Ames Mess

It normally takes me 35 minutes to get home from work (Des Moines to Ames), give or take a minute or two, depending on the road conditions, the flow of traffic, the mood I am in, the number of idiots on the road, and the speed that I am driving. The other day, Friday to be exact, it took me 80 minutes! That’s enough time for me to drive to Des Moines and back and have a piña colada in between, if I drank that is. But really, those record setting times are expected in the dead of winter when snow and ice demand longer driving times. The odd thing about it was that it was a sunny, nearly cloudless, 80° day in May, which was a nice surprise after a week or so of clouds and rain.

Due to all the rain we have had and the amount of rain that has fallen north of Ames, I was not completely surprised to see a digital orange sign above I-35 read that Hwy. 30 was closed west of I-35 due to flooding.

For the Ames natives or those familiar with Ames, you should be able to follow, for others, bear with me for the time being or follow by way of Google Maps.

Actually, after reading this to Shantel, she told me that people wouldn’t care and I needed to shorten my description. Needless to say, it took me 40 minutes to get from 13^th St. to Wessex, due to the result of closed roads, car-packed streets, and a flooded town. (If you would like the long, drown-out description, let me know and I will post it. Beware that it is pretty long and dry)

After eating supper that Shantel had ready, I suggested that we go for a walk/bike ride/run to check out the flooding.

The top picture is taken from S 4th St. looking towards the Intramural softball and footfall fields. The middle pictures is Target on Duff Ave. Can anyone guess where the last one is taken?

The day has finally come!

We are all familiar with the joy that Shantel has shown through the growth of her “little ones”! Although my face hasn’t been as sparkly or glowing with praise as Shantel’s, I too am amazed at God’s life through plants. I, however, beam with excitement about different blessings from God.

Shantel posted earlier how I like to enlighten her on the newest model of gun put out by Springfield and she is correct, but my enlightening days are over. No longer do I have to show pictures or try to explain how something works. A dream came true when I purchased a Springfield Armory XD. I will admit that I like guns and believe strongly in the 2^nd Amendment. Some people (I won’t mention any names…Thaddeus) go as far to say that I am a “militia man”, but such words are harsh and unnecessary! Despite what others may say, guns will be a part of my house, and yes, the wife approves!

Some of you may be asking yourselves how I managed to pull off this purchase when Shantel and I fit the “poor college student” mold. You see, the answer is quite simple. I have a very understanding wife!

Nah, not really. Well, sort of. Shantel is very understanding, but I…..I am a nerd. I spend my spare time “building” spreadsheets about financial information/projections. One of the spreadsheets masks our savings account. The amount of money in the account is allocated between different savings categories and one of them just happens to be “Andrew’s Stash.” And before all you women start jumping on my back, Shantel has a stash fund as well. My fund has been built up mainly from selling textbooks, donating plasma, and receiving gifts from people. Some funds have been donated by an anonymous donor….Shantel’s Stash. Since I run the show, I get the dough!

For all you people who think that I am unruly tyrant, the last sentence is a joke!

Little Goslings

Yet another reason why I love our apartment complex! The little goslings are so fluffy and cute! I would have liked to get some closer pictures, but Mom started hissing at me and I thought I better not push my luck! I didn't feel like getting attacked by a Canadian goose today :)

The Garden

Finals are over, which means Andrew and I actually have a little free time! We celebrated our 1 year anniversary on Monday. Who would have thought it has been a year already!

The time off means that I could finally plant the garden. Andrew and I spent all afternoon Tuesday pulling weeds and planting seeds. It was so refreshing being outside in the dirt. Andrew and his big muscles were quite helpful in hoeing out trenches for the seeds :-) Today was the big day for all of my indoor plants to move out to their new home. They have been hankering to get out in the sun and stay there. I'm sure Andrew will miss watching me move them in and out of our bedroom each day to get their fill of time on the balcony and then me worrying that they'll get blown over in their little yogurt cups.

Our garden is complete with cucumbers, onions, potatoes, broccoli, beets, kohlrabi, spinach, tomatoes, all sorts of peppers, sugar peas, and sweet corn. Andrew thinks we'll have food coming out our ears, whereas I have a hard time believing anything will grow. It will be so exciting to harvest food from our own garden... I can hardly wait!

My strawberry roots never grew...I don't know if I did something wrong or if they were just bad roots. Andrew was wonderful, however, and bought me some strawberry plants and a strawberry jar! Hopefully we'll have bunches of strawberries in the fall :)

An update on my herbs... I think they are confused. They were growing like mad and then I decided they needed to be thinned out. I didn't want to kill the plants, however, so I transplanted them. The disturbance caused all of them to fall over, so now they're growing in odd directions, but they are still alive. It will be interesting to see how they turn out!

That's all the garden updates for now... I'll post more pictures when things start to come to life!