Taking a break -- REALLY need your prayers!

Just wanted to post a quick note to the two or three people who actually read my blog to let you know that I will be taking a blog break for a while. As some of you know, Scott has been experiencing extremely bad migraines for a while now and a CT scan he had done a couple of weeks ago is showing some suspicious spots on his brain. We traveled down to Duke University Medical Center yesterday to see a neurosurgeon. This is a four hour drive one way for us and yesterday was just a consultation at which we were told he is going to have to undergo further testing to determine what is going on. Which means, of course, more long trips to Duke in our future. This is going to be extremely difficult for us due to our financial situation at the moment. I have not worked since August and ours is definitely a two income household just to make ends meet. I am desperately trying to find a job, but so far have had no luck as jobs in my field are few and far between in our small town and surrounding area. We are really struggling to keep our faith during this trying time. Of course I want my husband to be healthy and we will do whatever we have to do to make sure he gets whatever treatment he needs. Thankfully, we do have good health insurance thru his employer. The main issue is that he doesn't have any vacation time left this year or sick leave so that means for every trip to Duke, he has to take a day off without pay, which really hurts us. But it could be worse.

I am really scared, friends. I am not strong. I cry. A lot. I'm not sure I'm ready for this journey that we are being forced to take. But I don't have a choice. I love him so much and I will be there for him. No matter what. He needs me and I need him more. We will face this together, which means a lot of shared pain. But it could be worse.

As if this isn't enough to deal with, we are down to one vehicle due to the fact that his old truck broke down on us last week (fuel pump went out) and we just can't justify spending the money to fix it right now. I guess the saying "when it rains, it pours" really fits us right now! We are thankful to have one vehicle that is in good working condition, it just requires some juggling of schedules to have to get up at 4 a.m. to take him to work if I need the car. But it could be worse.

Anyways, I just wanted to let y'all know a little bit about what is going on here. There are some other issues we have that I won't get into on here. I just wanted to ask that y'all remember us in your thoughts and prayers as we trudge along on this unknown journey. Scott is my world and I don't know what I would do without him.

Until next time. . .

Just Me ~ From A to Z!

Hello all! Just plugging along here in Virginia, wishing Mother Nature would make up her mind! Our weather has been crazy this past week. One day it feels like summer, the next it's raining and cold! Enough already!

Several of my friends in blogland have been doing a "Getting to know me A to Z" kind of post. It's been interesting and funny learning about them and I thought I'd jump on the band wagon and share a little bit about me with y'all so here goes:





A ~ Age: 44 (yes, I'm old!)

B ~ Bed: Queen size and it still ain't big enough for me, the hubby and Sophie who insists on sleeping right smack dab in the middle of the bed. Really cuts down on snuggle time for me and the hubs! ;) She HATES for her Daddy to hug and kiss on her Mommy. Can we say jealous??!!

C ~ Chore you hate: Washing dishes!!! I don't currently have a dishwasher so everything has to be washed by hand. This was my main chore growing up and I hated it then and I hate it now. Really hoping Santa brings me a dishwasher for Christmas this year - we will see!

D ~ Dogs: Yes, our little Sophie. She's a Yorkie who just turned 2 years old last week. (Although, don't tell her she's a dog, she thinks she's a DIVA!!)

E ~ Essential start to your day: Coffee, coffee, coffee!!! 'Nuff said!

F ~ Favorite color: RED!!! Hubby hates it but I love it and would have red in every room of the house if he would go for it.

G ~ Gold or Silver: I'm a silver wearing gal! But white gold works too!

H ~ Height: I say 5'7" cause that's what they always told me when they measured us in school but seems like every time I go to the doctor and get my height measured they say 5'5". ???

I ~ Instruments you play: Um, does the radio count???

J ~ Job title: Well, as I'm currently unemployed (really hoping that changes real soon!) does Domestic Goddess count????!!!!

K ~ Kids: One son, Brandon, who is 18 years old and getting ready to leave for the Air Force. Proud and scared at the same time pretty much sums up my feelings on this one!

L ~ Live in: Virginia, born and raised!

