More Watermelon Shots

Well, we'll see how uploading pictures goes today :).  Mostly that's all this post is about.  I will try to do a more specific update later.

So, I know you already know how much she loves watermelon.  But I think these shots are priceless.

She actually just sat there contentedly eating that entire piece of watermelon.

Don't you love the red face?

And sometimes she gnaws on the wrong part.  But she doesn't seem to mind.

And she's very helpful in the garden...  We pick veggies and put them in the bucket...  She takes them out of the bucket and either hands them to us or throws them on the ground...  (We prefer the former, but sometimes get the latter ;)).  It's a good thing she's so stinkin' cute.

Slacker

I kind of slacked a bit on the whole blog posting thing this week...  Not that I post uber-exciting posts that people are waiting anxiously to read.  Haha...  But I usually at least put up some pictures of little Miss Lynnaea for her grandpa (and anyone else who looks forward to seeing this sweet girl growing).  I actually slacked on taking pictures much this week too!  Aaahh! 

I think it's the new schedule.  For me, not for her.  Jeremy started swings on Tuesday.  Lynnaea still has her schedule.  I end up staying up later than I should (but still go to bed before Jeremy gets home, since he's working a 10 hour shift and is never home before midnight :-/). 

Oh yeah...  So being that it's pretty much the end of the harvest time... I've been working on using our garden yields.  I will say that our garden produced marvelously well given the lack of care I gave it.  Not an easy feat to have a baby for the first time and a garden that is not in your own backyard that requires watering and such...  But we ended up with about 5 crookneck squash (not a big yield there unfortunately), 6 bell peppers and maybe 10 or 15 jalapenos (yeah, the peppers didn't do so well this year, but it was a milder summer), somewhere around 40 cups of shredded zucchini (plus several others I gave away or used in other ways other than shredding for future baking use), about 10 mini pumpkins (totally didn't realize I bought ornamental pumpkins this year.  Bummer... I like pumpkin pie), and a whole lot of tomatoes.  And I do mean a whole lot.  I've been giving them away as well as peeling them and using them in case of canned diced tomatoes in soups.  I've also made fresh salsa, fresh tomato soup, and home-made spaghetti sauce.  I've used the bigger ones for tomato, biscuit, and cheese for dinner.  And just having them in salads.  And I still have a bunch I had to let ripen indoors.  And we may go tomorrow and pick what's left -- even if it's completely green.  Yeah... So I've been a bit busy with the harvest. 

We fed the missionaries on Monday night.  First time Jeremy and I have done that.  We did taco salad -- with tomatoes from the garden.  I do love taco salad.  Talk about an easy meal that makes a lot!  I need to remember to make it more often.  Because I really do like it.  Jeremy made our dessert:  french cream pie.  It's delicious and even a little fancy because it requires a meringue.  Which makes me think I should make a baked alaska again sometime.  I haven't done that in AGES. 

And what has the munchkin been up to?  Just growing :).  She laughs more, but you really do have to work at it to get her to laugh!  But she is very generous with her happy big smiles.  With Jeremy being home in the mornings, I think he is loving being the one to go in and get her when she wakes up either first thing in the morning or after her first nap.  Because she is just so smiley.  Who knew a toothless grin could warm your heart so much ;)?  She is also getting more chatty.  It is so cute!  I wish videos would upload better here, because if they did, I would upload one I took of her chatting away.  She is getting so big.  She is completely into her 3 to 6 month clothes.  She wants so badly to be able to do more than she can right now.  She is quite frustrated that she can't sit up yet.  So I think with our next baby I'll be getting a bumbo chair.  I now see the genius of them.  She is really awesome at grabbing her toys, especially her play links.  And she loves going for walks in her stroller. 

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from today.  She was busy chewing on her sheep, so she wasn't really interested in giving me a smile.  But at least you can see her ;).

 I caught a good one of her asleep for one of her naps. 

 I love the idea of gowns, but now that she's older, she kicks her legs a lot and so the gown is never covering her legs and they get cold.  So...  bummer. 

