Autumn News

We had a beautiful Summer in Idaho, but Fall will always be my favorite. The air is clear and misty, the wheat fields turn the perfect color of gold. AND I get to learn new things.

During one of his fishing trips Matt took this beautiful picture of a wheat field and pines in front of the Teton Mountains for me.

This year is my first real year to learn about Football. I knew football season was coming because of the commercials on TV and all the Jr. High and High School kids riding their bikes decked out for practice. But it had never occurred to me that College Football had a definite starting date. I never realized that Labor Day Weekend, although one of my favorites, was even more special to all those college football fans out there.

Well, my husband being one of those said fans, I'm learning to love one more thing about my favorite season. Yesterday, we ate breakfast, threw in some laundry, went to the craft store, then came home and settled in for a afternoon of knitting and football. Then we went over to our friend's house for a BBQ and the first BYU game of the season. What an exciting night!!! Go teams!

Matt's Favorite, and one for my boys in Provo: BYU beat Oklahoma 14-13 (that was a close one)

For my Red Raiders in Lubbock: Texas Tech beat North Dakota 38-13 (a smash)

And this is for you Luke: Baylor beat Wake Forest 24-21 (hope they hold strong this year)

And Mary, per your request, I thought this might be the perfect time to send a few pictures of our new player. She's growing big and strong. Doesn't she kind of look like a football?

Happy Autumn Every one!!

Garden Update

I know! It's way past time for an update. I was telling Mom about the things we were making from the garden, and she said, "We need to see pictures of your produce." So here you go!

For a birthday surprise, some of the Utah Svedins came to visit us. This is a pic of me and my sis-in-law Julia, and two of her girls in the tomatoes and squash. I wish I had thought to trim back that squash because now it's practically taken over the place.

A few weeks later, they cut the wheat field behind us. So I did a little gleening and came up with this lovely fall center piece.
Those are two of the acorn squash from the garden. If anyone knows how to make acorn squash soup without it tasting dry, please let me know. It's such an odd feeling to eat "dry" soup.

And this is for you Mom. The Produce! We have lots of bell peppers. They are all meant to be red and yellow, but most haven't turned color because it hasn't been sunny enough. I'm excited that we have such beautiful egg plants! I love egg plant (it's something about the spicy seeds). And then there are cherry tomatoes (and regular ones that got eaten before they were pictured) and that artichoke in the middle. I didn't know you could grow your own artichoke. I thought they just blossomed on the shelved of the supermarket. boy was I wrong.

Not Pictured:

We also have beautiful carrots that look perfectly long and round, big white onions, corn on the cob, spighetti squash out our ears, butter-nut squash, peas and beans, and potatoes like (about 150 lbs, at least). Oh, and brussle sprouts, swish chared, callard greens, and beats. It's been an amazing year. And a fun one too.

Pumping Iron

When I called my mom to tell her I was anemic, she wasn't surprised. Apparently this particular genetic trait has been with me since birth. Who knew. I never felt all that sluggish before.

When I asked the pharmacist how exactly to take extra Iron without feeling quite so icky, he said, "Iron is one of those things that will teach you how to take it." Thanks Doc.

So after a day off from work to recuperate from a growling weekend of training, I finally learned how Iron and I could be friends.

Now, Iron and an orange a day later, I'm actually feeling pretty good. So good, in fact, that I cleaned out a whole craft closet at work yesterday afternoon. Oh, but that's a different pregnancy symptom all together. More on that later.

Before we left town, we had to see the soccer stadium in Kaiserlautern. It was pretty impressive, soccer being the main sport everywhere except the U.S.

Then we went to one of my favorite places, Frankenstein's Castle. As you saw before, there are so many castles in Germany! Some are huge tourist attractions. You have to pay to get in, and then you have to pay again to take the tour. But some were tourist attractions 100 years ago and you just take a nature hike up to them, and give yourself a tour for free. Frankenstein's is one of these kind. I loved it!!!

