Christmasfied and snow!

Saturday was a busy day. It snowed! Looks beautiful but was very wet and made the roads dangerous in the afternoon. I stayed in all afternoon making funeral potatoes for 150 -- Michelle was supposed to help, but she was downstairs throwing up all day. This was for her ward 'break the fast' -- we were trying to save money. I learned a few tricks and felt like a caterer. Thank goodness I did not have to cook them all! In the evening Erin, Janice, Clyde (between football watching), Michelle and Cisco decorated the house. Pictures are posted.

Janice goes to ER

So out of nowhere, no special stressful event, no physical activity, my heart started racing about 10:30 pm Friday night. Racing. 190 beats per minute!. Kind of makes one feel tired real fast. After talking to our neighbor nurse - she suggested if it didn't slow down soon that I should go to the ER. Clyde took me about 11:45 pm. Always go to the Orem Community Hospital if you need ER in Utah County -- they got me right in. Heart was still registering 195 beats per minute -- called superventricular trachycardia. SVT. This is where there is a kind of short circuit in the electrical system and the beats are taken over by the short circuit instead of the longer powerful beat of the ventricle. After an EKG, the Dr. told me he wanted to give me shot that normally works super fast to stop the short circuit and gets the heart beating normally. One warning he had to tell me - I was going to feel like I was dying for about 5 - 10 seconds but it would pass! He hoped it would only take one time! I started watching the clock to feel just how long 5 - 10 seconds was. Pretty long if you feel loss of any control, heartbeat, breath, etc! So he gave me the shot and sure enough I felt this sudden warmth, sinking heart, loss of feeling in my hands and no control. It passed quickly just like he said, although it took a few minutes to metabolize the entire chemical out of my body. The heart rate dropped incredibly quickly and was back to 40 - 90. Still not ideal and a bit too irregular, but so much improved. The second EKG was much better! They wanted to keep track of the rhythm and take some blood work. So even though I was feeling much better I still had to stay unto 2:40 am! I was pretty tired, but glad that most of the labs came back fine. They gave me a beta blocker to try for a while and suggested I see a cardiologist. I had told them this has happened to me before, but never had any treatment for it and usually it takes 2 - 3 hours to go away on it's own. We slept til 9 am and also had some naps on Saturday.
Clyde gave his football ticket to our cousin Chuck and we (I) watched the game on tv. Clyde could not bear to watch it until he heard that BYU won! Clyde bought a new pre lit tree and Nicole, Casey, and Camille helped to decorate. Michelle was helping Cisco finish his paper for school. We had Mimi's Corn Chowder for dinner, and I forgot to turn the oven back on to cook the breadsticks -- so we had them long after the chowder was eaten! I am for sure going to bed early tonight - have to go to 9 am Ward Council for Pattie who is out of town, teach the RS lesson at 11 am, and start my second dose of beta blocker - which will reportedly make me feel tired and lousy for a week! How's that for an exciting start to a new year just after my birthday passed? Will keep you posted on any developments etc.

Halloween fun

Here are some great costumes that happened at our house during the Halloween week.
Erin Dressed Nicole as a Pirate, and then just happened to have her own Indian costume on hand to go with Nicole to her party!

Michelle and Cisco dressed as a banana and a gorilla!

Recipe Club

We have this little Enrichment activity group that meets monthly to share and sample recipes. Tonight we shared soup recipes. I made Mimi's Corn Chowder (which I had never made before!) and it was really tasty and quick. It was fun to taste other soups: Pumpkin soup, Potato Basil, Paula Dean's Creamy Chicken soup, Russian borscht, Chicken Tortellini Soup and Roasted Carrot soup. The pumpkin soup was surprisingly good. I have recipes so if you want me to send you any just let me know. I told the group how I used to serve soup even in Hawaii by making breadsticks to always go with the soup. Funny thing is, I can't recall what soup I made when we lived there. I think I got into broccoli soup and chicken soup after we moved back to Utah. Any memories KC, Camille, Nicole? I think we ate a lot of a campbell's bean with bacon soup when the kids were young -- but I don't think that was the one I made the breadsticks for.

