MWNews 28

Juanita is still in the hospital. She had to stay this weekend, not only because she was not getting better but she has to drive me home Tuesday, so she will just take her weekend on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I go in for the angiogram this Tuesday. I am told I cannot drive for two days afterwards. I am also not allowed to go to work for a week after that. They never told me that before but then again, everytime I have had one before, I was already in the hospital and had to stay anyway. This is an outpatient procedure and does not require me to stay. Since Juanita is in the same hospital, she will wait until I am released and then drive me home. I am not sure she can or should be driving but we will see how it goes.

Yesterday, Juanita was sick. We are not sure if it was because of the medication or something else. She could not keep her food down and they kept feeding her dinner hoping she could. I think they just had some extra food and were forcing her to eat it. They tried to do that to me the other day. One of the girls in Juanita's room was going home so she said she didn't want her lunch. They offered it to me and said they would only have to throw it away when they got back. I declined but I wonder if they do that all the time. They are insistent that no one gets a meal that does not have one ordered but they give them away if they have extra. I know the other day when Juanita checked into the hospital, she did not have a meal ordered and they could not find anything for her to eat. She had to eat the food I had brought. It just seems like they are not allowed to have any extra food in the place and all the food they do have has to be allocated to someone so no one else can have it.

Maeghan said something really funny yesterday and neither Juanita nor I can remember what it was. I said at the time that I should write it down so I would remember and we both remember me saying that but cannot remember what it was she said. That happens all the time when Maeghan says something. I guess all kids say funny things but this one seemed extra special and I wish I could remember what it was. Maybe when we go back today, I will remember.

I have taught her to say some things about the rain. We were leaving the hospital the other day and it had been raining. She said there was water all over the street. I asked her where it came from and she said she didn't know. I asked her if Jarvis had done it and she said yes. Now, whenever the street is wet, she says Jarvis did it. She also says the cars are wet and Jarvis did that too. This picture I have on this message is showing the size difference between Maeghan and Anna. Maeghan is still really small. We don't notice it as much as we live with her everyday but she is still little. She has gotten a little bigger lately and most of her clothes do not fit. At least, she cannot wear anything smaller than a size one anymore. Even those are getting a little tight on her but it mainly because she has gotten bigger in the belly. She is a little taller but she is getting bigger around and her arms and legs are filling out. Not that she is not perfectly formed, it is just that her arms and legs have always been really skinny. Now she is getting a little muscle on them and her clothes are tight. Her waist is filling out too so her pants don't fall down all the time anymore. Plus, she is wearing underpants, so that is helping to keep them up.

A couple of days ago, she told me mommy is at the doctors with William. She said mommy has gone to get William, her little brother, so she can be a big sister. She said mommy wasn't feeling well because William was in her belly. She has done ok with mommy not being here. This morning, she was kind of sad when she told me mommy was at the doctors because she wasn't feeling well. She kind of laid down and sucked her thumb. She does that when she is sad or upset about something. Or if she thinks you are upset with her. Yes, she still sucks her thumb, especailly when she is sleeping, but not as much anymore. Of course, she has a dummy now. She doesn't really use it as a dummy, she just likes to play with it. She was always stealing Leslie's or Shayla's, so sissy, Angela, bought her one. She likes to carry it around all the time, or when she remembers it. She has chewed it up so it no longer is dummy shaped, but since she doesn't put it in her mouth the right way most of the time anyway, it doesn't really matter.

Speaking of Angela, we haven't heard anything from her since she left. I think Michael might have talked to her but I am not sure. She hasn't called mer mother nor indicated when she might be coming back, so I guess when she decides to do so, we will have to be ready for it. I think she might be thinking that she is not coming back, but she does have all her stuff here and bills and rent to pay, so she will either have to wait until those run out or just stop paying them, shich means they will take her stuff. I would guess she would be coming back, but you never know.

We aso haven't heard from Natalie in a few days. That probably means she has run out of credit on her phone but it has been several days, so we might have to start trying to find her also. In case you don't have it over there, here you can pay as you go on your cell phone. You pre-pay on your phone and you can use it as long as there is credit on it. I think Natalie gets paid on Mondays, so she will recharge it then and if we don't hear from her by Monday night, then we will need to try to ahold of her.

One of Juanita's cousins or relatives or friends called last night. I am not sure how they are related or if they are. Her name is Joanne. She took us to the airport last time we were in Tasmania and let Juanita borrow her car while she was there. She is a lot of fun and we enjoy visiting her when we are there. I have to say that because I think she reads this blog (just kidding Joanne). Anyway, she called last night to ask if we had had the baby. I told her no, it was not due for a couple of weeks. She said she had gotten a message that someone had had a baby girl but the message did not say who it was, so she was calling all the pregnant people she knew to ask them if they had had the baby yet. I didn't find out if she found the one with the baby.

