Sunday, February 27, 2011

Love Letter Sunday

I always have a difficult time throwing away notes and cards when there is something sweet written inside. I love that most of these letters are HAND written when these days handwritten letters are so rare. I've been stashing these gems for years and I've decided to showcase them here on my blog for all to see. These thank you notes, birthday cards, valentines, postcards, and my personal favorite,"letters just because" are so special to me and I hope you enjoy reading them.  

A letter from my cousin Charisma from five years ago while visiting our grandpa for Christmas.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

10 Weeks

I was doing so well getting around on the boot, and I even ditched the crutch all day last Friday at work. But last Friday, after my second physical therapy session and wine tasting on Saturday, my arch got painfully sore and I had to rest all day Sunday and Monday. I felt like I was going backwards instead of making progress which REALLY frustrated me. But now the arch pain is pretty much gone and I am carefully back to walking in the boot with one crutch and practicing at home without crutches. 

I started physical therapy last week and had my third session today. They mostly massage the scars, stretch the big toe joint, ice and electroshock my foot, and then give me exercises to try at home. This evening after therapy I took a few steps barefoot and felt no pain, but the lack of mobility in my big toe really hinders me from even trying to walk normally. I keep stretching and exercising my foot on a regular basis, but wiggling my toes is still a challenge! 

Today, the physical therapist put some more kinese tape on my arch for added support so I am crossing my fingers that the pain doesn't come back. He also put some tape over one of my scars "to help it". Not sure how tape helps scars but whatevs. 

On a super super happy note, I finally tried driving and it was a success! I have to use the boot on the gas and my left foot on the brake. It's a little bit awkward, but it works! And boy oh boy driving is so much fun!!!

Oh! And I get to move back into my real office upstairs at work tomorrow! YAY! 

I go back to LA next Wednesday and I am hoping that the doctor gives me the OK to start walking in normal shoes. Although, I am a little weary because I'm progressing so slowly!! 

Man, I suck at healing.


My new kitty socks are helping!!! Thanks, Helya!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Love Letter Sunday

I always have a difficult time throwing away notes and cards when there is something sweet written inside. I love that most of these letters are HAND written when these days handwritten letters are so rare. I've been stashing these gems for years and I've decided to showcase them here on my blog for all to see. These thank you notes, birthday cards, valentines, postcards, and my personal favorite,"letters just because" are so special to me and I hope you enjoy reading them.  


Friday, February 18, 2011

Valentines Day Cheesecake Bites

I found this lovely recipe at one of my favorite baking blogs, Buns In My Oven. They seemed like the perfect Valentine's Day treat for our work fundraiser to support the American Heart Association.


I followed the recipe exactly and these yummy morsels came out perfect! I used all three toppings; raspberry sauce, caramel, and Nutella.

Click here for recipe (and even prettier pictures!) or see below:


For the crust:
•2 cups Oreo crumbs (just crush the cookies, filling and all, in a food processor or blender
•4 tbsp butter, melted

For the topping:
•6 oz fresh raspberries
•2 tbsp sugar
•Nutella, chocolate, caramel topping (only if you want a variety of toppings, optional)

For the filling:
•2 lbs cream cheese (4 8oz packages), at room temperature
•1 1/2 cups sugar
•Pinch of salt
•1 tsp vanilla extract
•4 large eggs, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Enlist your children to line the muffin pans with paper liners. Combine the crust ingredients in a small bowl. Stir together with a fork until the Oreo crumbs are moist. Spoon 1 tbsp of the crust into each paper liner. Press flat with the back of a spoon. Bake for 5 minutes to set the crust. Transfer to a cooling rack.

To make the topping, add the raspberries and sugar to a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Press through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds. Set aside.

To make the filling, add the cream cheese to the bowl of your mixer. Beat the cream cheese until fluffy on medium speed. Beat in the sugar until the mixture is smooth. Mix in the salt and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time beating until each is fully incorporated.

To assemble, add 3 tablespoons of filling to each cupcake liner/crust. Dot a 1/2 teaspoon of whichever filling you are using on to the batter 3 times. You should have 3 separate dots of filling, 1/2 teaspoon each. Use a toothpick to lightly swirl the filling in to the batter creating a pretty swirl. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes.

Bake until the filling is set, about 22 minutes, rotating the pans half way through. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Transfer to the refrigerator and let chill at least 4 hours before serving.

