Um, do you hear something?

After our Sunday nap yesterday we were sitting in the living room when all of a sudden, it sounded like a heavenly host had landed on our roof. We went outside and found a large, meaty chicken bone on our roof, and many large birds squawking in the field across the street.


And, by way of catch-up, here are the lovely cloverleaf rolls I made last week. The leftovers are in the freezer calling my name.



And did I tell you we made a garden? We dug out a section of grass, put down two halves of a pallet, and filled in the space inside with rocks. Then we planted a few pots with seeds-- cucumbers, peppers, broccoli, onions, and carrots. So far the cucumbers are the winners! Here they are after only four days!

Here's Brad giving the rocks a final touch.



News from the job front: I'm still unemployed and have no prospects. I'm about to go out of my mind with frustration today. We got a great connection from a couple we met at our new church-- we're now attending the Vineyard here and are enjoying getting to know the people there. We helped out with VBS last week and got to know quite a few people! That's good news. So one of the couples has been super encouraging and have been going out of their way to try to connect us with anyone and everyone who might be able to give me a job. They both teach at a local Christian school, and after talking with them I began to remember how much I enjoyed being part of the community when I taught at the Christian school in Chicago. So I decided to apply. I spent most of today filling out the epic-long application, writing my philosophy of Christian education , etc., gathering letters of reference, copies of transcripts, yadda yadda. I finally got everything together around 1:30, took a shower, had a bite to eat, and got to the school around 2:45. I met the head of school and gave him my application and told him I knew so-and-so, and he told me that there were no openings, but that he'd keep my application on file.

Grr! I'm just bewildered.

In other news, we spent much of Friday and Saturday morning doing some landscaping. One of the Bressler family's friends has an investment house down here and it's nearly finished. The owner asked Brad to do some landscaping for him so we planted fourteen ruellia bushes (like ours, with purple flowers) and one pygmy date palm. It was hot-hot-hot, but afterward we had that good tired ache that comes with hard work.

Yesterday we went to church and then met the family for lunch at a steakhouse. Without fail, family gatherings are always exciting. Except this time, it wasn't happy exciting. Poor baby Kaya has a nasty cold and kept choking, scaring us all. Poor baby, she felt so miserable, but was still smiley and sweet! And the night before, on Saturday, we stopped by for a quick visit and she took her first steps toward me! That was a super fun moment.

Not much planned for this week... dinner on Wednesday with Jeff and Shelley and the kids, as we always stop by "just for a second" and never feel like we're caught up. I invited them over before I realized that Wednesday is our third anniversary, so we'll go out to celebrate on Thursday. Three years of wedded bliss... I am lucky beyond lucky.

Oh- one other fun thing we've been doing. We've been netflix-ing Northern Exposure! Remember that old show about the sleepy Alaskan town? We're 3/4 through the first season and are loving it. The dvds come with only two episodes each, so it's a little slow-going but keeps it rationed out. On the off nights that we don't have a dvd to watch we've been walking or going for a bike ride in the neighborhood and watching our neighborhood owls. There are at least three burrows of owls in the vacant lot across the street and down a few houses. We've seen up to seven owls at a time! Two of them are babies and while they aren't really smaller, they're a little fluffier and more skittish, bobbing their heads and cheeping at us a lot more than the adults do. Too cute.