I am taking Juanita's phone book up to her so she can call all her friends. So far, Juanita has not had any visitors except me. Of course, we don't know a lot of people here in Sydney and most of them live quite a ways from Gosford, so you wouldn't expect many visitors. The people at Maeghan's playgroup said they were going to visit but they never did and there were a couple of other people who said they would go see her but so far, no one has. I think if she has all her phone numbers, she can call them and talk to everyone that way. I only spend about four hours there each day and it is not very exciting being in the hospital with not a lot of things for Maeghan to do, so we have to leave when Maeghan starts to get tired. Its too far to make more than one trip a day. I think it might be worse on the weekends as all the people in her room went home and there is no one to talk to except the nurses.

Juanita said they might book her cesarian for three weeks from now. That is about two weeks early for the baby but I think that might be ok. It is actually a little over three weeks and I think it should actually be four weeks which would put it around Nov. 18. The baby is due Dec. 6, so that is a little more than two weeks early. I'd like to talk to the doctors before they do that as I am not sure it will be ok to do it that early. Juanita says it is not a problem but I want to be sure since we actually have a choice. I'll remind Juanita that if she puts it off another week, she can have the baby on her birthday. She might go for that.

I was going to sign off now and end this but I went back and re-read it and found out there was something missing. I haven't talked about food yet. I don't know how that could have happened. So, as a special treat, I will give you my world famous recipe that apparently I am the only one who has ever eaten. I think most people would like it but they are turned off by one or more of the ingredients and I never get to make it for them. I got the idea from a Frugal Gourmet show where some fireman said he liked to cook fried olives. They didn't give a recipe on that show, so I made up my own. It is fairly quick but it is not non-fattening and should only be eaten on occasion. Of course, it is so good, that I eat a whole package of spagetti with it but that is just me and you can cut down on it. There are endless variations on the theme. The one I like best is adding clams to it (canned will do) a the last minute, but it works well with chicken or even no meat at all.

The recipe is simple. While you start you water boiling for your spagetti, you amke the sauce.

Start with 1/4 cup olive oil. (These measurements vary depending on how much sauce you like and how much spagetti you are cooking.)
Add about two tablespoons real butter
Chop about three cloves of garlic, more if you like garlic
Slice about a cup of green olives, with the pimentos in them
Heat the oil and butter
Add the garlic and cook for about a minute on high heat
Add the sliced olives
Cook on high until the water begins to boil for the spagetti. You might have to turn it down if it takes a while for the water to boil. You do not want to burn the olives or the garlic but a little crunch in them is ok. (Garlic is best when it just begins to turn brown. It is crunchy and sweet and takes like garlic.)
Once the water boils, add the spagetti
Turn the heat down low and add two tablespoons of horseradish to the sauce.
Stir the sauce often to keep from burning or sticking or just turn the sauce off, it is ready at this point but need to be kept warm
When the spagetti is ready, drain it and put it in a big bowl
Pour the sauce over it and stir it in
Add at least 1/2 cup of fresh grated parmesan cheese to the spagetti and sauce
Fresh grind pepper over the top and mix. (The more pepper and the more cheese you use, the better.)
Mix it all togther and serve immediately. It is ok when it cools but it is better hot and fresh.

That's it. This is all there is to the basic recipe. I have added cooked chicken to it, cooked when frying the olives. I have added a can of clams at the end, in the sauce before I put it over the spagetti to get the clams heated. I have added finely chopped onion and shrimp and even a little cream to this but the basic recipe is good no matter what you add. Just remember, you can use pre-packaged grated cheese and pre-ground pepper but the taste is not the same. I always use fresh or I just don't make it.

Ok, there is your food fix. Maeghan has gotten upset because I have been ignoring her while I typed this. She wanted me to take her to bed. I thnk because she just wanted attention and she knows we play when we go to bed each night and when we wake up in the morning. We have already had our play this morning but she was in by herself watching TV and I think she just wants someone to play with now.

We will go take a shower and then get ready to visit mommy. It means I have not done anything again today, like clean the house or do some work, but maybe tonight. I doubt it but I at least have to clean the house before Tuesday when Juanita comes home.

We will talk to you again soon. The spell checker on this thing is not working at all, so please ignore the spelling errors you have already come across and forgive them in the future.