cat for sale

If anyone is looking for an orange cat with freckles, i have one for sale! i have come to the conclusion that dr. chose the smartest and most active cat in the universe. she may be a "super" cat if there is such thing. since the cone incident, molly has become a new feline. maybe she felt so secluded during her week of post surgery that she felt as though she would never take anything or granted again.

i thought it would be a good idea to buy molly a water dish that has about a weeks supply of water in it since she is an avid drinker of water. i was having to fill her dish up two times a day. there was a blue jug dish that would continually fill the dish as the cat drank from it. unfortunately when it refills, it has big bubbles in the tank (just think about the water jugs people have in their offices with little cone cups to fill up). molly apparently thinks bubbles are god's gift to cats. she insists on sticking her paw up the water dish until she finds the spout of the jug. she then presses the side of her body against the jug and tips the entire dish over which leads to the 1/2 gallon jug emptying onto the floor. after four straight days of having 2 gallons of water spilt on my floor daily, the jug water dish was taken away from molly. her white water dish was returned to her watering station.

now about a week after having the old water dish back, molly decides that this dish had become incredibly interesting. molly has learned to flip this dish onto it's side so that all the water will pour out on the floor and then returns it to its proper position. i just wish that i could be entertained by water dishes as much as my cat!

molly also seemed to have enjoyed halloween more than our trick-or-treaters did. since dr. was on call today, i did a little house cleaning while i was feeling sorry for my sick self. apparently molly thought the tootsie pops that we gave away for halloween were extremely special and decided to take them and add them to her stack of toys. fortunately she wasn't eating them, she was just adding them to her toy collection.

molly has also figured out how to jump from the tv in the den to the top of the bookcases and then jump onto the top of the closet in our den. unfortunately she has not figured out how to get down yet.

if this sounds like a cat that would fit into your family's lifestyle, i will drop her in the mail tomorrow. i can also send you more information on her astonishing abilities ( like looking out the front door window.... even if it is four feet of the ground).

why did the chicken cross the road

I found this on another blog and just thought it was funny....

KINDERGARTEN TEACHER: To get to the other side.

PLATO: For the greater good.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross roads.

KARL MARX: It was a historical inevitability.

TIMOTHY LEARY: Because that's the only trip the establishment would let it take.

SADDAM HUSSEIN: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.

JACK NICHOLSON: 'cause it f___ing wanted to. That's the f___ing reason.

RONALD REAGAN: I forget.

KATHERINE ALVAREZ: To get away from my neighbor.

CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.

JOHN McCAIN: The chicken was a maverick, just like me. She did it for the greater good because she was serving the people, just like me. Sarah Palin crossed the road too...

SARAH PALIN: She did it for her family.

HIPPOCRATES: Because of an excess of phlegm in its pancreas.

LOUIS FARRAKHAN: The road, you see, represents the black man. The chicken 'crossed' the black man in order to trample him and keep him down.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives being called into question.

MOSES: And God came down from the Heavens, and He said unto the chicken, "Thou shalt cross the road." And the chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.

FOX MULDER: You saw it cross the road with your own eyes. How many more chickens have to cross the road before you believe it?

RICHARD M. NIXON: The chicken did not cross the road. I repeat, the chicken did NOT cross the road.

MACHIAVELLI: The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why? The end of crossing the road justifies whatever motive there was.

JERRY SEINFELD: Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn't anyone ever think to ask, What the heck was this chicken doing walking around all over the place, anyway?"

FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

BILL GATES: I have just released the new Chicken Office 2000, which
will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook.

OLIVER STONE: The question is not, "Why did the chicken cross the
road?" Rather, it is, "Who was crossing the road at the same time, whom we overlooked in our haste to observe the chicken crossing?"

DARWIN: Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally
selected in such a way that they are now genetically disposed to cross roads.

