A favorite Christmas item

I love love love getting Christmas cards, especially the photos ones from my friends who have children. I get to display them all in this amazing, quilted, denim stocking made by my oh-so-artsy-fartsy friend. I am forever envious of her talents on a sewing machine. She takes old blue jeans, which she procures from family, friends, Goodwill, etc., and creates the most wonderful works of art with them. You may think that the tree would be the best part of the decor at my house, but it's this stocking which tends to capture my gaze for many moments. I like to shuffle the cards around to create a different look from time to time and declare each day a new favorite card, and attempt to create prominate spots for each in turn. In other words, it's just one more outlet for my eternal piddling (as if I needed another). Thank you Artsy-Fartsy-Friend! I love you looooonnnng time!

Kid-free Saturday mornings are a Hoot!

My Mother-in-law had the girls friday night, giving Chris and I a kid-free Saturday morning. What do we do with a morning like this? Why, we stalk the owl, of course. We could have never done this with our old camera, the batteries wouldn't have lasted long enough to focus. Mr.B. fried up some fresh sausage (one of the advantages to running a business in a small rural town, along with the occasional pie) and I made a pan of biscuits and we enjoyed our breakfast and our wizened old pal out back as he searched for his own breakfast. Or maybe she searched for her breakfast. Who really knows; I'm no ornithologist. I'm open for answers to this question as well as suggestions for names for Mr. or Mrs. Owl. Right now, I call it Hoot or sometimes just My Owl. Isn't she gorgeous? Doesn't she have attitude? Doesn't she just scream, "I will eat you if you dare walk past my barn"?

Things that keep me going... you know the little things!

It doesn't take much to amuse me. A couple of years ago we began billing for medicaid and the county nurse who helped kick off the effort would send us therapists a bit of chocolate for doing our part. Of course, I felt this practice ought to continue as billing medicaid was a valuable, revenue-generating effort on behalf of the rehab crew. But my appeals to the medicaid secretary were fruitless, despite numerous pleas and threats of boycott which she saw through as obviously empty. But at the end of the year, after having made the county probably thousands of dollars through billed services I was rewarded with the above piece of wood, warranting at least a slight chuckle from yours truly.

This year, the fall leaves were especially beautiful and I was more than happy, with my traveling assignment, to get a chance to view them from school to school. I took this photo while eating lunch in my car outside of a middle school and listening to Neal Boortz. Life, and lunch, was especially good that day.

Oh, how'd that get there? Even Wahoo-girl got into this activity. Taken outside of the portajohns I had worked dillegently to locate.

And finally, for today's post, I give you, the view from my desk chair. It's limited due to confidentiality as I have students' photos pinned up on the right side but what you CAN see are my toys which keep me company and photos of my sweet family, including that Weem, God Rest his Sweet Soul :)

Another 12.5mg

Last night, I decided to continue to titrate my Topamax up another 12.5. Not exactly as directly by my physician but my physician, but I get the feeling that this is not a 'one-size-fits-all' drug. For those of you keeping up, I'm up to 37.5mg and feeling in tip-top shape. Side effects are at a minimum. I haven't felt like a zombie since those first few days of introducing this medication to my body. Best of all, no headaches, even with this raging headcold which typically would set off a spiraling migraine due to swollen sinuses. Yay! I can't help but wonder if I could stay at 37.5mg, with the minimum side effects, and have all the results I need. Only time will tell, but for now, I'm happy with the course I'm on and hope that it continues. The next two weeks will be the crucial tell-all as I will go through all the hormone levels involved in the worst part of my migraine cycle. I do hope I don't have to come back and eat my words, they will be bitter.

Shiny lights

Except for the parts where I have to replace lights, the decorating came off nicely today. I'm glad to have had a day dedicated to Christmas prep. Here are some photos.

Here is one of Holly's marvelous owl ornaments! (please refer to earlier post entitled "owl be seeing you in all the old familiar places" for important link) I'm so blessed to have one for each of my family members adorning our tree! This one is Ese's; it has Rock Star eyes!


"Whooooo are you?"



This is Bodacious.

We didn't have a stocking for Lilybelle yet, so Ese decided to make one from paper and tape it to the mantle. My mantle is missing the lighted garland because, I'm still waiting for the dude to return from Dollar General with a new string of lights.