 And the next two are the ones actually from today.  I forgot I'd taken those other pictures :).  Guess I did better than I thought!!!

She'll be 4 months on Tuesday.  It's so hard to believe.  Especially when I think back to our first night at home... 

What I've Been Up To

Okay, so I was shocked when I saw the date of my last post.  Not that I have a bazillion readers checking daily, hungry for the latest and greatest of The Nilla Life (it's not that exciting...).  But I thought it had only been a week.  Not 11 days.

I say it a lot, but I don't know where the time goes.  It's kind of getting annoying, if you want to know the truth of it.  My "things to do list" never gets crossed off all the way (a true tragedy in the Nilla Life) -- and instead I'm adding to them!  Yes, I'm probably whining.  But seriously.  Where is the time!?!

We are smack dab in the middle of buying the house.  We had our home inspection and the biggest concern there is the wiring.  Which we already knew and had planned to fix.  The inspector said it is a sound house based on his inspection.  There are cosmetic things to do -- like repainting almost everywhere.  But those don't affect the stability of the house.  We are going to remodel basically the whole upstairs (and eventually finish the basement), so there will be a lot of work to do before we even move in.  But we'll get there.  And hopefully by next summer, we'll be enjoying apples, pears, peaches, plums, and grapes (yep, we found more fruit!!) from our very own yard :).  I'm pretty excited about that.

Speaking of fruit...  This brings us to one of the things that has been taking up a lot of my time.  So last Friday, one of the gals I serve with in Primary has a plum tree in her yard.  She had a ton of plums and wasn't getting to them fast enough.  So she offered some to me and another lady during our presidency meeting.  So I grabbed about 1/3 of a grocery bag full and proceeded to make plum jam on Saturday night.  I found a recipe that didn't require pectin, but since I had tripled it... Well, it took longer to boil down.  But here's a picture of one of the jars.  It only made 2.5 pints and since Jeremy goes through jam fast, I didn't bother to can them -- just screwed on a lid and put them in the fridge.

I've already tried it on a pb&j last week and it is tasty.  Probably mostly because I made it, and there's just something enjoyable about enjoying something you made...

Well, then Buck from the funeral home had a ton of plums and sent a huge box with my mom to me.  Approximately 17 pounds worth.  And so Jeremy and I spent Monday and Tuesday nights chopping up and freezing plums.  I ended up with 44 cups -- all in my freezer (it's a scary place in there right now...  I had to rearrange stuff for about 5 minutes to get the door to close...).  Then Buck sent home  a huge grocery bag full of green beans for me too.  Phew!  So last night, Jeremy and I rinsed and snapped them.  And today I par-boiled and froze them.  I don't have a pressure cooker to do pressure canning, and apparently that's the safer way to go with veggies.  So I just froze them.  I ended up with about 20 cups of those frozen.  And yesterday they had 6 ounce containers of raspberries for $1.00 each.  I stocked up on 10!  I ate one with Lea at her house when we did breakfast yesterday.  Kept 3 more in the fridge (but rinsed them).  Froze the other 6 in 3 2-cup baggies.  For future raspberry coffee cakes :).  Which will be featured at our next Friday breakfast in two weeks...  So here's the frozen abundance:

I'm hoping next weekend I'll be feeling ambitious and I will make a ton more plum jam and can it (we have plenty of storage under our bed ;)!) and maybe also the pepper jelly.  Because after the Temple today, I went out back at my mom's and harvested everything.  Because today was the return of the rain.  And being that it is the end of September, I'm pretty sure we are done with our hot sunny days.  I got quite a harvest though, considering how little work I did!  And I plan to make the jalapeno pepper jelly as well as some home-made rotel with the tomatoes and the remaining peppers.

So yeah...  That has consumed a lot of my time.  And will consume more.  And now, it's time for date night :).  We're going to snuggle up and watch a movie while sipping a smoothie :).  Oh...  Did I mention we got a tv for free?  It's an old-style heavy one.  But it was free and since we don't watch tv all that much...  Well, I'm content with it.  However, it's ginormous and dwarfs the living room.  Haha...  That's what happens when you live in less than 500 square feet!  But not for much longer!  Yay!!

