I've Been...

On Vacation. Have you ever been gone so long, you forgot what your house looks like? We used to do it regularly (like every year) but this is the first time we've been gone for 15 days in over 5 years. We did a lot. MapQuest said that if we left our house and drove straight to Salmon, Idaho, then to Firth, Idaho, then to Orem, Utah, then St. George, Utah, then back to Orem, and then home again, with no extra places to go, it would be just over 2,000 miles. We went a few extra places and I didn't keep track of the exact mileage. I guess when your car has already turned over 100K miles, it doesn't matter any more :) I'll have to do a post on all we did...it was fun. Especially that Zion NP thing with just Jeff and I...it was great.

Canning. I think today finished it up...165 quarts of apricots, peaches, crabapple sauce, and pears and 25 pints of apricot-pineapple jam. That's just the last 10 days. I'm out of jars (and I bought 36 jars this week!) except for two pint-sized regular-mouth jars. They'll just have to stay empty until next year. I'm so done.

Dealing with a grumpy baby. If anyone has any advice, I'll take anything! Since we got home, David has refused to sleep in his bed. He will fall asleep in his high chair, in the car seat, in the baby carrier, on the living room floor, but he will not nap in his bed. On Monday, I determined that he just needed to wear himself out. I decided he would not leave that crib until he slept. After 4 hours (yes, four hours) of me checking on him every 30-45 minutes, he won. Unfortunately, nighttimes aren't much better. Luckily most nights we can sit next to the crib and rub his back until he calms down and finally falls asleep (this usually takes an hour). Twice this week, he has woken up and refused to go back to sleep. I'm done with the whole "bring the baby into bed with us" thing. Last night after 2 hours of trying to console him (from midnight to 2 a.m.) we gave up and let him cry. I had to get up and go to the bathroom at 4, and he was asleep then, so I guess he did finally give up. Maybe it's teeth, maybe he's sick. I'm about ready to take a trip to the Dr. to make sure he doesn't have an ear infection, but I really don't think so. As long as he is being held, he's happy. Yah, that made canning 165 jars nice and easy! Thank goodness for older girls. Couldn't have done it without them!