Spring has Sprung in Prattvegas

At the beginning of March, I received the starter for Amish Friendship Bread, a delicious dessert-y bread, from a friend at work. It's a 10-day starter with tons of ingredients and even more calories, but it is goooood. I made it for the first time in early March. Each batch makes 2 loaves, so I decided to keep one for ourselves and give one to some neighbors. While you're preparing the bread, it yields 4 more starters (that you're supposed to give to friends). Z loved the bread so much that I decided to keep all 4 starters and make all the bread to give away to people. So, 10 days later, there I was baking 8 loaves of bread (a total of 6 hours, not including the time I spent driving to the store after round 1 for more cinnamon and flour.) I was able to share bread with lots of people, and it was fun! I only kept 1 starter that night, and I'll bake that tomorrow, just in time to share with Sunday School friends on Sunday.

Last week was my step father's birthday, so Friday night we gathered at a restaurant in Alabaster for dinner. Afterwards we went to my sister's house for presents and dessert. It was very enjoyable - I love my family.

Also last weekend, Z and I put up our privacy fence. Now, we live on the lake and normally love our view (Canadian geese walking around our yard, for an elegant example), but the neighbors whose yard is against our backyard are downright junky. Spare tires, tin-roofed chicken coop, broken toys, etc. Plus, our back porch looks straight into the side of their house, so when we sit on our porch, it looks like we're staring at them. So, we only put a privacy fence on that one border. I know, I know, it could easily be taken as an insult. Believe me, I stewed about this for months. But, I like to think that they appreciate the privacy we gave them, too. So, Saturday morning we borrowed our Sunday School teachers' old truck and went to Lowe's to buy the lumber. While we were checking out, we saw some church friends and their adorable 2-year-old daughter. We invited them to dinner after we were all done working in our respective yards.

Saturday Z started putting up the fence while I painted the wood trim on our storage building and planted flowers. Then our friends came over and we grilled burgers. Their little girl kept us all entertained. She liked "reading" my poetry books, helping me cook french fries, and pretending the tiki torches (for mosquitos) were burning her (she was nowhere near them, but she kept putting her hands over her face and saying, "Ow - it's burning me!')

The next morning we went to church (my first Sunday to sing in the choir) and started in the yard as soon as we ate lunch. We worked on the fence for 7 hours straight, until it was slap-out dark. But we finished it, and it looks great!

Our yard is beginning to look really beautiful. We have jasmine and honeysuckle growing on the arbor, wisteria in the woods, the lawn is greening by the minute, our rose bushes are growing (except the one we had to replace - hey, 1 out of 16's not bad). Our neighbors have gorgeous azaleas that have been blooming for weeks. Our daffodils are wonderful, and although only one tulip is blooming, its bright red bloom is amazing. And did I mention the Canadian geese wandering around the yard all day? Spring is breathtaking, really.

Blog Explosion

Wow - talk about being a slacker. Of all the millions of things going on in my life this past month or so, blogging has not been one of them. I feel like I haven't had a moment to catch my breath since I've started my new job. Not that I'm complaining, but I certainly have a lot of catching up to do here. Ready? Here we go.

1. I had my first real bonding opportunity with the women from my Sunday School class during the first weekend of Feb when they invited me on their annual retreat. It was in an almost luxury cabin in the woods. We all spent the weekend relaxing, sharing, getting to know one another better, etc. It was very nice to be able to get away for a while and have some girl talk. I've been starved for girlfriends since leaving college and leaving my friends in Tuscaloosa.

2. Now for the main reason I haven't been able to blog about anything. My mentor at work (the woman I'm filling in for during her extended maternity leave) wound up leaving a couple of days earlier than planned and left me flying solo. That's not completely accurate - I have lots of kind and helpful coworkers, but they have their own mountains of work to do. Seriously though, the woman I'm filling in for is in charge of all local and regional marketing, including coordinating grand openings of new branches, in all regions of all of our states, plus assisting with corporate advertising. That's a ton of responsibility, and I love every minute of it. It's beyond stressful, but I freaking love it.

