Two Weeks Old

Day 14. Two weeks old. It was a quiet day. His O2 was mostly stable. Both eyes are open. He's getting 5ml of food every three hours, which now accounts for about 40% of his total calories (it was about 11% a week ago). His blood looks good. His arterial line went in without a hitch.

But,

His hemoglobin is down, so he needs another transfusion, which means another IV line. His blood pressure is questionable, so there is a slight chance that his arterial duct is open again. The arterial line is in his wrist and so his whole arm is braced. And his lungs are still crappy looking.

So, we wait and hope and pray and thank our stars so many people are doing the same.

Lucky 13

Well, today Mac lost the line into the artery in his umbilical cord, so he will get a new 'ART' line today, either in his wrist or ankle. He still isn't showing signs of infection, but his lungs are still not healthy. He can't see to regulate his oxygen and the ventilator is causing his lungs to be full of gunk. So, we're working on that. Otherwise, he is taking milk (through a tube, but we take what we can get), and he's gaining weight. He'll be two pounds in NO time.

Day 12 of a most uncivilized adventure...

He is 12 days old today. It's amazing, considering I feel like I've been here a year. I know all the bells and alarms, know all about PIE, PDA, and brain bleeds, and have developed a nice friendly relationship with all of the nurses. I think God just wants me to be 100% sure I REALLY want this little guy (I do). Right now, he is stable. He is tolerating his feedings well, which is nice considering I hook my bosom up to what looks like a cold war era torture device six times a day and twice in the middle of the night. He has no bleeding in the brain, his heart valve is closed, and his blood gasses look great. His lungs are causing us some grief, but considering he was counting on three more months to develop them, you can't really blame him. All in all, we are still optimistic, and are happy to have such great care here at Utah Valley. I'll start posting the daily updates we receive here, so if you are interested, you can check in here for the roller coaster ride.

Spiced Pear Turnovers

 

This is a glorious little dessert. Simple. Quick. Just the way I like it! 

What You'll Need:

Yield: 4 turnovers

1 medium-sized pear, ripe

1 can refrigerated biscuits

4 T brown sugar

3 T granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 T powdered sugar

8 T butter

First step, set your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place 1 T butter in each ramekin (or 4 T butter on the bottom of a glass 8x8 or 9x9 pan) and place the dish(es) in the oven.

Peel, core, and slice your pear into little chunks.

 Slam that lovely can of biscuits against the counter until you hear that heavenly 'pop'.

Mix together brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cinnamon.


**NOTE: At this moment, I blacked out and completely forgot to take pictures of the next several steps. It's not rocket science, however, and you will do just fine reading the instructions. Take heart! 

Roll out one biscuit on your counter top until it's about the size of a small dinner plate.

Put 1 T sugar mixture in the center of the biscuit. Place 1/4 pear dices over that, and top with 1 T more of the sugar mix.

Roll out another biscuit slightly smaller than the first. Lay it over the pear mix, and fold the bottom biscuit up over the top biscuits edge, forming a seal. Then give it a good closing by running a fork along the edges. (see below)

Repeat with the rest of the turnovers. When they're all ready, place them in the warm ramekins or in the warm dish with the butter melted on the bottom. (Several of the ramekins I used tonight had high sides, so I gave them a little spritz of PAM just in case!)

Top each turnover with 1 T butter, and bake for about 10 minutes. I think. Honestly, I didn't keep track.

Bake them until they're done.

There.

They should look a little something like...

this...

Top them with 1 T sugar mix and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

Serve them with a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.
 

I had planned on taking pictures of the inside... but uhhhhh...

By the time I remembered, this was all that remained:

Woops.

My Favorite Experiment. Ever.

Let me preface this with: I love cream soda. I love it. Mucho. My sweet D loves cream soda as well. I am a MAJOR fan of Henry Weinhard's Root Beer, so I figured I'd be a fan of their cream soda.

