Garden Update -- kinda boring. Feel free to skip.

Ok, so. Are ya'll sick of all my posting? After a few months of nothing, I'm trying to catch up, and ease my conscience for being so negligent. Besides, it's the weekend, and I don't feel like doing my other work. At least this "leisure activity" is still productive. Right? Anyway. Probably no one wants to see a picture of someone's garden, but we are so pleased with it, I just have to record it for our own happy memories. The tall things in the back of the bottom picture are the sugar snap peas. They are a bit out of control! They have exceeded the supports that Homie set up for them. Now what do we do? The purple stuff is the lettuce that is also producing way more than we can eat. The white flowers behind that is the cilantro that already went to seed. Oops. But, I just learned that cilantro seeds are called coriander, and are used as a seasoning. So, we'll just act like we meant to do it that way. Yeah, we didn't need cilantro. We just wanted the coriander. The middle picture has corn in the back that is not doing so well. The front is obviously tomatoes that are lovely and bushy, but have very few little green tomatoes on them. Arrg. I think after not doing tomatoes for about 10 years, we need to catch up on our tomato skills. Although I'm not sure what to do. In Ohio we stuck them in the ground and pretty much left them alone (except for watering.) They grew up to the eves of the house, and had more tomatoes than we ever thought possible could come off of 3 plants. The top picture is our broccoli. I bought some "heirloom" kind at the nursery because that was all that was left. It took a really long time to get a head on it, and when it did, it kinda scared us. The kids say it looks like some alien plant that landed in our garden. It's really crazy looking, but it tastes just like broccoli!

So, there is an update. Let's see what else I can find to post about. Homie is out helping someone move, and Kaybee is at a B-day party. Brother is engrossed in a book called "The Mysterious Benedict Society." Actually three of us are all reading it at the same time and we fight over who can have the book. Brother is glad to let me have the computer so he can have the book. (We also fight over who gets the computer.) The other 3 are giving an improptu piano recital to each other. It's funny. They stand up, announce thier name and what they are playing and then crank out some really amazing (as in overwhelmingly loud, crazy and mostly un-rhythmic) creations. As long as the status remains quo, I'll keep cranking out my own amazing (as in rambling, boring or silly, insignificant to the world) creations.

PS. Sorry about all the typos. I can't tell if it is the computer or my brain-finger connection. I have been going back and correcting them on the blog website, but I'm tired of doing that. So, please don't think I'm stupid. I really do know how to spell, and, use punkuation and CApitals.

It's Peachy's Turn

Now I will post about Peachy's art. During the school year, the kids Art teacher introduced them to water color. They got to use all the fancy tricks and techniques that come with that method. The morning they were supposed to do thier final project, the kids told me (as we were walking out the door to class) "Oh, Ms. S said to bring a photograph that we can use as a basis for our paintings." Aaaarrrg! So, we looked around us frantically. The first thing we saw was a family portrait in a frame. KayBee took that one. Next we spied Homie's college photo album on the book shelf. We opened it and Peachy chose out a picture of me standing by our old pick-up truck. It was taken when Homie and I were out on a river rafting adventure when we were either still dating or first married. The truck and I were much younger, and looked a lot better then! Peachy painted it, then submitted it in the school district's end of the year art show. It won the "postcard" prize. (That means that they photographed it professionally and will print it on the postcards that they use for various school district correspondences.) She was delighted, as she is often overshadowed by KayBee's art and Maddo's personality. It was a fun thing that made her feel really special. Then a few days ago, a lady called us and asked us to please submit it in our town's Art Festival youth division. That was a surprise! So tomorrow we will take it downtown and turn it in. Now all three girls' art is posted here. I asked Brother if he felt left out and he said, "Not really. I do good in soccer and other things, so it's ok."

I have never been good at decorating, and we hardly have any pictures on our walls. I am too picky. I find things I like, but they are so expensive, it turns my stomach, and I can't bring myself to buy it. Frankly, I'd rather have nothing on our walls than something I only sort-of like. Having artistic kids has solved that problem. Now I can decorate with our kids' art. It's cheap, and of course I will like it! I just have to make sure that they only paint things that go with our current decor. Hee hee!

PS. The Title is "In Loving Memory: Ford F250 1980-2006"

She Finished!

