Unreasonable attachments

Yesterday, I had a major revelation, and a minor freak out.

I realized, while doing laundry, that my favorite towel had not been in the laundry for a few weeks.
Yes I know, on the grand scale of things wrong in this world, this was pretty big.

This is no ordinary towel. Well, it kinda is, but it isn't.
Back in 1997, I was still making bears. Yes, teddy bears. I used to design and create miniature teddy bears to the collectible artist crowd and travel around the country (and world) selling them. Sounds pretty cool eh? Well, it had it's moments. However I burnt out in 2002 and moved on.

Anyway, in 1997, I went to Tampa, Florida to a bear show, and the theme was Noah's ark. When you participated in these shows, they often made you a "collector" too. So one of the perks of that was you got to go to the big fancy sitdown dinners and win prizes just like the collectors. Each meal included a table favor.

One of those nights, our table favor was a beach towel with a Noah bear embroidered on one end. I thought it was so cute and had to rearrange my suitcase to get it home - yes, it was packed that tight.

Over the years it's had it's share of wear and tear.

It's frayed all along the edges from about 9,276 washings.

The trim along the edge has started to tear.

There's a 3 inch rip in one side.

And poor Noah bear, well, his umbrella is no longer blue, his robe is slowly wearing away and then there's the hole - right next to his HEAD.

Why do I love it? Well, a myriad of reasons. First, practical reasons. It's big and fluffy and I like beach towels so much better than regular towels. Then it was only the second time I'd ever flown in my life. I actually called a woman and asked if she'd fly with me because I was really nervous. But mainly it's because of a really happy conversation I had with someone I care about. Nothing special, nothing in particular - just a happy moment, that got attached to some silly little item and I associate the two together forever.

A few years later, I created all the table favors for the same show. They were teddy bears holding a christmas ornament. I made around 95 of them and was SO GLAD to have that done! That show was set to take place on September 15, 2001. Because of flight restrictions after 9-11 it didn't happen again until November. I was never so glad that I didn't sign up to show there.

So anyway, I started to wonder where it could possibly be. I knew it wasn't in the laundry, as I wash every stitch of clothing, sheets, towels every Monday.

My next thought was maybe it had been thrown in Gene's work car as a rag. *shudder* Like, to clean up an oil spill or something (not THE oil spill, *an* oil spill). Just the thought started to make me a little ill and borderline angry. I determined a trip to the car was in order.

Then, before I could get to the car (I was at the clothesline), I remembered "option B". Or in this case, "Option T".

Tanner.

The teenager with a raw, unbridled hatred for laundry. Oh sure, he'll mow the yard until he loses 6 pounds from sweat - without me asking. He'll randomly work on the chicken coop. He was kind of excited when I bought an electric weed trimmer... but laundry. For some reason he hates it.

Baskets will sit there for weeks on end, and he'll often go to school looking like he stores his shirts in a shoe. I still refuse to do his laundry for him. If you want to wear dirty underwear and stink, then have at it.

You'll get made fun of, but have at it.

So first I dug through the laundry hamper -full of clean, unfolded clothes. Nope, not there... which only left one place.

The spot where the hamper was supposed to be, but wasnt.
The closet.

Great.. now I get to go into the closet, where stinky teenage boy stuff "lives" and burn my nose looking for my favorite towel.

Underwear, shorts, 23 shirts and looky looky! THERE'S MY TOWEL!

Once again, all is right with my world. Towel is in place, and still all torn up and Tanner is officially grounded from my towel.

forever and ever amen.

PS - Tanner, you have laundry to do :p

I've got the whole world...

Tried this shot once before eons ago. Could not get it right to save my soul. This morning, the light was shining down through the window through this glass globe and I thought "duh, ding dong.. you did it wrong".

ISO: 400
F 22
37mm
1/250th

Next: an egg - although I doubht it has near the impact

ArKinSaw Walkabout

A couple weeks ago we went to Arkansas to visit Gene's son and DIL, along with his granddaughters. I realized yesterday, that I never really shared many photos of how pretty it is down there.

