Chaos...it's an ART FORM

And I am the master
(When Chuck Norris wants to know about chaos, he asks me.)

Saturday I took the day off from my shift in the ER.


All my sons were here to help my hubby paint the outside of our house.
Howie has been home for the entire month of September!
And the projects have been flying!

My immature grown up sons and son-in-law all pitched in and got 'er done!

I'd have photos, but I'm using the ancient computer on accounta my laptop power cord being dead.

Trust me I had to be here for it.
I'm the only one that knows the number to 9-1-1.

And my boys may or may not have put two ladders on a little tiny stick over a stairwell to use it to stand on.
Scary.
I had to leave the area and check out my first-aid kit and read up on "how to extricate stupid boys from the stairwell with their legs tangled in the rungs of a ladder." It was a great textbook...really..

Those boys and their ridiculous antics are the reason that my job as an ER nurse is secure.


I had 5 of my grandkids here.

We did a photoshoot.
Trust me pictures will follow later.
As soon as I get that dang power cord.

I also decided to make strawberry jam...with 5 grandkids around.
Use your imagination to feel the stickiness and the messiness.
It was monumental.

During the worst of the mess a sweet blog friend dropped in! She lives in my town.
Kimmie!
She's a sweetheart.
She brought me some honey to try from a honey farm? honey village?
honey place?
I don't know what a honey business would be, but it is near her home and she just goes there and fills up jars.
More more economical and YUMMY!

So I was embarassed that Kimmie saw the massive mess
but she stayed and visited and was so sweet.

And then she left.
I'm sure that she was very grateful that she was going home to normal and clean and quiet.

My house was clean last week.
Sorry you missed it!
And it's clean now and the jam is in the freezer.
Amen.

I musta been bored...

On accounta I bought 4 dozen more jars!

I also emptied out unrecognizable science-experiement looking old food.
Then I canned more salsa and more tomato soup.
It's THAT good!
I am now done.
I never wanna can again. EVER!
On accounta I forgot to wear gloves when I chopped up the jalepenos.

WHAT?

Some heads are gonna roll!

If you are wonderin' why go here.

{Eye} Candy

Every three weeks I have a stretch of 6 whole days off in a row.
I LOVE those 6 days.
They are sacred.
Don't mess with 'em.

During this 6 day stretch I put it to good use.
Instead of watching soap operas and eating bonbons I canned.
And canned.
And then I canned.

I made Spaghetti Sauce.
I made Connie's Tomato Soup.

I made Connie's Salsa.
Then I made Jan's Salsa.
(I don't think Jan has a blog, I got it off FB. I used to work for her when I was still a hairdresser. She was my boss.)

I can't decide which one I like better.
Connie's is ahead so far as we've tasted as I canned.

We're having a taste test later.

I say later because NO ONE!
Not Oprah!
Not even the President of the United States!

Nobody gets to touch or taste this deliciousness for awhile.


For now it's just eye candy.

It was too much work for people to just eat it!

I have been canning for 31 years.

This year for the first time in history.
I have filled
EVERY. SINGLE. JAR!!!!!
So you can understand why I don't want anything eaten.
Can't you?
No?
Really?
Have you ever canned before?

I might share with Em.
But I'll have to pray about it first.

That we may NEVER forget.

I've been canning.
Which happens to be on the back patio.
I've been up and down a flight of stairs a bazillion times.

Ya, seriously. I have.

I've canned 42 quarts of Spaghetti Sauce!

YUM!

Now I'm cooking down a quadruple batch of
Connie's Salsa.

It smells divine.
I wish I had Smell-o-Vision!
Cuz you would love it!

I'm going to let it simmer all day tomorrow.
I don't want to can anything tomorrow.

Cuz it's Sunday.
A day of rest.

A day of worship.
And...
I need it.

My hubby and I took a few moments out of the evening to attend a
Patriotic Ceremony at the firestation.

Our Paramedics and our Firefighters put on a spectacular program.
To remember:

9/11

I had a son serve a Tour of Duty
Because of 9/11.

I will NEVER EVER look at the flag the same.

Because of that day.

Because my son served.

Our firefighters and paramedics also played Amazing Grace on the bagpipes.

I love bagpipes.

I also love the paramedics and firefighters.
I work closely with them because
I work in the ER.
I feel honored to know them.

They presented a flag to Brady Howell's brother.
Brady was a local young man who died in the Pentagon on that fateful day.

They also unveiled a monument in honor of 9/11
They have pieces of the Twin Towers in that monument.
I felt overwhelmed.

I love our flag.

It was a very moving ceremony.

9/11

That we may never forget.



Note from Monday morning:
The salsa has simmered since Saturday night in my turkey roaster.
My house has smelled wonderful.
It's a thick and yummy tasting.
Off to put it in jars now!

