Tie-Dye Extravaganza!

Well, HELLO from the Jolly Green Giant!

Yes I was wearing gloves, but they must have been cheap, or I must have gotten so excited to be tie-dying and maybe went a little crazy...nah.... I'm sure the gloves were cheap! My fingers are green. But at least they aren't as bad as poor little Sam's hands. He looks like he's got gangrene in the worst possible way! Oh well. Someday it'll wear off!

Well, last night was the last night of Confirmation - and everyone was all revved up!
We had Wood House for dinner last night and for those of you who haven't ever heard of Bismarck, ND, much less been here, you probably wouldn't really understand. Wood House has the best burgers EVER! Oh, and hot dogs. But they are red. Really red. Like, SCARY red. So anyway, I was having a wonderful dinner with some very wonderful friends, when one of our Sr. Highers says to my friends, the Peske's (Nicole, here is where I would insert the link to your blog - if you had one!!!)that he would like to see their 2 year old stick the rest of his hot dog in his mouth at once. Silly, crazy Sr. Higher..... It was about an inch of hot dog and guess what said 2 year old (Ben) did? He stuck it in his mouth, the whole thing! We were all amazed, just watching him, then he was having some trouble chewing it all up - Mom to the rescue, Nicole is trying to get it out of his mouth and Ben began choking, wailing when he got a breath and then the grand finale - (by the way, the rest of this post is not for the faint of heart) he starts puking! I mean like not just little bits of hot dog, but like breakfast, lunch and dinner!!!! I turn away immediately because imagine this, I'm still eating dinner - and I have a plateful of mashed potato salad (another story) left on my plate. And I WASN'T going to let that go to waste. Well, after that entire episode, said Sr. Higher felt awful. He felt so bad that I think his night was just completely ruined. But I told him not to worry, it happens to the best of us - I'm sure all of y'all out there have wonderful regretful choking/puking stories of your kids, or heck, maybe even of yourselves! Anyway, there is a lesson here - don't try to get a 2 year old to eat a gigantic chunk of hot dog. They might just do it! But, no Thursday is really complete without a great choking/puking story, so there it is for the day! Enjoy!!!

Aren't you looking forward to me having my own kids to share these stories about??? Let me tell you what, they will be a lot more frequent! :)

Other than that, tie dying went well. It was fun, the front parking lot of our church is now several different colors, but I can only imagine if we had to end up doing that inside! Ugh!!! By the time the Sr. Highers got out there, it was getting cold and so they all headed home pretty early which left Sam and I and our cutest little Sr. High friend, Tiffany, to clean up the mess! Thank the Lord for Tiffany! (not the same Tiffany mentioned in previous post, although I'm thankful to the Lord for her as well!) So we are going to have the most colorful little baby at 3-6 months! He/She has three new tie-dyed long sleeve onsies. And they turned out quite nice if I do say so myself! Sam's t-shirts turned out great as well! I think he's been practicing.

I guess I need to wrap this up since I know that most of you don't have all day to read my ramblings, so I'll catch up with you later...

From yet another overcast and nasty day in the Tundra,

Sarah

Oh.....what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day!

(It's not really, but I keep telling myself!!! I'm trying to learn to be more optimistic like my adorable-little-crazy-man-husband!)

So. I got to meet Dr. Jan Bury yesterday. And boy oh boy is she a little ray of sunshine! Everything went well - we're at 152 beats a minute for the little monkey! While she was trying to get the heartbeat, she'd zero in on it for a few seconds and if that little monkey didn't squirt over somewhere else! He/She was all over the place. That confirmed my fears that this little one is going to take after his/her father! Oh well, what did I expect! :)

And....as the old broadway, Oklahoma, says, "Spring is busting out all over!" I'd have to agree - I AM TOO! Focus on the all over part! No cute little basketball belly for me! Oh well, I didn't really expect that would happen for me anyway! So, since I am new to the whole pregnancy realm, I was wondering if I might solicit the advice of some of you veterans out there!

Tell me what are some of the "must have's" that you just couldn't live without! Also, any great ideas on maternity wear! Definitely liking the idea of summer dresses, but open to suggestions!!!

