Ichmanida and an Ambulance

Ichmanida? Ambulance? Well, let me get to those stories in just a second....

But first! On my blog profile it states that I am a wannabe chef. I do cook quite a bit and love trying new recipes. Although, the other day I was craving something rather odd... the cinnamon rolls from my 8th grade family and consumer sciences class. Luckily, I thought to bring the cookbook from that class to college with me :)

The recipe that I made was absolutely delicious! I made Cinnabon cinnamon rolls. I thought you might like to enjoy these delicious morsels as well, so here you go in picture recipe form!

"CINNABON” CINNAMON ROLLS

Makes about 12 rolls

Day 1

1 tablespoon yeast

1 cup warm milk (105-110 degrees)

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

4 cups flour

 

In a large bowl mix the yeast and milk well until yeast is dissolved. (Milk can be warmed in a small bowl first using a microwave oven). Add sugar, melted butter, salt and eggs to the milk mixture and mix well. Using a wooden spoon, add the flour (1 cup at a time) and mix well.

On a lightly floured counter, knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Really work the dough as you can’t hurt it. It takes a lot of action to develop the gluten.

Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes covered with a clean towel. Place the dough in a plastic bag and refrigerate overnight.

Day 2

1/3 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F

Grease a jelly roll pan or 2 cookie sheets.

On a lightly floured counter, roll out the dough flat until it is approximately 20 inches long by 16 inches wide. It should be about 1/4 inch thick. Spread softened butter evenly over the surface of the dough.

In a medium size bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon. Mix well. Sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar mixture evenly over the buttered surface. 

Working carefully from the bottom, roll the dough tightly up to the top edge.

Cut the rolled dough into 1 & 1/4 inch slices until you get 12 rolls.

Place 6 rolls evenly spaced on a lightly greased cookie sheet, or if using a jelly roll pan, place 12 at a time.















Bake for 15-20 minutes until or until lightly brown on top.

OPTIONAL ICING (which is really yummy!)

When the rolls come out of the oven, coat each generously with icing. Use ready made icing or make your own as follows:

In a medium-sized bowl, stir until well combined
8 tablespoons (1stick) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

AND last but not least, ENJOY! And don't forget to share with others!! :)

Now, back to the question of "what is Ichmanida?"

Well, as I ate these delicious cinnamon rolls a couple wonderful memories flowed back into my mind about my 8th grade family and consumer science class ("home ec" from now on).

The first was an epic plan my friends and I created to take over the world and become its supreme rulers. Yes, epic.

Sadly I don't remember the details of how we would come to be the rulers, but it probably had to do with taking charge after a huge nuclear war broke out. Although, once we were rulers we would do the following:

1. Amanda would become the President (I believe we had chosen Amanda).
2. We would rename the world "Ichmanida," which consisted of a compilation of all of the leaders' names (so basically our home ec group).
3. We would create a question mark army. Yes, an army made out of ?s.
4. I would serve as general of this army. Commanding its forces to keep the citizens in suppression.
5. We would do a lot of cool stuff and make a lot of wonderful laws, which sadly I cannot recall at this time.

Don't you think we had a great plan? :)

Another wonderful, and oh so hilarious (please don't hate me for saying that Amanda!) story is about Amanda leaving the school in an ambulance due to home ec...

What you see above is a dessert called Rugelach (or Rugalach). This is one of the recipes that we made in our home ec class.

It contains nuts. Amanda is allergic to nuts. She ate the Rugelach.

She was fine during home ec, but she didn't show up for lunch that day.

As my friends and I were sitting a the lunch table we saw a ambulance pull up to the school, and eventually a girl was hauled out on their stretcher... Amanda.

Of course Amanda wouldn't let the fact that she was an a stretcher, about to be put in an ambulance and then driven to the hospital, cause her to have a bad day. When she saw us at our lunch table staring at her she promptly sat up and waved at us. What a great moment. :)

I loved my friends from that class and from the sewing class that we took the next semester. I still have the cow pajama pants that I made! Thank you to everyone in that class for all the good times!

Also, I hope you enjoy the recipe! I love recipes and I feel so blessed to have them! Otherwise, I would probably never be able to make anything good besides the mixture of cereal and milk :)

Cake in Class!

I love ASL so much! Deaf people can always put a smile on my face! They seem have a very friendly and, for the most part, outgoing culture.

