Pumpkins

That, my friends, is a pumpkin growing in a pine tree. It's about two-thirds of the way up the tree and I have no idea what will happen when the pumpkin gets bigger. Ha. Talk about weird.

Anyway, that's my news for the day. I cleaned up the garden, made placemats for the kitchen, and am about to clean the house, but I wanted to share the silliness of the pumpkin first.

Oh, and I am now on facebook! So if you are, too, come find me! :D

Awful News

Another family that got a referral just a short while ago was informed a few days past that their little girl was going into the hospital with pneumonia. Here, that would be worrying, but probably not fatal. There, that wasn't the case.

Their beautiful girl was taken home by God and as I write this I am weeping with sorrow for the loss they must feel. Her mommy never got to hold her before she died and will not be able to be with her little girl until they meet again in heaven. Words cannot even express how heart-wrenching this must be for them. For all of you who read my blog, please say a prayer for the family as they struggle through this sad time.

A Harvest

There are things growing in my crazily overgrown garden! Dagny and I went out yesterday to explore and found six acorn squash, three summer squash, a nice handful of beans, a tomato, and three ears of corn. Okay, so the corn is feed corn and inedible, but it was fun to find anyway.

We ate the tomato and the beans for dinner with hamburgers and we're going to trade a bunch of the squash for beans and sweetcorn from a neighbor. Those can be frozen. Who knows, maybe he can teach me a trick to freeze squash this afternoon, too. I'm not sure how I would do that, other than cook it first. Which I suppose is the way to go. Now I have to decide if I want to buy a pressure cooker and canning jars or freeze everything in ziploc baggies, which is what a lot of people do around here. I just need to organize the freezer!

No news on the adoption front. There haven't been any referrals in the past week, so I'm trying not to think about it too hard. Of course, when I went shopping on Thursday for socks and underwear for Dagny, I found a romper with a lion on it at Gymboree and I bought it for Ephraim. It was on sale, I couldn't help myself. At least I didn't buy more than one!

Civil War Reenactors

Have I mentioned my husband and I are insane? Every two years, Pipestone hosts Civil War Days where reenactors from all over the United States come to dress up and pretend it's somewhere between 1861 and 1865.

Two years ago, when we had just moved here, we got hired to read letters from soldiers to their wives at the festival. We enjoyed it, so we agreed to do it again this year. AND we got roped into doing a talk on hot air ballooning during the war. Don't get me started on that, since I'm the talker and I could go for hours. Suffice it to say that hydrogen balloons were used as spies for both the Union and the Confederate Armies, though the Union was much luckier with them. I've really enjoyed the research and the talk, so if you want to know more, you can always email me.

Two years from now, I pledge to have a dress that belongs to me (the one in the picture is borrowed) and I pledge to make Marc a nice vest that matches. I may even be able to make both kids matching outfits and we can attend as the entire family! I'm really looking forward to that.

And yes, there's a bunch of guys dressed as soldiers running around and shooting each other. The Union Commander even court-martialed and shot someone this morning...all in good fun.

Yeah, we're crazy.

Excitement!

Dagny has started pooping on the toilet! What an exciting entry for the blog. :) I just know you all wanted to read that today.

Also, one of the women who is in Ethiopia right now say there are 50 kids at the transition home. 18 of them have referrals, so does that mean we might get a referral soon? I'm on the edge of my seat!!

Goat Races 2008

You may feel free to laugh now. I just know you were all wondering what the heck we did in Jasper to pass the time in the summer and now you know. Once a year, the residents of Jasper get drunk and laugh at goats. Okay, I wasn't drunk, but I was laughing!

Since it was the last year, I rented a goat for 15 bucks and participated. I had the meanest nanny, but she followed along well enough on her leash (snork) as we got into the racing pen to get ready. My goat is above. She was kinda ugly, too. But hurray for the goat!

We won third place in the adult division. I got a trophy. With a goat on it. Now you can laugh really hard! See the picture below of said trophy.

I should be very proud.

Fishing Our Hearts Out!

The picture above is Dagny's BASS! Yes, bass. Not a panfish or a tiny fish, a bass. Probably about a half pound, but a bass nonetheless. Dagny loves to fish. She had a pole without a reel, just a bobber and hook which I filled with worms, and she flipping loved it.

She must have caught thirty fish this week, which was just the most wonderful thing. With each fish, she patted them and told them they were good fish before throwing them back. She even took a fish off her own hook once when we didn't get to her fast enough. It was hilarious.

Vacation was excellent. We visited an Emu Ranch (very large birds) and did a little shopping. Dagny rode the jet ski (with Marc) all the way across the lake and seemed to enjoy herself. We went swimming, picked up shells, and went to the science center about an hour away, where she touched hissing cockroaches and a tarantula before following a tortise around the exhibits. It was a great time.

Most of the time she was pretty good, and we also got Olde Tyme photos taken with her a Southern Belle, which she loves. We'll frame it on her wall one of these days. But now we're back to the daily grind of things, which involved the goat races today...see the next post for that one!