wish me luck {canning}

today i will be teaching myself how to can.

salsa specifically.

i will let you know how it goes...

{i have an entire tomato plant more to pick outside too.}

:):):)

NOT sweet potatoes

{i spared you--you're welcome}

on the phone.
unloading dishes.
loading dishes.
so i could give chase a bath in the sink.
max playing with blocks in the front room.
brennan at preschool.
chase just fed in high chair.
strapped in.
cooing.
lovely, peaceful house.
i don't know how it caught my eye.
but it caught my eye.
sweet potatoes.
wait.
NOT SWEET POTATOES!
chase's hand in mouth.
NOT SWEET POTATOES!
tell sandie i have to get off the phone "right now."
click.
grab chase's hand out of his mouth.
smell his hand.
smell his mouth.
smell his hand again.
traces of "NOT sweet potatoes" possibly lingering.
maybe.
could not decipher if the smell was from the hand
OR mouth
OR both
OR from the NOT sweet potatoes smell he was sitting in.
sent max to get more wipes from the upstairs closet.
the entire way up i heard her repeating,
"uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, uh oh" in a happy carefree chant.
i, of course, took a picture to send to sandie.
and sean.
and linsey.
and natalie.
and once i cleaned everything up,
put the high chair cover in the washing machine,
wiped everything down three times,
and got chase in the sink for a bath,
i called natalie,
where she assured me "lots of babies eat their own poo,"
{she giggled a little bit too, which made me giggle, and confess of an incident with max two weeks ago}
"not to worry."
she said again.
then max and i got chase all dried off and lathered up in pink baby lotion,
into some clothes for the first time all day.
and started cleaning up blocks.
and then i saw it.
and smelled it.
a not so bad version of not sweet potatoes on max.
not from chase.
just max's turn.
and it had me laughing all over again.
and wishing i had waited to start the green button on my washing machine until after i had found what i found on max.
and this my friends is why every day is a laundry day in the gibson home.
and this is why i laugh,
take pictures,
and thank the good lord above for washing machines:)
THANK YOU for washing machines.
and sweet potatoes,
b/c at least we know chase is getting enough.
and in no need of suppositories any more.
besides,
i really have been meaning to wash the high chair cover.
WINNING!

how to draw spiderman

how to draw spiderman, in the words of brennan.

{my college art teacher would be so proud!}

1. a big head

2. two big eyes

3. a web covered face mask

4. two long legs

5. two feet

6. and spiderwebs on his body

--SO PROUD!--

a blooming artist.

now if we could just throw away those coloring books.

not good for creativity.

so my college art teacher would say.

{check out Pocahontas in the pics. she was "spiderman"
b/c the real spiderman was missing.
no need to fret.
he has since been found.} 

walmart looks like...

yep, i'm that lady

AND

yes, they're ALL mine:)

{on purpose!}

hello, my name is:

today is the first day of preschool.
brennan's second year.

i want to shout for joy and cry all at the same time.
the beginning of our last year of make believe adulthood.
next year with kindergarten begins real "i have a child in elementary school" life.
so we're going to enjoy every minute of arts and crafts,
field trips to pumpkin patches,
and sitting on santa's lap at christmas time this year.
and then be so glad that max will go to miss kim next fall.
b/c at least we'll still have more coming up in the ranks of make believe little kid land.
the preschool days i love so much.
4 years ago brennan was the same age as chase, plus a month.
i can't believe what 4 years has brought us.

if you cover up the tops of their heads with your index fingers,
the "twins" emerge in their faces.
with different eye color and skin complextion.
brennan was definitely more beefy.
i have to roll up the shorts to stay around chase's waist.
but this is why when people tell me he looks like max i say,
yeah...
except when he looks like brennan;)
max was screaming at us that they were all pictures of chase,
not brennan.
there was no convincing her otherwise.
i tried to reason with her.
it was funny.
pointing out brennan with his big brown eyes,
olive skin,
and dark hair.
she took off upstairs screeching in sing song-y tones,
"NO, ASE"!!!!!!!!!!
over and over again,
all offended like,
at high pitch levels only a girl can achieve.
sean and i just laughed.
and told her if she kept screaming all of the fairies would die.
brennan tried relentlessly to convince her as well.
he finally gave up saying,
"SHEESH!"
and went back to playing with his super heros in the end.
chase does have her skin complexion and eyes,
so i guess he just looks like them both.
i can't wait to see what he'll look like in 4 years when HE'S starting his second year of preschool.
with his piercing bright blue eyes.
and blonde eye lashes that give you a slow blink when he's trying to woo you.
boys are so good for the soul:)

sheets of white {a rain storm}

i really can't imagine a hurricane raining harder than this.

that's how hard it rained.

thick sheets of rain so thick that it looked as white as snow.

for a few moments when the wind blew in,

it felt as if the rain and wind would swoop up our house and carry us to Kansas all Dorthy like.

or guess she was swooped away FROM kansas.

whichever.

we stood there screaming on our porch in amazement.

waving at our neighbors across the street who had also come out for the show.

and then sean took off running.

the kids and i looked at each other,

laughed,

and took off behind him.

then we came back inside sopping wet.

freezing cold.

and brennan told us,

"we went out into the hot, and it was cold."

then we made hot chocolate.

the instant kind in the packet, 

with dried mini-marshmallows that crunch in your mouth if 

 they haven't been bathing long enough in the warm chocolaty milk.

whipped cream on top, of course.

i dipped a peanut butter cookie in mine that my neighbor had sent over with her husband earlier this afternoon.

{thank you home teachers, we love you.}

and then the sun came out, 

and we spent the rest of the night face-timing with grandma and grandpa ryan in california,

telling them about brennan's first day of preschool tomorrow,

halloween costumes,

t-ball games coming up this week,

acceptable t-ball snacks as it is my duty tomorrow,

and the large amounts of tomatoes we pick from our garden every day.

i also showed off my corn,

and my dad suggested we plow down one entire side of the yard for a larger crop next year.

he also called my corn "charlie brown corn,"

but i did not take offense.

it IS rather puny looking,

he is right about that,

BUT

it's the sweetest darn corn you'll ever taste.

they marveled at my pumpkins turning orange, 

and said we needed to move to california for a longer growing season.

i told them they should move to utah so we could bring them garden fresh tomatoes and sweet utah corn on sunday nights.

and then it was time to put all of the kids to bed,

so we blew kisses and said goodnight.

i just love our sunday nights:)