From food, snow, garden

But it was off and on and wasn’t sticking.
I was not amused to wake up Sunday to this:

From food, snow, garden

Because of the impending freeze I decided to see if I could save my very green tomatoes Friday afternoon.  I did pick off all the red ones first.
Before:

From food, snow, garden

From food, snow, garden

From food, snow, garden

See the pumpkin?  I’m also trying to save the peppers.

From food, snow, garden

After:

From food, snow, garden

I put the light in there with a 125 watt bulb hoping to keep it a little warmer. It looks like a scene from ET to me. Did you see the pumpkin in the last picture before tenting?

From food, snow, garden

We also ‘gleened’ a garden by my mom’s house. By garden I mean 1.5 acres of garden and fruit trees. Also? There was an electric fence that was on. Luckily I found out it was on the hard way rather then on of my girls. (Ouch!) But this is what we came home with:

From food, snow, garden

I’m going to make some apple pie filling with these.  They’re a bit too tart for eating.

From food, snow, garden

Decorative gourds.  I love the ones that are half yellow and half green.

From food, snow, garden

Peaches I’m going to dry, plums my kids have eaten so many of they’re more then a little ‘runny’. If you know what I mean.

From food, snow, garden

These peppers were incredible!

From food, snow, garden

More gourds and a cantaloupe!

From food, snow, garden

Gourds on the bottom, butternut squash and acorn squash on the top with another cantaloupe.

From food, snow, garden

These are banana squash- apparently they’re supposed to get this big?

From food, snow, garden

More fruit.

From food, snow, garden

Fresh corn, tomatoes and a few peppers.

From food, snow, garden

Second bag of tomatoes.

From food, snow, garden

25 Quarts of spaghetti sauce.  I only used one bag of tomatoes. I need to do the other bag.  Problem is that canning causes neglect of children. It also is very messy.

From food, snow, garden

My sauce.

From food, snow, garden

My kitchen was totally trashed.

-Tonight we were supposed to go to Provo (about and hour away) to celebrate my sister’s birthday with her.  We found out at the last minute that it wasn’t going to happen- about 10 minutes before we were going to leave.  I’d already made two pumpkin pies and a peach cobbler for her birthday dessert. Two of my other sisters who live about an hour north of us (so 2 hours north of the Provo sister) were already on their way and about 15 minutes south of my house so we had an impromptu dinner party.  It’s always nice to see them and my girls LOVE their aunts. I love that they are growing up loving their aunts.  I’ve got two sisters an hour north, a sister and my mom 15 minutes south and another sister and her new hubby an hour south.  My kids are surrounded by extended family who love them and love to spend time with them.  I can think of no greater blessing.  Well, unless some of my sisters (or my brother) with KIDS lived near us- then they could grow up knowing cousins too.

-Funny story.  This afternoon Cori and Annika were very interested in the pies I was making. I told them they were for Aunt Barbara’s birthday party tonight and that we were going to her house to see her.  Corinne immediately piped up and said, ‘and Uncle Matt!’  So they like their uncle too.

-I’m feeling incredibly lazy lately.  I need to recover from recovering from my surgery.  I’m lacking motivation to do much of anything though. I’m not sure what my problem is.  I generally function better when I’ve got a lot to do and right now nothing is urgent and quite frankly will still be there tomorrow (and the next day and the next day) if I don’t bother.  How do you motivate yourself?

-I’m digging Pandora.  I know I’ve talked about it before but it’s been a while.  It’s a great way to discover new music.  Lately though I’ve been loving my Jimmy Buffet station. A friend of mine commented about an album she’s been enjoying and having never heard of the artist I was able to create a station to listen to see if I’d like it. (I did)

-I need new family pictures.

-Something smells funny in my house.  It didn’t smell funny 5 minutes ago, but now it does…  hmm.

-Today was crazy hair day.  Ashley’s been sick and Megan was ’sick’ on Tuesday- when they send home all the papers.  Anyway- my neighbor saw Megan on her way to school without crazy hair, called me and asked to paint Megan’s hair for crazy hair day.  Really a simple thing- but it’s the fact that she noticed her hair wasn’t crazy and then wanted to make it crazy so that Megan wasn’t left out.  Reason #495867 that I love my neighborhood.

-I think that someday it’d be cool to run for city council- just for a term for the experience.   It’s not something I’d do for at least 10 years or so- do you think a blog would be a detriment to that?

-I mentioned that to Steve and he (joking) said he couldn’t vote for me because I’m too liberal.  So I asked the girls if they’d vote for me.  They all would except Megan. I asked her a couple different times if she would giving different people as my competitor- she finally said, ‘I’ll vote for you if you tell me what voting means’.  Smart girl.  But then I explained it and she still wouldn’t vote for me!!  I was telling this story tonight to my sisters and again asked Megan if she’d vote for me.  “I will if you give me money.”  She clearly gets politics fully now and is a special interest group!!