There are mountains, but they are Ozark mountains, not rocky type mountains. Lots of trees and beautiful scenery. I imagine it's incredibly beautiful there especially in the fall.

I can't resist tunnel photos.

One day while we were down there, my step-son, Chris, and the 2 granddaughters - Cheyenne and Madison and I all went for a ride in the Jeep. Chris took us to a couple of his favorite spots and we just sort of rode around looking for photos.

This is a place where they hang out, go swimming and fishing. A shallow, pretty little river. I can see the appeal.

Chey, walking across the river. As you can see it's fairly shallow at that time. Right after this we drove across.

I couldn't resist a photo of the red rock down south. We just don't see this in my neck of the woods. We have good old brown and gray rocks.

We're boring.

If you get opportunity, I would suggest visiting Arkansas. I'm sure there is much more beautiful stuff to see than we saw up on the north side, but it does seem like a good place to go, sit and and take in the beauty around you.

Now, back to laundry.
Sigh

Keysa + Andy = Get Engaged!

I have to introduce you first, to this special couple. They remind me that it's kind of a small world at times, and that I'm getting old.

Sigh.

Keysa (which is a rockin' name) first met me over the phone. I was calling her place of employment looking for trash service. She worked in the front office. Sadly, her first encounter with me, was me complaining about my former service! LOL. She was cool about it, and that makes her awesome in my books. So anyway, I really didn't MEET Keysa until one of my dearest friends started working in the front office too - just the two of them.

I would go to visit my friend Stacy, and chat with Keysa while I was there. It was so funny, I really didn't "know" Keysa, but she is so easy to talk to, it was like I've known her for ages. At one point, we had decided we were all going to star in "The Real Housewives of Nodaway County" (where we live), and do a total redneck spin on it. Keysa was going to get to be the pretty one.

Now Andy, I've known Andy since he was like - 6 years old. What I can tell you about Andy back then, was this... he was ornery. There's no other way to say it except he was a trouble maker. Adorable as heck, but ornery. His dad and my ex served on the fire dept together. His mom and I both worked for competing newspapers around the same time. Plus it's a pretty small town if you wanna get technical about it.

Imagine my surprise when about 20 years later, he's a full grown adult. Exactly when did that happen? I dunno, all I can remember is he's this little 6 year old toe headed blond little stink butt. (see how I made that whole sentence with no commas? pfft)

So then one day I'm talking to Keysa, she says something about her boyfriend, I ask her who it is and she said "Andy W" and I'm like "GET OUT! He's grown up now??"

(I live in a bubble I tell ya - this is how I can tell people that I'm 28 with a straight face).

So one day, I'm sitting in a local restaurant. I happen to see Andy sitting there a couple tables over, and I say to myself "Good god when is that boy going to ask her to marry him already?" No really... those were the exact words that were in my head.

Approximately 2 weeks later, Keysa is announcing an engagement ring!

Keysa, you are welcome! I put the marriage juju on him.

I was happy when they decided that they wanted me to shoot their wedding! They are pretty awesome and fun people - in fact, Andy is a wedding DJ himself!

Both love to play softball, and spend most of their summer evenings at the ballfield (no that's not how they met - they met in high school) so it was no big suprise when they wanted to do most of their shoot at the ball fields! Thank you guys, I had fun, and it was one of the more interesting engagement shoots I've had yet!

Drumroll please!!

And the winner of the "guess the weight" of the "final secret" post is....

Please don't kill me.
I totally didn't rig this.

My sister Torrie! LOL.

I swear I didn't bring in a ringer. Torrie reads my blog semi-regularly, and when I mentioned that my family/friends NEVER entered, well she took it personal.

She apparently cheated by using the "pyschic family connection" thing that me and Amber have going on, and guessed 3780 pounds. The answer was - 3773 pounds! She already called and asked, so she already knows that she will get a gift card for $37.73!! So there was no fooling her. sigh.

