Colorful Corn

This is some of the most fun corn to grow. It is called Painted Mountain and is a colorful dry corn. We have been harvesting and husking it. We will hang it to dry around the house and it makes a beautiful fall decoration. Later we will take the kernels off the cob then grind it into corn flour. It makes pretty and delicious cornbread.

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For Today... August 18, 2008

Outside my Window... the sunlight is beginning to get that golden evening glow. A breeze is gently blowing the trees.

I am thinking... about how amazing and exciting this time in my life is.

I am thankful for...the garden growing well, the good day I had working, my family, and Andrew.

From the kitchen... fresh corn on the cob!

I am wearing... my three tiered denim skirt and a flowered shirt, bare feet and hair in a ponytail.

I am reading... nothing much, there's no time.

I am hoping... that the next six weeks go by fast but also that I have enough time to finish all my projects before the wedding.

I am hearing... a breeze outside. In the garden the rainbird sprinklers are going.

I am creating... a pile of boxes in my room as I begin packing everything up.

Around the house... it is almost dinner time. Everything is pretty neat compared to how it has been recently.

One of my favorite things... is bringing my basket down to the garden and gathering the fresh produce.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week... working tomorrow as a mother's helper, finishing the hem on my dress, sending the last of the invitations, packing and organizing.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...
Heirloom tomatoes... some from our garden, some from a friend's garden.

Another Shower

After I got home from Washington there was a bridal shower down here, too. Mrs Auringer put it on and it was lovely. The shower had a garden theme. Everyone brought food from their garden.

The ladies sitting around the room. Frances played piano music from Pride and Prejudice.


We played pin the bow tie on Andrew. Here is my attempt.

Another game we played was creating toilet paper wedding gowns.

There were five teams. Here are the lovely results. Some of the dresses started falling apart.

The cake was "dirt" cake in flower pots, they looked so cute. Here I am with my two mothers.


Opening gifts was so fun. The little girls were so excited and crowded around to help me. It was very cute.

Sunny Sunflowers

We have an abundance of sunflowers this summer. Last year bugs ate many of them as they came up. So we planted extra this year. They must have all survived this year! They are so thick and tall that they are crowding out some of the corn. They look so pretty out in the garden or a bunch inside in a jar.

Yardsale Finds

Another fun activity Andrew and I did was look for furniture for our place. We went to all the second hand shops. They have amazing ones up there! We also spent two days yard saling. On Friday we took Adam and Aleah and stayed in the local area. It was quite fun and very cute how much they like yard sales. On Saturday we took a trip to Spokane and went to yard sales, thrift stores, the mall, Costco and out to eat at a Mongolian grill. Spokane is a bigger city than I am used to so I am glad I wasn't driving. It is nice though that it has everything we would ever need to shop for. We had a great time and one of the best parts was finding a good deal on a table and chair set.

New Paint

Andrew and I really enjoyed picking out paint and painting some of the rooms in the mobile home on his place. It was fun to decide the color schemes for each room. We spent quite a bit of time over there working.


View of the house


Painting the kitchen. We chose a very dark purple, but then decided it was too dark.


I love the colors in both bathrooms. Dark red and sage in the master bath....


... and blue and yellow in the other. It was so fun to take some of the gifts over after the shower to see how they looked.


We finally decided to add some white to the kitchen paint and give it another coat. I like it much better.


The finished kitchen. The kitchen colors are purple, sage, and blue.

A Bridal Shower

While up at the Engell's Mrs. Engell put on a lovely shower for me. It was great time to meet many people from the area. Everyone was so friendly and pleasant. The shower was a dress up tea party and evryone looked beautiful.

Aleah with rag curlers

All the pretty teacups


Some of the ladies playing the game

Gift time

Some of the lovely ladies

Afterwards we did a little dancing!

At The Engells

In between all the busyness and activities it was fun to get to know my new family the Engells better. We had nice dinners together, did cherries together, did dishes, I helped Aleah make a dress, helped Adam get spots out of his white shirt, and shared a room with Aleah. Here are some pictures from at the Engells house.


Tickling

Juicing

Dinner Time!




Washing garden produce

Getting ready to ride

Setting up the volleyball net

Cherry Picking

One day while I was up in Washington we went cherry picking with the Pittelkow family. It was a lot of fun. The trees were loaded with cherries, it was easy to pick them. We picked bucketfuls of them.













The next few days we spent pitting, then freezing, drying and canning cherries.



Some of the younger kids got bored with cherries, so they began to sword fight. It was so hilarious, especially if you notice what the red apron says.

Dreaming

The first thing Andrew and I did the next day was go over to see his property. I was so excited to see it. Andrew was a little nervous that I wouldn't like it but of course I did. It is so beautiful and so amazing that it is actually going to be my new home. We had a wonderful time walking around, planning and dreaming. We thought about paint colors, planned where to put the garden, and dreamed about where we will build a house someday. It was so fun, we spent quite awhile over there.

Looking up toward the trees where we hope to build a house someday.




Self-portrait


We also drove around the area a little and over to Lake Roosevelt. It is not very far away and looks like a beautiful place to go to cool off in the summertime.

The Trip North

Well I am back! And ready to share lots of pictures from my trip. I had a wonderful time. We just got back late last night. I haven't don too much today, just a little unpacking, a visit to the garden, uploading and looking at pictures.
It will probably take a few days to get the whole trip blogged. Now I will just start with the trip up there. Andrew, Jonathan and I left early on Saturday morning, July 12th. We had a good drive up. Andrew did most of the driving except after a bug flew in his eye. It kept bothering him for quite awhile, so I did some driving. That was interesting because I don't know how to drive a stick shift. I managed to kill it every time I stopped :) That night we stayed at Gabe and Mandy's. They are very hospitable and it was fun to see them.


Mandy's sister Annie, Gabe and Mandy


The next morning we got a fairly early start for the last day of driving. On the way we stopped at a Stonehenge replica to stretch our legs and enjoy the view.


View of the Columbia River


Andrew and I


Jonathan didn't want his picture taken but I took one anyway.

We made another stop in Spokane, to meet a family from Andrew's church and look at some furniture they were selling. They were friendly and very sweet. The sad thing is that they will be moving away before I move up there.
We arrived at the Engell's in time for dinner. It was so nice to get there. They were so welcoming and excited to have me there. I could tell I was going to enjoy staying there.