Box of Peaches. . .what to do.

We we picked peaches on Saturday and they are starting to get ripe. What to do. . .instead of letting half of them rot like usual I decided to get a little creative. I love good jelly's and jam. You know the stuff from the farmer's markets that don't have all the fake weird stuff in it. . .well I decided if the farmer's could do it, I should be able to do it too. I researched a bit online, bought some jars and a grabber thingy for the jars and did my thing. So far I have made four jars of Jam. From the recipe, I think I'm suppose to let the jars sit for 24 hours before I use them. I'm so tempted to open on to see what it turned out like. I really have no idea. . .it might just be awful. I did manage to get all four jars to seal tight so now according to my recipe they should be good for up to a year. If it tastes good this might just be amazing and something I'll have to keep doing. . .man I'm so domestic. Maybe I should buy a farm. . .

Mmmmm. . .Peaches.

As we left the house Saturday morning and drove east to Illinois, the sky was dark and the rain was sprinkling. We kind of wondered how the day would turn out. After about the hour drive, we pulled into the Farm. People were putting their fruit in their cars and looked like they had just weathered a storm. Turns out they did and we had just missed it. The day turned out sunny and warm. I needed a snack when we got then so we all shared some nachos and a corn dog. . .I know, real healthy. But it sure was good. Grace spotted a guy who worked there at the snack stand in a Cowboy hat. . .I think she has a thing for cowboys. She instantly fell in love with him. She hadn't talked to him at all, but ran up to him, hugged him as stared at him in awe. It was so funny. After that she stocked him. After picking peaches all she wanted to do was go see the cowboy again. When we left we let her say goodbye. She was full of smiles and managed to get us some free french fries. We should have taken her picture with him. I think she made his day. So, back to the peaches. . .they were good. Not too ripe yet, which was good since we couldn't eat our whole box that fast. Grace also had her first "squatting" experience. Mike took her to the edge of the orchard and let her pee. She was pretty impressed. . .when she told us she needed to go I quickly volunteered to watch Obie while they went. I thought it would be a good bonding experience. . .actually I had no idea where to take her and I really thought someone would stumble upon us. Mike and Grace were successful and didn't even get caught.

Outside Fun.

Our "beach."

Playdough Fun.

Obie loves animal figures. . .see the cow?

So last week the weather was great. It was fairly cool and the humidity was low. We decided to have a little fun outside. . .I also had a brilliant idea. We took the playdough outside, instead of playing with it at the dinning room table. So much easier, and I have no idea why I hadn't thought of that sooner. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever. They got to sit at the little table, and Grace didn' t have to sit and listen to me tell her over and over to pick it up off the floor.

2 against 1.

Thats how we will be until Wednesday night. 2 kids against me. . .well hopefully not "against" me. So far we been having a good time. We have the car and we get to do whatever we want. Yahoo!

Heaven.

So in Germany, there is a bakery named Lacoste. They have yummy cappuccino and the best pretzels ever. There are two types. . .the large twisty kind or one the looks like a roll. They are so good. I would always stop by to get one with butter. . .man, they were so good. Anyways, they weren't like American heard pretzels, there was something special about them. . .I miss them. Recently I found a "European Cafe" that carries "pretzels rolls." They are the same thing as in Lacoste. Perfect. Butter and all. Its about 20 minutes away but yesterday I had to go to a store near by so I decided to stop and pick a few up. I got 4 of the little rolls. . .actually 3, but had an extra in my bag. 2 for me and 2 for Mike. I ate mine on the way home driving. I was a hazard. . .trying to dip my pretzel roll in a soft piece of butter while merging. . .the pretzel just couldn't wait. . .it was heaven!

I figured it out...

I now know how to cut watermelon. I figured it out all by myself and there was no blood. Yeah Me! The watermelon and I got off to a ruff start. . .it rolled off the cutting board as I was getting a knife, split in half and left sticky juice all over the kitchen floor right before people were getting ready to come over. . .but after that it was smooth sailing and I cut it. Usually it looks like the watermelon got into a fight with a butcher knife. . .not anymore. Perfectly cut pieces.

My Project. . .

See the white circle?