Thanks everyone for playing along, you are fun and awesome! I love how you humor me with my weird contests :)

Another weird contest coming soon. I dunno what it is, but I'm sure it will involve channeling Jingles for the answer.
:p

They go together like Unicorns and GLITTER!

Early this year, Gene had been shopping. He was determined that he was going to buy me a band to go on my wedding ring.

Why am I complaining right?

I'm not, but really, a band wasn't a huge priority for me. You see, I had a pretty nice wedding ring as it was. It really didn't *need* band with it, and I was happy with it. It's a long story, but basically, he bought me the ring and it originally had a smaller trillion cut tanzanite in the center.

Pssst....
I really don't like tanzanite. Gene does. Because he likes it, I think he got it stuck in his head that *I* liked it. He's kinda pretty like that. Well, many years ago, he had a security job, and one of his co-workers was a gems dealer on the side. Scratch that. Actually, he was a security guy on the side. Apparently, he had been dealing his gems and got rolled. That's not the bad part. The worst of the story is that he bought his gems from the mob! Oh, and he believed that the mob was the one that rolled him.

He cut a deal to the mob - that he owed $250,000 (yes 4 zeros) to, and he had to get a job on the side just to make ends meet. So that's how he and Gene met. One day, as a gift to Gene he gave him a gem, it was a rare pink topaz.

We had found out from a gemologist that it was a gem that was so rare he'd never seen one in person. Basically it's two parts that get superheated twice giving it the by-color. So he thought anyway.

One day I held it up to my ring, and we both went "ohhhhh" and it was decided that the ring would be altered to hold the bigger pink stone, which is MUCH more me and my style.

It's beautiful. I'm happy, I get tons of compliments. Everything's cool right?
Well kinda.

So Gene ends up buying me a band for Mother's day. We get it - it's sparkly -I'm happy and we go off to our regular jeweler to have the band custom fit to my wedding ring. Gene goes to pick it up a week later, and when he looks at it closer, he notices that it looks strange.

The topaz in the center stone is broken!!
In three pieces!!

I was so upset when I got that call. Understandably so. The jeweler felt horrible and it was determined that it HAD to have happened in the sonic cleaning. We think there may have been a minute fissure that caused a break.

Nothing could be done. The stone was gone forever. That *super rare* stone. The one that everyone over 20 years had agreed was an unusual topaz. The stone that a gemologist traveled to see, and had never seen one before.

Jeweler offered a replacement.
Yeah, replace something so rare it's never been seen. Good luck.

He needed to determine what it was, so we agreed to let him send it off to a gem lab. The report came back about a week later. Not what we expected at all!
*it was a CZ*

W.T.H?

The jeweler started talking about CZ's and getting one painted to match and I stopped him right there. Um.. no. We wouldn't be doing that. I decided that *I* would pay for a new stone myself, which for the record is easier said than done. Because of it's shape and size, it was nearly impossible to find all this in one stone:
1. someone you can trust
2. right shape
3. right size
4. right color

It took almost TWO MONTHS but finally. FINALLY... I find something in thailand, from a reputable dealer that only deals in the finest quality gems. I purchased a tourmaline (my fave) in a pretty bubble gum pink color.

Another couple weeks for delivery.
Another 10 days to set the stone, resize, and add a little cosmetic touch up piece of gold to fill a little gap and ...

Yay.. SpArklY!

Now, do I get kicked out of the girl club if I say that Gene can't buy anything else for this ring?

Just wondering.

Don't forget!

There's still time to enter our "final secret" contest! You have until tomorrow evening to get in your guesses.

You've been mooned

I seem to be as obsessed with the moon lately, as I am with airplanes. I just can not resist getting out the long lens when I see a big fat red moon rise. I can hardly wait to get the images onto my computer so I can see the detail of the craters and "mountains" of the moon at full resolution.

It makes me want to go out and buy an even longer lens - you know, for $7019.97. Or maybe just a 2x extender for around $300.

