34 Weeks, Among Other Things

We'll start with the all-exciting day of Chuck E. Cheese. Where a kid can be a kid. And an adult can lose her mind.  I generally try to avoid the place.  I am hoping it will not be a large part of my future as a consequence of having children.  But I will allow my children to have a childhood.  Even at the cost of Chuck E. Cheese.  Sigh.  Anyway, so what was I doing at Chuck E. Cheese?  Well, I happen to have a couple nieces who were invited to the birthday party of a little girl they knew from church.  And since they go to church with us, that means Christina has no clue who these people are.  And so, not wanting to leave them out of the fun stuff -- and not wanting the little girl who was celebrating her birthday to not have some friends there due to such a technicality...  I picked up Desiree and Emily and took them to Chuck E. Cheese.  Here they are, at pizza time.  It's funny.  Desiree totally understands the tokens and tickets concept.  Emily... Not so much.  She would have been completely content, I believe, to play in the completely free tunnels (gotta love a kid like that!).  Or, on the other hand...  If she's going to use a token, she wants to know if it's going to be in a ride that "moves."  Haha.  You know, the ones that don't offer tickets up for being awesome.  And that would all be fine and dandy if, at the end, there wasn't the all-important opportunity to pick out your Oriental Trading-quality prize!  So, I usually use a few of Emily's tokens to win her some tickets, just so she can "buy" a prize.  Yes, it would be a good lesson on choice and consequence ("Well, Emily, you chose to use your tokens in things that moved, but didn't give you tickets, so now you don't have tickets to get a prize.").  But this mommy-to-be was exhausted after 3 hours at Chuck E. Cheese, and didn't want to have to deal with that life lesson.  So, she had enough points to buy a little purple plastic wand with a star on top.  Totally worth it.  Anyway, they are cute, and I love them.

We got a surprise package from Pottery Barn kids via UPS the other day!  Thank you Stefanie (and Brady)!  Very cute bunny crib sheet (which we definitely were needing one of those!) and a cute soft stuffed bunny that Baby can one day snuggle :). 

And this is a knitted blanket a lady from church gave us.  The same lady who is teaching me to knit and who made the other knitted things.  Sweet lady.  There is a pair of knitted booties she gave us as well.  I'm tickled to have such precious items to welcome our baby with.

This past weekend was Conference weekend.  We usually drive to the church and watch it on the satellite there -- mostly to keep us in that "church" mood of things.  Because I have noticed that, in years past when I'd watch it at home with my mom, I'd be unloading dishes, etc -- and then I missed a lot of stuff.  So we decided we would go to the church until we have kiddos who won't enjoy that all that much.  But, when we showed up at the church building for Saturday morning session, we were met with the news that the satellite wasn't working.  So we could choose to go to one of two other sort of nearby church buildings, or just come home and watch it online.  We totally opted for the home choice.  Back into jammies and onto the couch and snuggling under the blanket while we watched Conference.  It was nice and relaxing.  I think we took naps both days after both sessions were done, too.  Haha...  I enjoyed Conference, as I usually do.  Appreciated the reminder to let our children have a childhood.  And that I need to be a little more patient and forgiving with the weaknesses of others (because I certainly have my load of my own weaknesses that I hope others will be patient and forgiving of).  And yes, I loved what Elder Perry said about how obedience to law is liberty.

The other thing I got excited about this Conference is that we totally achieved our 72 hour kit goal!!!  I didn't want to unpack all of my stuff, but here is my backpack full of my stuff.  Jeremy has one too.  I have 7 different categories (food, clothing, kitchen/cooking, hygiene/toiletries, miscellaneous, survival, and another I can't remember right now) and each category gets its own gallon-size bag.  While we hope to never have to use them, we are happy that we are prepared in case we ever need to.  And I'm happy to finally have that goal crossed off my list (and our family goal list).  Now it's a matter of maintaining the kit -- rotating out the food and other things that expire, like headache medicine).  When Baby is born, I'll make a kit for Baby as well.  And then, every 6 months, at Conference, we'll get into our kits, eat all the food that weekend, and replace with new food :).  And try to get an idea of how practical our kits really are.  We bought a couple of wind-up items that use our strength to keep them going (one is just a flashlight, and the other is a flashlight/emergency radio combo).  So yeah, the initial outlay is a little spendy -- depending on what you put in there.  But it's done. 

