Tomato bugs!!

Grandma came over this evening to help out.  Eric starts school tomorrow and Justin has a late airport pick up.  I am nothing short of amazing, but I can't be in two places at once.  I've tried many times and am still unsuccessful.  Courtney is the lucky winner to accompany me to the airport, the other two get to stay with Grandma and go to bed.

While we were in Alaska we got some homemade ice cream.  Eric had chai and it made quite an impression on him!  He has been asking me to please make chai ice cream for him.  Between our crazy schedules and summer traveling, I haven't had a chance to make it.  I figured this was the best night to get it made and to kick off school right!

Justin suggested I get fresh chai ingredients, not just soak a bunch of tea bags for flavor.  This was much easier said than done!  We don't live in a big city, so there aren't as many natural foods stores around.  I had looked online for a store to buy fresh cardamom, I still have no idea what this is!  It suggested I go to an Asian food store.  That was a total bust, the store I went to didn't even know what it was!  If the Asians don't know their own spices, how am I supposed to find them?!  I got frustrated since I didn't have a lot of time to run around and I had no idea where to look for more cardamom.

Wal-mart was on my list for other grocery items.  While I was there I looked for the cardamom spice, it was more than $10 for a little bottle!  I was done looking for ingredients, I needed a new plan fast!  I went to the tea isle and was looking for cheap tea, I figured anything would be cheaper than $10.  I found this chai concentrate that only needed milk added, perfect!!  This was such a relief and way easier than making something with missing ingredients.

Eric was thrilled when he found out we were going to make chai ice cream.  He came outside and helped put the rock salt on the ice.  Lindsay was not happy about this because that used to be her job until Eric came home.  Another good reason for Grandma, she is excellent at diverting attention!  She got Lindsay to show her the tomato plants.

As they were looking over the tomatoes, Grandma noticed that half the leaves on one plant were missing and there was probably a tomato bug somewhere on the plant.  She and Lindsay searched for the bug without success.  I didn't know what they were doing and came over to check on them, Lindsay had been making some interesting noises.  Grandma was telling me the bugs were hard to find and could hide really well.  Just as she told me this, I found the bug!!

These bugs creep me out!  Lindsay was totally fascinated... she is not my child.  Grandma was good and showed the bug to Lindsay.  She even supervised her handling the bug.  It was big and fat, so it didn't move too quickly, but I was still worried about the stinger end.  Just gross!

We finished off our evening with yummy ice cream and lots of talk about school.  Here's to no girl trouble this year... and the problems associated with being so good looking :)  Keep fending them off Eric! (Sorry no pictures of the ice cream, I was too busy enjoying it myself)