For a limited time you can pre-purchase our Halloween Soundtrack just in time for the spooky holiday at just $4.73. Below is just a preview of what’s in store.
Ok, I’m just kidding, there is no soundtrack for sale. However, I do think we have enough material around our home to make a c.d. full of scary sounds. The coyotes serenade us each evening with their howls. Sometimes they seem to be only a few yards away from the house, and they get so rowdy. That’s not all though. The wonderful carpenters who installed our bedroom/bathroom doors managed to improperly fit most of them into the doorways. When the door is about 6 inches from closing they make this sticky, creaking sound that can really spook someone in the middle of the night when the windows are opened and it’s breezy outside. The back of our house can also summon up quite a high-pitched whistle on windy days. Of course, we’ve got plenty of murderous screaming going on around here daily, too.
Before I leave you, did anyone notice Annie’s little comment at the end of the video? Something about spiders. Typical girl, huh?
As you can see we were up to elbows in apples again. This time the task at hand was to make [crab]applesauce. We ventured to Williams-Sonoma to purchase a contraption to make this mission a bit easier, and we finally settled on a tomato press. I was a little skeptical that the process result in an edible product, but, to my surprise again, we got ourselves 10 quart-size jars of a crab-applesauce. At first I noticed a bitter aftertaste, but after consulting our applesauce expert, Kathy Olsen, she recommended adding a dash of vanilla. And, whattayaknow, it actually worked. The sauce is a little more tart than traditional applesauce, but everyone in the Hawley home enjoys and devours it (one jar is almost empty so far).
Here’s Annie working her muscles to crank out some mushy crabapples. Notice the blue bowl on the left–that’s where the undesirables get spit out. We didn’t realize this would happen until it was too late, and apple vomit ended up all over the counter and floor.
Mimi was pretty good at working the machine, too. Honestly, I can’t remember why she is just in her skivvies.
Last week we had the opportunity to finally get a chance to venture down to Chicago. My dad was in town for the night to deliver Josh’s, my brother, furniture which was in storage in Florida for a long time. The girls’ got their first ride in a taxi cab. I feel so bad because I totally spaced getting pictures of my dad, Josh, and his new wife, Erin. We did have a nice time though.
We interrupt this post for a brief bit of news. The dog has decided that the chair/couch in our den is her bed. I was noticing it getting dirty and hairy from her dogness, so we put some blankets on the piece of furniture to shield it. However, that pesky dog managed to wriggle her way under the blankets which completely defeats the purpose of the blankets in the first place. Tell me again how I ended up with this dog?!?
Now back to talking about projects. When we moved into this lovely home we were disturbed by the lack of any deck or patio and wondered how a family could live in this house for 14 years without ever being able to grill or eat outside. Maybe they did, but it would be a little inconvenient. So Mike and I decided we would do something to remedy this problem by adding on a patio to the back of the house. Of course, this project has taken on a life of its own and is not nearly as simple (or inexpensive) as we planned it to be. In spite of that, we are making progress.
Step 1: We had to dig out the area where the patio would be and to dig down about 7 or so inches. Fortunately, Mike had some men from church come over for a whole Saturday to help with this daunting task. Thankfully, I didn’t have to shovel one fleck of dirt from the ground:)
Step 2: Once the ground was completely dry (we had almost a full week of rain), we covered the ground with 3 mil plastic sheeting.
Step 3: This was the worst step ever; we covered the entire area with gravel. It took Mike and me all of Saturday and some of Monday to complete this step. Let me tell you, shoveling gravel is a very intense workout which causes much soreness the next day.
Step 4: The gravel needed to be compacted, and we rented this wonderful machine to do that job. I loved this part because the machine does most of the work, and the operator just needs to guide it. Mike and I took turns.
Step 5: We put about 1 inch of sand and had to level it with a 2×4x10 and level on top. Notice how much sand is in the truck bed? Picture gravel instead and multiply it by 7 loads = sore arms, back, butt, and even obliques.
Step 6: Hooray, the actual laying of stone has begun. And what better way to start than with our circle of life (that’s what I’m calling it anyway since I feel like I’ve practically sacrificed my own life in order to get to this point).
Step 7: We almost completed the floor of the patio, but a few delays kept us from completing finishing. The stone cutter cutting only an hour into its cutting, so Mike wasn’t able to finish cutting the pieces to fill in around the circle. The place where we purchased all this stuff also wasn’t able to deliver the wall of our patio because their forklift broke. So we are at a standstill until a week and a half from now. Why a week and a half, you say? Well, I’ll get to that in a moment.
