suicide is not painless~

Exhausted... physically and mentally. That's what I was last night ... and even today yet ... after the end of the fisheree yesterday ... but it was all worth it!

What a day! We had such a good turn out, considering our bitter cold weather.  We raised a good deal of money to go towards our goal of  the suicide awareness program for our schools.   Thank you thank you thank you!!!! to everyone who showed up and gave their support.  Without the support of others that we receive each year; this event wouldn't be possible.  So once again, THANK YOU!!

Plus... I really have to toss in an extra thank you to all the people who bid on my pies.  WOW!! On just my nine pies and 5 other ones that were donated we made over $1000.00!! WOW!!! That was an average of over $70 a piece.  So once again, THANK YOU!!!

Plus all the other raffle tickets and auctions that were bid on or purchased ~ thank you!
The support given us by the surrounding communities ~ thank you!
~~~
I didn't have my camera with me yesterday... can you believe it. I forgot it at home; but I will have some pictures of the event to post in a few days.  Our photographers Leslie and Terry H. I'm sure will have a disc to share soon... even aerial photos ... that was Les and Jane in that plane that was buzzing the flowage.   As soon as I get them I'll be adding some photos to the jpdwarrior.com website.

I hope they got some photos of my grandloves and my nieces ... sliding on the ice and playing in the snow.  Those little kids were having so much fun!  It was like watching my nephew years ago doing the same thing with his friends.

That's why this fisheree is so important to me.

My nephew (click to see photo) committed suicide.

One day he was just a little boy, like so many other little boys ... playing games with his friends.  Going out fishing with his buddies.  He grew to be a wonderful, loving, fun, handsome young man ... who we all thought had everything going for him.

But we were wrong.

Inside our Justin's mind was a pain.   A pain that he couldn't talk about.  A pain that he thought he had to carry by himself. 

Do you remember the theme song from the movie MASH?  Suicide is Painless ... well let me tell you something... it's not painless.  That song is wrong.  It's a horrible pain!!  A pain you do not have to endure alone ... there is help!

All you have to do is ask.  It's okay.

Your life; no matter how miserable you might feel it is ... is worth it!

You do not have to be ashamed of the feelings you might have.  Thoughts of suicide is a sickness.  It's a form of depression ... and depression can be helped.

PLEASE ... if you need help  ~ talk to someone about it.  Don't keep those kind of feelings to yourself.  

Call:
National Suicide Crisis Hotline at 1-800-784-2433 
or LifeLine at 1-800-273-8255
or tell a friend
or clergy or pastor
or a teacher
or co-worker
PLEASE ... talk to someone.
~~~
It's been six years since my nephew died and it still feels like yesterday.  I don't ever want you to feel the pain that our family has endured.  If you have a loved one that you are concerned about ... talk to them.  Let them know that this is a burden that they do not have to carry alone.  Help them get the help that they need. 

Help Promote Positive Life Choices! 

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

pies pies and more pies~

I spent the better part of the day in my hot kitchen baking for JPD Warrior Project fisheree.

I made 2 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecakes:

A Strawberry Rhubarb Custard: (from my home grown rhubarb)

A Chocolate Walnut Pie:

A Tin Roof Sundae Pie aka. Sin in A Tin

A Blueberry Pie: (from berries I picked this summer)

A Coconut Caramel Drizzle Pie:

A Raspberry Lattice Top Pie: (more berries I picked this summer)

A Peanut Butter Pie with Dark Chocolate Shavings:

It sure was a challenge getting all these pies together today without licking the spoon!  But I must say... it was very small tastes that I took ... just lots of them! lol ... it's hard to be on a diet and then have to go and bake pies all day long. 

At least my house is still warm ( and it smells scrumptious!!) ~ actually too warm ... my furnace part never showed up today, so we were unable to get that fixed.  I'm not too happy about that.  Especially when I went and paid all that extra shipping to have it here today.  bummer
Now... I don't know when we'll get this taken care of; because the next two days we'll be so busy with the fisheree business.  Always something!

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

it's cold~

image from the internet

Remember Chilly Willy?  I loved him.  He was one of my favorite cartoon characters. 

It's cold here in northern Wisconsin today ... tonight we're already at -15°F and that's without the windchill factor added on.  So it really feels like -30° F.  Not the best weather for our fisheree; but what are you going to do.  We have no control over the weather.  It'll be a good weekend no matter what.  We're prepared for it.  We'll have 3 huge heated tents set up for warming up in.  Plus all the raffle tables and food tables and the auction area is all in the tents too.  We're expecting around 1,000 people to turn out for the event ... I hope the weather doesn't deter them too much.  We're a tough breed of people up here in the north!  

What it's not good weather for though is furnace problems.  Unfortunately, that's what we have going on right now.  The main circuit board on our gas furnace needs to be replaced.  We heat our house with wood all winter long and the gas furnace is our back up; but we use the blower on the gas furnace to force the hot air through our duct work in the house.  

We did luck out though on the problem ... being the blower on the furnace won't kick off when the thermostat reaches the temperature that we have the furnace temperature set at.  Not turning off is a lot better than not turning on ~ this way we at least have heat.  

So... we have the furnace set at 70 degrees; but the blower keeps going and the house keeps warming up as long as we have the outside wood boiler going.  So instead of the house maintaining it's temperature it just keeps raising.  This afternoon it was 87 degrees in the house ... and I had 2 windows open!  Not exactly what you want to be doing when it's -30 below.

 I ordered a new circuit board online this afternoon.  It's coming from California ~ next day express to the tune of $300.00 ... boy ... I hope it gets here tomorrow and that it works!!!  I'm bummed that we have to have this kind of expense to deal with; but what can you do.  You have to have heat.  In the meantime... 

Tomorrow is my pie baking day for the fisheree.  That means my oven will be going all morning ... so the temperature will be going up a few more notches in the house.  I'll have to crack open more windows. lol  Hopefully, the new circuit board will get here and the repair guy will be able to come back and put it in before I have to head to the flowage for setting up for the fisheree Saturday. 

Never a dull moment.

~~~

It's a full moon tonight.

I just went outside and took a night time picture of the moon and the smoke coming out of the smoke stack of our wood shed.  It's kinda eerie looking ~

Until next time...

So it goes in my neck of the woods. 

~mel