First DVD Shelf!

Jailbird

Accounting

          Tonight I began my Accounting 2 class; it almost became the ending class!  I am taking accounting to expand my skill set, so canceling would be disappointing but not destroy any carefully laid plans.  But, this was not the case for several of my fellow students.  Our small class of eight managed to convince the dean we are serious and dedicated students, our teacher vouched for us too since the majority of us attended her previous class.  So, as of this moment, BUS0002 is still up and going!  Let’s hope it stays that way (please no one drop this class!); and now I have to buckle down to someone else’s schedule (Ugh!), my least favorite part.       

"Don't Take My Picture!"

The New Home Theater! (Can You See The Hidden Kitty?)

Comedy Time!

          I will admit, one of my favorite wasting-time activities is finding funny youtube videos.  Mom found and sent me the trampoline one (watch till the end!), it had us all in stitches!  The second video is a clip I stumbled across when I looked up this Christian comedian, Tim Hawkins, he has some great routines but this one is my favorite.  Enjoy!    

You Can Toucan ;)

Time

          Monday has come and gone again.  You know all those jokes about Monday?  Like this one for example.

          Though I still look forward to the end of the week, mostly because that is when so many fun activities are planned, I no longer dread the preceding days.  Time is too short to rush through.  When you come down to it, all we really have is time; time to spend with people, time to love, time to live, time to look up at the stars . . .  

          If everything and everyone were suddenly ripped away from us, we would still have time.  With that in mind, I remind myself to enjoy every single day.  Even hard days usually have some glimmer of joy in them, even if it is only those last drowsy moments before drifting off to sleep.  So embrace every day, it is all we have.       

Welcome To Paradise!

Tiki-Tastic!!!

          I spent a delightful afternoon tiki-ing up the Tiki Room.  We still have quite a few more details (and grass skirts!) to fill in, but things are looking quite tropical!!!

 

 

 

Mom and Matthew In Our New (Though Still In Progress) Tiki Room!

Memory Lane

          Tonight I intended to devote to tidying up my room.  I am very good at creating piles of stuff, not so good at putting those piles away.  I did manage to get a lot of stuff sorted and put away, and the bathroom cleaned, before I stumbled across a big box containing stacks of photographs, I did not get much done after that.

 

It appears I started annoying my brother at a very early age ;)

 

 

 

          These were just a few of my favorites.  The majority of pictures ranged from the late eighties to early nineties.  Now I have to add “organize and digitize pictures” to my to-do list.  Be back in six months! ;)

Uh Oh! There Goes My Productivity Level!

The Screen Is Up!!!

Piecing the frame together

Testing the wall placement

Stretching and clipping the screen onto the frame (Definitely the longest/hardest part of the process!  Dad had to use pliers to make sure the clips were tight enough!)

Up on the wall!

Adjusting and testing the final product with our slideshow of Disneyland.  Next on the agenda, the surround sound!  :)

The Theater Screen Is Up!

What Time?!?!

          So last time I checked, eight in the morning started at 8:00AM.  So when Tiffany came to let me know we had a giant crane in our driveway at 7:00AM (seconds after I had pushed my snooze button for a few more moments of sleep), the first words out of my mouth were “You’re kidding?”  I find it kind of funny that we never ask this question when someone really is kidding, but when we wish people were kidding!  Nothing quite gets the body up and going like a good shot of adrenaline!  After grabbing glasses and throwing on decent clothes, Tiffany and I headed out to catch some of the action . . . .

 

 

 

 

 

          Mom was really sad to see the tree come down, and I admit it is always hard when you need to remove a living thing.  But I am super happy with how open it all looks!  The house will be getting quite a bit more sun now.  The downside is that it will be warmer in the summer, but that also means it will, hopefully, be warmer in the winter too.  Now all we need to do is split all these massive logs lying around; that will be the big challenge!  

