Thank you for your prayers...

Things are moving along, plans have been made, and the funeral will be tomorrow.

My sister arrived yesterday from North Carolina.  We still don't know when we'll be able to go to New Jersey for the burial.  Reid's core needle biopsy is today down at MD Anderson.  Based on those results he may or may not need surgery tentatively scheduled for next week.  He's trying to see if they can change the tentative surgery date to the following week so we can all go to New Jersey together.

The kids and I worked on Jim's obituary and were pleased with the final result.  You can read it here.  Meanwhile we've been going through old photographs for the funeral.  The early years were all on slides, but yesterday Troy scanned some slides so we'll have those too.  We've had fun looking at the old photos, sharing stories, and having some good times recalling the past.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Family Update

Early this morning my husband died.  Jim had entered the hospital through the Emergency Room late Sunday afternoon.  Yesterday he was moved to Intensive Care and we had hoped the crisis would pass, but it was not to be.  It was totally unexpected. His kidneys shut down and that led to other complications.

He had worked all last week and I had even gone to Keith's in Austin for a few days.  When I returned on Sunday he was complaining about being exhausted and I thought he might be anemic from the chemo.  He also had shortness of breath, so I took him to the ER and he was admitted.

I'm thankful that he went quickly and didn't suffer.  The kids are all here now and we're going to be making funeral plans tomorrow.  He will be buried in New Jersey.  We're all kind of in shock right now.

I haven't been reading E-mails and probably will end up going in and deleting in order to catch up.  Reid will be having a core needle biopsy this Friday and possibly surgery the following week. There's a lot going on.

I'll post updates here.  Things are pretty hectic right now.

PINK SATURDAY

Welcome once again to Pink Saturday sponsored by Beverly over at How Sweet The Sound.  For a list of this week's participants  head over to Beverly's blog.

I have three grown sons and no daughters, so I really never had a whole lot of pink in my life.  I like pink, but blue was always my favorite color.  Good thing since I was surrounded by males.  I have no grandchildren, so I have no granddaughters, but I have my dolls and they like pink.

This is my Vogue Ginny Doll's bedroom.  The furniture is pink and from the 1950's.  That's a Vogue vintage reproduction Ginny in bed, a vintage Vogue Jill, and a Vogue modern day Candy Striper Ginny that a doll friend, Diane, gave me when my son was recuperating from a stem cell transplant.  Ginny was a little under the weather when this picture was taken. The dollhouse on the right was done in plastic canvas by Londa, another doll friend. (Click on pictures to enlarge and use your back arrow to return.)

 Here's another vintage repro AA Ginny in a pink dress that Cathy on the Yahoo Ginny Doll list made for her.  I wish I could crochet.  It's not that I haven't tried.  My talents must lie somewhere else.

Here are the "kids" having breakfast.  The repro Ginny on the floor is wearing pink pajamas made by Vogue and the vintage Ginny on the chair is wearing vintage pink and white checked pajamas made by Vogue.  Those pajamas also came in blue and white checks and red and white checks.  The vintage Ginny with her back to you is wearing the blue and white checked ones.  The other Ginny on the right is partially hidden, but she's wearing the red and white checked pajamas.

You can see her better in this picture.  I like the matching pajamas and the blue and white pair are from my childhood.  The others I got on eBay.

I don't get much time anymore  to play with my dolls and set them up in scenes, but in the past year I did buy my first two Muffie dolls.  They were also made in the 1950's to compete with the Vogue Ginny.  This poor Muffie's hair was a mess, but I washed and rolled it and she looks much better now.  Her outfit was made by a Ginny friend, Susan.  Her apron has pink, her hair bow is pink, and her socks are pink.  You don't get much pinker than that!  Behind her is a vintage Ginny and a vintage Cosmopolitan Ginger Doll.

Now head over to Beverly's blog so you can visit some more pink posts!  And thank you My Pink Pretties for your kind comments.  (She likes dolls too.)

Alphabe-Thursday..."U" as in Utterly Delicious Cake

It's time for the letter "U" for this week's Alphabe-Thursday.  My son, Keith, came to my rescue this week with a recipe he renamed UTTERLY Delicious Cake.  He tells me he got this recipe from a co-worker and it's very good.  He baked it last week and E-mailed the recipe and picture. Keith lives in Austin, so I didn't personally get to try this cake, but he assures me that I won't be disappointed.  It's unusual in that it calls for pudding, but four of those little already made pudding cups.

Utterly Delicious Cake

1 yellow cake mix

1 4-pak butterscotch pudding cups

2 eggs

Mix well.  Pour mixture into a greased 9X13 dish.

Top with 1/2 package butterscotch morsels.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.

Check with toothpick.

Now head over to Ms. Jenny's blog, Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent," for a list of this week's participants.

