Small Town Sunday #9 - Making Thanksgiving Memories

I'm sure Thanksgiving is important and full of traditions no matter where you live in the US, however, I can't imagine that Thanksgiving is quite the same in the big city.

Here in the small town, families often still live around each other. Even those who move away, will often come back for the big holidays. I love Thanksgiving. It is full of tradition, family and food! 

This year I decided to record through photos what goes into creating one of our family Thanksgivings.

Pumpkin pie in the making

Testing the Pies

Crumbling the cornbread for the stuffing

Making the stuffing

Prepping the bird

Stuffing the bird

Rolling out the dumplings

Cutting the dumplings (using my great great grandmother's knife)

Dumplings!

Adding the dumplings to the chicken broth

Thickening the dumplings

Is the turkey done yet?

How about now?

Perfection!

Carving the turkey

Making the mashed potatoes

Making mashed potatoes

You can smell the rolls

Sweet potatoes with marshmallows

The food is all laid out

It's a feast!

Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving as much as I did mine!

Single Saturday #10 - "Boyfriend" Clothes

At this point, I've lost 90 pounds. Although I've gotten rid of most of my old clothes, however, there are still a few things I've kept around. One of my favorite articles of clothing is my old 3X hoodie. It's now huge on me and I've been wearing it a lot lately.  As I was wearing it around the house the other day, I got to thinking about how girls often wear their boyfriend's shirts, hoodies, etc.

At 6 foot tall, there really hasn't been much chance for me to wear an oversized shirt or hoodie that belonged to a boyfriend. I remember having an old sweatshirt of a former boyfriend's, but even that fit just right (he was skinny and only 2 inches taller than me). Wearing my hoodie from my "fat days" is as close as I will ever get to lounging around the house in my boyfriend's clothes that are big and baggy on me. Even if I were to have a boyfriend, his clothes would not be too big for me...

So here's to all you small and average sized girls who can date and marry guys that wear larger sized clothes than you; I envy you. I will just have to settle for wearing my "fat clothes".

Living With Rheumatoid Arthritis

It is official...I have Rheumatoid Arthritis which is a lifelong disease. The good news is that my doctor has assured me that we caught it early and I won't end up looking like this...

I like my doctor and he is conveniently located within 20 miles of home and 40 of work, but when I went to visit him the other day his office had switched from being a clinic to an extension of the hospital.  This means that all my visits would be out of pocket until I reached my $1,500 deductible.  I just can't afford that.  I will be having blood work and appointments every 2 months (around $200 each time) and yearly x-rays.  I will probably get close, but never reach my deductible.  With a chronic disease, I just can't afford to do that.

Now I have to try to find a new clinic doctor. Preferably one  that does x-rays and blood work in-house.  Visiting a specialist at a clinic only costs me a $35 co-pay no matter if they are doing blood work or x-rays.  That I can afford.  Without changing doctors, I might as well not even have insurance because it won't even kick in to help pay for anything.  So now I will have to try to get a referral to a new doctor that will most likely be located over 100 miles away because that is were the nearest facilities are located that my insurance approves of...

Here's hoping that I can find the right doctor.  That is my big prayer now.  I am currently on RA drugs (methotrexate) and I am waiting to see if they will work for me. Apparently they work in 2/3 of the cases.  I have to get blood work done on a regular basis because they can damage your liver. There are just so many considerations with a chronic disease.


UPDATE: I did find a new doctor that was within my "network". Unfortunately, he is located 100 miles away, but fortunately, he is awesome (think Mr. Rogers). He has put me on new meds that work for me, and I am not required to have yearly x-rays either. I am now "living with RA", but I am living a life that, for the most part, is completely normal! And I thank the good LORD for this!

Small Town Sunday #8 - Deer Season

It's here! One of the most important times of the year for so many people in the Ozarks...Deer Season.  Schools are canceled and people take off work. Seriously.

My school takes of the first Monday of deer season. A few of the more rural schools in the area take off the whole first week of deer season.  I cannot believe they do that, but... The reason schools do this is because of the attendance rate. If the attendance is low, then the school actually loses money being in operation, so some schools just plan for a day off. Even with Monday off, I will still have some students who will take off additional days. I had a boy come up to me the other day and tell me that he was going to be "sick" Tuesday through Friday.

I don't hunt, but I grew up in a family of hunters. My dad is a serious hunter. Every year he goes off to Colorado elk hunting right before deer season. Dad has quite a few acres of land and even creates food plots that encourage deer and turkey to stay on the land.  We have deer camp every year with men in orange all over the place. All the men stay in a cabin in the woods and get up early to head out to their deer stands or to walk the woods.

This morning I was woken up by what had to be the world's loudest 4-wheeler driving around my house. I can't imagine it didn't scare away any deer in a half-mile radius.

This year dad built a new deer stand that is semi-movable. It is one of the most interesting stands I've seen. 

 

 

 

Unique Deer Stand

I want to wish all the hunters good luck this deer season. Be careful! And if you are going to kill a deer...eat the deer. It is irresponsible to do otherwise.  For those who like to hunt, but don't need or want the meat, there is a great program called Share the Harvest here in Missouri that has been created by the Missouri Department of Conservation.