The Whatley's hooplah

wow it's been a while since we posted....

 

posted @ 11:29 AM | Feedback (3)

Thanksgiving

We had a very small one this year with just our family and Mom and Claudia.  It was lovely but I hope the rest of the family can make it to town next year.

posted @ 9:15 AM | Feedback (2)

Recipe exchange...I'll keep adding if I get more!

Chicken Cacciatore, serves 8

 

1 large onion, chopped

½ c. bell pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ # fresh mushrooms, sliced (or some canned ones)

15 oz. can diced tomatoes

8 oz. can tomato sauce

½ c. white wine

2 t. salt

scant ½ t. ground oregano

¼ t. ground thyme

8 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut in bite-sized pieces

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut in bite-sized pieces (~ 1 pound)

 

Spray pot with slight amount olive oil. Sauté/sweat onion, bell pepper, and garlic until they begin to soften. Add mushrooms and sauté a few minutes more. Add everything except the chicken and combine well. Sink the chicken in the sauce. Simmer, uncovered, for 35 - 45 minutes. Serve hot on spaghetti or rice.

 

Per serving: 146 Cal, 4g Fat, .5 Sat, 46.5g Chol, 1.4g Fbr, 8g Carb, 17.4g Prot.

(Does not include spaghetti or rice.)

 

Subject: World"s easiest cake

1- 20 oz. can crushed pineapple in heavy syrup

1-21 oz can cherry pie filling

1-2 layer size yellow cake mix

1-3oz can (1 cup) chopped pecans

1/2 cup(1 stick) butter or marg. chilled

 

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease 9x13 pan.  Spread pineapple w/ syrup evenly in prepared pan.  Spoon pie filling evenly over the pineapple.  Sprinkle dry cake mis over fruits the sprinkle nuts.  Slice butter thinly, put evenly over the top and bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm.

Enjoy, Rene

 

Smothered Venison ala Gumbo, serves 4

 

1 # venison steaks, sliced ~ ½” thick, pounded to tenderize

Salt and pepper

1 T. canola oil

2 T. flour

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

3 ribs celery W/ leaves, chopped

½ c. bell pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ c. red wine

1 – 2 cups water

1/8 t. dried ground thyme, or 3 sprigs fresh

¼ t. dried marjoram leaves, crumbled, or ¾ t. chopped fresh leaves

Dash cayenne pepper

1 cup rice

 

Chop vegetables and set aside. Salt and pepper the meat, then pound to break up fibers. 

Spray a heavy skillet with olive oil, or non-stick vegetable cooking spray, and heat. Brown meat quickly at high heat. Do not crowd skillet, or the meat will steam instead of browning. Set meat aside, and reduce heat to medium. Add oil and flour to skillet, and cook, stirring, until it’s a medium dark roux. Add onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic, and sauté until tender. If mixture seems too dry, reduce the heat to medium/low, cover the pan, and sweat until tender. While the vegetables are cooking, pull thyme leaves from stems and chop the marjoram leaves. When the vegetables are tender, add wine and seasonings, stirring to scrape up any browned bits. Return the meat to the pan. Add enough water to just cover the meat. Stir slightly. Simmer, covered, ~ 45 min. to 1 hour, or until the meat is very tender. Cook the rice while the meat is simmering. Adjust the seasonings. Serve over rice.

 

Per ¼ recipe: 95mg chol, 7g Fat, 1.25g Sat, 365 Cal, 2.5g Fbr, 42g Carb, 30.4g Prot.

Elena darling,

Can you believe I got you on the list and here I am in China!

Well,  here goes.  I think I have figured out how they cook some of the things I love here.  One of the things I had in a Japanese restaurant was bacon wrapped asparagus.

They used the small asparagus, and wrapped maybe 5 of them with bacon, the asparagus was cut to only about 3"  because of course you had to pick them up with chopsticks, but then they must have cooked it in a medium hot skillet cause the bacon got done, but the aspargus was crisp tender.  They must have put a toothpick in it to hold it, but when it was served there were no toothpicks in them.  

The broccoli is wonderful here and I think they just cook it in a wok over high heat with some water, then drain it and put just a little oyster sauce mixture with a little soy in it and stir it to coat it.  The broccoli is bright green and just done.  Honey that is the best I can do with no recipe cards or cook books here.

