Grandma's Big Day

I wanted to take my grandkids to Hee Haw Farms for the day. I wish they all lived close so they could have all gone, but we had fun with those that live close by. So Saturday I invited Amanda to come along, because I knew I could not handle 5 kids with 3 of them under age 2, and away we went for a wonderful afternoon. It brings such joy to my heart to watch the cousins "love" each other and act like they haven't seen each other in years even if it has been just a few days. And boy do they get silly. Who would have thought that a 9, 6 and 2 year old could love each other so much and have such fun together. Here are a ton of pictures of our GRAND day. Even I got brave and let someone take my picture getting in on some of the action. I did find out one thing though - I don't like fast moving rides (or in this case slides) much anymore. If you look close at the picture of me on the slide that is definitely a terrified look on my face. My thrill seeking days are over. I am now officially one of the "Old" people who may just have to stand around and watch. I went got a little camera happy and took a measly 250 pictures in the 3 hours we were there.

Hayrides are so fun - except for Lydia who wasn't too sure. An added treat was the candy that was thrown into the wagon as we rode along.

The gang and Amanda's cool 3 passenger jogger. It was very useful.

The pedal cars - Fun for all ages!

The Animal Train - Porter's favorite ride. He missed the train once and chased it down the road just sobbing.

Cousins

Petting Zoo - Lydia must have thought the calves fur was soft 'cause she kept running her hands throught it.

Good kids to pose for one more picture for grandma

What a cutie!

Just hanging around on the very Slow swing.



A terrified Grandma?!? What a wimp!

Porter and mommy love the slide. Lydia is more terrified than grandma!

Who can resist the mug shots.

This slide is more to Lydia's liking.



While the rest of the kids had a blast all day, Lydia was only happy when she was eating or throwing something.

I love warm fall afternoons

Amanda and her kids came up to the house today because Porter wanted to watch "Einsteins". It is the main reason he comes to grandma's house. He will sit absolutely still for hours watching. Lydia always goes and gets the remotes when the music signals the show is almost over. She want's me to turn on a new one. She likes them as well, but doesn't sit still like her brother. She is all over the place, keeping busy, never looking at the TV until the music signals the end, then she runs to the remotes. I had a few errands to run while they were watching TV and when I came back they were outside. Amanda was mowing my lawn and the kids were raiding the freezer looking for Popsicles. Once they got the Popsicles they went out to the swing set. It was the perfect fall afternoon for the kids to be outside and such a nice thing for Amanda to do for me.

Isn't that laugh so cute!


Always a serious face.


Such a thoughtful daughter.

Later we went to Savers looking for Halloween costumes. It was discouraging to say the least. The store was crowded, tons of people and stuff. I haven't been there in years and the store is looking really trashy. Just a yucky feel to it all. Halloween is my least favorite holiday. I am not against wearing costumes, I just don't like trying to think of one. I am not creative in that area at all.

After Savers I met up with Alisha and we went to the Pebble's warehouse sale. Now that is much more fun. Of course we spent way too much money, but we had a good time together, and got lot's of cool stuff. Scrapbooking is so much more fun than Halloween, and spending time with my daughters is always fun.

TAGGED!!!

I just knew sooner or later that I would be it. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading what others have written about themselves when they were tagged. Now, thanks to my sweet niece, it is my turn. I consider myself a rather boring person, but I will try to come up with 7 original things about myself.


1. I LOVE to read. If I am idle, I read whatever I can find nearby: cereal boxes, magazines, calendars, flyers, whatever is close by. For years now I have been "reading" by listening to books on tapes or CD's. I find I prefer this type of "reading" for 2 main reasons. #1-I have too many things I want to be doing and sitting down to read a book limits the time I have to do all those other things. #2- I can read doing the most mundane projects like ironing, getting myself 'made up' in the morning (you know - makeup, curling hair, brushing teeth, that kind of stuff), household chores, cooking dinner, weeding, folding laundry, and the list goes on and on. Last year I got with the technology groove and got an IPod. Now I can even listen while I am driving. If you ever see me driving down the road with mascara running down my face, it is probably because I am listening to a really good book that is making me bawl my eyes out (and it doesn't take much to do that).

2. I am obsessive about being organized. I really don't function well when things are out of place and there is clutter around. It drives me NUTS! It gives me such a "high" when I can organize. Dennis does not understand this at all, and it drives him nuts to come home and find that I have organized things again and now he can't find anything.

3. I am accessory challenged. When Malinda was home I would always ask her what I should wear. Her and Alisha (my daughters) are so good at wearing just the right accessory and always looking so good. I don't know where they got it from, but it certainly wasn't from me. I try on several different pieces and think they look all wrong, so end up wearing nothing.

