Friday, August 20, 2010

Today doesn't feel any different than most other summer Fridays, but today is a special day. More than 2 years ago God started to plant in my heart a desire to write a book. Not just a book to write a book, but a book that I hoped God could use to help people connect with Him in their everyday lives through the practice of journaling. It has been a long two years and I have experienced a lot of excitement and come against some discouragement in the process. There were days I wondered if the book would ever be complete. But God is good and all things happen in His time and today Wide Eyed releases officially!!!!!

So tonight I will celebrate with friends and family what God has done and what we pray He will do through Wide Eyed. It is going to be a good day. :)

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I intended to write earlier this week about my disgusting run in with a decapitated bunny, but days quickly pass and the next new adventure hits, so I will have to save that story for a rainy day. :) (I know you are so curious...)

But anyway, tomorrow the Miller family will take off on their first ever family camping adventure. The girls are pumped. The mom is semi-intrigued. And, well, the dad is not so pumped (it will be his third such outdoorsy adventure this summer- that is a lot for a city boy and its supposed to be like 90 bajillion degrees, record hot temperatures, blah, blah, blah tomorrow). But moving on...

Tonight we set the tent up in the backyard so we could seal the seams. We have had the tent since Christmas and intended to do this earlier in the summer, but just didn't get around to it. So, I made my first ever trip to REI to buy the sealant earlier today and after dinner and a quick trip to the chiropractor we began our tent preparation.

The tent set-up was pretty okay. We shouldn't have a problem setting her up tomorrow. But the sealant part...well, all I am going to say is that I had a minor mishap when I was trying to puncture the seal and open the sealant. And all I can tell you is that my hands would have probably stayed pretty dry and watersealed if I happened to get stuck in a torrential downpour, which may have been an okay thing, except that they were also so sticky that when I just had to go to the bathroom (because you always end up just having to go to the bathroom at the most inopportune times) the toilet paper was sticking to my hands and I had to strategically use my elbows to remove it. I couldn't even hug the girls goodnight for fear I would not be able to release them from my clutches. Oops.

So, my hands have now soaked in multiple solutions and I think they are going to survive, eventually. But I am not so sure about my odds of surviving this adventure since we haven't even driven a mile outside of suburbia and I have already had my first camping mishap. Uffdah! There are some things about me that will never be Minnesotan I guess...

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

This is my 3rd year of planting a vegetable garden in our backyard. It has been a wonderful experience and I have enjoyed many yummy veggies from our hard work. But Jamie awoke me from my peaceful slumber this morning to show me something in my garden that falls way beyond my realm of gardening knowledge:
There was a deer eating the leaves of my luscious tomato plant!



I wanted to scare him away, but I also wanted a picture. So as quickly as my first thing in the morning body works I located my camera and snapped a shot through the foggy door. The deer knew that we were there. My first thing in the morning body does not move that fast especially when my just woke up brain is trying to remember where the camera is. So the deer had looked over at us a couple times--it was not going anywhere until we made some sort of effort to scare it away. Jamie asked if I wanted to take a picture with the door open so it was clearer. He said he would open it slowly and I could snap it quick. Then he warned me that it would probably freak me out when the thing took off. I got in position, took the quick picture and then started making noise to scare the stupid thing away. It looked up and literally sauntered across the yard and slowly leaped over the neighbor's fence. I think it would have let me come out there and pet it. I should have taken a picture of it just moseying across my yard, but with each slow step the deer was infuriating me (and I was still operating with my just woke up brain).

So, I don't know if it will come back. I haven't done much reading on deer invading your garden and their tendency to return. I hate the bunnies that attempt to come and I tell my neighbor to sick her cat on them. So now what in the world do I do with Bambi?