Mr. Snoop's Soft Side Revealed

Warning: Gross Medical Post.  I'm married to a med student.  I have no filter when it come to discussion of snot, pee, vomit, staph infections, etc.  Do not procede if you are squeamish.

source

This past weekend I came down with a cold which turned me into a snotty mess.

[Side Note: You know you have true friends when they'll eat pizza with you while your nose is a snot volcano.  Thanks for not vomiting, Keely and J].

From February to late April of last year, I had the whopping cough.  True story.  It was an epic saga involving a staph infection in my nose, 3 types of antibiotics, reactive airways, steroids, and traumatizing anyone in my path with my horrendous hacking.  Among other things.  Yes, I was vaccinated.  But you can still get it, there was an outbreak in my area, and I work with kids.  See this article.

[2nd Side Note: Please vaccinate your kids.  That sh*t is for real].

Anyway, ever since my battle with whopping cough, the slightest lung irritation turns into a full-blown, hacking cough.  Here's the flow chart from this time around:

minor cold + profuse snot ----> post-nasal drip ----> hacking cough

Mr. Snoop, being a good student doctor, listened to my lung sounds last night.  There was wheezing, at the sound of which he promptly became a 8.5 months pregnant woman and got all sad and sorry for me.  Apparently wheezing really gets to his hormones. 

Please keep in mind Mr. Snoop was not this way when I was regularly hacking to the point of gasping for air, crying, gagging, and losing bladder control when I had whooping cough.  [Again.  This sh*t is no joke.  Vaccinate your kids].  Mr. Snoop is not really what I'd call the "sensitive" type. 

Whatevs. 

So those of you who know Mr. Snoop in person now have the secret to his soft side: just wheeze a little and he'll melt.  Like butter.

The End. 



That Day

I don't really have words for what people up here call "That Day," so I'll share one of my favorite psalms.  I really love it, and I heard that President Obama read part of this today, so I'm not the only one. 

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city, she shall not be moved;
God will help her at the break of day,
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Come, behold the works of the Lord,
how he has wrought desolations in the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear,
he burns the chariots with fire!
Be still, and know that I am God.
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted among the earth!
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Amen.

Summer 2011 Recap

Now that school is back in session up here in the Great White North and temps are in the 70s, I have come to the realization that fall is on its way.  In honor of my favorite season, here's a picture recap:

In June, Mr. Snoop and I went to Florida with my family (The Snoops). 

It was amazing.

We came back home and dove immediately into a weekend with Mr. Snoop's family.  His grandmother came in from Michigan.  His sisters and some cousins also came to town.

  Although it was a grand ol time, I didn't take any pictures besides this awesome Storm Trooper Cheerleading stunt that I created with Mr. Snoop's nephew's toys.  (I can feel you judging).

I left midway through the Mr. Snoop Family Weekend to take 11 high schoolers to New Orleans on a Mission Trip.  We took this sweet, hard-working, wonderful woman's house from this:

(You can't see so well, but this paint is peeling and in horrible shape.  And yes, that is the X from Katrina).

To this.  Precious, no? 

I am so proud of those kids.  They worked their ever-loving butts off.

After that, my cousin came to NY and we had a BIG week in the city and picked raspberries.  Here we are enjoyed iced Dunkin' Donuts coffee--a treasure of the Great White North.

Mr. Snoop and I were treated to a wonderful weekend our friends' lakehouse. 

This is the view from their porch. 

Mr. Snoop took the Step One and started his third year of Medical School, beginning with a neverending rotation in Internal Medecine.  I couldn't find a pic of him looking doctorly, so here he is on our honeymoon in Portugal.

Speaking of which, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary this summer!  And drank lots of Portuguese wine (Casal Garcia.. yum) in effort to transport ourselves back to our honeymoon :)

What did you do this summer?  Can you believe it is almost Fall?

Beautiful Veggies

I had to share this beautiful pic of our latest fruit and vegetable haul.  Mr. Snoop and I are members of a local CSA (community supported agriculture), so we get a weekly delivery of fresh fruits and vegetables from a local farm.  Admittedly, some weeks, like in June, can be a bit sparse.  But then you get weeks like this one! 

