Neighbors

I think living in Franklin has made me a nicer person. The other day I had to rescue one of our neighbors, Margaret. I was potting a raspberry plant when I heard someone yelling for help. I looked around and there she was sitting in her backyard and couldn't get up. I went over and tried helping her up, but she wouldn't let me so we called her son instead. It was nice to meet another neighbor, even if it was under these circumstances. Margaret is so nice and was fun to talk with, even if she did keep forgetting my name. Turns out everything was fine, she ended up falling on the grass instead of anything really hard. I joked with her and her son I would have to start charging a fee since she's the second neighbor who's fallen and needed our help.

Unfortunately our other neighbor, Jane, who we helped up is not doing so well. She ended up needing a hip replacement and is still in the hospital and even worse her daughter, Janet, just passed away the other night. I knew something was up two days ago when I saw a bunch of full trash bags behind the house. Mary Alice, our immediate backyard neighbor, stopped me and told me that Janet was really sick and hospice was staying at the house since Jane was still in the hospital. We found out this morning that that night she passed away. We suspected either she had or she was close because there was family there all night. I didn't know they had that much family since we only saw a couple of people visit.

It's strange having someone die that lived right next to you. It gives home-ownership even more permanence. I think of our house more as a project sometimes than a home because I just know this isn't where we'll live forever. Even though I didn't know Janet that well, I knew her better than I ever knew a neighbor while we were living in an apartment. It's just...strange. I guess that's how today will be.

Congratulations!

To my cousin Lea Anna and her now hubby, Chris on their new life together! The wedding was gorgeous (and hot), the reception was gorgeous (and hot) and the company was fabulous (and hawt). They were married at my Grandma's home in Meridian, Mississippi and the reception was held in the Soule Building which is an old steam-machine factory that the city has been renovating recently. I was in love with the reception building, it's exactly what I had wanted for my own but we couldn't find a place close to looking like the Soule.

Here's a few of the pictures I took...



The newlyweds leaving for the reception. Yeah, not the usual place for the "leaving" picture, but my Grandma's house was a much better background for it.



One of the buildings the reception was held in.

The first dance.

My sister, Shanna and I. You'll have to pardon me, most of my makeup had melted by this point. It was 95-degrees during the ceremony!

My cousin's daughter, Torre, on the left and my sister, Jolie, on the right.

Shanna, my cousin Shannon, and my mom. I kind of love this picture!

Well, I never!

This is what I awoke to yesterday. Sigh. And let me tell you, yes they did leave huge scars in the front lawn and no they did not get the dirt/gravel out of our drainage ditch. Oh well, at least I got some free leveling dirt and gravel out of the ordeal for our...

...tree ring!

Thankfully the street guys took their lunch right before the delivery guy showed up with our stones. Poor fella had to walk then drive his forklift the whole length of our street just to get to the house. I started work on the tree ring yesterday and I'm so excited with how it looks so far! And I'm in too much pain to finish it today. My left arm is about dead from lifting these bad boys and the bags of sand needed to make them level. I got two levels up yesterday and a bag of pea pebbles down for drainage. Still need more pebbles (a lot more) and dirt and plants. But I've hit a bit of a financial wall. After I bought these, I realize I had to get a hotel room for my cousin's wedding this weekend, bought presents, and then Foster had to go to doggy emergency room. He's fine now, well, except his pride.



"What are you wearing?!"

He's got another corneal ulcer, but thankfully this one is very tiny compared to last time. Last year he had the same thing and we didn't get an e-collar on him in time and he almost ruptured his eye. He had to have a cornea graft and now he's partially blind in that eye. Which is kind of humorous, because I'm also blind in the same eye so when we go on walks or pass by each other in the hallway we both move the same direction because we favor our good side. Looks like he'll have to take some medicine for a week then go back to the vet for a check-up. But after all that, plus a skimpy month in pay for me, these next two weeks are going to be tough. Probably won't be getting any hostas in that ring anytime soon. Unless Dad's got some plants for me when I visit... 