There it is on the top of the hill. We're right in the middle of our hike. You can see the church yard right below it. Beautiful!!!

Sometimes I wish I had a tour guide with me because it was hard to tell what everything was. Here I am in one of the ground levels, but there's obviously a sealing missing and another level of windows right above me.

In the stair to the top. Watch your step. These stairs might have been cut out for tourists, but they are still so old and worn that a few aren't worth much.

Here's a pic of Matt and the city below. (Mostly Matt! That's what happens when you give me the camera.)

It had been an awfully hot weekend, which never makes me feel well, so after our hike, I chickened out and asked Matt if we could go find and check into our next inn.

We went to Weinheim, a little town outside of Mannheim, but the inn was closed until 4. So we went to get some lunch and ice cream. Here's a picture of Matt by a "Volks-Wagon"wheel.

We walked through another art park where Matt found a statue that looked a little like me. Then we checked in and watched a little soccer for the rest of the evening.

German Friends

When we first started "dating," (or rather, awkwardly visiting each other without calling first and hanging out on each others couches for hours talking about nothing is a better description) Matt pulled out a drawer of mission pictures and took me on a picture tour of that two years of his life. One picture in particular he was very excited to show me. It looked a lot like this one below, except that Matt is wearing a suit and these two fine people are on a different couch in a different living room.

He said, "I hope when I go back to Germany, I get to see them. They are some of the only people I would like to see from my mission." I would like to say that these two are also my friends now! We descended on their hospitality Friday night after our Rhine River trip. We both got hugs!! I was very excited that they both spoke English. They helped me out so very much learning a few word for the rest of the trip.

Friday night, we had dinner on their porch, then they took us to a carnival.
Saturday, we took a road trip to France. While we were planning our trip they asked us if we were going anywhere besides Germany. When we said no, they said that was silly, and since we were so close, we would go to France for the day. I'm so glad! Strasbourg was lovely.

Sunday, we went to the German ward for church, then drove to Mannheim to enjoy Luisen Park, a very nice park with lots of little parks, a zoo, and beautiful gardens inside.

Monday morning they had to go back to work, and we had to continue our tour of Germany. But we came back the next Thursday for a bit of fun and to say our goodbyes. Thank you, you two. Hopefully we can do it again someday.

The Garden

I've waited so long to put this up that I already need to do an update. This is what our garden looked like in mid-June when we finally got everything planted that we wanted.

Last year I loved my garden, but it was really just for fun. This year we have a serious garden, or at least I feel like it's all serious. I guess that's what I get for marrying the son of a gardener. I love it, but I forgot to plant the wild flowers, and we have many more rows of everything to weed. It a good thing I have help.

We got a lot of rain in June, other than potatoes, peas and beans, (or and radishes) we haven't seen many more finished products. But we have so many peas and beans, we were thinking of having a "garden party" and having all our friends come out and pick a bag. Wouldn't that be fun.

I guess I should explain why we live in an apartment down town and we have a huge garden. Each year the Church farms plant their fields and leave the sections by the road between houses and telephone lines empty. They can plow it up, but it's not easy to feed or harvest, so they plow it, and section it, and let volunteer gardeners plant, weed, and harvest it at no cost. They water it. It's basically the best type of community garden.

Adding to the Team

Matt and I have been waiting for the a good time to let everyone know about our future plans. Now seems like as good a time as any. Last weekend we came home with very exciting news.
Our doubles team will become a three-some in November. We're very excited to announce the quick approach of our little girl. (90% sure we're not announcing a boy, but if things change, we'll be just as excited, and of course let you know.)

Here are some odds and ends for everyone:

I'm 22 weeks along. (That about 41/2 months.)
I feel great (most of the time).
We're about 90% sure we're having a girl.
We have a list of names about a mile long.
My doctor says November 17th is the red letter day to look forward to.