Summer 2011- part 2

So last time we spoke, I showed you pictures of the OK June wedding. And I sadly confessed that we had taken no pictures of the bride. Somehow, though, we got three pictures of this. It's a good thing they had hired a real photographer to capture their special day!

Well, hello, Rusty's ear. I would not be able to survive without photographic documentation of your ear to hold me through my homesickness.

I also forgot to share our self-portrait from Glacier with you. We are going to perfect the art of self-portraits someday. Until then, you'll just have to suffer through our amateur photography. I mean really - when we take 3 pictures of Rusty's ear and none of the bride, you gotta know that we are not very good at this.

Cheese!

After our trip to OK, it was back to the grind stone for all of us. Poor Wesley - the weather was too cold almost the whole time he was here for any water activity. I think he maybe jumped in the lake once. It's warmer now. It got up to a whole 90 degrees! We did get to do some hiking, he rode dirt bikes with the boys, we rode our bicycles around the neighborhood, and he enjoyed lots of Taco Bell. Methinks my cooking skills could use some improvement.

Daddy came to visit at the end of July and stayed with us for a week. Sadly, I took no pictures. We spent an afternoon trying to pick huckleberries, only to discover that since it had been so cold, they were all very green and smallish. Too bad. Daddy also got to experience our huge two block farmer's market. I don't think he was terribly impressed.

A couple of weekends ago, we went camping with Hubby's family. We had a very gorgeous campsite.

I actually stood in the river to take the picture. I had my shoes on, so I was able to stand it for a couple of minutes before my feet were aching from the cold. I'm a wimp.

We were surrounded by huge old growth cedars. So beautiful.

I spent most of the days relaxing in the camp with my Kindle. I loved it. Cameron did take me on a brief dirt bike ride and that was fun too.

We saw a lot of wildlife in the camp. (My MIL spent the days relaxing with me.) There was a game trail not very far away and we saw many deer on it. We also saw a mink in the water one day.

He's kinda hard to see, but look right in the middle of the picture. He had just either caught a fish or picked up the fish guts that were in the river from the fish caught the previous night. He's a fuzzy ball that blends in with the rocks.

Again look in the middle of the picture. He is stretched out (a side view) swimming. I didn't think I had gotten any picture of him until I zoomed in, that is how well he blends.

This little deer was pretty fearless. See the huge tree behind him? I had snuck up behind a huge tree a ways in front of him and zoomed way in. He just stopped and posed and let me take his picture over and over again.

Told you he was posing.

There were several things to be thankful for in that camping trip. That I didn't actually get *sick* when I was getting carsick from the winding roads we had to take to get there. That we didn't end up carpooling with Hubs bro. That is a thankful thing because the last morning, (his parents left on Sat and we stayed until Sunday) when his bro started his truck to hook it up to the camper so that things would be packed when they came back from the fishing they had planned, the truck made a bad noise and oil spewed EVERYWHERE. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as it looked. He had recently changed his oil and apparently got a faulty filter. The seal blew and the pressure was such that it spewed oil straight up. I spent the day relaxing in camp while Hubs and his bro drove the 40 miles into town where, thankfully, there was a Napa open. Oil filter and change later, it was time to pack up and drive the 3 hours home. I'm thankful his filter blew in camp and not on the road. And I'm thankful we all made it home safely.

This past Friday Hubs and I camped out at our property, which we have fondly dubbed Poppity Acres. Or I have in memory of good times as a kid, and Hubs is indulging me. It was cold at night, but fun to be snug inside our tent in the basement. His family and some friends showed up in the morning and we (ok, they) got busy doing the last prep work so the trusses could go up. We ran out of time before they actually got the trusses in place, but the boys are working on it again this evening. Wanna see pictures?

This was our basement before the walls.

The front door with the trusses set on top of the roof.

I thought this was way cool. I laid down on the living room floor and took a pic of the trusses.

The view from my living room window.

There is a flock of turkeys that lives on our property. Here is evidence.

There's our summer for you. I hope we have a few more weeks of summer before fall arrives.

