We're Moving

Well, the blog is moving.  Same title, just from blogger to wordpress.  You can find all these posts and more over at www.afterthechapel.wordpress.com.  Please join us over there.   Why you ask?  Well you will have to go to find out!

Pop

I'm sitting in my living room, and I keep hearing this little pop coming from the kitchen every once and awhile.  Its my favorite sound.

That pop is the sound of a job well done.  As I sit here, there are jars of Tomato Juice sitting on the kitchen counter (pop) sealing. I did 11 more pints tonight.   I am starting to HATE tomatoes.  Mine are almost done, but my  father in law's look like they are going to keep giving.  And I will keep canning.  Good thing I love tomato juice.....

pop.

Up We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder.....

This weekend was Strassenfest here in Jasper.  If you have ever been here you would know Jasper has a large German Heritage.  And each year there is a large German festival which is really just a lot of beer and great German Food.  

We were out of town Saturday thru Sunday morning, so Friday night we decided to eat our way around the square.  We had corn on the cob, chicken  hearts, pulled pork, lemon shake-ups, cotton candy, a giant cream puff,  and sno cones.  

Before our eating binge, we went to the Remax Balloon Race.  Hot Air Balloons.  I really got to try my new camera out and it was awsome!   I love the sweep panorama feature.  Here are some photos:  

  

Pretty Neat!

Please keep Joe and I in your prayers this week.  We start our Foster Parent classes on Saturday!

Have dancing shoes, will travel

Two weddings in two weeks!  We have been traveling all over the countryside dancing the night away and eating cake.

The first wedding was Joe's cousin Andy and his new wife Kate.  Great food - really long best man speech.

Second wedding was our friends Kelsey and Jim.  It was wonderful to spend a little time with the girls from college, and to see Kelsey so happy.

I also got a new camera, and am now going to wow you with my skills - actually, the camera takes great pictures, but its got nothing to do with me :)

Here is one of my first photos.    I like how you can see individual beard hairs on Joe's face.

Michael and Jodi at the wedding.  Somehow they got to sit in front of us.....always thinking they are family ;)

Kate and Andy.  It was a beautiful service

After we blew bubbles.

Wedding #2 - Kelsey and Jim - I got to meet Amanda's new boyfriend Scott

Primping

Here's the groom Jim.  He is a very lucky man.  I'm in the background trying to pin on Adrian's flower.

Got to spend several hours with Sara and Matt - so good to catch up.

Joe likes to take pictures of his feet.  I can't believe I havn't noticed how wore out his shoes are.

College friends- Darla, Adrian, Jenni, Kelsey, Sara, Amanda

They danced in - it was pretty spectacular.

Kelsey - have fun in Mexico!

In other news, I have been canning, sewing, knitting, and trying to stay in the house as much as possible.  Its been so stinkin' hot here, I can't stand to go outside.  We had Strassenfest here this weekend and we walked in the parade with some friends and had a great time - but now I just feel nasty from being out in the heat.  I hope fall comes quickly!  

Mrs. I-have-too-much-produce

Everything in the garden has come ripe all at once.  This weekend we canned

• Pickles
• Tomato Juice
• Pizza Sauce
• Salsa

And we still have more tomatoes to go.  I think I will can some whole tomatoes on Tuesday.  I have to take tomorrow off and do some housework - this place looks like a tornado went through it, but at least we don't have rotting tomatoes everywhere - it was touch and go for awhile.  Good thing I have such a  good Sou-Chef :)

Its Kinda Like that Rainbow....

What rainbow?

The one at the top of the blog.  It always gets me.  I feel like there is something just sitting out there in the sun waiting for me, but I can't see it.  I have to wait until the sun sets, or whatever it is moves out of the glare so we can stand face to face.  I know its there, I just can't see it.

Thats how I feel about Foster Care

17 posts later.....

17 posts ago I was telling the world that I couldn't have kids.  And tonight I popped another round of clomid (which tastes nasty by the way.), and when I say popped I mean stuffed a handful of pills down my throat, and I can't wait for this all to be over.  I am so tired of feeling crappy, getting up every morning at 6:30 to take my temperature (it helps you chart your exact date of ovulation - in my case non-ovulation), and having to take the dreaded pregnancy test at the end of every cycle - but because I am so in tuned with my body knowing what it is going to say.

