Guess who is MOVING - - Again!!!

We close next week.
I can't even tell you what a roller coaster this has been, but this home will be signed, sealed and delivered on January 15th.
 More details to come.  

A message from the unlikely stranger

I need to write this down before any of this fades from my memory.  I doubt it will anytime soon but what I encountered today was nothing short of a direct message to me from God. 

I have NEVER had anything close to this experience and I hope to again at some point in my life at just the right time like today.

If you know ME and my family then some of what I am going to say you already know but I have to explain what has happened to ME and my family in order for you to understand the profound impact a chance encounter with a stranger made on me today.

Mike and I have been struggling to add to our family for about 2 1/2 years now.  Little did we know that that first miscarriage that ended up turning into a ruptured ectopic would turn into heartache after heartache and medical drama after drama that would end on October 16 with our 6th and final miscarriage and the end to any chance of being able to carry another child of our own.  I sucked it up like the others and kept my tears to myself.  But unlike before I got angry.  I did EVERYTHING I was supposed do and it was a waste of time.  A waste of a year of cleaning up my health, cutting out processed foods, adding supplement after supplement to get my messed up body healthy.  A waste of sticking myself in the stomach with a shot of blood thinners to give this baby a chance, and us a chance at another baby.  For what?  NOTHING.   For seeing Michael and him asking for a brother or sister and not being able to give him one.  For him asking about the baby in my belly and telling him AGAIN that the baby decided to go back home.  For feeling like a failure as a woman for not being able to have another baby no matter what intervention we tried.   For understanding what a true MIRACLE Michael is to us for there is no reason I should have been able to carry him, but I did and I have a 5 year old son who I love with every ounce of my being.

Anyone buying a home knows the stress involved.   Until the papers are signed anything and everything could go wrong.  We haven't had the best of luck so I hold no hope of that changing.

Losing my sister "unexpectedly" but not really RIGHT after the traumatic loss of our little girl and the medical nightmare I faced and having to have emergency surgery.   Although Jennifer's death wasn't a total shock, the impact on me will remain with me for the remainder of my mortal life.  The anger I have with myself for the argument that lead to us not speaking for almost a year and the regret I will have.   For the anger I have at my sister for her death.  For the anger I have at her Doctor for his part in her death.    And for the peace I still need to find in losing my sister.

Something as "small" as Michael breaking his tooth.   I know it wasn't done on purpose and I know he is only 5 years old and I am sure it was scary at the dentist and he didn't know what was happening or going to happen.  For reaching my breaking point of stress with being told Michael needed to go into Children's Hospital and be put under to have his tooth fixed.  For letting Michael see me cry as I figure out how we are going to handle the purchase of a home AND now pay thousands of dollars to pay for a broken tooth.

Today after work, I had to stop and get gas.  I was on fumes.  There is a gas station right on the corner by my work.  I have NEVER stopped there before.  It's kinda ghetto and I just honestly just never felt safe.  But today I stopped.   I had just started filling up and kind of just making a mental note of my surroundings.  There was a young black male approaching me.  "oh great," I thought "he wants to sell me something".     I couldn't have been more wrong.

This young man, who I had NEVER seen before, didn't know him for anyone else there at the gas station told me that he was prompted to come talk to me.  That I needed to know that everything with the house was going to be fine and work out.  He told me that god knows everything I have been through recently and he has never left me.  He understands the pain in my heart and that there is a plan and a purpose.  He then asked me if I had any children.  He said that all the medical concerns that just came up will all be fine and that your son would be ok.  And that God understood the pain I have been going through about the loss of "your children" has been a hard burden on me and my soul.

But that I needed to know that God knows all this and God has NEVER left me.  That the Holy Ghost is here and is watching over me.   

By this point, I am trying to hold my composure because I am speechless, stunned and the cynic in me is checking to make sure my car is locked and I am still aware of my surroundings.

He takes my hand and prays.  Again saying things that there is NO WAY he should know.  NO WAY.  I am in tears.

I tell him he has no idea, NO IDEA what impact he has just had on me.  That these words were what my heart has needed to hear.

I have NEVER experienced anything like this EVER in my life.  I never thought I was worthy or good enough.  I never thought my heart and soul would be open to experience this kind of feeling like God was talking to me through this young man.

