BEANS!

Behold my beans:

I had two jars that didn't seal, so we got to have a little sample this week. They're softer than I want them to be. I'm not sure that there is anything I could have done differently, though.

While we were prepping these beans, Scotty and I watched Hitchcock, so now whenever I look at a jar of green beans, I think about Psycho.

There's nothing unusual about that, is there?

Honking at my Own Risk

Remember how I have a van?

And how my van makes me really happy?

And how I keep bringing it up?

Well, you may be interested to know that I found something about my van that I don't like.

It all started last weekend when I went to run a quick errand. I was second in line at a left-hand turning lane (that happened to be in a continuous flow intersection. Raise your hand if you know what that means). When the light turned green, the car in front of me just sat there, so I waited a second or two and then gave what was meant to be a courtesy honk.

Like, "Beep! Beep! Light's green!"

Instead of a courteous beep, out came, "HOOOOOOONK!!!!!!!!!"

I was a little startled, and I panicked when the person in the car in front of me threw her hands out the window. Ack!!! She wants me dead!

Then I realized that the woman in front of me was broken down. I felt bad about the wrongness of my honk, so I got out of my car and ran up to her and - after asking if she needed help - apologized for my honk. I gave her an elaborate explanation of how I have a new van (I didn't brag because her car was pretty old and shabby, and I didn't want to rub my awesome van in her face) and how that was the first time I had ever honked the horn, and I didn't mean for it to be a HOOOOONK!!!!!! but just a Beep! Beep!

As you can imagine, the woman looked at me like I was crazy, but she refrained from stabbing me, and I at least didn't drive off leaving her to think of me as a total scumbag.

(Complete van-obsessed weirdo? Yes. But scumbag? No!)

A few days later I found myself in the same situation (but in a regular intersection, if you were wondering), but this time the car in front of me wasn't broken down. The guy just simply wasn't paying attention.

Because of my previous HOOOOOOONK!!!!!!-ing incident, I was hesitant to try the horn again, so I waited approximately five seconds for the guy to look up and notice that the light was green. This particular light happens to be very short, and if you miss the light, you have to wait FOREVER for the next one, so after the five seconds, I knew I needed to give the guy a little Beep! Beep!

I talked myself through the process. "C'mon, Britt! Last time was just an accident. You will be so light of touch this time that the horn will sound light and fluffy and totally non-offensive." So I quickly tapped the horn twice and flinched as it went BEEEEEP!!! Beep, beep, BEEEP!!!!!

I don't know how it turned into that, but it was not at all what I was going for.

So now I know... my van has a mean horn.

Three Babies

Baby #1

I just spent nine months trying to not care about the Royal baby. I looked away from the headlines in the grocery store. I avoided the trending articles on the internet. I refrained from googling "Kate's baby bump" and using an itty bitty ruler to measure its progress on my computer screen.

All of this is not to be a non-conformist but to do my small part to give the poor folks some privacy.

But now Prince George is here, and I can't stop staring at pictures of Kate's beautiful hair and her blue polka-dot dress. I see links to new photos EVERYWHERE, and I...

CAN'T...

RESIST...

Baby #2

Jimmy Fallon just welcomed a baby girl. For some reason, I feel like a close friend of mine just became a father, which is weird because I have watched exactly ONE episode of Jimmy Fallon. Ever. And it happened to be last Thursday night while I was waiting for my canner to depressurize.

But through frequent viewing of YouTube clips from Fallon's show, I feel like we are close pals.

Oh, Jimmy! I'm so happy for you!

Now please announce the wee babe's name so I can stop obsessing over it.

Baby #3

One of my best friends had a baby girl yesterday. Her birth was a little bit of a surprise because she wasn't due until mid-August, but Momma went in for her routine check-up, and her blood pressure was high.

Today I had the opportunity to go see the baby in the hospital, and she is so perfect. Born early, she weighed in at 5 lbs 15 oz. She is the smallest baby I have ever held. I could have stared at her little pool ball head for hours!

This has been a good week for babies. Keep 'em coming!

A Green Bean Kind of Weekend

This weekend we are spending our time repeating the following cycle as many times as we possibly can:*

• Pick green beans
• Prep green beans
• Process green beans

So far we have processed 28 quarts. Scotty and I make a great team. 

