Busy, busy, with no pictures to show for it.

Actually, I take that back... I have a LOT of pictures to show for it. But since I am writing this on my college (dying) computer that does not recognize memory cards (or iPhones...), I cannot upload them yet.

But I will try to get them up on Tuesday when I get back to work. I'm behind on several posts for this reason... like the College Station trip. (It'll happen soon, Claire!) And then hopefully this week, I will get a chance to go to Lubbock and buy our new Macbook!! I had to make myself stay home this weekend and get stuff done around the house that we've been wanting done.

Stuff like...

• Take pictures of Kanyon's crop and new seeds sprouting (yay!).
• Deep clean the house... it needed it.
• Install roman shades in all three bedrooms.
• Install new curtain rods and curtains in guest bedroom and office.
• Take down all wall decor and rearrange furniture in guest bedroom.
• Finish "Our Home" page by taking missing pictures.
• Install new faucet and towel hanger in guest bathroom.
• Buy and wrap a million graduation gifts.
• Install new printer in office and comb through house to collect all the random printers we have to sell or give away.
• Do about 10 loads of laundry... oops, let that pile up again.
• Paint hallway trim.
• Paint front door.

We've got ALL done except cleaning the bathrooms and the last two painting jobs, which we are going to knock out tomorrow.

And I found FIVE (yes, five) spare printers in our office closet. Five. Spare. As in - not including the one we use. How did that happen?

Oh, and we also went to graduation Friday night. Congratulations to all the graduates!

See ya on the other side of the paint fumes.

World War II Vets

I plan on editting all the pictures from last weekend tonight and posting about it but I wanted to share this with you this morning.

My aunt sent me this video over e-mail and it made me cry. In the office. Nice.

Please take two minutes to watch it: Show Your Thanks

Both of my grandfathers fought in WWII and I can only imagine how they would respond to this.

I feel as if my grandparents and I grew up in two different worlds. The Depression, wars, living without most things... these are things I never had to worry about. At all. But it was apart of their everyday world.

My mother's mother grew up on a dairy farm as one of nine kids. I feel as if I have a small connection with her now that I live in the country on a farm and that thrills me. She is the only grandparent I have left. She is 93 (she's a trooper) and has dementia and is living in Oklahoma City where my mom's sister and daughters can (and do) visit her all the time.

Grandma (LoRee) in the middle with her two remaining sisters.

Sometimes I grieve for the relationship I've never had with my grandparents. All were around when I was born but all but one passed before I ever was old enough to value their presence. My mother tells me all the time how Grandma used to be and how they were best friends. I can't imagine how it must feel to have Grandma here on earth but know her soul and spirit is but a shadow of what it once was.

Thank the Lord that I will one day have all the time in the world heavens to get to know Charles and LoRee and Paul and Sue. I can't wait for that day! To ask my grandmothers to teach me to sew (maybe I'll have a desire in heaven where there's no frustation?), to ask LoRee what it was like working on a dairy farm, how Paul and Sue met and what it was like to date in their time, to hear Charles' laugh that my father can imitate so well. I know they will have so many stories and I can't wait to hear every single one of them. Something I'm really hoping for in heaven is a movie theatre where we can watch home videos... are you listening, God? ; )


I am so thankful for Kanyon's family for multiple reasons but one is that I was adopted so enthusiastically as Otha and Veneda's and Truman and Mauriene's granddaughter. I very much feel as apart of their family as any other grandchild. I am excited that my kids will get to grow up (God willing) with one set of grandparents down the road and the other set coming probably every two weeks to visit from Houston or wherever in the world they will live... I'm really not joking, Mom. : )  Along with both sets of their great grandparents on Kanyon's side down the road. I know that will be a blessing that they don't even realize they have.

Can't wait for that movie to come out in November about the WWII vets. Thank you, God, for men back then and today who risk their lives for us to live in freedom.

College Station Bound!

Well, I am leaving in 30 minutes for College Station! I am so excited! This one is graduating from Nursing School!