Do you live near family?
How do you motivate yourself?
What is your favorite Pandora station (if you have one)?
If I ran for City Council would you vote for me?
Do you want to come organize my closets?

Random Picture:
Annika got stuck. She must have been about 11 months or so. Big enough to climb up but not down.

From Soggy Cheerios

Joke of the day:
A man dies and goes to hell. The devil greets him and says, “here in hell we like to give options. You’ll have three choices where you’re going to spend eternity.” He then points to three doors and allows the man to look. Behind door number one is the typical version of hell with fire and brimstone. “Too hot” the man says as he that door and opens door number two. Behind door number two he sees a large group of naked people standing in large snowdrifts and what looks like a blizzard. “Too Cold” the man says. When he opens door number three he is blown away by the stench and realizes its because the whole room is knee deep in poop, but all the people in the room are standing around drinking coffee and chatting. He shuts that door and the devil asks what his choice is. “Well,” the man says, “The smell is bad- but it’s clearly the best choice, I’ll choose door number 3.” The Devil escorts him in and he’s handed a cup of coffee. He takes a sip and a whistle blows. “What’s that for?” the man asks the Devil. The Devil smiles at him and says, “Breaks over! Back on your heads!”

Clearly I must be crazy.  In the first five minutes of the debate tonight McCain said the following about fixing the economy:

“We have to keep Americans’ taxes low. All Americans’ taxes low. Let’s not raise taxes on anybody today.”

Then McCain said this:

“So we’re going to have to tell the American people that spending is going to have to be cut in America. And I recommend a spending freeze that — except for defense, Veterans Affairs, and some other vital programs, we’ll just have to have across-the-board freeze.”

but that was after saying this:

“We obviously have to stop this spending spree that’s going on in Washington”

and then followed it with the following:

“We’ve got to have a package of reforms (codeword for money) and it has got to lead to reform prosperity and peace in the world” (actually the thought of McCain’s version of spreading prosperity and peace seems like it would be similar to Bush’s way of spreading democracy)

“And I think that this problem has become so severe, as you know, that we’re going to have to do something about home values.”

“As president of the United States, Alan, I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes — at the diminished value of those homes and let people be able to make those — be able to make those payments and stay in their homes.

Is it expensive? Yes. But we all know, my friends, until we stabilize home values in America, we’re never going to start turning around and creating jobs and fixing our economy.”

“So this rescue package means that we will stabilize markets, we will shore up these institutions. But it’s not enough. That’s why we’re going to have to go out into the housing market and we’re going to have to buy up these bad loans and we’re going to have to stabilize home values, and that way, Americans, like Alan, can realize the American dream and stay in their home.”

____________________

I’m not a mathematical genius.  But I don’t see how you can have a spending freeze, not raise taxes on anyone while spending money overseas with what sounds like ’spreading democracy’ while BUYING UP ALL THE BAD MORTGAGES!!!  What constitutes a bad mortgage?  Should I stop paying now so that my mortgage qualifies?  Won’t that create an unequal balance in the Real Estate market unless ALL mortgages are reduced?  Really?  Really this is a good idea?  Something tells me he didn’t run this buy his financial adviser first.

So he’s screaming socialism when it comes to health care being made available to everyone- but basically paying to refinance the entire countries loans is what now?

Wow.  Just wow.

The entire country (especially the people in government) need to watch this video.

When you drive up to our house this is what you see:

From home tour

You’ll notice that both cars are in the driveway rather then in the garage. That’s because they don’t fit in the garage yet. I’m hoping to get at least one in there before the snow starts to fall- which apparently could be as early as Saturday (NO!!!)

Also notice the front porch. I want to put a cute little bench or something there. It’s not terribly wide though. I bought a bunch of bulbs to plant this week too in the gardens. I’m hoping to have the gardens be fabulous looking next spring.

As you enter…
This is the front room

From home tour

I’m still trying to figure out the pot shelf on top. What more if anything does it need?
This is the wall the door and window are on. I need to recover/get recovered that chair.

From home tour

This is the couch wall. Oh- you couldn’t see the couch? It’s because it’s camouflaged by the paint color. I think I’m going to tackle painting the common areas upstairs this winter.

From home tour

This is the view from the couch. To the right is the entry into the dining/kitchen area. To the left is either downstairs or back to the bedrooms. The first door is the girls bathroom, the second my bedroom. Annika and cori and Megan’s rooms are around the corner to the left.

From home tour

This is a cool thing- the front door entry tile?  (Sorry- that’s a pretty dark picture)

From home tour

Matches the kitchen tile.

From home tour

Also the carpet and tile go up the wall a bit. It’s not something I would have ever thought of doing- but it’s a nice look.

Here is my question. These are the stairs that go to the basement.

From home tour

The blue shelf is mine and I’m going to paint it a darker blue. The white shelf is built in and I’m not touching it. How would you decorate this area? I’ve considered doing headshots of the girls and putting them in white oval frames and hanging them- but I’m open to other ideas.