Sometimes I wonder if this kind of work is really worth it. After almost 24 hours of bean-related labor, I think we will have saved maybe $8 compared to store-bought beans. If there's one thing I've learned, canning your own food doesn't really save you a whole lotta moola (especially when you factor in the cost of supplies). It is time-consuming, and tedious, and sometimes you do hours of work just to end up with a broken jar or a batch of bottles that didn't seal. 

I guess the reason we keep canning is because it gives us a sense of accomplishment. Every single green bean in those jars has passed through our hands multiple times. We picked them, we washed them, we snapped them, and we loaded them in the bottles. 

It helps that they taste pretty darn good, too!

*Heh. Can. Cause we're "canning" green beans.

Checking In

Hi there!

Don't let my lack of blogging fool you. I am still alive. I don't really have anything awesome to say right now, but sometimes you just have to pop up on the Internet and be like, "REMEMBER ME?!?"

So this is my version of that.

(Remember me?)

And just in case you've been losing sleep wondering what I've been up to, here are a few tid bits from my life lately:

• This summer has been bombarded with stomach viruses. Daisy's had The Bug twice. I've had it twice. Nicky once. Scotty once. And pretty much all of our friends on the planet have had something, too. All within about a month's time. Yuck!

• Nicky started taking piano lessons right after school ended. Now my house is full of the beautiful type of staccato piano music that six-year-olds create. PLINK PLINK PLINK PLANK PLINK PLONK PLUNK (That's "Old MacDonald," by the way). I think he's doing well. Especially considering how little I am making him practice (heck, I'm just happy I threw the word "staccato" in there. Look at me being all musical and stuff! Who needs practice anyway?)

• I drank a Vanilla Coke today for the first time in about a year. It was gross. I never thought I would see the day when my body would reject Vanilla Coke. I'm still processing this phenomenon. 

• Scotty and I have developed an addiction to Hi-Chews. There may or may not be nine empty Hi-Chew wrappers in front of my right this second. We are not proud, especially since we are trying so hard to make healthier choices (see previous account of Vanilla Coke dismissal). 

• I love my van.

• One of my New Year's resolutions was to run a mile. I finally ran a mile for the first time IN MY LIFE on May 30. Then I quit running for about six weeks because 1) I got lazy and 2) I got my wisdom teeth out. It took me a while after having my wisdom teeth out to be able to run again (Oh! The throbbing!) but I'm doing it! And I ran 2+ miles last Wednesday. This is huge, people. You should be impressed!

• My goal was to reward myself at two miles with some new running shoes. I bought a pair, went to put them on, and discovered that I had two left shoes. A real runner would have tried both shoes on at the store. But then again, a quality shoe store would have CHECKED at the register to make sure they were selling a left and right shoe. So I blame them. Grumble grumble.

• I know that wisdom teeth are a boring subject, but can I just tell you one thing? I was not prepared to have huge, gaping sockets on each side of my mouth. How did I not know about the annoying holes that would be leftover after my teeth came out? What is my problem? As Gollum would say, "We hates those nasty little socketses!" 

Aaaaand, I'm out of time. Darn. I was just about to get interesting!

Currently {July 2013 Edition}

Reading: nothing! But this week I read Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander, Queen of the Air by Dean Jensen, and Being the Mom: 10 Coping Strategies I Learned by Accident Because I Had Children on Purpose by Emily Watts. Tomorrow morning I will decide what to read next.

Watching: So You Think You Can Dance and Master Chef. I also checked out Whodunnit last week, and I might watch it again. This is more TV than I care to be watching at any given time, but hey, it's summer.

Procrastinating: photocopying some baptism programs, planning Sharing Time, and purchasing some supplies from the Distribution Center. I rock at this Primary President thing.

Wanting: some new clothes. But I am standing by my New Year's resolution to not buy any new clothes or shoes.

Okay, I have a confession to make. I bought a pair of shorts and two shirts to get me through the summer. But I still think I'm doing pretty dang good.

Also? The shorts are hot pink and the shirt I got to go with them is bright blue, and I thought I was doing a good job being cute and colorful (I've never been very colorful in my attire - give me black, gray, and brown), but then I looked at myself in my at-home mirror, which is so much more telling than a dressing room mirror, and I realized I was wearing grandmotherly cruise wear.

I tell you no lie!

Why can we not see those things AT THE STORE?

(It probably didn't help that I went shopping at JC Penney. Or "Penney's" as the people who purchase that kind of clothing would say).

