Changing templates again

I love the polka dots, but everytime I use that I have trouble with things disappearing on the screen. I don't know if this happens to everyone, but it has happened in the past, so I just decided to change it again. I want to mess around with the colors a bit, but some other night because I am going home :)

Squash Pizza

Here is the picture of the squash pizza that I was talking about in my previous post. This is minus the spaghettis sauce, but it looked so pretty that I had to take a picture.

Canning

I am almost done with canning! Yesterday I did canned raspberry jam and today I did banana pepper rings. I have had so much fun canning this year. I have received several jars in return (pickled beets and apple butter from Christina, Chili sauce from Dawn, and Blueberry jam from my neighbor). I have given a bunch of my canned goods away and I love that feeling. A couple of people asked me if they could buy some from me, but I love to give it away :)

Freezer Raspberry Jam

Jalapeno Jam

Salsa and Spaghetti Sauce

Everything (minus what I have given away and plus 4 jars that were given to me;)

Update

No pictures this time ;)

Tooth: But we made it to the dentist this morning and they are going to give it a few weeks to see if that tooth will firm up. Right now it is pretty loose, but it doesn't seem to bother him at all. The dentist wiggled the tooth all around and pushed around in the gums and Josiah didn't flinch at all, so that is a good sign that it is not hurting him. That tooth and one other have started to turn black, so the nerves are dying (another reason that there might not be very much pain associated with the loose tooth). So if the tooth is still pretty loose we will talk about pulling it only at that point.

Canning: I was able to can all day on Saturday. Josiah was awsome!!! I was afraid that he would give me a hard time, but to the contrary...we had so much fun! I think it was one of the best days that I have had with Josiah in a very long time. I would cut up the vegetables and he would add them to the food processor, turn it on and off. He was actually extremely helpful and he knew it and loved it. The way the food processor is designed is great for having little helpers. There is virtually no way that he could have gotten hurt. There is a long tube where the food gets added and the blade is at the bottom of the processor. He did learn how to take off the lid, but as soon as the lid becomes detached the blade stops. So he helped me cut up all the ingredients for our Spaghetti Sauce (see Christina's blog http://photomamacreations.blogspot.com/2008/09/fun-and-recipes.html for the recipe.) It is a great recipe for the mear fact that Josiah ate tomatoes, onions, green peppers, carrots, mushrooms, etc. and absolutely loved it. Dan said he ate it right up tonight. Any recipe that gets him to eat anything that can be labeled a vegetable is quite amazing. I admit that Dan and I have not done the best job keeping veggies constantly in his diet. We cave to soon and don't make him eat what we are eating all the time. Last night he had to eat over half of his meal before I gave him chicken noodle soup, but in reality I should have just made him eat it or go without. Such a hard thing to do :P Gotta love parenting!

Oh yah, I was giving an update on canning ;) I was able to can 11 pints of Salsa and 13 quarts of Spaghetti sauce and it took me from 9:00am until 6:00pm. I am still hoping to can some more raspberry jam, pickled banana pepper slices and applesauce.

Work: Ok I guess. I keep making mistakes and that is driving me nuts. I feel like I am the only one making mistakes lately. Some big ones and some not so big, but daily. I went for a couple of months not making any major errors and now within a couple of weeks it just seems like I am being inundated with them. I feel like I am being very careful, like I am taking my time and being very maticulous about the details, but I still screw up. I think pride is really getting in my way because I am embarresed that the new person sees me screw up and thinks less of me. That is what I was struggling with on Friday. But I am trying desperately to change my thinking. "I will make mistakes" and if those around me can't simply learn from my mistakes and judge me because of them, they are the lesser person. I don't want to make mistakes, I want to do a good job, but I am sure I will continue to make them. It is still a constant battle not thinking bad thoughts about my co-workers and I think it is when I am thinking those thoughts that I make my mistakes actually. I try to make them go away (the thoughts, not my co-workers ;) but sometimes I dwell on the thoughts for to long. *I know this is a huge ramble and probably doesn't make much sense, but I guess I just needed to write it down. Thanks for listening ;)

Josiah: He is doing great right now!! He is just so funny. I think he figures out every day that he is funnier all the time. He says the cutest things too. For example: this morning he asked where daddy was and I told him that he was at work. Then on our way home from the dentist we passed him on the road and his response to this was "Daddy's not at work mama, he's right there" Too funny! He is also starting to make up stories I think. He was talking about Daddy waking him up last night and puking in his bed and something about a pumpkin. I have no idea what he was talking about because not only did he not puke, but Dan never came in his room last night. I'm not sure if he was trying to tell me about a dream he was having or what. I just nod and agree :) Not much else I could.

Dan: He seems to be doing well at work. I bought him a bicycle at a garage sale last weekend and he is super excited about it. It was a Schwinn Road Bike. The tires were worn, but the breaks and gears were all in great working condition. We went this weekend and got new tires for it, but he is still figuring out if they are the right ones or not. Now we all have bikes and will hopefully be able to go for a ride some day. Oh yah, Uncle Mike rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!! He got Josiah a new, boys bike (I will post a picture later). It is awsome! It is silver and kind of tripped out or soemthing like that with gold. Kind of funnythough because we are using the training wheels for the purple bike. Mike thought that he should have a real boys bike (and I have to admit I looked all over for a boys bike because I kind of felt that way too;). So thank you Uncle Mike ;) Oh yah, we even bought a silver and black horn to add to the "Cool" bike. That's what Josiah calls it!!!

