Wednesday, June 27, 2012

This Car...


This car...
-was bought in June 1997
-was bought because its predecessor was totaled in an ugly car accident :(
-is named Lil Ruby although we never call our cars by name
-took me to college
-took us on our honeymoon
-has witnessed quite a few makeout sessions (sorry, Mom, had to say it)
-has lived in 5 states- NM, TX, CO, OK, WA
-has traveled to 19 states and 1 Canadian province
-consistently averages around 37-38 mpg
-has some wear and tear, but is in very good condition
-has been stuck in the snow
-has a wonderful cruise control because my dad installed it as a birthday present in 1999- yes, it still works and gets used everyday
-brought home our first puppy
-gets us to work everyday
-has been driven off the highway and into a pea field at 65 mph (don't ask, I wasn't driving)
-has gone through several sets of tires
-has only broken down on us once (and it was our fault for not changing the timing belt on time)
-has a half-chewed seat belt thanks to a bored puppy
-has automatic seat belts that haven't worked in years (we just lift the seat belts over our heads and fasten the lap belts)
-has a speedometer with a mind of its own
-has a broken emergency flasher button
-has a check engine light that refuses to stay off no matter what
-has several rattles and squeaks 
-has seen gas prices rise from $0.95/gallon to over $4/gallon
-turned 200,000 miles yesterday!

Mom, Josh, Titus, and I all piled in the car for an ice cream run to celebrate.  We pulled over 1.5 miles from our house to take these pictures.   


I love this car and hope it's around for another 200,000 miles!

Friday, June 22, 2012

Garden 2012- Part 7, Corn, Potatoes and Melons

Just a couple of quick pictures to show our recent harvests.  

Josh pulled up a few red potatoes last week.  I call these the world's tiniest potato, ugliest potato, and most-like-a-strawberry potato.

Some beautiful corn, cucumbers, zucchini, and yellow squash.  That white squash is called a pattypan squash, but I prefer to call it our UFO squash.

I forgot to take a picture before we cut up our first watermelon, so here it is cut up instead.  We also pulled off 3 cantaloupe (the middle one is skinned already) and our first green peppers (behind the watermelon.) 

We're enjoying all this yummy food!  We sure have come a long way since last year.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Crafts- The Monk and Eliana's Rag Quilt

Do you have a mom that saves everything you've ever made for her?  Well, I do.  When we were packing up Mom's house, we found a few treasures that I made back in middle school.  I thought you might need a good laugh on this Monday, so I'm going to share my childhood craftiness with you.  I have to say that I really enjoyed art classes growing up.  I was absolutely horrible at everything, but I enjoyed the process.
This first project is from 6th grade.  I noticed my mom had a need.  She would often take off her rings when baking and didn't have a dedicated place to put them.  When pottery days rolled around at school, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for Mom- a ring holder!  Now, I have no idea what caused me to think a FACE would make a good ring holder, but I did.  Mom was supposed to place her ring over the nose of this masterpiece.

Problem #1- I made the nose too wide for Mom's rings.
Problem #2- I painted the face pink which made Mom think it was a mouth with a tongue sticking out.
Problem #3- It was hideous!  Why did I ever think Mom would want to display this in her kitchen?  And what is this supposed to be anyway?  A face with 2 legs with 3-toed feet.  What!?!  

Moving on to 8th grade.  Same teacher, same pottery technique.  Let's see if I improved at all.  This time around, I thought Mom needed a cookie jar.  My vision was to make a chef jar where the head with big chef hat lifted off of the body and the body was where the cookies would go.  Well, I ran out of time and didn't get to make the chef's hat.  So I gave Mom this bald man cookie jar that we affectionately call "The Monk."  Doesn't it look like one? 
Seriously, what was I thinking?  I gave my Mom a monk cookie jar!  As we were packing up her house, we found the wrapped pieces labeled "Monk head" and "Monk body."  Haha!  I convinced her that she could throw these treasures away.  Of course we had to take pictures first, but then they went in the trash.

Now let's jump ahead almost 20 years and see what I made last week.  I promise, I'll stay away from pottery!
Josh's sister, Christina, is pregnant with our 2nd niece.  She is due on my birthday!  Christina is married to Brady, who is a talented musician that runs a business making custom cases of all sorts.  (http://www.bradycases.com/)  I knew I would be making a rag quilt for little Eliana (Ellie), but I wasn't happy with any of the fabric I saw in Abilene.  So, when we were in NM, we made a quick stop at Joann's.  I was trying to match the nursery colors (brown, pink, and green) but was having a hard time.  Then Josh sees this fabric and says, "How about guitars?"  I said, "For a baby?  I don't think so.  Wait!  Yes!  Absolutely for this baby!"  It was perfect!  The colors, the theme- seriously perfect!  So we picked out some coordinating fabrics and went to check out.  Mom stopped off to check out the remnant stash and found a cute flannel cupcake piece.  It ended up being a better match to the guitar fabric than the one I already had, so I bought it too.  I couldn't wait to get started on the quilt.
Here's the finished product:
Rag side
Smooth side
Close-up of fabrics
I would love to give pottery another try someday, but for now I'll stick to sewing :)  I wonder if this is why my mom taught me how to sew?  Maybe trying to refocus my creativity?  Hmm...

Bless all of you moms out there who truly treasure your kids' "art."

Thursday, June 7, 2012

2012 Garden- Part 6, Catching Up

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I last posted- sorry!  We spent 10 days helping my mom pack and move to Abilene and now we're back home for a few weeks.  Our garden has really taken off the last few weeks and we are starting to harvest lots of goodies!  I promise I'll have a non-garden related post soon, but this is all I have right now.
Garden- May 25th
Garden- June 6th
Tomatoes!
Tomatoes filling out their cages
Watermelon
Tomatillos
Honeydew
Cantaloupe
Corn
Almost ready to pick!
Cucumbers- we have lots!
Cucumbers are taking over!
Jalapenos- nearly ready
Our bell pepper plants are loaded
Eggplants have started blooming
Our harvest last night- cucumbers, tomatillos, tomato, green beans and okra

For those of you who prefer flowers, we have a few of those too. 
It's been a good year for the Indian Blankets- my favorite flower
Our monster sunflower is in full bloom too
Our back field is full of wildflowers.  Josh is documenting all the species this year.