My $2 .25 happiness

I really like the colour orange.  Not florescent glow-in-the-dark sort of bright orange, rather the fall-ish dusty, deep, rich orange.  The shade that looks good with my brown hair.  The determining factor in me using Blogger instead of Wordpress (once they changed to the new simple-with-orange-accents dashboard.)   The flowers for our wedding...  Background colour of my blog, anyone?
Maybe that's the real reason I liked emergency lifeboat stuff so much on the ship!  

Orange... Lifeboats

Lifevests

EPIRB

SART

Liferings

And the orange "black" box.

Everything related to life-saving for an Abandon Ship was ORANGE!!!  So I loved my emergency duties!  (Ok, there's a slight chance there was more to it than that, but I'm trying to make a point here!)

So when I walked in the store - our dear Wal-Mart of course, seems as though we rarely shop anywhere else; you know it's bad when you recognize all the different greeters no matter which day you go - and saw these beautiful round autumn decorations.  They were ORANGE!  It was love at first sight!  And this 10 pound (4.5kg) piece of happiness cost only $2.25!  A smashing deal, in my mind!

  

...And my dear husband bought one for us! :D

~ Happy Fall! ~

P.S.  I call it my "get-well" pumpkin because I went to the Dr. yesterday (yes, I am sick - dysuria and cystitis), am now on antibiotics (Ciprofloxacin), and am feeling much improved even today!  Feels so good to 'not hurt'!  And I was feeling good enough so we could carve the pumpkin!

STILL in bed!?

I am sick of being in bed! Oh wait, that is WHY I am in bed - because I am sick! :(

Just FYI, a UTI is no fun. Go look it up. It's awkward... this is embarrassing... Ok, fine. It stands for urinary tract infection, which has spread to infect my kidney. A LOT of pain as all those little bacteria eat out my insides! :(

We are working on treating it... I am drowning myself in all the liquids I am drinking! Hospital = $$$, so unless it's absolutely necessary, I don't like to run in for every petty little thing. So I am on some homeopathic "remedies"! It's... interesting!

Doesn't that look like enough "remedies" and drinks and potions to cure any ailment???!

This was written yesterday (Wed.) and the update today (Thur.) is...  not much better. :/  I have been sick for five days now, and basically bedridden for four of those...

Fall

This is the combine by our house!  (See the 'Ben and Naomi' pines?)

This is what it looks like all around us these days!

Everything has changed to fall colors (i.e. brown)!

It is so beautiful outside these days!  There is a warm wind from the south teasing us with Indian Summer... the constant hum of the combines harvesting day and night (mostly beans and soon the corn)... the leaves changing color, rustling in the wind and falling, and the sun glinting off the leaves and sparkling between the trees in our forest grove!  I have the windows open today for the wonderful refreshing air, and I feel very European! :)

Dinner!

Actually, that was yesterday's dinner!  Tonight we are having something special that Ben will really love! :D  (Hint: he likes seafood!)  I've got to go make it now, so this is me signing off! ~NSS

Fettuccine Shrimp Alfredo  Shhhh...!  Don't tell him! ;) 

When the combines don't cooperate...

Ben called to tell me the farmers were combining the field by our (new) house.  (This goes to show that the driveways are SOOOO long - and anyway the grove of trees blocks the view - that you can't even see it from the house!)  This was important because I wanted to get pictures of them combining, our house in the background, etc.  I'm getting into photography a bit lately and I need things to take pictures of.  On empty gravel roads running between lonely fields there's usually not much to take pictures of.  That is, until harvest!  Now there was activity... and I didn't want to miss it!  (I was later informed by one of the farmers that it will continue for one to two months - I didn't need to hurry.)  However, I didn't want to miss this picture; the combine by OUR house!

So I went out, middle of the day (interrupting my normal schedule for the day - isn't that how it goes when you're a photographer?), direct sunlight of course being the worst type of lighting (as a general rule for photography), to capture a documentary photo.  Because under these conditions it wasn't going to be photographically amazing, but it would give a glimpse of life in the country!

Just my luck.  The combine was NOT cooperating.  Apparently harvesting the beans was of higher priority than being the perfect subject for my Nikon D90.  He was at the far end of the field doing a great job of just that - gathering those beans.  And totally ignoring me.

*sigh*

Which leads me to a great rule of photography I learned today:  

When combines aren't cooperating, become your own model!

Or, find something else.

Direct sunlight is not the best, but this one (below) turned out kind of cool!

Later in the day I happened to be driving by on my way somewhere, and (like every good photographer) had the camera with me, and all the combines were out for the perfect photographs!  So in five minutes I got shots I'd been waiting for for over an hour! :P

Pictures of the harvest to come in the next post!  

My favorite room in the house

See our new skylight?  We have two of them in so far... a special project we worked on when Grandpa Berge was here on a Saturday!  They let in so much light!

This is what the upstairs looks like right now:

The guys working hard!  This is the master bedroom:

And now, my favorite room in the house!  The ATTIC!  The other day I brought my books and studied  while Ben worked on putting in the floor... the attic is the best because of the 'porthole' windows, interesting roof lines, skylights, and the open overlooking railings (yet to come)!  I'm so happy that there's now a floor so it's easier to be up there! :)

I'll leave you with this parting shot of my hardworking hubby!