Apple jelly.

The name seems so innocuous. So innocent. Yet it's the bane of my existence. I have yet to make it successfully. Berry jams, great. This I make up like pineapple coconut, great. Apple, not great.
First attempt - followed recipe to the letter. Boiled and ruined exactly. Measured exactly. It never set up.
Second attempt - boiled one minute longer. . Added half pack pectin more. It never set up.
Third attempt - added two boxes pectin, boiled a solid five minutes... and I'm still waiting. It's only been 12 hours, and I was told it can take a week for the pectin to react...so I will wait.
The first batch was made four months ago. And I'm still waiting.
While waiting I canned oranges. They look beautiful. No loss of liquid at all. There is nothing more fulfilling than that ping as the jars seal. I took the jars out of the water and I sat on a stool in front watching the syrup inside still boiling, listening for the ping. I'll easily amused sometimes.
Christmas...I have a love hate relationship with the holidays. I hate the never-ending "what do you want". This year I told them anything canning related. Well, kid two leaves Saturday to South Carolina to spend Christmas with her uncle and aunt. Mom is having a heart Cath today in prep for an upcoming surgery(valve replacement), and there is a small possibility she will be admitted after the Cath. So we decided to do Bekahs Christmas gifts last night.
She got me a case of pint jars. I am thrilled lol. I was low on pint and will be getting 21lbs of pineapple Saturday to can. Now I can do them in pints instead of quarts.
I admit, I am a dork.

safe storage of canned foods

Lee has an MRI on Wednesday. It's a routine follow up for the aneurysm, we aren't expecting any surprises.

I see a new doctor the 31st, a pain management guy. I'm hoping he can help, though realistically I've given up hope.
The focus will be my SIJD, but I will be approaching him with other problems.
A few months ago I got extremely ill, temp of 103 type sick, but no symptoms other than extreme pain all over. Labs were perfect. I was just sick. I got over that but about two weeks later I started having joint pain and deep muscle aches. It's been slowly getting worse.
I am often spending 12-16 hours a day in bed. I wake up with my hands and feet aching badly. As I start to move it just progresses, until my knees, hips, shoulders and elbows ache. I live on Motrin, flexaril, and hydrocodone most days, just to be able to function. So, I will be bringing this up with the doctor. I have a notebook I'm making notes in for him.


I have so much to do  on my days off this week and frankly I'm not sure how I will manage, I guess same as I do any other day.
Cookies, canning, quilting make up the bulk of it. I haven't even started this years gingerbread house, I may call it quits on that.

Most disappointing and weighing heavily on me is toys for tots. I haven't been to volunteer at all this year yet. Every other year I have been almost every day. I just haven't felt up to it physically.

As mentioned above I have canning to do. About 20 lbs of citrus stuff and Saturday I will have 21 lbs of pineapple. I'm also hoping to make apple pie filling and can it and some honey glazed carrots.

Speaking of canning I need to share an experience I had today. I was putting something in the pantry and out of habit I lightly skimmed my finger across the lids. I got to the beans I canned last summer and right away the lid slides right off one. I knew it was bad so went to dump it down the garbage disposal. When I upended the jar I noticed the bottom bulging.
So, it really showed me why you shouldn't store your jars with the rings on. If the ring had been on it would have given the appearance that the lid was sealed, and it likely would have resulted eventually in the jar exploding.
Many bacteria that can reside in canned foods produce gas as they multiply and grow. That gas will cause the lid to loosen. If the ring is off then that will allow the lid to do what my beans did, to slide off. The bacteria and gas are colorless and oderless and if they had been eaten it could have been very bad. The most likely cuplrit, and one of the most dangerous, is botulism.
So, that is why we store home canned foods without the rings on.

