Move over Jack. . .

It's Justin-in-a-box!!

Justin found this box that was leftover from Christmas. He wore it around the house for no less than thirty minutes, showing everyone and exclaiming, "Look at my new house! Look at my new house!" Then he If I would have known, we would have just wrapped up a laundry basket, a box, and a pillow!proceeded to line a laundry basket with a pillow from the living room couch, and climb inside. He ducked down and told me he was "hiding inside his house". He had a blast.

If only we hadn't spent so much money on wii games, legos, cars, and nerf balls. I could have saved a lot of time and money and just wrapped up a laundry basket, a pillow, and a box!

Tagged!!

My cute baby sister Mel, tagged me, so here you go:
Favorite person outside of family: I don't play favorites, that wouldn't be nice.

Guilty Pleasure: Scrapping, blogging, and reading. I am pretty boring, aren't I?

Quirks about me: I can't stand writing with a dull pencil, I hate the sound of Styrofoam, and I am really bothered by slackers.

Any regrets in life: Of course! Most recently--I was too exhausted to make dinner on Tuesday so we had oatmeal for dinner. And just last night I got busy and was 10 minutes late picking my neighbor's daughter up from the park after a soccer game. It was starting to get dark, and she was scared. Someone else drove her home, and she was OK, but I felt sooo bad. Oh yah, I've got regrets.

Favorite Charity/cause: LDS church, because I know that 100% of my money will go to a good cause somewhere in the world.

Favorite Blog recently: Pioneer Woman, I am totally addicted.

Any Confessions: I can't remember the last time I cleaned the blinds in my house and I have science experiments growing in my refrigerator. Oh, and I have a package of Oreo's dipped in mint chocolate hiding in my food storage room. I go down and eat one every few days. (Shhh, please don't tell my family.)

If you had to spend $1,000 on yourself, how would you spend it? Organizational supplies for my scrapping room; it really needs to be over-hauled.

Favorite thing about your house: That I have my own scrapbook/craft room. Thanks honey!

Least favorite thing about your house: It is a never ending money pit of projects that need to be done.

One thing you are good at: cooking

One thing you could change about your circumstances: Most of you know this, but I really, really want a baby girl. We are trying to adopt.

Who would you like to meet someday: Joseph and Emma Smith

Who is your real life hero: my parents

What is the hardest part of your job: Potty training! Lucky for me, we are out of that phase for now.

When are you most relaxed: When I am asleep.

When are you most stressed: Usually the week of soccer/baseball/basketball/football sign-ups. My phone rings off the hook and I'm so worried about balancing all the teams, getting coaches, and addressing all of the last minute problems, that my brain shuts down and I turn into a screaming meanie.

What can you not live without: Besides oxygen, water, and food--people. I have been know to start scrapbooking groups, Bunco groups, Book Clubs, play groups, etc. just so I can get out and be with people. I could never live out in the middle of nowhere with no neighbors. I think I would go crazy.

Why do you blog: See this post.

Who are you tagging: No one, because I am so new to this that all the bloggers I know have already been tagged.

Favorite Bible Verse: So, so hard to choose one favorite. But for right now, I am going to say this one:
Isaiah 54: 7,8,& 10--"For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. . . For the mountains shall depart, and the hill shall be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee"
It is my favorite because of this song. Some of our beautiful young woman sang it on our pioneer trek two years ago and it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. I still can't read it without thinking of the song and tearing up a little. Amazing!

C is for Cookie

It was Justin's turn to take treats to preschool on Tuesday. The letter of the day was "C" so we made chocolate chip cookies. In the shape of a C. I know, I know, I could have taken carrots or cucumbers or celery. But come on, chocolate chip cookies, that's a triple "C". How could I pass it up? He was thrilled with the results.

Oh, and if any of you are interested in the recipe, you can find it here.

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa

My mom and dad came down Thursday afternoon to spend a few days with us. We all thoroughly enjoyed it and wish they would do it more often.

Thursday night we went to Brandon's band concert. He has been playing the French Horn for three years and has gotten quite good at it. The concert was amazing!

Friday night the boys had a piano recital. They sure complain about all the practicing, but all of them did a wonderful job!

