plum pickin'

At my mother's house, there's a great deal of trees. I mean, she lives in the country for pete's sakes. 
Every spring and summer she gets the enormous pool ready, makes her yard look immaculate,plants a garden, and makes jam and cans her vegetables for the rest of the year. This is on top of the daily chores of homeschooling two kids, feeding a household of 100 (slight exaggeration there...), tending to 100 animals (that's not an exaggeration) and still goes to her day job in the wee-hours of the morning. 
She's freaking Wonder Woman, indeed. 
When we came over, they showed Andrew how to pick plums from the tree. 
Even had a ladder all set up for those high up ones. They were so good!
So, if there's a ladder, a boy will climb it, right? That's the rule.
So Andrew did. And he got a bucket to stash his plums in. And he picked and picked.
For my photography nerds, I encountered a serious problem. Shooting pictures under trees is hard to do. Your subjects are in the shade and you get underexposed pictures. But I was also getting a background that was overexposed (the sky) and it made it really hard to edit these pictures :( 
So you either end up with a dark subject or a blown out sky...any advice?!
talk about screwing up a picture fast...
He didn't mind me snapping pictures of him like he would normally. He was so fascinated by picking the fruit and tossing them in the bucket. He said many times, "I LIKE PICKING PLUMS!"
He's a hard-working boy...just like his Moomie.
Jonah also tried helping. Then they started fighting over the ladder. So daddy had to hoist him up. 
His arms got tired.
After he gathered enough plums, he went inside and showed EVERYBODY what he had just done. 
And of course, Moomie is happy because it's one less step in her canning/jarring duties.

tour de pepper 2012

This weekend was my hometown's bicycle ride. It's in it's 4th year and it is as popular as ever.
It benefits Kids Across Cultures, which help kids from Mexico, China and Africa. 
And it is sponsored mainly by Dr. Pepper and Dublin's Bottling Works. 
Not my image: Image Souce
We've volunteered rest stops all four years and love being a part of it. I love watching them go by, cheering them. The riders who do stop, we love chatting them up and finding out where they're from. We even love to discuss their jerseys. This year I saw Gumby and a shirt that read, "If you can read this, you're too close". Smart rider. 
Anyways, we're always under sun early throughout the morning so it gets us going and having a good time.
 We grew a little restless sometimes...
Jonah decided to wack Carl with a road marker.
 
We're 10+ miles out from the tiny town of Dublin so we're in country land...
Weeds, longhorns, and grasshoppers--OH MY!
Hope to be back next year! Follow Tour de Pepper on FB
and see my other Dublin post HERE

silly {homeless} wittys

So we've moved.
But we are homeless.
Bouncing around from guest bed to guest bed.
Living out of suit cases.
Until we find a home.
We've been looking, arguing, and driving around all over the place to FIND IT. 
You know, THAT location. THAT kitchen. THE yard.
We've only started looking. It actually feels freeing and stressful both at the same time.
Is that possible?
Anyway, here are some pics of the last few days.