Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

SO!! I am really excited about our garden this year!! We have 3 types of tomatoes, 3 types of peppers, green beans, squash, zucchini, cucumber (not sure it's gonna fruit?), basil and oregano!! Jeff and I are getting more serious about gardening lately. When he graduates & we are able to buy our own house, we will certainly be looking for property with a gardening spot in mind!! They take work, but they are a wonderful way of providing fresh, wholesome food for your family. Here are some picture of our wee little garden this year...


This is MR. Toad. He comes to visit us every once in a while & we LOVE him :0)

Our Squash & Zucchini
Green Beans

Regular tomatoes...MMMMMMM!!!

Cherry tomatoes

These are just a few pictures. I didn't get pics of all the plants, but you get the idea! Oh, how we love our veggies!!

River Rats

Well, summer is in full swing AND I LOVE IT!!!! I just love the warm sunshine, the hot air, the pretty green colors, the sound of the trickling creek and even the humidity ya'll! BRING IT ON! Oh, it's my favorite time of year. Jeffrey is taking summer school classes at the U of A, but that has not stopped us from getting outside and making the most of our weekends together. We have pretty much lived at the river/creek this summer...every Saturday & Sunday we are in the water swimming, fishing, and/or boating. It has been great -- and come with some interesting stories I might add ;)

For Fathers Day, we took my dad canoeing on the White river. I didn't think he had ever been canoeing, so I thought what a perfect way to spend a sunny summer day! Well - not so much. Turns out, he HAD been canoeing before, and our warm sunny day quickly turned into a VERY HOT sunny day. Not so bad for me, but I'm not sure my dad enjoyed the heat quite like I did. SORRY DAD :) We did have a great time though!! Even despite the low water. (we drug almost the whole trip)

Ok, so we all know my husband is quite adventurous - very unique in his own way. Well, sometimes he's plane CRAZY too! He was fishing in the river when this snake dropped out of a tree and on to his pole!!! (luckily, it wasn't a cotton mouth) So he grabs the snake and brings it over to the shore to show us. It was a green tree snake - I like those, I can deal with that...............................

BUT!!! He then proceeds to let the snake start crawling up his arm! .................................

And before long - ON HIS FACE & HEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know. CRAZY. Stick to fishing Jeff!!!

OK. Now for the REAL drama story. You just thought the snake was bad!! So, I'm fishing in the white river in a deep pool & I decide to go for a little dip in the water. I'm swimming & walking along in the deeper water when I lose my flip flop. Good thing they float, right?! It floats right up to me and pops up out of the water - sole up. THAT'S WHEN MY WORLD CAME CRASHING DOWN PEOPLE!!! I saw on the bottom of my flip flop a leech the size of Texas!!!!! OH.....................MY...............GOSH............I FREAKED OUT. I started flopping around like a fish trying to scramble out of the water!!! I practically started crying as I yelled for Jeff to come rescue me! Oh, it was horrible. To think that thing was so close to being on my skin still makes me want to puke. It fell off during all my flappin about and needless to say, I did NOT get back in the water the rest of the day. Such a traumatic experience!!! I did not get a picture of my attacker, but I found one close to it on the Internet........................

It was AT LEAST 3-4 inches long & 1-2 inches wide. EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWEEEEE

I'm alive!!!

OK, so I have SEVERAL blog posts I want to do, but I cannot for the life of me remember to bring my camera to upload pictures!!!! (do I sound like a broken record by now???) I promise I'm alive and back from my Internet hiatus (which didn't really go so great...so hard to stay off), but I just can't remember to bring my camera to blog. I even laid it on the table last night, but it wasn't enough to remind me to grab it this morning. Oi Vey!

So hang with me faithful followers!!! Stay tuned for these exciting updates....

Father's Day weekend & summer fun!
The Hickle Garden
Turtle Update!

OH! And our home computer crashed - if you missed that little update on my Facebook. Ya, our not even 3-year-old Mac just one day up & died. $1500 computer just up and DIED people!!!!!! Hard drive is shot - computer is TOAST. Everything gone. Files...pictures...EVERYTHING. Talk about a life lesson in material things. Oh, you gotta love it!!! So we're borrowing my dad's dinosaur lap top for now. Thanks dad!!! It works and that is all that matters. Not sure what the future will hold for a more permanent solution. We'll see :)

Voddie

I just added a Voddie Bauchman sermon on the right side of my blog and I want EVERYBODY to listen to it!!! It is called "The Centrality of the Home in the Evangelism and Discipleship of the Next Generation". It's a long title, but basically it talks about how discipleship and evangelism must start at home. Even if you don't have kids yet - which we don't - I think a lot of what he says can be applied in your marriage as well. My thoughts of "church" as we know it, were very challenged. I'd love to talk about it more with anyone, but I won't take the time to blog it all out. Just listen to the sermon...it's awesome!

