A Little Photographer

It looks like we have a little photographer in our midst. Every time I turn around Elyssa is wanting me to take a peek at her latest shot. Here are a few that I really like. She even has a few posers... Check out this green leaf bug she caughtI call this one "I am not amused" This one really makes our aging dog look like a grannyPumpkins in the garden, I just love the contrast of colors here.I now know why they call them eggplants.....She got a photo of our first bell pepper, before we ate it for dinner. This is our short fat cucumber. The top of the corn stalk. She has never really played with her tea set but today she decided to have a tea party photo shoot. Just hangin' out.I'm sure this was a terrifying moment in the life of the this chicken but no animals were harmed during this photo shoot.
marraca monkeyPoker party!!!!This totally cracked me up....

sirens????

Today shortly after Justin left for work, I woke up to the sound of sirens. I always listen to see how far away they are going. Today they were one right after another. But they would start and then they would abruptly end and they were surprisingly loud. About the time I thought I should get up and take a looksee, I heard the sound of a very heavy truck on my street, you know the kind that are louder than the garbage truck. Well I looked out the bedroom window and saw the firetrucks and lights right in front of the neighbors house. I thought that the older lady across the street and down a few houses was dieing. She is a friend of the family so I was hurriedly throwing on clothes. I checked out the backdoor and let the dog out and that is when I noticed fire shooting out of the back of the house 2 doors down. And smoke billowing from the roof. When I stepped outside this is the scene that I was greeted with. Along with lots of ash falling around me.


I did not have my camera on me at first and I was too dumbstruck to go right in and get it. They(firemen) were quite good at what they did and they got it under control rather quickly and they really move fast. At this point they were using a chainsaw to cut into the attic. They sprayed in some water. This is what it looked like after they cut it up a bit. They were still mostly focused on the back of the house where the flames were originally shooting out of they kitchen area, my neighbor said from his kitchen window you can see the whole back of the house looks melted.

Just as we thought everything was under control we noticed that the smoke started building again in the attic area.

And within seconds we could hear the crackling and poping of the fire. And then the flames were coming out of the attic.

Seeing that there was more fire, the firemen scrambled to the garage roof again and started hosing it down.

Before long they had it under control again and I was told that the reason they were having such a hard time fighting this fire was that there was a double roof on the house. It was originally a flat roof house and someone had built a pitched roof on top of that. So there were hot spots that they could not see or get to.

They took up saws and started cutting up the roof top. now you can see the holes from the opening in the attic.I was very concerned for the family(s) living there. There are alot of children that live in that house, so as soon as I saw that the battalion chief was available (very early on) I wanted him to know that the family had alot of kids. He said that they were going in shortly to check and that they would clear the house. I was worried because for 15 minutes after the fire started there were no people coming out of the house and also there were no firemen going in. Which I completely understand, it has to be safe for them to go inside. I felt it was important that they know alot of small children live there. After they cleared the house he came to me and told me that there was no one inside. As far as I know, the people from the house don't even know it burned down no one has come home in terror or shock. I am feeling really bad about the fact that they will have no warning this evening when they come home to nothing.

Summer Goodness

It is July 8th! I can't even believe it. It seems that Summer will be over before it even gets started... Here are a few pics of some great summer goodness. Garden goodies, freezer jam, butterflies, and birds.

Ashton took some great pics of the birds in the backyard.....

Elyssa loves to catch the butterflies and moths that hang out around our backyard. This one was a really big one with a wing span of 5-6 inches.Elyssa's first strawberry....Our first zucchiniMe preparing the zucchini,Elyssa helping make chinese ham fried rice with the first zucchini4th of July, got my mom to try my margarita.... mmmmmm.... she hated it! And it had very little "tekillya" in it. (Hi, JJ)Elyssa caught this little thing yesterday not sure if it was a butterfly or a moth but it had blue in it. Elyssa making her very first batch of "ApricotFreezer Jam" It was so good we had some on england mushins (english muffins) for a snack, it was very tasty!Tonight I had justin pick the zucchini that were very small 2 days ago but are almost too big today. I am so glad I did not forget to have him check them. The Yellow Crook neck was picked yesterday. Tomorrow I will have to pick more zucchini. These zucchini come from a plant we did not have roo for in the garden so we planted it on the edge of the garden near a patch of weeds. This is our biggest plant by far and the best producer. It baffles me that the plant in the worst location with the least care does the best! And the plant in the garden with the best care has yet to produce anything.

my fantastic produce pile

Today I went to the mexican markets to get my produce. Usually I go to the local farmers market to get my produce but this week I decided to go and get some items that are not yet available at the farmers market. Or things I can not get at the market because they are not grown in utah. My favorite mexican market is Rancho Markets, the people are very friendly and they have the very best weekly deals on produce. My least favorite is Tenochtitlan the people are rude and they act like white people have no business being in there, but they had great deals today.

