Life By Lindsey Rae

Hello, again.

I realize it's been awhile since I posted anything. I can't figure out why that is exactly, except that I've just been keeping busy with a lot of more of the same things everyday.
I've been spending a lot of time working outside. Pretty much any day we have when it;s not pouring down rain I try to get out there and work. And, usually for 6 hours or more at a time, so if often occupies much of the day. There is lots to do around here, as the yard is so new and has being started from nothing for a lot of it.
I planted quite a few seeds indoors at the beginning to middle of March and they are doing well. I've brought them outside now and just trying to get all the places I need to plant them finished up! (I'm soooo slooowww at these things!)

I did take some pictures, but, I can't figure out where I put my camera at the moment. So, until then, I cannot provide any evidence that I actually have been doing anything.

On another note, tornado season is now upon us and for those somewhat further away who may have heard about the recent storms we had in Tennessee, just want to let you know that we are all good here at our house and did not have any damage. Our county mostly just had a lot of heavy rain and some strong winds.

(It did occur to me, however, that a strong winds in Tennessee is like an everyday breeze in Southern Albera. But, we are just not built for that here!)

The people in Murfreesoboro were not so fortunate as us to escape the worst of the storms and much of that area was hit quite badly with two deaths. Having lived in Murfreesboro for a couple of years, several years ago, I am familiar with many of the areas that got hit. I'm fairly certain the home of the lady I stayed with there is OK.

Here is a video from one of the local stations for any of my far away friends and family who might want to see what it's like.

I'll try to figure out where I put that camera at so I can get some pictures off of it and post again soon...Time to get back outside!

I bought my husband rocking chairs for Christmas. And, it was kind of a big deal for me because I spent many, many....many hours researching many, many rocking chairs before I bought them. Kind of like before I bought curtains. I thought about curtains a lot.
I have a very difficult time making decisions and as a result I often spend many hours researching things. Going to lots of stores, looking at a ton of websites...reading a lot of books (although I did not read any books about rocking chairs...a lot of things I get books from the library about). It is not easy to not be able to make a decision.

I really wanted to get what my husband wanted, which were extra wide chairs, but, I also wanted to make sure that they were somewhat modern looking and I really wanted black. Partially because I like black and it would look good with the house and partially because the neighbors across the street have white ones.
Eventually, though, all I could find in the proper size at a price that suited my cheapness (and I wanted to use my "own" money, 'cause it's more fun to buy someone a present when you don't have to ask them for money to buy it) were white ones.
I had decent expectations, since the reviews others had given these particular chairs were good, but, when they arrived on Christmas eve they were damaged! I was so upset about it! I really wanted to get a good present for J, because he always gets me such nice things. I suppose it is the thought that counts, but when you spend so long trying to find something and then it comes damaged on Christmas Eve...there is not much hope in replacing it in a timely manner.

Anyway, my husband liked the ones I got, but as they were damaged, we had to return them and decided to get something different. We recently found these at Sam's Club and thought we might try them. They are fairly wide (which was a requirement) and J thinks they are comfortable. They were twice what I paid for the others, so he sort of did have to buy his own present after all, but what can you do when you sit at home and build rock walls all day? (No, just kidding...I do other things to...sometimes...really. I also spend hours and hours trying to make small decisions. hahaha).


As you can see, these are not black. They are teak, which I think is probably the best for outdoors and will last a long time. But, I don't know if I like the color of the wood. I thought about painting or staining it a black, but, I don't know if you should stain teak.

So, now I can sit outside and watch the little lizards run by. It is actually a good spot, I think. I sat out there the other day when it was only about 35 degrees and read my mail and when the sun is out that location gets fairly warm.(To tell the truth, I think once it's summer I'll probably be scared to sit out there half of the time, because I'm too afraid of the bugs!)

I also want to get a hummingbird feeder and put it somewhere near this area. I have "my room" (my office/art space/mess) where that big window is, so I think it would be nice if I could look out the window and maybe see some hummingbirds...and bunnies. I only had one bunny in the flowerbed last year.