But not only will I get to see Camille this weekend, its turned into a family affair!

In high school (and they still are ;), my two best friends were Camille and Claire. After the three of us graduated and Camille and I left for Texas A&M in College Station and Claire left for Baylor in Waco, Claire's parents bought a gorgeous farm in Hearne, TX between College Station and Waco. It was so great for the three of us to get to meet in the middle and my mom came to meet me several times during my year at A&M (I transferred after freshman year). Claire's mom and my mom are really close as well, having shared the joy and frustration of being on Young Life Committee together for years besides having daughters as friends.

 Camille, Claire, and I a few years ago.

SO moral of the story is – my family, Camille's family, and Claire's family are all getting together to stay at the farm this weekend to celebrate Camille's graduation and recent engagement! (They've probably all celebrated her engagement already but I haven't gotten to yet, dadgummit.) (…….I just said dadgummit. Wow.)
 
Unfortunately, Kanyon cannot come. To make a long story short, this is planting season. Excuse me, plantin' season. He has been plantin' his cotton the last couple of weeks and all the farmers around here have had to watch the watering of their land extremely close. Even more close than usual due to the drought. There's so many reasons why he couldn't leave for even a day. For one, he'd have to have someone else tend to his land. Even though that someone else would be his father or uncle, Kanyon explained to me that it would be wrong to do that. For one thing, that is a lot of work to dump on someone. For another, if something, anything, were to happen that would require a decision being made (running the water slower, faster, etc), someone else would have the pressure on them to make a decision that could possibly affect us for this whole season. The fact is the cotton is not established in the ground yet. It needs lots of attention and support to get growing especially this year.

This is just a part of being a farmer. I accept it and honestly – its not a bad trade. There are several parts of the year that Kanyon has the ability to leave on a whim (after asking someone to occasionally check his fields of course) for a few days. Its not bad being your own boss. I don't mind having two parts of the year (plantin' in late spring and harvest in the fall) where there is no question that he can't leave if that means the rest of the time is much more flexible than if he had a 9-5 job. (Anyone who knows Kanyon – try picturing Kanyon at a 9-5 job. Ha!)

Anyway, I'm on the road tonight. I'll get there around midnight (boo) but it means I'll get to be there all day tomorrow during the graduation festivities (yay). Thankfully there's a Starbucks in Temple an hour from my destination so if I'm in need, I'll be able to get sustenance..

Hope you have a great weekend, too!

P.S. I got Shellac on my nails again and I have to say, I'm pretty sold. I never have been one to get my nails done since I'd pay $25 and then it'd chip within the first hour. But in Lamesa, I can get Shellac for $25 and it not chip for two weeks! At least it didn't last time I got it. I got pale pink.

P.P.S. I'm almost finished with the new "Our Home" page!

New Page

I'm working on a new page for our blog to share pictures of our home! I explained this on the page but one of my favorite things about the blog world is seeing the way people decorate their home! While our blog is not necessarily a home design blog by any means, I thought there might be people like me who enjoy seeing pictures like this. So I only had a little bit of time on my break at work to start it but I got pictures up of the exterior.

Let me know what you think!

Pray for Rain

Our weekend was a thankfully a low-key one after a busy week behind us and a busy weekend ahead of us. Kanyon is in the plantin' stage of the year (when I say plantin-g with a "g", he always corrects me... "its plantin', Erika").

You may have heard about our extremely dry weather here in West Texas and the fire hazards its caused. Its not a good year to be a volunteer fireman... But one good thing that's come of it is that Kanyon and the rest of the volunteer firemen received all new equipment! The Welch VFD's equipment was seriously lacking... They had to share several things and most of it was worn out. But with all of the fires happening, our county came out for a fire our boys were at and noticed how in need we were. So all the boys get new safer suits and complete sets of equipment.

Its been a tough time to be a farmer so far this year. We haven't had a good rain since November. And even people who don't know a thing about farming know... no rain is not good.

