Who Set This Pace?

Do you ever feel that life is like a horse cart you're driving and suddenly it's speeding along with no horses to give it direction? And as you're racing along you realize that you have no brakes to set a slower pace with; all you can do is hang on and enjoy the ride? That is how I feel our life has been the last month and a half.

Now, my dear faithful readers (you are indeed faithful if you are still checking my blog after this long silence) I have to decide; do I give you a long drawn out account of our life, or do I just write a short, but sweet ditty about some little thing and call it good?

Gardening: Our garden has finally taken off the last few weeks and I'm loving it. We have found that our garden need LOTS of water to grow and thrive. For a while everything had hit a growing block, much to our disappointment. Then I had a laps of judgement, that in the end saved it all.
I was in a hurry to meet a friend for a walk and knew I wouldn't have time to water that evening when I got home, so I decided to set up the soaker hoses, saving myself some time. I got everything set up, turned on and left feeling quite good that I had figured out a way to do two things at once left. When I returned some hours later, I could only stare at our garden that along with a large part of the lawn looked like a fish pond. The next day the water had dried up and two days later you could actually see a difference in the plants. I think that we will have some watermelon at the end of the summer, lots of red peppers, and cucumbers. Now we water the garden every other day for fifteen minutes and all is well.
The Topsy Turvy's are working. We have one tomato so far and are hoping for more. Our biggest problem has been, we didn't realize that they need water everyday and so our plants got slightly dehydrated.

Dogs: The dogs have been taking up a huge amount of time. Actually Kaia, our 1 year old puppy has been taking up a huge amount of time. She decided that she was scared of the backyard (she'd sit by the back door and tremble all over when we put her out) and therefore had to dig out every time she was left. The digging was a pain to fix and incredible at the same time. She dug through one of our fence boards and half of a 4 by 4 post. I didn't know dogs could dig and chew their way through wood like that. She never ran away from home, she'd wait by the front door till we got home to let her back in the house.
Kaia also forgot what potty trained meant, because of her fear and we had to start all over on training. Finally after several weeks of re-training and a good carpet cleaning we're back to normal. I have wondered if her fear had anything to do with the x-large men's underwear we found shredded in the back yard. I guess we'll never know.

Outdoor Adventures: Summer is wonderful, because of all the great things you can do outside. We just love it!
4th of July we went and climbed Mt. Sneffles (elevation of 14'150 ft.) with the dogs. It was awesome, the hike was short and intense, with the most incredible views. The dogs went the whole way with us. They needed help climbing in several areas and LOTS of encouragement to climb up and down some ledges. They weren't the only ones that needed help or encouragement. :) While hiking we met up with a lady who is from Calgary and lives in Colorado with her American husband and family. We had the most awesome time talking to her about the Lord (Kristin is a Christian), other good hikes, and she shared part of her testimony about how God brought the daughter she gave up for adoption years ago, and her back together. I cried the whole time she shared it. I am so awed and humbled by how much the Lord loves us and how He truly directs our steps. Her story made Him so real to me. We've been calling Kristin our divine appoinment, because of how it all worked out.
Yesterday we lived on the wild side. We met up with a couple guys from Terran's work and went mountain biking in the rain and mud. It was pretty intense. We biked seven miles and at the end of it were complelty covered in mud. I don't remember being that dirty when I made mud pies as a child. The mud was so thick in someplaces that our bike tires wouldn't even turn. After I got over my some of my fear I had a blast. The dogs loved every moment of it and were just as dirty as we were.

Well... there is a long drawn out account of just some of the things we've been doing. I think now I'm going to go catch up on reading everyone elses blogs, and see what my husband wants to do this rainy Sunday morning. This is the first rainy weekend we've had all summer and it's been relaxing.

Trying to keep up with the cart,

Naomi

How Our Garden Grows

This years' experiment. My parents sent us this Topsy Turvy, that is suppose to allow tomatoes grow up side down. They hang from the house or a fence filled with the dirt. Terran and I are excited to see how they work.  

Beautiful Columbine 

A cute one. I've decided that small grass hoppers are pretty cute. 

A wonderful bunch of spinach, that Kaia allowed to grow after a second planting.  

A baby Praying Mantis growing big and strong in my spinach.  