Love, Sharron

Swedish Cole Slaw

Shred:
   1 lg. Head Cabbage
   1/2   Green Pepper
   large onion diced up fine

Boil:
   1 Cup Sugar
   1 Cup White Vinegar
   2/3 Cup Oil
   2 teaspoons salt

Pour boiling liquid over vegetables.  Let stand until cold before stirring. Cover and place in refrigerator.   Three days or older is best.  I put into a large jar and  rotate that once per day.  Especially good with ham or turkey.

posted @ 8:43 AM | Feedback (2)

footballs finally over.

 

posted @ 5:03 PM | Feedback (1)

It's Christmas time!

There here....the Iwants...I'm sure I'll be adding as they think of all the things that they “want sooooooo bad!“

 

 

 

Leila’s Christmas list

 

• X-box and game
• Book- Eloise 50^th anniv.
• Play along magic doodle bear
• New leap pad books
• New games for her gameboy
• Samantha doll clothes and furniture (american girl)
• Jewelry
• Stuff from bath and body shop
• Tall black boots
• Clothes and dresses
• New pajamas for cool weather (soft or she won’t wear)

 

Tyler’s Christmas list

 

• X- box and game
• Magnetix or geomag sets
• Roborapter
• Book-Spiderwick field guide
• The chronicles of Narnia
• Eyewitness books
• Nerf street zone dart tag
• Lego sets
• Skate board
• CSI forensic kits
• Telescope
• Acutic guitar
• Star wars milineum falcon
• real bow and arrow (kid size)

Carter’s Christmas list

 

• X-box and game
• Curious George books
• Zathura
• There’s something there (book)
• Imaginext T-Rex mountain
• My first leap pad spiderman book
• Aquadoodle
• Animal planet R/C dragon
• Magnetix or geomag sets
• Air hockey table
• Nerf street zone dart tag
• Batman batmobile
• Hover copter

posted @ 4:54 PM | Feedback (4)

School has started!

 

Carter was a little scared, can you tell?  He still cries when I drop him off in the mornings but is happy and excited when I pick him up.  Leila already has 3 new best friends and other just friend, friends...lol.  Tyler said that yesterday was a really good day.  He made a friend named Mason and they played Robin Hood at recess together.

posted @ 10:23 AM | Feedback (2)

There's a horse in our front yard!

 

Our next door neighbors had 2 horses in their yard the other day and saddled up this little girl for the kids to have a ride.  They thought it was super.  Geez, I wish there had been a pony ride living next door to me when I was little.  Lucky kids!

posted @ 10:20 AM | Feedback (1)

Here are 2 of the baby's all grown up.

 

Here are Elmer and lucky looking all grown up.  I still need to find a home for Elmer, Baby went home to Rene over the weekend and Lucky is staying with us.  They are 8 weeks old now.

posted @ 10:18 AM | Feedback (1)

Family on the fourth! (minus me)

True American Family  (mom's taking the picture :(

 

Our neighborhood pool hosts an annual fourth of July Parade.  Local groups make floats and all the big kids decorate thier bikes and ride around.  Since we live two lots from the pool we get the first look.  The kids love it because the floats throw candy and little novelties.  I found out that they have a best dressed pet contest first thing, so we'll have to enter that next year...look at those pups...how could we lose?

posted @ 9:29 AM | Feedback (1)

The baby's at 4 weeks

Lucky is in the middle, Elmer is on the right and baby is on the left.

posted @ 10:06 AM | Feedback (3)

Leo the very lucky cockapoo

This is our new puppy.  (don't say it dad!) He is 2 lb but will grow to a very nice 15-20lb.  He was very sick last week and our vet, the breeder and the doctor at the animal hospital all said it would take a lot to keep him alive.  Well I gave all of myself to him and it was very hard to keep him going but today he is a royal brat.  He lost 1/2 his body weight in a day and a half but has gained it all back.  He eats like a pig now (I think he's trying to make up for lost time).  He runs around the house and tries to beat up the cats, which are 4 times his size...lol.

posted @ 9:29 AM | Feedback (5)

Elmer is on the left with the yellow face, Lucky is in the middle and baby is on the right

they are 14, 12 and 11 days old today.

posted @ 5:21 PM | Feedback (1)

Tyler had a great time at Cubscout camp!

Tyler made new friends, learned archery and came home soaking wet everyday.  What more could a young boy ask for?

posted @ 9:16 AM | Feedback (1)

Elmer

They sure do develop fast!  This picture is of Elmer at 10 days old.  That's only 3 days since the last picture.  Now his eyes are open and you can see he's getting pin feathers all over his wings.  His skin has turned grey in those area's so he may be a normal grey. (or pearl grey or pied grey).  Lucky (they 2nd born also has the tips of his wings turning a little grey today) He is 2 days behind Elmer and then the third one is a day younger than lucky.  He's still a yellow puffball.

posted @ 3:17 PM | Feedback (3)

Baby bird is one week old.

