Monthly Archives: May 2008

May30

The Middle of Nowhere

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The Middle of Nowhere

That’s exactly where Joey and I wanted to go for our third anniversary, and that’s exactly what we got.  Joey’s friend recommended the Alexander Bed and Breakfast in Gainesville, TX so he booked the country cottage for us for two nights, and we drove out on Friday afternoon last week to spend two days with the squirrels.  It was absolutely delightful, and just what we needed.

We drove up the windy, wooded driveway and saw the big house straight in front of us.  It has six bedrooms for rent.  Off to the left, which we didn’t get a picture of, is a small, two-story guest house.

Our cottage, though, was off to the right and down a gravel driveway a bit.  It was mostly shielded from the view by a row of conifers, and the porch which ran along the entire front of the cottage, looked straight out into the woods.  LOVELY.

We got checked in and into the cottage by about 1:30.  Joey, unfortunately, had some homework to finish up real quick and wanted to get it done first thing.  So I left him by himself and took Bentley, the owner’s dog, and went on an Adventure Walk all by myself.

I brought along my camera, but just as I was getting ready to take a picture of a very pretty flower, Bentley sat on it.

You can sort of see it there under his bum.

Shortly after leaving on this walk by myself, I stepped on a thorn which broke off in my foot.  So there I was.  Stuck in the middle of a forest, off the trail, with a thorn shoved deep into my foot…and no cell phone.

I hobbled back to the country cottage we had all to ourselves and spent the next twenty minutes digging the thorn pieces out of my foot.  I couldn’t get it all.  This, unfortunately, wound up wrecking half our plans for the weekend, because we had intended to go on hikes quite a bit of the time.

Not to be dissuaded, we went into Whitesboro and had a very romantic and lovely dinner at Pete’s BBQ (where the cashier asked us if we were “from around here”) before hitting the small grocery store to buy Epsom salt, Band-Aids, Neosporin, and something for lunch on Saturday.

My foot pretty much hurt worse on Saturday, but we ventured out on a hike just the same.  I had forgotten tennis shoes (and about five other necessities…I don’t usually pack that badly, but I was so excited about getting out of town that I must have lost my head) and Joey teased me relentlessly about not having “appropriate footwear” like he did.

But that’s why I love him.  He makes me laugh.

Before leaving on the walk, we examined the llama which was sitting under some shade trees near the entrance of B&B property.

“Please get me that llama,” I asked Joey.

“You have nowhere to keep it…” he reminded me.

“Oh.  Well then do you think it would eat me if I got in there and tried to pet it?”  I asked, inching toward the fence.

“Um, you can try,” Joey said, noncommitally.

In the end, I didn’t try to pet the llama.  It had a tricksy look in its eye.

Further down along the fence row, we did open the gate and walk through the pasture over to the oil pump so we could get a closer look.  It was during this cross-pasture walk that I got bit by my very first fire ant — it hurt.  Now I truly feel Texan.  (Joey reminded me that if I had “appropriate footwear” I would have not gotten bit by a fire ant.)

After discovering that the oil pump was cool, but not that cool, we hit the trails.

It was very muddy, and very dark in the forest.  Bentley came along with us for fun, but he got bored of our walk after a very short time and we didn’t see him again the rest of the day.  (But we know he was around because he managed to steal and chew up one of Joey’s tennis shoes, which we found on Monday morning up at the big house.)

There were beautiful flowers.

And lots of mud.

But, all in all, it was the best weekend I can recall spending in a very long time.  Fourty-eight hours of just me and Joey, God’s creation, and quiet.  Ahhhh…

May28

Rockets: VASA rides again

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Rockets: VASA rides again

Whenever Pops comes down, we launch rockets. This is more difficult than it is in Iowa because we don’t have much room here, but we bought a very tiny rocket last time they were down and had lots of good fun launching it around. Joey and I saved it and it has been sitting on our bookshelf just waiting for Pops to come back down so we could have more launching fun with it.

The first thing we did when my parents arrived on Wednesday was walk to Michael’s to buy rocket engines. We bought two packages because Pops wasn’t sure how high we’d want the rocket to go.

So, after the Ft. Worth Stockyards expedition on Thursday we picked up Joey from work, grabbed KFC and went to the park for a picnic and some rocket launching.

After consuming entirely too much KFC (turns out they gave us a 10 piece bucket of chicken instead of the 8 piece we paid for…and there were only 2 pieces left after we had all eaten way more than our fair share) we made our way out to the field to set up the rocket, its launcher (a modified coat hangar) and ignition thingy (a 9 volt battery — we do things professional-like here in Dallas).

