of minutes in the fridge, just long enough to wipe a dry paper towel over my space and dust with it flour again. I rolled/ smashed it out (somewhere between 1/4" and 1/2" thick) and attacked it with cookie cutters. The first time I used the pizza cutter. It was ok, but cookie cutters are fun!



Place the cookies on your cookie sheet. Prick the cookies with a fork a few times.  To be honest, I have forgotten this step both times. It's in most of the recipes I read, so it must be important, but it's not catastrophic if you forget to prick the cookies.

Bake cookies at 300.

16 minutes bad

How long?  Er, well... uh, you see.. well... for me it was 15 minutes.  I followed the recipe the first time and set the timer. At 16 minutes (inspiration post said 25, remember? I had it set for 25), I smelled something not so savory.  Luckily, the cookies weren't too far gone and my second batch came out beautiful at 15 minutes.  You want to take them out just as they start to turn a bit golden.  Check them around the 14 minute mark.  Watch them closely. Do not walk away from your oven thinking you have 3 minutes left and you can check Twitter.  Don't. Resist the urge. If you walk away from that oven, even if your oven says you have extra time, your temperature will shoot up to 350 in your oven and you will end up with tan cookies-- the bad tan I alluded to earlier.  Tan cookies taste ok, but the cookies are SOOOO much better, so much flakier, and so much prettier if you keep an eye on them.

Once they are out of the oven, dump on a plate. Brew a mug of Earl Grey tea with two sugars and a splash of milk (or beverage of choice). Take plate and tea to a secure location. Eat while watching BBC online.  My BBC programme of choice last night was Death Comes to Pemberley, but Sherlock is a brilliant choice (you cannot go wrong with Sherlock).  There is no shame.  Just wipe the crumbs off your chest when you're done.

 --Now the variations I spoke of--

I made Orange Zest Biscuits and Earl Grey Tea Biscuits.  I wasn't inspired by specific recipes, just titles as I looked though tea biscuit recipes on Pinterest.  I totally made this up, y'all.

After adding the extra ingredient, I kneaded the dough 3-5 minutes to really incorporate the ingredient through the entire bit of dough. Again, I let the dough rest in the fridge for a few minutes before rolling. The dough balls got really smooth and shiny-- which isn't always great when working with a butter based recipe (so I read). Chilling them seemed to help with that.

I repeated the same process-- rolling, cutting with cookie cutters, placing on the cookie sheet and baking 15ish minutes at 300.

Extra ingredients

For the Orange Zest biscuits, I used about 1/2 a teaspoon of dried orange peel for a small ball of dough.  I would probably go upwards of a tablespoon if making the whole batch.  Fresh zest would be ideal, but I used orange peel from a jar.  The biscuits smelled fantastic out of the oven; the flavor was subtle.  Next time I am adding more zest.

For the Earl Grey, I used Tazo brand Earl Grey.  It's milder and sweeter than Twinnings or Darvilles of Windsor and has lavender in it, a little non-traditional, but nice. The tea bags are full leaf tea, so I smashed the heck out it in the bag by pinching it and grinding it with my fingers.  I ground it up pretty fine-- and I could have ground it up a bit more.  I added most of the tea bag to a small ball of dough.  The full recipe would need 1-3 tea bags, depending on your taste.  Again, the flavor was mild. Biting into a lavender flower was a nice flavor explosion, but a reminder to grind up the tea better. I really liked the lavender flavor, though.


I took all three recipes to my office today and I didn't hear anything bad-- most of the biscuits were gone by afternoon. I think that's a good thing? 

That's it.  Let me know how yours turn out.

Souper Fast Dinner (Beef Soup)

Some days I fancy myself a Martha Stewart/ Donna Reed/ Paula Deen hybrid like Domestic Power Ranger.  Other days I fancy myself a sloth, Pig Pen, a pampered Pure Blood with a host of House Elves.  I am actually neither, but if I had to pick, I am far more inclined to the lazier end of the spectrum. It doesn't, however, keep my from longing for that strike of lightning that will flip me into someone who doesn't have a huge pile of mismatched socks on her couch. 

Front Lines of House Elf Liberation

Most days, I put in my 8-9 hours of at the desk job, pick up the teen and "cook" dinner at the nearest (least repugnant) drive through window.  And it gives me MASSIVE bouts of Mommy Guilt.

