Truck Gardening

So, I drive a Dodge Ram pickup and I have a tendency to leave stuff in the bed of it. When we moved into our apartment, there was a planter in the back of my truck that had lily bulbs in it. Our apartment doesn't have a porch or balconey so with nowhere to put it, it just stayed in the back of the truck. Fast forward six months. Aparently with the sun and rainwater that naturally occurs outside, my lily bulbs have decided to sprout :) So, I guess they will continue to ride around with me in the back of my truck!

Where's The Light In This Tunnel???

Warning: This blog is kinda boring and mostly me just whining! So, the last thing I need to be doing right now is probably blogging but I am anticipating a rough upcoming week and a half so I'm being selfish and taking a few minutes for myself. I have to work tonight and tomorrow night (mon & tues), my call day is Friday, work Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. So out of the next 10 days I have 3 days off ('cause I'm pretty sure I'll have to work my call day). Those three days will fly by. I dunno why I thought Friday would be a good time to schedule my call day. Kuddos to my coworkers that can work 4, 5 and sometimes 6 nights in a row but 3 puts me at my wit's end. So I need to be grocery shopping right now and paying some bills but here I am on my bumper (as my niece calls it) staring at the computer screen. Ken started work today, he has a 10-week internship working under the youth pastor. We're still looking for whatever comes next. I'm just looking forward to Thursday, June 3rd. I will finally be off for a nice little stretch and chaperoning a cruise to the Bahamas! So c'mon June 3rd! You are the light I'm searching for in this tunnel!

The Only Boy Who Could Ever Reach Me Was The Son Of A Preacher Man

It's 2:30 in the morning, I can't sleep. Did I ever mention my husband is in seminary? And for any of you that aren't quite sure what that is, it's not a sperm bank. It is basicly school to be a preacher. So I am married to a man with aspirations to lead a church. ME. A soon-to-be PREACHER'S WIFE! Ha. That ought to get a few good laughs at the 10 year reunion. Needless to say I was not voted "most likely to marry a preacher" in high school. And if you're curious about the title of this blog, his dad is a preacher too. I knew about his calling into the ministry going into our marriage but have kinda innocently put it on the back burner. I mean, he's in school which doesn't technically make him a preacher yet and so technically I'm not a preacher's wife yet, right? Well, he graduates TODAY. And while I'm oh so proud of my preacher man, the reality has slapped me in the face like a hooker on the Jerry Springer Show. What does this mean? How do I continue to be genuinely me while honoring my husband's ministry? To be honest the task before me seems a little bit daunting from this angle. So, like many journies in life I'm expecting some tears, some laughs, some frustration and hopefully a lot of fun. *deep breath* Here we go...

Judah Mann

We named our puppy Judah. A friend of our insisted that dogs should have a middle name as well. After throwing around some ideas, the joke Judah Mann just kinda stuck. You know like, 'you da man'. So, our chocolate lab has reached the ripe old age of 8 months now and just like all people and/or animals has his own list of idiosyncrasies. I am prepared to share some of them with you now:
1) He has, by far, the worst gas I have ever had the displeasure of smelling in my ENTIRE life and I am a nurse, I have smelled some really rank stuff. And when he farts, he jerks around to look at his back side like 'what was that?"
2) He has a oral fixation with underwear and power cords. He has chewed through my computer speaker wires, my iPod ear bud wires and lastly, the vacuum cleaner cord.
3) He's afraid of loud things including but not limited to, the lawn mower, fireworks, the vacuum, garbage disposal, 18 wheelers that pass us on the interstate (he's inside the car).
4) He's afraid of things he doesn't 'know' like for instance, he freaked out when we jogged by a ramp the other day. A moving truck ramp. A completely stationary ramp. He wouldn't even get close enough to smell it.
5) He won't get in the water. Did I mention he's a lab? What kind of 'water dog' refuses to get in the water? He loves a stick though so we tried throwing a stick into the pond. Once he got all four feet wet he turned and looked at us like "Um, who's gonna go get that stick?"
6) He will eat anything, ANYTHING you give him. My four year old niece gets a kick out of feeding him leaves, rocks, sticks, flowers whatever. He WILL NOT eat his heart worm pill. If you will eat a rock or lick the puddle of urine you just peed, how bad can a heart worm pill be?

Despite all his weirdness we love him, some days it's just because we've really invested way to much money in him to get rid of him. He really is a good-looking dog though. I've included some videos of Judah being Judah, enjoy!

KETCHUP... or just catching up :)

So I haven't blogged for the entire month of April, actually it's been nearly 2 months seeing as my last blog was March 10th and today is May 2. Wow how time flies! I know my whole SIX followers have just been dying for this one. HA! Just kidding. But anyway, some fun and note-worthy things have happened in the last two months. I got five baby chicks to use as props for some Easter pictures of kids. My niece ended up adopting two of them and they lived at nana's until a stray cat had chicken dinner. Nana felt bad and so she bought my niece two more (by the way, it was supposed to be temporary. After one day the chicks were supposed to go to my uncles farm which is where the other three went). One of the new two promptly fell over and died (cause of death: too much love from a 4 year old) which caused Nana to buy two MORE. So now, a month after Easter Nana has three growing chicks living at her house.

Let's see, my buddy Leigh graciously volunteered to be my bridal guinea pig and put her wedding dress back on so I could get some practice taking wedding portraits, that was fun! Afterward she and I, along with our husbands, went to eat in downtown greenville (she was still in her dress). What like there's something uncommon about a girl walking around downtown and eating at wild wings in a wedding dress at 3:00 in the afternoon? Maybe it's because the rest of us were wearing street clothes. Thanks Leigh, you're the best!

Ken is almost done with school. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, we are almost at the finish line, it's so close we can taste it. You get my drift? Graduation is 15 days from today which also happens to be our two year anniversary! I am excited and a little scared about where God will take us next. I would love to live in a house though, this renting is getting old and it would be nice to have a small yard that the dogs could run around in. I have started reading an excellent book titled '"You Can Still Wear Cute Shoes" and other advice from an unlikely preacher's wife'. So far it's been great but I'll keep ya posted. I guess I will wrap this one up by informing you that I almost stepped on a snake about an hour ago. I hate snakes, they are satan's babies. I had no idea, Ken and I were walking the dogs and all the sudden he got my attention but seemed to be stumbling over the words. So he just urgently blurted out 'keep walking, just keep walking!' Little did I know that a nearly 5 foot black snake was about one foot away from my leg! Once I realized what was going on I freaked out and did the 'get away from the snake' dance/run. Ugh, my skin is still crawling (no pun intended). Let me be clear, I HATE snakes!