Yesterday in my ASL Linguistics class a bunch of teachers, students and interpreters surprised my teacher with birthday cake! It was a lot of fun :)

My teacher told a story about how her mother always claims to be 21 years old. So the mother would always tell my teacher's daughter that her grandmother was only 21.

Anyways, so when my teacher's mother turned 60 and had her cake placed before it said: "Happy 21st birthday for the 39th time!"

My teacher always tells great stories! I have been so blessed to have such a great ASL teacher this semester!

Sinus Surgery: Post-Surgery

By the end of all my posts about sinus surgery, you will probably never want to hear those two words ever again :)

I had my sinus surgery on Monday, March 14. Here is a little how my day went:

Before I got surgery I knew that I would be taking about two weeks of work off so I had to make sure to be caught up on everything before I got my surgery. The day of my surgery rolled around and I still wasn't caught up on my work so I woke up at around 5:00 AM and worked for two hours. I got a lot done, but man was I tired!

Of course I had also waited to pack until last minute, so I did that as well :)

My wonderful boyfriend Daniel picked me up and took me the Central Utah Surgical Center. While sitting in the waiting room my nerves finally caught up with me and I got super fidgety. Dan finally had to leave and so I read out of my current book for a while. Honestly the wait was only about 20-30 minutes.

One of the nurses took me into an area where I got to change into a lovely gown and pee in a cup for a pregnancy test (don't worry Mom, they are required to do this for ALL women 18 and older!). Guess what? I'm NOT pregnant, better not be a surprise to anyone. Haha.

I was then guided to my cool, wheely hospital bed! There I read for about another five minutes until I was visited by my nurse, surgeon (who was also my ENT doctor), and anesthesiologist. I asked them tons of questions and I had and I am so grateful that they took the time to answer all my questions and address my concerns. My entire wait time from when I arrived at the surgical center for when I entered surgery was probably 45 minutes or less. I was very happy for that!

My nurse rolled me into the surgery room and I was so nervous! I was moved from my wheely bed to the intimidating surgery bed. The anesthesiologist put some potent sleeping medicine into my iv and a few seconds later I was out!

I woke up and felt like the grim reaper had used his sickle to scrape out the entire inside of my face. Yeah, that was no fun. My throat hurt from the breathing tube making it a little hard to breathe and my face was throbbing. As soon as I woke up there was a nurse who came over and talked to me. She had called Dan to come pick me up. And I guess they had given me morphine (happy day!) and were ready to give me my first two percocets once I could down some food.  

This was easier said that done. I have always been a person who cannot eat anything for a very long time after surgery. 

I slowly ate two saltines, downed a bunch of water and took my two percocets. Maybe it was not the best idea to down a bunch of water...

For some reason this surgery killed my bladder control. I think this is funny so therefore I am not ashamed to admit it! The whole experience is kind of a blur due to all the pain and medicine, but I know there was one point that which I wet my bed while waiting for a nurse. She came along and I confessed my accident to her. She laughed, got me a new gown, changed my sheets and put a plastic covered over them just in case I had any more accidents. What a sweet woman.

In fact, what a very sweet woman because this happened twice. Haha. And funny enough, I did use the actual restroom in between them. I guess I was truly drinking a lot of water. The second time came along and she made a bunch of jokes about me being an old woman, which made me feel better :)

Dan finally arrived, but I was not permitted to go home yet. My nose was bleeding too much and they wanted to ensure that it would slow down. This was fine with me because I was getting taken care of super well.

I stayed an extra three and a half hours at the hospital. Two of those hours consisted of my sitting in bed with an ice pack over my face, spitting out blood, trying not to drink too much water ;), and Dan holding my hand and reading Fablehaven to me. Yeah, I know I have a wonderful boyfriend :)

I was finally permitted to go home. Dan was kind enough to fetch me a new pair of pants from my suitcase because my others were no longer usable. As I was changing I bumped my glass of water over and my nurse cleaned that up as well. She was awesome.

I was then wheeled out to the car in a wheelchair.

The next step was to get my medicine, which Dan was nice enough to do. And drive an hour an a half up to my sister's house. Here is what I looked like during the drive:

The drive was super long and made my way nauseous. Midway through the drive we stopped so I could down a couple crackers and take my next dose of medicine. Mostly, the drive went without any major issues and was quite entertaining for Dan...

During the drive I felt like I could think properly and that I was conscious of what I was saying, even though it was weird. I think I talked almost the entire drive up to my sister's house. I mentioned that it would be funny if a small car was behind another car that was towing a boat, and if that boat opened up so that the small car could drive inside of it, and then it closed again. I also tried to have a DTR with Dan (If you don't know what a DTR is, it stands for Determine/Define the Relationship. Basically you decide where your relationship is heading). I don't know why this felt like a good time for this talk, but somehow in my mind it was perfect timing.

