Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Anniversaries

Today is mine and The Mad Monk's wedding anniversary. It has been eight wonderful, glorious years since we vowed before God, our families as our witness, to love, honor, cherish and all the other promises one's wedding should contain.

I can truly say that I am married to my best friend. My soulmate. I know, I know....some of you are muttering to yourselves "soulmate schmoulmate," right? Well, let the record know that I absolutely believe in having a soulmate. A soulmate is that one person that God created just for you! Long before I was ever conceived God knew The Mad Monk was the man for me! Some people would find that frightening! I know that God knew our kindred, yet bizarre, personalities were meant for one another. Now some people are really frightened! Yet here we are....happy as bugs! Uh...I guess bugs are happy. I know we are. :)

Happy Anniversary honey!

There is also another anniversary today. One year ago today our 3 year old (then only two) LiverPie nearly cut her right, index finger completely off. It was one those very scary parenting moments. Her finger was accidentally slammed in a door by our then 5 year old sweet dd. As The Mad Monk described it to friends and family ..."the tip of her finger was like a Pez dispenser"....you can imagine the hand motions he was making if you've ever seen a Pez dispenser function!! It was quite the traumatic experience for everyone. That sweet, little finger held 12 stitches that day! Thankfully, God healed our little sweetie and she is using her finger all the time now. It is usually found conveniently up her sweet, little nose.

So Happy June 27th! We now have two reasons to be thankful today!

Friday, June 02, 2006

Phoenix

Once again, long ago in April, I posted concerning a trip to Phoenix that The Mad Monk and I were able to take courtesy of hubby's job. It was a short trip. Like 36 hours short. This would include 4 flights and 8 hours of sleep in this 36 hour window.
We shared a burger and fries at the airport around noon on the day we left. Two flights, a trip to his office and after checking in at the hotel we realize we are starved. Because of the time change we didn't realize we hadn't eaten in 8 hours!! The kind people at The Outback Steakhouse were nice enough to keep their hands out of the way as we inhaled out food!
However, I have to say that the very BEST part about the trip was this bed at the hotel!!
It was King size, it had 6 down pillows and a down comforter ---ALL FOR US! I have never slept so well and been so comfy in my life! We also had a nice view from the hotel room. The only other exciting thing that happened was probably when I had The Mad Monk shoot across 3 lanes of traffic to pull into a parking lot after I spotted a Goodwill! Hey, I found a brand new denim skirt! I say it was Providential. The Mad Monk says it was suicide.

The biggest hightlight of the trip, however, was the flight home. You would think if one is flying from Phoenix to Dallas that one would head due East, right? nope. The herded us to --of all places-- Las Vegas first. Then, just to make the evening more exciting, the trip from Vegas to Dallas was packed like a sardine can in the aircraft with the smallest seats known to man! Sweet hubby and I were in the very last row in the back where it felt like the engine was in our lap. Not to mention that the poor man across the aisle was so large that he took up half the aisle when seated. He had to get up and walk to the back of the plane every time someone needed to use the restroom. There was no rest to be had by anyone in the back row. Finally, it just had to become humorous and we just laughed the rest of the way home.

I will say this though....I STILL don't like to fly and I much prefer Texas any day! Posted by Picasa

The Garden

I mentioned in that long ago April 22nd post that we had planted a garden. It was only a thought in my head at Christmas. I had pre-selected the spot in my yard and set out to learn everything I could in starting an organic garden. Here is my plot of soil in the backyard I selected for our garden Then, after returning from Tennessee in March, I rented a tiller and the 14yo strapping boy and I set out to whip that piece of soil in submission. After much tilling, weed pulling, rock-chucking, 5 bags of organic compost, 1 bag of lava sand and a half bag of dried molasses we were ready to plant! We planted 15 tomato, 4 zucchini, 4 yellow squash, 4 spaghetti squash, okra, pickling cucumbers, green beans and watermelon! After alot of sweat and few visits to the chiropractor this is how the final project looked. Not bad for beginners, huh? You can even see the small compost pile in the back.
Lo, and behold, we can actually grow things! Who would have ever thought? (insert head scratching here) Some of our "supposed" zucchini squash ended up being calabaza or mexican squash, but we were still thankful! Here were our first fruits. We promptly cut them, cooked them and ate them!
We are now to the point to where we are up to our ears in squash. We have learned a few lessons along the way as well. First of all, when the back of the seed package says space the plants 3 feet apart...there is a reason. Secondly, when a more experienced gardener tells you that squash will take over a garden...believe them! We are not quite to the point to where people are running from us when they see us coming with bags of squash, but I'm sure they will be soon! The family is still enjoying the plentiful loaves of zucchini bread as well!
We currently have about 36 green tomatoes so I'm sure I'll be canning those in the next month or so and then I can fill you in on that adventure. Today we discovered two tiny little watermelon and one little cucumber -yeah! I hope to post pictures soon of our hilariously overgrown garden! It's quite comical actually. Next year ---new plan---same amount of stuff--ALOT bigger area!
One thing is for sure. God has truly blessed us in this venture. On a daily basis our family is seeing His bountiful provision and His glorious work of creation right before our eyes!

Genesis 1:12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. Posted by Picasa

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Sweet girls!

These are our precious daughters. Our fair maidens we are raising to be godly wives, mothers and most of all servants of Christ.

We were getting ready to go to our Ladie's Luncheon at our church when The Mad Monk snapped this picture. I think it's priceless! Posted by Picasa