wildlife
last night i got home and was like "what is that movement by my front door? rabbits? kittens?" nope, none of the above. i immediately called conrad upon his "hello?" yelled, "honey, there's three baby foxes playing by our front door!!!" i was scared to get out of the car cuz i didn't want them to attack me. they actually got scared when i opened the door and ran into their hole, which happens to be under our house. they were soooo cute playing and rolling around like kittens. unfortunately, they live under our house, so we have to get rid of them. anyone know of a humane way to do this?

what's in a vow?
everyone must be feeling the blogger blues. no one's writing much lately, maybe we're all too busy? anyhow, i really do like having a place to post things and i know people reading them care. conrad told me some sad news yesterday. i'll give you some background of the last 9 months or so in his immediate family: his mom had a weird episode last summer where she blacked out, and some other weird stuff i'm not sure of the details. after that, she was never the same (according to conrad, sister, dad), and had trouble remembering things, etc. she went to 3 different drs. and no one could find anything (doesn't seem they looked too hard). this same weird thing happened about 2 months ago. after some tests, they found she'd had a stroke sometime in the last 36 hours, and they figured that was what had happened during the summer. the whole family's been struggling with this change. his mom hasn't been able to work as much farm-wise, which is a huge blow. and she doesn't really remember to do housework. she's struggled with being depressed. everyone else seems to be frustrated with her not being able to remember things and being "different". she's getting better, but there's still stuff they're all dealing with. anyways, to get to why i titled my post this is because on the phone yesterday conrad said it had been a weird day. i asked why and he said his dad's been really depressed and mentioned separating from his mom. immediately i felt anger rise up. how could he even think of doing this? i asked conrad, "did you ask him if he remembered taking any vows 25 years ago?!" it made me mad all night. i hate how people just throw marriage around and don't think their vows count anymore after x amount of years when things get rough and love doesn't come as naturally. i think if i saw his dad right now i'd just explode on him. so basically what i'm asking is, will you please pray for conrad and his family? and kind of keep in on the down low--nothing's definite and i'm PRAYING some of these things said by his dad were said out of frustration, not seriousness. love you guys!!

if i would've had a shotgun...
i didn't sleep well on sunday night because the cows were bellerin' ALL NIGHT LONG!!! i seriously wouldn't have been held responsible for any cow deaths occurring that night if i had a shotgun. i went to walmart monday and picked up a 10 pair pack of earplugs.

i had my first friends over this past weekend to warm my new home. it was way fun to have people over, and i'm looking forward to more in the future. we're still finishing up on the details and decorating, etc. but it's coming right along. it's starting to feel like home. conrad and i watched iron jawed angels on sunday. it's soooooo good, i'd highly recommend it. i had heard a lot about it in my women's studies courses and saw it at the library last week so i picked it up. free movie rental, good movie, what more could you want? anyway, it's about the women's suffrage movement and the women who were relentless in getting US the right to vote. it was historically accurate, as far as i could tell, and had great actresses. it's so crazy to me that women have only had the right to vote for less than a hundred years. it's something i think we take for granted. i was thinking during the movie "would i have stood up to society and put myself out there so passionately to fight for this or would i have sat back, complacent, comfortable, content?" it's kinda the same way with telling people about God. people lack passion, it's scary, pushes us out of our comfort zones, and though we can see a wonderful end-result, we (I) sit back complacent, comfortable, content. pretty convicting for me. one of my favorite parts of the movie was when they get sent to a jail and are standing there naked and you see them all from the back and their butts are not perfect, there's big ones, small ones, dimply ones, white ones. basically, thank you to whoever chose the butts for this scene because it doesn't advocate the usual hollywood "perfect" body. and.... butts are funny :)

now that I'm 23...
i haven't blogged forever, and i guess it's time to do so as the first time since i've turned 23. i had a good birthday. sunday i went to red lobster with the fam and then conrad took me to soak in lava hot springs. this made me very happy! yesterday, my actual birthday, was fairly uneventful (a downfall of getting older i think...), but i did wake up to conrad'd grandparents calling and singing "happy birthday" on my voicemail (i was in the shower when they called) and had cheesecake and another birthday song at work. my clients sing their hearts out and i love it... one place i don't get embarassed by being sung to but actually feel special when they sing. the Center gave me some star-gazer lilies... i love lilies and they add some life to my house! i went to visit pooh at honks and then went home and worked on stuff till conrad came home. his grandma and uncle stopped by and gave me a present. they are so thoughtful. conrad took me out to dinner to pizza hut (actually carry-out, because at 9:40 on a weeknight in AF, that's about your only option) and it was delicious. and i got lots of voicemails from friends:) okay, so it wasn't a bad birthday, now that i look back on it. there were a couple sad moments, okay, maybe just one. i was getting ready and telling conrad how cute his grandparents were for calling on bdays and singing, and thought my grandpa doesn't probably even know it's my birthday. my grandma manske was always the one to remember and sent a nice card, so he kinda counted on her to remember, it's probably that way with a lot of grandparents...? but after i got over this, i moved on and had a good day.

one thing i've been thinking about a lot is pride. what a disdainful quality it is... and i have it. yucky!! i keep getting stressed cuz i want our house to be in order and feel like home. but there's this and this and this to do. i'm thinking of all the times people have offered to come and help at our house, help move, etc., and i've turned it down because my house isn't settled or it's a job i don't feel someone else should have to do for me. i haven't decorated, i don't have rugs in the bathrooms yet, there are box-elder bugs, the windows take forever to clean, etc. but these people who've offered DON'T CARE about these things! anyways... it's kinda weird cuz it plays out in my relationship with God, too. i think i need to have everything figured out, then i'll spend time with Him and allow Him to speak into my life. i don't know. it's kinda frustrating. God, take the pride away!!

p.s we have two couple day-old calves around our house. they're adorable, and yes, i talk to them and tell them that:)