Goings-On and Happenings

I've been so busy planning my Sarah Palin Halloween Costume (seriously, that's what I'm going to be. Watch for pics.) that I haven't updated for a few days. Elise and Charlie came to stay last weekend while Dave and Liza went to St. George. The kids slept over at Grandma Ellie's house with Kate for two nights. Kiki seemed to really enjoy being an "only child" for a couple of days. Kate and Elise were so cute together. "We are best cousins," they said. "That's cousins who are also best friends." We went to my mom's for dinner on Sunday- Bruce has been out of town for a conference so he missed out on the fun. I don't want to brag, but I made the most delicious German Chocolate Cake. It was a new recipe which is always a gamble, but it paid off in a big way. It's "Sandy's Chocolate Cake" from Allrecipes, with homemade German Chocolate Frosting. Yum.

Kiki in Grandma's backyard.

Kiki loves George's dog, Ringer. He is so desperate for human affection that he thinks Kiki pulling his hair is like a hug or a kiss.

On Saturday morning I braved the rain with Jack, Charlie, Elise, and Kate to go on a field trip. It was to a field. We saw "sheeps" (as Charlie says), turkeys, chickens, and little miniature ponies. The kids were thrilled with their giant turkey feathers that Grandpa Jack had collected.

I know that this one is dark, but this is Kate at gymnastics taking her maiden voyage across the tall balance beam. It was an exciting time!

Since Janet and I don't have the stomach for any more canning, but we still have tomatoes, we decided to make our own dried ones. I love sun-dried tomatoes. Rose gave me the instructions in a nutshell, I borrowed George's dehydrator, and I began the experiment yesterday. I had 6 or 8 very large Brandywine tomatoes. They filled up almost the whole dehydrator. I began to worry- could I freeze the extras? Would they go bad before I could eat them? Well, all that stress was for naught, because as it turns out, a dehydrator FULL of fresh tomatoes results in a yield of ONE PINT (two cups!) of dried tomatoes.
Yes, folks, that's a jam jar. But they are beautiful, no?

Lastly, had I known that the "Crap Counter" would be such an effective behavioral modification device I would have instituted it months ago. But yes, Bruce has cleaned up the pile of papers! For the record, the pile was carbon dated to much older than 95 days: One of the uppermost items was a card from Bruce's birthday, which was in APRIL. Watch for: Kate's Whine-O-Meter ("I'm not whining, I'm actually CRYING," she said the other day), Kiki's Bite Marks, and my Swear Jar (with online banking transfers available).