SNOW, by the way, they are ranked 1st in the nation for football I heard, GO SNOW COLLEGE!

It is snowing in Heber City, right now. Don't you love that my chairs are still out? Well, any attempt to harvest the rest of the pumpkins is gone I think. No recon mission there.



Matt and Kelsey went to the in laws this morning, a 2 hour drive. He just called and said they were leaving because it is raining so hard down there they can't get done what they needed to. So now, I have to figure out dinner! I thought I was dinner free tonight! Darn it! But I am glad they are coming home now rather than later tonight. Who knows what the weather will be like then?

So, today is one of those bad munchy days. Why do we have them? I could seriously eat and eat all day long today. I want you to know that the ONLY reason I haven't yet is because I have to fess up to everything I partake. Which is still quite a bit today.
I cooked myself 3, yes 3 scrambled eggs and one piece of DRY toast for breakfast this morning. Delicious!!
Kendal and I then went to Park City Walmart, AGAIN, (this week I have gone more than in the past 3 months, honestly.) to pick up a few more very important items. We went to Wendy's for lunch and I ordered a hamburger kids meal and a baked potato. We shared. I ate at least 1/2 of the fries, remember they put small fries in kids meals! I also ate the entire hanburger, and of course, 1/2 of the chocolate frosty. Kendal loved my potato and so I will say that she ate the most of it. Wendys was a good thing today. Comfort food!


When we got home, I made some jam. I picked a bunch of my raspberries yesterday. I had to add a peach and some strawberries to the berries to make enough fruit for the recipe. How many people have had raspberry, strawberry, peach jam? Well, I just ate a piece of toast with some extra jam that didn't fit into a bottle and it is marvelous! Oh yeah, and there were a few strawberries left over that I ate, yummy!

We will see what I figure out for din din.
Thanks again for keeping the munchies away today! You honestly don't know what you have saved me from, the cupboards are screaming at me today!

The Man of Our House

I was laying in bed last night trying to shut of my amazing brain, and I was thinking about this blog. Everyone hears all kinds of things about me and the girls, but not much about Matt, Moo-Moo, Matty, Crane, Daddy, the man of our house. So here it goes.

Matty wakes up every morning at 6:00, gets out of bed at 6:11, gets in his green car and leaves the house anywhere from 6:28 to 6:32. He drives 75 miles to Roy to go to work. (that is why our house is for sale) He works at a small animal clinic on Riverdale Road. He is supposed to have a 2 hour lunch, and most days it is close to that. He spends his lunch break eating the marvelous lunch I made him just that morning, although once in awhile he goes to Harmons and supplements his marvy lunch. Also during his lunch he goes to Sportsmans Warehouse, just down the road, occasionally. All the employees there know him! He takes a nap in his car every now and then, and at Christmas time, he runs errands for me. He is 5 minutes away from JoAnns, Target, Sams Club, Walmart, Circuit City, Sportsmans, etc etc etc.
He gets off work at 6:00 and heads home, unless of course, he has vet work to do on his way home. A few nights a week he stops in Kamas, or Coalville, or Park City, or Henefer, or goes to Charleston, or where ever to do his own business. He loves this of course because one, it is usually large animals, and two, it is for him and only him, he is the boss.
So after he gets home, normally around 7:20 if he doesn't stop anywhere, he sits down to a very well set and prepared table for a delicious dinner prepared by his wonderful wife. Oh, I forgot, he gives hugs and kisses all around before we eat. When Kendal hears the garage door open, she drops everything and runs for the back door to greet her DA DA. While his amazing wife promptly cleans up dinner, he wrestles and reads with the girls. It is so nice to have the girls attention on someone other than me. So nice. So, the girls go to bed and Matt goes and lays on our bed and reads vet magazines, cow mags, textbooks (no kidding!), or a Cabelas mag. If he is not in the mood to read, he watches a hunting DVD. In the summer there wasn't a delicious dinner very often and we spent all evening outside swinging, jumping, sandboxing, and watching Matty shoot his bow.

