Kronk Adventures

So, while making dinner last night, I sat down to watch a few minutes of tv whilst the food cooked. Kronk had climbed onto a pile of blankets with his rawhide, happily chomping away. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him stand up, then he started to yelp in pain. I grabbed him to see what was wrong, and he just kept swallowing and licking his lips, while still yelping. I thought that maybe the rawhide had gotten stuck in his throat, so I tried to feel for it in his mouth (not a pleasant experience, ever). It was already down his throat; he just kept moving between me and Brian and Vanessa, looking for relief. We, of course, started to panic that we would have to take him to the vet, after hours mind you. Brian thought he'd try some version of doggie Heimlich, which really just equated to Brian smacking Kronk on the back. (I think Kronk thought he was in trouble for something.) So then Kronk ran over to me and the yelping just kept coming. I got him a fresh dish of water and he went into his kennel and started turning circles. He laid down for a minute, but was still licking his lips and swallowing.

Then he started to retch. After a moment or two, he vomited. At least he was kind enough to go in to his kennel for this part of the fun. The LARGE piece of rawhide had apparently gotten stuck in his throat. I'd imagine it felt like it does when I eat too much bread and it isn't going down my throat. Poor little guy. After he puked, he curled up in my lap; the rest of the evening he acted like nothing had happened at all. Silly dog.

I feel slightly less alone . . .

“Happy Mother's Day”

it comes around every year;

but when you have empty arms,

it's very hard to hear.

It's a day to celebrate a mother,

for all the trials she overcame;

and a reminder to an infertile

of her loneliness and shame.

But what really makes a mother,

Is it just conception and birth?

Or is there something more,

that shows a mother's worth?

It's putting your child first,

in everything you do;

it's sacrifice and determination,

and love and patience too.

An infertile woman makes all her plans,

around a child not yet conceived;

she loves them even though they aren't here,

more than she ever could have believed.

She appreciates and understands,

what a blessing that children are;

she works hard for just a chance,

that motherhood is not that far.

All odds are stacked against her,

and yet she still has hope;

everyday is another struggle,

finding ways to help her cope.

So even though her arms are empty,

she can still be a mother too;

So say a special “Happy Mother's Day”

for those waiting for their dreams to come true!

http://forum.baby-gaga.com/about599768.html

Recent Wanderings . . .

I will apologize now, because this post is going to be very photo-laden. But, I figure my three trusty followers will want to see what I've been up to. The day after Christmas, Dad flew into Atlanta. We kept things pretty low-key, but did take a day trip to Madison, Georgia. What is so special about Madison, Georgia? Here's what wikipedia says:
It is known as "The town Sherman refused to burn", as it was spared during General Sherman's march to the sea during the Civil War. While many believe that he spared the town because it was too beautiful to burn, the actual fact is that Madison was home to pro-Union Senator Joshua Hill. Hill had ties with General Sherman's brother at West Point, so his sparing the town was more political than appreciation of its beauty. Currently, Madison has the second largest historic district in the state of Georgia (next to Macon), and tourists from all over the world come to marvel at the antebellum architecture of the homes.

That is why we went there. It's only about 30 minutes from Athens, so off we went. There were two main things we wanted to see while we were there. One, there is a driving/walking tour of the antebellum homes. They are sublime. Second, the historical society runs two home tours, one the home of a prominent doctor, the other of a woman who rose from slavery to build a small home for herself and her two children. Dad took lots of pictures too, but hasn’t downloaded and emailed them to me yet. When he does I’ll post some of his, as I’m sure he got better photos than I did. And, here are the photos:


This is the home of a doctor in Madison during the Civil War. The house was actually moved about 150 feet from its original location and turned to face a different direction. Most of the windows had name etchings on them. When women got engaged, they would scratch their name on the window with the diamond to ensure that the rock was real. HA! Southern homes always have rockers on the porch.


A chandelier in one of the bedrooms.

These are the servants' stairs. There is a small entryway at the bottom that allowed them to turn into the doctor's office, the front sitting room, or to go out the servant door to the summer kitchen. The kitchen was in a small building not attached to the main home, so the heat wouldn't build in the hot months, and in case of fire, the whole house wouldn't be lost. The servants were never allowed to use the main staircase, and this one was long and steep.

The man who owned the home was a doctor. He had completed one full year of medical school, which apparently was enough. He practiced in the town of Madison and was called out to help during the Civil War. This is a wheelchair from the time period.

This is the type of basin they would use to sanitize their hands and instruments. There would be water in each of the basins, nothing else. Not very sanitary, is it?

Two of the amputation kits the doctor used when treating Civil War soldiers. Horrifying, really.


This is a prescription in the doctor's own hand. It was a remedy for hemorrhoids.

Chair with detailed stitching.

This is a "crazy quilt" The women were always working on a project, and these were common. They used small pieces of fabric and practiced different types of stitches. This particular quilt has a different stitch between each and every type of fabric. There were also a couple of small figures stitched, one of them being a cat.

This was a learning experience for me. This is a photo of what is now called Victorian Hair Art. When a person died, they would take the hair from their hair brushes and make pieces to decorate the home with. I think it's macabre. My dad said that there was a watch chain in the Swenson family that was made out of hair of one of our ancestors. He doesn't know what happened to it.

Table setting in the dining room. The china was often purchased in plain white and they would pay someone to paint the design and glaze it.


Sewing Box

Children's shoes

A pair of women's shoes. Notice how they have straight soles. At the time, they didn't take into account the curve of the foot at the arch. They looked painful to walk in. And they were TINY.

