Tales of a Shoebox Princess

 Matt came home and the rest of the children wanted to say hello. So they all came for a visit. Katie of course has her own house close by so she didn't need to stay with us, but the others all had to share space in our little house. Matt has his own room, Jimmy and Jimmy used the family/tv room (Blair couldn't come), Hayley (Austin couldn't come either) slept upstairs on the couch, and Paul and Bethany used the little room/Jim's office. We all squooshed in together and had a good time. Friday night, Katie came over and the kids all stayed up much later than Jim and I did; we fell asleep to the sound of them all laughing downstairs. It was a pleasant sound. Hayley was first to arrive. She immediately set to playing Mario Kart with Matt. Then the Jimmys showed up. Little Jimmy found a tiny plastic pumpkin and put his nuggets in it. Then Katie brought her kids over and Caroline and Little Jimmy played in the same area. They didn't play together so much as they were in

 Two years ago, we sent Matt off to the Arkansas Little Rock mission. Many things changed while he was serving, namely the communication policies between missionary and family. With our other two boys, we got weekly emails and 2 phone calls a year on Mother's day and Christmas. The new policy is much more family friendly, weekly chats via messenger, or calls as initiated by the missionary, in addition to the emails. I enjoyed seeing my little elder's face whenever he would video call us.  The two years are up, and yesterday, we met him at the airport and welcomed him home!  Here we are with our posters. Jim has a welcome mat to welcome Matt THERE HE IS! So far, he looks good! Huggies! And a huggie for dad Welcome back and happy birthday! I still giggle with the Welcome Mat/t Frowning at the IHOP Happy at the IHOP birthday cake after the mission release frowning again

Earlier this year, Jim was nice enough to build me a second garden bed. Katie and Christian helped also. We were amply rewarded with overflowing produce this year. I had more cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes than I could do anything with (note to self: next year if Katie wants cherry tomatoes, she has to plant them in her own dang garden. It's Beefsteaks, Celebritys, Homeslices, and romas for me next year). I did freeze some of the tiny tomatoes, but really, they are kind of pain if you don't just eat them off the vine, which I don't.  I got 6 or 7 gallons of frozen beans and that doesn't count all the beans we just ate right after picking or shared with Katie. I have several bags of frozen carrot slices and chopped green peppers and tomatillos. And I picked a gallon of carrots just today. They're the last ones. I still have lettuce growing, haven't bought lettuce all summer!  The biggest success this year has been the bell peppers. I'd never been able to