Craving: something cold and smooth. I'm not a big ice cream eater, but I could totally go for an ice cream type of thing right now. Also, anything with cream cheese frosting.

Wearing: stretchy pants and one of Scotty's t-shirts.

Relieved by: a $400 medical bill that I might not have to pay.  My insurance company has been wonderful to work with on this problem.

(The bill is from the mole/skin tag/wart removal in May. See if I ever let a dermatologist cut me again!)

Stressing about: language barriers. We have some families I need to go visit for Primary, and they speak very little English and/or have very thick accents. I really struggle understanding accents. In fact, I just spoke to a woman from Scotland today, and I couldn't understand the questions she was asking me, and I just laughed and nodded like an idiot, and she said, "You don't understand what I'm saying, do you?" I can't even fake it! I'm in trouble!

Missing: cool spring nights.

Excited to: take Nicky to see Despicable Me 2. I think I need to leave Daisy home. All she does during movies is pee. So we're in and out and in and out. I can't get the kid to pee at home, but as soon as she gets to the movie theater, she's peeing every half-hour.

Three year olds! Psht!

Neglecting: my appearance. I haven't worn make-up or done my hair all week. Sometimes I find this to be a rewarding experience because, on the day I finally do my hair and make-up, I look really good.

If you're feeling bad about yourself, just frump it up for a week. Then when you get all spiffied up, you'll think you're a supermodel.

Thankful for: my swamp cooler. I used to feel so picked on for not having central air, but now I'm like, "Wahoo! My power bill is less than $100 a month!" and "Woot! The replacement part on my swamp cooler is only $30!!"

There are a few downsides to having a swamp cooler, but I'm all for it these days!

Enjoying: the direct breeze from the swap cooler that hits me so perfectly when I sit at the computer.

(Yes, I still use a computer. Not a lap top. Not a phone. Not a tablet. I'm so out-dated).

I am also very thankful for the freedoms we enjoy in our great nation.

Loving: post-swimming naps. If you want your kids to take a good nap, take them swimming for five hours!

(Okay, so the swimming part is ridiculously complicated with three kids that could easily drown, but the nap? So worth it!)

Proud of myself for: running a mile tonight (my second mile of all time!!!) even though my wisdom teeth sockets were throbbing for the last 1/2 mile.

A Happy Clue Spartan Birthday

Yesterday was Sotty's birthday, and I wrote a super awesome post about him. Blogger has always been really good about automatically saving drafts, but lately it has been glitchy, and even when I click "save," it deletes my posts. So Super Awesome Birthday Post?

Gone!

And impossible to re-create because I was "in the zone" when I wrote the original.

Trust me, it was good stuff.

(And I may be embellishing a bit).

Anyway, over the weekend we did some fun stuff to celebrate Scotty's birthday. On Friday night we had our (almost) weekly game night with our Bestest Buds, Chad and Carlie. Chad and Scott'ys birthdays are only a few days apart (as are mine and Carlie's), so Carlie and I surprised them with...

A night of Clue!

You see, Chad and Scotty LOVE Clue, but there are a few games that Carlie and I refuse to play with them because... well... Chad and Scotty can be a little annoying during them. Clue is one of those games. 

So for YEARS, the men folk have been BEGGING us to play Clue, and we always give a big thumbs down to the suggestion.

Carlie and I decided that we would finally play Clue with Chad and Scotty for their birthdays. That, of course, meant decorations and themed food.

But not to excess. 

I cut a few shapes out of construction paper and hung a "Happy Birthday" sign, and BAM! We had ourselves a party.

For the food, we served Colonel Mustard Curry Chicken, Mrs. White Rice, and Mr. Green Salad. Carlie spent hours making a Miss Scarlet Cheesecake (which was fabulous and beautiful, but the photos didn't really turn out). 

The birthday boys were happy as can be, and Carlie and I actually had a lot of fun (it helps that I won three times).

On Saturday, Scotty ran the Spartan Beast, wherein he showed off his manliness by doing things like wading through mud puddles:

 

Carrying heavy stuff: 

 

Climbing ropes: 

   

Crawling under barbed wire: 

 

Jumping over fire: 

  

 And cannon balling: 

 

Yes, I am married to a Spartan, and I'm very proud of him.

But I'm even more proud of his devotion to his family, his selflessness, and his easy-going personality. Scotty is one-of-a-kind, and I am so lucky to be his wife.

(See how I got all sappy there? I do that sometimes!)

Happy Birthday, Scotty!