Sometimes I feel like I live on a farm... (Part 8)

I'm a little behind on my posting so it's taking a little while to get caught up. I went to the Farmer's Market again and it is my new favorite place to go. I just love it there. I bought a huge box of peaches and a flat of berries.

I ended up with 16 jars of jam- but I doubt they will last very long. Jethro loves this stuff.


I also diced the peaches this time instead of slicing them or just halving them. My girls love eating fruit so I figured I won't have to buy diced peaches from the store or have to take time to cut up the slices. I do have a plaguing question about peaches for all those who can- how do you keep peaches from floating to the top? I look at others pictures and their peaches aren't floating. The first time I canned them I put them in the jars and poured the hot syrup over. The second time I did them I put them in the hot syrup and warmed them up. If any body knows a secret to keep them down, I'd greatly appreciate it.


I told Jethro I wouldn't, but I just couldn't waste good peach pits. He doesn't like it too much, but I love eating it on english muffins. I love it's different taste.

As the fall frost is fast approaching, I realize I still have a lot to get down in the canning department but little time and little energy. I never realize how exhausting it can be. I'm already getting a little burned out. Let's hope I can get it all put away before it freezes.

Why am I so excited for this week?

1. Jethro only has 66 days till graduation
   
2. Grape juice
3. Cottonwood High Football
4. BYU Football
5. Chili cookoff
6. Making puppets at scouts
7. 4 year anniversary
8. Apples
9. Nice weather
10. Snow on the mountains
11. Menu for the week all planned out
12. Hot chocolate days
    

X Marks the Cuteness

Cali is so adorable we just don't know what to do with her. One of my favorite things that I have not blogged about yet is her X. When she smiles, her squinty eyes and chubby cheeks create creases in her nose so that it makes an X. The picture above shows what I am talking about, but the video below is just her being cute and smiling a lot. You may need to click on the picture to get a better picture of her nose. This is Jethro's favorite thing about Cali right now and he always tries to get her to make her little X. If you want bigger video, go here.

The time has come...

For Katya to take her first steps.

One of the hardest things I had to deal with when Katya was born was my dreams for her. While I was pregnant, I dreamed of all that Katya would do. Dancing, gymnastics, cheer leading, traveling the world, driving, dating, college, marriage, and everything under the sun. It was really hard that first day when we got the diagnosis. It seemed as if everything that I imagined for my daughter would not come to pass. Now that it has been a couple of years and learned a lot more about down syndrome, I realize that she will be able to do many of the things I once imagined her doing- if she chooses to. She may not be able to do things as well as others, but there will be some things she can do really well. Most things will just take her a little longer to do and may be a little harder to learn. I realize that there is nothing she can't do. I am grateful that my perspective has changed on what her abilities are.

Just because.... (UPDATE)

The rabbit is still alive. Our landlord came home and put it in an old rabbit hutch with food and water.


It also wasn't some crazy lady just ditching it on our back porch. Here's the story:

A lady a street over saw his black lab that lives right behind us carrying a rabbit in it's mouth. She got it out and put it on the back porch because our landlord used to raise rabbits. She assumed that he had gotten a hold of one of ours. She came by later yesterday and told us what happened and thought it was ours.

Problem solved. It's nice to know that strange people aren't just running into our backyard dumping injured rabbits. I still don't know why she didn't ring the bell. Oh well.

Just because....

Just because you see a rabbit running out of our yard and hit it with your huge truck, doesn't mean that

1. it is our rabbit
2. you can come into our backyard without ringing the doorbell
3. leave the rabbit on a chair on the deck
4. run out of the yard like you did something bad

What is wrong with people?!!

Poor thing is still alive and I'm terrified of animals and don't know what to do with it

31 for 21 Challenge

October is Down Syndrome Awareness month and I thought this challenge would be a great one to participate in. Here is what Tricia has to say about her 2nd Annual Challenge:

The goal is to blog everyday for the month of October. 31 days to raise awareness of Down syndrome (a.k.a. Trisomy 21). Get it? 31 for 21!