And so the next goal is to get all of our food storage.  We do pretty well, and I think we'd survive 6 months easily on what we have in the house.  But our canned goods could be improved upon.  And to do that, we are finding it necessary to get one of those food rotation systems.  Jeremy would rather design and build one, but there just isn't enough time in the day for all the things he'd like to design and build.  And since we want this goal achieved within the next few months, we'll just go the route of buying one.  If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about...  Go to the soup aisle at the grocery store.  The way they have all the soups now is what I'm talking about.  It will help me use the oldest stuff first and will be so much better organized than what I have going now!  We could potentially store up to 400 cans!  Anyway...  So that's our next biggie.  But that'll be another preparedness goal checked off our list.  

In less "preparedness" category, but still "goal" category...  I've started cross-stitching Christmas ornaments.  Here it is April and I hadn't begun.  I didn't want a repeat of last year where I was trying to get them all done starting in October (and I failed, by the way).  So, I now have one done (just have to turn it into an ornament) and only 12 more to go.  I'm almost done with the 2nd one.  That's definitely a benefit of being an at-home-wife... I have time to sit and do these things, even amongst the other day-to-day chores and to-dos.  I want to get several of them done before munchkin arrives....  Because my time will be used slightly different then.

Here I am today at 34 weeks.  Baby wiggles a lot and I watch my stomach move a lot.  The other night when I went to bed, Jeremy rolled to face me, put his hand between my stomach and the bed, and the baby kicked him.  It was funny.  I'm pretty much a side-sleeper these days.  With a pillow tucked between my legs.  There have officially been a couple nights where I have seriously considered coming out to sleep on the couch, simply because the couch cushions are softer and therefore more enveloping, and I was thinking maybe I could get comfortable faster.  Because when I can't get comfy, it takes me about an hour and a half to fall asleep.  Nothing infuriates me more.  Haha...  If I do make the mistake of having "too much tummy" on the bed (not enough on my side), I pay the price when I start to move.  It's like the baby settles or something, and I'm lugging this huge weight.  It's been amazing, this pregnancy experience.  In so many ways so different than I anticipated.  But an amazing miracle in all ways.  A true blessing.

 

Jeremy and I are officially planning our Alabama trip.  We're looking at the end of October, mostly in the interest of cooler temperatures down that way.  Plus, by then, Baby will be around 5 months old.  It's funny, because we actually have to remember that we will have a baby in tow.  I think it may change our mode of travel significantly.  When he and I went down to visit in 2011, we took the light rail in Seattle to the airport.  This, plus the ferry ride at 4:15 in the morning, tacked on extra time to our travel.  I don't think if we're going to want to do that again or not -- with an infant.  It might be worth the $35 each to get the airporter...  Who knows.  It will be an adventure.  We'll probably have to go ahead and suck it up and check luggage (and pay for it -- boo!) for the first time since they started charging to do so.  Because I just don't think everything we'd need would fit into our allotted number of carry-ons.  And we'd still need to take the car seat.  So yeah, we are already thinking ahead.  But I'm excited.  I need a vacation :).  And probably some Mikata.  Because we will be there around my birthday, after all :).  And I'll probably also need some chick-fil-a and some O'Charley's potato soup.  Because those are must-haves, you see.  Maybe some Italian Express too.  Mmmmm...  I should stop now ;).

On a foodie note (as if the last few sentences weren't enough):  I had a dream I was at a fair of some sort, and I was horrified that none of the food booths sold nachos.  I actually said in the dream, "What kind of a fair doesn't have nachos!?!"  I've never gotten nachos at the fair, so I'm not really sure why I was so indignant.  I think almost every dream I can remember has me involved with food in some way, shape, or form (it's best when I'm eating it ;)).  Is this abnormal?  Haha...

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.

Feelin' [Bloggy]

I don't really know why, but I have been feeling bloggy lately. I know you like that I make up words :). Anyway, take a listen to the song I butchered to make my title :). I grew up on that song. Shoot, I grew up on Simon and Garfunkel, if you want to know the truth of it. So before I delve into the way things are, I will tell you about the way things were once upon a time. A memory solicited from Simon and Garfunkel.

