Day 250: Secret Garden

This little wall behind my house reminds me of the Secret Garden....

I just love it!

Day 249: High Falls

I met some beautiful girls for a picnic lunch and a hike through High Falls State Park.

Don't Jump!

I also went to a friend's house for dinner and a game of Phase 10. It was a wonderful day!

Day 248: All because 2 people fell in love...

Today was my grandparents' 50th anniversary party. It was lots of fun to have the whole family together again. I just can't imagine being married to someone for 50 years. If I ever get married I doubt that I'll live long enough to be married for 50 years.... That long of a marriage is really quite an achievement.

We had the party at Stephens Foster State Park, and it was a beautiful day!

all my sisters

I just LOVE this tree!

Day 247: 8 Things about today

1. I LOVE my new roommate! She made me cinnamon rolls for breakfast today!

2. I have the coolest bedding in the world!

3. This random guy that I don't even know helped me push start my car today and it felt like God was saying, "hey, I see you. I love you. I'm going to take care of you so stop freaking out!"

4. I have a bruise on my shoulder that really hurts and I don't know how I got it

5. Another random guy helped me push start my car at the auto parts store so that I could get it out of the parking lot...Jesus really loves me

6. My sister is the best for helping me hang pictures in my room

7. Casey sucks for not hanging out with me today

8. God is Awesome

Day 246: Smurfedna

So this is my new room! I just LOVE the shutters!

Andrew and Anna came by to help me move stuff and to pick up my old tv and Andrew made fun of my little old car...he's so mean to her!

Day 245: New Battle, Same War

We went to empty out my storage unit today and we found some little friends that had taken up shelter in one of my boxes...oh wait, did I say friends? I meant fiends!

I have a long history full of anxiety, frustration, and fear with these little monsters. When I was 14 I actually wrote an e-mail to my sister about a small encounter with a kamikaze cockroach that turned into a bit of a crisis situation.

Uncle Joe, this is for you:

So I was talking to mom on the phone today and I was having my usual conversation with her when I saw it. I was just looking around Daniel’s room, and my gaze landed on a pile of his shorts, which looked as if they had just been washed, and were neatly folded in a pile on the floor, but at the zipper of one pair of khaki shorts there was this stain. I couldn’t tell if it was ketchup or something else. Finding myself somewhat intrigued, I put on my glasses for a closer examination, sitting on Daniel’s bed, I leaned forward for a better inspection of this spot. I was still talking to mom on the phone while all this was happening and in the middle of a sentence, I just screamed, because that is when I realized that it was no spot but the biggest, largest, HUGEST ROACH that I have EVER seen. The thing had to be over two inches long and ever worse, it was starring at me.

With our father being in pest control and having been educated by him in the classifying and extermination of such pests, I did what any rationally thinking person would do; I cried like a baby, begged my mom to come home to kill it, and asked her to bring daddy home with her. Of course our lovely mother was hysterically laughing by this time and she exclaimed for all in her little shop to hear, that she had the wimpiest kids on the planet. I then proceeded to tell her that this was what I had a daddy for and I demanded that he drop whatever he was doing, risk losing his job, and come home to dispose of the infidel.

Dearest Wendy, being the practical one, told me to get the bug spray, which would render the animal motionless as it died an agonizing death. Gung-ho, I jumped up to fetch this miracle spray and came face to face with Lucy, Daniel’s beloved bird. This spray would harm Lucy and could possible kill her…so to use it I had to remove Lucy from the room. This was no easy feat because Lucy hates two things in this world: 1) getting out of her cage and 2) me. So, I opened the cage and barely put my hand inside to gently coax Lucy to come out. Lucy responded by flapping her wings frantically and jumping around the cage, catching her wing in a crevice and injuring herself in all of the commotion.

Sadly, I closed her cage and decided to take on the creature myself, one on one. I grabbed the only weapons necessary for such an endeavor; my hiking boots (which I tucked my pant legs into in case the creature decided to fly) and a broom. Mockingly, it stared at me for several minutes like a western showdown as I held the broom up like a warrior would hold a sword. Then the beast charged straight at me and I screamed out a war cry as I beat it as hard as I could with the broom. To my terror, the broom did not phase the demon and no matter how hard I hit the thing, it just scurried around the floor.

Finally it retreated, taking shelter under a Bass Pro Shop shopping bag. At this point, I was crying because I had no defense against a creature so vile and cunning. Still on the other end of the phone, mom was laughing about the fact that I was literally crying. In a final effort to destroy the beast, I tightened the laces on my boots, and tried to collect myself for the last battle. I then stomped the bag as hard as I could and pounded it with the broom and an old mop handle that I managed to find. During this battle, I used the broom and mop handle to get the roach inside the bag. Once I had accomplished this, I used the mop handle to carry the bag outside, where I put it on a chair and left it. I don’t know what was originally in the bag or if Daniel needed any of it, but it was outside with a BEWARE of ROACH sign on it for him to find when he got home that day.

I still don’t know why mom originally called but we ended our conversation with her still laughing at me and the entire store in hysterics about my little fit. Despite everything I am proud of myself because even though I injured a bird and destroyed whatever was in that Bass Pro Shop bag, at least there is no longer a roach in the house.

Day 244: Letters

I get to move into my new house this week, which means that I have to go through all of my stuff, throw away crap, and pack up...I hate packing. Really I hate having to go through stuff and try to figure out where things came from and why I still have them.

Today I found a shoe box full of letters that I haven't seen in like 7 years.

Curious, I read them and let me just say that a good many of these letters made me tear up...in a good way. These letters make me miss snail mail. E-mailing is easy and convenient, but I feel like more thought and energy goes into actually sending a letter.