For Karen-

This is my new "wall art." And some flowers from my flower beds. They always start blooming again when it cools down in the fall, which I love.

It's next to impossible to find square frames for cheap (or at all)... The only ones I saw were black and they were on sale so I spray painted them white. I like it. It goes with my apron curtains and random other vintage kitchen paraphernalia. :)

Blessings.

I need suggestions

For books to read. I've pretty much finally made it through all of Bob's books... and mine... and there are still two and a half months until Christmas. (Which means new books!)

I just read 'Riders of the Purple Sage' and tried to read 'The Last of the Plainsmen' by Zane Grey. I wasn't impressed. Maybe I was expecting them to be more like Louis L'Amour books, but yeah, how was he famous? He does description really well, but I kind of just wanted to slap the girl upside the face in 'Riders of the Purple Sage.' The other one was boring. :)

Anyway, we had a nice quiet weekend for a change. It was heavenly. I went to a few garage sales on Saturday, and actually found what I was looking for! We don't really need anything and our house is full, but I couldn't resist a cool milk glass vase... and some old handkerchiefs. My big project for the rest of the weekend was framing them with two I got from my Grandmas. I hung them over the kitchen table.

Blessings.

Water Woes

Bob called me Monday to tell me that we had a leaking pipe in the crawlspace... um..um... but, we're having people over on Tuesday! So, he shut the water off and called K and K. Who were in Indy. (And having a hard time getting home- what a Monday for them!) But they thought they'd make it back early enough to come look at it... so we got Subway for supper. I asked Bob if it could be tradition when we don't have water and he looked at me funny. He obviously didn't grow up in a third generation farm house with not up to code plumbing or electric and sharing utilities with the pigs.

Monday is laundry day and it desperately needed doing, so I went over to Bob's parent's after supper to borrow their washing machine and shower. It was after 9 when I got back and K and K had had more issues so.... still no water. Eventually, they decided to turn our water back on and just let it drip until morning. And it was fixed when I got home from work on Tuesday. Hooray for good landlords! And hooray for renting! I was not sad we didn't have to deal with it.

So thankfully we still got to have Luke & Heidi and Mike & Katie for supper Tuesday night. It was good to see them all again. And considering that we've been married over a year and hadn't had them over yet, it was about time. :) I didn't burn anything, so that was good. And we had plenty to drink.

Blessings.

I'm gonna pitch me a tent, won't have to pay any rent

Today's the day I'm going camping! Name that tune...

Anyway. So last Friday night we packed up and headed out into the wilds of Spring Lake. (Seriously, south of pekin, need I say more?) We met Dale, Meg and Maria, John, Mike, and Kevin at the campground.


Maria's such a good little camper.



We had a pretty gourmet supper: hot sandwiches, sauteed peppers and onions, soup, fried apples, pudgy pies and cookies all over the fire.


Kevin brought his ukulele and serenaded us with 1920's love songs after we ate. It was dark so I didn't get any pictures, unfortunately.

There was a nice soft carpet of pine needles on the ground, plus we had our foam pads and Dad's thermarest mattresses; we slept very well. We had egg sandwiches for breakfast and cinnamon rolls warmed up over the fire. Yum. Everything tastes better outside.

We decided to get everything cleaned up and packed up after breakfast before we went exploring, which turned out to be a good thing since it started raining. I hate dealing with wet tents and camping gear and was very glad it was all safely in the car.

It's dove season so a lot of the trails were closed for hunting and we were walking down the road to check out the lake when it started pouring. Well, it started out as a drizzle and then it poured. We took shelter under a tree (I know, I know, still not safe in a storm but it kept the worst of the rain off) until it let up a little bit. Hooray for walking in the rain. I don't think the drowned rat look is a good look for either of us. Oh, and Bob did finally get his hair cut yesterday. :)


Maria looked like she was enjoying the rain...



