He's in!

Eric Michael Liebhardt
MTC Mailbox # 253
DC-NORTH 1013
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793


We dropped off Eric at the Missionary Training Center in Provo yesterday. Curbside drop-offs are not too bad, actually. We'd had goodbyes earlier, enjoyed a good lunch together, and it was quick and (almost) painless. He's so ready and anxious to be off and doing the Lord's work.

Missionaries love to get letters and he'll be in the MTC for about three weeks, I think. 19 days? I don't really know when he leaves, but that "1013" in his address seems like a hint to me. Perhaps they plan to send him on Oct 13 to DC? It's all a mystery and he's in good hands, so I'm not going to worry about it. But his address is above, so if you feel so inclined, drop him a line. I know he'd love to hear from you. If you want to receive email messages that I can forward to you, let me know (all three of you in my HUGE blog following! ha)

We received our first "missionary blessing," or blessing for having a missionary out in the field. I sold the Blazer! YAY! It was just HOURS after dropping him off!!! More mission payments socked away for future use. I didn't get the full asking price, but it was close, so I'm not complaining at all. They are supposed to come by tonight with the money, so I hope it really happens!

Mike and I took the Scenic Mt. Nebo Loop drive on the way home. It was a little out of the way, but Oh, so pretty. Not even all of the trees were turning yet, but those maple-y ones were such a bright red, and the contrasts were sublime. And the weather couldn't have been nicer.

ZZzzzz

Two Weekends, Two parties, Too Tired to Blog.

Why I Was Tired on Saturday Night

Well, it IS Labor Day weekend, so I labored.

First, Eric and I went to WalMart. On a SATURDAY??? What were we thinking? Well, I was thinking I wanted to get there early, but Eric was very slow in getting ready (he's really dragging this out for as long as he can, the stinker!), so we ended up there close to 11. We ordered his two years' worth of contact lenses, got some new pillows, and two baby gifts. And we got gasoline. Shopping. The bane of my existence. Thank you, Michael, for doing most of it so I don't have to.

Then, Eric and I labored together to unloaded the back of the red pickup (full of stuff from somewhere else) so we could fill it with limbs from our front tree. Thank you, Michael, for sawing off those gangly limbs. Those we hauled out to the dump and unloaded, along with empty card board boxes from Berenice's house and miscellaneous other junk we picked up. UNfortunately, I forgot to hew down the huge sunflowers from my back weed-patch-excuse-of-a-garden so we could have taken those monsters to the dump, too, before they go to seed. Again. It would have taken a large axe and muscles to hew those down, too. They have trunks....er, stems.....the size of my ARM! (Just the lower half of my arm, not the large upper half. ha)

I labored over peaches that were very ripe and very tiny and all needed to be peeled and have SOMEthing done to them. They were very small, some the size of apricots and hard to peel, too. Hours of peeling, truly. I chose to make Fresh Peach Pies and Peach Crisps. My visiting teaching people were the beneficiaries of the crisps, and we enjoyed the pies on Sunday (with a lot of help from our friends). Mmmmm yummy Fresh peach pie and visits with friends.


I labored over a nice box of VERY ripe tomatoes and some peppers and a "world's largest" category-sized onion. Sorry, no picture of what it looked like BEFORE I cut it up and put it into a batch of salsa. MMmmmmm, fresh salsa.


I labored over some green beans. After Mike and I spent some time snapping them, there really wasn't enough to make it worth my while to actually can them, so we cooked them for our Sunday dinner. With bacon. MMmmmmm, bacon. ;-) Yeah, beans are okay, too.

Tomorrow, I will labor over some apples that have fallen off my tree. I have one large bowl that I've picked up, but there are many more out there. I think they will make some nice bottles of apple sauce to place on my food storage shelves. I may dry some, but they aren't really NICE apples for drying. Those will come later.


Also later, when they finish ripening, I shall labor over these pears that Mike picked off our neighbor's tree (with their permission). They are small and some are wormy, but free. And we really do love pears. They are yummy ones. Really good and sweet and juicy once they get ripe.


And I'm going to labor over bedroom dusting and vacuuming in preparation for our company later this week! YAY! Can't wait. Actually, Eric's going to clean bathrooms and make beds and vacuum and dust, as he needs the practice and training before leaving for his mission in 17 days.

Happy Labor Day!