How embarrasing. I'm red in the face!

When I saw my doctor yesterday to get my TB test, I decided to have him listen to my breathing. We've been sick with a lot of coughing around here, and it's been really hard to try to get under control. He said that I have asthmatic bronchitis. He figures it's viral, but he also doesn't want it to get any worse. So I'm back on steroids and a cough suppressant. The last time I had asthmatic bronchitis and it wasn't bacterial I ended up in the hospital. No sense in repeating that!

Unfortunately, the meds are keeping me wide awake. All. Night. Long. By the time I'm done with the meds in a few days, I'll be a walking zombie. While the meds keep my mind awake, they don't give me any energy. And they make me more than a bit irritable. And they make me gain weight, which I really don't need. I've gained close to 30 pounds in the last year due to steroids. It packs on a lot more quickly than it comes off. But they're a necessary evil. I'd rather gain a little weight and still be breathing and not in the hospital.

And although I didn't get sunburned when we were out shopping for garden plants today, the medicine makes me look like I have a 3rd degree sunburn on my face. It feels like one, too. So tomorrow when I go out to plant my upside down tomatoes and my strawberries and my peppers, I'll be wearing sunscreen, a big old floppy hat, and a great big grin!

After we took Hopper and Scooter to have their TB tests read, (thankfully, they were negative!), we went garden shopping. I found some small tomato plants packed in 9 count containers for $3. They're pretty small, but they're easier to use in the upside down planters anyway. I got a few larger ones as well, so we'll have staggered harvests. And I got a few varieties of peppers we haven't tried before. All in all, we got chocolate, purple, red, orange, yellow and green bell peppers as well as some banana peppers. Decided to try some yellow tomatoes again this year, too.

Lastly, we got some strawberries as well. We couldn't find any bare root strawberries, but I did find some 4 packs of 5 to 7" tall plants for $4. The one nursery was charging $4 for a single plant, and strawberries typically take off pretty well, so I think we made a good choice. The Bugster* got the holes all filled in the crown moulding and baseboards downstairs today, so I'll have her help me outside tomorrow. We'll have to drill more holes in some of the buckets to make them into strawberry planters, but it will be nice to keep them on the umbrella and out of the squirrels' reach!

Hopper begged to get some onion sets, so we could plant some onions, so of course I obliged! She LOVES onions just like her mama. When I was little, I used to sit on the counter and talk to my older sister while she watched dishes. I would enjoy her company and eat an onion like it was an apple. Hopper is the same way and always has to have several bites of onion when I'm slicing or dicing them for cooking. Onions also help with asthma, so I'll have to make sure we baby those little sets until they're big juicy onions ready to enjoy!

I'm so looking forward to fresh veggies from the umbrella garden this year! It's hard to beat fresh veggies grown in your own backyard!

*I changed our oldest daughter's nickname to The Bugster or Bugster. If you're interested you can read why here.