It's Canning Season!

It has started! Harvest time is upon us and canning has begun. Saturday, we bottled some tomatoes. We set up the camp stove on the patio and do most of our canning outside. That makes for a much easier cleanup!









A few of the ladies from the neighborhood came over to learn how to do it. Of course, my lovely mother was there to make sure we did everything correctly.


I remember working beside my mom in the kitchen when I was growing up. We bottled tomatoes, peaches, pears, beets, pickles, jams etc. I loved working beside her and learning from her. It feels good to get the cupboards filled up for winter!

Finishing summer projects

Here's what's been happening inside the house this summer.


We have a green wall in the living room and my husband made the corner entertainment center to hold the TV et al. Everything's up off of the floor.







The color scheme in the kitchen is now red instead of blue. See the red light switch cover? I have since died all of the placemats red(ish). The table can be small now since it's usually only 3 for din-din:)












And MY favorite! the upstairs bathroom is even MORE purple! Michal cleaned and painted the closet doors and I found some cute knobs at Hobby Lobby. The light switch covers in this room are purple. Yay!







And lastly, I bought these cute shelves at Tai Pan to display my shot glass collection. I used to have them all strung out across the fireplace mantle down downstairs but now they have a better home. No, I don't drink but I do collect shot glasses. Everyone has to collect something, right?




Since school starts in only a couple of weeks, I'm glad to have these projects finished. Thanks so much to my darling husband and cute daughter. They are the ones who have to do all of the painting because I am inept at it and ALWAYS get it all over myself. Well, we each have our talents.

My missionary son.

Johnny sent a few new pictures by email this week. Just wanted to share with you. He's getting transferred today so he'll have a new address soon.
Here he is on his bike,












spilling gas while filling the car (rookie),


















with a member's great dane,





















and at the zoo with his companion.




Oh I love my boy!
What a goofball!

There's a difference between ORGANIZED and OCD

One of my summer projects was to clean the shop. It's attached to the garage and full of everything and all out of order. Since Johnny's on his mission, there's no one to blame for not putting tools away etc. So I figured I'd get everything in order, find all the tools to the tool sets, organize all the screws, nails, thingybobbers, and whatchamacalits and label everything so it can be found easily. This hasn't been easy for my husband because he knows where he has 'thrown' things and now he has to check the labeling before he can find something. It's all good. We'll get used to being able to actually find something without having to hunt for 30 minutes. It brought back a lot of memories from my days of working at Allied hardware. Their motto was "If we don't have it, you don't need it". That's pretty much how things are at our house in the shop. We are where the neighbors come to borrow or have things fixed because my hubby is so talented. He's the only person I know who buys sprinkler parts in bulk! We considered writing a song about everything we found while cleaning out the shop. Imagine this to the tune of 'The 12 days of Christmas'
72-hour kits
20 tons of nails
19 thousand fish lures
18 pairs of gloves
17 unused suitcases
16 auto light bulbs
15 empty quart jars
14 butcher blocks
13 bungee chords
12 garden tools
11 old deer antlers
10 folding camp chairs
9 fishing poles
8 jars of car wax
7 tennis rackets
6 pounds of screws
5 sets of drill bits
4 sleeping bags
3 hundred sprinkler parts
2 spotting scopes
And a shell for a '93 Dodge!
No, I'm not OCD.

Mr. Wilson

Our cute neighbor Vern was given the nickname 'Mr. Wilson' when we moved in 15+ years ago. He was the nicest old dude in the neighborhood and his wife is the nicest old gal on the block. Mr. Wilson nicknamed all the boys in the neighborhood 'Dennis' and all the girls 'Denise'. I think Johnny was the first Dennis because he was the most mischievous. He and his wife both fought cancer. This is a picture of them last summer when we all went on a camping trip as neighbors.

Mr. Wilson passed away in January. We have a lot of good memories with him. Whenever you'd drive by his house, he'd be sitting on the front porch and wave at you as you went by. We miss him. His sweet wife and kids had this beautiful monument made and put in the front yard. It's beautiful!

4th of July Fun

We had a terrific 4th of July weekend. My husband had 4 days off because he doesn't work on Fridays and he got Monday off, too. We got to go to a fun family barbecue, light fireworks in the street, play in the yard in perfect weather, and just enjoy being together. Good times!

Happy Birthday, Candice!

Summer fun

Cute nephew sleeps over.











Went golfing with brother and sister in law.
















Johnny's first pix came from Indiana!