WHAT A WEEK THIS WAS!

Last Monday, September the 11th, Vaughn and I dropped by Melvin Kuhni's place to wish him a Happy Birthday. For those of you who don't know, I used to work for Melvin, helping him to take care of his wife Barbara. Barbara was bitten almost five years ago by a mosquito carrying Viral Encephalitis. Within three days of being bitten, Barbara was in a coma. Since then, 90% of her brain has been eaten away. She is unable to communicate or understand anything really. Melvin has been at her side day and night for the last five years taking care of her. He is truly an exceptional man.
Melvin isn't really smiling in this picture for some reason. Usually he has a huge smile on his face. I think it's because he was caught off-guard. Melvin is one of the most upbeat people I've ever met. It's just too bad he's not smiling. When he is smiling, he's got a devious look in his eyes. He is full of mischief. He tells me since he can't leave the house really, he's got to have his fun there. One time while I was at work, I was coming out of the bathroom, and all of a sudden I see this thing crawling towards me. It looked like an animal so I screamed. It turned out to be Melvin. He was wearing a hat-and-mask combination of a raccoon. He is a nut! He laughed so hard I thought he was going to have to use the bathroom.

As we were leaving Melvin's house, he gave me two big boxes of freshly-picked peaches. He had mentioned he had some for me, but I didn't think it would be that many! So I took them home and began bottling! Over a period of four days I bottled up 28 quarts of peaches, and 24 quarts of tomatoes. My next-door neighbor had let me pick tomatoes from her garden, and I picked around 45 pounds! So the last week has been pretty hectic, needless to say. By the way, if you count, not all the jars are there. That's because two of them didn't seal properly! I've got to say that there is nothing quite like seeing the fruits, and might I add vegetables, of your labors!

And speaking of vegetables, this is what I picked from the garden today after church. Pictured here are acorn squash, a crookneck squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash, jalapeno peppers, a tomato, Anaheim peppers, and bell peppers. To give you an idea of how big those spaghetti squash are, they are about three-fourths the length of my arm. Brian's mother keeps her squash in the fridge and cuts off pieces throughout the winter. I think we'll have to try that approach too. Too bad we don't have a second fridge! That would come in handy right about now!

This "little" guy is quite a funny story. It was late at night, and I was finishing getting ready for bed. I went in to use the bathroom, and (sorry to gross you out), but I was sitting on the toilet, and I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I thought to myself, "There's no way that could be a spider. I know it's not a spider." Then I looked and of course, it was a HUGE SPIDER!!!!! This sucker was at least the size of a 50 cent piece. IT WAS HUGE!!!! And it was less than three inches from my face. I thought for sure I would have screamed, but I didn't. I think I went into shock. Everything went into slow motion. I somehow managed to keep my composure while I finished up and stood up. I knew at any second that beastly thing was going to jump on me and suck out all the blood in my body. I felt like I was in a scene from Arachnophobia. YUCK!!!! I have found at least three of these mammoth creatures in my home over the last few weeks, because the weather is starting to turn cold. I HATE SPIDERS!!!!!

If that story is scary, just listen to this one. As I was finishing bottling up the peaches the other day, I felt something tell me to check on Vaughn. I realized I hadn't heard him in a minute or so. So I went to look and I found him in our living room behind the couch. His hands and face were covered in something black. Then I realized something smelled funny. I saw our Kerosene camping lamp on the floor next to him. He had dumped all the Kerosene out of the lamp and played in it. I took him into the bathroom and washed him off completely. I could still smell the Kerosene, and then I realized the smell was coming from his mouth! I looked inside and he had black all over his tongue. At this point I freaked out and immediately called poison control. I couldn't get through so I called 911. I told the lady not to send out anybody until I had talked to poison control. Then if I needed help I would call back. But they came anyway. Within one minute or so of hanging up, the fire-fighters and paramedics were knocking at the door. They came in and checked Vaughn over. They said he didn't look like a kid who had swallowed Kerosene. He was acting just fine. They took his vitals and he was completely normal. They did recommend that I take him down to the hospital to get him checked over and get an x-ray of his lungs just in case. But I felt things would be fine. The Poison Control guy told me that I would know within one hour if Vaughn had swallowed enough to cause damage, because Vaughn would develop a very bad cough and start acting really funny. The paramedics and I determined he had probably just licked his fingers and gotten it in his mouth that way. Vaughn turned out to be completely fine, but he did give me the scare of my life. I don't even know how he got to that lamp!!! I had put it up on a shelf that was way too high for him to reach. We think he may have climbed up on the couch to get to it. Don't ask me how he did that either!
I think I've had enough scares for the week!
(The above pictures are of first, Vaughn after his bath and second, me and Vaughn at the wedding of a good friend of ours.)

Love, Lisa