Feels Like I'm Forever Saying Goodbye...

First off I just want to thank you all for such caring words on my last post! I have not had any more episodes as bad as that one was, just my *normal* increased heart rate and occasional palpitations. My shakiness has been back to normal, no more violent shaking like I had last week. I do intend on going in to the Dr to get a full work up physical done. I realized that I am also having hot flashes ALOT! Now I am way to young for any meno*crap* so I'm not really sure what to think of this, other than maybe high blood pressure causing it?!

WARNING~ Long, tear stained post....

I recently shard with you about my dear friend Terry and well I come with sad news to say that Terry is no longer with us...He passed away this past Friday night. It really is an amazing story that I of course must share, I'd better go grab me some tissues...

Last Thursday we got word from the Dr's that Terry's body was starting to shut down so to expect him to pass before the weekend was over. Friday night of course we had Friday Night Football and it was the Fall Homecoming game and J was stoked! My momma obviously didn't come to the game as she has literally spent almost all of her time outside of work with Terry. So as I got ready to head out for the game Friday night I knew I needed to stock tissues in my purse as I just felt this was going to be the time. I was sitting up in the bleachers watching the team get ready and I got a text from my momma that Terry's oxygen level was down to 44%, I instantly teared up but pushed through just praying for him and watching the team prepare.

The opposing team won the coin toss and chose to receive 2nd half so they started the game kicking the ball to our team. J is always out during the kickoff but is usually blocking as a senior boy is usually the one who catches and runs it. But this night as I watched the ball fly through the air I realized it was heading straight for J and I kind of panicked! My first thought was being worried for him running with that many kids trying to get him down LOL! Not that he doesn't get tackled in other plays but this seems especially harder with them already running full throttle! Then my next thought was OH get the camera up to shoot! So down comes the ball and YES he catches it~!! I got my camera up and started shooting! He caught the ball at the 20 yard line and started running, he almost got tackled but another player did a nice block and J cut back and shot through the gap and took off! He was running SO fast and the crowd was roaring; screaming for him! I was screaming, my MIL and FIL and SIL were all around me screaming (Hubby works the chain gang so he's right down on the side line)! And a kid dives for J but he manages to shake his fingers from his shoulders and keeps running! He ran and ran all the way to the 7 yd line!!! Then he was tackled right at his ankles, barely got him! He almost made a touchdown, but I was jumping up and down screaming and SO excited that my boy just ran that! And it was strange as I was shooting the pictures when he was running past where I was sitting the sun was so bright coming through my viewfinder that I had to put my camera down, then at some point I picked it back up and snapped a shot right after he got back up with the ball. I had tears welling up in my eyes and knew I had to text my momma right away and tell her but I knew in the instant that I had the feeling to send her the message that she would tell me back that Terry was gone...So I sent her the message and she text me back "That is awesome! Sis, Terry just passed, his pain is over"....OH the sadness that hit my heart was like a 2 ton brick...I just broke down in tears, my SIL put her arms around me and covered my face for me and I just cried. I knew in that instant that God was giving me some kind of gift with that run and the light coming through. It was the strangest thing ever! I text my momma back and told her that it seemed Terry had passed at the same time J was making his run, in true Terry style. My momma agreed that it was a gift indeed.

When I got home and went through the pictures I got to the set when he was in front of me and J was literally barely visible through the light that filled the picture, it was blinding. I enhanced the picture so it's more saturated now and J is viewable.

After the tackle!

Saturday night my momma and her friends and I all got together to have some wine and share memories of Terry. Just kind of a grieving time for us all to be together. I went early with my momma and we had dinner and did some shopping and then went to our friend's house. During our time of talking about everything I found out the exact details of Terry's passing which truly left me amazed...

My momma had sent me that message that his oxygen was so low and his breathing became very violent and so sad to watch so her and Terry's daughter and his ex-wife (whom he was still great friends with) all took their turns telling Terry that it was okay to leave now, they wanted him to be free from the pain and they would be okay. His daughter who is 19 yrs old struggled so hard to say those words to her daddy but she did it for him. The nurse was in the room checking his vitals right after his daughter said her goodbye's and he flatlined, the nurse said "that's it, he is gone" then they all started sobbing hysterically and within a minute or so Terry very suddenly gasped for breath and his heart started again...The nurse was SHOCKED, she said she had never seen anything like that, but his breathing was very hard and difficult for him so they knew that he had fought his way back because they were so sad. So they then all took their turns again telling him it was going to be okay, they did not want him hurting anymore and to go meet Jesus, this went on for 10 minutes and he left again for the last time...

