I belive in Hope

        I believe in hope. When I was 14 my father passed away. I thought my world had ended, but I later found out that only one of the greatest chapters had ended. I had to be strong. I had to be strong for my family, for myself, and for my father.

 

            My dad was a strong, loving man. My father, Reginald, didn’t let anyone go needing for something they needed. Family was important to him. My father was the only person I knew that would sit and talk to me for hours upon hours. Everyone would get tired of us talking about any and everything. They would simply walk to the other room. This is probably why I can hold longer conversations than any of my friends.

 

When my dad passed away I hoped for the better. I had faith in God that everything would be “Ok” like everyone said it would. At first, I thought no one knew what I was going through. I thought no one knew the pain, the hurt, the depression I had inside of me. I thought no one knew. “How could they know?” I asked myself.  Then I found out I was wrong, someone did know what I was going through. More people than I thought knew what I was going through.

 

The plan was my dad was going to teach me how to drive. He had a love like no other for cars. My dad was going to watch me walk across the stage at graduation. My dad was going to watch me walk up the steps, into the college doors. My dad was going to walk me down the aisle at my wedding. There were so many plans we had planned only to find out that they wouldn’t follow through.

 

I had to remind myself that he will be there through everything I do. Not only will he be there, he will have the best seat in the room. I have hope that he’ll be proud, that he is proud of the young lady that I am becoming. Hope is what got me this far, my hope is what will get me further.

 

 

 

Chicken Spaghetti

Chicken Spaghetti

Ingredients:

1 Pack of spaghetti noddles

4-5 boneless chicken breasts (cooked and chopped)

1 block of Velveeta cheese (chopped into cubes)

1 can of cream of mushroom

2 cans of Rotel (drained)

Preparation:


     The first step is to boil water for the spaghetti noddles in a large enough pan. Be sure to add a little slice of butter to the water so that the noddles don't stick while cooking.  I often requested for this meal to be prepare, but my request was only fulfilled for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and maybe a special occasion. I'd tag along with mother as she would go to prepare my favorite dish.
   
     Waiting for the water to boil seemed to be the longest wait in history. Mom and I would stand around in the kitchen, talking to pass time. I'm talking a mile a mintue, maybe about something that isnt even important. She continues to listen.

    We've prepared this meal so many times together, we don't have to stop and think about the next step.

   The water has came to a boil. I break the noddles up and add them to the boiling water. The boiling slows down while the noddles settle. The noodles are to stay in the water until they're soft.

   Everyone else is usually somewhere waiting for the meal to be prepared. They sit around until they smell the aroma of the food roaming the house. She stirs, I chop.
 
    We laugh and talk about anything that comes to mind. There is no set topic to our conversation. The noddles are ready to be drained. We now can sit those aside until we're ready to use them. We start on the chicken next. "Gabby would you like to do the chicken" She asks. I gladly take the offer. We began to see the meal coming along nicely.

     As I work with the chicken, chopping it to the size needed, mom works on the cheese sauce. She adds both the cheese cubes and Rotel into a large enough pan to melt. Be sure not to let the cheese burn. Once the cheese has melted down enough she slowly stirs in the cream of mushroom. The whole can isn't required, it simply depends on your own desire. If the sauce begins to be too thick then add a little water or milk to loosen up the cheese.

   While mom is doing all of this, I put the noodle into a large bowl to bring all the ingredients together. "Come taste the sauce for me Gabby." I grab a spoon and my reply also seems to be the same, "It tastes fine." She always makes it perfectly with no mistakes. 


    Now that everything is done, remove the sauce from the heat. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Stir the sauce into the spaghetti noddles, but take your time pouring. You will not use all the sauce that you have prepared. You can put the remaining sauce in a container and place it I'm the refrigerator.  Once you have added all the sauce you wanted stir in the chopped up meat. Be sure that everything is well stirred together. It's ok to taste some at this time, just to make sure your not leaving out anything. Place the chicken spaghetti into a casserole pan and place it in the oven for at least 10-15 minutes. This will had some what of a crust to the spaghetti.

     Once the oven goes off let the dish cool for 5 minutes then grab a plate and enjoy!   



My Short Story

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