farmers' market

this is our new project this year -- farmers' market in pittsburg. we're doing this project together w/ summer and lucas and family. the little girls are great help w/ projects like this! sometimes that's true and sometimes that's not true, but they still believe it to be true. if you are ever in doubt, they will certainly give you instructions on what you should be doing or involve you in a dirt clod fight!

we've had a garden each year for the last 3 years, but this year we made our garden bigger with the intention of having some produce to sell at farmers' market. it seems like each year we have more than we can use of something, and sometimes we have more than we can find homes for use! by planning to do this, it insured that we had what we needed and hopefully some extra.

i can tomatoes, salsa, greenbeans, jalapenos, pickles, relish, and find uses for the other produce in cooking or meal prep. this year, i've put about 30 bags of zucchini in the freezer to make zucchini bread. it's already cooked and measured out in the needed amount. i've picked some blackberries and put in the freezer. i told a friend the other day that i'm in a "feeding the freezer" frenzy! if we don't start eating some of this stuff soon -- there won't be any room for the beef that we're wanting to butcher soon!

so this year we planted our garden of the things that we like to use, and we just planted extra. that way if that crop was just ok, we still had what we wanted to use. if the crop was bountiful -- we had enough to sell at farmers' market.

as you can see from the picture, the crop has been bountiful so far. we still have a ton of tomatoes that need to ripen, but they seem to be taking their own sweet time about getting there! we also have tons more gourds, a few more canteloupe, new zuchhini planted and growing, and turnips growing.

this picture is from farmers' market this morning. we had birdhouse gourds, green peppers, canteloupes, red tomatoes, husky gold tomatoes, sweet tangerine tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, cherry tomatoes (sugar snack, sun gold, and italian ice), zucchini, basil, and mint.

summer made a batch of fresh pesto (basil and olive oil) and served samples on some italian bread. lots of people tried samples and then bought basil to make their own. we sold out of basil very quickly, but we still handed out samples. we laughed and called it a "teaser" for next week so people would come back!

i think next week summer's going to make pesto again, and we're going to make and serve mint tea. we've been having mint-flavored tea a lot lately -- very refreshing!

so now you know that friday nights at our house are spent picking, carrying, washing, sorting, packing, and planning for what's going to farmers' market on saturday mornings. we have garden work time another couple nights a week, but friday night seems to be the most involved. we're planning to do this again next year, except we're planning it bigger and better!

come see us at farmers' market!

watermelon from our garden

so far, here is our prize winner (for us!) -- a 21 pound watermelon from our garden. we haven't grown very many watermelon and haven't grown them for farmers' market, but just for us.

jerry has been just dying to pick this one and checks it each time we're outside. i used to laugh at my grandpa burger for checking his watermelon patch several times a day, but now i know why! they really change from morning to evening.

we cut this watermelon for our dessert last night when summer, lucas, riahna, and rain were here. it was very good, but would've gone passed its prime if we had waited much longer. now we have about 30 or so more out there that we need to be getting picked!

anyone like watermelon? now you know what we'll be serving for the next week or so at our house!

it's always something

well, life goes on as usual -- but things are changing for some! ever notice how someone seems to make a major life change (like quitting a solid job in the chosen career field for returning to school to work on another degree in the same career field) and then brushes it off as if it was something he or she just wanted to do?

typically, that's a load of BS and usually that person made this decision with some help from someone else -- like the boss who didn't rehire the person, like the special someone who doesn't call back, or like the schoolboard that non-renews a contract. as a university instructor, i know this is a common storyline that people use to cover up some major life-altering screw-up that affected far more people than the idiot who made the original stupid decisions that resulted in the "life-style changes".

in today's economy, only a fool would give up a career to go back to school to try and get a higher degree to get a higher position in the same field at some later time. the bad thing is that with a non-renew on the record, the higher position is not likely to ever follow. after all, administrators talk and someone will eventually tell what it was that brought about the non-renewal. people don't forget it when their child has been put in danger by the careless and heartless actions of someone else.

