wikka, wikka, wichita...falls

The second weekend in July, the fam went down to Tejas to visit the bro. We ate a lot of food. Mark gave us a great tour of Alcoa, and we did not try to steal any secrets to sell to other countries. We also walked around the lake, laughed at the fake falls, and watched some real nutsos on Trinity Broadcasting Network.

At Fat McBride's steakhouse

This is what we look like two months later. Also during this time, Mark turned into three-hole-punch-Mark.

The fam, post-Messing-With-Texas

on july 5, luke and sarah got married

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the mod reunion/tine's birthday/wedding weekend. All can be viewed larger by clicking on them. Which you might have to do if you want to read the few captions.

good idea/bad idea

Good idea: Refunding your customers for products they don't want
Bad idea: Not looking in the boxes they bring in

I had some stuff that didn't fit/came too late to return to Target. I printed off my receipts, loaded up boxes, and went to the store. I set two mailing boxes down on the counter, handed the customer service person my receipts, and requested a refund. Not once did she ever look inside the boxes or even pick them up to see if there was anything inside. I guess I could have taken empty Target mailing boxes in and come out with free cash. This refund was in excess of $130. Luckily for them, everything I was refunded for actually was in those boxes. But really, Target? Really?

i was reminded

Of another best story ever. It also makes me tear up.

my mom sent me this

And it is the best story ever. And it made me cry.
More info here if you want.

just one thing to love about the parents-in-law

Last night I tagged along as Brian went to help burn fields. This was the amazing supper we had that makes me drool inside a little just to think of it: green beans (from their garden), potatoes (from their garden), cucumber salad (from grandma's garden), deviled eggs (from their chickens), fried chicken (not from their chickens, but it could have been...I think I forgot to do a chicken butchering post a while back, oh well), rhubarb crisp (from their garden). What a treat!

P.S. I do not love my parents-in-law just for their food.

hchs

I know it's not much compared to the job some of you do, but we did another seven-hour shift at the homeless shelter earlier this week, and there were some interesting stories. I don't think I feel right expounding on them here on the interwebs, but part of my night included a police officer approaching me and saying, "I'm looking for Erin." Thinking it couldn't possibly be me but aware that no one was staying there by that name, I stuttered out something like, "Like a volunteer 'Erin'?" "Yep." "Well, that's me."

cars and chiggers

Yesterday we finally began our search for a second car. Fun times. At three different dealerships, we tested an '05 Toyota Echo, an '08 Honda Fit, and an '08 Toyota Yaris. The Fit is pretty much the cool kid on the block. Seriously. If we do go the new car route, we will most likely get a manual transmission for cost savings. Which equals interesting times ahead for this gal. I should probably get one of those "Student Driver" magnets.

Harvest also brought me many, many chigger bites. I'm guessing the pedicurist today will take one look at my ankles and refuse to service me because it looks like I have some contagious rash. At least the itch is finally starting to subside.

Wedding weekend! Whoo! I'm very excited.

harvest '08!

I love harvest time! I suppose I can unabashedly love it because I don't have to put in long days, do any work, or be stressed about it, but you know. Unabashedly might be too strong a word since my allergies definitely hate it. The two nights I was out, I came home with extremely red eyes, and my sinuses have not been the same since. But I still love it. This year's harvest was very successful/fruitful, which always makes for good feelings. Last night I got to move the tractor with grain cart a short ways in the field (not by myself, but I was at the wheel); this was very exciting for me. I would love to someday be able to actually help out (more than moving the pick-up and helping with meals), but it's not a world I grew up in, so everything is quite foreign to me. For now, I ride along, and it is a blast. A scary thing happened Monday when I was out. It rained a lot at the end of last week. Things had dried enough to cut most places Monday, but it was still wet enough that they weren't parking trucks in the field. Even so, potential disaster struck. The trucks were parked on the road, and the edge of the road under one of the trucks gave way. The truck was at an amazing [-ly bad] angle. The bottom of the low side of the truck was actually sitting on the ground. It could not be pulled out with a 4WD tractor even. The truck was full, so the men put in some very hard work scooping wheat out the back into an auger hopper. This made me quite nervous since, if the truck were to go over into the ditch, I'm pretty sure things would not have turned out well for the guys in the back of the truck. Luckily everyone was ok, the grain was saved, and the truck was able to be pulled out after the bed was emptied some. The truck even drove just fine after it was pulled out! Amazing. While it was a terrible situation, everyone was thankful it turned out as well as it did.