Spring and Summer Highlights

With autumn fast approaching I thought I would recap some of our highlights from this past summer and spring. Especially since I just started blogging I must catch you up!

In July we went on a great mission trip to Flagstaff Arizona with friends from church. We were able to serve at an local Indian College in Flagstaff and spend time with the Refuge-a church plant from our local church. We got the treat of visiting the Grand Canyon on the last day of the mission. So beautiful! Brady and I extended our trip and were able to visit the Petrified Forest and Sedona. The most quirky thing we did was stay in the historic Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ-if you've seen the movie Cars the motel may look familiar.










To celebrate our last tax season we went to the Outer Banks of NC in April. Here Brady is at the Wright Brothers Memorial and I'm trying to fly a kite on the beach-I had trouble keeping it up.

In May we made a point to visit some political arenas. Obama rally in Bloomington and Hillary rally in Indy for me. I'm proud to say that this is my first election to be voting in-very exciting!




This Friday I'm helping put on an outdoor benefit dinner for the farmers' market-I feel like I'm planning a wedding. I'm a little stressed but thought blogging might take the edge off-ha!

Girl Time

Friday night I got together with two great friends and former roomies from college days, Erica and Stacy. They both live out of town so it is few and far between that we see each other these days. They are both moms so they are busy with their work and family commitments. I was happy the have the time we did to enjoy a meal together, look at pictures and catch up on the past few months. Kelley and Angie we missed you guys.

Bear Turns 7

Happy Birthday Rodi! Our girl is getting up there. She's starting to get a little gray on her muzzle. But she wears it well like her father! To celebrate her birthday we plan to take a long walk and get a birthday bath. We got new carpet and tile installed in our living room this week and Rodi thinks we had it laid for her. She has thoroughly enjoyed lounging on the new digs.

Rodi's favorite game: To be chased and chase

Ro favorite snack: Pig Ears

Ro favorite lap: Brady's

Ro favorite place to nap: Our bed

Ro favorite toy: The squeaking hedgehog

Ro favorite walk: Eagles Crest Nature Preserve

Ro favorite human friend: Dan (she might think Dan's a dog though)

Ro favorite dog friend: Lucien

The Outdoorsman

Brady and company went on their second annual overnight backpacking trip this weekend exploring the Knobstone Trail in Southern Indiana. Packs were carefully loaded with enough water, rations and other supplies that they would need for the long hike. The wives of course were worried that they had not packed enough bug spray, sanitizer, food and water. Can you pack a toilet in there? I was informed that you must bury your poo. Ewe! Brady's dinner consisted of potatoes, spices and tomatoes grilled in the open fire-yum. Brady reported that it was a great scenic trail for those that have not trekked it. He had some good male bonding and even came back with a beard to boot!

Creeping Myrtle

Over the past two weeks I have been slowly digging up creeping myrtle along the front of our house. You might think it wouldn't take this long to dig it up but this plant is a tough little burger. When I finally get all the old unwanted myrtle and weeds dug out we are going to install some new landscaping. We had an official plan drawn up and it looks great. Once we do the manual labor I don't know if it will look the same as the drawing, kind of like when you do your hair after getting a cute cut, but we're gonna try. I went to price some of the plants-who knew landscaping was so expensive.

Hum-where do these green gems fit in the new budget?

On a second note I am taking an Independent Study class through IU this semester to finish my Masters. The title of my study is "A Focus on Local Food for Future Sustainability". I have a mid-semester paper due October 15 and then a final paper due at the end. My final paper will include a business plan for a small berry farm. More on "The Berry Nook" later!!

Happy Birthday Brother

Happy 25th Birthday Todd! Hope you had a great day. Here's to many more birthdays! We missed you this past weekend. The pecs are looking pretty good in 95!

Weekend on the Farm

This past weekend the Hansels and Deckers went to Union Mills Indiana for a weekend away. We had high hopes of going to the beach on Saturday but the record rainfall put a damper on that. Despite the rain we still had a good time, playing Catch Phrase (which the girls won) and Cranium, antiquing, reading, eating, sleeping and more eating. We did not go hungry that's for sure! Perhaps the biggest laugh of the weekend came when Brady warned us not to disturb a large flock of gulls for fear that we might get pooped on....well, we ran them off anyway and sure enough he was the one that got pooed on! Sorry Brady...

Pick A Peck of Apples

This week I have been harvesting apples from our three apple trees and getting back to my roots a little. I taught myself to can through the help of Ball's Blue Book of Preserving. Anyone can learn to can but it sure is a process-all the boiling, washing, cutting and pealing. I have a new respect for all the canning and growing my grandparents did. I would say that my two favorite apple dishes are Apple Pie and Apple Crisp although I will also eat one right off the tree. Some wouldn't be so brave as these apples are very organic in nature and you may have to nibble around a worm hole! It's just a little protein people-no worries.

Ripple Effect

Backing up in time again, on August 31st Brady and his friend Jared ran in the The Ripple Effect 4 mile road race through Broad Ripple. Brady really enjoyed wearing his race ready jersey that my parents gave him. No more pins for him on race day! And did I mention the fast time that he ran-a PR! To continue our racing momentum this summer-Brady and I signed up to do the Indianapolis Monumental half marathon on November 1st!

Sprint Triathlon

Backing up in time-on August 23rd, three friends and I conquered the Eagle Creek Sprint Tri! It was fun but hard-especially the swim. The night before we were informed that Eagle Creek reservoir had blue green algae and we had to sign a waiver acknowledging the risk of swimming with the algae. Didn't I consume super blue green algae in college in hopes of gaining energy-hum? As you can see I had a large cheering section with matching shirts thanks to Meg! I was in line for the port-o-pot before the race and someone ask if I was supposed to win (they saw the shirts!)-I said not quite!! But all those cheering us on made us feel like winners! Thanks everybody.

Hillbilly Fun

I love blogging! This past Saturday night we spent time at the Upland Brewing Co. in Bloomington at the Hillbilly Haiku Music Festival benefiting the Nature Conservancy. Meg, Todd, Aunt Deb, Bonnie, Brady and I were able to hang out and spend time together-it was great! For those that have forgot a Haiku is 5/7/5 syllables-we had to have a refresher on this.

Here's my Haiku for the week...

Food, drink, family

Fun and we don't need much more

To enjoy time spent!

Learning to Blog

So I really enjoy reading other peoples blogs so I thought I might try one for myself. Although I really don't know if I'm equipped with enough interesting stuff to say and post to be a blogger. Here goes!