We had a two-story (aka upstairs/downstairs) duplex in Panama. There were exactly 14 steps. Twelve went straight up, and the bottom 2 were perpendicular to those. Check out this blog post from yesteryear for a semi-idea of what it looked like, if you're all that curious. Some of you have the unique privilege of having experienced it first-hand at some long-ago time. For those of you who didn't... Well, you can sort of imagine our stairwell from that picture :). So now imagine a couple of kids -- probably 11 and 12 years old. Brad (11) and me (12). My mom had her record of Simon and Garfunkel playing this song in the living room. And for some reason, we thought it was a ridiculously silly song. So one day, we sat on the stairs making fun of it, and Brad started kicking his legs in the air (or maybe it was me), sort of like doing a sitting can-can, whenever they would say "Yes he did!" and "Joy joy joy joy joy joy..." And then we laughed hysterically. More proof we could probably compete in "The World's Dorkiest Kids" competition. And probably place. I'd like to say we grew out of our dorkiness... But that would be lying ;).

And while we're visiting my yesteryears, and since I keep linking cool-awesome songs... How about I link one more, also applicable to my yesteryears in Panama, and which I only just found last night. It seriously brought a smile to my face. Because, if you knew what I know... You would understand. And maybe this will help you see :).

So now that I've told you about yesteryear, how about I tell you about next year? Or at least somebody's idea of what next year will be. I just finished watching 2012. Which I now need to take off my hold list at the library, since I watched it on Netflix while house-sitting. I'm going to go ahead and say I do not know why I keep subjecting myself to intense books and movies about massive natural disasters. It doesn't do good things for my nerves. It stresses me out. And gives me an overwhelming desire to become prepared. Which is where beef jerky comes in. But I'll get to that. Anyway... Right after the Japan earthquake and tsunami (which happened while I was house-sitting for my friend John), my dad called me early that morning to tell me the tsunami warnings were indicating a tsunami hit along the West Coast. Well, we really didn't see much of anything here, which is wonderful. But then I kept hearing about some predictions that we along the West Coast are pretty much due a massive earthquake. (I don't believe I realized I was moving to the Ring of Fire when I moved here... And not the cool one that Johnny Cash was singing about.) Anyway... Freaked me out. For one thing, I don't want to do the whole earthquake experience. I'm cool with missing out on that mortal experience. For another thing, if I have to experience it, I don't want it to happen when I'm all alone. Wimpy? Probably. But I don't care. That's scary! So I filled everything I could in John's house with water. Just in case. (It didn't help I was reading the 3rd book in that series about the moon being closer in orbit to the earth...). Laugh all you want. I don't care. It freaked me out. Thankfully, we didn't have the earthquake that was being predicted for the end of March. But that doesn't mean we won't ever have one. And I want to be prepared! As much as I can, at any rate.

And that's where beef jerky comes in :). See? I told you I would get there. One of my goals this year is to get my 72-hour kit ready. I'm starting to think maybe I'll maybe make two. One to keep in my car, and one to keep in the house. You want to know why I haven't even started on that goal? Because I don't have a convenient place to keep it all. Like the thing I would grab in an emergency, in which all my things would be inside of. What a dumb reason, no? I think I've made a decision, though, and this will help me get on my way with this goal. I'm also going to get a list going for the things I need to get. Lists focus me. I have pretty much decided that beef jerky is going on the list. It's delicious. It's protein. And it's good for a year. And it's pretty easy to pack, since it can squish a bit here and there. I believe I got this idea from reading Jessica's blog, in which she said they were eating their 72-hour kit food during Conference (to make sure it gets eaten -- and then they go out and replenish with fresh supplies). What a genius idea! On all accounts! A consistent way to rotate the food, and a brilliant idea for something healthy, etc. that is practical. Also, not heavy.

So aside from working (same shift as Lea, so mostly a fun time), shopping for ingredients to make arroz con pollo for Monday Meals, listening to the bits and pieces of Conference I could catch when I wasn't at work, watching a freak-me-out movie, and chillin' at Wendy's in blissful peace and solitude... Other than that, it was a regular old Saturday.

Oh, except here's a sad note to self -- and to anyone else who cares. So I was so craving nachos. Junk food, I know. I don't care. I love them. So I went to 2 different grocery stores to look for nacho cheese in a can. I know they make it in the big bulk cans at Costco or something. But I don't need that much cheese. I was hopeful it existed in smaller cans. Well, if it does, I don't know where to look. But I noticed, while I was in Safeway, that the Cheese Whiz jar claimed that it could be used for nachos. I figured, 'Okay... I have some leftover from the gourmet hot dogs Monday Meal back in who-knows-when (and I paid a pretty penny for it, so I don't want it to go to waste), so I might as well give it a shot.' So I went back by the house and got it. Yeah, totally not the same experience. Not even close. Cheese whiz is way too rich. I was pretty much sick halfway into my bowl of nachos. What a total bust. I should write the company that manufactures Cheese Whiz and tell them to remove "nachos" from the lid as being something you can put cheese Whiz on. It's like an insult to real nachos everywhere :).

