Laparoscopic Surgery

The surgery I had on Valentine's Day was a success! It was very clear to me that the Lord was there every step of the way. No matter what kind of surgery you have it can be a scary thing. I'm sure there are many of you reading this who know what that feeling is like. Thankfully my procedure was in-and-out and minimally invasive.

I suppose my biggest fear was the unknown. I didn't know why I had such huge cysts growing inside me causing so much discomfort. I also didn't know exactly what would happen when they got inside. My husband and I have chosen not to have children yet. We've been married almost 5 years and it's been fun to just be us. I couldn't help but wonder if I was going into to surgery and would come out having lost my chance to have children. It really hit home when I had to sign the paper giving permission to take my ovaries if necessary. When they got in there they found that my largest cyst was attached to a fallopian tube. By God's grace they were able to take care of the cyst without harming anything else.

The doctor took some great pictures while she was in there. I'm not really into that kinda thing. I don't like to see pictures like that. My husband was very excited about the pictures. One of the first things I remember him saying when I got out of surgery was that I have beautiful insides. He's been able to stay home with me the last few days while I recover. He keeps smiling at me randomly and says how beautiful I am inside and out. He thinks he's so funny.

The recovery hasn't been very fun and I feel like it's been more painful than when I had my knee surgery. I know that I'm going to recover much faster from this surgery though. Hey I'm already sitting up blogging. Blanca has been taking good care of me too. Since she's such a big hairy girl my husband doesn't allow her on the bed. She makes me feel better though so he's been letting it slide lately. I'm looking forward to my follow up appointment with my doctor and learning the root cause of the cysts.

As always I would love to hear from you. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them the  best I can. Advice is always welcome too!

Come back soon. I have a post scheduled about Passion that I wrote before surgery for the Winter Photography Challenge.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today is a day we should tell everyone we love how much we love them and appreciate them, not just those we call spouse, fiance, boyfriend or girlfriend... So to my faithful readers I say "I Love You" and "Thank You." I made you a special Valentine. I hope you like it!

The Latest

Notice anything different about my blog? Look to the top right. See it now? See those fun little acorn buttons? I'm so excited! I've been admiring other bloggers' social media icons and I wanted some of my own. I've been going back and forth for quite a while now trying to decide if I wanted to purchase a set, use a free set or make some of my own. After spending entirely too long fiddling around with Photoshop I finally decided on those little acorns. What do you think? Do you like 'em? Clicking the first little acorn will take you to my RSS feed where you can subscribe. The second little acorn will take you to my Pinterest boards, I would love it if you followed me :) And the third acorn will take you to my BRAND NEW Facebook page! I'm hoping that this page will provide another avenue in which I can connect with you lovely people. LIKE ME, LIKE ME! Please :)

If you don't already have your own set of social media icons. There are a ton of resources out there. I found the post on Adventures of a Small Town Mom particularly helpful, read all about it HERE.

Can you believe that Valentines Day is almost here? I hope you're ready! I like to call it Love Day, a day where we tell everyone we love how much they mean to us. I'm getting a VERY big present tomorrow. Surgery :(  You may have already read my Debbie Downer post Feeling Icky and gotten an idea of what I've been going through. I was ordered to get a CAT scan done a couple days ago where they discovered I actually have large bilateral cysts. They will need to go in there to drain them and determine what kind of cysts these are. As you can imagine I'm nervous. It's hard not knowing. But I'm thankful that I have a Father who does know and he's watching over me. I believe in the power of prayer and if you're reading this and feel led to pray for me, I appreciate it more than you know.

P.S. Don't worry I would never have forgotten about you on Valentine's Day. I have a special Valentine scheduled to post that I made just for you. Come back tomorrow so you can see it!

Chicken Soft Tacos with Zesty Guacamole

I recently wrote a post about Solitude and mentioned that I was participating in a Winter Photography Challenge, you can find out more HERE. This week's challenge is capturing warmth. I don't know about you but finding warmth in the dead of winter is definitely a challenge. Many of us turn to food for warmth, comfort and satisfaction. Usually it's soup, chili or stew. I personally crave color and foods that aren't heavy. These Chicken Soft Tacos are perfect. They will warm you from your head down to your toes, depending on how many seeds you leave in the jalapeno that is.

This is one of my favorite recipes! These soft tacos are absolutely mouthwatering. They are so worth the effort, trust me. I'm happy that the Cookie Monster helped me make them this time :) With our soft tacos we had a Cilantro Lime Chickpea Salad. O my NELLY it was good! Talk about a satisfying, FULL of flavor salad, mmm mmm mmm. Head on over to Heather's Dish to get the full scoop on the salad. She lays the recipe out beautifully. I hope to depict the warmth of the dish in the picture and that it entices you to try it.

Chicken Soft Tacos with Zesty Guacamole (Click here for printable recipe)

Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 small jalapeno pepper
1/2 cup packed cilantro 
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 2 limes)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large white onion
2 ripe avocados
12 corn tortillas


Directions:
1.) In a food processor or blender puree cilantro, lime juice, salt, black pepper, garlic and jalapeno pepper. (The heat of a pepper is in the seeds so unless you like things really hot, slice the pepper in half and scrap the majority of the seeds out.)

2.) Place chicken in a shallow dish and spread only HALF the garlic mixture over all sides of the chicken. Leave the rest of the garlic mixture in the food processor or blender. You can marinate the chicken up to 1 day.


3.) Chop onion and heat 1 Tablespoon oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until golden but still slightly crunchy.


4.) Peel and pit avocados and put the flesh in the food processor with remaining garlic mixture and half the cooked onion. Pulse until desired consistency. Add more salt and pepper according to taste.

5.)  Use the same skillet you cooked the onions in and cook the chicken over medium heat. Discard any extra marinade. Brown chicken on one side for about 5 minutes then flip and finish cooking for 3 to 4 minutes. 


6.) Remove chicken to cutting board and allow to rest. Wrap tortillas in damp paper towels and warm them in the microwave for 1 minute.


7.) Shred chicken with 2 forks. Spread about a Tablespoon of the guacamole on a tortilla add a few onions and then some chicken.


If you want to save time then just shred up an already cooked rotisserie chicken. Place the chicken in a Ziploc bag with the marinade and then reheat the chicken in the microwave or a skillet.

I hope you'll try these delicious tacos you won't be disappointed!