"no stores were found"

this year for thanksgiving i wanted to make my turkey the way my mom always does. she e-mailed me the recipe which doesn't have very many ingredients, but is rather time consuming. i went to the store last night to buy hickory smoke flavoring, morton pickling salt and morton tender quick. 3 things. shouldn't be hard-right? WRONG.
we have kroger here instead of dillon's. ours is kind of ghetto but usually gets the job done. well justin asked at least one employee if they had pickling salt or tender quick who had no clue what he was talking about. (honestly, this isn't too surprising considering most of the people who work there are IDIOTS!) anyway, we looked and looked and couldn't find it. so i decided to go to whole foods. they have off the wall stuff-right? WRONG. the girl at whole foods also had no clue what i was talking about. we asked another person who had no clue either. now i'm stumped.
so last night i called my mom to ask her if she gets this stuff from some unknown specialty store. nope, it's just at dillon's and she saw it there that night! she told me to google it to see what it looks like so i can check other stores.
i found the morton website and got on their product locator. it lets you put in your zip code and the product you're looking for and tells you the stores that carry it in an x mile radius. there's got to be some store that carries it within a 50 mile radius nashville-right? WRONG. "no stores were found". not only does nashville not have morton tender quick, the entire state of tennessee is morton tender quick devoid. frustration. i'm going to have to figure out a different way to make my turkey this year.

keeping score

for those of you who don't know, my little brother aaron and i have been having a unofficial contest this year. basically we're trying to see who can go to the hospital more times for the most strange injuries. i think i'm winning for strange-ness. hello 2 inch splinter in my foot! although, adam did drop a hammer on aaron's head from about 20 feet up. hmmm. you decide.

here's the official run down.

first, i had the infamous spliter incident. score one for the home team! anna:1 aaron:0

then, while mom and dad were here for spring break, adam had to take aaron to the emergency clinic because he was really sick and having some trouble breathing. for aaron that's kind of a big deal considering he has a history of his lung randomly collapsing. another story for another day. anna:1 aaron:1

then i decided to slice my finger open helping justin. another trip to the ER and 5 more stitches for anna. anna:2 aaron:1

next, aaron had a slight work accident. adam dropped his hammer while working on the roof trusses. too bad he didn't realize aaron was standing right under him. trip to the ER and a few staples to the head for aaron. anna:2 aaron:2

my turn again. aaron might not count this, but i sure do! i got poison ivy all over my entire body! two trips to the doctor and two steroid treatments later i no longer look like a swamp monster. anna:3 aaron:2

well, aaron decided i couldn't win so he didn't get out of the way fast enough at work and a huge, really heavy, pile of wood fell on his leg. or something. anyway, mom had to take him to the ER this weekend. they checked for broken bones (nope!) and blood clots (nope!) and cleared him. anna:3 aaron:3

i say we should just call it a draw. what do you think?

The Great American Smoke Out

Well tomorrow is The Great American Smoke Out. I'm not sure if anyone who read this is a smoker, but if you are....SHAME ON YOU! But, you also have a fabulous opportunity tomorrow to quit! You will be joined by tons of other people all across America who are quitting with you! I have encouraged my friends who are smokers to quit and I think you should too. I understand that smoking is an addiction and it's not always easy, but there are resources out there to help you and I'm sure you have a support system of people who would be willing to hold you accountable. I was going to post a nasty ol picture of a smoker's lung, but I think I'll just link to this blogger who's got the right idea.

Side Note #1: Sorry I haven't posted in a while, we've been sick-o!

Side Note #2: The first time I typed blogger I accidentally typed blooger and almost left it because I think it's funny.

Love,
Your friendly neighborhood lung cancer researcher

i love fall!

sorry to bore you with all of my pictures, but i can't believe how vivid some of the fall colors are here. of course the camera can never capture how it looks in real life-at least not our little point and shoot. but here's a few that came close. the first two pictures are from the japanese maple in our front yard and the rest are from our drive out to natchez trace.

my favorite part of voting...

...the sticker

halloween

well, i went to a great halloween party! justin had to work-BOO! but it was a good time anyway. the party was actually on saturday instead of friday, so here are a few pictures. the first one is from friday night and the rest are saturday!

poor riley

our girl got beat up at the playground!