...These Are a Few of my Favorite Things...

This song goes through my head quite regularly.

So today I was driving around town and wanted to document some of the things I have loved this Christmas season.

We have a candy store in a little town just south of us, in West Liberty. 

Marie's Candies.

Cutest little store you've ever been into, not to mention the yummiest candy ever.

This year they have a tree with crystals hanging from it.  It is absolutely beautiful.  When I've gone though town I've stopped just to look at the pretty crystal tree. 

I guess this is their version of "Eye Candy".

Most of you know of my LOVE of snowflakes.

I still love to make the paper ones that I mentioned last year.

But this week I went to lunch with a friend and saw these darling snowflakes made out of wide ribbon.  I'm SO making these next year...and maybe a couple this year.  Okay, ya, I've already started one.

The first snowman of the year. 

They always make me smile.

And lastly, at least for today, pomegranates!  These little jewels are nice and juicy right now. 

yum, yum, yum

Merry Christmas everyone! 

I hope you have been able to see things this season that make you smile.

Where Did He Come From?

We got a couple of Christmas boxes in the mail from family.

Justin and I were going through them (thanks for ALL the candy Dad) and I'd pull out a gift and say who it was to, and who it was from.  Then Judd would go put it under the tree.

When we finished we had this conversation:

Judd - I wish we could live in Idaho.

Me - Ya, why?

(Totally thinking it was because after he saw/heard his grandparents, aunts & uncles, & cousin names it made him miss them.  Besides all of the candy, pretty gifts, and fun things inside the boxes.)

Judd - I could totally get my drivers licence a year faster.

He's 5!

(Oh, the picture isn't about anything.  It just made me laugh this morning so I wanted to use it.)

Pretty Kitty

I've had a hard time focusing, finishing projects and forgetting things lately.

Here is my latest example.

Our stake has the Beehives crocheting hats for the cancer unit at the children's hospital. Okay, I thought. My grandma taught me how to crochet. No problem. I can finish at least one hat.

Well, maybe for my cat.

(This cat looks amazingly like our cat! Here is how to make a cat hat.)

I can't seem to keep count with the stitches and my hands keep going to sleep.

This may be as far as I get.

It's back.....FINALLY

After two weeks of waiting

The Shed Is Back!

And so is the mess.

Wasn't that nice of them.

Abracadabra

Missing: One Garden Shed

(full of stuff)

The shed above isn't the exact shed, because I never thought to take a picture of the shed. But it is pretty close to what was in our backyard as of 11:30 yesterday morning.

I left for a couple Visiting Teaching appointments at 11:30. When I got home at 3:00 I didn't notice anything different. I park in the front and can't really see around the house where I pull in. The kids got home at 3:30 and the boys went outside to play football. Todd and Mitch thought they'd tease Justin and hide in the shed, so they turned around to go over to it and this is what they saw.

NO SHED

They came in the house and Todd asked me where the shed was. I thought he was pulling my leg, because that is something he'd do, but he didn't seem like he was joking around so I looked out the window and he was right. The shed was gone.

My first instinct was to call the police to make a report of a stolen shed. Then I decided to call our landlords first to see if they knew of anything. The shed was full of their stuff so I couldn't imagine they'd want someone to haul it off. The other 1/2 is full of our stuff and I know I didn't want it hauled off.

Amy was shocked (and angry) when I called. She made a few phone calls and I guess the company they bought it from was supposed to pick up a shed from someone else that never paid up. Unfortunately, they picked up the wrong shed. They took our shed with lots and lots of things in it, including the flammable liquids inside.

(hope they got home okay)

The crazy thing is that there isn't a whole lot of tracks where the truck & forklift were. It's a medium sized shed. I'd guess 18'x12' or so. It is just like someone came and plucked it right out of the yard. Besides the concrete blocks laying around and uprooted lily's, it is pretty much the way it was before they took it.

They must have one heavy duty forklift. That building has to be VERY heavy.

Anyway, I couldn't stop laughing because the whole thing is absurd. Amy is on the hunt for our stuff & the shed. She is not a happy lady right now. Things were in the rafters so they had to have fallen. I'm sure things had to have been broken.

This could be quite a costly mistake for this company.

Everyone is invited.

Family Week is back!

This is the week we 'unplug' for the evening and do things with the family.

What I love is that anyone & everyone can get into it.

Temple attendance, Family History work, getting together with roommates & friends for FHE, service projects, etc. The ideas are endless.

Last year we had a blast.

We are all signed up for 2009 and ready to remember the importance of families, without the 'noise' of everything else in our lives.

Join in, no matter where you live. If you sign up (and if you live out of the area give them your address) they'll send you a bag for participating.

Get the word out.

November 22-28, 2009

**The week to give Thanks for our families**

No means...well, No.

What is it about salesmen?

Today I have Mitch home sick, with the flu.

(He had the normal flu shot a few weeks ago, so I hate to think of what he might really have.)