I will post pictures at another time. I uploaded them all onto my computer at home and don't have them with me at work. I will probably have to put them back on my card so I can do it at work, but we'll see!

They say things happen in 3's

And so they have! You are not going to believe this, unless you have already heard, but Josiah hit his teeth again today. There was no fall involved, but he jarred the teeth nonetheless. I don't know how this could happen to a kid 3 times in two weeks time. It just blows my mind really. This time we were out visiting my friend Christina and her family. She has a 4 year old whom is pictured down below. The boys had such fun and she has the perfect yard for 2 little boys to run free.

Josiah climbed into the swing and they were having a good ole time...then it was time to switch so that Josiah was pushing. Apparently Josiah didn't know much about pushing a kid on a swing because he gave a push as you can see in the picture below. I looked down to change a setting on my camera just as the swing came back and this is the part Josiah didn't know about...he didn't move from the spot where he pushed the swing and it cracked him right on that front tooth. You can see how it was the perfect height to do just that. The next time he pushes a kid ona swing, I will have to give him a little lesson that he has to move out of the way, so that it doesn't come back in bite ya in the mouth ;)

But what can I do...he is a boy and is almost 3. He is very independent and I can't (as much as I would love to) wrap him in bubble wrap, or put a helmet with a face shield on him. I can't take things out of his life just because they "might" hurt him. He just has to learn the hard way with some of these things. Such freak accidents...all 3 of them. But I am sure Josiah can't wait to go back and swing and play with his new friend. In fact just moments after it happened that is all he wanted to do is go back out there and play.

Josiah reacts to pain in a funny way, and maybe more people react this way than I know. But he gets pretty angry. He is very unconsolible, but even more than that. He starts lashing out if you try to comfort him. He gets extremely defiant and will pretty much out right ignore you if you are trying to talk to him or tell him no. Yes I know that is part of his age. But when he started to feel better these attitudes were gone. He no longer wanted to hit people on a regular basis, he no longer completely ignored me...ignored to some extent yes, but there was such angry defiance when he was in pain. I hope this heals fast both for his sake and ours.

I called the dentist and we have scheduled an appointment for Monday morning. The tooth was jarred in about 1/4 inch and is pretty loose. Not sure if it is loose enough to have to be removed, or if they will just say that it will heal up and firm up in time. We will just have to wait and see. I don't look forward to going back to that office because he just doesn't do well there. Nothing to do really and he just wants to go outside and play. Maybe this time will be different, we'll see!

Thanks for all the prayers up to this point! And I will have to ask for a couple more prayers. If he loses that other tooth, no apples or corn on the cob for many years to come. But I am sure he will look just as cute :)

The Flood

Lots of rain this weekend led to the biggest flood we have had since moving into our home. I still can't believe how much it rained and the amount of standing water in our yard. Josiah LOVED it!!! I mean how can you not love it. Puddles up to your skivvies and earthworms galore...a little boys dream :) We could hardly contain him on Sunday...he wanted outside bad. He could see the "Lakes" outside and he wanted in them badly. So I donned my sweatshirt and raincoat and out we went. I figured if I was going to have be out in the rain anyway, I might as well get something accomplished, so took a laundry basket out with me and picked all the tomatoes that had either started to turn or were nice and red. I also picked some green ones for some more fried green tomatoes (yummy good!). Josiah wasn't ready to come in, so I headed over to the raspberries and proceeded to pick 6 cups of raspberries which I am going to make into jam tomorrow morning! I am also going to try and can some salsa...we'll see! I did take some tomatoes from my neighbors garden...she has been gone for 2 weeks and her tomatoes are falling off the plant and splitting. Just makes me sick that she is letting all that produce going to waste. So I picked up the ones off the ground that were splitting. When she gets back I will take her a couple of pints of salsa because I do feel bad, but they are just going to waste otherwise.

Sunday Evening

Monday Morning

PRICELESS

Grandma Sherry and Papa Bob come for a Visit

We had quite a weekend! I took Friday off from work to participate in the Annual Alumni Marching Band Golf Outing. What a blast!! I golfed with 2 people that were marching the year I was born. They were so much fun! the woman had never golfed and was just a character, and the guy looked like he still smoked pot, so they were pretty fun people to golf with.

Friday night my mom and Bob came down to watch Mallory (my niece) race in the cross county invitational which took place only a mile from where I work. She does very well! Not sure what place she came in but she definitely finished in the top 10% or so.