4. I really dislike cooking. I would rather mow lawns or scrub toilets (only my own). When Amanda was still living at home, she would often ask me to proof read or type something for her. She would say, "I'll cook dinner for you if you do this." She knew me all too well. I always thought I was getting the better end of the deal. I would love to hire a cook (or have limitless money to eat out every day). Did I get that point across well enough - I DON'T LIKE COOKING AT ALL!

5. I have a GREAT fear of talking to people (either one on one, or in groups) or getting up in front as a teacher, leader, demonstrator, etc). I really admire people who always have just the right thing to say. I always seem to stumble over my words, and most of the time, the words don't even come to my mind, so I end up saying the stupidest things. I have so many ideas and thoughts and knowledge in my head, but getting that stuff out of there in any coherent form is nearly impossible for me. So I prefer to be a hermit and limit the embarrassing moments.

6. I get so annoyed by all the texting the kids do now-a-days. They are sitting right next to their friends and rather than carrying on a normal conversation, they text each other. I believe texting has a time and a place, but to do it at the exclusion of others really bothers me.

7. I love the light. My curtains all have to be wide open. (How can people stand to have them closed all day? Too Depressing). I prefer to be outside doing things, work included. I love the beauty, the smell, the sounds that are in the outdoors. I love nature. I wish I could live in a house that had no roof or outside walls, but the rain and pests could not get in. Crazy huh! That's me, just a little crazy.

Now I tag the following: Ok, I am totally blog illiterate and can't figure out how to get the rules to my blog from Kim's, so please go to
http://almastone.blogspot.com/2008/10/taggetty-tag-tag-youre-it.html
to get the rules.
Amanda
Alisha
Malinda
Kellie Knowles
Shantell Blanco
Amanda Blanco
Lisa Blanco

Scrapbooking

I used to love to scrapbook, and make hand made cards and do rubber stamping, but somehow I got away from it, and now it doesn't have the same appeal to me. Once a month I get with my mom, sisters and daughters (when they can come) and I really enjoy getting together with them and scrapbooking. It is about the only time I get anything done. I also belong to a scrapbook group and a few months ago we started meeting one Tuesday a month to exchange our pages and get together and scrapbook. Tonight was our exchange for this month. Here is a picture of part of us as we get ready to exchange. It is sort of like Christmas to see all the fun pages other people have made.

Apples, Apples and MORE Apples

Today was the day I dread all year. It is applesauce making day. Of all the fruit there is to can, I dread it the most. Probably because it takes the most work and the most time. 13 hours worth this time!

The one thing that makes it better is to do it with someone else. Amanda and I have been canning applesauce together for a few years and it makes a tremendous difference. The very first thing to do when making applesauce is to put something in the crock pot for dinner, because that is the last thing I want to think about in the evening when everyone is hungry. Today I made Bean and Wheat chili and put it in the crock pot to simmer all day.

We started this morning at 8:30. Amanda already had 3 bushels of apples all washed and ready t0 cut when I got there. That saved us at least an hour. The past few years we have canned in the kitchen in our basement, but Amanda has a nice, new, big kitchen and it worked out fabulous. She had the wonderfully brilliant idea to use the Camp Chef propane stove. That saved us hours of time as well. We used it to water bath the jars of applesauce and used the stove in the house to cook the apples so they would go through the machine. We did approximately 7 bushel of apples (Jonathan, Red Delicious, Elliott Gold, and some off my tree that I still don't know what kind they are). We ended up with 51 quarts and 97 pints of sauce, and 36 quarts and 3 two quart bottles of apple juice. That's 187 bottles. My feet, legs and back can tell you that that was a ton of work. I left Amanda's house at 9:30.

I am grateful:
1- For my dad and all his hard work on his garden and fruit trees that he shares so willingly and so selflessly with us.
2- For Amanda and her great ideas. The Camp Chef was so wonderful. We had all the bottles water bathed before we finished with the clean up because of this great idea. That has NEVER happened before. Usually we are up till midnight or so finishing up the water bathing.
3-For Amanda's kids being so good and hardly bothering us so we could get this all done. Even the baby was great. She only fussed when she was hungry.
4- To my mother for teaching me how to can.
5- THAT IT IS ALL DONE!!!! :) I would do the happy dance, but I am WAY too tired!!!
6- That I get to sleep in tomorrow.

One cute granddaughter

I just had to share these precious pictures of our adorable granddaughter who sadly happens to live in Texas and we don't get to see much of. Thanks to Dennis' cousin who invited them to dinner and took these great pictures.


