This may be a day of many posts ...

I'm feeling like I may putter and get a bunch of things done. And ... I have an audio book by Tess Gerritsen playing. Makes puttering so much more enjoyable!

My pulla dough is rising. Yup. I'm doing it today. I wish I knew how to make carmel rolls. Mine just never taste like other people's great ones. If anyone has a recipe that they aboslutely love ... feel free to share! As soon as I hit the publish button at the bottom of this page I'm off to pour applesauce on the dehydrator. Have never tried using saran wrap. I'll let you know if it works. I usually use baking paper ... and it is a bit pricey. Wax paper may work as well ... I never buy the stuff.

Plenty of things to get done today ... and the house is quiet with only myself keeping myself company. :)

In the not so quiet mornings of this past week I worked on pictures from June of this past year. I think I need to do some more that are just a collage of favorite shots. Scenery ... people ... more scenery. I sent another 15 pages or so off to be printed. Maybe by the end of winter I'll have this stuff caught up, deleted off my computer and in a book to enjoy.

Back soon! Hope you're enjoying your Saturday as much as I'm enjoying mine!

Just in case you wanted to know

I'm not crabby anymore.

I read that magazine too late last night and woke up late this morning. Had to shuttle kids to school before I went to work.

A stop at the mailbox brought me all kinds of goodies. A box of slippers and shoes from Mummu. So fun.

And a box of 12x12 scrapbook pages. Ahhhh. 9 days from order to delivery. Not bad for living up here. Feels like the other side of the planet sometimes for ordering things. Scrappingsimply.com is the place to go. Pages turned out awesome. They are inexpensive and the site is very user friendly. My sales pitch for the day. Can't wait to upload a bunch more. Maybe I'll get these things printed sooner that I thought!

Have to leave in 5 minutes here ... and then I'm out of internet commission for at least 24 hours or so. I don't know how I'm going to handle this ... going to be a tough one!

Monday musings

it's Tuesday! I forgot! Messed me right up this having an extra day on the weekend. Could handle that every day!

• Master bathroom is cleaned
• Laundry is done but for one load
• Halibut is thawing for dinner tomorrow evening along with home grown potatoes (they aren't thawing tho')
• I'm kind of crabby
• The mail pile is much too high .. nearly heading over the edge of the basket that holds it
• I need a day to just sew or something like that .. think I need a day off work .. during the week!
• Kids checked out books on my library card and now they're overdue
• Overdue books means that I can't finish listening to my audiobook downloaded from the library
• I've only downloaded the same book about 7 times! They automatically disappear off your computer in 2 weeks. Can't listen if you have overdue books. Ugh!
• Need Jari to get a libary card and just use it for audiobooks. He never goes to the library. That might work.
• My bedroom is clean (well ... I should say presentable anyway)
• Flowers finally got a drink tonite on the porch ... they were wilting ... gotta enjoy them while I can!
• Should have made pulla on Monday ... sure would taste good right now
• Made my Costco list. I really don't like going there. It makes me nearly crazy.
• Pears, peaches and nectarines are on sale this week at Fred Meyer. They're on the list as well. I'm going to dry dehydrating them. Pears are scrumptious done that way and store for a nice long while.
• Try grilling peaches or nectarines ... cut them in half, remove the pit, coat with a mix of brown sugar and honey, flop on grill and cook 'til browned a bit. Serve with ice cream. Delish!!
• I s'pose I could go to bed. Maybe I'll page through a magazine for a bit and fix my attitude.
• Tomorrow is Wednesday .. Hump Day!
• That means that the next day is Thursday. The 2nd Thursday of the month. Monthly staff meeting at 6:30 a.m. It's always a great time. (I'm working on my attitude ... can you tell?)
• Craft nite on Thursday.
• On call on Friday evening.
• Can you tell why I'm cranky? I really am going to hit that magazine.
• Maybe I should go grill a peach instead. Or eat some candy corn?

My goal for this Labor Day was to labor ...

with everyone helping. I don't know where Blayde disappeared to ... maybe he never crawled out of bed. He missed out on the action.

