Harvest Becoming Plentiful

So we are now harvesting tons of zucchini, tomatoes and the cucumbers are fast approaching. If anyone wants anything you might think about venturing over. We'd love to have company! Our anniversary gift to each other was buying a new pressure canner and a water bath canner! So far we've just done pickled beets. The green beans are just beginning to appear and we have tons of tomatoes. I'm not sure what I will do with all of these. Anyone have a really good salsa recipe? We seem to like the chunky salsa like we eat in Mazatlan; I'm not sure that we can "can" that. I have plenty of frozen zucchini and have been experimenting with baking some bread and chocolate cake. Not bad.....The sweet corn will probably be ready by Monday or so. Tony has been watering it every night as we have not had any rain for about 4 weeks now! Steve how is your corn? Will you have enough for everyone to freeze? We should have more than enough if anyone is interested in freezing corn here. You just have to let us know! Oh, before I forget......I took a job with Aramark on the University of South Dakota campus in Vermillion. I start August 6th and will be their Office Manager. Aramark does the food service, catering and concessions for the college; about 4 million in revenue a year. So I am pretty excited about the opportunity and the flexibility of hours that they can give me down the road. The other exciting thing is that the college is building a new student center which will be completed in a year and a half. This means we will have new offices, kitchen, etc and I will get to help with purchasing of all that stuff!! Lot's of things to look forward to. Just need to get myself accustomed to waking up earlier in the morning; Tony says this will be a major undertaking!

Home Safely

Just wanted to let everyone know that I arrived home safely on Tuesday at 1pm. Left Tony and Jennifer's at 4:45am Monday, thanks to the both of them getting me up. My goal was to get to Billings, MT and 12 hours and 793 miles later I had made it. The day actually went pretty fast, but after a shower and a meal, I was asleep by 8, then hit the road again at 5:30am. My second day miles was an easy 553. I wanted also to tell everyone that I had a blast during camp week and it was so good to see everyone. What a great family we have. I love and miss you all. Dad was probably shaking his head a few times at our antics, but I know he was with us, as he always is.

He's a Winner!!

The Camp Okoboji Quilt Auction was held this past Saturday. Tony, Jennifer, Grandma and myself attended the event for the day. Just wanted you all to know that our little Weber brought in $210.00!!! You could have picked my chin up off the floor. While I was hoping that he would bring at least $100, I never imagined that it would bring that much. Grandma says we need to make Weber II for next year. Not a bad idea--at least we know how to do that one! If you don't remember what Weber looked like, just go to previous post titled "Cut, Stitch, Snip" and you will see him. Until next year. . . .

What a sight!

Last night (June 20) at 9:52 Mike and I had the chance to experience seeing the International Space Station float across the sky. Tagging along behind was the space shuttle. It wasn't anything showy, but still a sight to behold. The space station was brighter than the shuttle. Stands to reason, it is bigger! To imagine that there were people up there floating in space not to mention the size of the space station really makes you think. If any of you are reading this tonight, there is still a possibility of seeing the space station tonight. If you go to this website, http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/ you will be able to find when and where you should be able to see it. Just choose United States and then your state. Then you have to pick a city that is close to you to find out what time and approximately where in the sky you should be able to see it. Tonight it looks like we all should be able to see the space station and the shuttle again, but it will be low and the sky needs to be clear. Mike and has been keeping up with this and finally we were going to be able to see it at a decent time of night. It really was a cool thing to see!

Happy Father's Day

To all you fathers out there--whether you are a father in waiting, a father for the first or thirty-first time--have a wonderful day! I recall a Father's Day eight years ago, do you? Seeing Dad filling himself with shrimp and visiting with us all. I think there was even a visit from Mitsy. It was a wonderful day that God allowed us to have and a Father's Day I will always remember. Dad has the privilege of spending Father's Day with our Father, and I believe that both of them look down and smile when they see our children and what they have grown up to be and all they have accomplished. While we all miss dad, don't you think he has a great deal to do with what we all have become? You know he has been pushing and cheering us along the whole way. So, Happy Father's Day Dad!!

time on my hands

Well, now that my days at school are complete for awhile (yeah--well, I'll be going in once a week to do the mail), my brain has been busy thinking of all the things I can be doing. Major clean out of a few rooms would be Mike's choice. Mine too I guess. I really need to be in the mood to throw away, give away and organize. I may try my hand at Ebay--someone out there must want the stuff I thought I needed to have! I also need to find all my baby patterns of yesteryear. I realize that most of them are 30+ years old, but they are tried and true. And just in case I find more than infant sizes, what size are those little girls in these days, Emily and Lorena? I never know what I might come up with in my clean out mode.

Only a week until Camp Okoboji. How many will be there Sunday night? I believe we will be bringing 3 kayaks this year. We are hoping they see a lot of use. My van is getting outfitted with a trailer hitch so I can haul them with Mike's trailer. Am I to assume that we also need to bring the bean bag game? When Mike's family has their family campout, we have a tournament where we draw teams and play in brackets. We usually do this in one day, but we have 3 boards going at the same time. Is this of interest to any of you? If so, we may be able to bring an extra board. Been looking at other things to do while there--Gospel Concert at Treasure Village on Sunday night; Little Swan Lake Winery by Estherville; antique shops on main street in Spencer; a quaint little coffee shop in Milford called Huggabeans (I think); and the 4th of July Flea Market starts on the 30th. So much to do and I have two books I want to get through too. Becky, that book you brought last year, "A Good Yarn" by Debbie Macomber was the start of something for me. I really enjoy her books and have probably read 10 to 15 of them since last year. I had forgotten the joy of reading until then. Jennifer, I have also read all of Karen Kingsbury's Red Glove series books. Always a wonderful message!

Enough rambling Diane! You won't have anything to talk about in 8 days! See you all soon!!!!

This and That

i just wanted to tell you all that our quilt will be #146 at the auction. When I delivered it the gal in the office asked if I had the description filled out and who was donating and a told her it was from a group of us. She happened to look at the sheet and said "Oh, you are the 4 sisters and a mom!" She immediately had to open the quilt to take a peek and then told me that we inspire her--that she should keeps thinking she should get her daughters together and make a quilt. Just thought you would all like to know.

Mike and I took the camper for its first outing of the season this past weekend. We just went to Spencer, but kept busy as it was FlagFest weekend and nephew Blake was in a baseball tournament. Sat through 3 games and we were reminded of all the times we sat and watched Josh and his teammates. That wasn't that long ago, was it? There was a Car Cruise on Main Street in the evening and Mike and Bob really enjoyed that--Beth and I stayed at the campers. Stayed up too late both Friday and Saturday, but really had a great time. Looking forward to seeing eveyone at Camp Okoboji. Won't be long now!!