Life By Lindsey Rae

Due to recent medical emergency in our household I have not had too much of a chance to post anything for awhile. I have been pretty busy lately with extra things. But, we are here and still alive and relatively well, all things considering.

And, I have recovered my missing diamond earing, which I thought I lost forever at the hospital. Not as important as just being here and alive, but, still good since it is always better to have two earings instead of one. :)

I meant to post this a first almost week and a half ago, but, it seems I have had my hands in too many projects (again) lately and so (again), I am late with writing anything.

After spending the summer working in Nashville, my cousin, Steven, has gone back to Canada. We were able to hang out a few times while he was here and it was really fun for both Jerrod and I. I really enjoyed having someone around from back home. It was also cool when he brought other people from Southern Alberta over. I think, sometimes, there actually is a bit of a "culture" difference....not sure how else to put it...but as much as I enjoy my home in Tennessee, there is something fun about being around people from Southern Alberta and being able to talk about things from home that normally I don't get to, because no one I'm normally around would know about it. Plus, I think sometimes, we just find different things funny.

Anyway, a couple days before Steven left, we went out to the shooting range to shoot some handguns. Steven is really into guns and Jerrod has quite a few. When I say quite a few, I really only mean around 5...I don't really know how many, but it seems like around that number. I say, "quite a few" because in all the time I have known him, he has never once used one. He says he won't go target shooting with just anyone...so, I guess he had no one he felt comfortable going with.

So, Steven had mentioned a few times that we should go shooting. I knew that if they were actually going to go, there was no way that I would be able to get out of it. I don't have any problems with guns...I don't necessarily enjoy them myself, but I don't care if other people like to go target shooting as a hobby....or even hunting if they really like the meat (although as some one who has been 98% vegetarian since the age of 3, that definitely does not have any appeal to me.) I have been shooting before...but it was always with clay pigeons out in the country and with a rifle. I think I really only grew up around "farm guns" as I would call them. I've never shot a handgun and never gone to a shooting range. I also realized later, that I hadn't shot a gun since high school.

So, for this reason, I felt nervous about it. I wasn't sure what to expect with the handgun, as far as the kick and that sort of thing. But, I had to go, or else I would have endured never ending harassment from Steven. I may have got around it with Jerrod, but Steven...I think he probably would have actually physically forced me to go somehow....I just know how those Osmond boys are.

So I shot some handguns. I shot the .38 and the .45. The .38 wasn't too bad. There isn't really any kick with it and so Jerrod says it's a good gun to teach someone to shoot with. I didn't like the .45 at all. Steven thought it would be easy for me to shoot, but after starting with the .38, it felt like too much and I only tried it about 3 or 4 times. Steven tried to get me to shoot that big "bear killer" gun, as they call it...(I think it's a .44) But, I would never! I could hardly even stand to watch them shoot it. It's ridiculously powerful and loud and I don't plan to have to stop a bear anytime soon, so, I don't think I need to know how.

I kept one of my targets to take home. The smaller holes on here I shot with the .38. Jerrod said I did pretty well with my aiming. I said I was probably just lucky, but he said he thought I actually really did a good job. I think the bigger holes are one's Jerrod shot with the .45.

So, that was a really long post. I hope I didn't make too many gramatical errors. I don't have time to check it now, because I have to go finish going crazy now...I mean...finish grouting the tile in the kitchen.

I stole this picture from my sister, Shara's, facebook album and am posting it because I think Grandma look very nice here and I liked this picture.

I'm not sure why the dog is wearing a sweater...maybe because it's always cold in Grandma's house??
haha, Grandma, just kidding!

Today was our third anniversary! Good for us!
Jerrod took the day off and went and ran some errands during the afternoon. He took my car and brought it back all cleaned out and had the windows tinted. He said it wasn't necessarily an anniversary present, because he had been planning to do it anyway, but, it was nice to have it today. I didn't really get Jerrod anything...which I felt bad about. But, the thing is, he said he couldn't think of anything I could get him and that we should just plan to get a present together (we are going to get some rocking chairs for our front porch once we find some we like). But then, he gave me a basket full of chocolates and also did my car stuff for me. I did make him a nice card that I put a lot of time, thought and effort into...but then I always make him cards that I put a lot of time, thought and effort into...so maybe that's not so great...I always like to do fun things for him and so in all my perfectionism, I will probably feel bad for the rest of my life that I could not think of some great, original and wonderful idea for him today. I said that if I came across something good in the near future, I was going to get it....but it will be a little late, won't it?
Anyway, as part of my contribution, I've decided to take it upon myself to find some good rocking chairs for us.

We went to the Melting Pot tonight. I think we have gone there every anniversary so far. It's a fondue restaurant we like to go to for special occasions. We are so full right now though. Its a 4 course meal and so there is so much food. But, it's so good...and so expensive...that you feel like you have to eat every last bit that you can. After we got home tonight, I found that I had gained 6 pounds since I weighed myself this morning. It's a good thing I'm fairly skinny.

