My feet are tired!

It's been a long few weeks! Lyns and Lexie made it back to Houston on Saturday night. It was great to have them here. We are excited that they'll come back again in November for Cameron's farewell.

I've been canning up a storm....still! Everyday I wake up and think...."hmm what can I can today". It's great having a kitchen downstairs that I can make a mess in and then walk away. But then it's bad too...cause I have two kitchens that I can make a mess in!

Today I made 14 quarts of apple pie filling, I've never done that before. It's so pretty in the jars. I did 18 quarts of spaghetti sauce. Added to the spaghetti sauce I did a few weeks ago, I may have enough for the winter. I also did 11 pints of peach syrup. I got some peaches from mom that were the size of apricots. I did peel one box of them and then decided that was enough of that. I just juiced the other box. I also did some zucchini relish, hadn't done that before either. On Saturday I did more meatballs and hamburger. So anyway, the shelves are looking good and I think I'm getting stocked up with some pretty tasty food. Tara is coming this weekend and we're going to can some salsa for her and maybe some Indian Relish. Matt said he really liked that, I had no clue.

The weather today was beautiful. 84 degrees for the end of September is fabulous. I think I would like to keep that up until the 15th of November. Anyone else agree with that?

The poor refugees....

Lyns and Lexi arrived last week with no place to call home. (snuffle) They are without water and electricity and roads are minimally passable. No stores operating and curfew in place. Lyns decided that rather than be in that she would bring her little munchin and come home.



Lexi doesn't think much of airplane travel or hours in a car for that matter.



Lexi is usually very happy and good natured....except when mommy feeds her a lemon.



Can you imagine anyone doing that to their sweet little darling? It's a shame, really.

I mean, I only ever had Lynsey taste a dill pickle...never a lemon!



Of course, no babyhood is complete without pictures in the tub. Lexie loves bathtime and splashes and coos. It's pretty cute and I've been pretty happy to see her for this long. I'm not sure daddy likes being without his little munchin, but I'm a happy granny right now.

In the meantime the canning continues. It's great to be able to use the basement kitchen to do the dirty hot work of canning. I've done peaches and salsa, pickles and meats. Tonight I'm waiting for the last of the ham and beans to come out of the pressure canner. That will be a great convenience food to have on some cold winter night.

Speaking of cold, yup it feels like fall. The days of tomatoes from the vine are numbered.

The Hurricane Ike Refugees are Coming!

Yep, Hurricane Ike has affected us in little ole' Rexburg. Lynsey and Nick had to flee Houston and his company paid for them to go to Dallas. Lyns actually called and asked our advice..."should we go or stay?". Whatever! "Ya, Lyns, you should go" I guess I didn't much care if she and Nick decided to stay, but get my little Lexie outta Dodge! So after a few fun filled days in a hotel, Nick's company now wants him to go on recovery for Houston hospitals and help rebuild and repair. He'll be gone a week or so at a time and Lynsey didn't much feel like going home to Houston...if she could...without running water and electricity. Apparently that's what she'd find there. So, she got a plane ticket to come home to Idaho. Good thing too. It's about time we had some snuggies from Lexie!

Right now she's staying in Utah with Matt and fam, but in the next day or so she'll be here with us. Hopefully she'll be comfy and be glad she's in an area that has 4 seasons, snow, freezing weather, cool nights and no really big bugs.

In the meantime, I'm still canning up a storm. I'm having so much fun! I've pretty much taken over the basement kitchen. First time in 21 years of having this house that I've had a "canning kitchen". Saturday, Howard and I spent the day cleaning out the garden of the last of the corn. I canned it. Then I picked some tomatoes, apples, onions and stuff and made Indian Relish. I remember as a kid at home loving that stuff. It was the best with beef roast. Yum.



The Indian Relish recipe is a recipe from my Grandma Jensen. I know I sound weird but it's cool that I'm doing something that she did. She was born in 1885. I knew her well, she lived with us for a time. I love that I have this recipe from her. I love that I am doing what she did. Does she know I'm carrying on her traditions?

Anyway, I love canning. I love seeing gleaming jars of foodstuffs on my shelves. It's been said that food travels 1500 miles from farm to table. I love saying..."not at my house it doesn't". Backyard to shelf. Cool.

Yup, I'm weird.

A Crazy Weekend!

This morning my BFF Rebecca came over and brought tomatoes, onions and peppers and I taught her how to make salsa! I'll make a Molly Mormon out of her if it's the last thing I do! I think she had fun and can I just say that it was fun to can with someone! We ended up with 35 pints of salsa.



On Saturday night Howie helped me can peaches. I didn't think they would be ready quite yet, but they were and I knew that they wouldn't wait clear till Monday. Once again, having someone help me can made it fun and even bearable.



So I may never be able to can again, unless I have some free labor.

We also enjoyed the weekend having Matt and Tara's little punks here. Matt and Tara took off to celebrate their 9th Anniversary. They were married 9-9-99. Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, the kids have been a blast. It's so fun to see their little personalities. They are all good natured, well, except when Jessica had a meltdown in Sacrament Meeting. I finally sent her up to sit on the stand with Grandpa, he can calm her savage beast.



Even after her nap she was a bit of a monster. Nate and Sara and Krew came over to visit and they couldn't even get her to smile for a minute. Krew was trying to love her.



Speaking of Krew......he's pretty generous with his kisses, but I'm not sure if I want any of them.



Everybody got a "Krew Kiss"



Later on Sunday evening Jessica wanted to go for a walk. So we followed her. Well I followed her and grandpa so I could snap a few photos...pretty cute stuff if ya ask me.



The boys have had fun with Uncle Cameron.....I wonder which one is winning and the back of those heads look all alike, don't they?

It's been awhile....

Well, for me it's been awhile. Between canning, huckleberrying, working and trying not to let the laundry turn into a gigantic monster, I've been a little busy. We did enjoy going to Warm River on Monday night to see Matt and Tara and the kids. Nate and Sara came and even Cameron and Candice. Wow, all of us there except the Texans! Nick you have got to move closer to your mother-in-law! (Right after you volunteer to have that root canal done) Cameron used his mountain man skills and was chopping the firewood and then helped Howie "try" to start a fire. Thank goodness for zippos.



Somehow, Nate and Matt managed to goof off. Nate was throwing Krew in the air and we enjoyed listening to him giggle.



Then Matt wanted Nate to throw him in the air.....and Nate attempted...and Matt giggled...sort of...



We had corn on the cob, dutch oven potatoes and dutch oven chicken. AND s'mores. The next morning Howard and I drove back up and had breakfast with them. Tara and Matt fixed biscuits and gravy and scrambled eggs. They were headed out to go floating later in the morning. Sounds like they were going to have a week of fun. Matt and Tara's trailer is nice and has lots of room. The campground was empty after the busy Labor Day Weekend. As you may be able to tell from the pictures it was pretty cold on Monday night. Hope they stay warm this week.

We are looking forward to having Josh, Jaren, Justin and Jessica with us for the weekend so that Matt and Tara can celebrate their 9th Anniversary.





Matt and Tara and kidz!



Nate and Sara and Krew!

It's sad that the summer is over and we are starting to think about the cold weather. Hopefully we can hang on to some wonderful fall weather.





The final question of the day, one that you must spend a great deal of time pondering....the great mysteries of aligned planets....the answers to the universe...



How many marshmallows can you fit in your mouth?????