Dear Summer,

I sure wish you would have hung around a little bit this season.
You disappeared in June when it snowed.
You sorta went on vacation in July.
You might have been a bit more visible in August.
I loved those two days of 92 degrees.

Thank you very much.

Oh, and about September, your performance has been dismal.

So, next year, would you please decide to stay?
I'll gladly do whatever it takes.

Throw salt over my left shoulder.
Light firecrackers on New Years Day.
Run nekked through the forest...or not.

Just let me know what it takes to make you feel welcome next year. What's your summer mojo?

I'll do it.

Right now, it's still summer.
42 degrees just isn't cuttin' it.

Sincerely,
Summerless in Iceburg

The LLLLoooooonnnnnnngggggg Weekend

The long weekend in the ER is over.
Disappointingly enough...
I have no great pictures.
I could have posted a steer horn in a bicep....
but...
fat looks better covered with skin.
So I won't.
There really wasn't any fabulous or exciting things to take pictures of.
However
too bad ya'll don't have SMELL-O-VISION
Cuz I could have hooked you up with HI DEF I'm tellin' ya!
From very unexpected sources I might add.
I can handle a lot....
but this weekend Vicks was my BEST FRIEND.

I was constantly shovin' Vicks up my schnaz.
No I am not sick, it's just that Vicks makes your smeller deaf.
My dorky coworker Nita was just snorting alcohol wipes. (She's minus some brain cells I'm sure.)

So from my previous post I was going to give away chocolates to the best diagnostic guess of a posted pictures.
Since there wasn't a picture to post, I will give chocolates to the two most hilarious caption winners.
Does that sound fair?
Good.
But before I do.
I have to say I had a blast with having the Gusty Ridge Ranch here visitin' my humble abode.
Keeley and MiniMe came for the weekend and I offered a place to lay their weary bones.
It was so fun to meet Keeley. I love her blog.
She is hilarious, spiritual and a riot!!!!
MiniMe was adorable.
She's 13 and as funny as her mom.

We played Quiddler and MiniMe is very competitive. She broke an M&M in half and told me that I could have 1/2 of it and we'd be BFF's forever.
I told her I was going to put it on a necklace.
She put it on a thank you note instead.
So I hung it on the fridge.

Cute huh?
It was great to meet a Blog friend and find out that she is a darling as her blog.


Glad you got home OK!!!!

OK! Winners of the caption are:
Shauna from Trying to Stay Calm
Saimi
One Cluttered Brain
and
Homer and Queen (cuz you said nurses are smarter than doctors anyway)
(And you're right, that's more than two, but I'm OK with that!)
Email with your addresses and I'll send those out in the next couple of weeks. I gotta dip them first.

A question....

So would ya wanna see a picture of a bicep vs. bull's horn?

(No that isn't THE bull's horn which obviously is NOT in a bicep pictured above)
Do ya wanna see it?????

I didn't think so.

It's not too late to enter the giveaways of chocolate. Read the previous post.

Randomness and GIVEAWAY

I'm in a blump. (blog slump)
But I'm loving reading everyone's blogs.
All the first day of school stories.....so sweet.
I so remember those days.

I have some randomness.

-I get to work this weekend.
-I worked Memorial weekend.
-I worked 4th of July weekend.
-I work Labor Day weekend.

What's with that?

I'm going to post pictures of some of the stuff I see over Labor Day weekend and seeing if ya'll can give me the diagnosis.
I'll give a prize to the winner.

-I get to meet a blog friend this weekend. It's gonna be fun. (Would blog+friend=a blend?)

-I am going to house 4 students in my apartment for this sememster due to the over-admission of the nearby university and not enough housing.
I'm not sure how I feel about that.
I will miss my hot water.

-My hubby fixed my screen and put back the ladder.
He's awesome.
He didn't laugh too much.

-Some doctors are jerks. Just sayin'
They don't know everything.
I should do another episode of "Ask a Nurse"


-I got my Fall decorations up.
I'm not ready for Fall.

Last week our high temp was 65 degrees.
Next week there may be snow.

-I have only eaten 5 tomatoes out of my garden.

-I need a caption to go along with this picture.
He's a coworker.
He's looking at a sample of something biohazardous.

So give a funny caption to go along with his expression.
I'll send the funniest some of my hand-dipped chocolates. (I am going to be doing a little dipping in a couple of weeks.)
You can see what it looks like when I dip chocolates here.

-I have to work this weekend with her:

No, these are NOT medications she's hoarding.
It's chocolate milk.
She has issues.
Do ya feel sorry for me?

OK, so two prizes for ya.
#1 I'm gonna show a picture (It won't be R-rated) and you have to diagnose it.
#2 Give a funny caption to the picture of Alan.

Winners will receive chocolates from moi.
Sunday at noon. I'll have my weekend coworker besties judge.