We picked this watermelon up at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday

If you look really, really, really close, you will see the number 43 written on it. This is the weight of the thing, 43 pounds. No, really, I stepped on the scale with it and gained 43 pounds.

Karol with the watermelon. It weighs just a little less than he! Now that’s a watermelon.

I have been trying to write a post for a few days, but really, my brain cells are shot from all the organizing I am doing, okay trying to do. So, here are some topics I have wanted to blog about but do not have the brain power to do a whole post on them.

*Today I went to Valdosta to meet Joshua and take Karol to get a passport. That was not nearly as painful as I thought it would be. Turns out the Post Office here in Valdosta gets a lot passport applications, so they have a guy set up to do it. There was actually a line today to. There was a woman in front of us and two groups behind us!

After the PO, we stopped by the shipping store to drop off a bunch of shipments of Pew Cards for And With Your Spirit. Then we took Joshua back to work.

The kids have been crazy the past few days, so I decided to stop by a park with them. Yes, we live on an acre of land, move of which they can run on to their hearts’ content, but there are those pesky gnats. They tend to chase the kids in after about 10 minutes. The kids enjoyed the park and I enjoyed my phone conversation with Andrea. (and the text conversation that followed.) We had not eaten lunch yet and it was getting on 230 at this point, so I started scooting the kids to the van. I heard thunder, so I started scooting them a bit faster. I have seen lightening come out of clear blue sky down here, so I wasn’t taking any chances. We grabbed lunch, dropped some off with Joshua, then headed home.

On the way home, it turned three o’clock, so I told the kids we were going to pray a chaplet. Margaret screamed the entire time that it hurt her to hear it. (Nice) Karol, on the other hand prayed along with me and even asked to lead a decade! After we got home, Karol took to setting the table for lunch and getting food out for everyone. Well, no, wait. If I recall correctly, he gave everyone food and I brought plates to the table after I changed Benedict’s diaper. Karol even helped clean up after lunch, it was like I had a totally different child!

*Today, I was driving past the local university and saw that the lawn was being watered, along with the sidewalk. Is it just me, or is there something wrong about watering the lawn when we are in the midst of a severe drought? I see the dust on the fields around our house. I see the dust get kicked up when the thunderstorms (mostly lightening and thunder, little rain) come though. I would never dream of watering my lawn while the local farmers are working so hard to save their fields. Solidarity, people, solidarity.

*Tomorrow we are going to support our local farmers and head up to Tifton, Georgia to go to the Farmer’s Market. I am really looking forward to it. They have a pretty good website as well as a frequently updated F.Book page. A lot of the vendors have blogs, websites or fb pages, that are nice and kept up to date, too. I am getting hungry just thinking about going and eating lots of fresh stuff! I think we may just make a lunch out of it.

*Speaking of lunch, Karol was a very good boy for me a few weeks ago, so I told him he would be able to go out with me, just me, for lunch. Of course, we ended up finally closing that week, so I have had to put off our outing. He has asked, multiple times, if we could go to the waffle house. He has never been before, nor have I for that matter. I think he just wants to go because of the name.

*On the flip side of the good child coin, we have Caecilia. Where does this child find crayons and stickers. I know I put them up and out of reach, how does she find them. As I type this, there is a pile of stickers stuck to the carpet on the landing. Fun.

*Now there is a storm coming in, so I should wrap this up. We have lost power with the last two out of three storms and I am hoping that is not the case with this one.

Betty Beguiles is hosting a The Story of How You Became Engaged link-up, click here to read more stories!

Well, I think everyone who knows us, knows how we met. Joshua was in Seminary and I was helping out with a youth retreat there. Our friendship began that cold, snowy weekend in 2003 but the romance did not begin until after he had discerned he was not called to the priesthood and after I had heard God firmly close the door to a religious vocation for me. Let me say clearly, at no point while Joshua was in seminary did I have a thought about him as anything other than a friend and he will say the same thing about me.

In July 2003, I received a phone call from Joshua letting me know that he was leaving the seminary and the order he was in as he had discerned that he was not called to priesthood. My response, vocally, at that time, was something along the line of “Oh, yeah, okay, well, keep in touch”. However, in my heart, deep down, I heard and felt something. That something was that Joshua was now available and we could be more than friends. As I had never had a thought of that before, ever, it scared me and I pushed the thought aside and buried it deep in my heart, but I felt there had been a shift in our friendship.  I went about things after that and really forgot about what I had felt and thought. Two weeks later, I was visiting a convent, and it was there that I heard God say that pray as I want, I was not called to be a religious sister. So I headed back to Columbus, knowing that I was called to marriage.

A few weeks later he called to tell me that he was coming to Columbus to pick up things he had left at the seminary and was in need of a place to stay. I hooked him up with my friend Jon which was convenient as Jon lived upstairs from me, so we could all visit. I will tell you that thought I had a few weeks before that was so firmly tucked away, that I had never thought of it while planning his visit, until, I received The Phone Call saying his car broke down and asking if I would I come to get him, and even then only sub-conscientiously. I prayed like I had never had before, in that car ride to get him. (Two rosaries and a Divine Mercy Chaplet, all the while chewing my nails to stubs!) I honestly did not know why I was so darn nervous.

