SQUASHIN WITH MY BABY

Dear Ethyl...
Today is officially squash day at the Latham house... Finally!  I love squash day!  It's the funnest most satisfying food storage.
 4 EAST STEPS...
1- Peel squash
2-Scrape out seeds
3-Cut in cubes
4-Put in freezer bags
 Ta Da!!  That's it!
We got 45 quart bags. Then to use them you just smack the bag on the counter to separate cubes and put it in crockpot soups, stews, fry them in a pan and put in pasta with salmon or as a side, or make squash bisque (that's soup for those of you who don't know what bisque is. he he) I am also going to try it for breakfast with rice and brown sugar since I can't have oatmeal or anything.
I love squashing with Will!

You need a big strong handsome man to peel and cut the squash since we  weak fragile
females have such a hard time!  He He.. it's so convenient too!

He loves it... You can tell

This baby weighs 41 lbs.  That's as big and tall as Daniel.
It's Will's pride and joy.  It's been on display at his office for a month.

Squished by the squash.  I named him Freddy

Freddy got disemboweled.  Poor Freddy!

Will's new crossfit equipment. It's called the squash hat.  His neck had a hard time holding it up.
Can anyone say gnome?

Will had separation anxiety... Poor Will!

ME AND MY GIRLS

Dear Ethyl...
Jes and Shaun came down for the weekend to go to his family reunion in park city.  Jaci did Jes's hair and we went to lunch at...  Sizzler cause Jaci had to work.  Then Jes and I went shopping at Plato's closet.  She got her first paycheck and was so excited to spend it on herself.  Shaun needed us to withdraw money to pay will back for the Alaska trip. I was driving so I did.  I just drove off without his card. OOPS!  I feel really bad about that! So they are staying an extra night so they can go back to the bank and get the card back out of the ATM.  I think I'm fired!  But we get an extra day of fun family time. Jaci just got here and she and Silvi are doing Disney karaoke. We will all do it when everyone gets here. Jes gave me all her germs the day we went shopping and I'm sick.  I'm such a germ sponge. It was worth it!

CAMPING WITH THE FAM!

Dear Ethyl...
Last weekend on Will's birthday we went camping up Nephi canyon with Tanner, Hilary and Silvi.  Tanner got to use their brand new tent and chairs. We brought our homemade motorcycle trailer/camper and stayed in it.  We had a lot of fun.  Silvi thought she heard a bear and ran straight to the trailer. Then she heard something else and ran straight to the trailer.  Then she saw a deer and ran straight to the trailer... She is so funny to take camping. She is all about taking care of herself and the rest of us can get eaten.  he he!
The next day we cut firewood. Tanner LOVES IT!!  He thinks he wants to be a lumberjack. He needs a woodpile to vent his frustrations and ground.  Kinda hard to find in Salt Lake!  We cut wood because apparently we need a wood stove to heat our house and save us money because the pellet stove we bought last year just isn't cutting it.  Plus... we could use one more HUGE chore every year to get ready for winter because we don't have enough to do already.  
Later that night we went to dinner at Macaroni Grill and went bowling at the Riverwoods. Love my family!

Great Camping Hair!

Isn't she cute in her brand new tent!

Love my trailer!!

IS THIS REALLY RESTING?

Dear Ethyl...
It's kinda been a rough 2 weeks, but so good at the same time.  I've had some lumps in my breast that have been on either the right or left side for a few years now.  They are estrogen fed and are just cysts, but painful.  
I looked on the computer and found that they are thyroid related and lack of iodine.  Soooo... I went to Dr. Kofford and got the NAET treatment for thyroid and cysts w/ estrogen combination. Then I went completely off my estrogen patch and off my rocker for about 2 1/2 weeks.  Did you know that estrogen effects absolutely EVERYTHING?  Well it does.  Lack of it even made my eyes ache bad (since my LASIK)  I couldn't watch tv, look at the computer, be out in the sun or look at my phone. It also made every nerve in my body hurt.  If the end comes and I run out of estrogen... just throw me over a cliff and we'll all be happier! I upped my progesterone and started taking iodine then had to back way off the iodine but the lumps are gone and so is the pain!  I love NAET!
I tried to rest but I realized I don't know how and it's almost impossible for me.  So while I was "resting"  I bottled tomatoes, painted shutters, made new planner pages, rearranged my porch, cleaned, organized the downstairs, went to Silvi's piano recital, picked up a wood box, a big basket and shutters from the antique store, etc...  Here are some pics of my new planner pages.  I make lots of them to fit with my life.  As my life changes, so do my planner pages because I can't do life without a cute planner, even if I don't use it a lot sometimes.

