Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

I have several faults. One is that I nearly always drip water on myself when drinking from a water bottle. Another is that I ALWAYS (or 99.99999% of the time) make a mess in the kitchen. The third is that I rarely generate my own body heat. In Texas, it isn't much of a problem...but it is in Idaho. Also Utah. Guess where my family is. Which is why we went to see Mark's fam--no, just kidding, they are in Idaho and Utah, too. We still visited. Nephew #3 We flew into Salt Lake and visited with Mark's brother's family to see baby Russell and adult penguins. Nephew #2, upon seeing me, declared that he was so glad I wasn't dead. Sometimes you need to see things from a child's perspective to really appreciate what you have in life. Mark and I then had some dedicated nap time on the bus up to Idaho, consequently missing most of the scenery, but making the journey seem pretty short. Our trip coincided with the Open House of the Idaho Falls Temple, meani...

Salt is kinda strange. It has its own adjective (salty), without which it's near impossible to describe. And while most people think of salt as just for fries/pretzels/chips/crackers/etc., it is also used in sweet things: in cookies and cakes and, of course, salted caramel. Sometimes I put it on watermelon to enhance the flavor [a faintly sweet, faintly salty water flavor]. Basically, my point is that without salt, things are pretty bland. My past few weeks have been salted. Not in a terribly adventurous, MSG way, but in a good old ah-that's-more-interesting way. ***The following story requires reader discretion for the amount of grossness each individual can handle*****For the first time in my career as a nurse, I did digital rectal stimulation. That sounds awfully salty, but there's nothing racy about it. My patient was constipated--to the point of impaction [which means the poop is solidly stuck]. The milk and molasses enemas weren't working, so after getting an ...

At the beginning of the year, facing an upcoming semester of full-time work and full-time school, I tried to make my future life easier. Guessing (accurately) that I wouldn't have time for cooking, I spent two days in early January prepping a score of freezer meals. Our freezer got REALLY full. I had to evict the ice maker. And stop buying frozen fruits and vegetables. Mark's job was to put the meals in the crockpot. I made sure we had all of the non-perishables needed for the meals, labeled them, and used color-coding in writing the cooking instructions so that Mark would notice if the recipe called for additional ingredients. Looking back on it, I have to say that a lot of those recipes weren't that great, but I don't remember making them...so I can't really say how to make it better. Also, apparently I know my husband really well. For one of the meals he was supposed to add 2 quarts of vegetable stock, but only found one quart in the pantry. Then he saw a qua...