Big Boy Bed

This week saw the end of an era at our house. For the first time in 8 1/2 years we took down the crib and put it in storage. JD moved to the toddler bed. I seriously think the crib to bed transition has gotten easier with each child. Hayden didn't have any trouble and neither did JD.
For a few weeks now JD had been putting himself to bed and getting himself out by climbing over the side of the crib so I guess it was time.
For now JD will stay in his room by himself. We might do a little rearranging later this summer. The boys room is (hopefully) going to be getting new carpeting sometime in the near future and we'll change things around then when we have to take apart beds anyway.

And, yes, the crib is only going to basement storage. We would love to bring it up for a new little Shown sometime if it works out that way!

Garden 2010: June 13

I took the pictures of the garden last weekend. What a difference a month makes! (See first garden post of the year here.) We've had a few problems this year. Although they weren't interested at all in the garden last year... the birds are taking more than their fair share this year.


We've seen them in the garden plucking lettuce leaves. They've pecked holes in my strawberries. I strung up some pieces of foil pan to help scare them off. It helped some. We love birds and bird watching but we're going to have to draw the line at watching them peck and ruin all our hard work.

The strawberries survived the transplant with no problems. The herbs are HUGE, about 4 times the size they were last year! The heirloom plants we got from the UWGB sale are doing well (except for the one I put in a pot).

The weather has been cooperating the last couple weeks with just enough rain. We haven't had to water, which is nice and saves us on the ol' water bill. I have been wanting to get a barrel to collect rain water from the roof to help during the dry stretches but haven't found a free barrel anywhere yet.

I'm about to head out to make our first radish harvest. They are ready to go! I'm looking forward to some freshly harvested lettuce salads later this week! How is your garden doing?

Fresh Taste of Summer House Party

This past Friday I hosted a Fresh Taste of Summer House Party. I ended up with 11 guests and we had a great time canning salsa! Ball was nice enough to send everything we needed (for free!) except the fresh veggies.
These House Party parties are a pretty neat concept... it the newest form of advertising... getting products into people's homes where people can try them out and spread the word. If you ever get invited to one, you should definitely go... there is nothing to buy... just free stuff and fun! Consider signing up to host a party too... you get to keep all the free stuff the companies send you!
My friend Candy brought some super cute cookies that went well with my Fiesta theme! Not only were they cute but delicious as well! (Thanks, Candy!) If you've never had your cookies turn out that cute don't feel bad, Candy is a pro.
Many hands make like work! It's true. With the assistance of many helpers, this batch of Zesty Salsa was made a lot faster than the trial batch I made myself. I hope they can all come back the next time I can something!

Everyone got to take home a goody bag full of coupons and freebies. And two guests won extra prizes!
I have a few leftover coupons for the Ball Blue Book ($1 off) and Canning Discovery Kit ($2 off) if you are interested let me know and I'll mail them to you. With these coupons you can give canning a try for under $20!

2010 Bellin

What do Jerry and Roz have in common with Jared (of Subway fame), The Biggest Loser's contestant Cathy Skell, and over 18,398 other people? They all ran the Bellin 10K this morning. La Force (the company Jer works for) had the honor of highest corporate participation percentage for the 4th year in a row. As an extra special treat La Force was treated to a free Subway lunch and a visit from Jared on Thursday.

Jerry has been training for several weeks now. Roz, of course, is young and didn't train one bit. They left bright and early this morning. I literally stumbled outside half asleep to take these pictures...

Once I was awake I got the boys up, fed, and out the door to be in place to watch the race leaders run past the half way mark at about 8:15am (that's got to be a record of my own!). We watched and waited patiently and cheered Daddy on as he went by about a 20 minutes later. Roz followed another 20 or so minutes after that. (Jer and Roz ended up in different "waves" so they left the start line at different times and were not running together.)



The weather sort of cooperated. Thankfully, it was NOT hot (actually it was a little chilly as a spectator). It didn't rain hard but lightly misted... just enough to get everyone a little wet. Wet enough that we headed home as soon as Roz went by instead of watching a bit longer.