Then our man of the house goes to bed. That is the incredible lifestyle of the rich and famous Matt. We sure love and appreciate his hard work to let us live such a good life. He is a terrific dad, a super husband, and a good guy.

Okay, food, my favorite subject.

Last night after my stroganoff, I didn't eat anything! That is amazing for me. So today's breakfast was a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats and I also had another piece of banana bread (thank goodness for visiting teachers) and the other 1/2 of Kelsey's piece. You just can't let good things go to waste! I am going to go outside and spray weeds while Kendal is asleep and when I come back in I will have some lunch. Who knows, maybe an herbicide laced sandwich is a real calorie burner! Geez, I will wash up!

Okay, lunch was a bologna and cheese sandwich. I know that sounds awful to some, but I truly love bologna and spam! I also had 10, I counted, cheetoes, and some cucumber slices. Matt just called and has to stop in Coalville and float a horses teeth, so we are not waiting on him for dinner. I just had a delicious hot dog with our yummy relish for dinner. Oh dang, I forgot, at around 4:00 I had some chips and salsa. Okay, that is enough embarrasment for the day, I will not eat another morsel.

Rachel actually leaves town!

Kelsey and I went on a date last night. It was great. I have wanted to do something with her like this for a long time, and I finally just did it. And you know what? Matt and Kendal were both okay and the house was still here when we got home! Imagine that? I didn't think any of that was possible if I left town!
We went to BYU's World of Dance performance. It was super. Kelsey and I both totally enjoyed it.
For some strange reason, we had front row tickets! Imagine that? When I booked tickets, I really wanted Thursday night but all they had was back row balcony. So I said Wednesday then and she said "Okay, we still have some great seats left." I never thought those would be front row. I took this picture of us with the timed delay and the camera was sitting on the stage!

We couldn't take pictures during the show, DANG IT! So these are shots after the performance. I just randomly asked people if I could take their picture with my daughter, I didn't know any of them. This is Kelsey with a girl from the Ballroom Dance Company. Their last number was a Spanish dance with the HUGE twirly skirts. Kelsey said it was her favorite, although she said that about all of the dances when the girls wore big dresses!
This is Kelsey with a REAL ballerina! She was so excited to see real ballerinas and she loved it when they went up on their tip toes.
Kelsey really liked the International Folk Dancers. She is dressed up in a Turkish outfit. They really did dance amazingly. Kelsey was even impressed with the guys!
We had a super time and got to see 14 different numbers from the following BYU dancers: Ballroom Dance Company, Couragettes, The Dancers Company (personally my favorite, they did this AMAZING clap, stomp, jive dance thing), International Folk Dance Ensemble, Advanced Tap Students (very loud and very cool), and the Theatre Ballet.

So, if you would all like to become more culturally aware like me (ha ha ha), they have alot more performances coming up, 5 until Christmas. I don't know what they all are, I just know the names. Here you go, University Dance Assembly, Dancensemble, Ballet Showcase, Christmas Around the World, and Senior Projects Showcase. Go see one or two!

It is so funny, I don't even like BYU in general, and look at me, I am a great little advertiser for them!

Okay, boring part, my food intake!

Last night's dinner was an apricot jam and peanut butter sandwich, a couple pieces of jerky, and 10 fig newtons.

Today's consumption consists of

Bowl of Captain Crunch cereal

A few more fig newtons!

3 pieces of banana bread

1 pint of chocolate milk, minus a few Kendal sips . Do you like how I got that chocolate in for the day?

Handful of Honeycomb

We are having Beef Stroganoff for dinner

Oh yeah, I put some cucumbers in vinegar and water today, I think I will go eat some! I will report back.

Thank you all for allowing me to do this, it really is helping me! I refrained from the Cheetos just so I wouldn't have to tell you I ate the whole bag. Which I didn't! Not even one!

