To tell this story I have to go back in time. Way back in 1996 I started getting horrific headaches. I pretty much had one continuous headache for about 6 months. Some days it was better than others, other days it was pretty bad. We later found out that my headaches were migraines, and they were most likely caused by food. As it turns out, I had a lot of food allergies, one of which was to eggs. I eliminated all the "bad" foods from my diet and the headaches went away, not to mention I lost around 15 pounds. For all this time, I have avoided anything with eggs in it. This means cakes, pies, cookies, etc. I also can't have mayonnaise, nor can I take the flu shot. The interesting thing about food allergies is that just because I am allergic to chicken eggs, that doesn't mean I can't eat another bird's eggs. Thus began my quest to find duck eggs. Finally, last Wednesday at our new Farmer's Market, there was a farmer selling duck eggs! The first thing I made was mayonnaise! It was pretty good, but it's been so long it seemed a little rich on my sandwich.
The second experiment was a scrambled egg. 
Here we have the egg. Looks pretty much like a chicken egg. You can't really tell from this picture, but the shell has a grayish tint.
Cracked and in the bowl. The white part is much thicker than a chicken egg, and supposedly has more protein in it.
Scrambled and waiting to be cooked. If you didn't know, could you tell?
The cooking process.
And finally, a turkey sausage and egg biscuit! I wound up taking the sausage off and just eating an egg biscuit.
The verdict? It was absolutely delicious! Today I will be making a pound cake.
Those of you that know me, know that my Mother In Law had a massive stroke on March 25. She's 81 years old, and while she's making progress, it is extremely slow. Her left side is useless right now, and her eyes don't track past the midline going to the left. She's in a rehab facility where she gets 3 hours of therapy a day. Donald, his sisters and I have been focused on taking care of Mrs. Bryan. He has one sister that lives in Wilmington. She goes every day during the week and takes Mr. Bryan with her. Donald and I trade weekends with his other sister, who lives here in Raleigh. To say we are all tired is an understatement.
We've been so focused on Mrs. Bryan, that we haven't really thought about how Mr. Bryan must feel. They were married in December, 1947. If you're good in math, that makes 61 years. For all this time, they've spent almost every day together. And since retirement, they hardly spend an hour apart from each other. Mr. Bryan is completely lost without her. But this isn't about making you feel sorry for Mr. Bryan. This is a love story.
Last week, Donald's sister in Wilmington called with this story. When she went to pick up her dad to take him to the facility, he had a beautiful arrangement of flowers. He doesn't drive, so when Linda asked him where they came from, he explained that he had gone out in the yard and clipped some of the flowers from her garden. Flowers have always been an important part of her life. In the arrangement, he had azaleas, irises, and blossoms from red tips. He carried it very carefully into the facility and when he got to the room, he said, "I wanted to bring the yard to you, since you can't go to the yard right now."
Isn't it wonderful that after 61 years, he still loves her with all his heart?
After graduating high school, Dottie's fiance, Jon, just couldn't seem to find where he fit. He tried three different colleges, UNCG where he lived on campus, Wake Tech, where he commuted, and Liberty where he took online courses. None of them seemed to be just right. So, he decided to join the Army, and that seems to be his niche. In the last year, he has been to basic training (boot camp) in Oklahoma. From there he went to AIT (advanced training) in Texas, where he has been for the last 6 months or so.
What you need to know about Jon is that he has equal amounts of good luck and bad luck. While he was at basic training, he fell down some stairs while wearing all of his gear, about 40 pounds worth. In that fall, he broke his coxic bone. If you've ever done that, you know it is your tailbone, and there is nothing that can be done except let time heal it. It hurts to sit down, it hurts to stand up. During AIT, he tore his MCL. We were afraid there for a while he would have to have surgery. Luckily, he went through rehab and all is well.
Last week, Jon had to take a PT test to see if he's ready to move on to his next assignment at Fort Bragg. His tailbone is still very sore, so doing sit ups is a challenge. He passed his test, was granted a leave, and was scheduled to come to Raleigh on Wednesday.
Friday night, Jon calls Dottie to chat and says, "BTW, did you get that package I sent? It should have arrived by now." So, Dottie goes to the front door to check, and there stands Jon! Talk about a surprise!
I had never pegged Jon as a romantic before, but I am beginning to change my mind.
Today is Elizabeth's 19th birthday. One of her most favorite things in the whole world is oysters. To celebrate her birthday, Donald went to Wilmington and got a bushel. Last night, we had an oyster roast! The weather was perfect, and the oysters were good.
Round 1
Everybody digging in
When I got up this morning, our entire world was covered in white.
This translated into another snow day for me. 
Which gave me time to work on a project I've been wanting to try for a while. The weekends usually go so fast, that I don't like to spend time trying something new. So, with an extra day, I decided today was the day to try homemade pizza! I made the dough, and even made my own sauce. Want to see?
Pizza number one. Our regular order, half pepperoni, half cheese. The cheese side is mine.
And pizza number two, half pepperoni, half spinach and onions. I get the spinach and onions. They were actually pretty good. Of course I'll change some things next time, but all in all it was a good experiment.
If you've been following along, you know that I've committed myself to taking photos every day for an entire year. As it turns out, this has been a really cool way to document our lives. Going through the archives, I remember where we were, what we were doing and even how we felt at that moment.
I've been posting my pictures daily on another blog, as well as a group on flickr. So far, it's been 53 days, and some days it's a struggle to come up with ideas of things to photograph. On those days, I wind up taking pictures of my feet. Other days it seems like I have too many choices, and it's hard to decide which picture gets to be the photo of the day. Donald typically helps me make the final decision. Just for fun, I thought you might enjoy seeing a few pictures that didn't make the cut.
This was taken at my in-laws house. They've encased the back porch in plastic and have created almost a greenhouse out there. When I first stepped out there, it just about took my breath away. I loved this one single flower at the end of a long stem.
The courtyard at one of my schools. Something about the red against all the brown and yellow caught my eye.
This is an old tree stump in our backyard. I don't know why it is so appealing to me.
We have four camillia bushes at our house in Concord. They were in full bloom when we were there! I thought this one was unique with the white flower with a pink stripe. 
I'm not the only one with photo-fever.
Donald and I left Raleigh at 6:45 and made it to Linda and Keith's house by 9. We were on the water before 10. 
As soon as we got to the island, we set up camp. 
Donald and Linda don't get much time together anymore, so it was nice to catch just the two of them. I wonder how many times they've gazed at the water just like this? 
Donald and Keith were friends long before Keith and Linda ever started dating. As a matter of fact, I think Donald is the one that introduced them.
From where we were sitting, you could see the north end of Wrightsville Beach. That's Shell Island Resort in the background.
The egrets were out feeding.
All good things must come to an end, and in this case, it was the tide coming in that brought an end to our perfect morning. You can see how the water is filling in the marsh that was behind us. It wouldn't be long before we'd lose the little island we were sitting on.