The birds are doing  very well.  We now have three baby birds who are all doing great.  I'm fairly certain that the last two eggs are dead in shell as they were supposed to hatch 2 days ago and changed from a white pink color to a kind of grey color.  I will probably take them out tonight.  “Elmer, as Tom likes to call him is just starting to open his eyes.  I bet by tomorrow he'll be looking around.  Yay for Mrs. Fritz!

posted @ 4:21 PM | Feedback (2)

Mrs. Fritz is now a mom

She laid 6 eggs.  The first laid cracked and I didn't know what to do and so it dried up.  I took it away from her.  The second egg laid also got cracked but I knew to put some elmers glue on it(go figure!), which I did and it just hatched tonight! It is the cutest ugly thing I've ever seen. I quickly took this picture of it but the parents were getting pretty testy so I decided to leave them alone.  What I want to know is how the heck that big baby fit into that teeny tiny egg!  The first twelve hours are pretty touch and go but hopefully we'll be lucky and he'll still be kicking come morning.  We have four more eggs to go.  The next one should hatch around Saturday I think.  I'll keep you posted.

posted @ 9:26 PM | Feedback (3)

Leila lost her first tooth!

posted @ 11:07 AM | Feedback (2)

Spring is just about out of here...my garden tales

Well, Tyler harvested the potatoes and Leila just pulled the carrots.  Tom built me a new arbor for the back yard and I just finished putting in a path.  We have planted more vegetables out front this year since we didn't get enough sun in the back.  We decided to go with Whiskey barrels to keep them a little more tidy.  veggies have a way of looking sloppy.  Please take a look at the galleries section for lots of pictures!  They are in the one called Gardening 2005, go figure!

Here's Leila standing in front of chocolate mint, apple mint, strawberries, nasturtiums, canna's, chamomile, pineapple sage, bee balm and lemon balm. oh, and angel wing jasmine! She had lots of fun pulling these up and we are going to eat them for dinner!

posted @ 3:20 PM | Feedback (5)

Leila's ice skating...and loves it!

posted @ 4:02 PM | Feedback (2)

Our first cockatiel clutch

We were told by the bird store that our sweet cockatiel was a boy.  Well, I beg to differ after seeing this!  lol   She just celebrated her first birthday last month so now she's of breeding age.  Maybe we'll find a nice lutino man for her.  (lutino is an all yellow cockatiel, not a misspelling. lol)

posted @ 9:54 AM | Feedback (4)

Am I cute or what?

This is our new box turtle.  We won't be able to tell if it's a boy or girl for a while but for now I'm just going to assume female because....I want to!

posted @ 9:23 AM | Feedback (4)

Tyler's finger

Well, I know it happens to every kid but yesterday it happened to Tyler.  Leila slammed the sliding mini-van door on Tyler's finger.  It was super gross!  It looked like an alligator had chewed on it a bit.  So at peak traffic time I drove downtown to his doctor for an x-ray.  Luckily it's not broken but even the doctors thought it looked horrible.  They almost sent me to the ER because no one wanted to deal with it.  Apparently a lot of skin was ripped off and they are afraid of scarring but I think it will be just fine.  They put this funny gauze splint on it and told me to bring him back today (of course at rush hour again) for a look.  He wanted to wait for the swelling to go down before he tried to put the skin back together or to trim it off.  ICK!  Anyways after the initial 15 minutes of crying Tyler was a trooper and very very brave.  Hopefully it won't be too bad when they look at it today.  Wish him luck.

posted @ 9:52 AM | Feedback (3)

