pictures from the reunion

i'm still not sure who most of the people there were, so i'm not going to post all those pictures, but i thought i would put up a few of my favorites--there were several cute babies there. :-)

Picture

I was cleaning all the Greer family reunion pics off my camera and found this one from afterwards when we took off from the party and cooled off in the pool. I LOVE this picture. =D (I'll be posting a few from the reunion too, though I don't know many of the people I took pictures of.)

i've typed out a to-do list several pages long
i have a couple baskets of tomatoes that need to be processed and frozen or canned
the kitchen is a wreck
i've promised to do a lot of scrapbooking for someone
the laundry is in a big pile needing to be folded and put away
i owe someone a thank you note for autumn
the garden is a disaster
and...
i'm bored to death

Freecycle = awesome. :-)

Just a quick post while Autumn's napping. I'm trying to get caught up on vacuuming etc. while she's out, since she's still scared to death of the vacuum.

I'm finding that I have to vacuum the dining room, kitchen, and most of the living room every single day now because Autumn makes such a huge mess all the time, dropping things from her high chair, shredding any papers she can reach, and generally being a baby.

I'm mostly behind on housework because of babysitting LBL yesterday. He is usually a fussy kid anyway, but yesterday he screamed from 12:00 till 5:00. He wouldn't even stop to catch his breath. At first I think he was hurting cause he was gassy, but then he just got ANGRY. He turned all red and the veins on his head were sticking out (he doesn't have any hair). The one time that he was quiet was when his bottle was in his mouth for his 3:00 feeding. Rocking, walking, the swing, singing--nothing helped. I am SOOOOO grateful that Autumn is generally a good kid. I would lose my mind if I had to have this kid full time instead of just two days a week.

The state just issued water restrictions, which for me mean that I'll have to start getting up earlier to get the garden done. ICK. At least I can still use water, just at restricted times. If we could just get some rain! We're down over 9 inches and the heat just keeps going higher. Everyone's yards are brown stubble with the exception of a few weeds that must be able to grow in the desert.

My mystery plant has turned out to be a pumpkin. It's getting very large. I think it's going to be ripe way too early.

Anyway, better get back to vacuuming.

She's got rhythm!

Autumn "dances" every time she hears music. She raises her hands in the air and bounces up and down until the music stops. Commercials, cell phones, the radio, and anything else that makes cool sounds.

She's getting a lot better about standing up without support, but it still makes her nervous, so she sits down pretty quickly.

I made a huge batch of zucchini bread last night. It wasn't finished baking it till about 12:30. Some is in the freezer and some I'm giving away. I cheated though--we haven't gotten as much zucchini as I was hoping, so it was partially zucchini and partially summer squash (which we've had lots of). It's good though and Autumn has been enjoying eating it (as well as crumbling it and throwing it on the floor).

She's been so busy busy busy lately. She just goes all the time. Crawling all over the house, chewing on everything, wrestling with her Daddy. Here she is in sleeping in the middle of her dinner after a hard day of playing.
















I need to go buy some jars and make some salsa. The tomatoes and peppers are really ripening quickly now. Certainly won't be able to make salsa, sauce, etc. on the scale we did back home, but for a little garden in town, I think we'll do pretty well.

Anybody have any good eggplant recipes? I've got several vegetarian ones from Moosewood, but I'd love to have some more ideas. We have lots and lots of eggplant and I don't want it to go to waste.

Anyway, Autumn is done with her bath, so I have to run. Here is a picture of some of the tomatoes I picked yesterday.











Sorry for another boring post. Maybe I'll come up with some time to think and actually come up with something better to post.

check this out

Matt ran across these online and I thought they were really cool...

sidewalk art

Can you hear it?

here

(i hate aol, but this was in a forwarded message from someone who doesn't)

From the Yard

a volunteer--this big bushy marigold plant came up in the collards. it wasn't interfering with anything so i just let it go, even though we hadn't planted it. it's been rewarding us with tons of gorgeous blooms.

i only planted one cherry tomato plant this year...and it's now over 7 feet tall! with hundreds of tomatoes all over. lots are on the verge of being ripe right now. the first few that have gotten ripe haven't even made it inside, because we keep snacking on them while we're working in the garden. fresh tomatoes are awesome!

this is another volunteer plant that decided to come up where the garden meets the lawn. i can't quite figure out what it is though. it has to be some sort of squash, but the actual squash on it are funny looking. big and round and green--they look more like watermelons than anything else. guess we'll find out what it's like when i start picking them.

our yard literally has hundreds of these pink glads in it. i'm planning on digging up a lot of them this fall, since they're extremely crowded. if anyone wants some bulbs, let me know. (especially if you have something else to trade.)

At the Park

big push.

swinging with grandma k. and daddy.

autumn was fascinated by her reflection in her daddy's sunglasses. this isn't the best picture, but you get the idea.

love those chubby little feet.

big smile.

more pics

I have some more from the park that I'll try to get up later today.

