Where has the time gone?

Who can believe its almost Thanksgiving??
The last month has been a blur of activities for us. Here is a quick run down:

- Kel and Lucy were here for a visit and caught the fall weather perfectly. Lucy got to meet Eldon and LOVED him. She quickly learned to call him Eldi (imagine her yelling it like Elllldddiiiiiii) and now every dog she sees is Eldi. Too adorable.
- I have been consumed with lots of reading, trying to knock out some books before I throw myself into the newest Stephen King book and no one hears from me for a few weeks.
- Hunting season has started, so our trips up north are becoming more frequent.
- I have knocked out some serious crocheting projects lately. I just finished 2 baby blankets for a twin shower I am attending this weekend and played around with a wool ear flap hat for Keith to wear hunting. The hat turned out great, until I felted it and it shrunk about 4 sizes. Penny Page is now the proud owner of that hat and I am working on an extra large one now. Who knew?!
- My calves / shin splints are an on again, off again nusaince. I have decided that only running isn't helping, so I am incorporating more weight lifting and some alternate cardio. I have been to 2 spinning classes recently and loved them. The sweat factor is amazing! We are thinking about joining a gym to mix things up a little and possibly get some swimming in too.
- I am planning on running the Geist Half marathon in the spring and possibly a full marathon in the fall since its been a few years since I have officially ran either. I need something to train for and look forward to. I miss it.
- We had a kick butt Halloween party (post to follow) and I think it will be a yearly event.
- The Twilight Saga's New Moon movie came out this last weekend and I attended an awesome party at Annie's house followed by a 10pm viewing of the movie. Like a bunch of teenagers, we sat in line, waiting for the theater to let us in. It was quite the experience and we all screamed like we were 16 again. I can't tell you how much fun we had, but thats in a future post too.

Family vacation

I know its been a while, but I promise the blog isn't dead. I am working to get some updates on here that we have done in the last month.

We went on our 1st family vacation in October... Keith, Eldon and I. Usually Eldon gets to vacation at the neighbor's house and play with his best friend and his girlfriend all week, but this time, he went with us.
I picked this great hike from my trail book that was supposed to be challenging with some good elevation gain. I completely underestimated the degree of difficulty in this hike. Keith and I practically raced up the steep, 2.5 mile, rocky path, not stopping much to enjoy the views because rain was on the way. Then we got to a rock WALL that we had to climb and from the ground, it looked easy enough. We scrambled up the rock face, stopping half way up to take a picture (below) and thats when it hit me. The wall was practically straight up, we had no harnesses and climbing down was more treacherous than going up... and then I lost it. Keith literally had to talk me off the ledge to get me moving and when I got to the top, I was so pissed off at myself that I just wanted to go down the other side. However, the view was great!!
I read to relax, almost to the point of obsessing over my books. Keith, he fishes. Its amazing to see him studying his flies and explaining to me why he choses the ones he does and why always choosing the purple one (I talked him into buying that one) isn't always the best. So, we hike, he makes a few casts, I walk ahead and find a rock to read on until I see him working his way up the river, and we repeat.
We also did some great hikes and played with the manual settings on our camera. I have no idea how I got this great picture, but its my favorite from the trip.

We power hiked to Abrams Falls, which was a short drive from our cabin, and had lunch on one of the first days there. I think we have almost seen every waterfall in the park with all the times we have been to the Smoky's. We also took a drive on one of the remote dirt roads that winds its way out of the park and found a few remote trails we want to try on our next trip.

Fall trail runs

I have had 2 days of great fall trail runs this week. Yesterday, I ran 3 miles at Ft. Ben on the Fall Creek Trail and today I ran 5.5 at Town Run Trail Park. The fall weather and gorgeous colors in the trees make for the most relaxing runs. I find myself not even noticing the miles passing by and I feel like I am running that much faster because of all the distractions. Today at Town Run, the parking lot was PACKED with guys on mountain bikes, so I had to pay close attention and get out of the way of oncoming bikes so I didn't get runover, but it gave me a good excuse to grab some water and rest a second. On the run, I saw 2 guys wreck, 1 dead snake,a dog and was passed by 15 bikers (and lapped by 6 of them). If only this Indiana weather would stay nice a little while longer!!