Our Room. . .so I've been working on getting our room cleaned up some what together. We put a few things on the walls, cleaned up the desk (there was an old computer that we haven't used forever) and we put up a new fan. The fan is amazing. It works so much better then the ancient one we had. It came with some glass light covers. . .it looks nice but when we turn on the light there are funny light shapes all over the walls. . .it kind of gives you the affect of being underwater. You can kind of see it in the last picture. The other thing is were the fan connects to the ceiling it is smaller before, so there is a white circle around it. (We had painted the side walls a light tan and the other walls a greenish color. . .the wall the bed is on used to be hot pink with everything else white) Anyways we need to paint the lovely white circle. When I was taking these pictures Grace and Obie were playing in their room. I took a few pictures of them goofing off. You can see the new frames and the pictures I blew up above their dresser.

They were flipping eachother on the chair. . .and loving it. Obie likes to play with his name letters on the wall. . .they are all crooked, all the time.

Chai Break

Yep. I called it. BREAK TIME! So why not a chai break. . .Its cool and windy today so I decided we shoud hang out in the back yard. Grace and Obie played and I attempted to tackle some of the weeds. I conquered some, but not all. . .as I was pulling weeds Obie managed be crack and break off a piece of my glass. I turned around and he was chewing/eating/drooling on/licking the piece that had broken off. It was a triangular piece of glass that was probably 3 inches on each side. I don't know what he was doing but last time I checked it wasn't exactly a good thing for kids to be chewing on broken glass. I jumped up and took it away, and then checked his mouth for cuts and blood. There was nothing. . .good thing. . .That would have been a little hard to explain. "yeah, I left him alone with a glass, gave him enough time alone with the glass to break it and oh yeah, consume it. . ." Hmmmm, not so good. Anyways, that problem was solved and ok in the end. As I sit on my "chai break" the laundry is going. . .and the sinkis full of dishes again. . .next house=dish washer. . .note to self. Oh. . .on an exciting note. . .we are going to a concert. . .kids and all. Can you guess who? The Wiggles. We are going to see the Wiggles in real life. The real Wiggles. . .and the Big Red Car. Aug. 11 3pm. Thats where we will be. . .

Just on more. . .

I thought I had added this pictures but I must have accidentally erased it from the blog. So

here it is. . .one of my favorites from yesterday.

Debate

First pretend your a man. . .if you aren't already. . .
you are wearing khaki pants and navy blue shirt. . .What color belt and what color shoes would be appropriate?

Next. . .if you are wearing a red shirt and khaki pants. . .What color belt and shoes?

Next. . .if you are wearing a black shirt and khaki pants. . .what color belt and shoes?

There is currently a debate going on. . .we need answers. . .don't cheat and look at others answers just tell me what you think. . .This might be totally obvious. . .I think it is but we just need some confirmation. . .there is no anger, yelling or fighting over this. . .just confirmation from outside sources would be good.
Thanks and please comment. . .EVERYONE.

So. . .pictures. . .

Look at that curl.

Concentrating.

Resting.

Kisses.

My Boy

Grace, can do it!

Bubba Obie.

Of course. . .the Wiggles. . .his favorite.

Huhhhhh.

Sweetie pie.
Grace practicing her buckling skills and Obie being very patient.

Grace was Mommy (in my shoes) and Obie was named Daddy (in Daddy's shoes). Grace wanted to dance. . . so they did.

Mom and Jenny have been begging to see more pictures of us. . .the problem is we haven't really done anything too interest and therefore haven't taken any pictures. Due to all the begging I took out the camera today and took pictures of our "oh so fun time" destroying the living room. Here are some "major" happenings today. (Not so major. . .I guess this shows how uneventful our day way)

-we tried on shoes

-we played with cars

-Grace learned how to buckle her own sandles today "all by herself"

-we went for a short walk. . .I've either really out of shape (which is totally possible since family was in town in June I never really had to push the stroller) or the kids have doubled in weight and the hills around our house have grown. . .higher and steeper.

-I made stir fry for dinner. . .it wasn't so good. . .we tried a new type of meat. . .

-I also made blueberry coffee cake.

-I was tired

-I went to work

-Mike is going to be in Josh and Hannah's wedding so he got measured today.

-Mike fixed his biked and rode them to "Mama's Playgound" aka my work

-We ate really yummy peaches

-I mowed the backyard and trimmed the junk along the fence.

So that was basically our day. . .not too exciting. Maybe I'll try to be more productive tomorrow. . .maybe.

Do with what you have. . .

