HAPPY EASTER

Very Happy Easter to you all. This has been a stress-filled week.

First, I got good news. I'm a semi-finalist in the Taste of Home Branson Great American Pie Show Contest, April 24-25. Twelve of us will be competing for the grand prize of $2,500. A panel of 10 judges (including Al Roker of the Today Show) will pick the winning pie. My recipe is "Marshmallow Cream-Almond-Topped Key Lime Pie." As can be expected, there's been a lot of activity generated from this -- emails, phone calls, and the like back and forth with the Branson Chamber of Commerce and Taste of Home. That would be enough, but....

My computer started acting up. I won't go into the morbid details. We bought an external hard drive, backed up all our files and reformatted. The reformatting was more complicated than expected because we were missing some important files. Our younger son helped us but at a certain point he remotely controlled our computer and he inadvertently formatted our external drive in addition to the computer hard drive. We lost everything, and I mean everything. Besides being tied up all week with this project, we became totally frustrated, and Guy went out yesterday to Staples and bought a new computer......

The new operating system is Vista, so we have some learning to do....

Of course, this all happens when there is no time for it. I was heavily involved in some contests and trying to send recipes in. But without Word, I can't send recipes in very easily. So I'm at a standstill with only a few days left.... and if that isn't enough......

Guy is recovering from a 3-hour wrist fusion surgery on March 11 that was supposed to be 1-1/2 hours. He's usually very fast to recover, but he has had a really tough time, with a lot of pain, swelling, discomfort, and not to mention, the loss of use of his right hand/arm. So I'm doing double duty around the house, in addition to going down to Wilmington (1-3/4 hours) a lot for his doctor visits. He's still got several weeks to go before he'll be able to use his hand/arm....

And, I'm supposed to be practicing my recipe, because I have exactly 2 hours to make it when I get to Branson. But I haven't had time. ...

Luckily, my posts were done through May 2, because I knew I'd be busy during March/April. But I have a stack of new posts to put into blogger with no photos because we lost them....

The really bad news is that Guy will not be going with me to Branson. He wanted to drive, I wanted to fly, and we couldn't seem to come to an agreement. Before I retired, I traveled quite a bit with my job -- that is until I got hit really bad with Meniere's disease. It will be interesting to see how I fare alone with several health challenges facing me. I'm a polio survivor with weakened muscles and nerves that have been impacted by a car accident injury; I have myriad food and other allergies, chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia and Meniere's disease and I'm pre-diabetic. These are the exact reasons I've avoided any contests where you have to bake on-site. Don't ask me why I entered this contest. And really don't ask me how I intend to pull it off....

But today is Easter, a day of rebirth, new beginnings and hope. So I am hoping for the possibility of something glorious awaiting me in Branson. A chance to be redeemed from some of the despair I've been living with for the past 5 years -- the despair of not wanting to leave the house because I might have a Meniere's attack and be flat on my face with vertigo and nausea, and the despair of not being able to sleep because the room is too hot or too cold or too noisy or I ate the wrong thing. Today is Easter, and I am hopeful for something new and wonderful. I am not giving up. I am going to Branson.