My big little-brother was in the newspaper in an article about playing football and hunting. Kinda random article-- but pretty neat to see his picture and read his interview! Talks about the buck he shot and mounted when he was 9 years old! Click here to see the article.
I've just been too lazy to get pictures off my camera to update this blog lately.... but a section of our back yard recently got a makeover!
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
What I'm listening to...
I'm currently listening to an online training about child abuse. It's required to substitute teach at the private Catholic schools here.
It said it would be 1 1/2 hours. I figured it'd be something where it'd allow me 30 minutes to read a page that took me 5 minutes to read... but clearly it is not. It is a narrated slide show-- and it's disturbing and gross to listen to.
So here I am 45 minutes into listening to the statistics of child abuse, recognizing warning signs, and how to deal with it. Currently, I am learning to teach children the proper names of private parts so they don't grow up thinking they need to avoid saying the "bad word."
It's sad and interesting and I hope and pray I won't have to exercise anything I've learned.
It said it would be 1 1/2 hours. I figured it'd be something where it'd allow me 30 minutes to read a page that took me 5 minutes to read... but clearly it is not. It is a narrated slide show-- and it's disturbing and gross to listen to.
So here I am 45 minutes into listening to the statistics of child abuse, recognizing warning signs, and how to deal with it. Currently, I am learning to teach children the proper names of private parts so they don't grow up thinking they need to avoid saying the "bad word."
It's sad and interesting and I hope and pray I won't have to exercise anything I've learned.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
9 years ago
9 years ago we went to church which was held in the park that day. It was all 6 of us together -- then we ate at the Royal Cafe downtown. I remember thinking that I didn't really like that place.
I mowed the lawn that day and then I tried to pull the mower onto a trailor for Dad to take. I didn't know where the parking brake was so it kinda rolled back down the ramp. Dad got a hold of it though as I kinda laughed and said "oops."
I also painted my oldest sister's loft boards for her bed because she was moving into college in a couple weeks. I, however, was moving to the high school in a few weeks. Dad used some old paint we had to make a mixture of a blue/purple color. She used those loft boards that year, then my other sister did, and then I also did for my first year at college. I was always reminded of this day whenever I saw that blue/purple loft.
I remember the details of that day so well. What happened that night would affect my life forever. That night, I talked to a 911 dispatcher explaining how we couldn't wake my dad up after he fell asleep in his chair. I sat in a car that followed an ambulance to the hospital. I sat in a room with lots of kleenex boxes as a doctor told us that he was so sorry. I sat on my bed that night wishing I could fall asleep and that it would all go away when I woke up.
I don't remember the details of the next few days.
There's been many difficult days since then, one of the hardest being my wedding day-- just moments before I walked down the aisle arm-in-arm with my dad's only son. I'm sure there's more difficult days ahead as I think about telling my kids someday about the grandpa they never got to meet on this earth. But I am thankful. Thankful for him and the dad I was blessed with for 14 years. I'm thankful for how God has used this to shape my life and draw me closer to Him.
So much of who I am is because my dad died when I was 14. It prepared me to cope with another major death in my life just 15 months later. It has taught me to choose to trust God when things are hard. It taught me to choose joy and allow God to work in my life. It gave me perseverance, character, and hope. It taught me that hope is the anchor of my soul. And hope does not disappoint.
I mowed the lawn that day and then I tried to pull the mower onto a trailor for Dad to take. I didn't know where the parking brake was so it kinda rolled back down the ramp. Dad got a hold of it though as I kinda laughed and said "oops."
I also painted my oldest sister's loft boards for her bed because she was moving into college in a couple weeks. I, however, was moving to the high school in a few weeks. Dad used some old paint we had to make a mixture of a blue/purple color. She used those loft boards that year, then my other sister did, and then I also did for my first year at college. I was always reminded of this day whenever I saw that blue/purple loft.
I remember the details of that day so well. What happened that night would affect my life forever. That night, I talked to a 911 dispatcher explaining how we couldn't wake my dad up after he fell asleep in his chair. I sat in a car that followed an ambulance to the hospital. I sat in a room with lots of kleenex boxes as a doctor told us that he was so sorry. I sat on my bed that night wishing I could fall asleep and that it would all go away when I woke up.
