Who Knew?

Two posts in one day! Who knew it was possible?

Well, add child #2 to the list of head wounds! At Mother's Day Out today, Elizabeth got hit in the head with a rogue metal water faucet key (you know, the ones for turning on an outside spigot). Exactly in the center of the back of her head, she has a tiny hole where it split her little head open. The nurse counseled me to go ahead and take her in to the PriMed facility just to make sure it didn't need stitches or wasn't at a high risk for infection. After getting the wound thoroughly washed, the very nice doctor concluded that it would heal just fine on its own with a little neosporin and sent us home with a grape lollipop. Then we had to go back to MDO to pick up Andrew. All the teacher's felt so badly! I just felt badly for the 11 weeks pregnant mommy who had to clean her up with blood pouring everywhere. She put forth a huge effort not to let the sight and smell get the best of her pregnancy hormones!

Well, that's it for now. Another fun day to add into the book for mommy and kiddos. I know I have many more to come! I'm so glad God is so gracious and spares me and our family from disaster many, many times a day. Thank you, Lord! We would be lost without You!

Time to do some Maintenance

Well, we've got three more big ears of corn that will probably be done soon. David and I pulled up the remaining carrots last night. They were pretty much duds. I need to figure out what went wrong, but I do think I let the green tops thrive and take all the nutrients instead of figuring out how to grow the root, the carrot, better.
I think it will be another week or two on the watermelons. Two of them are quite large and quite heavy, but the stem still is green and they're not thumping quite right.
My green peppers are finally beginning to turn a lovely red! (I learned in a book that red peppers are actually green ones ripened completely! Who knew! I don't know the story on yellow and orange ones.) Does anyone know how to get tomatoes to turn red? They've been almost exactly as they are for about 2 weeks now and I'm getting worried that something may be wrong.
Our one lone sunflower is going to open up it's beautiful blossom this week. It had a lot to overcome (apparently) since it is a dwarf! I'm not sure it's even 4 feet tall!
And this is funny. I'm going to have 1 green bean. One. Yes, just the one! It is very lovely though. After I couldn't figure out what was wrong with the plants, though I knew they were sick, I finally pulled them out. Upon looking very closely at the creases where the shoots grew off the main stem, I found the likely culprits. They were these insectst that had a very arched back with quite a few very stiff hairs on them. They were exactly the same color as the plant and looked like part of it. The babies were almost impossible to see, but there were a lot if you could see that well. They were smaller, yes, smaller, than the commas in this sentence. The bean leaves were so big that the insect repellent I put on the plants never reached those crevices on the stem.
We've learned so much so far!
Enjoying life,
Rachel

VBS

It brought me more joy than I can describe last week, when our dear son Andrew had a fabulous week at VBS. Yes, it was a little bit busy getting there every morning, but it was by far the most unchaotic VBS I have ever been a part of. I assisted with the online registration the first two days. Andrew sat still (still for him anyway) and listened to his story, stayed with his class, listenend and laughed and loved the big "show" at the end of each day, and had no outbursts at all! He respected and obeyed his authorities. This, I believe, was a direct answer to prayer. Last year was not so great, so we talked and prayed and prepared a lot for this year. It was a big boost of confidence for him, too. I am so grateful!

Another year, another Alaska

Every visit to the great state of Alaska yields great rewards and plenty of surprises. This year's pilgrimmage was no different. The journey was timed to coincide with the historically best time to catch the run of Copper River Red (Sockeye) Salmon as well as the best tides for our chances at the big halibut out of Valdez. I certainly believe the timing worked out well!

99.1 lb halibut! The biggest I've ever caught!

Standing on top of and right next to Worthington Glacier - a quickly receding piedmont glacier just north of Valdez.
In Alaska, there are more private pilots per capita than any other state. Some find the need to park their experimental helicopters right on their driveways.