My garden helper. Kaia has made sure that she has either dug up everything or at least attempted to.  

sometimes it's better to just keep walking

Last evening on our nightly outing I decided to a walk the dogs on a river trail, in a neighboring subdivision. We were enjoying ourselves immensely, when I heard the rustle in the bushes. I told myself not to fret (I can be very paranoid of noises and such) and that it had to be some kids playing down by the water or playing hide and seek in the nearby bushes. No such luck, we (the dogs and I) walked around the bend and looking down I saw a large, full grown, man sitting in the water kind of struggling around while holding a branch (hence the noise in the bushes). It was just a little weird!!! I had to tell myself not to run, to keep walking quickly, and not look as freaked out as I felt. After we had gone past I wondered if he could have been hurt, but then thought, sometimes it is better to just keep walking.

I do need to clarify, since my mom will be reading this post at some point that the trail is next to the river and HOUSES. It's not some secluded, dark, creepy place. I could have looked into peoples kitchen windows if I chose to do so. Still the whole thing was a tad odd.

Walking the bizarre,

Naomi

Five Years

As of Friday, May 12th I was Mrs. Terran Goodwin for five years. I cannot believe that much time has passed by. We had a lovely annivsary weekend even though I had a terrible snotty, nosed cold. I spent more of the weekend with a tissue to my nose than I did holding Terrans' hand. Friday after a quiet dinner spent with me wiping my nose; I went to bed. I felt bad about that, but Terran being the wonderful husband tucked me in telling me to feel better. Saturday I did feel a bit better, so we went to Aspen as planned. We spent the day wondering around looking at shops, going for a short nature walk, and ended the day with a delicious Italian dinner. It was such a wonderful day spent together. I loved every minute of it.

Still Loving Him,

Naomi

Five Years and Loving It !!! 

My dream car, a Cobra. This is only one of the PRICEY cars that I like.  

Terran's dream car, a Firebird. All that is missing is black flames and of course, it would need to be a convertible. 

How big can you go? Behind the truck is a trailer made from the bed of a truck. Pretty crazy!!!!!! 

A rock formation in Utah. The Priest and Nuns 

On the way from a fun filled day at the car show 

Weekend fun

I've noticed that since I've been married my weekend interests are slowly changing; or maybe I should say broadening, and this is all because of my darling manly, man husband. Weekend before last we went to our third or fourth annual Moab, Utah classic car show, and I love it!! I never, never thought I would think, write, or utter those words in my life time. Before Terran, I would have scoffed at people who found classic cars interesting and labeled them insane for wasting large amounts of money on their frivolous hobby. I am almost ashamed after my pious attitude to admit that I have been converted to a classic car appreciator. I now admire the dedication that it takes to restore an old car and the artistic talent it takes to pick the paint, interior, and all the accessories. Especially since in my old age I will be working with my husband to restore his dream car. The biggest joke to me about my new interest is the cars I find NICE. I'll show Terran a car I like, he'll look at me asking if I know what the car is (I'm now sometimes able to recognize a make of the car), or how much it's worth, I usually don't. I have very expensive tastes (am I allowed to laugh here?) my range starts at 50,000. and goes clear up to 150,000. Who would have thought? I think this should be warning to Terran about what he interests me in (wink).



Speeding along,

Naomi

Easter Pictures

The following are pictures of our incredible Easter Sunday. Most of Terran's family came for dinner at our place and after dinner we took a family hike with the dogs. It was a fun, fun time. I love spending Easter with family. It's such a great way to celebrate the freedom the Lord bought us on the cross.

We had spaghetti and meatballs with a strawberry spinach salad for dinner, a yummy, creamy tiramsu for dessert with espresso. I had a great time cooking, though I nearly spoiled it all by forgetting the garlic bread in the oven on broil, it got a little dark. I was just glad it didn't start on fire like I've had things do in the past.

Sorry it took so long to post the pictures. I've had to figure it out without my husband and computers can be challenging at times (once I did it, I coundn't figure out why it took so long), but the great thing is I did to it and now can post any time I want. Yippee for me


Naomi

Easter dinner preperation. I love how messy cooking can be.  

The Goodwin's and Liebenthal's on Easter Sunday at our place