Pops brought tissue for recovery wadding.

We set Mom up on a blanket with Henry so she would be as comfortable as possible.

Joey and Pops fiddled with the rocket before finally getting it just right.

Then….BLASTOFF!

I was on recovery, so I got to chase the rocket down and bring it back. The kids playing on the swing set just to the left and out of the picture absolutely did not know what hit them. They scampered on over as close to us as their bravery would allow and waited for us to do it again.

The second launch didn’t go as well as the first launch – we blew a hole in the side of the rocket.

“Um, this may be our last launch,” Pops said.

We put the biggest engine that we had in the rocket, stood back, and Pops counted down, “5..4..3..2…1….”

Joey touched the wires to the 9 Volt battery and the rocket shot off into the sky. Ridiculously fast.

“Did anyone see that?” Dad yelled, looking up into the sky, which was extremely bright.

“Um…no… ” I mumbled, trotting up and down hoping to get a glimpse of it.

“The streamer recovery never deployed,” Joey said. We all stood there staring straight up into the sky.

“Well, someone’s going to have a rocket show up in their backyard,” I said.

“And on that note, let’s get out of here,” Joey suggested.

We packed up and went home immediately.

May28

Mom, Pops and the Longhorns

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Mom, Pops and the Longhorns

Mom and Pops were here last week from Wednesday afternoon to Friday afternoon. We, as per usual, had a great time. On Wednesday we grilled out at home and then went downtown to ride the McKinney Ave Trolley, which was fun, and then on Thursday we went to one of Joey’s classes with him for an hour. (We’ll see what kind of grade he gets…we were kind of rowdy in the back.)

After hanging out with Joey at DTS, Mom, Pops and I decided we wanted an adventure. So we drove out to Ft. Worth to go to the Stockyards – something I have been begging to do for the last year and a half. (You know, I like cows and whatnot…)

We arrived in one piece, without getting lost, and stopped at a Walgreens first thing because I had forgotten my sunblock and we all know what happens to Jenna when she doesn’t apply sunblock. (Or applies expired sunblock, for that matter…)

We found a place to park, which was easy as can be, and then Mom and I forced Pops to change into shorts so he wouldn’t overheat, because then we’d have a replay of that one time in the Paris Airport — I’d really rather not go there again. It took all three of us to figure out how to pay the parking meter, but once that was done, we were ready for some adventure.

First stop: Visitor’s Center.

Pops immediately zeroed in on the old-timey photographs and had the guy at the Visitor’s Center dispensing Stockyards trivia like it was his job. (Well, actually, it probably is.) We then noticed that there was a 12 minute video we could watch, so we got in line for that. After, that is, Pops paid for the three of us to have a 45 minute tour of the place.

We watched the video and then our tour guide came and fetched us. We were the only people on the tour (it was wicked hot that afternoon) and so for the next hour and a half she guided us around, taking us behind the scenes to where they keep the herd. She even let us pet and feed them. (There are signs posted that say not to, but that wouldn’t have kept me from doing it anyway.)

Here I am feeding my very first Longhorn. It was the best ever.

Here I am feeding my very first Longhorn. Mom took this picture because there was no way on God’s green earth she was going to get anywhere near that cow, especially since it had horns. She was standing very far away from the fence.

We also saw sleepy Longhorns, who are city employees of Ft. Worth, laying around and soaking up the sun. I didn’t see them getting any sunburns, lucky ducks.

Mom was particularly fond of the black and white one you see in the middle. “That one has very interesting coloring,” she said. His name is Duramax and I tried to get her to feed him, but she said no way.

This one with the curly horns was particularly cool, I thought.

We had a little bit of time before the cattle drive down Main Street, so after our tour guide left us, we went over to the branding station and checked out how it would have worked. As you can see, Pops decided to climb on the fence to get a better look at things.

After we’d had about as much heat and sweat as we could stand, we stood in the shade and watched the Longhorns get driven down Main Street. The cows appeared bored but I didn’t really blame them.

All in all, I felt like a good little tourist. I’d say Mom, Pops and I had about as much fun as is legal. We even made it home in good time, without getting into any wrecks.

May27

Bikes & Ice Cream

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Bikes & Ice Cream

Tonight, to celebrate Joey’s awesome skills at being a student, employee and husband, we are going to ride our bikes to Baskin Robbins and get ice cream with a coupon he found somewhere at DTS yesterday.  After, of course, we completely dismantle my bike, clean it, put grease or something on all the gears, and put it all back together.  (We were going to do this yesterday but somehow ran out of daylight.  Days off are never as long as you think they’ll be before you’re actually in them.)

