Sweet potato pancakes! and tomato facials!

Today I went and washed some laundry and then hung them up in the backyard on the line to dry. We had some sweet potato pancakes(finally!) for dinner tonight.
There's some semi-local non-profit drama going on that breaks my heart, right now. A gal who is 9 years old and has muscular dystrophy is currently selling lemonade to raise money to go to camp this year. Well, she takes pre-orders, and then goes to different cities so that these people can pick them up. Well, she went to the Outlets at Vicksburg today, and they ran her off, after they had already been there for 3 hours while they were cleaning up to go. They posted some half assed "explanation" trying to justify what they did, but someone has even posted something about how the Miss Mississippi pageant has bake sales on their sidewalks all the time and nobody ever says anything to them. Ridiculous! Will not be spending ANY money there! I'm also so happy to see the uprisal about this. People have been flooding the outlet's Facebook page, and they've been deleting them if they don't praise them for what they did, but the gal posted everything that happened, and they're flooding the page again. Awesome!

Furthermore, we have a freezer full of corn on the cob and watermelon. Recipes? Suggestions?

update on community pot luck + weekend happenings!

Today we went and picked up 66 ears of corn from Josh's pal's produce stand(1/2 put in bags in the fridge for Natalie and the rest of our 33 are dispersed between the crisper and our freezer) and then we headed out to Braxton, Mississippi to go to their Day in the Park, which was more or less a political forum, as is anything going on in the county right now, at least until November. They had a man there from the Jackson Zoo who had a number of different snakes, a ferret, a leopard tortoise and a bird. It was pretty fun. We got burger plates courtesy of the Mayor of Braxton. I've decided to slowly increase my intake of meat again. I have a lot of contingencies around it, but we'll see.

Josh went to D'Lo's Day in the Park, provided by the NAACP. He spoke to some people that he sees on a regular basis, a former chairman of the NAACP and the current chairman of the NAACP, about my community pot luck dinner that I want to do. He explained why I wanted to do it and things like that and they were completely behind it, and in support of it! They said they would bring as many people as possible, which makes me so very excited! I'm going to be in contact with them soon on my exact intentions and things, because I didn't think that he would talk to anyone about it, because it's not something him and I have talked too terribly much about. I do know that I want to hit up the junk stores around here to stock up on plates & cups because I also want to in a way, exploit reducing yr waste as well.

The other day, I made raw ice cream! It's one of the things that I have on my list, so I was able to mark it off!

Now I am off to work for a few hours and coming home to make some sweet potato pancakes with some sweet potato puree I made yesterday!

all jammed up!

I can now cross off another one of my 24 before 24! I made blueberry jam this evening from the blueberries that Martha dropped off for me.
My pal Natalie and I(& Josh and well, her 2 daughters & her husband) are splitting a bag of 66 ears of corn. One of Josh's friends who owns a produce stand is selling the bag to us for a very good price so I'm pretty excited to freeze up some corn and live by corn for the rest of the summer!





Now I'm going to nestle up on the couch, watch a bit more of The Big Bang Theory and hit the hay! Martha dropped off a ton of DVD's that she thought Josh and I would be interested in. Curb Your Enthusiasm(which Josh LOVES), The Big Bang Theory(which I LOVE) some season volumes of King of the Hill, Family Guy and other silly feel good shows like that.

The Life & Times of My First Ear Infection

To start off with, I woke up with a tiny bit of an ear ache yesterday but went ahead and made a well woman appt with my doctor for today and figured I would just mention it to him when I got there.
I went over to my friend Natalie's house for the afternoon/evening and hung out with her and her daughters. I brought home made lemonade, that seemed to be a pretty big hit and we talked about(originally we were supposed to do our sundial umbrellas) starting a Farmer's Market and doing a Craft Night and have decided the next time we hang out, we will discuss that further!