Summer 2011 - part 1

I didn't do very well at sharing our summer with you all as we went along, and now that we almost to fall, I thought I had better get busy! At the beginning of the summer, (the end of May), Misti and Bob and Wesley came to see us. Hubs and I took them and his brothers and a friend over to Glacier National Park for the weekend. It was still pretty chilly but that couldn't hide the gorgeous-ness.

I'm not sure if you can take a bad picture of scenery like this. Note the snow. And the green tint to the water. I hear the minerals from glacier runoff cause that.

I was trying to take an action shot of Bob and Wes skipping rocks. I'm not sure what Cameron is doing in the background.

See that speck? That is a mountain goat. It is in the middle of that cliff. I have no idea how it got there, but I sure would've liked to have seen it get out!

Bob gingerly made his way to this rock without even getting wet. He is studiously ignoring me taking a picture of him.

I neglected to take pictures of the cute little cabins we stayed in, but you can use your imagination. They were small and loggy and cozy. We had a good time.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and we were home to OK for my brother's wedding. It was beautiful. The wedding, that is. OK was WARM.

With a couple of the goyls (aka girls). I was making shish kabobs for the girls while the guys were at the bachelor party.

Wedding spot. So pretty.

I just realized that we didn't get a pic of the wedding party with the bride. Wedding pictures fail!

Do you remember the story of the Little Engine That Could? Well, right now, I'm going to think I can right to bed and finish this post another day. Yes, I am leaving you hanging, but since you have been hanging all summer, I think you can handle it!

Lately...

My brother Wesley spent the oh-so-short summer with us. Am I the only one who can't believe it's already August??? Wesley went home this week. My dad came to visit for about a week and then they drove home together. I was sad to see them go. Cameron knew this. He brought me these at work on Tuesday.

Isn't he the best husband?

Our house is coming right along. The basement is framed in, and all of the exterior walls on the main floor are up, excluding the garage walls. Cameron has been taking pictures of the progress on his phone, but I have yet to get them off so I can share them with you all.

A peek inside my head: At work, there are little things that annoy me. The sleepier I am, the more things there are. Things like people sneezing really loudly. We are set up in a very classroom like environment. Rows and columns of desks, all facing the boss's office. Back to the annoyances: I realized something profound one day. Me being annoyed is pretty selfish. I'm sure you're thinking, "duh! Being annoyed is definitely something you experience yourself." No, I mean, the root of being annoyed is wishing they would stop sneezing really loudly, for instance. Seriously, can't you just hold it in? The loss of brain cells resulting from all that pressure in your head is definitely worth it to keep from annoying me! See what I'm saying? I wish they would change their behavior because I don't like it. So this is the conversation that I had with myself. "Self, get over yourself!" Myself is working on it. There are still things that annoy me, but I'm coming to grips with ignoring them. Now, aren't you glad that I shared this profound realization with you? You're welcome!

I found out today that an acquaintance lost her son in the helicopter crash in Afghanistan last night. I felt a little bit silly crying when I had never met him, and don't know this woman well, but I can imagine a little of the grief she and her family, as well as the other 30 families of the men (and maybe women) who were on that helicopter. I have been praying nonstop for comfort and peace and strength for these families. Please, won't you pray with me? Thank you.

List

1. My new friend Kelly introduced me to the CDA Farmer's Market. Think chocolate/peanut butter fudge, foccacia bread, and snow peas. YUM!

2. Idaho drivers missed the "Highway Merging 101" part of driver's ed. I almost got into a wreck for the second day in a row because the ding-a-ling in front of me was doing 35 mph at the end of the on-ramp. News flash people: It's called an acceleration ramp for a reason! *rant over* *for now*

3. At my job, we have something that is called "Sterling Style". It is our particular method for capitalization, hyphens, punctuation... you name it. Oh, and it is an ever evolving thing. One of the SS rules is that we avoid hyphens like the plague. Another is that most prefixes get combined with the word. Anything non-, co-, un-... You get the picture. I got a job today where the editor had created the word cochairperson from co-chairperson. It looks funny, but them's the rules. The keyboarder left a note saying that she wanted to retain the hyphen because saying it that way made it sound as if you had a furball. My response: "KB has furball; wishes to hyphenate". I'm sure it was much funnier in my head at the time, but I get joy from the little things. (You have to, or all of the notes start sounding nasty!)

