18 months old!!!

Claire is 18 months old today!! She'll welcome, well, she might not welcome her new baby brother, but in 19 days she'll HAVE a new baby brother. The first week will be fine because her Grandma Sharelle will be here to give her all the attention she can handle. However, the week after that - watch out.

Here is a video of our sweet little 18 month old. I was trying to get her to say WHAT on her own, but she wouldn't. When prompted she does say it.

Last night we went to our friends house. We LOVE to hang out with the Klosterman's. They have two girls who Nathan loves to play with. Claire wasn't sure of the girls until I got there, but after that she enjoyed playing too. Justin and Russ went hunting and had a good time as well. Linda made a WONDERFUL supper that I couldn't eat enough of. I was having a hard time breathing, so it took me an extra long time to eat (I'm a slow eater anyway). It was so good though! It's awesome to have such wonderful friends.

Speaking of friends, my friend Tracy has a blood disease called ITP. She's been dealing with this for 4 months now. She's been on steroids which have made her puffy and that's probably the least troublesome of the side effects. She has a hard time sleeping, feels as though she could (or wants to) crawl out of her skin, she has pain in her joints, and severe headaches. She's endured not only the steroid, but an intravenous medication that takes 4 hours to receive. We've watched her blood platelet number climb and fall over and over. Her friends and family convinced her to make an appointment at the Mayo Clinic for October 13th. After having a couple weeks of a good blood count and finding out that her insurance wouldn't cover much of the cost, she decided to cancel the appointment. I would have done the same thing. She gets her blood drawn once a week to see what her levels are, and on Friday she was back down to 34,000 (normal is 150,000-240,000). It's beyond frustrating. Not only does she have this disease, but due to her medication she gets an infection in her mouth which causes her to have holes in her tongue. She seems to get the run around from her doctor week after week. I wish they'd just make her better!

Some of you might have heard that my boyfriend, Keith Urban, checked himself into rehab this week. I read a report saying that it was alcohol abuse, but I know he's also had an addiction cocaine in the past as well. I told Justin that I thought the real reason was because I couldn't love him enough. HA! :) (I think it's nice that Justin tolerates me AND my obsession.)

I wanted to share some recipes with you guys. This first one is from a cook book that Justin's sister gave me.

EGG ROLLS
1 pound hamburger
1 pound cabbage, chopped
1 carrot, grated
1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed w/ 1 tablespoon water
package of egg rolls
(I use a bag of coleslaw mix instead of the cabbage and carrot. I also use onion flakes instead of an actual onion.)

Brown hamburger and onion; drain. Add cabbage and grated carrot. Cook until tender. (I do this in my part in my wok.) Add soy sauce, salt, and cornstarch; simmer 5 minutes. Fill egg roll wrappers with 2 to 3 tablespoons filling. Make a paste of flour and water and spread on edge of egg roll rapper to seal. Fry in 350 degree oil.
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The next two are from www.tasteofhome.com. I'm going to just link you to the page. If you can't pull it up, let me know because you HAVE to at least check these over.

Chicken Broccoli Shells
http://recipes.tasteofhome.com/eRMS/recp.aspx?recid=18490

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I can't find the other one I was going to post on the Internet, so I'll have to post it later.
Anywho, have a good week. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow that I'll obviously post soon.