P.S... I didn't watch the girls tonight. Christina and Nick cancelled :(. I sure miss those babies when I don't see them for a while.

Tent Cities and Freebies!

So, on Saturday, during the afternoon session of Conference, the kids were starting to get really rowdy. So, Tarylyn and I worked on calming them by building them a tent/fort in the house the way we used to. Alas, I did not have my cohorts with me (ie Brad and Christina), so it wasn't the best of tents. Plus it's been many many years since I've built one of these suckers. Hopefully the next attempt will be even more radical. But the kids loved it! Of course, this meant that Tarylyn and I only heard bits and pieces of Conference. But we had fun. In fact, I think I was a little more excited than the kids about building the fort. It really makes you use your brain and be creative, because you have to figure out how to attach the blankets. We used clothes pins, just as we always did when we were kids. This was Tarylyn's first time building a fort that way. I look forward to our next tent in which I've had more recent practice and perhaps new ideas :). (So Dad, the sheets we brought up have been going to great use as ceilings ;)).


The family meeting went really well, I think. So many great ideas! And so many resources as we pull together as a family. We women have decided to plan a day of canning each month. Even if there aren't any fruits in season that we can either pick for free or buy cheap, we can can stuff such as spaghetti sauce and soups with a pressure canner. Michele has one of those. Michele also told us some of the things you can use dried beans for, other than just boiling and eating! There's some cool stuff you can do with them! Including using them in cakes! How wild is that! Such great info! We had tons of fun laughing. I think we accomplished quite a bit. And I think we all have a way to contribute to the family as a whole. I'm excited we can pull together and do this together. I think we will grow closer as we do. Of course, lame-o me, I didn't remember to take any pictures while we were meeting and eating. So, the only picture I have of that night is of Samuel, Saria, and Desiree. Samuel and Desiree have recently gotten new haircuts, so they wanted to show them off.


But don't worry... We're having a Halloween party at the end of the month (only we're going to call it a Hilaween party, since we'll celebrate my birthday as well. And before you call me conceited (Brad), it was Mom's idea!). Anyway, it will give the kids a chance to wear their costumes an extra day. And we're coming up with gooey, gross Halloween finger food ideas. We've found some real doozies!!! So, I promise there will be tons of pictures from that. Including food pictures. Because you know me :).

And finally... Freebies are the coolest! So, my mom works as an office manager in a funeral home. I don't know the whys of it, but they aren't allowed to sell things they've purchased once they don't want them anymore. So, staff there can ask for them, and whoever asks first gets it. Well, they were getting rid of a curio cabinet. I've always always wanted a curio cabinet!!! I collected little ceramics for years. I have them packed in boxes (which they have been packed in since 2003... how sad is that? My life has always just been too temporary to unpack them!). Though I've always had shelves we attached to the wall to put them on display, since becoming an adult, I've always wanted a curio cabinet for that (helps them get less dusty, I would think ;)). So, my mom asked for it, and we got it!!! For free! And it's like brand new! No scuffs or anything I could see. So, now it is stored with all my other earthly belongings, in the garage. Notice the piano behind it. One of these days, these things will be in a living room :).


Oh, and I have such wonderful friends! I have talked to so many of them this past week! Virginia, Tammy, Stacy, Juliebean, April, and Stefanie. It has been a great week so far :).

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 :).

