Catching up.

I know I know it has been forever since I've blogged. So now I have bunch of catching up to do. A lot has happened since my last entry. Like everyone else, we have been crazy busy for the past several weeks. Between Jonathan working long hours at work and me being overloaded at work and our weekends being crazy, not much time for blogging has been available ( I know, sad excuses). The only thing I've managed to catch this month is a cold!!
First, I managed to drop a glass dish on my foot, now 2 weeks ago. I had a very nice large glass dish that was given to me by my Aunt as a wedding gift. I was trying to put the dish in the refrigerator when the thin delicate glass snapped in my hand and crashed down on my foot. Instantly I start to panic when I see the blood poring from my foot and hand. I hollered for Jonathan. He came running to see the glass dish and the Watergate Salad that was in the dish, all shattered on my foot. He helped me get to the kitchen chair and grabbed some paper towels to help soak up the blood. After we wiped the Glass and salad off my foot, we found about a 1" cut on my foot. It managed to stop bleeding after a few minutes but my finger took a while longer to stop. Jonathan called nurse Geneva (his mother) onto the scene. She arrived and helped bandage up my foot, and we all determined that I probably didn't need stitches. So, my foot was in pain for a few days, mainly because of the bruise from the dish dropping. Last week I noticed that the cut was not healing. So I decided to go to the doctor to get an antibiotic. When I get there, they didn't hesitate to stick me with a tetanus shot (and everyone knows how much I LOVE needles!). The doctor examined my foot by pressing around the wound. She hit one spot to the right and it nearly made me jump off the table. The doctor asks "are you sure you don't have glass in your foot?" I said "uhhhhh, I don't think so". So she let me take the antibiotic for a few days to see if the pain would go away. When I went back on Friday, the pain was still there. So now, I am going to pay a visit to the X-Ray man tomorrow and then pay a visit to the surgeon sometime after to determine if I need surgery. GREAT! I will keep you all posted.

Also, the day after I cut my foot was the day the power went out. We were out of power for only 2 days. We spent one night with Jonathan's parents and then went home to power. I will definitely not complain about this. We were so fortunate compared to others (my parents) that were out of power for 7 days.

Last weekend we headed west for a wedding in Illinois on Saturday. My step brother and his now wife, Lacey, got married in her home town of Summerfield, Illinois. It was a really great time at the wedding and reception. A chance for my family, who rarely gets together, to have a great bonding weekend. On Sunday, we decided to head into St. Louis, which was only about 20 minutes from Summerfield. Since we were so close, we could not pass up the opportunity to go up into the St. Louis Arch. There was nine of us in my family who decided to caravan to the Arch. We had so much fun! It seemed very strange bonding with step-siblings we didn't always get along with as kids, but suddenly as adults we had a really great time.

When we arrived back home from Illinois on Sunday, we were met in the driveway by ANOTHER stray Kitten. It seemed as if we had the dumping corner for stray kittens. I hesitantly began feeding the kitten because I felt sorry for it. But since my cat liked to growl and hiss at it, bringing it into our house was not an option. I posted notes at work to see if anyone would take a free kitten. A lady that I work with decided to take the kitten for her kids. I agreed to get the cat checked out by the vet to make sure she was healthy. Yes, it was a she and I decided to name it Paprika. That's right. Pepper and Paprika! The only issue we had with the cat (actually a big issue) was fleas. The kitten was flea bitten. The vet popped a pill in her mouth to make the fleas fall off her and then recommended we give her a Dawn bath. It was pretty funny to watch Jonathan give a cat a bath. This long haired fuzzy kitten was suddenly reduced to practically nothing. I wish now I had taken a picture of Paprika while she was wet. Instead I have a regular picture at the bottom the post. So, yesterday afternoon, I headed to Dayton to drop Paprika off with her new family. I miss her already. She was a very loving and affectionate kitten, unlike Pepper who likes to terrorize us!
I also forgot to mention that we were finally able to get Pepper the cat fixed and declawed. His days of terrorizing us have come to a screeching halt. It's kinda sad to see him try to climb on things when he doesn't have nails anymore. Our legs and clothes are now very thankful for the claws to be gone. Now we just have to crack the habit of him biting and chewing. Ideas anyone!!




Pepper decided he was gonna hitch a ride with us on our trip tp Illinois. His first night being left home by himself. He was a good boy.
St Louis Arch. Sooooooooooo much bigger standing there then it seemed driving past it
View from the top of the Arch. The stadium is Busch Stadium

Picture of Paprika. She was not in the mood for a picture. She really was a sweet kitten.

Paula Reds Have Arrived!!

If you were reading my blog last year, you already know that I now like to make applesauce. Unfortunately, I was a bit behind last year in getting my apples. We went to Brumbaugh's fruit farm about late September hoping to find my favorite apples to make applesauce with, Paul Red. Me, being unaware, was told that the Paula Red apple is an early apple and were long past gone. I was a bit let down and settled for whatever they had sitting out at the time.
Soooo, this year, I was on it. I decided to take action. I called Brumbaugh's 2 weeks ago to ask when the Paula Red apples would be ready. They told me they didn't have any yet but should have some by that Friday. I politely asked if they "reserve" apples (hey, ya don't know until ya ask, right?) I was told yes. The girl told me they weren't expecting a big crop of Paula Red this year and that they would go fast. I panicked!!! UHHH. UMMMMM. " I''ll take 3!!" I said. Ma'am? 3 apples?? she said. "No. 3 large bags".
So that's what I have. 3 large bags of Paula Red apples. About 70 apples total just waiting to be pealed and turned into my favorite applesauce.
My dilemma. Should I feel guilty for taking so many apples when they didn't have that many this year? I missed out last year because I was uninformed. This year I was educated. So... I guess the early bird gets the worm!