Jeff and Kallie

This summer I made it through my first trimester of pregnancy.  Yahoo!  I can't complain at all because I don't think I had it bad, but that's in retrospect. :)  No really I was able to work all but a couple of days and felt only nauseated some of the time.  I didn't ever throw up (how many details do you want??) :).  And mostly I felt really tired, and that made me feel really lame and useless.  (Heather Walker, bless your soul.  I could hardly take care of my job, my tiny but grown family and my house.  I really don't know how you do it.)  Now though I'm feeling much better!  No more dragging myself out of bed at 8:15 (I work at 8:30) and falling asleep again at 9:00pm.  I'm making it to 10 these days :).  But I'm so glad to be able to wake up at 6:30 or 7 without feeling like I'm going to pass out from exhaustion and nausea.  Another great thing that's happened is I've been able to go back to my natural habit of eating an hour or so after I wake up, instead of making my first stop the kitchen in the morning, which was hard for me.  I'm beginning to show a small baby bump that actually looks like a baby bump instead of a bloated gut.  I'll post pictures later. :)

Jeff and I got callings in our new ward.  Jeff is the Assistant Scout Master which is the perfect job for him.  I think he really likes it.  Oh, and while we're on the subject if I can get any volunteers to come over for a slumber party when he goes on campouts, that would be great. Also while we're on the subject of volunteers, if I could get someone to come clean out my fridge that would really be something. :D - No takers? - Well....you can't say I didn't try.... Anyway, I got called as the first counselor in the Young Women.  It's been an adventure.  We only have about 10 girls, so we're a small group, and I'm excited to get to know everyone.

Lately I've been really into food storage.  And when I say lately I really mean since we got married.  Jeff's family is really good at it.  Anyway, we didn't plant a garden this year, which I'm pretty sad about at this point in the summer.  There's nothing like fresh veggies from the garden.  I'm dreaming of tomatoes and cucumbers and corn....yum...But we made the smart choice not to overwhelm ourselves all at once.  We moved into our house at the end of May, so that was cutting it close anyway.  For next year, we have an enormous garden planned out and I've got all kinds of plans for preserving the food for years to come.  I'm really excited about it.  Maybe a little too excited, cause really canning food is not that much fun.  I reminded myself of that little fact yesterday when I decided to make Grape Jelly.  Our neighbors have a grape vine that drapes over our fence and when they moved in they told us whatever grows on our side is ours to keep.  So I got all domestic, went out yesterday and picked our grapes.  Then I removed them each from the stem.  This is a job for slaves or kids....it is not fun especially alone....so if anyone wants to loan their little helpers, I'll take em for a day or two.  Anyhow after that awesome job, I put them to simmer for 20 minutes, like the directions said.  Then after that, I took my big ol' pot of simmering grapes and juice to the blender, where I planned to liquify it, like the directions said.  Something the directions failed to mention is this:  when you put hot liquid into the blender and turn it on, something magical happens.  It doesn't matter how full or empty (for the pessimists) the blender is, the liquid expands and explodes the lid off, covering you, the counter, the floor and anything else in the vicinity with boiling grape sludge, which if you're using green grapes like I was looks a little like puke.  I learned that the hard way.  Luckily I was on the phone with Tucker who told me he'd seen something on the Food Network about putting hot food in the blender, and you have to take the little plug out of the top.  Lesson learned.  Taking the top off worked.  Another lesson I learned is that the recipe I used was no good.  but I can say that I have 10 cute little jars of really tasty grape juice, which I plan to take out of the jars and re-do so that maybe it will resemble something you could put on bread with peanut butter and take to school without ending up with a PBJ drink in a baggy. :)  Needless to say after that batch my domestic feelings were gone, so I cleaned up the mess and quit for the day.  Wish me luck on the other 5 batches I have left. :)

Anyway, that's about it as far as adventure goes.  I will post some pictures for you later....sure love you all!!!

xoxo