In between all the running, we got a lot of baking done. It was so much fun to spend time with my mom. (And thanks dad for entertaining the boys so we could have some time alone.)
We decorated gingerbread cookies with the boys. They made a family complete with grandma and grandpa and the baby sister we are hoping to adopt. I am the cookie in the middle with the head falling off. I don't think Tyler was actually trying to make a political statement about how mom is always "running around like a chicken with it's head cut off", it was just an accident. I think. That kid is pretty smart. I wouldn't put it past him.

Mom and I also make goodies for her take to a wedding, and some for neighbors.

We made orange dream cookies:

Peanut butter fudge:
Chocolate chip pecan caramels:

And maple chip cookies.

It was sugar heaven at our house! Luckily for my hips, we gave most of the treats away. If you would like the recipes for any of them, I will be posting them on my blog. Just click this link:
Kara's Kitchen Creations

Thanks mom and dad for a wonderful weekend!! We can't wait to see you for Christmas!

Sleeping Under the Tree

This is one of the boys' favorite traditions. The day we decorate the tree, we let them sleep under it. Usually this is the Friday after Thanksgiving, but we were in Oregon this year, so they had to wait a whole entire week. We don't do it on a school night because we don't want the two younger boys waking up at 5:30 when Brandon and Spencer get up to play basketball. (Yes, I know, they are crazy, 5:30 is way too early to be getting out of bed. I agree with you.)

Justin took us a little too literally on the whole "under the tree" thing. He actually started with his entire pillow and blanket under the tree branches. I could just imagine him waking up in the middle of the night, hitting his face on the scratchy branches, freaking out, and tipping the tree over on his brothers. That might have made for a memorable Christmas, but I don't enjoy making that kind of memory. Can you imagine explaining to an ER doctor how all four of your boys ended up with facial lacerations and shards of broken Christmas tree lights stuck in their hair? Not a pretty picture.

Needless to say, we explained to Justin that "under" actually means "near" in this case. He was satisfied and everyone had a restful and abrasion-free night's sleep. Who knows, we might even let them do it again this weekend.

Ward Christmas Party 2008

For our ward Christmas party on Saturday, the primary children did a nativity. Spencer was Joseph. He was a little reluctant, but he agreed to do it. Don't tell him I said this, but he actually enjoyed himself. Even though he had to hold hands with a girl. She's darn cute, but luckily she's only Tyler's age so it wasn't a big deal. He did a great job and I was proud of him.

The program was amazing and we could really feel the spirit. Tyler was a shepherd, but I couldn't see him from where I was sitting, so I didn't get a picture. I was bummed about that because he looked really cute.

My friend and visiting teaching partner Lila painted the backdrop. It was absolutely stunning!

After the dinner and program, we had a visit from Santa. The kids all love it every year and it is fun to see the excitement on their faces.
Justin was so excited the whole time we waited in line. So excited in fact that when Santa asked what he wanted he couldn't remember. He was just happy to be there.

Tyler thought that Santa was pretty funny asking him if he wanted a doll.

Spencer is much too old for toys now, so he asked Santa for a football.

Brandon hasn't sat on Santa's lap for over three years I think. He is thirteen after all and way too cool for that. But his friend Chandler was in line ahead of us so we talked them into it. He was a good sport.

It was a really fun Christmas party! And Wes and I were not in charge of anything. I don't think that has ever happened before!

A Birthday and a trip to Oregon

Today is my cute baby sister's birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEL!!! I wish you lived closer so I could have taken you out to lunch today. It would have been fun and I really could have used a break today! Can't wait to see you for Christmas!

Moving on. . . We had a fun but hectic trip to Oregon over Thanksgiving. We came home to a messy house, empty fridge, and no clean clothes, so I have spent the last two days trying to clean, cook and wash clothes. I just put the 13th load in the dryer and I am close, but still not finished. Who knew four boys could generate so much laundry when they have to be reminded to change socks on a daily basis. I think that half of the clothes I washed hadn't been worn, but they smelled less than fresh, so I had to wash them anyway! Grrrr.

Anyway, here is a re-cap of our trip.

We arrived on Wednesday night, spent some time visiting and relaxing, then ran to the store for a few groceries.

Thursday we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy stuffing myself. That afternoon the kids all made graham cracker gingerbread houses. They absolutely love this activity and look forward to it every time. It is fun to watch them and see the different personalities. Some kids make beautiful, thought out, symmetrical houses with colorful patterns and shapes. Others just pile on as much candy as they can before the poor little crackers collapse under the weight. In case any of you are wondering, all 4 of my boys tend to lean towards the "pile on the candy" approach.

