Apples in the Fall

It is such a delight to spend time in the kitchen. My friend Hua came over early this week to make Apple Butter and Apple Pie. I enjoyed cooking, canning, and singing. But most of all, I enjoyed visiting together. I felt kind of like a sponge soaking up water.


Her son Kapailani, helped with labeling the Apple Butter.
Please note the "ER" are up by the Kerr label.






Her son Nainoa sat on a plum outside while cleaning a paint brush. How is that not hilarious?! I tried so hard not to laugh, but then exploded in laugher behind my uno cards. I reasoned this was okay because I had laughed at myself when I spilled Apple Butter all over my own pants. He is the best of sports because he thought it was funny too. Thankfully he's tall, because he fit nicely into Uriah's shorts while his got stain treated (and I got up from my uno game to do the stain treatment. So don't think me too cruel!) Children are great sources of jokes and laughs!

Getting Calls

I am not much of a phone person. Don't get me wrong, I love to stay connected, I just like to do it in person.
When my sister moved far away last year, taking my 3 year old niece, I knew I'd be on the phone a bit more often. I didn't know that it would make me scramble away from whatever I was doing begging for a turn to talk.
This morning I got a turn and during the conversation Providence (after whispering to her mother, which I could hear the whole time) told me that she wanted to name her baby brother (who is not on the way) "Tom Dooley" What?! I guess we sing to her...

Family

My "cousin" is in town. I write "cousin" because he is my sisters-husbands-cousin. A bit distant right? Anyway, our families have always been close, and he married one of my dearest friends.
My cousins moved away to Texas before Nick was deployed. He's been gone for 9 months and is only home for 2 weeks before leaving again for 5 more months. They decided to spend a week here in California so all the family could catch up too! I've enjoyed a few visits with him, but even more with my Cousin Rose and their two daughters.
I love having a tired little child come up to me and ask me to hold her. Or a packing a bag full of treats for church so the youngsters will be excited. And getting excited about bugs and baby chicks and walks all over again because life is just exciting when you're with children! Pretty much I love everything about being Auntie Osanna.

Because We Can!

Ivanna and I worked on getting things cleaned up in our bedroom. Our new set up has proven to be awesome! But we STILL aren't completely unpacked. We are getting way closer - but days like today keep us from saying "We're done!"
The Trouble:
Our dear friends and renters have bought a house and are moving away soon. The last two renters we've had have been amazing (my sister, and the Johnson's) and they will be hard to replace. There is one excellent family I am praying will be able to move in, but there we don't know for sure if it will work.
Anyway! As a result papa has been talking about possibly having strangers move in. This wouldn't be much of a problem, except the house is 5 short steps from ours. And my bedroom faces that house. I've been thinking... what if they are young people who stay up late? What if they keep me awake at night?!
The Solution:
Thursday night I came up with a pretty noise barrier idea. A tall fence (but lattice rather then fencing as we had two extra pieces on hand.) And pink jasmine growing through it. Everyone liked the idea and I felt like it couldn't wait. So I asked Ivanna and Uriah to help today, and we finished this project. Another project completed!

Games

Seriously, how can you not be thrilled when there is a come from behind victory? And your team is the come-from-behind of course!
Our friends and neighbors invited my family to watch the Olympic Games at their house, as we don't have cable at ours.
We saw a great race 4 men, lots of swimming, (not sure what it was called...) Anyway, USA won by a few 100th of a second. It was intense!

Projects!

I have always enjoyed projects. It's just one of those things about me. And living here at 313... I have a lot of room to do projects, and my parents allow a lot of freedom. I have always wanted to re-upholster some chairs. We were given some chairs a bit ago, but lent them to friends. Yesterday we were given them back, and fell to work.













Here you can see all three of them. A project finished. One thing I don't always tell people is that I don't always finish projects...
















Oh yes, and the chairs are folding chairs. They are super cool because they also stand up on their own after being folded!