More Garden Goodness

Holy eggplant, Batman!

We got a huge eggplant out of the garden this week and I am already planning a fantastic meal with it.

Its the little things in life that make me happy...

Catholicism for Dogs

October 4th is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron Saint of animals.

This morning at church, Father Bill announced that there would be a 'blessing of the pets,' where he would individually bless each pet brought to the church at 4pm.

When Eldon was a puppy, he wore a St. Francis of Assisi medal on his collar for protection. Taking him to the blessing was very special for us as we prepare to leave for vacation. Eldon did really good, except that he tried to drink from the bowl of holy water he was being blessed with. I'm sure he wasn't the 1st dog to try that.

Father Bill has a golden retriever named Lola, so being a pet lover himself, I think he got a lot of enjoyment meeting the parishioner's pets. He said a prayer, blessed Eldon and petted him. He asked a few questions about Eldon and was impressed that he was hunting dog and was in such good shape for his age. I think he stole Father Bill's heart a little today!!

Eldon's Family Time

Our friend Mike came to visit recently and he brought 'the kids' with him. The kids are his german shorthaired pointers, and some of Eldon's family.
Eldon's brother, Ike, is the highest energy dog I have ever met. He never stopped running the whole time he was at our house!

Eldon and his brother, Ike. Don't they look alike? Eldon has more white ticking and looks like his mom, while Ike looks like his dad. It was so confusing to see such similar dogs running aroung our yard.

The whole pack, L-R, Ike, Bella, Eldon & Andi.

Ike, what a cutie!!

The fam, L-R, Ike, Eldon and Andi, his mom. Mike said his 3 dogs were all exhausted after a long afternoon of non-stop playing. Eldon seemed a little depressed when he realized his kin were all gone and he only had us to play with.

Colorful Garden Memories

I can remember as a kid growing up on a farm, how much work went into the food we ate. I remember our garden, how dad would make long trenches in the dirt and mom & us kids would plant individual seeds in the trenches. We never got away with throwing handfuls in the holes like we wanted to. Then, we would have to mark each trench with the name of the veggie we just planted. Honestly, all the seeds looked the same to me!

Then, we had to use our feet to go back over each trench, gently kicking the dirt over the freshly sown seeds. If we kicked dirt at each other, we were busted and only had to do more. Then we had to hook up the hose, drag it allllllll the way to the garden, and water all the dirt mounds. By this time it was late and whoever complained the most during the planting got this job.

Ah, the joys of growing up on a farm. But wait, it doesn't stop there. My second fondest memory as of mom conning Kel and I into snapping beans on the picnic table. What a chore! Snap the ends off, snap them in half then throw them in a bowl. Whoever got done first won... yeah, the prize was having to help your sister finish her pile of beans. As an adult, I later learned that they weren't even the type of beans that needed snapped!!! Mom just wanted us outside doing something, and not in her hair for 30 minutes. Go figure.

Then there was the canning of all the veggies we had worked so hard to plant, water, snap and pick. That was actually fun because we didn't have to do much. Mom and either Grandma or an Aunt would all gather in our little, yellow kitchen with pots of boiling water to sterilize the jars and lids. What a mess it made! Each lid was marked with the name and year, then we hauled them down to the basement for storage. It was our responsibility as kids to get the veggies for our meals from the basement, which is partially where my fear of spiders comes from. (To this day, I wear a baseball hat when I go in mom & dad's basement.)

Now I am all grown up and have a garden of my own. After all the torment of gardening as a kid, this is a miracle in itself. This year I have, as seen in the pics, tomatoes, green peppers and (drum roll....) eggplant!! My zucchini has since withered away. I was afraid I wouldn't get any eggplant after a rabbit ate it to the ground as soon as I planted it, but Eldon quickly took care of the rabbit (it was quite gruesome but he is such a good dog) and just this week we got some little ones on the plant. Look how cute and small they are!! And PURPLE!! Next year I plan on expanding our garden so I have some to share with friends and family. And when I do have kids, I plan on torturing them with garden chores just as my parents did.