Please don't think I have become a bitter person who is giving up - if this round works I'll be ecstatic!  But I have found hope in something else - Foster Care.

Remember Joe and I went to camp?  Well, we were in this giant auditorium with all these kids and this praise band singing, and I was just sitting there thinking about kids and how I would like to do foster care someday.  The singer got done with the song and started to tell us how he grew up in the foster care system.......

I don't believe in signs.  I do believe in direct missiles from God, and this is what this was for me.  My heart stopped beating, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.  So I told Joe that night I wanted to quit the drugs and be a foster mom.  He said, well, why don't you pray about it.

And pray we have!

  Last week we had a meeting with a lady at DCS, and in Aug we start our classes to become licensed foster parents.  Then we go through a huge background check and they will start placing kids in our home sometime in the next 5-6 months.  We still have a lot of decisions to make like what age groups we want and such but I feel like everything is falling into place.

Then God through one in just in case I wasn't convinced.  Last nights newspaper, front page headline read "County in need of more foster homes."  I guess there are only 4 foster homes in Dubois County, and 35 foster kids - which means a lot of kids get sent out of county and have to change schools and what not.  It had this great story about a foster mom around here who has been doing it for 5 years and has had 40 kids go through her house!  At one time she had 9!!!!!

Please don't think I've lost it - my house is not big enough for 9, but I really can't wait to get some little kiddos in here and hug them and show them that they are special, even for a day.  And if a day turns into 360, or forever I will be happy with that too.

Do I think we are never going to have kids that have Joseph's curls?  I have no idea.  But I do know that we are right where we need to be.

Will I ever get over that wondering if I'm pregnant?  Yes, when I hit menopause.

Will we still do this if this round of clomid works?  Maybe not right away, but yes.

Will I get my family of 7?  You bet.

Will we ever do fertility treatments again?  I really don't know.

(This series of questions is a little homage to my doctor, who always talks in questions.  Don't know why, but I still like him.)

Bail! Bail!

Woke up this morning around 4:45, and was alone.  No dog.  No husband. 

I could hear the dog running around somewhere, and then she was barking.  So I got up, and the basement door was open.  Then I realized it was raining, which meant the basement was flooded. It's a regular occurrence as of late.  We do now own a sump pump that works great - it's just this morning it was raining so much it couldn't keep up. 

And Joseph was there, in his shorts, no shoes, bailing water so it would say away from the washer and dryer. 

When I went down at 7:45 to get some clean clothes, the water had gone down but the sump pump was still running full blast - 2 hours later!!! We got a lot of rain last night.

Good for the garden, bad for people with 60 year old houses.  We are looking at our options to get the problem fixed, and when we come up with something I'll let you know.  Right now its strapping a life vest to Dixie and calling it her watering hole :)

Happy Happenings

We have had a lot going on lately here at the Seger home.  Right now I can here the saw running on the porch as Joseph finishes up the trim on the island.  

Where to start?  Well, we went to camp.  And then we came back.  And then Daddy and Mommy came to visit.  And then they left.  And then we had VBS.  And then it was over.  And we had an anniversary.  

For our 2nd we went to Lexington for the weekend  to stay at the Double tree where we spent our second night at married people.  First stop this time was the Makers Mark Distillery.

Here they are dipping the bottles in hot wax.

They hand dip every bottle.  And every bottle of Makers Mark Bourbon comes out of this one factory, off of one of two lines.

All the buildings were just cute as a button!

Here is my husband standing near the barrels. I am so lucky to have him.

And now.....The kitchen......

Please don't be alarmed at the condition of the island.  All the drawers are sitting out on top of the island, and the sight it alarming!!!!

Ta-Da!  Pay no attention to the man with the nail gun!  I love the dark counter tops, and Joseph did a great job picking out the the stain and matching it to the existing cupboards.  I'm really happy for the outcome!

Here is the new stove!  It actually tells you what the temperature is and holds it!  And the dials have numbers on them!

Dishwasher!  Oh Happy Day!

Here is my new sink.  Yes I got rid of the porcelain one.  Yes I actually do like the stainless steel sink.

