25 Letters

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

My life as I know it

Hello world! I haven't written in a while…in fact, I become quite aware of that everytime someone asks me about that dumb tomato thief. We never did catch him/her. We did catch some squirrels eating the bitty tomatoes - they didn't wait for them to ripen like that other person did…ugh, still is frustrating to think about! Oh well.
Since then, I've coordinated a wedding, shopped with David for a car (which he bought), moved for the third time this year, and left on a business trip. Crazy fun huh? And that was all in a week's time! I know, this surprises none of you…but I've been better about doing less..until the last couple of weeks.

Kim and Amar's wedding was great! Kim and I have been friends for a while, and were roomies for the last six months. I got to coordinate their wedding, and it was a comparative breeze. Everyone who had to be there showed up, mostly on time, Kim was beautiful, and Amar got to leave close to when he wanted to! Everyone was happy, it was elegant and simple and it was fun to be a part of it. A great way to start off my wedding coordinating business. (a shameless plug, yes! hopefully, you will soon be able to go to foreverafterweddings.com and see my site )

Packing began as soon as the wedding was over. I had a week to get packed and moved before I was off to Corpus Christi for the last three days of our lease. I'll miss that little duplex on Taylor Draper…it's a great area and a fun little house. Gone are the days where I could walk to David's or run down the street to HEB or Sonic - and starbucks was even closer! Hmm, might be a good thing that I'm moving a bit further away. If you want my new addy, be sure and email me!

I had SO MUCH help moving on Sunday (Shout out to Daniel, Cari, Trina, Reba, Tim, Kat, Mark and of COURSE David)! It was so smooth and everyone was such a blessing. I think we packed up the majority of my stuff in 2 hrs and then unpacked it in an hour. Now I just have to get it all into my room. My new roomies are being absolute dolls about it all - even though most of my stuff is inhabiting our living room. Oh well, hopefully that will end this Thursday when I load it all into my room.

Speaking of new roomies - I'm so "stoked" about them! (that's totally a Kaitlan word) Tiffany has graciously let Kaitlan and I invade her cute little 3 bedroom house and even let me bring Allie. Tiff is a 4th grade teacher that will CRACK you up with her laugh - it's so infectious. Kaitlan has returned from stints in Kenya (that's in Africa for those of you who don't know) and Philly where she's been ministering however she can. She's so awesome and I'm so excited to share this part of my life with these girls. It will be fun. House rules? "Party all the time (in the Christian way of course), No drama, No issues - all communication!" Love it!

Must tell you…have a really funny story I wish to tell, but then I will steal Kim's thunder. So watch her blog for the best moving story ever. It involves keys. Oh and Tiff has fun moving stuff on her blog as well.

Hope you enjoyed my LONG update!

Monday, August 07, 2006

Tomato thief on the loose!

No, I'm not joking. There is definitely a tomato thief on the loose.

If you're asking if I'm crazy - it's ok, I asked it too.

I have a planter with 4 tomato plants in my back yard. I live in a quiet neighborhood and my house backs up to an old road/alley that is now enclosed with private property on all sides.

Throughout the summer I've been nurturing my 4 plants with the promise of a return. Slowly but surely, my plants have not let me down. And if you are wondering, there is nothing better than a homegrown tomato. Lately however, it seems that the production has slowed down greatly. I couldn't figure it out. I was still watering, I was still seeing green tomatoes on the vine, but they seemed to be disappearing before they got red. I blew it off for a while, thinking that I was just forgetful as usual.

Finally, one of my tomatoes was a day away from being ready to pick. I took careful note of where it was on the plant, just in case I wasn't nuts and the tomatoes were actually disappearing. When I headed out to water the next day, I check on that specific tomato…and it was gone! In it's place was a snipped vine - a snipped vine! Someone had come into my backyard with a pair of sissors to remove this specific tomato! I couldn't believe it!

David didn't believe me at first either, but after further inspection, he found a path of trampled down weeds that led right up to our back gate. He promptly nailed our back gate shut and we both felt better. That would stop him!

…Wrong. Several days later, another tomato disappeared. UGH! What kind of person walks into a random person's backyard and steals tomatoes right off the plant! Someone in my neighborhood apparently…and most likely the tenants of the only occupied house that has access to the dead zone. Grrr.

So we have several solutions options. I have listed several below.

Kim's solution: Make a sign that says - TOMATO STEALERS - STOP! We know who you are, we know were you live and we have pictures. So please leave our tomatoes be. Thanks.

David's solution: Mount web cam, record the offender stealing, and then either 1) file a police report so that we can have a cop bang on their door with a pic, or 2) mount the pic along with Kim's above sign on the tomato plant.

Noell's solution: Bring Allie back from Tim and Kat's and post said sign and web cam pic on the tomato planter. Maybe the combonation will scare them off.

Other options that have been discussed include a close up picture of said tenants in their house to post on the planter, a sign that says "apparently you need these more than I do," or just realizing that for some reason I'm growing a plant that is supplying an unknown person with God's tomatoes.

Crazy I know. But I have some random person hanging out in my BACKyard gleaning the fruits of my labor.

A bit freaky if you ask me.

editors note: Kim has graciously taken pictures of plant, the tracks outside our gate, and the nailed shut gate. I will either post soon or will get her to. Oh, and for those of you who don't know…Kim's my roomie.