After all the time I have spent out in the yard digging trenches...dragging rocks around, throwing rocks around...building walls with rocks and other various outdoor activities, I have finally injured myself. But, surprisingly, it was not from all that. I got my finger caught in the back door. Something a person is probably not supposed to do past the age of 3 or unless they are a dog.
I can't believe that I could potentially have dropped a 50+ pound rock on myself that many times and I ended up slamming my finger in the door.
It hurt so badly. But, I was anxious to finish the trench for the rocks to put the edging on my raised flower bed, so I kept digging. About 5 minutes later, I took my gloves off and saw about 1/3 to 1/2 of the nail had turned blue. So, no wonder it hurt so much.
Now that my finger is hurt, I wonder how I will finish my flowerbed by next week like I had planned. Knowing my luck, I probably will end up dropping a rock on myself now and re-injuring the finger, which will really hurt. I tried to look for a little splint type thing to put on it so it would be protected, but couldn't find anything. I guess either I must not work anymore and take the risk of letting the plants die if they can't go in the flowerbed or risk more injury.

I am wondering if it is beneficial to go to the Doctor for this sort of thing. Both Jerrod and my Grandma said that I may loose the nail, which seems a bit horrible. I wonder if I go to the doctor and get it drained to reduce the swelling if there is less chance of loosing the nail. It is still throbbing with a pulse almost 30 hours later and feels hot to touch...but going to the doctor for a bruise seems a bit extreme too. Then again, if I loose my nail, I will be upset and and might regret it. I can't imagine not having a nail. Jerrod said he'd poke it for me with a hot needle. Seems scary.

I have something important to share.
This has never happened before and will probably never happen again, so be prepared to be amazed.

So, back in June, I looked out the window and saw a lizard on the back patio. Jerrod was at work at the time and so I took this picture of it and emailed it to him.


He wrote back saying, "Did you catch it? I want to keep it as a pet."

I'm pretty sure he was joking....I hope. I don't think he really wants a pet lizard and of course, I would never touch that thing!

Of course, I am pretty terrified of all creepy/crawly things...mostly bugs, but I am not a fan of anything that isn't cute and cuddly. I have held a tiny frog in the past, but normally, I don't touch anything that does not have fur.

But, the other day, I was over at my neighbor's house, watering his tree's (because he lives in California half the time, we help keep the trees alive while he is gone), and I bent down and saw something moving in the mulch around the tree. At first I thought it was a frog, since we've had quite a few of those around recently, but then saw that it was actually a teeny, tiny lizard. It was only about as big as the tip of my finger! I never have seen one that small before.

So, I panicked! I wanted to show Jerrod really badly, since he had teased me about catching the other one I saw a couple months ago, but he was at our house across the street and all I could think to do was grab it!

I couldn't believe I did it! I touched that thing! I ran back to my house holding it and saying, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"

When I got home, since I had it in both my hands, I couldn't open the door! So, could only kick it and ring the doorbell with my elbow and started yelling, "Jerrod! Jerrod! Come out here quick!" Unfortunately for the lizard and I, he was upstairs, with the TV on, so he didn't hear.

I kept thinking about how my mom used to say, "You can't yell like you are on the farm when you are in town!" And I felt I was embarrassing myself in front of the neighbors.

But, like I said, this was the first time I had ever done anything like this couldn't risk accidentally letting it go by opening the door. So, I just kept banging and yelling and holding my lizard.

You know, I always think that if you ring the doorbell multiple times, it makes the person inside less likely to want to open the door...they probably want to make you wait outside longer for being so impatient.

Anyway, Jerrod finally heard me and came out and of course, was irritated with me for kicking the door, ringing the doorbell multiple times and yelling at him. But, when I showed him what I got, he was pretty impressed and surprised. I told him it was a present for him, because I wouldn't have done it otherwise.

We took some pictures of me and my lizard. Please appreciate these, because it will probably be the last ones you will ever see of me with something like this. I don't do these things on a regular basis. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you all.



We did returned that lizard to the neighbor's yard after we were done playing with him and don't worry...I washed my hands after about 10 times in a row.


