So we send off another one ...

into the working world.

Anna started at McDonald's Saturday morning.

I am thrilled to give up sleeping in on at least one weekend morning for her!

Alaska has some mighty interesting child labor laws. She will only be allowed to work weekends until she turns 16 ... and that is right around the corner. Two of my cherubs now haunt this place. :) We have a couple of years before the next one (and last one) hits the working world.

After dropping her off at work Saturday morning, we went on a hunt for some yard sales. No luck. Took the wrong roads ... and didn't find a one. Must not have been anything out there that we were in need of, hey?

On home to start some fun. I have red tomatoes!! Can't hardly believe it. Not enough to make any sauce for the winter ... but they're red! I picked the red ones, peeled and seeded them, seasoned them with basil and sea salt ... and plunked them into the dehydrator. Now I understand the high cost of sun dried tomatoes. Let's hope we like them! Jari has been snacking right out of the dish they went into. I'm hoping to have a few for some pasta dishes.

Then off to the carrots. We picked them all ... and canned them all. The tops looked beautiful as did some of the carrots. Next year I'll have to thin a little better ... and maybe try a different type of seed. I was surprised to get 10 quarts out of the garden. Done with that one! Still waiting on potatoes that aren't agreeing with us real well. Cucumbers are beyond hope. Zucchini and raspberries and still producing for us.

Amber popped over and spent the rest of the day with us. Jen pulled in before dinner ... and the night was set for games and visiting ...

and little people. Isn't Naomi just the cutest little one? She is so unbelievably good. Tired and too stubborn to take a nap ... without a wail even once.

Then there is this young energetic kiddo. Nolan has energy to burn ....

so does Tia. So she built him a web.

Ingredients needed for this little project: children and yarn.

She only did it in the dining room. My kids use to take over the entire house. They would also tie knots in the yarn. Around door knobs, lamps, anything that would hold on to the yarn. Then they would proceed to crawl and play under the spider web for hours. The fun part was always undoing all the knots they had tied. A pair of scissors did great with dismantling the whole mess ... except every knot that was tied to anything imaginable. If you think PlayDo makes a mess ... this one beats it. :)

Sunday we braved the weather ... and headed for the Alaska State Fair. It was a tad bit wet, but the rain (not the drizzle) held off for the most part until we were ready to leave.

I did manage to:

• 
  
  buy more of my favorite lotion
• 
  
  pass up the rug that is suppose to be guarantee your shoes are clean after you step on it
• 
  
  eat my very first cream puff ... and not have a major case of gut ache afterward (it really is divine!)
• 
  
  pass up mittens that I really liked ... will try making some .. and will certainly share with you should I ever get them done
• 
  
  got my funnel cake digested rather quickly
• 
  
  wondered how photography is judged
• 
  
  thinking about contributing a few things to the fair myself next year ... certainly not my carrots!
• 
  
  passed up a new pair of Danskos although I have gotten to the category of NEED in that department
• saw the humungous punpkin and ....

even managed to go into the house of mirrors!

I know this place ... I've been here before ...

They like to chop down trees over here, leaving me delectable leaves to eat.

It's usually safe over here.

There's that nasty dog, but it looks like he is inside the house right now.

Go on ... find your own treats.

You don't need to be holding on to my hoof.

Whatever you do ... stay out of that lady's garden.

She comes out screaming if you start eating out of it ...

and she's downright scary.

Whew! Finally a minutes break from that little one.

Been a pesky and needy one.

Teaching her to venture out on her own has been quite a challenge.

Let's see if she'll let me turn my back.

Just for a minute ... maybe two ....

Moooommmmm ... where are you going?!

She doesn't even need to jingle her car keys!

Today ... I think I managed it.

At least ... maybe a little bit.

I really don't know how to use my camera.

I love it.

I take pictures of things I like.

I haven't a clue how to get things like waterfalls to look like anything other than what my eye captures.

And ... I can't seem to catch on.

I did the trusty little google thing, grabbed my notepad and started jotting notes on what to try.

I grabbed my willing assistant, my camera, my lenses and the oh so scary tripod.

We headed up the road a spell.

I've much to learn, but it sure was fun to accomplish this little miracle!

The leaves are turning and started to drift to the ground little by little.

Graffiti isn't limited to city dwelling. I had to nearly giggle at this one though.

At least we have some "informed" graffiti artists. Rush Limbaugh? They can even spell!

Friday and Saturday we had so much rain that I was thinking we might have to start building an ark. Today ... we saw the sun for a bit ... maybe the plants will dry out!

Off to the airport to pick up my hubby!

He texted me ... and is coming home a day early. :)

Have a great week!

I think I had a glimpse ....

of the Garden of Eden last night.
I have never seen raspberries like that in my life. Lift a branch and they just hung .. waiting to be picked.
And. No. I didn't take a picture for you.
The girls and I went and picked (with a few extras hands to help) 3 gallons of the biggest raspberries I've ever seen last night. Thank you girls! :)

Then we took our raspberry hands and clothes over to Ross & Denise's for several hours to visit with Eric & Jean before they go back to Spokanne today. Wish we could have had a cup of coffee and a long evening of visiting with them about "life with teens". Maybe sometime.

Thank goodness for work. It does tend to get in the way of everything else I'm suppose to be doing. Online schooling needs some tweaking. At the current rate of progress it looks like we'll spend Saturday tweaking it. Maybe even Sunday if things don't get on track here real soon. Grumble. Groan. (That would be the mom ... not the kiddo.)

