Snow 2012

Last month we had our first substantial amount of snow. And amazingly enough the girls actually wanted to play outside in it :) Sean was home and we went out and played. The girls tried to match their snowball throwing skills against the shovel. You can guess who won.

 Abby allowed herself to be caught by her dad and then proceeeded to get buried.

 The snow wasn't sticking together very well.

 Sean burying Abby.

 Abby, waiting to see if Sean would chase her or if Sabrina would help her.

 Our yard has a pretty steep hill, and the girls thought it might be a good idea to go to the bottom to avoid the snow being thrown at them with the use of a shovel. um, not so smart, as they ended up trapped, and easy pickings.

From the Step-mom

A friend of mine posted on her facebook page "One of the hardest things in life is watching someone you love, loving someone else. " by unknown. Then a friend of hers replied, "It could be watching the the children you carried in your belly loving their stepmother. " And that really hurt. I don't know this woman, nor, from her one comment do I EVER want to know this woman, but who the heck does she think she is? Is the step mom abusive to her kids & they love her anyway? Is the step mom mean to them & they love her anyway? Does she neglect them & they love her anyway? Does the step mom speak evil of the "real mom" & the kids love her anyway?  Why is it such a bad thing that her kids love their step mom? Or does the step mom love those kids unconditionally just because they are her husbands kids & the kids love her anyway? Why would this "real mom" begrudge her children love from or for another person? Is her self esteem so low that she thinks that step mom could EVER replace the love her children have for her? Or is she just selfish? Or is she a bad parent and mad that her kids don't love her and is looking to blame someone else for the sucky job she is doing? As you can tell, this statement really bothered me. I'm a step mom. I have two step daughters. They both have mothers they love very much. I come in a distant third! (behind their dad) but I'm extremely grateful that they are able to love me as their father's wife. I've never tried to replace their mothers position in their life, it would be a losing battle and there would be much unhappiness on all fronts. Maybe that mom wants her kids to be like a student I overheard while subbing one time. This student went on to brag as to how she put salt in an open container of pop her mom was drinking and a few other awful things she had done. Really? Is that how we were taught to get along? There are many things I don't agree with in the parenting realm of one mother, but ya know what, there isn't anything I can do about it. They aren't my kids. I can love them as much as possible while they are in my house and care for them and teach them while they are here, but at the end of the weekend, they go home, and I have no say as to what goes on outside my house. So, for those of you that have to deal with a step mom, think about how life would be in her shoes, and don't begrudge anyone that would have love for your child.

Smells of the Season

Sean made a comment the other day that was totally appropriate. I was canning applesauce and he said " aaahhh, the smells of the season." So then we started naming all the smells of fall that we love.

Applesauce

Apple Pie

Pumpkin Pie

Cold Air

Chili

Pumpkin cookies
Candy Corn
Mellow Cream Pumpkins

As you can see, it's all about the food :) Ah, I love fall and the yummyness!

Funny Fruit...AKA the Cucamelon!

We finished taking everything out of the garden yesterday. Actually Sean finished all that. We had taken out most of it 2 weekends ago, but wanted to see if some of the left over tomotoes would ripen. They didn't, so Sean pulled everything. And since he pulled everything, he picked the watermelon. It had grown a little bigger since we first found it, so we were hoping we'd get a little fresh watermelon at the end of the summer. uh, nope! This is what we encountered when Sean cut it open.  No pinkness to be found.

 And it smelled like a giant cucumber. Ugh. So this first picture was me trying to get the color of it. As you can see, one stripe of pink. And this second picture is me trying to not use the flash, but still get a good picture. My photography skills are suspect, let me just put it that way. And I'm not sure about the new set up for the blogger, cause I always have trouble putting my pictures where I want them. If anyone has any hints on that, let me know.

4th of July with Family

On our way back from Iowa we were able to stop in Ohio to see my family for the 4th of  July. I'm so grateful that my aunt & uncle have pool :) it was great hanging out with family. Even my sister from California was able to make it out. So the original reason for the get together is "Cousin's Week." Which I totally think I'm going next year!! I'm a cousin! right?! lol. Anyway. My aunt has all her great-nephews & nieces (my generations kids) over for a week in the summer. It's awesome cause kids that wouldn't usually get to know each other get to hang out and have fun. And since their parents are close to each other (me & my cousins) my aunt thinks our kids should get the chance to do the same. So at the culmination of the week,the parents come to get the kids and we all hang out and catch up.

 Here is my niece & nephew with their dad.

 Bobby is trying to put Grace's hat on, and she's not having it.

 Miss Stella eatin some lunch.

 Miss Grace is not happy about something. I think she wants to get in the pool. That crazy girl loves being in the pool.

 B writing a note. I think. Deep in concentration over something.

 Bobby, Grace and their mom in the pool.

 miss Stella on the swing set. That little stinker got me in trouble. Well, actually she didn't, but made me feel like I was in trouble. ha. She had me put her up on the bar and then I found out she wasn't supposed to be up there. uh, huh. Stinker!

 Wait a minute, that isn't your baby. :) Auntie C with baby K.

 Aunt Edie with K.

 Miss Kate did NOT like the water. Or at least not being able to touch the bottom. She screamed her head off when Ben took her any farther out than the steps. The funny thing was she was so excited to put her suit on she was driving her mom nuts. but alas, this is where she was happiest. on the steps, playing with Ariel.

And Brig, our fashion star :)

 

Needless to say, we spent lots of time in the pool and had a blast. Paid for it later with a lovely sunburn, but wouldn't have missed spending time with family for nothing.

And even more about my garden.

I hope that when this posts the picture isn't as fuzzy as it looks right now. Cause I"m pretty sure I'm not THAT bad of a photographer. Sean is holding one of the tomatoes we got out of our garden. oh, how yummy they were. Huge & yummy. We are kinda tomatoed out at the moment, but still have a few that need fixin. We'll get to them, hopefully before they get yucky.

 And this would be some of the crop. I never did get around to taking a picture of all the ones we had at one time. We gave a BUNCH of them away, and of course ate way too many. Although, i don't think you could ever have too many tomoatoes. But I've probably had my fill until next summer.

 And this would be our surprise addition. We had a volunteer watermelon come up this year. Have no idea how it got there, but eh, we figured, just let it grow. The bean were done and it was in that corner of the garden. After talking to Sean the other day we decided that we would just pull it and get it out of there, so I attempted to do that this morning. uh, what is this?! We have been looking at some of the vines and seeing these little grape sized watermelons. shoot should have taken a picture of that and posted it. They are so dang cute. But anyway, that's all we've seen. So when I started pulling up vines I never expected to see this! holy cow, it's rather large. At least larger than the little grape ones we have. I'm not sure if it's big enough to eat, or if it would be just rind on the inside. Might leave it a while. I just hope the bugs don't get it.

 And then I was pulling some other vines up out of the way, and I found ANOTHER one. not nearly as big as the first one, but a lot bigger than grap size. how cool is that. i might have to start one early next year so we can actually get some watermelon that we can eat. Although, I think they will take up a lot of space. Maybe I'll put them on the hill that Sean hates to mow. now there's an idea!

 And here is the pepper plant that I thought I had killed. And it really did look dead for a while. And yes the picture is upside down, cause I took it upside down. And then forgot to rotate it. Sorry. Anyway. There are about 4 green peppers on it, I'm not sure when to pick them. They are small, but are big enough to actually eat. So, like the watermelon, I'll leave them for a little while longer and hope nothing eats them before I can!