Happy Halloween!

When a good idea backfires

Nate has been cracking my up lately. He's turning into a typical 4th grade boy. Sometimes I don't like it, but other times it's been fun to see the new things he comes up with. Now that the tooth fairy myth has been busted, he's starting to catch on to other myths (I see the end of Santa soon!). But he's also a good sport about playing along for his sister.

So tonight at Costco we were trying to keep Lily near the cart and after the third time telling her not to wander away, Nate tells her, "Lily you have to stay by the cart or the aliens will abduct you". He then looks at me and puts his finger to his mouth like a "shhh". So we keep shopping and then Nate walks off to look at something. Lily tells him, "Nate you have to stay by the cart or the aliens will abduct you!" in a very serious tone. Nate and I started laughing. He might be growing up, but he will have to watch out for the smarty pants on his heals!

Lessons Learned

Things I have learned this week:

• Don't sponsor your child per lap in the jog a thon. When you do that, it will rain and the kids will jog inside the gym, doing 29 laps in 30 minutes. That's $1 per lap, per kid. YIKES!
• If you teach preschoolers to make worms out of play dough, they will then put the worms down other student's shirts.
• Don't wear white to preschool!!!!
• If one child signs you up to bring cookies for their class Halloween party, don't think that making pumpkin shaped sugar cookies is a cute idea. Because then, the other child will want you to do the same for their class and you will end up making 4 dozen pumpkin shaped sugar cookies with orange frosting and sprinkles.
  

Tasty Tuesday

Wow, I actually remembered Tasty Tuesday.....on Tuesday! Here's a quick crock pot soup that I made on Saturday. It was so nice to come home from the hospital with dinner done and smelling wonderful. I sent the leftovers to Grandpa along with some homemade rolls. Yummmm.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can enchilada sauce
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 jar garlic salsa
1 can cooked chicken (or leftover chicken)

Dump all ingredients into crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours. Top with shredded cheese and sour cream.

Update

I'm sorry that I haven't' been blogging much. Life is crazy and right now I'm just trying to keep up with the basics. Grandma is still in the hospital and the doctors say that they have exhausted every test they can do. They still have no answer as to why Grandma is in pain and has no appetite. Grandma is on a feeding tube right now, and they won't discharge her until they can take it out. Please keep her in your prayers. We are all pretty frustrated that we have no answers. Thank you.

Crazy Friday

What a crazy week. I still am trying to figure out how to balance work and home life. Canning is finally done, and right now everyone is healthy (knock on wood). Dan left for work this week, so we have another adjustment there. I finished my temporary sub job in Kindergarten this week. I will really miss that class. Yesterday I actually got to lead the class for 20 minutes while the teacher was in a meeting. I had an audience of adults, which made me nervous, but I had fun. So today was my first day off of work in over 3 weeks and what did I do? I went back to the school. Why? Because I'm crazy, that's why. Nate was supposed to have a field trip today, and it got canceled because of the rain. So I still went to his class and helped out, then went and helped Lily's teacher.

The other crazy part of the week is Grandma. She has been back in the hosptial for a week, and they still have not found what is causing her pain and her stomach problems. We are getting very frustrated watching her shrink away. Please keep her in your prayers. Specifically we want answers and solutions to her problems. Also, please pray for the staff at the hospital. We are getting frustrated with the lack of care Grandma is getting, and the slow response time when there is a serious problem. Thank you in advance for your prayers.

Pumpkin Pictures

The 2nd annual chili cook off and pumpkin carving party at Little Bearfoot Farm was a hit. We all had a blast. Who knew that 8 different chili's could be so different. The winner for the night was Brad Neitling, and the boobie prize when to Jennifer Roosma. While I really liked my own chili, I think I was near the bottom on the votes. Oh well, we all had fun. The kids carved their pumpkins (Nate on his own, Lily directed me on what she wanted). And the pigs at the farm were happy with all the pumpkin guts. Thanks everyone for a fun night.....I will keep working on my chili until I win!



And of course, it wouldn't be a gathering without cupcakes. Here is my annual "Sierra with a cupcake" picture. To see a history of other pictures click Here.

