Stalking a Timothy

Tim feel asleep in the living room the other day. I noticed he wasn't wearing his glasses and I didn't see them on the table so I figured I should check to make sure he wasn't laying on them. As I crept around him looking for the glasses I was careful to be extra quiet. I didn't see them in the first go-round so I circled again. As I was doing this, he suddenly jolts awake and tells me, "I felt like I was being stalked like prey!" Finally, I got my revenge! You see, when I fall asleep in the living room I usually have the most frightening nightmares and then wake up to realize that he's watching Alien or something equally disturbing.

Impatience

I'm always happy when the lilies start blooming again. In fact, I get so excited that blooms rarely remain on the plant for long.

The First Post of Spring

Following Tim's surgery last year, we kind of let the yard go. I'm very proud to say that we've spent a lot of time getting it back into shape the past couple weeks and are finally reaping the rewards. Once we made ourselves get back out there, we remembered why we enjoy it so much... it's some of the best quality time that we have together. There is no work, cell phones, video games, television, etc to distract us and honestly it requires a lot of teamwork to get things done. Among the changes, we pulled up the lantana from around the trees and consolidated it into the front bed. We also planted the magnolia trees (they're quite small so calling them trees is a stretch). Then we moved some of the flowering plants from the backyard into the front for a little more color. In added bonus, remember the mama Plover from last year? She's back and seems to be nesting again!!!

Oh So Lovely

The Orchids are still in full bloom & have even sent up more buds! Just about every other day I decide that I want to clip 'em & bring 'em inside. I haven't actually brought myself to do it yet. Does anyone know if the flower stays around as long once it's been cut?

Hard to Grow

Shortly after moving into our house, we bought an Orchid plant. It reminded us of the ones that we saw on our honeymoon. The first year it bloomed beautifully! Since then, however, it remained healthy looking but never put up another flower. I asked many plant people what I could do & always seemed to get the same response, "Orchids are hard to grow." No explanation, no tips... I was beginning to think that all Orchid growers were actually members of a cult which barred them from sharing THE SECRET.

Yeah, I may have gotten a little paranoid...
my orchids started blooming last week.

Looking on the Bright Side

Tim & I met around this time of year back in 2000. For all intensive purposes, we lived a fairy-tale courtship through our college years. Senior year, my good friend, Liz, pulled me aside & caught me off guard with her frankness - "You know you're lucky, right?" I had no idea what she was talking about. "You went to school & met the love of your life... you're graduating, have a job lined up, and you're planning your wedding." No one had ever condensed my life into such simple terms. She was right - I'm lucky.

All my college professors warned against having 'major life changes' during our first year teaching (rumors spread about a friend of a friend of that brown-haired girl in Educational Psychology... apparently she completely lost it & was last seen giving her wedding guests DIBELS & sending her students thank you notes for the delightful shower gifts). Needless to say, I didn't listen. I graduated December 10, 2004; started teaching on December 13, 2004; and got engaged on December 31, 2004. For the next seven months, I was legally insane. I'm quite certain that somewhere among those wedding contracts, it read, "Mental facilities that govern kind, rational thought and behavior will not be functioning properly again until after the big day." I wasn't a bridezilla... oh no, quite the opposite actually - my husband was forced to be involved in the wedding planning. Much like Dory, those months were filled with trying to "just keep swimming" through the piles of school & wedding stuff that slowly filled every corner of our apartment. There were many times that I thought I would lose it - I mean, strap me into a straight-jacket - lose it!

The end of the school year came. I survived. I was stronger for it.

Our wedding arrived; it was a blissful swirl of celebration! Momentary perfection. Most of all, however, it was our own. Something that (with the help of our family) Tim & I were able to dream, build & create - together! Our wedding went & the honeymoon came. It was about that time that I began to regain mental facilities enough to recall what my friend had told me earlier... yup, I'm still lucky.

We knew that everything was right. We could feel it. That rainbow of perfection hung in our sky through the first eight years of our relationship. It ended on May 18, 2008. Suddenly we were unprepared... struggling to deal with something that seemed so simple before... our life. Although the next couple months were filled with bright summer sunshine outside, it was a stark contrast to our feelings. With heavy weights on our hearts & gray clouding our mind, we found ourselves fumbling through some of the hardest experiences we've been dealt thus far - everything felt uncertain, unstable, & completely not normal.

Why am I telling you this? This week the normalcy has returned. I can't quite pinpoint what has changed or how or why, but something is different. Something feels lighter. For the first time in a while, we can feel, just a little, carefree... without guilt or sadness. Our outlook is restored... and yes, we're very lucky.

I Have a History of Blogging about Fungus...

Why stop now?

Nature's Mysteries

I find it intriguing how flower buds
look so similar to butterfly chrysalises.

After the Rain

I love how it looks like it's glowing!!

