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... 

Not quite a month...

since my last post but darn close. These past couple of weeks have been extremely tough and tiring for our little family. Two days after my last post a huge outbreak of tornados swept across our region. It was exhausting going in and out of the bathtub (our safe place) with the animals to checking the radar on tv, and then checking the live streams of the tv stations where we have family and friends. A tornado touched down about a mile from my grandmother's house and where my sister works in Meridian, then the huge one that tracked across North Alabama was about a mile away from our old house there. That night and the next day was spent trying to get ahold of folks to make sure they were okay and to see if we could help them out. Then we find out a family member is sick and it may be serious but we don't know yet. The next day Ben gets a phone call saying he didn't get the promotion he was trying for. I can't even remember the other little bad things that kept happening, but it has seriously been one crappy thing after another. I had joked if only April would get over with maybe things would look up, but May has been just as tough on us. Turns out that family member is seriously ill, and will have to start extreme treaments. And I just found out yesterday a friend of the family had passed away.

I know the Lord only gives us what we can handle, but I really could use a break! It's tough work trying to keep positive and not cry when everyone around you is so sad about what's happening. Thankfully we've had a lot of company lately. My parents and sister just left after visiting for the weekend, and some of my friends from Huntsville have been up to visit a couple of times. Once, just to get away from not having electricity and having a city-wide curfew!

House-wise not much has happened, I've mostly been working outside: I bricked out and mulched the rest of our front yard, cleaned the gutters, set up our vegetable garden, and cleaned up our window boxes.



The other half of our front yard's flower beds.





Our veggie garden! Soon we'll have tomatoes, yellow tommy toes, cucumbers (for pickling), black eyed peas, butter beans, and sweet potato leaves (and I guess sweet potatoes if someone else wants them).

 


The forests of maple saplings that were growing in our gutters. Ben said he felt like he was destroying whole civilzations pulling them out.




Petunias in the window boxes. Might build real window boxes one day...




Even Foster's been busy, just look at those holes he dug! Don't know if he wants me to plant something there, or he thought I didn't have enough to do and wants me to fill them. What a sweet dog...haha.



Snow Day, Part Deux

Yesterday and today have been snow days for us here in Franklin. Sunday night into Monday we got about 4" and it was snowing again this morning. Thank goodness Ben had the day off already or he would have been trying to get to work in this...

Call me a nerd, but I thoroughly enjoy knocking snow off cars! And see that trash can on the left? That's my first attempt at compost. (More on that later, and when it's warmer!)

A much better snow picture of the abode.

Ben attempting to show me how to sled. Sorta.

After my first decent run. We weren't very good at it; though, I'm not sure if it was us, the sled, or the road.

Ben trying his hand at it. (He put his hands up to make it look like he was going...haha)

My first really good snowman. Or snowwoman? I thought she looked like Lucy the hominid.

I love how snow makes anything look beautiful. Even the bags of recycling in the backyard look gorgeous with a few inches of snow on top!

Action shots!

Happy New Year!

Those would be the black eyed peas we're eating for the first of the year. This is the first year I attempted to make them from scratch and they were...better with Tabasco. Next year I'll get brave and try to make the peas and the turnip greens from scratch. This is one of the days that I am uber-superstitious about. You have to eat black-eyed peas for good luck, turnip greens for wealth, and whatever you do the first of the year is what you'll do all year. So far things are looking good! Rang in the new year with friends and family in Huntsville, drove back home (in the worst rain and lightning I've ever seen - it was so bright it hurt!), slept in, ate a huge delicious breakfast, watched Bama (Ben's team) and Mississippi State (my team - there was much cowbell ringing) dominate their bowl games, Roger picked up the huge pile of paneling and moulding that had been an eyesore in our backyard, ate our black eyed peas and turnip greens, and now I'm cleaning and waiting for Ben to get off work so we can eat paella at his parents.

Normally, I'd try to avoid cleaning on New Years Day, but I'm sick of looking at the mess left over from the move, Christmas, and me being sick during all of it. December ended up roughly for me and I am so glad to start out the new year in our new house! And with a new puppy!

Meet Little Miss Zoey!

This little cutie was my sister's, Shanna, Christmas present to me. And she is a-freakin'-dorable! My family have a small herd of Boston Terriers completely by accident, sort of. They bred two a couple of years ago with the intent of selling them, and I knew better. Three years later, they have: Jackie, Spot, Rufus, Zeke, Lily, and Malia. Accidentally Rufus and Lily had a litter, and Zoey was one of four. And of course, the Culpeppers won't be able to part with all of them. Or really, none of them since the two they're giving away are staying in the family, haha!

I had forgotten how tough having a puppy was, but thankfully I am a much more patient person now. And even better, I know about crates! Foster and Ceti weren't thrilled to begin with, but she's won Foster over. Ceti, however, gets so stressed out about Zoey that he will start coughing up hairballs when she gets near him. Poor guy!

As far as house happenings go: we moved in!, had our first houseguests, Ben's brother Ray and his girlfriend BaoNhi, got all our furniture and appliances in and assembled, got our new king-size mattress!!, put up some of the baseboards, put down a couple of new thresholds and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. Once I get rid of all our boxes, I'll post some pictures, but the rooms are all still in the very working-on-it stages.

Snow day!

The past two days has been very snowy and very icy! I swear we got about four inches, and it's by far the most snow I've ever seen. It was so pretty coming down in huge fluffy flakes. I managed to take a break from the floor to take this picture, quickly mind you since it was in the 20s! By the time we had finished with the poly it was very white and the roads were terrible. Unfortunately this snow caught everyone by surprise and the salt trucks hadn't been out yet, so a lot of us were slipping and sliding all over the place. Luckily Diane and I got home in one piece. And I proceeded to make Snowcreme! Haven't had it in years. And didn't get to have the kind I (and Paula Deen) are used to. Normally I make it with sweetened condensed milk. But since we had no warning I didn't have any on hand, and I didn't even get to buy my emergency eggs, milk, and bread. It's a joke in the South that whenever it *might* snow all the grocery stores are immediately out of milk, eggs and bread. Who knows why?

In case your curious how to make it, I used:
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk
3/4 t. vanilla

Add the snow and eat. And don't forget to stick you out a bowl to catch the snow in to begin with, otherwise who knows what you're eating. Of course even with the bowl outside, no one else in the house would eat it except me. Lord!

I hate it I didn't take more picture, but man has it been cold. It's supposed to be 6 tonight. 6?! I need another number in front of that, please. How about a 7? Sure makes me miss Southern California.

Mama, it's cold out here!