A confession: I never liked Christmas. It used to be a source of stress and sadness for me, as it is for so many people. I have my own personal reasons for this, however irrational you may want to view it. But since I've had children and my focus is on the most important aspects of the holiday, I have begun to actually enjoy the entire season. I find myself bursting with more energy than I can remember then ever before for the purpose of decorating and generally spreading good cheer. No, I still don't get it all done, but guess what! I don't let that mess stress me out anymore! This holiday just isn't about people pleasing, it's about people loving and loving God and God loving us! Wow! Ese loves what I'm writing and is cheering me on from over my shoulder. So my tree is FULL of Ese and El made ornaments and the ornaments that Mr.B and I have bought together over the years and a conglomerate of stuff loved ones have given us over the years. It's wrapped at the based with a true piece of denim 'art' created by a girlfriend and there's a war going on between the Hokie and Tarheel ornaments. I'm sure this is close to what the Maggi had in mind... right?

I'm having a really hard time thinking of a creative title tonight...

Half the difficulty of writing a blog entry is coming up with a decent title. Right now I just can't pull two neurons together well enough to do so. Up until this very moment, I was going to say that I was not Dopamaxing too badly today since titrating up to 25mg. I mean I've had one heck of a day, despite the dull headache I've been carrying around. I've been talking to other professionals coherently on the phone, dishing out some darn good therapy for kids, digging myself out of the medicaid paperwork-pile and decorating the mantle at the EJ office for Christmas. I've been on my game! I made a great meal for my family and even remembered to do the advent candle with them. And now here I am, totally unable to type an entire sentence without backspacing over a dozen times and struggling to put my thoughts down on MacBook. My kids are in the same room as me, playing school, and that's a little distracting but still, I can tell that the little white pill I took just an hour ago is beginning to slooooowww ddoooowwwwwnnnn brainnnn funnnncccction. Thank goodness, I'll be hitting ye ol' sack pretty soon. The side effects I've experienced mostly today are the weird sensations in my hands, scalp and tongue. My tongue has felt like it was on fire all day, not painful really, just hot and tingly. I spent another 60cents on yet another flat Coke- confound it! I'm starting to laugh at myself really, because being on weird brain drugs really exposes a raw self. It's a self that is truly laughable.

I know that HIPPA is important, confidentiality and all that. But there are days when I wish I blog about how wonderful my students are and some of their successes. I will take this opportunity right now to say that I have some kids who are doing some great work and making incredible progress against some serious odds. I will close by saying that although, somedays I struggle because I don't always feel the best, my students make it easier to say, "I really enjoy my work" and mean it.

My tongue is on fire

That is all for now.

(following an increase to 25mg last night)

Unexpected

Sometimes one gets surprised by the nicest little 'hellos' from the past. I got a little note from an old friend today that truly warmed my heart and gave me a much needed memory jolt. This particular girlfriend, and she knows who she is if she happens to come back and read this here entry, reminded me how easy I used to have it years ago before I realized how darn socially awkward I really am. And aren't so many adults a little more socially awkward than they were say in the 6th and 7th grade? Or, lets say, even farther back. I look at my kids and their ease at going up to most anyone and saying stuff like, "I learned how to play Yahtzee last night with my dad. You want to play?" and I wonder how come I feel totally weird going up and ordering a sandwich at a deli. Of course, I began to ponder why this friend and myself, who were once so close, as well as so many of my other relationships over the years, have sort of drifted apart. Is it because we all choose our own paths in life? College? Spouses? New towns? Did I dabble too much in alcohol and wild living for too long that many of my friends could not deal with me? Was it pure laziness on both sides that friendships and relationships require so much work that it is perhaps easier to create newer, potentially more shallow ones to maintain? (not that I consider any of my current relationships shallow, people, I'm just throwing out food for thought here) As time goes on, you forget how valuable a friend is to you, not because of what they can do for you, but for the way they understand you. You know, that person just gets you. It's a beautiful thing, but because you sort of start to forget and 10 to 15 years goes by, you run into that person and for some strange reason, it's hard to thing of something intelligent to say. Ah, but the gem of it is, that person, has thought about you! And he or she tells you some wonderful stories that begin to bring it all back and it nearly moves you to tears! This was the effect this note had on me today. And I want her to know that the memory jolt was an absolute thing of beauty and awesomeness! I needed it some kind of bad especially when my brain was feeling somewhat like moosh.

