Harvest.

I love this time of the year for so many reasons..

There is this, cool, fresh crispness to the air.  There is a definite smell to fall.

Flannel becomes a part of the daily wardrobe, sometimes 24 hours of it.

Fall pumpkiny, spicy scents for the warmer.

Warm hearty dinners.

Soup for lunch.

In the mood to bake (even more).

I like how it gets dark sooner.  It does get old when we start to crave summer, but I love having the family gathered in, spending the evening together.

I also love the abundance of the harvest, especially tomatoes.

I picked all of these off of one plant in one day.

We are in heaven, for a couple of days at least.

(We pray that we will still get more.)

Our last zucchini, but at this size, and how many we got, I think we (and our freezer) will be okay.

Catchin' up..

So, everyone is better, me included ;), and we have been doing summer all week!
Let me tell you a little of what we've done..

Went to the parade..

Went swimming..

And more swimming...

The only person who still needs the aid of a float or life jacket is Peyton.. Ashley and Lynn are both all over that pool floaty and life jacket free!! YAY!!
Keeping an eye on the garden..

I now know why "ear wigs" are called "ear wigs"..

Harvesting some yummy things from our garden..

And eating our yummy harvest..

Yesterday, we went school shopping.. found all needed supplies for both Lynnie and Ash and also found Peyton these cute flip-flops at Target.. I felt so bad putting her sandals on her, it had been a while, but she is no longer a 4..

And today, we went to the splash pad with some new friends..

And Peyton showed all her belly button. ;)

The girls enjoyed getting wet, then sitting on the cement and made "butt-prints"! They would look at the wet mark, and decide what it looked like.. some were hearts, some were bunny heads, complete with ears, and some looked like, well, butts.. it was a fun day! Thanks Kaycee...

Still have projects going on around here.. can't wait till it is all done!
I also got a new toy, but won't post until I get better acquainted with it. ;)

Goings on..

SO much..
Lemme tell you...
We are the proud new owners of new rain gutters, downspouts and fascia.. so lovely! Hopefully our basement is finished with it's leaking phase with these new beauties..

Merrill is still doubtful of the black color.. :P
It was so awesome! These guys did an awesome job. AVS contractors, if you need ANY service at your home, call them. They came out, tore off faschia, scraped off the hornet and wasp nests hiding underneath :O and then put up new. The trimmed out the garage door frame, and then another guy came solo today to put up the rain gutters and downspouts. It took only a couple of hours, and he did it all by himself!! It was cool to watch, they are seamless, so he had a big roll of aluminum, and he fed it through an extruder of sorts to mold it into my new, seamless, awesomely BLACK rain gutters.
We harvested some zucchini from our garden..

Peyton helped me unload the dishwasher..

Also slightly notable, but geeky.. we got a new phone book!! I was so excited (see, geeky, I know..) to see our name (hopefully nameS..) in there.. they FINALLY got it right: Merrill and Mindy Pitcher. Sigh... I've been trying to get that fixed for YEARS!!

my style of craft today..

this is what i did today: weed..it is making something :)
my fingers hurt, much like they do after an afternoon of quilting.. but the end result here, will taste better!

my style of craft today..

this is what i did today: weed..it is making something :)
my fingers hurt, much like they do after an afternoon of quilting.. but the end result here, will taste better!

THIS is summer..

Busy day around here today.. but it has been a fun day :)
I got the yard mowed, the garden weeded..Let me say, that next year, I will be employing the above ground method of gardening.. you know, using a barrier, perfect soil.. I have grass that is trying to cozy up to my yummy-ness.. Just let me tell you what a headache it is to pick grass blades from between my carrots (which I failed to thin out..) and the cilantro..
Lots of fun..
Our corn looks good.. if it doesn't taste good, at least I have some cute decorations for my porch this fall :)
We have tiny peppers, little broccoli starts, and green tomatoes.
The garden smells heavenly with the aroma of cilantro...
I even got a show, I am sure it was just for my benefit, from the Thunderbirds who are in town for the air show this weekend. So cool!!
My fingers are sore from all the plucking, but the break splashing around with the girls and eating ice cream cones helped to ease my pain..
I did get some cute pics.. gotta love good outdoor lighting.We hope that everyone out there is having an equally fantastic summer!!

And we pick up from where we left off..

So.. it didn't really crash, per say..
This (the video card) was part of the problem. After Merrill had some time away from our dinosaur (separation does make the heart grow fonder..) he sat down, and once again, tried to help out our ailing electronic. Some of the symptoms led him to believe that it was the video card that left our computer useless.. so with some help, he replaced it.
Yes, we still don't have enough memory, our computer is very old, and we are getting a new one.. that means I get PhotoShop.. YEA!!!!!!
I was going to get for Mother's day (that's what he was planning), when I found an e-mail from a friend to get it from Adobe at a discount. When I called Mr. Pitcher to tell him of this deal, he asked a few questions, told me of his plan, and said to get it, it was a better deal than he had been able to find. SO I am VERY EXCITED!!! Look out for a couple of blog makeovers!!
So, what does one do without a computer for a week+?
MANY THINGS...
For one, I am rockin' and AWESOME farmer tan...
Yeah, I know you can't tell very well.. I have been trying to even it out.. with my four days spent mostly out of doors...
I got my flower beds ready, front lawn thatched and mowed, even patch master put down on Saturday..
Flowers in on Monday..

Garden dug up (it's our first year although I have had the desire for 8..) and planted Tuesday..
We look forward to eating our homegrown fare..
Instead of the dirt it is nurtured in...
Look for an onslaught of posts.. there has been more going on than this!

She laughed at ME!!!

So Merrill has made Pey laugh... I could get her on the brink of laughter, Jen got her to laugh Sunday during Primary, which was so horribly unfair!!! (but cute none the less...) And I have been working on her every day...
Tonight, she laughed at me. She thought the word "giggle" was funny. I kept saying it, while begging her, "Giggle for mommy, please! Giggle! Giggle!" She obeyed my wishes... now if I could only get the three other people in my home to comply...
Ash, Pey, and I went to Lowe's today, I wanted to spruce up the front of the house. We got flowers and silly me, I got some cheap little plastic kid gardening tools for the girls.
Ash was more excited about just owning the tools, not so much about using them for their correct purpose... and Lynn... she wanted to plant the flowers so badly, she couldn't leave me alone. I was trying to get Peyton to take her nap, a much needed one, but Lynn kept on tracking me down, making sure that I had not gone outside without her knowing, and started with out her. So I gave up on giving Pey her nap. We went to plant.
See Lynn...
Sparkly shoes, skirt, perfect hair... yeah, she wasn't really into it. Just the idea of it. She kept trying to wipe the tiniest bit of dirt off of her shovel when it got on it, and planting flowers, it was there, always...
I did get most of them planted.
Tomorrow I start the treacherous task of getting the planters off of the deck, which is ready to collapse, by the way...
Maybe I'll be posting from traction tomorrow...
And running... well, walking mostly. We can't talk about "Twilight" when we are all running and out of breath! We go quite a distance, and it doesn't kick my butt, but doing my Carmen Electra DVD, "Fit to Strip", see I am working to alleviate the aforementioned issue... that, that kicks my butt. It hurts to sit, walk, eat, get up, laugh, stand, think.... okay, I am exaggerating, but it is doing it's job.