A few more birthday pictures

Last night we had some friends over after church to eat birthday cake. It was great, because pretty much all the cake was eaten except for just a couple pieces, so now we don't feel obligated to eat all the cake so it doesn't go bad. (Don't think I wouldn't have done it, though.) Barbara used to do the chocolate icing with blue writing so I thought I'd do that this year as well. Chad asked if he was too old for sprinkles, and I said of course not. We did have to go to the numeral candles instead of putting the actual number of candles on the cake. The birthday boy blowing out his candles. Here is what I got Chad for his birthday. No, not the electric drumset; the drum rug underneath. Now, I know what some of you are thinking: "That's just a big piece of flannel," or maybe, "Hey, she stole a baptism blanket from Blue Haven and is using it as a rug. But you're wrong. This rug is actually made to go under a drumset. The drums had been getting no play time since we had our wood floors installed in April (and they will be finished tomorrow, but that's another story that makes me very angry with Home Depot, so I'm not going to tell it right now), and they were sitting out in the garage collecting dust because I was not okay with just putting the drums directly on the wood floor. Also, I'm not a fan of spending a lot of money on something (drums, for example) and then not ever using it. So in order to turn from bad wife into good wife, I gave Chad this rug for his birthday, so now he can play to his heart's content. Although now since the drumset is turned toward the wall, it feels a little like Chad is in time out when he's playing the drums.

New update on cabin

Foundation is poured and finished...just needs to finish drying. Framing will begin tomorrow, with the floors and then the walls being raised on Monday.

We also have a plumber now. I have pledged my firstborn to pay him. Not really, but the plumbing is expensive. We are having a tankless water heater installed so our builder thinks that is part of the more expensive cost.

Next up...choosing a color for the roof and ordering the roof. Want to see our choices? Here they are. We're taking votes if you're interested. Well, more like suggestions. Votes would indicate that the color with the most of them is what we will choose. But please feel free to tell us what roof color you like the best!

Happy Birthday Chad!

Today my favorite person in the world turns 27 years old. I can't believe I have had the privilege of knowing Chad for over 8 years and for being married to him for almost 5. It's hard for me to put into words how blessed I feel that God put us together. Chad has so many wonderful qualities that I can't even list them all here, and I am so glad he is my husband.

Happy 27th birthday Chad! I love you and I hope it's the best one yet.

Pictures from last week

Here are a few pictures from when I went to visit Erin and her family. Kellen is not much into posing for the camera, which is fine with me because I like the candid shots better. Here he is having a conversation with Erin. I can't remember what he was asking her here, but I remember thinking it was funny.
Bonnie is listening to her granny read a book about dinosaurs. Kellen, these next pictures are for you. We have been growing lots of cucumbers in our garden. While I was in Liberty visiting you, Uncle Chad had to figure out something to do with all the cucumbers...

In non-related news, Chad spoke with someone the other day at his school, and she said that they are now reviewing the April applications for clinicals (Chad applied in April), and that he should know his date within a week or so! So pray that we hear soon, and that Chad gets a date that comes fairly quickly so he can pass his CPNE, take his NCLEX and become an RN.

Another cabin update

Is this one of those things that is interesting to me because I am in the middle of it and everyone else is like "Just let us know when the cabin is finished so we can use it"? I know a few of you are interested though, so this is for you. Anyway, here's a new update, and it's a fun one! They are pouring the footings today at 11 and the piers tomorrow morning. Our builder just told us he's ordered the log siding (yikes, I guess that means we're going with the expensive stuff), the lumber for the framing which will be delivered today at one, the electrician is coming at 11:30 today to install the service pole, and he is ordering the windows today. We had to choose a color for the windows. The choices were white, almond, and desert sand. Although I love the brightness and cleanness of white window frames, I am afraid if we got that for the cabin they would stay anything but bright and clean. So, we went with desert sand, which is pretty much what it sounds like--a taupish color. Our builder has good taste and he said he liked that color too. About the exterior of the cabin...we had a discussion while we were at camp about what to put on the outside of the place. Our options were cedar shingle siding which isn't my favorite, and I think it's more expensive than the log, so that was out pretty quickly. Which left us with two options (because we're not Bill Gates and couldn't do real logs): log siding where each piece is a 2x8 piece of wood, rounded into a D (it's real wood) and the flat part goes up against the building so it looks like real logs, and siding sheets, which is about half the cost, but not my cup of tea, and from the buildings that have that at camp, looks like it deteriorates rather quickly from rain. Anyone who has seen the new dining hall renovation exterior has seen what we chose, and you can stain it any color. So I held out for the more expensive exterior that I believe will hold up better over the long run, AND I don't want to spend all this money on building a cabin and cringe every time we drive up to it because I don't like the way it looks outside. So we picked the log siding.

