A not-so-quick update....

*Went to Time Out for Women two weekends ago with my mom, grandma and Mandy, my sister-in-law. It was lots of fun and great speakers! Here we are at P.F. Changs. I'd never eaten there before and it was mmmmm....delicious! By the way, Mandy is expecting too, about Thanksgiving time. Soon, it will be baby time around here!

*Had a 2-skunk night the other night- that heart burn keeping me up at night is good for something, I guess. I heard a wild sounding scream outside about 1:30 am and went out with a flashlight to see what it was. A skunk was just leaving the garden/chicken coop area! I yelled into the house to wake up Joel and we traipsed around the hills, like 2 hilly billies in a state of half-dress, until he found and shot 2 different skunks. We're still not sure if one of them was the original one I saw, but oh well. By the way, something had dug 4 or 5 holes around the edge of one of my coops that night but for some reason hadn't entered in! So Abigail and Stinky Pete are still safe and producing their beautiful eggs for us.....

*Grape picking time. No, the deer and birds didn't leave me much after all. I didn't get to pick a single green grape this year. (The fact that I have about 45 feet of healthy green grape vines makes that pretty maddening to say the least.) For some reason the Concords aren't bothered quite as much. So the kids and I picked about 3 1/2 enamel bowls full.They produced 16 quarts of juice after adding in some grapes from my mother's vines too. Don't you love to look at your canned produce lined up on the counter at the end of the day? Sometimes I leave it there a day or two just to look at it. :-) Sorry, this dark picture doesn't do them any justice, but I just had to add it.....
* Have I mentioned that Hailey has really caught the crocheting bug? Here is her latest purse she created:
*My dear grandma (see top photo, above) was chauffeur for my kids yesterday, on our busiest day of the week! It is the day that begins at 11:30 for handbell choir, proceeds to homeschool soccer for everyone, then to piano lessons for 2 kids and clogging lessons for 3 kids. It really doesn't sound like much but it can be a logistical nightmare and it doesn't end until 8 o'clock. Grandma offered to drive the kids around all day so that I could get some projects done at home. I got most of the baby's bedroom painted! I wouldn't have been ready to paint if it hadn't been for my mother's and grandma's help removing all the wall paper. They have come twice to help do that! I am so grateful for all their loving help!

*Torsten has been working on a welding project at my parents house this past spring and summer. It's a footbridge for their canal. Here are some photos of the day he finished it up and they pulled it over to the canal:
They worked until after dark to finish digging fence posts too. The canal runs right by the house and they are fixing the fence to make it safer for little kids to play in the yard.*And to conclude - only 11 days until my due date, but who's counting?