The green things with the papery husks on the right are tomatillos.  One of the great things about this CSA is that Mr. Snoop and I are the only southerners.  And ya'll... these crazy New Yorkers do not know what to do with Southern food.  There is a "dump" table where folks leave the veggies they don't want.  The New Yorkers always leave their okra and tomatillos.  So Mr. Snoop and I load up and then eat up.  Then we laugh at the New Yorkers.  Not really.  Ok a little bit. 
That's how we got so many tomatillos, and how I made all this enchilada sauce:

Four for the freezer, one for this week



I like the following enchilada sauce from Martha.  We usually enjoy it with cheese enchiladas.  Yum.

Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce

 

• Yield Makes 2 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• 1 pound tomatillos, husks removed
• 1 cup diced white onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 jalapeno, quartered (seeded if desired).  I do not desire :)
• 1 cup water
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• Pinch of sugar

Directions

1. In a medium pot of boiling salted water, cook tomatillos until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain tomatillos and transfer to a blender; add onion, clove, jalapeno, and water. Puree until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper. In pot, heat oil over high until shimmering. Add tomatillo mixture and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro, vinegar, and sugar. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

If you are the prayin' type...

... Then please pray for Central Texas, my home and most favorite place on earth.  Pray for a miracle: rain.

If you are not the praying type, please send good thoughts, vibes, or whatever you can to Central Texas.

In case you did not know, wildfires are burning their way through my home state. 

Seriously scary stuff, ya'll.

Pinspiration Friday

I've decided to copy Miss Keely and others on the blogosphere.  I'm doing Pinterest Friday!

I can't really adequately describe how much I adore Pinterest.  I am crazy in love with it.  If you follow me there, you know I am beyond obsessed.  It's a sickness.  If you don't follow me, I am Emily F.  I'd love to be your Pinterest friend :)

In addition to drooling over recipes and beautiful porches (True story: I have an entire pinboard for porches), I have actually found some great kiddo crafts for work and some ideas that I can use at home.  For example:

Pinterest Freezer.  Drool.

Newly organized freezer de Snoop



So mine is not nearly as adorable as the Pinterest one, but it is life changing.  My dad and brother hunt (go ahead and be mad and stop reading...), so Mr. Snoop and I keep a lot of frozen venison as well as other foods in the freezer.  It really got pretty wild and crazy in there.  I would freeze my hands off organize our freezer monthly, but then Mr. Snoop would go in there for something and leave a disaster zone in his wake.  I'd come to open the door and there would be an avalanche of deer meat, pasta, etc.  So I'm loving this.

Eventually I'd like to get square tubs like on Pinterest to save space, but these babies were $1 a piece at Target.  Can't beat that deal.  The little yellow bins were 4 for $1 at Target.  The labels are another Pinterest resource:

Free Printables for Home Organization



As you have undoubtedly realized at this point if you are still reading past all the talk of venison and labels, I'm kind of obssesed with all things organization, so I have made great use of this Pinterest find!  I re-organized my baking cabinet with labels as well as my recipe binders.  I'm a freak.  Have you ever taken the Meyers Briggs test?  If you have, I'm a 100% J to the max.  In case you couldn't tell.

Off to alphabetize my pinboards,

Snoop

Extreme Couponing

From TLC

Extreme couponing kind of fascinates me.  Its like a train wreck: I can't look away.  Some of the people on the show seem a bit.. off.  I mean, really, what do people do with 400 pounds of dog food?  Or carts and carts of ketchup?  How much laundry detergent does one actually need? 

Personally, I do use coupons for items I need or will use.  We get the Sunday paper, so I clip them there.  I'm sort of afraid of the black hole that is online coupons.  I do feel like it helps our budget quite a bit.  But I don't go cray cray.

I recently read this article about couponing for a cause.  Through their church, these women do the couponing thing and donate the goods to local food banks.  I think that is awesome, and felt inspired.  With working a (more than) full time job and taking care of a medical student, my time to "give back" has been limited of late, and I have been feeling it.  I do think that food banks are wonderful resources in the community, especially in this economy.  So with my last local paper, I also clipped coupons for the food bank and put them in a seperate envelope.  When I did my usual grocery store run, I picked up these goods for the local food pantry.  Combined with the coupons and the in-store deals, this all cost about $11.50.  (Keep in mind I live in New York, where food prices are through. the. roof.)

I just noticed Shammy Boy in the window.  Lol.



I think this is something I'll continue to do--certainly not as seriously as the extreme couponers, but when I'm clipping coupons I'm going to put a couple aside for the food bank.  When I'm already in the store and see one of those items on sale, I'll grab it.  I'd encourage anyone who feels up to it to do this same.  Such an easy way to lend a hand!

What about you?  Do you coupon?