Life By Lindsey Rae

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.

I just got the mail and there was one of those county newspaper inserts with it today. On the front page, I saw some good news: there is a new shopping area that will be opening about 5 minutes from my house in December!
We knew there was going to be some new retail coming, but weren't sure exactly when. Apparently, Lowes will be opening in December and Wal-Mart in March...along with some other new stores and retail.
I'm very excited about it. It will be so nice to have some of those places we shop at closer and the more this area thrives, the better it is for our property values. We already live 2 minutes from a great shopping area now, so this will just make it even more convenient. I can be quite happy staying within a 5 mile radius of my house most days. If I'm not traveling to go somewhere on a trip...like across the country, the continent or the world....I'd much prefer not to go anywhere. Saves gas and time. Plus, I like my house. (And there is less people that get on my nerves around here. haha)

Speaking of people that get on my nerves, hopefully the traffic won't get too bad over here because of this. But, I'm sure they'll work it out...after enough people complain...

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! :)

You probably have heard the story about the more than 40 million credit card numbers that were stolen from various retailers over the past few years. From the news stories I've seen, it sounds like these stores didn't have very good security in place, which is kind of crazy to me, considering the size of these corporations.

I saw this particular story for the first time a couple nights ago on CNN and they had people calling in, talking about how worried they are becoming about security issues and the rise of white collar crime.

After watching it, I thought: my husband definitely has chosen the right career path! There will probably be more and more demand for his type of skills in the future. People are going to want...or need, more computer security geniuses around!

In case you didn't see it, here's a video from Yahoo on the story:

We went to a baptism tonight. I didn't know the person it was for, but since Jerrod is the branch mission leader at church, one of his responsibilities is to help out with all the baptisms in our branch, so I went with him. And, they also asked me to lead the music for the service. :)

It was a good baptism. Not that every one isn't good! I think that sometimes you forget how uplifting these things can be until get there and you feel the spirit that is there.

The guy who was baptized was in his 20's and had a pretty neat story of his conversion to the church and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I think everyone who was there felt like it was a really good experience. It's really a privilege to be able to participate in things like this and get the opportunity to have our testimonies reaffirmed about why we believe what we do and how great it can be when we make good choices in our lives.

I slept nearly 14 hours last night and I woke up feeling like I hadn't slept for a week and then had been run over by a truck. It's one of those days when I'm so tired, I can't even explain how tired I am. I'm afraid my Hypersomnia is killing me and I am dying a slow and painful and sleepy death.

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's not technically possible for hypersomnia to kill you, but if it could, I'm sure it would feel like I feel.

This week we had a Relief Society (women's organization at church) activity with a "Christmas in July" theme. We signed up to do a craft thing ahead of time and I signed up for learning to do cake decorating (because it cost the least. Haha. So cheap.)

I did the poinsettias on these 4 cupcakes with an icing bag cut at the end, but no tip. It was pretty easy, I thought, but I was slow so I could get it looking good. Not too bad for a first try though, right?




I brought mine home and took a picture, but I don't really want to eat them, because I don't like that much icing. Jerrod said he would have one, but then he didn't. They've been in the fridge since Tuesday, so I don't know if they still will taste OK, but, the missionaries are coming over tomorrow and they'll usually eat anything...I always give the missionaries stuff I don't want! haha!

Speaking of Christmas in July, I am so irritated by seeing Christmas stuff already out in stores! I shop at Hobby Lobby a lot for scrapbooking stuff (and like to support them, because they close on Sunday's) but, it drives me crazy that they have had their Christmas stuff out for at least a month now...maybe even since June. It's ridiculous! I mean, it makes Christmas seem less special when it's around for more than half of the year! Who is really thinking about buying new ornaments and lights for their tree in the summer?!

The Nashville Zoo has an annual event called "Ice Day" that I have been wanting to go to for about three years now and we finally made it this year. At Ice Day, they make up frozen treats for the animals and then have scheduled times where they feed them. The tigers, for example, get a 5-gallon turkey flavored ice block. Elephants get large fruit flavored rings of ice, and this sort of thing.

We ate free ice cream.

It was sooo humid and hot. Temperature was in the 90's and it had rained the day and night before so humidity felt like it was 100%!

Actually, I mostly wanted to go see the meerkats get ice treats. As I have said in the past, we used to be crazy about Meerkat Manor and we have our meerkat painting we got at the zoo auction last year. They were so cute...but a bit fat. These meerkats seem to be a little overweight. Their keeper called them, "pleasantly plump." As a result, they weren't moving very fast!

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!

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!