Yield: between 24 and 30 cupcakes





Friday Favorites: Buns In My Oven Blog

My new favorite food blog is Buns In My Oven. The author of this blog is a housewife, mom, and photographer who loves to bake yummy treats for her family and friends. I enjoy this blog because Karly has a way with words and photos! She takes the most amazing pictures of her creations which inspires me to become better skilled with my own camera. Her creative recipes ALWAYS make me drool, but my favorite thing about her blog is how she incorporates her husband and kids into her posts. Her anecdotes and sense of humor make the recipes attractive in REAL LIFE instead of like some blogs where the food appears to be prepared just to look pretty for a magazine rather than for people to actually eat. Karly always makes me want to come back for more and I plan on trying out lots of her goodies to share with those I love. (I already made her cheesecake bites which were a huge hit!) If you love to bake, I highly suggest following her blog for inspiration.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Mom's Chili



1-1 1/2 lbs. hamburger
1/2 of a yellow onion, diced

1/2 jalapeno diced
1 pkg. chili seasoning (Lawrys is best!)
12oz. tomato juice, you can use spicy if you want

1 cup water
1 can diced green chilis

1 can petite diced tomatoes
1/2 cup el Pato jalapeno salsa
4 cans of beans: pinto, chili, kidney black, or whatever you like for beans. (Some come in a flavored sauce and you don't have to drain them, otherwise drain the others)
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions and jalapeno. Add meat and brown. Add half of the chili seasoning packet and combine.  Then add the remaining ingredients and continue adding seasong packet to taste. Simmer or cook slow in a crock pot!

Sprinkle with cheese and serve with yummy bread!

Serves 4-6 depending on the size of the bowls!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Love Letter Sunday

I always have a difficult time throwing away notes and cards when there is something sweet written inside them. I love that most of these letters are HAND written when these days handwritten letters are so rare. I've been stashing these letters for years and I've decided to showcase them here on my blog for all to see. These thank you notes, birthday cards, valentines, postcards, and my personal favorite,"letters just because" are so special to me and I hope you enjoy reading them.  

Steve surprised me at work with this card on our very first Valentine's Day together in 2007. With it was a lovely little plant that I still have in my office.



Saturday, February 12, 2011

Standing on my own two feet

HUGE accomplishments today:
  1. I can now stand up on both feet.  I have been too wussy to try it until today. And it turns out, it's easy as pie! Booya!*
  2. I've been practicing my walking all day. I have mastered the one-crutch-walking technique and I can move around quite comfortably on my boot. I can also crutch-walk on my bare foot. It's a bit hairy (no, not my foot) but I love the feeling of the ball of my foot pushing off the carpet!**
*Best part about standing up on both feet: I can shampoo without precariously balancing on one foot!
**Best part about one-crutch-walking: I now have a spare hand with which to carry Things! Oh, Things how I've missed you!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Friday Favorites: iPhone

I love my new iPhone so far, but I have to admit, it has been a challenging first few days! First, I couldn't activate my phone through iTunes (the suggested method), so I had to call customer service ALREADY and have them walk me through activating manually. Then, I couldn't transfer my contacts. The VZ Contact Transfer app didn't work with wifi on and the only reason I figured that out was by reading a support forum where people had the same issue. Even after turning off wifi, it wouldn't work. So I had to delete the app and start over from the beginning. This worked and now, after two days of trying, I have all of my contacts! Hooray!

Now I can't figure out how to send email from any email account besides my work one. Which is strange because I receive email from yahoo and gmail just fine. The battery life on this baby is sucked dry pretty quickly but that's probably because I was trying the VZ Transfer app over and over and over and it would just sit there and try to do its thing for 10 minutes at a time. Then of course setting up the many phone and screen settings ate up quite a bit of juice. I am hoping that after I get everything set, the battery will last a lot longer.  

Other than those few small setup issues, I am pretty happy. The touch screen is amazing and reacts to my finger much better than my LG Dare did. The keyboard is a bit tricky but I am starting to getting used to it. I love getting facebook and email notifications right on my phone. I love the quick weather forecast and the convenience of having my work Outlook calendar synced right on my phone. My favorite part is the IPOD!!! I have been using my Mini for a loooong time now and oh boy has the ipod changed!!! So colorful! :)

I consider myself somewhat technically savvy, but this technology has hit me like a ton of bricks. I have always been in the stone ages when it comes to phones and I definitely feel like a complete dufus trying to use this one. I am forced to learn geeky lingo like "push notifications" which might seem stupid to some people but after downloading my very first "app" and "fetching" my data, I feel so accomplished! Although,  my brain is starting to hurt!

