Playing Catch Up

I think I am actually beginning to recover from all the stress and busyness of the holidays. Behind me are Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, Christmas day, a birthday celebration, New Year's, and a New Jersey wedding. Ahead of me... well, maybe I'll just not think too much about it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the trip down to South Jersey and back with my daughter. I loved seeing our friends and totally loved the wedding too. I also found out that South Jersey is a rather nice place with lots of old farms and open space. Maybe some day I will go back again, when things aren't quite so rushed, and take a look around. I'm sure there is a ton of history and a bunch of great places to see. I wish we had more time to roam about taking pictures, but we had a long drive ahead of us and didn't want to worry our men. We did take an hour or so to stop in Binghamton, NY and say hello to Bethany's friends, Stephanie and Stephen, and then grab a quick bite to eat before continuing home. We were blessed with good weather along the way.

James came to pick me up at Beth's house and on the way home said he had "potentially bad news". Seems the boys had let Jasmine out of the house around 9:30 am and she hadn't returned. They went out looking around the yard and called for her but she was nowhere to be found. Gunshots from hunters or target practice pretty much keep us out of the apple trees at this time of year. Somewhere around 9:30 pm James and I went out to look in the orchard. It was dark, rainy and the snow was melting fast making it hard to tell which tracks were which or how old they were. We came back disappointed and somewhat worried. My biggest fear was that she was injured and unable to get home. How does a three-legged dog get about if she hurts a leg? We wondered if she had been shot or hit by a car but had no way to know. Of course I was already tired from our trip and spent a restless night thinking about our dog. We went to church Sunday morning still unsure of her whereabouts but were relieved to find her home when we returned a few hours later. She was dry, trembly, and smelled of cigarette smoke but refused to tell us where she had been.