Testifying of Plantain

...no...not the banana kind...plantain, the weed....its in YOUR yard too! It's everywhere! It's that little weed thing you used to pull the stem out of, wrap it around the seed head top and pop it off at your sister or brother. Remember that one?


That's plantain. Ok, to the story.


Tommy and I have a friend we've known a long time. He was even in our wedding party, so yeah,...long time. He has 4 horses and a mule that he loves -- and he has a toddler whom he also loves. The toddler got preference this week. Tim took him to the zoo....the one in SAN FRANCISCO! (Lucky kid!) So in the meantime, the horses need to be cared for. Manti and Mesa adore horses. Tim lives near us. This is a workable situation for all involved.


So we do the neighborly thing and learn the schedule these beasts are on and yesterday we show up at the barn to feed them and show them attention.

Manti and Mesa get the horses fed and are shovelling out the potty bizness from the stalls while Jared and Morgan watch. Jared decides he needs to water a tree and before he can get himself straightened back out, a bee flies up inside his t-shirt and stings him. He takes off like a wounded animal, screaming and slapping at his side and I take off after him hoping his outburst doesn't disturb those gigantic horses and crazy mule my two teens are walking around. I got hold of Jared and looked around me desperate to find some sort of weed that would help him at least to refocus till I could get him home and doctor his booboo.


Well I didn't see any of that kind in the top picture,...but I did see this broadleaf variety. So I picked a big fat leaf, dusted it off real quick and took a bite out of it. I chewed on it for a couple seconds and then pasted it onto Jared's side. I got him to hold it on with his hand for a few minutes while we walked back up the hill to the driveway where our car was. When we got there, Tim's mother was outside with one of her dogs. (She recently had some major surgery, so she can't care for the horses herself and didn't go on vacation with Tim.) We stopped and talked to her a minute. As we did, I noticed Jared (who is now shirtless) running around with no plantain poultice on his side. The sting spot had swelled up real fat and red with a bright red center where the little hole was glaring. I grabbed him by the hand and walked out into the yard a little ways till I found some more plantain. This time I got some like the one at the top of this page. I picked 3 leaves, chewed one and pasted it onto his side again and made him hold it there. He might have kept it on for a full 2 minutes before wiping it off. So I chewed another one, pasted it on and told him to HOLD IT THERE! He left that one for about 2 minutes before wiping it off too. We went through all the leaves I had picked in just a few minutes.

We left for home just after that, which takes 5 minutes by car. We got into the house and of course Jared had no poultice on him anywhere. Fortunately, I had made some plantain salve a few months ago. So I got out the jar of dark green ointment and smeared it on him and immediately covered it with a Handy Manny bandaid. Jared kept telling me he didn't know WHY he needed that,....his booboo was gone.

Today I'm at work, and Tommy had a doctors appointment. All the kids went with him (makes sense since Tommy can't drive yet) and on the way home, they stopped here to see me. I asked Jared to show me his bee sting. He has a red splotchy area, but there is NO whelp and there is NO hole in the middle. It's just a red splotch. He had forgotten about it till I asked! So no itch, no pain, no heat,.....

Plantain is amazing stuff!

I got tempted

I did it. I succumbed. I thought I never would, but I did. I hang my head in shame.

I have now joined Facebook.

Let's observe a moment of silence.

.........................................................

See, Tommy was looking for something or somebody (totally normal behavior for him) online, and in doing so, he came across this person who was my bestest friend when we lived in Idaho. She and I are TOTAL opposites,...even still...but I sure did love her! Every once in a while, something connected to her floats by me and I will miss her a lot. So seeing her picture over Tommy's shoulder just shook my heart up and I wanted to find her again. I didn't know he had JOINED FACEBOOK to find her! I've been saying I would never do that because Facebook is just DUMB..... but Tonya was too big a temptation and I had to do it.

And to make matters worse, I came across Barry and Marcia on there, and Wanda and John.... I got to see my kids playing around way more than they do in MySpace these days (which is the only reason I joined MySpace)...and to top that off, right away I had some folks ask to connect to me and that just shocked me. I guess I just assume everybody in the world hates me and I just put up with it. So yeah... SHOCKER!

I don't know if I lost my mind that day or not..time will tell.