That my heartache and struggles WERE seen and that he knew that my soul needed this young man to step outside of himself and come talk to a sad looking woman filling up her car with gas on a cold Wednesday night in Dallas, Texas.



Our trip to Yesterland Farm and other happenings

 Yesterday I took Michael to this really great place called Yesterland Farms.  It's about 60 miles outside of Dallas in a town called Canton.  One of my coworkers told me about it last year but I didn't get a chance to take Michael.  A few weeks ago Living social had a deal of 50% on tickets so I snatched some up for me and Michael. 
We were actually supposed go on Monday but it was raining and I didn't want to do an outdoor activity and deal with the weather.   It was COLD Saturday but after about an hour we were able to take our jackets off and it wasn't bad.

 Michael was scared to go on the big slide at first so we went down together.  Then after that, FORGET IT.  I think he went down the slide like 30 times.  Then of course he wanted his face painted.  Super cute.  I didn't start buying the unlimited ride pass for Michael because I thought he would be too scared to ride anything. After 3x on the boats we went and I bought him the pass.   lol, now I know.

There was a big bazooka type guns you bought apples and shot at a huge metal pumpkin with a tiny whole. If you got an apple through the whole you got a FREE pumpkin. Guess who got a free pumpkin? crazy boy. It was a lot of fun.  There was a kids play area that Michael had a lot of fun playing at.  We were there about 6 1/2 hours when I had to DRAG Michael out at about 415pm.  It takes a little over an hour to get home so I didn't want to be driving home too late.   I had another medical issue this week and I was tired and not feeling well, but wanted to make sure Michael had fun and boy did he ever.
It's really a tough one to even decide to say anything, but soon it will not be a secret. After my MTHFR diagnosis earlier this year I did everything I researched to help with having another baby. I thought I had it in me one more time to try again. About 2 weeks ago we found out we were finally pregnant again and quickly got on my Lovonox injections - EVERY DAY and progesterone. Hoping to announce some great news in January about finally having a baby. Well this again wasn't to be as we lost this pregnancy last week, and this is it. This broken down baby incubator is being officially shut down in January with surgery. It's just not worth it anymore. I don't know what more I could do to stay pregnant. I did everything this time and we still lost the baby. And honestly every miscarriage (6) gets harder for me to recover from medically. After saying enough, it has felt like a GIANT weight lifted off us. I don't feel weighed down to play Russian roulette. If you are a lucky one who has multiple kids without so much as an issue consider yourself lucky. It is so incredibly hard to stay pregnant, get pregnant and have a baby. It's a medical mystery to me we were even able to have Michael. Don't feel sorry for us, there are kids out there right now in the Foster Care program that need families and soon, VERY soon 2 of those kids will be called HUGHES.

Suprise ----- WWE AgAiN

Well Friday was a surprise day for me at work. Around 3pm an email went out that they had WWE tickets available for Saturday.  I practically jumped out of my chair to get the form filled out, signed and turned in.  I knew they were in town, but we just didn't have the money to go so we were just not going to say anything to Michael.  This wasn't Monday Night RAW or Friday night SMACKDOWN so there were NO camera's but it was just as much fun and honestly BETTER.    The stars actually acknowledged the crowd, we had FANTASTIC seats.  In fact better than when we went in February.

We didn't want to tell Michael we wanted it to be a surprise.   You see, Michael LOVES WWE and he had so much fun in February that this was going to be AWESOME.  We didn't tell him we got wrestling tickets but we or should I say I told him we had "special" plans for Saturday.  Mistake #1.  He had himself convinced we were going to Chuckie Cheese.  Ok, let him think that we thought.  Mistake #2. 

We went out Saturday to check out some homes as we are getting ready to buy our first home here in Dallas.  So Saturday we rushed home to get ready and out the door to the American Airlines Center.  Michael still convinced we were going to Chuckie Cheese.  Nevermind that we put him in his John Cena shirt (his choice of wrestling shirt) and we gave him a cool Mohawk with some cool GREEN spray color.    Daddy in his Shameus shirt and I opted not to wear mine so it wouldn't be too obvious.  He still had NO CLUE.  We get downtown and he still thinks we are going to get pizza and play.

