Update on Shelly

I am asked on a daily basis how my sister-in-law Shelly is doing.  Thank you to everyone who has been praying for her, it is definitely working! 

Doctors are baffled by the slow progression of the leukemia as her blood work continues to remain on just a slight decline! This is wonderful news and a huge blessing for her little girl.  The doctors are optimistic at this point, but her platelet levels are getting to the point where they will need to make some decisions soon about if she will undergo a blood transfusion or get her admission underway and start treatment. Currently, they are hoping that her admission will not be until next Tuesday, September 4th, with treatment starting on the 5th. Baby will have hit 23 and a half weeks along by that point putting her at over 29 weeks by delivery time, if all goes according to plan. The first 5 weeks of treatment are beyond tough, so please keep praying.

And another great piece of news is that the blood typing came back today and my husband, JC, and his sister Becky are both matches should Shelly need a bone marrow transplant in the future! 

Thanks again for the continued prayers, and as a reminder, please please please sign up for the Be the Match bone marrow donor registry! 

Wordless Wednesday: Bow & Arrow

I love how my darling child can wear a tutu and shoot a bow all at the same time... that's what I call well-rounded!

Pizza Stuffed Zucchini

Anyone else have zucchini overload in their garden?  We certainly do.  My favorite way to prepare it is with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and just toss on the grill for a few minutes.  But there are only so many times a girl can eat grilled zucchini.  So along came this creation.  I must admit, we were pretty pleased with it.

What You'll Need:

• 1 1/4 cups marinara sauce
• 1 large or 4 medium zucchini 
• 1 tsp oil
• 1/2 small onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 diced green pepper
•  1/2 cup diced mushroom
• 1 lb Hot Italian Sausage
• Mini Pepperoni
• Shredded mozzarella
• Grated Parmesan cheese

What You Do:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and using a spoon, scoop out the center flesh.

Place 1/4 cup of sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 12" baking dish, and place zucchini halves cut side up.

Brown sausage over medium heat.  The last few minutes of browning add the onion, garlic, pepper and mushroom. Continue cooking until veggies are soft.

Using a spoon, fill each hollowed zucchini with sausage mixture. Top with a couple of tablespoons of sauce.

Add shredded mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese.

Finish off by adding pepperoni. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and zucchini is cooked through.  You want the zucchini to be cooked, but still crunchy.   

Squirrel Hunting

We took Monkey out squirrel hunting this weekend, we didn't see very many squirrels, but she got a lot of practice shooting her BB gun!

These are a couple of my favorite shots of the morning.

Taking a break from hiking.

Showing off the holes she shot in the shell!

Cucumber Boats

This summer has been hot. Not normal summer hot, like 50 Shades of Hell hot. When it's this unbearable, I like to have food that is refreshing and cool. That's where these cucumber boats come in.

There's nothing really special about these, you could just slice up a cucumber and throw some cottage cheese on top, but the boats look more appetizing and you MUST add basil and cilantro to the cottage cheese. 

What You Need:

• 1 cucumber, peeled, halved and seeds scooped out
• 3/4 cup cottage cheese
• 2 tablespoons basil, chopped
• 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
• Salt and Pepper - to taste

What You Do:

1. Peel a cucumber - I don't mind the skin, so I just peel off the parts that aren't good.  Slice it in half and using a spoon scoop out all the seeds.  Sprinkle a little salt on the cucumber.

2. Mix together the cottage cheese, basil, salt and cilantro and fill the hollowed out area.

3. Sprinkle with cracked black pepper.

4. Chow down.

Wordless Wednesday: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

This photo was taken a few weeks ago, there was a full double rainbow in the sky.  Monkey was super excited about it!

Be the Match

The first half of 2012 hasn't been so great.  I find it's better to look at the glass as half full rather than half empty and always try to stay positive about things.  So I haven't even bothered blogging about the trials we have been faced with.  I don't like to dwell in it and I think that no matter what life throws at us, I would rather roll with the punches than lie on the ground and be trampled.
However, now I'm going to share a little something and just ask for your prayers.

My sister-in-law, Shelly and her husband Nick are facing some pretty tough stuff.  They've already been down a really long road, three years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer and beat it.  Last year, came a diagnosis of infertility due to the breast cancer treatment, and was able to beat those odds as well, as she is now 20 weeks pregnant.  Unfortunately the road has gotten even longer, last week she was diagnosed with MDS/early stage leukemia (AML) caused from the breast cancer treatment as well. 

They have spent time at the ER and Mayo Clinic and will now most likely be going to Shands.  Her type of leukemia combined with being pregnant is pretty rare so finding someone to treat her has been difficult.  They believe Shands has the Neonatal and Cancer facilities to help. If she wasn't pregnant, she would already be starting chemo, but as of now, they are playing a waiting game trying to give the baby the best chance at survival.  There is good news, they think they'll be able to treat this with chemo, but she may need a bone marrow transplant.  She will probably be spending a lot of time in the hospital, but right now, taking it one day at at time. 

I'm asking for you to please pray for her, Nick, and that precious cargo she is carrying.  I'm also asking that you sign up to be a bone marrow donor.  Not only is Shelly facing this fight, but a very close family friend is currently battling MDS-AML as well.  While you probably won't be a match for them, you may be a match for someone else.  Go to the Be The Match website to sign up.  You could save a life.

Here's to hoping the last half of 2012 brings forth more joy than sorrow.

Last Appleseed of the Year!

Next weekend, August 18-19, is the final Appleseed of the year at our farm. If you haven't made it out to one yet, you don't want to miss this one!  Fun is guaranteed to be had by all!

If you aren't familiar with what an Appleseed shoot is all about, check out their website.  You can also see if there are any other events close to you coming up.

Big Fan

This was Monkey last night as we were watching the Olympic coverage of the women's U.S. beach volleyball game.  Yep, she's definately my daughter.