Fred William has come home

Our little Fred has been gone for over a year.  We had an incident where the dogs jumped into the turtle enclosure and pulled him out.  (we will be moving it, I promise!) Then when they dropped him he ran as fast as his little legs could carry him to the ditch/bayou behind our house.  We searched and searched to no avail.  We have looked from time to time hoping that he would show up.  (they say that box turtles usually live in a one acre area and just circulate, kink of a homing device thing)  Anyways I had certainly given up hope until this afternoon.  I was outside packing for our spring camp out with the cub scouts when my neighbor who was walking her dog ran up my driveway.  “didn't you guys loose a turtle?” she said, and then promptly pulled a turtle from behind her back.  She said she was visiting with the neighbor across the street (who was watering her flowers) when all of a sudden she saw movement in the grass out of the corner of her eye.  I was very worried about him (I guess I still am) because his eyes were shut.  This is not good for a turtle.  They won't eat with their eyes closed.  Anyways I soaked him really good a few times and luckily I think he was just dehydrated because his eyes are starting to open now.  It's probably why he was heading for her flowers in the middle of the day.  He has probably just come out of hibernation and is dehydrated and hungry.  I'll keep a close eye on him for a while and give Tom some time to make a very secure turtle enclosure.  Hooray for Fred! I really did miss him.  I don't know why?

posted @ 5:32 PM | Feedback (3)

Easter

posted @ 12:43 PM | Feedback (2)

More Feeling

Carter had a great birthday party at the Houston Zoo. He got a new pirate ship and announced that his old one was for babies and he would not play with it anymore. Tyler has a pine wood derby kit to work on and he's trying to sell scout fair tickets. Leila has a crush on one of her classmate's older brother. Elena decided to remodel one of the bathrooms, which is now a pile of rubble (our house is made of concrete). We have a newish puppy, Stella, a lab/aussie mix, whose herding instincts are coming out by nipping at everyone's and everything's heels. I turn up the radio and sing as loud as I can in my car on the way to work every day. My cheer is pissing off some people at the office. Every day is better than the one before, we hope this pink cloud lasts.

posted @ 9:03 AM | Feedback (1)

Carter's Four!

 

     Happy Birthday Love!

Carter made this cake (almost) all by himself, frosting and all.

posted @ 6:49 PM | Feedback (2)

sleeping better

It took three weeks but they (the sleep study people and the doctor) finally put in for a machine for me. More on that later.

I'm nearly convinced that the medical profession is just a face for pharmaceutical/medical equipment companies. The company that provides the CPAP equipment has a different fee schedule for insurance. “Insurance sets the price of the equipment, they say $2250” I told them that barely covers the deductable and that I was going the research buying the equipment myself on-line and they said “Oh, well if your paying direct then we can cut that price in half.” So, long story short, It set us back $1100, most of which is covered in our medical savings plan. Of course this is not supposed to count toward my deductable, but I'm going to submit a claim anyway.

About that insurance. According to HR, we now have “new and better insurance”, but somehow they cost more and pay less. Our deductable is high, and the coverage after deductable is only 80% (this is the buy up plan).

The good, actually great news is that I now have a Cflex heated humidified CPAP machine. Works great. I've been using it for five nights now and in spite of the fact that I've had a cold for that same five days, I have noticed a huge difference already. I'm really getting my energy back, doing tons of stuff around the house and getting great workouts at the gym. My chronic yawning, which I first thought was hyperventilation syndrome and then that it was part of the “suffocating” symptom anxiety produces, has completely left me. My heart doesn't race after every set in the gym. I feel like I'm getting back to being me again. Which is great because I can stop focusing on my little bubble and get back to thinking about others. Elena and the kids have been very patient the past year and they deserve everything I can do for them.

posted @ 9:25 PM | Feedback (2)

New Year's Eve = great night of sleep!!

You ever heard of Reggie White? The Minister of Defense, No. 92, who played for Green Bay, died last month at 43. Initial reports say he died of cardiac arrhythmia brought on by sarcoidosis and sleep apnea.

That woke me up. For over a year now I've been plagued by mysterious health problems; PVCs, shortness of breath, chronic yawning, easily fatigued, low testosterone and high anxiety. I'm taking Zoloft for the anxiety and hormone replacement therapy for the low testosterone. All of the other health problems have been chalked up to my anxiety. Until now.

My wife has been complaining to me about my sleep problems for years. I snore like a bear and have had sleep apnea for at least the last 5 years. We both thought that I should have it checked out but always figured it was more of an inconvenience than anything else. Reggie White's death made me make an appointment.

I went to see Dr. Jamal Razzack, a cardio-pulmonologist who specializes in sleep apnea. He ordered a sleep study to determine the type and severity of my sleep apnea, which will enable us to successfully treat it. My company changed insurance on January 1, 2005 and no one knows what the new insurance company will cover. Our old insurance was United Healthcare, who covers sleep studies 100%. So we scheduled the 2-night sleep study for 12/30 and 12/31.

