So, on a whim, I decided to try one of these services that ships you all of the ingredients that you need in order to make a dinner. I thought it would be a good way to try out some new recipes and flavors, since they only give you what you need to make that dish, instead of having to purchase, say, an entire bottle of Worchestershire sauce when you only need a teaspoon.

My first trial was the Peanut Chicken Curry. I made this last Sunday after Mass.

All of the ingredients were packaged well, clearly labeled, and fresh.

There were a few ingredients I was not familiar with. (I’m looking at you fish oil, red curry paste and gochujang!) I wasn’t sure what they would taste like, so I tasted a tiny bit of each before I used it. The fish oil was not as fishy as I expected, which was a relief. 🙂

The instruction card states that this recipe should take between 30-40 minutes. I was interested to see how long it would take me — being a fairly novice cook and not pre-prepping the food at all beyond what they packaged for me. It took me 35 minutes from start to finish.

It didn’t look *exactly* like their photo, but it was close enough. And taste? It was *amazing*! I seriously could eat this ALL THE TIME!

For my first trial of Plated, they hit it out of the park!

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Sometimes I have humorous thoughts. And I need to share them. 🙂

For example:
I think emoticons are too restrictive. I mean, I can only type out 😉 or 😛 when I really feel like:

this…

Many thanks to the illustrator who created this piece of amazingness for me. 🙂

I’m starting to get hungry for lunch, so I opened my box of organics to see what I have.   I found a new kind of mango in there.   Smaller, yellow.

Sorry, I have no pictures.  It was devoured too quickly.

I’m addition to being perfectly juicy; it had a wonderfully mangoey flavor, plus something unexpected…

It was sour!   Not in a bad way, but like a Sour Patch Kid!

YUM!!!

I hope they still have these for my next delivery!   I might order a ton!   🙂

I am so tired!   I did my Week 3 Day 1 run on Saturday morning.

Let me tell you.   I SO wanted to start walking that last set of 400 yards.

I didn’t.  Because I am more stubborn than I am sensible.  And I’m glad I didn’t.

But I am completely exhausted.   I need like a week to recover.  🙂

Keep cheering me on!  The next few weeks look tough!

Yep.  I’m only just now getting around to my Week 2 Day 2 run.

I wasn’t feeling well after my meeting last night, so I ended up taking a long nap when I got home.  I woke up at 2 am and tried to sleep for about half an hour, but this wasn’t happening.

A run in the cool air was just the thing.  Thanks be to light pollution, it was pretty bright out.   Even in the park with all the trees.  I only had on a long-sleeve T-shirt, but this was enough.

This run wasn’t too bad.  🙂  I did better than Tuesday, even!  Other days, I would come home to suck down a bunch of water and assume the Starfish position on my bed, but right now – about 45 minutes later – I’m not that worn out!  🙂

Although I should probably drink that water…

Chapel Chat – November 2012 from Mark Salloum on Vimeo.

With Fr. John Riccardo and Fr. Steve Mateja.

I have been spoiled rotten.

I haven’t had a “regular” illness in over 4 years. For serious. No cold or flu or anything like that. This started in fall of 2008, when my godmother was in the last months of her battle with lung cancer. I begged God to keep me healthy and non-contagious, so that I’d be able to be with her as much as I can. I guess prayer really works!

On Tuesday after I taught catechism, my voice was a little scratchy. I chalked it up to “yelling” at the kids to keep the volume down. However, by Wednesday morning, it was clear that I was getting a case of laryngitis — and it HURT! Add to this the fact that I work in a call center currently and have to talk on the phone all day. Ouch! I went up to my boss, so she could see how bad I was getting, but she had no sympathy at all and just shrugged and said that she got that all the time. She’s one of those who looks at you like “Seriously?” if you try to say you’re sick, and I’m one of those who will continue working until someone sends me home, so I suffered through the workday.