life happens

And boy did life happen to us.
On November 3rd things fell apart.
0900 home from work talking to Lee, normal conversation, bed.
1700 awake, things seem fine, Lee's Parkinson's is bad
1730 have Lee amantadine to help the dyskinesia. Pretty normal conversation, occasional weird random comment.
1930 Lee asked for help getting in bed and getting his cpap mask on(because the dyskinesia was so bad). He kept getting angry at me, telling I want doing it right. 2000 dad stepped in and helped, I packed my lunch and left for work at 2030.
2200 mom texts "call me immediately" I call, they are at the VA hospital with Lee, the doctor thinks he had a severe reaction to a medication and I need to get there as soon as possible.
I was there close to 2230.
Dad had gone in to check on Lee about 2130. He was really confused, not making much sense and hallucinating.
When I got back to the room with him he was sitting on the end of the bed, unable to be still and occasionally yelling involuntarily. There were several staff members standing around him, partly to make sure he didn't fall and partly because he was rather wild and they were concerned about everyone's safety. They attempted to sedate him with ativan. It didn't help. At all. He finally called enough they were able to get labs drawn and take him for an xray and CT scan.
Labs came back and his white count was 23000(normal is 8-10000), his creatinine was 2.9(I think normal is under 2, it was high), and his lactic acid was 5.5(2.9 and under is normal). Immediately they started transfer arrangements to sacred heart medical center ICU. He was in acute renal failure and metabolic acidosis.
I went home, packed a bag and headed to the hospital to meet him, and I beat him there. I let the staff know who I was and they showed me the waiting room. Before he got there the doctor talked to me a little too get an idea of what to expect. He got there finally and the work started. They put a catheter in him and a central line, drew more labs and started consults with other doctors. After a few hours I went home, he was calm and in good hands. During the day he stabilized and they moved him to the Neuro floor around 6pm.
Over the week he declined. Became fairly unresponsive, didn't know who we were when he was awake, had to be restrained all the time , went oriented at all. He also want eating or drinking or taking his meds.
Friday, just 5 days after this all started, they called in a specialist from another hospital. What they failed to tell me is that it was a palliative care doctor, hospice, to talk to me about what I wanted and what Lee would want. I knew what he wanted and didn't want done, and it was hard for me to say no feeding tube, no life support. She left and I talked to his kids and his sister in law. With their support I made the decision to put him on hospice care. I told his nurse so she could let his doctor know, and I went home to get ready for work. I left the hospital knowing that probably within a couple weeks I would be a widow. I was angry. I finally found the one person who made me feel complete, whom I had married just 2 years ago...and now I was going to lose him.
I called my mom and told her, I didn't want to have to say those words to anyone's face.
I cried and l let it all out for the night, determined that I wouldn't cry again that night.
An hour later my phone rings. It's his daughter, she was with him at the hospital. Jen, dads awake and wants to talk to you. I wanted to ask what kind of sick joke was she playing, but I didn't, and I talked to him. Besides being a little confused and having no memory of that week he was normal... he knew who I was, where he was, and he was eating and drinking. I was so afraid to get my hopes up, knowing that sometimes before a person dies they will rally and seem to be getting better.
For the next week he worked with physical therapy and got his strength up, and after 12 days he came home, NOT on hospice care.
Final diagnoses- renal failure, acidosis, encephalopathy. The cause is unknown. It may have been dehydration from a recent bout of vomiting(damn chemo), but we don't know for sure.
They did put him on a few new drugs. One for psychosis, and two for dementia. He doesn't have a diagnosis for either of those, they were symptoms he had while there, but we are being cautious and he is staying on them for now.

fun in canning land

I did post about the peaches...its the grapes and blueberries I neglected to share.
Red grapes. Beautiful yummy sweet grapes. You know where this is going right? If not... I'll share it.
Grapes with color lose their color when canned.
yes.
I have anemic looking grapes.
I have grapes doubling as eyeballs.
I have grapes I don't know if I can eat because of how they look.


Then there were blueberries.
I had frozen them. They still looked pretty. I defrosted them under warm running water. I cold packed them.
One siphoned. I had purple water.
In every jar there are a large number of berries I can see that have split. It's hard to see any though...because they stain the syrup a deep purple.
Almost black.
I doubt they are god for much more than pies.

And above all...I had a blast doing it.


And of course the obligatory pic of the eyeball grapes

Peaches tomatoes and pickles oh my

The adventures continue. I know I haven't posted in awhile but life has been busy busy.
I don't think I shared adventures in peaches. 60 lbs to deal with oh my. I canned peaches, mango peach,jam, strawberry peach jam, pineapple coconut jam, strawberry mango peach jam. What fun we had. A good friend came over and helped. It's always much more fun with friends.

Saturday Lee and I went to Carver farms. We picked cucumbers and summer squash. Zucchini, tomatoes and yellow squash. After that we headed up to Green Bluff. We got beans at Eleven Acres farm. Then we decided to head up to Mt. Spokane and check out the campground there. Dry, hot, small, but I love it up there. We had a great day.