Friday the cousins played, the adults visited, and we all went to the movie "Madagascar 2".

Tyler and his cousin Chance had a great time playing chess with Kaden's chess set.

Justin and Mac spent almost an hour raking the leaves in grandma and grandpa's yard. They had a blast!

Saturday the girls spent all day planning the 50th Wedding Anniversary Party for Wes's parents. We aren't sure what the men did, but we're pretty sure it involved a lot of sitting on tushes and watching electronic devices of one type of another.

We did a 50's theme and I think it turned out really nice. We decorated in pink, white, and black with lots of old records. My brother-in-law Casey Deejayed the dance and made an awesome slide show that he has promised to send us a copy of. The rest of the men served ice cream at our make shift ice cream parlor. They all wore matching vests. It was the hit of the party. All of the guests came through and ordered ice cream sundaes. Thanks to my sister in law Patsy, they had about 20 toppings to choose from. It was an ice cream lover's heaven I tell you!

Don't they look cute handsome?

This is my great in-laws, who have been married for 50 years, sharing a dance together. We love you mom and dad!!

Wax Museum

I just got back from the Elementary School. I have been spending a lot of time there this week! Today the 5th grade did a Wax Museum. Each student picks a person that changed America. They write a report, then dress up and bring a prop to school.

It is pretty fun to go and see what everyone comes up with. The students have to sit perfectly still for fifteen minutes while parents and students in other grades walk around looking at all the displays. They all get a five minute break every 15 minutes.

Spencer decided to do his report on Abraham Lincoln. We couldn't find a top hat anywhere, so I made one out of sturdy paper. I also had to make his bowtie and beard (he didn't want to wear face paint.) He wore Brandon's suit which was much too big for him. I assured him that was fine because Abraham Lincoln's suits were usually loose fitting because he was so thin!

Here is Spencer as Abraham Lincoln:

A Quick Summary

I have been so busy for the last week that I have totally neglected this blog. Here are a few highlights from the past ten days:

Tyler finished up his five weeks of "Little Hoopsters" basketball. He was the only 2nd grader in his group, so he was totally the all-star of the team. We had no idea he had such "mad basketball skills". Seriously, I think he was the only one on his team tall enough to make a basket. And he's not exactly tall for his age. It was fun to watch him dribbling the ball across the court and shootin' hoops. I think he may have a promising career. ;)

Wes found out he does not need surgery. HOORAY!!! He will be wearing this brace for 3 more weeks. He has to do physical therapy on his thumb six times a day. (I know you are laughing at that, aren't you. Admit it.)

I made homemade play-doh with Justin. It was a huge hit and has kept him away from the tv entertained him for several hours over the past few days. And I have not even found any ground into the carpet anywhere. Bonus! I posted the recipe here if you want to try it.

Wes let the boys stay up too late watching a Jazz game. I went downstairs, busted all of them, and snapped this photo to use as blackmail.

I spent the weekend in Southern Utah helping my mom clean my Aunt Dorthy's house. She is not in the best health and can't get around very well. I didn't take any pictures of this, and trust me, you wouldn't want to see them. You can all thank me later.

I opened up a new Etsy store because the ebay fees are getting really outrageous. This is one of my favorites listed right now:

I have spent the majority of the last three days at the Elementary School my boys attend. I am the co-chair for the Book Fair and it is running this week.

The Couch Wasn't Really Meant to Sti on, Was It?

My boys are expert fort builders. They love taking all of the cushions off the living room couch, hauling them somewhere else, and using them to make forts. Sometimes they line them up across the bottom of the bunk bed, but usually they choose the family room as their building site. Then they will sit in the fort and play games, read, or eat snacks that they sneak from the pantry while I am busy on the computer cleaning the house.

They will leave it up for hours. They enter it just often enough that I think they are still having fun with it and not ask them to put it away. They kind of have me figured out, the little geniuses. Eventually though, it does need to be torn down. Because at some point we need to be able to walk through the family room. Or sit on the couch. Or both.

But it is fun while it lasts! And I love it when they use their imaginations and play creatively.

I Was Always Slow at Tag

My cousin Monica tagged me awhile ago and it has taken me forever to get all these answers typed up. Sorry Monica, I wasn't trying to ignore you. Really. I'm just slow.

