So Productive a Day!

Let's see.... How shall we start this post? I totally stayed up until 3 a.m. on Friday night/Saturday morning watching the rest of Season 2 of The Office. So I could return it to Brad and borrow Season 3. Can I just say I loved the last episode of Season 2? Can I just say that I ended up borrowing it again so I could watch it again! I have since moved on. I watched the first 3 episodes of Season 3 last night. I was up until 2 this morning doing that. Yes, I know the show isn't for everyone. My mom didn't care for it. I didn't think I'd like it when it first came out in 2005. In fact, at first, I thought it was the newest addition to reality TV. But it has really grown on me. I crack up.

So, in spite of my relentless Office-watching, yesterday was ultra-productive! Oh, before I get into that... Check out my feet tan-lines :). I so know you wanted to see this. They look more noticeable in person, just FYI. And don't judge my toenails. I need to re-do them. Elka. :).


Okay, so anyway, I was supposed to get up at 8:30 yesterday morning. With staying up until 3 a.m., it didn't happen. I was impressed that I got up at 9:10. But, we still didn't leave the house until about 10. And then we went to pick up Christina and Desiree, because Nick was working. And then we finally got to Brad and Tarylyn's an hour late... at 10:30. But Tarylyn spent her time waiting for us by making and canning blackberry jelly. It came out so cute! She did a great job. And I tasted some of the finished product that was left on the ladle. It was good. Just FYI. Then we got to work. Christina and I peeled the apples while Tarylyn sliced them and cored them. Mom and Saria went to the store to get a few things we still needed (like more sugar... jelly takes lots and lots... and lots!) of sugar to make. Our first creation was chunky applesauce. We got 4 and a half big jars of that. Then we made the apple butter. That had to cook and reduce a really long time. So, we ate lunch and then started on the grapes. The grapes I told you grow wild in Brad's yard. Let me just say, WOW. This was the coolest thing. We had so many more grape jellies than we ever anticipated! This picture is just half of the grape juice we got... without the sugar added!

So, after cooking the grapes on the stove, you see we got the appropriate color. The smell smelled like grape juice! However, this juice was still tart. I know, because I tried it. But, after 18 cups of sugar (you see, I wasn't kidding), it tasted just like grape jelly from the store!!! I was so excited. We had this grape syrup that we all tasted. Yumm-o! I'm excited to eventually try our homemade grape jelly!

Here's a picture of all of us around the stove. This was our assembly line :).


The last thing we did was prepare and can the blueberry part of blueberry cobbler. Now all we'll ever have to make is the crust stuff. We have the inside part done and canned! Of course, we did have a few casualties. My mom was smart enough to wear black. Christina had on turquoise, so not so noticeable when stained. I made it most of the way through without any grape on my white shirt. Tarylyn got grape on her too. Syrup. Bleach pen seems to have worked for me. But here we are, showing off our stains :):


Anyway, we left at about 5:20, because Christina had to go to work. Plus my mom and I went to the Relief Society Broadcast, which was very good. One final picture: These are the fruits of our labors! (Tell me we weren't productive!):


Click on that picture, because you can see more that I posted. But, the two jars of peas were actually canned last weekend, but weren't ready when we were leaving. And not pictured here are the blueberry cobbler jars, because they were still immersed in the boiling water bath. But, you can see all the other stuff that was done, and so you see we got a lot done! It was so much fun too!

Okay, Juliebean... There's lot of pictures, just for you :).