At that precise time my J was running the ball and that bright light blinded me, one of our other friends was driving to the hospital to be with Terry and she was blinded by this strangest light, just like I was. She described it to me as I was describing it to her and we both were at a loss and just new it was beautiful and blinding. All of this time that Terry has been sick he and I both believed that he would be healed. When he got the diagnosis back in May of the metastatic disease he told me "this will not kill me, I will beat it". I was so upset and sad that he was not cured, that he was no longer with us! I wanted him healed!!! 

It was told to my momma by the nurse at the hospital that our body does what they call "modeling" when it is shutting down. Which explained his hands being purple Friday morning, see *modeling* is when the heart shuts off blood flow to the "non-important" areas of the body to protect the main organs while your body is shutting down. Even your brain, the last to go is the heart which explains why you seek God with your heart and not your brain because the heart is the strongest. One of our friends said she too was so upset because she too believed he was going to be healed and then another one of our friends said that's what we're missing. God didn't lead us astray in our thinking, he told us Terry would be healed but we just assumed it was healed HERE with us...But it wasn't that way, he was healed through Jesus in Heaven...WOW that was an eye opener!! So while we grieve the loss of our friend we are most thankful that he is HEALED and no longer feels the pain.

Terry a wonderful friend who will always be missed...

Today we buried our friend and he will be terribly missed! It was so funny to hear how many different people said one of their favorite things about Terry was his hugs! We all thought that but didn't know the other thought that LOL! He was a gentle giant, one of a kind that's for sure...

Just Because I Need To Say It...

This was a very strange evening for me and as I am sitting here the only thing that makes sense to me is to share it with you! I must just say, that I believe for me I have truly the best man in the world! I cannot imagine my life without him and I am so very thankful everyday that he is my life partner and best friend!

Tonight was a very typical night, DD had gymnastics and dance. One of her BFF's came home from school with her today to stay over tonight (YES on a school night)! Her mama is out of town and her daddy works in the fields from the early hours of the morning and the girls have to be at the school bright and early to leave on a Stuco trip as they are the 6th grade reps for their school. So the Hubby will take them bright and early and send them on their way!

Our evening at the studio was fun as usual with all of us mom's chatting and laughing at each other while watching our beautiful daughters! Then when we arrived home I turned into the drive and DD's friend M shouted "they're out"!! I immediately stopped my truck and then she said "well I thought I saw one"! She was referring to the 2 puppies we have left and she was right! Just as she shouted that and I stopped the deaf puppy had run under my truck! I was so very thankful that she seen this because she likely would have been run over! I never even seen her :( The puppies had been outside in a pen and somehow knocked it over and were roaming free! We are very lucky nothing happened to them especially with DD's horse only a few feet away! But the Hubby watched her last week when he was out feeding one morning, the deaf puppy had apparently followed him and he didn't know it and after he dumped Krissy's feed she started making this grunting noise and when he turned back he realized that the deaf puppy was underneath her standing by her foot! Of course the Hubby hollered for the puppy out of instinct then realized *duh* she can't hear me! He said he was truly amazed at Krissy because she just watched him intently and made that noise while he got the puppy's attention then got her out of there. Krissy never budged an inch! Man I LOVE that horse!!

But back to tonight, the girls got the puppies put back where they belong and I rushed in to start cooking dinner. I was making bierocks and hashbrown casserole so I knew it was going to take a little bit of time and I wanted to hurry so I did! I got the hashbrown casserole prepped and in the oven, then got the meat cooked and cabbage cooked and then stuffed the dough and made the bierocks. Hubby got home just as I was finishing up and I was not feeling well! My hands were shaking violently and I felt nauseous and just really not right...The Hubby went to feed the horses then when he came back in he asked me if I was ok? I showed him my hands that were shaking violently and he said yes I noticed that that's why I asked. He then asked if my blood pressure was up and I said yes I kind of feel like it is. See when I went in for my *pre* surgery checkup they noted that I have high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat but didn't say anything to me about it. I mean I know my heartbeat is irregular, like at a resting time it will beat around 105-110 beats per minute and gets higher than that when I do things, I also have palpitations frequently but I've had it forever so I just have never mentioned it to my Dr. The high blood pressure thing I have suspected at times because I get these feelings that remind me of when I was pregnant with DD and had severe toxemia with a top out blood pressure of 206/160, I was near stroke and could feel it. I obviously know it has not been that high ever again but I do feel it sometimes. My dad suffered from high blood pressure my whole life.

So I was trying to get the dishes washed up (because I refuse to have messy counters and dirty dishes) :) Even if I'm not feeling well and the Hubby very sternly told me to take my butt to the chair and he did everything for me and he's the one that just spent his entire day working very hard...To me, that just says it all...Having a man like that I feel so very blessed! He talked to me and helped me to get my pressure down, I have NO idea why it hit me like that but I feel tons better now!