Our pumpkins

Mindy, you knew this one was coming didn't you?
This my friends is my bathtub, the one we don't use that often.
These are my home grown pumpkins. We had a killer frost 2 nights ago and my pumpkins and tomato vines are dead. DEAD. So, I have to harvest the pumpkins. Here comes a nifty food storage lesson for all of you. If you want so store pumpkins or winter squash for a while this is what you have to do: place them in a warm (75 degrees) place for 10 days. Then, clean them up perfectly and wipe them down with a rag with a little vegeatble oil on it. Then you can store the pumpkins or squash for months and months in a place where the temps are between 50 and 60 degrees.
So there you go!
The bathtub is my holding place that isn't quite 75 degrees, but the closest I have to that. I am not going to keep them there for 10 days, although I could since nobody is coming to stay with me and use the shower!! I figure a few days of CURING (that is the word Mindy) is good enough for me since they only have to last until Halloween.
If anyone knows if the green pumpkins will ripen and turn orange even though the vine is gone, let me know. I have about 20 green pumpkins outside!

The big one, hidden under the others on the right, weighs more than both my girls put together!

Shoot, I forgot my eating for the day!

Bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats for breakfast

Finished of the last of the choc chips, only 1/4 of a bag

3 huge handfuls of Ruffles chips

Nice piece of Lasagna for lunch

Dinner is yet to come, but I will be good, promise!

Chocolate

Okay folks, here is my confession. I always thought I had so much will power. I don't. I am not sure where it went because I know I used to have some. Maybe it went out with the 1995 hair do, wait, no I still have that! Anyway, I feel that if I am going to actually lose some weight, I need to be accountable to somebody since I can't find my will power. So here goes another confession and then a true-blue binding contract.
Friday when I went to Smiths to buy 16 pounds of peppers for salsa they were of course having their 3 for $1.00 deal on candy bars, so I bought 6 Snickers for Matt's lunches. Well, 3 of them got eaten solely by me that afternoon.
Saturday on my way back home, I stopped at 7-11 in Provo because Kelsey needed to use the bathroom. I bought a king size Snickers and a Milky Way. I ate them both before I hit the mouth of the canyon. Kelsey did have a few bites, bless her heart.
So Sunday while Kendal and Matt were napping, Kelsey and I finished off the other 3 Snickers while playing a'12 Dancing Princesses' game. Today, I thought I needed to be a little better, and I was until around 4:00, when I broke into the bag of chocolate chips I bought last week that was intended for making COOKIES! This unfortunately has happened before. But when I bought this bag I had true intentions of making cookies, really. Well, we all know that an opened bag of chocolate chips is as good as gone and who wants cookies with only 1/2 bag of chocolate chips? So, I have been nibbling on them all evening. They are not yet completely devoured, yet.
So here comes the binding internet blog site contract. In order to keep my binging in check, I, Rachel will from this post forward, confess to everything I eat each day. And I promise to tell the TRUTH! Promise. So, please skip over that boring part of my post, but I know of no other way, just plain and simple avoidance of embarrassment should keep me in line!
Thank you all for your sympathy, support, patience, condolences, pity, and other various emotions.
I just had a thought, I didn't eat ANY chocolate from my freshman year in high school until midway through my freshman year of college. None, not one morsel, not even anything with cocoa in it. Someone tell me that there is some strange physcological behavior pattern that explains all this, please?

A bear in my yard!

This is a bear in my yard, well, just on the property line anyway. Matt and Derek have shot their bows all spring and summer here. Derek, the neighbor kid, has a group of guys his age that come and shoot too. So, somehow they came across this bear target. In the past the targets have always been sqaures, not bears, so it was a little unexpected. I had to go take a picture of it just for that reason.
As I told the guys not to shoot me and to hold their fire while I got a close up, one of them yelled at me to pull the arrows out. This is a grunt job. Matt makes Kelsey feel so cool and helpful when he 'lets' her go pull his arrows out and bring them back to him. I wasn't offended by the request, but a little surprised. I asked if they were serious and really wanted them out right now. Sometimes Matt and Derek leave them in for a couple of shots so they can see how well they did, you know, a whole cluster of arrows. So anyway, they tell me yeah, they are serious. As I went to pull the first one out, I heard one of them say that they wanted me to try because the 2 left in were the ones they couldn't get out. No pressure right? As I totally eased the first one out I felt horrible about it. I mean, how can a bunch of 15 year olds' self esteem take it? An old, chubby lady, way past her physical prime just upped them. I felt a little bad but also a little elated. So as I reached to pull the second arrow out, I thought about their self esteem, and also mine, so I pulled hard and that arrow came right out!
I triumphantly turned around and took this picture of a few of the guys. Then Derek said "I hope you guys feel like pansies now because she just did what you guys couldn't do." I love Derek. All the guys were laughing about it and it was funny. The thing is, Derek will be 15 this December, but he is pretty big for his age, height wise and muscle wise. I could beat him in an arm wrestle until this spring when he got really good at pulling back his bow. That takes ALOT of strength. So, since all the other boys are rookies at shooting, I will only be able to up them for a little while.

