New Roast Recipe!!

I've been trying a lot of new recipes. Mostly from Pinterest <- It's my obsession!!! Most of the recipes have been good but not blog worthy, until......today!!! :o) YES!

It's called Mississippi Roast (but the hubs thinks we should rename it.... so I guess I'll update you when he comes up with a clever name. LOL

It's so easy.

 Buy a chuck roast & put it in the crockpot.

Sprinkle Hidden Valley Ranch dressing on top.

Sprinkle McCormick Aus Jus gravy mix on top of that.

Put 1 stick of butter on that. (I read you can use a can of beer instead of the butter)

Put about 5 pepperoncini peppers on top of that.

Sprinkle w/a lil salt & pepper & then....

...cook on low for 8 hours. I served this with rice (would be great w/mashed potatoes)!! The gravy was delish. You should make it, I'm sure you'll love it as much as we did!!

Here is a link to the original post. http://www.food.com/recipe/mississippi-roast-crockpot-491126

It Begins...

Well today the husband and his entire unit stood outside on the flightline for hours trying on and picking up their multicam uniforms and gear. This is the gear that they will actually take to Afghanistan. It certainly makes this deployment seem oh so real. They are not actually leaving until the summer some time but they will begin shipping their items soon.

Since deployment in nearing we want to try to do as much as we can afford to do before he leaves. So we have been planning a few trips. Our anniversary is coming up and the hubs surprised me by actually taking a couple days off. We originally planned to go out to dinner in the dark but after realizing they needed payment in advance we just went ahead and canceled with the intent to reschedule b/c that is too awesome to miss!!! So we have decided to take a trip to Switzerland. This will be our first time actually traveling out of Germany so we are both really excited!!! We also plan on taking a detour to go to Monkey Hill in Salem. Who can pass up free range monkey that you can hand feed! Hell Yea! LOL Well, actually the husband owes me this trip since we had planned to go last October and then went to Oktoberfest instead. Later we found out they closed for the winter. But they are reopened and I am ready!!!

Then later in May the girls and I are going with ODR on a Polish pottery trip. I am excited the ODR has put out their list of spring/summer trips. Hopefully it will keep us busy after the guys all leave. In June we have our big vacationed planned to the UK. I can hardly wait. After that trip I will be gearing up to throw a huge Deployment Sucks Party!!! One of the husbands good friends Crawford is actually letting me borrow his house for the night to throw this party. Since his house is on post and actually has a yard it will be a much better site for crazy infantryman to party b4 they deploy!!!!

As excited I am about the things we have planned, I know that after we do all these fun things the husband will be leaving. They say he could be gone up to 18 months. I am not looking forward to that at all. I could definitely handle 6-9 but 18, that is too long!

The only thing that may save me (besides having some good friends that will be going through the same thing) my mom & sister plan on visiting. I can hardly wait for them to be able to take in the beautiful sights I get to experience every day!!! Eeek!!! ;o)

Klinikum

Last week I was feeling pretty bad. I normally get tonsillitis a few times a year so I assumed it was that. After suffering for 6 days I made an appt to see my dr here on post. The system that they have in place at this health clinic is pretty efficient most times but this time i felt like they didn't take time to treat me, the patient, they treated my symptoms. So I get called back by a young guy with a laptop. He takes all my vitals, temp and so on. Then asks every question imaginable. He relays this info to the dr. She comes in and says I hear you have this, this, and this. Here is some medicine, Bye! I literally spent 4 minutes with the dr and about 25 minutes with the young guy and his laptop. 

Later that night after seeing this army dr I start to feel much worse. I decided to just go to the ER since its a 7 minute drive. I was worried about even going since they do not speak great English but I was hopeful they would give me an antibiotic and send me home. After they did all the normal er stuff they sent me for an x-ray  So the weirdest thing....they just left me in this barely lit hallway outside of the x-ray place for at least 20 min. It was kind of creepy. Every now and then I could hear voices but sure as hell couldn't understand what they were saying. It was worse than being in the nail salon, thinking they are talking about you but not really knowing. lol

Finally they take me back for chest x-rays, I guess to make sure it wasn't pneumonia. After the x-ray a nurse takes me on the rolling bed out of the ER and in the hallway where my husband is and starts shouting his name. I ha no idea what was going on by this point. Now that my husband was by my side, I felt better but she nurse continued rolling my bed to the elevators. Truthfully, I was thinking the ER was full so they were taking me somewhere to wait. The husband and I kept exchanging weird IDK what's going on glances at each other. 

We arrived on the top floor and met another nurse where she met us with another rolling bed. Thankfully this one speaks a lil better english....but not too much better. At this point, I'm questioning here like "What is going on." They roll me into a room with an elderly woman who looked to be in her 80's. AKWARD. And the nurse is telling me I am staying the night and I was instantly freaking out. It was about 940pm and the nurse tells me that visiting hours are over at 10 so the husband would have to leave. I was so freaked out, not really knowing what was going on and they were making my love leave. The husband did find out that I had a high fever and that contributed to my admittance to the hospital. 

So I am laying in this weird place next to this old German lady. The only thing she can ask me in English is What is my name. After that....silence. They don't give you gowns or anything so I was just laying in pants and a long sleeve t-shirt trying my hardest to just sleep so the next day would come. They did however give me some good antibiotics and painkillers which was the 1st time in a week I had been able to swallow without much pain. Sadly, the meds wore off about 2 am and made it impossible to fall asleep. 

So by 7am the next morning all the lights on on and the day has started. I am beyond tired and just hoping for the husband to show at 730. They bring in breakfast around that time. Weird. 2 rolls, 2 pieces of lunch meat that looks a lil like bologna with green flecks in it and some coffee. I ate the bread till I bit into a caraway seed and it kinda made me gag. The husband arrived then with a Dr.Pepper, my savior!!!! 

Lunch was about the same weirdness. Baked fish with a gelatinous sauce covering it, nasty potatoes (come on, who fucks up potatoes) and a soup I could actually eat (thank goodness) and choc pudding with pears on top. 

After lunch and all this time filled with complete boredness they finally took me to see the ENT. He said he would give me a prescription and that I would be able to leave. 

This was the 1st time I ever ever stayed in the hospital, wouldn't you figure my 1st time would be in a foreign country!!! This is definitely an experience i will never forget!!