Photo Update

Life has been busy busy busy. The holidays flew by, January flew by and now February is also roaring along.

Murphy is growing fast. He went from 5.2 pounds to 14.something in 4 weeks. We take him back to the vet on 2/13. I can't wait to see how much more he's grown.

Here are some recent pictures.

I haven't done a lot of WoW playing or anything much more than watching puppy antics. It's been four years since we have had a puppy and I forgot how much work it is. If you really want to find me, I'm usually on Facebook when I am home.

I went on a cruise in mid-January with my parents and my maternal grandmother. We sailed from Tampa to Cozumel on Royal Caribbean. It was a great trip.

Here are some pictures of that.

Update

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted! I hope everyone has had a great holiday season with their friends and family.

Matthew finally found a job at the end of November which ended his nearly 18 months of unemployment. It's an temporary warehouse job working on Camp Lejeune for an unspecified amount of time. I think he's enjoying it as much as he can enjoy a job and I'm truly glad he finally found something that didn't require he be ex-military to even be considered for the job.

We had a great Christmas this year. We made gifts for everyone, as usual: hot cocoa mix with mini marshmallows and chocolate covered spoons for stirring. I thought that would be nice for this coming winter because I have a feeling it may be cold.

Matthew and I celebrated Christmas Eve with his maternal grandmother in Whitakers, NC as we have every year since we have been together. While we were there, his parents started telling us about this little puppy they had found in their shed. In the course of the evening, they asked us to come back to their house to see him.

When we got there, we were expecting some type of hound dog puppy but we were greeted by this little yellow fuzzball. I'm a sucker for baby animals so I immediately fell in love with the sweet, playful little puppy. I would never have told Matthew that I wanted him. With me, that is always a given...haha! But, imagine my surprise when I heard Matthew say that we would keep him.

So, we made the long trek home from Whitakers with our unexpected Christmas gift.

We named the puppy Murphy after the band Dropkick Murphys because he insists on hanging on to your feet while you are walking and inevitably gets booted across the room.

We took him to his first vet appointment the day after Christmas and he was given a clean bill of health and the vet told us he was probably around 8 weeks old.

I think that in the 4 years since Angus was a puppy we have forgotten how time-consuming a puppy is and how difficult housebreaking can be but we are working with Murphy and he is learning quickly.

That pretty much covers the last two months but here are some pictures of the puppy.

Halloween

Amber and I decided late Thursday afternoon to go back to the 80s for Halloween at work, this is the result.

Close up of the makeup


Me at my messy desk

Amber and I on Court St. Someone told us we should walk down Court St. and someone else called us floozies so we couldn't resist.

Court St. again


Me on Court St.


Me on Court St.

Nine years ago today

Click for bigger photos :)

Ear Infection

Matthew has an ear infection that started on Saturday. We went to MedCare in Jacksonville on Monday to get him some antibiotics and we were there four hours (we were in the lobby for three hours and he was in the back for one hour and he told me the nurse practitioner was only with him for several minutes) and they gave him a brand-name prescription (antibiotic ear drops). His ear was swollen so shut when he was seen that the nurse practitioner couldn't see into his ear. How'd she expect ear drops to work? Also, his blood pressure was elevated and they harped on him about that. Hello, we'd been waiting for four hours and he was angry not to mention in tons of pain!

We went to Family Urgent Care in Jacksonville this afternoon because he had not had any improvement in his condition. We were at this place for a total of one hour and forty minutes. They still couldn't see into his ear but they prescribed him a generic oral antibiotic. His blood pressure was also normal since he wasn't in pain and the wait wasn't insane. Here's hoping that he sees some relief in the next day or so!

Old School Pictures

A friend from high school started posting some old school pictures from High School and right after. So, I went through some of my photos and scanned some from around the same time.



Vince and Granddaddy Morton (Christmas 1998)


Mama, Grandmama Morton and Vince (Christmas 1998)


Mama (November 1984)


Vince and Grandmama Morton (December 1984)


Granddaddy Morton (November 1984)

Me and Bryant (August 1985)

Ashley (Year Unknown)


Me and my cousin, Carla (Christmas 1990)


Me and Ashley (1992)


Me (1993)


Me (1990)


Me at Midway (October 1998)
Bryant and Ashley (1995) - picture by AMM

Bryant (1995) - picture by AMM


Me (1995) - picture by AMM

Me and Ashley (1994) - picture by AMM
Me and Ashley (1995) - picture by AMM

Me and Ashley (1995) - picture by AMM


Me and Ashley (1996) - picture by AMM

Me and Ashley (1996) - picture by AMM

Me and Ashley (Senior Prom 1995) - picture by AMM


Me and Chris (Senior Prom 1995) - picture by AMM


Me and Bryant (1996) - picture by AMM


Me in my Madonna t-shirt (1995) - picture by AMM


Me (May 1998)


Me and Ashley (May 1998)


Ashley (May 1998)


Me and Ashley (May 1998)


Me, Chewbacca and Ashley (May 1998)

Me and Ashley (May 1998)

New Haircut

My hair has been frustrating me for the last week or so. It was too long. It's too hot to wear it down so, it was either in a bun or a ponytail. So, today, when we were out and about, I stopped in a salon and got it cut.

(Don't be scared...I don't have any makeup on!)



I also lightened it a bit.

I'm not so sure Matthew likes it...

Oh well.

Road Trip!

We hadn't taken a road trip in a while and I was still too sick to go to Clayton (and too tired because I only got one hour of sleep last night due to sleeping for almost 2 1/2 days straight) and paint so Matthew suggested we get out of the house for a little while. To my surprise, he suggested we drive down to South of the Border because he had never seen it. I had driven by it several times on the way to Disney World as a kid but had never been inside. So, this was an adventure for us both!

Welcome Sign

Pedro Sign

Gorilla with an orange t-shirt

Fireworks store with sombrero tower behind

Birthday Photos

Can you tell I love to have my picture taken?

Left to right: me, my mom and Grandmama Pittman.

Left to right: me, Grandmama Morton, my mom, Grandmama Pittman

Update

I have been on vacation for most of the past week after a super-busy couple of month at work.

Wednesday was my birthday. My parents came down and we went out to Jordan's seafood restaurant in Emerald Isle with both of my grandmothers. I had a really nice day.

The rest of the week, we mostly puttered around here. Did the rest of our planting including an herb garden in pots in the kitchen.

As of today, we also have six baby chicks. We gave a broody hen 14 eggs 3 weeks ago and so far we have six babies. You can see pictures on our farm blog.

Family Shout Out #2

This is a short film that my cousin wrote, directed and starred in.

Family Shout Out

My cousin, Mittie, made a website for her artwork. Check it out :)

Cooking Blog Moving

I'm moving the bulk of my cooking posts to our new farm blog. Since cooking is such an integral part of the homesteading experience, I want to include my cooking posts with all our other homesteading information. My original cooking blog will remain open for any fancy projects that may not fit in with homesteading.