One brief glimpse of Spring Lake



Dale and Meg bought a new piano that they needed to pick up farther south along the river, so after the rain passed and we dried out a little we went with them to load it up. Meg and I watched.

And then we came home and unpacked and got cleaned up and went to potluck. Which was great fun as always. Good times.

Pincushion

I have so many mosquito bites on my legs, some from camping this weekend, some from being out in our backyard. They're driving me crazy. Specially since every time I walk anywhere my skirt rubs them and makes them itch even more. woot.

Nasty creatures. I wouldn't mind a little bit cooler weather so they go away.

*tsk*

How did I manage to register for a melon baller and not for a pastry wheel??





I did use my melon baller last night so as not to waste the last of the watermelon. So good.

Fir and Festivities

Um... I seem to only blog about my weekends. Sorry. That's kind of my focus when there really isn't anything exciting going on during the week (which I love). Other than Bob killing a massive spider on the wall.

At work today I was feeling slightly mischievous... there have been two filing cabinets sitting in our hallway for a few weeks. They don't belong to anyone, and nobody knows why they're there... they are up on wheels for moving. It was really bugging some of the more concrete sequential scientists, plus they were in the way and a safety hazard... anyway, my coworker and I turned them perpendicular to the hallway on either side with about 5 feet in between. So to walk down the hallway you had to walk to the left and then back to the right around them like a maze. Hehe. So funny. They're gone now. I don't know who removed them.

So yeah, we kept busy again this weekend again. Saturday afternoon Bob, young Matt and I went to Grandpa and Grandma K's to trim their bushes. They trimmed, I raked. Not my favorite job in the world... at least it smelled like Christmas with all the cut evergreens! And it looks pretty nice from the road.

One of our friends from U of I got married on Sunday in Taylor, so the plan was to get up early and ride down with Dale, Meg, Maria, and Matt. Yeah, so I was up and ready to go and Bob started feeling sick.... um.... lovely. I must confess I do not deal well with how often Bob's not feeling good, he's always got allergies and all sorts of other ailments. And I rarely get anything that a little tylenol and some rest won't fix. (Today I was trying to convince myself I didn't feel good so I wouldn't have to get up and go to work... didn't work, I'm totally fine.) Poor guy, he doesn't get a whole lot of sympathy from me, mostly just frustration. Anyway, they ended up leaving without us.

Thankfully, he was feeling better enough to leave in time to make it for the wedding, so we did get to go. It was a really pretty Sunday morning drive, the leaves are just starting to turn and it was sunny and the sky was blue. There were lots of dead skunks by the road. ick. The wedding was really nice, it was good to be there and Matthew and Alicia were quite cute. Scott was there too... the 4th weekend in five that we've seen him, which is awesome. *grin*

Matt rode back with us after the reception. Good times.
Blessings.

Labor Day Camping

So, we camped out last weekend with our potluck. It was great fun and super relaxing, which I love. Here is our tent on Friday night:


We were a little bit worried it would smell a lot like boys since Matt took it to Wabakimi a few weeks ago. (and you must get a starry look in your eye every time you say it, plus a ghostly echo: "Wabakimi-imi-imi") Thankfully, it just smelled like camping.

We were right next to Greg, Mary, Max and Nora... good thing we both sleep soundly and didn't hear the kids at all! This is Dale, Meg and Maria's little tent and Brent, Janelle, and Londyn's mansion. :)


Relaxing by the fire:



Max busy eating his supper. He had the cutest pajamas; a little King of the Wild Things sleeper. It was so funny to see him in it running around the fire... it was too dark for pictures, but it was adorable.



Saturday morning the guys made breakfast. Bob fried up the bacon. They made eggs, biscuits, and gravy also so we could build our own Stacks.



This picture is funny... Janelle was heating Londyn's bottle in hot water heated over the fire... I think Max or Nora just fell off a chair which is why Mary and Meg's expressions are so great, and Maria is very blissfully unaware.


Dale spent most of Saturday smoking meat for supper. It turned out fabulous.



