Little Bits Corner

I am giving our daughter "space" on Faithfully.  She is really interested in what mommy does and wants to try her hand at it too; so, she will have posts when I do.   

She has had a lot of good ideas, so stay tuned.

Love,

Sherri

I love my mommy and daddy and I love nana too

Computer Virus Humor

Politically Correct Virus:  Never calls itself a "virus", but instead refers to itself as an "electronic microorganism."

Oprah Winfrey Virus:  Your 200MB hard drive suddenly shrinks to 80MB, and then slowly expands back to 200MB.

AT&T Virus:  Every three minutes it tells you what great service you're getting.

MCI Virus:  Every three minutes it reminds you that you're paying too much for the AT&T Virus.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Virus:  Terminates and stays resident. It'll be back.

Government Economist Virus:  Nothing works, but all your diagnostic software says everything is fine.

Texas Virus:  Makes sure it's bigger than any other file.

Nike Virus:  Just does it.

Quantum Leap Virus:  One day your PC is a laptop, the next day it is a Macintosh, then a Nintendo.

Airline virus:  You're in Dallas, but your data is in Singapore.

Congressional Virus:  The computer locks up, screen splits erratically with a message appearing on each half blaming the other side for the problem.

Ross Perot Virus:  Activates every component on your system, just before the whole thing quits.

Dan Quayle Virus:  Their is sumthing rong with yor compueter, ewe just can't figyour out watt.

Federal bureaucrat virus:  Divides your hard disk into hundreds of little units, each of which do practically nothing, but all of which claim to be the most important part of the computer.

PBS virus:  Your PC stops every few minutes to ask for money.

Chicken Breasts with Mushrooms

This is a delicious way to cook chicken.  The wine adds just the right touch and the mushrooms finish the dish.  Enjoy with buttered noodles or a nice rice pilaf.

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless chicken breast halves, without skin
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon dried leaf tarragon
• 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf basil
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons butter, divided
• 8 ounces sliced mushrooms
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio
• juice of 1 small lemon, about 2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons
• 3 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley or chives, for garnish
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 tablespoon butter

Preparation:

Flatten chicken breasts; place plastic wrap over each chicken breast and gently pound with smooth side of a meat mallet until uniform thickness.

In a pie plate or wide shallow bowl, combine flour, salt, pepper, tarragon, and basil. In another pie plate or shallow bowl, beat eggs with the water.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet.

Dip chicken pieces into egg, coating well, then into the flour and herb mixture, turning several times. When chicken is well coated, place in hot butter and oil in the skillet. Brown chicken on both sides for about 3 minutes per side, or until juices run clear and chicken is brown. Remove to a plate.

Add mushrooms and remaining 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon butter to the skillet. Saute for about 4 to 5 minutes, until mushrooms are browned. Add the broth, wine, and lemon juice; simmer rapidly for about 3 minutes to reduce somewhat.

Sauce
Combine 1 tablespoon flour with 1 tablespoon butter, stirring until smooth. Add to the broth and wine mixture, stirring and cooking for about one minute, until thickened, then add chicken back to the skillet. Heat until chicken is hot. Serve the chicken with chives for garnish, if desired.
Serves 4.

My Little Prodigy

My daughter is definitely following in my footsteps.

She loves poetry and is starting to make up her

own poems.

I love cats, oh how I love cats; they are soft, fuzzy and sweet.

They love to drink cream and chase mice in their dreams.

They even have pads under their feet.

Some flitter, some crawl, and some hide in the hall.

Some skitter, some play and some sleep all day.

Sometimes they play with a yarn ball.

There and Back Again

It seems like every few months I am here for a while and then - wham, another fibromyalgia flare-up.  I have a lot of posts to share with all of you and I'm going to try my best to work through this.

This site has meant a great deal to me; I have had very loyal readers over the years and I want you to know that I appreciate you more than you will ever know.  You have stuck with me through my absences and continued to let me know how much Faithfully means to you; thank you so much.   

So, here I am again; hopefully for good.  I look forward to bringing you a lot of important (and even silly) posts.

Love you all,

Sherri

Answer to Prayer

Jordan, who is the daughter of a friend of ours, Paula, had taken Zoloft during her entire pregnancy.  As many as 30% of all babies whose mothers took Zoloft, had birth defects; many of them quite serious, even deadly.  