Tagged Lucky 7's and Crazy 8's

7 Things I Can Do...
1-Cook-It’s a good thing I enjoy it because I have five males at my house and at any given time at least one of them is hungry.
2-Scrapbook- Yes, I am a little too addicted to this. But it’s for posterity, so it’s OK, right. Please say yes.
3-Make people laugh. (But I’m not always sure if they’re laughing with me or laughing at me.)
4-Quilt/sew
5-Speak in Public
6-Read really fast (and it’s a good thing because once I start a good book I have a hard time putting it down.)
7-Counted cross stitch

7 Things I Cannot Do...
1-Math
2-Anything that requires any athletic ability. I swear that sometimes I can barely walk without falling down.
3-Play the piano. (Even though I took lessons for years. I stink at all things musical.)
4- Grow a successful garden.
5-Find my way around while driving. I am totally directionally impaired!
6-Go to bed without checking to make sure all the doors are locked.
7-Keep my house clean.

7 Things That Attracted me to Wes
1-His kindness to everyone, not just the popular cool people.
2-His total commitment to the gospel.
3-The way he looked playing flag football. (I know it’s shallow, but it’s the truth.)
4-Amazing blue eyes.
5-The way he treated me.
6- Listening to him sing at the nursing home on Sunday afternoons.
7-He was so much fun to be around.

7 Things I say Most Often...
1- "Don’t make me come over there." (This is actually a joke between me and my kids.)
2- "I love your stinkin’ guts!"
3- "Who left these cars/pokemon cards/legos on the floor!?!?"
4- "Turn that dang TV/computer off!!!"
5- "Have a good day. I love you."
6- "Wes, are you ready to come up yet?" (When I’m ready for bed and he’s in the basement.)
7- "Wash your hands!" I am a little bit of a germ freak.

7 Favorite Foods...
1-Cheesecake
2-Salad
3-Halibut
4-Homemade breads (I could never go on the Atkin’s diet)
5-Ice cream
6-Mexican
7-Italian

CRAZY 8'S

8 TV Shows I Like To Watch...
1-Good Things Utah
2-Studio 5
3-Old Re-Runs of Shows I watched as a kid
4-Decorating Shows in HGTV
Sorry that’s all. I don’t really get into TV, I only watch when I am on the treadmill.

8 Things That Happened Yesterday...
1-We got our first snowfall.
2-I finally got some scrapbook pages done.
3-I tried out my new watercoloring marker (and loved it!)
4-I started reading Levin Thumps (Brandon has been asking me to for a few weeks.)
5-I played several rounds of tic tac toe with Justin, then played with play-doh.
6-My neighbor played a prank on me.
7-I made dinner and fudge bars to take to Mia-Maids.
8-I went to a Young Women’s activity

8 Favorite Places To Eat...
1-Magleby’s Fresh- Love the Halibut and soup, and it is cheap.
2-Coldstone Creamery- nuff said
3-Bajio-love the Green Chili Chicken Salad!
4-Francesco’s —awesome manicotti and bread sticks to die for!
5-My own kitchen
6-At a friend’s house
7-PF Chang’s-love the lettuce wraps and pretty much everything I’ve tried there.
8-Octavio’s Italian Restaurant

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To...
1-Warmer weather this weekend
2-Getting my hair cut, it’s driving me nuts
3-Learning how to do digital scrapbooking (my friend’s teaching a class in Jan.)
4-Thanksgiving
5-Christmas
6-Scrapbooking with my friend Lori this afternoon.
7-Wes coming home from work tonight (we actually have a free evening-yeah!)
8-Putting up all my new fall decorations.

8 Things On My Wish List...
1-A baby girl
2-Photoshop 7
3-Siding on our shed
4-A new scrapbook cutter
5-A clean house
6-Replacing the shower in our master bathroom
7-A baby girl (I know I wrote this twice, but we think twins would be fabulous!)

8 People I Tag...
1-Lori
2-Amber
3-Kelly
4-Tami
5-Crystal (Sorry, I don’t know anyone else who blogs that hasn’t already been tagged.)

