Busy, Busy, Busy

As usual we have been super busy with tons of stuff since returning from vacation. Yard work, garden work, and just plain old house work all need finished.

Today has been baking day, except I caught someone with their hand in the cookie jar (bag)

Lorrie, she had a chocolate chip cookie in one hand and an entire bag of ginger snaps in the other. What do we do with her? We sure laughed and wished you were here.

Layne, you would have loved to have been here for Labor Day. We spent way too much on ammo that day. Wasted!!

They did have tons of fun. We went through 3 boxes of clays. We really don't want to tally up how much ammo was used. It sounded like WW3 most of the afternoon. Nice to see they all have something in common. I will tell you all, the girls can match the boys shooting. You really don't want to mess with them. They could hurt you.

The 4 kids are on a cruise this weekend. They flew to LA yesterday and were boarding the ship today. They are going down the west coast of Mexico. Annie had her first airplane ride. She will have to tell you all about it. Sarah and Brian met up with Connie and Larry in Columbus airport. Quite by accident. Who would have thought, in a huge airport they would see each other. They didn't even know the other was going to be there.

Time for a little rest.

HOME . . .What a nice place

We are home. I love going away with John for a few days, but I LOVE coming home. My own bed and bathroom. What more can you ask for. I have so missed being in my kitchen all week. I know, strange, but if you know me you know I spend most of my days in my kitchen.

Day 1: Smoke Hole Caverns, Blackwater Falls and sleeping in Gettysburg.

Day 2: Touring Gettysburg. Probably my favorite. Then off to Hershey to sleep.

Day 3: M & H Train Ride (Middletown & Hummelstown) (Milk & Honey), Indian Echo Caverns, Hershey, Strausburg

This little yellow caboose is where we spent the night. Very quaint. The entire motel is several little cabooses that have been converted into sleeping quarters.

Day 4: Train museum in Strausburg, Pioneer Village (coal mine tour and train ride) then to sleep in Clarion, PA.

A small town in Amish country, PA, that is talked about in a lot of the books I have been reading.

Huge windmills that you see along the mountain tops.

Day 5: Oil City, Titusville, Drake Oil Well

We had a good time, but it sure feels good to be home. Lots more pictures. John filled the card for the camera. I only came home with aprons. Beautiful ones at that. John came home with hats. Shame he was sick all week while were were out and about. He is resting now.

VACATION

On Monday we left for a well deserved vacation. Our first stop was to Smoke Hole Caverns in the middle of West Virginia. While we were in the area we also stopped at Blackwater Falls. I love that kind of stuff.

We drove up to Gettysburg and spent the night there. There were tons of people and we were hoping that most would be back at home getting ready for school. It wasn't as bad as the middle of summer, I'm sure. We took a wonderful tour. It was a one-on-one tour. They actually drive your car and give the tour. It was a very informative 2 hour trip. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! The things I learned that I had never heard before. We went back to a few of the places later for pictures. There are over 1300 monuments in the parks. We spent the entire day there. To me, it is a very somber place to visit, but well worth the trip. We could have actually spent a couple of more days there, just to see everything.

Then off to Hershey. That is where we spent last night. We will be going down the road a couple of miles for our first train ride. This vacation is supposed to be train rides for my kid at heart husband. We are planning on going to Indian Echo Caverns, pan for gems and then, THE GOOD STUFF. CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Want some????

RS allnighter

Below are some of the pictures from the Relief Society All-nighter that we had last weekend. We had 22 ladies there. Not all of them spent the night, but we had so much fun. We ate, had foot soaks/pedicures, tie dyed shirts, ate, watched movies, ate. Kinda like when you were a teenager.

Next year will be bigger and better.

