So I decided to uproot the garden this evening so the debris could ship out with the garbage tomorrow morning. We pulled up the tomatoes and got 24 cups of sauce put up in the freezer–as well as half a dozen red juicy ones sitting on the counter, the two or three Alden chowed down on while we were dancing to the blender and the batch of tomato cheese soup we had for dinner. I love my Blendtec!

Next we pulled up beets and radishes. The beets are bubbling away on the stove right now and I’ll throw them in the freezer later to put in my favorite smoothie.

And then there is the Big, Huge mistake… We had quite productive pepper plants this year. I stemmed and halved them. Then I made the dumb mistake of fishing through the bowl I had them in for any others I had missed. Oh. My. Goodness. I have already soaked my hand in milk with ice cubes for 15 minutes. It helped but the fire is steadily burning my hand off again. The good news is we are going to have a ton of roasted jalapeno, poblano and serrano peppers to make our life spicy.

Now, besides my red, swollen hand, I am trying to asphyxiate the whole family in a house filled with pepper fumes. Our lungs and eyes burn more the closer we get to the kitchen. Oh the joys of harvest time!

Yesterday Chad took the kids to Siena Mascaro’s baptism while I was at my Master Class. I guess Chad spent most of the time in the foyer with screaming kids and Alden gave himself a black eye. Glad I missed it.

We went swimming at the Murray pool after naps. Eden and Alden adore it there. I am usually pretty grumpy about going myself because it always seems like an ordeal. Chad always rallies the troops and gets us out the door. I am so glad he does. Every time we go we have a ball.

I started feeling pretty headachy and lousy so Chad came up with a great game plan for the rest of the night. Ahhh… movie night! Eden is now old enough to sit through a whole movie. We snuggled up in our bed with the lap top computer. Eden sandwiched between us with Giraffe and munched on popcorn. As soon as the movie was over she was ready to watch it again. 🙂 Instead we sent her off to bed. It was a great way to end the day.

As I mentioned in my entry about my master class. I often wonder at all I could have learned had I been enrolled in a vocal performance program. Part of me wants to kick this Bachelor of General Studies to the curb. I want to race up to the University of Utah and bang down the music program’s door until they let me come in and learn all the amazing things vocal that I never allowed myself to pursue before.

And then there is Shawna Gottfredson. God bless her! She went back to school when her youngest was a senior. She has had a rich and diversified teaching and performing career, and has a great life ahead of her to continue enjoying success. I am so grateful for a woman as accomplished and inspiring as she is to be my mentor.

I too have a rich life ahead of me. I’ll finish my undergrad degree next year (I hope) in family studies. It has proven to be interesting and practical. I’ll have time and energy to enjoy my young family as they grow. I’ll have opportunities to perform in recitals and local productions. Then we’ll see where life brings be and what will fulfill after that. But the life ahead will certainly be one of beautiful growth and success.