EINSTEIN: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road moved beneath the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

BUDDHA: Asking this question denies your own chicken nature.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON: The chicken did not cross the road .. it transcended it.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die. In the rain.

halloween

as halloween is nearing, we are trying to figure out what we are going to be.  we are choosing between two costumes for ms. molly.  she will either be a crab or an elephant.  

luckily she got so used to wearing her funnel, she does not mind if there is anything on her head.

she became awfully close to her funnel.  so much so that she decide that since she couldn't clean her body, she would clean the funnel.  towards the end of the week with the funnel, molly would spend her day making sure her funnel was in pristine condition.

molly's first surgery

i think molly has decided we are not busy enough.  the other day, dr. decided molly needed to go out in the real world.  unfortunately, molly had never met  dog before until then.  after hearing a lot of barks, i found molly trapped in a tree with a dog standing at the bottom with his mouth open.  he just couldn't wait to eat.  dr. somehow lowered me over the fence by my feet while I grabbed molly (since she fell out of the tree).

ever since the little incident, molly has not been walking on her right front foot.  after a week of it only getting worse, dr. took her to the vet on his day off.  molly had to be sedated and had surgery on her foot.  she had split her claw in half so she had to get it taken out.  it was infected.  there was also another spot on her foot where I am assuming she had a sticker.

when dr. went to pick molly up from the vet, he noticed a rocker guy with a goofy dog that had a cone on his head.  dr. just kind of laughed.  you know it is always funny when you see that on an animals head.  well, the vet was going over with dr. all of molly's medicines and everything we had to do to keep her healthy and feeling ok.  on the list of things was the elizabethean collar.  dr. asked what that was since he had never heard of it.  out comes molly with a big cone on her head.

our cat has a big cone on her head.  yes, read that sentence again.  our cat has a cone on her head.

usually we hear the jingle of her collar and know exactly where she is and what she is doing.  now when we want to know where she is, we listen for the plastic cone that she is dragging against the walls as she walks down the hall.

please keep molly in your prayers.

College Day

This week we celebrated colleges.  Each grade was assigned a college and had to decorate our hall.  During the week we talked about why it was important to go to college and we filled about "applications" to go to college and we also wrote letters to the college presidents of our college.  The second grade had Ole Miss.  When we wrote the letters we asked three questions to the president.  One of my students asked where he went to school and how long he went to school and also wanted to know if he washes his own clothes.

We decorated our hall to look like Ole Miss and we won the pizza party for best hall!! It really didn't take too long.  We spent about 5 hours doing it across several days.

Yum pizza!

miss molly

we just realized that we gave molly the same initials as us.  so her initials are on our bed too!  molly discovered the computer so likes to reach her arm across while she is laying down and then drag it back, hitting as many keys as possible along the way.  dr. decided to see if molly would take any of those funny pictures that you can take on an apple computer. enjoy! hilarious.

Laying around

THese are pictures of what Molly does while we are awake.  When we are asleep she moves too fast for the cameras to capture her.

I am still amazed she sleeps in her doggie bed.  See... she is part dog.  

Molly Girl

Molly loves laundry day!

Molly has been part of our family now for one week.  That one week has definitely been an adventure.  We have officially decided that our cat may actually be part dog.  Two nights in a row Molly has ransacked our trash.  The third night we tried to prevent it, but she pushed the trash can across the floor, up onto the ramp going into the sun room and tipped it over.  

Molly also likes to sleep during the day (that's why dr. thought she was a lazy cat).  She goes to sleep at 3, right when we get home form work, and then at 11 when we are going to sleep, Molly gets up and eventually gets locked in the kitchen.