Yesterday I made tomato sauce. It looks really thin in the jars and may not be good for much more than soup...or to dump out. 9 jars and only one didn't seal. It's in the fridge to be used asap.

Today it was pickles and the adventure really begins.
I searched for the camp stove...and can't find it. I thought it was in my trailer which is at my aunt and uncles. I whined on facebook. Halfway through canning them my sister in law says it's in your mom and dads trailer. bah humbug. My 23 quart takes a ridiculous amount of time to heat to boiling, even with the lid on, like over 30 mins.
I also didn't want to heat up the house. Oh well. So get them all sliced and speared, brine poured in, and into the water bath. About 30 mins later the timer goes off(started timing after the water came to a full boil). Andddd...nothing. It all went just as it should have. perfect. easy. No lids popped off. Everything looks beautiful. I have no stories to share to make you laugh.
 I do have a picture of todays work though.

Adventures in jamming and canning

A bit over a week ago I picked up 60 lbs of peaches with our bountiful basket contribution. There were some additional things in our basket that I was able to use in jam making also. I admit, the little things thrill me...I was so excited.
It started with peeling peaches. If you haven't had the joy of trying that...do it lol. I tried blanching them. 30 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 30 seconds....all the way to 2 1/2 minutes and the skins still wouldn't slide off like the directions said. Once blanched they are impossible to peel with a potato peeler. We muddled through that, 20 lbs of blanched peaches, then graduated to the peeler.
Skipping all the mundane steps we get to the jams.
The night before I had made pineapple coconut jam. It was truly glorious. A taste of paradise. I'm in heaven.
It involved a whole pineapple peeled and cored then pureed in a blender.
While that pureed I cracked the coconut, saving the water. I dug out all the delicious meat(the white part) trying not to get any of the brown skin. Once that was freed from it's shell I pureed it, or attempted to. Turns out coconut doesn't puree real well, it chops to a gritty fine mess. I took that gritty fine mess and poured it into cheese cloth over a bowl...and proceeded to squeeze as much of the milk out as possible. I saved the water and the milk. Blended the coconut and pineapple together, added the water and milk as needed to make it smooth.  After that it all got dumped in a pan, sugar dumped in(I didn't keep track, it was about 1 cup less sugar than puree mess). Brought to a boil, pectin added, boiled for another minute then dumped in hot jars. Lids on and into the bath blah blah blah ;) . Afterwards I had 6 jars of amazing jam. The flavor is to die for.
But lets get back on track to the peaches.
Only a couple little glitches amazingly. The first being peeling the peaches. Muddled through, no problem.
from that we got peach jam, mango pineapple peach jam, and strawberry jam.
From there we moved on to canning fruit.
Peaches first off... they float. bad. I packed those jars tight. I crammed in as many peach slices as I could...and they still float. I'm confident in the processing though so they will be safe to eat. I added a little citric acid to keep the fruit from browning if it floated above the syrup.
 Speaking of syrup...I tried first a light syrup, got the first floaters. Googled that crap and saw that a heavy syrup might help floaters. I made heavy syrup. Got more floaters. Googled more and decided not to fuss over it since everything I read said it's ok.  So we got floaters.
Next was strawberries. I had some extras from the jam so what the hell, why not, lets throw some strawberries and syrup into a half pint jar, well, 4 jars.
That left about 5 lbs of grapes. I was so not about to peel those little bastards, so they didn't get used in jam. But...it is possible to can them. So why not. I had the  jars. I have kids that will eat them. I had lots of grapes.
Made more syrup, dumped them in jars.
Then the processing fun begins.
I got a 23 qt pressure cooker/canner.  I love it.
I put the quarts of peaches in. I put the second rack on top. On that went the grapes and  strawberries. lid on and back to a boil before starting the timer for processing.
Processed 20 minutes in a boiling water bath. opened up the canner...to find pink water.
Steam clears out and I start taking jars out to discover 2 of the strawberries had boiled over and leaked because I apparently didn't leave enough head space. No biggie, set those aside to fridge and eat now.
Finished up the peaches. Started taking jars out to discover just what that loud pop was that I heard. I had major floaters...in the canner. Peach slices everywhere. Apparently when you accidentally put two lids in one ring it pops off leaving you a big mess to clean up.
So there is the most recent adventures in canning and jamming.
It was a blast.