Why should I do it?

This is the one question I can be unambiguous about. I propose you do it in honor of Down Syndrome Awareness Month. One thing I can say certainly, is that writing--blogging specifically--has helped me in numerous ways as the mother of a child with Down syndrome. I value the people I have met, the friends I have made, and the information I have gathered on blogs. Wouldn't it be wonderful if new parents googled Down syndrome and our blogs came up? What a welcome wagon that would be!

But that doesn’t mean you HAVE to write about Down syndrome. I think it’s beneficial for folks to read about people who are affected by Down syndrome and see that our lives are just the same as anyone else’s.

I was 22 when I had Katya and I never thought my life would change so much in one day. I am so grateful for the wonderful opportunity we have to have Katya. She has taught me more in these last couple of years than I could have ever imagined. I worry, as any parent does, that people will judge Katya without taking the time to understand. My hope is that more people will take the time to understand before being quick to judge everyone, disabilities or not. I think one of the best ways to understand is by asking questions. I'd love to answer any questions anyone has about down syndrome. I don't know everything about it, but what I do know I'd be happy to share.

An apple a day...

I took the girls out back in the wagon while I was helping Paul fix the sprinklers. I gave them each an apple to play with and they went to town. Katya ate some of hers and then switched apples with Cali. Since Cali doesn't have many teeth, Katya was nice enough to eat part of the apple so Cali would be able to suck some apple juice out. Needless, to say, they both loved their apples.

Katya was showing me how much she ate. She continued to eat hers and
Cali's for another 20 minutes. She probably ended up eating half an apple all by
herself.(I didn't take any bites at all even though I wanted to. Those sharp teeth are
good for something.)

Book Reading Progress

September

38. Just Beyond the Clouds- Karen Kingsbury
39. Expecting Adam- Martha Beck

Why am I so excited for this week?

1. Jethro finally has his teaching license
2. Jethro is one week closer to graduation
3. BYU is ranked #8 (or #7 depending what poll you look at)
4. Nice relaxing week at home
5. Canning
6. We get to do puppetry in scouts
7. Katya is taking a few steps
8. General Conference this weekend
9. Fall
10. BYU does not have a bye week
11. New weekly menu

I Am Officially Official

After two long years of slipping undergrad courses in with my graduate classes*, I have finally obtained my Utah Educator's Level I License. As Staci says, I don't need a piece of paper to show that I am a good teacher. (While that may be true, I do need a piece of paper to keep my job, not good teaching skills. Is that backwards? Yes.)

Anyway, I am glad to have my license, so only three more years of evaluations and I will be able to be a "career" teacher. Yippee for job security, if I make it that long!

*For those of you who don't know, I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in English, with an emphasis in professional writing, and a minor in Russian. After graduating, I decided that I wanted to be a teacher, and so I went through Alternative Routes to Licensure. The program lets me take a bunch of classes while still having a real teaching job. Personally, I learned far more on the job than I ever learned in the classrooms, and I think I am a better teacher for it. Someday, I'll give my ideas for what a real teacher preparation program should look like.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Much like Staci's relationship with her hair, I have a love/hate relationship with Parent-Teacher Conferences, or as we call them at our school, student-led conferences.

I love them because I get to know the parents and learn about why their kids are the way they are. It is really quite insightful. Oftentimes, the kids are nearly the spitting image of their parents. Other times, you really have no idea how the kid turned out the way they did. Anyway, it is just fun to get to know the parents.

The bad part about conferences is that my mistakes are always brought to the front. I have a hard time remembering what I say, sometimes, and that leads to bad things. For example, last year, I said that a kid would get a grade for an assignment, but I didn't give it to them, so their parents came storming in, ready to destroy me. This year, I didn't put a kids grade in the computer, and they should have a much higher grade than they do right now. I try to be accommodating and tell them that if they have an assignment, and I did it wrong, they can turn it in again, and I will fix their score.