My First Book Recommendation

Since I love reading and know what a challenge it can be to find good clean books, I thought I would share some of my favorites with you. I am in a Book Club with several ladies in the neighborhood and I love it. First of all I love to read. I also like to socialize. And eat yummy food. Book Club gives me all three at once--Bonus! Several of my favorite books are ones we have read. Here is the first:

"A Sweetness to the Soul," by Jane Kirkpatrick We read this about 3 years ago and it is still one of my all time favorites. I liked it so much that I actually purchased it. It is about a pioneer woman Jane Sherar and her husband Joseph. The book is fiction but the Sherars are a real pioneer couple that lived in Oregon. Jane overcomes many hardships and trials with the help of a loving husband and her strong faith. This book is so uplifting, I just can't say enough good about it!

Note: I also read "Love to Water My Soul" which is the story of one of the characters in this book, and I loved it too.

Football Fanatic

Spencer just finished up his flag football season. He had a blast! They started the season earlier this year which was a little stressful because it overlapped with the end of soccer season. But man it is sure nice to be done before the weather gets nasty. In years past we went to games in the snow and it was downright miserable. Call me crazy, but I prefer not to become a human popsicle.

Anyway, I didn't get many good pictures, but here are a few:
Spencer is a total sports fanatic so now that football is over, he has moved right on to basketball. He and Brandon are waking up at 5:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays to play ball at the church with Wes and a few of the other totally crazy dedicated boys and dads in our ward.

Pumpkin Carving

Carving pumpkins is one of our favorite Halloween traditions. The boys love searching through patterns to find the perfect jack-o-lantern to carve. This year was no exception. Because Wes still has his hand in a cast, I got the fun job of scooping out all the slimy guts this year. I think the smell actually bothers me more than the sliminess though. Peeeuuu!

I thought all of you would like to see a few pictures of our completed pumpkins.

Tyler carved a spider (with the help of Wes.)

Spencer carved a pirate skull (with a little help from mom.)

Justin poked the holes for the dinosaur pattern and mom did the actual carving:

Brandon carved a witch using a crystal ball. Sorry, I didn't get the best picture of this one.

Now we just need to get some candles so we can actually light them on Halloween night. If they last that is. It was so hot today that they are already looking kind of shriveled up. Not that I'm complaining, I am loving this wonderful weather!

Do You Need a Ride?

Wes likes playing basketball. A lot. He likes it so much in fact, that he gets up at 5:20 so that he can be at the church at 5:30 to play with a group of other crazy basketball fanatics guys. Yes, you read that right, 5:30! There is nothing in this world that I enjoy enough to get up that early for. But he's been doing it 2-3 times a week for years. That is some serious devotion!

But alas, a few weeks ago his basketball excursions came to a crashing halt. Apparently as he went up to block a shot his thumb encountered someone's elbow. And not in a good way. He tore the ligaments and chipped a bone. The hand orthopedist told him there's a 25% chance that wearing this cast

will fix the problem. If not, he has to have surgery and 6 more months of cast wearing and physical therapy.

We are really hoping that the cast will work and he won't need surgery. He has an appointment on Tuesday, so we are praying that all goes well.


But if he has to keep the cast on, at least he has a ready made Halloween costume. He can go as a hitch-hiker!

A Boy and a Snake

Our next door neighbor found this in his yard on Friday night:

He brought it over because he thought my boys would like it; which they did. Especially Spencer. He really wanted to keep him, so he found a bucket to put him in. He put a bunch of grass and leaves in it, with a big rock so the snake could climb on it. He even asked me to research on the Internet and find out what garter snakes eat. Apparently, in captivity, fish is their meal of choice, but they will also eat earthworms. But not crickets. Or grapes. Spencer tried both of those.

He took such good care of his snake, checking on him, taking him out and holding him, feeding him, giving him water, etc.

It was fun to see how excited he was about his new "pet". But after a couple of days, he realized that a snake can't really be all that happy living in a bucket. So he let him go:

He is such a good kid!
And just in case any of you are wondering. Yes, I did hold the snake. Twice. Snakes don't bother me. Now earwigs-that is another story. Those things totally give me the heebie jeebies!

The boys were out of school Thursday and Friday, so in keeping with our usual UEA tradition, we did nothing spectacular. We are pretty boring that way. Thursday they had a few friends over and watched the BYU game. They lost, what a bummer!

Yesterday some of my cousins came up from Southern Utah for a ladies day out, and they invited me along. We had a great time shopping, visiting, and going out to lunch. It was wonderful to see everyone again, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I did feel a little guilty though, because Wes and the boys stayed home and worked in the yard. But I don't feel too guilty because at least I got some shopping done and they didn't have to go through the torture. They all hate shopping, so technically I was doing them a favor. Right?