Missing in action

I am so sorry that it has been so long since I have posted. Being summer, the garden has taken most of my time. There have been tons of beans to can, cabbage to freeze, beets to pickle, pickles to pickle, corn to cut, tomatoes to juice and lots of other good stuff. I haven't taken any more pictures, but, there are jars full of stuff sitting everywhere right now, needing to find permanent homes. I tried making ketchup and chili base this year. That was a new thing. Also made more bean with bacon soup. This is handy when I am not home and John has to go to work.

We took a day off and visited the Pittsburgh Zoo with McKayla. She was so much fun to watch. She didn't want to take time to watch any one animal for very long, she wanted to run to every exhibit. We finally got her to slow down and enjoy the walk. We were all tired after trekking thru twice.

We have had family visiting for the Phillips reunion. They have all gone home now, and back to their daily routines. Now it is our turn for vacation. We will go to Kidron on Saturday, then leave for vacation the first of next week. We are just driving to train spots. John wants to go ride trains.

Kidron...our yearly trip to the farm auction in Amish country. Only they have more than just farm equipment. They have anything you can imagine. Last year we bought the cider press up there. We have gone to this sale since I was a little girl. We used to cover up with blankets in the back of Dad's truck and sleep all the way up. We sure hoped it didn't rain. Some years all that was purchased was breakfast at the restaurant (best breakfast in the world). This year my list includes oil lamps and oil from Lehman's hardware. Can't find any around here, so, I will stock up while there. Lehman's is the non-electric store in the middle of amish country. Takes a day just to look at everything. Loads of fun, and it is air-conditioned!!!!!!!

We are looking forward to good homemade ice cream, lots of it, while we are there.

I will try to post pictures of vacation in a timely manner.

Great looking results

I went to the produce auction this morning, even though I had picked green beans, cucumbers and zucchini. I froze broccoli on Wednesday. Today I am making zucchini pickles, cucumber relish and green beans. The kitchen smells soooooooooooooooooo good. Green beans are my favorite. I have been putting them in pint jars the last couple of years because we just don't eat an entire jar, like when the kids were

home.

These are the zucchini pickles.

This is the first time I have tried

them.

This is the relish mix.

John Jr. is anxious to give it

a try.

We had a good time on the 4th. John's sister, Connie, and her family were in. We all cooked out at Dad's, of course. John Jr. took everyone rides in the pipe buggy. The kids had so much fun. Even the big kids took a ride. The garden is still doing well.

I have blueberries on the bush I planted this spring. I am so excited. Walmart had bushes on sale this week, so of course I went and got more.

The finale . . .

I can't wait to get it filled with 'my' stuff.

Apprently the mower has already been put inside.

We have veggies

This past couple of weeks have been crazy.

Last week we had severe storms go thru the area. There was major flooding, almost like in 1990, except no one lost their life. I worked at the EOC office until early in the morning (2am), taking phone calls from all the crazy people who didn't leave when they had the chance.

John bought a storage shed. We have worked on getting a solid base ready for it. That took most of the week, considering we had hay to put in while it was daylight. The base is ready and now we have to set up a time to have the building delivered. I think it will be more my building. He says that my stuff takes up too much space in his garage. The hay is all in. We finished John Jr.'s on Tuesday evening, after fighting with baler troubles all night Monday. Dad and John Jr. got his (dad's) done on Wednesday and Thursday. We were lucky to have good weather all week.

Garden is looking great. . .

I am going out to cut broccoli this morning. The romaine and leaf lettuces have been ready, and so is the spinach. Those three make a wonderful salad. I took one for the Father's Day picnic, and it was gone in no time. The cabbage is making nice heads, too.

The carrots on the front porch are the best looking ones I have ever had.

I have been thinning them out a little, hoping that I will have nice size carrots when it is all over.

The best of all. I have little cucumbers on the plants in the pots. I wasn't sure how they would do, but . . .

Off to the outside world. There are raspberries to pick today. We have been picking for almost a week. They came on two weeks early this year, but they are huge. The rain sure helped. Annie and I picked until dark at their place on Monday. I made berries and dumplings for dessert, oh soooo yummy.