Well, tonight is the last night of Confirmation for the year! We've survived!! I just can't believe it! Well, it's not too difficult for me to say that since I've been in a Bible Study for the duration. But good for Sam, we are finishing up the year with a gigantic tie-dying evening! I'm pretty excited because a good friend of mine, Tiffany, gave me some white onsies and I can't wait to get them all dyed up!!! We are going to have one styling baby!!!! :) Anyway, I love all that color. Poor Sam usually tries so hard to get his so perfect and I'm just throwing color all over the place! And they turn out great! The key is LOTS OF COLOR!!!

So that's about all - we've got a new pond pump on order now! Sam said we were just going to have a dry waterfall bed for a while, but he ordered a new pump the very next day! hehehe! We did find the jack pot of all rock piles yesterday! And so hopefully pictures to come of the new pond! As soon as more greenery pops out, people tell me that with all this moisture, as soon as the sun comes out, we'll be in full bloom, but shhhhh.... don't tell anyone I said this, but shhhh, come closer, I don't want to have to shout it - I don't think the sun is ever going to come back out. Phew... I said it, that takes a load off, I feel so much better! Anyway, you can pray about that!

Alrighty then, from the overcast Tundra,
over and out - Sarah

Semi-finished project...

First of all - Happy 60th birthday to my mom!!!! Her life has certainly been an inspiration and I'm so grateful to have her in my life!

Second, You'll be happy to know that the neighbor's project is just about finished. I sent her home at 10pm last night, with all of her supplies and her project and list of a few more things that she needed to do!

Also, Sam's pond pump stopped working....again. Conclusion: crappy pump. So the pond project has turned into a slightly bit more expensive and time consuming project, but I think we will be very happy with the results once it's done!

Well, today is Dr. Appt #3 - perhaps this time, I'll be able to meet my Dr! :) I was going to meet her last time, but she got called out to a delivery right before the appointment. We celebrate Week 18 of this little life God has gifted us with! We'll get to find out in another 4 weeks if they are boy or girl!!! I'm sure that will make it seem quite a bit more real! Still haven't felt any flutters yet, but I've been holding my breath just waiting, any day now!!! Maybe he'll be a laid back little fella! How could I be so lucky, being married to Sam and all!!!! Ha!

There isn't too much excitement going on around here. Just finishing up neighbor's projects, catching Sam stare at his pond for, oh about, 5 hours a day! It's cold here again, 51 degrees, so not so bad temp wise, but overcast and windy. So kind of yucky - waiting for the pregnancy hormones to kick in and keep me warm!!!!! :)

Have a great day, from the Tundra....

Sarah

Good Monday Morning!

Well, hello there! How are y'all this fine sunhsiney Monday?

Well, partially sunshiney anyway. Turns out I survived the snow. I know, I didn't really believe that I would, but I did.

Anyway, I've been swamped today - nothing to exciting this weekend. Sam spent all of Saturday getting the waterfall doing the right thing into the pond. Judah had the Jr./Sr. for Shiloh on Saturday night and so we went and took some pictures there.

On Sunday, Sam did have the Quick Draw where he started and completed a picture in an hour. It turned out great! He also ended up getting People's Choice on "The Crossing" which was a nice award. He got several awards actually on that particular piece. I was surprised that only one of his paintings sold besides the Quick Draw, it was the Crocus. And a good friend of ours bought it. So that's really nice.

Anyway, I have 28 minutes to get a whole lot more work done!

Until next time!

From the Tundra.....
Sarah

What now?!?!

I have been on such a roll this week updating you on my less than normal life and don't you worry your pretty (and handsome) little head's - I won't disappoint!!! I should really entitle this entry - Living life outside the Asylum - A walk on the Wild Side!

