john's garden

I love this time of year - when our garden is in its full glory. Actually, when I say our garden, I really should correct myself and say "John's Garden". He is the one who does 98% of the work. But to him it's not work. He is in his element when he is gardening. Each year he tills it, preps it, plants it (much from seeds that he has grown in his home-made greenhouses), tends it, weeds it, harvests it, and yes ladies it's true, he bottles it, freezes it, makes it into fruit leathers, juices, jams, etc, etc. Last week he made his first batch (of the season) of salsa, and several batches of fruit leather. He also did his first of many batches of grape/pear juice.

What's it like having a husband that's so domisticated, you ask? I'll tell you - it's sweet!

John is growing 6 different varieties of grapes, so we end up with several different colors of delicious grape juice.

The peaches will be ready to harvest this weekend.

Nubby squash

Broccoli

Four varieties of tomatoes this year. In addition to his salsa, he makes a mean tomato juice.

Eggplant

Raspberries galore. The sweetest you've ever tasted!

Sweet Dumpling winter squash

No garden is complete without a few gigantic zucchini!

Fuji apples

Barlett pears

Our cat Tache hunting her prey in the corn stalks.

Basil. Glorious basil!

Blueberries

Swiss chard

Every garden needs a spider the size of your fist!

Our little harvester Adam who loves to roam through the raspberries and eat them as quickly as he can pick them (if his mommy doesn't eat them all first!).

Mmmm. Can't you just taste them?

It doesn't get much better than this!

remembering

September 11, 2001

1:30 a.m. - I head to the airport to pick up our good friends, Steve and Becky, arriving from England for a 2 week visit. This is Becky's first time to America and we are so excited to see them. We collapse in bed at around 3 a.m.

9:00 a.m. - We are all waking up and the kids are so happy to see Becky and Steve for the first time in several years. I am in the kitchen cooking breakfast while Haylie and Matthew are playing on the floor nearby with Becky and Steve. They are all laughing having a great time.

9:30 a.m. - The phone rings and it's my friend Kris. She asks me if I am watching The Today Show. I told her that we did not have the t.v. on and she insisted that I turn it on immediately, which I did.

That's the first time we saw it. The two towers with smoke pouring out of them. As we watched with confusion, I will never forget how I felt when I saw that first tower collapse. I knew this wasn't really happening. It couldn't be. Surreal doesn't even describe it.

We had planned a full day with our friends - we were going to spend the day downtown seeing Temple Square, The Conference Center, eat lunch at the Lion House Pantry. It was all so new to Becky and we wanted show her wonderful Salt Lake City. With heavy hearts, still feeling very confused, we headed downtown. The day was very strange. Passing people on the street, you could see the grief and confusion in their faces. As the day went on and as people realized how truly huge and devastating this was, the stores and shops began to close, hanging signs in their windows saying "Due to the tragic events of the day, we are closed".

We went into the Visitor's Center and silently sat by the Christus statue. After a few minutes two sister missionaries approached us and offered us some tickets to a Tabernacle Choir concert that night in the Tabernacle, which had been planned for some time. They had decided to still go on with the concert despite of what was going on. All I can say is that concert was truly inspired to be held on September 11th.

We arrived at the concert that night, and obviously the program had changed a bit. President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke. He spoke words of comfort, love and hope. As we stood at the end and, with hands on our hearts, sang as a congregation, My Country, 'Tis of Thee, I wept. I wept in a way I have never done before.

It was a difficult time for our friends to be here. Their plans completely changed. There were no cars available for them to rent and travel around as they had planned. Becky wanted to go back home to England - surely she would feel safer in her own home, but that was not a possibility. The skies were silent for nearly two weeks.

Adam didn't join our family for almost 3 years after that tragic day, so seeing all the flags at the Healing Field this morning was just a play date for him. I wonder how he felt, though, as surely he watched from above as the events of September 11th were taking place, about coming into such a world.

But I believe he knew that with the Gospel of Jesus Christ that he would be okay. There he would find safety and shelter from this cruel and unpredictable world.

a conversation in the shower

"Dad, my hair has been really hard lately. Will you put some

AIR conditioner in it?"