July 4th Parade

It has been about 20 years since I marched in a parade. I'm SURE it's been that long since I marched the old parade route from Dairy Queen to Kmart. I had forgotten how much I love it...until this past weekend. What made it so great this time is that I made it without huffing and puffing, and all of my kids were in it with me. Even little Jared got all the way to the end!

I am a Boy Scout,....SERIOUSLY! I am an advisor for a Venturing Crew that is co-ed. So that requires a female advisor. You'll see Mesa is a Boy Scout too...official and everything! I'm so proud :) Look at our crew...well, part of our crew anyway. We had another member in the high school band in line behind us...another one was home sick,.... etc. So not ALL of our members could join us. We still look good, don't we?

Morgan isn't officially a Cub Scout yet, but he got invited to join Pack 33 in the parade, which made his day TOTALLY!

Our crew focuses on Native American history and traditions (we should be able to assist any troop with earning the "Indian Lore" merit badge). So that's partly why you see Manti in regalia. See me and Jared in the very back? Jared was smart....he was collecting candy from the road where the kids ahead of us were throwing it. His pocket was SLAM FULL!

Here is our family. Wish Tommy had been there too!

As the Lee Ages

I am so old. My BABY sister just turned 30. Of course, that means SHE'S old too now. In honor of her agedness and just to ensure she remembers where she came from, I thought I'd pull out a few pictures I have her and plaster them on the internet :)

You're welcome Lee!

This is 10 year old Lee at my wedding. Wait, I got married in February and her birthday is June, so this is NOT QUITE 10 year Lee at my wedding.

Then Lee grew up.

She became a wife and a mother....

...pulled out all her hair so she fit in with the rest of us wives and mothers...

...and then got old, just like the rest of us :)

Happy Birthday LeeLee!

Ripped Off Awesomeness

Lee has this really long blog roll of the thousands of people she interacts with on her blog. I got nosey today. Look what I found!

Holy cow! And they are supposed to only be 4-8th grade kids!
Glue your teeth in tight so they don't fall out when these kids get to "Footloose"...seriously awesome!

Made My Background!

When I first created my blog, I chose a background theme that was offered by Blogger. It was ok, nothing to shout about, but it sufficed. Then I got to watching Lee's blog change colors and I got intrigued. I clicked the link connected to her page and went Blog Background Shopping. That was fun for a few minutes,...but then I wanted to do my own!

It's taken me a little while, but I'm catching on! The background on my blog right now is one I made all by myself (with the help of Jacki who guided me in the coding structure. Thanks Jacki!)

So tell me what you think!

Heart Healthy Bean Stew

I know just the title of this blog entry sounds gross, but let me just tell you that I fixed this for supper yesterday and even JARED gobbled it down and said it was good! And I have to say it was quite filling and "stick to your ribs" kind of good.

White Bean and Garlic Stew

2 15-ounce cans cannellini or great northern beans (about 3 cups)
1 head garlic (the whole bulb--15-20 cloves)
2 tablespoons water (I don't know why, and I forgot to put it in)
3-4 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 medium yellow onions, chopped (And I hate onions, so I cut mine big enough I could see to pick them out)
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup fresh parsley (I forgot to put this in too)
1 tablespoon lemon juice (I was in a hurry! I forgot to put this in too)

Break the garlic bulb into cloves and peel off the skin. If you'd like, chop one of the cloves, but leave the others whole. If some of the cloves are very large, you may cut them in half lengthwise.Spray a large, non-stick pan lightly with olive oil. Add the onion and sauté until it turns a rich, medium-brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and carrots and sauté for 1 more minute.Add the beans, tomatoes, bay leaves, and water. Cover the pot and simmer for about an hour, adding water if it gets too thick.Stir in the salt and pepper. If you're serving the stew right away, add all the parsley and the lemon juice. If you're serving it later or at room temperature, add the parsley and lemon juice right before serving.

Serve over brown rice. (I used Uncle Ben's brown rice)

Makes 6 servings. Each contains: 246 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (3% calories from fat); 15g Protein; 47g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 385mg Sodium; 15g Fiber

So with all that I forgot and just left out.....this was a delicious recipe! I wonder what it tastes like WITH those ingredients I left out! The world may never know! :)

If you want to see the original recipe and a picture of what it looks like if someone ELSE cooks it (mine was thicker than this), try this link.