I wonder if anyone is tired of all the fall posts that are out there. I for one love them. There is nothing as cool as the vivid beautiful color of the fall leaves and knowing that others love them as much as I do.
Saturday we had the wonderful opportunity of going 4 wheeling up Spanish Fork Canyon in our favorite place. I was amazed how different the area looked compared to our trip there in early summer. Then the area was full of tall fields of purple flowers, with other spring flowers scattered around. Now the flowers are all gone, and the ground is covered with fallen leaves. The trees were ablaze with yellows, oranges and reds. It was a beautiful day for a ride. We had to cut the day short to get home in time for Womans Conference (which was great) but our buttocks were thankful, as 6 hours of riding can be rough on them. Thanks Jordan's for sharing this great day with us. We even got to see some wildlife. Taking a break and looking at the breathtaking beauty around us
We love it when the grand kids come to our house. It brightens up things. Today Amanda and the kids came to watch daddy and grandpa play in the cement. They thought Porter would love the big cement truck, but he was so afraid of it. He just sat on the grass and watched from a good distance. Lydia on the other hand was not afraid at all and before long decided she wanted to be part of the fun as well and jumped in the concrete with her dad. That was the end of that and the shoes had to come off and she had to come in the house. Porter was more than happy to come in as well. His favorite thing to do when he comes to grandma's house is watch "Insigns" (Little Ensteins). He watches them over and over and over and over....well you get the point. It is usually the first thing he asks for when he comes through the door. Here they are doing the actions with Little Einsteins while the big cement truck is right outside.
Today Dennis and Steve (our son in law) finally poured the RV pad that Dennis has been working on so hard. They also poured one at our neighbors the Brooks. Two pads in one day, now that is a lot of work. It was fun to watch except for the time Dennis tripped or something and fell (or the wheel barrow tipped and pulled him over)with the wheel barrow full of mud. It was kind of scary and funny at the same time. (Why didn't I have the camera then?) Now he is sporting a huge bruise on his knee from it. But thanks to their hard work we now have a nice extended RV pad. Thanks you two!!!
Tonight I did something that makes me feel so good. I organized!!! I love being organized. I feel so free when everything is in a neat, tidy place and I can find it. I had bought a bunch of different stuff at Good Earth for my new healthy way of eating and had no where to put it. So I started cleaning and rearranging and organizing three of my cupboards. I found matching plastic containers at Dollar Tree that fit in my cupboard perfectly and wa-la I am loving it. Now I can start baking all kinds of healthy meals and snacks. Then I ground some wheat flour. I haven't done that in a really long time. It felt really good to get this done. Now I feel like I really accomplished something today. Here's to being organized and GOOD HEALTH!
Peaches, apples, pears, plums. That is what I have been doing with my life the last two weeks. I have a very wonderful father who has shared so much of his fruit with us (as he does every year from his small orchard) and I have been freezing and drying it. My freezer is so full it won't hold another bag. I decided to freeze and dry this year because we don't eat the bottled fruit. Sometimes we will make a cobbler with it, but usually it just sits there and turns brown. We love smoothies and have been making them for a year now. So it just made sense to freeze the fruit and use it up rather than investing so much time and energy into something that sits and turns brown. The only thing I miss is the satisfaction of looking at the beautiful jars sitting on the countertop just before putting them away. I am in awe of my niece and her husband who put up 55 quarts of applesauce in one day. Last year my two daughters and I did 120 jars, but there were 3 0f us working together to do it. Canning is a lot of hard work, but well worth the effort if it gets used up. I am thankful to my mom who taught my sisters and I how to can, freeze and dry, and I enjoyed teaching my daughters to do the same thing. It is a great joy to see them following in our footsteps. Here are some of the apples that daily fall off of our apple tree waiting for me to do something with. Thanks goodness they will keep longer that peaches and plums. I still have that many more plums in the fridge. I think I need to borrow another dryer. Thanks goes to Dennis for picking them up off the lawn for me today as I was deep in peaches and he needed to mow the lawn.
