Wrapping Up August

(Post #3 on 9/12)

August 27....

I grew hundreds of peppers and they are still out there. These are yellow banana peppers if that tells you anything. I'm not sure what my deal is.... I just wasn't into harvesting this year. In a few days I will go out and pick them to freeze for stir fry this winter.

Olivia is such a big help... peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, early girl tomatoes and green beans.

August 28....
Emily attended the home school orientation and then helped me. (Home schooling is going great and she was ahead of the game, but then she spent two days with Grandma and now the last two days in bed sick... Nick, too... so she's about even right now).

Homer putting on my moose lights for a down and back trip to Anchorage. I can't see so well in the dark anymore and when it's raining and dark I feel almost blind.

Mandy.... if they would only stay out of the beds.

Emily and I went to town for "Gym" time. We saw Lucas on the playground.

She roller bladed and I walked Mandy.

At home we pulled the onions.

I taught her to braid them to hang.

August 29....
Put the Lucas and Olivia on the bus....

....and then left to Anchorage with Elijah. He had an appointment and Nick rode along to keep me company. On the way back we stopped at the State Fair and let Elijah go to a rap concert. Nick and I walked around and then I got a half-hour nap before the 300 mile drive home. We left at 9:30pm. Ug!!

I stopped once to sleep a few hours and then a second time for an hour so that the sun could rise. I was starting to see things in the dark that weren't there and was afraid I'd miss the moose that was!

This is what it looked like at 7:00 AM about 30 minutes from home. Why the big rush? Elijah had to be back so he could go to school Friday so he could play in the football game that night. He slept the whole ride and then a couple more hours when we got home before he went in to his class (he does the other's online). We got here just in time for me to put Olivia and Lucas on the bus. Then I went to bed for about four hours exhausted. (And I'm going to do it again tomorrow. He plays in Wasilla and I don't have a sitter so I'm going down in the morning, watching the game and coming back at 9pm so I can be here to watch the kids on Saturday. Gee.. it's only 600 miles and one game).

August 30....

Here's the game that we had to get back for. The Dog Bowl.... cross-town rivalry between our West Valley Wolfpack and the Lathrop Malemutes. We've won the trophy the last five years... unfortunately this year we lost and gave the trophy to them. Elijah is #13 in red.

He almost had a quarterback sack, but #74 held him all the way around finally letting him go when he was by the QB. No call. Our refs are horrible. Horrible.

The sunset during the game. My nieces Tisha, Michele and G-nieces Destiny, Jadyn & Justise all came to the game.

Playing under the lights.

August 31....
Thought I'd go ahead and wrap up August. Then I'll be out splitting wood while my sick kids lay on the couch using the Internet to watch movies on Netflix. Nick's throat is horrible and he has no health insurance so he doesn't want to go to the doctor. I'm just going to have to take him in because that isn't going to get better without antibiotics.

This day I worked on cleaning out the flower beds. Not my favorite thing to do by any means. It's depressing.

The rocks are almost done on part of the hill. Next to it I intend to make a Koi pond, but still haven't got it started. :(

Such a long process... pull the plants (compost bin or Daisy), clean off the wood chips (we stored in a pile), pick up the newspaper (went to the compost pile), till and then rake smooth. I like to be able to walk out in the Spring and get right to planting.

Homer took a week off to work on projects that need done before the snow. He really needs two months at home!