Back in the Saddle

Well, after a week of being really sick, I'm back. Since I missed a lot of vacation, I'm just going to skip to the end. It appears that I posted on Thursday, but it was actually written two days prior.

Here's the situation. I have had very little sleep the past week. It's been terrible. But last night, I did not have ONE MINUTE of sleep. Truly, not a single minute. I watched tv ALL night---miserable as hell.
Walked in to my doctor's office first thing this morning and he fixed me up.

After  a full year May1st of being prednisone free, I'm back on it. I wasn't hive free for the year, but pretty much. Still, I'm so grateful for this miracle---cheap drug!! It's been 14 years! But what it means now is that I'm once again running on warp speed. I thought I could get a nap today, but really only got 10 minutes. Now it's midnight and I'm wide awake. Although it's not good for the body (or mind) to not get any sleep, that's just the way it is right now. I'm going to embrace it. As my fingers are flying over the keyboard, I'm going to have more time to keep up with a few things.

Starting with the winners of the Eads Family Cook Off! May I present to you:

"Top Chefs" Victoria and Morgan!! Clearly I was surprised because I ended up missing their meals. They did a really good job. Actually, everyone did. They all really enjoyed this little family fun that turned in to a much bigger deal than any of us had in mind. That's competition for you.

Here are the category winners:

 Elizabeth and Mindy won "Originality" for their "M & E Pizzeria"complete with mustache party favors. And I must add, Elizabeth did all of the lettering on my Gypsy. Kids are amazing! I showed her how to operate it just once and she did everything. (For those of you that don't know, a Gypsy is part of the Cricut die cutting system. Basically it's a little computer that allows you choose and size letters to cut.) She also was a whiz with the Xyron machines (sticker maker).

Then they killed it with their dessert:

White chocolate mousse tinted blue for the ocean, crushed vanilla wafer for sand, teddy graham on a fruit roll towel with an umbrella! It was Elizabeth's idea for the chocolate mousse---and we're not talking from a box---from scratch! Mindy came up with the presentation idea she remembered seeing on Pinterest.

 Team "Throttle Back" Butch and Nicky won "Best Presentation: Food" for their fish and shrimp tacos and red velvet pancakes. For a couple of guys who don't care about food, they really stepped it up.

Sandy and Greg won "Best Presentation: Table" with their Mexican Fiesta. Since they were first up, the rest of the family pretty much conceded that they would get "Top Chefs" too. Turns out the judging got laxer as the week went on!

 Jordan and I won the "Timeliness" award. Due to my situation, Jordan really had to step it up. She did a great job. We had a pirate theme. I'm hiding my face for a reason!

 We littered the table with gold doubloons (chocolate coins) and black gumballs.

Our "treasure chest" was filled with messages in bottles. Jordan came up with all of those---quite clever---things like "Arggh! Surrender ye' booty!" and "Shiver me Timbers." Our meal was steak, baked potatoes, salad and red lobster rolls.

Team Twitter---Stephanie and Mitchell won "Best Taste" for their Nutella and banana grilled paninis.

And, finally, back to our "Top Chefs" Morgan and Victoria.

 They made fruit skewers, blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes for their breakfast. They drew the 4th of July for their lunch.

 They made their dessert---the fruit fantasy pizza into the shape of the flag. (Hint: my flag for the photo scavenger hunt). I wonder if they used 50 blueberries to be historically correct. They're definitely "off" on the stripes.

 They set a festive table with glow glasses and USA tattoo party favors.

Everyone had fun with this challenge, but it definitely put the focus on food for our vacation. Plus we are all such huge re-cyclers that we never use so many paper products. Still, it was fun.

And finally, a glimpse of us playing "chicken foot" which we hadn't played in years. It became the game of the vacation. We didn't play anything else. I even was able to get in on a couple of games.

 Gosh, everyone looks so serious. Oh yeah, we had money riding on it!! A penny a point. And who do you think was the big winner? Elizabeth! She definitely has a strategy that works for her!

There you have it. I'm finished! I had to get this post done---after all, this blog is my yearbook!!

The Energy Bunny signing off!