Applesauce and Angels, Aug 28,2022

 I have been making applesauce lately. Lots of it. It's tedious work. However we have a lot of apples that have been prematurely falling off the tree. Some, from the neighbor's tree, are an early apple, and they are ripe and delicious. However they are wormy. So I don't feel very comfortable giving them to people. "Here! Want some wormy apples with bruises?". Eww. And I'm sure this makes you very leery about eating things from my house anymore! But, that is why it is so tedious. It takes a long time to cut away the bad parts and put only the beautiful, delicious, healthy parts into the pot to boil into applesauce. And then process them.

Sunday afternoon, I had my arms full of four large heavy quarts of applesauce. I was taking them to the basement.

I am always very careful going downstairs these days. I know I am old and very vulnerable. Tandy's aunt a few years ago fell on some stairs and broke two of her leg bones! Compound fractures!! She's my age, actually a little lot younger. Lesson learned. Be careful! So as I traveled down MY stairs to the basement, I went one step at a time. Step, together. Step, together. Step, together. And I was watching!

AND I MISSED THE LAST STEP!!!

I could not believe it. I was being so careful. However, when it happened I just landed and walked. I did not hit the missed step and trip, I did not hyper extend my knee, I did not fall. It was truly miraculous and I recognize it as such. Honestly, Angels must have taken me by the arms and set me gently down.

Don't read this next paragraph if you have a squeamish stomach

I have had morbid thoughts many times as I've traversed those stairs with my arms loaded with bottles of preserved produce from my garden. I do it a lot. And I always think,"Man, if I fell right now I would die. With shards of glass quart bottles in my chest. What a mess. Tread carefully."

So far it hasn't happened. It didn't yesterday and I credit a guardian angel placing my feet where they needed to be and landing me softly. 

Praise ye the Lord. ( That's what my talk was in Sacrament meeting yesterday). And I do!

This is my fridge with FIVE bags of apples in it. Two more bags are in the garage from this morning. Mike was a sweetheart and picked them up today for me.   And now that our Jonathan apples are more mature, I can start dehydrating those. The early apples from next door are a bit too soft to dry. I usually pick up two plastic grocery bags full of dropped apples Every. Single. Morning. I think we will start giving these bags to a neighbor who has chickens and horses.

But, I also picked enough tomatoes this morning to bottle a small batch. And raspberries. Mmm. We do love our raspberries.

And green beans. And cucumbers. And an eggplant. So it was a good morning to be outside.

Utah Shakespeare Festival, 2022

 I figured it was time for an updated photo of me and the Bard.

Big Shots!

 Mike's very good and very long time (were talking 49 years here!) friend Randy Douglas invited us to the soft opening of is BigShots golf in St George on Saturday. It's been years in the making. COVID set things back. We went and met some Parowan friends there. Great food from their "Anthem" restaurant. Fun games to play on the range/computers.

Big Shots is similar to Top golf, I suppose. I've never done either. One round of golf with my friend Nancy Johnson is all I've ever done and that was over ten years ago. . . That and several rounds of Miniature golf. So this was a whole new experience. The balls are chipped so they are tracked and you can see their distance on the computer screens.  We played some games to earn points, just for fun. Fun and games.  

Dennis Lowder is a Recommend Desk Attendant in the Cedar City Temple. We work with him. He golfs 100 games a year with "The PGA". That's the "Parowan Golf Association". Haha. His wife doesn't golf. I came in last points-wise, then Christene, then Mike. Then Dennis. His points were WAY ahead of ours.

It was fun. I'm glad we went.

Then Mike and I took a truck for a test drive.

He's shopping. He misses his red truck.

Someday I'll be able to do a selfie with Mike's full face in the picture. 

Sat Aug 20, tickles, rainbows and swings

 

Tickle match. Emily is very ticklish.

Snack time!

Mike forget his C-pap machine. One night of poor sleep means many naps in the day.

Reading! Emily plays solo really well. They all do, actually.  And together, too. Usually.

Kaylee swinging with Emily. They love it!

A full double rainbow. The other photo was taken through our car roof window.

Avery Sumida, Missionary

 Avery was endowed on Friday the 19th of August. Mike and I went. The Provo City Center temple is lovely. And so is she and her sweet family. She will be serving in the Jacksonville Florida mission, Spanish Speaking. She begins home MTC soon,

Fun times to come for her!  I'm so glad we went.

Such pretty clouds on our drive up to Provo today! Except for the one VERY serious rain storm we drove through in Millard county.. . Serious water on the road.

We had dinner at Olive Garden with Robert and Janet in Provo. Janet is so savvy with technology. She had us on the "Wait List" and we avoided a wait. Got there and walked to our table. No waiting!! Amazing. Good food. Mike and I split an entree. We are trying harder sometimes.

Garden yummies

 

I made applesauce, pickles, raspberry jam, great beans. I've roasted green chilies, given away and eaten cucumbers and bell peppers.

And how come I forgot to prune my tomato plants this year???

Early Birthday Celebration Aug 16, 2022

 An Early Birthday celebration --Not for us, but for Rachel and Logan. She turns 8 in August and Logan turns 6 in September.

Mike and I took them to Lagoon to celebrate. Nick was kind enough to accommodate and drove,  brought the backpack , water, and snacks, helped a LOT. I'm glad he went. Mike and I possibly could have handled it on our own, but he made it much easier on us old folks. Kaylee found us good ticket deals. We did the "Two for Tuesday After 2" Fox 14 News deal. Not bad for most of us.

Fun day! Glad it didn't start until 2pm. We were pooped out, but so we're the kiddos. Surprisingly, they both stayed awake the whole way home! ( So did I!)

Mike and I drove up in Tuesday morning, had lunch at Nick's house, took a catnap/rest and headed to the park. The grandkids were appreciative. And surprised! We had a lot of fun. I stopped taking pictures after the airplanes, but we rode LOTS of rides in the kiddieland area, had dinner there, Mike got to be the backpack watcher if we needed to divide and conquer certain rides because Logan's not tall enough for all of them. And not all were up and running, sadly. Like the "Paratrooper." I like that one. 😢

Long day! We drove back home to Cedar  City on Wednesday the 17th, just in time to say bye to Gail and Jonny. They had been visiting Caroline in Cedar since Friday, so we have had a fun visit with them, too. 

Rachel an Logan on the Flying Tigers.

Nick and Logan on Ladybug Bop.

Mike, waiting.

Rachel on Puff.

Logan riding on Puff.

Getting soaked on Rattlesnake Rapids. I passed on that one. I don't enjoy walking around in soggy clothes.

Captain Logan on the boats. He loved the boats, cars, jeeps helicopters and rollercoasters.

In the helicopter ride.

On the train.

On the drive there.

So many rides, so much fun! Cute kids.

August in the garden

 Bell peppers

Anaheim peppers

Green bean

Cucumbers

Eggplant

Tomatoes

Yellow squash

Onions

Raspberries

Not a whole lot of any one thing, but plenty to keep me busy and happy. I have frozen enough berries to do another batch of jam, and have about 10 pints of beans bottled. Given away cucumbers and tomatoes.