Love At Home

For some of you, this may be a familiar scene at your home, your kids hugging each other, but at our home, this is monumental! Kendal has a hard time accepting affection and showing affection. But she is getting better. For instance, I haven't had a kiss from her since before Christmas. I think Matt might have gotten one this spring, maybe.

So, as you can see, Kendal is hugging on her own free will. Kelsey is such a little lover, that she sometimes forces Kendal into it and ends up crying when she gets bitten by my little Piranha. Today, Kendal instigated the hug, it truly was amazing. Kelsey closed her eyes and basked in the show of love from her little sister.
Then, after all the hugging, another amazing thing happened, Kendal actually wanted to play with Kelsey. That is a rarity. So she bounced on Kelsey's full tum tum, since this was right after lunch. Kelsey might have thought of throwing up, but she was too busy enjoying Kendal's attention and affection. Kendal even let Kelsey hold her hands and dance with her today to some music, and a few days ago, she played Ring Around the Rosies with us!!
Kendal is getting better at letting Matt and I hug her and hold her, but she usually pushes Kelsey away. Here we are, on the couch loving Kendal before she squirms off, even though she is preoccupied with her sock!
This is called a Kelsey Sandwich. It was a good day. Things are getting better at the Crane household.

99 bottles of beer, uh, salsa on the wall

This is me, the big blue one in the center, and my 4 Crane sister in laws, Mindy, Emiko, Amanda, and Lisa. We got together, along with our 13 children, 11 of which are under the age of 5, today and made salsa, relish, and a little jam. Are we crazy? Well, yes and we all have Mindy to blame for the fun day. I posted a post a while ago about me canning my green beans and that gave Mindy the SUPER idea that we should all get together and can salsa. It really was a good time, messy, but good.

If you add somewhere around 20 pounds of peppers, a few bushels of tomatoes, and 3 or 4 trips to the grocery store worth of onions into a big pot, this is what you get. Okay, 2 big pots. Oh yeah, and an ENTIRE bottle of lemon juice with a few other key ingredients also.

We cooked the salsa inside, but when it came to processing it, we did it outside. It worked out pretty well, even in the rain. We were extremely efficient! We worked together very well too. They say too many cooks spoil the stew, not in our case, all of us made it into perfection.

95 bottle of salsa, count em!

I picked some of my raspberries because MINDY wanted to make jam. The jam was super delicious. Lainee LOVED it! Her mom Amanda says she spends alot of time in her other grandma's raspberry patch!

Okay, here is the finished story. 95 bottles, equalling 87 1/2 pints of salsa, 26 pints of relish, and 5 1/2 pints of raspberry jam. TA DA!! Mindy also had me purchase a couple of boxes of peaches for her to make into jam in her spare time!! She technically and truly has no spare time. She is the busiest person I know, honestly. Good luck girl!

Thanks to my sister in laws for a pretty dang fun Saturday, and very productive too! I was home by 8:00 pm!

My title says there were 99 bottles of salsa on the wall, well, not technically, but at least one. We made a little mess, sorry Ellen! We did clean up pretty well, but I don't think we wiped off the wall behind the stove!

Hot Buys

What is this you ask? This my dear friends is the fruits of a shopping trip I took yesterday. Yes, that is right, Rachel went shopping. Don't fall off your hard, blue, folding chair. I went shopping! I have to tell you, the weather up here in Heber City is getting a little cool, and I have to start thinking about some long pants. (I will NEVER say jeans, that is way to cityish for me.) So, as I was saying, LONG PANTS, I need some. I hate to admit that I only have 2 pair from last year that a) fit and b) are presentable in public, meaning no holes, stains, etc. Actually if I use that criteria, I only have one pair. So, I went shopping.

