A Spicy Visit

My Madre is here for a visit. YAY!! I was a bit on the nervous side before she arrived. My laundry room was a ginormous pile of dirty clothes and linens, the house was still a mess from vacation, and there was no power.

A crazy storm that lasted all of 15 minutes, but caused major damage in the D.C. metro area, knocked our power out for 23 hours. It's a good thing Otterpop's sister lives near us. And has an extra fridge. And likes us enough to say we could haul ourselves and the food filling our fridge/freezer to their house. It seriously saved us.

We survived. And now Madre is here. Although she lives in Arizona, she isn't too interested in sight seeing when she visits. That's not to say she doesn't enjoy doing and seeing new things. She is truly here to visit and enjoy my cute little family. I love that.

Yesterday we took her to the farm where we picked green beans, peaches, and blackberries. It reminded us both of our days living in Idaho when Madre would wake everyone at he crack of dawn to pick beans so she could can them the same day. She really is the epitome of self sufficiency.

We made and canned salsa. From produce grown in our little, tiny backyard garden. With the exception of the vinegar and salt, all ingredients were home grown. The grand total yield was FOUR whole pints. I know...a lot of work for not a whole lot of salsa. But still, I felt so...pioneer-ey. And doesn't it look delish?

For Friday's agenda? I'm taking Madre and the girls to the Museum of National History. My mom has been known to make some pretty amazing quilts, and I really think she would enjoy seeing the quilt exhibit. We might even try to take a peak at the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, too. It should be great fun.

P.S. Funny, random story...Sweet Cheeks doesn't remember saying goodbye to her daddy this morning before he left for work. She was just too sleepy. The conversation we had was pretty funny because she swears it didn't happen.

It reminded me of the time I was recovering from anesthesia after I had scope done to see if I was Celiac. Otterpop decided to take full advantage of my state of mind and went to Red Lobster (he's a sucker for sea food, even if we were in Utah many, many miles away from the ocean).

To make a long story short, apparently while the server was taking our order I decided to use him as a head rest. I have no recollection of this, but Otterpop swears up and down it happened.

Poor dude. I'm probably one of the nightmare stories he tells when conversations about the worst jobs ever come up. Sweet.