Traditions

Jason, Ryan (my brother) and I have had a Christmas Eve tradition for about nine years. The three of us go out for a late breakfast and then go to the movies. It is always so much fun, especially because we don't get to see Ryan too often, as he is a student at PSU and lives in Gresham.

Bread

After a busy day of playing, a few evenings ago, Kristina and I made two types of breads to freeze and give as Christmas gifts. I made three loaves of a yummy pumkin bread from one of Jason's room moms, and Kristina made a delicious blueberry zuchini bread using our berries from this summer.

A little bit of everything

Things have been very busy, and I have forgotten my camera when we have been out and about, including Thanksgiving day and Black Friday. We had a great Thanksgiving with lots of family and friends. I even made homemade dinner rolls for the first time. This past week, first grade had a craft morning. Here is one of my wonderful room moms and her daughter making corn husk dolls....they turned out wonderful!

We also made pilgrim boys and girl hats......

Need to catch up....for Halloween Jason was an old man. I knew the prior day that he was going to get a haircut, but had no idea exactly what he meant.

Here is the haircut....I just died! Thankfully it is growing back quickly!

Flowers and Fingers

Today I received these flowers and balloons at school with a congratulations note attached from my parents. On Monday I had my Chicken n' Dumpling soup featured on the local news out of Eugene, KVAL, as I won their crock pot recipe contest. I had my 30 seconds of fame and it was a great way to start the day.

Jason's finger is healed and all better. There is barley a scar and he is happy to have the stitches out!

A Great Visit

This afternoon Keri and Kelsey stopped by for a visit. The Brinkerhoffs were our next door neighbors growing up, and we did everything together as toddlers, kids, and teenagers......and we have MANY fond memories. I have known Keri as long as I have known anyone else who is a non-family member. Keri lives in Washington and Kelsey lives in Utah. They were in Oregon having an early family Thanksgiving over the weekend. We had a great visit, and it was so wonderful to catch up.

Here is Keri's oldest, Naya, holding Kelsey's youngest, Carson. They are both such sweet kids.

This Weekend, plus Monday in rewiew

Saturday morning my mom and I picked, blanched in hot and cold water baths, and froze 31 lbs of broccoli.

Sunday afternoon church we went to a surprise graduation (MEd) party for Kristina.

Monday at school, Jason had an encounter with a box cutter and lost. He cut through his half way through his tendon lengthwise but did not sever it. It required 4 stitches to repair the tendon and 10 to close up the finger. Here it is bandaged up.

Here it is lookin' like part of a Halloween costume.....Frankenstein?

Fall Visitors

Last weekend we had some very special visitors and so I decorated our house for fall. Here are the decorations right outside our door. Most of the pumpkins came from our garden.

My aunt (mom's sister) and uncle from Michigan were vacationing. They had their Harley shipped to Portland. Then they traveled, staying one night with my parents, and are taking Route 66 back to Michigan. It is really funny because they are not the "typical Harley" type of people. They own a counseling business and have 21 therapists working under them. Sometime Jason and I would like to vacation back there and see the rest of our family. It was a really fun time visiting, as we don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like. I was fascinated by how similar my mom and aunt sound, their gestures, feet, legs, and facial expressions were. It was almost like I was looking at an exact clone of my mom!

Auntie Cris brought me some treasures from her house in Michigan for my house.
My uncle was going to gave my mom a ride to their house on the Harley. Here auntie Cris was suiting up my mom.

And she and my uncle are off.......

Dishes

Jason was doing the dishes, but thought this would be more fun.....

Oh Happy Day

Last weekend we went down to Applegate (near Jacksonville) to celebrate Ted and Jenni's 35th anniversary. That day I was battling some strong hives on my face and almost didn't go. Jenni has known Ryan and I our entire lives. She has been like another mom to Ryan and I. We've been neighbors with them my entire life and then when I went to George Fox, she and Ted moved to Newberg at the same time and they literally lived a block away from me all four years.....which was like having a little piece of home close and handy. She has planted many seeds in our lives and remains an important part of our family.

Roasted Tomoato Sauce

This week my mom, Kristina, and I made and canned Roasted Tomato sauce. We were able to use tomatoes from our garden (about 62 lbs) and herbs from our collective gardens. We made about 40 quarts. After picking all of the tomatoes on our plant, we still have tons of green and orange ones.
A mixture of homegrown oregano, two types of parsley, and basil.


Here it is just before going into the jars!

"A" is for Apple

Funny story.....so this morning Kristina, my mom, and I went to Lehne Farms to pick Gravenstein apples for applesauce. However, they were completely picked out, and I was so disappointed. We went down the road to a different farm that is new to the area. They had a variety of apples called William's Pride, and it has tart with a sweet taste, all at the same time. It was the most wonderful kind of apple I have ever eaten!!! And to our surprise the applesauce was a really pretty mauve color. We picked 136 pounds and got 118 pints. My new food processor worked like a dream and saved us hours of work.

