Buttered Up and It's Peachy

What an eventful week! I have finished my canning for this year. I went home last Wednesday and picked apples off Grandma's tree. We don't know what kind of apples they are, but they are large, yellowish-green and delicious! (Perhaps yellow delicious?) Mom and Dad came along to help, and we picked 3 five-gallon buckets and a half-bushel sized box full of apples. I spent the next day parked on my couch in front of the TV with a peeler and three clean buckets: one for peeled apples, one for bad apples and one for peelings. If I don't have to peel one more apple until next canning season, it will be too soon. I only tossed out 3/4 of a bucket full of bad apples; the rest were peeled, cored and cut into slices. The sliced apples were placed in a large kettle, boiled with water until soft, and then blended with my hand mixer until they were the consistency of applesauce. Then I added my spices and let the mixture cook down for 6-8 hours. I placed the mixture into jars and followed the canning procedure. Over the next 3 days, I repeated this process in the large kettle three more times and the end product....viola! 63 12oz jars of apple butter! Mmmmmmm....let me tell you, it's TASTY!
This last Sunday, Mom came over with a 25 pounds of peaches from Papa's Pumpkin Patch, and she helped me to blanch, peel and can them. We made 16 pint jars and one quart jar of honey-spiced peaches and 14 pint jars of honey peaches. I haven't tried them yet, but they looked and smelled so good!

I'm sure my neighbors have been wondering about the smells coming from my apartment...first salsa, then apple butter, and then spicy sweet peaches....it's smelled so good in here!

I also worked last week to finish up my applications for graduate school. Things were going well until I had a bit of a set-back...okay, a major set-back. Earlier this summer, I was told by CASPA, the program/company we use to apply to PA schools, that processing of our information would take between two and three weeks. I did a lot of job shadowing and class work late in the summer that I wanted on my application so I waited until three weeks before my deadline to apply to turn in my applications. I talked to CASPA again, and now the processing time is 4-6 weeks...which causes me to miss my deadlines. I called the schools I am applying to, and all but one say that processing time does not matter because they consider the day you turn in your information is the day you applied....give you one guess which school doesn't go by that thought...yup Central. I shouldn't have waited so long; it sucks that the information changed, but it's still my fault. I talked to an advisor at Central and he told me not to worry, he knows me and knows how hard I have worked to be eligible for their program. He said he would do everything he could to help. I went drove the next morning to Saginaw and then turned around and drove to Ferris to pick up official transcripts and reference letters to take with my printed application to Central; they aren't the official copies, but at least the program has all of my information before the deadline and they can see how serious I am. The advisor was impressed when I brought him the information, and said he would talk to the admissions board right away. Here's hoping it all works out...

On a happier note, I finally got a job interview! I have applied EVERYWHERE, and I finally have an interview for a CNA position at the hospital on Friday. The building is just down the road from my apartment, and they apparently pay very well. Keep your fingers crossed....I would love to get this job, and my bank account would love to see some money roll in instead of roll out!