High School Reunion

This weekend was my 20 year high school reunion. Twenty years!! That can't possibly be right. I'm not that old am I?

Knowing my reunion was coming up Chris, the social one, had said that he would really like to go. I, on the other hand, would be okay if we skipped it. It's not like I was in the "in" crowd in high school or anything (I was a band geek) and based on the 10 year reunion the people I hung out with didn't come so I couldn't see the point in going. Chris changed his mind after we got the information and saw the price of $91/person. All of a sudden it didn't seem so important anymore.

Anyway, the reunion commitee decided to hold a picnic the afternoon of the renuion so Chris and I decided that we would go to that. I wasn't totally convinced that I wanted to go but I knew that Chris and the kids would have a good time so off we went. We got to Red Mountain Park a little after 12:00 and I wasn't really seeing anyone I knew. As I stood there thinking about how fun it was going to be standing out in the hot sun watching my kids on the playground while Chris socialized with people I didn't know Donnell Cartwright showed up. We had several classes together throughtout high shcool and since we share the same last name we always sat next to each other. We talked for quite a while before finding a couple of other people we knew. As the event progressed I found that I wasn't having as bad a time as I thought, not fun mind you, but not bad either. Right before we left I saw my friend Amber Strandling and we talked for a while. We have a lot in common and thought it would be fun to get together sometime. We each have three boys about the same ages so we might meet up sometime.

All in all I guess I'm glad I went to the picnic because it made me realize how glad I was to not be going to the dinner. The $182 wouldn't have been worth it. Maybe in 10 years the reunion committee will figure out how to put on a great reunion for a fraction of the cost. Next year is Chris's turn. Hopefully his class is a little more resourceful and you won't have to take out a loan to catch up with a few friends.

Nightmare on Main Street

Friday night Chris and I took the boys plus Ryan, Joseph and Shelby to a Halloween event in downtown Mesa. The kids got to go trick-or-treating at some of the merchants and then one of the art galleries had a costume contest. The kids had a great dressing up and getting a jump start on Halloween while Chris and I got see some of the new shops and restaurants downtown. What a great way to spend a Friday night!

After we got downtown Seth discovered
he had on mismatched shoes!

Caleb got these glasses from the
costume contest

Ryan, Kyle and Caleb

Canning Peaches

I have wanted to try my hand at canning for quite some time now but never got around to it. A couple of weeks ago I had the perfect opportunity to go ahead with this new adventure. I belong to a fruit & veggie co-op and they were offering a 28 pound box of Utah peaches cheaper than I had seen them anywhere else. Great peaches, great prices and the fact I couldn't wait to learn to can. I just couldn't pass up a golden opportunity like this.

Saturday morning, bright & early, I headed up to the park to get my peaches. This was so exciting! I was actually feeling a little bit Amish as I brought my peaches home and set them out on the counter along with my Ball Blue Book of Canning.


Now usually I am pretty laid back when it comes to cooking. I don't always follow the recipe exactly as it's written or I'm not always real accurate when I measure but this time I couldn't take any chances so I started reading everything the Ball book had on peaches. I also printed some stuff off a couple of websites just to make sure I had enough information. At this point I was still pretty excited and feeling pretty sure of myself. Then I started laying out everything I needed. I quickly realized that I didn't have all we would need so I headed next door to Marie's house. Since she had done this before I figured she'd have what I need, which she did. Now we were all set.

Vanessa wanted some of the peaches so she had come over to help. I'm sure this was a decision she was regretting because from the start we ran into problems. According to the book the quickest way to peel the peaches was to put them in boiling water for 30 seconds or so and then put them directly into a bowl of ice water at which point the skins should just fall off. Yeah right!!! It was obvious we didn't leave them in the boiling water long enough because the skins were not coming off so as we went to all the work of putting 14 lbs of peaches in boiling water then transferring them to ice water only to have to peel them by hand anyway. Oh well, live and learn, right?!? After they were all peeled we divided them into two batches so that we could have pie filling as well as the canned peaches.

The plan was to start processing the peaches and while we were waiting on them we would get the pie filling ready. Seemed like a good plan at time. Unfortunately it didn't work out so nicely. The book said the best way to clean the jars and keep them hot was to run them through the dishwasher and use the heat cycle to dry them. Well....the jars were clean at least. Hot, they weren't, so I quickly got a pan of water and put a couple of jars in to start boiling. Finally we got the jars filled and in the water to process. Now to start on the pie filling. We started heating more jars while the pie filling was cooking and after filling the first jar I realized that this recipe was made to freeze. I had to quickly dig out some freezer bags so we could start filling them. We got those done just in time because the timer was going off and it was time to take the jars out of the water bath. Now we were scrambling to find room to set the hot jars. Finally they were out and the pie filling was done. We could relax. It had only taken us five hours to can 6 pints of peaches and 7 pints of peach pie filling. The way I figure it if our time is worth, lets say $10 an hour x two people and we spent 5 hours canning plus the cost of the peaches each pint cost me about $5.60. Wow! Not exactly cost effective but on the positive side we learned what not to do the next time. Oh yeah, did I mention, we only did half the peaches. We still had Vanessa's to do.



