Fruitful

In my post from Tuesday (that should have gone up Monday, but was delayed), I talked briefly about all the fruit we have at our new place and how it reminded me of summers at my grandparents’ farm.  I’d intended to get back to that in my post from yesterday (again, delayed), but I ended up going a different direction.  So today, let’s take that trip to Grandpa and Grandma’s house.

My grandparents lived on a farm about half an hour away from us.  My grandmother lived all but six months of her life on that farm, as it had been passed down through the years from one generation to the next.  It’s a century farm, and I’m proud to be part of that tradition, even though the acreage has been sold off and all that’s left now is crop ground.  I’d like to someday buy the acreage back, but so far, no luck (the one time it was up for sale, the timing was just not right and we couldn’t do it *sigh*).

When I was little, the acreage included much more than it does now.  When you turned in the driveway, the house was on the right and the old garage was on the left.  The old garage has now been leveled, but the foundation remains, and the new owners put up a basketball hoop.  Just west of the old garage was a corn crib, which I believe still stands, and to the west of that was a barn.  It was lost in a fire several years ago – the new people had heating lamps in the barn for some animals, and somehow the place caught fire.  If it hadn’t been for a passing fireman, of all people, the whole farm might have burned.

The Great Wall of Fiberglass

I spent this morning watching Star Trek: Voyager and eating Goldfish crackers with Cricket and Thumper.  They love watching “the ship.”  And Cricket trying to say Hirogen was possibly the cutest thing ever.

But this afternoon?  This afternoon I spent stacking insulation in my garage while Bubbles and Tadpole made trips down with it from our attic (Yes, they were appropriately attired for dealing with the stuff.  I, on the other hand, was stupid, meaning not appropriately attired.).  We’re moving shortly, and since the insulation isn’t in any way affixed to our house, we’re taking it with us.  Unfortunately, my attempt to stack it neatly in our tiny little garage did not go well.

2013-10-05 14.28.48

Greath the wall was, but stable and sturdy it was not.

Lotsa news!

First up, The Lokana Chronicles is up on Miss Snark’s First Victim as part of this month’s Secret Agent Contest.  Click here to check it out!  And if you follow me on Twitter, I apologize for the pitch spam, but the After the Madness Twitter Pitch Party is today and I’ve – belatedly – been pitching my book in hopes of snagging an agent’s interest.  I missed out on Pitch Madness this time around, and I haven’t been too addicted to the #pitmad thread today, either, but both things are always a lot of fun and I wish all the contestants good luck (and all the winners congratulations). 🙂

Next, I was super excited to see this in my email yesterday:

bu-sod

adore the Banned Underground books and have been anxiously awaiting the release of The SatNav of Doom ever since I finished the last book in the series.  My screencap cut off some of the links, so here they are again: Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, even a blog!

And last, but certainly not least…

Weekend exploits, or Double Trouble (times two!)

Good friends and good food - what more could a girl ask for on a rockin' Friday night?

Good friends and good food – what more could a girl ask for on a rockin’ Friday night?

Well, here I am, sitting at my desk on a lovely Tuesday morning, trying to recover from yet another action-packed weekend.  When I look back on the summer of 2013, I think that’s what I’ll remember – it was a summer of action.  This time, though, instead of a family camping trip, the weekend revolved around time spent with great friends (and loads of good food, naturally).

One of my oldest and dearest friends is back in town.  Well, not my town anymore, but I’ll get to that.  See, she moved cross-country to sunny California after high school, putting a serious crimp in our hangout schedule.  Last time she was back in Iowa and I actually got to see her was four years ago when her sister got married (sadly, she couldn’t make it back for my wedding a few months later – stupid circumstances).  Clearly, we needed to get together again, and that’s exactly what happened this time, as she spent her trip to our hometown crashed on my couch.  After the “excitement” I had at the beginning of July, this was just the sort of excitement I needed.

The race is on!

As soon as I hit Publish on my last post, I realized that I’d intended to post some pictures along with it.  Guess that’s what happens when you get distracted. 🙂

Qualifying laps.  If you look under the flag, you'll see a truck.

Qualifying laps. If you look under the flag, you’ll see a truck.

