Back to my roots.

Today was the day, it was the day that my redneck clothes line went back up!! Banning took it down a few months ago when we were cleaning our deck off in anticipation of having company in the back yard. Apparently to him it was an 'eye sore'. Ha! Maybe so, but nothing beats the smell of our sheets 'line dried'...so this morning the post was put back into the corner of the deck railing, bungee-cord secured it nicely =) and the line ran diagonally across the deck and secured under the eve of the house. As I type this my sheets are happily (can sheets have emotions?) flapping in the wind!

My childhood memories are full my mom hanging clothes on the line. And having 6 kids that's a lot of clothes. I long for the day that I can have traditional non redneck looking T-posts to secure a couple lines to. Funny, Banning didn't mind when I had one in the backyard of our first place, but now that traffic drives by and can see our undergarments on display I don't think he's too gungho on the idea. Go figure!

Another way I dove deep into my family roots was to can a several jars of pickled beets. Mmmmm the house smelled wonderful!! The beets were pulled fresh out of my mother in laws garden last night and the prep work/canning complete by 3:30 this afternoon. I look forward to tasting those sweet wonders in a few months.
Tonight I'll be cooking up a few of the bigger ones that we pulled. Cameron is very excited to try cooked beets. I hate to think of him not liking them, but I know my son and I know his taste buds...liking them is probably not going to happen. What I do appreciate is that my son is willing to try them. He's also looking forward to trying the greens. That will be a first for both of us as I've never had those myself, so I'm looking forward to that.
Hoping by the end of the week I'll be knee deep in preserving more foods. I think Dill Beans are next on the agenda....oh and possibly some sauerkraut =)!

Keeping up....

...with this blogging isn't as easy as I thought it would be. But I'm trying...really trying to make an effort to get back into the swing of it!

Vacation to Disneyland was, well fun but tiring to say the least! My niece asked me if we'd be visiting the local county fair that is going on this week & ending this weekend. I shudder at the thought and asked her not to mention it around my son. Right now I have absolutely no desire to be in crowds of people lol.

I must admit though, a huge theme park such as Disneyland is second only to an international airport for people watching. If I didn't have a child with me I think I could have donned my sunglasses, found a nice shady spot to sit and people watched for most of the day.

We had many compliments on our first names. There was a cashier that worked one of the gift shops, said she'd been there for over a year and a half and had never come across another person with the first name Pepper. I was pretty surprised by that, I've met 2 in my 35 years and I don't get away from home much. The two I have met have been local too, go figure!

I can say it's great to be home. I reflect now on the many different personalities that we came across on that adventure of ours. Met a few nice and interesting families at the hotel pool and while standing in a few lines. Had a great waiter at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co restuarant at Universal Studies. What a great place to eat! Even Cam wanted to go back, although he wasn't willing to pay the tab so going back was pretty much out of the question. I highly recommend eating there though, if you have a few extra bucks to blow on a dinner.

Flying on an airplane for the first time was an absolute thrill for our little guy though, he won't be forgetting

that anytime soon! Grin from ear to ear!

Ok, maybe it doesn't look it in this picture. Did I mention that he was pretty nervous too? lol

It was a whirlwind 7 days! The boys loved playing in the hotel swimming pool too. We arrived on Tues Aug 3rd and starting hitting the parks on Wednesday. The only break from Disney was Fri when we spent the day at Universal Studios, then Sat it was back to the Disney parks. The best way we found to work it was to hit the parks early and be out by 12 or 1 and in the pool at the hotel relaxing. Six solid days of theme parks and we were all pooped! I figured my body was going to be tired at the end of all of it, but mostly it was my brain...people overload!! Glad to be back in my podunk small town lol.

If you plan on a Disneyland trip anytime soon I highly recommend using the Fast Pass option to see the World of Color show, it was spectacular. One night of being at the original park for the fireworks is also a must..so glad we did it! Even though we could see the fireworks from our hotel room it was nothing like being right there and experiencing the music and themes that went with each burst of rockets!! Wonderful!!

Life is like a pot of spaghetti....

...full of squiggly noodles and splatters!! But I roll with it and have fun! The weather around here had finally cleared and gotten sunny....we had a pretty good heat wave for a while but that slowed down this week so it just feels like typical July weather...NICE.

I took some time a few weeks ago and made it to a friends house to take some photos for her. We had a great time! The horses we ready to be worked, the cowgirls were ready to work them and I was ready to click away with my camera...captured some pretty go moments I think! You can go here to see what I took: Pepper-Miller-Photography-(PMP) but here is a sample of one of my favorites

Now that was just a down right great photo....in my opinion anyway LOL! We also discovered that beer tastes mighty refreshing when paired with eating cherries...mmmm, wanting some right now!

So as I now sit here in my kitchen, waiting for the man of the house to walk in the door I'm simmering a pot of spaghetti reflecting on good changes in my life. Praying for family and friends with any struggles and hoping that you my dear reader have a wonderful weekend!

I highly recommend:

this site The Pioneer Woman. Full of laughter, tears, life lessons and yet more laughter!! Not to mention recipes galore, photography lessons and tips on homeschooling. I've been a fan of hers for a few years now...and never can get enough.
For those of you who love to read I also recommend this portion of her website: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. Great fun love story...about the relationship with a cowboy that started it all =). Enjoy and leave me a few comments letting me know what you think!!

Mmmmm

Bread and Butter pickles.....I just puckered at the thought and grabbed the jar out of the fridge...and that's all I'm going to say about that!!

The countdown...

This is a sight that will greet you when you walk into our living room.

You may not be able to tell what it is...but it's there nontheless. Hanging like it's been there forever...although it hasn't been. But we are counting the days....it's gotta fall sometime...

You see it all happened two weeks, plus one day ago. Count that...15 days ago; I had my niece MA here and C's good buddy N. They were busy playing, goofing off as only two 6 year olds and one 10 year old can when C decided to throw his 'sticky hand' up on the ceiling. They had been playing at this off and on while they were here, but this time the darn thing stuck and it wasn't falling anytime soon...as you can tell.

Bit by bit it slowly is working it's way to it's gravitational destination (i.e. the floor). And this is where it's at now:

This thing is literally hanging by a thread. Not sure how it's still there, but I do think I'll be kinda bummed when it does fall.

Wow, starting a business......

is hard work! Yet I know that this will work out and be so rewarding. Nothing is written in stone, yet, but I will be obtaining a business license for my photography work. And if all goes as planned a friend will be partnering with me in this endeavor! We are both so excited!!

A few weeks ago I did a shoot with some western props. It was fun and good experience I think, it also drew in a few potential clients for purchasing said photos. It also may have generated clients for future photo shoots. Ahhh, it's all happening so fast!!

Needless to say I don't want any of this to turn into grudge work for me, so I'm going to try and take it easy, go with the flow and just enjoy it all. There is so much to learn so I'm hitting the books! Ahhhh....life - a work in progress!!!!