Gathering, Eating, Laughing

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Monday evening we finally were all able to get together for Christopher's birthday dinner. Holy cow, is it getting to be a headache to find a time when everyone's schedule can work.

Being the health nut that he is, Chrisotopher did not want a birthday cake or any kind of dessert for his birthday. However, I decided the rest of us should not have to suffer because of his healthy lifestyle and made homemade doughnuts - ha.

I recently obtained my Grandma G's famous doughnut recipe and decided to try it out. They turned out just like I remembered them as a child...yummy :)

After dinner Grandpa W decided that he wanted to wrestle with Christopher. Serious? The man just got out of the hospital from a heart-attack. He just about gave all of us one when he announced this.

It was funny to watch that silly old man try to take Christopher down. I have to say that Grandpa W was very entertaining and we all got a good laugh. While I was watching his shananigans, I was thinking how wonderful it is that all my children will remember him and have a lot of funny stories to tell about him after he passes on someday.

Yep, I love my family. I am one lucky gal.

(sorry the second photo is blurry...it was the only one I had with Christopher and Grandpa W from that night)

It Just Keeps Coming

We did not plant our garden this year until the last week of June. Between the weather and our schedules we just did not have time. However, I told Greg that I still wanted a garden and that we would be blessed because we were being obedient. Wow...have we ever been blessed! I can't believe how much we are pulling out of that plot. I even picked a large bowl full of tomatoes today and already have them canned. I can't believe that it is the 17th of October and I still have tomatoes coming...I love it!

My grapes went a little crazy too. I have never seen as many grapes on the vine as I had this year. We now have a lot of yummy grape juice.

The only thing that seemed lacking this year was my apples. I still have quite a few, but not as many as I have had in years past. I tried juicing some of them and it seemed to work quite well. I am now in the process of drying the rest. Emma loves to take the dried apples to school for snacks.

I had intended to pull out all my squash plants today, but when I went out to the garden I realized that they were still producing vegies. Incredible. At this rate, I will have produce until Halloween!

I even planted mini-pumpkins this year. I love them and can't wait to plant more of them next year. I also planted regular pumpkins...at least I thought they were regular pumpkins when I planted the seeds. I will have to post a picture soon of how large they turned out to be. Holy cow...I was not expecting them to be that enormous, but I have to say I love them. I especially love the tangerine color they turned. Beautiful. I had to have Josh roll them to the front of the house to put by the porch. No way am I carving those puppies...it would take FOREVER. A picture of the gigantic pumpkins will be coming soon...

Something That Made Me Giggle

Last week Tara's MIL threw her an open house baby shower. Tara and Austin have been living in their basement for the past two years and last Saturday they moved into an apartment (next to Christopher!). Anyway, before they left the ward, the Anderson's wanted to give the shower.

I had a Primary activity that very evening, so I was late arriving. Jenni and Emma came with me. When we arrived many of the guests were already there visiting and eating munchies. I sat by Tara, and Jenni and Emma sat close to us. It was fun watching all the ladies that came and went. They seemed like very nice people and also seemed to really like Tara and Austin. It made me feel good.

As we were visiting with some of these ladies, I happened to notice that a lot of these gals are your typical "Young Utah Mormon Moms" who dresses much younger than she should in their $150 pair of jeans and carry their Gucci handbags. Anyone that knows me realizes that this is definitely NOT me. I am cheap and simple:)

One of these ladies sat down next to us and began talking to Jenni. They were having a great conversation and seemed to be really hitting it off. As the conversation progressed the nice gal told Jenni that her purse was cute. It is one of the hippie looking things - kind of like a poncho made into a handbag -- and Jenni, being the free spirit that she is, replied without a thought "Thanks! I bought it at a gas station on the way to California for 10 bucks..." Hahaha! I was cracking up inside.

You should have seen the ladies face! Talk about priceless. What is even funnier is that Jenni did not even skip a beat and could have cared less what those ladies thought. Tara, Jenni, Emma and I got a good laugh later when we talked about it. It still kind of makes me giggle when I remember that ladies face...heeheeheee...ten bucks at a gas station...

On My Mind

I have a lot of little things on my mind lately. Nothing earth-shattering--just stuff.

1. I am dying read "Killing Lincoln". I love historical fiction and this looks like an excellent read. I want it. Bad.

2. I have vines full of grapes. Lots and lots of grapes. I am not sure I have ever seen so many grapes on my vines as I have this year. I love walking by them and smelling that wonderful smell. Tomorrow is the big juicing day.

3. Tomorrow I also will be dehydrating apples. Yep, a busy day in my kitchen. Gotta get those little guys preserved. I am also kicking around the idea of juicing a few of them. Not quite the cider-press juice from my youth, but I think it will still taste wonderful.

4. Fall is knocking on the door and I don't like it. I usually love Fall, but not this year. It seems like Summer just arrived and the thought of Winter peering around the corner makes me a little sick to my stomach. Hard to believe that we are already having to throw on an extra blanket at night. I even found myself wearing -- gasp -- socks around the house tonight because my feet were cold. Arggg...make it stop.

4. General Conference - I loved every minute of it. I wish it happened more than just twice a year. It always makes me feel calm and ready to face whatever lies in front of us. I had a couple of moments that really hit me. Both moments came while President Monson was speaking. He mentioned a couple of things that spoke to me and to some of the circumstances I find myself in.

The first was to trust in your inspiration and follow it through. It reaffirmed my feelings that once directed by the spirit to do something, you do it. Period. I already knew that, but it felt great to be reminded of it again.

Second he quoted the scripture "Be still and know that I am God". Once again, this applied to the same situation. I have heard this scripture numerous times, but this time when I heard it, I found myself thinking about it with a new perspective. Totally new. I know it was the spirit speaking to me and once again, reaffirming my resolve to follow through with the situation I have been struggling with. All will be well in the end :)

See--nothing earth-shattering. Just stuff.