I have a short list of great friends right now, in fact, I have more girlfriends than I ever thought I'd have. Surprisingly, I don't feel awkward around any of the fine friends on my list and that's why they make the list. And no, shallow doesn't apply here either. You're all just as deep as you wanna be and I love you looooong time!

Must be the barometer

I'm handling 12.5mg okay on my way, I mean my day, back at work, but my head is starting to hurt. It's not like a migraine status yet, it's just pressure starting from the base of my skull creeping up through my brain. I am CONVINCED it must be the barometer dropping. Just took two excedrine and will have to see if it helps alleviate this extreme discomfort. Why I felt the need to pull up Blogger to write that down, I'm not really sure. I just think it's fabulous that ye ol' iPrism lets me pull up Blogger here at ye old school. Let's hope this pressure alleviates soon or I'll start whining and you know how I hate whiners, even myself.

The Drift

I don't know why, but the coffee seemed good enough yesterday morning, but when I filled up at Sheetz and Lynne bought me a Coke, something seemed amiss. Since when do they sell bottles of flat Coke? I don't say anything, because my friend had bought it for me and who am I to complain? Later, at the tailgate, I open a bottle of Shocktop beer and again, there's no flavor. I'm thinking, maybe it got shook up on the hike over here to the Southside Hokie Club... I had a second one and again, no flavor. It's not that it tastes bad, it just doesn't taste. Then I remembered the email I had received from a girl whose sister also takes Topamax and described a similar phenomena. (except she had described Octoberfest as, and I quote, "goat piss" I shudder at the thought) Luckily, Wahoo-girl was along with me for the this trek to Hokie land and she is my oracle in the realm of migraine drugs. Apparently this is just another one of those things, but my MD says this should pass over time and that it's no wonder people on Topamax lose weight. Wahoo-girl and I managed to get to Hokie land and back in one piece yesterday, enjoying a ball game, dinner at my favorite Blacksburg joint and coffee at this other little dive. 460 was a standstill last night and I found out from another friend today that there was a wreck on it... figures. We perused several old CDs from my collection including Come On Pilgrim and yes, more Sugarcubes!! Many smiles and extreme singing abounded. This morning I was attempting to help prepare the counter for coffee hour at church and found myself staring into a cabinet for some minutes before remembering that I was looking for napkins. I managed to speak to folks coherently at church, including my prescribing MD who is such a kind lady for all the moral support she gives to her patients. In general today, I've been lying around dreading going back to work tomorrow and finding out how I will function with students. I almost feel the need to send out a disclaimer email to co-workers stating that I will be pretty much drifting along for a while until my body gets adjusted to this medication. As far as pain goes, I have only had a couple mild little headaches since beginning the medication on Wednesday night and each time, Excedrine has done the trick. So already, I can see an improvement, even on this low dose. Best news of the week is this: I finally picked out the Dansko shoes I wanted and ordered them from zappos.com and they should be here soon! Yay!

Day 2

Last night's Thanksgiving dinner at Mother's did involve a couple glasses of a light tramenette, Frosty Dog I think it was, as well as a large cup of coffee. Then back to the house around 10:30 for my medication, declining a trip to Smithfield for Black Friday madness. I sat up reading for a while but never did find sleep. Was it the wine or the coffee? Was it the anticipation of waking up for a little internet shopping? Maybe all of it. It was over $200 and 4:00 a.m before I could finally get some shut eye. This probably has nothing to do with the 12.5mg Topamax. Woke up about 8:00 with a dull headache which was easily taken care of with Excedrine. I've enjoyed my day of utter laziness and am now getting ready for Thanksgiving, Round 2 at Dad's house. It will be first time I've stepped foot outside today. I did have high hopes of transplanting some shrubbery today, but nah! How often do you get to enjoy a dreary day indoors with no real pressure? AAAHHHHH! Thanksgiving! I'm thankful!

