Headers

Saturday Soccer Game

(Picture by David Fager) This was an amazing slide tackle and an amazing photographer to capture the picture. I have been moved to the bench, but fortunately my replacement lives out of town.

Moral of the story: don't park your car behind the goal at a high school soccer game.

Handsome Guy

Ben got his school pictures back this week and I love this picture of Him. It is already up on our wall of fame.

The Window Washer

David came home for the weekend and little did he know what he was in for - window washing and preserving peaches (see the previous blog). He currently is working washing windows in Provo while waiting for a mission. He is professional and our windows look great. I am amazed what the right solution, tools, and know how do. He even taught me, but I don't think you will see me up on the roof anytime soon.

Remember the window above our front door and porch?

PEACH PARTY

Melanie wanted to get together this year and can a bunch of peaches. I found a source from Caldwell that we could order peaches in bulk from and get a good price. Finding the slot to join forces from Idaho Falls and Provo was a trick as the weird weather kept pushing back the fruit delivery date and how we would finagle arrangements. But the fruit finally came. Melanie left Provo at 5:30 AM on Saturday, leaving Dave to survive with Carson for the day, arrived in Idaho Falls at 9 to can, and then headed back at 6 PM with her share of the goods.

It ended up being so much fun and definite memory maker. Some of the peaches were not quite ripe, and only needed a little heat and light to encourage them, so we placed them on the grass in the backyard to sunbathe. Melanie and Ben decided to join them.



We had a great assembly line and had the job done by about 4 PM, with just enough time to celebrate David's upcoming 19th birthday. See if you can figure out what we did by our nick names, Melanie was Blanch, Ben was "Minkey" (from Pink Panther), Cami (David's friend) "Pitta", I was Granny McCanny, David the Third Degree, and Vance Steamer.

We ended up processing 6 bushels, which came out to 145 quarts. Whew, all done... until next year.

Canning

This week my time has been occupied by canning. I processed my garden green beans and tomatoes. My neighbor has a yellow transparent apple tree. It rivals gravenstein apples in Sebastopol. California. It makes the smoothest applesauce and tastes great. The only problem we had was how fragile they were, by the time we picked them and got them to the sink to be washed, they would bruise terribly. I had to be sure not to get them too wet in the washing process or they would absorb the water and the skin would split. Vance picked 4 bushels, but we processed 3 and got 40 quarts of beautiful sauce. I think I'm getting older though, as we did it all in about 6 hours, but my back was complaining about 1/2 way through. This week will be peaches, corn, and plums. The church farm plants corn that is free to anyone who wants to pick it, my neighbor has plum trees loaded with fruit for the taking. I love harvest time!

Labor Day Weekend

In case anyone was wondering - from Idaho Falls to Coeur d'Alene via Helena and Missoula and back and then down to Provo and back to Idaho Falls is over 1620 miles.


Vance and I took advantage of a couple of soccer games to enjoy a ride together, do some business along the way and some beautiful scenery. Below are a couple of pictures of Ben playing in a soccer game at Lake City High School, look at the backdrop for the soccer field. It was absolutely gorgeous. (In case anyone was wondering, Ben is #6). The competition up north is a little more fierce and dirty, so the games were quite intense. After it is all over, those are my favorite kind of games. The lost a game and one a game by one point.


We got in late Saturday night, went to church on Sunday at our regular 11:30 time, packed and left for Provo for Vance to ordain David to the office of an elder. The cool thing about the event was Jenn and Richard were there preparing for their Wyoming pack ride. Dave, Richard, and Vance were in the circle all dressed up with their white shirts and ties. It was a neat occasion.

Had the weather been nice, Monday would have been spent with a little Frisbee golf and football, but instead we opted to sing and try out some of Dave's choir selections (remember he is the choir director for his ward) and then go bowling, Ben, Vance, Dave, and "Elder" bowled while Melanie and I stayed back for awhile to let Carson finish a long nap. We headed back to Idaho Falls after lunch. I must admit, we were all a little weary, but the whole thing was well worth it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!

Ben turned 17 on Thursday. We actually celebrated his birthday on Wednesday by going out to dinne after soccer, enjoying our traditional "trifle" cake, and opening presents a little early, as Vance and I were leaving Thursday to head to Coeur d'Alene for a couple of soccer games, and conduct a little business along the way.

It sure has been a wonderful 17 years with Ben. Some of my favorite things about Ben are his easy smile, his pleasant and upbeat personality, his ability to feel the spirit, how excited he gets about the smallest things - it is contagious, and how easy he is to talk to. I can hardly believe my baby who liked to play with dinosaurs on the floor for hours or sit on my lap and read books is "all growed up."