Cajun Style

I spent the afternoon and half the evening prepping frozen dinners for the UVMOM dinner exchange next week. In the middle of fettuccine, chicken and, a giant bowl of sauce, Cadence comes walking in with her fingers in her mouth and a funny expression on her face, "I don't like this candy, Mommy." Huh? What candy? "Daddy's candy, I don't like it." I tried to get her to spit it out, but it was too late. It was gone. I didn't know what candy she was talking about. Further inquiries didn't shed much light on the subject either. She kept making funny motions with her tongue, like she was trying to get rid of the taste. I was concerned that she had found some medicine, or vitamins, or something that wasn't meant for oral consumption at all. She repeated over and and over, that she didn't like Daddy's candy.

I decided to have her show me where she found the candy, hoping for a package, or a wrapper left behind. When she took me into the living room the yellow sofa appeared to be covered in ash. What in the world?! I looked on the floor to see the big can of ground pepper I had been using for my freezer dinners laying on the floor, now completely devoid of pepper. ARRRG! My tension level was already high since I had been cooking for a mass of people all day long. I have to admit that I did not keep my cool. Not at all. Not even a little. Earlier in the day the sofa had endured a box of Trix that the dog got to before I did. Now every crease and crevice was crammed with irritating black powder.

Sweeping it up off the floor wasn't too difficult. Getting it out of the couch was a little more trying. I sent the kids out. Cadi was crying because her lips were stinging. I gave her a big cup of water to alleviate the irritation. If I had a vacuum that actually sucked I would have used it, but I don't so I armed myself with a small hand broom and got as much of the pepper out of the seams, and indentations as I could. All the while coughing and sneezing through watery eyes and a runny nose. Even after I cleaned it up, anyone who entered the room immediately began hacking. I opened the windows in hopes that it would help. I imagine we'll be sneezing from here 'til Christmas. Shortly after everything was taken care of, Camden said, "Pepper makes my face hurt."