Jonathan's 29th Birthday

Saturday was Jonathan’s 29th Birthday. We all know how Jonathan lives to aggravate the socks off of anything and everything so after referring back to his birth certificate and confirming that he wasn’t brought into this world until 7:30pm. October 17th . . . Saturday was a L O N G day for him, wha-hahahahahaha.
Jonathan had already received his big gift from me about 3 months earlier. He wanted a range finder for hunting so bad I was about to the point of calling all the hunting stores, giving them a description of Jonathan and telling them whatever they did to NOT sell him one! I’m telling ya – you gotta watch tha boy like a hawk. For my B’day he bought my gift early as well and then turned around and purchased a smaller gift for me to have on my B’day. You know what that means . . . yep, so I start wondering what I’m going to get him. About a month ago he started talking about some 2-way Radio’s for hunting. Then the talk turned into begging, haha. He kept throwing a specific name brand (Midlands) my way so I took the hint and did some research. Now, I know you’ve got $20 radios and $200 radios; radios that’ll reach 3 miles and others that’ll reach 35 miles . . . so I asked around, talked to people, read reviews and finally decided on the Midland GXT-1000 VP4 - 50-Channel 30-Mile Waterproof 2-Way GMRS Radio’s (2) with NOAA All Hazard /Weather Alert, Rechargeable Batteries, Dual Desktop charger 12 Volt Vehicle Adapter and 2 Headsets.

Jonathan and Trent hunted all Friday morning until Trent had to get back to his house and do some things there. Jonathan went back to the woods around 2:00 and killed his first deer of the season around 5:30 that evening. Trent & Richann were going to be at our house by 7:00 that night to go out to eat with us for Jonathan’s birthday. I get a phone call at 6:00 from Jonathan and all I can hear is “I killed a doe”, gotta love Cingular, right? Then Trent calls and I tell him that he may want to bring some extra clothes just in case. Anyways, Jonathan shows up at the house around 6:15, with the deer, another reason I love the fact that we can hunt only 3 miles from the house! We were ready and walking out the door at 7:05! How bout that!
We went to Jasper to eat. Mexican was Jonathan’s choice. It was so good! We had so much fun and laughed so hard our sides hurt. There were several other birthdays in the restaurant that night so every time they started to sing Jonathan’s eyes would get huge! It was so funny.
We headed to our spot Saturday morning to set my blind up. At this point I was STILL waiting on his 2-way Radio’s to be delivered! Argh! I was really regretting not paying the extra $20 for 2 day shipping by now. After we got back home, I hung around outside waiting for the package. I fed the horses, cleaned and organized the garage; luckily Trent suggested eating the deer meat that night so he was in the kitchen getting it ready. Finally the mail lady pulls up with a package in hand! It’s here-it’s here!!!!! Now to sneak it in! I went thru the front door, into the bedroom where Tyson sleeps and put it in the closet. About 3:00, Jonathan decided we needed to head back into the woods. We stayed out there till dark, headed back to the house, changed clothes and headed to Trent & Richann’s. I’m usually the one that does the cooking (Richann’s not a cooker), so I brought all my cooking essentials for country fried deer meet & rice w/gravy, corn, and scalloped potatoes. I also hid the b’day package in with the rest of all that. When we got over to Trent & Richann’s, the boys immediately started looking at deer pictures, so while they did that, I whispered to Richann that I needed to hide the package somewhere. She opened up one of the cabinet’s and we stuck them there for the time being. After getting the majority of dinner cooked, I told Richann to take one of the radio’s and walk over by Jonathan, and I would take the other one and stand in front of them and we would pretend to talk back & forth to each other on them (they had to charge for 24 hours before using them). We took our places and began to talk to each other. Jonathan was so surprised. Trent was to for that matter, hahaha. Jonathan crosses his arms and says “Now that’s a mean trick to play on your husband! You’ve had them this whole time!!!!!” They were like two little kids, both of them checking out the buttons and reading what this button did and what that button did.

I’m glad you like them honey!

I love you!

Happy Birthday!

My First Hunting Trip - October 17th

Hunting.
In the South – Hunting is a sport. It’s right there with SEC Football. Matter of fact if the game is on while it’s prime time to be hunting then most have their earpieces in listening to the game.
My husband LOVES hunting. This year, he was offered the opportunity to hunt on some land that’s only 3 miles from our house. We both said “He’ll take it!”
I have a fear of guns but knew at one point in time I could maneuver a bow. So one day Jonathan & I headed to Cullman to see our good friend Ricky at Van’s Sporting Goods. Ricky had just received a (PSE Chaos) bow with a draw on it that would be just right for me to pull back. So the three of us went to the back of the store and gave it some test shots. I surprisingly, didn’t do to bad! They were both very impressed. 4 hours later, we left with the bow. (I think Ricky had it set-up all along!)

I had to personalize it with the hot pink, heehee
Ricky shook his head the whole time he was putting it on there.

About two months later I entered my first target shoot in Cullman at Heritage (July 4th Tournament). I placed 5th in the Women’s Division! Yea me!
http://alabamabowhunter.com/news/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=5641

So, after purchasing the bow, arrows, and all that goes with it . . . one can only assume that I’ll be joining my husband in the woods.
Did I mention I love the beach!
Me and cold weather have never seen eye-to-eye, and my sweet husband knows this, so he recommends that we purchase a blind for me to sit in. It’ll keep me warm, dry and most importantly (cause those two aren’t!) camouflaged.

Can I just say that this “blind” idea was one of the greatest my husband has had! We went this past Saturday and the wind was blowing like crazy! It was around 45 degrees – that’s COLD to me; yet even though I looked like a version of the marshmallow man in camo – I was warm and comfy!

Nature is so pretty! I’ve never seen as many red birds as I did that day. Playing and stirring around in the leaves. Jonathan was sitting in a tree stand in another green field. We both had cell phone service so we could text each other and keep in touch if we needed the other. About 4:00pm he sends me one, and no faster than I could lean over to pick my phone up, I had a doe and 3 babies standing about 40 yards in front of me. My heart started pounding! Like one of those rushes where your heart is beating so fast and loud that you think everyone else can hear it too. She looked right at me, all I could think was “She’s looking at me cause she can hear my heart beating! Calm down!” I just sat there. My bow with an arrow already in place, sitting in my lap, and all I could do was just sit there.

I couldn’t shoot a momma deer with her babies! What kind of person you think I am?!?!?!

It was the most amazing thing! Those little ones were so cute! I told Jonathan that two of them still had their spots and one looked to be from earlier this year. He said that it could’ve been a little spike - that sometimes they follow behind like that. They played for a minute and smelled around the brush and went on their way. Momma didn’t care too much for my blind though. Jonathan said that it probably spooked her. She’s not been used to seeing it there and that’s why they didn’t hang around very long.
Anyhow, it was a cool experience and I’m excited about going back for the rest of the season. Jonathan did take a doe late Friday evening (an early B’day gift to himself). He was so excited!