Bob and I had to go home for a little bit to mow the lawn and I needed to clean desperately. And then we went back out and relaxed some more. They have a really great sandbox that all of the boys enjoyed playing in. :)


We all went home Saturday night and then came back out after church on Sunday. Bob and I went exploring with Dale, Meg and Maria down to Mud Creek. Us girls went wading, which I love. And Bob taught Maria how to look for worms under rocks. She liked the sand box too.


Then we sat around the fire and cooked our suppers and relaxed some more... and then we went home. Good times. Much laundry.

On Monday I got up and finally gave the front door a second coat of paint. Then I went shopping. Then I came home and did lots of laundry. woot. I also attempted to grill pizza, which turned out ok, but it would have been a lot easier with more grease on the grate and oil on the crust. There was some stickage and burnage but overall it tasted pretty good. Not sure if it was that much more incredible that it makes it worth it to not just use the oven...

Blessings.

Poetry amazing-ness

Something random I learned the other day- any poem in ballad meter can be sung to the tune of the Gilligan's Island theme. Therefore, you can sing Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death-" to the tune of Gilligan's Island. Along with "Amazing Grace" and "The House of the Rising Sun." (And vice versa) You know you want to look up the words and try it right now... *grin*

Because I could not stop for Death-
He kindly stopped for me-
The Carriage held but just Ourselves-
And immortality.

Kind of changes the tone of the poem.... but O, tis fun!

Our labor day weekend was good, but my pictures are still on the camera... wait for it...

Blessings.

Man may work from sun to sun

But woman's work is never done.

I'm feeling it. And I'm really looking forward to this weekend and hopefully just relaxing. I got a bucket of tomatoes from mom and got them all pureed on Tuesday. I made sauce with about a third of them, and waited until yesterday to cook up the rest of them. I'm at 31 pints.... not sure if I should do more or not. We'd probably eat it if I made it- I love all things Italian and homemade sauce is better than from the store. It just takes so much time that I don't have and I end up trying to scrub little drips of tomato sauce out of the carpet.... note to self: carpet in the kitchen is not a good idea for someone as messy as me.... not to mention slightly unsanitary... not that the unsanitary part bothers me all that much *grin*.

Anyway, so last night I was busy with tomato sauce, supper, getting food made for the weekend, and getting all our stuff together and ready to go. Yeah. I was tired. Some days, ok most days, I have two full time jobs. woot.

Life is good though.
Blessings.

The Road Goes Ever On

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

So we went to Kansas City for the weekend. It was a blessing.

We left Friday after work so it was after 11 when we got to Brett and Laura's. I drove some on the way there... Bob just got a power converter and he was busy 'modding' on my lappy... but then I got tired and made him drive the rest of the way. I love the open road, it makes me happy. And there is only about nine miles of two lane left on 36! Happy, happy day! We haven't been to KC in over a year so that was a very pleasant surprise.

Saturday morning we slept in. It was so nice and quiet and cool.... so great. Laura, Carol, Dianne, and Joni went shopping instead of being lazy like me... grin. We ate brunch and then went to a park with Brett and Bryce and threw frisbees and swung on the swings. Bryce wanted "underdoggies"... yeah, I'm always afraid the kid's going to kick me in the head or something so my attempts were a little half-hearted. And then we all went back to B and L's house and played a game until it was time for church.

They had jackstack for supper and it was amazing as always. The ordination service for Randy was good- the second one I've been to this year, which is kind of weird. It was good to see Karen and Randy and the boys. And all their kids. Laura told us a hilarious story later that night about Kami's underwear falling in the toilet somehow... o my... it seems there will be a whole new generation of funny k-berger stories!

It's so nice that church starts later out there... grin. Church was really full Sunday. Afterwards, we stopped at Karen's to change and then left for home. It took us just over 6 hours (woot woot!). I was freaking out for a little bit because my car was acting really funny and I was pretty sure we were going to end up stranded in Missouri (since there were only four other IL cars going back too...) but it was fine after we stopped for gas and let it sit for a minute. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.

