Satisfaction

Tasty ripe Alberta peaches fresh from Broulims, $16.95 a box. Take that box, add mother and 2 determined daughters, and you get.....

Sorry to say that during my canning years, I never taught my girls how to process food. They may have helped, but they never really learned how to. It's probably been 10 years since I canned. The last time I did, half the jars didn't seal. That was a lot of work not to mention money, so I got discouraged and haven't tried it since. Then last week I was talking to someone who had a similar experience and she asked me what kind of lids I used. I told her they were Kerr, the kind my mom always used. She said her lids were Kerr lids too and she wrote the company about the problem. She changed to using Ball lids and hasn't had a problem. So far, the 14 jars we did Saturday all sealed and hopefully that will happen again tonight. We're pretty ambitious now. We think we're going to do some mustard pickles and some salsa. It's really actually enjoyable when there are 3 people doing the work instead of just one.

Failure to Blog

I have been chided this week by a co-worker who has recently started blogging about my failure to blog. I haven't posted anything since January. So, I thought I'd get brave and try to be more patient with the picture downloading time and do better. I decided to use the HP to see if it's faster than the laptop. I found the cords to connect the camera. Check. I took some pictures for a new blog. Check. I connected the cords to the computer and camera and downloaded the pictures I wanted, there were 4. Check. I logged onto my blog and had to change the snowflake background. Check. I started a new blog. Check. I previewed the blog. Check. I decided it wasn't exactly right. It needed a different picture so I went back and downloaded another picture. Uncheck. It wouldn't go in the file I wanted it to go. Uncheck. I made a new file and it seemed fine. Check. I went back to the blog but it looked like I had lost the entire blog. Uncheck. I started it over again. Check. Saved it this time so I wouldn't lose it. Check. Lost it. Uncheck. Started over again. Check. Lost it, but this time I found the other two (you have to look in drafts). Check. Chose one to edit. Deleted the picture I didn't want. Check. Tried to import the better picture. Error message--lost internet connection. Uncheck. Tried again. Same thing. Uncheck. Decided to try different browser. Check. Tried again. Same error message but in a different format. Uncheck. Tried again. Uncheck. I am bound and determined to update by blog. Decided against rebooting the computer since that has its hazards. Uncheck. So here it is. My first blog since September. No pictures. Just words. Just checking. No worries. I'll try again next week when I have an extra 3 hours to waste on my failures to blog!

Two Eighteen Year Olds

Every year between August 14 and September, Brandon and Logan are the same age. This year is year number 18. It's unbelievable! They have officially reached adulthood. It is hard to boss an 18 year old around. But what am I saying? It's been hard to boss them since they turned about 15!!! As they blow the candles out on their birthday cakes, I have to say that I could add several wishes of my own for their futures. I hope they all come true.

Holy Hero

It is with tears in my eyes and an ache in my heart that express my feelings at the passing of our dear prophet, President Hinckley. He is truly a Holy Hero in my life. He was 97 years old but I selfishly would have loved to keep him here to 107. What a joyous reunion he is having with his dear wife! I am happy for him and know there was not a better prepared man to leave this mortal life. He was a great man, a leader who endeared himself to members of the church and those outside of the church. He was a great example. I appreciated how positive he was. I loved the wisdom he shared with us in his conference talks. He was able to motivate through love and example and we as a church responded to that love and leadership. I personally loved his sense of humor and how he could laugh at himself. He was so personable. We will truly miss him and the classy way he was able to move the church forward into worldwide recognition and respect.

Next year for sure!

Lacey said it best in her comment to Kliss about seeing the lights on Temple Square. "Next year for sure." So here's my list of Next Year for Sure things:
1. Have the tree(s) up ready to light on Thanksgiving night.
2. Decorate 2 trees. One in the addition and a new white one in the front room in front of the window for all the people to see as they drive by and to help me remember it's Christmas because I don't go out in the addition that much.
3. For sure I'll have any gifts that are Christmas-y ready to give early so they can be enjoyed through the weeks before Christmas and not just on Christmas Eve. This means any decorations and/or neighbor gifts.
4. Have all gifts bought and wrapped by Thanksgiving so I can distribute them at Thanksgiving to save mailing them if that turns out to be a plan. If not, I'll still have them bought and wrapped and ready to go so I can sit back and smugly tell people that I have my shopping and wrapping done.
5. Post my list of "ever-so-clever-and-quite-cheesy" neighbor gifts in October so others can have plenty of time to get them ready to give to their neighbors.
6. Come up with a new neighbor gift idea that isn't lame so I don't feel stupid when I receive a bag with a loaf of homemade bread, a bag of Mission tortilla chips, a jar of homemade salsa (ummm---so good!) and chocolate raspberry bars that are wonderful and the recipe is from Weight Watchers. Accompanying that gift was another gift bag containing a mirror with the nativity etched on it. A small easel was included to hold the mirror. This from one neighbor. Another neighbor gift was paper products wrapped up in cellophane giving me a night off from doing dishes. This was accompanied by a big red popcorn bowl filled with a lightly sweetened mix of popcorn and nuts. Or, the huge, oversized bowl heaping with caramel popcorn and wrapped with yards of cellophane to cover all of it. My little $2 bottle of Mayo seemed downright cheap in the trading.
7. Make it to Utah to see the lights on Temple Square and visit our Utah families.
8. Enjoy the month of December instead of wondering if we had a month of December.
9. Get really, really organized for Christmas at the end of September. That means making lists, shopping, and planning. (This year I started my list before Thanksgiving and might as well have not even had one for all that seemed to not get done until the last minute anyway.
10. Next year for sure I will enjoy Christmas!