The journey to and from the north is usually made possible by the work from our friends at Alaska Airlines. This picture was taken from my AirTran jet as I taxied out of SeaTac.
No, he's not upside down. He's dipnetting. This is the view from above as my friend works at catching the amazing Sockeyes one their way back up to the spawning grounds.
I sat pensive, tied off to the cliffs of the Copper River Valley. The sunlight of the night blinded me from reality - it was midnight and here I was, clinging to a rock in the hopes that some salmon would run into my net.
It's hard to tell, but I'm reeling in my 99.1 lb halibut in this shot. It's not that hard, it just takes a while.

So, in the end I came home with about 120 lbs of usuable salmon, halibut, ling cod, and red snapper and a lifetime of memories. I love this place and I look forward to returning, whenever that may be.

Recapping

It's been a while. I do apologize!

To quickly sum up, we enjoyed fireworks in a small community just east of Montgomery for the Fourth. Hannah is here in her patriotic dress from her Aunt Sarah.

July 11 was "National Cow Appreciation Day" at Chick-fil-A, anyway. We celebrated (as did many others) by dressing up like cows and getting FREE meals! It was fun to do and the kids really enjoyed it. Notice Andrew's "bull" horns in the picture. He wanted to make sure he was clearly a boy cow!

David spent a week fishing in Alaska, coming home with a total of 120lbs. of salmon and halibut. Yummy! We spent that time split between the Davidson and the Sulhoff families' homes. We had a delightful time swimming, eating Chick-fil-A, going to the Yellow River Game Ranch, spending time with cousins, and just relaxing.

I will write again, sooner than later!

Harvest Time!

Well, we've harvested and eaten our first corn on the cob! I think there may be a few more ears on the way. The tomatoes finally developed when the weather cooled off to the 80's the second half of June. I have 3 huge green peppers on which I am anxiously waiting to turn red (also the case with the tomatoes). I think the carrots are about done.

And check out those watermelon! We should have 6 good, big ones, two per vine. Pretty exciting!

With all the fish David just brought home from Alaska, combined with all these yummy fruits and veggies, we'll be feasting! Thank you, Lord!

Ho hum . . .

Well, I have to confess - I've given in. Last Monday I entertained a guest I was hoping to avoid. We had a nice chat and shook hands and even brought up some Alaska talk. Still, I had hoped to never meet the man. But I did, and I'm a little ashamed.

So, starting sometime in the next two weeks, my lawn will be treated by "Alabama Lawns".

I guess you could say I threw in the towel, but in the end all I really care about is a lawn without weeds. We'll see how it goes, but I feel like I've hired the help of an organization to fight something that I created to start with (due to my negligence/ignorance/whatever). It's kind of like Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. (Maybe some of you will understand that).

That is neither here nor there right now as I am waiting in the Fairbanks Military Lounge for my friend to pick me up. I've made it back to Interior Alaska searching for the infamous red salmon. Then it's on to Valdez for a date with some halibut. yeah yeah, I know - I'm doing it just for the 'halibut'. If I've heard it once I've heard a trillion times. Oh well, It's still kind of funny, I guess. Regardless, the fish is terrific and I'll be happy to post some pics after the trip.

Take care everyone!
In Him,
David

What I love about the United States of America

I posted this on an AJC blog, but I doubt many of you read it. But it embodies the many things I love about my country.

Lee Greenwood
Boys in the Hood
City Halls
Strip malls
Martin guitars
Rovers on Mars
Outsourcing
No forcing
FAA
"Hey, hey, hey!"
Colonial Antiquity
"As seen on T.V."
Drummer and fife
Sanctity of life
Needles highway
New York gray
Prom dates
Fifty states
Many sides
25-cent rides
Snopes, the facts
No internet tax
Pine, oak, birch, spruce
Cardinal, eagle, blue bird, goose
Times Square tower
Hawaii flower
Diversified people
Star, crescent, cross, steeple
Stone Mountain
Centennial Park fountain
Miami beach
Dr. King Speech
"No papers, state to state"
Drive-thru food, no wait
Gettysburg fog
This timely blog

God Bless America Again!