I Used To Like Rain

I used to like rain. It would come in the evenings after a long, hot, dry day and cool everything off. It was refreshing and kept what little grass we had alive.

Now that I live in Missouri, I associate rain with humidity and sweat and mud.

After some research, I discovered this is not your average Missouri year of rain, either. We have already, in the month of July, received over 16 inches of rain. The year to date is over 40". To put this in perspective, the average July rainfall is 4" and the yearly is around 40". To put this in even more perspective, the average rainfall for where I'm from in Montana is about 12-16" (A YEAR!) And there is generally NO rain in July.

After receiving 16" of rain in July our yard is swampy. The pastures are mud, as well as the garden....but the grass is still green. I'm thinking about getting ducks to live in the basement. There's more frogs in the yard than anything else. Kelly is training to become a fish:


Like I said: I used to like rain, but it could stop anytime now!

Trisha Got Married!

July 19, 2008

My little cousin, Trisha got married to Ryan. I hadn't met Ryan before (since I live in Missouri and all) but had heard lots of good things about him. Once I got the chance to meet him, I could just tell that he totally loves Trisha--and that's all that I needed to know.

The wedding was gorgeous. It was an absolutely perfect day. The ceremony was held in an area that they cut out of a wheat field which was right along the Flathead River. This is where Trisha's parents live---its soooooo pretty!!

I was really excited to be a bridesmaid because I have never been one before! As my brother says of me "always a bride, never a bridesmaid". Gee thanks...and for the record I've only been a bride once (and plan to keep it that way). Anyhow, he can't say that anymore.

One of my favorite things about going to weddings is seeing people really "cut-loose" at the reception. There is always at least one, typically older person that is really shakin' it with the rest of the young crowd. At this wedding, there were several cases of this happening. One was Trisha's Uncle Pat. He's the one with the hat backwards, in the background, dancing all crazy with Trish. One of the groomsmen (front & center with headband) looks like he was also gettin' down.

By the way.....who's this guy?

Congratulations Trisha & Ryan! I hope you are having a fabulous time in Fiji. Oh---and Happy Birthday Trisha!!

I Caught You a Delicious Bass

When we bought our house, one of the highlights of the place was that it has 2 ponds. One is kind of muddy and has lots of frogs, the other is really blue & pretty and supposedly was stocked with fish.

We first tried the nice pond out in March and were slightly disappointed with the only catch of the day:

Although I do look rather excited in the photo. Since then, we have tried, without success, to catch fish from this pond. We rarely even get a bite, but you can see lots of little fish swimming along by the shore. Surely there has to be some bigger fish in there to have all of the little fish.

Here is a picture of what the pond looks like this summer:

A couple nights ago, we decided to give it one more shot and headed out fishing on a nice evening. Luke started using a new type of rubber worm and before long had caught 2 nice sized bass. The second one he caught was huge!!

Once I switched over to using the same type of worm I also caught 2 nice sized bass!

We are now much more satisfied with our pond situation and really had a fun fishing experience!

Luke caught the closest 2 fish and I caught the other two. Mine just look smaller because they're further away, right?

One of the highlights of the night was when I got my lure stuck in some cattails. I pulled and pulled and finally got the line loose but the worm had fallen off into the cattails. Before I could get my line reeled all the way back in and head to the pickup to get a new worm, Kelly swam out into the cattails and the next thing I knew she had a plastic black and yellow worm in her mouth and brought it to shore!! Can you believe that! I was in shock...I swear she is such a smart dog!

Fourth of July Weekend

Our 4th of July weekend was very fun & eventful. Believe it or not, we have actually started to make friends with other people our age in the Edina area (thank God!!). Not that we don't love our friends elsewhere, its just nice not to have to drive (or fly) for hours to see a friend. Our 4th of July started with a trip to the Hurdland 4th of July Festival. Hurdland is the town that our address is, but we don't typically like to claim it. The population is about 200 people and its a really trashy little town. We live several miles away from it, but do have a Hurdland address.

We weren't too sure what to expect from the festival, but it was the 136th annual festival (apparently the oldest in MO), so we had to check it out. We got there as the parade started and couldn't believe all the people! There must of been hundreds and hundreds and for the most part they were just regular people like us, instead of the Hurdland residents. Here are some pictures from the parade.





Kenny Rogers even made an appearance??

After leaving the festival we went horseback riding with some friends and then had a BBQ at our place. Several people showed up and it turned out to be quite the party. Here is how Luke & Kelly felt the next morning as we were driving to Carrollton to see Luke's family:




The Carrollton 4th of July Festival was on Saturday night so we were able to make it to that also. A free Bellamy Brother's concert was the highlight:


We left fairly early the next morning to head back home and bale some hay.



Needless to say...we we're very tired after the 3 day weekend!

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Happy Birthday Lynmarie

Happy Birthday to my dearest Lynmarie! I miss you!

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