The Calm Before the Storm

What a week. Tomorrow morning, the entire Powell Clan arrives on our doorstep. We are excited and we've been working like crazy to get ready. I went to the farmer's market this morning and got blackberries, strawberries and rasberries. I made a berry pie this afternoon, and its downstairs in the fridge waiting for the gang. I'm going to make scones in the morning, and coffee.
I don't know what we are doing yet - we may just eat and visit, we may go watch an Ems game or run to the ocean and run quads in the sand. I guess we'll figure it out when they get here.
Had a bit of excitement with childcare things. Went to where we thought we were going to put Emma, and found out it wasn't the place. Sat and watched and visited for an hour. Turns out the little boy with behavioral issues that used to beat up Jakey still goes there, and they put him in with Emma's age group before and after school. Add to it that they have taken in a pretty severely disabled kid that throws blocks and really needs some one-on-one attention, and it didn't look so hot.
Called the childcare at my work and even though they ALWAYS have a wait list, they had an opening. Took Em over in the afternoon to look and we loved it. She'll start in 2 weeks.
Date night tonight, not even sure what we are going to do but at least we are going to go out!

Texas Here I come!

Well I did it, I booked our trip to Texas in the spring. My cousin, whom I've never met, is getting married. I have been close to his mom for years and years - she is probably my all time favorite realative on my side of the family, but we just haven't gotten in the same time zone too often. So off we go, 5 of us on a plane to see the other realatives.
I hope we'll get to catch up with some virtual friends as well, and scope out where my Mom grew up, where my folks got married, and where my Dad taught British pilots during WWII. It should be fun!
Any of you that are familiar with the Dallas area, give me suggestions of what not to miss!

August

Hard to believe its August already. Violet and I took a spin out to our local farm and bought 10 pounds of pickling cukes. They are brine-ing right now in the kitchen. I'd forgotten it takes 4 days to do pickles! I'm anxious for the other fruits to come out so I can put away some preserves and salsa.
We stopped by the bakery overstock store as well, and metioned we were doing pickles. The girl at the register said, 'do people can anymore, isn't that a forgotten art?" I don't think it is, do you? I know a handful of people here that can and freeze and preserve food, and from the web it appears to be pretty widely spread. There is something so good about knowing where you food comes from, and whwat goes into it.
We took the RV over to the dealership and dropped it off to sell it. Hopefully they will have some luck, although I'm not holding my breath as it is a bad market. We expect an invasion of the family in a couple of weeks, so have a few more chores to get done.
Hope you all have a great week! We'll take pictures of our great canning event Tuesday and post.