It's a tax right off right?
RIGHT?

OK, stick with me on this, it's actually going somewhere

I have a short story that, as per usual, I'm going to make long just for you. I've been saving it. Well, not exactly saving it, I've either been:
a.) busy
b.) forgetful or
c.) lazy

Sorry, just keepin' it real.


Last month, my mom turned 55. (not really, but I'm figuring if I keep lying about my age, I'm gonna have to start lying about hers. Plus I'm doing a little butt kissing here... keep up). My little sister Torrie, organized the whole surprise party herself.

Only mom wasn't surprised. Like always. She acted surprised, and then told everyone that she'd already figured it out. None of this shocked me at all.

Everyone was there, all her kids, most of the spouses, lots of mom's friends, mom's in-laws and outlaws. Sadly some of the inlaws/outlaw are the same people, but I'll save that for another post.

So anyway, Torrie was there right? Did I mention my little sister Torrie has multiple personalities? Yeah she does. (btw, Hi Torrie! Love you! (I know she reads here.. shh)). So anyway, "multiple-personality-Torrie" has a city life, and a country life. She works during the week at her air conditioned job in the big city. (I threw in the air conditioned part just to imply that it's cushy. I dunno if it really is or not :p )

On the weekends, she flies like a Kountry gal. There's outbuildings, horses, lots of trees, and chickens. Yep, she has a little small farm in the country about 2o miles from me! All this and I really don't see her much more.

Yes that was my motherly nagging gene.
sorry Torrie, I still love you anyway.

So anyway, Torrie tells me that they are sick of their chickens. You see, around the time we got ours, they got theirs. I, being the over protective mother hen, watch them like a hawk.
A chicken hawk.

*snort*
I entertain myself.

Torrie's on the other hand, got to live the high life. They got to run and be free. When Rooster (aka 'Wooster' ala my niece Tayen) bit the dust by something that goes bump in the night, Torrie said she was "tired of messing with them" and asked me at said party, if I wanted them.

I said I'd think about it.

I thought about it and well, chicken are like popcorn - there's always room for more.

About a week later, Torrie called and wanted to see if it was ok to go swimming in our pool. Which of course I said "Cha! Yeah... duh... SWEET!" Mainly cuz that means I can take some pics of someone in the pool besides Tanner.

Sorry Tanner. I'll make it up to you if you put on a purple bikini like Tayen.

So I told Torrie, if she still wanted to ditch those chickens, I'd take them off her hands. Using her best "damn chickens!" voice, she said she'd find a cage and get them there.

A few hours later, Torrie shows up, with a little girl in a purple bikini and five little chickens. Four red ones and a white one.

They were a little worse for wear, but they were here.

They were pretty scared. I mean, they were obvious small fish in a big pond full of piranhas. Piranhas with beaks.

Needless to say, adapting has been a struggle. As you can see above, they stick in a pack and head the opposite direction of the others when they get to go outside. The white chicken has it the worst as she's the smallest, and the only white chicken. With that, she has developed an attitude and protects her "clan". She'll puff up and peck chickens twice her size if they get up in her grill.

The chicken on the far left is the sweetest chicken we have. She is friendly and wants to come up right to you. Today, when I went to get a scoop of scratch, she snuggled up right between my feet. She lets me pick her up and makes a funny cluck.

I've started calling her Daisy.

I'm pretty confident Daisy won't be eaten. Probably ever.

In other news, we now have TWO little chickens laying eggs. I'm getting four a day. BTW, we eat about 6 eggs a week. :/ I could have had one chicken and been ok.

I have 23.

Now, after all that, don't you wish I'd just said "When we were at my mom's birthday party, my sister told me she had some chickens I could have. She brought them to me a week later" ??

You're silly. When have I ever told a story in one sentence?

Hellloo..
duh!

Grab my coat - I'm moving back to the city.

WARNING ....
icky bug photo ahead.


So, living out here in the country has been an adventure to say the least. I have said before that it's not so much as fixing up your house, but more like defending the homestead.

