fried green tomatoes??

No, thanks. But I made this the other day. It is a great way to use up green tomatoes.

all about me

With such cute kids to blog about, it seems I never talk much about what I am doing.

So, the question is, what am I doing?

Well, of course, my life revolves around kids and a husband. But aside from that I think I am finding a thing or two to do around here. Some mornings I go running. A few girls are training for a half marathon and I join them. I ditch out on the long runs, though. I ran 10km on Monday, and that was a first for me.

I bought an exercise bike and I love riding it at night and watching 24. I am almost done season 1. What a great way to involve entertainment with exercise.

Canning, canning, canning, I have done lots of canning. I wonder how I ever lived without it. Apple butter, saskatoon sauce (its really a chunky syrup, but its really good on pancakes), cherry preserves, cherries, crab apple jelly, choke cherry jelly (more of a syrup), chokecherry syrup (more of a jelly), apple juice, cherry juice, applesauce...... I tried pear butter but they were to grainy and that was a big failure. Not to mention a big mess. I still hope to make a couple different salsas. Canning is so seriously fun, I wonder why no one ever told me before.

As far as Stirling goes, we love our house and yard. It is fun. The people here are really nice and friendly, but I miss some things about student life. For instance, girls nights. Here, everyone has a husband at night (who isn't studying) and so it wouldn't make sense to all get together then. I saw some pics on facebook of a girls night in Saskatoon and I loooonnnggged for it. I miss gaming with my girls, and talking till the wee hours in the morning. I also miss the hundred or so parks. We have 2 here and that is it. But don't ever let that defer you from coming out to visit. We can find something to do. Cow tipping maybe???

We ended up changing wards and I was called again into YWs. Now I am with the Mia Maids. It has been pretty fun and they are a great group of girls. I am in charge of YW in excellence in November. I have some plans outlined, we will see how things turn out.....

So that is all about me. Nothing spectacular but more than enough to fill the days.

flashback

A few weeks ago we had some nice, windy, S Alberta weather. So what better thing to do than fly a kite? Please note the brave batman flying with the dollar store kite. I think that is why Enoch is so mad - because Batman kept falling off.

am i that bad?

"Mom, sometimes I eat boogers."

This was said in a matter-of -fact tone, at the supper table, coming from the kid that NEVER eats his food cause he never thinks it tastes good.

Am I really that bad of a cook??????

karma

Serves me right for relishing the thought of being able to see my HT/VT from my front window. Today they switched up the wards. Now we are in Stirling 1st ward. The boundary goes right down the street. So now my friendly neighbours across the street are all in the other ward. No callings for us again.

splashie jr

In high school I joined the swim team. I was no good, but I had two friends on it so it was fun. My nickname was Splashie, cause no matter how hard I tried, I was a slow moving splash.

Miss mini-me has earned her rights to that name tonight. I turned on the bathtub water just after coming in from a dinner at the school. I wanted the boys to have a quick bath before bed. I was on the phone and a little distracted, and came back into the bathroom to find this:




That's not how a bath is meant to be, but she sure looks like she is having fun.

new calling

Josh and I got new callings today. We are pretty excited. The ward here is starting to feel familiar as the faces start to be replaced with names and such.

Josh is the High Priest group secretary. We sort of laugh a bit at that. I didn't even know they had one of those.... then again there are 36 HP in the ward, so that is quite a few people to keep track of.

I am 2nd councilor in YWs. It'll be really fun. There are 30 YW or so, so maybe my job will be easier than Josh's. Next week our ward is having a joint meeting with 2 other wards in the area, so maybe my calling will be gone before I know it????

PS. I can see my home teacher's house from my front window. And my visiting teacher's if I look the other way. HA!

back and gone again

After spending a fun week in Montana, the kids and I headed to Calgary to spend some time - seeing as we haven't really been there at all since Christmas. Monday we went to Calaway Park, something they have never done before. It was most definitely a big hit. Tuesday we went to the zoo. That was fun, too, but we stayed too long and should have left before few kids no longer had legs to stand on. And leaving the zoo at 5pm to take Deerfoot south???? What on earth was I thinking? Tuesday night was a cousin's birthday party. Yesterday I got to leave the kids ALL DAY and go hiking in Kananaskis. It was so fun to go and do a real hike and enjoy the outdoors and lack of diapers.

Today? I am recuperating. Hopefully I can learn to make crabapple jelly tonight.

things to remember lest I forget

Living in an empty house really helped us to move and not look back remorsefully. Of course I miss the people in Saskatoon and our ward, but having nothing to do all day every day sure helped ease the ripping up of the root action while we transplanted to a new home.
Uncle Kyle did manage to save the day by bringing by old school toys of his that his mom had saved. Levi and Enoch enjoyed setting up GI Joes and taking pictures. I have a million on my camera.


I thought I got a picture of our meal area, but now that I looked for it I couldn't find it. We had two coolers next to an old end table for the boys, Monet in a borrowed high chair, and Josh and I stood to eat. every. meal. for. 2. weeks. Well, almost - we had nice friend invites for lunch or dinner sometimes. If they only knew the novelty we enjoyed of sitting down to eat......

We had fun at the Magrath parade. I cant believe the small town candy you get at these things!




Going to Writing On Stone provincial park was lots of fun. It was nice to go out with girls from my new ward and get to know them a but better- well, as good as you can with 28 kids running around. My favorite is that Enoch insisted on wearing his gumboots. Nothing could convince him otherwise.