I am so proud of myself. I got 5 pairs of pants, 2 of which are capris, but since they cover my knees they are considered pants to me, 8 shirts, 4 shirts for Kelsey, and 2 pairs of pants for Kendal. WOW!! I just doubled my wardrobe! Well, not really, my closet is full, but I honestly only have about 5 or 6 shirts, once again, without stains or holes that are public worthy. I don't remember being such a slob before kids, I never had stains on my shirts!

So, here is the kicker, I spent $77.50. Not bad huh? Let's see, I got 19 clothing items, so that is $4.08 on average for each item! Hot dang, I love The Thrift Store! When I went shopping for my Dolly Parton outfit, I think I became addicted!

Partied Out

I apolgize for no post yesterday, but partying makes one tired! I had a Pampered Chef Party last night, and by the time it was over, I was exhausted and had to crash. I usually make time for myself and my favorite blogs, but not last night. I was VERY apprehensive about having a party. I didn't know who to invite. I didn't want to make any of my friends HAVE to come, but some did anyway, so thanks friends! I did have a good time. Maybe that Cranberry Fizz really did have something in it! I enjoyed myself and drank 4 or 5 glasses of it!
So, I will go check out the blogs I missed out on last night. Have a super day and if you want to order anything, the lady that did my party was pretty nice. Her site is www.pamperedchef.biz/christyhooley.

State Fair

We went to the State Fair on Saturday the 15th. It was super fun! Matt's sister Mindy and her little family were going too, so we hooked up with them. Kelsey sure loves playing with her cousins. They had a great time together.



Kendal loved the fish and Kelsey, Aly, and Ashley did great at the BB Gun shoot.

Of course I took pictures of a few quilts. This one with stars sure caught my eye, and I think I am going to make a little wall hanging like this one. I love the primitive, simple life it portrays. It was beautifully quilted too.

We had to go see all the livestock. Matt and Will were in deep conversation in the barns. The girls liked it too, here is Kelsey and Ashley by the sheep pens.

We couldn't go to the fair without riding some rides. The 5 little girls cousins were so dang cute! Kendal and Ainsley even had a good time, but a little scared now and then too. I dared Will to ride this mechanical bull, and he did! He was a super sport and he got quite an applause. It was a family day well spent.

Tag you are it!

My good friend Amanda has 'tagged me.' That means I get to answer these questions, the same questions she was tagged with and also had to answer on her blog. This is just a warning, my answers are going to be pretty boring, so if you want some excitement, click on Amanda Lee's blog or click on Tori's blog. She also got tagged. Come to think of it, so did my friend Brittany. Go see what she had to say. Here it goes!

4 JOBS I HAVE HAD:
1. Toilet cleaner, aka housekeeper at a motel near Capitol Reef National Park. I so hated that job. I really waited tables there and loved that, but every now and then they would need some help cleaning rooms. YUCK!! Cleaning up some stranger's toilet was not a good career move for me, no matter what they payed me!
2. I worked at Rue's Market, a little grocery store, from the time I was about 12 to 18, that is when I made the BIG move to the Capitol Reef Inn. I loved that job (Rue's.) I started out stocking shelves, bagging ice, whatever had to be done. Then, I grew to pretty much run the place by myself on most afternoons after school, even though I wasn't old enough to sell beer. I just told them that my boss went to the bank. It was small town and no big deal.
3. Wildland Firefighter. I did this for 5 summers. I worked for the Forest Service marking timber and went on fires whenever there was one to go on. I loved it. I can't explain what was so great about walking, sometimes running, around with a 40 pound pack on, a shovel or polaski, hard hat, 8 " heavy leather boots, long sleeves, and gloves in 100 degree summer weather chasing hot spots, but there surely was something. I think the camaraderie and just being a part of something bigger than yourself.
4. Plant Geek for a few years. That is how I got Matt through Vet School. I worked at plant nurseries in Washington, Oregon, and Colorado. Loved that too. I met tons of great people and learned so much!

