Prepared!

I designated yesterday as "get prepared day". We already had 5 72-hour kits put together...but they were over a year old. The clothes were too small for the kids and the food certainly needed to be changed out. So, after many hours of emptying out the old, shopping for and packing up the new, they are all FINALLY finished! I can now sleep more peacefully at night.
I had no idea what was involved when putting together 3 days' worth of food and clothes for a family of 6!!! And that is just planning for the BARE essentials. With all the little earthquakes we've been having, I feel like I've been given fair warning to get my act together. Yea! it's done (until April, when we'll go through it all again! ).

WOW! BIG!

I have seen large produce grown in many gardens, but I think THIS one takes the cake! Our zucchini plants had died and weren't producing any more (or so I thought) and so today I figured I would remove the hideous looking, brown plant from our front-yard-"garden". As I pulled the second one out by its gnarled roots, it felt oddly heavy. Sure enough, when I looked down, this beastly squash was hanging, and dragging on the ground! It's like child #5! It's hard to believe a vegetable of this proportion could "hide" under all those leaves, but it sure did! I think I'll seed it and freeze it for future use...we've now got a head start on our "year-supply".

What a Ho-Down! (Updated Photos)

Our Beach House Vacation was WONDERFUL!! Good company ( all my brothers, their wives & kids, Mom and Dad, G'ma & G'pa and Aunt Chris), good weather, good food, and good times! We played in the water, played games, and had a good ol' fashioned cow boy ho-down! It was a blast...complete with stick horse races! The ten grandkids (and one on the way) loved to run and play and swim together. Uncle Rob won the "best babysitter" award for building a sandcastle with my kids while the girls all shopped in Ventura. In town, the thrift stores galore and boutiques everywhere made it easy to find treasures.

More Pictures Here
The last night at the beach house, we always do a theme night. This year, obviously, it was a cowboy theme. It was so fun! Mom made "Wanted" posters for all the grandkids and hung them all over the kitchen. It was a great way to send the summer out...and as always, we can't wait until NEXT year...a sweet Pirate theme awaits us. Most of all, we are thrilled that Mom and Dad could be there with us and that Dad's health allowed for good times to still be had! Thanks Mom and Dad for a wonderful 4 days in Ventura! We loved it!

Vacation Finale!

Tomorrow marks the day of leaving for our last vacation of summer '07. It's been a fun, busy summer, and school is already in session, but you can't seem to keep our family from one last party. This is actually the vacation we look forward to all summer...and we have to wait the longest to escape for this one last hoorah. So, Ventura Beach House...HERE WE COME! 4 glorious days of sand castle building, kite flying, wave dashing, game playing, hot tubbing, and food- glorious food! AND of coarse, the annual "girls' day" in down town Ventura; hitting every boutique and thrift store around. Ahhhh, how I wish I were there already...I guess I better start packing!