Embarked upon a new trek

Thanks to my sweet friend, we shall call her Wahoo-girl, I was able to see my doctor much sooner than expected (note to self: call and cancel the 12/3 appointment). Wahoo-girl, whether she realizes it or not, has now signed on to be my personal tour guide through the arena of Topamax. According to the literature, all sorts of things can go wrong with this medication. Somnolence- no problem, I'll take it at night to help with that, per recommendation of Wahoo-girl. Cognitive impairment- while I'm somewhat used to being forgetful and not being good with names and faces, I do have a distinct fear of this worsening. I have a pretty meticulous system of organization at work to help keep all my paperwork in order and on time; I just have to be careful not to let my system implode on itself. Maybe I'll be asking my students to wear name tags before it's all said and done. The rest of you people are just going to have deal with me and answer when I call you by my dogs' names. I do worry about disorientation, I have a history of forgetting how to get to places if I don't go that route fairly often. In fact, I'm driving Wahoo-girl up to Blacksburg on Saturday and I'm praying I won't get us all turned around. Because she is so awesome, I suppose I shouldn't worry too much. I just really don't want to miss kick off. Dizziness- I guess I'll just try to sit down for that one. Again, hopefully taking this drug at night will ward off these complications. Ataxia (or as my MD called it 'funny walking')- If I start doing this, I won't last long on this drug. I wouldn't want to walk around looking as if I'd already tied one on! Apparently, I shouldn't be doing much drinking of alcohol from here on out. This will probably mean dropping my 3 drink limit to a 1 drink limit. One glass of wine at dinner should be no problem. But limiting myself to only one Fat Tire or one Octoberfest, nearly makes me want to cry. We'll just have to slowly test these particular waters.
But here is the point to this entry (oh finally, she makes a point): I hope to keep a little running record here about how my journey into zombie-land is going and at the same time chronicling what my life is like as I hopefully become migraine-free. And then truly my Heaven will be a Big Heaven indeed. And if it doesn't work, well I guess I'm looking at a lobotomy.
First dose- 11/24 (night before Thanksgiving) 12.5mg-followed directions given by Wahoo-girl, ate dinner, plenty of fluids.

It's the little things

Nothing like going 8 days with an excruciating headache to appreciate two days of feeling really really great! What's the difference? I don't know. I've switched pillows like 3 times, avoided alcohol, avoided chocolate and nuts and cheese. Stopped taking magnesium. Increased my B-vitamin. All these things I've done before to no avail. In general, I can avoid all kinds of triggers but I can't avoid my hormones and I can't avoid the barometer. At any rate, I'm thankful for 2 days of feeling really great. Then I also find out what kind of real friend I have in Lynne who actually offered me her closer MD appointment since I couldn't get in any time soon. I mean that's true friendship there. It's the little things but that's a big thing. Love that girl! I think I'll treat her to a ticket to the VT/UVA game after Thanksgiving just to show her how thankful I am!

Owl be seeing you in all the old familiar places...

Please check out this link to see these little cuties made by my good friend Holly-bo-bolly.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/60405736/set-of-3-owls

She gave my kids some of these for Christmas last year and they appeared at Avee's wedding in FULL FORCE! They are the cutest little things and YOU TOO can get some of your very own!