The stripes are done.  They do need a little touching up, but I think they turned out great!  It will be a great craft room if I can ever get rid of all the craft stuff so I can use it!

New Look....Again

Well I gave the blog a new look again.  And I like this one. I like that the sun is so bright.  Sometimes I feel like the sun is so bright I can't see.  Its like looking into this blog.

Well, we're back from camp.  And my mommy and daddy are here.  And the kitchen is coming along great.  I don't have the motivation to take pictures today, maybe tomorrow.

Hope you like the new look!

I'm at Camp!

Hey everyone,

I'm at church camp with my  Sr. High Youth Group from Shiloh. You can follow our trip over on the church's blog www.shilohchurch.blogspot.com :)

Jennifer

.....How does your garden grow?

I've been wanting to update you on my garden for some time now.  I am just a little embarrassed about the condition of it.  Danita and I had been weeding it for what seemed like every night of our life and it was looking pretty good.  Then it rained every evening this week, and was HOT HOT HOT!  So the weeds have kinda gotten away from me.  Please don't judge my gardening skills before you remember the following:  

1. It rained every day last week

2. My house is under construction

3. This was a patch of grass 3 months ago.

Here is the corn.  We are using the no till method.  

OH Hey Dixie :)

Squash.  These guys are huge.

Peas.  Never done these befoer, so I'm not sure what they should look like, but I did see one was flowering last night so I think we are good.

Cucumbers.  We planted two types, and one came up good, one didn't.  Then I replanted the one that didn't and it looks awesome now.  There was one little pickle on there this week!

Cabbage - coming along nicely.  Something was eating them, but I think I got it under control now.

Tomatoes!  We bought these really small plants at this little greenhouse in Alfordsville.  And now they are huge!  So big they keep tipping over their cages.  We are going to have a bumper crop this year.  I can't wait to try to make tomato juice.  

Marigolds.  For some reason, these things grow like crazy.  Maybe its all the miracle grow I keep putting on the garden.  

And here's my eggplant.  So amazing.  I was so happy to see these little guys.  I can't wait for Danita to teach me how to make Eggplant Parm :)

Thats all for tonight friends.  Hopefully we can work on the weeds this week, but the weather is saying its going to be high 90's all week......I just love S.Indiana :)

You and Me Going Fishing in the Dark.....

Another new Southern Indiana adventure for me last night.  We did a little thing I like to call Frog Gigging.  I have never had frog legs, so there was a chance I wouldn't like them, but I am willing to try most things once.

So at dark last night, Joe, Jonathan and myself headed out to a local watering hole that they know of armed with a fish basket, a little tiny pitchfork (which they boys informed me was called a Gig.  Actually they said, STOP calling it a PITCHFORK, its a GIG!), two mag lights and a little bit of hope. The first frog we saw, Jonathan got a 'bead' on its head, Joe told me to stand really still and keep my light on his eyes.  Apparently thats the key to this game - blinding the frog.

Here I am with my flashlight on this frog, trying to stand still, while my husband creeps around behind the frog with the Pitchfork gig and stabs this poor defenseless creature in the back of the head.  All together we got 9 on the night.

This is the thing:  I stabbed a frog last night.  And I really didn't have as big a problem with it as I thought I would.  Now we are ready to move on to bigger creatures - turtles, squirrels, deer.....by the end of the year I might be hunting bear....you just don't know about me.

On another note, Happy Fathers Day to my Daddy :)

Things are a change'n

I could probaby write 5 blog posts tonight if I wanted to.  Heres a photo blog of what I was up to tonight.

(Disclaimer:  I started this Blog post on Thursday but had to end it abruptly when the boys came home.  We then spent a couple of hours drinking a beer and enjoying a beautiful cool evening.

First, I came home and found these.

There is a hay field behind our house, but we moved in last fall and never saw them cut or do anything with it so I thought they might just not do anything with it.  But apparently they do.  These little guys were speckled all over the hillside behind my house.  

Here is the little farmer doing his good works.  NOTE he is doing GOOD works because of the color of his tractor.

Then I spent a bunch of time with this little girl.  My Mother-In-Law's doggie Matti is staying with us too, and when Matti is at our house Dixie doesn't get far from me.  She get jealous of Matti real easy.

