Fall...

I'm so sick of all the facebook posts about fall, pumpkin spice lattes, drives through the mountains, sweaters, etc... If I see one more post like this I might punch a puppy.

And then there are all the beautiful pictures of changing leaves, and suggestions to go for a drive up big cottonwood canyon. BAH!!!  Will someone please mail me a box of fall leaves?!?

Also, if you're reading this and you posted on FB about fall and pumpkins and stuff, I really enjoyed reading it and I think you're great. :)

I guess I just feel like I've been kicked in the gut by California this week.  The barren wasteland that is California...  And by barren wasteland, I mean warm breezes, beautiful palm trees, green grass, flowers, sandy beaches, and crashing ocean waves... Poor me...

The weather, I hear, will soon become tolerable.  We've had less humidity, and are right around high 90's to low 100's. (104 today) No need yet for sweaters.  And flip flops and swim suits are still in full force.  I'm sure when you are all posting about shoveling snow, scraping ice off your cars, and cabin fever, I'll be thankful that all me and the kids need for a morning walk to the park are long sleeve shirts and maybe a hat.

But let me get to my point for this post.  I decided over the summer of humidity and triple digits that there would be no oven use between the hours of 8AM and 8PM from June until October.  So, as you can guess, I haven't baked in months.  Except for cupcakes for work, and that always happened after the kids were in bed, so after 8PM.

But Friday I broke my rule.  Thursday night while grocery shopping, I came upon a great meat sale.  Practically free.  I bought 30 pounds of chicken, beef, and pork.  By the time I got home I didn't want to deal with it so it all went in the fridge.  Early Friday morning I got up and planned to separate all the meat into family sized portions and freeze it.  But for some reason I decided to crock pot a roast and bake some chicken.

Fast forward 9 hours.

I had 2 crock pots, at least 2 burners, and the oven going ALL DAY LONG.  This was not my plan, but somehow it happened and I pulled it off.  The kids did great.  Played well, and took great naps.  (They may have faked like they were asleep because it was so dang hot outside of their rooms.)

But by the time Paul got home, there were 5 meals ready for us, and 16 meals going in the deep freeze that I'm going to ice pack in a cooler and drive to St. George when my nephew is born. Pasta sauce and meatballs, General Tsao's chicken and vegetables, Sweet baby ray's crockpot chicken and rice, several baked chicken marinades, taco meat, roasts with vegis, casseroles... My sister in law has had a rough pregnancy, and is on strict bed rest and has been for a few weeks and will be until William is born.  He's due on Addie's birthday (Nov. 15th) but the docs are giving her steroid shots and trying to keep the baby in until Oct. 25th.  He really wants to get out sooner than that, so we'll see.  Anyway, I'd go crazy.  And she obviously can't do much prep work, so that's why I decided to give most of the meals to them.  Preparing like this before Addie came was a life saver for us.  I love freezer meals!  So yesterday I went and bought 20 more pounds of meat to do it all again for my freezer.  I'd love to give individual credit to all the pinners and their recipes but I'm too lazy.  Just search my 'Plan Ahead' and 'Crockpot' boards for some good easy meals.

While things were cooking, Garrett and I invented a coffee table/couch jumping game.  It was mostly safe.

Addie was her smiley self and spent most of the day trying to take all of Garrett's toys.  So, the usual.

Can you see her onesie?  It has sports buttons on it and it says, 'Just Playin' the Field'.  Paul made it for her before she was born.

Anyway, I felt so productive!

And that evening I finished up a couple projects for Art or Archer.  I can't remember how I found Archer's mom.  I think she's a friend of a friend's friend or something.  But anyway, we're blog friends now.  Her little 2 year old boy has Infantile Refsum disease. There's no treatment or cure and it's a fatal disease. Adjusting to life post diagnosis has been extremely hard on Ashley and her family, and her creativity has been a good outlet for her.  She's having a fund raiser event on October 20th called Art for Archer, and all the money raised will go to the Global Foundation for Peroxisomal Disorders.  She lives in Mississippi but is also selling stuff on the Art for Archer facebook page.  I was quite a procrastinator, but finally got all of my stuff finished and packaged to send.

And then I got all the way up to the doors of the post office with Addie in one arm and these two ridiculously heavy boxes in the other, only to discover that our dinky little uptown post office is closed on Saturdays.

But first thing tomorrow morning they'll be on their way.  Bless you little Archer.  Keep fighting!  You can read his diagnosis story HERE.