Some days, however, I find my Power Morpher and get my butt in gear.  And that is where today's recipe originates.  It does not come from a link on Pinterest in any shape or fashion, though I am sure that some of those domestic diva's have figured this out.  It's not rocket surgery, folks.

This recipe is so easy I managed to put it together on my hour-long lunch break, after I had to go to the store  to acquire the goods.  When you factor in 15-20 minutes driving time to store, to home, back to office, and the fact I payed my electric bill on my way back out the door, it becomes pretty impressive time wise.

And it's teen approved most days.

You will need a crock pot-- the saving grace of working moms everywhere. I think mine is a 4 Quart.

Yields about four bowls, give or take, depending on what you add.

Souper Fast Beef Soup


Onion
Celery
Fresh Green Bean (mine are french)
Red Potatoes
1 can of V8
1 sm box of low sodium beef broth
garlic
seasoning to taste
1 lb of pre-cubed stew meat

I don't measure when I make this.  I use my nose and add according to what I think the teen will like today (it changes constantly, it's always a guess).  It's completely customizable and so easy I can't believe I didn't think of it years ago.

I put my cast iron skillet on medium-high with the onion, some garlic, and the stew meat.

While the meat is cooking up just a little (just past rare, I suppose), I turn my attention to the crock pot.  I broke a handful of beans and tossed them in with chopped celery, carrots, another half teaspoon-ish of garlic,and tiny red potatoes.  You can add more onion here, but I didn't.  

Add the can of V-8 and the broth and your seasoning.

Toss in the meat and onion-- I just dump the contents of the skillet right into the crock pot.

That's it.  Put the lid on it, turn it to low and let it go for 4-5 hours.  I cranked it up on high for about half an hour when I got home.

I wish I could say I pre-chopped all the veggies on Sunday, when I did all my meal prep for the week, but that would involve meal planning and effort. I bought pre-chopped food. It's still natural and it saved me a lot of time that I didn't have this afternoon.

I've used ground beef (lean).  I've also used spicy V8 with the regular.  I've cooked the meat covered in a french onion soup powder.  I've used frozen veggies.  I've used less water and thickened it up like stew.  Like I said, this recipe is customizable.

There you have it.

This is what we had left over.

Cat House

I have four cats.

Eryn Grace

Chance (back), Tommy (middle), Trouble (front)

Just like the Teen, there isn't a whole lot I wouldn't do for my cats.  They are as much a part of the family as the humans.

I learned early on they don't require special trips to Pet Smart for toys, though Chance did like the rabbit fur mice in his younger days.  Most of the time, they are content with ties to dresses or robes, or caps to water bottles, straws, boxes, my make up brushes, etc. Eryn has an affinity for pony tale holders and anything she can drop in the toilet.

I am always on the look out for practical ways to spoil my brats.  Knowing that most commercial products aimed at cat owners are a bust, I try to get creative.

And then one day, I was rolling through facebook and I found this link : DIY Cat Tent.  Seemed legit, so I pinned it to Pinterest.

I finally got around to digging out everything to complete the project today.  The source is basically just pictures, but it seems straight forward enough.  I gathered what I needed:  two wire hangers, a t-shirt, and my pliers.

The pics aren't great because I unexpectedly had to complete my project indoors, instead of outside, where there would have been better contrast than the hardwood floor.

First I straightened the wire hangers using my pliers.  I fashioned them into an X shape, using a small piece of duct tape to secure the top of the X.  I also bent the end into feet, like in the source material.

straighten the wire hanger

fashion into an X

Once they were bent, I tried to stand them up.  They slid back down into the X formation, above.  I tried it again.  Nope. Still sliding.

I got the bright idea at that point, to cap the little wire feet ends with duct tape, hoping it might (maybe) reduce the slippage, and protect my t-shirt from holes.  The result?  See picture above.

Thinking that the t-shirt would help, I began trying to shove the hangers into this epic t-shirt:

Do you know how hard it is to shove hangers into a t-shirt and keep the X formation?  Let me tell you, a mother of a toddler with five arm has it easier.  The hangers kept collapsing.  They wouldn't hold the X shape.  They slid; they fell.  I couldn't get the hole at the bottom for the entrance.  I was a little perturbed.

The inspiration picture has a cushion in the bottom. I started to suspect this was the key to the magic holding of the X shape. I didn't have one, and I wasn't about to purchase anything like a cushion for the cats, knowing my oldest would promptly do something foul.  But, I had a box from a case of water bottles.

I had to get a box

Ta Da!  The box held the hangers in the X formation!  And cats love boxes!

