Yep...

...another month and not a whole lot to show for it.  LOL


I'm still doodling on practically everything I can get my hands on.  Yeah, I could just *write* my name on my leftover container but where's the fun with that?!



I went to a big adult-only camping event with a bunch of friends and had a blast!  This is the one weekend a year I let my inhibitions down a bit and do crazy things, like wear sleeveless sundresses with no shrugs over them. ;)  I ended up being plastic wrapped to a tree and shot at with a large water gun this weekend as well.  The funniest part of that whole scenario is that the plastic wrapping was my idea.  LOL  I have a pic of it but there is partial nudity and I don't want to subject y'all to that. :)



When I am feeling anxious, I have a tendency to cook.  A lot.  I'm not sure what my brain is crunching on that is causing me to wake up a lot during the night but I have a whole pile of new cookbooks that are helping to console me. :)

 

This is a picture of Sunday night's dinner: I slow roasted a beef brisket (a first for me) and made twice-baked sour cram & herb potatoes with buttered corn.  It. Was. AWESOME!  Saturday, I roasted a chicken (for the first time since before I met Hubbyman which was 1999) plus a couple sides, made homemade ricotta cheese, and made homemade baked potato chips.  I will be using the ricotta for part of tonight's dinner (spinach and ricotta pie to go with the chicken panzanella I am making with leftover chicken from Saturday).  Dinner will be ready by 8 if you want to stop by!

 

I had cold leftovers for breakfast this morning.  It was all just as good cold as it was the night before. :)  How cute are those little baked potatoes?!

I'm not sure if many others do this but I much prefer to eat leftovers for breakfast over lunch.  I'm not sure why.  Part of it may be because I am so excited to eat the leftovers that I just can't wait.  LOL  I mean, if I like it enough to eat it the next day, it must be good, right?  I also rarely heat up leftovers.  Stew and lasagna are about the only to exceptions to that. 

I am done with the physical therapy, though she wants me to come back for more.  We finally figured out what is causing my knee pain: my knee caps have misaligned due to the external tibial torsion I was born with. Because it wasn't caught/treated as a kid, I was told when I was 23 that I had 2 options: surgery or deal with issues when I got older.  The surgery scared the heck out of me so I did what most 23-year-old would do: I ignored it.  The surgery would have basically involved cutting my leg open, cutting my tibia in half and resetting my leg so it would be more straight.  For each leg.  Um, yeah... no.  Because of that, my knee caps need to be trained to go back where they should be. 

Even with insurance, each PT session costs me $40 out of pocket.  They have a payment plan but it adds up quickly so I have opted to do the exercises on my own.  My knees still hurt but they are better than before so I can tell it is working.  As for the lymphadema, it's still an issue.  My legs are such an odd shape that finding compression socks is proving to be a challenge.  Not to mention the fact that I hate wearing socks.  LOL  I have a new pair to try and, if these don't work, I will need to have them custom made.  They start at about $200 and are not covered by insurance.

Just the fact that I know what the problems are and am choosing to take care of things at my own pace and in my own way has helped a lot as far as my spirits go.  :)

I've also come to terms with my lack of need to create anything.  Obviously, my brain and/or soul are telling me it's not the right thing right now so I am just going to listen and do other things I enjoy. Like cooking!