Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sick Day

I am playing hooky today. I came down with some horrible bug yesterday. If you want my opinion, I believe the air conditioning at work has contributed to my ailment. The air blowing on me in that department is frigid and conducive to sickness. Enough complaining.

Sunday I pulled the first real veggies out of my garden - beautiful bell peppers and summer squash as well as a few green chilies! Granted, this is late in the season to be just now reaping the rewards of a garden, but the weather prevented me from planting as early as I usually do. The tomatoes are even farther behind the curve. My first plants were initially eaten by some hunger deer. It was the end of May before the final plants made their way into the ground. I finally have green tomatoes on the vines and plenty of blooms! Arkansas has been experiencing unusually high amounts of rainfall, which greatly contributes to the growing season of late season tomatoes. Hurray!

I finally submitted a valid formatted contest entry for a book contest. My original document contained some unusual formatting imported from a document at work. At any rate, it really messed the whole thing up, but I prevailed and fixed it and now have a valid submission to my first contest. Pleased as punch.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Skunk Buster

This post is dedicated to our son Ben - the skunk buster. Yesterday morning we discovered we had trapped a skunk in our trap instead of the possum we had intended. This would have been perfectly fine except for the fact that the trap was sitting squarely on the porch and not out in the pasture. This small fact presented a delimma. As you know, skunks spray an especially foul odor as a means of defense. The nasty duty of removing the pest was assigned to our son Ben - 15 1/2 yrs. My husband gave him explicit instructions on how to move the animal and avoid being ostracized for a week. Ben took it a step further. He donned his rain slicker and slicker trousers and topped it off with his motorcycle helmet. He looked like he was in armor. He then took a plastic tarp and approached the little rascal surreptitiously, completely avoiding its notice! Once the trap was covered completely, he dragged it quickly out to the pasture. It was at this time the little varmet let loose, bathing only the tarp in its fragrance. It was a perfect success! We have nick named Ben the Skunk Buster.

Monday, July 20, 2009

PHLEB

Well, I still have it. After a five year respit I was commanded to do my duty on the floor. In hospital terms - draw blood. I actually enjoyed seeing other people for a change and my skills returned in an instant. Phlebotomy is a duty in which no one wishes to part take, yet it is our 'life blood' so to speak. In a laboratory, if there is no blood to test, there is no work to do. It stands to reason, if I wish to remain employed, it would behoove me to comlpy willing to the wishes of management. I do so cheerfully with a song in my heart.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

chicken farm

Just call us the "Chicken Farm"! Ben found two more baby chicks pushed out of the roost yesterday bringing our total to eleven. At the moment they are in the house in a large box. Soon they will out grow that ole box. We didn't realize this was the invovlement we were undertaking when the decision to add chickens to our family was made. It does make life interesting.

I've been working on my query letter this week. This is kicking my butt. I am going to finish it and do it well, though. My husband is tired of seeing me scrible every evening. He has the patience of a saint.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Essay

I wrote this little ditty for a conference I'm going to and asked my husband to read it before submission. Now, you have to know my husband... He HATES to read. It isn't that he doesn't read - he reads off the web constantly - pages and pages. He just doesn't read books... or pages of prose.
I digress. He read my piece for me and... he really liked it. My husband, who loves me and calls me "honey", is my most ardent critic. He wants the best for me and will tell it like it is. He liked this piece!

The Event that Changed My Life

The most significant event in my life was the day my husband – my ex – served divorce papers to the front door of our home. As much of a shock and a blow to my ego that was, that single event hurled me head long into a multitude of new, and at the time, poorly understood set of occurrences. Without a doubt, that piece of paper has been responsible for bringing me to this most incredible, thrilling point of my present existence.

This momentous event provided me the impetus to face all the demons in my life – the never ending stream of fears plaguing most every area of day to day living at the time. It placed me in the midst of the most frightening situations – courts, lawyers, judges…in-laws – all of which required vigilant attention and forceful wherewithal, molding a timid, reserved mother into a force with which to be reckoned.

As a result of this event, I was introduced to the man with whom I share my life – my husband. His presence in my life has, unquestionably, enabled me to bloom into the person I am today. His encouragement and nurturing, instruction and guidance has moved me beyond the realm of a mediocre existence to a fully engaged, live it to the fullest, exuberant life. It has been through him I have been afforded an opportunity to spread my wings and attempt fresh challenging undertakings.

He introduced me to the world of horses, encouraging me to learn to ride. I had been oblivious to the implications of a horse in my life. A horse is capable of teaching you more about yourself without a spoken word than talking to a counselor for a month full of Sundays. So it was with me. When I discovered the true me lying beneath the veneers I had so effectively draped over myself through the years, I was transformed into a new self assured, confident me. If riding doesn’t do anything else for you, it will teach you confidence. One cannot steer a thousand pound animal timidly or it will run amuck. Confidence tells you no matter what that horse is thinking, you will have him doing exactly what you want him to do.

That confidence paved the way for me to pick up the guitar, once again after fifteen years, and learn to play with more skill than previously. I vehemently went about discovering new pieces to learn and deciphering the music for myself, refusing to shrink from the challenge and reveling in the accomplishment.

Confidence spurred me to learn how to cook entire dinners in a dutch oven over an open fire. This ability provided my family many sumptuous meals during our home building project a few years ago – the added challenge of living in tent during home construction.

Confidence enables me to press onward, pen in hand and record the myriad of thoughts and fantasies flooding my over active imagination, pursuing the dreams of a writer. An imagination that once lay as dormant as the door at which that piece of paper was first served.


Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Tuesday

Well, I have today off. This means I will be working a six day stretch over the weekend. I can't complain, I agreed to the whole deal, but it seems daunting from this end of it.

We have a new hatched chick show up. Long live our new flock! We will have more chickens than we will know what to do with. That's okay. This is developing into another new adventure for the Walker family.

This is a short post. Of course they are all short. I'm getting into the swing of things with this new endeavor.

Toodles

Jeannene

Friday, July 10, 2009

Just Friday

The weekend is finally upon us. The summer heat is also back - glorious summer! I love the heat. I know this is unimportant drivel, but I have to practice just blogging.

We have new hatched chicks from our hens - four of them. The chicks that hatched four weeks ago are pretty big and are now permanently of the porch. We are learning how to raise them 'on the job'. It all makes our lives more interesting.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

First attemp

Well, I have finally done it. In an effort to further my writing career, I have actually begun blogging. I never thought I would be sucked into the media circles to this extent, but... you gotta do what you gotta do and this is my dream.