Injuries: here, there & everywhere!

Thursday afternoon, I smashed my right ring finger in the back door. Now, I did not do this on purpose and I'm still trying to figure out how I crunched the ring finger and not the middle one seeing as how the middle one is longer, but whatev. It hurt regardless of which finger it was. I almost passed out because it hurt SO BAD! I had to go lay down on the floor in our master bedroom because it was cooler and I wanted the room to stop spinning. Oh yes! And I was home alone when this happened.

Once I felt the dizziness and nausea subside slightly, I downed two ibuprofens and laid on the couch with my finger wrapped in a washcloth full of ice cubes. This is when I noticed the blood had dripped on my legs and the floor. Gross. I was stinkin' mad as I cleaned it up and laid there because this little incident was throwing off my schedule for the day! I was supposed to water the garden then go to a pool party & cookout with our small group from church and I this stinkin' finger was taking my pool time away! Ohhh patience, how I need more of you!

An hour later, I got up to assess the damage and bandage it up, but we had no band-aids in the house because Zach used them all up when he cut his hand on the combine on Wednesday. I told you- injuries EVERYHWERE!

Note the bandaged left hand... it's not as bad as it looks.

He cut the side of his hand - a hard place to keep a band-aid on - so he wrapped the whole thing!

So, being the resourceful person I am, I wrapped the bloody, swollen finger in a strip of paper towel and secured it in place with a strip of Scotch tape. Hey, at least it wasn't Duct tape! Then I drove over to my in-laws where Mom O-C hooked me up with some band-aids. Then it was time to water the garden... ugh. Not fun managing a hose one-handed. I tried to keep my finger elevated to stop the bleeding but it didn't help and I looked like a crazy person walking around with my hand raised as if asking perpetual questions...

Around 3:30 the garden was watered. Zach arrived at the farm with a brand new box of cloth, heavy duty, band-aids. I've never really considered myself a squeamish person but looking at my mangled finger is a bit too much for me to bear. Zach had to change the 2 band-aids I bled through because my stomach was doing somersaults. I'm officially a sissy when it comes to caring for my own wounds. Thanks to my farmerboy for doctoring me up!

FINALLY I got to the pool party around 4pm with my swimsuit, a watermelon, and smashed, bloody finger. I soaked it in the chlorine pool to clean it out then put a fresh bandage on it before dinner. Dinner was great with huge burgers on the grill, pasta salad, watermelon, and brownies & ice cream for dessert! Yum! After dinner, the adults sat around chatting when the kids came in and got out the Just Dance 2 game for the Wii. Their kids were so cute trying to do the moves. I played through one song with one of the kids then one of the other husbands tried one with his son. I don't think either one of them were doing the moves on the screen! They just danced around and made us all laugh. I love our small group! They are so much fun to be around! Plus, the couple hosting the party gave me a strip of Press&Seal wrap to keep my finger dry. :)

This is what it looks like today. Nasty.

Side view - the bottom of my nail usually isn't up that high

And the nail polish is covering a lot of the bruising. It's even bruised on the other side of my finger! Not to mention that it's leaking pus and it smells bad. Sorry. That was too much information. Maybe I should call my sister Katie. After all, she is a nurse!

On a lighter note, our garden is coming along well. The lettuce will be ready soon, the tomatoes, cucumbers, and pumpkins are flowering. My mom and I picked some jalepenos, beans, and raspberries today. There weren't quite enough beans to can so those are going to be tonight's side dish for dinner. The raspberries are going to be put into a fruit crisp and hopefully I can turn the jalepenos into an appetizer.

Jalepenos

Also on a lighter note: wheat harvest has begun. I rode in the combine with Zach for a few rounds on Wednesday night.