Watching Ese work the LiteBrite

I have calmed down somewhat since my last post (which had to be the case with a marathon migraine and ongoing meds that make my hands go numb and my brain shut down). Over the last several days I have caught on to a couple different facts that had been eluding me from behind a bush. Number one, and maybe I was just in denial about this one, I have to sit out the beer drinking sessions. This is really hard, as it's probably my favorite social thing to do, having a 'cold beer' with a friend. Nothing bonds two people more than a frosty alcoholic beverage in most any setting, including the breezeway, the lakeshore, a friend's living room, a friend's front porch, Hokie tailgate... wherever. Everyone that knows me knows that I drink "weird beer", as KR calls it and I always keep a strict limit of three, no matter the occasion. It's just safer that way. But I've noticed, well duh, even one swallow of certain beers (we'll take Miller Lite as an example) nearly immediately makes my life a living hell for the next day or so. I just haven't been smart enough to say, "No thanks, I'm going to drink just water for this visit." Some people love chocolate. Some love wine. I like both of those things but I'm certain that a good, cold beer ranks right up there at the top for me. So I need to really think about my priorities here. I've already given up most foods with color dyes in them, most auspiciously the cake icing I keep running into everywhere. I tried cutting back on caffeine by cutting out Cokes all together, yet I've doubled my coffee intake so I'm not real successful there either. I'm trying to get more sleep but football games come on so darn late and I become personally vested in them somehow. OR I get sucked into whatever book I'm reading. Beer, check; caffeine, check; sleep, check, food dyes, check... there's a lot to keep straight here. Oh and don't get me started on the hormones and the barometer...
Second, after my last post, I'd like to say that, although I can't retract my earlier statements, my situation is not quite as bad as I imagined them to be. Chris is right in his statement that I very very often look for the worst in any situation before it even manifests (okay, I paraphrased, I don't think he uses the word manifest). The point is, I go off the deep end before there's really a reason to do so. Granted the day I wrote it was a really bad day, there were noises and distractions I'm not used to having around while I'm working. All I could think was, "I can't go months and months with this going on, I'll never be able to focus." Being constantly distracted at home, without any hope of coherency, is bad enough. Do I really have to suffer all day with this level of distraction at work too? But as it turns out, I'm coping quite well and it's not nearly as bad as I feared it would be. And as a wise friend said to me yesterday, "it usually never is." Preconceptions are a tricky thing. Sometimes you set yourself up for total disappointment and disaster and sometimes you set yourself up for a nice surprise.
Third, I never come out the front door unless we have a visitor ring the bell. Yesterday when a neighbor lady stopped in to ring the bell, I was horrified that 4 frostbitten ferns and 2 rotting jackolanterns still resided there on my front porch. Oops. I took care of those babies this evening when I got home from work.
News: El and Ese were Baptized last Sunday which makes them full-on Episcopalian, while their parents continue to drift along as spiritual mutts so to speak. But it's all good, I guess. All that matters is our love for God and His acceptance of us. Period.
Ese had won her class spelling bee a couple weeks ago and confident she would easily win the grade level, she would not study any of the Scripps word lists. She appeared in my office doorway this afternoon in tears as her hopes of winning the grade level bee had been dashed. I remember this feeling oh so well, except when I competed in the school-wide bee as a child, I got my word wrong in front of the whole darn school (at least that's how I remember it). She was only humiliated in front of maybe 5 people. What could I do other than hug my sweet child and tell her how proud I was of her that she at least won in her class? I let her skip a few minutes of her dreaded P.E. class, that helped a bunch! She's been in the bed with me working her Lite Brite, making up her little designs while El is on the other side of the bed snuggled up with ShuShu and JumpHippie, snoring away. Life is pretty perfect at this very moment. I feel very good, my girls are here with me, and after a night of sleeplessness for Mr.B, he's happily dozing on the couch. Right now, I think all four of us are happy as little (insert appropriate simile here).

uggghhghghhh!

I hate being so uninspired!!! I think my job is sucking the life and creativity right out of me.

Sad

Staunton River Kayak day

Finally! A break in the heat, after what seems like months of high-90s and above temperatures. We had a glorious day on the river saturday. I can't think of a better way to spend part of my Labor Day weekend! And standing around by the river, waiting to put in, we were surround by leaves already starting to fall. It was a lovely prelude to the upcoming season which has, finally after 35 years of life, become my very favorite. I used to think summer was the ultimate, swimming with abandon and frying away in the sunlight. But this particular summer has broken me of my love of it. With college football looking more and more interesting all the time, and this break in the heat, I am excited for Autumn's arrival. These photos are from yesterday's trek down the Staunton with a group from Boydton Baptist Church. It was a big time for our girls who boat hopped all afternoon so a big thanks go out to Mrs. Karla Gravitt and the Folk family for hosting Annelise and Elena and on their kayak and canoe respectively. Our kids had a ball! I have to say that it was a Blessed time in Christ and I thank Him for such a perfect day!

This is not the whole group and Annelise was behind her camera here. What a great group of folks with whom to float!

Chameleon

My new thing this fall is Lake Country Chorale. I wanted to sing with a group, other than a church choir. The trouble with singing in a church choir, I can't focus on the church part. I can't sit perched in front of a congregation, keeping up with the message and prayers, all while thinking "I gotta get this song right in a minute" But to join a chorale, where the sole purpose is to sound great, is hopefully more right up my alley.