MOVIES I COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:
1- Cinderella Man
2- Everafter, of course!!
3- Master and Commander with Russell Crowe
4- This is so hard! Cars, no kidding.

FAVORITE T.V. SHOWS:
1- I was up all night trying to figure this one out. I don't want to sound like a
2- total idiot, but we don't have TV, so I honestly don't know what anyone is
3-talking about with TV shows these days. We do actually have a TV now, Matt
4- broke down and bought one, but we get NO channels. NONE!
Whatever happened to Family Ties or Eight is Enough???

FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1- Gardening, although I am so ready for fall to take it all away. I am getting tired of it all.
2- Sewing, quilting, etc.
3-I really like photography, I wish I knew more and did more.
4- Lately, BLOGGING!

PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
1-Corvallis, OR
2-Pullman, WA
3-Cortez, CO
4-A few places in Utah where I went to school, grew up, and now live.

PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1- In bed, honestly, it has been one of those days.
2-ANY BEACH
3-22nd street in Corvallis, OR. It is completely lined with maple trees, can you imagine what it must look like right now?
4-With extended family

WEB SITES I CHECK DAILY:
1- My friends blogs
2- Weather
3- A quilting site or two maybe.
4- That is about it.

WHO I'M TAGGING:
Since Amanda already tagged 1/2 of my friends with blogs, I get to tag
1- Krista
2- Sister in law Amanda
3- Mindy, are you out there?
4- Mom??

Okay, now that you are tagged, you get to copy and paste this onto a post of your own. Delete my pitiful answers and type in your own. It is true blogging etiquette to really do this!!

She's My Cherry Pie

We had a ward party tonight and I signed up to take a pie. I called my mother in law for her crust recipe, it is the best! Look at what I made! I was so proud of myself. I usually make apple pies and I end up eating them all by myself because Matt won't eat any. He informed me that I needed to make him a cherry pie every month. That is a good thing right?

There is a cool guy in our ward named Dick, he is a barber. He told me he was going to go home and die a happy man after eating my pie. I love him. He is also the one that tries to get Matt to skip out on Priesthood Meeting to go eat ham and eggs with him!

My cooking confidence has increased dramatically tonight, just what I needed! The pie plate was empty when I went to get it after dinner, but so were most of them!

A quick update on Andrew. We went to go visit him today at Primary Children's and take him an I Spy Quilt that was tied at Enrichment last week. He was pretty funny. He looked good and was in a super mood. He hasn't started treatments yet. He has a blog to update everyone. If you visit, leave him a comment. The Arnolds would love it. http://www.andrewarnoldupdate.blogspot.com/

2007 and 1955?

After yesterday's post, my sister commented that Kendal must have some of her grandpa in her. Well, I think she is right. This is one of MANY picture of my dad when he was a little boy - in his birthday suit. In nearly all the picture of him from the ages of 1 to 5, he is totally naked, except for his boots once in awhile. This one has been edited for the internet by his dog. I will have to ask him what this dog's name is, Smokey?

I Love This Girl!

Let me set the scene: Last night, around 6:00, the girls and I go outside to enjoy the evening, turn a little water on, check on the garden, pick some raspberries, you know, September evening behavior. Kendal decided to take off down the sidewalk. I tell her to stop, she turns and looks at me and then just keeps cruising. I told Kelsey to follow her and not let her go in the road until I turned on the hose and then I would come and get her. Kelsey, being the oldest child, and somewhat 'motherly', runs in front of Kendal and tries to stop her. This makes Kendal angry and Kelsey is lucky she doesn't have teeth marks in her arm to prove it. (That happens once in awhile at our house. I never thought I would have a biter!) I see this all unfolding, so once again I holler at Kendal to stop and tell her to turn around, but now she feels the freedom of the run, and just keeps going. She didn't even look back at me this time!