. . . House Without Tree

Something New, Something Old

          I tried something new today, Mongolian Barbeque.  I figure it is always good to try new things, some things can be really challenging and push me outside my comfort zone, but I am always on board with trying new food.  It was fun being able to just pick and choose exactly what you wanted in your dish (Mushrooms? yes!  Broccoli? No!), and then watch them cook it up right in front of you.  I should probably have left out the jalapeño though; I love a good spicy kick, but this kick was a bit on the strong side.  I am also ashamed to report I abandoned my chopsticks in favor of a fork.  I consider myself pretty good at multitasking, but for some reason using chopsticks and making conversations have proven to be a very big challenge. 

          Back on the home front, the big four trunked oak outside my deck is slotted to go tomorrow morning.  The big crane arrives at eight and I plan on having my camera at the ready to document this big event.  In some ways I am sad whenever I see big trees come down, but I am also looking forward to having the view from the deck open up, the house being less shady in the winter, and all the great firewood it will provide for a long time to come. 

          Losing the tree will be bittersweet, but in addition to learning new things we have to say goodbye to some old things as well.  C'est la vie!

House With Tree, . . .

Blue Moon

          Have you seen the moon?  The special blue moon, the full sturgeon moon, the green corn moon, the grain moon?  If you haven’t, step outside and take a look!  I walked up to my house without needing a flashlight under its incredible bright, red glow.  I tried to take pictures, but some things just cannot be saved, only experienced.   

"Raindrops On Roses . . ." Or Sprinkler Drops In This Case

Dusk

Making Progress!

          After a great deal of awkward maneuvering between many pairs of hands we finally managed to get the canoe up on its new resting place.  This 97 year old canoe originally belonged to my great-grandfather, Edward Unruh.  My parents used to take it often when they were dating and newly married, sadly the canoe has not been in water since before I was born.  Dad talks about taking it out one of these days, but until then it makes a lovely addition to our tropical themed hideaway.      

 

Apples On Our Own Tree! The Fruit Trees Are Finally Starting To Mature!

The Girls (and Rooster) In Black

Aloha!

          For years now we have bantered around the idea of turning the garage into something fun and useful.  Now I know some people actually put their cars and tools in their garages, but ours has always been more of a giant collection station that tends to spread itself around in one massive heap on the floor.  Every summer (for years now) I would usually devote a good amount of time to working on the garage making it more accessible, or at least safer.  Last year I made the announcement that this would be my final summer organizing the garage, I was done with this Sisyphean task.  As luck would have it, this summer our dreams of transforming the garage are rapidly becoming a reality.  Soon we will have a fun multipurpose room/home theatre all decked out to look like a Hawaiian retreat complete with tiki heads to support the surround speakers.  We still have a lot of details to fill in to complete this tropical paradise, but we can finally start to see it coming together!     

 

This Chick Is Such A Fun Model!

Captured

           My brain is not cooperating tonight, so my words will be brief.  Today was a strange day full of ups and downs, pain, excitement, and disappointment.  But amidst all that, I managed to capture the hummingbird.  

The Waxing Moon

Enchanted August

          As far back as I can remember August has been that dreaded time of year when the temperature rises, the garden burns, and mom talks about moving.  But we always tell her to hold on till September when things will stop sizzling and the leaves start to change from green to gold.  This year, however, August has shocked us all with its warm days and cool nights.  I have been tempted on more than one occasion to grab a sweater after the sun finally slips away.  Of course I have always run cold and continue wearing jeans throughout the summer, and I am usually the first person to pull out the sweaters in the fall. 

          Autumn is my favorite season, the colors, the fragrances, if I could capture the smell after the first rain in a bottle it would probably become my favorite perfume.  Usually I am ready to speed through the end of summer and rush into late September, but this year I feel like drifting my way through August.  Time is a constant companion, unfortunately the longer we are acquainted the faster time seems to rush along. 

          I spent a good half an hour this evening attempting to capture a picture of the hummingbirds constantly buzzing around our mimosa tree.  I did not have the best camera on me (the batteries were dying to boot), and unwilling to exchange it for another due to the quickly fading light I kept stubbornly snapping away.  I finally resorted to “sport mode” and managed to capture this.

          The quality is not great and I had to do a bit of post picture tinkering, but it’s a hummingbird.  There are seventeen more days left in this month, and I am happy to say I am looking forward to each and every one of them.  And next time I plan on having sunshine and the better camera aiding me in my hummingbird endeavor.