March 2011

The snow has melted….finally! But I keep reminding myself that this doesn’t mean that the snow is gone for good. March has been known for being a wacky month since it can snow like the dickens or be warm. Since the snow is gone I thought I would make the most of my day and head out to the gardens. And what did I find?!? …… things are starting to grow back. I have come to LOVE this time. Plants such as herbs, veggies, and flowers that are perennials grow back each year without any help from me. God’s gift to gardeners. I don’t have to haul out any dirt or fertilizer or tools; all I have to do is watch. It truly is the first signs of spring. Not to say I didn’t do any gardening today because I did. Today, I was planning on just taking a few photos of some brussel sprouts and carrots that I tried to over winter.  But then I decided to to a peek at my rhubarb which is coming up beautifully. And since I went to look at that, I might as well head on over to the apple and cherry trees.  Well, why don’t I check out the peonies, irises, tulips, daises, etc. So I ending up digging up a bunch of irises and taking out most of the dead growth from the irises and daises.

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October 2010

I have been asked by the Juvenile Detention Center to create a year-round gardening/nutrition program. I am SUPER stoked about it. For me, this is a dream job, only I wish I were getting paid to do it. So, I am starting from scratch I need to come up with philosophy, mission statement, scope, procedures, and desired outcome; oh yea and don’t forget the curriculum part. I have decided to develop a core group of people to help me do this. I have chosen my garden mentors who are super knowledgable in succession planting and organic practices and also on my team is my friend Kipp who has a ton of experience with 4-H. Now, I am really into Food Revolution and am hoping to use some of their practices. Also, there are several schools that are doing a Seed to Table program as well. But ours will be a little different since the kids are limited to the kitchen tools they can us, ie. no knives allowed. So I have until December 1st to come up with a rough draft. I have been brain storming ideas such as I want to show the move Food Inc, teach them Nutrition Labels, put in a hoop house and how the canning process works, etc. I have many ideas.

The director of the Juvi made a good point. She said most of these kids locked up live in the poorer parts of the city and in our city the poorer parts don’t have grocery stores. Instead they have convenience store or gas station stores. That food is typically more expensive and is usually not very nutritious. So yesterday I went to a gas station store to check it out. I found a few options such as granola, nuts, and dried fruits; and this store was unique since it had a fresh produce stand in it. I thought that was neat. The clerk said he thought they were the only ones with a produce stand. Hmmm… that isn’t good especially because this gas station is not in a poorer part of town. Anyway, I am learning. If you have any ideas I would love to hear them.

Also on my plate right now. The Costa Rica trip was approved and our group has started meeting. This is a unique trip since we will be teaching Cabecar women how to quilt and make other crafts.  Right now we have a small problem (maybe it isn’t a problem) the missionaries can only hold 7 of us at their place but 18 women signed up to go. YIKES! That is AWESOME! So we are praying that God will either open another opportunity or that many of the women will choose not to go.  I am co-leading this trip with the Pastor’s wife Julie. I get to teach the women Spanish which I absoloutly LOVE!

Catching up from the last entry

My how time flies….I think that is what everyone writes on their blog when they have stopped blogging for sometime. Well let’s see here, where to begin?
October 2009 – My grandparents drove up from South Carolina to visit me and my Grandmother’s sisters. It always amazing me how vibrant my grandparents have been. I think this is the first trip where I felt like their flames were a little bit dimmer. Which makes me sad and scared. My grandfather and I have a running joke that they will  live forever. I tell him that I pray that God allows them to live on this earth forever or at least until I am no longer here. Grandpa always laughs and says, “don’t pray for that, I want to die someday, I am getting old you know.” He is 87 years old now (10-2010). I can’t believe he is still driving up here from SC that is crazy, but he boasts since he had cataract surgery he has 20/20 vision now. That is impressive. Well this trip Grandpa and Eric went shooting a bunch while grandma and I stayed home and watched BBC classics. Grandpa also installed more lighting in our basement. We had a great visit and Grandpa really seemed like a little boy since he got to go shooting and just let grandma stay home with me. She is getting more and more confused these days. Sad times. She was in great spirits though, she was constantly laughing at this and that. I really noticed her age though when I took her to the outlets. Now, my grandma can SHOP and I mean shop till you drop. We went to the first store and was in there for about 20 minutes. When we got out of the store she said she wanted to go home. I couldn’t believe it!