Lucy was taunting us all day by running over the sand and even lying in it. She is just so naughty!
The reason we won’t be able to pick up where we left off with the patio for a few days is because Mike is leaving us to go hunting in SD with some buddies. He’s been working hard for us around here lately, so I think he deserves this trip. Plus, he hasn’t gotten this opportunity since before starting endo school. The girls and I will survive, I suppose. We’ll actually stay pretty busy with our usual daily routines.
As most of you know Mike isn’t capable of sitting still and keeping from getting himself into new “schemes”. The latest of which is canning. He made a statement the other day where he basically said that he’ll be canning a lot of things this winter. I never know whether to just shrug my shoulders and not worry because it’ll never happen or to panic because this latest plot will involve lots of machinery which will take up half my kitchen/yard/garage/basement/living room (click here for example) . In this case panic should have overtook me because my kitchen has been in a state of turmoil the last couple of nights. However, I can’t complain [too much] because the results are truly delicious. We now have in our possession 6 jars full of crabapple jelly with several more on the way. Apparently, there is a grove of crabapple trees on base that have ample supplies of large crabapples. I would never have thought that crabapples were edible or even could be made into something so tasty. Mike is also going to make a small jug of apple cider for us. YUM!
This is what Mike came home with the other night. The laundry basket was nearly full.
The products.
In other news, Annie is now a 2-wheeled rider. She begged and begged us to remove her training wheels from her a bike a few weeks ago but then chickened out from attempting to ride it even with Daddy’s constant assistance. Each day we would try to coax her to at least make an effort. Eventually, she conquered her fear and rode around with Daddy always holding on. They practiced each day, and she finally attempted it without Daddy. It only took a few tries until she was really riding by herself. Annie is now pretty comfortable riding on her own. While I was a church event last night Daddy and the girls rode their bikes around the neighborhood.
Look at her go!
Mimi has gotten really good on her Dora bike, too.
Mimi: “I have to go potty!!”
Mom: “Ok, go right ahead. You know what to do.”
Mimi: “I need hellllpppp!”
Mom: “All right, I’ll be there in a second.”
Mimi: (Upon Mom entering bathroom) “I don’t need any help!”
Mom: “Argh! You just said you needed help!”
Mimi: “I don’t need hellllpppp! Go away!”
Mom: (Usually scolding Mimi for that last statement.)
Mimi: (Coming out of the bathroom with her pants halfway up and rolled at the waist.) “I need helllpppp!”
Mom: “Argh!”
The week before the holiday I took the girls school clothes shopping. Upon exploring the mall to find the stores on our list we spied a merry-go-round. Of course, Annie and Mimi immediately started to beg me to ride it. I made them promise me that they would behave in every store we were planning to enter and that they had to eat their lunch in its entirety, and in return I would let them ride the carousel. With Mimi in tow, I knew that this would be a daunting task for them, but they “mostly” did well. So they got their ride.
Can you tell they were quite pleased?
And now for the new toy I’ve been mentioning over and over and not following through with pictures. People have been on me via comments here, voicemails for Mike, nasty emails to me about my delay in revealing what this toy is. {Okay, they weren’t “nasty” per se, but I did sense an urgency from a couple of people.}
Any guesses what it might could be?
Well, here it is in all its glory, a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 Mega-Cab Turbo-Diesel. Sorry it’s not as sparkly and clean as the day we got it.
Look at the room in the back seat. There is more leg room than our mini-van by a long shot. And the girls get their own cup holders that they can actually reach.
We wouldn’t want the front seat to get jealous, so here’s a picture of it, too. That middle thingy can pop up to allow a 3 passengers in the front allowing for a total of 6. It also has several compartments for storage. I noticed that Mike already has all his essentials stocked in there such as glow sticks, lighters, and some other strange things.
The 1997 GMC Sonoma Mike has been driving since 2003 was on its last legs, and he has had his eye on huge, ginormous, diesel trucks for ages. We figured it was time for Mike to finally have his wish come true. I was actually the one who made him go for the newer model because I figured he would have this thing for a long time and would put it to good use. Mike’s plan is to convert fry grease from participating restaurants into bio-diesel instead of using diesel from the stations. I’m a little nervous about this undertaking, but we did meet a guy who actually does with success. He was the person who bought our orphan basketball hoop left by the previous owners. Wish Mike luck!