Saturday was a very early day for me since I had to be at the stadium by 7:30am. The rain had started the day before and had not let up all night and it decided to keep going strong all day long. It's a good thing that I love marching band so much because I probably would not have stuck it out otherwise. What a crappy day, but what fun! It is always so great to see everyone again. I have marched 7 out of the 10 years I have been out of college. One year I was 7 months pregnant :) My mom and Bob came out for the game and to watch me of course...as did Dan and Josiah, but they (ok, just Dan) was miserable. They had no plans on going to the game, but they scooted out as soon as they saw me on the way tot he stadium. Guess I can't blame then, it was raining pretty hard by that point. We left after halftime, which they wouldn't let us march because we might tear up the field...whatever, but at least we got to play :)

Saturday night our power went out, actually only half of our power. Which told us that it was not due to the storm, rain and flooding. Not a good thing. Bob and Dan became detectives and finally figured out that something in the meter box had melted and there was nothing we could do about it that night. The rigged some of the breakers so that we had power to the main things (bathroom, lights, plugs, etc.) to get us through the next week if need be. We then called this morning and they told us it would probably be over $500 (Yikes!!! Gues we shouldn't have spent our money on a new camera and a Wii, but such is life and we will figure something out). then Dan talked to our daycare providers husband and he said that he was able to take care of it himself with an electrician standing by to help out. So there is still a chance that we won't have to pay that much money!! We can always pray!!!!

Sunday morning our yard was completely flooded (see the next post for pictures), but our house was dry :) Thank you God!! A great weekend with a few little blurps of not so much fun!

Does this look like a kid who just went through a mouth trama?? Kids heal sooo very fast!!

The Tooth is Gone...

...but the tooth fairy isn't going to come until tomorrow night! Then again maybe we will hold onto it until he understands a little better and not chance waking him up in the middle of the night. They gave it to us in a little treasure chest. Kind of cool! Right now he is still struggling with the pacifiers being gone. He ended up in bed with us last night because I just don't fit in his little bed and he just couldn't be pacified. Come to find out, Dan didn't give him his Motrin before bed and he might have just been in pain.

Everything went very well at the dentist today! They started out with the sedative, based on his weight. He weighs a whopping 35lbs now! I think he gained a bunch of weight while we were camping like the rest of us ;) But he is definitely getting heavy!!! So anyway, the sedative k
icked in but it didn't seem to slow him down at all...I mean at all. Even though he was swaying and tripping and falling, he just wouldn't sit still. Like I said yesterday, there really isn't much to do in that office. Shoot another family had the same idea we did...portable DVD player. but then Josiah wanted to watch the other little girls video and then he wanted to touch it and then push buttons. Little stinker! but then it was finally time for him to go back to where I couldn't join him. That was much harder than I had anticipated. I didn't want to hand him over! And I almost started to cry, but he did really well! They called me to pay the bill before he got out so that when he was done I could just take him and go and not worry about having to still pay the bill. What a great system!!!

So they ended up just having to pull the one tooth. The other big tooth looks like it dropped down quite a ways, but the dentist said that it should be fine...just looks funny. He had this perfect little mouth, with perfectly straight little teeth and now one is missing, the other one is down and out and they other two are crooked. But thankfully it didn't appear that any damage had been done to the adult teeth. Great news in fact!! The tooth came out in one piece and no bone had been damaged in the fall. They did have to put one stitch in because a good majority of the gums had been injured and were gone. If you aren't up for grosse pictures you might want to stop here, because the last one is pretty gruesome in my opinion!! But that is what it looks like. However, as you can see his big blue eyes make up for the gap in the teeth ;)

He did not want to smile for a picture, so I had to include this one because he is just so darned cute!!!

And again, couldn't get him to look at me, but still cute...the next ones aren't so cute :P

Cheese :) Ok, so this one is still cute :)
He couldn't keep his tongue out of the hole, but I don't think I could have either.This is the one that shows how the gums actually look! Poor little guy, but the dentist was pretty sure that he would probably be in less pain now than before the tooth came out just because of the way it was hanging there.

Produce

When we got back from camping, we made our way out to the garden to see if anything had been produced while we were gone and much to our surprise, lots of stuff was ready to pick. I'm not sure if we will have enough tomatoes to can any salsa, but we sure are going to try. We have 8 tomato plants and only the tomatoes on two of the plants have turned red. Very bad season for Tomatoes and we got our plants in late, so we will most likely be out of the running to can tomatoes. But we got a ton of cherry tomatoes and I just love to pop those for a snack :)

Can anyone guess what these are?

When I went to the market to buy seeds in the spring, we were very late getting our garden in, so this is the mix we got. They are actually all carrots. It was the science mix :) The yellow and white are those colors all the way through, but the purple carrot is actually orange on the inside!! Kind of fun!!

A trip to Uncle John's Cider Mill

What a beautiful day! My dad and stepmom met Josiah and I for a nice visit at the Cider Mill. Last year when we made this visit the weather was not nearly as cooperative. Today was absolutely gorgeous out. Blue skies, sunny and 70F. We played with the tractors, played in the pumpkin patch, ate donuts, ate lunch and played in the sandbox. A great day!!!

If any of you are wondering what has inspired the rash of blog posts...I suppose it is because I am burned out from scrapbooking and I still have all this time in the evenings to either use the computers or read. Plus I have hundreds of pictures...thanks to my new camera!! And I don't want to go 2 months and then have to pick a few pictures to post.