Thankfully, we know that God is in control and that He will provide for us. And not to mention, He gave us a really successful year last year which we are still benefiting from. Its just the uncertainty of it all that is scary. Will we get rain this week? this month? Kanyon farms both irrigated and dry land cotton. The dry land, not being artificially watered through an irrigation system, has to be watered naturally with rain.

Even the irrigated, though, suffers. The water from the wells that the circle systems use (the irrigation systems) is not near as pure as rain water. The crops do not thrive on well water as much as they do on pure rain water.

 
All that to say, please pray for rain for our extremely dry land! Big Jake knows God will provide, though, and isn't worried a bit...

Pinterest and some good news!

I tried to post yesterday but Blogger is having some sort of meltdown. I'm actually having to write this whole post over again.. good thing its not a long one.

_________________________________________________________________

Does anyone else save pictures and images they find online that inspire them to decorate a certain way or collect images of things they'd like to make, etc? I have a folder on my computer of images like that that I refer to all the time to redo some part of my house.

So, I was going to show something to yall if you didn't already know about it - have yall heard of Pinterest?

I found out about it about a month ago and started using it then. I love it! Its a virtual "bulletin board" where you can "pin" pictures you find on the internet!

One of my pins.

I wanted to share a direct link to my page so you can see my boards and see what I'm talking about. I have a board for interior and exterior home design and then leather projects inspiration for Kanyon and I to begin trying!

A pin of a farm house that I love.

Here's my page: Erika Brown's Pinterest

In other news, I have been really excited lately about some fun stuff happening to me and around me!

First of all, Mom and I have been planning a trip for our family to go out to Denver and meet my brother while he works at Dry Bones this summer. Dry Bones is a ministry in Denver that ministers to homeless "kids" (up to age 30 or so, I believe). They also give youth groups the opportunity to come work with them. First, the mountain intern guides the group on a wilderness trek for four days where they will live in complete wilderness and get to peak a mountain. The second half of the week, they spend time in downtown Denver with the City Interns who minister to the homeless. Cole is the mountain intern again this year and gets July 4th week off so Mom, Dad, me, and Kanyon are flying up to stay in Denver a few days and backpack with Cole! I'm pumped! I haven't backpacked in a few years. I've camped but not peaked a mountain in a while. I cannot wait!

Also, my best friend from high school, Camille got ENGAGED a couple weeks ago and I am going to College Station next weekend to see her for a few days and attend her graduation from nursing school party!

 

I'm so excited for her right now! She's finally graduating (she's a smarty pants and worked really hard) and now she gets to marry an amazing guy! And I'm happy for myself that I get to spend 4 days with her next week! Ok, thats probably enough gushing for now.

BUT it doesn't end there. I also found out a couple weeks ago (and now that its public, I can announce it) that Kasha and Al are pregnant again!! WOOHOO!

The soon-to-be big brother, Taegan. They make super cute kids obviously, so I'm excited!

I hope y'all all have a great weekend, mine will be spent running errands in Lubbock tonight (and hopefully getting my hard working husband to leave the field and meet me for dinner), attending a Walk to Emmaus meeting all day tomorrow (the only kind of all day meeting I love to attend on a Saturday!), and church and small group with my junior high girls on Sunday! Hopefully a low-key weekend before I leave town next Thursday for College Station.

And hopefully no more of this will happen while I'm gone:

He looks pretty sorry, doesn't he?  : )

Thankfully the flowers that were in the pot, and I assume are now in his belly, were on sale for $2 at Walmart. I was more impressed that he got that shepherd's hook down... I really rammed it in the ground to avoid this!

iPhone pictures for Kaitlin

The weekend of Kaitlin's bachelorette party in Austin, we went to the Capitol. I know, wild and crazy right? We loved it.

I took a bunch of pictures on my iPhone for Kaitlin because she accidentally left her camera at the hotel and I thought some of them turned out really cool. Especially for iPhone pics!

