For Michael and the Family

If you wish to view it in full screen mode I think you need to go to slideshare.net to do it. The pictures are the best part. Dad sent me a few and I took it upon myself to get a few for myself. Enjoy!

Good Food

This is something I've been meaning to post. I wrote it sometime fall semester I think. I was definitely stressing out at the time. I like it though so I thought I'd post it here.


I sat in my chair patiently, legs dangling to the floor, as I watched the knife brush back and forth along the bread. I had seen it many times and this instance was nothing out of the ordinary. I watched, astonished, as the white substance was covered by peanut butter. The delicious snack was passed my way by my babysitter. As I took it politely with my chubby little hands, I pondered over the white under the peanut butter. What was it? I would ask every time and my babysitter would never give the answer. So I decided it was mayonnaise.

Fifteen years later I'm getting the butter out of the refrigerator on my own, smoothing it over the bread and hiding it with my own twist on the snack, honey peanut butter. My hands, much larger, handled each product with the same control my babysitter had. Looking at the piece of bread in my hand I felt comfort; for the first time in weeks. It wasn't the kind of comfort that allowed me to relax and know my life will be okay, but it was enough to get me through a moment. As I continued looking at my food, I wished myself back in that chair that was too big for me, at the counter that was too high for me, and back in all of the moments when control was unnecessary. I never needed to know how to make my own food, or how to pay rent, work, study, believe me, the list goes on. I was simply taken care of. Granted, it is great to know I'm an independent being, but something in that bread, butter, and peanut butter took me back to a place of comfort… and I needed it.

Bird Houses.

Yesterday Jordan and I were uber bored so we brainstormed. Well the best we came up with is to find something random to paint. We drove to the Michael's craft store down the road and picked up some $5.00 bird houses and paint. We popped in the movie Anchorman and went to work last night. These pictures are the result of our painting. Enjoy!

P.S.
Yes, those are the Red Wings in the background.

Here Is The Rest

I Had Myself a Nice Little Saturday...

Fishing? Nah. It was the Pleasant Creek Ave. garage sale day. I had a bunch of old stuff in it I never wear anymore and made $22.50. But even better, Jordan's dad decided today was the day to take down the pine tree. I don't know why things like this are more exciting to me than the best casserole recipe ever but come on, how much more awesome is a giant tree coming down? Let me describe how this happened, because it was really amusing to me...

It started like this: Two men, father and son, standing with their hands on their hips gazing at the 50-60 ft. tall pine. Jordan has an ego similar to my dad's so when he saw it leaning at a 75 degree angle towards the house/garage that stands about 40 feet away he said, "No problem, it'll fall right into the garden." I had no idea how he could be so sure it would fall the exact opposite way it was leaning but then again, I never understand dad's logic either. Our scenario was shaky. Jordan's dad offered to get rope to pull the tree away from the house but again, the ego got in the way and he said, "I'm sure I won't need it."

You might be thinking how obvious it was that the tree fell towards the pool/house but I have to admit, he had me convinced that that tree would defy the laws of physics. Jordan reared up the tiny electric chain saw, he was the mortician and this tree was dead. He chiseled the first wedge out of the tree and continued on the opposite side. I don't want to make these two sound like total idiots or anything, they did take a precaution to aid the tree in falling the other way; they propped a plank against the tree above where he was sawing to push it over.

I dazed off into the yard somewhere and I knew the moment of truth had come. Jordan let out a, "Oh sh#$!" I looked up and ran a little as I saw a giant pine fall right into the fence around the pool, towards the house. My life was complete. There wasn't any damage and we all stood back and laughed a little in anticipation of Jordan's mom seeing. Let me tell you, her reaction was priceless.

The rest of the story isn't really a big deal. I helped carry out the limbs while Jordan hacked away with the electric machine. It was a fun day of work outside for the most part. To finally cap it all off, Jordan made a chair out of the stump of the tree. Even though his chain saw lacked stamina compared to their 16" gas saw, he enjoyed it like a kid with a brand new toy. Not long after perfecting his pine chair, he found a new toy- the blowtorch. He torched it to give it a nice brown finish. Like I said, bringing down the tree was way more amusing than the garage sale.

Miss Tiger Woods

Yeah... I've been golfing. I decided since Jordan is playing in a slow pitch softball league with me I should take on a sport he likes. Why I picked golf is beyond me. Well, I golfed yesterday for the first time ever. Jordan took his clubs and let me borrow his sister's (I guess because we're the same height?). The best way I can describe the feeling of a golf swing is something like this: a fluid motion that is the exact opposite of the softball swing ingrained in me. Everything about golf feels unnatural and awkward. Now that I've perfected my softball swing I'm working against everything I've ever been taught to get rid of it. Keep my left arm straight, bend my wrists, open and close my hands, don't step with my front foot, bend over at the waist, keep my front shoulder higher than my back shoulder, turn my wrists over to close the swing... seriously?! It was hard. I would be lying if I said I didn't feel hopeless. Towards the end, however, I started to remember the things I was supposed to focus on and it felt a little better. This weekend we're going fishing... I can't wait. But we're also going to golf again. Does anyone else think that if we're going golf so much we should play softball more than one night a week, too?