Wrong.

It tastes like bubblegum. It smells like bubblegum. I like bubblegum, but not in my cream soda.

I was at the store last night and decided to conduct a little experiment when I got home.

WalMart sells IBC.
Winco sells Henry's and Stewart's.

 We begin with Henry Weinhard's -

As you can see this beauty is sportin' a lot of foam. That doesn't necessarily mean that it has more carbonation, however. It looks good; a nice golden color. But, alas, it smells like bubblegum.

And it tastes like bubblegum. Yuck.

Carbonation was pretty good though. It had a moderate bite, which I feel is important.

I want a big bite in my Sprite, but not in my cream soda. It needs to slide down the throat.

Mmmmmm... 

 Next in line: IBC. A little darker color, no foam at all. I was worried about the carbonation level, but my worries turned out to be un-warranted. The carbonation level was slightly higher than the Henry's, but it was perfect! The taste was better than Henry's as well, but it still wasn't on the money. It had a slight chemical-mixed-with-wintergreen taste. Not as bad as it sounds, but not ideal either.

 And last, but definitely not least, we have Stewart's. I'd never tried Stewart's before. I was skeptical.

I. Was an idiot.

Stewart's was like liquid gold. The taste was perfect, the smell was perfect, the carbonation level was perfect.

The taste almost reminds me of honey. Smooth. Subtle.

Bliss in a bottle.

No chemical taste, no bubblegum taste, just sweet goodness.

Money. Big money.

You want some now, don't you?

I can't blame you.

Miscellaneous Remarks: There were several things I found interesting while I was perusing the list of ingredients on each bottle.

1. Henry's and Stewart's have  identical ingredients except for one: their flavoring agent. Henry's flavors with "pure vanilla bean extract" (surprising!) while Stewart's flavors with Quillaia Extract.

2. Henry's and Stewart's both have a preserving agent. Necessary. Understood. However, IBC has THREE preserving agents. Yuck.

So there's the tale of the cream soda folks. My personal favorite is - BY FAR - Stewart's!!!

Look Ma, no Tide!

So, Jon's brother was here when I made this.  Later when they were off together, Daniel asked, "Why would you WANT to make laundry soap?"

This is a reasonable question, and one that others have asked.  Jon responded pretty much in the way I would have.  1.) So we know how. 2.) So we can save a few bucks. 3.) Because it's COOL!

OK, so our definition of cool has changed since we were 17, but this is what ranks as cool in our household these days.  Don't judge us.

First, grate two bars of ivory soap into a big pot.  I used an enamel stock pot.

Add 3 quarts of water and heat slowly on medium for about 30 minutes or until the soap is all dissolved.  The instructions say try not to boil, but, well, I went outside to garden and it boiled.  It didn't seem to hurt it though.

Take the pot off of the stove and add 1.5 cups of washing soda (not baking soda) and Borax. Mix until dissolved.  Both of these can be found in the laundry section of the supermarket.  Our Wal-mart doesn't carry the soda, but our local Western Family grocer does, and it's cheaper there than we found it online.

Once it is dissolved, add two more quarts of hot water and stir.  Transfer it to your five gallon bucket and add three gallons of cool water.  This will gel up to an egg flour soup consistency, or a bit firmer, and it takes a cup per load.  I keep a wire whisk down in the laundry room to stir it up once in a while. I love it because it doesn't have a scent, and I'm pretty sensitive to perfumes.  When we do whites, I add a scoop of oxyclean and it seems to be working well.

And look at us! We saved $9.50.  How cool is that?

Here's the thing...

Just thought I would juxtapose Laura's and Mom's surroundings with mine.

 

OK, so maybe I'm exaggerating a wee bit.  The point is, it has been a long, dark, cold (-20 for a week!) winter and I am more than ready to complain about the heat and wasps and lack of water.

I planted tomato starts, among other things, yesterday, though, so things are starting to look up...