Fall's Here!

Can you see fall creeping into the trees in our back yard? This week, we have a high in the 60's every day. It's my favorite time of year. Although I've been stuck inside doing homework most afternoons, JD's been working hard in the garden. We love our yard; as you probably already know, it was one of JD's primary reasons for wanting to buy this house. But it's really too much for us to keep up with, so we decided to downsize it and just to keep the main garden. That is already over-run with weeds, so we're starting over! It is a lot of work, but we're (okay, mostly JD) ripping everything out (except the fruit trees!) and starting from scratch. So here's a look at what we've done so far. Here, I've (yes, me!) taken out all the flowers and weeds; we're going to remove the bricks and allow grass to grow along the tree line: Here, JD has completely removed the beds of current and blackberry bushes: And here, JD has started completely removing everything: The previous owners were garden crazy, so they had all kinds of fences, watering pipes, and posts in the ground which are trouble to remove. And for all of you that haven't gotten to see the garden for yourselves yet, here's a short video tour:
I'll post again one day when we actually finish this project.

Another One of Those Adventures

JD's easy-going schedule caught up with me when he drove in Friday with a new canoe tied to the Jeep roof. Before I knew it, our weekend was booked with camping, biking, and canoeing plans. We left Friday afternoon and camped at a lake just 15 mins away from Normal/Bloomington. It seemed strange to head out into the cornfields looking for a lake, but it was there!
It was the perfect camping evening complete with grilling out and star-gazing.
Saturday morning, we tried out our new boat on the lake, and once we were convinced that we could handle it, we headed out to the Mackinaw River (you should have seen me trying to wrestle the boat on and off the Jeep with JD!).
Once at the river, we dropped off the canoe, drove the Jeep to the takeout, rode our bikes back the canoe (8 miles!), and paddled back to the Jeep.
It was an ordeal, but it was really fun, and we got a lot of exercise. I'm still recuperating, but JD is already planning our next trip! When you come visit, plan to take a ride in the canoe.

Rainy Days

So, no one wants to remember their freshman year. That's okay! In other news, Bloomington/Normal got all the storms from Texas's hurricane last weekend. JD and I were stuck inside most of the weekend, and our backyard became a personal swimming pool.
The creek a few houses down became a raging river, and we got some rain sneaking into our basement.
This is what the creek usually looks like:

We're all dried up now, but the rivers up here are still brimming. It looks like a gorgeous weekend coming up though...

9th Grade Julie

So, as many of you know, I'm taking a class right now on Young Adult literature; it's fascinating. We have all kinds of fun homework assignments, and I wanted to share one with you to get your feedback and to hear about your experiences. The homework asked us to provide a page of description of what we were like in 9th grade. Creativity was encouraged, and there was no format requirement (poems and songs allowed). Here's mine. I'd love to hear about who you were via the comment section below.

9th Grade Julie
My freshman year of high school in Marietta, Georgia, I had long hair that I parted in the middle and refused to cut no matter how often my mom harassed me. I loved any salty foods, but mashed potatoes were my favorite food, and I hated exercise of any kind. I was completely unaware of my body. Probably trying to figure out who I was, I listened to a wide variety of music including, but not limited to, 311, Bush, Jump Little Children, Collective Soul, Incubus, Live, NSync, Third Eye Blind, and Sarah McLachlan. My favorite color was blue, and I couldn’t be persuaded out of my blue jeans. I joined the color guard team at school and regularly attended FCA to sit behind my 5-year crush. I was involved with the youth group at church, although not a member of the in-crowd, and my idea of the perfect Friday night was sleeping over at my best friend’s house, watching teen movies until the wee hours of the morning. I was very close to my family and didn’t know what “rebellion” meant. My favorite class was English and my favorite pastime reading, but my 9th grade English teacher refused to recommend me for honors English on account of my grammar skills (I waived into the honors program anyway). I loved fantasy, and the longer the book, the better. I had no plans for my future or conception of time but remained happily and naively optimistic within my circle of friends. In fact, Circle of Friends was one of my favorite movies (I loved Chris O’Donnell). I read the Christian magazine Brie and included my crush’s name on every year’s Christmas list. I loved my cat, Kitty, and hated when my friends tried to “protect” me from crude jokes. I brought my lunch to school every day: a sandwich, fruit, chips, and a dessert. I always hoped for a top locker assignment.

So, what about you?...

Weekend in Chicago

JD was the sweetest husband ever (sorry to you other wives) and planned a suprise trip to Chicago this past Saturday! We had toooooo much fun. It was a perfect day - sunny and 75 degrees, and we spent the whole day walking around a brand new city, exploring, trying new restaurants, and forgetting about all the work waiting for us at home. We took the train from Normal to Chicago; it took about 2 1/2 hours and was a cool experience in itself.

Then we walked from Central Station along the lake to the Field Museum of Natural History where the largest and most complete dinosaur bones are housed (a T-Rex!) as well as an extensive Egyptian exhibit (complete with wrapped and unwrapped mummies!), and a special exhibit of dangerous weather storms in which we got to experience the inside of a tornado!
We could have easily spent an entire day there, but we couldn't because JD had gotten us tickets for the Broadway musical Wicked!
He knows that this is one of my favorite books ever; in fact, I'm teaching it in my Young Adult literature class later this semester. The musical has been running continuously in Chicago for three years due to its popularity, but it's closing next month. It was such a great show! The acting was amazing; the special effects were incredible; of course the story was wonderful. I was sitting straight up in my seat trying not to blink for all 3 hours! It was one of the best gifts JD could have gotten me. Afterwards, we picked a restaurant for dinner, and headed home on the train. We were exhausted, but it was a day that I'll always remember fondly.

Labor Day '08

This weekend, JD and I joined the Batson and Pond families (okay, and Cashes and Gunters) in St. Joseph, Michigan for the new annual Labor Day retreat at JD's uncle and aunt's house. Like last year, we had such a good time. Besides swimming, jet skiing, boating, jumping on the trampoline, playing video games, playing a 4-hour Monopoly game (which JD won), playing croquet and boccie ball, and celebrating Joey's 10-year birthday, we stuffed ourselves with pork, steak, and fish, slept in bunk beds, and caught up on all the family news. The weekend successfully took our minds off all that has been going on lately and got us back in touch with our fun selves. We were so sorry to leave this morning and only made it out the door because we made plans to return in October for a fall trip. Kim and Andrew and their five boys live in a beautiful home I've titled Batson Land after its amusement park qualities. The weather was perfect every day (summer in the mid-west is the most beautiful I've ever experienced!), and everyone found themselves in good spirits. Now, I think I'm ready to face another week. Here's a short video of the end of the hot pepper eating contest of which JD and I took no part!