if the person making the idiotic decisions was in a teaching position when the stupid decisions possibly harmed a child and/or family, no level of achievement or higher degree would make that ugly situation disappear when that person later is job-hunting. after all, who would that person use as job references? co-workers? parents? former students? or maybe administrators? what would they have to say of that person or about the scenario.

while some people might think these things are better left in the closet -- i think some things are much better left out of the courtroom! i know that if my children had even been in that position where they were put into danger by the thoughtless and careless acts of someoneone else -- there would be no need to file charges and no need to take up the valuable time of the court system. that lets you know my family's views on child abuse!!!

the BIG tomato

well, summer is almost over and we have spent much of our time gardening and preserving! we've had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, but here is the "monster tomato" from our garden so far -- 1 lb and 1 oz. i knew there would be some sceptics in the family, so i've taken a picture of the tomato on the kitchen scales as proof! we've had many tomatoes that weighed in at almost a pound, but just not quite.

so far, we've canned 70 qts of tomatoes & 24 pints of jalapenos, and we've frozen 15 qts of sweet corn and 56 qts of apple sauce. we still have more tomatoes and jalapenos coming on, cucumbers picked to make pickles, and more zucchini than we can keep up w/ giving away!

we have over 30 canteloupes coming on (and have already picked 3) and have about 20 watermelons on the vine. the way we have it figured -- the canteloupes and the watermelons will probably all be ready at the same time! if that happens, i'm not really sure what we'll do w/ all that produce!

we have had SO much fun watching our garden and watching the grandchildren "helping" in the garden. then grandpa started making all these rules like "no throwing dirt" and "no kicking dirt" and pretty soon it'll be "no having fun"!

i told jerry if he wasn't careful, no one would be going to the garden w/ him if he had all those rules! it's rather hard for me to enforce rules on the grandkids when i'm not willing to follow them myself! but, i guess i could just throw a rotten tomato instead??? i'm sure that would be just ducky -- don't you think?

evelyn's quilt for auction

the elliott reunion is coming up very soon, and evelyn has her quilt ready for the auction. the auction is the fundraiser to support the reunion expenses that may occur in preparing the reunion gathering. this year, evelyn has designed a family quilt (with jennifer and janie and joleen's help) that notes this reunion was held in missouri, has a block for the elliott parents, and a block for each of the children (evelyn and her siblings). this is also a memorable reunion because it's the first time the reunion has been anywhere except nebraska.

this is quite an amazing quilt and very meaningful to the family members. jerry and i have already decided what we are willing to bid for this treasure and we're hoping that we come away the proud winners. we understand that we might not be, but we're going to give it a run for the money!

bidders must be present to bid and/or win any auction items. be prepared and be forewarned!

midwest storms

many people have asked lately about the tornadoes near us and what was going on with that. this is a photo of the tornado from 5/10/08 that hit picher, OK, through seneca, MO (south edge of joplin, MO), and then on down through granby, MO.

this picture was taken from the parking lot of central school in baxter springs, KS -- about 10 minutes from picher, OK, area. i received this picture through email, so i'm not sure who should get the credit for the original photograph.

ireport has posted several pictures of this incident if you're interested in specific destruction of this area.

this particular tornado rated an EF 3-4 on the scale, which means it's pretty bad. i've not ever noticed a hyphenated number before, but i guess it could've changed levels of destruction as it traveled or something. if you're interested in tornado ratings, you can read the classifications.

what can i say? not a lot going on in tornado alley during tornado season -- other than watching the storms roll in and (hopefully) right on by. we had another tornado warning last night and could hear the pittsburg, KS, sirens going off. part of the my kids were already here and the other part arrived shortly before the sirens. i guess it was more fun to watch the storm from here!

last night to keep raven from being scared of tornadoes, i told her that's how a person gets to oz to see the wizard -- so she just went on about playing as if there was nothing wrong. no need having her crying as well as riahna, who was afraid of the thunder (and the cat and the dog and the train, etc!)

new baby is here!

well, she finally arrived on monday evening around 6 p.m. and of course, she's beautiful! here's our first glimpse of her when we first arrived. grandpa jerry was near bursting w/ pride as i stood back and watched b/c i have a cold. how unlucky is that???