Glad to be home

Sunday I went to SLC to participate in a conference for work. Clyde came with me and listened to a speech by Robert Kirby. Kirby is the humor columnist for the Tribune and he had some great stories about humor and people in general. After that we enjoyed finger foods and great music and fiddling from the musical group "Lincoln Highway". Apparently they are BYU alums. We were the last to leave and just enjoyed visiting with many of the BYU workers were there. We went to bed around 11 and I was asleep with my trusty ear plugs (great for sleeping in strange noisy places) when I heard a lot of laughing and talking around midnight. I thought some people were in the parking lot, but after Clyde woke me, we discovered there was a huge group of people in the room next to us -- speaking in a different language and being very noisy! The scary thing was that they tried to open the door between our rooms at least four times! I finally called the front desk and they sent security so it got quiet about 15 minutes later.
Clyde went home on Monday and I manned the booth I was assigned to. It was right in front of a door to the outside that did not close well so I had to buy a little blanket to cover my legs to keep me a bit warm. Clyde told me he did not sleep well because he was cold with out me! We sleep - cuddle!
Tuesday night was a 5 course dinner at the Train Depot in SLC. Clyde came up and met me there. It took a long time to serve 200+ people and 5 courses no less!. They started about 7:50 pm and the last food was served after 9:30. For some reason the meal did not agree with me and I was up at least three times in the night trying to feel better. Then my boss called my cell at 7 am, when we were both enjoying some good sleep! It felt so good to get home on Wednesday and get in our own bed again! I did discover a great place for lunch and breakfast in SLC: Paradise bakery on 400s and 600 E. Wonderful muffins, cookies, and delicious sandwiches and fire roasted tomato soup. It makes me more determined to try that recipe from Nordstroms now.
We are both glad to be home. Wed night I vegged and went to bed early. Ahhh!

The Detox Diet

Michelle went to a Dr. who put her on a detox diet and lots of supplements to see if it would improve her symptoms of Fibromyalgia. I am doing the diet with her for support. First two weeks are chicken, turkey and fish, all veggies except white potatoes, and all nuts except peanuts. We started on the 12th. She loves hard boiled eggs, and I make sauteed veggies and egg omelets for breakfast.
I have had to be creative to keep interest and taste in the food she can eat. We had salmon on Sunday with roasted veggies ( asparagus, red pepper, mushroom, zucchini), salad with CafeRio dressing. For tuna salad I chopped up radishes, red onion, snow peas, celery, slice of avocado, and added sprouts and 3 T cafe Rio dressing. We ate these in lettuce leaf wraps. Michelle loved it and so did I! Monday I made a chili without beans and used ground turkey. Clyde ate two bowls and the next day he said "that was turkey?!" Lots of seasonings, onion, celery, garlic, red and green peppers, and seasoned tomatoes. Michelle liked it a lot.We liked it so much that Erin made a recipe today to take to work!
I have the Grill Mates Hamburger seasoning by McCormick and I think it helps with turkey.
Tonight I made Turkey Burgers and I really liked them. Here's the recipe:
Seasoned Turkey Burgers

• 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey breast
• 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (I substituted ½ t. Grill Mates hamburger seasoning by McCormick)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (optional)
• ¼ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 6 hamburger buns, split

1. In a large bowl, mix the turkey with the onion soup mix, pepper, garlic powder, soy sauce, and egg. Refrigerate the mixture about 10 minutes, then form into 6 patties.
2. Preheat the grill for medium-high heat. Pour olive oil in the skillet.
3. makes 7 patties, cook till kind of crisp on one side, then turn over. OR Lightly oil the grill grate. Place the patties on the grill. Cook for 20 minutes, turning once, or until well done. The inside of the burgers will look whitish in color when cooked through. Serve on buns.

all recipes.com Made for Michelle’s detox diet. Very yummy. NO complaints from Clyde!

Wish us more success!!

favorite salmon

Here's my latest Salmon experiment:
drizzle lightly with olive oil, then sprinkle with dried basil
shake on some garlic powder, and onion salt.
squeeze good amount of lime juice on each piece
sprinkle with good amount of Italian bread crumbs.
bake at 400 for 15 - 20 minutes, depending how thick your pieces are.

Delicious and low fat!