Good story, eh? I bet you'd think it'd be a better story if I told one about having my CD finished, but believe it or not, that's far more complicated one.

It's been about a week since my last post....I wanted to write more often. I have so many pictures to share with you all! I have just had a somewhat busy week...or at least a week where I have been very overwhelmed and stressed out.

So many things to worry about right now: getting this music stuff taken care of with the publishing and doing all the copyright documents, making decisions about lots of stuff in regards to the music and CD (Ah! I hate making decisions) and just trying to get everything in the right place at the right time. It's enough to drive me crazy! I just don't want to mess up anything...especially not to the point that it becomes an irreversible mess up. These processes are very difficult. So, this stresses me out.

On top of that, my kitchen is making me nearly insane right now...I won't go into details right now on that....but it's a difficult job I am doing...More on that later....if I'm still alive after inhaled so much grout dust.

Next post (hopefully tomorrow) will be more fun. I have some crazy pictures to show. They are very shocking to me! :)

As I mentioned previously, I was building a dry stone wall along one side of our property. I finished it about 2 weeks ago, but I still have a few small things that I want to do to improve it.

I still need to post pictures of my work! I have some now, but Jerrod took so many for me and I still have to go through them and pick out some good ones.

So, I was getting my rocks from a lot of the nearby construction sites, but those houses are getting closer to being done, and as they get closer to landscaping, they've removed a lot of the piles of dug up rock from the surface that made them so accessible.I gathered lots of rocks for my wall piled up around here.
And, even though my wall is finished, I really wanted to get some extra rocks for repairs that might need to be done as it shifts with the seasons or maybe for an edge on a flowerbed in the future. They have huge piles one or two blocks down, at the edge of the subdivision, but when you are carrying a wheelbarrow full of a couple hundred pounds of rocks and it's 95 degrees outside, you don't want to walk any further than you have to (especially on hills). So, I've got to take advantage of the ones I've got here now before they are gone!

My neighbors across the street are a retired couple who spend a lot of time sitting on their front porch smoking their cigarettes. I believe they have quite enjoyed sitting out there day after day watching me carry 50 lb rocks around. I feel like I provide a form of entertainment or something. They always are telling me that I "work too hard" and I'm "so strong" and this sort of thing, which I think is absolutely hilarious. They make sure to mention this to Jerrod too. And my cousin, Steven, when he was over. I'm sure then both totally agree! haha.

Tonight they told me that they are starting to worry about me now that I am still gathering yet more rocks.I pretty much broke the first wheelbarrow from putting too much weight in it. We got this new one, which works pretty well. It's still holding up! I tried to explain why I was doing this and they just insist that I am doing too much all the time, (again, haha) and that I am too tough and I am going to seriously injure myself if I keep lifting rocks. I told them I don't exercise and I am pretty scrawny, so it's a good work out for me.

I probably won't get more though, because I am running out of places to put them. I just think it's better to have them while they are available, so I'm stocking up! Searching for the best rocks for your wall becomes a bit addictive, maybe....when I see see good ones that have been dug up after the fact, it makes me want to rip parts of the built wall down and re-build it with better stones to make it more stable. After you've already gone to all that work, it's tempting not to! I had to make lots of rock piles around the house...and then get them moved quick enough that they didn't ruin the grass!
The thing is, after you put so much time and effort into something, it's hard to leave it alone when you know how to make it better. Now that I have made one wall, I think I know how to make the next one better!

Our little rose bush is looking pretty amazing right now. We just planted these about a month and a half ago. We gave them some rose food and then watered them a lot and they have almost tripled in size in the this short amount of time. I've counted at least 28 flowers on them right now. It's pretty neat. Especially since when we got them they only had about 4 blooms on them and were only about 6 inches tall. This isn't the best picture because it was so sunny out when I took it and the color didn't turn out quite accurately. They are actually more of a deep, blue-tone red.