So I hope it stops raining…otherwise the ride to Baskin Robbins may be kind of soggy.

May27

Joey = Smartypants

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Joey = Smartypants

Joey just got his grades for last semester. He is too smart.

He got all As except for the one class he contracted for a B in, and even then he got a B+. (Contracting for the B meant one less paper to write…and since he’s working full-time it made sense to both of us that he’d take the hit in one class and save some sanity. I think it worked.)

So the final tally is all As, one B+, and a slightly raised GPA. And Joey realized that the “worst grade” he’s gotten here at DTS is a B+, so I figure he’s doing pretty well. I really am as proud as can be of him — he’s managing to hold down a full-time job, kick school in the pants, and be an awesome husband…all at the same time. He multi-tasks ridiculously well.

Congratulations smart husband. Your report card makes me look bad. (And now I’m scared to audit Hebrew with you, lest I get a B and look like a doofus.)

May24

Thorn in my flesh

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Thorn in my flesh

Joey and I are out in the middle of nowhere for our anniversary getaway. We’re having a great time of it, the B&B we’re staying at is in the middle of a buncha woods and off a gravel road: right up our alley. (They have cows and a llama too – even better.)

Joey had to finish up some homework real quick after we got here, so he plopped down on the couch to read for a little bit and I went on an “adventure walk”.

I found the little beagle puppy up at the main house and made him come with me so I wouldn’t get lost. I had my camera and was taking pictures of things here and there along my walk. There were some great wildflowers that I had all framed up and was ready to take a picture (using the Rule of Thirds that Joey is always telling me about) but the puppy came in and sat on all the flowers right before I took the picture. So I got a picture of the beagle sitting on some great wildflowers…figures.

The trail got boring after awhile, so little puppy and I decided to off-road it. We were a several-minutes walk into the woods when…

“YOW!” I cried, stopping in my tracks.

I glanced around, trying to figure out what was wrong, then I realized the painful area was my left foot. I lifted it up and yowled again – there was a ginormous thorn sticking out of the bottom of my flip-flop. After several deep breaths, I pulled it out…and in doing so, I broke off the end of the thorn. In my foot.

I considered sitting down right there and hollering for Joey, but I was very far away from him and didn’t have my cell phone. It was clear that I was going to have to walk back. (Turns out it’s a good thing I didn’t just sit down and pout, the woods I was in is Copperhead Snake territory and I don’t particularly like snakes.)

So I limped back to the cottage we’re staying in.

“I stepped on a thorn and it broke off in my foot,” I told Joey.

He didn’t miss a beat, nor did he explode with anxiety for my poor painful foot. I guess he’s used to me by now. Instead he said, “Oh, that stinks. Does it hurt?”

Of course it hurt.

I managed to get the end of the thorn out of my foot, or so I thought, but now four hours later it hurts wicked bad and is getting all plump and reddish. I fear permanent damage. So we got some Epsom salts and Neosporin and are hoping to stave off amputation.

And I will always wear hard-soled shoes from now on when I’m tromping in the woods. I have learned my lesson.

May20

Planet Earth

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Planet Earth

Joey brought back FIL#1′s Planet Earth DVDs when he was in the Iowa last. I have been wanting to watch them for…a long time.

So last night we popped one into the lappy, which was plugged in to our new big monitor, and watched the first DVD.

The opening montage was a bunch of animals looking cute. “This is probably going to make me cry,” I told Joey. The animals were so cool.

“It’s OK; God’s creation is beautiful, it can make you cry if you want to.” Joey’s the best husband ever.

So it began with polar bears. Beautiful, endangered, polar bears. There were two babies that we kept trying to get Henry to watch so he could pick up some cute new tricks, but he just sat on the floor and stared at us since we were eating popcorn and that was all he wanted in the world.

“This is probably not a good thing for me to watch,” I told Joey about halfway through the DVD. “It’s going to turn me into a conservationist or something like that. And then Pops and Gramps will throw in the towel.”

Joey didn’t have much to say about that, because he knew it was true.

We’re watching another episode tonight, I can’t wait.

If I could do it all over again, start way back at the very beginning of college, I’d do several things differently:

  1. I would actually study.
  2. I would have stayed at ISU and gotten a degree in something having to do with animals, even though I probably would have gotten a C in biology (which is pretty much why I didn’t pursue my equine vet dream much past my junior year of high school). But since I would have actually studied, it probably wouldn’t have been so bad.
  3. If the animal thing didn’t work out, I’d have gotten a culinary arts degree and become a pastry chef

It’s kind of lame to make 18 year old kids decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives. I certainly didn’t know. And, while I’m not sure how I would have met Joey under this staying at ISU scheme, I am sure we’d have met and fallen in love no matter where I went to school.

