The size of our tomatoes

 
 

I wanted to take a picture of my tomatoes to remember how big they were this year and Tia volunteered her head. Too funny!

We were also able to celebrate Dad's birthday with his first cousin's the Lents brothers.

Tara Still Wonders Why We Preserve

I pulled weeds in the tomatoes and then decided to check our sweet corn. Tara went with me as I pulled the wagon. It is ready. We loaded it until it wouldn't hold any more and Tara pulled as I kept it in the wagon. I put her and Tia busy shucking and I started washing and cutting. Up until this last year it has been Tia's favorite vegetable(now I think it may be green beans). Gene planted the corn in an odd spot and he didn't think it would produce anything. We would have had alot more if the dogs and coons would have stayed out of it. We were able to get maybe 20 pts which will taste very good this winter. Tara thinks we should just buy fresh all year. She tried to cut the corn from the cob and decided it isn't an easy chore. I was getting kind of grouchy by the end of cutting. I thought I would get salsa made Friday night, I finally got it done Sunday. I was given several peppers, different kinds and I was too chicken to see whether they were hot or not. I was told I had hot and mild banana peppers. The only ones I knew what were, were the jalapeno. I was going to take a picture of how large my tomatoes are this year and Tia decided she would use her head for a guage. Too funny!

Tia had a sleepover Saturday evening. She is being moody and couldn't decide whether she should go. There wasn't anything but work at home. I told her she might as well. it started at 3 and she took off with her dad to haul hay home. She also was trying to get out of hanging laundry up. We are having beautiful weather again and we like to hang our laundry out to dry. I took two phone calls wondering where she was. Meanwhile Cassie called to see if she could stop. When Tia heard, she was going to stay home to visit...10 minutes later after I had called to give regrets she's ready to go. Ugh!! When I dropped her off they were in the middle of a scavenger hunt, her partner had high hopes of winning.

Cassie was here when we got home and visited for a couple of hours before heading to her grandparents. I drove her to the highway, it was getting dark and her drive is long enough without getting lost. Cassie and Jeff enjoyed the day at the State Fair. Jeff headed back to Cedar Falls to be ready to work Sunday.

Marj called and Bob's cousin's will meet in Murray Sunday for dinner. The boys were small the last time I saw Tom and Polly. They had met Tia one day while I was working. They live in Illinois. They all have August birthdays, so there was ice cream and cake to celebrate.

Friday August 21st the First Day of School

Tia was up at 6:15...way too early. Then her alarm went off at 6:25 waking Tara up. So unusual for her to be up and perky at this time of day. I was off to work. Gene saw that they got on the bus. So far we are off to a good start. With the exception that Tia had home work already and yeah it was something I was suppose to do. Excuse me...I did my time. Not sure who this teacher is, but not on the first day of school!

Open House for School

The girls are way excited! The back packs are ready and they are waiting for me to get home from work. I thought it was from 6-8, we were early. It was 7-8 and we had the best parking space(front and center). We have some new rooms this year and I forgot to take time to check them out. I got Tara an activity ticket to watch Tia's sport events. I forgot to give them lunch money though. We delivered Tara's stuff first and visited Mr. Van. Then onto Tia's locker. That was easy. Figuring out how her schedule goes wasn't easy for me, glad she's the one doing it. Tara has a friend from last year that moved to Florida and she is back. They were glued to each other. I forgot to get a phone number. They will have to have a sleepover.

I had went expecting them to drag me out after unloading the book bags. It was the opposite. They would have stayed all night, I was the one dragging them out. None of us had had supper and I was starving. I'm glad they are excited :)

Cassie Comes to Visit

Cassie is a nanny in Norwalk and staying with her grandparents in Grandriver until she and Jeff get an apartment in Des Moines. Jeff found out he got on full time in the Pleasanthill Hy-Vee. They are pretty excited. I'm finding out she is a picky eater and this maybe a challenge to have things around she likes. Cassie has such a long drive and we are storing her bed until she needs it. She ended up spending the night. Wonder what she thought waking up and having four cats staring at her. Since the weather decided to give us some heavy rains I am glad she decided to stay.

The Final Leg of a Journey

I was hoping to have a picture of a guy who helped make this journey possible. I totally forgot and didn't get a snapshot. We had our last post placement visit with Bill. It was painless and enjoyable. We got to reminisce about our past year... I don't think Tara quite knew what to think. Now to pick out 4 pictures of Tara to send to China.
I had a half day off, so we celebrated with Chinese buffet and school shopping. We still haven't found Tara a new book bag. But they both have a couple of cute shirts.
Thanks Bill for being part of the delivery team to bring me a beautiful baby girl :) even though I wasn't there when she was a baby, she will always be my baby.

Table Rock Lake

 
 
 
 
The best time of the year...VACATION. Best yet is vacation at Tablerock. The most relaxing time. Friends and family we go with enjoy shopping and shows, we love the lake. Amazingly this year I am not still floating as I have in the past. Since Gene's folks are getting older he didn't want to leave them for the whole week, so he came down Monday. I drove Jeff and the girls down bright and early on Saturday. I got alot of moaning from them, but it was a great drive. We got there first and was able to unwind before everyone else arrived. Weather was beautiful, we had a couple of overcast days, a couple of humid days and a couple of perfect days! Our good friends had a new boat and we got to break it in. The old one has a special place in our hearts, but wow. The new ones ride is amazing. There were a few bumps, but most rough water was smooth. We visited most of the marina's and ate lunch on a floating restaurant. We all skied on 2 and some of us on one. The wake board was used and the tubes abused. It was all good...well almost. While the jet ski ran it was good, right up until Tuesday. The 3rd cylinder went bad again.(time for another overhaul, Gene is learning to do it himself this time). We had minnow races Thursday evening, what fun. white rain gutters, ice water and minnows. Contestants were given a cup, the cup was given a minnow with a name. The winner was Kristi with her minnow Jaws. Second runner up was Mike with Holy Crap. Tara got to name her minnow first (she wasn't sure) so hers was "I don't know". Thank you Sue and Carl for a fun evening!

Green Beans, Green Beans and More Green Beans

The girls may be changing their opinions of green beans. When we got home from vacation we picked green beans, stemmed them, then cut them and canned them. We have 27 qts and 18 pints. I am excited! We should be eating good this winter. I hope to have more, but this is a good start. Thanks girls for the great team work!!
Oh I forgot to mention this was the most humid day of the year :-(