Blueberry Pie

I am fortunate enough to work for a doctor who's patients LOVE him (and his staff). On any given week we have patients who bring us cakes, pastries, peanut brittle, fresh veggies and fruit. They even bring him homemade moonshine!! This past week the blueberry man came with tons of blueberries. I fell in love with him last year. I made around a half dozen blueberry pies last year between Easter and Mother's Day. Dave and I did not consume all of them, but let me say it is one of his favorite desserts. Before last year I had never made a blueberry pie and I have definitely perfected the recipe. The below recipe is a combination of many, making it my own!

Disclaimer: I am more of a Sandra Lee type of cook 1/4 pre-made + 3/4 homemade= semi-homemade. That means I don't make my own pie crusts. Sorry, maybe one day. For the meantime, enjoy!!

Filling:
3 Cups of Fresh Blueberries
3 Tablespoons of Corn Starch
3 Tablespoons of Water
1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice
½ Cup of Sugar
¼ Teaspoon of Cinnamon

Topping:
½ stick of softened butter
½ cup of sugar
½ cup of all purpose flour

Mix all filling ingredients together and pour into frozen pre-made deep dish pie crust. For topping, mix ingredients together with a fork to make a crumble topping. Sprinkle over pie. I wrap just the crust in foil or if you have one of those fancy metal crust rings you can use that. Bake at 350 degrees for 45min to 1 hr., or until topping is golden brown.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. YUMMY!!

School 101

So I made it through my first semester and received good grades as well...
A&P 1: A
Nutrition: A
Medical Terminology: B
Chemistry: B

I am now taking Microbiology during Summer A which is only 6 weeks long, that means class every day and lab twice a week. After that I will have 2 months off from school for the remainder of the summer. I am applying for SFCC nursing school for the Fall, I should know in mid July if I get in, if not I will apply next spring for UF's nursing program. I will keep you all updated!! I hope all is well, can you believe it practically Summer already?

White is Bad, Dark is Good...

We took Maggie to the vet today for her 3 week check-up from the day we were told she had a 50/50 chance. The vet was very impressed at how well Maggie was doing. Her lungs sounded much better, unlike 2 weeks ago when she said "well she isn't any worse." The vet gave us lots of praise for taking such good care of Maggie she said without all of the breathing treatments and couppage she wouldn't have been as well. We were told we could stop the breathing treatments and couppage, yippee for me!! We are keeping her on doxycycline for 2 more weeks then "calling it a day" as the vet put it. You can see in her x-rays below, her lungs are much better. Normal lungs appear black on x-rays, as you can see below, before Maggie's lungs were almost completely white, they are now much darker. So white is bad and dark is good. Her lungs are almost completely clear, she may have scarring that will last her lifetime but that shouldn't be a problem since we won't be entering her into any races. She has tons of energy and enjoys getting into trouble. We are happy that she has finally received a clean bill of health!! YAY!!


Before

B

After


Before



After

African Violets

Well my mother-in-law left her african violets in our care when she moved. Needless to say they are barely surviving and one is completely gone. They were placed in a window that is very close to the ground and Maggie loves being outside so she is constantly looking out the windows. In her quest for the outdoors she discovered the african violets. She completely destroyed one so we are down to 2 and they are now out of Maggie's reach. Maybe we can keep them alive On another note, my okra plants are still alive and growing, not producing any crop yet but I am still hopeful.

We visited the vet again this past Thursday and she said "Well she is not getting worse" in her lingo that means her new antibiotics are working and she is getting better. We can tell she is better. She no longer has weeping eyes or a runny nose and she is full of energy. When Dave picked her at Petsmart he liked her because she was a lazy dog, just what he wanted, little did he know he was picking the sick lethargic dog who is now very active. She has gained 4 pounds in 3 weeks. She is pretty much leash trained. Now we just have to master the potty training...





Oops!!



Someone is in trouble!!


There's the violet




Sorry!!

I love this stuff!!

If you haven't heard of this stuff or don't have any you should get some soon! I think every household should have some Wilton Armetale, http://www.armetale.com/. I registered for some pieces for our wedding and received quite a few. I didn't realize how great this stuff was until I actually received it and went to use it. You can cook in it!! Put it in the oven, chill in the fridge, grill or even cook on your stove top. As most of you know I am clumsy and I love this because it will hopefully be impossible for me to break! It is very attractive as well. If you are in Florida you can get this stuff at Macy's and Belk's. It is somewhat expensive but you can find it 50% off at both stores. I got 2 pieces for 50% off at Belk's a couple of weeks ago and it is now on sale at Macy's this week. I totally think it is worth the full price but I love a good bargain!! This is definitely my favorite product of the year!!



(Some of the pieces we received for our wedding)

50/50

Well today was Maggie's week check-up with the vet. She has been feeling better for the last few days, so we both thought she was getting better. The vet listened to her lungs and they are the same, still pneumonia. The vet had me listen to her lungs as well, not good. I had to leave her for an xray and blood test to find out what was going on. Dave and I went back together to pick her up and to get the diagnosis. The vet told us she has a 50/50 chance. Her white blood cell count is off the charts, normal is 16 and she is at 36. She put her on a new antibiotic, since the other one hasn't really made a difference. The vet believes that the thing that has worked the best for her has been her breathing treatments with the coupage. We are instructed to keep that up with the new medicine and hopefully we will see improvement. We will know more in a week. Keep Maggie in your prayers!!

It's a Girl!

A puppy, not a child, of course. Dave surprised me with her Saturday before last. We had a garage sale in the morning and afterwards Dave said he was going to run errands. A little over a hour later he placed a puppy on me while I was sleeping on the couch. My belated birthday gift! We named her Maggie Mae and she is the sweetest thing!

She had a bit of a cough when we got her which progressively got worse the first night we had her. The next day we went back to the puppy rescue to get some medicine. On Tuesday I took her to the vet for her first check up. As soon as I entered the vet they rushed me into a private room b/c I had a "sick" animal as they noted the second I walked in the door. The vet finally came to give her a check and after listening to her lungs she told me that Maggie didn't just have a cold, it was pneumonia. The prognosis wasn't good, she basically told me the worst case scenario and she totally left out any good outcome. She told me that Florida has a lemon law on rescue puppies, well you know what that was referring to...no way could I take her back!! Maggie was placed on a very strong antibiotic and I was ordered to give her steam treatments and then follow that up with coupage (pounding on the chest) 3 x a day. Normal puppy vaccinations were also discussed as well as heartworm and flea treatments. It was all overwhelming and a big blur once I heard the "pneumonia" word. We were finally escorted by the nurse to the front desk to pay our bill but once we got there the vet came out and told us to go back into the room aka "quarantine." I had to pay via the nurse running back and forth from the front desk to the quarantine. The staff was nice and all but after the diagnosis and being confined to the quarantine, I wasn't in the best of moods.

It is now a week later, after many steam and coupage treatments and lots of antibiotics Maggie health is improving. Dave is the official pill popper and I give the treatments. She is starting to act like a puppy! Running, playing, chewing, disobeying, all the typical puppy stuff. I am taking her back to the vet on Thursday for her recheck so we are praying the vet has a better prognosis for her this time.