Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving

I am thankful for more than just the food this year. My one and only brother is a hero to me. Let me explain. Anyone who knows me knows that I am Mrs. Supreme Worry Wart. I can worry about the most inane things sometimes which drives myself, and my family, bonkers. When Jerry is away in Delaware it gives me more reason to worry. I worry about him constantly and drive him bonkers! We have a kind of routine when he's away where we keep in touch with each other at certain times throughout the day and he almost always calls to say goodnight (if he doesn't fall asleep first), and then when he wakes up at some point during the night he'll call just to say goodnight then!

The week before last he asked me to order pizza for him from Pizza Hut. I order online here and then pay for it online also so that all he has to do is sign the ticket and wait for delivery there in Delaware. I called him back with the expected delivery time and he said that he would eat his dinner and then call me. He specifically said that he wasn't feeling very tired so he would definitely call me when he finished eating. He has a tendency to fall asleep at the drop of a hat. He has fallen asleep while eating, while in the bathroom, out in the garage under his truck (I'm not making that up - Tom found him asleep there and almost called 911). And you wonder why I worry. Anyhoo, the pizza was late in arriving (I leave my cell phone number when I order in case there is a problem - which there was - the driver was lost and I had to direct him turn by turn to the trailer).

A long while after I knew the pizza had arrived, I figured Jerry would be calling anytime. I was working on a quilt that I am finally finishing after a long time, and lost track of time. When I finally looked at the clock, it seemed pretty late and a good while after the pizza had been delivered. Dad was out that night and awful thoughts of Jerry falling asleep and subsequently choking on his food, having a stroke, heart attack, etc., and being alone with no one to help him came to mind. Do I have an imagination or what?! Well, if you knew Jerry, you'd know it wasn't so far fetched. I decided to call him. It rang the requisite number of times and then went to voice mail. Hmmm......well, not too worried I figured I'd call again. Maybe he just fell asleep and it was taking a while for the ringing phone to register. No answer again. And again. And again. By this time I tried calling the trailer phone. I know the answering machine there is loud and annoying and SURELY he would hear that. Still no answer. Now my Supreme Worry Wart potential was in full regalia. Being 150 miles away in a situation like that is NO FUN AT ALL. NONE WHATSOEVER. I was praying like crazy by that time. I was really scared.

By now I had tried to call him 10 times over a period of time and had also called the trailer phone a few times. I finally called my wonderful brother and through my shaking voice explained what was going on. He did not even hesitate - he offered to go check on Jerry. I believe it was somewhere around 9:30 at night, too. If it was later, dear brother, feel free to comment and correct me! I made him leave his warm house at that ridiculous hour to check on my husband and he never even had to think about it. What a guy. Meanwhile, I kept trying to call Jerry. Finally, FINALLY, he groggily answered the phone. I lost it. Completely lost it. Between sobbing with relief and wanting to wring his neck, I finally choked out the whole story to him. But I had to hang up and call my brother who was still en route to him. Thankfully, he wasn't too very far from home, but still, the fact that he had to leave his house at all made me feel terrible. When I called Jerry back he said that he's not sure what happened - when he finally heard the phone and answered it, he said he looked around and found that he was sitting up, propped up against the headboard of the bed, TV blasting, with a piece of pizza in his hand. Long story short - okay, okay, too late for that - my brother was a hero to me and to Jerry and we both can't thank him enough for his selflessness. I will be writing about our holiday and other things, but this had to come first. We salute you, brother o'mine. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Fall Bounty



Jerry stopped at a farm stand and brought me two HUGE heads of cabbage, two HUGE heads of cauliflower, and two HUGE boxes of sweet potatoes. I have been busy processing stuff and hope to finish today. I made Andy a sweet potato pie, I made coleslaw, and I made a batch of sauerkraut. I've never made sauerkraut before. I let it "sour" for just under two weeks and it still seemed a little more sweet than sour, so I think I'll let the next batch sit a while longer. We'll be having some of the first batch with a pork roast this weekend when Jerry comes home. The heads of cabbage were so huge, that we measured and weighed them. They were bigger and weighed more than my boys when they were born - and they were both BIG boys! One head measured 30 inches around and weighed 11 pounds. That's alotta sauerkraut!

Here's Andy holding the mutant cabbage head, and in the next picture a salt shaker is placed next to the cabbage for comparison.

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