GGGGRRRRRR

This week sucks.  That is all I have. 

Bored

I got bored so I played around with some of the gadgets on the right side of the page here.  I wish there was a Facebook gadget but I can't find one.  However, I did find a Twitter one so you'll get my once a month thoughts on Twitter over there right on my blog!  LOL!  I think I'm heading back over to Facebook right now...

This Weekend's Exhausting Me!

Jacob had his birthday slumber party on Friday night.  I swear this just might be the last one since there was at least one child up at some point for the entire night.  Two boys fell asleep around 1am and were woken up by others playing pranks around 4am.  Those boys fell asleep around 4:30 and the ones that had been asleep stayed up and woke everyone else up at 7am.  The only thing that kept me from being really upset was the fact that they were quiet.  One little boy, John, came upstairs and promptly fell asleep on the couch.  I tried waking him up and Mike tried waking him up with no luck.  Poor kid was bumping into walls when his mom came to pick him up. 

In order to keep Hannah out of their hair, I took her to see Ramona and Beezus during the party.  We both loved it.  It doesn't follow a specific book and they've modernized the story but it's very cute.  I wasn't disappointed at all and found myself crying through the second half of the movie.  Hannah thought that was strange.  I'm a cryer, what can I say. 

Saturday, we spent most of the day sleeping.  Jacob and Daniel both fell asleep on the couch, which was seriously cute.  It was hard to get Jacob up so that we could go see Toy Story 3 while Mike went to see Paul McCartney at the Sprint Center.  Yeah, I could have gone to see Paul McCartney with him, but I don't like the Beatles or Paul McCartney so I figured it would be better if Mike took someone that would actually enjoy the concert.  Mike had a great time and so did the rest of us, so all's good. 

We all slept in this morning and have, pretty much, decided that it's just a lazy day.  I'm thinking it's going to be a taco night and we'll just hang out until the Season 4 premiere of Mad Men.  The perfect end to a very busy weekend. 

Oops!

I need to make a revision to the recipe below.  I can't believe I forgot a HUGE ingredient!  Here is the real list of ingredients...

1 cup butter                                               2 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup white sugar                                   1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup packed brown sugar                   1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract                          2 cups chocolate chips
2 eggs                                                       1 cup chopped walnuts

Add brown sugar to the butter, white sugar and vanilla at the beginning.  I used dark brown sugar for this recipe. 

Tonight, I made a White Chocolate Macadamia big cookie for Jacob's birthday.  I used the same recipe EXCEPT I:

**omitted chocolate chips and replaced with 2 cups white chocolate chips

**omitted walnuts and replaced with 1 cup very coarsly chopped macadamia nuts

**used light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar. 

I also only cooked it for 19 minutes and that seemed to work perfectly.

My apologies to anyone that tried to use this recipe without the brown sugar!

Big Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich Photo Post

Okay...so here it is.  The recipe.  I've also got photos of each step because I'm anal that way.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
1 cup butter                                       2 1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup white sugar                            1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract                   1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs                                               2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
                                                         1 cup chopped walnuts

In a large bowl, combine butter, sugars and vanilla. 

Cream until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In another bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda.

Gradually add flour mixture to sugar and butter mixture until well blended. 

Stir in chips (I used 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 cup crushed Andes mints...and omitted walnuts).

Spread dough in greased 9inch pie pans (or 1 14 inch pizza pan) and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Do not overbake cookie!!!

Allow to cool in pans on cooling rack. 

Remove cookies from pan and line one pan with parchment or plastic wrap.  Place one cookie in pan.

Cover cookie with softened ice cream

Put other cookie on top. 

Cover and freeze for several hours to allow ice cream to resolidify.

Decorate as desired and enjoy! 

I did discover that the top cookie gets a little hard...the bottom one stays soft because of the ice cream.  I'm going to try to see if not placing that top cookie on until right before serving helps so that it's not frozen.  Otherwise, it was delicious! 

Epilepsy Part III

Through my own stupidity, I missed this morning's neuro appointment.  Not only did I get yelled at when I called to see if we could still make it in, I had to make 4 calls to make another appointment because the first lady wouldn't make one for me.  Then, I got yelled at AGAIN by the scheduling lady and was told that we now have to go to the end of the line and wait until October 19th.  When I asked if I could get on a list for any cancellations, she told me that was, "doubtful as the list is very long."  I was so mad when I got off the phone that I was shaking.

So, I did a little research and called KU Med.  They were EXTREMELY nice on the phone...already a bonus.  The earliest they could get us in was September 2, but that's still 1 1/2 months before the other guy.  AND they put us on the cancellation list.  She couldn't guarantee us anything but said they'd try. 

Now, I'm just waiting to call our pediatrician to get Daniel's records transferred over to KU. 

And we wait again...

Epilepsy Part II

Since I'm writing this after midnight, I guess I can say that Daniel has his second opinion with the neurologist later this morning.  I'm really nervous but kind of excited at the same time.  This has just been the longest process...waiting 6 months just for the second opinion...and I'm hoping we can get this done and over with.  We're at 10 months since this whole thing began at our pediatrician.

I'm just so confused at to why all this stuff isn't lining up.  Why has Daniel had one abnormal regular EEG and one abnormal 24 (48) hour EEG with the spikes lining up in the correct area of the brain for seizure activity but nothing is wrong with that?  Why are they dismissing family history of this particular kind of seizure (this is where I really wish Mike had gotten tested, too)?  Why, if it was no big deal, did they keep us for 48 hours when the test was only supossed to be 24?  We were told you cannot "turn off" seizures and therefore it's ADD...which you can't "turn off" either.  Why is my child so special that he's the "1 in 100 that can walk around with these misfireings in his brain and it's nothing when 99 other people would have Epilepsy?"  But we were never able to push that stupid plunger when they happened.  Because of that he's fine...go home and wait for a real seizure.

I'm so mad that we were dismissed like that.  "He doesn't have Epilepsy so go home."  Awesome.

We, kind of, know this new neuro.  His son was Hannah's kindergarten Sunday School teacher.  Rabbi Vered, our educational rabbi, put us in contact with him.  After having a long conversation with Vered in the middle of Wal-Mart on a random day in January around midnight, she made sure she hooked us up the following Sunday after Family Service. 

I'm hoping that, at this time tomorrow, we have some answers.  I'll keep you posted.