Thanks Clay & Jennifer for introducing us to his name!!! This is the first Voddie sermond I've heard.

Taking a break

I've decided to heed conviction and take a 'fast' from the Internet. I know I spend way too much fruitless time on here filling my head with blogs, news, pop culture and crap. If I dedicated that time to my walk with God, I think the results could be incredible. So I am signing off for a while, and taking a break from all things web based (including e-mail). I don't know how long it will last - maybe a week, maybe two...maybe a month or more. I'm just excited to see what God might do. Pray for me if you think about it because it is going to take some serious will power to do this. Especially while I'm here at work and the Internet is a teeny tiny click away!!!

SO! This is Chrissa Hickle saying "Au Revoir"!!!!!!!!

FLORIDA!!!

Jeff and I just got back from our much needed vacation to Florida!! It was really fabulous, but I soooooo could have used another week there! LOL Jeff's family took such great care of us while we were there, I can't thank them enough. We stayed most of the week with his mom & step dad in Clearwater, and then traveled on to Panama City where we stayed with his grandparents for a couple of nights. We hit Destin on our way home Saturday and then came back to Arkansas. It was a whirlwind of a trip!



We packed so much into our time there. We went to the beach, several state parks, biking, kayaking, light hiking, and did a little shopping. My favorite part was of course going to the beach! I could have lived there the entire week. We went to a place called Caladesi Island and it was awesome! We kayaked there one day & spent quite a bit of our time snorkeling the crystal clear shallow water. So neat :0) Throughout the whole week, we saw alllllll kind of exciting marine and wildlife... turtles (no sea turtles though), birds, dolphins, sting rays, fish, crabs (my first time to see a horse shoe crab!!), and probably the most exciting - a huge shark!!!!! It was lurking in the shallows in Destin & Jeff was in the water with it when he spotted it. He QUICKLY got out to show me, but was right back in knee deep as soon as I saw it. CRAZY GUY! Not to mention all the sting rays that were swimming around too.


Light House on St. George Island

Swimming in Destin
The only palm tree in the world w/ 4 branches like this

Jeff's Grandma & Grandpa!! WE LOOOOOOOVE them soo much. They are in their 80s and still live on their own, drive on their own, work out in the yard, go to the beach, hold hands - you name it. Such amazing people. Happy Birthday today, Grandpa!!!

Jeff's dad grilling out. We had the BEST fresh crab legs over at their house one night. Mmmmm!!!

Jeff's step sis Shannon

DOLPHINS!!!!! Can you see the little baby on the right? It's right next to it's momma...so adorable!

We were at Ft. Desoto state park and it was better than being at an aquarium! The dolphins were right below us (we were standing on a fishing pier)...I could see the scratches on their back they were so close. They are common here b/c fishing is so popular & that is an easy meal for a dolphin. They steal the bait!!

Climbing a giant strangler fig. THE coolest tree I've ever seen.

The old fort cannons

Turtles!!!

Birds!!! This is Francis. He hangs out at this restaurant in Clearwater. Apparently He loves the french fries.

The day we went kayaking

Walking the beach at Caladesi Island

Jeff's parents

Man, what a great trip!! Seeing the pictures takes me back. I miss you already Florida!!! But don't worry - I'll be back SOON!!!! :0)

Family Reunion

We had our big family reunion last weekend & Jeff and I had 7 extra people staying in our wee little house!!! It was so much fun & I'm soooooooooo glad my family from California could be here. I wish I had time to blog about all our adventures, but since we are leaving for FLORIDA tomorrow!!!!! ....... I don't have time to write a big blog. So pictures will have to do! :)

MY 4th GRADE TEACHER WAS THERE!!! Apparently, she's friends of my aunt Ethel who was celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary (that's why we had the reunion), so she came to the party. It was so cool to see her!

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF MARRIAGE!!!! CONGRATULATIONS RICK & ETHEL!!

Aunt Pat & my cousins Tammy & Tonya

Notice that Jeff is M.I.A. in most of these shots. Poor guy had school stuff going on ALL weekend long so he did not get to join us for most of the fun. Such a bummer :( But school is out & we are on our way to a MUCH needed vacation!!

FLORIDA....HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!!!!