Sunday, August 30, 2009

Surprise from the garden

Happy 7th Birthday!!

5 things we learned this week...

August 30, 2009
1. Apparently you CAN have 2 great floods one right after the other. Last year’s was much worse though. We had about 3 days of straight rain. By the time we left school on Thursday, the road to the school was closed because it was a river, and the ENTIRE high school was a raging river!! Some people in our ward had their house on the raging river’s path. Marisa went to help sandbag to try and save their home. The entire Linn-Mar football team was there to help sandbag all the homes in the path.

2. Who knew a crop of tomatoes could be this big? Our tomatoes and zucchini grew like crazy this year. We canned 14 large jars of salsa last week and 11 jars of tomatoes and 4 jars of salsa this week and we still have more! So I think we will attempt to make spaghetti sauce this coming Saturday and I will let you know how it goes. We also made 10 mini loaves of zucchini bread.

3. Our kids just keep getting busier and busier. Alayna started gymnastics this week at a new gym and she is isn’t quite sure what she thinks about it yet. Tyler had OPUS rehearsals all week and he auditions for it soon. Kayla is on the volleyball team and has a lot more homework this year. She may start on the yearbook staff for this year too and she is doing SODA (students opposing drugs and alcohol). Marisa earned an academic letter last year for her high grades and is getting recognized in a ceremony at school this week. She is busy working on music for all-state and has a very busy schedule for symphony strings.

4. Fudge from Nauvoo rocks! The girls had a temple trip to Nauvoo yesterday. They got to stop at the fudge factory and brought home mint fudge, chocolate fudge, peanut butter fudge, and rocky road. Yummy!

5. I am convinced that Iowa is one of the hardest places to be a teacher. If you ever want more info on that, I’d be more than happy to share.
Until next week…

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Canning the salsa


The final product

Cutting the jalapenos


The "before" picture


the aftermath

Happy 7th birthday to Alayna!











First Day of School!







First week of school, ice age birthday, and 14 jars of salsa!!

August 23, 2009
First week of school, ice age birthday, and 14 jars of salsa!!

Well, we started school this week and are getting back into our school routine and schedule. Seminary started on Thursday too. I like my classes so far this year. I hope I am not saying that prematurely.

Alayna loves 2nd grade and has a great teacher, Mrs. Farber. I attended a parent night for Alayna’s class and got to learn all about what she will learn this year. Then we saw Mrs Farber after at Walmart and we talked to her for 30 minutes. She is so sweet and down to earth. I just KNOW Alayna will have a great year.

When I asked Tyler how his first day went, he yelled “Awesome” and then jumped into his famous starfish pose. I really need to take a picture of that someday! His second day of school he ended up in the wrong class. Hopefully he will write about that funny story in his blog. He starts rehearsals for OPUS tomorrow.

Kayla seems to be enjoying 8th grade. She has a much harder math class though and now much more homework. She is excited to start on the volleyball team tomorrow. Plus, she gets her braces off in the next two weeks! Whoo-hoo!

Marisa has been driving us all over town. I have to admit she is getting very good. I still get nervous when she drives the van though- that car isn’t even a year old! She started seminary and is already working on music for all-state. It’s gonna be a very busy year for us all.

We celebrated Alayna’s 7th birthday with a sweet “Ice Age” party. She had some friends over and she opened presents, they watched a movie, they played outside, and we had cake and ice cream. When we were buying the decorations, I told her she could pick anything she wanted (meaning she could pick something that matched) So, she started hucking items into the cart: green tablecloth, grey square plates, grey napkins, spongebob cups, and blue and white streamers. I stunningly looked at her and said “Um, these don’t exactly go together” and she said “Hey, mom! You told me I could get anything I want cause its my birthday”. Touché! So, we got we she wanted and even I have to admit it turned out pretty adorable with her ice age cake. She said it was her best birthday ever and she loved it all. Whew!

Then, when all the party guests left, we started canning salsa. It took almost 4 hours and we made 14 big jars of homemade salsa (the onions, tomatoes, corn, and jalapeno peppers all grown in our garden) It was a massive family project, but I am pretty sure there was some bonding going on. We still have TONS of tomatoes so we will be canning diced tomatoes next weekend.

Utah- Part 4