Oh...  And here's a stupid Nilla moment for you...  Tuesday night, Jeremy was taking out the trash after I'd been home for about 2 hours.  On his way back in he showed me I had left my keys in the door.  For two hours.  We live on a rather busy road (literally right on the road) in a sketch part of town.  We count it a miracle that my keys were still in the door.  As in my car key (still the only one we have) and my house key.  Ummm... I freaked out a little and lost it a little.  How does one do something so careless?  Ugh.  But like I said... A miracle.

So here's our monstrosity.  And our snuggly pictures :).  I'm off for more snuggling!

He tolerates all my picture posing so well... ;).  Haha....  Faces like this are the reason he has to pose a few more times :).  But isn't he a cutie?

P.S... He's on graves next month. Gag me now.

A Day On the Farm

I don't waste time on Pinterest :). I learn self-reliance and save money :). Haha... That's my excuse anyway ;). And I even have proof! Below are pictures of my growing celery. I just chopped off the bottom of store-bought celery, put it in water for a week (which helped produce 2 roots) and just potted it on Friday. It's grown even more since then, but I didn't take anymore pictures. Either way, I'm totally excited. It's the nerd in me coming out :).  I'm also growing a green onion from the root part too now.  Before long, our table will be covered with plants.  I'm still excited about it though. 

This next one is from today, while the other were from 2 or 3 weeks ago.  You can see the green onions also in the picture below.  Pretty awesome stuff!  Oh yeah, today is actually August 31.  You can ignore the date this blog says it was posted...  That's when I started it.  I don't know where the time has gone.

So earlier this month Jeremy and I took all the kids out to Jeremy's parents' farm.  Mostly it was to get the kids out of the city and let them run around.  Experience new things.  See what it is to do a little work and reap the rewards.  And wander around up creeks and explore.  I think they had a blast.  It was a full day.  The pictures below kind of tell their own story, but I'll narrate a little bit :).

Here are the kids trying to get close to the cow.  The cow wasn't very trusting of them and kept running away.  It was a minefield of manure, but the kids didn't seem to mind.  Haha...

We had them pick raspberries so they could enjoy them on ice cream later on.  The goal was for them to do a little bit of work and help out.  Here are Desiree and Autumn.

And here's Emily showing me one of hers.

We took a picnic lunch of peanut butter and jam with some veggies and fruit and cookies.  And Jeremy's mom made them some waffle cookies, which they all loved.

We also collected chicken eggs, but I didn't take any pictures of that.  Angie did, but I never asked for them...  They learned that eggs are dirty fresh from the chicken.  You have to make sure you clean them and your hands!  And Samuel, please don't rub the warm egg on your cheek!  Ick!  Haha...

Then we took them on an adventure to a nearby creek.  Autumn spent a lot of her time collecting water bugs.  Saria, Benjamin, and Desiree explored further up-river with Uncle Jeremy (well, after this part where we went under the bridge).  Samuel was not interested in posing for pictures (you will see).  And Emily just tried to keep up.  Sometimes it's hard being 3.  But she is small, so she could go under fallen limbs and trunks better than most (and most especially better than Aunt Hila, who was trying to keep up!)

Desiree wanted to pose in the water.

Sam's thrilled to take pictures.

Once back on the farm, the kids got to jump on the trampoline for a bit.  Then they got to feed the cow.  So here are copious cow-feeding pictures.

Emily is our little poser.

Angie fed the cow too.

And once she was being fed, the cow was happy to let the kids pet her, if they approached her calmly and slowly and one at a time.

We took another picture after this one...  Neither one was very good.  I posted the one I thought I looked slightly improved in.  Ugh.

And Autumn celebrated her 9th birthday a few days later.

 

As for the rest of life...  Still house-hunting.  Not finding much these days.  I applied for another job.  We'll see if I get it :).  I'll keep ya posted!  And I'm looking forward to a lovely 4-day weekend (well, 3 left now).  I will be canning some peaches with my mother-in-law at some point :).  Happy Labor Day!

