Going to market to buy a fat pig...

We have been trying to eat fewer store-bought, refined foods with lots of chemicals in them. Not to any great extreme however. I refuse to give up Umpqua ice cream or diet coke so I know I will never be one of those who grows everything myself. I just want to think about what goes in my mouth first. So, if I decide that yes, I really do feel like I'll should take some Yellow #5 into my system today because it comes in the ice cream I'm craving, so be it. At least I know. I HAVE moved over to making all my own bread. It tastes far better anyway. I stick to store flour, not organic and I don't think we will ever grind our own. If we have 10 or so kids then maybe. Anyway, the point here is that we have a friend that raises pigs. We bought a half and are going to the butcher today to determine how we want it cut. We've never done this before with a pig. It seems to be a good thing to get closer to our food than a package on the shelf, to recognize the sacrifice of an animal life to feed us. Hopefully it will help us be more aware of what and how we eat.
I should probably get it tested for MRSA too, eh? Which reminds me of another story about Mad Cow and giving blood. I'll have to put that one up sometime.

old pictures

I've been going through pictures on my moms computer of the last five years. It's amazing how many more pictures people take with digital than with film. My mom takes thousands of pictures. Other than being very overwhelming to sort through it is a great thing to go back and remember all these events I had forgotten. I'll put up a few good ones.

So, after getting really busy last year and not posting anything for months, I managed to delete our internet program. Well, not exactly but it stopped working. Long story. The impact was to no longer have access to saved bookmarks and passwords which, in relation to this blog, meant an even greater excuse not to write (because it would take SO much more time to figure them out). Lame, yes. But it doesn't really fit with our lifestyle anyway. We were attempting to find a way to communicate with family and friends all that is going on in our lives. The problem is that we don't have that many amazing things going on and little time to come up with witty or deep things to say. We discovered an amazingly great thing...FACEBOOK fits perfectly! Short, to the point, wide variety of people to reconnect with, and you can say a lot or nothing. Not much self expression. Perfect for us. That means I have more time for other creative activities, like gardening, and writing papers, and remodeling a home. Since the last post we gutted our bathroom (yes, our only one. We made frequent trips to my parents!) I finished my second year in the counseling program. This fall we decided that instead of finishing the program by doing an internship that we would wait until next fall (09) and move to portland. Joe will finish his masters and I will finish mine. Then, who knows where we will go. It's been a bit stressful to think of moving, getting internships and school set up and applying for scholarships along with the usual daily activities.
So there's an update for the last year. Join us on facebook or check every few months and you might find something. Maybe a random surprise note!