Top 10 for 2010

I'm sure lots of people will be doing posts like this, but I thought it would be fun to look back and choose my top 10 favorite recipes/blog posts of 2010!  (Well, since June anyway!)  These are not in any particular order, but it was fun to look back and see the changes I've made (of course, my choices have gone down hill for the holidays!  Time to get healthy again!) and my photos have improved quite a bit!  It's also amazing to see how much my kids have grown, just since June.

So...some of my favorite are -
 Pickled peppers (my first "canning" experience)
 Homemade yogurt in the crockpot! (so glad I discovered this!)
 Day 2 of my exercise training for my 1st 5K back in September (it makes me laugh, and makes me realize how far I've come, from walking 3 miles to mostly running 3 miles! But not lately)
"Cinnabon" popcorn (so good!)
Garden pics
My first 5K
Pumpkin Oatmeal (love this stuff!)
Spiced Pumpkin Scones with crystallized ginger
Light the Night (great experience)
Faux Toffee aka Christmas Crack

This was actually harder than I thought it was going to be!!  I have discovered some really yummy dishes these past several months.  Pumpkin oatmeal, homemade yogurt, and the "Green" Monster have become pretty regulars in my breakfast routine.  Homemade mac & cheese and homemade chicken nuggets are favorites of the kiddies.  The asian noodle salad and shrimp & grits are also things I'll definitely be making again! 

I need to figure out how to make an index of my recipes....hmmm, that will require some computer skillz, time, patience and probably a lot of cursing.  I better call in my sister, Reed, for reinforcements.

So, now that I've shamelessly promoted revisited several previous blog posts, I should say what I am truly thankful for in 2010.  This has been THE MOST difficult year of my life.  My Dad (who is only 59 y/o) was diagnosed with Leukemia at the end of 2009. 2010 involved hospitals (literally months in the hospital), chemotherapy, lots of prayers, tears, fears and hours upon hours of scouring the internet learning about blood cancers, promoting bone marrow drives, and talking to anyone and everyone to get more people registered as a bone marrow donor (http://www.marrow.org/ for more info).  AND then this summer, a miracle happened.  A donor was found, and my dad had a life-saving stem cell transplant (this is how most bone marrow transplants are done now, with the collection of stem cells).  Since then, he has been recovering.  Transplants are extremely hard on the body, and he still has a very weakened immune system, but he is CANCER FREE.  He just had a bone marrow biopsy for the 6 month "anniversary" of his transplant, and the results show no evidence of Leukemia.  I'm am so thankful, I can not even begin to put it into words.  I am thankful to God, for modern medicine, for the doctors at Chapel Hill, for the doctors at Pitt, and for his donor - who is anonymous to us.  I love this person!!!  Because someone chose to become a registered bone marrow donor, my family has my Dad for 2011.  I think it's going to be a great year! (I'm working on being positive as well.  New Year's Resolution!)

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!!  Be safe celebrating!  I have no plans, as usual.  Will probably hang out in my sweats, drink mimosas and eat everything in the house.  Oh yeah, I did that last night.  hmmm.  Maybe I'll write out my New Year's resolutions and blog about them.  Then maybe I'll actually follow through on a few of them.   But then again, maybe not.  Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be POSITIVE :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!