"Look Mommy! Daddy got a buck!"

Indeed he did!

 

My mighty hunter manly-man really, REALLY wanted to get a buck this year. His luck's been down the past couple of years and he needed a change of fortune. He drew a tag for late season, so actually wasn't putting a lot of pressure on himself to bring home a deer early and was not going out all that often, because he knew he'd have the late season which has historically been better for him.
I was more than a bit surprised this morning when he kissed me goodbye at 6:45 to go out hunting in the woods and fields behind our house. I was even more surprised when I got a phone call a couple hours later. Dan was trying to be nonchallant and cool while he was telling me about shooting his deer, but he wasn't fooling me - I knew how excited he really was. He walked back home and got his 4-wheeler and brought back the deer to show off to his girls.

 

Lana was impressed - very impressed. She was very proud of her daddy and wasn't put-off by the carcass at all. (Side note - this is my new favorite picture of Dan and Lana. Their identical facial expressions crack me up! Yeah, Lana's her Daddy's girl.)

 

She even kept wanting to touch it. Later in the car, Lana told me, "Daddy got a big buck. Good job Daddy."

 

Good job indeed!

Grateful

She looked at him fondly; that he had been sent to her, when there were so many other, lesser men who might have been sent, was a source of constant gratitude. That we have the people we have in this life, rather than others, is miraculous, she thought; a miraculous gift.
(From The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by A.M. Smith)

Happy Anniversary Dear Dan. I oh-so-very-much love you!
Goodness, four years just flies by, doesn't it?

I'll have Missing Consonants for $400 Please, Alex.

This morning's conversation with my daughter:

LANA: Mom! Help my b*tches please!

ME: WHAT?

LANA: See? My b*tches fall down.

(I pause, look at her and help her pull her too-big pants back up.)

ME: No Lana sweetie, say britches. Brrrrrr-itches.

LANA: Brrrrrr-itches.

ME: Good Job.

LANA: Thanks helpin' my b*tches Mommy!

(Sigh, maybe we should just call them pants from now on.)

(Or maybe she knows EXACTLY what she means and dang it, pants that fall down all the time really are b*tches!)

September was...

(Dang, I'm getting slow posting these monthly recaps. I first started doing them to force myself to blog more regularly. I wish I could say we've been busy with exotic vacations and days at the spa, but alas, reality is far more mundane and rewarding than a fantasy life of luxury. Anyway, I digress.....)

September came in with a bang! Well, actually more like a chilly, cold frost.

 

Yup, you read that right. The 2011 Clear Creek Killer Frost hit us on September 3rd. It was tough on the whole garden, some vegetable didn't recover at all.

 

These poor sweet peppers didn't have a chance.

Then there was Labor Day.

 

Complete with a Lana black eye. (I think this injury hurt me and Dan more than it did Lana. It was painful to see her pretty face so marred, but she stayed pretty happy and never let it bother her.)

On September 11, our church hosted a community remembrance and picnic, full of tons of activities for kiddos.

 

Lana and her cousins enjoyed the bounce houses and water slides.

Somehow I got the wild idea that I needed a house project that was just mine. I chose to scrape, paint and prime the deck railing and told Dan he wouldn't have to do ANYTHING concerning my project.

 

And here he is, pressure washing the railings. I did (eventually) get everything primed and painted, but it's taken about a month to finish this little project.

We also celebrated Dan's birthday.

 

Complete with home-made made-from-scratch (Cool Whip counts as scratch, right?) Chocolate Cream Pie.

One weekend we headed down to Oregon to visit my parents and watch the Pendleton Round-Up Westward Ho! Parade.

 

Let'er Buck!

And finally, finally, FINALLY, the huge, huge, HUGE flooring project was done, done, DONE!

 

It's beautiful and amazing and so much neater than I ever thought it would be. The floor (and all of Dan's hard work) deserve their own post, so I'll go into more detail and show more pictures at another time.

So, how was your September? Anything of note coming up in October?