Stuffing Doesn't Have To Be Stuffy

Guest post written by Annabelle Schumaker
For years now I've been eating stuffing at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. It's like eating the stuff is even second nature to me now. But it's become a little boring, so I decided that when I'm fixing my family Thanksgiving dinner this year, I can fix a different version than the same old stuffing that I've eaten year after year.
I went online to see if I could find a really good different kind of stuffing recipe. When I was online looking up that stuff, I ran across some information on internet service in my area and I decided to switch over our home's service to that provider.
I found all kinds of interesting kinds of stuffing that I really canÕt wait to try out. I was thinking about all of the different kinds that I could try out for different types of meals too! I might just try out some of these different versions for different normal meals as a fun addition. ThereÕs just something so inherently great about stuffing as a dish itself and I love enjoying it!

Memories

The other day my children and I were talking about how cold it has recently gotten. That reminded me of how my mother would make snow ice cream when we lived in Tuscaloosa, Al when I was little, before she died. My kids wanted me to make some for them, but I didn't know if it was real or it was just something creative my mother came up with to entertain us kids. She did that a lot. She was very creative, and made lots of wonderful memories for my brother and I before she died of a brain tumor when we were young.
Ironically, I was reading a magazine a day or two ago and viola, there it was, in black and white, a recipe for snow ice cream!! So I wanted to share it with everyone else. I have not tried it, but this is the first time I have ever come across an actual snow ice cream recipe. Here it is. Let me know how it turns out if anyone tries it.
-1 cup of milk or cream
-3 Tbsp. sugar
-2 Tbsp. mini chocolate chips
-almond flavoring
-Snow
-1/4 salt
1. Mix milk, sugar, shocaolate chips and a few drops of almond flavoring in a small ziplock bag, seal bag.
2. Fill a gallen-size zip lock bag halfway with clean snow and add salt. Put smaller bag inside bigger bag; seal bigger bag, squeezing out air. Knead bags until milk mixture soidifies, 5 to 10 minutes. Open bigger bag and remove smaller bag. Rinse outside of smaller bag in cold water before opening. Squeeze ice cream into a bowl and serve.
Kimberly Danger,
mommysavers.com

Trick or Treat

The kids and I went to Wiregrass Commons Mall on the Northside of town tonight to find some school shirts for my oldest son. We got there a few minutes before 4pm. When we first arrived we noticed the parking lot was way more packed than normal. When we walked inside, there were  little trick or treater's every where. I had forgotten all about the mall having trick or treat on Saturday night. I was going to take Alex, my 8 yr old, back home and put on his costume then come back, but it would have taken a little while. So we crossed the parking lot and went to Toys R Us. They only had a few costumes and they were all a little big. We found an Obi Wan Kenobi, and it worked! They were 50% off so I got the costume and his candy bag for under $12.00! Now that's a bargin! Next year I will also be able to sell it for more than what I paid for it, unless of course he wants to wear it next year. I'm sure it will still fit. The funny thing is that his original costume was Darth Vader. Any way, he had a lot of fun, and got some candy as well. Eventually we finally found my oldest son 4 school shirts at Khols and only paid $40.00 for them all. My middle son we dropped off at Carmike Cinema 12 because he wanted to meet his friend at the movies and see "The Three Musketeer's". So all and all it was a good night.

Corndodger's Haunted Maze

My two oldest boys and I had a good time last night at Corndodger's Corn Maze. I first found out about Corndodger's thru a friend's post on facebook. My youngest son was spending the weekend with his dad so I thought the older boys might enjoy going on the haunted trail in the corn maze. One thing I didn't really plan on was having to go through it with them. I'm a big baby when it comes to haunted houses! Despite being hesitant I went anyway. The first guy that jumped out of the corn field scared me so bad I felt my heart jump out of my chest! My oldest son thought he needed to show his braveness and stood there and stared the scarey people right in the eyes! They were a bit disappointed that they couldn't scare him. My middle son just kept laughing and telling me to let go of his jacket! At one point I just froze and buried my face in my hands. When I looked up "Jason" was still standing there right over me with that white mask of his looking down at me! I almost freaked out! I felt like a bad mama afterwards because I had ran ahead a bit and left my children standing there with the bad guys. The whole maze didn't last long but I was soooo happy when we reached the end.  In spite of me being a big scared baby, it was still a lot of fun!
http://corndodgersfarm.com/