Our builder also said that he talked to our neighbor again about sharing his well, and he said it sounds like it's a done deal. Also mentioned what it was going to cost us, which is significantly less than what we would be spending on drilling our own well if it had come to that.

That's about it for now. In a few weeks, when we go up there, I will take plenty of pictures to show the progress. Sounds like I will actually have a building to photograph!

Building on the brain

It's been a while since I've given a cabin update, mostly because until recently nothing very interesting has been happening with the cabin. I don't know if I mentioned that while we were at camp, we had to make lots of phone calls and drive all over New Mexico to get easements for our power, go to planning and zoning (twice) to get a letter of compliance for the electrical company so they would put up our power poles, go to the NM Environmental Department and listen to a guy talk for an hour and a half about how we can't have a normal septic system and can't drill our own well because the property isn't big enough, and go to the rural 911 place to get assigned an address (they weren't there the first day because they are only open from 8-10 am Monday through Friday, so I went again the next day during that time and they still weren't there, because the guy who does address assigning is also the IT guy for the building and they didn't have a way to page him, and I basically told some random person that I wasn't leaving until someone came to help me, which they finally did. If you think that little story was long, just be glad I spared you the stories that go along with all the other places that I went, namely planning and zoning. But I digress.). Oh yeah, we also drove up to Mora (about an hour away) because that is where the electric co-op is located, to turn in our paperwork and join the co-op. Then another day we drove down to Construction Industries Division in Santa Fe (an hour away in the opposite direction) to apply for our building permit. When we were there, I felt like I was ordering soup from the Soup Nazi. Our contractor had told us to smile a lot and act very humble and ignorant and say really nicely, "Could you look over everything? I'm not sure I did this right," and then pay them their money. Apparently, folks have turned in stuff to CID before and have been denied a permit for kind of silly things because they forgot to cross a t or something. So about a week later we received our permit in the mail, and now it's go-time. Our contractor has cleared our land and begun working, and as soon as the weather dries up a bit he will be pouring the piers for our foundation. We also got our first invoice from him, so this is definitely becoming very real for us. He has instructed us to go to Lowe's or Home Depot to pick out lighting fixtures and ceiling fans, and also to decide what color windows we want. I got the best news today when I called another cabin owner who owns a cabin very close to ours. After one of our neighbors not being interested in sharing their well, and another neighbor saying they wouldn't mind, but it would be really expensive for us because they didn't have a pump installed yet and therefore no electricity going to the well, this guy was my last shot--I asked very nicely if he would be willing to let us share their well, and he said yes. So that is a big load off our minds (plus it will save us a lot of money and we will have running water, always a plus). Also, the well we will be sharing produces 20-25 gal/minute, which the guy said that when the drillers drilled it, they said that was the biggest producing well they had ever drilled in the area.

I had a dream last night that our builder had basically built the cabin in about a week. We showed up, and everything was done, and decorated perfectly. Then I woke up. But hopefully, it won't be too much longer before there is much more progress and we have a cabin!

It's been quite a process so far, making sure everything is done just right, all the paperwork is filled out correctly, and it's still within our budget.

More to come later. Also...we are going up to camp during Labor Day weekend to babysit camp while the caretakers are out of town, so I'll take pictures of the progress then.

Texas: The awesome state?

In case everyone else in the world is not aware, we Texans believe Texas is better than any other state (all the Texans reading this right now are saying collectively, "Well, it IS."). I'm not sure why we think this way, and it might be hard for some Texans to admit this out loud, but most will display their pride, well, proudly. It's something that is ingrained in us from a young age, to see everyone else as somehow inferior because they are not from Texas. I am not making this up. Yesterday, as I was driving home from my mom's house, I saw this billboard on I-20: "The Texas capital building is 15 feet taller than the United States capital building in Washington, D.C. (smaller, more italicized font below it:) Texas. Our Texas." This reminded me of those really stupid bumper stickers that say "My kid can beat up your honor student." Anyway, apparently we now think we're better than the United States of America as a whole on the basis of our capitol being 15 feet taller. Honestly, sometimes I just don't understand thought processes. But if I was doing a master's thesis on sociology, it would be about Texans and our very large self-esteems about our state.

On a partially-related note, tax-free weekend in Texas is August 15-17. That's where you can save a bunch of money on clothes and the like (8.25% in our area. And did I just explain to everyone what tax-free weekend was as if no one had ever heard of it before? Sorry. I really don't think you live under a rock.), although you'd save even more money if you just stayed home and bought nothing. But that's boring. Anyway, I noticed on this site that Texas was the first of any state to implement a tax-free holiday. Just another example of our awesomeness. But then a bunch of other states had to come in and be better than Texas and make their tax-free holidays as many as 17 days. This includes the District of Columbia (you know, the place with the tiny capitol).

Come on, Texas. Time to step it up a notch.