Brock started a part time job at McDonalds for the fair season. He's planning to bank some money toward another car ... and not make a career out of cleaning the soda dispenser, tables and floor. Great resume builder tho'!

I dare not say that it looks like I'll have my own wheels back real soon here. I didn't say that. You didn't read that. I just might have to plug in my own vehicle at work this winter and not get picked up in a warm ride. Fingers are crossed so hard they're feeling arthiritic at this point.

Jari is feeling better. He didn't take any magic potions with him to Fairbanks and ended up getting a cold kind of sick that had him sounding miserable all last week and through the weekend. Yesterday he sounded fantastic and (at least the second chat last evening) chipper. 5 more full days of him gone ... and then he'll be home for a few hours. Can't wait!

The sun yesterday was absolutely delicious! Yes. The sun can be delicious. It is starting to cast shadows in the late afternoon light. Isn't that funny? It spends the summer rotating above the house ... it now sits lower in the sky and sends shadows instead. It means the porch stays a bit cooler but the greenhouse hit 114 yesterday.

Election Day brought the State of Alaska passage of Proposition 2 which ensures parents are informed if their minor child wants an abortion. Thank goodness. It seems beyond ridiculous that I have to consent for my child to have a Tylenol or Tums at school ... yet they could come home following an abortion and I wouldn't have had to give my consent.

Off to medicate the masses!

Glimpse of the weekend ...

Started Friday with getting off work several hours early. I was on the schedule to be off early and had no clue as to why. Maybe it was last year .. and got on the schedule this year. I'll take it. Thank you very much. I had barely gotten on the freeway when my phone rang. Riitta keeps accidently dialing me instead of Anika ... I love it. :) Gave me a moment's panic thinking something was wrong somewhere. It wasn't. Got home and took a nap out on the sunny porch ... and woke to a call from my brother David. All before I should have normally been home. See? There WAS a reason!

Then off to the annual Carnival Fundraiser.

Kids had a rippin' good time as always. Good food .. visiting ... wandering around looking at Brenda's beautiful flowers that were absolutely everywhere!! Oh .... I wish.

Saturday we shopped. Found I only had ONE load of my own laundry to do. Wow!! The shopping now is a different story. I started wondering about Murphy's Law and why it exists. When the budget is rather tight (if it exists at all!), why is it you run out of things like printer ink, bath soap, and dog food all in one week?! And why does it all have to run out the week you need school supplies as well?

The girls and I ran to several stores on Saturday. We were quite proud of ourselves. Started at $129 at Fred Meyer and ended up spending $31. Should have quit while we were ahead. Next we went to Carr's. Coupons loaded on the card and others in my hand ... with the mission of getting a $10 coupon toward a gift card ... that we never got. In the end we decided that we'll just stick with Freddy's for our great deal shopping. Got ready for Fred's 40th Birthday coffee at church in the evening. That was fun! Took my camera along and never got one picture of him! How typical is that?! Saturday evening discussion, coffee, a trip to Walmart and then visiting 'til 12:30 in the morning.

Sunday services and then more visiting. :)

Monday morning.

Alarm clock.

Rrrrring.

Makes me wonder if Murphy invented the alarm clock.

Happy Friday!

Wouldn't you just love to be one of these cows this morning. Not a thing to do but meander from fresh grass to the barn for another meal of something. Lazing around and enjoying the crisp, cool morning air. Crisp? Cool? It sure is. 42 degrees this morning!

I put socks on my feet as I'm logging miles this morning running from the washing machine to the computer keyboard this morning.

Houston ... we may have a problem.

... and so summer vacation comes to an end ...

at the most rude hour of 5:30 a.m. tomorrow morning.

Don't get me wrong. I love mornings.

The start of school means at least one wonderful thing for me ... digital scrapbooking.

I am so far behind ... and itching to create.

That is what I do at that ridiculous hour of the morning.

Otherwise ...

• Anna came home today after being gone since July 1st. She had an absolute blast. Special thanks to all who carted her around ... and hosted her. We are so happy to have her home again. :)
• Tia is nearly up and running for school ... math class still needs to get on track. She will be doing internet school at home this year. (Add that to mom's job list. It was getting shorter you know .. laundry and all decreasing.)
• Jari is working out of town for the next several weeks. Then he'll be home for a night and gone again for another week. Can't get out of cooking anymore when he's gone. No mac & cheese for 2 weeks straight. The kids would declare a mutiny!
• Still struggling with car issues. Have to lay some ground rules figure out something in the next day. The current situation is just not going to work. Period.
• Getting serious about coupon shopping again. Am now online with both grocery stores here and downloading coupons to my savings card at both stores. Every penny will help. If I had ink in the printer I'd print some more! Wonder if I can find a coupon for ink for the printer?! I should total my savings over the next 6 months and see what happens ... all while buying the things I normally buy and not buying things I don't need. That was part of my 6:30 a.m. project this morning. It's really an escape mechanism that saves me from doing something like exercising dishes or laundry.
• Job List coming to our home this week. I intend to retire from dish washing, vacuuming, bathroom scrubbing, mud room cleaning. You get the idea? I'll keep the weed pulling.

Tonite on the way home shortly after 9 pm, this was the view when I hit the top of the hill. I hemmed. I hawed. I talked to Jari for a bit. Then I figured that if it was still there, I ought to try and capture it ... so off I scooted with the camera in tow. The mountains reminded me of a good ol' rippin' hazy Arizona dust storm.