Tomatoes. 150ish pounds of ’em.

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So Shannon went to Utah to help Mom out post hip replacement. (This was during the first week of school.) While she was there she found out that this food rescue place just got in an unexpected shipment of organic on the vine tomatoes. $11 for 66lbs. HELLO! So I went and got some. Unfortunately it was one order per household. However when Shannon got back into town they still had some so she ran over and got an order. At that point they were REALLY wanting to unload them before they all rotted, and asked Shannon if she wanted two orders. She almost got two orders, but then thought better of it.

So between the two orders and what she brought back with her from the garden (Jon's Dad has an AMAZING garden!) we were swimming in tomatoes. And if we didn't have to worry about taking and picking up kids from school we would have been done much faster, and probably would have grabbed that third order. Because we are completely crazy like that!

 

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I didn't want the tomatoes I picked up on Saturday morning to spoil any faster than they already were, so I took out some shelving from the bevi fridge and crammed them in to wait for Monday and Shannon.

 

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Every single tomato had a sticker. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE! I found this annoying and excessive. I kept reminding myself of the sweet deal we got on them as I de-stickered and de-vined them for washing,

 

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This is a picture of most of the tomatoes washed and ready to go. I lined the boxes with paper towels and stacked them up to conserve space in my little kitchen.

 

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This is where we lived for the next several days between kids and school. For the several hundreds of tomatoes we had we only tossed around 20 due to rot. I was thrilled with how well the organic tomatoes held up.

 

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Our treasures from Utah. This whole tomato/Utah garden deal softened the blow of our garden failure this year.

 

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We processed 28 quarts of diced tomatoes, 8 quarts of spaghetti sauce, 19 pint and a half jars (24 oz jars) of spaghetti sauce, 35 pints of salsa, and 5 quarts of pickles.

 

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It took us four days, but we got it all done. Just in time for weekend fun. Thanks for being crazy with me Shanny!

A giant ruler

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A long, long time ago I dreamed of having a growth chart that we could move around with. I shared this dream with Jon. And then nothing. I saw all these cute kid growth charts that you could buy, but they only went up to five feet tall. Now if the children take after me that's not an issue, but Jon is six two. I really wanted to have a chart that went up to 6.5 feet. And only heaven knows what height genetics our future children may have. I decided that we would have to make our own.

So the years passed, and I never found anything that I LOVED design wise to make/buy. Plus it was all so pricey. Fast forward 7 years. We now have a kindergartner, and I have been taking a daily photo of her. Day two of school Jon laments that we don't have anything to visually note her growth in the photos. I remind him of my growth chart dream, and we promptly get online and look up some options. Low and behold we found something that we BOTH love. For the right price even! (Go here. So easy and so fast!)

We bought our supplies and then waited a few days for Jon to have a "good" day so he could help with this project.  This is something I totally could have done myself, but it was SO much fun doing it together.

026We could have done this project much more frugally, by painting the ruler marks on, however for ease, speed, and convince we paid extra for precut vinyl. It was SO very worth the ten bucks.

027 031 032 Anyhow we've been chatting about how this thing is going to get filled up with our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren's measurements. Happiness.

2 for 1 party

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Emily planned a big family party to celebrate Shannon, and her birthday's. It was so much fun!

IMG_1782The chefs preparing dinner. They are not afraid to use butter, and therefore make the best grilled cheese sandwiches.

IMG_1784Kaylee enjoyed dinning al fresco with the other children. She was also very happy to see Becca and talk about their first days of kindergarten.

IMG_1785 IMG_1787I asked Kaylee and Becca to be cute. They were very accommodating.

IMG_1788 Regan was pretty mad at me for telling him he couldn't go swimming unless he ate his dinner.

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IMG_1795 IMG_1796So he only looks scared. He LOVED going down the slide, and off the diving board. He bounced between the two all night.

IMG_1797 IMG_1804 IMG_1806 IMG_1809The birthday girls. I especially love the candelabra that they shared. Too cute!

IMG_1811 IMG_1822 IMG_1829A few weeks (or longer…) ago Shannon mentioned that she wanted some pizza pans like mine. Apparently she had to double bake her crust so it wasn't soggy! The horror! She asked where I got mine. They were a hand me down from my Mom. Mom where did you get the awesome things? Anyway, I began my search for some for her so her pizza night is faster/easier.

IMG_1831I made Emily a gag shirt, that I really quite like, and better yet so did she! She had been pinning lots of Bull dog things on pinterest lately. AND her brother and SIL just got the sweetest bull dog the night of the party and brought her to play. So I will be making a couple more shirts for her Mom and SIL. Happy day.

IMG_1834  Amy did some super fun face painting on the girls. They were all different and all SO cute.IMG_1807 IMG_1843Kaylee had remnants of face paint in her hair line for several days. It was such a fun party. We always love getting together with family.

Side notes: Thanks to Dwayne for looking at my van, and Dave for looking at my hubby. It's always a very good thing to have a mechanic, and a Dr. you know, love, and trust!