Two examples of women's clothing. They were intricately stitched, and made of beautiful fabrics.


This is the home of a former slave. She worked hard for everything she owned, and raised a son and daughter in the home.

This is the only known existing photo of her.

This small cabinet is where the sugar was kept. It was extremely expensive, and was kept in a small cabinet with the hope that the humidity wouldn't ruin it.

A close up view of the needlework on a chair.

These corner chairs were made to accommodate the swords that the men wore. With this chair, they could sit comfortably without the sword poking their side.

The support for the thin mattress was just rope pulled taut. If you had money, you had board slats that supported the mattress. One home on the walking tour claims to have a ghost that will life these boards if she isn't invited to the social functions held at the home.

The bathtub, in the corner of the bedroom. People back then were much shorter than my hubby . . .

Children's toys


The bed in the children's room.

Portrait of Daughter and Son

Turtle shells in the children's room. They used them as toys.

This is the original wallpaper. We're talking about from the 1880s. Seriously.



Crochet work. Look how small those stitches are!!


The Christmas tree. It was fun to see the balls of cotton as decorations. They all still had the seeds attached.

Examples of Antebellum Architecture


Town Hall

The one picture I got of Dad

Duh . . duh . . . DUHHHHHNNNNNN

Culinary Deliciousness

Ok, just a quick post here, because I have to share my recent adventures.

When in California for Thanksgiving in 2009, Dad took us to a small valley outside of Sacramento that is full of apple orchards. It's called Apple Hill, or something. Anyway, there was a little shop there that had all sorts of different flavors of fruit curd. They had mango, and lime, and passion fruit and of course, lemon. We bought a small jar of lemon curd, and it traveled across the U.S. with us. I had it in mind that I would use it as a filling in a cake or something. Well, Brian and I were craving cupcakes the other day, and I had opened the jar of lemon curd and knew it needed to be used. So . . . .




Yes folks! Those are lemon curd cupcakes. The frosting is vanilla that I tinted yellow. Brian thought that lemon icing would be too much. But he informed me today that I should have used lemon icing. Why doesn't he trust me in these things???

So, they are white cupcakes, with lemon curd that I inserted using a pastry bag and a little bit of force, topped with vanilla frosting. The next batch will have lemon frosting. Now, I have contemplated making lemon curd from scratch, and have been given a tested recipe to use, but I'm scared. Curds are difficult to make because if you do it wrong, you end up with nasty scrambled eggs. So, one day when I'm feeling particularly adventurous, I'll give that a whirl. Until then, I'm grateful that Trader Joe's sells jars of lemon curd. And now to go eat a cupcake . . .

The Holidays at Our House

Christmas was quiet this year. We were able to participate in family traditions on Christmas Eve with Mom and my sibs using gchat, which was good. It wasn't the same as being there, but it made the transition a lot easier. On Christmas day, Brian's classmate Soonok joined us for lunch. Brian wanted ham and funeral potatoes, as is common at his parents house around the holidays. So, we bought a ham. That's the first time I'd ever cooked a bone-in spiral cut ham. It was hamalicious. Soonok appreciated the funeral potatoes. She is Korean and hadn't ever heard of them, so we explained the deeply symbolic Mormon tradition. HA!

Brian also became teacher on Christmas, as Soonok had requested a baking lesson. Together they made cinnamon rolls and ginger pillows. DELICIOUS!! Both recipes were from the Newt Chews cookbook, which is probably my most used cookbook. The ginger pillows didn't stand a chance and we had eaten more than half before the day was through.

I was also able to gchat opening presents with my family on Christmas morning. Again, not the same as being there, but it was still good to have that option. Honestly, what did we do before that technology was available? I know I won't ever be able to go back. Brian and I opted to get each other funny t-shirts for Christmas. We will wear them with pride as the people who read them feel slightly uncomfortable.

The other exciting thing about Christmas in Georgia was that it snowed. Now, it does snow around here occasionally, but apparently snow on Christmas Day hadn't happened since some time in the 1880s. So, yeah, everyone was talking about it. There was maybe, MAYBE, an inch of snow on the lawns. Early Sunday morning, we got a text, then a call from church leaders that they had cancelled church because of the snow. Sheesh! Talk about pansies . . .



Dad flew into Georgia the day after Christmas. Picking him up at the airport was easy-breezy; we were worried it would be hard to connect up with him. We got some great pizza on the way home, and crashed once we got here. We showed him around campus and Athens the following day. We took him to see The Tree that Owns Itself, which is weird, but fun. We went to the shopping outlet in Commerce, which is about 30 minutes away. He needed some sunglasses for his trip, and a scarf because he was complaining it was too cold here. (He was acting like a pansy, just for the record.) We spent one day exploring the city of Madison. (To be blogged about soon) and just chilled at home quite a bit. It was really nice to have Dad around for those few days. I started missing his company the moment he walked back in to the airport. But, as they say, all good things must come to an end. We're already plotting our activities when he comes to visit again.





We sat at home on New Year's Eve. Yep, we're boring. We ended up staying up past midnight, but only because we got entranced in one of the shows we watch on Netflix. And we spent New Year's day in, cause we're not crazy enough to go out on days like that when everyone else is shopping.

It's been a nice break from school for Brian, but I'm ready to get back to some sort of routine. The job hunt still continues for me, but our fingers are crossed that the right thing happens sooner rather than later.