It was a really awesome time and I'm glad I've met her an Ann Louise, who I only met because of Natalie, really! They're both very interesting people that I can learn a lot from <3

I looked at the time and it was getting pretty late, and I should have been in bed soon for my morning appt with the doctor. A little after I had texted Josh to go ahead and come pick me up, I started feeling icky again. Nauseous, headachey, just plan ICK! So, we went to the After Hours Clinic in Magee. It was 9:20Pm, and they closed at 10:00Pm, we figured they would take us. We walked in there, I made sure that it wouldn't count on my insurance as an E.R visit(because that's a 150$ copay and I just do not have that kind of money!) and they explained that it would go as a regular doctor's visit, which I was happy about because that's a very small copay. Then, they told us "but we're not taking any more patients." WHAT? Are you serious? We were absolutely livid. There wasn't a sign that says they stop taking patients at a certain time or anything and I was in PAIN.
So, we went to the store and just picked up some sinus medicines and ibuprofen and I figured I'd stick it through the night. That worked, until I woke up this morning. I cancelled my appt as a well woman appt and just switched it to a regular appt because this felt like something that just couldn't be mentioned in passing.
What that After Hours clinic did not ask, was what was wrong. It took my doctor about 10 minutes to look in my ear, look in my throat, ask me some questions, tell me what I had and send my prescription off. It would have been about 9:30 by the time, had the After Hours clinic taken me. He prescribed me 2 different drops, a pain one and an antibiotic one and they seem to already be working so I'm happy. I called into work today because I just could not stand for the measly 4.5 hours that I had for a shift, but I can hardly stand going from the living room to the bathroom without having to grab onto something, so I'm taking it slow today.



Living in a small town and going to a small town doctor means that while yr supporting yr local economy, yr also sitting in agonizing pain in the 2nd waiting room because people like to talk, they like to know what's going on, how's yr family, how's yr mom, didja hear didja hear.
I'm not big on doctors, so when I go, anyone who knows about it, knows that I'm REALLY in pain. But this doctor..he was different. He'll be my OBG, for my well woman exams and my regular practice doctor as well. He didn't give me any lectures on my weight, he didn't talk about my blood pressure(because it was considerably high due to being sick) and we didn't talk about diabetes running in my family. I have never been to a doctor like that before. It was an enjoyable experience, to say that feels like the world should be blowing up right now. He prescribed me 2 different drops for my ears, one being a pain drop and one being an antibiotic and a note excuse from work for today.







PS: The good part about all of this means that I can cross number 18 off of my "24 before 24" list which was get a lady doctor! A lady doctor meaning, a doctor for my lady parts. I am calling tomorrow to reschedule my well woman check up and then a mammogram.

!!!!!

Tonight I was able to cross another thing off of my 24 before 24 list! I graduated the Citizen's Academy! I was really afraid that I wouldn't follow through with it, because lately it's been hard to get me out of the house to do things, but I did it! We had a pretty big dinner there and a lady had made some squash fritters & squash casserole from her garden and it was deeeeelish!
After the ceremony, we all went over to the parking lot across from the jail and had a hoot! They had a patrol car, and an escort car. And water guns. 2 deputies were in the escort car dressed as regular people, and 2 citizen's academy folks were in the patrol car. We had to pull them over with the lights, while also radioing in how a deputy is supposed to. Each set of people had a different thing go on. Josh & I's(Josh didn't graduate, though. He morally/ethically cannot be a part of the Citizen's Academy since he is with the media --though everyone likes him so he does whatever)was a routine traffic stop that ended in gunfire! The guy gave me some lip about how he had left his license at home and then turned to the middle console and grabbed his (water)gun and shot me! The deputies in the escort car gave other Citizen's Academy folks different scenarios. For one, they kept driving, for another they were deaf, for another Josh played a guy coming out from the woods with a gun during a routine traffic stop, and for another the passenger was having a seizure. It was a really good course, though!


I've been curling my hair without heat! I've been twirling it and putting it up in bobby pins and I put it all up yesterday because it was so hot. It'll be hitting the triple digits soon. My poor veggies are getting hit hard. I've been watering them twice a day, now.

homemade bread!

