Happenings in July

Here’s what we’ve been up to lately:

rocks and minerals

After working hard to excavate the two bigger rocks in the foreground, Jr and Daddy lined up all the treasures that Moozie and Paw-Paw sent from the diamond mine in Arkansas. Jr now wants to dig in our yard to find rocks like these!

Grubby

Our newest pet, Grubby, plays hard, then eats, then sleeps; sometimes at the same time. (Yes, his name is really Grubby, named via Jr.)

Veggie Tales

This was after the Veggie Tales show at Silver Dollar City. Jr was able to take a picture with Bob the tomato and Larry the cucumber and then squeezed Bob’s nose on the way out.

waterslide

Fun times on the waterslide after Jr’s t-ball awards ceremony.

dangerous!

This is dangerous (according to Jr) and shouldn’t be tried by anybody else!

summer monkey

Chillin’ during the summer.

And finally, a special collage of the bug episode:

bug in ear

One night when Moozie and Paw-Paw were visiting, we all started to watch an episode of Star Trek. Except for Moozie, who sat at the computer with the only light on. About five minutes into the episode we hear “help, help” coming from Moozie. A bug flew into her ear. Of course, the first thing I tell her is that it’s going to eat her brain. We spent about 2.5 hours and tried everything to get that bug out:  a syringe with warm water, tweezers, even sticking a blade of grass in her ear so it would latch onto it (it didn’t). Then my husband comes out with Jr’s surgeon hat on. The bug stopped fluttering when peroxide was poured into Moozie’s ear in the hopes that it would drown and float to the top. Maybe we would’ve had more luck if we could’ve just stopped laughing. I took Moozie to the town clinic the next morning, where about 4 squirts of a syring later a small nearly white moth came out. An expensive little moth, too. Which Moozie still keeps in a small bag in her purse. The moral of the story is: everyone should be a Star Trek fan or bad things happen.

 

Outside

Today Big J and I went to visit an Amish greenhouse. Pretty impressive. They had the biggest tomato plants he or I had had ever seen and had quite a variety of plants. We bought four eggplants and four jalapeno pepper plants. Those were the two rows in our garden that didn’t take from seeds. After we got back I transplanted the veggies and Big J did some yard work across the street. As I was walking around outside, I noticed all the flowers in bloom and decided to grab the camera. Here’s what I captured:

eggplant row

our country garden

strawberries

Little J's garden: green beans

pink peonies

roses

peek-a-boo

peonies

 

Chicken Picken

A great tragedy occurred today. The Popeyes in the city I go to school in closed down. But that’s not the tragedy. The tragedy is that I still ordered chicken from the “restaurant” that took over. To fully understand the extent of this disaster, lemme give ya’ll a little background: there once was a girl (me) who with her best friend and roommate, Dawg, (so called for reasons of anonymity) used to give plasma for cash while in college at LSU. Now the first place that the girl and Dawg used to visit after giving the blood from their bodies was Popeyes, where the girl would order a number two (with the upcharge) and the Dawg liked to drink strawberry drink. So you see, it could be said that Popeyes is in the girl’s blood.

Now this other, fake Popeyes took down the sign from outside but is in the same building. When I went in (I was suspicious and didn’t want to go through the drive-thru) they still had the same menu pictures up, only there were these stickers on the edge that said “Cajun Cooking.” I should’ve walked out the door when I ordered cajun rice and red beans n rice and they were “out.” But the girl behind the counter said the chicken tasted the same when I commented, “So I guess Popeyes closed down.” Now the manager (another young woman) got a little pissy when I said that (she didn’t exactly slam chicken around, but you get the idea). While I was waiting for my order, another customer came in and when girl #1 asked what she could get him he said he needed a minute because he was expecting Popeyes. I shook my head up and down vigorously and said “Me too!” I maybe should’ve also been clued in by the fact that they didn’t put my chicken in a box, but instead put it in a ghetto little container like what you’d eat a hamburger n fries out of if you were dining in.

It gets worse! When I got back to the car and started driving, I thought to myself: this doesn’t have the same good chicken smell that Popeyes does.

No.

It smelled like peanut oil.

"Cajun cooking" chicken

So while driving, I did a little chicken picken (you know how you do) and that’s when I realized the extent of the mistake I had made. This was NOT Popeyes. The girl misspoke when she said it tasted the same. A Louisianian can tell. Especially one that has spicy chicken in the blood. So what’s a girl to do but call a Dawg and bitch? Dawg definitely felt my pain and misery (even though she evilly asked if my phone had camera capabilities . . . meaning she was gonna go to a REAL Popeyes and take a picture to send me). But the final insult came when I got home. The cajun mashed potatoes that I ordered instead of either cajun rice or red beans n rice had WHITE gravy on them. Insult added to injury.Now the nearest Popeyes is two hours away, and I could justify driving that distance if there weren’t a plasma center closer. What’s a girl to do?

 

Eight Inches of Spring Snow

was expected. And all that fell here was this:

Spring Snow

It did get pretty chilly, so it makes me glad that we didn’t plant our garden during spring break. I think the daffodils are finished, though. Jr. was disappointed; we told him that we would go sledding if there was enough snow. Kinda hard to sled in snow crumbs. He’s not too badly crushed, we’re heading to one of his school friend’s bday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I’m a little bit leery of the C mouse since Jesse Jr’s own 3rd bday party there. All the kids ended up with vomiting sickness, probably from crawling through those tunnel thingies. (Do you think they’re cleaned every night??) But he should have a great time, and get out a lot of energy, although he says he doesn’t know the little boy from school.  Maybe he will play so hard he’ll be ready for bedtime at 8pm. Mommy and Daddy have lots of school work that we neglected to do during spring break. And tomorrow it’s back to school. Boo.

 

Ice Day

Today is an ice day. No classes for anyone. My school officially cancelled classes. Big Jesse’s school did not. We think their reasoning is b/c they have a small student body and most of them live on campus. Maybe school officials never thought that all of their professors live off campus as well as most of the graduate students. Anyway, Jesse made the smart decision. Their is about an inch of ice on the road in front of our house.

Icy road in front of our house

The ice started yesterday. I was on my way home at about 3 pm when everyone started braking. There have been several times when I’ve been glad to drive a Subaru (with all wheel drive) and yesterday was one of those days. It was one of those moments when I’m braking and just know that I’m not going to stop in time. But my Subaru didn’t let me down. The weather was just turning nasty and there was no salt down on the roads yet. People were all over the shoulders and wheels were spinning out without grabbing onto asphalt. (And what’s up with all the Midwest drivers? I’m a Southern girl and even I know that you don’t continually brake–even with anti-lock brakes–my dad and hubby taught me that!) I was actually passed by a salt truck. Everyone settled down some then and we all went between 10-30 mph behind the salt truck. I was on my way to pick up Jesse Jr. and a drive that normally takes 30 min. took and hour and a half. And on the side road that Jesse Jr’s school is on (right across the street from Big Jesse’s university) there was an accident. Two college girls on their first day of classes. I’d say that qualifies as a bad first day of school.

I picked up Jesse and the remaining half hour drive took another hour. But I was happy we all made it home safely. And even more happy that none of us have to go out in it today. I’m sure Big Jesse’s professors will understand, if they even made it to school.