Spring Planting

Wade found out a couple of weeks ago that no one in his department would be let go because of the budget cuts, so we decided to work some on the yard. Our first task was to plant some shrubs along the fence line that Charis and Zoe like to run and bark at. We planted 10 red tipped photina in the rain Friday afternoon. As you can see, the dogs aren't too sure about this added cover quite yet.

When I woke up Saturday morning, Wade met me with the day planned. First, we went to the tree nursery in town and bought a Savannah Tree Holly. Then we set out for Forest Hill, a town south of Alexandria known for it's nurseries. This was our first trip there and the people who told us about it were right! There were nurseries on both sides of the road. We probably saw 30 and we didn't go very far. We ended up purchasing at the first place we stopped, although we looked around probably 1/2 a dozen first. We came home with 9 Witch Hazel and 7 Indian Hawthorne plants.

Our first task was to dig out the grass where we were going to create the flower bed. We had said all along that we would definitely rent a tiller for that. Instead Wade got out the shovel and his pick ax and went to work. It took us the rest of Saturday just working on the grass. Wade was very happy after waking up sore Sunday that he has an office job! :) After church Sunday we got back out there and got the rest of the shrubs and the tree planted and mulched.

And now we wait. We are anxiously watching our plants everyday for signs of growth. When tornados were in our neighborhood yesterday, my first thought was what's going to happen to all of our plants! Luckily, both our home and plants were fine. Wade is even looking forward to having to purchase a trimmer to trim them!

January-February

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post, but let's face it, not too many exciting things are happening here.

We did go to Dallas over the MLK weekend. It was GREAT being in a big city again! We had some great Tex Mex food, went to the JFK museum and the symphony, and of course found a REAL mall! But, mostly it was great to just get away. This was the first for just the 2 of us since we arrived in LA.

A few weeks after that, we learned that we were not safe from the economic woes of the country. Wade learned that NSU was having to drastically cut their budget and no one knows what that means as far as job security. We think he will be safe through this summer, but who knows what will happen after that OR when he will find out. Can you say STRESS? I know this is a problem all over the country, but we never thought education would see such drastic cuts.

A perk of living in this part of LA is that you get Mardi Gras off. So, we had a 4 day weekend last week and spent a few days at my parents' house. It was nice to be away and do nothing. My parents are remodeling the kitchen so Wade helped do some trim work, but mostly we just vegged and spent time with my family.

Saturday we went to Shreveport to one of the casinos to see the Capitol Steps. If you listen to NPR, you might have heard of them. It's a political comedy/musical group. It was pretty funny. We didn't actually go to the casino, but we should have since it took us an hour to go down one level in the parking garage!

Now, I have no more short weeks (I've gotten accustomed to those!) until Spring Break which starts Good Friday. Before that we have the state testing, which I'll be glad to get behind me.

Please keep in touch, and I'll try to do better about posting!

Jessica