last official day of summer

I was reading my list of 20 things to do this summer I made back in June. There are a few things that didn't get done. Darn! I tried to make it pretty easy for myself too.

I picked out a shade of blue for our bedroom but haven't begun the process of painting. Trying to decide what to do with our folding closet doors before I do. Should I paint them also, like they are now? Or remove the doors and replace them with fabric on a rod? That way I can rearrange the furniture in the room and still be able to access my closet. Yes, our room is that small!

We didn't go to Worlds of Fun. That seems to be on my list every summer. I LOVE roller coasters. But it was always too hot and I was always too broke. Did schedule a trip to the zoo and then backed out because it was miserably hot. I mean, seriously, it's been in the 100's lately. We went to the dinosaur exhibit at Union Station in Kansas City instead.

Switching out the craft room and Kalyn's bedroom didn't happen because that was her choice. I'm off the hook on that one.

Scrapbooking trip was post-poned to October, when we can have more people there. And I will totally kick butt that weekend on the scrap booking then, I always do!

I did do a whole lot of canning, recipe collecting, baking, movie watching, reading and bike riding. (but not in this heat!) I worked at the shop a lot and got together with friends regularly. And the camper is in great shape! I think I've finally got it down, what we need when we camp.

I learned that buying my girls passes to the pool was not necessary! They hardly went. Alina got to take a friend on a camping trip with us. Kalyn got to babysit for others some this summer and I think it's something she's pretty good at. She finished driver's ed. We've had a little bit of teenage drama to deal with this summer, I consider myself initiated into the world of teenage parenting. That's okay, nobody gets through untested!

Okay, so what are my plans for today? My last official day of summer break. I need to mow our ditches (the part Kalyn doesn't mow) and take Kalyn to the dmv to get her driver's permit. And there are tomatoes on the table that I need to deal with somehow.

BRING ON THE FALL!!!!

making tomato juice

I picked a few more tomatoes this morning, so I needed to do something with the 4 quarts of cherry tomatoes that I picked on Sunday. Somebody told me they make really good juice.
So I blanched all 4 quarts.




Then I used my cone colander and pestle to juice them. Easy and fun!


The 4 quarts of cherry tomatoes yielded 6 cups of juice. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and fresh basil, finely chopped. I boiled two quart jars, but you see I only filled one. I added 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon of pickling salt to the jar, just like I do when I can tomatoes. I re-heated the juice and water bathed the filled jar. The rest is in the fridge.

20 year anniversary!

Troy and me at a party at a friend's house in 1987.




Our wedding day: August 4, 1990. A 20 minute ceremony in a non-air conditioned church.


My brother-in-law, Travis, took this picture of our complete family in his hammock during a visit to his home in 2004.



I married my best friend, you know. Sometimes I wish that wasn't the case. Especially when he ticks me off! It would be nice if I could get mad at him and run to a girlfriend to talk about it. But he IS my best girlfriend! You know what I mean? There isn't anyone I would rather be with or talk to, most of the time. I do things with girlfriends, weekend trips. He has guys that visit with him up at his shop, but it's usually me and him. Camping, riding in the jeep together, sitting in front of the fire pit, watching documentaries on the History Channel. Or Star Trek reruns on SciFi.

We were young when we started dating, I was barely out of high school. He was 20, but he owned his own house! I have always been attracted to Responsibility. And you know when I knew he was something special? It was our first date, and we were with a few other couples. All of us girls were wearing white leather Keds. We all kicked off our shoes when we got back to Troy's house after eating at Red Lobster. When it was time for Troy to take me home (I had a 12:00 curfew) we looked at that pile of shoes. Troy began laying them out singing "one of these shoes is not like the others...." From Sesame Street! Which was my all time favorite show! I remember all the Sesame Street skits. I used to feel so bad for the poor chef that always dropped the pies trying to carry them out those doors, no matter what number of pies he was carrying! Anyway......Troy sang the song, and I was his. Cheeeeeeeesy. Turns out we had many other nerdy interests in common. Soul mates.