KayBee finished at 1:30 Tuesday morning. She had to finish because she had to leave for girls camp at 8:00 AM that day. What a relief to be done with the project! We figured she spent about 45 hours painting it. I took it to the building where they were accepting the entries, paid the 10 dollar entry fee, and then learned that it was a jurried show. (I had to ask what that means.) It means that judges come and judge the painting and not everyone is accepted into the show. They told me we would get a postcard by Wednesday to let us know if her painting was accepted. If it was, she was supposed to come to an artists' reception and pre-view show for people who wanted to buy the art there. So we waited on pins and needles until we got the card saying she was accepted. Yipeee! Then we found out that the reception was a wine tasting party as well, and that she was not allowed to attend. That was fine with us, as the town is 45 minutes away, and also I would have had to pay $12.00 to get in with her. We will go as a family to the public (free) part on Saturday. It is like a huge street fair with tons of booths and food stands and various galleries open around the town.

Another funny part is that when I was registering the painting, the lady asked what the price was. "We don't want to sell it!" I told her. She explaind that if it was in the show, it had to be for sale. Luckily, a nice lady nearby who was experienced with this art show said, "Put $1,000.00. People will get the subtle message, or they will think Kaylee is pretty arrogant about the value of her art. But we can just laugh that off." So that is what we did.

These photos don't look nearly as nice as the painting. The photos have lots of white flecks in them that aren't really in the painting, and you can't really see the texture of the small details. If you want a better view, please come visit us!

Maddo's Apple Art

Maddo decided to enter the Washington Apple Association Art Contest. She has worked hard on several projects over the last few months. Here are the two that she finally decided to submit. The top one is called "Hungry For Apples" and the second one is called "Apple Array." The top one is cool, but you can't tell because she did it with melted crayons. She put paper on the electric pancake griddle and then after it was warm she drew on the paper with the crayons. She drew slowly and so the wax melted and left bold, vivid lines that covered the paper in a thick layer. I highly recommend this art form. It's really fun and it looks cool and the smoothness feels neat as you draw, and it smells really good too. (That is if you like the smell of crayons -- which I do from happy childhood memories) Just make sure you put a cookie sheet between the griddle and the paper because the oil from the wax sometimes seeps through the paper and can leave colors on the griddle. The day after we did this, whe had a few lovely, multi- colored pancakes!

KayBee's Painting Project

KayBee has been taking oil painting lessons from our favorite art teacher. All summer she has been working on a picture to enter in a local arts festival. The deadline is tomorrow morning. So, she has been out in the garage painting all day for the past couple days. The picture that she is painting is from a couple photographs that we took while we were with Homie's sister and family. We were sight seeing in the Hoh Rainforrest in the Olympic National Park. There was a giant tree that we were all fascinated with. It took 13 people (some were toddler size) to get all the way around the tree. When she submits it to the art show, it will technically be for sale, but I hope no one wants to buy it! Although, it would be fun for her to say that she sold her first oil painting at age 14. I'll post a picture of the finished project soon!

Yurtle the Turtle

This past week we have been baby-sitting our friend's pet turtle while they are on vacation. It is supposed to live in a small fish tank inside. We began to feel sorry for her, and started letting her out in the back yard for short amounts of time. A couple of times we lost track of her and had to make a frantic search around the yard to find her. It is really obvious that she loves being outside. She also munches the horsetail weeds that are such a problem in our yard. Homie says we need a whole herd of turtles to keep the horsetail weeds under control! We made a special pen for her by blocking off both ends of the garden beds. We thought she would be happy there, as it was millions of times bigger than her little cage. We were wrong. After a few minutes in her outside pen, she found a crack and pushed until the board slid, and she got out. We put her back and propped up the board again. She didn't waste a second going to the same spot and getting out again. We put her back in and made the weak spot more secure. A while later we checked on her and she was gone again. She'd gotten out at the other end. This happened a few more times before we gave up. We didn't know turtles were so smart! Next, Matt secured the lower portion of the yard really well. Then we put her in, and intended for her to stay in that specific area. We thought surely she would be content there. She spent a long time checking out all along the fence, stopping and peering intently at every crack. Eventually she got to a spot that was not fenced, but it was a very steep slope up a hill and among the rock wall. It lead to the upper yard. Matt was certain she couldn't get up it. A while later I went out tho check on her and sure enough, she was 1/2 way up. Eventually she made it all the way up, and began checking out the entire perimiter of the fenced upper yard. This turtle has some serious boundary issues! Today she pushed the limits even more by finding a gap in the lattice work that led under the gazebo and behind the pond. I wouldn't let her go in. And moved her to a different part of the yard. I then wasted the next half hour studying turtle behavior. No matter where I placed her in the yard, she made a beeline right back to the spot she wanted to explore. Peachy commented, "If she was a person, I think she would be a Maddo personality." Finally I gave up and let her go into the space she wanted to see. I followed her everywhere to make sure she didn't get into a bad situation, or find an even worse crack to escape through. After she had seen enough she crawled back out and went around the yard to her other favorite places like usual. What a crazy little creature. Our friends arrived home today, and I told her how much fun we were having with their pet. She said we could probably keep it because the novelty had worn off with her kids. It is kinda the ward boy scout pet. There is a "Pets" merit badge that the boys can earn if they keep a pet for at least 4 months. This turtle has been passed throught 6 familie so far. I'm not sure I want to take on a full time pet, but it would be fun to have her for a while. The good thing is that we could then pass her on to the next family who wanted to earn the merit badge! We have been calling her Yurtle -- after the Dr. Seuss character, but Brother suggested we call her Lini. That's short for Turtle-lini.