I feel like it's really stuffy in here right now and it's driving me crazy. It's become suddenly more humid this week. It's like the intense summer humidity just started and it just dropped in and doubled overnight. I usually like humidity, but tonight it's bugging me. I'm stuffed up and feel like I can't breathe. Maybe it's some allergies that are bothering me, but the humidity is making it feel worse to my sinuses.

It's around 11:30pm and it's still like, 80 degrees outside. That's pretty nice. I much prefer the warmer weather....except for the fact that warm weather means more bugs.

There are too many bugs, and I'm afraid of them.
I really hate it.
Actually, we got some pest control from Steven this week. I don't know if I mentioned it here, but my cousin, Steven, is down in Nashville right now selling pest control as a summer job. So, we got some from him...in hopes that I would live in fear less and it would improve my quality of life if I see less bugs.

Steven and his roommates have come over about 3 times now and hung out with us at our house; had dinner and stuff. It's been fun. It was fun to have Canadians over because at one time there were four of us Canadians in the house and only American (Jerrod). I felt good about that, because Jerrod likes to tease me and make Canadian jokes, but with four Canadians against one American, it was fun to be able to gang up on him for once. haha. That's the most Canadians that have ever been in our house....suddenly I have also really noticed that they (we....I....) talk a little different and they have a little different sense of humor. It's weird that I never noticed it before, but I think this is nearly one of the longest times since I have been back to Canada, so maybe that's why I notice it more suddenly.

Last week, my sister, Shara, sent me an audio clip of a live broadcast of a game that our brother, Darcy, played in on January 18th. This clip features a goal that Darcy got for the Olds Grizzlys, who he was playing as a guest with this night. Closer to the end there is a short interview with the team's assistant coach, who talks about Darcy after the goal. I thought I would add some pictures to the audio and make it into a video and put it on youtube so that it would be easier to listen to without having to download the file she sent. The pictures are just a few random shots of Darcy playing, not from this game in particular. The rotate rather slowly, because I only had a limited number of pictures to use, as Darcy said he didn't know how to upload pictures to the computer to give me more. (I think we might need to get him into some computer classes in his spare time).

Until I moved to the U.S., I don't think I realized that Remembrance Day isn't celebrated here. I know they have Veteran's Day on November 11th, but it's not really as big of a deal as you would think it would be; they being so patriotic and all. They don't even get the day off. I guess I was just surprised when I realized this, because it is a more important holiday in Canada and we are not as military oriented as they. I mentioned something about a poppy last night and Jerrod had never heard of such a thing. So I started explaining about how we wear the little plastic flowers and saying the In Flanders Field poem (which of course, every Canadian hears yearly, from the time they are in elementary school) and he had never even hear of it.
Speaking of Remembrance Day and thinking of war veterans, one thing that I often wish is that my Grandpa Suddaby would record his life history. He spent 5 years fighting in the war and I'm sure there are lots of things that he could tell about, but I know that he doesn't like the talk about those things, because they are bad memories for him. However, I also think it would be a shame if those things about his life were lost when he died. No one will know about them and all that history will be gone. There has been a few times in the past where he has said a couple of things when I asked him, but never too much and I think think these things need to be written down or recorded to be preserved. Maybe I can get him a little recorder for Christmas. I wonder if he'd use it. I will have to check out eBay and see how much I can get one for.

I am home after 10 days away. I wasn't able to access the internet as easily as usual....or could, sometimes only from my PDA, which has a slightly small screen and is slightly inconvenient to type on. Although, I will say it's still better than no internet. Anyhow, I didn't update this much.

We spent the 10 days in both Denver, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming. This was Jerrod's trip because it is where he grew up and where some of his family and friends are. So, we spent most of the time visiting people, going to eat at the places he likes and doing a little shopping at some of the stores we don't have in our area. (High-end audio store for Jerrod and scrapbook store for me.)

We got in this afternoon and I am very happy to be home. I like my home because it is a peaceful place and I miss it when I am gone for so long. And, I also like having all my stuff around me.....By that I mean that I like having all my art supplies and scrapbook stuff around so I can do my creative projects whenever I want to.

Good news came a couple of days ago that we will be having our construction meeting for the house on Monday. This is very exciting because that means that something can actually be constructed! We have been expecting it to happen "any day" (to quote the builder's people) for about 3 months now. I guess they just got the building permits from the city. This meeting will finalize the plans so they can go ahead with it. We need to move since our lease is ending, so, let's hope that this thing gets going soon and quickly. I told Jerrod that after this trip I was staying home for a week, but I may make a sacrifice to go to go to the construction meeting. It will probably be worth going out to finally get the house started! Actually, I am going to be very busy getting caught up on things that I haven't been able to do while I'm away, so staying home might not happen anyhow.

I think one of the worst things about being gone is when you come home, you have no food. Because, of course, we try not to leave to much in the fridge if we know we are going to be gone for awhile and it will spoil. But, now, it means that I am going to be drug to Wal-Mart and pushed around the store for an extra long grocery shopping trip....and I really hate grocery shopping. It's so exhausting (and boring) for me. I think I am allergic to Wal-Mart. I'm not kidding. There is something in there that makes my allergies bad. It's always a terrible experience. When I complain, Jerrod always says, "Well, do you want to eat or not?" But really, I'm not sure if it means I have to go grocery shopping....