Here's Matti-Moo-Moo as I like to call her.  As you can tell, she is a bit older than Dixie, and doesn't put up with her crap very well.  I put them both to bed on my bedroom floor last night and I think Dixie must have been trying to snuggle Matti because there were some loud sharp barks from the big girl.  

Then I started on my next project.  I bought a big cabinet to put in my sewing room, but the paint job on it was horrible to say the least.  Not the color, just the paint.  It still felt tacky, and it was like the roller came off on the cabinet as they were painting so it was almost textured.   So I set out to strip the paint off.  I have never used paint stripper before so I was a little nervous that I would get some on my leg and all my skin would burn off.  That didn't happen, I assure you.  Here's one of the cabinet doors before:

During the paint removal:  It just bubbled up.

And after.  It also worked on taking the stain off, but I didn't realize that right away.

I did the three doors and then felt like the fumes were getting to me a bit so I quit, took a shower so my skin wouldn't burn off and then took a walk up Beck's Hill.  This hill is behind my house where the round bales were today.  I like to check the sunset to see what it is doing (as you can probably tell from my recent posts) and I always think how I would like to climb up the hill and take a picture of the sunset.  Being a farmers daughter, I know better than to walk through someones Hay.  But tonight there was none.  It had just been bailed, so I climbed the hill.  Here is the sunset:

It wasn't near what it has been the last couple of nights, but it still had great coloring.  I wish I could add scratch and sniff to this blog because the smell of the hay was so amazing.  It still lingered this morning when I went to work, but by lunch was gone.  

This one is a little blurry, but here is my house from behind.  I had never stood on this side of the walnut trees.   It was like being on the outside of the window looking in.  Note the little black doggie.  She couldn't climb the hill with me because of her shock collar :(

When I started back I saw these:  WALNUTS!

I am not looking forward to picking all those up in the fall.  

I will leave you tonight, Sweet Reader, with  a little black doggie.  Good night friends.  

PS - Someone left an anonymous comment.  Thank  you, who ever you are!  I love feed back on my blog, but I would love to know who you are so we could converse.  Please feel free to leave comments whenever you want! 

Stripes, Sunsets and Socks

Hello friends again....Two posts in Two days?  How did you get so lucky!  

Lets start with tonights Sunset.  Yes, it sorta looks like last nights, but it struck me with such beauty, I had to take another picture.  How lucky am  I that I live in a place where the sun looks like this as it sets on each day.  I can't wait to see what tomorrow looks like.  

Remember what the garden looked like a few posts ago, heres a reminder:  A big brown block of yard.

Here it is again tonight.  Tomatoes on the right, beans and corn on the left.  All green!

Now on to the stripes:  Heres what it looked like last night when I last left you:

And now: after another coat of paint, and taking the stripes off:  I am really happy with the outcome.  There are a few spots where the paint bled under the tape, but over all it turned out really good!!!  I think if I do all the walls the stripes are going to make the room small and dark, so I am going to do 2 walls.  The other two I'm just going to hang some cutesy art maybe from www.etsy.com ?  

Heres my other project.  The new dresser!  It got a new coat of paint and new hardware and it looks great in our bedroom!

I also painted that mirror on top to go with the dresser.  Doesn't it look like a set?  I wish I would have cleaned it off a bit before I took the picture, but I didn't.  Such is my luck.  

I also got all the drawers to fit.  They had been out in the garage and since its so humid here they were too swollen to fit, so they have been lined up in the hallway just chillin.....and now they fit!  I even sorted and put away all the socks - in two different drawers!  One for his, one for hers.  Now I don't have to dig through 40 pairs of his to find one of hers.  I also matched and folded ALL the socks!!!!  Way to go me - I know Joe-Joe is going to like that one :)  

Next up on the list - figure out what to do with the washer.  Every time I run it, water comes out below it.  I think its leaking.....but I have to do laundry.  I think I might have to go to my mother-in-law's and do some laundry tomorrow.  I refuse to go to the laundry mat - I did enough of that in Chicago!

I hope this is all not to mundane for you all.  I like to blog, but I always feel rushed because I do it at the end of the night.  Maybe when I get my house back together I can make more time to do it.

"The heavens proclaim the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge." Psalm 19:1-2