She loves to investigate.  Today Molly went outside to investigate the deck.  She spent about 25 minutes out there. She liked it outside but still is unsure about all the sounds.

hot peppers

dr. picked his first jalapeno today.  i had to beg him to pick it so i could make mr. john's black eye pea dip for the cook out we are going to tonight.  dr. actually says it tastes more like a bell pepper.  if nothing else grows we will be perfectly happy with our lone jalapeno.

pretty kitty

hi, my name is molly.  mommy and daddy adopted me yesterday.  i was a rescue cat. i don't know exactly how old i am but if i had to guess i am probably between 9-12 months. i was found in crystal springs, ms when i wandered up (with my sister) to a nice lady who fed us.  she thought we might be adoptable and went to a foster home for some social skills training.  i love to be held and also roll around and get my tunny rubbed.  i am very talkative and love to drag around toys.  one morning my foster mom found a 3 pound dog toy on the bed.  i never really hurt toys, i just like to drag them around.  sometimes my toys are socks, towels, or tennis balls.  i have a soft purr motor but a very loud voice.  i love big goofy dogs and other kitties although sometimes it takes me a few days to warm up to them.  i love to sleep in people's lap when they watch tv and love to cuddle with you at night.  my bathroom habits are impeccable.  i absolutely love to run track.

my daddy adopted me yesterday.  we surprised mommy when she got home from work.  my mommy and daddy gave me a new name because everyone called me non-squinty and my sister squinty.  mommy and daddy decided that we would change my name to molly.  i woke them up last night at about 3 because i wanted to play.  at that point they decided maybe carrot was a good name but i didn't like it so i let them go back to sleep and sleep on the name thing for a while.  luckily when i woke them up at 5 this morning, they had decided that molly was the appropriate name for me. yesterday i got to investigate the house and figure out where my potty  and food were.  my potty is in the bathroom that mommy uses.  last night when mommy was relaxing in her bath i decided that i would show her that i knew how to use the potty.  i don't really think she appreciated it very much.  i may have ruined her bath.  

today, i have helped mommy with the laundry and cleaning the kitchen and i helped daddy fix an air vent.  i like to follow mommy around the most.  in fact i have to go everywhere she goes.  i think she has had a cat before.  i am not sure if daddy has really ever had a cat.... the only reason why i say that is because daddy bought me a dog bed.  i laid in it twice yesterday just to amuse him. i do love it when mommy leaves to go to the store though.  when she leaves, daddy has to babysit but he really just falls asleep on the sofa so that means i can do whatever i want to.  when mommy is home she follows me to make sure i am not being a bad girl.

i love to look out the windows.  mommy and daddy said that in about two weeks, once i have decided i like it a lot here, they will let me stay outside whenever i want to.   i can't wait! right now my favorite place in the house is in mommy and daddy's bed room or in the sun room.  i like the sun room because there is a ledge there that i can sit on and watch all the neighbors.  at night, i like to cuddle up to mommy because daddy kind of snores a lot.  last night i kind of tested them to see if they really loved me.  i slept a little but also woke them up a few times to see if they would play and they didn't get mad at me.  i do like to trick mommy.  every time she goes to the bathroom, i like to jump up on the toilet so she can't use it.  she has to pick me up and pet me to get me off.  sometimes i forget the lid is open and almost fall in.

when daddy came to adopt me, i tricked him too.  i pretended like i was asleep so he would think i was a lazy cat.  but guess what, i'm not!  just this morning i ran around the house for a whole hour!  i like to slide into walls and investigate things.  i got my first collar this morning too.  when i got it i was so excited I did flips and ran away from daddy whenever he came near.  mom said i get to get a tag with my name on it soon.  

south pole

yesterday i had my adventures in math.  today it was at the lunch table.  i get the fabulous perk of eating with 2nd graders everyday.  there are no cafeteria monitors so we get to sit (very quietly) at the end of the table.  assistant teacher on one end, me on the other.  you can imagine the things i get to talk about.  i use it as my "get to know you so you will like my class and not cause any problems" time.  it has worked quite well with one of my problem students.  this boy comes from a "rough" family and twice last year go mad in class and took off out of the school with his teacher running after him all the way home (we are in fact responsible for them from 7:30-2:30). he is a little bit bored in my class (he's "gifted") but doesn't have attitude problems... just problems sitting down so i let him stand at his desk and do his work.