Memory Block

The Mystery Bulbs are back!
I actually found out the real name last year,
but after referring to them as 'Mystery Bulbs' for so long...
I can't remember it!

The Rumors about us being Encompassed by a Gigantic Sinkhole are False

Last week went something like this...
Monday: breakfast, Physical Therapy, work, lunch, work, dinner, work, bed
Tuesday: breakfast, work, Doctor's Office, lunch, work, dinner, work, bed
Wednesday: breakfast, Physical Therapy, work, lunch, work, dinner, Project Runway, bed
Thursday: breakfast, work, rejoice (no appts!), work, lunch, work, dinner, video games, bed
Friday: Physical Therapy, breakfast, work, lunch, work, dinner, relax (TGIF!), bed

My commentary...
We can't complain about being busy with work (that is a good thing, after all)... but these non-stop doctor's appointments are somewhat frustrating. We lost at least 8 hours last week. Our job offers us so much flexiblilty, but at the same time, there is no escape from it... when our personal time is spent sitting in the doctor's office during the day, we have to work through our normal 'off' hours. During this catch up on work, we neglected the cleanliness of our house - that's right, it was a mess! In a mere week it went from being semi-suitable for Joe's visit to a COMPLETE and TOTAL disaster area!

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Last weekend went something like this...
Saturday: sleep late, breakfast, play w/ cats, call mom, watch movie, lunch, play Rockband, all-in-all do nothing, dinner, bed
Sunday: breakfast, laundry, pick up the house, dishes, laundry, shopping, dishes, entertain friends, laundry, garbage/cat litter (yuck!), relax, go to bed

My Commentary...
Saturday was a much needed day of nothing-ness, and Sunday was a much needed day of catching up (and yes, we really did have that much dishes & laundry).

In the end, I think we're starting Monday surprisingly on track!

Ahh... Summer

Not only have the frogs started returning in mass,
but the mystery bulbs are sprouting again!!!!

Curious Cats & Blue-Eyed Grass

Lunch-hour Flower

I found these Asiatic Lilies a few weeks ago. The cashier light-heartedly mentioned that a gentleman in the store earlier had bent down to smell the flower & gotten the pollen on his mustache ... he couldn't get it off & left the store with a bright orange smear across his face. As she hand me my receipt she warned, "Be careful." (Had I known that before the transaction was complete, I may not have gotten them). My task became clear. Get the flowers home without leaving pollen marks on the car (yes, I was in the car, not the truck). It took some maneuvering, but they made it home nicely & they are gorgeous!!!

The Backyard

The family of birds that was living in our backyard hasn't returned in quite a few days... they moved down to the pond nearby. We're sad to see them go, but also a little relieved... they are endangered after all, that's a lot of responsibility! ;o)

Annabelle came outside for a little field trip today!

This Lizasaur (lizard big enough to be a dinosaur) was sunning.
He stood his ground when we came out...

And Sam was waiting for us inside!

Flowers Brighten my Day

Mystery Solved...

It's called slime mold, and yes, it is a fungus.

Here's what I learned...
"...It lives on wood and bark mulch, but doesn't really decay the wood. The most common form appears in the evening as a slimy yellow mass about 12" in diameter. (People describe it as looking like something that the dog coughed up.) Each mass is actually one large cell and has the ability to move across the mulch! There is no preventative measure for controlling these annoying growths. But they are most common on newly applied mulch. When they appear, simply scoop them up and throw them away. To avoid them in the future, use a different material for mulch. If you have pine bark, switch to hard wood and vice versa." Read more here

"Slime molds feed on microorganisms in decaying vegetable matter. They can be found in the soil, on lawns, and in the forest commonly on deciduous logs. They are also common on mulch or even in leaf mold which collects in gutters." The interesting stuff... "If one strand is carefully watched for about 50 seconds the cytoplasm can be seen to slow, stop, and then reverse direction. The streaming protoplasm within a plasmodial strand can reach speeds of up to 1.35 mm. per second which is the fastest rate recorded for any organism." Read more here

So... supposedly it's not harmful & there's not much that can be done about it aside from what we've been doing. It still gives me the heebie jeebies though!

Heebie Jeebies

Tim & I found this thriving mess of stuff in our yard... we think it's fungus (??). We found a spot yesterday (& ended up looking like a Hazmat team going out to dispose of it). Then today there was another spot all the way across the yard. Tim said he's seen stuff like this in Northern Virginia, but this is pretty new to me & just looking at it gives me the heebie jeebies (rest assured....the zoom feature was fully enabled when taking this picture)! Any knowledge on what this is or how to get rid of it would be greatly appreciated!!

Outside Snapshot

I loved how the sunlight was hitting this...

Our neighbor gave us this sprinkler last year,
it's too cute!

Petunia

I spent some time in the sunshine this afternoon while Tim finished up some business calls. The petunias are thriving... now we're waiting for the rest of the flowers to catch up! :o)