Novemeber 2009- Is still LOVING my Master Gardening Class. I learned so many amazing things about planting and soil in this class. I am thinking that it will be easy to get 40 hours of volunteer service. Also I made some incredible friends in this class and am starting to think I will be sad if I don’t continue some of these friendships. Also Eric and I headed back to the Carolinas for Thanksgiving. Our family has a tradition to go and cut Christmas trees for friends and family, usually between 20-40 trees each year. It is a great time to spend with my Dad, Elaine, brothers, spouses, and nieces. We stay in a tiny cabin and play games, eat amazing food, and do Christmas since some of us don’t come home every year. I love this time with my family.

December 2009- At this point I completed my Master Gardening class and decided to do something about keeping in touch with my new friends in class.  I formed a group called Soup Night, my friend Sara Furste from Blackhawk Church started this group a long time ago. Basically during the winter months you invite a group of friends over to your house for soup and the friends bring bread, cheese, or a beverage. Well I tweaked it a little to fit my group better. My gardening friends are ALL AMAZING cooks! Most of them cook from the food right out of their gardens. It is so fresh and yummy. So people can bring any side dish or dessert they want plus we don’t stop at the winter months we go right through the spring, summer, and fall. We also rotate houses, hosts, and we added an educational element. We either have a speaker come and talk about a particular topic or the host will provide the lecture for the evening. So far we have had talks on landscape design, honey, fermentation, building a hoop house, starting seeds in the spring, garden tours, and topiaries. I really enjoy these nights. We gardeners get to catch up with each other and discuss life. I love that!  

Also in December Eric’s parents, sister and her two kids came for Christmas. We had a good time. We ate great food, opened presents and just enjoyed being together. I am married to a wonderful family. Right after they left I got the flu. I was out for 7 days with fevers and body aches. That was no fun. But my husband was amazing through it all. He is so gifted in caring for me. He went out into the wintry night one evening because I had finally gotten my appetite back after days of not eating. He went to three different restaurants to get me food; Harvey’s – fried pickles, Famous Daves- BBQ chicken, Tropical Smoothie – a raspberry smoothie. He is so good to me. I love him dearly!

January 2010- Eric and I escaped the cold and went to Cozumel, Mexico on a cruise. We had a wonderful time here!

February 2010- I was able to go with my entire family, except Eric, to Snow Shoe, WV to go skiing for a week. My dad and his wife rented an amazing place for us stay it was big enough to house myself, my three brother’s and their families, oh plus my parents. We had such a fun time skiing, hot tubing, tubing, and snow mobiling.

March 2010- I started my seeds indoors.

April 2010- My mom came and I had big plans. We worked on many projects but mainly we worked on giant signs to promote my new produce store. The signs are super cute but I was unable to open the store mainly because summer ended up being busier than expected.

May 2010-I couldn’t wait any longer. I went out and bought some plants and put them in the garden. We did get a hard frost but the plants survived although two of the three cherry trees died. We also started going to Grace Baptist Church. They got a pastor who is super missions (local and global) minded. 

June 2010- The juvenile Detention Center Garden got started. I have a small group of  amazing volunteers who have helped make this happen. The Garden already had a strawberry patch which is very large. We put in the garden with the help of 4 four juvi girls . We decided to grow tomatoes, peppers, cukes, carrots, onions, peas, lettuce, squash, celery, purple beans, cilantro, parsley and basil. My volunteers on Mondays take a group of kids into the garden teach about the plants and also weed. My Thursday group harvests produce and then teachs the entire girls unit how to prepare a dish from the produce harvested. The girls LOVED cooking with us. We had to make enough food for the boys at juvi as well. 

Also in June I  went south to spend time with family and friends. I spent time with my friend Kellie in Atlanta. We put in veggie garden and landscaped part of her yard. We had such a good time catching up. Kellie is one of my roommates from college. We also spent a few lazy days at the pool. It was nice to sit still for a while.  Eric and I also visited my parent’s lake house and had a great time with my brothers and their families there. A typical day at the lake looks like this: 1) get up and eat an amazing southern breakfast (bacon, grits ((which I don’t like)), cheese, fresh sliced tomatoes, scrambled eggs, and fresh fruit 2) put on bathing suit which is your clothing for the rest of the day 3) decide who is going to get to drive the jet skiis to the beach we hang out on 4) load the pontoon boat with lunch supplies and toys 5) ride to the beach on selected water craft 6) play all day at the beach (really the lake) jet skiing, wake boarding, reading, eating, swimming, and having water gun fights until about dinner time 7) get home throw dinner in the oven and then eat 8) sit around in a circle either telling funny stories from the past or playing a game 9) bedtime 10) get up and do it again the next day 

July 2010 – I went to Costa Rica to put in a raised garden for some friends.  That was an exceptionally great time in my life as I realized I didn’t want to go to PA school anymore. More on this on a later post.