We've got the laptop back! Actually, it's been back for a few days, but Grandma K. has been visiting and I've been babysitting for LBL, so I haven't had time to get on and post pictures. But I've been getting lots and lots of people bugging me about not having any new ones up, so I'm going to take a few minutes and post some.

In other news...

-Autumn stood up on her own without support for the first time about three days ago. She's been enjoying practicing since, but only for a couple seconds at a time.

-We picked our first red tomatoes yesterday--4 cherry ones and 2 full-sized ones. Not much, but there are LOTS more close to being ripe. We each got to taste a cherry tomato and they were GOOD :-).

-We had a bit of a scare the other day when Autumn dove head-first into a fire ant nest (she was tired of being pushed around in her car and decided she wanted out). I tried to get all the ants off of her as fast as possible and managed to get them all over me. Thankfully she only got a couple of bites on her hands and they haven't been bothering her much.

-All four of Autumn's top teeth seem to be trying to come in at once. They aren't actually through yet, but her gums are very swollen and she's drooling like crazy and chewing on anything that stands still long enough.

computer

is getting fixed and had to be shipped off. however, we were able to get a desktop for $5 at a garage sale over the weekend, so all's good. matt has had to spend a long time running stuff to get rid of viruses and massive amounts of spyware. first time i tried to check my email, i think there were about 15 popups in the couple minutes i was on. it was pretty cool though, cause we got the computer, monitor, mouse, keyboard all for $5 and it works great (once matt got the superfluous stuff off). at the next garage sale they had the same type of computer for $85, plus the monitor for another $25.

anyway...probably won't be any updates for a while because the only way i was able to update so often before was because i could have the laptop and type while watching autumn where she happened to be. too much stuff in the office for her to get into, so updates will probably be minimal over the next few weeks.

new phone and number

just fyi. got a new phone and phone number so if i forgot to email you the new one, let me know.

excuse

for those of you (jessica :-p), who are about to complain about not having any pictures of autumn, there is a reason. she's had a constantly runny nose for the last week and her eyes have been red, so i haven't been taking pictures because she looks kind of gross no matter how much i wipe her nose and wash her face. she's feeling better now (started sleeping again), but she looks yucky most of the time.

on a positive note, she has learned to come when you call her. she looks up, sees you calling, gives you a huge grin and comes crawling forward as fast as she can all the while making very excited noises. she has a very funny crawl. one hand and then the other, one knee forward and then she drags the other leg along behind her. she always looks like she's moving sideways, but she actually manages to move forward. if you watch her crawl it makes you laugh. especially because she's always so excited about it. and then when she gets to you and you swing her up into your arms, she wraps her arms around your neck and squeezes hard while she buries her face in your neck giggling. she leaves her head there for a second while hugging you, then she pulls back and gives you a huge grin. it's very sweet (though it can be messy with a runny nose ;-)).

she also thinks it's absolutely hysterical to crawl up behind me when i'm washing dishes and grab the back of my leg and bang her head against it.

day off

Yesterday Matt was off and we ran errands pretty much all day. The library to get a new card and browse through the books until Autumn was just too happy and squealing and we had to get her out of there. Post office to mail an old cell phone to my parents. Bank to change a bunch of account information. Wal-Mart. Grocery shopping. Garden center. Matt's parent's to pick up some things. It was very busy.

But it was actually very fun. Autumn was happy and I was happy since Matt was off. :-) Also, I bought some flowers to plant. As much as I love having a garden full of veggies, and as pretty as they can be...there's still something so much nicer about actually having flowers.

I'm being stupidly optimistic and planting a bunch out in the bed I put in under the magnolia tree in the front yard. Every time I've tried to plant anything there the squirrels dig it up. But I'm trying yet again. I don't know what's wrong with me--it's really stupid.

I've also been putting together a couple of container arrangements. We'll see if they end up working. I pulled up some ivy from our yard for something to cascade from the pots and I'm not sure if it's going to stay alive...we'll see. I also got some hummingbird-attracting flowers to put in under the big window in the living room. We have a hummingbird feeder out there and it was really fun to watch them out there all last summer (when I was so sick I spent all day every day lying on the couch reading, watching tv, and watching the hummingbirds).

East of Eden

Since I don't have much time for reading, this one has taken me a couple weeks to get through. I really enjoyed the book (thanks to ben's mom for the recommendation :-)). And I actually didn't think it was depressing, just true. However, it's one of those books that really made me want more...as in digging up some good literary criticism and slowly going over it again. Picking at it to see if there's a way of getting inside.

It's made me realize (again) just how much I miss the resources we had at PHC. Trying to find some criticism on it through our library that isn't in the reference section (I don't much like reading in the library) has been an adventure. I finally got a biography and placed requests for a couple of interlibrary loans. But I was really longing to get on J-stor and print things out to my heart's content, like we could in school.

Anyway...other than the fact that I really enjoyed it, I'm not quite sure what to think of EofE. There are several parts I want to re-read and think about. It's a book that I really wished I owned instead of getting it from the library, because I guarantee that if I owned it it would be packed full of notes and underlines. As it is, I just had to use those little sticky arrows to mark pages that need re-reading and this means I miss a lot of things and it makes it very hard to hold onto your thoughts about certain passages. At least for me--but then, I have a hard time remembering anything unless I write it down. :-)

There was one short chapter in particular that really caught my attention because it seemed to be saying something very familiar. I think something from C.S. Lewis I read recently--I need to look that up.

