week-end fun vs. dead animals?

What a week-end! Mom, Patti, Colbie, and Britton got here Friday afternoon....and then Charles, Mitzi, Sean, and Hershel arrived for dinner. I was a bit adventurous with dinner - which means I was a little nervous about how it would be received. But when Sean (sophomore in high school) went back for seconds and maybe thirds, I knew it was okay! We had make-your-own-grain-salads. I cooked some quinoa and bulgar, then had bowls of veggies (black beans, kidney beans, corn, red bell pepper, cucumber, green onions, almonds, carrots, etc.) and dressing. Everyone made their own. Mom brought some herb bread that was delish! With blackberry cobbler and ice cream for dessert...it was all good. Then the fun began.....Mom brought out her dulcimer and Hershel brought his guitar. We heard great music and stories. Hershel is so good - of course, he did have a record with his garage band!

Saturday morning, we got a tour of Harding from Morris Sewell (to help encourage Colbie & Britton to come to Harding!), then went to the BBQ Wars for lunch. We went to Midnight Oil (Mom needed a pick-me-up before shopping) and JCPenney before we ran out of steam. So we went back to the house for a quick nap, then hit Colony Shop & Kroger. Colbie & Britton helped me fix a quick dinner of spaghetti with smoky marinara, garlic bread, and a great salad with lots of veggies and a homemade vinaigrette. The girls were awesome! We ate quickly, then headed to the Acapella concert. It was pretty good - I especially enjoyed hearing the songs I knew from the Sweet Fellowship and Rescue tapes (I think those are the ones) - the ones I remember from high school anyway! Since it wasn't even 9:00 p.m. when we got out, we went by the Underground and treated ourselves to Italian Cream Sodas. Yummy! We made it to class (Mom, Patti, and I visited the Barnabas class) and worship at College before heading to Doc's for lunch. Everyone left pretty soon after that, so I got a nice nap in!

I don't think I want any chicken for a while. I had a meeting out at the fairgrounds yesterday and I noticed that one of the refrigerators was unplugged. I looked in the frig but it just had BBQ and drinks in it. No problem. Not so lucky with the freezer.....it had had frozen chicken....raw frozen chicken that had defrosted and was getting really....yucky and smelly! I had noticed an odor and now I knew what it was. So since I had another meeting out there today, I decided that someone had to clean the awful mess up. I got there early and let me tell you....it was so disgusting!!!!!! I gagged, sprayed air freshener, got out the cleaner with bleach, and it still smelled (I cleaned it all up, and took the trash out to the dumpster). So I found some cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and nutmeg and put them in some water on the stove. That did help! So did drinking coffee.....I kept smelling and drinking, smelling and drinking more than I needed. I had to go back to the office for ice, and I had been getting a headache. So I went home and took my migraine medicine and hoped that would help. But...it really didn't for a long time. It probably didn't help that when I got back to the fairgrounds, I made some little pizzas for my lunch contribution. Luckily, the dead chicken smell had mostly gone away. But in it's place was the dead mouse smell radiating from the oven when I turned it on. NOT a good thing. By then, I was really feeling awful - I didn't want to eat, I didn't even want to think about eating, my head was killing me, and I really thought I was going to throw up. I managed to eat a little bit - I was afraid I'd feel worse if I didn't eat something. But I had to leave early - I was just sick. I went home and napped on the couch for about 2 hours - I was feeling better - Not great, but enough to go back to work. Anyway, my head is finally starting to feel better.....even though my hands still smell like dead chicken (and I washed them repeatedly, and doused them in lemon juice).