Back again

Okay, I am finally back from all the traveling I have been doing this summer. Chad stayed here this past week to work while I went to visit various family and friends. First I stopped through Denton to see my friend and former roommate Emily for a short visit, then it was on to mom's house. We drove together the next day (Friday) to Liberty to see Erin's family, and we got to spend a good amount of time there and went to her baby shower on Sunday. Then, it was back to the metroplex where I got to spend a little time with two of my good friends from A&M days, Larry and Brent. And, I saw my grandmother twice this past week as well.

So now you know what I've been up to. And I'm sure the blog will be more interesting once school starts, although I realize the update on the vegetable garden has been riveting. Seriously though, my tomatoes are all green, and it seems they've come to a standstill and won't get bigger and won't get red. Does anybody know what the problem is, and more important, how I can fix it?

Some pictures

Hi. Sorry I have been MIA the past few days. Since we've been back from camp I have gotten a cold which has prevented me from wanting to do anything except lay around the house. My sweet husband has done most of the laundry and putting up the laundry and unpacking. Anyway, here are a few pictures. I didn't take very many this year because I just didn't feel like it. Camp was great though and we had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the kids in our Bible classes. This first one is from in between 3rd and 4th sessions when we went with our friends Vance and Kasey to Porvenir Canyon to do a little climbing. Check out that flexibility. And at the top. Okay, now on to 4th session. Here's Ava deep in thought. Actually she's probably wishing she could go down to the playground and play instead of having to stay with the boring adults so we could have a conversation. Chad showing Elle how to tie her own shoe. Look how enthralled she is. Our garden when we got back. The picture doesn't really show how huge it had gotten. Oh well. Look! Jalapenos! Which is good that I'm growing my own...because isn't that what they're saying now caused all that salmonella?Squash. Um, too bad there wasn't anyone to pick the zucchinis when they were ready. I have already made two loaves of zucchini bread out of one half of the zucchini on the right. I'm sorry about this one. Chad made me take it. Here's what was ready to pick when we got back. The one in the top middle is a cucumber and we picked 3-4 more since this picture was taken.

So I've been trying to do something with all these veggies since we got home, so a lot of my time (when I'm not resting) has been spent cooking something. Today I will make some squash casseroles to freeze, I already told you about the zucchini bread (which I found a great recipe for in a magazine I subscribe to), and I made some pesto (my own concoction) out of a bunch of basic that was ready to harvest. We also have quite a few little green tomatoes on my plants, and one that I picked yesterday.

So, that's our life...camp and the garden. This weekend I'll go with mom to Liberty to hang out with Erin & the fam, and then I'm done traveling for the summer. After that trip I will have exactly 12 days until I am to officially report for duty back at school. Man, time flies.

We're baaaaaack!

Many loads of laundry and a yard that looks like a jungle await, but I just had to get on the blog to let everyone know we are home and had a wonderful time at camp. Our veggies are huge. I will post more later.

Last post before camp...more pics of Hawaii, garden update, and haircut

Just thought I'd post the last couple pictures I have from Hawaii. The last night we were there, Chad and I went on a little dinner cruise. It was a lot of fun. The food was actually pretty good, the guy singing was really good, and boy was it entertaining to watch all those white people dance to songs like "YMCA" and "Celebrate good times...COME ON!!!" Here's a picture from the first luau we went to. Paul was brave enough to get his camera out, but mine was safe under my poncho in my purse. And here we are parasailing. Paul managed to get these pictures as we went by the hotel. Believe me, it's us. Parasailing was a lot of fun and I'm glad Paul got the pictures, because they wanted to charge $20 for a roll of film taken by their employees, and then we'd also have to go get it developed. What a rip off!Here we are on the boat at the dinner cruise on that last night. Thought this was a nice way to end our trip, and the day. God's creation is so awesome. Speaking of God's creation...we came home to a garden that is flourishing! It rained quite a bit while we were away, and I'm sure that helped. Also our friends David & Tiffany took care of things while we were away...so a big thanks to them. We are starting to get little veggies on our plants. The zucchini and squash plants are HUGE!Here are the little seedlings that sprouted from a couple watermelon seeds Chad saved from Memorial Day. I think David brought the watermelon, so thanks again David. These are cucumbers. Who needs a lattice when you have a chain-link fence? I'm glad we have that chain-link fence that used to be the opening to the RV slab before Chad got rid of all that concrete and planted a garden. Those vine plants want so bad to find something to cling to. Kind of interesting to observe. And here are my tomato plants! They are doing really, really well. They have all grown to the top of each of the stakes. Now I'm wondering if I should have bought the large stakes. Even so, these are about 2 feet tall, and they are flowering, so hopefully we will have a bunch of tomatoes to pick when we get back from CBH.
Here's one of my tomatoes...I think it's a roma, but I can't remember.
Squash. We're about to have lots of it. And you are too if you want some. Same with the zucchini.
And finally, I became very tired of my hair over the past few weeks, so I decided to cut it off. See how unhappy I am?
And now, after. I went to a new girl and I liked her. I didn't take pictures of the back. I'm sure you can imagine what it looks like. Now don't get too excited because I posted a whole bunch over our vacation. It ain't gonna happen while I'm at Blue Haven. For one thing, in my spare time I will probably be napping or working with Chad on lessons, and blogging is kind of a time consumer (which is why I'm doing it now instead of packing and doing laundry, which I should be doing). Also, I'm not too keen on everyone having all their technology out all the time at camp, especially when we are trying to send a message to the kids that they should be putting God first and they don't need their iPod and cell phone for two weeks, and then we're all on our laptops all the time. So, other than to pay some bills and stuff, I won't be on a whole lot. This will be MUCH better than last year, because at that time we were literally one week from moving to Texas and I had to look at houses and take care of moving matters while we were in New Mexico. So glad I don't have to do that this year.