Grandmother Shower

Yesterday I attended the first ever (as far as we know) "Grandmother Shower" for a fabulous lady at work, Melanie. My work is a very family affair, as in the doctor is my husband's friend and when he first opened his practice it was him, his sisters and his mom, Leslie, running the place. None of them work in the office directly anymore, but his mom comes by to visit occasionally and his dad has just started to work our "gravyard shift", as he likes to call it, cutting lenses with our newest toy. And when they hire people to work in the office usually that person is known through someone and quickly is adopted into the family.

Leslie had emailed us all about a week ago with the idea of a surprise shower for Melanie becoming a new grandmom in the next couple of months. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun and was relived I knew the perfect gift to bring. If you ever know anyone that's about to become a grandparent I strongly suggest the Grandmother Remembers / Grandfather Remembers series. I found my Grandma Hazel's to me after the Alzheimer's had started being a problem, but when I would ask her about things she had written it was like a lightbulb going off in her mind. She looked me square in the eye and told me all about her and Grandpa meeting for the first time without any of her usual "ummm's". That afternoon was probably the last time I saw any clarity from her before she passed away and it's such a happy memory for me.

Anyhoo, the shower was gorgeous. Leslie had a rubber ducky theme going and lots of delicious food (and sherbert punch, a personal favorite!) and everyone had a wonderful time. Until the ladies who have already had children started telling their war stories, and the four of us who have not had kids were a little freaked out...haha. One of the guests remembered she had morning sickness of 16 weeks and I stopped mid-other-conversation to make sure I heard her right. 4 months?! With both her children?! Please, Lord, do not let me have that much puking going on....oy!

Eek! Aah!

I just saw a commercial an hour ago about Lowe's having a sale on retaining wall stones. I've been dreaming of making a big tree ring around our monster in the backyard for months now, so it seemed a little heaven sent. Then I checked the website and the sale is over in, oh, fifteen minutes. I hurriedly decided what color/type stone (ugh, based on my theories of what we'll paint the shed and trim on the house), calculated how much I'll need and whipped out the credit card. That last part hurt a little. Ben and I both try very hard to live debt-free or at least debt-smart. With the exception of the house, all of our debt is interest-free so I don't mind owing a little here or a little there. But this had to be put on a real credit card with real interest, ugh.

On the bright side I'll have something productive to do this week since I don't work half the week and Ben's gone to Atlanta all week.

::sad face::

Dang, that bright side didn't last long...haha. In other news today was spent putting together our grill, a Christmas gift from my parents, and learning how to use it. The results were....tasty!



We made grilled corn on the cob (of course), lime-tabasco chicken, and attempted peaches with honey.

Everything was really yummy, except the peaches. I thought it was odd the recipe called for frozen peach slices and not thaw them, yeah they were ice cold still...ah well. Hopefully I can get my hands on some farm peaches for the next try. I used to live a couple of miles away from a peach farm that belonged to a classmate's family. They always had the best peaches and strawberries, would kill for some right about now. It was always fun buying from them too, because they usually hired our teachers as cashiers while school was out and you could catch up with them for a while.

By the way....

...the gardenia bush finally bloomed! I was beginning to fear we wouldn't have any this year. Ah, the smell of summer!

PS-

Cannot wait for this bad boy to bloom. So glad the multiple cold snaps didn't kill them!

Pretty Veg Garden

Finally bought some tomato cages yesterday, though I can just hear my grandma's disappointment from beyond the grave. But hey, I didn't have any sticks lying around and we haven't a storm knock any branches off in a while. Anyhoo, I noticed at Lowe's the other day they had colorful tomato cages for sale. As in for $3 more a pop....um, yeah right. So I got my $3 cages at Big Lots and spray painted those suckas!



Sorry about the cruddy pic, the two on the right are blue, but the sunset wasn't doing me any favors.

I'll need some more stakes and lines (or whatever it is you use for beans and peas, need to do more research) eventually and I think I'll get some different colors just for them. Our garden is going to look cur-azy!