Feeling a Bit Daunted

Okay, so I heard back from Seattle Public and will be going for my pre-interview on the 2nd of October (which, though it sounds like it should be eons away, is now less than one week away! Where the heck did September go?!?!). Let me just say I feel daunted. I will be interviewing to qualify for all three librarian positions: Adult Services, Young Adult Services, and Children's Services. In order to qualify for YA, I have to present a 5-minute book talk. No big problem there. In order to qualify for Children's, I have to present a 5-minute story. I was unclear on what they meant by story, so I emailed them. Could I read aloud? Or did this have to be me telling a story without a book? Basically, the answer is that there are no restrictions, but that I should expect the interviewers to respond as children if I request it. What!?! I'm not really sure what that even means. Either way... I'm going with reading a story. Why? Because the other way would make me even more nervous! So, I called my trusty and wonderful friend Kristin who is the Children's Librarian at HLML. She's awesome, people. If you don't know her, just trust me. She is awesome. She suggested several titles. I was only able to find 2 of the ones she mentioned and then another by the same author that she didn't mention. Then I took them to Brad's house and used Samuel and Saria as my guinea pigs. I read to them and let them tell me which one they liked best. So, I will be reading aloud Dooby Dooby Moo by Doreen Cronin. Really cute stories if you are looking for something cute for kids ages 3 to about 8. So thank you to Kristin!!! You are wonderful!

In other interesting news... While I was in the library, I spoke briefly with the Children's Librarian. I mentioned why I'm getting the books, and she perked up and ended up telling me that within the next 2 months they will be posting a position for a Teen Services librarian here in this town. The downside is that it's only part-time. Apparently they are creating the position. And trust me, they need it badly. I went into the teen section to select a book to read and on which to write a book-talk for the interview. Their selection is really awful. I was very surprised. Of course, I hope to get a full-time job. And I certainly hope to get one before 2 months from now! But, it's always good to know these things, and I thought it was most excellent (to quote Bill & Ted) that she would tell me something like that. I guess we just see what happens. I know the right thing will come along, so I'm not really sweating it. I just apply for the jobs as I find them.

Also while at Brad and Tarylyn's, we went outside and picked wild grapes that grow in their yard. They are edible, though they taste very strange. (Well, I assume this is true since I've eaten several over the last month and have not died yet... I keep eating them to see if they taste more like "real" grapes.) Nothing like what a grape should taste like in my mind :). But, we are going to turn them into grape jelly. Because we can (can) and I love doing this stuff! Here's to hoping they will taste less sour when we add the 7 cups of sugar per 4 cups of grape juice. Of course we are also going to be making applesauce and apple butter tomorrow. Along with canning the blueberries for blueberry cobbler stuff. Christina is going to go over and help too. It will be very fun, if you ask me :).

Oh, and also while at Brad and Tarylyn's, we watched more episodes of The Office. Elka... It's hilarious. Michael gets on my nerves. He's such an idiot. But then that is what makes it so funny. Brad lent me the rest of season 2, so I'll be watching some of those after I finish this blog. I figure I need to play catch-up so I know what's going on rather than just start in on the new season. And since Brad has them on DVD, I get to do just that. I have watched through the one where Michael cooked his foot on his George Formann grill and Dwight got a concussion. Oh my gosh I laugh so hard in some of these episodes.

Oh, and for those of you wondering... I'm still working on reading The Name of the Rose. It's finally starting to pick up. It took a little while to get into it, because it has a lot of descriptions. But now that I'm about 170 pages into it (and I have a very long way to go!), I'm starting to pick up speed. It just seems like I never have much time to read. And then I end up watching episodes of the Office when I do ;). Of course, I'll have to stop on that book until I read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. I have to do a booktalk on it before Thursday. Hopefully it will be a good read. I'm pretty sure that book is on my list of books I want to read at some point in my life (the list that always gets longer and longer and longer!). I don't have that list easily accessible at this juncture, as it is packed in my nightstand drawer in the garage. Although... If I were to get a job in Seattle, I wouldn't move there. So I would have an hour commute via the ferry. I'd say that's good reading time!

Oh! Went to my first night of Institute here. The teacher is very different from my last teacher in Tuscaloosa, but I still learned a lot. We are studying the New Testament this year. It seems as though sometimes there are little nuggets meant just for me in some lessons. I think I will enjoy this class and learn a lot, as I have the past 2 years. Annie, you'll have to tell everyone that I even used my Alabama sweater already! Wednesday was drizzly and cold. It never got out of the 50s. I figure the 4th floor will enjoy knowing I'm already making good use of the good-bye gift :). Of course, today cleared up nicely and was perfect weather this afternoon. And I'll tell you what I have noticed: I sleep the best when I'm snuggled up under comforters and blankets because it's cold! I get such wonderful sleep these days! Although my tootsies are like ice cubes, even under the blankets, for quite a while. But eventually they warm up nicely :).