I found this super easy bread recipe and decided to try it, since I don't work until this evening.
there are a few things I'd change, and this is all on me. It says to let it rise another hour after you've put it in the bread pan, I would have only done it for 30 minutes or so. If that. It rose so much that I feel it's a lot of why I had a dough ball in the middle after I'd baked it for 35 minutes, but I cut around the dough ball and still had a yummy bread to put some butter on.
but! this marks one thing i can cross off of my 24 before 24 list!

stargazing

I'm trying to make it a point to go outside more. Lulu and I explored the back yard today and it's great. We've lived here almost a year and I am just now realizing this. There's a huge piece of grassy land behind it, that's obviously someone's, but they keep it kept and stuff, so I didn't mind Lulu playing in it. I sat down on the hill(there's actually 2 hills, one descending from my back yard, then a straight part, then another hill)and read awhile while she ran around. This evening I went to a S.C.A.R meeting, and rode with Kathy. She's a great hoot. It was a good meeting, we had a new member come and we're all headed to Pinola School House tomorrow to see if we can get in on that building. After that, Josh and I are going to Harrisville to go to the political speaking, statewide and countywide candidates. I've got some informational packets on the rescue to pass out, that I need to staple tonight some time.



I made black bean burgers and sweet potato fries for dinner tonight. It was my first time making black bean burgers. I caramelized onions, eggplant & bell pepper and then did everything else in the food processor. It was delicious. This means I can cross that off of my 24 before 24 list! :)
I sat outside in the back yard tonight for a bit, just thinking. There's a lot of stuff going on and I'm trying to make sense of it all? I guess.



Time to get stapling!

24 before 24

I made a delicious baked egg plant with egg noodles & spaghetti sauce the other night.


We also bought a new kitchen mat the other night


My blog kind of suffered when I did my 23 before 23, but I did accomplish a lot on that list now that I look back on it.
Here's my 23 before 23 list

TWENTY THREE THINGS BEFORE AGE TWENTY THREE

make a sale on etsy
have a dinner party
girls night out
successfully do roller derby night
pay october's rent
take a picture october 1-29
purchase a table for my sewing machine
make sure josh has an awesome birthday
buy lulu a new dog bed for her birthday(aug 31)
take in jeans(ugggh they are way too wide-legged for me!)
make a new friend
pay all bills for october
successfully make banana bread(lately the loaves ive been making are sucking real hard! So its time to try a new recipe!)
buy shelf brackets(We dumpster dove some really awesome usable white shelves and just havent bought the brackets for them yet)
have a friend over for dinner
make 3 skirts
buy lulu a new collar
buy olive a new collar
buy a shower rod and curtain(i think this would make our tiny bathroom look a bit more tidy and neat)
be a part of something (Granted this took until March of 2011, I'm still saying I did it before I turned 23)
buy an extra bed sheet
buy a crock pot(fat chance, but we'll see!)
write pen pals(really need to get on this QUICKLY)

and my new list, 24 before 24


(Bolding things I've already done or am in the process of doing)

1. Move to Texas
2. Learn to knit
3. Host a small scale dinner party
4. Buy a bed frame
5. Pay bills for October
6. Grow vegetables (Currently in the process of this --I have 1 yellow strawberry going strong and my tomato plant is growing taller, my cucumber & squash plants are remaining kind of puny , but we'll get there!)
7. Make home made jam
8. Make home made pickles
9. Host a craft night
10. Meet 5 new people
11. Sew a pair of pants
12. Use baking soda + vinegar as a shampoo for 1 month
13. Make a delicious black bean burger centered dinner
14. Introduce vegetarianism to 2 people
15. Make sweet potato pancakes
16. Bake home made bread
17. Go to a roller derby bout
18. Get a lady doctor
19. Get my yearly mammogram
20. Make home made ice cream
21. Compile my cook book zine & get it "published"
22. Make every recipe in the Taste of Home cook book.
23. Buy Lulu a toy box for all of her toys(& if I'm lucky, teach her to put them away again)
24. Graduate the Citizen's Academy

We just tried the pickles that I made last week. It was a simple 3 day recipe that I found in the Martha Stewart magazine and they're pretty delicious! I'm pretty stoked on them. I also have some brown eggs cooling in the freezer so I can make some egg salad sandwiches for dinner and then make tea sandwiches for tomorrow's S.C.A.R meeting!



I cut my hair the other day. I'd like to re-color it, but not this red color. One of my customers last night asked if it was my hair. I didn't really know the proper way to respond? Does it not look like mine?
I may have lunch with my cousin tomorrow, if she comes to this part of town. Tonight was another class of the Citizen's Academy. We learned some of the dispatch operations and had a pot luck dinner.
A S.C.A.R pal came over the other day and we counted up our donations from Saturday, and it totaled 340$ and some change. We were pretty impressed!