Kyle's School Project

Kyle had to do a project where he made and designed a musical instrument. He chose the Bongo drums.

I always get very excited when we have PAINT out for the boys to use.

Notice my VERY BEAUTIFUL ALMOST NEW dining room table. This is also known as a card table...

This is a picture of him painting them bright colors. The red tape in the middle is so that there will be a straight black line when we pull it off.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished...

Tonight is a story of Tim, the Tool Man Taylor's adventures--AKA ME....

I have been wanting to change out my light fixtures and cabinet pulls ever since we got the new colors in our kitchen. Evan & I decided to go ahead and turn off the electrical current and do it ourselves. Evan is really gifted at any home projects, so I thought he was great in this project.

Evan helped by taking down the old brass fixture and I put up the bar for the new one. I'm feeling good about right at that moment since I've turned off the correct circuit breaker so we haven't gotten knocked off the table by an electrical current.

After this point, I wired the black, white & copper/ground wire in. I then needed Evan to hold the new fixture while I put in the new screws.

This is the "before picture" of our table...

And THIS is the "after picture"...

Now, if you can't see any difference in the two photos above, you probably shouldn't even bother reading the rest of the story...

The moral of the story is... DON'T STAND ON A TABLE TO CHANGE LIGHT FIXTURES--& ESPECIALLY DON'T ADD YOUR ALMOST 6 ft tall son up there with you to finish the job.

Here is the end result...

So this is the story of how my great intentions did not result in success... believe me, this color coordinated bruised arm was NOT worth the funny story above.

If you can laugh at it, you can live with it... sometimes, it takes a few days to get to the part where you realize that you can laugh at it... --with the help of Loritab anyway... It really could be worse, though--no broken bones--just some sore joints and wounded pride... :)

Is he a hottie or what?? or NOT...

The other day I was leaving a parking lot and as I was backing out, I almost wrecked... Luckily, I had my trusty camera because words could not describe what I saw. It did take me a few minutes to actually get it out, focus, etc. so this is the closest I could to get the object of my affection... or should I say "the object of my OBJECTION..."


Does this guy really THINK he looks cool? Every 2 steps he had to pull up his pants to below his butt so he could keep walking without them falling to his ankles. I was truly embarrassed for him. He was definitely still a teenager and already had fat rolls & wanted the public to see more of his body...

FYI-I recently found out that the baggy pants started out because people who were put into prisons were using their belts to hang themselves. Since prisons have standard uniform sizes, many pants were too big.

It gets better!!! Then, the boys who wanted to become another man's "woman" would let everyone know by letting their pants hang even lower for easy access... I wonder if this cool kid knows that!!!

Farmtown--much easier, but no real food there...

Since I have been on farm town (my very pretty, but very fake farm on Facebook)... I decided to work on (& eat) some of those real vegetables I've also been farming this summer...

How do you do this, you ask???

SO... Here is what you need--some clean Mason Jars and lids...

AND...the most important part...

lots of TOMATOES...

Good looking tomatoes !!

(Aren't they pretty ??)

That pioneer woman website has nothing on me... (see www.thepioneerwoman.com )

Then comes all of the fun!

First, you boil the tomatoes so that it is easier to peel off the skins. You then peel them while yelping a little as they are still hot and it is no fun to actually hold and peel them at this point! Mark and I thank my Mom for that very valuable bit of information which has saved many hours of work!

Then you let them get really hot (the tomatoes, I mean) & them put them in the jars.

You need some seasonings which mainly include SALT, yes good old fashioned, raise your blood pressure... SALT!

Then, have your very helpful husband to put the peeled hot tomatoes into the jars, and put lids on them. Then , put them in a pot especially made for the process, cover and heat to high to seal the jars. (He kind of does a lot of this part of the process!)

Also, very important is to grab any available kids who wander through the kitchen at this point and have them help with the process. (PS-never mind that my child has enough food on his face to scrape off and use for a snack later.)

Put up for a few weeks and you will be quite excited to have these when it is winter and the other alternative is those crappy greenhouse tomatoes at the grocery store... at the rock bottom price of $3 per pound!

It is very important to note at this point that we get a LOT more than just one quart of tomatoes... I'd rather work at Farmtown than do all of that work for one quart!