The darnedest things

I posted this on FB, but wanted to get it to save forever on the blog :)


We were talking at work about how excited we were for fall.  Sweaters, crisp air that smells like the pretty changing leaves everywhere, pumpkins (and pumpkin spice lattes), scarves, the colors... *sigh* it is all our favorite season and we are all over summer. Some of us over the heat, and some of us (me) over the over-use of air conditioners to make rooms an uncomfortable 65 degrees (seriously- I blame my cold on that).  I thought of decorations for fall and Halloween (my favorite holiday) and realized this is probably the last year I can dress Sawyer in something adorable and fluffy of my choice.

On the drive home, I decided to make conversation with Sawyer and tell him about Halloween- how you get to dress up in a costume and get candy.  I asked him if he could dress up and be anything in the world, what would he be?

His response?  "Ummmmm.....chocolate milk"


It is so funny what comes out of that guy's mouth sometimes!  Sometimes he is such a know-it-all too.  Today a leaf fell on him (fall's coming!) and flew under the truck.  He goes "OH NO!"  I said "Uh-oh, did the leaf go under the car?"  He goes, "Truck." Matter-of-factly.  My bad!  One of his favorite things to say is "Right." Like we didn't know what we were asking him.  Example: "Is this the letter A?" He will go "Right. A" (BTW he knows all the letters now except thinks J's are L's. and V and U are still both the letter "View", but can see words and say the letters quickly now)

Today he was watching little Einsteins (his most recent obsession) and has to call me to tell me about the tom-mom-mus (hippopotamus) and  ee-neh-nus (rhinoceros).    He is trying so hard at sentences too and it is adorable.  Today I asked what he did all day (he used to not answer) and he says "Eli. Outside. Fun. LJ outside too."

I think I'm going to miss all these little attempts, but I suppose the more he can say the more funnies we will get.

Flashback

Yesterday was awesome.  First off, I got off work at 11:30!  Andy and I were both invited to be on a former student leader panel at Pierce College (where we met).  I remember sitting in the same room listening to the former leaders give us advice 5 years ago, and hoped that could be me someday.  We got free lunch (tacos and dessert) and got to shed some light on what to expect in the coming year.  Andy was excited because his friend Sean (he was president Andy's first year) was there and we got to sit by him.  They have quite a variety of people this year, even a guy that is pretty old but was awesome and asked some of the best questions.  It was so weird being back in the MPR (multipurpose room- we abbreviated EVERYTHING in student programs) and it felt like I never left...even though we were married and had a 2 year old in tow!

I am so proud of what we accomplished in Student Programs.  We practically built the HEC (on-campus gym- you can even find our names on a plaque), went through hours (and hours, and hours and hours) of leadership training, finding out about our own personalities and how we fit into groups in order to better work with others, chaired committees (one I chaired allocated like 2 million dollars around the campus), and planned tons of fun and educational events for the students.  I miss being there and I'm glad we kept in touch with the friends we made that year.

Later that day we got to see our newest friends from the rugby team at a team meeting.  It was definitely good to see everyone again.  We pretty much just talked about recruiting and fundraising.  While practice was going on, Sawyer played on the playground.  He wanted to go up to the slide the hard way, and I was so proud at how determined he was.  He failed a few times, but he finally made it up.  Once he did it once, he got it every time!

When we got home, Andy made AWESOME banana bread and I had a root beer float.  Perfect day!

Can you do the can can

Today we attempted to can.

An old friend of mine (as in we go back to preschool, not her age) posted on facebook that she was driving over to the east side to pick up some peaches, and if anyone wanted some to let her know.  I hadn't talked to her forever, but after a quick google search on canning, I decided to have her grab us a box since it seemed doable.

We didn't have the supplies, but I figured someone I knew would.  Luckily Sydney had been canning all week and brought her supplies...and her cat... over to let us use.  Sawyer loved chasing the cat around for awhile until they had to go.  This cat has thumbs!

 Here are our peaches. We had two layers.

 The first thing we did is put the jars and lids in the canning pot since you are supposed to sterilize them.  I had no idea that darn pot would take so long to boil!  We did everything else we had to do, and still had time to go get pizza (well, Andy did.  I stayed home and manned the pot).

The first step in the canning was to skin the peaches.  You don't want those gross fuzzies floating around!  You take the skin off by boiling a pot of water.  You drop some peaches in the pot for 30-60 seconds, then pop them in a bowl of ice water for a couple minutes to cool off.

It is the craziest thing, the skins just rub off!  A few got stuck a little, but some you could just easily do one quick swipe and the entire skin came off.

We turned it into teamwork and I started rubbing the skins off while Andy sliced the peaches.

The bowl filled up, so we had to improvise and move my ice bowl into the sink.

 The slices start to brown quickly, so you have to put lemon juice on them, or the powder that has citric acid in them (you can find it in the canning stuff at walmart.) Then you stir it up!  This step is necessary even if you go quickly because they will even brown in the jars.

