Sam's Blog: August 2016

Thursday, August 18, 2016

The Grand Adventures of Stinkeroni Swartz

It's a normal Sunday afternoon after church. We were preparing to have our in laws over for dinner so I was cleaning up and getting ready for dinner when I hear "Oh crap!" Outside our patio door near our shed was a skunk. Growing up on a farm, and later a golf course I was used to seeing them around but our neighborhood is not the place for a skunk, especially since it was inhabiting our shed area- which is our stray cat Beggar's home. After some internet searching for the best method to get rid of him, we decided that trapping and relocating would be the best thing especially since no babies were around, it seemed he was alone.

Fast forward to Wednesday and my brother comes to visit and brings my dad's skunk trap. He sets the trap up for me before he leaves and when Josh comes home we sit on the patio and watch the skunk dig up grubs and hope he goes for the cat food in the trap. After a while the skunk goes for it and by 9pm we have a trapped skunk. But that's when we realized we wouldn't be able to borrow a pick up truck until 8pm the following day so we cover the trap with a blanket and let him be.

The next day after work I had to check on him, I felt bad he was sitting in that cage for hours. I slowly pulled back the blanket making sure to not make any sudden loud noises or movements. He is just sitting there, looking sad and hungry so I cover the cage back up and grab some cat food. I sit down next to the cage and slowly pull the blanket away from a small section of the cage again. I show him I have food in my hands. Now, I have never actually bonded with a skunk so I was just hoping that what I was doing was showing him that I mean no harm and that I just want to help him. He seems to understand, but backs away. I slowly place one piece of cat food through the cage. He moves closer, smells it, eats it and backs off. I put another piece of food down, he does the same. At this point I decided we are probably going to be BFF's and he is totally accepting of me and wants to live in my house and snuggle with me on the couch while watching TV. I even named him Stinkeroni Swartz. I keep feeding him a few pieces at a time. After a while he backs away, uninterested in the food, so I figured he was full.

Fast forward a few hours, Josh is home from work and we are able to borrow a truck. We heard that if you relocate them less than 5ish miles from home they will find their way back, so we decide to drive him a good distance away, somewhere along the woods on 322 between Lebanon and Brickerville, nearish Mt. Gretna area. We back the car up into a place we thought looked good for a skunk, I take the skunk trap out of the back of the car and place it on the ground by the bed of the truck. Laying on the bed of the truck I open the trap and wait for my newly named best friend to find his new home. It took him a bit, but he ran out of the trap and right under the truck. Not the plan buddy. I get down from the truck bed and to find him sitting by the truck tire looking around. All of a sudden instead of running straight into the woods he runs across the road. You really suck at following the plans Mr. Stinkeroni Swartz. He darts across the road as I watch a truck approach. I jump up and down yelling "Run Stinkeroni Run!" He crosses the street, runs into the woods as the truck drives between us. He made it. Stinkeroni Swartz has made it to freedom!

He was a unique little guy, no black markings on his back. He sure was a cutie. I will miss the newest member of the Swartz family, but I know he is out there digging up the ground looking for grubs in a place far away from our house and our cat, who was pretty mad about losing his home for a few days.

I found this photo on the internet that looks a lot like Stinkeroni.

Monday, August 15, 2016

525,600 Minutes How Do You Measure, Measure A Year?

Has it only been one full year since I became Mrs. Swartz? The first year of wife life has been a whirlwind of amazingness. I did not know it was possible to fall in love with someone over and over again everyday, but some how Josh makes it easy. Some days I can't even fathom how someone could love me as much as Josh loves me. On days when I feel ugly, stupid, or worthless Josh always comes to my rescue and reminds me just how beautiful and lovely I really am. The only thing that could make him any better is if he liked Chipotle and singing along to Broadway soundtracks- he does like Hamilton though so that's a start! But in all seriousness I am so honored and blessed that I got to spend the last year of my life with this amazing human being, and I am so excited to see what the next 2, 5, 10, 25, 80 years have in store for us.

We want to thank all of our friends and family. We could not have had such a successful transition into adult married life without your love and your support. There are a handful of you adult-y adults out there that I look up to and I want thank you for being such great role models for us. My in-laws have helped us in so many ways from letting us borrow their ladder, their chainsaw, their power washer and more and for helping us with our landscaping, taking us out to dinner or mini golfing or chocolate world and by just being encouraging, showing us love and being fantastic role models. To my parents who have done more for me than I think they realize. I can not thank them enough for the love and support they have shown me during my 23 years of life before I was married, and now they get to share that love with their son-in-law. Our married friends who have such strong, loving relationships with their significant others are role models for us, we love double dating or having you guys over for dinner (I was just mentioning to Josh the other day that we need to have our other married friends over more often). Our non-married friends who understand our new lives as a married couple and who still love us even if we don't get to get together as often as we'd like to. We are a part of a loving church family who has supported us as Josh took the role of youth pastor and they accepted me with open arms into KidzLife working with the babies and toddlers in the church. We are sincerely blessed to have all of you in our lives! You all have had your part in shaping us into who we are.

And I want to send a special thanks out to Josh. I always imagined what married life would be like, and he far exceeds anything I could have imagined. He is so loving, encouraging, sarcastic, and goofy. I love how he can make me smile and laugh when I've had a bad day, how he always asks me if something is wrong if have my pouty face on, how he sometimes makes goofy faces at me, how he uses me in sermon illustrations, how he is so forgiving when I forget to get him tea at the grocery store, how he hugs me after we've been apart for a few hours, how he snaps me back to reality when I get stuck in my dream world in my head, how he is so encouraging and passionate about everything he does. I am beyond blessed to have such a strong, godly, goofy, lovable man in my life. I love you Josh, to infinity and beyond.