bountiful harvest

The tomatoes are rolling in fast & furious.

Be prepared to be stunned:

I know! I could hardly believe our good fortune. We could feed tens of people with bounty like this! There are 11 whole tomatoes on these plants. That's almost 3 tomatoes per person in our household. I suppose I ought to be thinking about canning or making sauce with the leftovers.
We have been growing tomatoes for more than a dozen years, and never have we had such success in the garden. Mere amatuers shouldn't even bother to try and replicate our large plot. Start small, or you'll have so many tomatoes you won't know what to do with them all.

I have no idea what the hell happened here. Some of these were grown from seed, some were established, hearty plants from the nursery. All turned into rejects better suited to "That's a Swell Garden, Charlie Brown" than sauces and caprese salad. Needless to say, we won't be planting here again next year.

thirteen

On September 18, 1997, this gorgeous creature came into my life, and it hasn't been the same since. Happy Birthday to my baby. We love you more than words can say!

Ohio bound

We made it nice and early to our hotel in Dublin. It's a beautiful night. Evan is running around the hotel with his teammates and we are catching up online. In a minute I'm going to head to the bar for a margarita with a friend. Early early games tomorrow and BFF Heather visiting in the pm. It's gonna be a good day!

Tournament weekend one

Last week and this week are so incredibly busy. On the list of things that I have done/will do:

• open house at school for both kids
• rented a trombone for Evan
• team photos for Emma
• team photos for Evan
• cleaned out one refrigerator and two freezers, and transferred all food to our new fridge
• returned items to three different stores
• shopped for things to replace the returned items
• make plans for Emma's 13th birthday
• 56 loads of laundry
• drove to Dearborn to get Buddy from my in-laws house
• ortho appointment
• 2 soccer games
• 5 practices

all of this while being gone from noon Friday to Sunday evening, two weekends in a row. In addition to all the regular house work.

I thought things were supposed to slow down once school started?

Heh.

Anyway, we were in Petoskey last weekend for the Autumn Blast.

This photo is not altered in any way, the fields really are this green! You are practically out in the middle of nowhere, and the grass is nicer than most golf courses. Crazy.
We had 2 games on Saturday, 2 on Sunday. The team is having a hard time gelling. I don't know why exactly; maybe combining the age groups was the wrong way to go. I see a lot of effort on the field, but it's not translating into winning games. By Sunday Emma was ready to quit. She doesn't see that she really is improving...she keeps moving up in groups by twos, so she doesn't get a chance to feel like she is matching her opponents' skill, y'know what I mean? Losing is hard.
This one went to stay with our new friend Bill and his three dogs. Let me tell you, she was in doggie heaven. Bill and his wife Carol took her to the dog park for hours every day, not to mention there was a festival in Plymouth where they walked her around all three days. When she wasn't out socializing, she and Bentley here were tearing back and forth across the house, romping and playing. She was so wiped out that she slept all day Monday. And she gets to do it again this weekend.

So now we are headed to Dublin, Ohio and the OP Invitational for Evan's team. We will be celebrating the big one-three while we are there. Oh boy.

Thankfully, we get to stay home after that!

Hello September, I have missed you!

So somehow it's the 7th of September already and the first day of school. Yeah for school! Yeah for routines and schedules and having something to do on weekdays other than bug mom! This year the kids are back at the same school again-6th & 8th grades. Both had a good first day. Both brought several pieces of 'homework' for me to do. And even though they were fighting like cats and dogs yesterday, last night found them the best of friends, and Emma helping him pick out his first day of school outfit.

And there you have it. It's all good.

We had a really nice Labor Day weekend, with lots of relaxing, laughing with the cousins, staying up late and spending time together. The next two weeks will be really busy: in addition to all the usual day to day stuff, we have a tournament in Petoskey (Emma), a tournament in Dublin Ohio (Evan), and one 13th birthday. I'm not prepared for any of it!

Happy fall!