I didn't get any shots at they ran past me, but I'll post the official finish line photo links when they're ready. Jerry finished in 1:05:48 and Roz in 1:13:41!! Good job you guys! You have until June 11, 2011 to recover!

Fun with Dry Ice

I occasionally take surveys of one kind or another to earn a few extra dollars. Every so often I answer the questions right and actually get to try a new product. Last week I received a frozen meal to try. It arrived in a small cooler packed with dry ice.

The last time we got a package with dry ice I just put it in a bowl with some water to show the boys the "fog". Not being one to waste a learning opportunity, this time I went online and searched a bit to see if we could be more creative in our experiments.

So we tried this dry ice experiment with soap bubbles. Sites listed various (more complicated) methods to create bubbles but we found that if you just put some good soapy water in with the dry ice and gave a few blows you'd get plenty of bubbles. As you will hear... the boys thought it was great!




We also chopped a few chunks off to see if we could blow up a balloon. We could. The kids were pretty impressed and asked to draw a face on the balloon! The hardest part about this experiment was finding a bottle with a mouth big enough to get the dry ice in but small enough to stretch a balloon around!


Actually, the boys were impressed with all the dry ice fun we had. It's good to know it doesn't take much to entertain us!

House Party!

A few months ago I signed up with House Party to see if I could try some products for free.

This what their website says:

A House Party^™ is thousands of parties across the country, hosted by people like you. Each event is sponsored by a leading brand and focuses on something cool that the sponsor wants its best fans to experience firsthand and share with their friends.

Once you sign up you get emails about upcoming parties that you can apply for. If chosen, you will be a party host. The company sponsoring the parties sends you their products and you invite your friends. There is nothing to sell. Companies are using these parties as a new type of advertising. (You can read more about how it works here.)

A few emails came after I signed up, but it was nothing I was really interested in. Then I got an email for a party that I really wanted! Jarden Home brands, the makers of Ball and Kerr, were going to be sending canners and supplies for a canning party. So I applied. I was super excited when I found out that I was chosen to be a party host!

I've canned a few times in the past. I would have canned all those jalapenos from last years garden but I ran into a problem. When we moved to this house we inherited a glass top stove and my old enamel canner (that I got at the thrift store for a few bucks) is not safe to use on my new stove. I researched a bit online and several sites said you can't can at all on a smooth top stove so I pretty much gave up. When I saw that this party included a canner that works on ALL stove types... even glass tops... I was so excited.


Friday night my host package arrived and it was better than I expected! This is what I got:

• Elite Stainless Steel Waterbath Canner with Canning Rack (it's beautiful!)
• Ball 4-piece utensil set
• Ball Canning Discovery Kit (see below for a description, it's really cool!)
• Ball Blue BookGuide to Preserving (2 copies)
• Plus coupons to get 4 cases of jars free, pectin for the recipes, and a demonstration chart

My guests will get:

• Reusable grocery bags
• Coupons for them and to give their friends
• Ball Fruit Pectin (to make their own jam/jelly)
• A jar of salsa and a jar of peppy jelly with the recipes

I made a trial batch of the pepper jelly this morning. It went well! I haven't tasted it yet but it sure looks good! I still can't believe they sent me all this great stuff for free!

If you are interested in learning more, here are a few links for you:

• Ball's website Fresh Preserving has all sorts of great canning resources and recipes
• The Ball Blue Book is the best canning guide (Walmart sells this for under $6)
  
• Ball's Elite Stainless Steel Waterbath Canner can be used on all types of stoves... including glass top!
• If you want to try canning but don't want to invest in a canner you can get a Ball Canning Discovery Kit which includes a how-to booklet, 3 jars with lids/rings, and a special basket that turns any stock pot into a water bath canner! (Wal-mart sells these for $10)

I will have a few leftover coupons for the Ball Blue Book ($1 off) and Canning Discovery Kit ($2 off) if you are interested let me know and I'll get them to you. With the coupons you can give canning a try for under $20!