Shopping on Black Friday--Holy Cow!

I have strategies for getting my Christmas shopping done in the most comfortable environment I can create for myself. I do some of my shopping online, but I still have to venture out for the majority of it. So my strategy is to get up early every Saturday morning and be down south before the masses get there. That means that I am usually there by 8:00 a.m. (no later than 9:00) and most stores I want to shop at are open by then. I don't mind the shopping, but I do mind being in the crowds and standing in long lines.

This Friday, the girls thought it would be "fun" to go to Target early and just watch and do some minor shopping. Since I didn't have much else going on and since I don't mind getting up early, I was game. (I did have to be reminded of why we were thinking this experience would be "fun" a couple of times as my palms started to get sweaty in the bumper-to-bumper traffic.)


























As we were in the turning lane to enter the Target parking lot, Kliss suggested I put my 4-wheel drive vehicle to good use and jump the curb, cross the grass, dodge a tree or two , and get a parking spot. It didn't matter that it was a mile away from the store, it was a parking spot! My what a full parking lot it was. We thought we were getting there as the store was opening but we missed that fiasco. It had already been open an hour when got there at 7 a.m.

We streamed into the store with fellow bargain hunters only to find there were no carts available. How is a person supposed to do serious
shopping without at shopping cart? We should have gotten a clue about the long (read slow) checkout lines when there were not any people giving up their carts as they were leaving the store. As we were deciding what to do about the
dilemma, Matt's cousin, Angie, came through the doors and we gladly invited her to join us in
our adventure. While we were just there to get whatever, Angie had a few items she was looking for.


I couldn't help reminisce about the simple life of Christmas shopping pre-department store days. I remember as a child shopping at Kings and Porters. Kings had aisles of merchandise that were no higher than eye level, unless you were shopping on the outer walls which may have had merchandise higher up. I can't recall that exactly. They had a Toyland downstairs which was the same way. Pretty much what was on the aisles was what you could buy for Christmas. You could do mail order from the Sears and Penneys catalogs which would offer more variety, but that was pretty much it. We were quite limited comparatively speaking. Now it's practically floor to ceiling shelves full of merchandise giving you much more choice, and many more decisions to make.

I think of all the merchandise that just one store like Target carries, then think of the WalMarts, KMarts, Toys R Us's, Sams Clubs, Costcos, ShopKo's, etc., etc., etc. We live in a whole different world from when I was a child and even a young mother with just a couple of kids. It's ironic that even with all the merchandise available, you'll go out shopping and still say, "I wish they'd make ...." or " Why doesn't someone come up with....." or "I've looked all over town and I can't find pink Christmas lights anywhere."

Anyway, cheers to the brave souls who were waiting in lines at 4 and 5 in the morning. May you find peace, goodwill toward men and that $325 laptop you were hoping to buy!

Holy Cow! What a Job!

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I am doing some housecleaning. All ambitious last Saturday, I had a long list of To-Do's. The first thing I did was clean the oven. I wiped out the inside of all extra drippings (time: 5 minutes) so it wouldn't smoke up the house when I turned the oven on to the 1000 degree self-cleaning. It took 3 hours for the oven to clean itself.

For some reason I had to get something out of the freezer and I decided that it was now or never to defrost the freezer since there was quite a bit of frost buildup and it was a pretty decent day outside. This wasn't even on my list of To-Do's but it had to be done so I budgeted 2 hours for it. (The reason it didn't get done this summer was because there was so much meat in it and the heat of summer wouldn't be the best for frozen meat.)

I unloaded the contents into a large picnic cooler, a small cooler, a blue IKEA bag, and the empty fridge next to the freezer. The last time I cleaned the freezer, there was water all over the floor of the garage even though I had placed pans to catch the dripping thawing ice. This time I wanted to avoid that so I got quite inventive. Pampered Chef has a tool that has several tines on it to hold meat and such while you cut it. It was the perfect thing to use with the meat tenderizer to chisel away the ice which would then fall into the cookie sheet to be emptied on the lawn outside. It really did work quite well, but when you have 5 shelves of frosty ice buildup to chisel, you soon start to relate to Michaelangelo (sp?) as he carved statues out of marble. My budget of 2 hours turned into 4 hours and 45 minutes of chiseling ice.

The other smart thing I did was to lay used bath towels at the very bottom of the freezer to soak up the inevitable water I couldn't catch as ice. Then I just put them in the washer and I didn't have to worry about the water all over the garage floor. The not-so-smart thing I did was to have Brandon move the fridge out so I could unplug the freezer while I defrosted it. I was really bugged at having to do this. When Dad got home and asked about the fridge being out of place, I complained about how inconvenient it was. He took me out in the garage and showed me the knob on the inside of the freezer that rotates to the Off position. I was so busy whacking away at ice, that I didn't even see it.

Once all the ice was chipped away, I reloaded the freezer. We have at least 120 pounds of holy hamburger in there. I was so tired by the time I got done, that the rest of my To-Do's have been postponed until another day. Holy Cow, will someone please invent a self-cleaning freezer?!!!