Where [I'm] At

Oh goody! A song title post. There's a blast from my past.

Well, seeing as we are just about through with September, I figure now is a good time to update the blogosphere with my 2011 goals. I will also give you a run-down of the information promised in last week’s post. I will start with that :).

It is official – the Alabama trip, that is. November 18 through November 25. And a good time will be had by all, I’m sure :).

The apartment thing… Still looking. I went and looked at the one I mentioned last week. Let’s just say life is always an adventure. For one thing, I showed up and nobody was there to meet me. Except another couple showed up who were going to be viewing the apartment at the same time -- which was a little awkward. And then the guy who was going to show it finally called and said he was sorry, that he’d gone to the wrong apartment! Well, that didn’t instill much confidence, quite frankly. Add to that the fact that the apartment needed more than just carpets replaced (which they were going to do) and that there were only 2 parking spaces for 8 apartments (yeah, you do the math…) – and it being in downtown, I’d probably have had to pay for parking (ummm…. No thanks)… Yeah, I didn’t get the warm fuzzies from that place. But that’s okay. We try again. I already have the next place picked out that I want to look into. It’s cute – a little tiny house. I emailed the company who rents it and heard back that it’s still available. Now to see if I can schedule a time. We shall see. But again, I know it’ll happen when it’s right. Until then, I just try. And really, it’s kind of fun to sit back and imagine all the excitement of my own place (and imagining it in the different places I’m looking at). And since a lot of my stuff has been in boxes for at least 3 years (and some of it as long as 5), it’s going to be like a treasure chest when I do finally have a place and start unpacking! I’m picturing all my cool kitchen gadgets now… :). Yep, that’s one of my weaknesses: kitchen stuff.

Oh, and I made my friend Donna’s pepper jelly. This stuff is awesome, though mine doesn’t pack such a punch (I think my garden jalapenos – those I used 30 of those suckers – weren’t quite hot enough…). Also I will cut back on the sugar next time, because it’s sweeter than I remember hers being. But then again, maybe this has to do with the lacking hotness?

Saturday my mom, Jeremy, and I went to a church Service Project in which we beautified our city by cleaning up sidewalks, etc. The weather has turned chilly, so afterward, when Jeremy and I went out to Applebee’s and to the waterfront to walk around, I made sure to have a sweater :). Yep, Fall will be here soon… It’s in the air.

Okay, so that about catches you up on that sort of stuff. The daily goings-on of the Nilla Life. But as I said, I need to keep tabs on my progress with the goals I set for 2011. Hold myself accountable and all that.

1. Attend the Temple monthly. I’ve been doing well with this goal. I did miss 2 months in the first part of the year, but those are still the only 2 months I’ve missed. So 7 out of 9. It’s been good to do this. I usually go with my mom, and we have enjoyed the time together. We usually eat together, either before or after. It’s just nice.

2. Read scriptures for 30 minutes each day. I can say I have improved hugely in this category since my 4-month update. Mostly this is because I decided that my lunch hour is a good time to focus on reading my scriptures. This way I make sure I make them a priority and do it before the end of the day when life gets hectic. And let me say that I have gotten so much more out of the scriptures since reorganizing my priorities. I followed more, I was able to apply more things to my life… And since the Stake President had challenged us in February to read the Book of Mormon before the next Stake Conference (which was a couple weeks ago), I had decided to work toward that goal, and I was able to accomplish it! Mostly due to the fact that I had decided to read during my lunch break. So that has been a blessing all around. I will still give myself an 85% on it, though. Because I don’t have as much self-discipline on Friday through Sunday sometimes, and reporting here is all about being honest. So there is still room for improvement, but I am glad to say I have definitely improved to this point :).

3. Write in my journal weekly. I have pretty much done this consistently. There might be one week since my last update in which I didn’t. But I only missed it by a day or two. I know I will be so grateful in the years ahead that I set this goal and followed through with it. Actually, I already am. I already go back and read stuff from earlier this year. See how things have changed, etc. It’s a good thing to keep a journal. Life happens so fast, and if we don’t record it, we are liable to forget some good stuff – and some significant moments.