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Cheesecake, Oreos, raspberries, and Nutella...oh my!

Making these cheesecake bites for an American Heart Association Valentine's Day bake sale fundraiser next week. Outcome to follow!

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Love Letter Sunday

I always have a difficult time throwing away notes and cards when there is something sweet written inside them. I love that most of these letters are HAND written when these days handwritten letters are so rare. I've been stashing these letters for years and I've decided to showcase them here on my blog for all to see. These thank you notes, birthday cards, valentines, postcards, and my personal favorite,"letters just because" are so special to me and I hope you enjoy reading them. 




Friday, February 04, 2011

Friday Favorites - Ciopinot Seafood Grille

Ciopinot Seafood Grille is my favorite seafood restaurant in SLO County. We tried it for the first time a couple of years ago when my mom came to visit and hadn't been back since last weekend. Steve and I decided to go ALL OUT and made a reservation for 7:00 and arrived all dressed up and ready to indulge! The place was jam packed and the host apologized for the delay after seating us at 7:40. He promised us a good bottle of wine for the wait. Sweet!

We took our time sipping on a $50 bottle of Napa Zin and munched on bacon wrapped, cheese stuffed prawns and crab cakes. I got the lobster tail with garlic mashed pototoes and Steve got the house specialty, the Reserve "no work" Cioppino with dungeness crab. The food was absolutely incredible and my taste buds were bursting with pleasure. After dinner we splurged for dessert. Steve got the creme brulee and I got something surprising... for those of you who know me know that I am a chocolate nut! They had two delectable chocolate themed desserts on the menu but I passed them up to try the infamous warm blueberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. I made the right decision! You guys, this dessert was insane!! Everytime I took a bite, my eyes automatically closed. Seriously, I was on cloud 9, nearly yelping out with joy! I probably shouldn't have, but I ate the entire thing. Soon, I finished the bottle of wine and Steve was smacking on his nightcap drink, Sambuca.

Two hours later and there we were, stuffed, happy, smiling, buzzed, and in love. Best night ever. But wait, it gets better!! The waitress came over with the bill and said, "Your meal is on Leonard tonight, so all you have to do is sign right here". We looked at each other, stunned! Leonard, the man who promised us the bottle of wine was about to pay for our entire $250 meal. A meal, we would normally NEVER experience. And now it's all free?! Wow!  So, we laughed, signed the bill, gave the waitress a generous tip, thanked Leonard on the way out (who we learned owns the place!), and rubbed our full bellies in delight all the way home.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Let's get swoll

Seven weeks in and I am feeling decent. I am just starting to move my toes and today for the first time I was able to slowly raise my foot up (as if to flex it). I've been able to shower, shave my legs, and exercise my foot a bit which is all very exhilarating. Last Saturday was the first day I was able to get my foot wet, and I spent an hour in the tub rubbing dead skin off of my foot. It just kept going and going and made me want to vomit. On the plus side, it was like getting an awesome pedicure...my heel and big toe calluses are completely gone!! There's still some wrinkled up old skin on the top of my foot because I am a HUGE wimp and scared to rub near the wounds.

Most of my foot is still a bit bruised, but everyday it looks a little bit better. One thing I've noticed is that in the morning, my foot looks almost normal! There is no swelling, and I can't feel any aching or pain. But, at the end of a workday I come home with my entire calf throbbing and my foot completely puffed! You can really tell how swollen it is by looking at the ankle bone. All I do is lay on the couch hoping that it subsides...I even had to pop half a vicodin last night to get rid of the intense ache! Boo! I guess I am not taking it easy enough. 

AM

PM

AM

 PM

Better than a new pair of shoes!


Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Jewel of the Evening

Steve recently learned about San Francisco musician Kelley Stoltz, by listening to our local college radio station. We looked him up and spent an entire evening listening to song after song on his myspace page. We just bought Stoltz's second album, Antique Glow (2002), and we're in love! Our favorite song is Jewel of the Evening because of his alarmingly deep and gentle voice and unfaltering fluctuations.  Amazingly, Stoltz played all the instruments and recorded this album in his apartment on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, which makes it even more impressive. Enjoy!

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