August 2010- continued garden projects and proposed the idea to my friends to take a trip of ladies to Costa Rica.

September 2010- gardened

September 2009

In September I started a Master Gardener class.  The class ran for about 3 and a half months. It covered topics such as flowers, perennials, vegetables, fruits (trees, bushes and small plants), wood ornamentals, pests and plant diseases.  I absolutely love this class. Our lawn started looking amazing once I completed the lawn care class. I realized that our lawn really needed some tlc. I added fertilizer and aerated. Wow, such a difference! Back to the MG class, in order to become a master gardener one must go to all of the classes and then complete 40 hours of garden volunteering at an approved site.

Also I started doing some volunteer work. I started working in a rose garden in Dow Gardens which is located in Midland, MI. While I am there I dead head roses, cultivate, and prune other shrubs. I also volunteer at Dahlia Hill which is a non-profit that only showcases the most beautiful dahlias. I dead head and cultivate there as well. Lastly, I also started volunteering with a ministry called Forgotten Youth Ministry. This ministry goes into the juvenile Detention center and does evangelism and dicipleship with the youth there. I encourage you to check out their blog at chaplainjulie.wordpress.com. This ministry totally ROCKS!!

This is just one of hundreds of types of dahlias

meeting a new niece

My brother Matthew and wife, Jenny, had another little girl. I got to meet her at the lake house in August. Her name is Selah Grace Towner. Welcome to the world little one!

August 2009

In august I put up more food.  I canned 19 jars of tomatos and three jars of tomato juice. The tomatos are absolutly delicious! 

Also I went home and visited my family for 9 days. My step-mother’s side of the family has a great lake house on Lake Carr in NC.  My three brothers, their wives and significant others and I all got togther and played super hard on the lake for 5 days straight. It was incedibly fun!  Our activities included wake boarding, jet skiing, laying in the sun, and tubbing. Now when I say tubbing I don’t mean any kind of lame ole tubbing. I am talking about extreme tubing behind jet ski. The tube we used was called Poparazzi. It is a triangular tube where you have 3 people on it and you all try and stand. It was so crazy yet so much fun.  We ate very well with my grammy and aunt Shirley in the kitchen making sure we had the best southern cooking. We ate everything from pimento cheese sandwiches, to cherry pie, to BBQ Chicken. Ohh yeah! I am getting hungry just thinking about it.

Church Shopping #4

I think we may have found a church home. Today Eric and I visted a church called Hopevale Community church. It is a non-denominational church.  It is close to home, I think it is a mile and a half away.  They had local and global outreach prominatly displayed. The music was okay and the message the pastor gave was pretty solid.  They have three services, it is multi-generational, and multi-cultural.

The people were not overly friendly but that didn’t bother me too much.

After singing some songs they prayed for a local missionary who was ministering at the juvinile detention center. This is a scene I have been thinking about getting back into for some time now. I was over joyed to find out that I may have an outlet. Eric also enjoyed the church as much as I did, which is a major plus.

The church is in the process of a building campaign and is actually doing the ground breaking ceremony this week sometime. So, really this church has alot of familiar territory. :0)

We will go again.

Shooting a gun

Eric and I took a gun safety class yesterday and I learned to shoot our hand gun. You can check out my shoot no aim exercise in the you tube video. In the video you will see me with dorky goggles on. Tease me all you want. I had to wear them because I just had Lasik eye surgery. Also in the video you will see a big guy, that is our instructor and then another girl and guy. That is Nick and Julia Forshee. They are our good friends here in Saginaw. They took the class with us. Click link to see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jquy2-ggrKk for those that care it is a Walther P22

Lasik

Well I finally did it. I can see clearly now. I got lasik on my left on Thursday. I can see so much better already! It has taken some time to get used to though. I constantly look for my glasses before I leave the house or start to squint my left eye (my has-been bad eye) when I am looking at something far away. But then I remind myself that I can see just as good or better than my right eye. Yipee!

The process was quite easy. I went to an appointment to see if I qualified for lasik. After determining that I did qualify we set up a date to have the surgery. This eye clinic that I went to only does lasik once a month IF they have enough patients to make it worth their while. I guess that 4 patients were worth their while since that is how many of us were their  in the waiting room Thursday morning.