What child doesn't like the remote (or cell phone)?That looks like a yummy bear treat you're cooking up there.

Somedays I am a blonde

Today was going so well. I got off work early again (the building industry has really slowed down and so has the contractor I work for) so I thought I would start another 2 batches of grape juice. I'm into them about 20 minutes when the alarm goes off on my phone, when I check to see what appointment I forgot, it is the chiropractor, so off go the pans and I run to my appointment. Still not a bad day, just a forgetful memory. Then I come back home and turn the grape juice on again and decide that I will download some cd's into my computer and read some more from Midnight Sun while I am waiting for the grapes to steam. In case you are not familiar with Midnight Sun it is from Stephanie Meyers who wrote the Twilight series. This is a story from Edwards perspective. She has posted part of a rough draft on her web site. This is where my day turns bad. I get caught up in the story and keep thinking that I will go check on the grape juice in a few minutes, well this goes on for over an hour and a half. Then all of a sudden I smell a burning smell. I know immediately what it is. The water boiled out of the steamer. When I went to check it, it was worse than I thought. The water not only boiled out, but the grape juice overflowed it's pot and spilled into the water part and that also boiled out. The house smelled awful. Thank goodness there was no smoke. But I had to open up the windows and turn on the ceiling fans to move the smell out. I really hate it when I have these blonde moments. I think I have ruined the water part of my steamer. I will have to go buy a new one. I still bottled the grape juice. It was too hot to taste. I guess we'll find out when we open it if it tastes burnt. Thank goodness no one was home to laugh at me.

Snow! in Utah in October?

I should not have been surprised to wake up to snow this morning as we have been warned for a week by the weather men that it was coming, but it was still a shock to actually see the ground covered in white. I had to take a picture of it to show those out of stater's. Thanks goodness most of it had melted by this evening. I hope we are done with that now for at least 2 months. I would love to see a nice warm fall into the first part of December. I am just not ready to let it go this year.

Canning & grandkids

I finally got my tomatoes picked and bottled today. That was a relief as it is really cold tonight and I believe it will freeze. That then will be the end of the tomatoes. I also got two batches of grape juice done. It got to be quite stressful as at one point as the steamer juicer of Amanda's I was borrowing (so I could have 2 going at one time) had a problem with the hose and clamp and before I knew it I had a big puddle of hot sticky grape juice all over my floor and splashed all over the bottom of the stove. What a mess!!! I got it all cleaned up but had to keep a jar underneath the hose to catch the constant drip until the first batch was finished and I could swap pans. Part of this time I was watching Amanda and Steve's kids so they could celebrate their anniversary. I am grateful that Alisha was here to help with the baby so I could finish the canning and clean up. Thanks goodness the kids love playing with each other and had lots of fun being together.

Grandma's little helper. Porter saw me go out to the porch and get a box of grapes, so he wanted to help and went out and got the other box. I thought this was a Kodak moment and by the time I got the camera he had it this far. But he was faster at moving the box than I was getting the camera and putting in fresh batteries.It was a struggle for him to get it over the lip of the tile at the door. He even shut the back door on his way in. What a kid!The finished product of todays labor. 14 pints stewed tomatoes, and 13 quarts grape juice.
Porter and Tyler playing with the Troll's, while I cleaned the kitchen. It was so cute to watch Porter comb the trolls hair and then bam, bam, bam, slam the troll against the floor. He did this over and over. You can't tell from the first picture, it looks like he is holding the troll with the pink hair, but he is actually holding the doll brush and the pink haired troll is laying on the floor.

All is safely gathered in

Mission Accomplished. I got all the grapes, apples and squash picked. I Decided to pick the melons that weren't ripe yet as well since it is suppose to freeze this weekend. It was a lot of work! But it isn't finished yet - Canning:( I still need to pick the tomatoes, but they will need to be canned the day I pick or at the latest the day after as they are going soft after 2 days. So I think I will do that Saturday before the big freeze.

There were a lot of grapes this year!We also had a bumper crop of apples this year as well.It still amazes me that I can get so much squash out of one garden bed. Although the vines did take over the kids play area.The kids just love to eat the apples. Every few days I have gone out and picked up those that fell on the ground and had them in boxes in the garage. Every time Porter and Lydia come they get an apple, or 2 or 3 or 10 and take a few bites, then grab another. I don't mind as long as I know they are eating something healthy and not always junk food. I tried to get a picture of Porter eating his apple, but the camera was too slow. Lydia refused to let me take a picture of her eating her apple. Today she surprised me and ate just one apple all gone instead of 2 bites out of 5 different ones.