A New Experience

I tried making and canning jelly for the first time on Friday. This is my third year of canning, but I have never tried jelly before. Monte and I spent a long time picking two gallons of chokecherries while at his parents.

I used things I had never used before in the kitchen, like a cheesecloth, and this contraption.

A HUGE mess in my kitchen, and seven hours later, I got this result. It turned out great, and I'm so happy! I was worried I would go to all that work, and it wouldn't turn out. Does anyone want to take a guess as to how many cups of sugar are in this batch of 24 half-pint jars??

Weekend During the Week

Monte had two days of insurance claims to work on, near the area where his parents live this past week. So we all went up to spend two days at their house. It felt like a weekend, since that's when we are normally there. Now I'm all messed up with my days. My mother-in-law and I (with Isabella's help part of the time) canned pickles, YUM! We canned 39 quarts that day, plus my mother-in-law canned another 39 quarts last week.

And the rest of the time was spent in their pool.


For some reason, she had to hold on to a swim noodle almost the entire time.

And I've found ONE thing I don't like about having a potty trained kid vs. a non-potty trained kid - taking a soaking wet kid out of the pool to go potty. It was quite the production.

Pool Time

It was FINALLY hot here this past week. It's been an unusually cool summer, I know a lot of people that like it cool, but I prefer the very hot weather. Other than this last week, and one week in June, it's been in the 70's and even 60's some weeks. I remember last summer I either took Isabella to the city pool or she swam in her little pool almost every day. This summer I have taken her to the pool once, and we just got out her little pool now that the summer is almost over! Although, I also attribute the lack of pool time to her hugely expanded assortment of outdoor toys (there's only so much you can fit in in a day!), thanks to friends, family, and strangers (jeep, swing set, etc.). Both she and I have been enjoying the hot weather, that has now come to an end once again. She is getting to be more and more independent in her playing, but likes to have me near, so I would grab a book, and lounge next to her while she splashed around in her pool for the majority of the afternoons.

She thought she would get out of the pool and read for a while. Here she is enjoying "The Firm" by John Grisham, I found the plot to be a little too advanced for her, but she found it quite interesting. :)

And a hot afternoon in the sun wouldn't be complete without enjoying a popsicle in the porch.

Flower Gardens

This past weekend we headed back to the flower gardens where I took Isabella's pictures in June. Ever since she and I went there, she's been talking about how she wanted to take Daddy there, so he could see all the pretty flowers. She was so excited about it, and as soon as we got in the car after spending a good part of the afternoon there, she said, "Thank you, Daddy, for coming with us." So sweet, it definitely made her day, but then again, any day that she gets to be with Daddy ALL day makes her day - see previous post. I LOVE this picture of Monte and Isabella!

This kid is obsessed with rocks. You should have seen the way her eyes lit up when she saw these huge things. Here, she's trying to pick one up . . . good luck with that.

Have I mentioned she's a Daddy's girl!

Right after Monte left for work this morning, Isabella said:

"I think you should work, Mommy, then Daddy can stay home with me."


I see how I rate.


Then, when she saw Monte come home really early today (because I had a dentist appt.), she was SO excited, that after all the screaming with excitement, she was actually telling herself, "now relax, just relax." Ha!

Ramblings

This week is our annual cleaning at church, where all the women of the church are assigned a task. I was scheduled for cleaning and polishing one section of pews, I wondered how long it would take before Isabella got bored since I had to take her. She picked out a few toys to bring, and for TWO straight hours I didn't even know she was there. She went off by herself, found a place to play, and did just that. I don't think she has ever played for two straight hours by HERSELF. Ahhh, she's getting too old! Of course it did take me two and half hours, and the last half hour I had a little shadow saying, "I want to go home."

In other church related news, when I got home I received a call asking me if I was going to teach CCD again this year. AND I SAID NO!! I can't believe I actually said no, that is so not like me to actually tell someone no. But I'm learning to do it more, and it's kind of freeing - if that's even a word. My experience teaching last year was a BAD one, to say the least. Although I did influence just one boy to start going to church regularly. He and his family never went, and after one of my "talks" with him, his whole family started appearing in Church! Also, teaching those disrespectful, awful kids (I will save you all from the comments one girl made to me that got her kicked out for the rest of the year!) made me seriously consider if we want to put our kids in public school. Please don't harass me public school lovers, I'm most definitely not anti-public school, but I just don't know yet what we want for our kids, and these kids left me with a bad taste in my mouth! I went to a public school, and I turned out just fine (I think), and our kids may very well end up going to public school, I'm just saying, we have a lot to think about, and I'm quite certain that it's not all about school, but rather parenting as well.

And in non-church related news I get to spend an entire day this weekend with a dear friend I haven't seen in YEARS! I'm so excited. Isabella is going to stay with Monte, while I meet my friend about an hour an a half from here for a fun filled day!

Wrapping it Up

I was just thinking these vacation posts have been drug out, we've been home for an entire week now. But I'm glad that I took the time to document it, because it will be nice to look back on. There are so many reasons to blog, I would say that my number one reason is to record family memories for us. I love looking back at posts from a long time ago, but sometimes it makes me sad to see how fast Isabella is growing up. :(

We spent one day in the little town of Keystone. It's basically a big tourist trap, with tons of cute little stores and shops, places to eat, etc. We love going to the taffy shop there, and watching them make taffy (but more importantly buying and EATING the taffy!). Isabella insisted we take her picture on this weird donkey looking thing.


Another thing we did while out in the Black Hills was wine tasting. We fell in love with Prairie Berry winery out there, and had to go two times! On our way home we stopped at the famous Wall Drug, which is where the picture below is from. It was a wonderful vacation, I was sad to come home, I could have used another week out there. :) But oh well, all good things must come to an end. And I was so happy to see that all my flowers didn't die from lack of watering when we got home. Our wonderful neighbor came over and watered for us.