This morning, I met with the director for 'vocal placement' at her house. So the house was a renovated farmhouse with elegant furnishings including family heirlooms. I was of course in my usual sloppy splendor of a holey t-shirt and shorts, complete with flip flops, and feeling a bit out of place like a 15 year old in a room full of adults. The director has her face on and dressed nicely because she's probably got something important to do later, while I'm just going out to buy tomato cages and dig some holes for pyracantha bushes. I can't help but feel slightly self-conscious, as usual, because I am underdressed and underdone, as usual. After she heard me sing, I don't think she much cared how I happened to look on this day. "Thank goodness," I think to myself, as she says "You are a SOLID alto, I'm so glad you came to see me!" and she meant it, I know because that's one area in which I'm fairly confident- I can help fill out an alto section. I say chameleon because, I had a girlfriend once call me a chameleon. She said I could fit in pretty much anywhere, I'm not sure if it's true, but I was way less self-conscious once we found the common thing. I guess that's how it always is in most situations; the common thing makes it happen. But should I care about not always being dressed to fit my surroundings? God help my husband if he ever wants a society wife. I'm not sure I can be that much of a chameleon. I don't shop well or dress well. I don't mindlessly chat well either. I don't fake smile well either. In situations where I'm face to face with 'prattlers', I find myself getting so stuck on one or two statements and dissecting them for genuine intelligence or opinion. I become introversive, less talkative, and weird. I may be caught with an amused smile and probably mocking someone or something inside my own head. But in living inside my head, I miss a lot. I'm so non-observant and many times, I'm not listening. That makes it more difficult to blend in, I guess; unless no one else is listening, in which case I blend in beautifully.

At any rate, I'm happy, that for today, I got over myself, did my thing, and the outcome was good. I am looking forward to starting practice and getting to know other members of the chorale. I guess I will at least leave my holey shirts in my drawer for practice ;)

Hey there, Sugabritches!

Above: First photo of my vacation. You know who it's for ;)

sigh...

The next person who says to me, "You should get those migraines checked out" is going to get punched in the face! Usually I try not to dabble in negativity this way, since vowing to stay positive in life; however, after spending much of the morning going through my medical bills, I can't help but wallow a little in my own billefffrreeeaaaaession (I made that word up as a modifier for how I feel).

Of course, I have decent insurance, it's one of the reasons I keep a job. But it's still not enough to give free reign on getting a diagnosis and treatment. This year, I've had my annual physical, a mammogram, a small procedure, and post op. The kids have had their typical kid stuff occurrences. Add up all that's left over after insurance has kicked in and you have a mortgage payment plus some...

If, at this time, I were to pursue the "Migraine workup" that everybody wants me to have, I'd be in the poorhouse faster than you can say 'headache' and I think the stress of paying all that off would give me one giant headache. I think for now, I have quite enough medical bills.

Looks like I'll be dependent on the Imitrex for a while longer. Let's be honest, migraines are debilitating, yes. But as long as I have a drug that knocks it out 85% of the time, I will continue to function. It's get the workup or pay the mortgage... I'll take my chances and keep the house.

I know if I pay the mortgage, I get to keep the house. My odds of curing my head are not as good even with the workup.

And then there's the expense of repairing our deluxe leaky shower... oi!

Good for nothing painful brain...

This is pretty much the view I've had all day, except for the brief visits to the kitchen for more pain meds and the other view consisting of the inside of my toilet bowl. Today has been no fun. It is now about 5:00 in the afternoon and this is the first time I have felt good enough to use a laptop. I hate it for my girls as they had dreams of Kinderton Pool dancing in their heads and they got a day of hanging around here with no real mom to help them with anything. Of course, they have made do fairly well. Let's see, they've played Wii, sprayed each other with the water hose, they attempted to use chocolate pudding in that trifling chocolate-kiss-maker, watched lots of iCarly, and waited on their pitiful mommy hand and foot. What a waste of a lovely summer day. 1 more day to get them packed for camp- the thought of it at this moment seems like a daunting task. In all honesty, I don't know when I have felt this bad. When a migraine makes you ralph your coke-a-cola, you know it's bad. Every time I've gotten out of this bed, the pain just goes shooting through the right side of my head from front to back. Lying down is the only tolerable position. As I'm typing this, I'm trying to be cognizant of typing errors, but I'm not in the best frame of mind...dear reader, you must forgive my typos!

Canning- no Grandma attached

I have said for years that I wish I had been paying attention when my Grandma was alive. I could have learned so much about everything. I mean this lady was so incredibly intelligent about everything and I seem to have missed it! Well, I missed everything except the immense amount of love she poured down on me- which was the most important part anyway, right? Lucky for me, there's GOOGLE and "Better Homes and Gardens" for everything else. I used the BHAG for my attempt at canning yesterday. I also must give props to the kind strangers who caught me staring down the different canners in WalMart, giving unsolicited advice, which turned out to be helpful. I would wait for everyone to clear off that particular aisle, then go study the equipment. Suddenly, a kindly old feller would step around from Aisle 9 and say "Looks like you're gonna do some cannin', lemme tell you how I do it." This scenario reoccured maybe 4 times before I finally walked out of WalMart with my first pack of Ball Jars and lids and such. (The process took 2 whole days of deliberation)