Jerrod always gets after me for not answering my cell phone. A lot of times I just leave it in another area of the house and I don't hear it. So, since I've started working outside more recently, I thought I better keep my phone out there with me so he wouldn't be upset with me when he tried to call me and I didn't answer it. I was keeping it on top of one of the pillars on the front porch and pretty much forgot it was there unless it rang.
Recently, there was one night before I went to bed when I remembered that I had accidentally left it outside after that day's yard work. When I went out to get it, I realized that I had watered the flowerbed right beside it, and therefore, had also ended up watering my phone. It was sitting there in a little puddle.

I tried to use it and, of course, it began acting strangely. I had to tell Jerrod what I had done and he helped me to prepare it to dry out, telling me to not expect much; I would probably have to get a new one. This was a little upsetting, because I don't really like talking on the phone anyway and as cheap as I am, the last thing I want to do is spend a whole bunch of money on a new phone that I wouldn't have needed if I had a better memory than a gnat.

We dried it out and fortunately, it worked the next day! I was so happy. But, from now on, I keep my phone in a plastic ziplock bag whenever I go outside. It makes it a bit difficult to answer the phone when it rings, but at least if I do happen to forget I have it again, there is a better chance of survival.

So, we have to do something with the walls in our kitchen, because, they are painted with flat paint and it's the same problem as in the bathrooms where the high moisture areas don't do well with it.
I was wanting to do a tile back splash because I think that the kitchen walls can get stuff on them so easily, even if they are painted with a glossier paint, having tile will keep it cleaner looking...and be easier to clean up. I mean, it almost seems necessary to have something on the wall: you just get one single small splash of something greasy up there and it's done for. If it's too oily, you have to re-primer before you re-paint.

I told Jerrod I thought it would be a good idea, but he didn't seem to care either way. Then suddenly last week he became convinced he wanted one. So, we did some looking around....I have done quite a bit of looking around, because I know exactly what I want (surprisingly for once!) and I'm trying to find something decent priced. I want a mosaic with a glass and stone blend. I need to have glass, because I do mosaic art and I am a bit of a glass freak. But, in the case of this kitchen, I think some stone it will look good too. The blended look is really nice. We actually found something, but it's more expensive than I had hoped. Now I have to do a lot of research to find a better price!

I was able to snag a sample today from a tile-shop downtown and it looks pretty good in in the kitchen. The above picture is the sample. More browns in it than I would have thought I'd want, but it seems to work.

Watching this makes me wish I was here again...
Then again, I always wish to be in Osaka!



I love my home in Tennessee, but I also love Osaka.

Tonight I'm working on starting to paint a bathroom. The builder painted the house in one color, which was an upgrade (anything more than white is) but it is all in the contractor-grade, flat paint, so it does not stand up well to any moisture. Easy to touch up, but easy to mess up too.
So, we decided the bathrooms definitely needed to be redone, as well as the kitchen. After only 3 months, we already had some stains that show through that flat paint, so we need something that is more washable. I think I got some hair gel or something like that on the wall just after we moved in, and it wasn't possible to paint over it. It kept showing through. So, we also had to do some primer on those spots. Kind of a pain, but fixing it now and using a different type of paint will prevent those kind of things make it easier in the future.

We already did the master bathroom a few weeks ago and so now we are doing the guest bath. I thought I would keep the color the same in this bathroom, but at the last minute when I was buying the paint today, I changed my mind. That was quite amazing in itself, because I usually can't make a decision to save my life and I actually made one today.

I think these color chips aren't really that accurate from my recent experience...the paint always turns out lighter. Although, I had heard in the past that you should always expect it to turn out darker.

After this, I want to do the kitchen for sure to get rid of that flat paint and then possibly the dining room. But, the dining room mostly just to change things up a bit with a different color. I'm not looking forward to doing the kitchen though.....with all the cabinets there will be so much trimming to do and I am very, very picky about it. I just hate those uneven lines some people do. I am not happy with some of the spots in my own house. They should just be more careful! It's tedious but I do all edges with a small artists paintbrush. It's kind of crazy, I know, but at least it keeps it nice and clean...and that causes me much less stress later on.

(P.S. I'm not supposed to do any of my art painting inside...Jerrod thinks I'm going to get some on the carpet or something like this. So, this is the only painting I'm allowed to do in the house...I really don't see what the difference is.)

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....