Let's see, where do I even begin? Ok. Big breath. Sorry if I loose you somewhere along the way, I'm exhausted... Anyway, I'll need to back up and give you a bit of history first. Sam entered the Mandan Art Show sometime back whenever the deadline was; I believe in February... As you know, he was deep in the throws of ski season and also the preparation of the ACC Art Show and so he was feeling very pumped but didn't have much prepared. So as he's frantically filling out the registration in order to get it in by the designated time (a race against the clock - who would have thunk it?!) I walked away and came back to look at his list, all of sudden, he's got the list filled. Granted, it only costs like $2 to enter each piece, but I'm like - "Sam, what is this? You don't have that much art here. What is this? A piece entitled 'The Best Ever'? I've never heard of that, much less seen it?" He says, "I know, I just made it up - I made them all up!!" He's very positive and optimistic for those of you who don't know him! Eight all together. Eight, count them 1-2-3-4..., you get the picture...

kas;jdg;ajg;aklfjh;kldfj - oh sorry, I must have dozed off and woke back up just after my head hit the keyboard!!!

Ok, fast forward to April 23rd, the day to turn them in because the show starts on April 24th. Look at this picture with me - I get home from work about 2pm, you can turn your art in from 1-6pm on the 23rd. Sam gets home around the same time and says, I'm going to start.... "Spring's Song". Ok, let me re-write that sentence, because I'm not quite sure you got that - Sam gets home around the same time and says, I'm going to start.... "Spring's Song". Did you catch that little tiny bolded word? It holds a lot of power! Remember a couple days ago when I said that Sam got up at midnight to paint and I woke up to the beautiful picture of crocus'? He had to do that in acrylic so that it would dry fast enough to get it in the show.... So out of those 8 paintings, let's see how many he has as of 2pm yesterday.

The Crossing - 30X40 started but not finished, no frame
Spring's Arrival - 5X7 crocus';finished, although not signed and no hanging stuff on the frame
High Prairie Parade - 18X24 not done, external hard drive died, no hope of finishing
Spring Song - 9X12 just getting started at 1pm
High Country Cowboying - 9X12 started, not finished, no frame
Blue, White and Brown - 5X7 not started
God's Country - 8X10 done, but not signed
The Best Ever - 8X10 not started

Well, it was going to be a busy afternoon! I don't want to drone on and on, but I will also point out that the registration form had underlined and bolded - NO LATE ENTRIES ACCEPTED. So that answered a lot of questions. Well, our local Hobby Lobby and last minute framing shop closed at 8pm and oh, by the way, did I tell you we had a dinner to be at 6pm where Sam had to say the Opening Prayer? So that meant that Sam had approximately 3 hours to finish all of those unfinished paintings, get them framed, and the backing put on all those pictures, plus, they needed to be delivered before we left for our dinner since there was no possible way we'd make it back by 7pm! An impossible feat - you might say!!!! But alas, you are no Sam Coleman, the ultimate optimist on the planet! (By the way, I'm beginning to see a pattern here, my craziness blogs are all induced by Sam...hmmm....makes a girl wonder....)

Anyway, to make a long story short, he got an extension till 7:30 this morning to turn in his art and so we headed off to our Campus Crusade Dinner and got home around 10pm last night because we had to squeeze in a trip to Walmart to get some picture hanging supplies! So I started right away on putting the backing on some pictures, finding another couple of pictures that he could substitute with those titles, even though, this is a lesson - when he registered with his make believe names, he made up random prices and the art he ended up turning in was some high quality stuff! People would be crazy not to purchase those amazing pieces of art for so low of a price! If I had some money, I would even purchase them! Sam came to bed at 4 this morning and the alarm was set for 6:30 to finish up some stuff, take a drive into town and still get back by 7:30 this morning!

Guess what!!!! Done. Actually we only got 7 out of the 8 delivered, all signed, all ready to hang, all with frames on them, I don't know how he did it, but that crazy man did it! Then to celebrate, we headed out to Dakota Farms for breakfast - this little restaurant down the hill from our house, which I don't really recommend. We'd never been there before, but wanted to go sometime and took this as a great opportunity! We had a server (I don't know what's politically correct, but she didn't fit the bill for server - she was a WAITRESS!) Let me just describe her, Sam wanted to take a picture of her - First of all, she has worked there for 30 years! She was wearing a long sleeve turquoise shirt, a short sleeve royal blue and fuchsia pink one over the long sleeve with a denim vest over that - she had on jeans that had pink and blue hearts on the back on them and a gigantic star down at the bottom of one of the legs, with her turquoise cowgirl boots sticking out - bright blue eye shadow and bright pink blush with tons of pink and blue do-dads in her hair! Oh, I can't forget to mention the rhinestone bracelets up and down her sleeves!!! And she told us she'd been up since 5:30 to get to work on time at 6am - I was thinking - "Go girl - you are dressed to the nine's in half an hour!" I don't know about you - but that's my kind of woman!!!! Did I mention she was probably in her 50's at least?