So, for the next few weeks, this blog will be pretty quiet. And if you haven't gotten yourself an account at bloglines.com to keep up with blogs, you should! I know I've said that before, but this is a service to all the parents out there who check the blogs every day. Just sign up for an account, subscribe to all the blogs you read, and then you just have to go to one website everyday instead of all of them, and it shows you which ones have updated. It's called a feed. Let's say it all together now...feed. Okay I'm done.

Miss us while we're gone, loyal blog readers!

We are home. The flights went well, but we are tired and hungry so no time to blog.

By the way, our garden plants are now huge and I'll take pictures and post tomorrow. And, we saw Sinbad and K-Fed at the Los Angeles airport. K-Fed had an entourage, and Sinbad was by himself and carrying all his own luggage.

Goodbye to HI

In a few short hours we will be boarding a plane to come back to Texas. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here in Hawaii, and I hope you've enjoyed the pictures and getting to experience it with us. We are looking forward to being home for almost 48 hours before we leave for camp...and of course we are so excited about camp! I have one more post to do with pictures from our parasailing and sunset cruise from yesterday, but I don't have my camera with me so that will have to wait.

**Update: New video added to day 5.

I'm back! After the rainy luau we had Friday night, we decided to leave Saturday unplanned. We didn't do much except relax and be lazy. Sunday consisted of church, which was crazy because the preacher and his wife went to LCU and we met 4 or 5 other people who were Texas transplants (which is a lot considering the church had about 20 people), and in the visitor book just a few lines up one of the ministers from our church in Lubbock had signed his name. Small world.

We also went to Hapuna Beach on Sunday, which was our second visit. It is a great beach and I hope we can go again before we leave. I didn't take pictures though because I didn't bring my camera. They warn tourists about leaving valuables in the car (or with your stuff on the beach) at these places, and I would be soooo sad if my camera got stolen.

Yesterday we got a 4WD vehicle and visited Mauna Kea, which is the world's tallest mountain from its underwater base. I was feeling the altitude change as soon as we got to the top. Its actual height is something like 14,000 feet, and it is supposedly the best place in the world to look at stars. There are observatories all over the top of it. It was SO awesome!
The landscape at the top was like another planet. So barren, and we were just towering over the highest clouds in the atmosphere.
Take me to your people. These are what the observatories on top look like. They are some pretty weird buildings.
Chad and me on the summit. Special thanks to Dave, the guy who rode to the top with us, who took this picture. Interesting guy--he owns a backcountry ski touring company in Vancouver, and he had joined a sailing expedition from Vancouver to San Fran, then to Hawaii, then back to the mainland. It had taken them 23 days to sail to Hawaii. He was just stopped over for a couple days in Hawaii before they went back. Anyway, he didn't have a 4WD vehicle which the road to the top requires, so we gave him a ride from the visitor's center.
This was cool...a lake at the top of Mauna Kea fed entirely by permafrost. Supposedly the largest lake of its kind.
Just another view...I think this one is from the car on the ride up.
Later yesterday we revisited the luau, and this time it was dry for us. I got this picture of the sun setting and also the video at the bottom of the post. Today we drove to Volcanoes National Park and hiked the Kilauea Iki crater trail. It was a really great hike. It started off in the rainforest and we got to hike IN the crater, with steam vents all around us. It was a surreal landscape. I tried to get some pictures but it was really misty and windy and the lens of my camera kept getting little drops all over it, so these will have to do. Here's Chad walking at the beginning in the rainforest.The plant life was amazing. Ferns and other plants everywhere, but most of them have Hawaiian names so I can't remember what they are.Okay, this is a view of the bottom of the crater from the trail we were on, which was much higher and I guess you can't really tell that from the picture. That plume is steam from a crater vent. Pretty cool huh?At the bottom of the crater.More lava.The plants still figure out a way to grow. Enjoy!