Chase, Jordan's baby, was born this morning shortly after 9:00 a.m. and weighed 6 pounds.  So far, everything seems to be okay with the baby.  There have been a lot of prayers going up for this little boy and it is a true miracle that no birth defects are evident at this time.

Please continue to pray for Chase and for Jordan (she has a lot going on in her life) and help her to embrace the maternal bond between mother and baby.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and may the Lord richly bless you and yours.

Love,

Sherri

Frozen Lemonade Pie

When you have hot summers like we do here, it is really nice to serve desserts that are cool and delicious.  

For the Crust:

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 7 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

For the Filling:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1  14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk, chilled
• 1   6 oz. can frozen lemonade concentrate (do not thaw)

For the Topping:

• 1 cup blueberries 
• 1 cup raspberries
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Make the crust: In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter. Press firmly on the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake for 7 minutes; cool completely.

Make the filling: In a cold medium bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, stir together the condensed milk and frozen lemonade. Gently fold the lemonade mixture into the whipped cream. Pour the filling into the crust; freeze overnight.

About an hour before you serve the pie, make the topping: Toss the berries in a medium bowl with the sugar and lemon juice. Set aside until ready to serve.

Let the pie come to room temperature for 10 minutes before cutting. Top each slice with berries.

Note:  You can use any combination of berries that you like; instead of two kinds of berries, you can always just use 2 cups of your favorite berries.

Our Finned Friends

We have a 30 gallon aquarium that is just awesome.  Besides being very calming to watch the fish, it is also very beautiful.  We have learned a lot about fish since our anniversary two years ago, when my husband and I found an aquarium and stocked it with some really cool fish.

We knew nothing about fish varieties as we were amateur enthusiasts (and I stress the word enthusiasts) and didn't know anything about cycling the tank and choosing the very best type of fish for our tank.  Needless to say, some of our fish didn't make it.  We finally had the water where it needed to be and our fish were healthy at that point.  Our big mistake was letting someone talk us into getting mystery snails (their real name) to clean algae and waste in the tank.  The snails were fine for a while and then they would turn this weird bubble gum color and in 1-2 days, they were dead.  Our fish were starting to die again, little-by-little, so I decided to do some research.

Our snails had flukes, which we found out were using the snails as hosts.  There are two types of flukes; the egg laying (oviparous) gill fluke and the live bearing (viviparous) body (or skin)  fluke.  Skin and gill flukes are caused by parasitic flatworms known as trematodes.  They are called "flukes" because they have the same flattened body shape as a flounder (the old Saxon name for flounder was fluke).  Skin flukes have been found to have more than 4 generations inside a single fluke.  A healthy fish will be better equipped to withstand a small fluke attack, but a large fluke infestation can be very deadly.  They can cause severe tissue damage and lesions and can be the reason behind hyperplasia of  both skin and gill epithelium (Hyperplasia is increased cell production in a normal tissue or organ).   When the skin and gills are damaged by the trematodes (flukes), it is even easier for new trematodes to attack the fish.  Some symptoms of flukes are:  sluggishness, flashing (rubbing against rocks or decorations and sometimes "bouncing"), reddened fins, drooping fins, fin damage, loss of appetite, isolation and there may also be excessive mucus production.

There are several methods of treating flukes, however, some medications are not effective in their treatment.  Prazi is a great medication and is safe to use with even the most sensitive of fish; if it is used as directed, it almost guarantees elimination of the flukes (according to Pondr.com).  Prazi doesn't affect your filter bacteria, which a lot of treatments do, and it lasts a long time.  Prazi can be hard to find, but there are several online retailers that carry it including:  Amazon, Rocky Mountain Discus Care Products, Doctors Foster and Smith, and Bonnie's Plants.  This is not an inexpensive treatment; it is offered on Amazon for between $5 and $35.

We lost all of our fish, but we have learned a lot.  We cleaned the tank and the gravel, decorative rocks, etc. with vinegar (works best, in my opinion to clean with and also is good to put on your hands and arms when having to place your hands inside the tank for whatever reason) just make sure to rinse well and when using on your hands/arms, rinse well and dry on paper towels to avoid transfer of any soap or laundry softener to the tank.