M ~ Make of car you drive: 2006 Chevy HHR. Purple. The "gangsta mobile". Not my choice. Hubby saw it, fell in love with it, it came home with us. One day I will choose the car "I" want and hubs can have his precious HHR. For now, it's got four wheels and it runs. Good enough.

N ~ Nicknames: I don't really have any. I have an Aunt who calls me Lynn cause it's my middle name and a friend who calls me "D" (not really sure why) but other than that, I got nothing.

O ~ Overnight hospital stays: Several while I was preggo with my son due to blood pressure issues, two nights when I had my hysterectomy, and two nights when I had my gastric bypass. Other than that, I'm healthy as a horse!

P ~ Pet Peeves: Rude people. Especially drivers who insist on going 10 miles slower than the posted speed limit while driving in the "fast" lane. Drives me insane! Pun intended. :)

Q ~ Quote from a movie: "I love ya more than my luggage." From Steel Magnolias. I've seen this movie a billion times and I cry. Every. Single. Time.

R ~ Right or Left handed: I'm right handed. Although I can sign my name with my left hand and it is readable. If you're a first grader!

S ~ Siblings: I am the oldest of 3 and the only girl. My brothers and I are very close in age (2 years between each of us) and even though we live far away from each other, we still have a close relationship with one another. I am very thankful for that.

T ~ TV shows: I'm a reality tv show junkie. Amazing Race and Survivor are my two favs with Big Brother being a close third. Sad, I know. . .

U ~ Underwear: I'm really racy in this area - give me good ole cotton briefs any day! The bigger, the better! Ah, comfy!!!

V ~ Vegetable you hate: Beets. Ugh!!! Barf!! Gross!!

W ~ What makes you run late: Nothing! I absolutely hate to be late and get extremely irritated if I am late. (refer back to the pet peeve list!)

X ~ X-Rays: The only one I can remember is when I was in high school and had been having terrible tummy aches. They made me drink some chalky junk and then x-rayed my stomach. I barfed. And had to do it all again.

Y ~ Yummy food you make: Well, according to the hubs, everything I make is yummy! Do I have him trained well, or what??? I used to hate to cook, but about five years ago, I really started to get into it and I love to try new recipes. I'm not a very talented baker, but I'm gonna blame that on my ancient oven that never cooks anything right!!!

Z ~ Zodiac sign: I'm a Taurus. Yep, a bull in a china shop!!

So, there ya go! A bunch of stuff you probably never wanted to know about me! This was kind of fun and I hope y'all will join in and give it a whirl too!

I have been working on a few small projects this week. I am redoing a lamp shade on a small lamp I've had in my kitchen for a while. It's not turning out exactly like I had hoped, but I'm not giving up! I am also getting ready to start a total laundry room redo. I have a small laundry room and I will be trying to make it a more work friendly space. I can't wait to show y'all how that turns out. I'm trying to redo it for under $50 so we will see how that goes. I'm going to be reusing a lot of things I already have on hand here at the house. It's going to be a challenge!

Until next time. . .

A Visit to the Punkin' Patch!

Last week was such a horrible week for us here at the "B" household. I won't go into all the gory details, but suffice it to say that between hubby's health issues, my job hunting issues, financial issues, and just plain ole pain in the butt life in general issues, it ain't been a bed of roses around here!!! I've been so stressed out that I actually had a MAJOR meltdown on Friday. Thank God it didn't last but about an hour or so before I got myself back under control (somewhat), but I hate feeling like I have no control over anything in my life and by Friday afternoon, I'd had about all I could take!! So, hubby decided we both needed a stress free, worry free, fun filled day and on Saturday, that's what we had. We took off to an orchard located about an hour's drive from our house and we had a ball!! The weather was perfect and we just let ourselves be carefree! Here's some pictures of our adventures:

A covered wagon filled with hay started our journey to the corn maze and pumpkin patch. Fun, fun, fun!



A field full of pumpkins, as far as the eye could see!



With lots of different pumpkins in all shapes, sizes, and colors!





We got lost in a corn maze. This was so much fun and the first time either of us had been in a corn maze. I've already been scouring the area we live in to find more of these. So much fun!!