The next thing we did is filled the slices in the jars.  You are supposed to fill them an inch below the top.

 Meanwhile, Andy was making some simple syrup.  We chose somewhere between a light and medium syrup (you can find the recipes onilne, but it just has to do with how much sugar to water you want.)

Once you boil it, you can pour it in the jars.  You are supposed to fill it to a half inch from the top.

 From there you have to make sure the tops of the jars are completely clean or they won't get a seal around the rim.  You put the tops on, and screw the lids on so they are snug, but not too tight.  You then put them in your boiling canning water depending on your elevation.  Ours, for quart jars and 600 feet was about 25-30 minutes for a raw pack (meaning we didn't cook our peaches in the syrup before putting it in the jar.)

30 minutes later we pulled our first batch out.

You have to let them cool over night.  You can tell if the seal worked after they cool if you push down on the lid.  If it pops, it isn't good and you need to stick them in the fridge and eat them within the week.  If it doesn't pop, they last 12-18 months!

We got 10 jars worth.  I got impatient and poked at them.  Our whole first batch was sealed!  I just went and poked the second and 2 popped down but haven't popped back up.  I think I did it too early.  Hopefully they stay down, but I won't complain if I have to eat them this week ;)  We had a lot of space in the jars and could have packed them tighter because there is about an inch of juice at the bottom of each :/   Oh well. I'm sure they will taste awesome!

Even MORE berries!

Last night we met up with Natalie at the old abandoned blueberry farm.  It was almost sunset so I knew we couldn't be there too long.  I think it was long enough though.

We got there and I immediately regretted leaving my camera at home.  I had planned to bring it, but forgot :(  We found the Morrisons back in the patch and started picking.

Emma was a big help with Sawyer, but the babysitting came at a price of her giving him non-stop blueberries.  His diaper today has been BLUE!  I've never seen anything like it!

We ended up with a ton.  At least 2 big sand buckets full.  Sawyer had a bucket with none, I filled mine, and Andy put his in a tub.  It was really overgrown, but it was an entire farm so there was plenty within reach.  It was also fun picking them and talking, and ending up with so many free berries.  We plan to go back.

Overgrown, but plenty of rows

It's kind of hard to judge how many are in there, but it is at least a couple sand buckets full 

Berries

Before I start, I wanted to say I slept all night without a cough fit! Yay!  The spongia, ricola, and honey along with doubled-up pillows must have worked!

Anyway, I decided to pick a few berries tonight because our bush, as seen here, is definitely ready

I got a whole bowl and then got bored.  Plus, I am not a huge blackberry fan because they are a bit sour and full of seeds.

There are a ton left, but a lot of them are way out of my reach so I am kind of sad that they'll just go to waste.

These are like 7 feet up :(

I am, however, a huge blueberry fan and my friend just told me about a secret location of an abandoned blueberry farm that I am so excited to visit in the next few days.

I am also getting a box of peaches Saturday so I will be full of fruit!  Hopefully I can successfully can them...I loooooooove jars of peaches.

Here is another picture I didn't want to forget.  I was driving home from work and Andy and Sawyer were at the neighborhood entrance so I picked them up and let Sawyer drive home.  Very very slowly, mind you.  It was one of my favorite things growing up when we got to drive in the neighborhood :)

Some attempt at relief, and Sawyer scores

Today was the longest day ever!  Everyone at work finally noticed my hacking (as much as I tried to hide it.)  My awesome manager Chantal actually went home and got me some tea to try to help!  I am not a tea drinker, but I can't taste much today so I thought it couldn't hurt.  It was cool because she has the tea maker thing that you fill with the different leaves (she picked them based on what was wrong with me) and you just sit it in there for 5 minutes.  I looked at the leaves she dumped out and it looked like there were flower petals and stuff in there, it was cool!  Like I said, I can't taste much, but what I did taste didn't even have that tea flavor that I'm not so fond of, it was more like a mild cranberry-ish sweet flavor.  She brought me a lemon too and I dumped most of that in there so it was a bit sour.  I think it worked though because I didn't cough too bad for the rest of work.

She let me go home a little early since we were dead, I was bored, and I wanted to go to the walk-in clinic to see if they had any advice for good natural remedies.  The doctor was an advocate for homeopathic remedies and told me to go get some "spongia".  Homeopathic remedies are funny because they come in little chapstick-looking containers.  You spin the "lid" around until you get about 4 pellets out, then dump them straight under your tongue without touching them with any other body part.  They dissolve under there.  Hopefully that helps tonight so I can actually sleep, but Andy got me some honey and Ricola drops for good measure.  I read a few places that honey has proven to work better than cough syrups so I am hoping that is the case and I won't wake up gagging at 4am again!

I also got home to some great news that Sawyer did AWESOME at soccer today!  He did the drills right and stuck with them!  Here he is kicking a goal!