Anyway, since I seem to have skipped over my trip to the Iowa Speedway last month, allow me to share a bit.  That’s where Seymour’s at again tonight, this time with one of his old friends.  They’re at the US Cellular 250, one of the Nationwide Series races.  The race we went to was part of the Camping World Truck Series, but I can’t remember which one it was.  Anyway, Seymour had never been and I’d never been to a professional sporting event of any kind, so it was really neat to go to our first race together.

I had no idea who any of the drivers were because…

Campfire tales

So, after my last post, how about something a little lighter?  I’ve been camping three times in the last month and I don’t think I’ve recounted any of our grand adventures!  How the heck did that happen?!

Okay.  Enough exclamation marks.  Maybe. 🙂

So in June, we had planned to visit the (I assume, having never been there myself) lovely Volga Lake.  Thanks to Mother Nature, we were forced to change our plans and we wound up visiting scenic Pine Lake instead, right smack in our own backyard.  It was such a nice park that we decided to return in July, which turned out to be perfect because I got called into work (our camping trips straddled the week-weekend divide).  So in June the weather was lovely, the river was perfect for tubing, the hiking trails were excellent, and we had a great time.

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But our first trip in July was a little more eventful…

Yay Friday! :)

Multitasking: I found the portal to Lokana while hiking at Pine Lake on a family vacation. Family time + research FTW! :)

Multitasking: I found the portal to Lokana while hiking at Pine Lake on a family vacation. Family time + research FTW! 🙂

So, it’s Friday.  Woohoo!  It’s been a week of big, exciting things around the country, and it’s been a week of big exciting things right here in my own backyard.  It’s going to be a super busy weekend, too.  So what am I doing to prepare?

I’M WRITING, Y’ALL!

I’ve been working on Remnants again the last couple of days, and it feels great, but I can’t get my inner editor to shut up, which is irritating.  I have a buttload of revisions left to do on The Lokana Chronicles, but I really need a week or so of peace, quiet, and no internet to get them done. 🙂

Still, it feels wonderful to be enjoying my passions again.  I’ve missed playing with my camera and visiting imaginary worlds and the people that populate them.  And since I’m starting a new job next week, it’s nice that at least a little bit of the change going on in my life is change that I enjoy (not that I’m not excited about the new job – I totally am).

So for now, it’s back to writing.  Big things are in the works and I need time to prepare.  Have a great weekend, everybody!

(c) 2013.  All rights reserved.

A super moon for the birthday boy!

DSC_0531Yesterday was Cricket’s birthday.  Can you believe he’s three already?  I can’t.  How did this happen again?  And how do I make it stop?  If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know – I’m also open to options for keeping the older two small. 😀

It’s been quite the week at Casa Kauffman, which made for a grumpy birthday boy yesterday morning.  He was up pretty late (for an adult, never mind a two-year-old) Sunday night and didn’t nap on Monday, so you can imagine the fun I had that night.  By last night, he was in a better mood, but I still had to coax him into the car when I went to pick him up from daycare.   This is how the conversation went:

I’ve got sunshine

It’s another beautiful day here in Central Iowa!  We’re still dealing with some flooding, but at least the rain has stopped coming every darn day.  Unfortunately, that happened a little too late for a lot of people, some of my family among them.  I’ve been adding pictures to my Flood of 2013 Pinterest board – the water levels are just amazing.  Even now that the constant rain has stopped, more or less, the rivers and creeks are still awfully high.  A lot of fields still have standing water in them.

But that’s not what this post is about.  My brain is currently being pulled in three different directions, so today’s post is going to be light and pretty.  That’s right, it’s another photo post!  After all, who doesn’t love pictures?

So that’s a brief look at what we’ve been up to lately – eating cake, playing in ketchup, and making faces (and writing like mad when I can find a few minutes of silence).  This weekend we leave for our first camping trip of the season and I’m looking forward to family togetherness and more camera fun.  And my Tomcat will be returning from two weeks with his dad, which will make it extra special.  So if I’m even more absent than normal in the coming days, zat’s why, my lovelies.  I promise to return with pictures a-plenty and perhaps even a fish tale or two!

(c) 2013.  All rights reserved.