Joy Larson

Yeah! Fall is just around the corner. It’s my favorite time of the year. I love the cooler weather, the falling leaves, football, school starting and everything pumpkin. I just can’t seem to get enough pumpkin this time of year.

We had a family reunion a few weeks ago and to say there were a lot of pictures that were taken would be an understatement. There was always the same problem when taking the pictures. Who would be behind the camera and out of the picture? We desperately wanted a huge family picture that included everyone. Thanks to my young camera savvy cousin, we got that picture.

My family loves it when I make apple pies. I, however, don’t like to make apple pies quite as much as they like to eat them. This is mainly because I make mine from scratch. The dough and the filling are all homemade. This is a bit labor intensive and time consuming.

Recently, a few brave souls took on the challenge of finding the best microbrews in each state. I know this sounds like a torturous and tedious task, but these men care so much for others that I’m sure they felt it was their duty to take on this task. A public service really.

There is a lot of excitement in my house right now. You see, football season is finally here. My oldest son is a football fanatic. He can name players, numerous stats and is a whiz when it comes to football records, too. It’s almost scary how much that kid absorbs when it comes to football.

The ALS ice bucket challenge has been all over social media lately. I have yet to be nominated, but I know plenty of people who have been, even my 10-year old son. I’ve even seen our very own Aaron Traylor take on this challenge. Aaron’s was probably the most risqué and hilarious version of this challenge that I’ve seen yet.

Did you know that there are strict rules on the sale of Gatorade now? You must have a winning attitude and you must be sweating at the time of purchase. It is not to be used to help with hangovers. No exceptions will be made, not even if it’s your birthday.

What happened to me? How did I get to this place? How did I find myself scrolling through the yahoo home page and the one title that jumps out at me is “laundry detergent tests”. What the heck? What is going on in my life that the most interesting headline to me is about laundry detergent?

I’ve been day dreaming about fall thanks to our recent couple days of cooler weather. Fall is my favorite time of the year. Along with fall comes all things pumpkin. Coincidentally, I also love pumpkin.

Backyard chicken farming has become popular along with backyard gardening. We have jumped on the backyard band wagon too. My husband is the gardener in our house and I am what you would affectionately call a crazy chicken lady.

My family loves Italian food. One of our favorites is lasagna. I love to eat it, but I hate to make it. It can be a huge pain to make. From boiling a pot of water, then boiling the noodles, then layering everything and then finally cooking it for an hour. It can be very time consuming.

My husband is the kind of man that old country songs are about. The kind of man who has a gun in his truck, drives a pickup, hunts, has a big beard and eats steak and potatoes every night.