We dumped our potatoes out of the tires. Hmmm. Did something wrong there. Next year I'll use the tires, but grow the potatoes in individual tires instead of stacking them. We had spuds in the first tire at the bottom. Nice ones. Don't know what happened to the rest of them. It was incredibly difficult to judge the amount of water they were getting as well. Live and learn.

The green house nearly sparkles. I'm still trying to coax tomatoes into growing. Healthy amounts of tomato food, plenty of liquid ... beautiful weather ... maybe if I keep my fingers crossed. I have about 60 cherry tomatoes on one plant. Does that count? Check this one off the list!

This little spot was my original goal. I would have been thrilled if this got done ... along with greenhouse cleanout and raspberry planting. The entire brown area surrounding these trees was full of all kinds of growing things that I didn't want there. I wanted to be able to just mow around the trees. Problem was that there were many large shoots growing off the tree on the right. So ... I called handy hubby over with the chainsaw and he made quick work of them. He also made quick work of the pine tree that was between these two trees. I'm thrilled with how it looks now!

Then handy hubby thought he should REALLY get some mileage out of that chainsaw. Give a boy a toy in his hand and you never know what will happen!

As eveidenced by this! The lilac bush in front of the house is rather thinned. Nearly to nonexistent. It may have no blooms on it next summer as next years blooms were already set ... and are now in the brush burn pile. The windows should see a tad bit more sun in the chilly months coming up soon. Another tree to the right of the stairs is cut to the quick ... the others royally thinned.

With lots of help ... it went pretty durn quick! Figured the next time I want a project done I'll round up the troops for about 3 or 4 hours. Promise them a 12 pack of soda and some good pizza when they're done ... and we'll be good to go!

Got a bit toasty working out there ... we all worked on our September tans!

Brock worked on his tan too .... and got all the raspberry bushes in the ground. I picked up a truck box full of raspberry plants this weekend. Some were small berries ... some incredibly large. I can taste the jam .... let's hope the berries do good next summer!

This critter should probably be next on the list, hey? Wondering what morning we're going to head down the drive and find our way blocked cuz it is really listing sadly. More so every day.

Was thrilled with our accomplishments today. The basement was organized by Alyx. :) My laundry pile is nearly gone. Yipee!! I gave serious contemplation to making pulla dough this morning and decided that it could wait. Thank goodness. Would have been fried at myself if I had added that to the list as well.

Anna even got her hair cut today! Poor girl has been waiting for a long time. Looks super cute on her. The salon had a comfy leather couch where I sort of took a nap while I waited. I didn't lay down on it ... should have tho'. Was really tired ... and afraid that I'd start drooling, snoring or something equally fun.

Ended our Labor Day with a trip to WalMart. 6 bottles of shampoo/conditioner, 2 different kinds of toothpaste ... you get the idea. We did find the good stuff tho'. Have you tried caramel apple candy corn? Give it a whirl. Color could change a bit but it's a whole lot easier than biting into the real thing!

Work tomorrow and what on earth am I still doing on here anyway?!

Photo shoot of the day

Senior photo time of the year. Wow! It's been 5 years since we did this last ... and I wasn't behind the camera lens. This time we decided to try it ourselves. Being as I have a wonderful camera, the subject is very photogenic and I'm shooting digital ... we set out on a mission today.

None of the pictures I'm sharing with you are her faves. (at least not the ones she's shown me) We took 335 photos today ... here are a few!

We started off at the Matunuska River Park ...

and then moved on to the Mighty Matnuska itself.

That alone was taxing and we needed some sustenance for the next leg of the journey. Subway it was. Tia was along with us ... providing great entertainment. :)

Onward march up the road to the Knik Museum (Grandpa & Grandma know this place!) ...

and then to a lovely colored empty store on the KGB. Wonder how many folks saw us out today and wondered what on earth we were up to!

Next stop was an empty Little League baseball field ...

an empty piece of real estate with some fun orange paint. I absolutely adore this place ... would love to have some use for it. (Forget the fact that I can't afford it either!)