Chili Cook Off

I was told today by my hubby that I haven't blogged since Monday. He told me to get on top of it. Cuz really, I only had a sinus infection this week. That's all. So I feel like I am playing catch up all day, trying to get the house back in order. Last night I made my chili for tonight's chili cook off. This is the famous Little Bearfoot Farm chili cook off. Last year we had a blast eating chili and carving pumpkins. This year the competition is on and we have all been tweeking our chili recipes for months. While I talk a lot of smack, I really don't think mine will win. My goal is to NOT get the boobie prize. Wish me luck, and go check out the plaque I'm hoping to win! Littlebearfootfarm.blogspot.com

Calendar Girl

Lily is our calendar girl. Meaning, she schedules everything and has it all in her head. Today she came home from school with the notice about school pictures on the 23rd. She is already planning what she will wear that day, even remembering that she has PE that day and will have to wear her tennis shoes.

So the other day Dan and I were discussing how old our dogs were. We finally agreed that Lacey is 11, born in August and Bandit will be 11 in February. Just so we wouldn't forget, we told Lily. She now has those dates in her little vault and it will never be forgotten again. Who needs a palm pilot when you have Lily?

Contribute 2009

Don't forget that tomorrow is Contribute 2009. The idea is that 100,000 people spend $50 at a local family owned business. We will be doing our part and I encourage you to pledge to do the same. You can find out more details by clicking on the link on the side bar. Thanks!

Train Show

It's tradition that we take the kids to the train show in Lynden every October. Here's a little trip through time.

Uncle!

I give up, I'm crying Uncle! All week I have been fighting a cold (thank you for sharing, darling little kindergartners). Dan helped me make salsa on Wednesday night while the kids were at kids club. The salsa was disappointing, edible, but not worth all the effort put into it. I had hoped to do one more batch of applesauce because I have two boxes of apples taunting me from the garage. I can hear them talk to me every time I walk by them. They are saying things like; Hello, are you ever going to finish all your canning? You know we won't last forever!
Today after I got home from school I finally had to give in and admit that I am sick. To most people this is not a big deal. For me, I don't like to be slowed down. So I had to cancel the PTO board mtg that was scheduled to meet at my house, and I crawled on the couch with Dan's big fuzzy blanket. I was truly feeling guilty about not getting the applesauce done, until Dan went and counted how many jars of applesauce we already have. 27 jars! Ok, so I call Uncle and am not going to feel guilty anymore. I'm sending the apples to Tracie's tomorrow to be pig food. Now they can't taunt me anymore!

Things you hear from Kindergartners

I'm working in a kindergarten class, and I tell you they crack me up every day. If you ever need a good laugh, just go eat lunch with the kindergartners. Here are a few things I heard this week.

• I can't go line up, my feet won't let me.
• My brother got kicked out of this school.
• My Dad bought a GMC today and it cost $100, and then he bought my Mom a Porsche for $200.
• Knock knock jokes that make no sense and include the words banana wana.
• My Dad has a computer but I can't play games on it or it will get little bugs in it.
  

Tuna Time

You can tell that I do a lot of canning. At this point of the year, I am ready to put the canner away for the year.....but there is still more to do. Some of my friends have been giving me a hard time about all the canning I have been doing this year. I have done more than normal, but some of it has been for Grandma and Grandpa. And then there was the tuna.

Dan went on a charter fishing boat with Uncle Marv two weeks ago. He brought home 300 pounds of tuna! We were told that frozen tuna is only good for about two months, so we decided to can some of it to make it last longer. Ok, so we had never canned tuna before, and had 300 pounds of tuna. My brother in law David canned some tuna last month and told me that you put about a pound of tuna per pint. Did I mention that we had 300 pounds of tuna? So, first we had a canning party at Uncle Marv's and Aunt Ruthi's house. (Thank you again for letting us stink up your place!). Then the next day Dan canned tuna while I was at work, then we vacume packed and canned more when I got home. The next day, more vacume packing and Dan decided to go deliver fresh tuna to whoever would take some. The day after that Dan smoked some of the tuna, and we finally finished vacume packing the rest. We ended up only canning 54 pints of tuna, but seriously, we will be sick of tuna, let alone the smell! I am still trying to get the tuna smell out of the towels we used when canning! Yuck!


I have actually ran out of pint jars, and am running low on quart jars. This is a first for me! The biggest problem right now is finding spots to put all of my filled jars! I would like to do one more batch of applesauce soon, and I picked up tomatoes today to make some salsa (Thanks Ron!). Wish me luck......and lots of energy!