And then come the blackberries....

This year we decided to go across the street for our blackberries. Every year I pick them and make up jam, but this year we didn't have too far to go. We have a protected wetland across the street from us that is a but overgrown. The kids discovered a bunch of blackberry bushes over there last week, so we all grabbed a couple of baskets and went out. We got about a flat or so.

I thought instead of just doing it, I am going to employ the kids help making this jam. That and what better way for them to learn how to this for themselves. This is how I learned many of my domestic skills, by watching and helping my mom and grandma in the kitchen. These are good skills to know .

Everyone took their turn squishing the berries through the sieve. Then the kids had to count the pops of the jars once they went through the canning process to make sure they got sealed. A good time was had by all.

Next on our list....peaches.

Necterines!!!!

Tonight we had a treat for dessert. I chopped up some fresh nectarines and added some milk and a sprinkle of sugar. Who needs a spoon?

Just dig right in!

Curse you Discovery channel!!!

So you would think that I would have learned my lesson last year. Or maybe the year before that.

No.

I just stumble over the same mistake every year. You forget simple truths when you have kids.

You shouldn't eat Dorritos for dinner.

You can't just run to 7-11 when the need for nasty nachos strikes without taking them with you.

You can't make dinner in the nude

You can't leave the bong on the coffee table anymore

And under no circumstances can you let them watch discovery channel in the last week of July.

Not that i need to remind you, but we are a pretty nerdy family, so the discovery channel, TLC and the history channel flow freely through this house. For the most part it is always a safe bet as far as programming.

Except for .....SHARK WEEK!!......DUN...DUN...DUNNNNNNNN!!!!

Yeah bedtime took on a whole new meaning tonight.

Sunshine was terrified that this was going to come out of the toilet.



Awesome.

Thank you shark week.

Oh HECK YES!!!!!

There is really nothing quite like homemade jelly that only yesterday was still on the the bush.

I am pretty sure most kids would agree that homemade is way better than some crummy high fructose version of what people try to pass as jelly at the store. Maybe I'm just partial to homemade.

Although I have a sinking suspicion that I may not be the only one :)

It's berry pickin time!!

I love this time of year because all the berries come into season. We went out and picked a flat of raspberries this afternoon. I almost made the fatal error of just buying a flat (mostly because it's just easier) but to buy a flat is $27. To pick your own is $14. Gee I wonder what I ended up doing. I am just that cheap.

Luckily I found a great reason for having a ton of kids. You can get your picking done pretty fast. Between the 5 of us (well, really only 4) we got a whole flat picked in less than an hour. Not too bad. I was a little surprised how eager the kids were to make it a contest to see who could pick the most the fastest. Although I think more eating was going on than picking.

But all in all we had a fun afternoon.

Tomorrow it will all be made up into jam and in jars.

Confession Monday...yes I know it is Wednesday!

Ok yes I know it is Wednesday, but let me remind you just how crazy busy I have been with my Ebay conquests.

Ok that said, I am a little late with this, but I didn't want the week to pas me by and not participate in this. I have been reading this Mommy confession blog .

She is giving out topics and putting it out for us to reply. This Monday's confession topic...

"What is the craziest thing you have ever done for love?"

I don't know if this is so much as crazy, or just a little irresponsible. But I got engaged less than 2 months after I met my husband. Not only did I barely know him, I accepted his marriage proposal over the phone. What can I say, I was 21 and dumb.
Quick synopsis of our courtship. It would have to be quick, because the courtship was quick. We met 2 weeks before he was going off to college in Phoenix. We decided to keep dating even though it was long distance. He was gone for about a month before we realized that that we were miserable without each other. So we were on the phone one night and he says, "why don't you just move down here and we'll get married".

Me- (young....dumb) hey! that sounds like a great idea!! What could go wrong?!!

Well to make a long story short, he ended up moving back, but we were married that following June.

It seems like it should have been a disaster waiting to happen , but 10 years and 3 kids later here we are. Almost all of our married friends have since gotten divorced, but not us. Who knows...maybe ignorance really is bliss :)

It turns out it was the best decision that I have ever made. And Lord knows I have made some dumb ones.

Welcome to Mrs. B's pet palace!!

Ok as I may have mentioned a time or two, we have a weakness for animals. If an animal seems lost, we take them in until we find their family. If puppies need babysitting, we're here to help!

Rockstar's boss was going on vacation and needed someone to watch her 4 month old Lhasa apso / poodle mix puppies. She barely had to put out the SOS before my husband jumped at the chance.

We got them last night. They are girls, Molly and Dolly. Oh c'mon how cute is that?