I guess if I were to summarize what I'm thinking about EofE, I would say that I was amazed by how much universal truth it contained--hard ugly truths, truths of an incredible sharp beauty, the truth of the ever-unfolding story of mankind's flawed generations.

poor baby

Autumn is sick. She's had a cold for the last couple days and it's developing into a cough, too. She's supposed to go to the doctor tomorrow to get shots, but I think I'm going to call and cancel since she's already sick. She's restless and not sleeping well at all. Poor girl. :-(

...garden pics...

Spinach

Squash

Beans

Eggplant and Tomatoes

The garden really does look good this year. These pictures don't do it justice 'cause there's no way of getting the whole thing in. Also, they make it look all out of proportion and like the plants are on top of each other. In reality, it actually looks very orderly. How that happened, I'll never know. ;-)

More pictures from our yard...

Mums

All of my mums from last fall have come back. Both the ones I planted and the potted ones. Most are about to bloom, this one has just started. It just finished raining.

One reason to live down here...

Spring is so much earlier. I still don't like the hot summer and I even kinda miss the cold winters. But I was talking to my family and they still can't plant anything yet. On the other hand we have a lot of things ready to eat already. The rain the last few days has sent everything into overdrive. A lot of our lettuce is going to seed (I already have a third batch planted and just about ready to eat though). Today I was working on the tomatoes and noticed that we actually have some beans about ready too. :-) BTW, that is a quarter in the picture, something is off with the lighting and it made it look the wrong color.

test

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Emergent/Postmodern 71% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 71% Fundamentalist 68% Neo orthodox 57% Classical Liberal 50% Reformed Evangelical 50% Modern Liberal 32% Roman Catholic 29% Charismatic/Pentecostal 14% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

:-)

I'm a lot happier after babysitting today. I only charged $3.50 an hour, but let me tell you, after over a year of not making any money whatsoever, that $20 made me feel great. :-)

bye-bye

Autumn actually said something intelligible for the first time today. She now waves and says "bu-ba" when someone tells her bye-bye.

So Grateful...

...that Autumn is so good at playing independently (all day) and yet she still likes to cuddle.

I'm babysitting for a newborn today. (Well, I guess he still qualifies as a newborn--I think he's about 3 1/2 weeks old?) It's kind of a trial run to see if I want to start doing it a couple days a week, probably starting next month. It's funny just how incredibly tiny and skinny he is. Autumn was never this small. I think he's still about 2 1/2 pounds lighter now than she was when she was born. So far it really hasn't been too bad.

Autumn just went down for an early nap. Rough night again last night for her--still not sure what the matter is. Rougher night for me--never was able to get to sleep. This is all too common over the last few months. So I'm tired now.

I'm making cinnamon rolls. I haven't made them in ages. Not since living at home and a long time ago even then. But Matt has a day off and the kitchen was really clean--which always inspires me to cook and make a mess of it. :-) They've been taking forever, but they smell really good right now since they're finally in the oven. I wanted to put in walnuts or pecans, but I didn't have any so some of them have almonds and some are plain.

Gotta run.

Yawn...

deparately need coffee. to prove it, i just tried to start some without adding any grounds. matt left for work at 7:20. i need to make cards today. a lot of them. 6 mother's day cards. 4 or 5 birthday ones i can't remember. some more thank yous and a couple other ones. this wouldn't actually take too long if i was content to use similar designs for them, but i get bored if i do more than one the same. sometimes i can force myself to do a set, but it's very hard. i like them all different. autumn is very happy. she has a ring from a canning jar and she's been crawling around on the floor with it every once and a while stopping and sitting up and putting the ring around her foot. she thinks it is very amusing.

Waiting...

still for Matt to get home. I don't really like it when he works the evening shifts. (Neither does he.) I always wish we had a dog (a big one) to keep me company and keep me from getting nervous when he's working late. Yeah, the nerves are pretty dumb cause we really don't live in that bad a neighborhood, but they're there just the same. They don't want to listen to reason.

Anywho...the good news is--we may actually get a dog. Well, a puppy anyway. :-) I've said from the beginning that I don't want one unless I can get a purebred female registered golden retriever...preferably a dark one...and for free. Believe it or not all of that may actually work out.

My parents just bred their golden retriever, so there may be some pups showing up in a couple months, and, assuming that there are more than three and that there is a female in the litter--it looks like we'll get one. Yay! (Though I probably won't be saying that when it's chewing up everything, digging holes, and generally behaving like a puppy.)

Pictures

According to someone the past three posts were not enough pictures. So I'm trying to find a few more. Here are some...

Sippy cup

Investigation stage.

1st time swimming...

She liked it! :-)

Pics

Blogger hasn't been working for me the last couple of days, so I haven't been able to get any pictures up. Anyway...here you go (Jessica ;-))...these are from Mossy Creek.