So, off I go, down the sidewalk as fast as I can WALK. I didn't want to run and make a scene, or make it a chase game for the little fugitive. Kelsey keeps following her but as Kendal makes it to the corner and heads for the road, Kelsey stops because she knows that her mom will be SO ANGRY if she goes in the road. Kendal, she knows that too but she doesn't care, and so into the road she goes.
I am hot on her tail at this point and about 1/2 way across the road, after I have broke into a run, I catch her.

Well, Kendal knows what her punishment will be. Go back in the house by herself, get trapped on the deck, or get put up on the trampoline. There are some other physical punishment methods I use but will not report on at this time. I really wanted to get a few things done outside, and I didn't want the house torn apart by Kendal in there all by herself, so there went the good punishment option. I knew she would scream her little head off on the deck and strip down, and since Kendal had already been 'saved' a few weeks ago by a stranger passing by hearing her protests of being locked on the deck, I opted for the tramp.

So I put her on the tramp (she can't get off by herself, she doesn't dare, YET) and walked around the house to turn on the other hose. I came back in 40 seconds and this is what I found.




My friend had pulled up and was walking to the tramp while I was on the other side of the house, wondering where I was, why Kendal was naked, and why Kelsey was laying on the grass about to pee her pants laughing. I ran in the house for the camera while my friend watched her. I guess Kendal showed me didn't she!
Keep in mind I have NO fence, live on the corner, live on a pretty busy road, and it was around 6:00 pm, when EVERYONE is on their way home! I love this girl!

Just a quick update on Andrew, the 12 year old boy up the street. He went through surgery really well. They took a wedge of his liver out to test, but the doc said it didn't look too good. They were afraid his swollen lymph nodes were in trouble too, but they biopsied them today and they are fine. HOORAY! They put a chemo shunt in yesterday and I guess he will start that soon. They hope his extremely tumorous liver responds to it so he can get a liver transplant. Keep praying for Andrew!

The Many Uses of TP

At the Crane household, we have many uses of toilet paper. It really is a multi-use product. Here are just a few of our uses:
1. Use in the bathroom, as its intended use.
2. Use upstairs in our home as spider smooshers. This use is great because the spider is already prepared for burial in the toilet. If the spiders are downstairs, they just get the shoe.
3. Use as a nice Kleenex tissue, wiping up noses. Unfortunately, this has already occurred this fall, like TODAY!! Dang it.
4. Use as a disposable towelette to get toothpaste out of the sink.
5. Use as a musical instrument, the core off course. Kendal particularly loves this use.
6. Use as a Polly Pocket, My Little Pony, etc blanket. This use is demonstrated below.

Kendal's speech therapist came today and poor Kelsey would love to help with all the sessions, but she gets banned to the bedroom. She is a super sport about it though. Today she took Barbies, Ponies, Polly Pockets, and other various toys in my room and had a campout. There were not enough sleeping bags for everyone, so she improvised. Toilet paper squares worked just perfect.

Who gets married on 9/11?

Happy Anniversary Joe and Lindsay!

This is an attempt to get my friend Joe to comment. Joe, if you don't want your mug on the internet, comment and tell me to take it off!!

Congrats by the way!

I better explain this picture. It is Joe, Lindsay, the moose, and us. It was taken last August in Dillon, Montana at another one of our friends' weddings. The moose is in the flower bed at a bank in town. They do things differently in Montana, no flowers, just moose! We had a fun day together and ate a delicious lunch, I always remember the food. The wedding was super too!

Sunday Dinner

Boy it is nice that the weather is cooling off, it makes me want to cook again. It is a good thing my husband is not picky, because I have not cooked very good dinners this summer. But Sunday afternoon I cooked tin foil dinners in our fire pit outside, DELICIOUS!! I had dug up some red potatoes out of my garden on Saturday so I used them, wow, it was better than ice cream! I had been fasting for awhile, maybe that is why it tasted so good, but even if I hadn't been starving, it would have been wonderful. On Tuesday Sept 11, a 12 year old boy that lives 7 houses up from us goes into surgery. He has liver cancer. Please pray for him, his name is Andrew. That is why our family was fasting.
Even Kelsey, who for some strange reason didn't inherit her mother's love for potatoes liked these ones! We roasted some marshmellow also and it was such a pleasant afternoon and evening. I hate going to bed smelling like a smoke detector, so I showered while Kelsey had a bubble bath. Kelsey hadn't had a bubble bath for a LONG time and she loved it.

