Yesterday I did something that I have never done in my whole life: I picked apples.

I know, not terribly exciting (unless you were there in the shadows watching me squeal and fling apples that had creatures on/in them. James thought that was some of the best entertainment he's seen) but I felt all proud of myself, picking all those organic, free apples! A very lovely and generous lady in the ward has 4 apple trees in her yard and announced a few weeks back that whoever wanted to come pick could have them. I dilly dallied for a while and then decided that I'd give it a try.

Most of the apples were within arms reach and 3 of the trees were granny smith apples. I brought home my load and started dehydrating immediately. (No, not me, I drink plenty of water, thank you. I started dehydrating the apples.) This part was not entertaining, except when I would core one, find something undesireable, and squeal and fling again. James was pleased. I dipped them all in pineapple juice and shook cinammon all over them. The first batches turned out awesome BUT THIS IS TAKING FOREVER!

I got on the phone this morning and borrowed another dehydrator and started doubling it up. Ben is a great thin slicer. Yeah, honey! Then I talked to my mom who is coming tomorrow and she said, "Why don't you go get more apples and we can bottle some stuff?" Oh good heavens. So, being the obedient daughter that I am, Ben and James and I went and picked many more apples, I borrowed a canner, bought some jars and we are ready for the impending parental visit. Wish us luck. And if you smell apple cinnamony goodness in the air, it's coming from our apartment!

Some of James' recent 'artwork'. He told us that the first one below was a dinosaur and that the second one was a baby. Poor baby, just through the birthcanal with some kind of cone head, I think. Or an alien baby. Pretty good for a almost 2 1/2 year old!



Now this next pic needs more explanation. For a little while yesterday, I really though somebody naughty had planted mari*juana in our container garden. We have no private area outside of our apartment, but we garden in several rubbermaid containers. I was spraying the tomato plants yesteday afternoon when I pushed some branches out of the way and found this sucker:

I saw it, counted the leaves, and really thought that one of the drug smoking college students was trying to grow some of his own in our dirt. I called Ben out, we took a pic and then went inside to check out google images. I'm pretty sure that it's not 'pot', but for a while there, I didn't know whether to pull it out or call campus police and ask them if they wanted it. But could you imagine that conversation?

Me: Hi, Campus police, we have some mari*juana growing here at our apartment and thought you might like to have it.

Campus Police: Uh, what?

Me: We're growing tomatoes and squash and there's some pot in there, too. Would you like it? Do you want to come see it? What should we do with it?

Campus Police: You're growing pot on campus? blah blah blah blah blah..... Then we'd probably get arrested once they saw the mari*juana and the massive bottle of drugs the dr prescribed me last year. (Except the bottle fell in the toilet and I put all the pills in a plastic baggy.) Narcotics in a baggy in the bathroom, and weed in our garden. This is looking better and better.

Mormon Monday

This is my 200th post, yeah!

If you ever wanted to know what the LDS church says about families, here it is.

And here are some pics I especially love of our family:

Ike Update

I've had contact via cell phone with my parents today and they and my brother's family came through unscathed. My parent's house is just fine and according to my mom the worst of it for them is "ugly bushes". Many of their neighbors have downed trees--with a few of them having fallen on houses.

My brother's house had 3 trees hit it--but from what I've heard, the damage isn't too bad. There's a small hole in the roof where a turbine was knocked off and their back porch was damaged. I *think* that's it, but I'm not sure because I didn't talk to them forever since they have no way to charge their cell phones right now.

All of them will probably be without power for 2-3 weeks. Ugh. Super hot and super humid. But that's better than being dead, right?

All of this was making me wonder what the grocery stores do when there is no power. Think of all the refrigerated and frozen foods. Did everything already melt and spoil and now they have to clean it up? Do they have generators? How do they handle that mess?

I'm glad that all is (relatively) well and now maybe I can actually focus on my talk (speech) for church tomorrow. Ugh.

Ike

Ike is headed straight for my hometown--as in Weather.com names my little city as the direct hit. Great. My Grandma was evacuated with her nursing home, but my parents and brother and his family are all staying put. They all have plenty of places to evacuate to but don't want to bother. They are all going to hunker down together in my parent's new 'hurricane resistant' house. I don't think it's good policy to pray that hurricanes hit somewhere else, but maybe we should all pray that it takes it easy on them.

Elmo

Doesn't he make the cutiest Elmo EVER? I just bought this on Ebay (you know, before demand and prices go up) But they sent the wrong size. We tried it on him anyway before I wrote my complaint email. It would be fine if he 1)Doesn't eat for the next 6 weeks 2)Doesn't breathe while in costume 3) Doesn't intend on moving during Halloween activities. Since we've already got pics of him as Elmo, maybe I'll have him be Blue instead.

