*Darn* Roast

So apparently "health" has not been one of the blessings we've experienced thus far in 2010. First we all got hit with pink eye, which was not the funnest of experiences. I was in glasses for 2 weeks. If you know me you know I am not too fond of my glasses. I think people in glasses are really cute, but my prescription is so strong (i.e. I am so blind) that it makes my eyes look smaller through the lenses, and I don't like that. So anyways, yesterday was the first time this year I'd worn my contacts. It was nice to be back in them. I put them on again this morning and went out jogging. I got home and before showering or getting ready for the day I decided to get our crock pot dinner going...since it would take a good 8-10 hours to cook. I had a chuck roast that I needed to sear before putting in the crock pot. I'd never done it personally, but I'd watched my mom do it numerous times since we've been here. I got out her big pila (a big cast iron cooking pot) and put oil in the bottom. I floured and seasoned the roast and then placed it in the smoking oil. I seared the one side and then made my mistake. I had a big two-pronged fork that I used to stab the roast and then attempted to flip it.

Now for those of you who don't know...like me this morning...that was a huge mistake. As soon as I told my mom that I did that her eyes bugged out of her head and she said,

"Oh no, you never turn a searing roast unless you have an extremely good hold on it."

I know that now. So when I attempted to flip the roast it slipped off my fork thing and splashed down in the boiling oil and splashed it in my face. I was terrified...and it hurt. Luckily Mr. N was home so I called him quickly and ran to the bathroom to try and wash my face. It hit me right in the eye and on my lips. I got my face washed off, but it was burning sooo bad. Mr. N took over searing the roast for me while I made a couple ice packs and told him what to do for the first part of a recipe. Funny how I was possibly very seriously burned and I was more worried about making sure dinner didn't get ruined.... Anyways, once that was safely cooking I tried to take more stock of my injuries. The right side of my face was all red and puffy from above the eye lid to about the middle of the cheek. Think of Scar on Lion King. It seemed that my eye lid was burned so I had gotten my eyes closed in time. My lips seemed to take the worst burn. Luckily though the oil all hit directly on my lips so the skin around my lips was red or burned at all. My lips, though, were very red and puffy. I put ice on the two different areas and laid down in bed for a couple hours while my dear husband watched the girls and periodically came in to check me. The worst part was after about 2 1/2 hrs after the incident. When I kept ice on the spots it felt okay, but as soon as I took the ice off the burning started and it was extremely painful. Not quite as bad as labor pains, but painful enough to make me cry. I knew I couldn't go around with ice on my face for the rest of my life though. Past experience with burns taught me that after removing ice/cold water the burn will really burn a lot, but then the heat seems to leave it and it feels better. I decided that I would remove the ice first from my eye area and let the heat leave it, and then afterwards do my lips. It was bad. The lips were the worst. But after about 5 minutes for each area the burning left and it felt much better.

Mr. N looked at me to assess the damage again. My lips are blistered, but not terribly. They feel really weird because I feel the liquid in them from the blisters. My eye isn't blistered as bad. Again, I look like Scar from Lion King. We don't think it will scar, which is good. But if it does, it won't be that bad. As the days gone by the burn has looked better and better. It's still, by far, the worst burn I've ever had, but it could have been worse. It could have gotten my eye ball, which would have been very bad. I'm also glad the searing oil didn't burn off my eye lashes. That would have stunk.

So anyways. Now I'm back in my glasses. I can't seem to get out of the blasted things!

On that cheerful note, here are some cute pictures of our little girls!