The Legacy of Polly Q

Ever wonder what a hundred pounds of peaches looks like. Not nearly as impressive in the jars as they were in all the boxes. We had fun canning them, the whole family pitched in. It goes so much faster with more than one pair of hands working. Kelly blanched them, Kelton and Rach pealed them and I pitted, sliced and processed them. Now we just have to get a shelf built so we can store everything! The blueberry pie filling is delicious. We have had fruit in so many yummy recipes this summer. We finally got our first ripe tomato, there are a gazillion more on the way. I told Dustin not to pick them because the green ones are still babies. Now he walks through the garden, points to each one and says “baby”.

This was a pretty good week for weight loss. I was down 3 pounds on Wednesday. Waaahooooo!

Mom and Amy… have fun, drive safe, and don’t forget to BLOG!!

Love, Heidi
The first bite is the best bite, so why not stop there!

Announcing the arrival of:

Finnigan

Born on June 4^th in San Diego

Became a Meeker on August 25^th 2007

 I have this really great friend that I ran into shortly after her dog had to be put down. She was still very sad about it and we spent some time talking about how hard it is to have pets when they are sick and dying.  Before we went our separate ways, I asked her if she would consider getting another dog.  She quickly responded, “Ah yeah, you know my kids are all growing up and I’m not happy unless I’m cleaning up somebody’s shit.”  I guess what it all comes down to is I need to mother something right now.  Our China girl won’t come for some time, and I need a baby. Enter Finnigan.

Finnigan is a Standard Poodle. He will get to be about the size of a Golden Retriever, maybe bigger.  In actuality, we have be talking a lot about the right time to get a dog and we finally decided we just have to make the jump.  We are having so much fun with him.  He is very calm for a puppy and seems to get along with Whitman okay. We are going to crate train him, but for now we are taking him out every hour and cleaning up messes every once in a while.  His coat is sooo soft right now, but the breeder said it will get much curlier.  The best thing about Fin, other than being so dang cute is that he doesn’t shed.  Anyway, I’m sure everyone will be hearing lots about our new puppy. 

 We are looking forward to a very exciting week!  Mom and Amy are going to be here on Tuesday.  I’m not sure what we will do together, but I plan on having lots of fun. Thomas’s birthday is on Saturday.  We are going to have a few kids in the back yard . Our barbecue is finally up and running (Ben made a great tri-tip on it today) so we will serve hamburgers and fries.  I will try to take lots of pictures while Mom and Amy are here. Dad supposedly repented of his negligence, however, we are still yet to see a post from either him or Mom.  I think we may need to inflict some sort of punishment. Any ideas? 

April…we want to see pictures of the pup.  How did his first night home go??

I got on the scales this morning and got off with a smile. -1 pound!!!  Tonight is the shower I am throwing and I am a bit nervous about being the ‘hostess’.  I think it will be fun though!  Charley is down for her nap right now, but when she wakes up we will be running around town like mad women.  Lot’s of prepartation.  I am excited about leaving for CA on Monday.  Heidi do you have any suggestions on things that have worked to keep Dustin occupied and happy on those long drives?   Well I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Here is the house we looked at yesterday.  We really really liked it…but it all depends on how much we can get out of this little house.  We definetly don’t want to be house poor.  We will see.

You know when  you have a really good drink, like a Jamba juice or something, and you enjoy it so much that when you get to the bottom you can’t help but try to slurp up every drop with your straw?  That is how I am feeling about Summertime.  We are down to the last few days of Summer break and I feel like I have to try to get the most out of every last moment.  Thomas hasn’t gotten into the pre-school we want yet. We are first on the waiting list, so I think our chances are good. It starts on September 4th. While we wait for someone to drop out, we will be doing a small scale version of homeschool.  I bought a program from Hooked on Phonics that we will do 15 minutes every day. I also signed Thomas up for Spanish and art classes.  He will also take a parent/child cooking class starting in October.   All my  pre-baby book buying is paying off. Thom really loves to “read” his books and to have them read to him.  I sent him to his room for quiet time this afternoon and when I peaked in this is what he was doing.

When I snapped the photo he saw me and decided to show off a little for the camera.

OUR CRAZY BEAST BOY

Browster Fawer

Hatched August 22^nd 8:30 a.m.

1 inch long

About three weeks ago Thomas found a furry caterpillar in our garage. He looked like this:

Thomas named him Browster Fawer. We have absoluetly no idea where this name came from.  We put Browster in a Mason jar with lots of juicy leafs.  After munching away for a day or two, our little furry friend went to work spinning a cocoon.  We looked on the web to try to figure out what type of caterpillar he was and how long he would be in his cocoon, but we couldn’t identify him. So we just waited.

 We started to wonder if Browster had come to an untimely end, but today he emerged from his dark rotting cocoon, brilliant white and still furry. We were finally able to identify him as Estiqmene ecrea, more commonly known as a Salt Marsh Moth.  We decided to let him go in our yard.  He is still a little sluggish, trying to wake up from his slumber, but I bet by later today he will fly away. 

Acrea Moth, Estigmene acrea.

The larvae are typical wooly bears that feed on grasses. Male moths have yellow underwings and females have white underwings. Males release pheromones that are attractive to both females and males, and large aggregations of this moth are known to occur as a result.