Well, this kid goes out and gets his paper, and when he returns, I think, I better put that in the computer ASAP! His mom was obviously watching his grades very closely. So, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Here is what happened. I left it on the couch, and...

Cali ate that much of the paper while I was in the kitchen. I guess I can't refute the excuse, "My sibling ate my homework" anymore. Sadly, I know that can happen.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Thursday I went from this


To this


I have a love hate relationship with haircuts. I am the first to admit that I am very weird when it comes to some things. Jethro will back me up on that. You see, I love getting my hair cut, but at the same time I really hate getting it cut. I love the feel of a fresh haircut and I love just getting it cut. I hate the fear of my haircut turning out badly and hating it. The worry overtakes my mind and I can't bear to sit in a chair and have them whack of the hair that I have been trying to grow. I don't know why am so worried because my hair grows out relatively fast and I don't even have such a huge attachment to it. I also hate it when it gets long because it sheds everywhere and my kids pull it. I have a great stylist so I shouldn't worry about it turning out badly. Maybe all this explains why I haven't had my haircut since April 2007. Hopefully, I will get over this weir thing in my life and so the next time I get it cut it'll be sooner than 1 1/2 years.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

We just wanted to wish my Mom a Happy Birthday. We hope you have a great day. We love you.

Vote for my Cousin!

It is actually Jethro's cousin, but by marriage I am lucky to count her as my cousin. Here's the email she sent:

I submitted a picture of myself online to 97.1ZHT for a baby bump contest. The winner receives $2,000 gift card to a baby store and I get to be on the radio I think. It would be great if you all could help me win.

www.971zht.com

On the main page there is a baby bump picture. Go to that and there will be an option to vote.

I am #35 out of #201 listings. All votes have to be in by this Friday.

Please vote, cuz that would be awesome if I could win. If you have any more questions, let me know.

Please forward this message to those people that I don't have and they know me.

Or if they don't know me thats ok to I guess. I'd just really like to win. They said only one vote per computer, but I kind of think that's per e-mail address.

Thanks,

Jennifer

Vote for her because it would be awesome if she won!!

Zoo trip #(I have no idea!)

I took the girls to the zoo again today. My friend Heather met us there and we had a blast. It was absolutely gorgeous weather and there was hardly anybody there. I'd have to say that it was a perfect day at the zoo. Katya pretty much made friends with everybody she saw because she waved at everyone and laughed at all the animals. Funny girl. Cali enjoyed just strolling along and also took a little nap. Good friend. Good conversation. Good Kids. Good day.

This baby monkey is so cute! It had so much energy too and was
jumping everywhere. I want one.

Stare down with the lions.

Here is a video of that cute monkey. I want to go back and see him again.

Just because your sister can, doen't mean you can

Cali is learning things pretty quick by watching Katya. What Cali doesn't understand is that she doesn't have the height or coordination to do things quite yet. I'm not going to stop her from trying though.


She tried to climb up like Katya but she got stuck. I thought about helping her off, but I had to snag a picture first. As I was finishing up taking a bunch of pics, she'd figured out how to get off. Good job Cali.

She'll outgrow it

We put Cali in the chair with Katya and Nya to try and get a cute picture of the three, but I think it was too tight of a fit. Nya said something to the effect of "Cali is fat" and it was a tight squeeze. Cali didn't like Nya talking about her weight. She'll outgrow it I think.

How many top 100 books have you read?

I saw this on Jill's blog and thought it would be interesting. Just scanning the list I can tell I still have a ton to read.

The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six.

Here’s what you are supposed to do:
*Look at the list and bold those we have read.
*Italicize those we intend to read.
*Underline the books we LOVE .Share this list in your blog, too, if you like.


Here's what I did: I just bolded the ones I've read, the rest is too much of a hassle for me today.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling


5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger


19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis


34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth


56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy


68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray


80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


13 is not that many. I better start reading. Hopefully by the end of the yaer my number will look a little better.