Dennis was invited to go hiking up the back side of Mt. Timp on Saturday. This is the sort of thing he loves to do. Anyone who has gone hunting with him knows he is a real mountain goat in the mountains, but today he had someone out hike him. Ben Woolsey who is the other counselor in the BYU bishopric has been hiking Timp for a few years now. He goes 3-4 days a week and has just set the world record for hiking Timp. Dennis wore the boots he usually wears hunting because he thought it would be cold and he came home wishing he hadn't. He got huge blisters on the bottom his big toes and the blister on one toe was peeled back and another blister underneath. Very painful. He has been hobbling around for a few day. By the way, never make your husband promise he will do a project when he gets home from such an activity. Here are a few shots he took with his camera.
I found these photos on my camera (that I keep tucked away in the bottom of my purse for emergencies) from our 4th of July camping trip. It brought back sweet memories and I thought I would share them. It really makes me miss Katrae, who has now gone home to Texas. We had a wild night with her while on this camping trip. First of all you have to know that I was up in the mountains with my 3 daughters and 2 son in laws and all their kids. Dennis had to work, and Brian was still in Texas. Malinda and Katrae stayed in our trailer to keep me from getting scared at night. One night after every one had gone to bed and it was pitch black outside, Katrae started screaming and screaming and..... well you get the picture. Everyone in camp could hear her she was crying and screaming so loudly. We didn't know what to do for her. We didn't have cell phone service and would have to drive up the mountain a few miles to get service, but I didn't have a vehicle. (Dennis had pulled the trailer up the week before and Malinda and I went up that weekend with Amanda and Steve.) Malinda and I sat there in the trailer in tears not knowing what to do for this poor baby. Options: Wake someone up and have them take us up the mountain to call Dennis and have him meet us and take her to the hospital? Malinda was very worried about Katrae, but also had no money (being a young couple just having moved out of state), for a hospital visit and we would have to bother A LOT of people to do that, so we tried thinking of other options. Finally, and I don't know why it took me so long to think of it...suggested that we wake up Randy and his brother in law Kevin to give Katrae a blessing. It meant me getting dressed, going out into the VERY dark night over to their tent and waking them up. Well, turns out they weren't asleep because everyone could hear Katrae screaming, and were willing to come and do this for us. I have never seen a Priesthood blessing work so quickly. Within just minutes of the blessing Katrae quit screaming, finally took her bottle and went to sleep. The next morning she was fine. We don't know if she had a tummy ache or was teething or what exactly. But thank goodness for a loving Heavenly Father who answered our prayers and blessed us that night. (Malinda--this is making me cry as I relive that night and realize how much I miss you guys.) Clay and tyler made this "HUT" from branches Randy cut off a felled pine tree. They drug them clear across camp to make it. Quite a feat for these boys. They sure had fun it it. By the way, if you have read Alisha's blog about the burning truck in the middle of the road, this is that same camping trip.More photos of this fun weekend.
UGH!! That awful 4 letter word. I have been told by the Dr. that I have high cholesterol and need to do something about it. He wants me to go on medication and I really don't want to. I'd rather do things naturally if at all possible. So I have done a lot of reading and research this past year and am now ready to bite the bullet. I have created a separate blog as my diet journal. You can find the link to the right of these posts. It did it this way so only those that really want to hear the gory details will have to. I am hoping this will be an additional tool to help me succeed this time. I am old enough now that I am feeling the effects of being overweight and eating unhealthy. So here goes.....You can follow along if you wish at this link http://www.debsdietjournal.blogger.com or click on the link at the right. Happy journey to me:)
Amanda and Steve had a new baby girl. "Rosalie"was born Tuesday, September 2, 2008. 6lbs. 8 oz. 19" long. Born at 8:13 am at Orem Community Hospital. She has dark hair and we think she looks a bit like Lydia. That means she is taking after the Nash side. She is a cutey.
I wonder if anyone is tired of all the fall posts that are out there. I for one love them. There is nothing as cool as the vivid beautiful color of the fall leaves and knowing that others love them as much as I do.
We even got to see some wildlife. 
Taking a break and looking at the breathtaking beauty around us
More photos of this fun weekend.
