Weekending

 Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

Had a nice Friday at school! I mentioned before that I had experienced some odd interactions with staff earlier in the school year. It really had me trepidatious about subbing and I'd only subbed half a day during the week prior to Friday's full day. On Friday, I was pleased to have very much "normal" interactions with staff and the students were, by and large, well behaved and they worked hard at the assignments that the teacher wanted them to work on.

Around noon, I texted Jenni to finalize plans for Friday. She and her husband were traveling up from Tennessee to see family in our area and she'd reached out to see if we were available on Friday. We'd made no definite plans regarding where we'd meet. We decided to decide on Friday and while I texted her, she texted me 😀. I told her we'd love to have them at our house for a meal but was fine to meet at a restaurant. She said they'd come to our house so we had plans!

I skedaddled from school to a couple of stores to buy items for our meal and then once home, got busy cleaning up the house. I wasn't expecting her or her husband to run a finger across surfaces to check for dust and/or to note the absence of or existence of dust on the baseboards but it made sense to clean up, nonetheless. I knew I would be glad that I got the place "company ready" on Saturday when the house looked good and was clean :).

We had such a nice time with Jenni and her husband Tom. Tom grew up in the same town as Donnie and they graduated from the same high school. The high school is a big one and they were one grade apart. They couldn't recall each other but that isn't too surprising. They did know a number of the same people and Donnie is certain he crossed paths with Tom (they also lived pretty close to each other). Then we discovered that the three of them- Jenni, Tom and Donnie all worked at the same place in high school! It was at a movie theater and there may not have been much of an overlap based on when each of them worked there. They all knew many of the same people. Donnie has run into many of them over the years and was able to provide updates on what some of the former employees were up to. They all agreed that it was a great place to work and they all have fond memories of that particular job.

Donnie grilled up some steak that turned out great as usual. I had made salad before our guests arrived as well as potatoes. I also put together this board with items we already had and some I'd picked up after school on Friday. Everything turned out good!

We took this picture late- like right as they were leaving. We had such a good time getting to know them better and we look forward to seeing them again!

My SIL sent me this from their neck of the woods on Friday evening.  My niece was on the homecoming court of her high school. She didn't win the title of queen but what an honor to be on the court! She is beautiful on the outside but more importantly, she's beautiful on the inside where it counts eternally. She has a beautiful singing voice and wants to study music ministry at a Christian college. 

Saturday morning, I actually slept in until around 7:00! It had been a late night but that definitely does not mean that I'll sleep in the next morning. Was thankful for a good nights rest. It was time to do something with the tomatoes that I'd picked the previous two days. One of them had already started to rot and let me tell you, rotten tomatoes do not smell good! Even me with my scent impairment could smell the distinct odor. It was time to "fix" the tomatoes to turn them into something that would last. 

The pan on the very right (off the stove) was my ice bath for the tomatoes. The pot in the middle was where I boiled the tomatoes for a minute to then transfer to the ice bath to make taking the skins off easier. The pan on the left would be what I sauteed the tomatoes in. Lots of time and effort to secure the future consumption of the tomatoes in a different form than they were on Saturday!

Deskinned and then into the sauce pan they went.

While the tomatoes were on the stove, I cut up garden peppers to make another batch of hot pepper jelly. Jacob loves the jelly but requested that I make it hotter so I added another half of a jalapeno. 

I noticed my fingers bore testament to working with water and wet vegetables.

I don't have pictures of my finished products but I ended up with hot hot pepper jelly and two jars of tomato sauce and one container of tomato juice.

Tomato skin and pepper detritus about ready to be taken out to the compost bin to complete the circle of life... To their birthplace the remains shall return.

After cleaning up the kitchen, I relaxed for a little while and snacked on some candied pecans that Jenni and Tom brought. YUM! What a treat! Then I ran on the treadmill and showered.

My oldest brother drove down to watch the IU football game. Eleventh in the nation, BABY!! That was before the win on Saturday (albeit to an unranked team so who knows how it will impact the rankings). It was a good game with IU being down in the 4th quarter and scoring very late to take the lead. 

We got Jet's pizza for dinner with my brother BOGO for the win/lunch on Sunday :). After my brother left, Donnie and I started a movie but stopped watching it after about an hour into it. Maybe it's our age, but life seems too short to continue watching something that we don't really like. It was the number one movie in America according to the Netflix. Oh dear. We didn't care for it at all. I think it was called Carry On.

Sunday, we went to church where we heard a great message and then we were home for the rest of the day. We have a busy week ahead and I was grateful for a day of staying in after church.

I picked these guys in the garden after church. I do think this is the most peppers that I've picked at once. I was going to plant two jalapeno plants in the garden but ended up just doing one like last year. One is plenty! As it was, I gave neighbors some jalapenos and I will likely give away more. 

I forgot to mention that I got this guy inflated and on the patio landing. Donnie rolled his eyes at the silliness of it but he hasn't complained too much...