Night time, gotta love it!

Don't we all just love the night time routine of jammies, teeth, what else? It seems like it takes FOREVER!! Picking up toys I guess, hopefully a prayer, a kiss or two, etc etc. Kendal is getting to the point again where I can lay her in the bed, kiss her, and close the door. HOORAY!!


She totally loves the feel of the covers and immediately goes under completely for a good wiggle. It makes her so happy, I am not sure why. Then she usually comes back up for a kiss, off goes the light, and wha-la. Momma has her time!!

She is precious.

Lost Innocence

Before Kelsey went to school today, she said,"Mom, did you know girls rock and boys suck?" Taken aback, I said "No, I didn't and where did you hear that? We don't say those kind of words." Kelsey said kind of quietly, "Marly told me that yesterday at school." I told her those were bad words, well they weren't all that bad, but pretty bad, sassy, mean words. I asked her if she knew what they meant and she said no. So I did a little explaining. She said she wouldn't say that anymore, but she let me know that she would say she sucked a sucker, and that is not bad.
She also told me about playing chase with the boys at recess yesterday. The boys chased the girls then the girls turned around and chased the boys. Hee Hee Hee.
So an hour later we went to play group. We have done play group with about the same people for about 3 years. There is a boy Kelsey's age named Noah and they play great together. Noah as the same teacher as Kelsey, but he goes in the afternoon. Well, they must preach NO BOYS AND GIRLS CAN PLAY TOGETHER at recess at our school because Noah wouldn't play with a girl today. It doesn't matter that 2 weeks ago they were best friends.
So we leave play group so I can take Kelsey to school and she tells me Noah kissed her. As I picked my chin up off the ground and strap Kendal into her car seat, I nonchalantly ask her what she thought about that. These are her exact words, "I can't believe I got my first kiss today" with a flushed face. So as we are driving to the school I ask her why Noah kissed her but was so mean to her also. She didn't know. We near the school and I see her looking out the window and say softly "Noah kissed me, I can't believe it. I gotta tell my friends." Okay, so if this would have happened 2 weeks ago, before my sweet innocent naive darling went to school, it would have been no big deal. Noah kissed her, so what? They were great friends and they always played princess and prince together. But now that her little eyes have been opened to the world, it definately matters to her now. I guess parenting has just begun, potty training and naptime fights are way in the past. Wish me luck!

Quilt Guild

Okay, I just got home from quilt guild meeting and I am so inspired! That is the best part about guild meeting, you come home just ready to really tear it up because of all the fun things you saw people make and bring to 'sew and tell.' Well, another part about guild meeting that I love is just getting out of the house and being with fun ladies. Our little guild does have a bunch of fun ladies.
We learned some great techniques tonight and I really am ready to get going on a fun project. The quilt I spent the entire spring and summer on is gone as of 4 days ago and I am ready for something new, but not so big!!
Well, come to think of it, I have a few projects in my closet that really need to get done. I better do at least one of them first.

This picture here was taken in April at the Utah Home Machine Quilting Show. They asked quilters to participate in a Design Challenge to help raise $ for the American Heart Association. 7 of us from our guild decided to do it. We were given the fabric (UHHGGG!) and a bunch of rules and this is what we came up with. YEAH! We won the Design Challenge, $500, and donated the quilt to be auctioned off for the the AHA. It is hard to see, but all the flowers are 3-D, very cool! It was fun to get together and make it while rubbing shoulders with great quilters. Okay, I think I better add that I am chubby, but I shouldn't have stood next to my skinny-bum friend because that really makes me look even worse!

I took this picture at the same show and decided it would be my next project. What do you think? Geez, I am kidding!

This is a horrible picture, but the quilt is cute and I think I would like to make one like this. It had all these cute blocks incorporated into it and I just thought it was cute. I took this picture last week at a quilt show at Thanksgiving Point. This is more my style!