The trip finished with us arriving at my sister's house and me throwing up right as we pulled into her driveway and wetting my pants again. Luckily the nurse gave me a sick bag...

I changed clothes again and Dan stayed with me until my sister arrived home that night. He did a lot for me - besides what is described earlier, he also helped me refill my ice pack and he got me tulips :)

I feel blessed that the surgery itself and the day after the surgery went so well! And I feel so blessed to have wonderful nurses that took such good care of me! And for Dan that was so patient and helpful through the entire thing!! Honestly, having him there was a huge comfort and such a blessing :) Plus, I am grateful for my sister's family who took care of me during a lot of my recovery.

My last post about this, when I get around to it, will cover a couple more blessings that I received during surgery and some funny stories about me on my prescribed narcotics.

Endoscopic Sinus Surgery

I feel so blessed that my ENT doctor practices endoscopic sinus surgery, and that this form of surgery has been developed.

If I was older and would have received this surgery 30, 20, or even 10 years ago my form of surgery may have been completely different (sadly some doctors today are even still living in the past). Sinus surgery (as with all forms of surgery) used to be much more intense. There was a common form of surgery where the doctor (if he needed to operate of the maxillary sinuses) would make an incision from about the patient's mouth to their ear and fold back the skin to operate on that side's maxillary sinus. Obviously outward stitches and a long recovery would ensue after the surgery with mild scarring. Imagine how you would look if you had to have both your maxillary sinuses operated on? I picture the Joker from the Batman movie... I guess we finally know how he got his scars.

The surgery process above is only one of many different techniques doctors would use the solve sinus problems. Most of the reading that I have done describes basic outward incisions, like the one described above, over/near the sinus site that was having issues.

I will repeat, I am so happy that they developed Endoscopic Sinus Surgery!

According to ehealthmd.com, endoscopic sinus surgery can be described as: "A thin, lighted instrument called an endoscope is inserted into the nose, and the doctor looks inside through an eyepiece. Much like a telescope with a wide-angle camera lens, the endoscope beams light into different parts of the nose and sinuses, allowing the doctor to see what is causing blockages. Surgical instruments can then be used along with the endoscope to remove the blockages and improve breathing.

This surgery does not involve cutting through the skin, as it is performed entirely through the nostrils. Therefore, most people can go home the same day."* Which was my case. I love being taken care of in a hospital room, but there is no place like home! 

Medical technology has gone a long way! I am so grateful people have done research to move us forward and that I didn't have to look like the Joker following my surgery!

*To learn more about Endoscopic Sinus Surgery you can visit the website where I found the surgery description used above: http://ehealthmd.com/library/endosinus/ess_whatis.html .

Sinus Surgery: Pre-Surgery

I used to suffer from something called "chronic sinusitis." What this means is that I used to get sinus infections on a VERY frequent basis with beautiful, yellow discharge from my nose, never-ending sinus headaches and fatigue. I have to admit, this was getting old and my body was tired of living on antibiotics that didn't seem to work. I decided to go see an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) doctor. After trying one more intense antibiotic (I had previously tried many from my primary care physician), my ENT doctor decided to do a CT Scan on my sinuses.

This is what he found:

Yes, that is my face.

The ENT found many things wrong (please note that these descriptions are my summary of his medical examination and not his exact words) :

A. Sever sinusitis in the right maxillary sinus, with almost full blockage. Do you see that giant dark spot on the left-side of the screen labeled "B"? That is what my sinus is suppose to look light. Black is good, it means my sinus is clear. As you can tell on the right side, I have no black.

B. Left maxillary sinus with mild to moderate mucus thickening. You can see the gray part near the bottom of that section.

C. Deviated nasal septum to the right. The line that you see in the middle of the screen should be straight and not curved as it is shown here.

D. Large left concha bullosa. That black spot should match the size of the black spot on the other side of my septum. Mine appears to be large and filled with air.

E. Mild ethmoid sinus mucus thickening. The enthmoid sinuses are located near the upper nose next to the eyes. This problem turned out to be a whole array of severally inflamed polyps. A polyp is an abnormal tissue growth within the sinuses, mine just happened to be inflamed. Polyps can be evidence of other underlying issues, but thankfully mine weren't! :)

After completing the CT Scan itself, my doctor and I waiting patiently for all the pictures to load  (about 400... I didn't realize the scans were so thorough!). The loading finished and a picture of my sinuses popped up on the screen. My doctor said something similar to "Woah! You need surgery!". We talked about a couple other options besides surgery, but surgery seemed to be the best one to me!!

