Sorry, Lane. Jack's taller.

So I cleaned out the coat closet the other day.  I found Jack's old snow suit.  That's how big he was when we moved into this house.  We laughed and laughed at how he's now twice the boy he was when we moved.  I also found miles and miles of oxygen tubing, and the little "tender grips" to hold the oxygen to a baby's face.  Why in the world was I holding on to that??

 Jack's 14th birthday fell on a Sunday, so he got to be ordained a Teacher that day.  Look at me, all smiling nice for the picture only to find out now - right now - that Lane and Jack were trying to out-tall each other.  All this time I thought we had a nice little picture to commemmorate Jack's big day.  I should have known better.

Taylor got asked to Homecoming and asked me to make her a dress.  We found a cute pattern and it sewed up pretty quick and easy, although it would have helped if I had cut the pattern pieces out correctly.  I cut one out wrong enough (wth?  I've been cutting patterns for a long time now!) that I thought I would have to go buy more fabric, but I think some minor adjusting worked out ok.

 I guess Lane just can't be normal in a picture.  Taylor's expression is pretty priceless.

See?  They do love each other!

The First of the Last

The First of the Last: Taylor's first day of her last year of high school. How in the crap did she get so grown up so fast? I'll refrain from waxing nostalgic about how her first day of preschool seems like just yesterday (it does), or how it makes me feel old that she's so grown up (it does), or how I only wish happy things for her in her future (I do). No, I won't say any of that because I would hate to get overly emotional or sentimental (too late).

Addie (4th grade) and Jack (8th grade) also off on their first day of school. Jack is so tall he is always mistaken for someone much older, and Addie is also unusually tall. Especially considering when she was born we were told she would always be small and sickly looking.

For the family do tonight I, of course, opted to take cupcakes as my potluck item. I went outside to our raspberry plants hoping that maybe, just maybe, there would be the 1 cup of berries required for raspberry frosting. I was blown away with how many there were for this late in the season. Clearly, we have some sort of ever bearing plants. Or magic plants, maybe. Either way, we had about 4 cups of raspberries, and at least 1 more picking since there are still lots of pink and white ones out there. So I made my raspberry frosting for the cupcakes, even topped them with a fresh raspberry.

Every once in a while - a Blue Moon, if you will, since we just had one - all the stars align and I get perfect tomato sauce. It has only happened to me one or two other times, and I still don't know what the magic is that makes it perfect. Typically my tomato sauce is kinda thin and watery, and not much to look at. The Blue Moon tomato sauce is perfectly thick and looks positively GORGEOUS in the jars. This is why Blue Moon Tomato Sauce is not actually for consumption. It is just for sitting on the shelf for me to admire periodically. And to show off to innocent people: "Look. At. This. Is this the most gorgeous tomato sauce in the world or what?" So now these jars of Blue Moon Tomato Sauce will sit nicely on the shelf next to the other Blue Moon Tomato Sauce, while the sad, thin, watery, unloved tomato sauce will be this fall/winter's soup and chili.

2 years. Seriously. 2 years. That's how long the other Blue Moon Tomato Sauce has been on the shelf. You can come visit it if you want to.

We lost 2 peach trees this year. The first one (I may have already mentioned this, but I am old and feeble minded and therefore you must smile, shake your head, and forgive me) was in the front yard and it just randomly died. It blossomed in the spring, and had cute little peaches on it and everything (it is only a few years old). Then it just died. We don't know why. It just died.

The other was the old peach tree in the back yard and has been there for as long as I can remember. One day we noticed that the southerly (the poor tree only really has 3 branches anymore) branch had broken off and fallen to the ground. So we picked the peaches, but since I had no time to do anything with them, we were able to give them away to some neighbors. Then a few days later the northerly branch broke off. I still don't have any time. But we picked them and gave some to one of the same neighbors (whether she wanted them or not). Of what we kept, I spent today freezing some, and the rest I sliced up and took to the family do. I mixed in the rest of the raspberries, and they disappeared fast! I brought home 4 cupcakes, but no peaches.

I told you this story to tell you this one: Next year I will be in need of peaches. And the year after. And for the forseeable future.

Thank you for your support.