May19

The Gym

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The Gym

It has been at least three weeks since I went to the gym. BLAUGH! Last minute projects, finals week, then going to the Iowa…we just haven’t been able to get it together to get up at 5:15 to go work out lately. But then that’s a byproduct of having only one car. If one of us can’t/won’t go, the other one’s stuck.

Maybe next week we’ll get back on the wagon. I already notice some mysterious fluffies re-appearing on my arms that I had definitely gotten rid of.

But I think it’s also my fault for drinking so many Pepsis the last couple’a weeks to stay awake.

It won’t be this week, what with Mom and Pops coming to visit us from the Iowa on Wednesday, but maybe next week…cross fingers…

May19

Joey is home. Life can now get back to normal.

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Joey is home. Life can now get back to normal.

Without my husband around (he was at the Iowa again – his brother graduated), I discovered this weekend that I turn into a veritable recluse. I didn’t see a soul this weekend – unless you count the people at the grocery store that I didn’t know – and I spent the entire weekend cleaning things, preparing food for when Joey came back, and baking cookies to surprise him on Monday. I barely went outside, even though it was beautiful and Henry could have used a walk.

Several things of note did occur on my hermit-weekend, though.

1. I rode Thunder to the grocery store on Saturday afternoon. My parents are coming Wednesday – Friday (YAY!! I CAN BARELY WAIT!) so I bought extra treats to entice Pops and probably make Mom sad. (I bought soda and chippies, which is rare.) I also bought yogurt for them.

All of these extra treats seemed to weigh a lot more than normal. I pushed my little cart out of Central Market, happily looking at the bright blue sky and exceedingly proud of myself for figuring out my bike lock all by myself without Joey showing me ahead of time. (I remembered all the necessary parts, too.) I loaded my two reusable grocery sacks into my panniers and tried to back my bike up so I could get it unlocked.

It was good that my bike was still locked up, because it was back-heavy with the groceries. It tipped over. Hard. I caught it just in time and began to feel concerned for my ride home…like maybe my bike was going to pop a wheelie of its own free will and dump me and all my groceries, treats included, into the street. (Maybe Mom would say it serves me right for buying chippies and soda, though. But probably not.)

I made it home, but just barely. Every time I stopped, my bike heaved to the side or tried to kick backwards. Three times I nearly fell and skinned my knee. I could just imagine that conversation with Joey. “Um, hi…Thunder threw me. And I wrecked the groceries.”

But I made it home, very little worse for the wear.

2. On Sunday morning, I set my alarm for 9:00. I couldn’t bear to go to Sunday School alone, so I thought I’d just go to the service and sit in the back somewhere. I gave myself an hour and fifteen minutes to get ready, which was definitely more than enough time.

My jeans, though, were still slightly damp, so I popped them in the dryer. Five minutes later, I smelled an acrid, smoky smell. I rushed all over my house trying to figure out what was on fire. It dawned on me that it could be the dryer. I discovered that, once I opened it, the smoky smell intensified, so I grabbed all the clothes and threw them on the floor. I removed any and all flammable objects and called maintenance right away.

I quickly made my bed, straightened the house, and set myself up to wait for them to arrive. Surely they’d come in plenty of time so I could get in the shower and make it to church.

Three hours later, I was still waiting. Church was very, very over at this point. And I still hadn’t taken a shower. (I had this bad feeling that as soon as I did, the maintenance guy would show up and wouldn’t that be awkward?)

So I gave up and went to Target. He showed up shortly thereafter, four hours after my call, and told me that yes, the heating element in my dryer was catching fire every time it tumbled.

Great. So glad I didn’t get in the shower before I noticed the smoky smell or I’d have burned the whole house down…I had caught it just in time.

So the maintenance guy ordered me a new dryer and I hung what was in the washer on my clothes lines the balcony, which I probably should have done in the first place. But now I’m getting a new dryer, so I guess it was worth it.

3. I watched PS I love you with Henry, who fell asleep immediately, and cried most of the way through it like it was my job. It’s a terrible movie, no one ever watch it.

4. Joey got home at 3:00 this morning. I immediately started a load of his laundry (YES, at 3:15 this morning…I wanted to be able to hang it out this morning and it would get dry enough to fold), and unpacked his bags while he hopped in the shower. We then tried to fall asleep, but I was so excited and releived he was back….that I didn’t fall asleep again until at least 4:30. Joey was roadbuzzed so he didn’t fall asleep until 5:00.

We are going to bed so early tonight. But I’m GLAD HE’S HOME!