peaches

I can not speak enough food about bountifulbaskets.org. Fresh fruits and veggies every week. Its a co-op so they pool all the money together that's collected on Monday and Tuesday and they are able to buy in bulk. Simple explanation there. We usually participate every week. There are always add ons you can contribute for. This week one of them is peaches. A 20lb box for $18.50.
I have 3 boxes coming on Saturday. 60 lbs of peaches.
Peach jam for sure. Canned peaches. Frozen peaches. Peach leather. Peach preserves. Peach honey. Thankfully I have a friend coming over to help me.
I only have 2 cases of jars... I may have yo go get more.
I have a new 23 quart pressure canner set to arrive Thursday.
I'm already playing this scenario out in my head. Clean the kitchen. Empty unneeded items off the counters, yes the canisters can sit on the table awhile. Use dishwasher to sanitize jars while lids sit in a pan of boiling water.
Step one blanche peaches to remove skin, save skin for honey.
Step two cut peaches into manageable chunks then smash with an old fashioned potatoe masher until its half liquefied with chunks hanging out.
and from there, sugar, pectin, boil, jar, then bathe.

All so simple... But if it were  there wouldn't be entries like the previous few.

adventures in jelly making revisited

You may recall previous mention of an attempt at making apple jelly.
It REALLY didn't go well.
I boiled it as long as the instructions said to. Processed the jars exactly how long it said to, disinfecting them in boiling water before filling. The lids all popped and sealed nicely.
And last night I decided to check and see if that magical rainbow spewing and glitter farting unicorn flew by and waved its magic wand making the jelly perfectly set.
No such luck.
Instead I found every jar with what looks like a kombucha scoby. A vast island of fungus coating the top. When you tip the jar it actually looks pretty cool as it slides down the syrup thick apple concoction.
The scientist hidden deep inside me wants to leave it and see what happens, and the nurse in me wants to gag.

Family night

Tonight we had a family movie night, which with teens means they bring a friend and go see a different movie than the parental figures.
The girls and their friend saw Now You See Me. Lee and I saw The Purge.
Very interesting movie, it makes you really think. Lots of social implications.
The kids thought their movie was pretty good to. It's also on my list of want to see movies.
On the way home though... their friend asked if it was ok to smoke in the car. ummm nope. not when you're 16. kids.

On a different subject... Our idiot dog Snickers went after our 17 yr old kitty. Mia wasn't hurt, just had dog drool all over her. I was beyond pissed though. I literally kicked snickers down stairs and into the living room and locked her in there with Lee. There was no reason at all for it. Mia was laying there doing nothing at all. Mia literally sleeps 20 hours a day, and lays around the rest of the time. I swear if that stupid dog hurts Mia I will kill her. I don't know if its jealousy because Mia sleeps on Lees lap most of the day or what. I'm just sick of this dog sometimes. Several times she's snarled and snapped at me, and thankfully missed, because the first time she makes contact she is gone. I already want her gone because that is not acceptable at all, but Lee has an attachment to her.

And to end with some awesome news...the credit union is mailing the title to the PT cruiser tomorrow! It's paid off and all ours! Now just two more years before my SUV is paid off. It was down to 16 months, but we refinanced for 2 years, lower payments and overall paying less. Like payments almost half of what they were before.

Life as We know it

This ones harder to write, and encompasses a lot of feelings and emotions.
It's about my husband Lee.
We met about 7 years ago. Our first date we arranged to meet at Hammers coffee in the mall.
We sat and talked for hours. Before we knew it they were closing up and telling us it was time to go.  It felt so right. I felt like I had known him forever. I was in love, but because of my past history I wouldn't accept it.
We started dating and grew closer and closer.
After about five years we moved in together.
We had so much fun. Hiking, camping, vacations, day trips, hockey games, watching movies, and just being together.
Then Thanksgiving happened. Lee got a really bad cold. He got up at 4 am, got dizzy, fell and hit his head pretty hard. I kept an eye on him and in the morning took him to urgent care.  He had a sinus infection pretty bad, and they did a CT scan just to make sure everything was ok.
They told us there was something there but they weren't quite sure what but it was probably just an artifact and to follow up with his doctor.
We did a week later. He ordered an MRI, and discovered this thing, probably an artifact was a brain aneurysm.
Thus started a whole string of events , doctors, surgeries and hospital stays.
The first surgery was a full craniotomy, where they opened up his skull and proceeded from there. The aneurysm was sitting on the optic nerve. He was slowly losing vision in that eye and we hadn't noticed.
Once in they discovered the aneurysm was to close to the sinus cavity to safely clip it, however, they were able to move it which left him a candidate for a 2nd type of procedure called a coiling, where they insert a wire, break it off and the body forms a clot around it sealing it off so it will never rupture. The 2nd procedure was a success.
The first surgery though, it left him in a wheelchair, unable to walk more than a couple steps without falling.
It left him dependent on me and the multitude of therapists and nurses that were in and out of our home every day.
He learned to walk with a cane and now manages that pretty well, though on occasion needs his wheelchair.