And thank you Keith for your help!  It's been a busy week and today we switched to ATT&T U-verse, so I didn't have Internet access this afternoon while it was being installed.

Family Update...

On Sunday afternoon we decided to head over to Brazos Bend State Park for an Easter cook-out.  Brazos Bend is home to the American alligator and there are many lakes and hiking trails.  We've always enjoyed going there and hadn't been since before Reid got sick.  Jim hadn't felt well last week, but by Sunday he was feeling quite a bit better and it seemed like a good time to go.

A lot of other people had the same idea.

Our little cook-out was modest compared to most.  Fortunately, we had brought along our own little grill, table and chairs since the park's were all taken.

We cooked hamburgers and hotdogs and then Jim and Reid rested while I hiked around the one lake.

It's a pretty good hike as you can see in this picture.  The trail is on the left.

Finally I spotted an alligator.  Can you see him?

Here's another one...

And another...

By the time I got back Jim and Reid were well rested.

Then yesterday we spent the day down at MD Anderson while Reid had all his tests and scans and doctor's visit.  The lymph node that they've been watching has increased a little in size again and the doctor now wants him to see a surgeon to have the lymph node removed and biopsied.  It needs more than just a needle biopsy.  The doctor says there's a 50/50 chance it's the Hodgkin's returning.  So, we're waiting now for that appointment to get set up.  They're also watching his thyroid now.  He still is fatigued and his thyroid numbers were down a little.  They're going to wait until his next appointment to check the numbers again and if they stay down he'll need to go on medication.  We were told it's fairly common after a stem cell transplant to have the thyroid under produce a little.

So, that's the latest with our family.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.  I've really fallen behind reading E-mail, but will hopefully catch up soon. 

Easter Blessings on Pink Saturday

I haven't participated in Beverly's Pink Saturday in a while now, but decided to hop in for Easter this week. (There is supposed to be a little seasonal humor there.)

I really don't have time to "play" much with my doll collection these days, but I had some pictures that I took a few years ago and decided to share them. Not much pink, but they are Easter pictures. I have some of the same pictures on my sidebar, but you'll be able to click and enlarge them in this post to see the little details better.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter.

Here are my Vogue Ginny Dolls...vintage, modern, and vintage reproductions. I made their Peeps just for the occasion. (You probably wouldn't believe it if I told you how long they took.)

Thanks for visiting and be sure to head over to Beverly's blog for a list of this week's participants.

 See how we dressed for Easter circa 1950?  L-R: Me, my Mom, and my sister, Carol Sue.  It was a big deal to go shopping for new Easter outfits each year.  New dress, gloves, hats, shoes, coats...imagine walking into church today dressed like that?  I think people would do a double take.  Times sure have changed.  Happy Easter!

Alphabe-Thursday..."T" as in TILAPIA

The weeks go by so quickly. Can you believe we're up to the letter "T" as in TILAPIA already? Thank you Ms. Jenny at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent" for sponsoring this weekly event.

I normally hate fish. My husband complains about fish because he had to eat it every Friday growing up Catholic in the 1950's. So, over the years we've rarely had fish. It is supposed to be a healthy alternative and I was told that Tilapia didn't have a real fishy taste, so we decided to give it a try.

Once again, I searched the Internet for recipes and came up with something I thought we might enjoy, Blackened Tilapia with Secret Hobo Spices found on allrecipes.com. For us this recipe was a winner and we've had it numerous times since, but remember we live in Texas and like our food real spicy. I've made a few adjustments to the original recipe. I only cook four fillets at a time and the recipe called for one pound of fillets, so I cut all the spice ingredients in half. That's plenty for four fillets. I also skip the Kosher salt called for in the recipe because I don't care for salt and never add it to any of my recipes. (I know...I'm strange.) You might want to cut back on the cayenne pepper. I use half a teaspoon, but you might only want to use a pinch. Remember, with us the hotter the better.

The recipe also said to place the cooked fillets on a slice of bread, pour the pan juices over it, and squeeze on lemon juice. We skip all that because there aren't that many pan juices and the bread isn't really necessary. We just plop a fillet on our plates and eat.

We had this last night along with potatoes and fresh asparagus. It was a very good meal.

I'm going to include the link to the potato recipe I used, but you might not be able to find these potatoes in your grocery store. They are called Tasteful Selections and are only carried at Kroger and Walmart here. They have all different types of small potatoes and they're sold in plastic bags. There's usually a recipe on the back of the bags, but I've gone to their website to find more. Last night we used their recipe for Tasteful Selections Mustard Crusted Potatoes. We've had these before and always enjoy them, and they go real well with the Tilapia fillets.

I used a bag of their Sunrise Medley Potatoes. You can see all the different kinds of potatoes they carry here. They have a real good selection of recipes on their website. You can also find a store locator.

Now head over to Ms. Jenny's so you can visit some more Alphabe-Thursday posts!