Zach finishing up a round

wheat

Riding in the buddy seat

The picture from inside the combine looking down at the header cracks me up because you can see my reflection in the window: athletic wear. I pretty much live in gym shorts, t-shirts, and tennis shoes and this picture just highlights how different Zach and I are. I came from playing soccer to go ride with him in the field. :) I also got some video of him unloading the combine contents into the truck to haul back to the farm. Speaking of the farm, they just put up and brand spankin' new grain bin. But when you say "bin" you have to pronounce it more like "ben." Don't ask me why. That's just how the farmers say it. I should do another post sometime with more farmer-isms...

new grain bin

Zach kept saying, "It's so big and shiny!" I thought he was going to hug it...I asked him to stand in front of it to give a little perspective. It's the biggest grain bin they have now!

Are you getting tired of reading yet?!

This is my last story. Promise.

I added to my injuries today by giving blood at an American Red Cross Blood Drive held at our church. First time donor, right here! The process is wayyyy longer than I thought because you after you sign in you have to read 57 official educational papers, then you go in the little booth and they ask you to repeat your name and address about 34 times, plus take a 92 question long quiz asking you about everything under the sun. Then they stick you with a little poker to test your blood to make sure your hemoglobin is high enough (must be 12.5 or higher and I squeaked by with a 12.6...) which hurts like heck because they squeeze it to take the blood into some little tester deal. After you jump through all those hoops, they take you to the tables and start a-pumpin' away! Apparently my blood flowed well, seeing as how it took maybe 5 minutes and I was outta there in no time to get my snacks from the snack station.

Seeing as how I almost passed out yesterday at the sight of my bloody finger, I was slightly nervous to get poked with a needle today and watch however many pints of blood flow out of my body into a bag. But it was fine. The worst part was waiting for the nurse to disconnect me from all the tubes and take out the needle. I just wanted it out of me and to sit up. It really wasn't bad overall and I think the finger print in the pre-screening booth hurt worse!

Bonus: My mom was there next to me donating blood too. :) But the nurse told her to lay off the coffee on blood donation days because it made her blood run slower. Ha ha!

Double bonus: I'm finally going to know my blood type!

Okay. I'm off to get dinner going the we are headed to a Cook family wedding in Bay City for the weekend. Tyler flew home from Kansas for it so it will be good to have everyone home.

Love,

Sarah

Summer?

The weather has not been so summery lately, aka, lots of rain and cold weather. But I'm not going to complain because that means Zach is home earlier! They are mostly done with all the busyness of the springtime rush! He's been home at 5:30PM for the past three days and I couldn't be happier. :) Zach totally impressed me, and a bunch of other people, last night when he stepped in as the umpire for our softball game when one didn't show up. He may have gotten a little heckling from my dad and from his neighbor who has known him since he was a little kid, but all in all he did a great job!

Our garden is slowly growing. The beans, onions, tomatos, and jalepenos are doing okay. But with all the rain, a couple of the cucumber and pumpkin hills got demolished so we had to replant and build up those again. The sugar peas are NOT doing well, so Zach replanted most of them. He's actually out at the farm right now tilling and weeding. I feel a bit lazy at the moment, but I'll be out there later. Here's a picture of Zach putting cages on the tomatos and watering the garden.




Oh! And here's a picture of the growing jalpenos! I guess I might have a green thumb after all!


Amy's incision is still healing but she's had a lot of swelling in that leg. She has moved from using a cane to a crutch. Maybe she got sick of the grandma jokes! She can drive again but it's too painful on her leg so she's content to be driven around by someone else. She (and Katie) brought ice cream out to our house after work the other night to celebrate the end of her Daniel Fast and her no cancer results. Mmmm.

This morning I made some pumpkin bread, per request of my mother who also just finished the Daniel Fast. I used the recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook and it turned out great. There was so much batter that I made a whole loaf, 12 muffins, and 10 chocolate chip muffins. Here's a picture of the finished product and the link to the Better Homes & Gardens recipe: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/breads/pumpkin-bread/







Grandma & Grandpa O'Neill are up visiting this weekend so I'm off to the farm!

Love,
Sarah