4. Write 30 minutes a day. Yeah, not so much. That fell by the wayside when I gave up my room and got an almost-full-time job and etc. etc. etc. One day I’ll get back to it, though. Possibly not in 2011, though ;).

5. Continue adding to my savings account. Yep, been doing this faithfully. I’m glad too :). It is amazing how following the counsel of church leaders can be such a blessing. I don’t pull in a lot of money by any means, but the fact that I’ve continued to put money into savings, even if it wasn’t very much, and also the fact that I’ve been out of debt for over a year now have led to me feeling financially sound and ready to be able to move out on my own. I’m thankful.

6. Become organized and stay that way. Oy. Not doing so well on this one either. Actually, I am hopeful that, if I do eventually get a place of my own, this will be helped significantly simply by the fact that I’ll have a place to put stuff… Until then, I just need to still work toward the goal, even if it’s in small ways.

7. Achieve at least one of my “bucket list” items. Well, I haven’t so far. I suppose something could change in 3.5 months and I will manage to pull this off. But, then again, maybe I won’t. At least not this year. But hey… There’s always next year ;).

8. See a new place. Well, I’m doubtful that I will accomplish this one either, truthfully. Between starting a new job (and therefore not having leave time to use for 6 months) and choosing to spend money to go to Alabama in November rather than some exotic locale (and believe me, Alabama is probably the better option anyway ;)), this kind of took a back-seat. But again, there’s always next year :).

9. Lose about 8 more pounds. I think I reported in May that I had accomplished this goal and surpassed it. And I have continued to maintain where I was in May, so I’m happy with that.

10. 72 Hour Kits. Blech. So important. So not accomplished. I think I probably need to accomplish #6 and that will help me with this goal.

11. 3 to 6 months food storage. Again, I’ve seen little forward motion with this. I have been given some great ideas to help me on my way. I just need to get around to implementing them! And again, I think #6 will help here. (As will having a place to call my own…).

12. Expand my garden. Yep, I did this :). I still grew a ton of tomatoes (and now they are ripening and I have tomatoes of various sizes and types coming out my ears!) but I also grew jalapenos (which were not hot, as I mentioned above…), bell peppers, zucchini (and found a couple of ways to use it that I really like! Plus a recipe my mom went nuts over and made again the other night…), acorn squash, cucumbers, pumpkin, lettuce, chives, and cilantro – in addition to the strawberries that were already in place. Yep, I grew new stuff and got something out of all of it, so that makes me happy :). (See pictures at beginning of post. I was too lazy to move stuff around.)

13. Spend less time online and more time reading. This is a toss-up. I haven’t spent as much time online most days, simply because I’m at work. But by that same token, I also haven’t spent as much time pleasure reading as I would like. And so I don’t know how to grade myself on this. Maybe a C. Because I still turn on the computer and check email before I pick up my reading book…

Yep, so that’s it. Now you know :). And just for the sake of getting maybe 20 minutes of reading time in, I’m leaving it at that :).

Briefings

Yep, I've been mostly silent. But that's partially because I've been house-sitting for Bob and Melanie and therefore do not have my laptop to whiz around on. Sure, there's always their computer (which I'm using now), but then I don't do the uploading of pictures, etc. Not that I have many more pictures than of my garden ;). Well, and not even of my garden, really, but of the things I picked from said garden. Got some more big zucchini. Finally made my fresh tomato salsa (yes! the tomatoes are finally ripening!!!) but it's not as good as I remember it being. Something is missing. I keep adding garlic salt and that's helping. Also, the jalapeno from the garden didn't get much heat (turns out Jeremy was right about that...) so it's missing a little kick also. Oh well. I have plenty more tomatoes growing and the weather is going to be hot and sunny through this week. And by hot, I mean high 80s, possibly into the low-90s. Kind of weird weather for this time of year here, but really... We've had a weird year weather-wise anyway. This is the hottest it's been all summer. And the blackberries are ripening nicely. I've already made a blackberry cobbler.

