p365 Aug 16-22

Yummy! No, these are not cookies. They are fried red tomatoes. Use ripe, firm tomatoes, dip in flour, an egg bath, and then bread crumbs. Fry either in a frying pan, or I used my deep fryer until golden brown. Serve with crumbled bacon and chives.

For Family Home Evening, Michael had us do a marshmallow challenge
where we built structures out of spaghetti to support a marshmallow. It was a fun exercise. Richard's was the tallest, but I think mine held the marshmallow the longest.

It is late summer. The goldenrod is blooming everywhere.

I really like the white impatiens right next to the purple foliage.

Friday night, Richard & I drove the kids to Minneapolis to a dance and then we went downtown. There was a Twins game, and various other events going on, so we had to drive all over the place to find parking somewhere near Nicollet Mall. A block or so over we drove by this building. I don't even know what building this is, but I love it!! We were driving, so it isn't the best picture.

Saturday I went to a Girl Scout Leader Adult Enrichment Conference. I took a couple classes on communication, and keeping older girls interested, as well as a couple of craft classes (cake decorating and making a cement stepping stone.) In between times, there were a couple of charity sewing projects. We put together strips to make quilts for children's hospice programs, and we made pillowcases for the million pillowcase project (Ha! I learned how to do links in my blog!) The pillowcases went together so fast once I figured out the directions that I put together about 4 or 5 of them. (O.K., the pieces were all pre-cut, I just had to sew them together. But once they are cut out, they go together in about 5 minutes. Just 3 seams)

Michael has been folding and making lots of paper stars. Really cool stars. This morning I noticed they were all perched on top of the bulliten board.

Have a great week. Last full week of August/summer.

*moi

p365 Aug 9-15

Aug 9, was Emily's Birthday. We had orignially scheduled her wisdom teeth surgery for that day, but with the Lyme's and waiting for funding, we kind of postponed her surgery. We also postponed her celebration until Tuesday due to other scheduling. However, I found a really cool spider web in the foggy morning.

We had Emily's birthday dinner and cake on the 10th. She is 16!! This is kind of an odd shot, but I like it for the look of the candles and the intruding siblings. I took her to see Eclipse that night. Finally. We were almost too late for it. I think there were only 2 theatres in the area that still had it playing.

Wednesday was SOOO hot. When I got home from work, we went to the beach. Its odd. It has rained so much this summer that the lake level was actually higher in August than it was in June.

Sarah had her friend come stay for a couple of days. She brought her mama cat & kittens over too. (I have a feeling they wanted us to keep them--NO) So, we had visiting cats for a couple of days. We had a kitty that looked just like this that was the mama to our other cats.

Friday night Richard & I took these 3 out to see Despicable Me. It is such a funny movie. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. We drove there in a driving rainstorm (raining. again.) The show was so early, we got dinner after the movie. I took this picture just to show what we did, but I realized that it shows a turning point for my family. We didn't buy a kids' meal. Everyone got the regular sized meal. I really don't have babies anymore.

Saturday, we went to my friend's house where she had a Kids' Survivor-A day in the woods. They learned about what they would need to survive in the woods. How to get shelter, build fire, collect water, and trap food. Really a cool event. It was well attended. In this picture, they are talking about edible plants in the wild like plantain, lambs quarters, and dandelions.

This is the view from my porch. My camera didn't want to capture the blue of the sky, so I had to re-create it. :-)

August is halfway over. 16 days until school starts!

p365 Aug 2-8

Emily came home from Utah with this rash all over her body. She also had had headaches for several weeks. Took her to the doctor's on Monday and she took one look at the rash and diagnosed Lyme's Disease. She got put on a 3 week course of doxycycline which is a pretty powerful antibiotic that make her stomach hurt. We have figured out if she eats first before taking the pill, and that seems to make a difference.

Tuesday I participated in Turtle Lake's 'National Night Out' gathering. I don't live in Turtle Lake, but I work there. McDonald's had a booth there. We had activies for kids, and information about the Ronald McDonald house for the adults. Richard brought my kids down and they had a lot of fun with different activites, dancing, free hot dogs and rootbeer floats.

The kids & I did some experiments this week. We had some dry ice and had fun with it, and this is another one... take a plate full of milk (whole works best-good fat content), put drops of different food coloring all over the milk, and then just a few drops of dish soap. It makes the milk come alive with color.

Thursday we went to a couple of parks. We went to a sculpture park, and then to a nature park. This is at the latter. They are watching for their pooh sticks to come out the other side of the bridge.

Friday was my last day as regular crew at McDonald's. I have been promoted to manager, and start that on Monday. So, I came home and retired my hat & old nametag.

I love this stargazer lily, but the picture does not do it justice. I had focus problems, and problems with little people trying to put their fingers in my picture.

Sunday afternoon--a perfect time for a game of Monopoply.

Have a great week!

P365 July 26-Aug 1

This is the welcome of my phone. Monday morning I woke up and saw only that-and then the t-mobile logo. Over and over and over. It would never finish loading. I took it to the dealer, and they still couldn't help me. So I called T-mobile, (instead of having me wait on hold, they took my number and called me back-fantastic!), and ended up having to get a new phone sent to me which finally came on Thursday.

Tuesday I got my first good harvest of blackberries. I'll be getting even more in the next couple of weeks.

This bunny sits at the corner of our yard by the driveway every day just taunting the cats.

Thursday I went and toured the County Fair by myself. Everyone else was still either at camp, or driving back from Utah. These are the best things at the fair. Mini donuts. You get a bag of 13 or so hot, mini bites of cinnamon sugary goodness.

Daniel is carrying a bottle. They all came home Friday. This is a root beer bottle that they got at a restaurant called Bummer's in Sterling, CO. It is kind of our tradition to stop there either to or from Utah for dinner-depending on when we get there.

Saturday we went to the Fair as a family. This is Sarah standing underneath her entry with a blue ribbon on it. I also got a blue on one of my photos, and a 3rd and 4th place on 2 other photos. Also, despite being on my way to getting a fantastic cold/laryingitis on Sunday, I managed to still get 3rd place in the talent show.

Sunday was a little different. We just had our own Sacrament Meeting, and then a lot of us went downtown to a ecumenical service that Barron was having as part of their 150th Anniversary Celebration. We were encouraged by the Bishop & Stake President to attend to have a showing of Latter Day Saints as part of the Christian Community in the town.

Have a great week!