happy, happy

Ryan Price Photography

Today marks 12 years.

12 years of 

hugging

smiling

hoping

succeeding

crying

Ryan Price photography

making

doing

failing

laughing

kissing

supporting

and loving.

Ryan Price Photography

This life we have built together,

this is my favorite thing.

I am so thankful to have you, my best friend and love, by my side.

Happy anniversary to you.

To us.

All of us.

barn pickin'

John went barn picking yesterday.  This barn belongs to my childhood bestie's grandparents.  Look what he came home with:

aluminum ice chest with wooden rim- can't you see it brimming with granola at the market?

scratch that- make that two aluminum ice chests

an old oiling set- i love the colors!

more great color

I have a thing for old rusty lanterns.  And hand painted...anything.
This wooden sign will be showing up on my market day table as well.

moonpie did some pickin' of her own- in the glove compartment of the car.
yeah- you read that right.

He came home with a whole car!

And not just any car.  This is his dream car.  For as long as I've known him, he's wanted this car.  I am so very happy for him- so grateful for this gift!

a new past time

Buddy has a new favorite past time.  He likes catching the bees that fly into the house in glass jars.  Usually he just puts a jar over a bee that has made it's way onto the floor, but yesterday he was feeling risky.  He trapped a bug that had been buzzing around the window.  Just like his daddy does.

Here he is, sliding the glass jar down.  At this point he ran to the drawer and came back with a lid.  He slid it under the jar, righted it, and screwed it on!

Success!

I have loved this about him lately.  His wanting to be just like daddy.  The way he passed up all the transformer, bat man, sponge bob sunglasses to choose the plain black ones.  The ones that are "just like Daddy's".  I see it in the little things like this.  The things that don't really matter in the big scheme of things.  But I also see it in the big things.  In the character building things.  The way he wants to work hard "like daddy".  Or how he reminds us to pray before meals ("umm, guys, aren't we forgetting something?").   All of us are so incredibly blessed to have this man in our lives.  A man of integrity, great wit, ability, strong work ethic, and deep love.   In my opinion, Buddy could choose no better person here on earth to want to be just like.

clothes line

We moved into this house four years ago.  Four years ago!  In that time we have done so much around here- rewired the whole house, new plumbing, put in CHA, new roof, built walls, rebuilt the floor, finished the floor, repainted the interior (several times- ahem), painted the exterior, put in garden boxes, put in some grass, built a shed, built a bathroom, rehabbed a bathroom, and 800 other things that I can't exactly recall right now.  One of the things on my list of homesteading needs was a clothes line.  What respectable homesteader doesn't have a clothes line?

I'll tell you who-

 me.

I was that person draping diapers over the porch railing, pinning sheets to the trampoline, tying up ropes in the back yard making make shift spider web lines all over the place.  Call me Anasazi.  But with all of the other real needs, the clothes line kept being put on the back burner.

For my birthday this year, John gave me a clothes pin bag and a set of 100 clothes pins.  I looked at him and without missing a beat said "where is it?".  He had built it the week before and hidden it behind our shed.  After he showed me the poles that morning, he went ahead and set it all up.

Can I say, that I adore this clothes line?  Is that too strong a word?  Well, I do.  I just adore it.  I love that he didn't make it look like every other clothes line.  He made it just for me.  The poles look like telephone poles, he strung the wires to look line phone wires and carefully wrapped them around the porcelain electrical thingies (the technical term) he found in our attic.

And then, there are the love birds.    After he had set them into the concrete he showed me how he placed the love birds facing the west- so they could watch the sun set together.

swoon.

I love this man of mine.

God. Family. Skateboarding.

We're going on a trip!

I'll let my good lookin' husband (and his mistress- the GMC) tell you all about it in the clip below.

(For some reason it's loading kind of crooked. If you'd like a different view you can go to it on YouTube.)



What do you think?

Pretty exciting, right?!?

Check out our website:

www.middlemanskateboards.com

***big thanks to Clover for his mad video skills!

thankful

i'm thankful for my husband.

he is a man that can get stuff done...

rotted out porch

ta-da

the fence he built for my in-laws

the truck he is rebuilding, piece by piece

the deck and screen he built out of re-claimed decking

and even when he doesn't know how to do something, he'll learn. like welding. i asked him to weld some old iron fencing together for me, just assuming he could. he said ok, and that was it. then a few days later he said he was going to a friend's house to learn how to weld.

see what happened there? instead of resigning to the fact that he couldn't weld, he agreed to do it, knowing that he could learn how to do it. i love that about him...

just one of the many things that i am thankful for about john.

and believe me, there are many...

this one goes out to the one i love

photo credit: clover carroll

on my list of things to be thankful for, you're off the charts!

happy birthday my love!

the final reveal!

the rain harvester is up and ready for rain!

we used a 58 gallon, food grade barrel. john drilled a hole in the side to add the water spigot that we will later attach a hose to. then he ran 20 feet of gutter along the house and used a 'flexi hose' that attaches straight to the barrel. the nice thing is that the gutters are easy to add to, if we ever decide we want more water. he built the stand allowing us to utilize our friend gravity. that enables us to have better water pressure.

one more thing- and this only makes it all the more exciting to me! the barrel and all the wood for the stand were FREE! we did have to purchase the elements for the spigot and all of the gutters.

i am so excited to see how much healthier our plants are going to be on a steady diet of rain water!

now- bring on the rain!!!