anyway, i am getting off track.  my lunch time conversation.  i think it started with us talking about movies.  some student said his dad has made a movie and it is really scary ( i am not even gonna ask... just  don't want to know.... don't go there, right!)  somehow that took us into talking about the south pole and how cold it is there.  one of my little girls said she had been there but had to wear a sweater (ok, i thought.  hmmm interesting.... are we talking about the same thing)  then the little boy across from me said "well what about antarctica?"  i explained that the south pole was actually in antarctica because antarctica is at the very "bottom of the earth".  he said he would never go there and i asked him if he would never go there because it was too cold.  and he said  "no, i ain't goin' there because i don't wanna fall off the earth.  You know you are upside down when your all the way down there."

All I have to say is it is very difficult to try and teach a science lesson on gravity in 5 minutes in a cafeteria with a bunch of 2nd graders.  whew. TGIF

math placements

what a day!  we had math placements today.  math placements are untimed tests.  our test had 40 questions on it.  well, untimed tests are not necessarily fun when you have children on all different levels.  my smarties were smart enough to work ahead.  my others weren't smart enough and waited for me to read every single question.  most of the time we were waiting on one little boy to finish.  he is new to our school.  i have no idea what they taught him at his last school but i am not convinced he knows anything about math... at all.

here is an example of my wild day.  one of the first questions asked "what is 9+7".  well we all know the answer is 16.  this one child got this question right by making 9 marks on his paper and then making 7 marks on his paper.  he then counted them all and got the correct answer.  yay!  the next question said "what is "48-12".  this same little boy made his 48 marks and then continued to make his 12 marks.  after he got that far he was not quite sure what to do and i think probably just picked an answer.  after a few more questions, a tough question came up. the question was "what is 100+50+4".  so this little boy goes on to make 100 marks.  then he makes 50 marks.  and finally makes his last 4 marks.  after raising his hand, i go over there and say "oh, are you done already?"  he says (and these are his exact words.... i am in no way exaggerating this conversation)  "i made my 154 marks.  now all i have to do is count them".   wait....... what........ what...... oh dear...... houston we have a problem!  that is exactly how it went. 

and this part is true too.  a couple of questions after that the question says "which sentence below equals 212?"  the answers you could pick from were the following.  A. 21+2 B. 100+20 C 200+10+2 (which is obviously the correct answer) and D. 2,000 +100 +20.  After what had happened on the previous question.... and I saw the possible answer on D, I almost about fainted thinking about how the whole class was going to have to sit there while the little boy counted 2,000 marks and then not even come up with an answer.

white coat

dr. got his white coat today!   he has a life flight badge on one arm and his name embroidered on the front

party hardy

most of you know already but it seems as though everyone has a "lite" schedule this next week.  we are celebrating the numerous july, august, and september birthdays this weekend!  there are some big birthdays.  someone just turned 60 and we have some others turning 1, 3, and 5!  we are cooking hamburgers and hot dogs and hanging on the deck or inside depending on the weather!  we are so excited that everyone is going to see the house and see how hard we have all worked to make it feel like home.

dr. started his new rotation today.  he is the first one to ever do a ekg rotation.  turns out he gets to make the rotation up himself.  needless to say he is going to be the "homemaker" for the next 2 weeks.  he will get to learn where the dishwasher is and also the washing machine!  as his life calms down mine becomes busier than it ever has.

my assistant was at work today.  she is an older lady and slows me down to about 1/5 of my normal speed.  what i got done in a day i could have easily done in about 30 minutes.  i thought experience would be a plus but i am learning otherwise quite quickly!

first day

it is the first day for both me and dr.  my first day of school is today and dr. begins his rotation in the cardiology department.  he has two weeks of ekg reading followed by two weeks of chest x-ray.  it should be a relatively calm month for him which is absolutely wonderful because my hardest month starts today.  students do not arrive until thursday so i have about 5 more days to work up my nerves and become more nervous!

mom and dad A are coming today for the weekend.  this is the first time they will be here to enjoy themselves and not work on the house.  they get to see the ever growing veggie garden and enjoy the 106 weather that is killing the veggie garden.  