One thing I've noticed is these little holes all over the place. Now, I can't be sure, but I think they might be snake holes. I'm pretty cool with that because snakes eat mice and voles... living literally in the middle of a bean field, that's a given.

Between the house and the chicken coop, there's one of these holes and it looks pretty fresh. As I'm walking by, I'm looking at it, and I see something move. On closer inspection (yes I'm a weirdo like that), I find this guy:

{this was an incredibly hard shot to get btw!!}

and I wonder, is it a spider hole? Or a spider that shares residence with snakes, which I think would be a really bad move on his part in my opinion. He was huge. When I say "huge" pretty much any spider over the size of a fingernail is huge to me. They are bigger when they are inside. This guy however, had to be a good couple inches across including legs. Maybe bigger, I dunno I wasn't stupid enough to jam my finger down in that hole. Mainly because every single spider I see I wonder "is that a brown recluse??!!"

That's a lie.

I only think that on the brown ones. Most of them are brown by the way.


In other news, I went out to get the mail yesterday.
Exciting stuff no?

On the way back, the chickens were all in the undesignated area. It's pretty hard to keep them in their "designated area" and remember where that's at when chickens have the memory of well... a chicken.

What I'm saying is the stupid chickens were in the driveway, mere feet from my fledgling flower bed. bad news. I shooed them back to their spot, and something else caught my eye.... movement. I looked again, and there, running in a perfect, tight circle, about the size of a donut, was a VOLE. A big fat one too.

The chickens had found him (her????) first and was checking it out, and I had shooed them away. sigh.

The vole was obviously confused. Maybe it had taken a good hard peck to the noggin, because even tho I was 5,000 times it's size, and towering over it like the jolly green giant, it continued to run in some weird tight circle.

Did I mention I can't kill anything with a face?
I can't.
I'm a softie.
Sue me.

I gathered up a big tub and sat it on top of it, thinking Gene could squish it when he got home.

Stupid move.

When I went out an hour later, it was gone. Sigh. Probably off to produce it's 9th litter of 273 babies this year. BLECH.

I think I wanna move. Or someone to hold me. Where's my mommy?

I said CEASE FIRE!

This is here, just as proof that this insanity runs in the family. This "Cease Fire" thing - I can't seem to shake it.

I snapped this shot of Gene's oldest son's army ring when we were visiting earlier this month. I happened across the picture and had another laugh to myself.

The "Cease" name is fixing to die out if someone doesn't have some boys. Just an observation - I'm sure there are hundreds of women out there gathering in a collective cheer. Somehow I think I got bamboozled on this deal.

*blink*

{I'm really not THAT mean. I just have a really dry sense of humor. Sadly most of that gets taken out on my husband.... who has a great sense of humor too. At least that's what his therapist tells me.}

Free at last, free at LAST

I am Freeeeeeee!!

Ok wait, that sounds bad.

I am currently minus 2 men.
*insert predictable sad face here*

Gene went back to work yesterday after 8 weeks off from work because of a hernia surgery. At times it was really nice to have him around (we got tons of stuff done here) and other times, I wanted to smother him with a pillow. There was a lot of "let's do this today!" which means I have a lot of work that needs to get done over the next 5 weeks (before the next wedding).

And like with any good "going out with a blaze of glory" sort of event, we spent all of our weekend preceeding it, not at home, squeezing out the last bit of freedom.

A couple months ago, our friends from Kansas City asked if we would come down and shoot the grandbaby. Seems Grandma is overly smitten with one potentially spoiled little one-year-old. Don't be hatin', it's her j.o.b. to spoil. Like really.

{This made Grandma Debbie cry}



It just so happens that Duane makes some pretty mean BBQ and we were tempted with that.

Not saying we only went for the BBQ, but you know, it sure sweetened the pot a little.



So very, very many more photos of Kyla to come down the road. In the meantime, I have like literally 8,309 photos to sort and edit. Really. I counted.