A few weeks after the second procedure he was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease. We suspected this so it really wasn't much of a shock. He got on meds, the tremors stabilized, and life goes on right?
We decided to get married a couple months later. July we got married in a simple, sweet ceremony with all our family around. It was wonderful and life felt perfect.
Just a few short months after our perfect day we get a call from Lees internist. His white blood count was up and could he come in for a repeat tomorrow as well as some other tests. I remember that day. His WBC was 12,000. Normal is 4-10000. Only a little up, but they wanted to make sure there was no infection. He had a urinalysis done as well as a chest xray and blood cultures.
A week later the tests were back, and all negative. No sign of infection anywhere, and a WBC that was now in the 20s.
 Off to a hemotologist/oncologist for a consult.
One bone marrow biopsy and a few weeks later we got the results. the big C. Cancer. that evil and most unholy word ever. He is Philadelphia  and BRCA1 positive, both considered positive results for chronic myelogenous leukemia.  All I heard was leukemia.
we went back to the waiting room for some more tests they wanted to do. While waiting I stepped out into the hallway and called work to take the night off. I needed a night because I was ready to have a break down in a bad way.
 That is how we got to where we are today.

I know thats long for background, but it's important.
It hit me bad. Yes Lee is a lot older than me, that's never been an issue. I knew the odds are that I would outlive him, simply because he is 29 yrs older than me. Then in one year he was given two terminal diagnoses.
The world slammed to a screaming stop for me, but I could still see it going on around me.
I wanted to get mad. I wanted to scream and yell and tell everyone to stop because it was over.

I couldn't though, because as life has taught us Life MUST go on.

I'm a nurse. I take care of kids that shouldn't have been alive. Kids that were given a few months, maybe a couple years to survive. I take care of kids that gave their doctors a big FU and lived. Not just survived, but LIVED.
Going to work while all this was going on with Lee gave me a little hope.
A little sunshine in a dark world.
Kids who don't know the meaning of "you aren't supposed to be able to do that" showing me that no matter what happens it's ok somehow.
The few hours a day I spend with these families have taught me that doctors don't always know it all, and to never give up looking, hoping, and praying.
The families that inspire me for the simple reason that they never gave up.
So many times in life it's so easy to sit back and look at the big bad broad picture. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the why us mood. Its so easy to be selfish and forget that there are others out there with problems....but then when you sit and play with a toddler it's all in perspective... the big picture becomes small and you learn quickly that if you have the wrong teddy bear at bedtime the world will end.
And you eventually realize that yes, Life will go on.

Adventures in canning part 3

So, having gotten the bug I decided I would venture out a little more. I made strawberry jam a couple weeks ago... I'm in heaven. The taste is so strawberryish(I don't think that's really a real word), the texture was perfect, it set beautifully. Having gained a little confidence I decided that 6 lb bag of apples on the counter that no one was eating needed to be turned in to jelly.

I was tired and decided to take a short cut. Wrong turn detour go back do not do. Short cuts and canning are not ok.

I put the apples in the pressure cooker to turn them to mush.

Problem with that is they didn't cook long enough to really release their juice and all that natural pectin.

Thinking I'm just brilliant and cut the prep time down by oh about 3 hours I commenced with the jelly making. I took the apple mush and ran it through a sieve over and over. I put some in cheese cloth, tied the top and squeezed more juice out. I finally had the 6 cups of liquid I needed. Dump it in the pot, add sugar, add the half bag of pectin, boil and stir.

It didn't thicken.

Add the other half the pectin packet.

Boiled.

Stirred.

It didn't thicken.

Got another packet out, added half.

Boiled.

Stirred

 YES it's a little thicker.

Thinking I had success I proceeded to pour it in the jars, lid them, put them in the hot water to be boiled.