So I thought I should just share with you why I feel so blessed tonight...I LOVE this man!!!

Wordsome Wednesday

I just LOVE these shirts! Of course you know J is #22 and the senior classmen always assign nicknames to put on the guys' shirts! So here is J's girl representing at the Varsity game on Friday night!

They played a good game Friday night! Unfortunately luck was on the side of the other team as they pulled out a win of 18-14 in the end. Our boys fought hard but ultimately cost themselves the game ofter their offensive line got a bit tired and then we had a few fumbles and you know the drill...Thus is a game of football!!

Coconut Chicken...You Won't Be Sorry!!

So this is the first time I have ever posted a recipe on my blog...SO here goes!! I am really more of a chicken lover than any other kind of meat and quite frankly I get so tired of always cooking with beef or pork because that's what my freezers are full of! So last week I decided to try this Coconut Chicken! This was a recipe I found online and tweaked it a bit to make it faster and more convenient to make.

My family *likes* chicken but not anywhere near as much as I do! When I made this for the family I also made an italian chicken because I was sure DD would be thrown off by the coconut and the Hubby well he has texture issues...Yep texture...Coconut is one of those that falls under the No-No category in textured food. Also the Hubby is a bit allergic to it, everytime I have *tricked* him in the past into eating or drinking something with coconut in it his throat will kind of swell and itch. BUT I did forget about this little inconvenience when I prepared dinner that night. I told him what I was making and that I knew he wouldn't eat it so I was making him and DD the other kind. But then after my first batch came up and I tried it and died and went to Heaven I told him he MUST try a bite! SO after I *shoved* umm I mean nicely fed him a bite he said "hmm yeah not bad...but I hope my throat doesn't swell in a minute"....OOPS...I only giggled a little after he said it....After I had the rest of dinner prepared I dished out DD and daddy the same chicken and J and I the GOOD stuff and then I look over and notice that the Hubby has added a *small* piece of the good stuff on his plate and I smirked just a bit ;)

J really liked the chicken and I of course LOVED it...Every yummy bite of it...Then the Hubby went back in to get his seconds only this time coming out with only the *good* stuff on his plate! And he sheepishly stated "that's some GOOD chicken"!! YES!! So then I got a little scared cause what if he ate it all?!?! I'm gonna fill you in on a little secret here...I don't eat leftovers...Nope. Sure don't. Because I don't like em. BUT with this I was planning on eating leftovers, yes sirree I was!! Luckily there was 2 pieces left and I had lunch for 2 days! YAY me!!

Okay, okay so here's the recipe!

Coconut Chicken

8 chicken cutlets, slightly pounded

Salt & Pepper

1 C flour

2 eggs

1 C Panko bread crumbs

1 cup sweetened coconut

Extra virgin olive oil

Pour a thin layer of olive oil into your pan (eyeball it, enough to get a good fry). Turn it on to a little over medium heat.

Take a cooling rack and put it on a cookie sheet and preheat the oven to 250*, you will put the finished chicken on the rack in the oven to keep it warm and crisp while you cook the remaining chicken. 

Get 3 shallow dishes, in the first one put your 1 C of flour, in the second one beat your 2 eggs with a splash of water, in the third one mix your bread crumbs and coconut together.

Take your trimmed and slightly pounded Chicken strips and salt and pepper both sides then coat in the flour first, then egg, then lastly the bread crumb and coconut mixture.

Then you need to check and make sure your oil is *frying* hot and fry on each side 3-4 minutes until it is a deep golden color.

Eat and enjoy! And NO I did not devour 3 or more pieces of chicken tonight after I made it just to share with ya'll!!

Football Fun! And YES I Spoke!!

So I thought I would just update on the situation from yesterday with the coaches. But first I want to talk about a concern brought up by one of my loyal readers. Ian said "In previous posts I read about multiple concussions. Are the effects from that worth continuing to play"? To answer this and clear the air, yes J had a severe concussion his freshman year from an incident he caused at a *no pads* practice where he tackled an upper classmen and caused himself a severe concussion. He was hospitalized for the day for observation but had no lingering effects from that. He has had a couple of hits to the head in basketball both times resulting in a broken nose and it was said by the Dr at the time *possible minor concussion*. SO when he had his physical this year the Dr said IF he had another major concussion he would likely be done with football for good. Our state has really beefed up the laws in this area and only allow so many concussions before automatic disqualification. At the first game of this season J had that episode where the EMT thought it was a concussion but also found his blood sugar to be low, and stated that too could have caused the symptoms that he was having. So after a trip to the ER and much research I found what I think is the real problem he experienced. I believe he has hypoglycemia, after the coach described his symptoms that night I thought about how almost every night after practice J would have that *ghost eyed* appearance and often be lethargic and a bit sickly feeling but always equating it to just hard practice. At that point I bought him some special protein bars and have been making sure he eats well before games and practice. Low and behold NO problems since! Literally he has felt great and had NO ghost eyes after practice or games! Until today...Guess what he did...Did not eat his protein bar and BOOM he had ghost eyes, although he said he did feel fine. So at this point I will continue to watch him of course and he himself is being very cautious in what he does.