BEWARE OF LYRICA

I have been taking Lyrica for about 6 months or so now due to cervical dystonia (constant muscle spasms and tightness of the muscles) on the right side of my upper body, neck and shoulder. It has helped with the pain to the point that I am able to get up and funtion during the day and get my errands run although I'm not pain free.
Recently I started feeling a lot of pain in a tooth that was broken. I made a visit to the dentist only to find out I needed a root canal and crown on the tooth that was hurting, and was also told I needed crowns on 3 other teeth. I have never had a root canal or a crown. I didn't yet connect it to the Lyrica. After getting the root canal and crown 2 months ago I am still having some pain around the gum. The endodontist said he is baffled. He said if the root canal failed the tooth would be hurting, and there's no infection that we can tell.
A few days later, I started to chew on a couple of Pringles, and suddenly felt very hard peices of something in my mouth. Low and behold, it was a top back tooth that had just crumbled and broke apart in chunks for no apparent reason and without warning. Not only was I devastated, but then I started wondering what in the world was going! It reminded me of stories I've heard in the past about meth addicts. The way there teeth can just suddenly fall out of their mouth. I knew I wasn't doing any illegal drugs to cause something like that so that made me think about my prescription medicines I am taking. The only new prescription I'm taking is Lyrica. Even though I didn't really think I would find a connection with tooth decay and Lyrica I was curious so I looked it up on the internet. To my surprise I found post after post after post of people who not long after taking Lyrica started having major dental problems. Some people had never even had a cavity before until they started taking this medicine and suddenly ended up with their teeth just breaking apart and falling out of their mouth, just as I described. I'm not talking about 1 or 2 or even 3 teeth. I'm talking about them loosing all of their teeth, or 8 to 13 teeth. They had to have teeth pulled, have many root canals, crowns, and even dentures. These people have spent thousands of dollars trying to have their teeth restored.
They are also complaining of sore and bleeding gums, permanent hair loss, short term memory loss, confussion, permanent damage of their vision, unable to find the words they're looking for, unable to write or type due to not being able to put the right letters together. There were complaints of major tooth decay after only being on Lyrica for time periods as short as 2 months or so. Some of these people had been to their dentist right before they were put on Lyrica and were given a clean bill of health, so to speak. I was terrified after reading all of these posts! I am only on a small dose and it is already starting to ruin my teeth! I know people who are on very high dosages, and started thinking about how they probably had no idea of what this medicine is capable of doing. I called one person that I knew was taking it and asked her if she has had any major teeth problems since she started the Lyrica. She said her mouth was a mess and she has been trying to figure out what was going on for awhile now. She said she was to embarrassed to even go to her dentist for a cleaning because that's how bad it has gotten. She said her teeth are breaking off in peices! Some of the posts commented that they had tried to find an attorney to file a suit against Pfizer, but no one will even take the case. That being said, there are lawsuits going on concerning suicides and suicide attempts due to taking the drug Lyrica. Oh, did I forget to mention the suicidal thoughts connected to Lyrica. This is a very dangerous drug!!! If anyone that reads this is taking or thinking about taking Lyrica please just take a few minutes to google Lyrica and teeth problems or side effects of Lyrica and check out all the blogs and posts about damage that Lyrica has caused. I plan on reducing my dosage and being off of this medicine by this weekend! I will let you know how it goes.

Dolphin Encounter

The boys and I went to the beach this past weekend. We had a pretty good time, despite the pain I was in with my neck and shoulder. I have been promising my oldest son for years now that he could swim with the dolphins one of these years for his birthday. Well I'm happy to say that it finally happened. I think he was pretty happy about it too. It was a great experience for him and the dolphins were really cool! We went to Gulf World in Panama City Beach, Fl. Cory got to swim with a dolphin named Sandy. He held hands (flippers) with her, got a kiss from her, and then got an exciting pull around the pool by her. They are really amazing creatures. I hope we can go back one day and all of us can swim with the dolphins. I know the other boys would enjoy it a lot too. I am posting a couple of pictures for everyone to see.

The picture uploader is acting up right now and won't let me add any more pictures. I will try to add more later.

Fun toys for kids

My youngest son Alex enjoys playing with his toys more than anything else in the world. He probably has way more toys than he should. I guess that could be due to the fact that he has his two older brothers' old toys as well as some new ones of his own. Despite having so many toys, he has certain ones that are his favorites that he plays with all the time.
One of Alex's favorite things to play with is his super heros. He will sit and play with his little super hero men for hours. He doesn't even have to have anyone else play with him. He will just sit right by himself and use his imagination. He loves Spiderman the most out of all of them. We have watched the Spiderman movies over and over many times to the point I feel like I'm going to loose my mind if I have to watch them one more time.
Another favorite toy of Alex's is his Video Now. I have definitely gotten my moneys worth with that toy. He started watching it when he was about 3 years old, and still watches it to this day. You can buy many different videos to watch on it. We have Scooby Doo, Spongebob, and Ed, Edd, and Eddy just to name a few. It is nice to take in the car with us when we go places, and a lot of fun for kids. I suggest it for anyone who has younger children.