Anyway, I open the door to two guys. I wish they wouldn't have made me nervous, the whole time they are talking to me my mind is deciding if there would be ANY way that I'd be able to get the door shut & locked fast if I needed to.

It would have been easier to concentrate on them trying to convince me to let them shampoo a spot of carpet if I wasn't fixated on their bad, bad, bad (did I mention bad) teeth and the tongue piercings.

After letting them put my name in for a drawing (now they are going to call and bug me, but I'd rather be rude on the phone than to their faces, I guess) they asked me for the 4th time if they could come in and shampoo & vacuum for me.

NO NO NO, I said NO

I have so many different opinions about this. At least they are trying to work. I know too many people that are VERY able to work and choose not to.

But when I don't want what you are offering, please say

"Thank You for your time Ma'am" (yes, please call me ma'am) and be on your way.

Okay, now I've got to go check my sick kid.

Growing Pains...for the parents

Our eldest son has had his first shaving lesson.

(THANK GOODNESS)

He had one of those thin, almost-there, makes it hard to look at the person in the eye when you are talking to them kind of mustaches.

There is something about those types of mustaches that make my skin crawl.

Do you think this is sad that I have had these adverse feelings about my darling son?

Well, for those of you that have had boys at this age, you totally understand me, and if you have boys and they haven't hit this very weird time in their lives.....just wait. You'll too have feelings about that sweet little face that you never thought you'd have.

Just for the record, I'm not a real big fan of any facial hair.

We're In

Happy Halloween

Josie's pumpkin turned out really cute.

This is a really random post, but I've had some requests about our move & the house we've moved into. The people that own this house said that they were repainting when they moved back (in two years) so no worries, but I still have tried to use some of the original nails and things like that. We aren't going to be here too long, so I didn't think I wanted to get too much of our stuff unpacked. BUT, as we've moved in, I've found that I just don't have it in me to not decorate and put up a few of our things to make this house our home. Amy, the lady that owns the house, left some of her stuff and is that is great. We have a lot of the same tastes.

This is a sad picture. An empty room in our old house.


And here are a few things in the trailer we moved with. We were SHOCKED to find out how much stuff we have.

I wanted to show Geri where I put my birthday gift. (a close up of it is a few pics down) I was so sad because I got it in the mail just a couple days before we moved. So I opened it, and then I packed it. As soon as it surfaced, I found the perfect place to put it. It makes me smile, so I put it where I see it every time I walk in from the garage. Thanks again, Geri.

This is the mess we started the first night we moved in. It only got worse from there. BUT the calendar was hung first thing. I'm embarrassed how many things I was late for or just forgot about that week. I live by my calendar, that is for sure.

Just more mess.

My sweet gift from Geri.

Right after the calendar was hung I did my next most important thing...

I MADE MY BED!

And yes, my red cabinet came with us. I've had a few offers and requests, but it is still with us.

So things are getting cleaned up and it is feeling like home for us.

We have been really lucky to find a great place to live and great people to rent from.

Now on to the next project.

Home Sweet Home

Well, I guess it is time to admit that the house is no longer ours.

It would be fair to say that we've had a love/hate relationship with our home, but ever since Layne fixed all of Mr. Markin's mistakes and we've remodeled to bring in all the things we love.....
well ya, we'll miss our home on County Road 1.

Thankfully we have found a great rental from a great family. So that makes the transition much easier.

Here are a few of my favorite things in & around our house. I guess this is a form of memory making & journaling, but maybe you'll enjoy taking a peek into our home....oops, I mean the May's home. We met them today. They are nice people. I think they'll enjoy living here.

The children's office in basement

Kitchen/Dining

The walk up to the front door.

Justin & neighbor Emma playing golf by the fruit trees.

The living room.

This was one well used kitchen. Probably my favorite place in the house.

I decided not to put all 59 photos I took on here, but I'll have to keep a file with the pics. Someday it will seem like a distant memory of our 14 years in this house.

Isn't it funny when you look at old pictures that have images in them that you just don't remember? It's sad that things are so easily forgotten. I hope that doesn't happen. At least not too quickly.

Our Monkey is Growing Up

My, how time does fly.

Our baby is 5 years old now. Not much of a baby anymore.

He wanted a pink birthday cake just like his friend Adysen's. He got his way on that. He also wanted six candles. He didn't get his way on that.

Justin loves, loves Curious George.

So here he is in his new costume. You can see the monkey jacket on the floor next to him from Grandma Lucy & Grandpa Jay. He is pumped.

Here are his two new trucks. He has played with them all night & morning. Loading cows, pigs & horses ought to keep him occupied today.


And here is dad, who is just as excited (or maybe more), to get this truck opened and played with.

We are used to Mitch making the most of his birthday, but this year Justin may have given him a run for his money. He had a paper chain all month long waiting for his big day. He talked about it to anyone that would listen, include the lady at McDonald's. He debated about what he thought he was getting and gave some not so subtle hints of what he hoped to get. It was a lot of fun to see him get so excited.


