The Red Cross called me yesterday to go to Texas to assist with Hurricane Dolly. I leave today, not sure exactly what town I will be in yet. If possible, I will add pictures and let you know what is going on.

Emily and Joshua stayed at my house this week. We had so much fun, picking berries, learned to snorkel at Great Grandma and Grandpa's pool, saw the movie WALL E, made smores by the fire every night and even got to ride Aunt Lindy's horse!

Oh No! Before the raspberries are done, all of a sudden the cherries, Marion berries, boysenberries, and blue berries are ready! I'm still trying to figure out what to do with all the raspberries..let's see now...Marion berry crisp, Marion berry ice cream, blueberry muffins...

Today as I ran past the field where I saw the buck yesterday, there was a doe! A man was out in his yard nearby and told me that they even have a little fawn down in the bushes! BAMBI LIVES!!!!!!! (for some reason the pictures won't enlarge when you click on them...it works on the others, but not these, I will try to repost the pictures so you can see the deer better)

Oh man! Yesterday on my workout I saw this really pretty flower I wanted a picture of. Yes, I know, if I was really working out, how would I have time to look at pretty flowers? Well, I didn't really feel like going for my workout today, but because last night I ate waaayyyy too many of those raspberry bars I mentioned before, I grabbed the camera and forced myself out the door. Was I ever glad I went! And especially glad I took that camera becasue as I was running past this field just before those pretty flowers...there was a DEER! Not just a deer but a deer with big horns! I got a pretty good shot, but on my return lap, he had moved even closer to the road...what a treat! Of course I still took the flower picture, but it was not near as good as the deer.

Remember Forest Gump? Remember how many ways he came up with to serve shrimp? Well, that is me trying to figure out ways to use the raspberries. Raspberry shortcake, raspberry limeade, raspberry scones, raspberry sauce over chicken, raspberry smoothie, raspberry crisp, raspberry turkey salad, with of course, raspberry dressing, raspberry ice cream, raspberry iced tea, raspberry jam, raspberry-chicken- swiss-panini, raspberry chocolate cake, toasted mozzarella cheese and raspberry sandwich, raspberry bars, raspberries over pancakes and stuffed into french toast and crepes filled with raspberries and sweetened sour cream, peanut butter and raspberry sandwich, raspberry/peach pie, raspberries just all by themselves in a bowl, raspberries on my granola, raspberry cheesecake, raspberry sorbet…I am sure I have missed a few, but I think you get the idea.

Here is the best limeade!
Blend 3 cups of berries with 1 cup water, strain out the seeds, add 5 more cups of water and 1 cup of sugar and 2/3 cup of lime juice. Serve over ice with a slice of lime and a few whole berries. It is sooooo GOOD!

I made jam!
+=
4 pints of berries + SEVEN cups of sugar = 9 cups of jam X 3 batches is alot of jam.

The jam made a mess...

My favorite Flower, My Favorite Color

My favorite berry.
The raspberries are right on time. I can't wait for some raspberry shortcake. When we were kids we had a field of them and every summer that was our way to earn money to buy school clothes. Getting up early to start picking before it got to hot, Dad would always be up before us and would start singing his "Lazy Old Man" song, I would always race Mom to see who picked the most. Then when we got rid of the berries, we (Lindy and Cyndi and I) went with the neighbor boys over to the Heckles field. After all those years of picking berries, I can't believe I actually planted them on purpose.