So what else have I been up to? Well, mostly the sameold. Working. House-sitting. Jeremy and I went blackberry picking on Saturday. I went to Seattle with Lea to watch Xavier's girlfriend do a dance performance and that was interesting. It lasted all of about 20 minutes, so Lea and I spent the remainder of the time walking around Seattle and roaming inside of Bed Bath and Beyond. I love that store, because I love the kitchen stuff :). I love love love kitchen stuff! They had the cutest set of mini individual trifle bowls. So stinkin' cute! Anyway, so that's what we did that day. And made new memories. Like using a bathroom where you had to go into a store and get the code to be able to open the bathroom door. And discovering that you're supposed to punch our the perforated part of the toilet seat covers... (Yes, both Lea and I discussed this and neither of us punch it out because it just disintegrates anyway... Turns out both Jeremy and Chuck laughed at us for this -- and ironically both asked, "Haven't you ever read the instructions?" Ummm no. Because it's pretty self-explanatory? :)). And remember: it's only fun when it's fun ;). And we definitely had fun while getting lost in the basement of the 5th Avenue Theater, etc. I've made several zucchini recipes. I'm trying to encourage my love of zucchini. I'm not such a fan, but if I grow it, I'm determined to like it! I mean, I have grown quite a fondness for tomatoes now since I grew them last year :). And I'm finding ways to enjoy zucchini. Just not in a zucchini smoothie. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if we had actually had vanilla extract. But I discovered that we were lacking it after I'd already started. And so my mom suggested substituting almond extract. Because she does that for baking brownies or making homemade hot cocoa. Yeah so I tried it... Against my own better judgement (but it really needed something more than just the orange juice and zucchini flavors). Ummm yeah. Orange juice and almond extract make an interesting combo. I will say I did drink the whole thing without gagging, so there is that... ;). Que mas? Jeremy and I went to the Never Ending Pasta Bowl at Olive Garden. It's about the only time I choose to go there anymore because they seem over-priced regularly. It was enjoyable and Jeremy got to experience it for the first time. On Labor Day I spent the day at Jeremy's brother's house. I hung out with his sister-in-law while he helped build a garage. So I learned how to play Yahtzee! And that was fun! I played it back in the day (like think younger than 6th grade), so I had forgotten the whole thing. I like playing games, though. I also helped skin and freeze peaches (and learned a technique for getting the skins of easily) and we made a couple batches of cookies. And then Jeremy's mom and dad went over for dinner and his mom informed me that she's checked my blog several times and I hadn't updated ;). So I'm partially updating this for her :).

Other tidbits: we had all the kiddos at church on Sunday and they did well. Emily didn't want to stay in nursery when I left, so she cried. Broke my heart, so I didn't make her stay. Later she went back in, though. All the kids started school today. Saria is in 4th grade, Samuel in 2nd, Desiree in 1st, and Benjamin in kindergarten. Talked to my dad, Julie, and Virginia this week. Checked out a couple pleasure-reading books from the library (oh, I finally finished The Host by Stephenie Meyer) and am reading for fun again -- when I have the time. (Funny... From January through April I finished 14 of my goal of 30. From April to August, I finished 1! I think something entered my life that was of a slightly higher priority ;)).

I'm sure there are other things. But for now, I can't remember them. And since it's only 9 and I have a house to myself and a book to read -- well, I'm off to enjoy a foray into the land of fiction :).

Bounty!

Well, I'm not going to write much. But I wanted to post a picture of some of what I picked out of my garden today :). I picked a few more cucumbers than this and a little bit more romaine lettuce, but I gave that to Sue. Oh and a green bell pepper. Two of the green things are zucchini. I will be trying zucchini bread at some point and also found a recipe for Spicy Mexican Zucchini Casserole or something like that. I have more zucchini growing, so hopefully they will grow as big as the big one :).I'm house-sitting for Lea this week. They are down in Arizona dropping Morgan off at college. I am loving the quietude :).