Jewel and the pack

Monday, September 6, 2010

back to school 2010

First day of school 2010!!!
Aren't they cute!!!
a 4th grader, a 8th grader, a sophomore and a senior. Our last year altogether for school.
(now I'm crying)
PS you will notice that Briant is as tall as Wilson. Wilson is pretty proud of his little brother who he claims will be a beast at 6'5" 240 lb.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

The big waves are in

The boys went out but didn't get in. 15-20' sets. There were guys out getting towed in.

Briant surfing

Cool photo!!!

Briant and Stephen surfing.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

New heights reached

Food is something that consumes much of my waking time. What are we eating, who will like it, how much will I need, when will I go to the store again, which store is having a sale, how many people will be home to eat tonight, how can I make it healthier? The list goes on and on.

A couple of week ago satsuma season started, its always greatly anticipated and during the first couple of week we go through quiet a few. The first day I brought home 32lbs worth, it disappeared in 24 hrs, gone, vanished, devoured. I was somewhat awe struck, that was fast.

The next day I make a pan(9x13, none of this 9x9 stuff) of brownies, pull them out of the oven and go outside because everyone was getting home. I head back into the house after I hear all the stories and whamo there is 1 brownie in the corner, the pan and the oven are still warm.... 1 brownie left, I took it, at least I got one, they claimed they left it for me, I don't know about that but I'll go with it.

I cooked 3 Turkeys this past month. The last one was this past Sunday. One of the first things the kids said was wow mom that one is tiny. It was 14lbs, "tiny" right.

I was telling my girlfriend the story and she states
"You have reached a new height in food consumption"
Boy have we!!!!! Tonight it was a double batch of taco soup. You guessed right, gone.
Side note we've leveled off to 50 lbs of satsuma a week.
whew!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Christmas Tree trauma

For years, yes that makes it a tradition, we've gone down to a local tree farm and cut our Christmas tree down. We search for the prefect tree critiquing them all along the way, this one is to small, this one is too wide, this one has hole in it, etc...then once the perfect tree is found, and with 6 of us this can take awhile, we cut it down, each taking a turn with the saw, ride the tractor back to the stand with our perfect tree and then swing on the giant telephone pole swing that is at the farm. It's been something the kids really love and gets us in a festive mood, it's an afternoon spent together.
This year Harvey was given a free tree for giving blood, what a good guy. The free tree was not from the tree farm it was at a lot. The kids were kind of upset by this fact but we kept reassuring them that if it was ugly or to small we wouldn't take it. We got to the lot and they ask us which size we'd like and then say we'll be right back. They come out with a tree all wrapped up with string and ask us which way our car is. Well we ask if we could see it first. They look at us like were from outer space after all it's a free tree. They cut it open and voila there it is, Harvey is happy, its free and tells them to load it up.
Grace burst into tears, "this isn't right we don't get to even pick it out, we don't get to cut it down, we don't get to ride the tractor, there's no swing" NOPE! This is it, 5 min tree shopping. Very anticlimactic!
On the way home were reassuring everyone that its a wonderful tree it smells nice, its a good size, there aren't any holes. Once home we get out the saw and everyone takes a cut, we trim 4" off the bottom so we have cut the tree, we learn to love the tree, we make peace with the tree, it does smell nice, it's free after all.
There are blessing here, it just depends on who you talk to as to what they are.