So I spent a total of ........$22.66 (including tax)

Here is what I came home with:

Sugar 5 lbs $2.99

Mexican crema 1 lb $2.34

Bananas 3.6 lbs $1.00

Green onions 5 bunches $1.00

Tomatoes 6.8 lbs $2.24

Cucumbers 8 $1.00

Avocados 9 $2.97

Tomatillos 1.7lbs $1.68

Green chilies Anaheim 7.5 lbs $1.48

Red potatoes 3.9 lbs $1.00

Limes 2.4 lbs $0.80

Cherries 2.3 lbs $2.34

Approximate weight 28lbs. fruit and veggies

plus 5 lbs sugar and 1 lb mexican crema

Well I am off to make salsa and roast some green chilies. I am so glad it is raining outside and it has cooled off alot. It is very miserable to be outside standing over the bbq roasting peppers in the middle of July or August. Also nothing inspires me to cook more than having tons of fresh produce around.

Adventures in Icecream

Justin has beeen working nights for the last couple of weeks, so he comes home and sleeps from 6 am till about 3 pm. It has been weird to have this kind of schedule it kind of throws us all off kilter. He sleeps during the day so I head over to my mom's, we have been working on a ton of our own projects but with each other's company. It has been really nice!

When Justin woke up yesterday, and checked his messages for the day he found that his work for the night had been cancelled. He was not very happy at the prospect of having to stay up half the night in order to go back to bed to wake up early enough in the day to get a chance to go back to bed to rest before doing his next night shift. (got that?) Justin also had worship team practice last night. Which he always enjoys.

I on the other hand got to stay home and have my best friend over for dinner. We had grilled teriyaki chicken and homemade ham fried rice, she brought over the best spinach salad ever and some light ice cream and brownie bites. We had some catching up to do. She had been at the national square dance convention in Long Beach, California over the last week, doing a trade show for Princess Charming. After dinner and talking we decided we were going to wait on the icecream and brownies, but then she had to get home. And she refused to take her brownies and icecream, to the delight of my children.

Well Justin got home around 9:30 pm and I had an idea brewing. What if we went on a spontaneous adventure? Sure it was nighttime and we were supposed to be getting ready for bed. But it is summer right? And so what if it was tuesday night and not friday! Soooo, I pulled justin aside and told him of my plan and he was game.

I then told the kids they needed to go get on a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt and to grab a hoodie then they needed to sit outside on the front step and wait for further instructions. While they were changing I was grabbing my jeans and hoodie as well. Then I secretly stuffed the icecream, brownie bites, 4 bowls, 4 spoons, icecream scoop, roll of paper towels, and a table cloth into a cooler. At this point the kids were totally clueless and completely out of their minds with curiosity. But I was not letting on to anything.

We jumped in the truck and away we went to Park City. It was a nice drive, and we got in some quality time together. When we got to Park City we drove around on main street looking for the perfect place for our late night dessert picnic. The kids still did not know what was in the cooler. We found this perfect place in the newer side of town I had never been there before. It was a commons area near a ton of shops and restaraunts, all closed up for the night. But it had a gas fire pit with a lot of park benches around it. and the edge of the fire pit was very wide and made of concrete for sitting. The fire was off but it was still warm and it was quite cozy. I unpacked our tablecloth and spread it out on the wide concrete rim of the fire pit. Then I pulled out the bowls and spoons. the kids knew what was up then. We enjoyed our Icecream and brownies, and sat talking and taking pictures for a while. It was a ton of fun and what we are now

calling an icecream adventure. Sometimes the best things in life happen spontaneously.

We got home about midnight and I was beat, time to hit the sack meanwhile justin went out and worked on repairing the vents in the roof of our travel trailer. He finally came in about 3 am.

Here are the 2 pics that actually capture the essence of our adventure.