Dallas trip

My great aunt, Jane, died last week.  Here we (Hannah, Rosy, and I) are at Jane's funeral by her beautiful flowers.  She worked at Tipton Hurst for years and they sent these gorgeous flowers with butterflies all over them. Jane loved butterflies and always wore a butterfly pendant that David (her husband of well over 50 years) gave her.  I learned from her obituary that she also worked for the FBI.  I don't know how I missed that all these years but I thought that was neat...I think that would be such a fun job depending on what department you worked in. 

Hannah had Bunco at her apartment on Thursday night. It was so much fun because Marci and my Mom got to sub, so all my sisters and mom got to play! It was great! Marci won first prize (most Buncos) and got a tee-shirt that said, "That's how I roll...Bunco".  HA! :) She gave it to me since she doesn't play Bunco.  Hannah made Granny's soup and had french bread. I couldn't eat the soup, of course, :s so I ate 2 pieces of buttery french bread that was good.

My mom took all of her daughters to Dallas last weekend for Marci's 40th birthday that was a year and a half ago. :) We had so much fun!!! This was a HUGE step for me because I have never left Lamar for even one night. We have been married 11 years in May and we have never spent the night apart.  I wanted to be one of those couples that never spent a night apart but that's just not very realistic so I decided to go on my sister trip for the weekend.  I prayed that Lamar would miss me like crazy, and he did. :) He even got me these:

When I got home, I was surprised by these beautiful flowers that Lamar arranged himself.  He put the roses in the middle because that's where the heart is. :) Sweet.  He also has told me at least a dozen times that he is so glad that I am back with him again. He even woke me up in the middle of the night a few times to tell me how glad he was that I was "back with him". :) He's been having a hard time sleeping because he had knee surgery on March 5th and has been having some problems with it. :( He was so hoping that the surgery would get him out of pain but that hasn't been the case, at least not yet.  He has arthritis pretty bad in that knee, too, so the doctor said he'll probably eventually have to have a total knee replacement.  Bummer. :(

Okay, do you see this cheesecake??? It is seriously the BEST thing I have ever put in my mouth!! Absolutely scrumptious!! Unbelievable!! Delicious!! AMAZING!!! We ate at the Cheesecake Factory two nights in a row in Dallas and the first night I was good and got the vanilla bean cheesecake which was delicious.  The next night we ate there and I ordered this.  You know, I haven't had chocolate in 3 1/2 weeks because of Lent....well, bye bye Lent fast. I totally caved with this! TOTALLY caved! I also am supposed to be on a low acid IC diet.  That went right out the window, too. I knew I would be hurting the next morning but ordered this anyway. I LOVE red velvet cake so much and cheesecake....and especially cream cheese icing. This dessert was all these things all rolled up in one.  I had to get it.  I was so tired of not eating the things I love for 3 weeks...for 3 weeks I've had only water and BORING food.  I lost 7 pounds which I'm sure I gained back this weekend.  I felt like an alcoholic that fell off the wagon and to make matters worse, I ate 2 Hershey eggs today!!! I am in pain and burning everyday so I figured I might as well eat what I want if I'm going to be in pain anyway.  I have been drinking a TON of Fiji (alkalinity 7.8) water today to try to dilute all the acid from the red velvet and Hershey eggs.  Yes, I did pay the next morning after the red velvet.  I looked up that cheesecake online and it's $50! I told my friend that on the phone and she couldn't believe how expensive it was! I totally believe it...it's worth more than that!! I tell ya, that was heaven on earth!!! I have an urologist appointment tomorrow that I'm both looking forward to and dreading.  We'll see what happens.  At this point, things can't get much worse so I'm not really scared about anything.  I told my doctor today that I have IC and he told me he has 12 patients with that and he described it as "murderous".  Yep, I'd agree! It's hard not to get depressed but I'm trying to just learn to live in pain.  I lived in pain for years with my TMJ and am now out of pain (thank you, Lord!) with that so I'm used to living in pain.  I've also had tooth pain from a bad root canal (that Lamar did NOT do) for 2 years and live with that so it's not like it's something that I can't do but I tell ya, this has been no fun and at times the pain has been at a level 10....at other times, it's just a constant uncomfortable feeling.  It's getting old but there is some reason the Lord is allowing this.  I keep thinking it's for self discipline that totally went out the window today and Saturday night. I'll do better...I just wanted ONE bite of yummy food after 3 weeks of being SO hungry and eating such bland stuff.  Of course, one bite turned into a whole piece. :)  I just plain love good food.  That's why I have a recipe blog...because I LOVE yummy food...it's one of the joys in life.  Maybe that is what God is trying to teach me.  That I can still have joy with Him even when the joy of yummy food is gone.  And I have had joy at times but with physical pain.  I'm waiting on Lamar to get home so we can go to Fresh Market and buy some IC friendly foods...fun times.  I can have shrimp so that's good. I love shrimp...it's just not very filling. I can also have pears, which I have discovered are really good.  Well, I'm going to quit blabbing and get off of here.  Hope all is well with everyone. :)