Right now it feels cluttery and junky. I also feel like it needs some height. Help out the decorating challenged!

From home tour

From home tour

As a special treat for you this weekend we start the Grand Home Tour.  Woo!!  Now I need to clean to take pictures.

“Mommy do I go to school today?” Repeat 50 times per day.

But I’m glad she likes it.  Megan has morning kindergarten- so the triple threat is split up  twice a week- which sometimes results in less fighting.  Three girls is not a good thing- ever.

Here are a couple pictures from the first day:

From Random pictures for Soggy Cheerios blog

From Random pictures for Soggy Cheerios blog

You’d think.

Here’s the problem- I am a ‘catcher upper’ which is why in my pre blogging days when I journaled the old fashioned way (you know- to myself) I would spend hours and hours ‘catching up’ when I slacked.  So I have post overload- which means my writing gets less interesting (if that’s possible) and gets pretty picture heavy (I don’t know- that’s probably a good thing right?) and I serial post- which annoys me when I do it.

Clearly I have issues.  Sigh.  Here’s my list.

My talk in church (sorry for you non interested people)
First day of preschool
Megan’s birthday
Visit from the SIL
Soccer
My weeklong birthday extravaganza (still in process baby!)
Parent teacher conferences (I know- super exciting!!) 
My garden progress
plus at least one misc post

Until then (hopefully www.soggycheerios.com/wp-admin/post-new.php) here is a picture to tide you over.  I asked Annika to empty the dishwasher tonight after dinner so it could be reloaded.  She happily agreed to (SHOCKING!!) I found her like this:

From Soggy Cheerios

I also have a joke to share that I don’t know who authored. But it’s funny, and politically neutral (although I’m not. )

While walking down the street one day a US senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.

‘Welcome to heaven,’ says St. Peter. ‘Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we’re not sure what to do with you.’

‘No problem, just let me in,’ says the man.

‘Well, I’d like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we’ll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity.’

‘Really, I’ve made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,’ says the senator.

‘I’m sorry, but we have our rules.’

And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.

Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne.

Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.

Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises…

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.

‘Now it’s time to visit heaven.’

So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.

‘Well, then, you’ve spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity.’

The senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: ‘Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell.’ So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.

Now the doors of the elevator open and he’s in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above

The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder. ‘I don’t understand,’ stammers the senator. ‘Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there’s just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?’

The devil looks at him, smiles and says,
‘Yesterday we were campaigning… today you voted.’

I’m feeling a little more conscience today then yesterday when I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I’m planning to spend today catching up with Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart as well as watching other full episodes of other shows while trying to beat my sister at sudoko on facebook and backing up my pictures.  Sounds like fun huh?

Feel free to stop by as long as you bring chocolate or a cream slush from Sonic. ;)  Oh, and as long as you don’t mind seeing me braless.

#2 I have a lump in my boob area.  Technically it’s not in breast tissue- but it feels like it’s in the boob. Clear as mud?  They’re 99% or so sure that it’s not cancer.  I honestly don’t worry (anymore) that it’s cancerous.  I do worry how an incision on the underpart of my boob will ever heal- and how I’ll not wear a bra for a week.  I’m having it removed tomorrow morning.

#3 Fall is here.  My garden is doing better then I expected- I’ve taken pictures to share…. which leads us to….

#4  I think my SD card is corrupted.  Everytime I try to download pictures it totally freezes my computer.  I’m going to try a couple more things….

#5  I fear I will never be caught up on laundry.  Ever. In my entire life.

#6  Ashley has started soccer (pictures are hopefully coming soon) and is actually pretty good.

#7  Annika has started preschool and LOVES it.

#8 Megan has grade 3 reflux.  After discussing the options (medicate and wait or surgery) and our family history (we discuss you often Heather) we’ve decided to go ahead with the surgery and not risk further damage to her kidneys. We’re set to go on November 5th or 7th… whichever day is a Friday.

#9  Corinne who was doing so good with potty training (again) is (again) back in diapers.  Anyone want to take her for a week and send her back potty trained?

#10 I’ve not been very bloggy lately. Not good at reading them, not good at writing them.  I’m sorry.

#11  I had a girls weekend with my mom and 3 of my sisters last weekend. It was really fun even though I forgot my camera (I can have fun without proof!) I am hoping my sister emails me pictures soon.

#12 Can I once again brag about how you should all be jealous of me?  This ‘go to school I heard the bell and come home when your done’ thing is LOVELY.  The man who we bought our house from stopped by this week to pick up some stuff they’d left (I’m aware it’s been 2 months) and asked if he could buy the house back.  I think he was mostly serious.  I told him word on the street was that I was never moving again.

So there you go.  Send me loves for tomorrow. :)  I’m going to go have a snack before I have to start fasting.

My apologies to Eric Snider.  It’s a great article- follow the link to read it.  Also- Snider- not Snyder.