I taped the hanger into the corners:

And set off to shove the t-shirt over the frame.  I quickly found that my epic Goonies shirt was too small. So, I grabbed a shirt the teen had recently laid claim to.  This shirt was an XL. It took a minute, and some frustration, but I finally got the shirt over the frame and secured the back with a pony tale holder.  I left the arms open for paws and quick escapes.

As soon as I backed away from the tent, this is what happened:

What's this, Momma?

Blurry action shot of a paw stealing a ribbon

Eryn was the first one in the box.  She immediately saw the merit of using the box for a sneak attack on her brothers. She was in and out an arm hole so fast, Tommy had no idea what hit him.

Tommy was next in.  He's naturally high strung and a titch skittish, so he initially liked the idea of the covered box.  He also liked the arm hole escape.

Trouble peeked in.  Chance couldn't be bothered with it.  So, the initial reaction was 2 out of 4 cats liked the novelty of the idea.

The tent has been up for several hours and is thoroughly ignored.  The newness has worn off.  Going to leave it up for a day or two, to see if they reconsider, but it appears this idea was a flop.

Type Casting Shadows

I realize it's been a while since I've uploaded.  I have blogs and experiments for you, I just must find a moment to commit to writing and moving pictures around.  Bear with me, I will be back for more fun Pinterest things soon.

This post is not my usual banter.  With four posts, it's a little difficult to convince you, but I must assure you that it's not normal. 

I wish to refer you to another blog (Nightdreams & Daymares) and tell you a little story.

Growing up, I was biologically the oldest child in my family, but in my play and in some fantasies, I was the younger sibling.  I always felt that I would be a good little sister, though I clearly had the.... leadership skills (we'll just go with that) indicative of first born siblings.

You can imagine my glee when, in high school, I started "adopting" older siblings.  These were upper class men that took a small freshman under their wing and picked on me unmercifully, just as big brothers should.  And then one of my Bubba's introduced me to his college age sister.

It was pretty much squealing, and giggling, and love on the spot.  I got a big sis.  And she's been my big sis for getting close to 20 years (eeep!).  I passed out programs at her 1st wedding.  The very first baby shower I went to was for her daughter, my "niece," Sarah.

Sarah was an extraordinary kid. Bright. Artistic. Full of the right kind of Sass.  Not afraid to stick up for the underdog. For a someone so young, she related well to adults.  I remember talking to her at her mom's and step dad's wedding and having to remind myself I was talking to someone that still had diaper-butt when my daughter was born.  Sarah also had Type 1 Diabetes.

On Sept 16, 2011, a Friday morning. I got a call from my Bubba.  I had just gotten to work.  I was tired.  My best friend had just moved 185 miles away, and I still felt like my right arm was missing.  I had deadlines.  I didn't want to talk on the phone.  But we live in a day and age where phone calls to cell phones from texting family and friends equates to emergency.  The governor could not have stopped me from answering that call.

I will never forget those words, "We've lost Sarah.  Sarah's gone..."  I remember the rest of the call like watching a movie.  I remember dropping my phone on my desk and standing there for a minute.  Somehow I got around the corner and down a long hall to my Supervisor's office before I lost it.  By the time I got to her office, I felt like I was choking.

I don't remember getting home.  I barely remember texting my best friend, "911, text me when you wake up."  The next few days were a blur.  I only remember pieces.  Telling my daughter was one of the hardest things I had to do.  Going to the funeral was excruciating. I cried every time I pulled up facebook and saw a blue candle. 

What my Big Sis and family has gone through in the last year and a half is unimaginable. Heaven got one hell of an Angel on September 16.  Our lives are richer for having had her here for 14 years, and great things are happening in her memory.  But it's still not fair.

Type 1 Diabetes is cutting lives short.  My heart hearts every time I see a post, or I see a blue candle show up on facebook.  Children should always wake up in the mornings.  No mom should have to endure what my Big Sis has, but moms, dads, little brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and best friends are living this Hell every day. I urge you to read her blog and pass it along. Know the signs.  Don't let a doctor attempt to contradict your gut instinct.  Test those sugars.  Get treatment.  Pass it to your friends.



We gathered last September 16 to draw with side walk chalk, blow bubbles, and share cupcakes with kids at the local skate park.  A young girl came out with her Diabetic Alert Dog, and we laughed when he saw Big Sis's small, chew-toy sized dog and went bananas. I hope we will do the same every September 16.  
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Until there's a cure.