So what next? Well, Sam is at home, snoozing away and I'm at work - addressing over a hundred invitations to a Seminar in a couple of weeks - oh, and the highlight - talking to all of y'all!!! I know I mentioned a little snippet of snow yesterday and haven't mentioned it again, that's because I'm in denial. Yes, it came. It's cold again. It's dreary. It's time for Parent's Night Out tonight - that means 5-10pm, Sam, me, and a bunch of Sr. Highers taking care of however many little people there are! Snooze. I think it's nap time for me! Almost!

I'm tired just after writing all that! I hope your day started at a little slower pace!

Until the next snow storm in the Tundra.....

Love, Sarah!

Correction...

I need to make a minor correction - when I do my giveaway, (ie. whenever Sam's art show is over and we have the chance to look through what he has and what he's willing to part with) it is for those of you FAITHFUL readers, not to see who is reading!!! Some of you have been faithful readers over the years of my sporadic blogging without pictures, some of you are new readers and I appreciate all of you! Especially when all I do is share about my life! But I'm going to find some good purpose - a meeting of the master minds? a recipe or two? a craft pattern? (as soon as I can come up with one) ummmm.... a gardening tip? how to survive playing walleyball with the Colemans? what the weather might be like in the Tundra? You never know what kind of useless information you might learn on this blog! If nothing else, it helps me stay connected with the outside world! So it's a big THANK YOU for staying in touch with me, even though it seems I've dropped off the face of the planet! (Even though 50% of you are my good friends enduring Tundra life yourselves! So to you - well, there aren't enough thank you's, you not only have to put up with seeing me all the time, but you ask for more by subscribing to my blog and listening to me all the time! Can't help but say - God Bless Y'all!)

I've learned a thing or two since yesterday.
#1.I need to start proofing my blogs. I get so excited and I write so fast that I make so many typos, it's a wonder you can even decipher what I'm trying to say! So I promise, from this day forward (picture me holding my hand up in the boy scout oath position) to start proof reading my blogs so that you can better understand what's going on in my world instead of being subject to what's going on inside my head. Phew. I did it. That wasn't so hard. Ok, moving on....

#2.It's really hard to build a raised bed for the garden when your wood has warped in ways that are just plain inhuman! But if you set your mind to it, employ your super strong manly husband, ignore his frustrated phrases that you really can't repeat anyway, be super sweet and hold the screw while he drills it in, then you can make it to work! So we cleared out the little bit of debris that didn't get inflamed before the Fire Truck came and put our first raised bed in the garden! It's looking very good. Now just for soil, plants, sunshine, water, TLC and hopefully I'll be blogging about canning veggies before you know it! :) (I'll keep you posted on the progress, we just have about 3000 more raised beds to make!)

#3.Sometimes it's scary playing walleyball when Coleman's are competing against one another. But it really makes you work hard and want to win. Because if you are the missing link on their team and heaven forbid, you loose to the other brother, you may be excommunicated! (I'm not sure about all that, because we won, but it's just a hunch I have!) Otherwise, the 2nd part of this lesson is that Senior Highers have some crazy insane walleyball endurance!

And I think that's about all. So before I quickly hit my "Publish Post" button, allow me a couple minutes to go back through for proof-reading! ;)

Until next time - by the way, it's getting warmer in the Tundra, but I heard a nasty rumor that it was suppose to snow this weekend!!!! :(

Got so much to say, I guess!!!

Well, yesterday wasn't quite as productive as the day before, but today, I'm hoping to get a start on our raised beds, we'll see if that actually happens. Wednesdays are kind of tough that way!