Anyway, so it was 10ish when we got back and our house was hot. *sigh* And I had to make lunches and unpack. Ugh. It was late before it was cool enough to sleep, and I didn't sleep super soundly. I did not want to get up this morning, but I've survived so far today!

Blessings.

The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let other follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

Late summer randomness

These are the two cool hanging planters I got at Ikea. I had some herbs in them, but they promptly died. I don't think they got quite enough light... so now I have some lower light tolerant houseplants in them. Please ignore the mess on the porch...



I have a few peppers! Yay!

Pretty much all that's left in my garden: tomatoes, peppers, and some herbs.

My lantanas are doing great! They're supposed to be pretty drought tolerant, and they seem to handle the part shade well.

The horrid rabbits ate all of my pansies. All of them. So they aren't in this picture, but I did have lots of snapdragons and zinnias and a few day lilies. I think the tree grew because it's definitely more shady back there than last year!

I canned pears Monday. Woot woot. Only about 10 pints, but it took forever. I am not a fast pear peeler. I love summer. And freshly canned produce. Although, it makes for really long days when I don't start until after work and after supper....

Blessings.

Come, Ye Thankful People, Come

So. Another busy weekend. And I was afraid I was coming down with something all week so we did nothing on Friday night. And I went to bed early. Which is a good thing, because the rest of the weekend was crazy busy and emotional and I don't know if I could have made it.

Saturday morning I got up and went to get my next quilt block and bought some paint for the front door. Then I went home and went back to bed and didn't get up again until... well, until I felt rested... it wasn't technically morning anymore. :) So fabulous. We maybe had breakfast burritos with fresh salsa for lunch... yum. And then I painted the front door because it needed it and it was bugging me. It was covered in scratches and chips; it looks like at one point the door was painted a robins egg blue. Hopefully the siding was a different color with a blue door... right now it's yellow with grey trim... Anyway. It looks much better, so I can rest easy now.

We had supper at the condos that night with everybody before Jakey's testimony. I've seen my cousins a lot lately- it's great! Then we went over to church... I was a little nervous... I always am. You would think that by now Shelly and I would know better than to sit by each other- us plus nervousness plus emotional-ness plus our tendency to find slightly funny things absolutely hilarious is not a good combination. So there we were up front with Mom and Grandma... Dad's cousin-in-law Rod was here from Lester... asked Jake something about if something died would he dig up the remains (trying to get at not digging up his old buried self)... to which Jakey replied- 'certainly.' Um. Yeah, he used to have an entire collection of dead things in various states of decay, so when he said that we lost it. Mom, Shelly and I were cracking up. In the front row. The bench was definitely shaking. Wow. Thankfully we all got it together before we made too big of a scene.

Afterwards a bunch of people went out to the farm to sing... and eat... so we went too. Good times, but we stayed too late. When we got home, Bob had a little bit of trouble getting the door open. I guess the paint wasn't totally dry around the edges... oops. :) And I discovered that I forget to turn the dryer on so our sheets and towels were all still wet. *sigh*

Sunday was the baptism and then we went home and were pretty much bums for the rest of the evening. And I didn't want to get up this morning, but that's nothing new...

Blessings.

And the livin' is easy...

Tuesday night I got to hang out with some of my old w-ton friends for the first time in ages. It was a lot of fun to see them all again. We ate supper at Avanti's... and talked.... and talked... and talked. And then we went to Culver's for dessert and talked some more. I miss those girls! We have a lot of sweet (and funny!) memories... maybe I should dig up some old pictures and tell some stories...


Nights like that get me through the weeks when I accidentally let a batch of glue burn over in the hood.... oops. Ugh... nothing like cleaning burnt stickiness off a hotplate. Unless it's scrubbing out a lab sink. Woot woot. 409 is my new best friend. :)

Yesterday evening I made salsa. I cheated a little bit and used a Mrs. Wages mix... but I mixed some corn and black beans into a few jars so I'm not hopelessly un-domestic. *grin* Hopefully it tastes good. I did get a short Pinky's break with Dale, Meg, Maria, Bob, and Dang for ice cream. So good.