North Houston Sleep Clinic

I checked in at 8:30 on 12/30 and spent 30 minutes filling out paperwork. They got me wired up and into bed by 9:30. This is what I looked like:

This is what the room looked like:

Not bad right?

That night was typical except that it took me what seemed like 3 hours to fall asleep. In the morning the technician told me that I actually fell asleep after only 15 minutes but I would immediately start snoring and wake myself up. I did that for 3 hours. Once I finally fell asleep I started snoring and started obstructing the airway, a.k.a. sleep apnea. The tech said my blood oxygen percent was in the low to mid 80s all night. Normal is 93% - 98%.

I returned the next night, New Year's Eve, for part 2 of the study. This is the part where I get some help. In addition to the monitoring wires I am attached to a “CPAP“ machine.

This Continuous Positive Air Pressure machine keeps my airway open all night. It took some tweaking but the tech was able to increase the pressure until my snoring and sleep apnea had stopped completely. Waking up was really weird. The first thing I noticed was that I needed to take a leak. That's normal. When I did I noticed that I didn't need to lean against the wall to steady myself. Hmmm, not normal. I felt fine. Not overly energetic, not ready to take on the world, just fine. As I drove away from the sleep clinic I headed for Starbucks but realized I wasn't sleepy or groggy at all, I got coffee anyway -not because I was tired, just to avoid a caffeine withdrawal headache. I worked for 5 hours, went to the gym, got home and did 6 hours of chores for Elena. When I was done I was not pooped at all. It was definitely a different feeling for me.

That was Saturday. This is Monday. I really notice how much the CPAP helped me now that I've had a couple of days without it. I woke up tired with a headache this morning and am feeling spent already. I have to wait for the Doctor to review the results of the sleep study and write me a prescription for my own CPAP machine. I hope he gets on that soon. By the way, the sleep clinic tech told me that I may not notice any change after just one night on the CPAP, but that after 30 days it will be very noticeable. Wow.

The symptoms I have had in the last year which are common to sleep apnea include:

• Reduced testosterone levels in men.
• Hypertension.
• Anxiety accompanied by anxiety attacks and feelings of panic and lack of control.
• Disturbed eating patterns and a craving for sugar and starchy foods.

To all a good night!! - Tom

posted @ 1:56 PM

Christmas Lists have begun...

Tyler...(birthday too)   you can  view some of these items and a few more at amazons wish list page http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html/ref=cm_wl_topnav_all-product-search/104-7031041-9240752?type=wishlist 

• Draco Malfoy action figure
• full size skateboard (got it)
• light saber sword (lights and sounds one) (got it)
• Yu-gi-oh cards (got some)
• Camera
• Gameboy and games (maybe used on e- bay?)
• Leap pad books
• Spider Man stunt system
• sky wineder
• spider man triple action web blaster  (got it)
• transformers
• Geomag set

Leila

• Art easel (Ikea) (bought)
• charms for her charm bracelet
• clothes
• shoes, cowboy boots, converse in different colors...
• earing's
• American Girl Doll clothes(Samantha, Josefina...) (she wants any and all  clothes, accessories, etc. I have seen lots on e-bay)
• Spanish Bingo
• Leap pad books
• stamps (so she can send letters)
• click its
• Magic Hair beader
• Barbie cat bed and toys (at petsmart)

Carter

• puzzles (more than 24 pieces)
• fishing pole
• books (curious george, mercer mayer, berenstein bears...)
• leapfirst books
• Rollerskate sneakers
• remote control car
• spider man action figure (with magnets)
• r2d2 and c3po action  figures
• Mega blocks pirate ship

House gifts

• 4 slice toaster black or stainless
• rug for Leila (round, yellows)
• dishwasher- stainless steel inside (black or stainless)
• flat panel monitor
• x-box  new or used and games !!!!!!!!!! (Tyler, but Tom too)
• Harry potter 3 dvd (bought)
• gift certificates to IKEA, Target, gap,old navy
• Cranium Hullabaloo and Balloon Lagoon games

posted @ 1:48 PM

Happy Halloween!

The kids had tons of fun last night cruising the neighborhood.  They brought home a huge bounty of candy and stayed up late buzzing on their sugar highs.  Why on earth do the kids get a day off of school for presidents day but not for Halloween?  Do teachers actually expect to have well behaved children when they have been up late eating sugar all night?  Seems ridiculous to me.  Anyways, here are the kids behind each of their pumpkins.  Check out the Halloween gallery for more pictures...the first six are from this year.

posted @ 8:49 AM | Feedback (3)