Anyway, yesterday, finally got home and got some lunch fixed, it was such a beautiful day, we had about 7 of our girls from Rock Solid (Sr. High Ministry) playing tennis yesterday, so we headed off to watch a bit of that! It was great! They did a terrific job! Then Sam had a meeting at a Bed and Breakfast with his ACC committee... I didn't think I should go and crash their meeting, but I've always had my eye on this house and was just plain dying to get inside to see what it was all about! So I went and got a tour and everything. What a terrific house, it just set my mind to thinking about all kinds of things! Decorating, hospitality, cooking, art, so many things... I just sat their day dreaming! Then we headed off to dinner with the in-laws. Gotta check up on those boys, you know! Whew.... Still going.

Got home a little after 9pm (finally dark) and Sam decided he needed to plant a couple things. And the neighbor (5th grader) decided she needed to come over and start her school project! I don't know if I already posted this, but we told her about a month ago, we'd help her with it and the deadline is fast approaching, so I told her to bring everything over! So I took Morgan inside while Sam was finishing up planting a couple more things - side note - this is so funny! My OBSESSED husband said "I think I need to plant a little everyday so I don't get sick of it!" HA!!! He can spend 64.2 hours a day outside planting and never get sick of it - so I think he was trying to make up some sort of excuse to be outside planting in the dark because he spend all day inside painting! Just for your information, he doesn't need to come up with any kind of excuse as far as I'm concerned! Ok, back to the project - here's the directions I look at (mind you, it's 9pm):
Mix 2 cups of flour
2 cups of salt
and enough water to make it dough like consistency
Then: bake at 150 degrees (my oven only goes down to 200) for 2 hours! (emphasis added) (Did you remember I said it was 9pm?)

Anyway, then you paint it with poster paints and add all the extras. Here's the kicker - Morgan ended up with the state of Rhode Island! That's right, that means, we had to mold it into the shape of Rhode Island, which, by the way, we learned is mostly made up of the ocean! Go figure! So by the time we got the dough all mixed up and Sam finally came in, I had him put his artistic talents to use and draw the itty bitty state of Rhode Island, it was time to mold it into the shape and pop it into the oven - it was 10pm! Rhode Island is not only the smallest state but because it's made up of tons of water, we had a lot of dough left over, so we shaped the rest into the state bird (Rhode Island Red - Chicken), the state flower (a violet) and the state tree (an oak leaf)! Morgan was all very excited about her project and the direction it was going and I just kept an eye on the clock wondering when I might get to bed! Anyway, we popped it into the oven, got the timer set, Morgan went home, and Sam and I got ready for bed! By then it was about 11 and I started doing some reading for about a half hour, and Sam decided the thing had baked long enough and turned off the stove. Well about half an hour later, Sam gets up and decided he hadn't painted long enough today and would get some painting done! I was like, "Um hmm, snore, sounds good, hmmm, make, snore, you come back to, snore, bed soon! I love, snore, you....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..................... " Well, I guess he painted till 2am and boy oh boy did I wake up to the most beautiful crocus' looking at me! What a great painting! It's just a little one, but oh so cute - precious even (in a good way, that is!)

Well, I've just realized that I have gone on and on and on far longer than you #1-had time for, and #2-even care! So until next time!!!!

From the Tundra,

Sarah

PS. I'm thinking about doing a give away for some of Sam's art, just to see how many faithful readers we have out there, so keep posted! I might just get discouraged and give up blogging altogether, thinking no one cares - but I have too much to say, even if it's not all that important, so you probably won't get that lucky!!! :)

Guess what....

You can't burn anything uncovered within city limits in the town of Mandan.

Ask me how I know that. Had a little visit from the Fire Dept. yesterday! We were "clearing" out our garden to prepare for our new raised bed!! We had attracted about 5 neighbor kids that were roasting mini marshmallows on tiny sticks. Next thing I knew, one came running - "The fire truck is coming! The fire truck is coming!" The five kids all took off running in different directions - I mean disappeared - boom - just like that! They told us we can't burn in city limits without it being covered and they had to watch us put it out. Which we did. Thankfully we got most of it done. This is the third year we've done that. This is the first time we've had a visit from the Fire Dept.

