5..4..3...2..1.. blastoff mission

I can't believe it's only 2 1/5 weeks till Tanner reports to the MTC in Provo. Still waiting for FBI clearance to arrive for visa. Have to make first mission installment this sunday. It has to be received by first day of the month that he enters the MTC. This is really real isn't it?! I still feel like we have a ton of things to do yet. We confirmed his flight to Utah. He'll fly out of Pasco, Washington Wednesday morning bright and early and arrive SLC airport like 9:30 a.m. Gonna check and see if any family are available to pick him up and drive him to the MTC. hope so! This will be the first time he's flown in an airplane other than the little plane Scott flew us around in that one summer. Sean's never flown before either except that time with Scott. It will be a new and exciting experience for both of them. Sean is excited to come to Texas, as is Tanner equally excited to leave for his mission. The next couple weeks are going to be very busy and exciting!

holiday

Well Thanksgiving came and went. Tanner insisted we have ham instead of turkey. We were supposed to celebrate Christmas with the boys yesterday but didn't. We've been having trouble with my computer and I wasn't able to order their gifts they wanted from Amazon.com. So their Christmas was  postponed a bit, but we went ahead with the dinner. Tanner asked me to make an apple pie too. Haven't done that for ages since dad doesn't like fruit pies. I did a dutch apple pie. It turned out okay, but was  really sweet. Too sweet for me, but he liked it. By the way Tanner and I adopted kittens two days before the holiday. Mine is a  grey and white female. Her name was Ella when I got her, but I changed it to Bella for beautiful. She's a smart cat. Not afraid to be playful, but loves to cuddle too. Tanner's  is a tortoiseshell calico. Her name was Frou Frou when he got her, but quickly changed it to Sohloh (short for solembum the were-cat from Inheritance book). She is seriously playful and has a definite dislike for the dog. Bella is more curious about the dog than afraid. Oh what fun it is to have kittens in the house again!( Dad was not too happy though! He was content to not have the litter box smell.)

what a week!

Last week my student at school made me sick, literally. Argh! On top of that, I've been experiencing alot of pain in my right shoulder and arm. I don't know what's causing it either . So I've been dealing with all this physical discomfort right. Not a happy place to be. Then on Tuesday "the  parent" gets a bee in her bonnet and decides she's gonna get rid of me! Suddenly, I'm a terrible person and the worst person her child could have as an aide. She doesn't waste any time talking to me or my supervising teacher about it either. She's going straight to the top-the principal. So thursday I come back to school walking on eggshells, not knowing where I stand after their meeting. Finally the principal finds me and we have a talk. Luckily he's not the kind of guy to let a crazy woman push him around. He in no uncertain terms, stood up for me and told her there would not be a change. This problem was all in her perception! Whew!! Of course the rest of the week was pretty tense dealing with "the parent". I think she resigned herself to the fact that she wasn't getting her way and decided to put on a happy face and take her lumps. What a week! I'm exhausted! hey at least tomorrow is Saturday! There's my bright spot! :)

harvest time

This morning was harvest day at the ward garden. Corn and tomatoes were supposed to be ready for picking. Yay! When  we arrived we discovered someone had come earlier in the week and picked any tomatoes that were ripe. There were none to be had :(  There was plenty of corn though :) We picked 4 large bucketsfull. I talked Dad and Tanner into helping me shuck the corn when we came home, and I've been canning since noon ( it's 6 pm and i'm still not done!) After preparing 36 pints for canning, I called another lady and offered to let her have the rest of my shucked corn. I'm only half done :p  I think I'll  can the rest tomorrow after church. I'm beginning to remember why I haven't canned anything that wasn't waterbath canned for awhile. Each batch takes so long to do. It's like 25 minutes to get up to pressure, then 55 minutes to process, and another 25 minutes to decrease pressure so you can take them out of the canner. That's almost 2 hrs. for 6 little pints.  Boy I can sure appreciate what our pioneer ancesters  went through. And they didn't even have awesome pressure cooker/ canners like we do!! Thanks heavens for modern conveniences!! :) I'M TIRED.  On a brighter note, I purchased peaches and pears for canning too. The pears are not quite ripe so I have a little time to get to those. I don't think I'll have  any peaches left by the time I get to them.The peaches are sooo yummy! We keep eating them for a sweet snack. mmmm yummy!

