Rain, Rain, Come Again!

Whew, what a difference some rain makes!

All of a sudden the lawn is a meadow, the tomatoes are more than half-hearted, and the eggplants have doubled in height. The basil needs pinching back...er, harvesting... and is beginning to look like an overgrown mint patch. The drainage ditches have enough run off to entice great white herons to walk on their stilt legs foraging for frogs, snakes and fish, and likely soon there will be flocks of ibis tiptoeing around making their little whirring noises while looking for moving snacks.

What doesnt kill us makes us strong, or so I've heard, and the exam cramming marathon I've been on in addition to the long work hours has taken its toll. Thankfully, the marks have been high (I THANK God since I definately feel like He's helping me in that category!) and though I'm green, I'm beginning to really enjoy certain elements of what we're doing. I now have two days off, and though I'll be cramming more for the upcoming tests (there are lots more), I'll be able to work in some SLEEP.

And it's soooooooooooooo nice sleeping while it's raining outside! We've had some storms, but now it's an every-so-often shower with nice thunder and maybe some lightning, but really GREAT soaking rains. That'll hopefully deter the occurence of brush fires in this area. And if there's one while I'm at work any given day, I'll be one of the first to be aware of it, at least...one of the perks of the job :)

I'm behind on so many things, and the house is looking quite neglected inside and out. Hopefully, the adjustment period will ease into some sort of normality and I'll hit my stride once there is a set schedule...but I'll have no set schedule till about November. The house will have to be dealt with long before then :) R starts her first day of nursing in the adult program tomorrow, handling a long commute by herself for the first time rather than being bused from here to there with a school group like she was in high school. She's making the arrangements herself, and I'm easing into the background since she's of age and wanting her independence in those areas. Her boyfriend is still in boot camp, and has mixed feelings about having signed up so hastily. He made uninformed choices with a lot of assumptions, and is not being very quick to just learn from it and face what's ahead of him with some backbone. He's trying to find a "way out," and I'm not happy that he's involving R from a distance in the emotion of it all.

But again...I am trying to allow her to live her own life, while being a resource if she wants to utilize my perspective. Ah, youth....

(With the exception of my waist size, I'm SO glad I'm not 18 again! ha)

She's spending time with his little brother, who's missing him a lot. While I'm typing this, she's cracked out her old electric guitar from the storage shed and has hooked up an amp and is testing it all so she can surprise the little brother with it as a gift. She went through her "guitar stage" at just about his same age, and she'd like to hand it on to him. That's on the docket for this afternoon, as well as our going over her first chapter in the nursing book together for review before tomorrow's class.

On the way home from work today, I drove by a couple properties we'd looked at in the past.

One of the properties we'd discussed bartering/trading with the owner has recently had a for sale by owner sign put back up. The contact info listed, among other things, a barter website. We never heard back from the owner about the likelihood of his being interested in such a thing, so it surprised me he's posted it on this site. Can't quite make sense of the site, but it seems it's geared towards businesses and asset trades and such. I'll be asking my hub if he knows anything about that, but since he wasnt too gung-ho about that particular house (we liked the property, but the house needed everything fixed) we may just leave it alone...we'll see.

I keep having the notion that in the right time, the right property will come along, and not until then. Come next week, I'll begin receiving my first paycheck...To Pay Off the Debt...a wonderful feeling!!

Now let's hope that I can keep up with the exams...the final has to be passed in one shot, or I'm out, even after training etc. Can we say Eeeek?? :)

I'm taking it one thing at a time.

For now, a shower, my PJs, clean sheets, and sleeping........while it rains......



Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........... :) bliss