posted August 29th, 2005

The summer is winding down, and I'm not sorry to see it go. The heat and humidity were unbearable this year. The yard's been brown for two months, and hardly any of my flowers weathered the heat.

Two weeks ago on a walk, a little kitten began following us. He ended up following us home and in the porch light we could see how malnourished he was. Being a softie when it comes to animals, I fed him, and he's been with us ever since. We're trying to find the little bugger a good home, but no luck so far. He was covered in fleas, too. We bought a flea comb and got most of the blood suckers off manually, and then Tom put some Frontline on him to get rid of the rest.

August was a great month for us. We made great progress on our house. We had fun hanging out with our neighbors - old and new. Our birthdays were awesome! Tom did a really great job of making mine special with a surprise cake and flowers and gifts. And our garden is finally yielding lots of produce. We've had some killer salads this month. The green onion seeds I scattered last year sprouted and grew in the spring - the onions are enormous! And all of the pumpkins from the fall that we tossed in the garden are also growing. We won't need to buy any this year.

The best moments are just the quiet moments alone. I've never been more thankful in my entire life than I am now. Having our own home to work on, a yard full of delicious things to eat and flowers growing - nice neighbors to socialize with - and a house full of cuddly pets...and my soulmate to share it all with...it's like Heaven on earth.

And speaking of Heaven, I'm starting RCIA classes next week to become initiated into Catholicism. I'll go once a week until Easter, when I become a confirmed Catholic. This is something I've always wanted to do, so I'm pretty excited, and Tom's very supportive :)

This fall the house should be done, and then we hope to have an open house for our friends and neighbors to stop by. But we have a long way to go yet. Tonight, we paint!