The Garden

Our poor little garden has struggled this season with the heat and then all of the rain.  I have had to plant my herbs twice and some of it still didn't make it.  Only half of my cilantro survived, but I believe this was partially due to Lucas and his shovel.  But our tomatoes survived!  When we arrived back home though, our garden needed some serious weeding and we caught the neighbor kids picking our unripe tomatoes, little stinkers!  Some still survived and there were several ripe tomatoes that needed to be picked.  So for the last week we have been eating very yummy tomatoes.

For the first time this year I planted basil.  Wow, this stuff grows like a weed!  I have made two batches of pesto, along with a few dishes that have called for fresh basil and it is still growing!  I have really enjoyed having all of this basil and experimenting with it!  I will definitely be growing this again next year!

Poor Little Car

This has not been the year for our little Camry.  The heater when out at the beginning of the year, so that needed to be fixed.  Surprisingly enough you can't fix it until it is warm enough outside, so needless to say it didn't get fixed till late winter.  Then summer came and we soon realized our A/C was out and you have to have a working A/C when you have a little person and humidity, plus it was really, really hot this year.  A more minor repair was our gas door broke and you had to manually open it, that was tricky, but an easy fix.  When I went home in July, Craig was driving along and one of the tires blew so we had to get new tires.  Our newest incident is our poor tale pipe has a gaping hole.  I apologize to our neighborhood who has been woken up to the noise of our car starting at 5:30 in the morning.  Sorry!  We attempted to fix it, but this morning I started up the car and could hear the muffler again, looking on the bright side of things at least it is not at loud as it was, before we tried to fix it.  Even with all that we have had to fix this past year, it has all worked out because Craig has been able to fix a lot of it on his own, which has saved us a lot (good thing I have a mechanically inclined husband).  So with this newest incident, I am sure it will work out, Craig already has a plan.  All things considered it is a good car and the things that have been wrong is all wear and tear, nothing too serious.  So in the end 'Go Us' and 'Go Little Car' you can make it!

Peaches!

With the fall comes canning.  I have been looking forward to canning this year, because I have been wanting to try to can peaches.  I love fresh peaches so much better than store bought canned peaches.  So image how excited I was when I found out that I had not missed peach season when I got back into town.  I feel so productive when I am canning, I am building up my food storage.  That is right I have thirteen jars of peaches sitting in the office just waiting till one of these days when it is really cold and dreary and I want a peach to brighten the wintry day.  I will be tasting some pretty sweet success!

So it begins.....again

Yes, it is here again that time of year when I have to coordinate our activities on Saturday depending on what time the "game" is.  When I know what I will be wearing every Saturday for the next few months.  When I stock up on Brats and chips, and apple beer (yes! the apple beer that we stocked up on when we were back west, boxed up, had examined at the airport, weren't sure it was going to make it, but it did! Success!).  Bring on the football!  When football officially started on Saturday we were ready.  Lucas was dressed from head to toe in BYU paraphernalia, carrying his BYU bookstore bag across the parking lot to the football party.  Poor child being indoctrinated into this ritual that is BYU Football at such a young age.  He even knows how to say "Go Cougars" and "touch down".  Of course you can't celebrate this monumental moment without friends.  Till next Saturday and the Saturday after that and the Saturday after that and so forth.

Watching the game at the James' with the Van O's.

Grange Fair

It is that time of year again.  One of the biggest events in Centre County, the Grange Fair.  This is a pretty important event, school is delayed due to this fair, people would kill their grandma to get a tenting spot at the Grange Fair.  It is that serious!

I like taking Lucas to see all of the animals, it has been fun to see how he reacts to the animals over the past few years.  This time around he was so excited, I think the rabbits were his favorite part, he would name the animals as he saw them and make the appropriate animal noises.  It was pretty cute!  We went with several of Lucas' friends, had some ice cream from an enormous ice cream sunday, and watched the Bald Eagle Band.  Lucas seemed to enjoy himself.  Lucas was able to walk part of the way with me and he was good to not wander off.  It was a very enjoyable day.  It is always an experience when going to the Grange Fair.
 

What Neighbors

We have lived here for three years now and in that three years in the apartment next to us we have had three different families living there and it has been empty for several months between those families.  Craig and I are beginning to think that there is something going on.  The management claims that there is a waiting list despite there always being empty units.  The apartment at the end of the building moved out after the apartment next to us, but it has been filled already.  Kind of strange.  Maybe we're horrible neighbors.  Our washer and dryer are pretty loud,  the floor moves when the washer is going.  It is kind of like having a mini earthquake every time we run the washer (I'm not joking either.  You can stand in the upstairs opposite corner of the apartment and feel the floor shaking slightly).  Don't get me wrong,  I am not complaining.  It is nice have no neighbors, but now that I have mentioned this I am sure will have neighbors move in and it won't be pleasant.  Here's hoping that won't be the case.  All of our neighbors in the past have been really nice.

New skills and joys

Lucas is still obsessed with cars, if you ask him what movie he would like to watch nine times out of ten it will be, Cars.  He can say "Lighting McQueen" and "Mater".  He loves playing with his Lego versions of the Cars characters.  He also has little car figurines of the characters and plays with them non stop.  The other day I even discovered some of his toys in one of my reusable shopping bags while we were at the farmers market.  He is quick to point out the cars on the road, especially school buses!


Lucas knows his colors if you coordinate them with a Sesame Street character.  For example if we see a school bus and I say, "Lucas what Sesame character is the school bus?"  He is quick to respond, "Big Bird."  We have also done this with objects of solid colors, green, yellow, red, and blue.  If you say which color is cookie monster he will grab the blue object.  I love Sesame Street so educational!


Lucas has also learned how to open doors, it was a sad day when we figured out he can do this.  He now has access to the office, the food storage upstairs (where he quickly discovered the fruit snacks) and the bathroom downstairs (where I found him the other day with about half a roll of toilet paper on the floor).  Right now as I am writing this I can hear him upstairs and I am pretty sure he is in the extra bedroom where the food storage is, probably looking for the fruit snacks.  This problem will quickly be resolved as I picked up some child proof door knob things.  The only problem with this solution is I have yet to master opening a door with those things on the handle.....