Timer goes off, take them out, the musical popping of lids sealing happens immediately, I leave the jars to set overnight.

In the morning...I had liquid jelly.

I stuck a jar in the fridge.

The next morning....I had liquid jelly. I took all the jars to the basement food storage area and left them.

A week later....I had liquid jelly.

I don't think it was successful.

Next step is to open the jars and dump that sweet appley goodness down the drain and try again.

Adventures in jelly

After the jam making our confidence was slightly elevated, oh hell, for that matter we felt like we could do anything. So we decided to try making jelly.
We had apples and pears. We boiled apples with a pear thrown in for a little additional flavor. Pureed them, filtered the juice out, dumped it in a pot with sugar and pectin.
There were some slight chunks of pear floating around, but we weren't to worried about that.
We did encounter a couple problems though....
Foam.
Jams and jelly like to foam up when boiling. I learned later a pat of butter in the goo will stop the evil foam. On the jam it wasn't a big deal, since the jam is chunky anyway.
With the jelly though...the foam floated to the top. The bottom is so pretty. Clear pinkish color with a few pear flecks floating around...until the top...the foam...It set with the foam on top. It's quite ugly...but so appley sweet.
That was last year...this year I tried apple jelly again...that disaster coming soon....

adventures in jam

So, previously mentioned I've been learning food preservation techniques, including canning, drying, and cheese waxing.
Lets start with canning. I got the bug last year. I took my younger daughter and her boyfriend berry picking. We ended up with somewhere around 30 lbs of raspberries and blackberries. Many were eaten right away. Some were washed, dried and frozen on a cookie sheet to be bagged up later to be snacked on. And some were dumped in a food processor until pureed, thrown into a hot pan with sugar and pectin, boiled a bit, then poured into hot jars waiting for lids and a nice bath in boiling water.

Despite it being our first foray into the world of canning the jams turned out surprisingly well. Yes, I had my doubts, but this time there was no need for worry.

Our confidence being slightly elevated...we ventured into the world of jelly. Specifically apple pear jelly.
Purposely I had left some small bits of fruit floating, no big deal there, that was fine, just meant we wouldn't have a perfectly smooth jelly. The problem came with the boiling. Jelly, and jams to, tend to get a little bit foamy as they boil. I later learned that you can add a bit of butter to stop that. I failed to adequately skim the foam off the jelly mix... After it cooled in the jars the foam floated peacefully to the top of the concoction. and formed a foamy cloudy layer.
It looks like crap but the taste is divine.


So there's how our first jam/jelly making experiences went. It was GLORIOUS. The kitchen looked like a berry farm had exploded in it. The smells coming from the kitchen were amazing. The living room was packed with teens watching the Wizard of Oz... THIS is how life should be.

Welcome to my world.
Its not always happy, fun, loving, or nice. Sometimes it will be down right mean and nasty and rude.
Sometimes it will be heart breaking.
All I can say is, you've been warned.

Now, a little about me and my family.
I am married. Lee is a great guy who who is currently in a battle with Parkinsons disease and chronic myelogenous (or myeloid) leukemia (CML), also known as chronic
granulocytic leukemia (CGL). We know he will lose the war someday, but for now he is winning.
We have a 21 yr old named Kim, or thing one.
She has her own struggles in life but is an amazing kiddo. She is doing awesome and has been attending classes at the community  and is doing awesome.
Bekah is our  now19 yr old. She's a pretty awesome kid herself.(this written originally when she was in school still) She's still in high school and doing an alternative program to catch up after she got behind when she had surgery. She is in her 2nd/3rd year of French at school and doing very well with it. She's also in AF JROTC and at times has considered entering the military. (She got caught up, graduated on time and is still an awesome kid)
Snickers, out not so bright but very lovable black lab border collie mix.
Mia, our 17 yr old grey tabby kitty who spends all day sleeping on Lees lap.
Dexter....Mias nemesis...a 1 1/2 yr old grey tabby who thinks he rules the neighborhood, our house, and all in it.
Then there's me
I'm a wife. A mom. A nurse. An astronomy fan. A diabetic. An adventurous cook. A person that loves to try new things and currently is learning food storage techniques including canning.
I also live with chronic pain. I have sacroiliac joint dysfunction, we think, no test has been positive, I am just in severe pain all the time.
I work full time. I still do all the running, even when it's bad. I learned that some time ago if i don't do it no one will.
Anyway, that's it for now, check back later for more