** Mike got a GREAT Photo of The Big Show yawning before his match.  He was awesome and pretty funny.

Michael is commenting on all these other kids wearing wrestling shirts and he wanted to go and talk to ALL OF THEM.  Still oblivious as to where we were.  Even inside he didn't catch on.  I asked him where we were.  Then finally showed him the WWE stuff for sale and he figured it out.

  He was PISSED.  

He truly wanted to goto Chuckie Cheese.  We almost had a revolt on our hands.  WTH??? really???  Had to THREATEN him to have fun.   We let him pick out 2 items.  He chose a CM PUNK doll and a blinking bracelet.  That was a instant change of mind because he WAS going to get a CM PUNK shirt and wrist bands but last minute he changed his mind.  Stinker.

BTW, he had fun and it wasn't by force.   We all had fun.  Thanks Radio One for the AMAZING Hughes Family experience! 



Michael starts Kindergarten

 Mike's mom came to town last weekend for a visit and boy did we have fun.   Grandma also got a chance to help take Michael to his first day of kindergarten.

 

 

We went bowling w/grandma on Saturday night and boy did we have fun.  Michael usually poops out/looses interest after the 1st game and he went the whole 3 games.  We need to go more as it was really fun to see how much fun and better Michael did.

On Sunday we took a trip down to West, Texas. Remember back in April hearing about a HUGE fertilizer plant explosion? The town is a Czhec town and have amazing authentic food and since that it's Mike's heritage we wanted to take Mike's mom. Note to self though, the town is pretty shut down on Sundays.  We need to go back down on a Saturday.  But we had some yummy food and grabbed some Kolachies and Beer Bread to take home.  YUMMY!

These photos don't really do justice, but the devastation to the town was nothing short of jaw dropping.   This town went through a lot and have alot more to go through to rebuild.  We only saw a handful of homes under construction or complete.  We saw a lot of homes in ruins and just the foundations or slabs.

A day home cooking - I am in HEAVEN

 So I took today off to relax and basically needed to use a vacation day.  I decided I would do another batch of veggie burgers and I wanted to try this Sweet Potato Gnocchi.  This is my kind of day!

I changed up how I eat to more cleaner and healthier stuff.  I have cut out about 80-85% of processed foods and I make a lot more stuff from scratch.

One of the websites I follow is My Whole Food Life She is vegan but she has some pretty amazing recipes.  I had made her black bean burger a few months back and I liked it.  It was kinda on the bland side, but it gave me the opportunity to realize how filling these are.  Today's attempt is try #3 and it is a KEEPER.  This will be the one I make from here on out. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!  So full of flavor yumminess and so amazing for you.
Try to use as many organic ingredients as you can as you really don't want to eat the crap your making these from scratch to avoid.  I just read labels a lot more now and will look for items with the fewiest ingredients, Organic, Non-GMO verified or a combo of them all.

 

• 3 cans Black Beans (well rinsed)
• 1/3 C Milk (I used skim)
• 2 large red sweet peppers ( I roasted in the oven then removed skins)
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 2/3 C Panko Bread Crumbs
• 1/3 C Flour ( I used whole wheat)
• 2/3 C Cooked Quinoa
• 1 C Frozen Corn
• 1 bunch Cilantro
• 1 Onion (well chopped)
• 1 Lime
• Salt, pepper to taste
• 1 Teaspoon Cumin
• 1 Teaspoon Cheyenne pepper

You can use dry beans and prep that way, this is my first attempt at the canned version and I honestly like this one better.

Rinse your beans well and add to your food processor or mixer (I used my ninja blender)

add your garlic, red peppers, cilantro and milk.  Blend well until everything is incorporated.

Saute your onions and add to mixture.

Remove mixture from blender into large bowl.  Add panko, flour and Quinoa and mix well.  You will want to use the juice from the lime and if you want you can zest as well and add to mixture.

Add your spices.  You can go crazy here if you want to.  I am not one for food that is too spicy.  But this amount gives me enough kick.  Add your frozen or roasted corn here and just mix until incorporated.

I used a 1/3 C to portion out my sizes. This made 16 for me, but if you make bigger, obviously it will make less.  But for 16 it is only 3 Weight Watchers Plus points.  Whoo hoo!

Spray cookie sheet and place patties.  Cook at 325 for 20 minutes then flip and cook for an additional 20 minutes (40 total)

These freeze amazingly well.  Wrap individually and place in large freezer safe Ziploc bag.  These will keep for awhile. 

