Happy Halloween

2006

In 2006 I was counting contractions, trying to stay off of my feet as much as possible and anxiously awaiting the impending arrival of our child. There was no costume involved in 2006 -- that's me in all my pregnant glory -- as I feared that very little would fit. I suppose I could have painted my protruding belly orange and gone as a jack o' lantern, but I'm sure that few people would have enjoyed the sight of me waddling my way through the subdivision.

2007

In 2007 I was counting teeth, trying to keep KT from pulling stuff of shelves and learning to deal with the tantrums that were increasing in frequency. We opted out of a costume for her first Halloween. She wasn't walking yet and we didn't feel the need to go door-to-door pillaging for candy that we would consume ourselves, unnecessarily.

2008

2008 has brought a whole new realm of experiences as you can see. All of the preparations this week have been riddled with tantrums and tears. We'll have 15 minutes that go really well and then we spend the rest of the hour trying to dissuade tears and calm the screaming. The intended costume (a ladybug) was received extremely poorly, as I had feared when taking the time to pull it together. She literally threw herself on the asphalt of the parking lot and laid there kicking her feet. It sounded as if we were torturing her by pulling out her fingernails one at a time. I was immediately ready to call it quits and C's coworkers chuckled from inside the office.

There is much more to say in regards to this year's Halloween activities but for now I'm occupied with doling out candy to the neighborhood kids and drinking my beer in between knocks at the door.

This *Will* Be Easier Next Year

Right?

We bought a camper late in the summer. Tent camping is no longer such a feasible option for weekend adventures now that Kate is here. Imagine 2 adults, a toddler and 2 dogs in a small tent. Ha! Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

We've taken the camper out once already this year and had a good time. It's nice in that we can get into the mountains in little over an hour so it's a fairly easy trip to take. The problem is packing to go. The first trip took me a better part of a week to get ready for. I unloaded a good portion of my house into the trailer as it was empty. I had to stock bedding, towels, plates/utensils, cookware, spices, food, toys, toiletries and whatever other random paraphernalia that was necessary for a weekend away.

This trip is hard because I'm in between. Some kitchenware was left in the trailer; bedding/towels were washed and immediately put back; dry good were left in the pantry. But things such as pots and pans were all brought back into the house. Random stuff like spatulas and can openers were rehomed in my kitchen. So I'm trying to figure out what needs to be taken back to the trailer and what is already there. And go figure, I can NOT find the list I put together for the first trip.

My goal is to have the trailer fully stocked next year. All we'll have to do is load clothes and perishable food (the pantry will stocked with dry goods) and pull out. I hope that it will make trips easier. I doubt it will, but it's nice to hope, isn't it?

So Far Behind

I've been bad, I'm sorry.

I'm juggling a million things and blogging has obviously been one of the first balls to get dropped. Ripening tomatoes, work emergencies, lab manuals, a teething toddler and volunteer quilt projects have taken higher priorities. And somewhere amidst all of that I got sucked into the black hole of F@cebook.

It's been so long since I've had a "real" post that I've reached the stage where it's hard to log in and write. It's just easier to avoid Blogger for yet another day.

Since the first step is the hardest and I'm about to complete that, my hope is that I'll pick this ball back up.

Remember

It's All Good

For the record, I started with 8 plants.

Shortly after I planted them, it frosted and I was certain they had died.

So my wonderful friend gave me some extras she had.
I planted 3 of them.
I fertilized the HELL out of everything.

Yeah.
All 11 survived.

OBVIOUSLY.

I might not plant any next year.

Who am I kidding??

I'll plant 2 plants.
It will be enough to give me fresh tomatoes.

My luck every plant I put in the ground next year will die.

This Could be Bad

Frost warning in effect for the next couple of nights. I'm headed out of town tonight for a workshop. So we spent last night cleaning the tomato plants in the garden to save the fruit from getting frosted.

11 plants gave us this (the box on the left that is full is 13" tall):


Which equated to this when spread out across the floor in the office:

I've already canned 12 quarts of tomatoes. The amount of tomatoes I canned is comparable to the big box in the top picture (the one on the bottom right). I have 12 empty quart jars downstairs and the stores I normally buy them at are all out.

This could be bad. Very, very bad.