Over this bug

I don't know what has happened this summer, but some nasty bugs have been going around.

A girl at my work was out for a week. with some stomach bug.  I have had this cough/stuffy nose for a week now.  It is awful because I can't sleep at all :(  If it isn't because I can't breathe through my nose, it is a coughing fit.  Sawyer has the cough still too but I think his nose is fine.  I haven't heard him up all night so that is good at least.

Luckily today (a short day) Sawyer fell right asleep in my bed with me after he woke up in his crib.  Unfortunately the poor guy fell off the bed!  It was so sad.  He wouldn't sleep again after that but I was so tired.  Luckily he turned the tv on in our room and managed to stay in there for a few hours without wandering or getting into trouble because I kept waking up to new shows.  

Later in the day we managed to get ourselves dressed to do pictures for an old friend from junior high. They turned out really cute- I'm excited to edit them, but first I have to do the lizard pictures lol.

Here's one, though.

Andy had to work late so Sawyer had to come, which is really frustrating trying to work in a place that is hard to get around in the tall grass so he can't run off.  I was always having to move him around...here is an example of a funny picture I got

Peek-a-boo

The wall

We have just had sparse pictures around the house, so I decided to put all the family pictures on the wall in the living room.  Now I will just have to figure out what to put on the rest of the walls in the house, haha.  I do like that it doesn't look so bare anymore!

While we had the couch moved out, Sawyer decided to color on the walls.  He somehow found a crayon that I thought I had put all of them in a drawer he couldn't reach.  He managed to get a line all the way across the wall, and then some scribbles at the end in just a few seconds.  I made him wipe them off, then I went over it again with a magic eraser and it came right off...thank goodness!

Anniversary adventure

We had half the week off for our 3rd anniversary.  We didn't really have the chance to plan anywhere to go, so we decided on some small adventures instead.

Unfortunately, Sawyer felt the need to shove his drinks in my mouth a few days before while he had a drippy nose and cough (even though I kept telling him "NO") so I was pretty sick the entire time :(  I wish I could have taken more advantage of our time off, but I guess it gave a good opportunity to rest.

We started the week off by getting off early on Tuesday...and went to the orthodontist (awesome :/). Sawyer fell asleep in the car though and I could not get him up for the life of me so he got to sleep in a chair the whole time.

The next day was our actual anniversary.  Sawyer had soccer so we couldn't go anywhere far, so we dropped him off at daycare for a couple hours and headed to Duke's chowder house- one of our favorite restaurants on the waterfront.

I wanted to stop by the mall, but was feeling a little too cruddy to walk around so we went home until it was time to get Sawyer for soccer.  I was so excited to be able to watch, since it was during my work hours.  It was hilarious because he was the smallest and was not the best at following directions. He enjoys it though.  I liked how Sawyer knows "coach" and he yells at him like a normal coach would "Sawyer, put the ball down!" "Sawyer, take your ball with you!".  It is so cute because they even put their arms in at the end of practice and yell "kids love soccer!"  We got ice cream afterwards since it was so hot.

His "goal time" at the end.

On Thursday, we headed out to the ocean at Westport.  It was supposed to hit nearly 100 degrees back home so we were hoping to cool off...and cool off we did!  We started walking along the shops and looked at the boats.  We got some ice cream, which for some reason melted unusually fast...it was a disaster!

We decided to head down to the beach and turned into one of those "Pemco insurance northwest profiles"...we were definitely the "goosebumped beach bum".  We put on our sweatshirts.  It was kind of weird because there were clouds at the coastline, but just a mile in it was fine!  We had a ton of fun and Sawyer got sand in all sorts of spots.  He loved playing on the beach.  He kept saying "Mommy! Beach!"

Sandy bagel

I wanted to see the sunset but the clouds didn't look like they wanted to cooperate so we headed home.  I did catch some nice views though.

The next day was promised to be another scorcher, so we headed up to my aunt's house on the lake.  We had so much fun lounging around in the water which was the perfect temperature.  Sawyer even got in a little bit, and he LOVED using the water guns to squirt everyone.

Sawyer squirting my dad with the water gun

When the sunset we had a bonfire and there was even fireworks since Bonney Lake Days was going on.  They were right across the lake from my aunt's house too!

Saturday was a Sounders game, and my dad got 4 tickets from work so the whole family was able to go.  Sawyer was excited because we took the "choo choo train" to the game.

We got free sunglasses at the entrance

Sawyer even did the "boom boom clap"

We were playing the Vancouver Whitecaps so there was a pretty cool tifo display

Sawyer fell asleep for the whole game, which was best I think.  Andy had to hold him the whole time, and it was easier to hold him limp than trying to wiggle out.

We got home and Sawyer drove his power wheel into the neighbors garden, and we finally watched the Hunger Games movie.  It was awesome!

Sunday was a lazy day and Andy made steak and grilled vegetables- yum!  I am still feeling a little cruddy and am not ready to go back to work :(