Genius Child #3 is leaving the nest

The time has come. Genius Child #3 has finished high school, saved some money, and now he's ready to serve the Lord in Boston, Massachusetts. This past Sunday he spoke in his ward, Tuesday night he'll be set apart, and Wednesday he heads to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.

We know he'll do a great job. Just like his brothers. After all, they are the Genius Children.

Dad and Mom's new roof

As many of you know, Mr. Perfect is a structural engineer of amazing abilities. Dad and Mom M have decided it's time to get out from under their old roof and put a new, better one on the house. They needed structural plans to get the permit, so Mr. Perfect spent many an hour doing the plans.

First, we needed pictures of the house as it was:

From lots of angles:

And sides:

Once the plans were made and the permit granted, the old stuff could come off and the new stuff start getting put on.

It will be lovely, once it's finished.

Random duck sightings

When Most Happy Girl was in a singles ward, she was part of the most amazing group of friends, known as the Odd Ducks.

We weren't rich or cool or anything like that. We just knew how to have fun. A lot of fun. We had themed pot luck dinners (best curry chicken EVER). We had movie nights in the Parkers' basement. We would get together just to play board games.

Okay, maybe we were cool.

Well, the Odd Ducks slowly got married or moved out of the ward. In fact, I don't believe anyone still lives in the area. So, we decided (actually this lovely lady to the right decided) that we needed to get together again for a fun-filled picnic at Sugarhouse Park. And she was right.

It was the first time Mr. Perfect had meet most of them. Strange that none came to our wedding, but that is how life goes sometimes, isn't it? It wasn't neglect. Just time.

Well, the picnic was a huge success, and we're planning on another party in January -- indoors this time.

As you can see, even the ducklings had a good time.

Another random pie sighting

Mr. Perfect's favorite pie flavor (for the moment) is peach. Right now, peaches are "on" in Utah, so I decided to research a good fresh peach pie recipe and try making one from scratch, including the crust. I know, I know. I had a bit of a mental breakdown the last time I made pie crust. But this time I was armed with fresh flour and the knowledge that I did finally make a good crust for the apple pie last Thanksgiving.

Well, this one only took one batch of crust (huzzah!) and three large peaches. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of the huge fruit, but I do have pictures of the finished product. We took it to the cabin to share with Dad and Mom P and Painter Extraordinarie, Little Big Sis, and the three Genius Children.

None of the pie lasted the evening.

Adventures in canning

Or is that bottling? We have had a great time with our garden this year. Peas, squash, beans, carrots, and tomatoes. Yes, especially tomatoes. While others around us were suffering the blight of a bad tomato year, we planted a little later, missed the dreaded last frost, and starting picking lovely, ripe tomatoes in early July. It left us with a great desire to bottle them ourselves this year instead of leaving it to Mom M. We called Mom P to see if we could borrow her brain, a little of her labor, and her equipment for this endeavor.

Any who, on to our adventure. So, with bowls and bag of tomatoes in hand, we headed to the Parkers' to see how many we would have to put up. We here thinking two or three batches (with 7 quarts per batch). Oh, how optimistic were we. Yes, all of our hard work yielded 6 1/2 quarts. It truly is amazing how many tomatoes it takes for one bottle, especially home-grown, smallish sized ones. Needless to say, we got it all done in about 4 hours.

We decided that we wanted more. We use the bottle tomatoes for a lot of things, like making fresh pasta sauce and a dish we call Goulash, though I know it isn't really Goulash. It's just hamburger macaroni. So, we headed to Farnsworth Farms and Cider Mill and picked almost another bushel of tomatoes. It was frustrating at first. We had a hard time finding ones that were ripe enough. It took about 30 minutes, but we filled out box, paid for the pleasure, and headed out to the folks for more fun. This time, we got a full 7 bottles, plus extra tomatoes for eating at home.

I spent most of my youthful summers peeling various types of fruit with my grandma for bottling: peaches, plums, cherries, and pears. I loved pears the most. We'd peel them with a knife and eat the peelings, which would always have a little bit of fruit on it, too. Now, we blanch the fruit or tomato, and the skins almost fall off, leaving you a beautiful piece to put in the bottle, but I do miss the times with my grandma. *sigh*

Next, I would like to do pears.