So last night, after cooking up homemade spaghetti, there being about a pint leftover and about a pint of homemade salsa sitting in the fridge, I decided to myself "Tonight is the night". I commenced to put all my gathered knowledge to use. (my sweet, adoring husband lovingly says to me "Your water will boil sooner if you put the top on" well duh... at this point, the whole family, myself included was engrossed in the new iCarly episode.) Anyway, after processing, I set the two pint jars (I was only brave enough to try two for fear of utter failure) on the towels to cool. To my dismay, the lids were still popping and I couldn't figure out what I did wrong. I nearly called my Mother-in-law to see if this was a temporary condition, but I figured I'd let them cool and see what happens. Sure enough, by this morning, the lids had sucked down and I had beautifully sealed jars! This is exciting to me, as I feel so self-sustaining! I had finally done this thing that I had wanted to learn yet seemed so foreign to me! I discussed the whole exciting episode with my Mother-in-law this morning and she was happy for me but probably glad that I didn't call her at 11:00 last night to ask her a dumb question.

Now the next thing to learn about is quilting! I already know that I will not be working on this endeavor this year but when I'm ready, I know just the ladies to go to! Until then, I shall continue to perfect my salsa and the tone of my violin. That's enough to keep me busy for now, along with the usual child rearing and working. Happy weekend to my readers...all two of you!

Salsa a mi casa

On this, the hottest day of the year, I hid indoors. I had promised my children that we could hit the lake around 6:00 but had to break that promise when a much needed thunderstorm came crashing into the neighborhood. It was glorious! The wind, the lightening, the thunder, THE RAIN!! It negated the need for my most hated chore- watering the trees! So after my post-church service nap, I rose to make salsa. My garden has turned out some lovely veggies as you can see above. For my recipe, I'll be using some sweet bell peppers, jalapenos, and Hungarian Wax peppers, as well as some beautifully ripened tomatoes. To de-skin these babies, you must score an X on the bottoms as you see here.

Once you have them scored, boil them for a couple minutes and then plunge them into the icy depths to cease the cooking process. Then they are ready for peeling and chopping.

Once you have chopped up all the tomatoes and peppers, add the onion and spices. I like salt, black pepper, sugar, cumin, chili powder, and ground red pepper. Maybe a touch of garlic as well. Of course, all of this is to personal taste. I let this concoction simmer for most of the day and boy is it yummy when it's all complete.

While we're boiling stuff........

Hubby and kids had a grand time saying things like, "I can't believe my eye" and "I got my eye on you" and "are you seeing what I'm seeing?" ....I guess you had to be there...

Hot morning in VA

I decided at 8a.m. that I'd better get in my garden and pick all I could before it got too hot. Needless to say after 15 minutes of that, my Arkansas Annual Bean Fest and Outhouse Races t-shirt was soaked through. I have found that since moving back from Colorado, I have very little tolerance for heat and humidity. You'd think that after we've been back for so many years, I would have gotten my body back to pre-CO conditioning. But of course, I had another baby and that didn't help either. I used to say that summer was my favorite season, because I loved the heat and laying out to tan. "I'd rather bake than freeze," I'd say. Let's understand that I still hate the cold like crazy, but heat is just not very much better anymore. I guess I'm down to my new favorite season- football season- best season of all!! I can't wait for gridiron action this year. It signifies cooler temps and my hubby and I always enjoy it together. But for today, I intend on two things: working on fresh garden salsa and spending time in the dining room where the girls and I bond over our artistic talents.

I guess you could say that this is where the magic happens... but not really for me. Annelise is so fabulous with her piano and I am just SO AWFUL with my violin. At least I am finally trying and we both have the best teacher. I'll just take this moment to give props to Vernon Carter! I say to him, "talk to me like I'm an 8 year old" and he obliges. He says to me, "It's a good thing you dated a drummer for 3 years, you got some Rhythm!" I'm still totally embarrassed to be playing in front of anyone, but it does get better. I'm now finishing my 3rd cup of coffee of the day and so it's time to actually get going with the salsa. I may attempt to learn about canning today also, no point in making tons of salsa if I can't put it up. It's all a learning curve for me, as growing up, I was never paying attention when folks around me were doing useful things such as canning and quilting. I intend to learn to do it all. Now that I have conquered making a pan of biscuits, I feel as if I can rule the world.