I don't remember the details of the next few days.
There's been many difficult days since then, one of the hardest being my wedding day-- just moments before I walked down the aisle arm-in-arm with my dad's only son. I'm sure there's more difficult days ahead as I think about telling my kids someday about the grandpa they never got to meet on this earth. But I am thankful. Thankful for him and the dad I was blessed with for 14 years. I'm thankful for how God has used this to shape my life and draw me closer to Him.
So much of who I am is because my dad died when I was 14. It prepared me to cope with another major death in my life just 15 months later. It has taught me to choose to trust God when things are hard. It taught me to choose joy and allow God to work in my life. It gave me perseverance, character, and hope. It taught me that hope is the anchor of my soul. And hope does not disappoint.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Too Many Doors
3 bedrooms + 3 closets + 1 bathroom + 1 little hallway = The Hallway of Too Many Doors
So I got a tip to swap out some doors for some curtains. Genius. I wanted something with texture and some gray tones. I had my eye on some curtains at Target-- but I wanted to do this to 2 doors, which would mean $45 total. I couldn't justify that quite yet.
Then I went to my current favorite* thrift store in this town and saw some grayish burlap-ish curtains for $2 dollars each. Now $4 is something I can justify.
(*favorite subject to change upon further discoveries of the abundance of thrift stores in this town)
They're a little see-through... but I think that's OK because it adds some transparency and invisibility which was kinda the goal in fixing The Hallway of Too Many Doors.
Monday, August 8, 2011
weekend... and meow meow on a Monday morning
Such is the life of a cat. We were gone all weekend and I'm sure she enjoyed a quiet house. This is how I found her this morning-- and I imagine that's all she did all weekend. Oh, and Ben calls her "meow meow." Or "door-dog" as a rendition of Dory. Neither a door nor a dog.... good thing cats don't know their name.
This weekend was Ben's cousin's wedding and now we have about 7ish more weddings to go! And Ben is pulling out all superpowers to accomplish being a part of 3 weddings in 2 weekends! It'll all be possible!
The second half of 2011 has become wedding season for us-- but I'm excited to have frequent opportunities to see family and friends.
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| This 3-year old had her 4th flower girl appearance at this wedding! She enjoyed literally rolling around on the dance floor-- and I guess Ben joined her. |
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Drive-in adventures
This weekend we enjoyed some spontaneity and went to a drive-in theater! It was 45 minutes away-- but movies start when it's dark. Therefore, it was OK that we decided to do this at about 8:00 last Saturday night.
We've officially been to 3 of the 4 drive-in movie theaters in Iowa. The other one is in Spirit Lake-- that one might take more planning to travel to. And someday there might be one in our backyard. Ben got the idea in his head that we should project movies onto the back of our garage. I said, "We'll see."
We're learning that we love the Iowa scenery. Get just 2 minutes outside this city and the landscapes are beautiful. Cornfields are beautiful-- or maybe we just grew up in this great state. I love that Iowa's drive in theaters are in the middle of a corn field in the middle of nowhere.
Double feature showing The Smurfs and The Zookeeper. I wasn't too into Smurfs during my childhood (it actually might have been a little before my time) but it was better than I expected.
We've officially been to 3 of the 4 drive-in movie theaters in Iowa. The other one is in Spirit Lake-- that one might take more planning to travel to. And someday there might be one in our backyard. Ben got the idea in his head that we should project movies onto the back of our garage. I said, "We'll see."
We're learning that we love the Iowa scenery. Get just 2 minutes outside this city and the landscapes are beautiful. Cornfields are beautiful-- or maybe we just grew up in this great state. I love that Iowa's drive in theaters are in the middle of a corn field in the middle of nowhere.
Double feature showing The Smurfs and The Zookeeper. I wasn't too into Smurfs during my childhood (it actually might have been a little before my time) but it was better than I expected.
I saw this awhile ago- but as a promotion for this movie, the village of Juzcar, Spain was painted smurf blue.
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| http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/164278/20110616/smurfs-village-in-spain-photos.htm |
Pretty crazy! They also hosted the world premier showing and many residents dressed as smurfs for different events in the town.
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