Rakes, Rats & Rednecks

Wow - I haven't blogged in forever. If you consider forever to be almost 2 months, because it has been that long. I'm a bad blogger but what can I say? I guess life just got busy, which is ironic since life is supposed to slow down during the summer. Maybe that is only true for kids & teachers? I don't know.I just know that once July started...things got really hectic, both at home & at work. Oh - and I should also mention that I was without Internet at my house for almost all of those two months - so I think I get a little break, right? Now then...what have I been up to?

I'm a homeowner now! Terrifying, I assure you. Delightful yet also terrifying because I have to worry about having to pay a mortgage every month now. I get this crazy thrill out of coming home & saying "oh, my house" but then sometimes I think "is it really mine? I haven't finished paying for it yet..." Of course, that certainly hasn't stopped me from making it my own! I'm actually loving every minute of it. I'm loving it maybe too much because I keep thinking of things that my house really NEEDS. These aren't things that I want, I promise - they are things that my house NEEDS. Like, I really need to re-do my guest bedroom because while it is all matchy & cutesy right now, it isn't the matchy & cutesy that I want it to be. And I need a rug. And I need bar stools. And I need Adirondack chairs for my porch. See. Things I NEED for my house. Of course, you need money to buy those things & all the money I have goes towards actually paying for the house, the electricity to keep it lit & cool & water to keep myself & my dishes, clothes, pet, etc...clean. See. The joys of being a homeowner. :) There are so many.

Last Saturday my Mom & I (thank goodness for that Momma, because I'd have been in trouble without her this past Saturday - and on many more occasions in my 26 years) had to put down pine straw around my house. The purpose of this was so that when it rains, since I have no grass to speak of, the mud doesn't splash up onto the siding & make it look horrible. This involved carrying a big ol blue bucket through the grove, raking up pine straw, toting the full bucket back to my house & spreading it out. Not hard or anything - just time consuming. And it makes me sweat. And I don't like to sweat. By the time we were finished, I was dusty, sticky, stinky, had a few new bug bites & a nice scratch from a stick that thought it needed to attack me. Nice. It hasn't rained yet so I don't really know how well this will work, but my Dad assures me it will. At least the next time the bottom falls out, I can comfort myself in knowing that my siding will only be wet, not wet & muddy.

Guest Bathroom

Master Bathroom

Living Room

My Bedroom

Kitchen!

Now - if you're my friend on Facebook, you've probably already seen all these pictures. Oh well. I kind of love my house, so that's life. You get to look at them again. :)

You just think  you want that mirror...

Another plus of having a home is decorating it. I'm doing a pretty good job of that already, but I'm always finding something else that I need to have in my house. I really want a cute mirror for my guest bedroom & I thought I'd found one for free. And it could have been free....if one doesn't mind wrestling a rodent for it. I mind. I mind so very much. You see - out in my front yard is a set of storage sheds that my Great Uncle is supposed to be coming to haul off - of course, he was supposed to have done that months ago & it hasn't happened yet - so we'll see. I had seen a beautiful mirror with etching at the top & I thought maybe I could salvage it, clean it up & hang it above the dresser. I wasn't really wild about going into the shed, but my Mom assured me that there was nothing in the shed & I'd be fine. She said all this while standing half hidden behind the protection of her car. I'm sure you can already see where this story is going. I crept so very slowly into the shed that a snail might have passed me up, but I wasn't taking any chances. I was just beginning to feel secure in the shed & so I reached up & pulled on on the left side of the mirror. Right as I pulled, a huge rat dove from the right side of the mirror & off into a hole at the side of the shed...I mean, I'm assuming that is where it went. Because the minute I saw that flash of fur & long creepy tail, I let out a scream that I'm sure notified all the neighbors within a 5 mile radius that someone was being brutally murdered in my shed. I turned tail (no pun intended) & ran for my life...to where my Mom was trying (and failing) to act concerned while concealing her hysterical laughter. I'm almost rat meat & my Mom finds it amusing. She says it was no big deal, but funnily enough, she didn't volunteer to go back into the shed & finish retrieving the mirror. Hmmm.

Earlier in the day, we both got a good laugh though. My Mom & I were going to the Dollar General to see what we could find on Saturday when we came upon one of those situations that just lets you know that you live in Mississippi. As we drive up the highway, we see a pickup truck pulled across two lanes of traffic & kind of stalled. We wait just a bit & the truck picks up speed & starts to move again - the lovely lady driving it hanging out the open window with her cigarette hanging out of her mouth. I happen to notice a rope attached to the end of the woman's truck & so I holler for my Mom to stop, because something is obviously attached to that rope & I'd rather not be the cause of an accident. We both look to the right to see what she could be pulling out onto the highway...and see that the rope is attached to a riding lawn mower with a large man sitting on it, smoking his cigarette & waiting to be pulled onto the highway & into the traffic. She proceeds to pull him out into the traffic, leaning out the window & hollering at him as if it is no big deal to just pull a lawn mower through the middle of the traffic on the highway. There would be pictures if only the two of them weren't so very aware that my Mom & I were watching them intently. The last we saw of them, she was creeping up the highway with him weaving in & out of lanes of traffic on his mower behind her. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. It was insane. It made for a rakes, rats & rednecks kind of Saturday, that's for sure.

So...there is what I've been up to lately. Working...and when I'm not at work, I"m probably doing some kind of work fixing my house the way I want it. Which isn't really so much work to me because I love doing it. Maybe I won't let two months pass before I blog again. I'm leaving tomorrow for Colorado Springs for a week - being with Lindsey always generates some kind of action, so I'm sure once I get back I'll have plenty to tell. Till then, hope this post gave you a laugh & I hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend! I know I will!