Guilty for Enjoying a Cold

I don't have much of a cold, just a few sneezes that the allergy medicine won't take care of but......

Dylan started having a fever yesterday afternoon and it carried through to today. He is sniffely and hot and cutting two molars all at the same time. The poor kid looks rough with his watery eyes and red nose and red cheeks. Even with all this, I am kind of enjoying it. He is NOT a snugly baby. Not when he was a newborn, not when he was a few months old, not now. This morning I just sat in my bed and held him while we watched Survivor. He just laid there and let me rub his head and play with his hair which is NOT like him at all. I do feel bad he is sick, but is it so bad that I am enjoying the time a bit too?

A Run on Canning Supplies

This is how I spent the morning. Smiths, Fred Meyer, Wal-Mart, Cal-Ranch, Winco, and calling Albertsons. To show how productive my trips were, my grand total in spending was just over six dollars. I was on the search for some Fruit Fresh to finish up the last of the peaches today while my kids were at the neighbors. Apparently it is harder to find Fruit Fresh than most illegal substances at the height of canning season. The entire Pocatello area is OUT. If anyone knows a secret canning store, let me know! I am now putting off the peaches until tomorrow and working on Primary stuff instead. Never a dull moment here! And, if any of you have a stash of Fruit Fresh, I am betting you could get a mint on the black market right now!

The Three P's of Fall

I haven't been very diligent at updating my blog the last week or so and here's the reason why: peaches, pears, and plums.

Our neighbor gave us 5 gallons of ripe plums last Friday so Saturday was spent turning the 5 gallons into 46 pints of plum jam. It was an all day endeavour but, knowing how much the boys enjoy pb&j's, I think it was well worth it.

Monday Gary told me he had some peaches and pears for me and they would be delivered Tuesday morning. Our canning stores were running low from a couple years ago and he works with someone who knows someone who can get something.........

Anyway, a bushel of pears and a bushel of peaches later, my kitchen is sticky from top to bottom. Yesterday I bottled the pears. You wouldn't think that 19 quarts would take that long but it did. I was grateful that Logan requested pancakes for dinner instead of something that required much cooking. Today I canned half the peaches - 17 quarts in all. I don't know why peaches go so much farther than pears but.....Tomorrow is another day and I think I'll be doing much of the same to finish off the peaches and then I can clean my kitchen!

Canning is definitely work but it is rewarding work when you look at your full counter top or when you pop open a jar in the dead of winter and know where the fruit came from and who put it in the jar. Later this week I need to do something with my tomatoes. Does anyone have a pizza sauce canning recipe? If so, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE share!

Time For New Shoes?

We (Dylan, Ethan, and myself) were just getting ready to head out the door this morning to run some errands and I was waiting ever so not patiently for Ethan to decide which pair of shoes he would like to wear when this conversation happened:

E: I chose my army guy shoes (camo crocks) because I love them. They are army and they don't hurt.

Me: Do other shoes hurt?

E: Yeah, those ones (his school shoes that are still practically new looking). You tie them and my toes go, "OW!" And my garden boots make owies on my nipples.

Me: (trying not to laugh hysterically when I realize nipples is really ankles) We'll have to get you some new shoes buddy.

Benefits of Driving the Truck

I took Ethan to preschool this morning and realized an important benefit of driving the truck. I get to sit right next to my little guys! On the way home, I could talk to Dylan and joke around with him. It was too funny to watch his face and see his responses. He is really in a teasing mood today. When I said, "I love you!" he smiled an shook his head no. I tickled his leg and told him yes I did and he just laughed and shook it harder. He's going to be quite the jokester I have a feeling!

We forgot Ethan's backpack today for preschool. All we have to bring is him and the backpack so I'm not sure how that happened. When we pulled up and I realized we didn't have it, I told him I'd have to bring it when I came to pick him up.

His response: Oh, dang it! That's okay if you bring it.

I'm glad he's an easy going kid! Although the first thing he told his teacher was that he'd left his backpack at home.

I Feel Stranded!

This summer, as some of you will remember, I had a little incident with my car and the tire tread. Well, the time finally came to get the body work done. It's been driveable and you couldn't see most of the damage so we didn't have to get right in to the shop. Finally, my week looked slow enough that I could schedule it and yesterday Gary and I dropped it off at the shop.

It's interesting how stranded you feel when you don't have your car of choice! I have the purple truck but I don't drive that very often and it won't fit more than three so we won't be using it much. Today I have two little neighbor boys so we all will be staying close to home. No McDonalds for lunch for us! To top it off, Gary left for a prescribed burn today and won't be home until late tomorrow night so I am here with no car and no husband! How did they do this before most families had two cars?

I realize I will be getting the car back by Wednesday most likely because the guy running the shop already painted the bumper and made sure all the parts were in when he found out we didn't have rental car insurance. He has been terrific to work with and does a great job. If any of you need some repairs made, I highly recommend Brent at Flatline Autobody! He's done work for us before and it is always on time and for the price he quoted.

OK, I'll quit whining now and get back to work. We'll be fine I'm sure. It's only a couple of days and it will be nice to be home getting things done around here!

Football - Way More Intense Than I Thought!

It's been a few days since I've posted but I've been meaning to write about my first flag football game experience. Let me start off by saying that I wasn't prepared in the least.

Gary was out of town on a burn so I took Tom to his game. Luckily, I left the other boys home with a sitter. When I showed up, I ran into a mom that I knew from Utah - we were actually in the same ward growing up but she was a few years younger I think. WHOA! She was REALLY into this flag football thing. I figured that she was just a bit excited. NOPE! We have quite a few moms on the team that are really into every aspect of the game from holding the down markers to critiquing jerseys to discussing the best photographer to get the action shots.

I, naively I realize now, thought that this would be similar to soccer, baseball, or basketball. You go to the game and cheer the team on. You even cheer for the other team when they do something great. You get to catch up with the other moms sitting on the sidelines and everyone is like a big family. I was sitting between Anna McDonald and Jen Muhonen and we did spend some time chatting but all the while we were getting dirty looks from other parents. Whoops! I thought at eight, it would be more fun than intense but from the looks of it, I better start getting more into football and start watching for those scouts out looking for the next break-out star!