These pages are my favorite ones so far!  Aren't they super cute?
And I love my grocery list. Looking at lots of colors makes me happy.  I guess that's why I surround myself with fun colors.  I even pick out what to wear everyday according to what color makes me feel good. Is that weird?

HERE IS SILVI AT HER PIANO RECITAL.  

She played her own composition which was really good.  I told her I wanted her to write a song called... 

CRAZY AUNT WENDY.  We'll see if she'll actually do it.

FALL PROJECTS

Dear Ethyl... It is thinking about becoming Fall, which is my very favorite season of the year!  Although Summer is right up there with it.  I like to think of summerfall as just one big, long season.  But... fall means lots of projects getting ready for winter.  We have to be prepared to hibernate, right?  So here is a list-

SOME OF OUR PROJECTS  by Wendy Latham
Drain, clean and take down the swimming pool
Put away patio furniture-when it gets cold
Weatherproof the wood beams and the playground out back-UGH!
Bottle salsa, spagetti sauce, beets, squash (and freeze it), meat, peaches, applesauce & applejuice
Pick rasberries every other day & freeze
Pull up plants and till the garden
Will wants to build a carport before winter...GOOD LUCK!
Change our pellet stove for a wood stove
Cut 2 or 3 chords of firewood
Cut back my daylillies and daisies and comfrey
Winterize plants
Kill destructive little family of squirrels who looked cute and innocent at first but have wreaked havoc to our cherries and apricots. Took every last one, ate the pits and left the rest for us to clean up
Fix wheat grinder so I can make wheat bread for Will
Go on as many motorcycle rides as possible before it gets too cold

Build shelves in the storage room downstairs... Aren't they BEAUTIFUL!  This is the best storage I've ever had!  Will is AMAZING and TALENTED!  He can make ANYTHING!  Before this, all my bottles were on the floor in piles.  It makes it really hard to rotate or even see what I have.  We love this sooo much that Will is going to build shelves around the entire room.  I AM SO EXCITED!  He's my Hero!!

This is our cute back patio... We spend lots and lots of time out here in the summer!  It's different now that the kids have moved out.  We used to have lots of people over for BBQ's all summer long.  We've had a couple this summer.  Maybe more next year...This year I'm tired.   You can see the playground behind.  Daniel wouldn't play on it this summer after he got stung by a wasp on it.  Go Figure!  It's always kinda sad to have to put it away in the fall every year!

FUN WEEKEND

Dear Ethyl...  We had a fun weekend on the 4 wheelers again.  This time with Tanner, Hilary and Silvi.  We went up 4 mile canyon again and had lunch.  It was the funnest day.  We laughed and just had a great time. Tanner and Hilary stayed til 9:30 that night.  I had so much fun with Hilary.  She really is fun!  We've spent a lot of time on the 4 wheelers this past month.  The weather has been great.  We are SO LUCKY that we live where we can just hop on the  4 wheelers and ride to wherever we want from our house.  We can also get on the motorcycle and in less than 10 minutes be up the canyon. The same can be said for any other outdoor thing we want to do.  Life really is so much fun.  You just need to have the eyes to see it and enjoy it, and the desire to make it fun!

SOME FUNNY THINGS...

 Dear Ethyl...   There have been some funny things that have happened in the past week or so.
#1-  I was bottling more spagetti sauce and the glass top on my stove shattered!  Weird huh!  I've bottled every year for 6 years on this same stove, but I guess this year was the lucky one!  We ordered in a new top and trays and the metal grates.  It was cheaper than buying a new stove and mine still works good. I guess I just have POWERFUL canning energy that I haven't fully learned how to control yet!

#2- Will showed us his Amazing BBQ skills this week.  Can anyone guess what these are? he he  They are tomatoes. We have an ABUNDANCE of them in our garden this year. Will put Azomite on our plants and the tomatoes are HUGE and the best ones we've ever had.

 #3- Will has been working sooo hard this week that it finally caught up to him.  This is at the dinner table right after dinner.  He never even made it out of his chair.  The funny thing is that he looks like this in church on Sundays sometimes too!!

#4-  I had another eye doctor appointment this week for a follow up.  I waited for no less than an hour and the doctor was in there 3 minutes...no exaggeration!  I had to find things to do to entertain myself while I waited.  I think I'm becoming more like Will.  He loved to go through all the doctors cupboards and play with the stuff in it.  My eyes are healing beautifully.  I still get some blurry days and they are really dry a lot, but that will pass in time. I LOVE MY NEW EYES!!!!!!  I don't think I can ever be grateful enough!