Sunburn

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Not this past Friday, but the one before that, one of Brother's friends called up and invited Brother and Peachy to go out boating with their family. Our two children spent a wonderful, fun, adventurous day wake boarding, tubing and swimming in a nearby lake. This was one of their first all day in the sun activities without a Sunscreen Fanatic parent with them. So, they took the opportunity to be free of the yucky goop. Wooo hooo what a great teaching moment (week) this has turned out to be! They both came home with the most amazing sunburns ever known in the Homey Tanner Family. They were so miserable by that evening. Despite lotions and potions, they were terribly uncomfortable for the next several days. Brother had it so bad, he ran a slight fever the first night, and stayed on Advil for a couple days. Peachy wasn't covered so completely and didn't suffer as much. By the fourth day Brother was so sleep deprived, and sick of being in pain that every little thing made him cry. (Some of his siblings took great delight in asking him if it was "that time of month.") I let him stay home from church because I knew that some of his peers would not be able to resist the temptation to tease him and whack him on the back. I figured his mental state was not in a condition for him to deal charitibly with the good natured abuse. Brother couldn't even shower because the water hurt. He got pretty stinky by the end of the week! He also couldn't lift his arms very high, or move very well because it hurt so much. He gingerly sat on the couch and read for like 6 hours a day for 4 days in a row. (Good for his summer reading program! Bad for his physical fitness needs!) Kaylee had to do his paper route for him, and the rest of us pitched in to help him with his chores.

Anyway, it was a good lesson for them. Of course, being the wise parents we are, we took the time to point out that a few moments of "freedom" from the rules, often has longer lasting and horrible consequences. If this had happened during the school year, I probably would have been tempted to have them do an essay, or at least a journal entry about the concept. Hee hee. At any rate, I hope this will help them learn to make wiser choices on thier own. Homey and I reminiced about the days that we each got our own blistering sunburns, and how, after that, we never allowed it to happen again.

Now, the worst part (that I will not take a picture of) is they are peeling. It is so gross. Having never really experienced "peeling" all the kids found it fascinating. Wherever Brother or Peachy sits, there is a flutter of dead skin cells left behind. I am constantly yelling, "Brother, get in here and vacuum up your mess!" I never knew parents had to deal with such gross things like this! Do you think the other kids will learn from the others' mistakes? I hope so!

Yellowstone

Here are a few representative pictures of our family vacation to Yellowstone. We took so many pictures, it was hard to know which ones to put in here. I wanted to put the pic of Peachy looking miserable and holding her shirt over her nose. She really had a hard time with the smell. I, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of it. My favorite thing to do was stand in the direct path of the hot, sulfuric laden steam and try to soak up as much as possible. Clearly I have some deficiency (brain wise, or mineral/nutrition?!)

Also, here is picture of Maddo crumpled up in a ball sitting on the trail with her thumb in her mouth. Poor Maddo got sick of all the hiking, and all the in-and-out-of-the-car stops. At one point, she just sat down and refused to go any farther. KayBee was able to somehow talk her into going on.

One more picture -- Brother and the Buffalo. We saw so many, but we just had to take one representative picture when we happened along this guy so close to the side of the road.

Up a Tree

While in Utah, we met up with some extra-special friends that we knew in Alaska. It had been almost 3 years since we had seen each other. We spent a wonderful couple of hours in a nearby park visiting. While the mothers chatted away, the children found a little more adventure than we had planned on. Thankfully, they all made it back down safely. I had no idea they were up so high. It is probably good that I did not know until we got home, and I was looking at the pictures!