Make sure to cycle your tank; we use filtered water and a water conditioner (used to remove any chlorine, other chemicals, etc.), a good filter, an air strip with variable water pressure (to incorporate oxygen into the tank and also provide a current for your fish whose natural habitat is in a body of water with a current (whether strong or mild).  It is good to add live plants to your tank, such as myriophyllum, varieties of water lily (lilies are good for fish that like a dimmer light in the tank) and crypt plants to help keep ammonia levels down and provide a nice hiding place for your fish also.  We put beneficial bacteria in the tank (biozyme is the brand we used) to help cycle the water.  You will get an initial "bloom" of  bacteria that will turn the water a cloudy whitish hue; this is actually what it is supposed to do.  You can add about 5 drops of a pure ammonia liquid (no scents, no added ingredients) to every 10 gallons get your ammonia level to .5, which helps kill the bad bacteria and algae.  Cycle it for about 2 weeks and check the ammonia level to make sure it is appropriate for the fish and if all looks good, add about 2-4 fish initially and then another 4-6 in about 2 weeks (if getting tetras or other small varieties, you may add 6-8 because they are schooling fish and do better in a larger group).

We now have 12 cardinal tetras, 3 chinese algae eaters, 2 reticulated hillside loaches (they look like little manta rays and are so cool), 5 calico platies (we now have 4 little platie babies - awww!), 5 dwarf rainbows and a lot of brine shrimp that just appeared one day and are excellent for baby fish (fry) and fish who like live  food.  If you would like to find out more about fish diseases, symptoms and treatment, click here.

Good luck and make sure to do your homework; it will prove to be a lifesaver - literally!      

Text Message Codes that Kids Don't Want Their Parents to Know

We see our children texting at 90 mph and wonder how they can be doing that while watching television and talking on the phone at the same time; well, there is more to it than just saying "What's up"?  There are codes that the kids use for when their parents are in the room (or even standing over their shoulder), so the sender doesn't share anything the parent would disapprove of.  Here are some of the "codes" they use:

2H2H         Too hot to handle
2M2H        Too much to handle
99              Parent has left
420            Let's get high/marijuana
A3             Anytime, anywhere, any place
ACE          Marijuana cigarette
AITR          Adult in the room
ASL           Age/sex/location
ASLP        Age/sex/location/picture
AWT         At what time
B/G           Background (personal information request)
BGWM      Be gentle with me
BIH           Burn in H***
BTYCL      Booty call
CD9          Code 9 meaning "parents are around"
CICYHW   Can I copy your homework
CT            Can't talk
CTN          Can't talk now
CUIMD      See you in my dreams
D46?         Down for s_x?
DM            Do me
DOC          Drug of choice
DYFM        Dude, you fascinate me
E               Ecstasy (the drug)
ED             Erase display
ES             Erase screen
ESAD        Eat s... and die
EZ             Easy
FB             Facebook
FBFR         Facebook friend
FML         "F" my life
FOAD       "F" off and die
FU            "F" you
FWB          Friend with benefits
FYEO        For your eyes only
GGOH       Gotta get outta here
GGMSOT  Gotta get me some of that
GIRL         Guy in real life
GTFO        Get the "F" out
HUYA        Head up your butt
ICEDI         I can't even discuss it
IMEZRU     I am easy, are you?
IWAWO     I want a way out
IGHT          I got high tonight
IWSN         I want s_x now
JDI            Just do it
KFY           Kiss for you
KMA          Kiss my ...
KPC          Keeping parents clueless
LGH           Let's get high
LH6            Let's have s_x!
LHSX         "
LIK             meaning "liquor"
LMIRL        Let's meet in real life
MBS          Mom behind shoulder
MLM          meaning give the middle finger
MOS          Mom over shoulder
NIFOC        Naked in front of computer
NWO          No way out
OB             Oh baby!
P911          Parents coming into room alert
PA             Parent alert
PAQ          Parents are watching
PBB          Parent behind back
PIR            Parent in room
POS          Parent over shoulder
PRON        meaning pornography
PRT           Party
PRW          People/parents are watching
PSOS        Parents standing over shoulder
RYO          Roll your own
S2R          Send to receive
SOS          Someone over shoulder
SOWM      Someone is with me
SPST        Same place, same time
TD2M        Talk dirty to me
TDTM         "
URH          You are hot
WAN2       Want to?
WYCM      Will you call me?
YBS          You'll be sorry!
YHBW       You have been warned!

There are a lot more of these, parents, and these are the ones that I could actually put on my site without getting really graphic.  There are more codes out there that you need to know; some of these are extremely graphic and touch on many different aspects of human relationships (that's the nicest way I can put it).  

If you want to find out more about the other codes, click here  to go to the Better Parenting Institute's site.