Thursday, I was feeling worse. My throat was very painful and I was squeaking like crazy. By 3 pm, I had had enough. The patients calling in couldn’t understand me and I was sure that they were deathly afraid of catching my germs over the telephone lines. I asked a coworker to call my PCP’s office to see if I could be seen. They had an appointment in 20 minutes, across town — across downtown Ann Arbor. I asked my boss if I could leave and got permission to go. I called the doctor’s office on the way to my car and took that 3:20 spot. I could be up to 20 minutes late. I got there at 3:30 pm.

When I saw my PCP, I only had symptoms of laryngitis, although my left ear was starting to close up — always a sign of worse impending sickness. But I truly didn’t feel bad otherwise. My doctor wrote me a note to allow me to be off work on Friday, since resting my voice would help me to get it back faster.

Over the weekend, I got a lot sicker. It became a full-on cold and a pretty nasty one at that. I don’t really recall the weekend that much, except that I spent most of it in bed and didn’t make it to Mass on Sunday. You might be thinking that a cold, while uncomfortable isn’t really a big deal, and this is normally true. However, because of my other health issues, it causes problems. My doctors have told me before that I’m not allowed to get sick again, and here I am, doing what I shouldn’t! Typical. 🙂 So while I normally get short of breath, this was exacerbated and I could only take small “sips” of air at a time. This also caused me to get tachycardic quite a bit.

Since my doctor’s note only covered for Friday, I went back to work on Monday. And Tuesday. And since my boss was out the rest of the week, I felt obligated to come in. And I was miserable and resentful the whole time. Each day, I could manage for a few hours, but the last 6 hours were pure torture. I got a runny nose and used so many of our cheap Kleenex that my nose became chapped and raw. Once that subsided, I developed horrible coughing. I thought I was going to rupture something and my throat again became very swollen and painful, until I didn’t want to eat or drink anything.

I was doing a pretty bad job of eating and drinking in general, although I tried. My house was getting dirtier and all of my dishes were in the sink and I was so upset that I didn’t have help. When you are sick, you realize some things about your character. Turns out, when I’m sick I get whiny (thankfully, usually only in my head) and cranky (again, usually I can keep my comments to myself) and want attention.

[Here I am, finally editing this post to publish, and I am sick again! Ugh! This sucks! But hopefully I won’t get as sick as I did here in November (it’s April 2013 now). I ended up in the ER for dehydration – is how this tale ends. I know that eventually I will get better, just as I eventually recovered from this, but the living through it is difficult. Working while sick is pretty miserable too! My sympathies and prayers to all those out there who are also sick.]

Last month, a friend showed me how to create these photo collage headers.  I made one, but I wondered how I could create one for each month with lots of pictures when the month has just begun.  So, I decided tonight that I will try not to be so picky about it and make each new month’s header with highlight pictures from the previous month.

Putting August’s header together, I got to review a lot of the things that happened in July.  It was a month both of very good times and very trying days.  I spent the 4th with friends and watched the fireworks in Clawson.  I had quite a few fun times outside of the office with my awesome coworkers — at the MCIT picnic, Brian’s birthday, and Grillin’ with Cadence.  I was able to pray alongside James and Shauna as their home was blessed.

And perhaps my favorite event of the summer, Dunk-a-Priest!  That was also the day where both of my parishes had a picnic on the same day.  It was a very hot day, and — sadly — Fr. John said that he was going to horde all the water for himself (when I asked him to splash extra big when he was dunked).

Unfortunately, it was also a difficult month, health-wise.  I have been, overall, quite a bit more exhausted than usual.  Some days, I haven’t made it off the couch.  I have noticed an increase in symptoms and a significant decrease in stamina.  I don’t usually have headaches, but have had many this past month, as well as dizziness and nausea.  I missed Mass on Sunday.  I’ve never missed a Sunday Mass before.

I pray for the grace to make Mary’s Fiat my own and I am thankful for all the blessings that I have.  I love my life and I can’t wait to see what August has in store for me!  🙂