Kaylee's in preschool.

I LOVE these pictures of Kaylee, right before her first day of school, which was at the beginning of September. She normally hasn't been an early riser, but when I woke her up at 8, she was all smiles. She could hardly finish her cereal she was so excited!

We went the night before to pick out a backpack. Since school had already started for most people, they were really picked over. Then she saw a little pink princess one and said, "There it is mom! That's my packpack!"

This is a picture of her right in front of her preschool.

And here's the infamous backpack.

We are so proud of our little Kaylee bear! She's getting so big! And LOVING school!

My series of unfortunate events.

When it rains, it pours.

{WARNING} After you read this story, you might feel better about yourself.

It's a long story, but SO worth reading.

It started on a Wednesday night. My husband was on his way home from school, and our car died on him. He had to run 2 miles to get home.

The next day was Thursday. My husband drove our other car out to give it a jump start. It was enough to get it home so he could work on it.

I had to work that night, so I borrowed my mother-in-law's car. And that worked out fine.

When I got to work (I work the graveyard shift as an RN), I was hoping it would be a calm, relaxing night considering all that had transpired. However, when I got to work, I ended up getting floated to the intensive care unit, which is not usually calm and relaxing.

And it wasn't.

Oh well, I said to myself. I made it through a couple of rough days.

I had to go back to work again the next night. Unfortunately, the damage on our car was more than my husband could handle, so we had to take it in. When I woke up, I rushed to get myself ready so I could follow my husband to the car shop. Then I rushed over to my inlaws to borrow their other vehicle because they needed the one I borrowed the night before.

So I hopped in their truck and headed to work.

Traffic.

I made it to work however in the nick of time. I jumped out of the truck to rush inside, when I noticed that one of the tires on the truck was flat.

DRAT. What next?

I got myself inside the building. Walked in the break room. Power was out. Great. FYI, that plagued me all. night. long.

I was assigned a student. Not that students are bad, just require a little extra time to explain everything I'm doing.

Our patients were very busy. But usually after about 9 PM things slow down, and plus, that's when my student would be leaving.

Nope!

Apparently my CNA went home early, without finishing his work. So guess who had to do it? ME. Instead of things slowing down after 9 PM, they got BUSIER! The last time I remember my legs aching so bad from being on my feet so long was when I was pregnant. That was almost a year and a half ago!

Near the end of the shift, I remembered 2 things. One, that I had a family party that day, meaning I would get approximately 3 hours of sleep before I had to get up and get everyone ready. Two, that I now had a flat tire to deal with.

I mentioned to one of my co-workers that I had a leaky tire, and if he knew a place I could fill it up with some air. Cause that's all it needed, just a little air.

Well, he offered to come take a look at it. Guess what? FLAT to the rim it was.

LUCKILY FOR ME I had this guy! For about an hour, he worked at changing the tire. Half the battle was finding where the spare was and where the tools were. I stood there like an idiot the whole time because I've never changed a tire in my life.

So he gets the spare on and GUESS WHAT! It's flat too. But not as bad. So he offered to follow me to a gas station to fill it up with some air.

We get to the gas station, he puts in his quarters to fill up the tire, and GUESS WHAT! Doesn't work! Oh my word you've got to be kidding me!!!!

So we go to ANOTHER gas station, and thank goodness, we get air in the tire.

THANK YOU I say to him over and over. Poor guy, now he's behind in his sleep too!

I drive home slowly with my eyes bugging out because the truck feels un-even and I'm worried the tire will pop off. When I finally get home and crash into bed, I'm an hour-and-a-half behind in my sleep.

When my husband wakes me up (I was dead to the world), it was 11 AM. That's an hour later than I was supposed to sleep! Now we're going to be late for the party.

"Want to hear a funny story?" He says. "What?" I snap, irritated that I woke up late!

"Brenna drank a whole bunch of bubbles and I had to call poison control! But don't worry, they said she'd be fine. They said if she drank a lot, she will just throw up and have some diarrhea."

WHAT???? I could not have been more ANGRY!

Not that it was his fault, but oh my word what MORE could possibly happen!!

Then he went on, "She threw up a couple of times already. I don't know, should we even go to this party?"

But we had to go to the party. We just had to! My family from Nevada that we see like twice a year is coming up! We have to go and see them! It's out of the question not to go.

Brenna (our 1 year old) was asleep at the time. I woke her up, and she seemed to feel fine! GOOD, I thought. I'll just bathe her to make sure she doesn't smell like puke. Then we'll go! We'll be a little late, but it's fine. It's fine.

Get her bathed, get everyone dressed, we're headed out the door. Brenna starts fussing. I pick her up, she's warm to the touch.

Great. Well, I'll give her some Tylenol. It must be from the bubbles.

So we take the truck to my inlaws so we can pick up our other car. That's when it dawns on me, our other car has no air conditioning. And Brenna has a fever!

We get in the car and start driving to the party. By then, we're going to be over an hour late. And even though it's September, it feels like a sauna because it's so hot. And no AC.

I look back at Brenna. Apparently, the tylenol didn't bring down her fever. She's limp as a noodle.