But....it's time to start building our raised beds!!! I'm so excited, I planned out where we're going to put them. Last night I made a layout to size on graph paper - it was great fun! Moving all the little beds around, working them between apple trees and plum trees... Thinking about digging up our strawberries and rhubarb and re-planting them in our raised beds. This weekend I started 6 different kinds of herb seedlings. I'm hoping they grow and we'll have much fresh herbs!!! I can't wait to start cooking with fresh herbs! I'M SO EXCITED FOR THE SPRING!!!!!

O Happy Day!

Oh man.....

How I wish I had some photo's to document this weekend!!!

First off, I went to a Rag Rug class on Saturday with one of my all time favorite people in the whole world - Sue B. B.!!!! It was great fun! Hopefully I'll be finding all kinds of old material and whipping out rugs as fast as SueB - (even though I seriously doubt it! :) But it was fun!

Then I came home to the 2 stooges! The third one must have taken a vacation, because sure enough, there they were - Larry and Curly - right there in my yard! Some people don't know them as Larry and Curly, they think their names are Sam and Johnny, so for the sake of those people, I'll use their alias' - Sam and Johnny!!!

Well, as many of you Sam has been completely obsessed with his pond and it looks like it's really working it's way out this spring! He's got his hole dug and everything is in order. We are just getting prepared for the liner, when it comes in... But here's the kicker - we're ALWAYS on a budget when it comes to projects like these and you know that most ponds look so nice and natural with rocks and where in the world do you get the rocks???? Well, you collect them from wherever you are! That's where!!! And if by chance, you are not out and about and you happen to have a retaining wall to keep your yard from falling into the street and it's full of rocks, why that is such a great place to start!!! I have been telling Sam to find rocks elsewhere because frankly, I don't want our yard to fall into the street. I'm rather fond of the 10 feet of yard we possess! He thinks we can spare a few! Well, the funniest thing is that last year he a rock,among our myriad of other rocks that was so beautiful that he just had to put it in our garden. Only there was no humanly way to get this gigantic rock up the 3000 stairs to our front yard, so what did my creative husband do? Well, he fetched our little red wagon took it down there and heaved this gigantic stone into it and walked it around the block and up to our driveway, down four steps and wall-ah! it was there!!!! Can you imagine seeing a grown man pulling a gigantic rock in a little red wagon down the street - seriously - if that doesn't have you on the floor laughing, you are just sad!!! So anyway, now he brings his brother Curly, ahem, ummm I mean Johnny into the picture! He so politely asks him to go down and help him bring some rocks up! Well, these rocks are just so big and heavy, watching the two of them carry them up the stairs was going to provide enough entertainment for the week for me, let me tell you! So I was front and center! Here they were, climbing all over the retaining wall, looking for the prettiest rocks to move up to our pond! There were rock slides, side splitting groans, "no, not that one, THAT one!", you can only imagine. Now they have a collection of about 5 rocks sitting down below on the sidewalk! Now's when the fun really begins! How the heck are they going to get them up the stairs! (here is where I insert story about Sam pulling his little red wagon up the road - wherein Johnny laughs so hysterically, I think he is going to fall of the retaining wall!) So Sam looks at the both of us and exasperatedly tells Johnny to go get the van! Ummm....So....Sam has upgraded his little red wagon to a bright green MANVAN! Go honey! Well, Johnny brings it down and opens the hatch, where, together, they lift these rocks into the back of the van! Needless to say, the van sits about 3 feet lower and Sam sees that he's still got tons of room in the back of the van, so he continues picking out rocks. When he's satisfied and sees he can't fit the last one in there, he tells Johnny they'll just have to come back for the last one. Oh man, I just wish y'all could have been there! It was the funniest thing! So Sam jumps in the van, with the hatch still up to drive up the road with his load of rocks... This is when I can't help it - a picture pops into my head from out of no where - What if Sam starts up the hill and the rocks start rolling out the back of the van all the way down the road - by this time, I'm laughing so hard, I almost peed my pants just at the thought - and it was too good not to share, so I told Johnny and the two of us were laughing so hard at the thought of Sam chasing his rocks down the road, yelling, Stop that rock!!! Oh my goodness, just writing it down makes my sides start aching again! Well, for as much fun as that would have been, Johnny took pity on his poor brother Sam and jumped into the back of the van to make sure none rolled out! I could keep going on and on, but for #1, I need to go and for #2, I don't think you could handle it!!!! One day, I will take pictures of my life and you'll realize I'm NOT making all this up, it really is how I live!!!