Throughout all this the boys kept coming in wanting stuff and Eryn was running around. At one point the boys were hungry so I gave them some chocolate pie I had made that morning. We got so involved in our canning project that we didn't know that they had left the pie plate, with pie still in it, on the table. Eryn had discovered this though and was having a great time eating chocolate pie. Oh well, what could be do but laugh and take a picture.



I wonder how long it takes to can spaghetti sauce?

Powered by Nesquik

Saturday morning Chris had a race in Moon Valley. This in itself isn't unusual. It was how he was going to run it that made this story so unique.

It all started a few weeks ago with an email asking for people to apply to run as the Nesquik Bunny at a race in Phoenix. Yes, you read that right, the Nesquik Bunny. There was an incentive to run as a rabbit though.....money. The person chosen would get compensated for their time and if they placed in their age group they would get a bonus. This seemed right up Chris's alley since he was the MCC mascot in college, he likes to run and he's pretty fast. Well low and behold he was selected.

The week of the race Nestle sent him his bunny suit and what a suit it was!! He put this gigantic rabbit head on and came in the house looking a lot like a Nesquik Bunny bobble head. I couldn't even imagine him running in that thing. Too bad I couldn't go to the race. It would have been great to see this in person.

The day of the race dawned sunny and hot. Unfortunately even at 7:00am it is really hot when you are wearing a costume made of felt! It probably wouldn't have been so bad if he just had to wear it but he had to still run the race in it. Things started out okay but by the first mile Chris was so hot he wanted to quit right there. The associate runner, Julio, kept his spirits up making it possible to continue. However miserable he was feeling that big silly smile never left his face. Thanks to the bunny suit people never had a clue how hot and uncomfortable he really was. Actually, I've never seen Chris look better at race if I do say so!!

There was no post-race cool down for the poor Nesquik Bunny. Instead there was pictures to be taken and children to scare. You never know how kids are going to react to someone in a costume but all-in-all it wasn't too bad since only 4 kids cried. The teenage girls that were there volunteering all wanted their picture with the bunny but hands off girls, that bunny belongs to me!

Mingling and pictures after the race made the race itself worth while. Chris said it was a great experiecne and would definately do it again. Maybe he could get some part-time work at Disneyland next summer!!!

It's a Hummer Limo

Seth got the surprise of his life on Saturday afternoon when a stretch Hummer limo pulled up in front of our house. Grandpa, knowing how much Seth loves limos and Hummers, gave Seth the ultimate gift of 4 hours in a stretch Hummer. When it pulled up and we got Seth outside he was truly speechless!!! He could hardly believe that he would actually get to ride in it. I had arranged for three of his friends to go with us and Isaiah was actually here when it arrived. The boys were so excited and kept talking about how much fun it would be if their friend Jake could join them. Not knowing that I had called and set that up I told Seth that we could go pick him up after stopping by Aunties and getting Ryan. He didn't think it could get any better until we got to Vanessa's house and saw his other friend Jake waiting there with Ryan. Lynette, Cass, Alicia and Jillian were also waiting to go with us. In all we had 16 people (seems to be the magic number for party guests this year) riding with us.

Our first stop was Vanessa's followed by Jake Reeb's house. After that we went to the Sugar Bowl in downtown Scottsdale. I had never been there before but it turned out to be the perfect place to go. Not only is it a good old fashioned ice cream parlor but they had a few games to keep the kids occupied while they waited for their food. After eating we piled back into the limo and headed for The Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak where we would be dropping Seth, Chris, Matt and Ryan off. Vanessa and I would return later to spend the night but first we had to get the rest of the kids back and pick up our cars.

The kids all had so much fun!!! They thought it was cool to watch the people passing watch us. We are always wondering who's inside a limo when we pass so it was fun to be on the other end, or should I say on the inside looking out. The driver had decorated the inside with a birthday banner and balloons, which the kids liked batting back and forth between them. It was something they won't soon forget! I've never seen Seth so excited about something. Lynette noticed it too and commented on it. The next morning Seth said that Saturday had been the best day of his life.

Thank you Grandpa for making a 10 year old's dream come true!!!!!