Other furry creatures found at 6779 Vermarine Court

This was a busy weekend.  Debbie is in town and the Titmus family really likes to drop everything when family is in town and enjoy time spent with the fam.  Friday afternoon, David and I went to look at a few homes.  Of course, I fell in love with the first one we looked at.  David is not that easily convinced.  I hate in when I do this because I ended up spending 2 hours in bed trying to get to sleep, but the  decorating the ‘new home’ gets in the way.  Needless to say, we will still probably be looking for the next who knows how long.  Anyways,  we went to Tony’s pizza Friday night.  Saturday morning my friend Megan, me and dad went on a early morning 5 mile run.  Then it was over to Grandma Campbell’s.    I did find us all some good Grandma C. treasures.   We had to spend the rest of Saturday doing chores at Utahna’s.  I think I would have rather spent the rest of the day at Grandma C.’s  Yesterday we had Debbie and Utahna over for dinner and served pasta and Margharita pizza.  It was yummy…heres the recipe:

pizza dough  (we followed the one in the red check cookbook)

pizza sauce (a can of stewed petite diced tomatoes), garlic, olive oil, fresh basil, sugar, balsimic vinegar.   Sautee’ the tomatoes with lots of fresh garlic (4-5 cloves) in a touch of olive oil.  Add a few pinches of sugar, about 2-3 teaspoons of vinegar, and some basil.  Be sure to cook your dough to almost done.  Then add the tomatoes, cover in mozzerlla cheese, and put back in the oven for 5-10 minutes.  Remove from oven and add fresh basil over the top.   YUM YUM.  This is soooo good and almost tastes like Bocca De Beppo’s!

 Charley would not leave the computer alone…so I found the coolest website.  Charley and Dustin are still probably a little bit to young …but Thomas would love it.  It’s a lot of fun.  http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/   Go to build a monster.

 So I tried to post another blog about our weekend and included a video clip,  it was confusing and ended up not posting???  Oh well, just wanted to share that website.  Not much on my agenda for the week.  Lot’s of laundry and cleaning.

Well- the weekend was great.  I truly love when a weekend comes around that is full of fun, new things and we also have time to get some chores done.  On Saturday morning, I got up and ran 7 1/2 miles and then spent some time cleaning the garage. Ben took the boy to Home Depot (one of their favorite father/son things to do, especially when it involves buying gopher bombs) and then came home and sprayed the yard with pre-emergent.   When Ben’s parents showed up we went to grab a bite at my favorite lunch spot- The Noodle Company.  We then went down to Del Mar to the race track.  It was a really warm day but we had so much fun. We all placed bets on different horses and stayed for two races.  Thomas bet on “Tizfiz” and I bet on “Thru n’ Thru”.  They were $2 bets.  Here is picture of Thru n’ Thru coming in in first place.

Lady luck was on my side that day my friends. On the second race I bet on “Six Again” who also placed first!  I cannot tell you how exciting it is to watch the horses come thundering around the bend, necks stretching and nostrils flared.  The jockeys, are  crouched so low they look like colorful poison dart frogs atop toy horses.  The excitement is palpable and simply contagious.  I won a whopping $8!!!!  

In between races, in the infield, they had activities for the kids.  Thomas took a shine to the enormous blow-up slippery slide.

We came home sweaty and exhausted, but happy.  We made really good fajitas for dinner and had ice cream on the patio.  It was a good day.

Sunday was the FCC picnic.  It was really fun to see everyone and they had great activities for the kids.  Thomas wants to know when we are getting our “China Sister”.  I do too.

Our friends Amy and Tim that are getting the twins had made a big poster with the girls photos on it and they were going around giddy as monkeys showing everyone. Their happiness sort of spread throughout the picnic and made for a really fun afternoon. All in all, we had a great couple of days.  My diet was kicked to the way side, but what the hell. Every once in a while the little spot of yellow personality hidden way down deep inside of me pops out like a jack-in-the-box, and I let prudence take a back seat. After all, it is impossible to be mad with a ice cream cone in your hand.  Just try.

Well I guess today is a posting day. All the sisters have reported in, and as usual, the rest of the fam is absent. What’s with them?  I have had a Friday cleaning day.  I spent probably close to two hours cleaning our front patio.  It was soooo dirty after all the stone work we had done.  It is looking pretty good for my in-laws who are coming tomorrow.   I also did a little yard work, mostly dead-heading and pulling weeds.  I am really excited about our plants. I have never really had a green thumb, but I am determined to try.   Look at the beautiful color of this hydrangea.

Because I spent so much time to fiddling around in the yard and working in the house, I didn’t get my workout in. This is not good, especially when I am going to be making some Ghiradelli brownies for a family treat.  I would like to go the the Del Mar track tomorrow and let Thomas watch a horse race.  On Sunday, we have a FCC (Families with Chinese Children) picnic.  We are, of course, in the “waiting families” group. It is fun to see all the little chinese babies and girls. It makes me really wonder what our daughter will look like. The Olympics are going to be in Beijing  in 2008. Wouldn’t it be cool if we were there when they are? 

Anyway, I’ll try to take pictures and post them on Monday of everything fun we are doing this weekend.  Have a good one.