Peanut Harvest

When you work full time you sometimes forget about your peanuts.

When I had planted my peanuts, I remembered reading something about harvesting in the fall and waiting until the plant was yellow. A couple weeks ago I kept thinking about my peanuts and how I should do some research on when to harvest. It is fall after all.

It was a nice thought.

More time goes by, and I decided to throw down some Internet research. Most of the websites I found said that your peanuts should be ready in about 130 days.
Perfect! This is easy! I don't have to determine yellowness, I just have to count.

So I did.
I was at 209 days. Hmm... 209.
I guess it was time for a peanut harvest.

Naturally I called the nieces and nephew over for some good gardening fun.






Well, I definitely anticipated more peanuts. A LOT MORE. For some reason, after my research on the topic, I thought I would yield more peanuts than I could handle. I had started dreaming about all the different things I could do with the peanuts. So, when I pulled them out of the ground, I was a little disappointed. It was no big thang. I wasn't over-run with peanuts. I don't know why some people scoffed at the peanut idea. They take practically no effort, they are fun to grow, you can forget about them, and everything turns out okay. It's basically a formula for my favorite kind of relationship.

A Few Loves

I have a few loves in my life. One is the library. One is autumn. One is the Colony Days Parade, and another is field show competitions.

Early in October we made the short trek to the Colony Days parade route.


And, as we exited the tunnel, we could see the fun!

I didn't know about these doughnut holes for the longest time. It was practically lunch time when I finally discovered them. But, apparently, the grand kids had been munching on them all morning!


A ride in a train always makes Colony Days memorable.


Fresh from the train ride.


Things were going quite well at Colony Days, and I was enjoying myself immensely when something happened to make my excitement level go through the roof: I found out that there was going to be a field show competition!

Yeah! That's right! The bands that competed in the parade were going to compete in a field show competition as well!! AND THEN! I learned that it was going to be at the High School! Only a short walk from my house! AND THEN! AND THEN! I learned that Inglewood had made the trip up here to participate in our little competition!

Field show competition???? With Inglewood???? Are you kidding me? It's gonna be awesome!!!

There was no way I was going to miss this!

Do you see that? Yeah, that's a guitar.
And no, this is not Inglewood.
You will know Inglewood when you see them.



The cute little Atascadero High School Marching Band.









Please forgive any shakiness of the video, I was simply quite excited.

And in the end, we came home to have a nice bowl of kettle corn and Nerds.

Challenge the body and intellect

It just so happened that Brandon had a birthday in October as well. Brandon's hunt was a challenge for the body and the intellect.

He had to do push ups,


a tricky craft project,


a math problem, lunges, and of course he had to use a compass. Kinda.

Also, Brandon instituted "speed hunting" in which the hunter tries to find his clues to gain his reward in the fastest possible manner. This is mostly the reason I don't really have any pictures of his hunt. He was too darn fast. You'll notice in the picture below, Brandon's face can be found in the top right corner.

But it's blurry. It's really the best I could do though, for he was quick as a whip.

Well, Happy Birthday, Speedy!

Jodie's Birthday

The month of October found Jodie one year older.

Naturally we had her birthday scavenger hunt. We got things started by telling her that her first clue was in one of the balloons hanging around the room. The first balloon she chose had a message that wasn't very helpful in her hunt, and she had to try again.



I loved that her clue was in the very last balloon. I don't know how it happened, but it happened.

That last clue led everyone outside to the clothes line. However, the clue was not found right away. So, after looking in a few more locations, it was decided to check the clothes line again.


AND SUCCESS! The clue was found under the apron!


Happy Birthday Jodie!

The Steel Cut Oat Phenomenon

I simply can not get full on oatmeal. It has never happened, and I don't think it ever will.

Oatmeal has that "stick to you ribs" quality that is suppose to be so appealing.

Well, I suppose it sticks too well to my ribs, because it never makes it to my stomach to tell me that I've been fed.

Mother made steel cut oats the other day. She crock-potted them. I woke up and they were ready for me in all of their toasty warm glory. I dished myself up some of the steel cuts (my preferred oatmeal style) threw on the cut apples, dried cranberries and brown sugar and had a great breakfast. It was delicious.

By the time I got to work, my stomach was growling. GROWLING I say!

Are you kidding me?

What's the deal?

Those steel cuts were suppose to last at least until mid-morning.

But they never do.

Sigh.

They never ever do.

Standing Outside the Fire

Sometimes when I listen to music I cry.

I just do, okay?

I was minding my own business on my way home from work today when Garth Brooks came on my cute little iPod. Garth was singing "Standing Outside the Fire".

Oh man.

Oh, man.

Not once in my known memory have I not cried while listening to this song. I remember the first time I saw the music video.
I was in the third or fourth grade.
It was after school, and I was watching CMT.
And I cried.
I bawled.
I couldn't breathe.
I don't remember ever feeling like that before.
But mostly, I was embarrassed and was glad no one had seen me crying at a music video.


Fast forward to the year 2005.
I was living in Idaho, in C4, and I had just come home from work. I was walking through the living room when the music video for "Standing Outside the Fire" suddenly appeared on our TV screen.

I stopped.

I had avoided that video my entire life.
And now, there it was.
There wasn't a soul in the living room.
Just me and Garth.
I stood transfixed.
As the message of the song and video unfolded before my eyes and in my heart I started to cry.
Tears were streaming down my face. I basically knew it would happen. I figured Garth and I could have another private moment. It was about time, anyway. It had been years since I had last seen the video.

As I stood there with my things in my arms, my face glowing with tears, eyes glued to the TV screen, I noticed a slight movement of energy to my left. I turn my head and here comes Tara bustling around the corner. She sees me.

She stops.

She stares.

Her mouth opens just a bit.

She looks at the music video.

She looks at me.

She says, "Are you crying???!"



I have no idea what I did then. I only remember Tara's shocked face. She was astounded, I think. I'm pretty sure Tara never looked at me the same after that.

Anyway, I figure you should probably all watch the video.



I hope this version is okay; I didn't watch it all the way through.

Conference Weekend was da bomb dot com.

For example, Jodie made cinnamon buns from a top secret recipe.


Elle very seriously scrubbed a potato.


The Wades did some loud yard work.


We tried to button baby Wade's shirt, but he just wouldn't let us. He's young, but he knows what he wants.

And, I hung out wit' da girlz.


I'm not sure what's going on with Elle... I think that maybe she realized Grandma was taking that picture at such an extreme angle that she needed to compensate for it. I think.