We have done everything together ever since. Our kids will say that we argue a lot. And while I totally understand where that notion comes from, it's not entirely true. Because what we do is not really arguing...........it's more like.... bickering, I think............about stupid stuff. Like, say, whether Memorial Day has ever fallen on June 1. (OF COURSE NOT!) Which is why google search has become my other best friend in life. (yeah, we spend too much time together, especially in summer) And Troy has the kind of passionate voice that makes it sound like he's arguing. I guess what I'm saying.... is that it's possible that we may be a little annoying to some people, sometimes. And that may explain why we spend most of our time together. Without other people. It's part of how we get along. When we are old, maybe people will think it's cute.

What to do with a gazillion cherry tomatoes?

.......stay tuned

botched weekend plans

No, we didn't go on our hiking/camping trip this weekend. The heat index is still hanging around 110 degrees. It's too hot and miserable. Troy didn't mind doing it when it was 10 degrees outside, he swears he was comfortable still, but the other extreme does not appeal to him. ( Yeah, he did this on New Year's Eve, by himself...the 16 mile hike and overnight camping. Wanted to wake up on his birthday feeling good about himself. Worried me sick.) But that's not actually why we didn't go. Troy got to feeling bad late in the week, with a headache and sore throat and so I decided not to make plans to go. Then I woke up Saturday feeling HORRIBLE. Let me tell you, I don't handle not being well gracefully. I am a healthy person, thankfully, hardly ever sick. And it's a good thing because my daily activities come to a screeching halt when I'm sick. Thank goodness Mom took Alina Friday night and Cheryl took her last night. Kalyn was also off having fun with friends this weekend. Troy and I have spent the weekend on the couch watching tv.

Actually, last night it cooled off enough around 8:00 and we felt like lazy bums for laying around all day so we decided to take the jeep out. Troy took me to a place he knew of, waayy out in the country, where a creek passes over a road and makes a little wading/swimming area. It's in a pasture, in the middle of a mile section. We were bouncing around on this primitive, increasingly narrowing sometimes dirt road, sometimes just ruts in the pasture, seeing all kinds of coyotes as it was getting dark and then suddenly our headlights started going out on us! Couldn't see to drive and had no idea what we were driving into in that pasture. A big rock, a pit, a hole, a coyote den?? He discovered eventually that as long as he didn't try to switch from dims to brights we would be okay. Geez, we seem to always find ourselves in scary situations. The other day we were driving out to his mom's and we ran out of gas! The gas gage doesn't work, you know. Got a hold of his mom, who brought us a gas can. My sister will remember graciously doing the same for us last summer one time. We'll get all the bugs worked out soon. Think we need a spare tire, too. Knowing us.... we really better get one.

yesterday's future technology

I got a new phone last week. Mine wasn't working all the time anymore because it was really old. I had been talking about how when mine came up for renewal I was going to buy one with a slide out keyboard and internet. But when it came time, the miser in me wouldn't let me spend the money on that stuff. I got the free phone and it's just fine for me. My laptop is sufficient for my internet use and I text just fine without a fancy keyboard. I did change our plan though, to include unlimited texting on Troy's phone and mine.

Troy and I were talking about how years ago we thought things would be different, technology-wise, concerning communication. I took a typing class in high school, like everyone else I know, but Troy didn't. And he never really learned how to type very well. Maybe 15 years ago, I remember him telling me that he wasn't worried about ever learning to type well. He figured eventually instead of typing information into computers we would simply be talking to them. It seemed, at the time, like that would be the logical way to go.

Obviously he was wrong. Not only do we not talk to our computers, we don't even talk into our phones anymore! We type on them! 15 years ago that future fact would have gotten a good laugh from us.

no pictures, please

When will I be able to get a good picture of Kalyn again?! Here she is this morning helping her dad haul the cut down corn stalks off to Grandma Helen's. She stopped what she was doing and refused to resume until I went away with the camera. What is a mom supposed to do??!!! One of these days I'm convinced she is going to feel stupid that every picture I have of her at the age of 14 has her covering her face or shoving her hand out to hold off the paparazzi. I promise I don't favor my younger daughter, though my scrap book will seem like I do. Aarrgghh!! It's not fair.