navygreen | Relaxing, rainy Saturday.

It rained some, as predicted. I'm very glad that I'd listened to the weather reports and knew that it was a possibility. To avoid the wet and mushy mess, we all raked up the leaves in the backyard yesterday afternoon. I raked piles all over the yard, and

Philip and A.J. bagged them. Jack ran around in circles, trying to "help" us all - ha ha. We got eight full bags done, and we finished in about 45 minutes. I had thought it would take much longer actually, but with such great teamwork, it was a snap. And with the rain today, I am extra pleased to not have wet, mushy leaves to get up. :-)

Annie came over last night, and we made

Karyn's apple dumplings. It was time-consuming, and we poked fun at each other's dough-rolling methods, but the end result was so good! These dumplings were different than what I'd had before - they cooked in their own gooey, sugary liquid, and the dough was more like a bread when they were done, rather than just a plain crust. We added cinnamon to the recipe as we made it, and they were just so yummy - but so rich and so filling! We were STUFFED afterwards.

We also scrapbooked. Annie got a page done, and I finished sorting the two bags of photos I've had pulled out for a couple of weeks now. I really minimized my photos and what I intend to actually use. I had about 50 pictures or so of building the swingset, for example, but I've narrowed it down to only 12 pictures now, and that's an amount that I can get on a 2-page spread. We watched The Prince & Me while we worked. I'd seen it before, but Annie hadn't, and she really liked it. :-)

Tuck has finally figured out the new litterbox - huzzah! I was beginning to think we'd have to isolate him forever, but this morning I found that he'd finally done three pees in the box. I loved and loved on him, gave him kitty treats and gave him a special pouch of wet food - Tuckster!

I'm off to run a few errands with the boys while Philip sleeps. He's working at Runza this afternoon/tonight to cover for Ryan, his manager. Ryan's wife Sarah was in labor and at the hospital last night, so I'm sure a new little person has or will be gracing this world shortly. Too bad the baby couldn't wait another day - November the 13th is a much better day. ;-D