Garden update

One of my first big projects when we moved into our house was to get my container garden started. And I’m so excited about how successful my garden has been. Over the last few months, I’ve been doing several things to keep my garden fertilized and growing. This includes mixing garden soil with soil from my parent’s house, putting grass clippings and dead flowers into the garden for fertilization, and watering at least twice a week if it hasn’t rained.

I learned while growing my basil plant in a single pot, that I should not water it all the time. At one point, I was watering the plant every day. It wasn’t growing as well as I had hoped. Then I had my gallbladder surgery and I asked the boy to water it while I was away. He forgot/didn’t, and the plant looked 10x healthier. That’s when I resolved to water it a LOT less often! LOL

Less than three months later, my basil looks fantastic! In fact, I have too much of it. I spent nearly 30 minutes yesterday pruning and planning how I was going to use it all.
And I have several other herbs growing in my garden. My parents brought me lemon grass, green onions and mint leaves from their own garden about two months ago – and they look so good now. I’ve even used them.
AND now, it’s finally a good time to grow cilantro. Yesterday, I put some coriander in the ground.

I also went to my parent’s house yesterday and plucked several stems of a drying Thai basil plant. After a basil plant matures and flowers, the stems dry up and what’s left over on the stems are known as carpels. These dry and brown as the seeds mature. Then, you can de-seed the plant by crumbling the carpels between your fingers.
That’s what I plan to do with these stems from my mom’s garden. Then, I’ll plant them into my garden so I’ll have both Thai and sweet basil next year!

The only sad thing now is that I have no room for anymore herbs. The garden that I originally thought was going to be too big, is now just right. So excited!

A few thoughts as the end of summer nears

The boy and I.

Have had a rough summer.

• I didn't have a job going into it.
• I had to move – twice!
• My gallbladder was removed while I didn’t have health insurance. $$$$$ Recovery period = 30 days (July through early August)
• My aunt, who helped raise me, passed away.
• The boy had surgery to fix two hernias. Recovery period = 30 days (August through mid-September)
• I had to wake up to the boy throwing up because he got really sick one weekend. This is the first time he had thrown up in 10 years!
• We worried about paying the bills.
• We’ve had to learn to deal with each other’s pet peeves and bad habits.
• We’ve fought – and fought.
• We have continued to deal with the boy’s family’s drama, but on a much more limited scale. Still never fun.
• We’ve been super busy seeing lots of friends and family, traveling distances near and far. Sometimes the weekend trips to far distances were back to back weekends, sometimes back to back days.

But at the end of the day, I think the boy and I have been positive and remember all of the great things that have also happened for us. We are incredibly blessed and we truly learned that this summer. Some great things that have happened or helped us get through the months…

• We took Sebastian to the beach for the first (and last) time! He just hated it, but it was still fun to take a “family” trip.
• He asked my parents for my hand in marriage.
• We found a fantastic house to rent.
• We moved in together.
• I've had time for me.
• We got even closer – and continue to learn so much about each other every day.
• We’ve learned to say sorry – and to put arguments to rest just as quickly as they happen.
• We’ve both lost weight and eat much healthier!
• My family has been fantastic and so accepting of our relationship.
• We have amazingly supportive friends – some with whom we’ve grown even closer to.
• We have friends and family that love and care about us.
• We’re still so in love - and we say it more than ever.
• We laugh all the time.
• We are happy.

So, when I think about the hard times we’ve had, I am so thankful for all the great things that have happened and how they have helped us grow – not only as partners in this relationship, but also as friends, lovers and even as individuals.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of our lives hold.

Love you, Tim (and sometimes more than Sebastian).

A new list of food I can eat!

I can check off another thing on my list of to-dos after today. I scheduled my surgery for next Thursday!

The bad news is that I have to stick to this diet for another week. The good news is that I learned I can eat a lot more than I previously thought! Of all people, you’d think I would know not trust everything I see online. But for anyone else who might be looking for a list of approved foods pre- and post-gallbladder surgery, here are some of the things my surgeon confirmed I could eat (and are still good!).

Getting used to this new diet

So far, I’m doing OK on this new diet. There are a few things I love about it. I love that I can drink as much apple juice as I want. And I LOVE apple juice. I can also drink as much cranberry juice as I want. Yay!

I also have a ton of applesauce and Jello in the fridge. Not sure when I’ll get to those, but they are great snacks.

I realized today that I do not like oatmeal though. It’s on the list of approved foods. I want to say I used to like it. I thought it was crunchier but after making it today, I don’t think I can do the mush. I even got the apple cinnamon mush. Just not my cup of tea.

Well, the boy's just left me to go to work. Yesterday was his first full day back, and I missed him like crazy. I did everything I could to keep myself busy – laundry, cleaning, cooking (food I couldn’t eat!), watching TV, etc. And I still missed him. I need a job. I need to be preoccupied! That’s why I decided this morning to make a to-do list of big projects this week! Hopefully I’ll stay busy, but not be too exhausted! Here goes nothing!

More gallbladder update

I have the best family and friends in the world. The boy is starting work again this week, so my family has volunteered for me to stay with them post-surgery... whenever that will be. I was also supposed to have a girl's night on Wednesday and they're trying to figure out a place that would serve bland food so I could join them. Probably not going to happen, but super sweet of them! Sigh, amazing how much can change in so little time. So far, all I've eaten is a boiled chicken breast, rice and plain toast. Sounds delish right?

So last night before bed, I started thinking - what can I actually eat? After much digging, I finally found a list. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a list. Everyone just says, low calorie, low fat, no acidity, etc. etc. OK, I got that. But can I eat mashed potatoes? Corn? Apples? "Avoid anything that tastes good" is just too broad for me. Here is a much better rule of thumb: stick to a clear liquid diet - or I can pretty much eat anything I can see through. LOL. Here are some specifics...

Happy July 4th, and how it all went downhill

This weekend started off great, but it's amazing how quickly things that turn around. Kannapolis had their annual fireworks show on Saturday, so we decided to invite some folks over for food, drinks and a mini-pre-celebration. We had a blast before heading to downtown to watch the real show.

Sitting on the brick sidewalk on North Research Campus Drive, we excitedly watched the 20-minute fireworks show. It was amazing - and it gets better every year. I wish I had taken photos because right now would be a great place to post them.

After the show, we came home to clean up. That's when the night started going downhill for me. I had noticed my stomach hurting after we ate. I had previously experienced this pain - upper abdominal pain that was very dull, but numbing. It always came after a large, often greasy dinner. I previously drank Pepto-Bismol to ease this pain and in an hour or two, it subsided. I tried that, and after an hour, nothing was feeling good. The boy suggested I try milk because it was a base - and the food we were eating probably had a lot of acidity. At that point, I was willing to try anything.