He told me last night when I put him to bed that he just loved everything about being the birthday boy.

Good, that was just what we had hoped for.


Happy Birthday Judd!
You sure do keep us on our toes and a smile on our faces.

It's Here!

Autumn is here!!!

Just the best season ever.

The Time Flew By

Summer vacation has now come to an end.

The kids started school last week and Josie started VERY early morning seminary....5:30 am early!

The start of school is always bitter-sweet for me. I like them home with me, playing outside, swimming, etc. I also like getting back to a routine.

Here is our preschooler, elementary schooler, middle schooler & high schooler.

Some of the things that have happend this past month are: Josie got busy with high school stuff, Todd grew taller than me, Mitch went up to the next swimming level, and Layne started a new job.

Josie turned 14 on July 31st.

On August 19th Layne and I made it to year sixteen.

He's balding, I'm fat, & we still like eachother.

We have had an unusually cool summer with little humidity.
It has been WONDERFUL!
It sure has been good for all the crops around here. Including our garden.


It has been tomato season and when Josie asked me where a good place to make toast would be, I realized that I really had to get some canning done. The counter tops have been covered. So last week I got the salsa and tomatoes done (any more that come in are going to have to find a new home). This week I'll get the relish and an awesome sweet and sour sauce made. Oh, a new thing I came up with is what I call Hot Pepper Peach Jam. I added orange zest and hot pepper flakes to the peach jam. We've already found lots of yummy ways of using it. It goes wonderful with cheese (brie and cream cheese are my favorite), on meats, and even on steamed Chinese vegetables. It is alwasy fun to figure out something new and delicious.



Hope your summer was great!

Slightly Obsessed

For some reason I just can't stop thinking, learning, & looking at the old oak trees on

'the farm'.

(Keep your ideas coming for the naming of the land contest.

I've liked what you've come up with so far.)

So last night we had the tree's age estimated.

The big one that the boys were hugging in my last post is approximately

140

years old.

We also measured two others.

One was around

120 years

and the other

80 years old.

Isn't that amazing? Obviously we didn't check out all the trees, but these were the ones that we (or maybe it was just me) were curious about.

We learned that the 140 year old tree should produce around 2000 + acorns this year. We also learned that it could live till it is between 400 - 900 years old. Cool.

On a completely different subject

This is just proof that I wasn't kidding when I said
I DON'T MAKES PIES!
I had some left over pie dough so I thought I'd hurry and make Layne another pie.

Well, after about 10 minutes of wondering why the timer on the oven kept going off, I started to smell a burning pie crust.......

I think I have baking ADD. I just get sidetracked too easily.

Our Amazing Moments of July & a Contest

*This is my most amazing thing in July.*

As many of you know, I like to cook. What you may not know is that I don't love to bake.

And on the top of my list of things I don't feel like I do very well is

PIES.

Well, to my amazement, last night at the 24th of July picnic I won the

Pie Baking Contest!

It still makes me giggle because I DON'T MAKE PIES!

This is not the exact one, but it was a fresh peach pie. It was gone before I got the camera out. But, Layne did request another one today.

We've been letting the boys & Josie drive the truck around our "farm".

We have 16 acres of field so and we like to spend time over there, as we wait for our current house to sell. Know of anyone that wants to buy a great house?

Justin only runs the wheel, but he does good. Until he takes a sharp left. That's a little scary.

Mitch does a good job too. Petals and all.


Here is a pic of our place.
Home Sweet Home
someday.


The boys (including their dad) like to set up targets and practice their shooting on the 'farm' too.

Justin calls it the farm, but I've always wanted to name our house/place. So here is a great opportunity. Give me some awesome ideas and whoever wins gets a great prize from the great state of Ohio.

Some details to help your creativity:
We'll have cows,
a horse or two,

chickens,
gardens,
fruit trees,
alfalfa field,
Layne will for sure plant Quaking Aspens (his fav),
there are TONS of deer,
our last name is Coleman,
oak trees...

*Can't wait to see what you might come up with*


We have a few trees, mostly oak, along the fence line. This one amazes me. I love looking at it. It is huge. Layne's arms don't even make it 1/2 way around and that is about 6 feet of arm length. We need to remember to take our measuring tape out there next time and find out how big this tree is. Layne sees $$ signs or beautiful floors in our house. I say NO WAY. That thing is at least a hundred years old and still healthy. It stays put.



Several summers ago I was at my Aunt Grace's house. I fell in love with her row of Hollyhocks. I planned on getting some Hollyhocks growing at my house. Well, this is the last summer at this house (I hope) and I finally got the Hollyhocks planted.
They remind me of my Grandma Simmons. She always had some in her flowerbed and we'd play dolls with them. I love showing little girls how to make dolls out of hollyhocks.



And last, but not least, this is what Todd does when he's not busy.

Poor Mitch.