We spent the night with Gene's mom and dad and visited with them for a while in the morning. We then hit a few antique stores. Tanner was over the top estatic.

You're right, that WAS sarcasm.

I was so beat. I don't know what it is, but I just can't sleep very well at Gene's mom and Dad's house, plus with Tanner there too, for some reason I worried about him all night and woke up every hour on the hour. In return, what I ended up doing was exhausting myself.

Because I was falling asleep in the booth, I took a nap in the parking lot of Subway in Weston, Mo. No, not like, on the ground, in my car. Boy it was hot too, but I didn't care. I ended up with a 45 minute nap, which apparently was what I really needed. I was sweaty, but refreshed.

Later on, I met up with the hosts of the radio show "Junk in my Trunk" a/k/a The Junk Mafia. They needed some photos for promotional materials and possibly even billboards. See this pretty girl in the middle:

That's Fancy. Remember me talking about her a few weeks back? She's one of the crew, and we became facebook friends after my visit. I read her blog on a regular basis, and she in turn stops by here too. I love her spunky go-get-em attitude, and how she loves to promote and network. It's very inspiring to spend any time around her.

She does all this while raising three young boys and one old husband. Oh, and a storefront.
I'm tired again all the sudden.

The other hosts Darren (left) and John (left) I just met. They are funny and very personable. You can tell they really enjoy what they do. They admit to frequently hitting Weston in their pursuits.

Not that I have any experience in that department.
None.

I had to really think on these shots. They aren't family, or related, or married - so I couldn't pose them in ways I was most used to. It took a little creative thinking, but we got some great pics. The above photo is just ONE of almost 400 I took that I must get through at least a few in the next 24 hours for them to use on promo materials.
But you know, no pressure there. ;p


My point to all this is this:
"whew"

It's been hard to manage Tanner off for the summer (less his Upward Bound weeks), tending to Gene and his surgery, plus keeping him entertained, attending about 6 weddings, visiting family and friends, oh and somewhere in there taking care of business.

And starting a new one... or three.

Gene and I are working on a new etsy shop, I'm going to start up a decorator/nature print business (probably this winter) and get this .... Gene is seriously wanting to start an antique mall. I'm dragging my feet because I've so very much been there done that. None of that has happened yet so don't get too excited.

The honest go God truth is tho, that even tho he drove me nuts about 72% of the time, (we slept a lot), I have ended up missing him. I'm pretty sure he misses me too.

Don't tell his boss, but he secretly called me from the bathroom today. ;P

And the final secret is ....

Remember a few days ago, me sharing a few deep dark secrets with you? Well, I promised a third one, and I'm here to deliver. You'll want to read the *whole post*.

So basically, the best way around here to get something done, is to mention in front of my *fifteen-year-old* how much something bothers me. He's one of those kids that cleans his room without you asking, takes care of the chickens, or when I come home, he'll have spent 6 hours working on the chicken coop in 98 degree weather - and I never asked.

Yes, those kids exist.

The other thing I can do, is to say this to my husband: "it's important to me". This will pretty much guarantee that he'll do whatever it is I'm asking, even if it's begrudingly. In turn, I use this phrase pretty sparingly. I know when not to blow a good thing.

So the other secret, the other pain, the other pile of ugliness hanging out in my yard was this:

No, not the chicken coop, the pile of crap in front of it.

What is it? (Besides a toilet and some wire of course) Well, we bought this house 3 years ago - almost exactly. This whole thing was a spur of the moment purchase. We weren't looking for a house, and we hadn't saved up for a down payment, closing costs - *anything*. My brother-in-law just so happens to have his real estate license, and because I had said something in passing, he brought this property to my attention on a Saturday. By Sunday, we had put in a contract.

Long story short, the process to close on the house (it's a HUD repo) took about 3 months. It was a pain and a nightmare, but on the up side, that gave us time to save up a down payment and closing costs. Seriously, we did it in 3 months. We worked overtime, we had several garage sales, sold some stuff on ebay, we did it.