Today we spent some time getting our yard ready for winter. Times like these, having four boys really comes in handy. We put them to work leveling the side of the basketball court. We are going to be transplanting some bushes there. Ah, slave labor. Isn't it great! After all that work, we did manage to have some fun tonight. We played a game of croquet in the backyard, went out to dinner, then came home and watched a movie. Here are some of the pictures I took of our rousing game of croquet:

And just in case any of you were wondering, I absolutely didn't win. Let's just leave it at that.

WARNING: If you are one of those people with a heightened sense of fashion, you will probably find the following photos highly offensive. Please leave the room, close your eyes, or look away from your computer screen. ***I cannot be held responsible for the consequences if you fail to heed my warning.*** Okay, now that I've got all that legal stuff taken care of. . .

Four year old boys are very independent. Mine likes to dress himself. Usually he does a great job. Sometimes, however, he is just in a hurry. I think it might have something to do with a certain show on television that he doesn't want to miss a minute of. Especially for something as unimportant as clothing for heaven's sakes. On these occasions, he may come downstairs in something like this:


What? What's wrong with this outfit mom?!? It looks perfectly fine to me.
Come on mom, I'm missing my show. And besides, you know I'm stinkin' cute no matter what I'm wearing. Right mom?

Finally Getting Around to It

There have been several projects that I have been putting off because I have just been too busy. I finally got some of them started! Yeah for me.
The first one deals with garden produce. I have been putting off having the boys go out and pick, because I didn't want to have to deal with the results. I mean, we are just barely free of the fruit fly colony that has existed in our kitchen because of all the pears. And my counter was all nice and clean and free from piles of produce.
But the weatherman predicted snow for today, so I knew I couldn't procrastinate any longer. I sent Wes and Brandon out to harvest the remaining vegetables. I thought there would just be a few left, but they came in with these:
So I spent the afternoon chopping and freezing green peppers. We now have more that what we will ever need for the upcoming year. But I am so glad they are done! Anybody have any great recipes using green peppers?

My second project has been sitting in my craft room for four years. It was leftover from a Super Saturday class that I taught. (You all have one of those projects lurking somewhere, don't you? I thought so.) I finally dug it out and got it finished:

It is made out of . . . don't laugh. . .toilet paper. It is really easy and super cute (at least in my opinion.) If you would like to make one, I posted the instructions on my other blog.

My last project is re-arranging my craft room. I am moving around all of the tables and desks to try and make more efficient use of my space. I have needed to do it for a few months now. However, in order to do this, I had to move lots of storage totes, tables, and miscellaneous items into the family room. It took much longer than I thought it would, so I didn't have time to put everything back where it goes.

As a result, both my craft room and my family room look like a tornado in a trailer park. I thought about posting a picture, but some of you clean freaks organized folks might not be able to handle it. And I don't want to jeopardize our friendship or anything. So I am sparing you the horrific details. You can thank me later.

I Did it All By Myself! (but I didn't like it)

No, this isn't a post about Justin, although he does get pretty excited when he does something by himself. I actually tried not one, but two new things last week.

The first was bottling pears. By myself. I've canned fruit with my mom and sisters more times than I can count, but I've never actually done it flying solo. I have always gone up to my parent's house and we've done it there. But this year I just didn't have time to make the trip. My dad was nice enough to bring a box of pears down to Wes's office. Thanks for the pears mom and dad!

Anyway, I got really specific instructions from my mom, so I was pretty confident in my ability to do the pears. And I did. I peeled, and sterilized, and peeled, and chopped, and boiled, and did I mention peeled? Oh my goodness. Pears are so much work! The only fun part about canning them is spending the day talking and laughing with my mom and sisters. Without that, it was endless mind numbing torture quite a tedious chore. I think in the future I will stick to canning pears only if I have some female companionship to make the time go by faster.

So, the pears are done, and I took a photo of them lined up on my counter top. Don't they look pretty? The thing is, it was such a long process getting them to this point, that I don't think I can actually let anyone eat them.

Oh yes, the second thing I did by myself. Used the brand new gas stove in our basement. I have never used a gas stove before, and I was actually a little terrified and freaked out nervous, but it all worked out. I didn't even burn the house down or asphyxiate myself with gas fumes. What a day!