So after all that, we didn't go.

Well back to life as usual. Sunday seemed normal, except Brenna was still sick and miserable, and I too felt a little crummy. Probably from all that crummy stuff that happened over the last few days.

Monday I still felt crummy. It had been so hot the last few days, I dressed myself and my kids in summer clothes, which seemed perfectly appropriate as the sun was out that day. The day began with me taking Brenna (who had by now recovered) to the doctor for her check up and dun dun dun....shots.

Next was the grocery store. I stopped at Albertsons, then we went to Smiths. By then, it started to rain.

I was determined though because Smiths was having their caselot sales. We were there for like an hour because the place was so crouded!

By the time we were to check out, Brenna was crying because she was tired and her leg hurt from the shots. Hurry hurry! I said to the checkout guy in my head.

Well, he rings up the total, and guess what, my wallet is gone. GONE. Nowhere. I search and search frantically. All the people in the line behind me look at me like I'm such an idiot. They cancel my bill. I beg the bagger boy to watch my groceries while I scoure the store for my wallet. I grab my kids and start running all over. They both start crying. I take Kaylee out to the car to wait and it's pouring rain by now. I ask the person at the service booth like 5 times if anyone has brought in my wallet. I call my husband, who is supposed to be heading off for school. I ask him to come pay for the groceries. He tells me to look for it first. I did I want to say but can't. I hang up and start crying.

Finally, I decide to call Albertsons and ask if they have it. They did. Oh my goodness, that' s good but I'm still crying. The bagger boy promises to watch my groceries while I go get my wallet. He thinks I'm the most pathetic woman in the world I'm sure.

My husband calls me and offers to come, and has missed his class. I tell him no, it's ok, but GREAT now he's missed his class.

So I drive to Albertsons, waited 30 min in line at the service desk, got the wallet, then went back to Smiths. All the while both kids are crying. Hopefully the meat in the cart isn't bad.

Now here's the happy ending!

We made it home in one piece. Brenna went down for a nap. We ate food.

We laughed about everything the next day.

The moral of this story is....well...I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Where were you on 9/11?

I remember where I was. I was a sophomore in high school. It was during first period, and I was in the middle of drill team practice. Our coach answered her cell phone during one of our routines. She went down to her knees and started crying.

She hung up and told us that the trade center was down, most likely from terrorist attacks. Some of us with relatives living in the DC area were also in tears.

I went to other classes that day, and the television was on to the news in each one, playing the horrific scene over and over again.

But I don't think devastation hit me until I heard later of the numbers that were lost.

God bless America, and those families that mourn loved ones today.

Recipe for Canned Peach Jam and Blackberry Jam

Here's what you need for the blackberry jam:

5 cups crushed blackberries (not pureed, but mashed with potato masher)
7 cups sugar
1 (1 3/4 oz) package regular powdered fruit pectin

{makes 5-6 12 oz jars, or 8-9 8 oz jars}

Here's what you need for peach jam:

4 cups finely chopped peaches (pitted and peeled)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 (1 3/4 oz) package of regular powdered fruit pectin
5 cups sugar

{makes 6 8oz jars}

Peaches first!

1)Prepare canning jars and lids (I run them through the wash so they are hot, steamy, and sterile. Some recommend boiling the lids in water, then drying.)

2) Prepare your peaches.


3) In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine peaches and lemon juice.


4) Add the pectin, wisk until dissolved.
5) Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
\

6) Add sugar and return to full boil. Boil hard for 1 minute stirring occasionally.

7) Remove from heat and skim off the foam.
8) Ladle the hot jam into the hot jars, filling to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the top of the rim.
9) Wipe the rim of the jars.
10) Place lids on jars and screw down the bands (finger tight).

11) Place jars in canner (large pot with boiling water with lid on) and make sure they are completely covered with water.
12)Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.

13) Remove lid, let cool for 5 minutes.
14) Remove jars with tongs, cool, store!


Now for the blackberries. Remember, preparing jars are the same as above:

1) Rinse your berries, measure them, then put in an 8 qt pot.
2) Measure sugar into a large bowl.
3) Add pectin to berries a little at a time, stirring occasionally.

4) Heat on high, stirring until mixture comes to a full boil.
5) Add sugar all at once, stirring.
6) Bring mixture back to full hard boil, stirring constantly.
7) Boil for 1 minute.

8) Remove excess foam from top.

(Here's our collective foam cup! haha)

9) Remove from heat, ladle into clean, hot jars, once again leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch space at the top.
10) Wipe the rim of the jar and put lids and rings on firmly tight.
11) Process in boiling water as described above.
12) Remove and set them upright on a towel to set for 12 hours.

****After a couple of hours, you will know if your jars are sealed by pressing on top of the lid. If it clicks, it is not sealed. If it is firm on top with no give, you've done it!!!

Now the best part to making jam is when you get to TASTE it!!!

I made these heart and star shaped biscuits with bisquick (I know. CHEATER!) and cookie cutters! I double layer them so they are easy to separate in the middle.


Of course you can still put the jam on top!