Soooo...

If you've wondered where I ran off to, let me tell you:

Life got a little crazy in the last year what with us expecting a little one to join the family soon! We're having a boy, hopefully any day now! And if you would like to see what's going on with that adventure you can check out my preggers blog: baby, what were we thinking?

And in getting ready for the baby we've done quite a bit to the house so I'll try to get my swollen self up and take pictures to share soon!

<3

Yowza what a year!

I just looked at back at some of my previous posts and it shocks me how much happens in a year. Especially when I feel kinda bored most of the time! And I'm disappointed I didn't show y'all a picture of how overgrown our veggie garden got.... whoa!



Now imagine all that twine covered with vines and dragging those poles to the ground and you're almost there.

This weekend marks two things for me. First, a Labor Day that I actually have off because it's Labor Day! Second, this first weekend I've had off from everything in about a month and a half? Last weekend, Ben and I went to Destin (pictures soon). Weekend before that was Atlanta for business and fun. And the rest of my time has been eaten up by house stuff, dealing with Foster injuring his eye again, working on the new business, real work and... oh who knows where the time went?

Okay, I may end up with a bunch of little posts today but at least I'll catch this thing up with the present! But right now I've got to get ready to meet a customer...

Good-bye Summer....yeah, right

I think today is the last first day of school for the kids around here, so lots of people are saying to good-bye to the summer. But not us! It's still in the 90s, I'm still getting tomatoes and cucumbers, just now finding butter beans, and we haven't even gone to Atlanta or Destin yet. I realized yesterday that I don't start saying hello to fall until maybe the end of October. So I thought I'd celebrate two and a half more months of summer with some pictures of ours so far...

And you'll have to excuse me, but I'm kind of in love with the hipstamatic app...hehe!

Kitty Nook

I am so so so so proud of my latest creation! Here's the backstory: our house is small and only has two tiny bathrooms. Our house also has two dogs and a cat. Said cat, and the humans who love him, likes to have a bathroom to himself if at all possible. And since we'll be completely redoing the extra bathroom eventually, we've let Ceti have it for now. Which meant having a litter box in the shower and his food and water on the back of the toilet....not anymore!



booyah!



It's taken a little getting used to for Ceti.

And my favorite part is the hinged brackets! This way, on the rare occasions we need in that closet we just pop the shelf down.

Err...pay no attention to those fail holes on the wall...

 Even better, the only things I had to buy for this project were the brackets and the dish towels I used as curtains. (And if I still had my mound of fabric I had to give away in the move, I would've been able to spend even less money!) Oh dear, looking at these pictures makes me think I'll have to buy Ceti a real water dish. And different flooring. And different paint.

Whaddya think?

When it rains, it pours. Part two.

This past month's absence is brought to you by...smoking. Not that I smoke, my mother does, or did until about month ago. I get a text one Friday night from my sister just saying "Mom's in the hospital." I  couldn't make the trip down to Meridian that week because of work, but came down the next weekend only to find out Mom had pneumonia, an abnormal heart rate that almost killed her, low blood count and severe anemia. I knew she wasn't the healthiest person, but I was shocked with how bad it had gotten. Luckily, she's out of the hospital and pulling through. Also, luckily this scared the bejeebus out of her and convinced her she needed to kick the habit for good! I'm so proud she's gone a month yesterday without a cigarette!

When I could finally make it back home after making sure my mother was going to be alright and taken care of, Ben's mother went in for her first chemo treatment. It went well and so far, so good. She went ahead and got her hair shaved off in preparation of losing it, but....she hasn't lost it yet. Which she finds rather funny.

This past week was spent working at real jobs, working at upcoming jobs (we hope), trying to tame my beast of a vegetable garden, and helping out the in-laws. MIL was just told she can't leave the house unless it's necessary because of a low white blood cell count and FIL is also at home with a broken foot. So...I'm exhausted. And really need to catch up on my blogging!

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!