back to work

Well we started school on the 29th. This was a wacky week! The first day was nothing but chaos! The second day I had a doctor's appointment, so I was a little lost in the schedule when I came back. Thursday I was just baffled. I don't know what was going through the head of my student. I know He has to get used to this 7th grade schedule of moving for every class, but he's never just walked away from me before. 2x  he just left at  the end of class and  didn't wait for me. That's not like him. I spent way too much time running and searching all over the school trying to figure out where he went. We only have 4 minutes passing time between class. It was pure madness. By the time I went home I was soooo glad to be having a 4 day weekend!

summer's over :(

Well, it's been a busy month. Trying to wrap up all the things I want to do before going back to work.  I  sorted through all the junk in my storage unit to get ready for a yard sale. I hate doing yard sales!!! the only reason I did this one was in hopes of making a little money to help towards Tanner's mission expenses. Was totally not worth the effort! :{ I always end up wasting hours of my time preparing and setting up, sitting there it the awful heat. And I'm lucky if I make $100. Three days of misery and I came away with a mere $234. I guess I should be grateful, that will help some. It sure is easier to just donate the stuff to DI or Goodwill or something. Then you're done with it and don't have to store it or go through the waste of time for a stupid sale.Hopefull that's the last one I'll ever need to do. It's donating from here on out!

i hope they call me on a mission!

Wow! What a day! The mailman came delivering a long-awaited white envelope. Tanner's mission call came today. I could hardly contain myself until he and dad came home from work. Finally dad  arrived but Sean wasn't back from his apartment yet. Ten minutes later everyone was here. Finally the moment we'd all been waiting for. The tension mounts.... He's going overseas... I was right!  Belgium-Netherlands mission.  I think that's the same mission Emily's husband Andy served in. Tanner has to report to the MTC on December 14, 2011. After reading the packet of information, I'm glad they give us a few months! Oh my goodness, there is sooo much to do. Passports, Visas, luggage, clothes, more vaccinations, the list goes on. I'm tired just reading it . We're all so excited, proud, and totally psyched! When we read where he was going, we thought about the movie "The Best Two Years". I believe it took place in that mission area. How funny is that!

jam ummm good!

I bought blackberries at the farmer's market on saturday. They were huge! A little on the tart side though.  Today I made jam. I processed 14 (8oz) jars  of yummy blackberry jam. I decided that since the family only seems to eat my blackberry jam and none of the other flavors, I'm only gonna make blackberry from now on. I still have lots of peach, apricot, plum, and raspberry jam from prior years that's not getting eaten. Maybe I'll have to give it as gifts. :)

ward garden

I found out that a member of our ward  works independently with one of the local nurseries. They loan him a plot of land and he tries out different seeds and  grows plants on it. He gives some of the plants to the nursery, uses some of the food for himself, and sells some to local businesses. This year he told Bishop that he wanted to plant a bunch of food and let ward members come help weed and pick food for themselves. Bishop agreed to the idea, but kept it quiet until the first food was  ready. Last sunday they told us  green beans were ready for picking. Monday I went out there for 3 hours and picked weeds while I picked beans. I harvested 6 ice cream buckets full for myself and probably another 2-3 lbs. to share with others. I took a bag  to 2 neighbors, two of my visiting teaching sisters (on my old list), and one bag to a sister on my new VT list. The next day I washed them and sat and snapped beans while I watched my favorite tv shows. (yard crashers and design on a dime) The next morning I finally pulled out my canner ( the first time in maybe 16 years), and processed 12 quart jars of beans. I was nervous about using my canner since it had been so long, but I had success without any problems! Why have I not used it  in so long?  :P

temple trip

Well, so today I went with the youth to the Columbia River Temple to do baptisms for the dead. What an interesting trip that turned out to be. The other lady who drove got lost going there and was 30-45 mnutes late with her group of kids. The sad thing was she  said she knew how to get home okay, but then she got lost going home too! Our group of kids were pretty good though! I've never been to that temple before. It's  pretty, it reminds me of the Houston temple. After our session, we went to Old Country Buffet to eat dinner. All the guys left before we got done.  When we walked out to our car, some strange guy came up to us. He kept trying to talk us into giving him a ride. Obviously I had no room, but he was persistent. He totally creeped us out!!Finally I just got in the car, shut the door behind me and we left. Come to find out he tried to do the same thing with the other car full of girls. CREEPY!!! I put some uplifting music on the radio to help us feel better on the way home. I really needed to drive away the creepy, negative feeling we were feeling. What an experience!

