B-day Wishes!!!

WOO HOO.... Mom had a birthday this week!!!



I just wanted so wish you a very Happy Birthday! Thanks for the fun dinner tonight. You will have to let us know how the book was! ;)

Lots of Love,
Hay

Tis The Season!!!!

The time has finally arrived. Tis the season for "Guymon Grown Green Beans" to go into production again. Time to begin the backbreaking work of bending over and picking the green beans, sitting at the counter nipping off the ends and cutting them into bite sized pieces. Then comes carting all those empty jars from the shelves downstairs upstairs and placing them in the dishwasher for sterilizing. Next the beans are washed and rewashed, placed in a big pot and covered with water and boiled for 5 minutes. They are then packed into the hot jars fresh from the dishwasher. Finally they are placed inside the pressure cooker where the pressure is raised to 12 pounds and then watched carefully for 20 minutes. Then, after three days of standing, the jars are carted back downstairs again and loaded onto the storage room shelf. Lots of work!! Lots of bending and lifting and standing! Lots of running up and down stairs. You begin to wonder if it is all worth it when you can go to the local grocery store and purchase a can of beans for less than $1 (I think!! It has been a long, long time since I bought canned beans!) But within a few weeks, when the memory of aching backs, sore feet and legs from standing and hot, tiring evenings are forgotten, the sight of all those beans sitting comfortably on the shelf in the storage room is a beautiful sight to behold. Even better is opening a jar for dinner and having all the family, even the littlest of darling grandchildren, enjoy eating them! That is when "Guymon Grown Green Beans" become a true joy and the hard work is all worth it.

Happy Campers!

So this weekend the kids and I an my mom and two sisters decided to semi-crash the camping trip the YM in our ward planned in sunny San Diego. Who can turn down the chance for a Padres baseball game, roughin' it in a tent, Scripps Aquarium, Sea Port Village (complete with Merry-Go-Round, and face painting), Ruby's Diner, and beautiful weather (even with ornery pre-teen sisters, a 2month old baby, and a whiney two year old)?

For 20 bucks a night even our campsite whice could easily be dubbed the worst on the grounds, was worth it. Once Matt realized there were things to put together, he got to tearing them down right away. Since Wednesday when I told them we would be going he has asked me every morning if we were going camping yet. He thoroughly enjoyed kicking dirt around, picking up sticks and rocks, and bugging my mom by being a boy!
Alaina was super excited too. And despite first impression of a prissy little lady, she didn't mind getting dirty either. I think her favorite part of it all was the long walk to the potty in the dark. She thought it was so cool. But she definitely awakens with the sun, bright and early at 6am. Which is even harder on a mom and dad who did not have the luxury of an inflated mattress, rather suffered from poking rocks and such.
Camping does bring out the best of us, doesn't it?
Padres are only entertaining when they make runs and earn the celebration of fireworks. Not much action! Alaina finally caught bottom of the 7th, that baseball can be kind of boring. But for the candy, soda, and the funky chicken mascott, she would have died of boredom.
Purely exhausting for the little one, who was a perfect angel the entire trip. Slept all night in the tent. . . and was perfect the rest of the time.
Matt was exhaustingly worn out by the time the trip was over. He needed much more sleep than the 5 hours his sister afforded him. We all suffered, but come this morning he was feeling much much better!

You all need to come on down again. San Diego is calling! Hopefully we will see you in a couple of weeks!