How many have you guys read?

Sometimes I feel like I live on a farm... (Part 7)

THE FARM

I blog a lot about what I can from the garden, so I am finally showing the garden itself. It is not our garden. We just put blood, sweat, and tears into it. It belongs to the man upstairs. He plans it all out, instructs our planting of planned areas, forces us into slave labor for the whole summer and part of fall, then allows us to partake of it. It's actually not bad at all. I love having it so much and I really enjoy working in the garden, except for weeding. Paul (the man upstairs) ha been gardening forever. I think his parents gardened while he was growing up so he knows a lot about gardening. I can tell he knows a lot and is really good at it because all the stuff is so good and turns out wonderfully. I love learning about gardening. I am very grateful that we live here and have access to such a wonderful garden, even if it is overwhelming. Now without further ado, the garden........

The first two pics are views from the deck and the third and forth are from inside the garden.

(The empty area is where we used to have 6 rows of corn.)

The next pictures are of my favorite thing in the garden-raspberries. They are so good. Paul planted a ton more this year so we have a lot. The yellow looking ones are golden raspberries and are so tasty. They have a sweeter taste and are huge!

There are 2 apple trees and we hope we get as many as we got last year.


There are 2 main grapes- there are some on the back fence that borders the neighbors, but I have no idea what they are. I'm not sure what the green ones are, but they are seedless. The purple are concord grapes and have seeds. I should really pick some and make grape jelly.



We planted 9 rows of corn this year (or 12. I can't really remember). The last bunch is almost done and so close to being picked.

Have you ever heard of lemon cucumbers? I hadn't until I moved here. They look kind of like lemons but are cucumbers. You eat them with the skin on and they are really good. We have regular cucumbers, but I didn't see any while I was out there.



Paul grows regular and purple cabbage. I'm not a fan of it, but it sure looks pretty.


We planted tons of peppers this year. We planted red, green, and yellow bell peppers. We also planted banana peppers, green chilies, jalapenos, and I'm sure some more that I forgot. We have 5 or 6 jalapeno plants that produce massive amounts of peppers. Not quite sure what to do with all of them.





The big thing in the garden are the 40 tomato plants. They are massive and out of control. They are so yummy though. I believe we planted 5 types of tomatoes. For some reason they taste better than they did last year. Maybe it's because I missed them so much.

These are Mexican tomatoes and most of them come out as
big as my hand.

Pear tomatoes. Never seem them until we moved here. So good!

My favorite tomatoes are these little grape tomatoes. They are
the yummiest things I've ever tasted. I wish they were year round.

I completely forgot about eggplant. I love their color and think they are so pretty to look at. I think it helps that they taste good.

Besides tomatoes, we plant tons and tons of squash. I'm not a huge squash fan, but luckily PAul is and uses most of it. I never knew there were so many varieties of squash.

Hubbard

Pumpkin (at least I think)

Yellow squash

Zucchini and yellow squash plants

More Pumpkins

Spaghetti Squash (They actually featured this on Rachel Ray
yesterday. Here is the recipe.)

Hubbard

Pumpkin- This is Katya's

Cali's pumpkin

Banana Squash

I think this is Acorn

Buttercup

More Butternut

More Spaghetti

We also have pretty wild green onions and chives. We water them and they keep growing every year.



If the garden doesn't make me feel enough like I live on a farm, I just listen and then I really do think I live on one. There are 2 geese that make sure we remember that they are there. I am very much afraid of them. When they are out in the yard I rarely go outside because they are not a big fan of people. There are also about 20 chickens who give us wonderful eggs. Now if we only had a cow, I would never need to go to the grocery store.



I just love it here and I'm so grateful for the opportunity of learning from a gardener so that maybe someday I can grow wonderful things also. I hope that I can learn many more lessons about gardening and how to keep everything alove for the whole summer (because Paul knows that we almost killed everything off when he was gone. Who knew that we needed to water that much. No wonder nothing was growing. Lesson learned.)