Going Full Throttle

We have been going at full speed over the last few weeks so the long weekend was a much appreciated chance to slow down.  We managed to stay pretty busy but it was nice to have some uninterrupted time to be with Nathanial!

Most of last week seemed to be a holiday for our Texas friends.  Congrats for surviving the Bluebell famine, y'all.  Since we live in the land of no Bluebell, or Mexican food or Chick-Fil-A or Whataburger (wait, now I'm just whining) it didn't feel like a holiday for us until Thursday when college football made it's grand arrival.  My plan was to get home before Nathanial and have tailgate food ready so we could watch the DVR'd first half of the OSU game (because time change and the workday) in style. My plan was foiled by our local grocery store. I spent an extra half hour at the store wandering around looking for the ingredients to make cheese dip.  The state of Alaska has to be anti-cheese dip because most of the time the stores don't carry Rotel - I was relying on my stockpile for such an occasion- and the Velvetta was impossible to find.  I finally found the Velveeta (after asking) on Aisle 1 on a hidden shelf in the refrigerated cheese section.  Don't they know it's processed and doesn't need to be cold?  The rest of the evening went off without a hitch and the Cowboys won!

 

Victory cupcakes that may also have doubled as "chocolate muffins" for breakfast :)

Friday was pretty uneventful from a work standpoint. The weather around here is really taking the fall thing seriously. I appreciate the orange leaves but some sunshine instead of gray skies would be nice too. I got a Pumpkin Spice Latte on the way into the office, which felt pretty justified since I actually live in a place with Fall now.

On my way home from work, I laughed when there were geese in the road where I was needing to turn. It was a little game of duck duck goose.  

Nathanial brought home ingredients for gourmet make it yourself pizzas so we dined on those while watching my beloved Baylor Bears grab a victory.

I've had leg and heel pain on my left side for a while now and my running coaches finally convinced me I should see a doctor. I met with a physical therapist on Friday who banned me from running for the next few weeks. I was pretty bummed about it but did enjoy getting to sleep in on Saturday.

We spent the day watching home improvement shows and old movies. It was perfect.

We stayed at church all day on Sunday.  It made for a long day but the work we did sure made a big difference.  We worked alongside 2 other couples to spruce up the church nursery and it looks great. We redecorated with a Noah's ark theme - complete with moose!

We slept in again on Monday morning and then Nathanial decided to make some kolaches. He's the family breakfast chef - a fantastic one at that.  After that 4 hour long process was complete (SO MUCH RISING) I dragged Nathanial along to celebrate Labor Day by doing something Alaskan.

We ended up at a pick-it-yourself farm about an hour away from home.  The views on the way were great.  I don't think we have a future in farming though.

We got to the farm and were given the instructions which amounted to read the signs.  Don't go off the path. Read the signs.  Certain produce had a size minimum for picking and that could be found on, you guessed it, the signs. The signs failed to include what you should do with the produce or how to pronounce it - I'm looking at you kohlrabi!

We started off in the Rhubarb patch mostly because it was the first thing we came to. But also because it could be made into a pie which received Nathanial's nod of approval.  As we were picking we heard a father tells his kids "Come on , you don't want rhubarb, NOBODY wants rhubarb."  He should have said "Nobody from Alaska, that has it growing in their yard wants rhubarb." Since we neither have it near our house or hale from the Last Frontier, we were more than happy to fill a bag with it.

We attempted to pick broccoli but after walking what seemed like miles through the rows of picked over broccoli, decided there wasn't any left.  We did end up with some cauliflower. And potatoes. Lots and lots of potatoes. 

I have no idea what's in these next pictures because the all important sign isn't in view. I was going for scenic.  A farmer I am not. Ha!

Here's our wagon and two bags of potatoes.

And here's a Farm selfie.

We managed to leave the farm for only $11 for 5 bags of produce. That's a bargain around here! My Dad will cringe when he hears that since the last time our family went strawberry picking, it was over $200.

On the way home from the farm, we came across a racetrack with free parking and free admission. It was worth every penny.  My favorite race was probably the suburban that left a mustang in the dust. There were some real race cars too.  Nathanial knows the actual stats. I heard something about 5000 horsepower and saw one of the cars go more than 250 mph. That's about as detailed as you'll get from me.

And here's a video in case you haven't gotten your fill of loud noises lately.