diy kitchen curtains

I've also been working when I have  a few minutes here and there on this curtain set.

i really wanted to bright up my kitchen, so I'm going to red accents. I really like the way they look! I didn't have a pattern to follow. I just looked at the old ones and cut out and assembled the pieces. What do you think? I like.... :)

kitchen tile pics

this was the before version of the tile in the kitchen.

                                          this is what the new tile looks like:

 

it's hard to tell just pretty this new tile is but it looks great! Yay me!

DIY

So I tried a little DIY project today. I bought the peel n stick vinyl floor tiles to  redo my kitchen floor.  I did this once before and it wasn't hard at all. Not so today! I discovered my kitchen is truly not straight. It took me a lot longer to do than I thought it would. But hey, it looks 10x better now. Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't done perfectly and if you look close you'll find problems. I don't care because it definitely looks alot better. Before it was this dull cream colored tile with a tan design in it. It was so pitted with black marks you would have thought that was supposed to be part of the design. Now it is a beautiful grey and soft brown stone look.  I wish I knew how to  add pictures so you could see the difference. Tanner helped me with some of the odd shaped pieces. Boy was I grateful for his help! The important thing is it looks better and I'm happy with it! Sitting on that hard floor for so long sure takes it's toll on the bum and back though. :( I'd better go fix dinner before Dad gets home. have a happy  day!:)

Diets!!!

Well, Dad and I went to see the Dietician yesterday per the doctor's request. She really didn't tell us anything we didn't know. It was just more reinforcement of the same old thing. Watch what you eat, how much you eat, get some EXERCISE. Although she did give us a chart that broke down the food groups, gave us appropriate portion sizes, and explained a simple plan to help manage intake. She described each meal like shopping. You have only so many dollars to spend per meal. The food groups were designated with a dollar amount. She then  wrote down how many dollars were allowed per meal.  Meats, cheese, and veggies were freebies (but you still have to watch portion size and calories). Oddly enough it's a pretty simple plan for managing your meal. You can choose how you want to spend those carb dollars. So if you want 2 potatoes, you give up another carb dollar somewhere else for that meal. I can handle this. It makes planning a diabetic- appropriate meal alot easier for me. The super hard part for Dad will be only 1 sweet a week! We are gonna try to go for a walk shortly after dinner each night to fit in some exercise. Wish us  luck!

on it's way

Well, Tanner met with the stake president tonight. He's done on this end, now the papers head to Salt Lake. Oh my! I had to chuckle though. When Pres. Orton came out of the interview, he told me he encouraged Tanner to get his driver's license before he goes. Tanner and I just looked at each other knowingly and smiled. I asked Tanner if that info sounded familiar and President caught on. I told him I'd been trying to light that fire for sometime now. I wonder if with President's encouragement he will finally get around to doing it? :)

a Missionary!

Tanner finished his papers for his mission  on sunday. He just needs to meet with the Stake President and then the papers go to Salt Lake! I'm excited, but starting to feel anxious about him leaving. After all ,he IS my baby you know. I wonder if he'll get called abroad or state-side? the tension is starting to build...

playing musical storage

Well, I spent the last two days shuffling storage from my small storage unit and the garage to a large unit, to make room in the garage for a new occupant. Sean has decided to move back home. His  work situation has not been good. He decided being a student painter was not the job for him. He's hoping to find work back at the trailer factory. I'm getting a little closer to my goal of sorting the storage stuff to get rid of in a BIG yard sale. At least now it's all in one spot.

 I spent a couple hours this afternoon helping serve lunch at the senior center. It was actually fun.

 It feels really strange to not be at Girl's Camp this week. When I think about it I feel like a fish out of water. I think I might get away tomorrow and go up for dinner and testimony meeting.

hello technology :)

hello everybody. i follow the blogs of my daughters and thought maybe i could do this too.
 so here i go. i'm gonna try to catch up with technology and try blogging. i'm sure this will
be slow going so be patient with me.