The day of my appointment I went in at 7:30 a.m. First, I got a wave scan (i am unsure of what that was all about, I just had to look at a blinking light for 20 seconds) and then I sat in the waiting room for about an hour to wait my turn. I was the last one to have the procedure.  After I was called back they prepared my eye. The nurse but a bunch on different kinds of drops in and then coated the outside of the eye with iodine. When the doc came in my eye was good and numb. He unpack-aged a white sterile pencil looking tool. Then he had me put my chin on a chin rest so that he could get a good look at my eye. He then marked some dots on my eye. I am guessing that this was the custom part of lasik.

We then walked down to the surgery center. I layed in a reclined chair while the techs positioned a large machine over my face. I was so nervous. Somehow I didn’t get the valume I was hoping for. My body started shaking and my teeth started chattering, like I was cold, but it was definitly warm in the room.  I mentioned to the techs that I was getting nervous but they just stated that I had nothing to worry about. That didn’t really help. So I tried to think of something else. My mind wandered back to Costa Rica and my friends that I knew there. My mind didn’t stay there for long because the doc came in and started the surgery.

First he taped my eye lashes back, top and bottoms. That was a weird sensation but not painful. Second he inserted an eye clamp that forced my eye lids open even more. That was a bit uncomfortable. I mentioned that I could feel the clamp and he stated that he knew that I could. Maybe my subtle body jerk was an indication. :0)  Third, he pulled out a small round disc to cut the flap of my cornea. I had seen the procedure earlier on tv so I knew what he was about to do. I totally panicked but stayed completely still.  He cut a flap into my cornea, no pain. Then he asked for suction. Everything in my left eye went black and the pain began. He was putting pressure on my eye, but I wasn’t sure what he was doing.  About 7 long seconds later the pain was gone and I could see light again. I couldn’t make out shapes anymore since the cornea flap had been pulled back.  Forth, the doc told me to look at a blinking light. I then heard the laser making pinging noises as it shot into my eye and reshaped my lens. That was painless, thankfully. Last, the doc flipped my cornea flap back over my eye and brushed it with a paint brush type tool. He removed the eye clamp and then very quickly ripped the tape off from my eye lashes. That was probably the most painful part. 

In the recovery room the doc said that my eye was perfect.  The nurse handed me some awesome (dorky) goggles to wear for the next 24 hours. boo!

I went home and slept for 6 hours which was prescribed by the doc. Later that day I could already tell a huge improvement.

Church shopping #3

Today I went solo to a new church. Eric worked the 10 pm – 8 am shift (Saturday night – Sunday morning) so he was in no shape to check out a new church with me. I went to Midland Evangelical Free Church. Eric and I previously went to an EV Free church in Madison, called Blackhawk Church, and loved it.  The drive is about 25 minutes, which is okay.  This church has about 2,500 attenders which is about half the size of the last church we attended so we are quite familiar with the large church setting.  We know that connection happens through small groups and serving.

This church is pretty similar to the church we previously went to.  They had a similar style of music worship, the preaching was solid, and really just the whole feel of the church was pretty relaxed.  (It was a little more conservative than BH though).  Midland was promoting a leadership conference called Leadership Summit by Willow Creek Church. I am very familiar with this conference because I was expected to go to it for the last 3 years at my previous job.   This conference is super cool, they usually have Bono do some type of video cast during it, and of course you learn how to be an awesome leader!

I really enjoyed this church. Eric and I are going back next week to see if he feels the same way. However, part of me would like to be apart of a church that is closer to our home and a smaller congregation. The friends that we are hanging out with go to a church of 150 and they are so well connected to the people within their church.  I kinda long for that as well.

One of the cons about this church is that I couldn’t find anything they did locally or globally for outreach. Some of you are reading this and thinking, “so what?!” well my previous job was in that department at the church I worked at. However, in my previous job I learned that missions is sometimes the best kept secret of the church. This could be the case for this church. I filled out the connection card that was provided and inquired about local and global outreach. I hope to hear back from them soon.

Something that I didn’t expect to happen was a mountain of tears that followed when I left the parking lot.  I have been so caught up in my new hobbies and my new found friendship with a great gal that had been distracted from thinking about my dear friends in Madison.  In my previous line of work I had some very deep friendships and I long for my friends. This Midland church stirred up a bunch of very fond friends to mind and made me terrible unhappy because I missed them. And what better way to let out unhappiness with a major cry fest. Boy did I let if rip all the way home (the crying of course). I thought of each of my friends through the departments they worked in: Worship Arts, Adult Ministries, College Aged Ministry, Missions, Front Office, My bosses, Connections, Leaders, HR, Tech, Life Groups, Childrens ministry,  people who have left BH and spouses of the people that I worked with. We were a tight staff. (They still are).  Okay I am rambling on and on…

BH staff I miss you all dearly!