Problem with this place was that the yard was rock and we needed to traverse it to get to the next vacant fun building. Our workhorse Tia did a bang up job of getting the high heeled photo subject over to her next smiling opportunity!

Don't you just love old buildings? This area hasn't been around forever ... Alaska has only been a state for 50 years ... but if you look around a little bit and keep your peepers open ... it's there waiting to be found.

Four hours later ... bladders in desperate need of heading home ... we closed the door on a fun afternoon. I think we managed to accomplish our mission today.

... and we had a great time! Can't wait to see which pictures she favors most.

Fair Day!

Got there nice and early today ... in time to park relatively close to an entrance ... and then stand in line anyway! The day was absolutely gorgeous ... couldn't have asked for better.

Breakfast of champions ... funnel cake ... and, no, we didn't share.

Time to get beribboned ... "hmmm ... how does this one look?"

We visited this juggler for several shows. He was quite the hoot with my kind sense of humor.

The winning cabbage ... might just be enough between this one and the next one, winner of a World Record, to make cole slaw for suvis!

The grower of the winning cabbage also submitted the next one! I'm amazed. It isn't your eyesight. The sign on it (though not very legible in the photo) does say 127.0 pounds.

Next ... on to the pumpkin. 500+ pounds. Am thinking it looks a bit out of shape ... but then again it probably ranks in the Obese Pumpkin Category!

Next to mine? Either my yard grows clover the size of rhubarb leaves or my pumpkin is a bit on the wimpy side.

After much sunshine ... much walking ... not too much eating (was rather impressed!) ... less money than I expected ... we ended our day with an equestrian show. Had no clue what we were in for when we went, but I envy their grace and balance. I am a natural born klutz!

Home for a nap ... and I still have a nagging headache at nearly 1 a.m. That sunshine must have done me in today! :)

Jari & Brock took off for work. Alyx wasn't yet home from work. Tia was crashed. I hauled out this machine. So it is really a Super Simple Plain Jane variety ... but sews nice and straight.

I got this idea from Torm's blog a while back. Mind you when I went looking for the original post this week, I had to go through about 18 months of her blogging. And can she blog! She had this awesome idea posted. Long hot pad/potholders that work for several hot pans or large enough to protect the surface from a large roaster pan. Have wanted to try them for a long time. Finally did! Took a pair of unwanted pajama pants (not flannel, but I'm sure it would have worked), some cotton batting and lightweight denim. (Sorry, Ronda. There went your quilt backing.) Buzzed up a nice long one just for experimentations sake ... and a small one just because. Will try the long one this week and see if I like it or not!

If they work ... I have plenty more of them to make. None of my kids will have any clothes left by the time I'm done "repurposing" things! Might make that laundry pile smaller. I think I was still on "Sort Laundry" from last week's job list. Still haven't managed to get that done. Aint' life just grand?!

Off to bed ... maybe this nagging headache will disappear somewhere into slumberland ... drift away on a cloud up to the harvest moon ... and I'll be swell tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

Life is wonderful

Once again ... my Anna has taken the camera ... and filled it with surprises for me!

She has caught the beauty of green with the heavens ....

... the changing colors of fall ...

... mom's favorite spot in the whole wide world (at the moment) ...

... the fun of repurposing treasures from friends and filling them with fun reading and browsing for a lazy afternoon ....

... flowers still blooming and slowly coming to the end of summer's life ...

Last night we went and watched the fireworks at the State Fair. We didn't go into the fair. That's on todays agenda. I came home from work yesterday, skipped making dinner and headed straight outside. I trimmed trees, removed little tree starts, raked and pulled for nearly 3 hours. The thermometer outside registered below 60 degrees when I finally came in ... and I must say that I felt a wee bit of a sweat. Enough that I needed a shower before we headed for the fireworks.

A bit of self portraiture going on here!

Today Jari and I are headed to the state fair. Anna is going bumming with the other Anna and won't be joining us. Alyx has to go to work ... she's staying home. Brock & Tia are joining us. Can't wait to spend a lazy day just milling around and window shopping. :) Fireworks were fun!