I actually had to get out of bed when my alarm went off this morning... mur... because the life insurance nurse was coming. She stuck me. They didn't tell me she was going to stick me. I.HATE.NEEDLES. And I'll probably get stuck again in a few weeks for our Medical Surveillance program at work... the joys of working with all sorts of dangerous and potentially harmful substances... Anyway.

I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend.

Blessings.

Let your heart be

moved. blessed. full. encouraged. happy.

We had such a good weekend. We left Friday after work and headed to Leo to visit my cousins. On the way we stopped at Mike's new apartment and got a tour... and dropped off a strawberry pie. For a housewarming present. Because I don't owe him a pie, no matter what he says. :)

It was about midnight when we got to Loren and Rita's... hooray for losing an hour... Matt and Shelly were already there and Scott and Ned got there not long after us. So we were up until 2ish just chilling.

Saturday morning Bob and I made a quick trip to Ohio to see Will and Joanna (and Trenton and Tyson and Max and Beth!). I had printed off directions, but didn't print off the map.... soooo.... we missed one turn and it took a little bit longer to get back to where we wanted to be... and got to see a little more of the Ohio countryside than we were expecting to. It was so good to be with them! Brought back a lot of fun memories of U of I days. And Jo's house is so cute... I liked it a lot. Will made us a decent map so it didn't take us quite as long to get back to Rita's... and we got to go right through Amish country. We saw lots of buggies and horses- and solar panels on barns and a brand new recliner going home in the back of a buggy. The funniest/ most incongruous sight was the little girl driving a little electric barbie car around in her driveway right next to her parents' horse and buggy.

We spent a few hours boating on the mighty St. Joe River Saturday afternoon. Bob went skiing and tried wake boarding. He came so close to getting up! I was very proud. :) And then we had to come in and get cleaned up to go to the benefit concert.

Matt, Shelly, Scott, and Ned were all singing in the choir so Abby and Lys and Bob and I went to listen to them. It was fabulous. You can read all about it, and probably eventually get the recordings here. Then we all went back to Rita and Loren's and hung out till late again. Bob fixed their computer and wireless network... I was tired, so I went to bed.

Sunday morning we were almost on time for church. Ha! :) I can't remember the last time I was actually on time to Leo... o well. Bob had never been there before at all, I'm expanding his horizons greatly. *grin* After church we took the jet skis out on the river for a while, and then cooled off in the pool until we left.

We gained an hour on the way home so we got back fairly early... I'm still exhausted today. O well, it was worth it!

Sometimes I get bored

The other weekend I was bored and decided to make matching dresses for our two little nieces... I used a super simple pattern I found online. I think they turned out really cute! And they look adorable on Grace and Eden.

Sharon took this picture right before church... all together now- awwwwww.

I was maybe hoping they'd have a girl for this very reason.... *grin*

Pie and Peaches

I feel like we had a busy weekend.... even though there wasn't much on the calendar. Saturday I spent the afternoon making pies for rotating potluck, so I didn't get to enjoy the sun or the heat much. Potluck was good, as always. :) And we had a lot of leftover pie. Which is amazing.

Sunday afternoon we went to Grandma and Grandpa Koch's for awhile with some of the pie, then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Beutel's with more of the pie, and then we went back to G and G Koch's for supper.

Yesterday I picked up peaches at the farm to can... and realized I ran out of sugar when I made pies... so I got to stop at the new IGA in Mackinaw on my way home. I liked it. A lot. Too bad it's totally not on my way anywhere or I would shop there all the time. For the record, Bob is amazing- not only did he eat frozen pizza last night while I was cutting up peaches, he also helped me fold all the laundry. It took awhile, it was around 10:30 when I got done. But, now I have 6 quart and 10 pint jars of canned peaches. And no place to store them. O well, that's a minor detail.