i am posting on my classroom blog and will post later today also.

my blog

i have become more of a computer nerd.  i have made a website for my "class".  it is really just a way for me to stay organized and document things i do in class so i can look back and remember what worked and what didn't.  you can go to my blog by clicking on the link on the side that says ms. weber's class.  i know i left out the "r" in ms.  i forgot i was married.  this is still new to me. i also cut out my name for my door but i accidently cut out ms. allen instead of mrs. weber. 

last call

dr. is on call tonight.  it will be his last call in the neurosurgery icu.  on friday he will begin his rotation in ekg and chest x-ray.  august will be a slow month compared to what his july was like.  he will be the first emergency resident to ever go through this rotation.  they just added it to the schedule.

i went to the wives alliance meeting yesterday.  i got to meet about 7 other wives from all different departments.  we set dates for girls night out, the welcome party, and christmas party.  we are also going to have a bunco group and we do a lot of community service.

i spent the whole day in my classroom.   most of the teachers were there today.  i got to meet the other teacher on my team (the third teacher will be on pregnancy leave until second semester).  i explained to the other team member different things i do in my class and she was very interested and said she would like me to walk her through my centers because she might adopt the way i do it.  that is comforting that i can actually add ideas rather than take everyone else's.

when i got to school this morning, some of my borders around my bulletin boards had fallen but a little glue got them right back up.  i have unpacked most of my boxes and have arranged my desks and gotten all my centers together.  tomorrow i will work more on the centers and add some more things to the wall.   here are a few pictures of my bulletin boards.

big pumpkins

new pictures of our pumpkins and tomatoes! ( i apologize that my pumpkin picture is sideways.)  please refer to previous pictures in the "sunflower pumpkin" post to compare size.  the pumpkin plants are growing a significant amount each day along with our tomatoes and peppers.  we are starting to get a few jalapeno buds on the plant and our tomatoes will be staked tomorrow.  our carrots are also starting to show.  two days ago we started our snow peas and they have already started sprouting.  although out of everything, our pumpkins are the fastest growing plant.

first check

an exciting day for dr.!  he received his first payment for being a "doctor".  no not his pay check but he did get paid for helping in the process of harvesting organs.  he is so excited to actually get paid after so many long years of hard work!  he treated himself to a new pair of jeans and a shirt.

we also found a yummy tamales place by my school.  it is in an old kfc restaurant and you can't go inside after 5.  you can only use the drive through... does this tell you anything about the neighborhood my school in is.  dr. loves him some tamales and chili.  

bulletin boards

we spent our day in the classroom.  i don't have many days before the students come. i probably have about 3 full working days just to myself.  the others will be dedicated to more orientation. yea!  dr. helped me put up my bulletin boards.  i don't really have any bulletin boards so really he just helped me cover the walls with paper.  i don't think i could have done it by myself.  it was difficult trying to get the paper straight onto the tape on the wall.   now i just have to organize everything that was left in the room and actually put the stuff up on the bulletin board.  

i purchased some rugs for my classroom to make it a little more homey.  if anyone has a spare cd/cassette player (any kind from circa 1980 and on)  or electric pencil sharpener laying around, please let me know!!! 

will post pictures on monday!

new teachers

today, i spent my day at new teacher orientation.  i have never had that much fun in my life.   notice there are no exclamation points after any of those sentences.  it's because i am lying.  it was actually the worst thing i have ever done with my time in a very long time.  the best thing about it is that i have two more days of it.  the only good that comes out of this orientation is that i get paid for being there.  i also get over 2o professional development points which goes towards the 42 i have to get during the year.

i could think of a lot better things to do than spending my time listening to people summarizing my graduate career in three days.  i would do anything to be in my classroom right now.  last week i could not go to my classroom because they were waxing the floor in my room.  on monday i stopped by the school for a couple of hours and met one teacher.  i was prepared to go back on tuesday and work all day getting my room ready.  i showed up and they were waxing the hallway outside my room so i couldn't get in.  and now as i sit there in three days of teacher orientation, i long for the next time i get to go into my classroom.

