Let me paint you a picture...

Last night I stayed up really late catching up on laundry. I finished folding the last batch around 12:45am and crawled into bed at 1:00am. Mike's alarm woke us both up at 4:30am. He got up and got ready for work while I laid there awake listening to him fumble around for his clothes and get ready for the day. He left at about 5:00am and I thought to myself "I have a couple hours left of sleep before the boys get up." At 5:10am, after just dozing off, I heard the loudest crash come from the kitchen. I jumped out of bed and looked to see what had happened. The tall shelf holding all our food storage somehow tipped over and came crashing down. All the cans, jars, buckets of flour, rice, sugar, and all our dried food fell to the ground while some fell on the table and rolled off. The big flour bucket knocked over a chair and another bucket tipped over the large vase on the table that was full over river rocks. So there were rocks all over the floor, as well as dented cans, and a HUGE mess of food. The noise woke up Jake so I had to go console him. After cleaning and consoling, I got back into bed around 5:50am. Then came the garbage truck emptying all the dumpsters in our apartment complex. That truck is SOOOOO friggin' loud and annoying, it wakes me up every time I'm sleeping. Then I dozed off about 10 minutes later and was awakened by the life flight chopper that flew right outside our bedroom window. By then it was about 6:30am. I had just dozed off again when I got the worst charley horse in my calf that I have ever experienced! That woke me up pretty fast and I was almost in tears trying to relieve the cramping in my leg. Then at 6:45am Vessel came out of his room to use the toilet. He was then up for the day. And when he came out of his room he accidentally slammed the door which woke up Jake. So I was up and at 'em by 7:00am, which I suppose isn't too early, but it is when you feel like you've only gotten about 3 1/2 hours of sleep. And you all may know how much I value my sleep. So I've been a bit on the cranky side this morning. Blah.

Pony Rides

One of Vessel's favorite things about the Farmer's Market is riding the ponies.

Produce

The early stages of our mini garden:

Tomatoes and marigolds

Carrots, beans, radishes, lettuce, jalapenos, cucumbers, and onions

Vessel's "beanstalk" that came from a little seed he found.

Here are a few little things I picked from our balcony on Saturday. It's not much, but it is fun to see I can actually grow something! Jalepenos, carrots, green beans, and green onions.

Sad to say, my radishes did not survive this year. My cucumbers did not do well either. I think that had to do with being planted in a pot smaller than the space they needed to grow and flourish. My tomatoes started to get blossom end rot, so I had to find some calcium plant food for it and now it is doing much better. Hopefully I'll get a few tomatoes from that plant. My lettuce did awesome in the beginning and I harvested some of it when it was still young and sweet. Now it is just bitter and starting to die. I still have a lot to learn about gardening....

Here's what we got from the farm this week. Lots of good food I can't grow. :)
Squash, carrots, beets, chard, green peppers, cucumbers, green beans, heirloom tomatoes, and cabbage. Mmmmmmmm!

Carrots and Zucchini

We've been getting a lot of carrots and zucchini from the farm the past couple weeks. And we are horrible people. Because instead of using those vegetables as a part of a wholesome dinner, we've been making treats out of them. Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and chocolate zucchini bread are just a few.

Epic Fail?

A few days ago the city went around repainting all the yellow parking space lines in the parking lots around our complex. A few days later the city came around to re-tar the parking lots. So they just did the parts that weren't recently repainted. Don't you think it would've made more sense for the city to coordinate their projects so that they re-tared the parking lot FIRST and then had their guys come around and paint all the parking spaces? Just an idea.

Pickled Beets!

My friend Terri and I decided to pickle us some beets last week. Lucky I had her to show me the ropes of canning.

Here is the pot o' beets getting ready to boil.

When we were draining the beets we were surprised at how much they bled out into the water!

After the beets were cooked we had to peel off the skins.

But if you don't wear gloves, they could stain your hands....(photo courtesy of Terri)

Here is the brine: Distilled vinegar, sugar, salt, cinnamon sticks, and cloves (I believe.)

Filling the jars. It wasn't until after our first batch that we realized you really gotta pack 'em in there tight.

(photo courtesy of Terri)

And once the bottles are full of beets and brine you give 'em a good warm water bath for about 40 minutes.

(photo courtesy of Terri)

And hope they seal....

(photo courtesy of Terri)

Now we just have to wait at least 4 weeks to find out if they worked!

At the Fair

Went to the fair last week. Rides were only $10 for 7. So Vessel got to go on pretty much every kiddie ride available.

Daddy and Jacob waiting* while Vessie and I rode the ferris wheel (which by the way was much faster and scarier than I had anticipated.)

Jacob couldn't ride any of the rides, so he had to be content with just riding on Daddy's shoulders.

Good times were had by all.

*If you give your husband the camera while you go on a ride with your kid, you'll find some very funny pictures on the memory card when you get home and put the pictures on your computer. Pictures that may or may not involve scantily clad obese women and/or crazies.

Jacob Walking

Hooter Hider

My friend Lesa made me this "hooter hider" for baby #3 since my other one is now worn out from several washings. Full link here.

Sky on Fire

This was our beautiful Montana sky tonight. Pictures just can't do it justice.