Pee

How many of you would be willing to leave a comment and tell me how many times you pee overnight? I'm not pregnant, I don't have any kind of infection, but I swear I've got a pee in the middle of the night problem. Maybe I drink too much water at night time. Maybe I don't sleep soundly enough. I know I'm a poor sleeper. I don't have to pee all the time during the day, just at night. I'm tired, people.

The Dentist-much ado about nothing

Today James visited the dentist for the first time. While I was getting him ready, I was being all cheery and exciting, telling him we were going to visit 'our special friend, the dentist.' I don't know that he's even heard the word before, but he looked at me and my fake enthusiasm and said, "No dentist for James. Dentist for mommy." I told him that I love the dentist and that he had super cool chairs and toothbrushes and surprises at the end. That convinced him.

When we pulled up, James was still excited to go in until a man walked past while I was helping him out of the van. STUPID STUPID MAN THAT HOPEFULLY HAS NO OFFSPRING SAID, "ooooooh nooooooo! You have to go to the dentist? What's wrong with your mouth? Do your teeth hurt? No crying! It will only hurt for a little bit. Have a good day."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I couldn't stop and yell at him because I was too busy prying James out of the van now, thank you very much. I would have liked to kick him in the shin.

I calmed him down and reminded him about the cool chairs and such and he reluctantly went in with me. Once we were in, the deal was sealed! This was a pediatric dentist and he had the goods--fish tanks, play house, disney movie, etc. James ran around and enjoyed all the entertainment and was even eager to "go back" once they called his name.

While the dental assistant talked to me, James got to play a cool video game on the wall. Then he got his new toothbrush to hold on to throughout the appoinment. I was surprised that the room was giant with 8 chairs in it. I've never been to a dentist that had that before. The assistant led us to the purple chair and James climbed up and reclined. She "tickled" all his fingers with her spinning cleaning thingy and then asked James to help her "count his teeth". He was sooo stinkin adorable... Even though she was cleaning his teeth he faithfully counted to 20 with her. When she finished, he declared, "ALL DONE! Surpise now please." He was sad to learn he still had to wait for the dentist. I had to hold him on my lap and sing 'twinkle twinkle' and point out all the many oh so exciting features of the room.

The dentist came over and James FREAKED. He wasn't crying, but he totally had the deer in headlights look and could not 'point to his nose' or anything else the dentist asked. The dentist showed him the mirror and asked him to help count his teeth again. He opened, but he did no counting. The dentist noted a couple of irregularities with James' teeth which I already knew about and happily his teeth are in beautiful, no cavity shape. He quickly brushed James' teeth with some flouride stuff and declared him done.

You have never seen a child jump up and run like that. I was laughing so hard and the assistants were trying to get him back to pick a prize. He tiptoed back, snatched a bouncy ball and ran away again. That ball has not left his sight today. He was playing with it tonight when it rolled under the couch. He started crying, "I don't reach it. I don't reach it. Mama reach it." I got down and said, "I don't see it, James" to which he replied, "Keep looking, mama!"

He has that yellow ball clutched in his chubby toddler hands in his sleep as I type. What a sweetie.

Mormon Monday

Check out the Gospel Topic section of LDS.org


This section provides information about the doctrine, policies, practices, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly called "the Mormon church" or "Mormons"). In addition to helping Church members, this section can also be a great resource for answers to questions about Mormon beliefs.

You've got answers, A to Z.

Just because

Just because I've never posted a den of snakes on the blog before... I just got this photo from a friend. NMDOT workers found this too close to where we live. They're probably having a party with the black widows and scorpions.

Sarah Palin's speech

Wow, I really enjoyed her speech last night. I'm not saying anything about her abilities or experience, I just thought the speech was awesome. I guess you wouldn't enjoy it too much if you're a huge Obama fan, but you have to admit it was pretty entertaining. Maybe I'm one of those lame brained people that can be convinced by some zingers in a funny speech.

Here's a link to the text or video

Well, if you're a Stephenie Meyer fan, this will sadden you.

I think it a wee bit silly, to the tune of "I'm taking my dolls and going home." Oh, I know that all artists have rights, and I support them, but her real fans will still buy the fourteen dollar copy at Walmart or even the 20 dollar copy at B&N despite having read whatever online. I seriously doubt she will/would lose any money over this. It seems like her feelings are hurt and she needs to deal with the source.

Mormon Monday

A quote from the prophet Joseph Smith:

“Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.”

Elder Benjamin De Hoyos:

Happiness is the purpose of the gospel and the purpose of the redeeming Atonement for all men.


President Spencer W. Kimball:

Happiness does not come by pressing a button, as does the electric light; happiness is a state of mind and comes from within. It must be earned. It cannot be purchased with money; it cannot be taken for nothing.