dr. and i were thinking about going out of town this coming weekend but i think we are going to have to do that another weekend.  this saturday the school will be open so dr. wants to help me set up my classroom (he has actually asked several times if he could) and on sunday i have my first meeting with the wives alliance.  i am excited to go to the meeting and meet some other resident's wives and make some friends!

posted are two pictures of my classroom!

sunflower pumpkins

last weekend when we were working on the garden, we made a trip to home depot because we needed some dirt and grass seed.   while we were there, we decided to look at the different seed packets that they had.  well just like with tomato plants, we are a little late with the whole planting process.  the only seeds we could find were on clearance so we pretty much just had to take whatever they had.  some of the seeds we ended up with were sunflower and pumpkin seeds.  

i felt like there was no way we could get sunflowers to grow this late in the "season".  we planted them in some extra pots we had to go ahead and get them to start growing.  we also did this with the pumpkin seeds.  while planting the pumpkin seeds, i just happened to read the package.  the pumpkins are "prize pumpkin" size.  they are expected to grow one hundred pounds and be seventy inches or more.  we might win the county fair!

the seeds were planted last saturday.  we took pictures so we could see the progress of our little sunflowers and pumpkins.  when i got home form mobile today, i took a peek at them to see if they had grown any.  to my surprise they had.  as of two days ago, there were no spouts and today we had about 8 pumpkin plants growing and about  5 sunflowers.  someone must have a green thumb.

pictures are from day 1 and day 6.  today the sprouts got transplanted in the garden.

let's zumba

so as most of you know, i became a zumba aficionado while in hot springs.  i became obsessive and would zumba for about two hours a day.  since i have stopped "zumba"ing, i have put on some major poundage.  no exaggeration.  (you know you are fat when your fat clothes don't fit).  so in my search for gyms in the greater jackson, mississippi area, i looked into which gyms offered zumba.  monday morning i became a member of the ymca of northeast jackson.  this ymca is just about two months old.  it is a smaller branch, has a pool and is right next door to our grocery store!  the first two days, i just did a very uneventful workout on the elliptical and the treadmill.  

on wednesday, they offer a zumba class at 8:30 in the morning.  i had no idea what to expect.  there were about 9 people in my class.  most were middle aged.  i was the youngest and the oldest far surpassed any of the zumba "gold" ladies that were in my geriatrics class in hot springs.  so once again i had to hold in my giggles from watching some of the ladies do the "hula hoop".

my instructor was the complete opposite of my instructor in hot springs.  in hot springs, my instructor was curvy but had an awesome figure and was really energetic.  seeing her everyday made you want to come and work out even more.  my new instructor in jackson is a 6 foot, 140 pound indian guy.  i thought "this should be interesting".  one of the main things in zumba is to really use your hips and i just couldn't picture him shaking his nonexistent hips.  after class started, it took me about 10 minutes to control my laughter.  my instructor would count steps (in an indian voice) "1,2,3   5,6,7".  not only in this class do you have to know that there is no "4" in his counting, you also need to know that when he says "one more time" that's really not the case.  he should say "a few more times, ladies".  

all in all, it was an experience. i will continue going twice a week to the class that they offer in the afternoon.  it is definitely not as fast as the one in hot springs.  but it is brand new here and i think once people get the hang of it, it will become a little bit more lively.

squirrel wars

this past christmas we got a bird feeder with some black oil sunflower seeds.  we hung it from the corner of the house in hot springs.  within a day, all the birds west of the mississippi had found it. at any given time we had 20 birds on the feeder.  every once in a while we would get a squirrel but they soom realized it was easier to sit on the deck and just wait for all the seeds the birds dropped.  

when we moved to jackson, not only did we have a horrendous flea problem but the mosquitos were extremely bad too.  well, that's what dr. said.  for some reason the fleas and the mosquitos did not care about me but we insistent on making dr.'s life miserable.