Since I'm just now getting around to emailing them to Kaitlin, I thought I'd share a few.

Thursday, I ran to Midland to see Kaitlin and Nathan and their new apartment! Well, new to Kaitlin. Nathan has lived there for a few months. Its a small space but they have made it look cute. Nathan is hispanic and since it was Cinco de Mayo, I told him I was expecting a good time with my favorite Mexican couple ;)  They made me tacos for dinner, which were so good, and Nathan gave me the history of the holiday. He didn't disappoint. (Friends of Kaitlin, check out her new blog!)

Kaitlin and I did a little shopping after for a few things we needed and we stopped by Starbucks and taste-tested their new cake pops for everyone. We are pleased to announce that they are yummy.

We had a great weekend... Very low-key. Friday, we stayed at home and made "fried" catfish and french fries (I actually baked both for health and mess reasons... much to Kanyon's dismay) from the catfish Kanyon's uncle gave us that they caught. It was so yummy. We also watched The Beach. It was a terrible choice. Depressing and weird. I got my movie-picking rights taken away indefinitely.

Saturday, I did some errand running in Brownfield but mostly cooked and prepared a little for the Mother's Day lunch I was making the next day and cleaned the house. It was very needed. That night, Kanyon and I went to the new Italian restaurant in Brownfield which was really good!!! I am excited to have a new option close (relatively) by. 

We stopped by the Dawson HS (Welch's school) prom on the way home to see the decorations they had been working hard on. The decorations were seriously amazing. Shelly and Dana found some chandeliers made out of shiny silver streamers and hung them all over the gym ceiling with a larger one in the middle. That might sound cheap but they did not look cheap! It was gorgeous.

For Mother's Day, I wanted to have Kanyon's parents and brother over and we also invited Meme and Grandad and Uncle Dan and Aunt Rhnea. It was so much fun!

I got out all my china and crystal and had a bouquet of flowers out. I made my granny's Chicken Enchiladas (more like a casserole) and made salsa and sopapilla cheesecake and coffee for dessert. Rhnea brought beans and Vaughn brought guacamole. The food was a hit. It was so much fun hosting so many people and using the fancy stuff :)  I wish I had taken pictures but we were busy eating and chatting.

I have the best mother and mother-in-love I could ever imagine. I hope I conveyed to each of you just how much I value and appreciate your love, support, advice, and especially friendship. I love you!

Family Picture

Haha!

Not much going on this week. And boy, am I okay with that.
More than likely, my husband is probably okay with that since the house needs a thorough cleaning.

We ended our bible study on Monday night this week. I am so glad we did this study this season. It was so good. Thank you, Vaughn (my mother-in-love), for putting this all together. If you're interested, we did "Beloved Disciple" by Beth Moore. A lot of her studies have a shortened or journal based study for individuals. Not sure about this one, though.

Last night, the first thing I did was take the Shellac off my nails. It seems like everyone is blogging about this lately. I highly recommend it. Its a new type of nail polish that hardens like acrylic on your real nail and is supposed to last two weeks. My french tips I got for Kaitlin's wedding definitely did. To take it off, I soaked them for a few minutes in acetone and it comes off like wax. So easy and didn't damage my nails one bit, which is the reason to switch over from acrylic that does damage your nails. One thing I love about getting mine done in a small town? Only $25. Shellac costs from $40 up in Lubbock. Sweet. (Lamesa people - I got mine done at Davette's - she is the only one that I know of that has it here.)

After that, I made dinner (I can't even remember the last time I had time to cook), watched an episode of Heroes with Kanyon, and cleaned up the kitchen. Didn't get a chance to do the other 10 things on my list but hopefully this weekend. I'm hoping to maybe get started on the guest bedroom on Saturday?

One more thing - I updated the picture of Kanyon's family on our "More About Us" page. I'm going to post it here too, though.

Vaughn chose a different one for her gallery wrap she put up in her entry way. Both of them are great but I thought I'd choose this one for variety's sake.