4. There is a city where it is illegal to camp on landfills. Another city still has it on the books that there are separate ballots for men/women, blacks/whites. In one city it is illegal to commit fornication in the city limits. Another city files their documents IN the city clerk. Or they did until we edited their code. Now they are filed BY her.

5. I think I'm going to write ordinances when I grow up. Some of these cities need a professional ordinance writer!

Friendships

"Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other gold."

I STINK at making friends. Most of the friendships I have have just happened. I cannot remember how they formed, and there is a good chance it is through no work on my end. I am somewhat shy, and have a hard time thinking of small talk. Who still talks about the weather these days, you ask? ME! When you run out of other things to talk about (such as: "Hi, how are you?" "I'm good, how are you?" "Good." *awkward silence*), the weather is always a good fallback. Anyway, all this to say, I MADE A NEW FRIEND. I'm ridiculously excited about this. I appreciate the friendships that I have formed since I have been here. AND I JUST MADE ANOTHER ONE. *Ahem* Please excuse me.

We had a fire out at the property this evening (in the fire pit) and my new friend from work and her husband came out and roasted bratwursts with us. And they brought their sweet baby Jordan and I got to hold Jordan and love on her. Ahhh. My cup runneth over.

I learned something new about making a friend tonight. If you want to spend time with someone, all you have to do is ask! Wow, that was hard. I know you are all thanking me for that insight, so, you're welcome! Now, go ask someone to spend some time with you on this long weekend. You'll be glad you did!

Words

I was cleaning out ancient emails from my inbox just a few minutes ago and ran across one that made me think about words.

1. Words are funny. Depending on how you feel about the person saying/writing them, you interpret them different ways. For instance, if you are angry with someone, a perfectly innocent comment may sound snide or malicious. Words that once gave me warm fuzzys (from people I don't even talk to and rarely think about!) now are just words.

2. Words can instruct, uplift, tear down, comfort or simply drone on in a monotonous order.

3. Words govern us. All of those ordinances I stare at all day? They rule you. (And right now, they pay my paycheck!)

I was feeling more philosophical as I started this post. Now I'm just tired. Here are a few words for you: If you are family, you have to be related to me, but you don't have to love me. Thanks for deciding to love me. If you are an old friend, thank you for sticking around, through all the good times, bad times, zany times... Thank you for sticking around for times. If you are a new friend, I hope you stick around. And I hope that my words are good to you.

Lessons from the Couch

You know, they say (I'm not sure who "they" are, but it seemed like a good way to start this post) that if you want to know why someone does what they do, you should just ask them. Today, I decided to take that advice. This is how it went.

"Self, you seem to be very competitive. Why is that?"
I replied, "That is a very good question. It seems to stem from needing to be ...better than everyone else?"
Shocked, Myself seemed to have no reply. Then it hit me. It was true. Even in elementary school, I had to read more books, get more Accelerated Reader points, higher grades than everyone else. We all know that I would never be better at athletics, so I had to do what I could, right? Unfortunately, it seems to have carried over into real life. I have to drive faster than the people who share the highway with me, or it gives me a complex. Heaven forbid I get passed! At work, I derive secret (well, not so secret anymore!) pleasure from catching mistakes that slipped by the editor.

Why am I sharing this? It was astounding to figure out that I'm not perfect. I spent my Junior High years convincing friends and acquaintances that there are only three rules in life.

1. Linnie is always right.
2. If Linnie is wrong, see rule number 1.
3. All of the above.

The funny thing is, I almost succeeded in convincing them. I ran into a girl I hadn't talked to since Jr. High several years later, and she distinctly remembered me telling them this.

World, I'm a fake. I'm not always right, and I'm certainly not perfect. I just needed you to know this today, so that I can lower all of our expectations for Myself. Thank you for understanding.

PS - Anyone remember this kid's song? "He's still working on me, To make me what I ought to be. It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me." This is my theme song!!!