we were talking to our neighbor one day about about the mosquito problem.  she said whenever she goes outside with her little girl she has to fog the backyard because it is so bad.  she said she had talked to someone else a block away that was having the same problem with the bugs.  they had talked about getting bat houses so that the bats would take care of all the mosquitos.

needless to say after that conversation, i forced dr. to go to ace hardware (supporting our neighborhood stores!) and help me pick out a bird feeder and black oil sunflower seeds.  i figured if i could get birds in our yard, then maybe they would eat the mosquitos on the way to dinner at the bird feeder.  i would try anything!  i am not going to have a bat house as a next door neighbor.  no way!

well, i filled up the bird feeder once and all the sunflower seeds are gone. unfortunately it is not the birds that have eaten them.  i have brought all the squirrels into our yard.  at first i would sit on the deck and throw acorns at them.  then i moved onto ice cubes.  it was fun sneaking up on the squirrels and pelting them with ice cubes.  don't worry i have such bad aim that all my ice cubes hit the deck or grill and just scared the shenanigans out of them.  dr. kept saying i needed some kind of tin thing so the squirrels won't get to the bird feeder .   i didn't know he just meant the tin prevented them from getting up the pole because the tin is slippery.  i thought he meant that they were scared of the shininess.  they jump over to the tree by a fence.  so i went outside and wrapped the fence with aluminum foil.  i know my neighbors were watching, too, because i am sure they could hear ice cubes bouncing off the metal grill.

dr. just laughed at me and wondered what our neighbors thought of us.  it took about 6 hours for the squirrels to tear off the aluminum foil from the wood fence.  they did, however, stop coming around so much and that gave the birds time to eat some of the seed.

(you can see the fence to the right of the picture... unfortunately this is after they tore the foil off so you won't be privildged to see my aluminum foil covered fence)

babbling brook

our house is up on a hill. (  i actually think it might be the highest point on the street.  ) the front yard is up on a hill but the back yard is all downhill from there.  there is a steady slope towards the edge of our property.  we thought this would be perfect because all rain would go to the yard behind us which is a good bit lower than ours.  but, some genius decided that our yard needed a cement wall along the back of it.  so every time it rains, we have an olympic size swimming pool in the back. 

we were worried that all our veggies would get washed down hill whenever we had rain (now i guess i would say.... IF we ever get rain again.) so while preparing our oversized veggie garden, dr. dug a trench from one of our gutters out to the edge of our garden.  right now it is just a trench but once we have a little more time to work out there the hope is that the trench will become a little rock  stream (with no water) going through our garden.

although it looks puny, dr. worked hard in the 96 degree weather trying to dig through all the roots. this is only the beginning.  people will be coming from yards away to veiw the rock stream we have in our garden.

green grass

the people that lived in our house before us had a big black dog and a small white dog.  the yard was absolutely torn up.  from the back deck you had one trail going out to each corner of the yard.  it is probably safe to say it was one of the worst kept yards i had ever seen.  the idea of ever getting grass to grow in the backyard was just not realistic.  so getting grass to grow in the back yard was our first step in the makeover process.

i decided that the flower beds in the front yard needed to be rounded out and made a little bit bigger.  while i was fixing the flower beds in the front, all the grass i dug up, i transplanted into the backyard with hope that it would grow.  i was not optimistic that any of it would take.

on top of the transplanted grass, dr. decided to plant some grass seed that would fill in the bare spots in the corners.  we are actually extremely surprised at the amount of grass seed that has grown and how much of the transplanted grass did not die.  the yard actually looks fantastic compared to what it looked like when we moved in.  people seeing it for the first time might think it looks horrible but if you ask those who saw the bare spots and tracks in the yard, they can tell you it looks a million times better.  i am posting one before picture (the one that you can see part of our yellow back house in ) and two after pictures from two different angles (the one from the deck with the umbrella in the way and one with just grass and our little sprinkler in the bottom corner).