We scheduled my surgery for two weeks later during my spring break at school. I only had to miss one class period for the surgery - this was such a blessing!!

My surgery was in the form of Endoscopic Sinus Surgery. Thank you!

I am so grateful for doctor's that listen to patients when they complain and then promptly find a solution to their problems. I am grateful for modern technology that enables people to have quick solutions to problems. I feel so blessed that I was directed to my wonderful doctor* and that I my surgery went smooth and my recovery was quick.

*My doctor and surgery was all through Peak ENT. I have honestly had no complaints about the service or about my doctor. If you are looking for a great ENT doctor, I can give you my doctor's info or you can visit Peak ENT's website at http://www.peakmedical-ent.com/ . Everyone has a different experience with doctors, so please do additional research besides just my recommendation :)

Books, books, books!

So with having surgery I have had quite a bit of free time and therefore I have read a lot. I LOVE READING :) and feel so blessed to have books in my life (and the education needed to learn how to read). I decided to count how many books I have read, mostly for fun ;), since the start of Fall Semester in August. Here are the books that I have read/listened to and little snippets about them. I apologize that it is kind of a long post, but I hope that you enjoy my feedback on them! (I tried to put them in the order that I read the books, just for fun :)

All three "The Hunger Games" books: the books were super intense. I would say a really intriguing story and an honestly addicting series. I read all three books in the matter of a couple weeks, which with school and work is pretty impressive for me. I won't tell you much about the books, but I would definitely RECOMMEND. (Thank you Cara and Derek for letting me borrow your books and recommending this series to me!)

All three "The Mortal Instruments" books: I probably read these books in a couple weeks as well (mostly over my trip to New York for both my parents' surgeries. The books had a great story and a nice twist on the classic fantasy stories about angels, demons, vampires and werewolves. The only caution I would give for these books is that in the... I think first and third book, maybe second and third book there is a lot of swearing (at least more than my preference goes), and there it goes into some teenage chastity topics, but it doesn't delve very deep with the description. The story is awesome and the romance in it is pretty intense!! I really did love these books and would definitely RECOMMEND as well. (Thank you Kasey and Emma for letting me borrow the books and recommending them to me :).

"Food Rules" by Michael Pollan: This is a very short read (maybe 80-130 pages with only part of each page filled) and gives an interesting insight into the classic question, "what foods are healthy to eat?" I can't say that I have the will power to follow all the rules that Pollan lays out, but I did appreciate his insight and research. This book has caused me to make some health changes in my life. If you are looking for a deeper read by Michael Pollan,  "In Defense of Food" goes deeper into his research about why people should eat a certain way. I have read some of "In Defense of Food" and found it a really interesting read, I just never finished the book. (Thank you Daniel for letting me borrow both "Food Rules" and "In Defense of Food," plus for recommending the books to me. Also, thank you for putting up with both my preliminary and following debates about the contents of the books :).

"Pursued - A Maggie McKenzie Mystery": This is the second book in a two book series by Lynn Gardener. I would recommend this book and the first book in the series. The story is a murder mystery that is pretty intense. You always get into some weird murder mystery with overly zealous women reports ;). Both books have some pretty creepy characters in them, but nevertheless are a good/intense read. The first book will be addicting and you will finish it fast. This book is not quite as intense but I still loved it. The love story in the books (because of course murder mystery books need a love story) is wonderful. I LOVE the love story. It is a more mature love story because the books are meant for an older crowd than most the teenage novels which a read, so that is very refreshing. (Thank you Mom for letting me borrow the first book on CD for my road trip and for recommending the books, and also thank you Alisha for listening to the book with me and being as excited as I was when I stumbled upon the sequel to the book!)

"Home Again at Last": Borrowman does a great job at keeping this book emotionally charged throughout each page. The book covers a lot of elements because it is a historical fiction novel. I felt many emotions as I read (I guess listened to the book on CD) the book. The story is extremely accurate according to my study of history and my previous historical fiction reads. It covers an LDS family whose father is in the British... parliament I think... he has a "Lord" title and is involved in politics. Anyways, his son is a naval commander and is put into many life-gripping situations. The book gives a good glimpse into what families and soldiers had to deal with during WWII, especially in the LDS realm. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would RECOMMEND it to you. (Thank you Mom and Dad for letting my borrow this book on CD and for getting me hooked on the story in the first place. What a great Christmas break I had!! I love you!)