 Nice tackle!!

So moving on to today. I feel like I should also say that part of the reason I am hesitant to say anything to the coach is because I am President of our school's booster program so I try to mind my P's & Q's better than I used to ;) So tonight I had my weekly meeting at the school and talked to J after he got out of practice and he said that nothing else was said today about the trip. So I asked him what his plan was and he said basically he intended on seeing how the next couple of weeks play out and if they are still holding their winning streak then he will stay for his team, but if they have been losing he will not miss the trip. So me I was a bit frustrated just because I hate waiting! I'm such an impatient person!! Then while we were finishing up our meeting the coach walked by and I just instinctively hollered to get his attention and asked him if he had a minute to speak with me. He said yes sure he did. So I basically told him I was a bit upset with how things went down yesterday and I didn't know what he was trying to accomplish but I think his plan backfired because now J has a sour attitude towards football. And I told him that I thought it was low to throw in his face what the coach did to him last year because that caused him a lot of heartache and cost him his Varsity letter. Coach responded to say that J would not lose his letter this year and I told him well it wasn't just about lettering it was about being dropped to the JV team as a personal vendetta by the coach; and he (coach B) basically told J that it was justified thus sealing how J felt about the situation from the start; that he wasn't worthy of playing on the Varsity team. Coach responded to say that was not his intention, that he did not know ALL of the details of last years deal but he was simply trying to tell J that if he chose to go on the trip he would forfeit playing time because he would have to move someone else up and that person would have to be up to par but he didn't think it was possible for anyone else to fill J's shoes. And he said the reason J doesn't play on JV and never will again is because he's a starting Varsity player because that is how important he is to the team, that they need him there. So I told coach that he did not relay this to J in the right manner, that J was taking it as he was dispensable and not cared about. The coach was truly apologetic about that and said that when he approached J yesterday it was because he knew he was scared to come to him about it cause the Ag teacher had told him so and when he first started talking to J he didn't really want to talk back about it. He went on to say that he didn't want J to feel like he was being forced to choose and choose football over FFA which may lead to a resentment towards football so he tried to say it in the manner of if this is what you chose this is what we will have to do to fix the problem. I explained to him that J is the kind of kid that needs to know he is needed and respected and that he would not have answered back to him yesterday because he would see that as arguing or being disrespectful so therefore he doesn't speak. And this I know because that is how he is with everything, the way I taught him to be but he never got the part about it's okay to *talk* about a problem just don't argue with an adult...Anyhow the coach feels extremely bad about making J feel like this and is going to talk to him about it tomorrow, he also said he is the one who told J to wait and see how the next couple of games play out, if they are winning then they surely need him if they are losing then don't choose football over FFA it wouldn't be worth it, and J said yes coach did say that.

Start of Saturday's game

 Paving the way for our running back!!

Onto the game played this past weekend and yes I do mean *weekend*, what should have been Friday night football turned into Friday and Saturday night football!! We started out the first quarter of the game strong and scored a couple of touchdowns but then in the second quarter they kind of fell apart, it was like nobody was in sync with the other...At halftime the score was 21-14 with the other team in the lead, but during halftime a storm rolled in and the game was rescheduled until Saturday afternoon.

J Breaking up a pass~!!

He did it!! WHOO HOO #22~!!

 INTERCEPTION BABY~!!!!

Saturday afternoon these boys were on fire and so pumped when they got there. We had also planned a tailgate party last minute so that they would have food to eat after the game since it wasn't scheduled therefore no parents were bringing anything. They picked up the game at the 3 quarter and let ME TELL YOU! They brought it, and I mean BROUGHT IT!!! WOW it was an amazing game to watch they literally held the other team from scoring at all for the whole second half of the game and we ended with a score of 44-21!! YEAH BABY!!! It was such a victory for them!! They have now a 2-0 record so far and are facing a tough opponent this Friday night...It's going to be a nail biter for sure and I can't wait!!! 

HOO-RAH!!