Boil Day

Bailey Boil Day came and went like the torrential rain storm which was drummed up about 2:00 in the afternoon. I'm amazed at how quickly time passes from about 4:00, when most people begin to show up, until 8:30 or so, when people begin to make the mass exodus to view fireworks over the lake. It all happens so fast, I hardly get a moment to breathe. But I do attempt to make the conscious effort to socialize and thank everyone for coming. My husband gives me the cue right about 6:00 that he is about to dump the first pot of seafood and I should go ahead and make my "speech". My speech consists of me telling everyone "thank you" and that we love each and everyone of them and that we thank God for them and for the food. I urge everyone to sign the Book in the garage because of the fact that Chris and I are so anal retentive we like to keep a record of who came from year to year. Besides, what easier way to get asked back right? And then the pots begin to be dumped and for the next two hours, we eat, drink and be merry! I am a happy soul during this time. I don't think about anything except hanging out with my friends and family and enjoying the feast. And then the mass exodus and I never can remember much about this part due to how hectic it can be. My kids, every year, devise a last minute plan to escape with either GaGa or cousins. This year, it was cousins, so we hurriedly threw clothes in a bag and they disappeared before I could even utter a farewell to them. Oh well, back to the guests... and then there were 7 to continue on for a while and nothing could please me more than to have a chance to catch up on a more intimate basis with friends I never get to see!

But let's back up and get a look at some of the preparations from that busy morning as we are preparing. I say thank you to my tent guys and my fabulous kitchen help. If you don't love having your photo up here, please tell me and I can respect that- it'll be history!

The idea was to take lots more photos of prep, just to give an idea of what goes on to prepare for the occasion, but I found that I had very little time for picking up the camera!

As I said before, we did have severe weather to roll in about 2:00 and last until after about 4:00, at which point we had to wipe down all tables and chairs and then began the actual setup (which is normally completed by 3:00, allowing me to relax and socialize). My husband was forced to "batten down the hatches" quite alot in the middle of the downpour and wind gusts of 40mph.

Surprisingly, our guest were undeterred! After doing the unofficial count last night, I'm up to about 100 men, women and children in attendance. What a blessing! Ironically, on Sunday, our priest brought a message based on the story of Martha and Mary hosting Jesus in their home. This lends the question, was I a Martha or a Mary on Saturday? Hard to say, but I hope I was able to strike the balance and that everyone enjoyed themselves.

Bailey Boil Preparations - Day number 76

It does require quite a bit of planning to pull off the Bailey Seafood Boil. This will be the 4th Annual "Burl" and with some meticulous notetaking over the years, we've gotten it down to a science of sorts. Every year we see what works and what doesn't work and things change a little over time. However one thing stays the same: the basic recipe is some kinda yummy!! This year, rather than trying to use Lilly and Rudy's bedroom (our garage) as our main eating area, we will be trying out some tents recently procured through our own Mr. H.R. (who happens to my stepdad and therefore I feel entitled somehow). I hope my sweet hubby has some help putting up these big tents on saturday as I will be majorly busy in the kitchen doing 'woman's work'. But that is to come. Let's take a peek at Wednesday's behind the scenes activities. Above, you'll notice the staging ground for all that's done. There's the planner and the No Worries notebook where all meticulous notations are kept from year to year.









The bar is becoming crowded with Burl Supplies.













Collecting garden tomatoes












Seasoning- a very necessary ingredient.





The ice chest is filled to capacity with shrimp, crablegs and ice!

Kielbasas! Extra yum! Just cut up 10lbs of those lovelies!




I'm not sure just WHAT to do about this little issue.

"What? You talkin' to me?"





I can't stress how important this equipment is! Tables and pots and chairs-oh my...

These chairs needed a good washing after several seasons of utter neglect at their former home. "Former"by the way is spelled with an er, as in the Artist formerly known as a high strung cow; rather than Formally a high strung heifer. Anyone with a high school diploma ought to know the difference, but that is beside my point.

"So just what is your point, Mom?"
Lillibelle, you need to stop sleeping on my breezeway furniture. So that is about where we are at this time with preparations. Hoping for another successful event in our backyard. We always have a good time and we are so so grateful for the help we receive in the prep, as well as all the kind folks who are willing to bring a side dish or dessert or ice or drinks or whatever! It all adds up to a most joyous event!! Preparations will continue this evening and maybe I'll be lucky enough to capture them on camera again for your enjoyment.