The first three "Fablehaven" books: I am still going through this series but am already caught in the series' addictive grasp!!! Brandon Mull lives in Utah and went to BYU (Go Utah writers and BYU students :) !!) and if he is LDS he has joined my list of top LDS writers, which includes Stephanie Meyer (famous for writing the "Twilight" series) and Orson Scott Card (famous for writing "Enders Game"). The first book in the series was a little slow to begin but got better as the book went on. The second book in the series added a whole new level of... absolute craziness to the series and I thoroughly enjoyed it!! I finished all the 450 or so pages of the third book in a matter of a two days or so. I hate to use the word intense again, but the third book was intense!! The story was all about darkness verses light. I am excited to get my hands on the fourth book. I would absolutely RECOMMEND this series! If the first book seems slow just push past and you will eventually find yourself in an enchanting magical world. (Thank you so much Rachel for recommending these books and letting me borrow them! You are wonderfully feeding my addiction :) )

Book ?: Two weeks ago when I had my sinus surgery I listened to a book on CD that my parents recommended and mailed to me (Thank you guys!). To be honest, I don't remember the name of the book and I don't have it on hand because I let a friend borrow the book who just had a surgery herself. I will add the review of that book when I get the book back.... I guess I was more out of it that week on my pain medications than I thought since I can't even remember the name :)

My current reads:

"The Book of Mormon - Another Testament of Jesus Christ": This is a book that I try to study out of every day in addition to the "The Bible." This book has truly changed my life and I love reading its words. I feel comforted and happy every time I study the stories or the scriptures themselves. The book covers is exactly what it claims to be - another testament of Jesus Christ. If you haven't read "The Book of Mormon" before, please pick it up and try it. This is the book I would RECOMMEND above all others along with "The Bible."

Talking Hands” by Margalit Fox: I originally bought this book… about 3 to 5 years ago and I sadly haven’t gotten around to reading it until now. The book happens to work perfectly into a research paper that I am writing for my ASL Linguistics class this semester so now I finally have motivation to read it! The book is a linguistic study about a Bedouin village that creates their own form of sign language. I have been enjoying the book thus far due to its intriguing take on the formulations of language. The front of the book says, “In a remote village where everyone speaks sign language, scientists are discovering the essential ingredients of all human language—and uncovering the workings of the human mind.” I will probably do a formal review of the book once I finish reading it, but I would recommend it as a good, slower read if you are interested in either sign language or linguistics.

“The Lightening Thief,” first book in the “Percy Jackson & the Olympians” series: I picked this up since I don’t have the fourth “Fablehaven” yet. My sister Rachel highly recommended this book and I am excited to get more into it. I have only just started. I watched the movie recently so hopefully this book will live up to my expectations! I am excited to see!

“65 Signs of the Times – Leading up the Second Coming”: I have also only just begun this book, but have found it very enlightening thus far. David J. Ridges has definitely done his research on the upcoming Second Coming! The book is filled with prophecies about the Second Coming from scriptures and words of modern revelation. I am enjoying the book and learning a lot.

"Deaf in America - Voices from a Culture": Carol Padden (one of the authors) is a great linguist and scholar. I have enjoyed other studies that she has done. This is an older book written in the latter 1980s, but it still gives a good insight into the deaf and Deaf worlds. If you don't know much about Deaf culture or about their history, this could be an interesting read for you.

I have a couple other books on my shelf that I want to read during the Summer as well. I must say that I really enjoy reading and feel blessed that in 4^th (or maybe it was 5^th) grade my family encouraged me to pick-up the first “Harry Potter” book even though I wasn’t much into reading at the time. I loved the book and suddenly became addicted to reading!! 

Nike Free Shoes

To be honest, I have never really liked Nike running shoes. I tend to veer more towards the companies who make shoes strictly for runners. I know those shoes will almost always be great for my needs.

Well, Nike sparked my interest first with their line of "free" shoes, and next by giving customers the ability to design their own shoes. I may actually consider purchasing a pair.

Here are the shoes that I designed while playing around on their website:

     

Yup, I pretty much love them. Some tweaking needs to be done, but they have a great setup to design the shoes.

Check out their website at: www.nikeid.com

Oh, and I feel very blessed for running shoes! I don't know what I would do without them.