Hubby took a pic of me inside the corn maze to show just how tall the corn stalks were.



There were lots of things to do here at the orchard, including a pumpkin chunker, apple chunker (for the kids, sooo cute!), a pick your own indian corn section which I just loved, lots of goodies to eat and drink like fried pumpkin pies and some delicious apple cider. It was so much fun!!

On the way home, we drove on some back roads to enjoy the leaves and the beautiful fall day. We stopped off at an overlook on top of East River Mountain. Awesome views!!




And finally, a picture of us ~ stress free and worry free. . .well, at least for a day!



Until next time. . .

Easy Peasy Apple Spice Cake

Today I'm sharing what has to be the easiest cake recipe I've ever tried. It has two ingredients. Yes, I said two ingredients! And it tastes great, too!

Here's what you need:



1 box spice cake mix (any brand)
1 can apple pie filling

Mix cake mix and apple pie filling together until well blended. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.



That's it!! Easy peasy and so delicious. This would also be good with some warmed caramel topping on it or served with a dollop of whipped cream or even both. Served this way would definitely not be waist line friendly but so worth it! I enjoyed a piece of it today with a cup of pumpkin spice flavored coffee. YUMMY!!!!

Until next time. . .

A Weekend of Firsts

This weekend was a weekend of firsts! Scott and I did our first craft show. And I'm pleased to say, it went much better than I anticipated. We paid $5 to rent our table and after deducting our expenses (table fee, lunch, and amount of money we took to make change with), we came home with $148 in our pocket! Now, I know that doesn't sound like a windfall, but considering it was a very small craft fair and the weather was nasty out, I think that was pretty darn good!! Here's a pic of our table. Being a novice at this, I didn't even think about taking a cloth to put on the table and my displays weren't the best, but it got the job done.



It's funny because a lot of the stuff I was sure would fly out the door, didn't hardly sell at all and the stuff I was iffy about went like hotcakes! We did end up bringing more home than I wanted to, but that's fine because I can use some of the stuff as Christmas gifts and I plan on taking some of it to my former coworkers because they've asked me to bring some stuff to them. We also donated some items to the lady who set up at a table across from us. She sells stuff to raise money for the Cancer Society's Relay for Life and she was thrilled that we gave her some of our "treasures" (her words, not mine!).

Another first was the weather! On Saturday morning this is what we woke up to:



Can you see it??? Yep, it's SNOW!!! On October 1st!! Somebody must've made Mother Nature mad!! As far back as I can remember, we've never had snow this early in the year. I sure hope this is not indicative of the winter we are going to have this year. Oh well, not much we can do about it, I suppose, except to grin and bear it. Ugh!! Thank goodness it didn't hang around very long and didn't stick to anything for longer than a few minutes. But it stayed cold most of the day with the high temps barely reaching the mid 40's. Bbbbrrrr!!!

Scott has been suffering with horrible migraines for the past couple of months. He's always had a history of them since he was a teenager and had a brain aneurysm that he had to have surgically repaired at age 14. We went for a CT scan last week and will hopefully have some answers by Tuesday. Please keep him in your prayers. I hate to see him suffering with these awful things.

I also would appreciate prayers for me. I haven't shared this with too many people, but I have been unemployed for the past month or so. I left my old job because I hadn't had a raise in over three years, no benefits, and the 70 miles driving each day to and from work was killing us with gas prices so high. I thought I had a better opportunity with another company located much closer to our home, but after working there for about two weeks, I realized I had made a mistake in leaving the other job, bad pay and all! The job was nothing like it was advertised to be and I was so miserable and would just break down in tears each morning before work. Scott knew I was miserable and I think he was afraid I was having a nervous breakdown, so we talked it over and decided it would be best for me to quit there and look for something else. I was extremely hesitant to do that because we need both incomes just to survive, but Scott said my health and sanity are more important than a paycheck. Besides, with what we are saving in gas and him getting to work some overtime, it's almost made up my salary. So anyway, I have my first job interview on Tuesday and I'm praying that God will lead me in the direction He wants me to go.

Whew, I surely didn't mean for this to be so long winded! If you are still with me, thanks for listening to me rant!! Until next time. . .