jerry had to be out of town for 3 days for a work conference, and he was so worried that she would arrive while he was gone and he wouldn't get to see her until he returned -- so this was great luck for him! he had his bags all packed so we could race to the hospital as soon as we heard she was here.

all is well; everyone is doing great. summer and i are going to joplin tonight and hope to see her while we are there. i'm sure she won't be the least little bit spoiled (said with dripping sarcasm!), but there is nothing wrong with being spoiled w/ love.

vacation photo for jerry

well, we've just returned from a wonderful week in new orleans for spring break. after years of paying for mission trips for kids and other people, we went on a mission trip ourselves -- a first for both of us. our church went to new orleans to help rebuild homes after hurricane katrina. it was a great experience and we had lots of fun!

on our afternoon off, our group went to the french quarter. since jerry is still recovering from knee replacement surgery, he didn't want to just walk around and shop so we went to the aquarium. it was a fantastic time and we had this picture taken. i didn't really want to, but jerry talked me into it and it turned out great -- i'm so glad we did it.

we later "lost" the picture as we left it behind in the restaurant where we had dinner and didn't realize it until almost 2 hours later. that meant a walk back down to the other end of the french quarter to retrieve our prize and we were lucky that the waitress had found it and set it back for us. we were so excited to show it to our grandchildren, as they all love to watch shrek when they come to visit.

i was SO homesick for the little ones that i couldn't wait to see them when i got back. that is the longest that i have gone w/o seeing them and it really hurt. they were waiting here at the house when we got home that night and spent the next 2 hours climbing all over memaw and grandpa. thank God for cell phones and keeping in touch. i even got an "i love you" on voicemail from riahna that i'll be saving!

the biggest party yet

amazing as it may seem, we're planning the biggest party yet to happen at our house. it seems that so many parties end up here and we LOVE having people over and spending time w/ family and friends. we've had thanksgiving, christmas, superbowl, father's day, mother's day, and 4th of july plus just "come over and have some food and fun" get-togethers. but now, we're hosting the elliott family reunion for 2008.

that's right. the nebraska reunion is now going to be in missouri! we're probably going to have a hundred or more people here and we're so excited! we've got 3 days of fun and activities planned for all ages . . . including the elliott reunion auction. top secret word has it that evelyn is making one of her quilts for the auction. super-top-secret word is that the "missouri bunch" is pooling their money to make sure that no one from nebraska can take that quilt home w/ them!!! sounds like some excitement building there!

about 2 weeks ago, we sent out an invitation letter and a reminder of the reunion activities and dates. we're also collecting recipes for an elliott family cookbook to be distributed at the reunion, so everyone needs to get recipes collected and turned in to cindy to be included in the book. we've already heard from several people in the family and know that we're having family come from coast to coast -- even people we were so surprised to hear were making the trip.

we included this great group shot of the family, taken at the 2006 reunion when we went to nebraska and took evelyn w/ us. we had a great time on that trip, taking some time to do a couple tourist stops along the way, and i met many great people from jerry's family. after doing all the pictures from evelyn's 80th bday party, i knew these people from pictures and now i could meet them in real life. it was a great trip and provided the invitation to everyone there to visit us in missouri in 2008.

we are so excited for this event and the fun times, memories, and great pictures that we'll have. oh yeah, and hopefully and beautiful new quilt, too!!! it'll be a great june and a wonderful summer!

3 little gorillas

finally a picture that we can post of the 3 little grandsons, who are growing up SO fast. this was the christmas card that amanda had made, and she even sent one to melenda friel (who hasn't seen the grandchildren since 4/22/06).

because amanda sent her a picture, i am free to post this picture of them on my blog, as it is by jacob and amanda's request that i don't post pictures of the boys. that all goes back to the situation in kidnapped! a very stressful day!!

anyway, at our new year's eve party, i asked amanda why she sent a picture and if she was thinking to reconcile. she explained her intentions and we had a good laugh over the situation. isn't family just great?!?

here are the 3 little boys that we are so proud of and enjoy spending time w/ doing special activities and having them out to the house. they are so much fun that we can't wait to see them again the next time! as soon as the weather gets nicer, we'll have even more fun things to do w/ them when we can be outside.