Today While Running

I almost stepped on a dead snake (still fresh though) on the side of the road. Then, I almost had full-on cardiac arrest because I was already climbing a hill and that plus the suddenly dead snake in my path pretty much leads to me almost dead in the street. I survived though. Whew.

Ch ch ch changes

Lots of changes!

discoveries

Likes in no particular order.


borrowed from: http://loveyourchaos.tumblr.com/



Borrowed from: http://www.sheddingit.com/



borrowed from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aranandjennie/1450443166/

I Heart Cuppycakes!

I stole the title of this post from another blog. http://iheartcuppycakes.com/

Just borrowing it really, for this one little post!

I've been making cupcakes again because I had two really good excuses--a holiday and a birthday!

Easter was a lovely coconut cupcake.




A link to the recipe is here: http://pinkparsleycatering.blogspot.com/2010/03/bb-coconut-cupcakes.html

For a friend's birthday, Oreo cupcakes! Yum!





And the recipe for this deliciousness can be found here: http://annies-eats.com/2009/01/10/oreo-cupcakes/

After looking at my pictures and then looking at the pics of the cakes on these websites, I have realized something. I really need a better camera. ASAP!

Ponds, Chickens, Dentists, and Other Things

Major updates on the pond. It holds water now, which is lovely and yellow thanks to the pollen. No fish yet, but there are some water lilies in the water. Now, we wait for them to grow. Here are a few shots of the progress.





Took those two shots with a great iphone app, Hipstamatic. If you have an iphone, you should check it out.






Now, on to the chickens. They are growing and getting feathers and becoming quite funny. Here's a little clip of Lily herding them. She has a love/hate relationship with the chickens, but I think they think she is their mama. It's just a little bit cute. Also notice, the deck in the background. More pics of that to come.



And dentists. I have been going to the same dentist for the last four years. I dread the dentist and have had some ridiculous experiences at the dentist. I've posted about the dentist before. I tried to search for it but can't find it. If you can find it, good job. So, for the last four years...the same dentist. Every time I go to the dentist, the dental hygienist tries to scrape my gums off and makes me hurt for the rest of the day. Then she wraps up with a big lecture on how I need to floss more because I have gingivitis and that's like an infection in your bloodstream. She even says crazy things about how my teeth are going to fall out or that I'm going to have to get plastic teeth. Okay, so if you know me, you have probably heard me talk about this lady and how much I LOATHE the experience of going to the dentist. Two visits ago, she started lecturing, and I almost lost it. Because see, here's the thing...I floss every day and use Listerine for the whole 30 seconds two times a day, and I so don't have gingivitis. I know this, not because I'm a dental hygienist, but because I have a brain and a mirror, and I look at my teeth all the time. So, after I sort of hollered about it a little, she told me I should start coming in for a 3rd cleaning each year. So, I went in for an extra cleaning because even though I know my teeth are fine, I fall for these things. Gullible much? During this cleaning visit, she was so awful, kind of like I was ruining her day because she had to deal with me. SO...this week I went to a new dentist. He was fabulous! (so far) I told him all about how I have this terrible tartar problem and blah blah blah, and I realized that he was looking at me like I was stupid. Not just because this crazy redheaded girl was carrying on in his dentist chair either! He confirmed that my teeth are fine and my gums are fine and that I needed to calm the heck down. The dental hygienist at this office was kind of watching this conversation from afar and had a smirk, but she even chipped in to tell me that I was totally normal compared to everyone she sees. All I can say is...it's about damn time! When I was in high school, one of the only dentists in Woodruff (how many were there?) asked me if I did crack. Yes, crack. Uh huh, crack. I was 17 and was like, "Whhaaaat!?" Apparently drinking coffee will make your teeth look like you are a crack addict. Who knew?

Lizard

On Wednesday afternoon, I headed straight for my house and the mango margarita mix because it was a beautiful day that I could spend on my new porch, work had been exhausting, and in just one more day it would be Spring Break. That's a lot of good reasons.

I sat out in the sunshine for a couple hours and went in to get another drink. On my way back outside, I had a run in with some wildlife. I opened the backdoor and saw something fall down at my feet. I looked down and saw a tail flip flopping by my right foot and then out of the corner of my eye I saw some animal waddling sans tail across the den floor. This is where the hilarity began. Hilarity. That's a word, right?

So I run outside screaming, leaving the door open because a tail of some animal is flipping around in the doorway. Will, who's working on his garden, looks up and is like, "What?" So I scream, "A lizard! I chopped off its tail! It's in the house! Ahhhhhh!" His response..."Well, do something about it!" My response, "I am!!!! I am screaming for you to come help!" So he comes to the house, picks up the flippy tail and feeds it to the chickens. The fact that I have chickens and can write sentences about how my husband feeds lizard tails to them adds to the ridiculousness of this situation. So then he goes in and we realize the lizard has hidden somewhere in the den. Will moves furniture all around and finds the critter under the couch. So, he says to me (by the way...at this point I'm hyperventilating), "I'm going to lift the couch and you have to make it run toward the door." My response, "Uhhhhhh.... (whimper whimper)" because I know this is the stupidest idea because the half-lizard isn't going to run toward the door. It's going to run AT ME! So, Will lifts the couch and sure enough, the lizard runs right at me. Waddle waddle no-tail lizard coming for my feet. So what do I do? The most logical thing to do in this situation: I jump right up on the coffee table and scream at the top of my lungs. Like a little girl. And I'm okay with it! Now you have to understand that this is really not a little lizard. Technically it's a skink which is much larger and looks kind of like an iguana or a baby alligator (in my opinion). Minus her tail, this gal was at least 6-7 inches long and fat and slimy looking. GROSS! (and scary!)

Will does some more hollering about how I need to pull myself together and snap out of it and stuff like that. I leap from the table and run into the kitchen where I decide to just let him be annoyed that I'm acting like an eight-year-old because he'll eventually catch the lizard, and I'll be safe again. He finally trapped it in the bathroom and carried it back outside. To be clear about the severity of this, he had to hold her head like you'd hold a snake by the jaw because it was trying to bite.

Some things I've learned:

1. When opening the back door, step back so that any lizards falling from the sky won't fall on you.
2. Lizards will "drop" their tails in attempt to get away. Didn't realize this, but now I know. I have to say it's a smart little strategy because it sure confused the heck out of me.
3. Don't listen to your husband when he tells you to run at an animal (even if it is just a lizard) so that it heads for the backdoor. It will just come at you.
4. Having a third (or fourth) margarita after such a traumatic incident does really help calm you down.


I've also come up with a plan for what to do if this happens and Will isn't home. I will be placing a mixing bowl over the creature and weighting it down with a book until Will gets home.