Needless to say we are going to have a hard time giving them back.

The kids were up at first light this morning playing with them.

Don't call me hip hop, I prefer gimp dog

So in a way that only I can do, I am all gimped up. Don't believe me? Check it out...



Heres the deal. Last Thursday Rockstar and I took a break from the mountains of Ebay stuff that is collected in our living room. We went out and saw a movie. (The new Batman movie. It is awesome and I do recommend it) As we were walking to the theater from the parking garage, I stepped off of a step all "catty wompus" ( I know that is not a real word and my spell check is giving me a dirty look, but there is no other way to describe it). My ankle took a header and twisted in a way that my ankle bone touched the concrete. Yeah oooww. It (my ankle) let out a big pop and I went down hard. I tried to man up and walk it off. But no go.

I sort of hip hopped my way to the theater because I don't get movie night very often and there is no way I am spending my date night out in the emergency room. I made it through the movie but when it was over and I actually had to get up and walk out, I realized that I had just given it 2 hours to swell to the size of my calf.

Yea!! At long last I have always wanted Cankles!!! Oh wait, no, I have never wanted those.

Well we got home and I slept on it hoping that maybe in the morning it might not be so grim. HAAAA! Not so much the outcome I was hoping for.

So I went in and saw the doctor. Well, 2 hours and 4 X rays later, it turns out that I fractured my ankle bone. I got a splint thing to keep it immobile but that is about all they could do. Fractures just need to heal on their own. Wow....really??? No good drugs or anything?

The really crummy part is that I have to keep off of my feet for the better part of a week or so. Until the swelling stops. Are you kidding me? Yeah, that is not going to happen. May I remind you that I stay at home with 3 small kids just waiting for the right moment to take over and pummel each other Lord of the flies style?

Luckily all of this unfolded on a Friday so Rockstar could work from home and keep the beasts in check while I sat on my tookus listing posts on Ebay. In fact that is about how my whole weekend played out. It was this afternoon that it occurred to me that I haven't even left the house in 3 days. Good times.

So luckily, Ebay work is a non contact sport that can be done on the comfort of our sofa. Although I think I have about had as much of this as I can handle. I really can't imagine this in another week. It could be ugly.

I'll keep you posted.

Eyeball deep in Ebay

So many of you may be wondering why I haven't been on top of posting regularly. This in a nut shell is why. I am literally eyeball deep in Ebay. I am helping out a friend that had the task of selling off all (literally) of some one's possessions. It's a long story. But the quick version of it is like this.

Girl from Columbia.
Girl married an American and moves to the states.
Girl gets divorced.
Girl visits Colombia for vacation.
Girl does not want to come back to the US.
Girl really doesn't want any of her stuff here.

Enter my friend Bobby. He likes to help people out. A lot. So he volunteered to sell off her stuff and just send her a check for what it was all worth. He sells a lot of it in a garage sale and on Craigslist. But there is still a lot of left overs.

Enter me. I sell on Ebay and have quite a little system. So I'll sell what I can and Goodwill the rest.


There is a lot of stuff.

This is my living room. It was empty 4 days ago. This is someone else's closet. Clothes, shoes, handbags. You name it. Unfortunately none of it was in my size :)

So if I seem a little busy, this is probably what I am at home doing. It is very time consuming.

Honeymon state park

So one of the days we were at the beach we thought we would drive down to Florence just for something different. It was about an hour and a half from where we were staying (Newport).

We came across a really cool state park where we had ourselves a nice picnic and did a llittle swimming too.

It was really nice and had a cute little lake with boat rentals. My mom doesn't normally do boats, but she was all about taking Bug out in a paddle boat. So she and Bug had a good time out in the boat while Peanut, Sunshine and I had fun by the shore.

Now let me point out here for those of you have never been around Sunshine. I'll just preface it by saying that she is a bit like a Labrador retriever. If there is water anywhere near her, she has to be waist deep in it. She just can't help herself. Luckily she knows how to swim well.

We were playing in the sand on the shore when she walks casually over to the water. She goes in up to her ankles. Then she steps out a little farther. Now I ask her to not get her clothes wet as I didn't bring swim clothes and they would have to ride home in their wet clothes. Before I could barely get the words out....bam! She was out up to her neck. Dress and all. But having a great time. What can you do?

So needless to say, she rode home in her skivvies. While we hung her dress out the window as we drove. ....Nothing but class here :)

All in all the campground was a lot of fun. It is someplace that I would like to spend a weekend there and camp. If you ever get the chance, go and check it out!