3. Another even that, under normal circumstances, would have warranted its own post is that my friend Candace got married. On Valentine's Day she married her sweetheart in Knoxville. Yes, Knoxville. We wound up spending about 14 hours in the car, I believe, and we missed watching the beautiful bride walk down the aisle. That was extremely upsetting, but it really didn't seem to bother her. (She's not quite as sentimental and all-around sensitive as I am.) The wedding was nice - small, but nice. I could tell that the mother of the bride had put lots of creativity into the event, and I hope the happy couple loved every minute of it. It's totally surreal to imagine her married.

4. I briefly blogged about this already, but on Feb 16 (President's Day - it's awesome to work for a bank and have a spouse who works for the state), we had our new storage building "installed" (it was built on our property, not delivered) and Z and I built our porch swing frame with an arbor around it. It was cooooooold that morning, and we were out in the backyard pounding raildroad stakes into 4x4s. Talk about sturdy. The next weekend we created a rose garden in our backyard. Along with 16 rose bushes, it contins an iron, decorative hanging plant stand which holds 4 hanging plants, 2 birdfeedsers, and the most gorgeous stained bird bath you've ever seen. Even though the roses are nowhere near blooming yet, our backyard looks so much better! (The product of two people raised in the country and cooped up in dorms and apartments for the past 6 years.)

5. Of course during the last weekend of Feb we had tornadoes and snow like just about everyone else in AL, but Z and I also had a lovely visit to Hoover that weekend to shop for work clothes at the Galleria and meet some family for dinner at the Fish Market Restaurant. Since we live about 2 hours away from just about everyone now, we have to grab those little moments when we can - and it was a very fun evening.

6. On March 2, my beloved Granny (no really - she's the world's greatest Granny) had hip replacement surgery. She had the other hip done about 15 years ago. After that surgery, she developed a blood clot and had to stay in the hospital for weeeeeeeeks. This time, though, everything went very well and she's already been home for several days now.

7. My mom's side of the family is quite musical. Most of us sing, and many of us (but not me) play at least one instrument. I grew up singing in children's choir at church and then went on to audition for and perform in my high school's concert choir. Now, our high school didn't have the best athletics and our football program always sucked, but our marching band and concert choir were at least state-renowned. Anyway, I haven't been part of a choir in a long time. For the past month or two, though, I've noticed that during hymns at church, the choir director is noticing me. Eventually he introduced himself after church one day and said that he could tell I sing (whatever that means - is everyone else not even moving their lips? I don't know.) He originally asked me to join the choir over a month ago, and I really intended to being going to Wed night practice, but for about 4 Wednesdays in a row, I swear, we were either having tornadoes or I got stuck in terrible traffice (my commute is pretty bad now). But last Wed, I finally went to practice, and I really enjoyed it! Yes, it was hard to rush home, rush to get dinner on the table, and rush out the door, but it was lots of fun, and I figure these things will be a lot harder when we have children, so I better live it up now. Anyway, it was a good release.

8. I received the starter for some Amish friendship bread several days ago, and it finally came time to bake it last Sunday night. It was pretty freaking delicious, and instead of giving away any of the starter this time, I kept all 4 portions, which makes two loaves each. I plan on making friends with the neighbors, finally, and letting Z butter up some coworkers. Eventually I'll have to kill the starter, though, because it multiplies and I don't have time to bake tons of bread all the time, even though it is amazing.

9. This past weekend, my great friend and her family hosted their annual spring-time get together - their Daffodil Party. It's an evening in their beautifully landscaped gardens visiting with old friends and celebrating spring's arrival. It's pretty wonderful.

10. We finally bought a lawnmower last week. Sat morning, before we left for the party, Z mowed the lawn for the first time as a homeowner.

11. I stayed home "sick" today. I didn't feel quite so bad as I just didn't feel too good. And I'm freaking exhausted (see #2 for explanation), so I looked at it as a mental health day, necessary for me to remain a good employee. It turns out, I'm even more appreciated than I thought. Even though my manager has told me that he is working with HR to make me a real employee, I was still surprised that he called me this morning after learning that I was home sick. He said that he panicked and had to cancel meetings that I was to head up because I've done such a good job in taking over the responsibilities that he has no idea how to cover for me. He told me how necessary I am and that he called HR and told them to fast track the process! That made me feel pretty great.