I made a batch (my very first I will say) of homemade Red Pepper Hummus.  I am kinda a snob and I really only like Athenos brand but since I am making everything else right now why not give this a try.  It was good!  Ok, not as good as my Athenos but you know what, it tasted so good on my burger today that I LOVE it.  Super easy too.  Who knew making things from scratch was so much FUN and so much HEALTHIER!

Then after this I made these



Sweet Potato Gnocchi.  I know this will be a hit because both boys like sweet potato's and with pasta you can never go wrong.  I made a big double batch so I can freeze a bunch.  You can get the recipe HERE
Can't wait for dinner tonight.  Now off to downtown Dallas to get Circus tickets for the family.
Enjoy!
I will now get a chance to use some of the yummy homemade basil & spinach pesto I made last night.  ha, ha, ha....... I am on a roll.

Michael's 5th Birthday Party

Michael's 5th Birthday Party

Today we had Michael's birthday party for his 5th birthday.  I was worried this morning that it was going to rain since that is what the skies and weatherman said.    SUCCESS!!!!
It was a lot of fun and what a wonderful memory for Michael for his very first birthday party.  The party started at noon and it started sprinkling around 230.  We had quite a few friends from his class come and boy oh boy did we have fun!!!

Michael had a little incident of jumping into the pool without his floaties on and starting obviously drowning.  I am told Mike was a ninja and was in the pool before anyone even started panicking.  What a superhero of a dad, and loser or a mom as I was completely unaware of this until I was told AFTER the party.  Yeah, WTH???  but he is ok and back in the pool WITH his floaties on. 

 

Michael actually requested this cake.  I thought for sure I was going to be getting either a Monster Jam or WWE one, but nope.  He wanted Spider Man.

Thank you rain Gods for holding off on the storm until after the birthday party and allowing me to give my little man a most wonderful party.

 

Even though he almost had his party cancelled.  Yep, our little WONDERFUL boy decided to punch his teacher yesterday in the stomach.  So he actually won't be enjoying any of his birthday toys until next week when he is off restriction but we decided to continue with the party. 

This hopefully will be only a one time instance and we will NOT have a repeat.  I am pretty sure he learned his lesson with his punishment.

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

Michael turns 5

I think this picture by far is my FAVORITE picture of Michael the day he was born.  What a mellow little dude who would change my life in so many ways, and quite possible be my 1 and only little miracle in this lifetime.




Yesterday my little man turned 5 years old.   FIVE years old.  Five years have gone by and there are 5 years worth of wonderful memories and milestones for this little guy.  One of the fun things for Me as his mommy is making sure he knows how special his birthday is.  I let him know it's coming up and yesterday morning I went into wake him up singing Happy Birthday.  He instantly woke up and I got the most precious little smile out of him.  He was so excited.

  I took the afternoon off work and brought his class little treats for his birthday.  Since I have changed my eating habits to more cleaner eating and less processed foods and sugar along with being on Weight Watchers I wanted to bring something OTHER than cupcakes.  In hindsight that might have been better as the kiddo's threw away more than they ate.  Mike had to remind me that it was the thought that counts, but really?  What kid doesn't like jello AND pudding then combined?  whatever.  I thought they were cute but I will know better next year.  There were 2 girls in the class with nut allergies, so I made sure to make theirs different and just as cute.

Michael just wanted jello so that is what I did his as.  But I think they turned out pretty cool.  Maybe this is a treat for older kids.

The birthday kid gets to choose what they want or where they want to go for dinner.  We thought for sure we would have to endure McDonalds or Panda Express.  Michael has a strong LOVE for Panda Express and he always chooses to go there.  McDonalds for the toy and quite honestly I haven't let him eat there in quite awhile.  I think their food is just gross, but nope.  He chose GOLDEN CORAL.  What?  seriously???  He loves the desserts there, and mommy can find something there I can eat.  Must not have done too bad, Weight Watchers today told me I dropped 4 pounds. I love this healthier new me and us. 

Now we have his first ever birthday party to do on Saturday June 1st.   We are having his friends from school plus friends of ours with kids over for a swimming party.  It's going to be a lot of fun and what fun for such a sweet little boy.
Love you MICHAEL!   Here is to another great 5 years (and LOTS more)