Wow, so much has happened in the last few weeks! Our 10 year old granddaughter. Was involved in a cooking accident. She was making Mac and cheese for her brother and sister. When she went to drain the noodles, she slipped and the whole pan of boiling water landed on her thighs and panther area. Her mom and dad brought her in to the ER where the doctor determined the 3rd degree burns were more than they could handle here. He sent her by ambulance to the burn vented in St. Paul. Twenty four days. And three surgeries later she is home recovering. Who would have thought a box of macaroni and cheese could cause so much damage! The whole time she was in the hospital, all she wanted was to be home to go to candle light Christmas Eve service at church. She made it! We were all able to go to church together. Tomorrow is her first check up and major dressing change. Hope it all goes well. Besides having the two little ones here quite a bit of the time (so mommy and daddy could be at the hospital) I had a coworker go out on medical leave. She will be out at least. 8 more weeks! That means I will be doing her job and my job for at least 8 more weeks. In to work early, stay late and no ouch break for at least that long. Not looking forward to that! Actually. I have been doing it for 2 weeks already. My stress level is off the charts! This too shall pass!

They say, if you don't like the weather in Minnesota, just wait 10 minutes and it will change. That is exactly what it was like today. This morning was fairly warm and the sun was trying to shine. By noon it was cloudy and starting to mist. The temps were falling most of the afternoon. By 2:00 the mist had turned to rain and it was starting to get windy. Right now the wind is gusting to 50 mph and the wind chill is about 28! Good thing we don't have any snow out there or it would be a blizzard. It is Veteran's Day today so I had the day off. Even though the weather was crappy, I still had a good day. I did a lot of cleaning and organizing. It was just nice to be away from the office. Tonight I am just relaxing. The next 4 days are going to be busy and I just don't do well when I am that busy. I start to feel overwhelmed. Not good. So back to my Lazyboy and blanket!

Fall is in the air! The combines are going from sun up to late at night. Most of the beans are out and the farmers are on to corn. The apples at the orchard are crispy and juicy. The maple trees in our yard are beautiful!!! I really do love this time of year. Being raised on a farm, I know that this is the make or break time of year. This is definitely a farming community. And as the farm economy goes, so goes main street. Everyone hopes for a great harvest no matter if you are a farmer or not. Even my garden harvest was good. My vegetables are all in jars in my basement. There are a few things left to do however. There are leaves to rake, the garden to spade over, and the perennials to cut down. Just not enough hours in a day!

They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Well, I think I just tested that this past week. I had to go to Omaha for some classes. It was pretty unnerving to me. I am not used to driving in city traffic. After all, we don't even have a stop light here in town. For this trip I had to drive 4 hours by myself!!!! I had to go from I29 to I180 to I80 to get to my destination. I was very nervous to say the least. I made it though. I didn't get lost or take a wrong turn. Yay me!!! The classes I took were interesting, but by the end I was feeling very overwhelmed. My brain felt like pudding and was running out of my ears. Yipes. I am getting too old for this.

Today is the official end of summer. Kind of sad I guess. The good part of that is that it means we are coming to the end of lawn mowing, weeding, and canning. I will probably can a few more things, but for the most part I am done. I took advantage of the long weekend to get a lot done. I canned 16 pints of Bloody Mary Mix and picked a bunch more. green beans. I also got caught up on cleaning and laundry. I got things done that have been on the back burner for quite awhile. It felt so good. Then today I caught up on a few things from work that I was falling behind on. That was really a good feeling! So even though it was the official end of summer, which is kind of depressing, it was a very productive weekend for me!

And the harvest continues. I have canned more green beans, more salsa and more "Rotel". Next up is Bloody May Mix. I decided to take a break from canning tonight. I probably won't do any tomorrow night either. Then I need to get back to it. I have most of my pint jars filled. I have some quart jars left so I may have to can some of the Bloody Mary Mix in quarts. Stress at work continues. Once again I feel like I just keep falling further and further behind. I try not to take work home with me. I need a break from it to unwind and relax. But I think I am going to have to start. Performance evaluations are due soon, I have had some traveling to do for work (to other offices for appointments) and have had to cover for a co-worker when she has been out. On top of all of that we are changing broker/dealers AGAIN so there is a ton of paperwork involved in that. It all feels like it is caving in again. Well, I better go get something done then.

Again, the end of a very busy week! It was Murray County Fair Week. That means we were down at the fair grounds every night for something. Lauren and Logan are in 4-H so of course we had to go to the 4-H building and see how they did. I am very proud of both of them! We had to go see how my niece Cheyenne did on her calves. She did an awesome job - reserve champion. We went for the Lumberjack show, the Looney Lutheran show, had to get a malt at the Dairy Assn. stand and a pork burger at the Pork stand and check out the wine tasting and beer garden! Saturday was the parade and of course the band was in the parade. Then right after the parade the band was part of the dedication of the county Veteran's Memorial. I was exhausted by last night when it was all over. Well, then today I got back to my canning. I canned 16 more pints of green beans, 15 pints of salsa, and 5 pints of Rotel. In a couple of days I will have a lot more produce to can as the garden is doing very well this year. We have had nice rains at just the right time and lots of moderate heat - just enough heat. Lots of vegetables for fresh eating and a lot of extra for winter consumption! Yummmmm! The bonus part of our garden is that it is also my stress relief! When I go out to the garden I pull weeds like a crazy person when I am stressed. It helps! I take all my frustrations out on those poor weeds. tomorrow it is back to the old grind. In 2 weeks I will have my 32 year anniversary there. Sometimes I am proud of the fact that I have been a long time employee. but a lot of times lately I think it is just too long. I am tired of the politics of banking and tired of the stress involved in being in the position I am in. Sometimes I just want to have a job that doesn't take so much out of me. Like being a cashier at the grocery store or the drug store. When I go home, I don't have to think about it any more. But, I guess I just have to keep thinking about the 4 year plan. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.