It's so much work, but it's worth it.... and it was pretty exciting to use my new canner for the first time. Well, new to me, it was the Happy Man's. He was retired and had all sorts of hobbies, including canning. His wife was not nearly as enthused. *grin* Which is why a lot of his stuff made its way to the farm and then to me...

Blessings.

Knives

It's been pretty quiet around here this week. Well besides church, grocery shopping, laundry, cooking, an insurance meeting, and a visit from a knife salesman...

Yeah, so a few weeks ago I got a phone call from a Cutco rep wanting to know if he could come demonstrate his product, he goes to RBHS and he's earning money for college. I should add that he never actually specified he was selling Cutco; I found that out from Heidi... who gave him my name... who also said he cut himself really bad while he was demonstrating for her... I was slightly intrigued.

So he came over Wednesday night to show off his knives. It was pretty hilarious. I was trying not to laugh the whole time. He wasn't necessarily funny, it's just that the 17-year old in a tie acting enthused about expensive kitchen knives and gadgets cracks me up. Yes, I know I have a weird sense of humor. He was holding the binder full of glossy pictures up with one hand and holding his "script" right behind it- and he dropped it on the floor once. I heard a lot of "this is my mom's favorite, she uses it all the time," and "I don't cook much... yet... but my mom has this and we use it every day." He knew his stuff about all of the knives, though it is hard to picture him using "the mini carver, now this is the knife to use on a roast."

And so it went. I didn't buy anything although he did pull out paper and pen to show me how low three easy payments would be. *grin* I have brand new knives, the same brand that my Mom has used and abused for 27 years. Plus I've cut myself on my not Cutco sharp knives and I really don't think I need anything sharper in the house. So he packed up (with the help of his handy-dandy diagram) all of his stuff and left... on the way out he mentioned how he hadn't driven himself over because his license was suspended for too many speeding tickets.... O my. Yeah, I laughed.

Blessings.

I always forget...

...that when both air conditioning units are running I can't plug in the iron. Or the toaster. Or my sewing machine. It flips the breaker. Who wired this place anyway?

Kentucky

So... we spent the last few days at Kentucky lake on Wyss Vacation. Yay for vacations! It was fun; and very, very, hot and humid. I took our camera along and didn't take any pictures... oops.

We didn't do a whole lot, just the usual Rook and fast Scrabble and swimming and boating and eating. I love vacation. The lake was nice, although not very cool (except for way down deep), and there weren't tons of boats out. I went skiing and wake boarding... fun times. Wake boarding is hard. And tiring. I got up for a little bit, and then I got off balance and drank half the lake. Skiing didn't go so well after that... my arms were too tired. I was super sore for a few days, it's finally getting better now. It was worth it though.

I was a little bit mean to my cousin Clayton. He was spending pretty much every minute on his phone texting people while he was in the middle of a Rook game (and all week) and supposed to be paying attention to the game... I borrowed his phone for a minute and texted all the girls in his address book "pickles, ice cream, and rotten tomatoes," and then erased it from the sent box... he was very very confused when he started getting texts back. He should just be glad I couldn't think of anything more creative, or mean, to send!

Some of us girls were talking to Grandma and Grandpa one night and my dad's CIY days got brought up... Grandpa was a founding member way back when and he made a comment about how it was different in his day, to which Grandma replied, "you have no room to talk!" and proceeded to elaborate. So hilarious!

We brought the Wii along... the younger boys loved it... Cailer was pretty sad when "Nintendo Bob" left...

We left on Wednesday... mur. It's stinks to have to leave early, but our vacation days are limited. *sigh* At least we got to stop at Tobin's for supper on our way back. And we got to get soaked in a downpour on our way into the restaurant... good times.

Ooooh, and we have a new niece! Her name is Eden Rose.
Blessings.