Roasted Walnut & Pear Salad

I don't even know where to begin. Life has been so crazy! And I'm just ready, to stop. But the month of June, is just nuts for me! The "Bridal Tea" that was planned earlier this week, was moved. And the Baptismo, this weekend, was changed. I'm still feeling a total sense of loss. And very unmotivated.

But I must power through. I know. It's hard to move forward. Especially this soon after, a great loss. But I'm moving. And I'm trying to get plans together, for Dawn's party. Tomorrow. Everything I had previously planned, went out the window Monday. Sorry Dawn!

Instead, I've decided on an afternoon get together. Just us gals still. But days later. With much simpler food. To compensate, we're going to have a "jewelry making" afternoon. This guy, just amazes me! He bought us tons and tons of stuff, from Tori Spellings new line. :)

And I've been putting together lots of easy, but tasty recipes. Essentially, I'm going to have about 2 hours, to get it together. :) This week's Gooseberry Patch Recipe of the Week, just seems so perfect! Light, easy, and tasty.



Roasted Walnut & Pear Salad

1 head romaine lettuce, torn
2 c. pears, thinly sliced
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 c. walnuts
2 T. butter
1/4 c. brown sugar, packed
4-oz. pkg. crumbled blue cheese
8-oz. bottle raspberry white wine vinegar salad dressing

Place lettuce in a large serving bowl; lay pears on top and add tomatoes. In a medium skillet, roast walnuts in butter until golden; add brown sugar and stir over low heat until walnuts are hardened with glaze. Add walnuts to salads, sprinkle on blue cheese and toss with vinegar dressing. Makes 6 to 8 servings.



Doesn't this sound AMAZING? Honestly, I'm looking forward to hanging out with my gal pals. I NEED to just relax. And enjoy life a little. Today was such a tough one. I can't even describe to you, the crazy amount of emotions, that were going on. Saying goodbye to my SIL, was like saying goodbye to my sister. ♥

2 Years...

2 years ago, my brother came back, into our lives. We were hopeful. Our family has been through a lot. We wanted his arrival, to be a good thing. To be a starting place, to heal our family.

Maybe I was just naive about what was to come. My brother. The oldest. The one that was never around. Always shady. But the one, we were all told, to be proud of. I had hoped, things would be better. Better than they had been, all those years ago.



These days, I'm not feeling it. I'm frustrated with him. The way he behaves. The things he does. How he treats people in our family. The way he talks down to everyone. The way, he treats my parents. Especially, my Mom.

He talked the "Big Talk." Actually, he still does. But, he has failed to walk the "Big Walk." In every way that you can imagine. It's so frustrating! But, we're not supposed to say anything. or do anything. Even though, he wants everyone to baby him. To take care of him. To provide for him.

Not me. I'm done. I'm super frustrated. Totally annoyed! And I've stopped walking on "eggshells." I'm speaking my mind. Whether people agree with me, or not. Whether they like it or not. I just can't live like this anymore. It's so frustrating!

I just don't understand it. 2 years have past. He's done nothing with his life. Only made our entire family, more uncomfortable. Only created more problems. Only made the rifts bigger. Only made me resent him more.

It's sad really. I don't want to have this hard heart. Or these horrible feelings. But I can't help myself. I've been hurt, way too many times. I can't deal anymore. I almost feel like, I need to write him off. To cut off the "dead part" of my life.

2 years later, lots of things have changed. Not for the better. That's unfortunate. But I can't control these things anymore. I can't keep lugging this dead weight. It's not fair to me. I've extended my hand. Looked the other way. Tried to see past all the bad stuff.

But I can't do it anymore. It's begun to kill me. From the inside out. And I need to start thinking about me again. It's tough. But it's the reality of being a grown up. ♥

Flooded...

I guess it could be worse. My house could be floating down the road. But it's not. I could have been home, and gotten sick. Someone could have gotten hurt. Something really bad could have happened. But it didn't.

What am I talking about? Well, for my Facebook and Twitter friends, you saw my post last night. I had a flood...in my house. That I didn't know about. And my friend found it. The carpet has been soaked for a few days. Add in the record breaking heat, and we have trouble!

What makes all of this worse, is that I'm working all week in Dallas. So is My Guy. And at the earliest, we can get to my house on Sunday. Sunday people! So I freaked. About had a heart attack. It didn't help that we were "in-flight" at the moment. From the east coast to Dallas.

Instantly, I went from trying to cheer up My Guy, to him trying to calm me down. So much for his "bad day" at work. I was now in crisis mode. And honestly, there was not much that I could do. But call a few people. Like my cousin and his wife.

This happening to me. The OCD person. With everything in it's place at all times. Insanely clean house. And now, MY BEDROOM is flooded! The carpet is possibly growing mold. Yuck! And who knows what else is going on...

So Amaya found the soaked carpet Sunday evening. She was staying at my house for a few days. Because she was in town working. We do this quite often. And after the soaked carpet in the hallway, she found that my bedroom and bathroom were completely soaked! The water even ran into my den. OMG!

She didn't know what to do. Was a few 100 miles away, from the people she knows. And her home. So she called me. I panicked. Called a few people. Then decided to call Fern. He showed up with a "Shop Vac." And tried to soak up some of the water. But, it had been a few days. :(

So from what I hear, my bedroom closet, linen closet, heater (in a closet thing), hallway, master bathroom, master bedroom, and the den were all soaked. And things are smelling a little "horrible."

Fern was sweet enough to offer Amaya a place to stay. And to open up the windows in my house. He also put all the fans on, brought in a few more (like 8 more), and just got everything drying out.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do. But I do know, Sunday, we're heading to my house. Then we will evaluate things. Fern said there is no broken or leaking pipes. We're not entirely sure how the water got in. Other than, through the shower drain. Imagine that. But how? We have no clue!

My Guy called a contractor to go check things out. Fern turned off the water. And well, we wait. At the bare minimum, the carpet will have to be replaced. And probably the tile in the master bathroom. Other than that, we are not entirely sure.

I do know that a few things were damaged. Like a bookshelf. And some speakers. Possibly a sound system. Probably some shoes, and maybe some clothes. I'm not entirely sure what else, I had on the floor or in the closet. I haven't lived there in a few years.

This is definitely not the way, that I saw this week going. I'm majorly stressed out. And I have to work long hours this week. But I'm learning all about faith. And how to just hand over this kind of stuff to God. He will help. At least no one was hurt. And I still have a place to live. The rest, well it can be replaced. ♥