Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Autumn

Spring and Fall are my favorite times of the year... I guess it's the transition to something new. Strange to see myself liking the transition since I often don't handle change well. I am enjoying the cool mornings and comfortable afternoons. The colorful trees and brown corn stalks.

This is my wallpaper at work.

Although the more I look at it, it looks like a trail I wouldn't really take unless I knew where it led. Too much chance of spider webs to the face... and maybe something scary that could jump out at me.

Midwest sunsets are a thing of beauty. Spectacular a couple of evenings ago, but couldn't get my camera out quickly enough.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

10 Year Milestone

Our 10th wedding anniversary was May 27, 2011. We didn't really do anything too exciting... pizza with the boys. It's the milestone that makes me happy. The boys were 5 and 8 when we got married. Now they're both taller than me. I think Seth is about 5' 10" and Brandon about 5'8". Seth probably has a few more inches in him since his grandpa, uncle and dad all grew after they were out of high school. I'm just glad his feet stopped growing! Brandon keeps stretching and stretching physically... the sky is the limit I guess. He has an uncle who is about 6'4" and a cousin who is 6'5".
Five years ago we couldn't have imagined moving 2300 miles away from everything familiar. Now we're hear and settled. Shortly after getting married we got a dog, and then had multiple pets until just a few months ago... very strange to be pet-free.

Ten years ago I was pretty healthy and Mike was strong and muscled from a physical job. LOL It seems so long ago now. I cherish the pictures of our early months. The picture below was taken by our neighbor, and then she gave it to us when she found out we were moving. Note that Brandon is standing on his tiptoes to seem a little taller.

We had only been married a few months when the morning of 9/11/01 became infamous. Seeing all the news coverage this month has got me thinking more & more about how things changes, and yet how they stay the same. Not sure if I'm ready to think about how the next 10 years will change for us. The most obvious is that the boys will move out and be on their own and Mike and I will have a quiet, boring life. Ha!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Hmm how did I make it through the summer without posting?

We didn't vacation during the summer. The tall one got a job that lasted a month, and then spent the days lounging.  The slightly shorter one spent as much time at the homes of his friends as possible. He came home to shower & change clothes about twice per week, and to try to get in some driving time now and then. All is well health-wise. Mike got a bit of a promotion at work in late August so that's been nice.

We have been living with road construction about 50 yards from our apartment. Literaly construction of a new road. And with construction comes the death of the swamp and then the invasion of various horrible insects.  The ants have been the most persistent. We have spent the entire summer battling various sizes & colors of ants. They like the poison so we keep putting it out. Theoretically the bulk of the construction on our street will be done by December... not holding my breath for that.. but it would be nice. Today they poured a new driveway for our parking lot. Would have been helpful if they had used any extra cement to fill the hold in the middle of our parking lot, but of course the landlord corporation would have had to pay for it.

In August we decided to shake things up a bit and rearranged furniture. Partly this was in hopes of getting rid of more bugs & ants. It did help, but we did such a good job of moving things around, we are still putting away... a bit more every day. I have thrown away so much junk! There is something so freeing in realizing that you have no need for paper piles.

I did realize at some point that I really haven't prayed much in a long time. Not really a reason for this, but I confess that it did take me a long time to realize that I missed it. I am working on being thankful and praying for my boys.