Well, I'm off to watch some of The Office. Perhaps I'll post pictures of our canning joys tomorrow. We'll see how I feel about it. I know my mom and I are going to go to the General Relief Society Broadcast. But eventually there shall be pictures. Because you know me... I'm a picture fanatic (or fool... Brad would vote the latter).

Because I Can (-Can)

Sometimes I really crack myself up.

I flexed my homemaking muscles yesterday by canning peaches and peas. It was really fun! Probably mostly because I was doing it with family :). Let's see... I don't even remember the last thing I told you. Friday I baby-sat again all day and also took grandma to the doctor's office. That about summed up the day for me. Saturday morning, my mom and I went to the produce market in Tacoma. Totally awesome!!! And some really really awesome prices. We got red, orange, and yellow bell peppers for 50 cents each! Too cool. Usually you pay over 2 bucks for one red pepper. I know, because I have to get one every time I make those confetti pinwheels at girlie parties. I just don't think green peppers (though cheaper) would taste the same. So this was quite the bargain! Anyway, so now we'll have to get the other ingredients to make those. Maybe Tarylyn will host a family girl night at her place since she has a pretty good-sized house. But I digress... As usual. We also got 40 peaches for $10 (yep, 10 dollars!) and 1/2 a flat of blueberries for $17. If it wasn't the end of the season, they would have been $2 cheaper. But, we know for future reference. We also got a bunch of apples, some fresh corn, snow peas, sugar snap peas, bananas, canteloupe, baking potatoes, fresh chicken breast (a huge whole one), and a huge hunk of M&M white fudge (hand-made there at the store) -- because Grandmas and Aunt Hilas always take treats or provide them in some way to the kiddos :). (Plus we get some too ;)). We might have gotten other stuff that I just can't remember right now. But anyway, it all came in under $90! I was highly impressed! After running a few other errands (including a run on Costco... a place I hope to never again go to during the afternoon -- masses of people... it's unreal), we went to Brad and Tarylyn's. The kids were very excited that we were there. Brad was working his weekend of Reserves with the Air Force, but he got home before we were done canning the peaches. This was my first canning experience. What a messy job! But it was lots of fun! And we're going to do applesauce and apple butter next weekend with the apples! As well as making up the stuff for blueberry cobbler and then canning that stuff (kind of like canning pie filling, I guess). We also freezer-locked some of the blueberries tonight to just freeze them whole. So anyway, here are our pictures :):

Do be sure to click on this picture to get others. Otherwise you'll miss the blueberries and also the pictures of the kids eating fudge :). Along with others :). When we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, the snails were out on the wall! It was really wild to open the car door and see them all like that. But, yesterday was a rainy day, so I guess that brought them out to "play." The cold has set in for the most part. It will only get colder, of course. Yesterday it rained all day and the temperature never left the 50s I don't think. Of course, with us boiling water in the kitchen all day, we were content with it.

I cooked dinner last night and just made the chicken stir fry with the ramen noodles. Everyone liked it, so I was glad about that. I also called and talked to my dad for about an hour. Told him how things are going up here and all that. He says Dothan is getting cooler weather, which I've also read that on some of my friends' blogs as well. Yay for cooler weather!

Today was church. I helped in the nursery, since it was short-handed and my mom is the Primary President here. It's really weird to go to church at 1 p.m. I like the 9 or 9:30 church times.

Actually, part of the reason we are starting to jump on the wagon of doing lots of canning is because of what has happened with the economy in the past week. It has pretty much scared me. My plan had been to work on getting food storage and all that up and ready once I got my job and got all this debt paid off (including the student loans), but I don't think there's time to wait, and I need to do both at the same time. It frightens me what has happened over the past week with Wall Street and all these banks and mortgage companies, etc. It's not good. And I have talked to my mom and Brad and Tarylyn about wanting to call a family meeting to discuss things and get our plan for how we can be prepared... to pull together to help each other and become prepared as we have been told to do by prophets for years. What a blessing to be warned and given counsel so that we are prepared. For if we are prepared, we shall not fear. Anyone interested in what to store, how long to store it, and how much you should have can visit my "provident living" link under "places I visit on the Web." It's full of great info.

To leave on an up note, tomorrow I take Christina to her doctor's appointment. She's scheduled for an ultra-sound, so maybe she'll know what she's having after tomorrow. I won't share that news, though. That's her news. I'll try to force her to blog about it :).