new friends

so as of tuesday we will have lived in jackson for 2 months.  we have been working hard on the house and in the yard so it would be "liveable" by the time dr. started work.  now that he is working 78 hours a week there is little time for him to do anything around the house.  since we have been here, we have gone out a couple of times with others from the emergency medicine department.  i was so excited to finally meet so people (girls) and make new friends.  the first time we went out, we went to what turns out to be a very popular bar.  we some how ended up at a table with about 15 law students and three guys from dr.'s department and mimi from nuerology.  mimi was great and so much fun.... except she is a doctor.  so if i will never see my husband than i am never going to see her.  sweet but will never see her.  then we went to a get together for all the people in dr.'s "class".  i was so excited to meet the wives because their husbands would be living at the hospital too and they wouldn't know anyone in jackson either.  unfortunately, it turns out that dr.'s whole "class" is girls.  it's me, the one wife, and then all the husbands.

so on the friend front i was not doing too well.  then we went out to a party on the fourth of july.  it was for the class above dr.'s but there were actually other females there.  well, two, and one was a doctor.  but it turns out the other wife at the party actually went to sewanee.  she was a year younger than i was.  we didn't know each other  but are so thankful we actually have met another person here.  (my next door neighbor said meeting people in jackson, ms is extremely hard).

so now that we have friends, we went out to dinner last night with two couples (one went to med school with dr. and the other is the girl from sewanee).  we went to a delicious restaurant called biaggi's.  it was wonderful italian food.  i had some ravioli dish and dr. had a sausage rigatoni dish.

so yummy! 

better boy

today the weather man said that it would be 96.  i don't know why, day after day, we trust him.  on the way to lowes, the thermometer read 101.  

one corner of our yard (behind our master bedroom) is surrounded by railroad ties.  we are assuming that this has been used as a vegetable garden because it is a complete square and would be a very ugly flower bed.  so, we decided we would make our own vegetable garden.  yes, i know, we have missed planting season.  but, we have decided that global warming is on our side.  so now is the time to plant!  the only vegetables we could find at lowes and home depot are tomatoes and assortments of peppers. we cleared out the half of the square (after several bouts of roundup) and poured manure and topsoil to make the soil nice and tasty to all the veggies we plant.  so in 101 degree weather we planted 2 "heat wave" tomato plants, 2 "celebrity" tomato plants, 2 "better boy" tomato plants, 1 red bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper and 1 jalapeno plant.  we also planted 2 rosemary plants.  

when i asked the man at lowes if it was still ok to plant vegetables, he said (and i quote) "yeah, you can still plant them but your gonna get your tomatoes later in the season than you would if you had planted them when everyone else did."  are you kidding me?  so my 6 inch tomato plant will not be producing hundreds of tomatos at the same time as my neighbors four foot tomato plant.  astonishing i thought.  how could that be!  

little river

recently i have become aware of the fact that my thighs are growing rather large.  when dr. started work i decided that i too would get up at 5:15 in the morning and get a walk in.  my first few walks were very pleasant.  everyday it seemed like it was getting hotter and hotter.  one day as i was admiring the yards and i spotted what looked like a miniature horse.  (really, how would this be possible.  our neighborhood is in the jackson city limits and a thoroughfare connecting the suburbs to downtown.) i must be hallucinating, i thought.  at first it seemed like a statue but as i neared the yard, it moved.  i don't know if there is a word describing how startled i was.  since i thought there was a possibility i could be experiencing symptoms of heat stroke, when dr. got home from work, i insisted he go see mini horse with me.  when dr. and i drove by that afternoon there were two girls holding onto the electric fence surrounding the horse and petting it.  so, it is true.  there is a mini horse in our neighborhood.  there is also a mini stable and mini horse jumps.  long live little river.

first timer

wow! welcome to the web!  this is our little blog so we can share our life with our friends and family!  bare with us because we have no idea what we are doing but hopefully will figure it out quickly!