Grace and Obie attempting to walk across a wet slide. . .I told them not to and they didn't listen. I figured if they wanted to learn the hard way they could. . .they didn't seem to mind the falling, so I sat back and was entertained.

Grace and "her" pink pool.

Obie and his full pool.

Jumping.

A few weeks ago we filled the little purple pool with sand and made a sand box. . .which was a great hit by the way. We were going to get another little pool but haven't really gotten around to it. . .which left us with a problem. Since then we have had a few really hot days. . .the hose doesn't keep them busy for long and pretty much just causes fights so we needed something. These plastics tubs were a hit. . .a little scary watching them climb in and out. . .plus they are much deeper. . .but I watched them and they were a hit. Keep them busy for awhile. . .the only problem was Grace thought the pink one was only hers. . .its pink you know. . .Obie didn't always abide by her rule. I think Obie is good for Grace. . .did I forget to mention they love each other. . .really they do.

19 weeks

So we are at 19 weeks. . .hopefully this means almost halfway there if not maybe a little less. I attempted to take some pictures with Grace in the room. She decided to get in on the action and join the shot. . .this was all her doing. . .no prompting. . .I didn't even ask her to get in the picture and I never lifted my shirt once. This last week I have been feeliing pretty good. I've been pretty productive. . .I'm kind of on a "lets get rid of some of this junk" kick. I don't know if thats a good thing or a bad thing. I haven't been too tired, but I'm to the point I can feel my belly growing larger. . .I can also feel baby Pinky moving throughout the day. Seems like the kicks are usually on the right side of my belly. According to the Wii, I've gained 8 pounds. So that about it. One more week and offically halfway.

If you are selling stuff on Craigs List you probably hate me. . .

So last night I was browsing some awful looking couches on craigslist.com and happened to come across two that were pretty nice and of course had a pretty nice price tag. One was a grayish more classic looking couch, 2 years old and $550. The other was a Pottery Barn leather sofa that had a pull out bed for $1500. There were also two nice looking chairs that went nicely with the couch for an additional $100. Both people mentioned they were moving in the add. . .moving. . .that meant they had to get rid of them one way or another. . .it I wrote them each an email. There is no way I'm going to spend that kind of money on a used sofa off Craig's list. . .I have never even paid for a sofa in my life. . .I would have a very hard time even in a store to pay for a sofa. . .anyways, I wrote them each and email and basically said I didn't have much money to put towards their furniture but I liked it a lot. I let them know that if they got in a bind and needed somewhere for their furniture to got I could take care of it for them. I would provide a good home for the furniture and would move/transport it myself and I would be able to pay them a fraction of what they wanted. . .but the furniture would be gone. . .to a good home and I would love it very much. Ahhhh. . . can you believe I did that. . .who was I kidding. I was basically asking a stranger to give my their super nice stuff. The Pottery Barn lady wrote and said thanks so much and she would let me know. The other guy wrote back saying he could negotiate a little on the price. . .a little doesn't work for me. I need a lot. So if you are posting a craigslist. . .I'm sorry. . .I just thought I might be worth a try.

Success #2

He did it again. Obie peed on the potty for Mike before his bath time. Mike was very excited and Obie was thrilled to get his blue jelly bean.

I love Costco!

Just so you know they returned my opened ink that I attempted to use. . .I didn't have the receipt or anything. . .and they gave me cash. Yep, $63. 04. That makes the printer situation a little better.

Work Day. . .

Ha. . .isn't every day a work day around here. . .to day is Wednesday, the day I pass the kids over and go to work during the day. . .usually I just go in when Mike gets home but today I go it during the day. Not much is going on, I've been pretty productive so far this week. Our ceiling fan is about a million years old, you know one of those old brass way to fancy ones. When we first moved in we spray painted it black, which helped but I've never been too happy with it. This week we bought a new black ceiling fan. . .and it sure makes a difference. Blows more and looks so much better. We still need to attach the light ficture thing to it but after dealing with our weird ancient ceiling wires and working on getting the fan up for 2 1/2 hours we decided the lights could wait until today. So thats my exciting news. No new picutres. Oh, I'll attach the picutres of Grace and Obie. I blew them up for their rooms. . .you know. . .the broken frame story. The picture of Grace is from last spring but I really liked this one and the one of Obie is from our pool time outside.

This one I put in our room. It was from our time in NC.