Did I mention we had to pay for a roof too? Yeah, it had to be done immediately because most of the problems this house started at the roof, and what's the point of putting in hardwood floors, when the roof is just going to leak on them right?

The point to this story is, that by the time we paid for the closing costs, the down payment, and the roof, we were tapped. OK, not like our rent check was going to bounce, or we were eating ramen for the next 90 days, but we were skimming the bottom of the bucket. Because of this, when we ripped off the roof, we knew we were not going to be able to afford *at that very second* to pay for someone to haul off all the construction waste. It was going to cost several hundred dollars, and in the grand scheme of things, I needed toilets worse.

There was a cement pad there, (remember me talking about the fire in the last post?), well this is where the old garage was before. It's where we decided to put our chicken coop, and it made a great spot to "temporarily" dump construction waste thinking in a couple months we'd borrow a truck and take it to the dump.

Then it got bigger, and bigger and HEAPING. There were those pesky toilets (the former owners broke them all before they left), all the shingles, paneling strips from the walls, and then later we added more from when they put on the foundation.

Sadly, the road to hell is paved with good intentions - and lazy asses.

We just kept putting it off. Trust me, it was a suck job. I was slowly chipping away at it. Every time I had an empty bag from the chicken feed, I'd fill it with crap and put it out for the trash man... and O.M.G. that was just the most redneck sentence ever.

So back to the day we're all outside, and watching the chickens. I say something about how the shed is embarassing me, as does the pile of CRAP. *e.m.b.a.r.a.s.s.i.n.g.* Everyone takes note. Tanner painted the shed. CHECK.

The a few days ago - Wednesday ironically is anti-procrastination day according to flylady - Gene out of the blue told me to rent a truck. I did some research, found a coupon code, and 1/2 hour later was picking up a moving truck.

It only took about 2 hours in the heat with lots of breaks but viola!:

Oh, I know it's not the taj mahal, but lord, it's soooo much nicer to look out the back door. Those chairs are our chicken watching chairs, and the old tub is our temporary "end table" for drinks. LOL. I am already talking to Gene about putting pavers on it and buying a nice patio set.

Yes, my chicken coop will have a deck. No lie.

There was one casualty in the process..
ME!!

I was helping unload and made the mistake of standing behind Gene. Like any good center, he snapped the shingle (football) into my left eye. I totally saw it coming. It was scary and dude I was so upset I thought maybe my eyeball was going to be hanging out of my head.

In reality, all that ended up happening was I walked around like a pirate for one day, and used a lot of eye drops. I did pull some asphalt out of my eye and that's the most bloodshot it's ever been.

I will now stop talking about it because my eye is starting to water thinking about it.
(I have issues)



Now for the fun part...
I've decided to give away a gift card to Home Depot, Lowes, whatever store works for you - one penny for every pound that we took to the dump. They weighed us, so I know exactly :)

All you have to do is guess the weight!

Here's the rules:
1. Only one guess per person - I know things, I'm all seeing and there's hell to pay.
2. You MUST come back to claim your prize - I'll post the winners here next Friday night
3. Anyone can enter, even family or friends (although they never do!)
4. Closest person wins - this is not price is right, so you can go over. (my husband makes up the price is right rule and it annoys me lol)
5. Aren't chickens cute? I just wanted to say that.

Here's a couple hints.
1. The pile had shingles in it - they were crappy shingles, not the nice ones we put back on the house. The roof covers around 1600 square feet of house.
2. We also threw away a washing machine.
3. There were 2 whole toilets. *eyeroll*
4. Isn't this just the coolest white trash contest ever?

I'm anxious to see your guesses!!

PS - I think I'm done living a lie now. I feel cleansed (pun intended)

Castaways!

While uncovering the pool for a swim the other day, Tanner and I discovered a couple castaways.

I'm totally on to them. I know the M.O. now. Find a nice cool spot next to the pool in the shade. A little drink next to ya..

Bring a little friend along for company...



Why yes, I am jealous, why do you ask?