Gresham and Camping Trip

Last Sunday was Mama's(that is what we grandkids call her) 80th birthday (dad's mom). Our family took her and Papa out to dinner to celebrate. She is a 4 foot spunky little Mexican lady and it is amazing to think that she is already 80 years old. It was nice to spend the night with them and visit. Happy Birthday Mama!

The next day we cut across to the Oregon coast and spent the rest of the week camping our way down to Bandon. I didn't realize it, but I really didn't take too many pictures, which seems kinda of strange. My dad wore this hat everywhere we went. It is one of those that has hair coming out of the top of it. His brother (who has a full head of hair, which is the opposite of my dad) gave it to him as a joke. You wouldn't believe how many strangers asked if that was my dad's real hair. In all seriousness, one lady told him that she had been trying to get her husband to do his hair all spikey like his "hair" for years. It was so funny!!!

The last night, Jason and my mom cooked fresh fish on the camp grill. It was delicious!

A Very BAD thing!

Toady Jason was helping me finish up canning the peach pie filling and plain peaches. Last year when we canned we had a grill outside that had a great burner and we ran the canner outside. Well, that grill died and we have a different one. That was how we planned to work today. So I was checking on the canner outside because I saw what I thought was steam, meaning it was ready to start the first batch. Upon going out side to check, the burner side of the grill was engulfed in flames!!! After putting out the fire we realized the platform the burner was on was plastic and not stainless steel. The flames melted through the entire back side as you can see below. It was so scary as the flames were VERY close to the house.

So the problem solvers that we are....we called my parents and they brought their grill with the similar set up. So I happily loaded the canner with peach pie filling and went inside
to be about my business. All the sudden we heard what sounded like a big explosion. The whole grill canner and contents tipped over because of the weight. The canner was ruined and I lost several jars of filling. Glass shards were all over the place and I cut my hand trying to clean up the mess.

Then my dad had this idea to check in town to see if they have something that was similar to a platform with a gas burner. They found this "Camp Chef," which is actually used to can, cook crab in etc. So they set it up while I shopped for a new canner.....meanwhile everything at home was still a mess, especially in the kitchen.

Ahhhh.....finally after hours of work, here is the burner working like a dream with a load of peaches inside. I even bought a second new canner because it will save so much time when we do salsa, applesauce and pears. What a day!!

Moving Day.....kinda

There has been a lot of shifting of people, jobs, and cuts in our school district because of lacking funding, the economy, etc. At the end of the year Jason's teaching position was cut. Right when school got out we found that teachers were cut were being called back, and he was one of the lucky ones. He will be teaching third grade at another school in the Fall but we had to bring the personal contents of his classroom home for the summer. They have filled up our nursery and it is a big mess! Finally he was able to take some loads to his new classroom.

Before
After

Home Sweet Home!

Jason and I have been out of town for the past week at a reading conference with about 3,000 other teachers from around the nation. It was very fun to hang out with our staff (and others from around the district), meet other teachers from various locations, eat out 3x's a day, stay in a swanky hotel, be tourists, and learn some new ideas and perspectives on teaching reading. However, by about half way into the trip we were really tired of sitting all day at workshops, and eating out.....I never thought I could be tired of eating out and "herding" with others.....but we were. We were so glad to get home yesterday......I will post some pictures, etc. later on.

Green Beans, Anyone?

I know green beans are not a lot of people's favorite recipes, but they are so easy to process. I picked them, blanched them in a hot water bath for two minutes, transferred them to a cold water bath and packaged them in pint sized bags, and put them in the freezer.
They are really yummy and easy to put in crock pot soups in the winter, casseroles, salads,and stir-fries....and they are so good for you too!

A Berry Busy Week

Last week my mom and I picked pounds and pounds of blueberries, marionberries, blackberries and boysenberries. I canned all kinds of jams, pie fillings, syrups, and froze bunches for eating throughout the year.

Haven Blueberry Farm is our favorite places to pick. Check out their website at

www.thehavenfarm.com, which is located along the banks of the Umpqua River in Umpqua. The drive out to the farm is absolutely beautiful. We were there on the opening day, and usually there is a long line of cars waiting to get in.

We were the second car in line!

Here is a view of the farm from the road side and the blueberry rows stretch for acres and acres and acres.

There are even picnicking spots where you can bring a lunch and rest in the shade.

Raspberries and Cherries

Last week Kristina and I picked and canned Raspberry jam....aren't they so pretty?

Then on Saturday my mom and I went to pick cherries on the opening day at Shady Lane Orchards. There were so many people there that it felt like 1/2 of Roseburg was out picking. Cherries are one of our favorites, and there was a boutiful supply. Tomorrow we will be picking blueberries at our favorite place. However, the berries around here are kinda scarce. Two main suppliers have now gone to strictly commercial selling. Lately, I really dislike other pickers, especially when they come onto the row that I was assigned, or when they reach their hands through the rows to my side, I just want to slap it. I am hoping to show a some restraint tomorrow, but if another picker dares to cross me I am not responsible for my actions =0)!!