I made it to the service station where he had managed to make it to and found him sleeping in the car. I walked over to him and well, fumbled some words, but I have no recollection what they were. His response was “Don’t ever wake me up again” (in a teasing tone) and my thought was “but what about when we are married?” Yeah, I was pretty freaked out at this point. I prayed that my bubbly, talkative personality would not take over and that I could be meek and quiet the ride home. THEN Joshua started flirting with me. I kid you not. He flirted. I was so darn flustered I could hardly breathe and I hope that my face did not betray my thoughts. We made it back to Columbus and invited a few people over to hang out. It was during that time that Joshua and realized that we needed to talk about something. After everyone left, he professed his love for me. My response was “How can you love me? I can’t cook”. Yeah, smooth. We knew that night, though, that we would be married.

So the actually proposal, I know, that is the point of the post right?

October 18, 2003 at the Adoration Chapel in St. Elizabeth Hospital, Lafayette, Indiana, we had just finished praying the rosary when Joshua reached in to his pocket and took the ring out of the box and asked me to be his wife, forever. I said yes. We held tight to each other as we finished our Holy Hour.

After leaving the chapel, we headed out to find a place to eat and celebrate, but being after 10 pm in Lafayette, our choices were limited. We ended up at White Castles. No, I am not making that up and it was the first time I had ever been there. I said “I have never eaten there before and I am not going to on the night we got engaged”.  It was only the beginning of the many times Joshua has forced me to try something new, to expand my horizons and to break out of my shell.

Just under a year later, we were married at St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church in Lafayette, Indiana on October 2, 2004.

For a while, I have been wanting to purchase a snood, to help keep my hair in place while doing my household chores and to keep my hair from becoming part of dinner. Ew, gross, I can’t believe I just wrote that, but it does happen, once to a dear friend. He was very gracious and came over many more times for dinner.

I have been hesitant to purchase one though, for fear that I might not like it or t might not work in my slick hair. Then I saw Cam over at A Woman’s Place is having a give away! Check her out. Also check out her shop, A Snood for all Seasons.

{pretty}

This is the view from one of the living room windows. Those trees you see are Pecan Trees, while we don’t have any one our property, they sure are pretty to look at!

{happy}

I have found that when moving with children, the first thing you need to bring out is toys. Benedict was quite happy in the middle of this pile.

{funny}

I find this funny, all the toys dumped out and the big kids no where to be found. This is pretty normal at our house. The nice thing about the new house is that they will not be dumped out in the living room for much longer, toys are only for the rec room!

{real}

I took a load of boxes out this morning, on my way to meet the bug person. The stuff on the pool table is what we took out last night. Slowly, we are getting it all out there.

For more {pretty, happy, funny, real} head over to Like Mother, Like Daughter.

Yes, we are homeowners once again. We purchased a house about a half hour north of Valdosta that is on an acre of land, surrounded by a pecan grove, a green bean field and a cabbage patch. This day only took almost four months, but we finally made it. Of course I have pictures for you all to enjoy.

Stay tuned for more fun stories about the house, the contract, the four months it took to close and the closing, until then, enjoy the pictures! (click on them to make them big).

Let me just say: Gnats are gnasty! The humidity and heat are not what keep those who live south of the Gnat Line (anything south of Macon, Ga) in side all summer, it is those darn gnats.

Yesterday they were pretty bad, before and after Mass. Most people do a quick open and close of the car door, so the cool air does not escape. In South Georgia, one does it so the gnats do not swarm inside the car. So, trying to get the kids out of the van for Mass, while replacing shoes, checking a diaper, securing chapel veils, and not trying to let gnats is often a lesson in futility. I often find that we bring a swarm of them with us in to the church and I am spending the first five minutes or so of the Rosary swatting then away from the baby’s head.

After Mass, yesterday, I stopped Father to ask him a question. I tried to make it so quick because in the morning sun, I could see the gnats swarming his head as I am sure they were doing to mine. (Sorry, Father.)

Last night, we went to visit with Joshua’s Aunt and Uncle and their family. They were camping outside of Adel, so we headed out to visit last night. The gnats were awful last night, thankfully fully they went away after the sun went down! We used a natural bug spray that the locals told Joshua’s uncle is what they use. It sort of worked, sort of.

If anyone out there has any suggestions, I would appreciate them! 🙂

It was sitting outside my back door when Joshua arrived home. I was rushing to get ready to head to our friends’ house for their son’s 2nd Birthday Party when I heard Joshua call for me. He had the box in hand. I was more than thrilled to see my wonderful and thoughtful gift. I plan on sautéing zucchini and squash in it tomorrow!

(the picture is from williams-sonoma.com)