Until another side splitting day from the Tundra,

Love, Sarah

I know I need to update....

But I'm back at the point where I still need a camera. It's been a nightmare getting the one I received for Christmas/V-day... All the companies that Sam calls gives him the run around. I'm quite disappointed to tell you the truth. I'm so out of the loop and have not gotten enough practice in photography to really feel like I can do a very good job. So I just don't know what to do. I'm kind of discouraged. So that's that. I'd much rather post notes with pictures.

I'd take pictures of life in ND at the commencement of Spring. The insane blizzarding and at the same time, flooding - who would have thunk it? It's crazy around here. But the last few days have been so nice - 60's and yesterday, we even jumped into the 70's! Sam's excited about the pond that he is putting in our yard. I'd take all kinds of pictures of that documenting the buying of the pond liner and what a great deal we got on it, then the ground breaking, the figuring out that we have a drain pipe that goes straight through our lawn and so we can't actually use the pond liner that we got such a great deal on and had to buy another more flexible one! I'd document that two days ago, I spend the day scooping up all the piles of delight that Tonto left us over the summer, even if you didn't want to see it - I'd document it, dang it!!! Yesterday, I raked the yard... and went maternity clothes shopping. I'd document how much I HATE shopping for clothes, but how WONDERFUL my husband is to throw me in the dressing room and proceed around the store for a full hour and a half bringing me clothes to try on, making me come out with every single one telling me yes or no! Isn't he wonderful??? Then in the end, go through all the clothes and decide which ones to buy, and then haul them all off and buy them for me!

I'd show you how we sat out on our steps till 9pm last night, watching the sun go down, the birds flitting around, the grass growing, all the while, Tonto was happily perched between us waiting for the opportunity to get loved on by Sam. I don't know how many of you know just how much Sam doesn't really like dogs. T-dog, he likes ok, except when he's bad and runs away - then he decides he hates dogs and especially T! Sam, for the artist fellow that he is, doesn't really like to be dirty. Imagine that. So everytime he sticks his hands in the dirt, he runs off to wash them. He'll only pet Tonto, when he knows he's immediately going in to Shower - it's really sooo funny!!!

I'd show you the little bits of green poking their cute little heads through our moist, rich soil that is so beautiful!!! I'd show you how ND looks like northern MN with all of it's "lakes" aka flooded fields!!! The whole state has been flooding - there is even flooding over the interstate! Go figure!!! I guess that's what happens when you live in a flat state!

So just know, there are a lot of things I would show you. I think I'm going to break down and buy a point and shoot, my life is just too exciting NOT to document! :)

Also, to put a little plug in - Sam is having MAJOR problems with his external hard drive - as in, he can't access it. There are over 16,000 photos on it, and that is basically his reference for his art and if it's not completely ruined, it may cost quite a bit of $$ to get it fixed. Please pray that they can retrieve all the images and that Sam can get back to painting. He's got a show next week and has about 5 paintings to finish. (Although, that's not going to happen because of this hard drive situation...) Just pray that he can get the motivation to finish what he's started and can finish...

And the last thing - I hope you all had a very wonderful Easter. It didn't really feel too much like Easter here in the Tundra! I never will get it - how they have a sunrise service every single year in a sanctuary that has NO WINDOWS?! If you get that, maybe you can let me know the reasoning behind it??? It's always so cold and barren here for Easter - there are not many reminders of new life, so you really have to use your imagination! But I'm so thankful for all that my Lord and Savior has done for me - with the sobering realization that if I were the ONLY one here on earth, God still would have sent His only SON here just to die that I might have eternal life and be with Him forever! Sorry for the long boring, picture-less post! But hopefully someday, in the future, we will go color!!!!

Oopa!