The CanyonCrest Date Night

So Stewart surprised me with a super duper romantic date night to the Canyon crest restaurant in Twin Falls. We had a SUPER view of the canyon and the Perrine Bridge, and I ate some yummy lobster. After it got dark they had romantic twinkle lights, and lit torches and candles. They were supposed to have a live band, so Stewart planned on taking me dancing (isn't he sweet?) Unfortunately there was only a dj (and 4 very drunk ladies dancing), so we decided to forgoe the dancing, and stick with walking around the scenery. We snuggles together by a fire, and even made out on the canyon ledge (don't worry- there's a fence there). It was very romantic, and seemed like something from a movie.

Of course- every awesomely romantic date has to end with a trip to wal-mart.

And Stewart wanted a Strawberry Daquri (like the one's from red-lobster). Too bad the glass is dry! :)

It was a great date. I'm so glad I have such a wonderful husband who takes care of me. Love you Babe!

Canning

So I canned tomatoes today (just tomatoes in water- nothing fancy). It was my second time ever, but first time alone. Lets just say I may never can ever again. Last week I dried a box of pears, froze a box of peaches, and dried three batches of pears. I also made a batch of peach and pear fruit leather. It was my first time with the fruit leather and it didn't turn out too bad. The best part about drying and freezing fruit is that it's not too terribly hard to do with the munchkins running around/crying for help. I'm not sure that food preservation is exactly my thing, but hopefully I'll do better next year when the kids don't rely 100% on ME. Here's to hoping my tomatoes hold up! (ps- I bought all the produce -not from my garden). Hopefully I'll get around to freezing my onions/tomatoes from my garden for crockpot meals. So far the kids and volleyball have taken most of my (sane) free time, so my thinking is that I can only go up from here (right?)

BAD Suzie

So our kitty Suzie is a very naughty kitty. I don't let her in the house except when I "need" her to "babysit" Addison. These days though she thinks she needs to be in the house ALL the time (even though I've needed her less and less these days). I've really been trying to wean her OUT of the house, but she hasn't been taking the bait. She literally ZOOMS in as soon as the door opens an inch! Well today Addison went with Stew to work, and I only had Brogan to take care of. I needed to make a few cakes today {one for tomorrow, and one for Friday} but I kept getting interrupted. Rambo was being SO bad {he's been chewing the sprinklers, digging in the yard, and barking uncontrollably so we've been tying him up}. I had to move his chain like five times and I finally ended up putting him OUTSIDE the yard. Wouldn't ya know that dumb dog decided he would rather be IN the yard, so he jumped onto a nearby trailer and back INTO the yard. Dumb dog. So I finally just unchained him, threw my hands up in the air, and yelled "RUN FREE FIDO!" I thought he really ran away for awhile, but I think he knew I was serious. (He stayed IN the yard -go figure). Whenever someone would come in I'd make them take Suzie back outside so she was OUT for most of the day.

Then Stewart and Addison came home. At this point in the day I had the cake baked, cut, stacked, and was whipping up my butter-cream frosting (ready for a crumb coat). Addison was playing outside and had the front door open (like she ALWAYS does), and I was totally distracted by Brogan's biggest diaper explosion to date. Stewart walked in the door and yells "SUZIE!!!!!!" I looked up at the counter, and Suzie had eaten the middle part of my cake. I wish I were the type of person that could just laugh that off, and say "why take the years off my life with anger?" Unfortunately, that's not really who I am. Of course I gave myself a terrible headache screaming at Suzie. I cried, and threw things around, and wished the Gerratt boys were around (with their 22s). I really seriously {still do} wanted to go drop her 10 miles from home. I haven't started on my new cake yet, but let's just say tomorrow is going to be a long day for this Momma. BAD SUZIE!

I Will Never Forget

the morning of September 11, 2001. I was in 6th grade. I remember I was in my room getting ready for school, listening to Brad and Jackie on my alarm clock radio. I heard them talking about the Twin Towers, but I had no idea what the towers even were. On the way to school my Mom tried to explain to me what the Twin Towers were and why this was a big deal, but I still didn't quite understand it all. Band was my first class, and I remember we missed an announcement because we were warming up. It was hard to remember everything until that point, because I still didn't realize the severity of it all. Travis Vitek walked into the class and said "Mr. Randall, someone crashed another plane into the other tower." Mr. Randall thought he was joking. He went to the office, and came back totally serious. We started talking about about it more, and we listened to the radio. I still wasn't sure why this was such a big deal. My next class was math with Mrs. Floyd. She had a TV in her room. She told us we were going to spend the whole class period watching the news. At first I thought this was so lucky for us- we wouldn't even have homework! Then she turned on the TV and I remember distinctly, seeing it for the first time. I remember my eyes welling up, and the pit in my stomach as I watched over and over those planes crashing into the towers. The seriousness of it all hit me flat in the face during that second hour of sixth grade. Mrs. Floyd talked with us about it. I remember putting my head on my desk and thinking about all those innocent people. I thought a lot about all those people who lost their loved ones so unexpectedly. I thought how hard that would be for me as a sixth grader, if my Mom or Dad were in one of those buildings. I thought about all the people who were still waiting. Waiting to know if their loved ones were alive or dead. I thought a lot about the people who had done this. How could someone DO this to innocent people? People they had never even met! I don't remember much else about that day, ten years ago. I'm sure we watched the news throughout the rest of our classes, and talked with other teachers. I'm sure the lunchroom was still noisy, and I still went to volleyball practice. I don't remember every fine detail, but I remember the feelings I had when I realized what had been done to our country, and I will never forget. Never.

I never