A New Jewelry Organizer

I needed some way of organizing my jewelry in hopes that it would inspire me to be more 'girlie' this year as I move out of my little bubble and more into the "PUBLIC EYE"!! So I came up with this. They are hanging in my bathroom. I like them very much. Hannah added the fuzzy yarn around the outer edge. I think it gives it that finished look. Now I just have to think of some way of disguising the hanger part, and then it will be complete.

The Wonderful World of Watermelons

A group of us ladies from church helped cut up watermelon for a thing that was going on at the hospital. I asked if I could have the rind for pickled watermelon rind and watermelon jelly. They were so willing to give it to me. What a treat!!! So I've been making the pickled rind for two days now. Thank goodness I have had the kids to help me or I would still be cutting up watermelon. The jelly was the easiest to do and get done with right away. But I'm making two different kinds of pickled rinds. The first one, that I finished today, uses a pre-mixed pickling spice bag for Bread and Butter pickles that all I had to do was mix it with vinegar and sugar to make the syrup and I was done. When I boiled the rind I added green food coloring to make it look more pickly. The batch that I will finish in the morning will be made with the candy "red hots" and so I will dye them red. With the extra pickling syrup I'm going to make a garden variety sweet relish. That will be very yummy!!! I am having so much fun with it that I can hardly stand myself at times.

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly - Update

Once again I have neglected writing. Really, I don't mean to. Life seems to just have a way of getting away from me and since the computer is not always my friend, I tend to neglect things that have to do with it. But fear not, updates are always good too, and I promise to do better as my future continues to go along.

So here's my update: I was back and forth in and out of the hospital, testing and more testing from January through June. In May I went to see a specialist in Puerto Rico and he said I did not have Chrones, in fact, I had Chemical Intoxication. He started treating me immediately and within three days I was feeling a lot better. By the end of the two weeks that I was there I felt like a new person. It was amazing! I am still on the mend and am not 100% yet but I am getting there. The doctors here could not explain my recovery and finally just told me to continue to do what the specialist said to do. The best part about it is that I am not taking any man made meds - it's all natural, my favorite way to go.

While all of these medical issues were going on, I continued to go to school. I am so happy to say that not only did I finish the semester, but I got all A's in my classes. That was such a God thing! It was 17 credit hours and I'm sure if it were to happen again life would have fallen apart already.

This May was Daniel and my 15th wedding anniversary. Since it was my year to plan it I saved all my money from work-study to buy him a ticket to join me in Puerto Rico, and to pay for some "adventures" to do while we were there. Unfortunately for him, the first adventure was para-sailing not even two hours after he got off the airplane. The unfortunate part was that he got his foot caught in the propeller and got a chunk or it sliced almost all the way off. Not only was it no fun to have that happen, but the double whammy was that meant we could not do any of the other things we had planned, and he had to be in a wheelchair the rest of his vacation. And to make matters worse, it has been almost 3 months and his foot is not yet completely healed. Plus it hurts like you wouldn't believe. NOT GOOD!!

My mom came two weeks after I got back from Puerto Rico. Since she lives in Puerto Rico I got to stay with her. So my visit to see the specialist was the cake and seeing my mom was the icing. We had a wonderful time together. When I left she went to the Cayman Islands as part of the Special Olympics. She had a blast. After that is when she came to me. I took her to Utah to stay with my sister for a while, this past week. I can not complain because I got her for 6 weeks. That was a really good visit. We actually switched; I took my mom and brought back my daughter who had been spending the summer there.

I took my friend and her baby, and three little puppies with me and mom to Utah. Her family is there and she wanted to see them. Well, why we were there, me doing my own thing and her doing hers, we stayed in touch, cause we are just friends like that. Anyway, she invited me and my family over on sunday night to share in her mom's birthday celebrations. I jumped at the chance because I think her mom is awesome and I would do anything I could to make her happy. Especially if its such a little thing like come over and eat cake and ice cream with us!! EASY! So we are there and my friend introduces me to her older brother. This is way awesome for me because my friend always talks about him and his little farm that he loves and I am not ashamed to say that I was just dying to meet him. It was worth the wait too. He is peach pie a la mode and sweeter than fresh honey comb. I talked to him as much as I could just hoping he would offer to take me to see his farm. Mind you, I already knew it was not far from where his mom lived. My patience finally paid off and my friend, her brother, and I FINALLY went to see his piece of Heaven on earth. And let me tell you, HEAVEN it is. He has got so many things to keep a person busy being creative for the rest of their life. He has chickens and horses too. He used to raise pigs at one point but not at the moment. But he really is one of the most amazing men I have ever met in my life, and one of the most comfortable to be around. Usually I feel really skiddish around men, especially those I don't know, but I felt like I had known him my whole life. It was neat. The better part came when he made me a bracelet from a horseshoe. I love it! He even let me hold the torch and showed me how to sand blast it. I don't think I could have had a more fun time in such a short period of time if I had planned it. Then, to complete my happiness, he gave me four hens to take home with me. I was so happy I could hardly stop myself from jumping all around and doing the happy dance. I did contain myself though. But it was great!! Now here 's where the bad part comes in... I drove back home,15 hours, a babied those hens the entire time. I didn't get home until 11:30pm and so I look the hens out of the van but left them in the cage so that they wouldn't stress out about their new surroundings. My plan was to let them out in the daylight so they could see where they were and so I could see how they took to the place. So here goes, I got up at 5:30 the next morning, still a little dark, got dressed, did my thing and got a pitcher of water to take to the hens. I sang all the way to the hen house. I don't remember anything looking out of place until I opened the door and saw the cage that my hens were in was upside down. Then I noticed the door was open. ARG!!! My hens were gone with no trace of them. But I had made sure that the cage was locked before I left the hen house. It is yet another mystery. A BAD ONE!!! The worst part for me is how am I going to tell my friend's brother that the hens he gave me vanished the very night I got them home. It just doesn't seem real. And so I am really stressing it.

I planted my garden before I left for Puerto Rico and when I came back the only thing the rabbits did not eat was my tomatoes and green peppers. So I've worked really hard to get it up and going and expanded. Now I've planted a fall garden but nothing has come up yet. I will wait a couple more days before I call it a failure. I am very proud of myself for all the hard work I've put into it and how beautiful it actually looks.

So there it is; the good, the bad and the ugly. What a long update! Hopefully I will write sooner so that I don't have to write as much!!

Tata

Living with Leo