My recent life:

• no internet... most of the time. our neighbors do have cable that i can leach off of if i think it's of ultimate importance.
• we've added a second car in our life again. this time it's a black, two door, stick shift honda civic. 1998. walter is thrilled. i had no idea he wanted a civic. praise God he's given us a second car. praise God for wonderful in-laws whose generosity made it possible.
• walter has a job picking up a ridiculously expensive car in houston, tx tomorrow. i don't remember the make but i do know that you can find wallpaper for your desktop of them. they're that pretty.
  
• i'm in love with animals. i want dogs and chickens and goats. i half exhaust myself looking and learning online... but since my online time is in such chunks (mostly sundays and i suppose tonight) i don't over do it too often.
• walter plans to call comcast tomorrow and then we can have internet at home too (and we can watch battlestart when it returns in january! i'm so excited. you have no idea).
• wally was asked (by MSCC) to give his resume to MSCC (community college) and may (God willing) get hired on as an adjunct professor.
• no rain. everything is very dry and dusty. tho' it's killed off all our mosquitoes and i don't mind that one bit.
  
• KARLA HAD HER BABY!!! (i'm not quite sure how my thought process went from one point to the other... oh well) it's a beautiful baby boy (or so i'm told) whose name i've yet to learn. that's ok bc
• I'm going to Chicago on Thursday! I get to see Karla and little baby Gerbitz in person. AND! I get to hang out with my mom on her birthday. We're heading into Chicago... we tried to do that when we visited over the summer but only made it as far as Cantigny which was also beautiful. I had a great time.

There's more and better things to tell, I'm sure. But that's all I can think of now. I'm slowly trying to catch up on emails. I got one down today. I hope to do at least one more tomorrow. Sometimes the internet makes me very sleepy. I think that it's time for bed.

filling our 3 acres

the weather is still hot... tho' only up to 98 degrees today. somehow 98 seems hotter in the delta than it did in chicago. we haven't had any rain yet either... which led me to a new discovery:

driving on dirt (powdery dirt that hasn't seen rain in who knows how long) is just like driving on snow. you have to be careful not to over correct in very much the same way. (i discovered this in my "QUICK! We have to return the dvd to blockbuster!" moment. tho' i am a very good snow driver and did not have any problems ;) )

yesterday walter and i went to Angeletti Animal Acres to learn a little more about pygmy goats and maybe buy a few. we didn't really learn much but we did meet the sweetest every LaMancha goat that followed us around the entire time. :) I fell in love with that earless little goat! so sweet. (the picture is not of the LaMancha I met... i'll have to remember to bring my camera next time we look for goats.)

Today we may visit another man with goats and see what advice he has to give. We may also head back to the animal shelter to visit some of the dogs that were out at the vet last time we visited. we were there earlier today while they were installing an air conditioning unit. those poor dogs were toasty! thank God someone decided to donate an air conditioner. Those poor animals need it!

good day sunshine

we're officially in our house! everything we own is officially not there yet... but it's moving over in small batches. life seems a bit more manageable that way, i believe.

we began moving our furniture in on Thursday, added just a little bit on Friday, more on Saturday and church and family on Sunday. Monday we finally set up the bedroom and brought the cats to stay.

Last night was our first night in our new home!

We had Josh and Jon and Pam over to watch Tombstone, eat popcorn and enjoy the quiet surroundings together. This morning I got out of bed and glanced out the window and was amazed at the beauty of it all: the blue sky, large yard, and field of sunflowers just behind... all that framed by gauzy white curtains in my very own bedroom. what a great start to the day!

I made my way to the door to go for a short jog but opened the door to too much heat and absolutely no shade. I'm going to have to get up earlier in the morning to take advantage of our long private road. that's the goal for tomorrow.

August has been blistering. 5 people have died so far in Memphis due to the heat. We're in a drought and it's easy to tell which fields are watered and which fields rely on rain. Thank God our fields are doing all right. On August 2nd the temperature hit 102 and it hasn't dipped below 100 since. It's been prime swimming weather if you can just stay inside until evening (tho' the water almost gets too warm). Today I spent the entire day inside cleaning my kitchen and bathrooms and unpacking boxes. Tomorrow I'll make a point to leave my home and take a dip in the pool.