So, while talking to my friend Danielle tonight, and trying to coax her into starting a blog of her own [she's a special education teacher and has the absolute BEST stories about her kids and the ridiculous stuff that happens to her on a regular basis] I realized that I have not updated since we brought Apollo home.
So, here it goes!
We have been BUSY. So busy that I'm not sure how I am keeping it together without having a metal breakdown. Huge shout out to all of the working parents out there, because I don't know how you manage to successfully live and take care of children!
Apollo is almost fully grown. He's such a great bird that in March, I decided that it was time to add another Indian Ringneck to our family. I spent the next 3 months trying to find a breeder that had the color and sex that I wanted. We finally came across a breeder in Virginia and we arranged to have the bird shipped to us, I would have to pick her up in Raleigh, NC at the airport but I figured it wouldn't be a huge deal. Little did I know, when I told the breeder that I needed a late afternoon/evening flight time that he would take that to mean that an 1145pm landing time was what I was talking about. I'm the kind of girl that is in bed by 8pm and drooling by 810pm these days.
It was an interesting ride there and back, and baby Boomer was a hot mess that evening. The poor thing was shaken up and had no idea what she was supposed to do! Of course, we remedied that with a nice scrambled egg and berries breakfast. She has come a long way in these past 3 weeks, she and Apollo are getting along well and sometimes when I sneak up on them, I can catch them cuddling.
Pretending not to like each other.
My pretty little girl.
The lovies have decided that the ceiling fan is an acceptable place to perch.
My little blue girl in all her glory.
I also got a job. Imagine that, after a year of housewifedom, I walked into a dental office and was hired on the spot. I can say that I was a little impressed with myself after pulling off that feat. Although to be honest, it probably had more to do with my letters of recommendation than anything else. I started the week that Boomer was due to fly in...talk about a wreck! I had the first week of work stress on top of driving to Raleigh at 8pm at the end of that week, when really, all I wanted was to come home that Friday and crack open a giant bottle of wine, sit in the bathtub and read a book...maybe eat some chocolate if the mood took me.
But instead, I drug my tired butt up to pick her up. I am glad that I did too.
The first week was tough for me, I've been out of the dental field for over a year and I was a little nervous that I wasn't going to remember any of my training. First week jitters, you know. Trying to figure out how the place ran, how to manage my time to complete all of the tasks I was asked to do, get used to the fact that the office does not run a digital xray program [because I was well spoiled by the Navy, not only do they have digital xray, but they also have a xray tech to do them for you!]
The second week was even tougher, I was feeling a little more comfortable, but allowing myself to get cocky and in the end I made a lot of embarrassing [I can't believe I messed that up, I KNOW this ] mistakes.
The third week was a little better. I managed to figure out how to manage my time, I can develop x-rays like a boss, and I knew the computer system and operations pretty well, but my feet were KILLING me. I am NOT used to standing up all day long. Since I wasn't assisting yet, just running CSR [the central sterilization room], flipping rooms, seating patients, filing charts, developing x-rays, stocking, restocking and stocking again, copying x-rays as well as general cleaning and patient care, I never had a chance to sit down. My feet hurt so bad that by the time I got home at night all I wanted to do was sit down and not clean my house [which was starting to look more and more like it had been hit by a tornado with each passing day!]
This week, my fourth week with the office, is off to a much better start. I'm comfortable at work, I know what's expected of me, and I've even managed to manage my time so well that I have found opportunities to talk to and get to know the people I work for! My feet and muscles have adjusted to standing and running around all day and when I came home tonight, I had the energy to clean my house AND spend about an hour in the garden weeding and raking.
So, all in all, I think I've adjusted back into the work force pretty well. I'm feeling much better about it these days, although there have been multiple times since I started that all I can think is 'why, oh why did I get a job right at the start of summer....I want to quit....I'd rather be at the beach....or in the garden....or on my couch....anywhere but sweating in this office.' I'd be a liar if I said I hadn't! The dentist's I work for have plans to send me to xray school, prophy school and a bunch of other stuff, which is absolutely AWESOME. Free school that I don't have to pay for...yep, I'll take it.
The garden is also FINALLY in the ground and growing. I never thought I'd be able to say that! I managed to get it all in last week, with the help of our neighbors son, Cory. He's a great kid and he's helped me out by babysitting the chickens and ducks and dogs in the past. He is a hard worker and always pops his head over the fence to see if I need help with anything.
We decided to do a co-op garden this year. The neighbors and I decided that if they help with the weeding and watering and planting [hence why Cory is always in my yard helping] that we'd all just take what we needed from the garden. William wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of sharing food at first, but our garden is a solid 900 square feet and there's no way we'll be able to eat it all anyway. Heck, last year the only thing that grew were the bell peppers and the sweet potatoes and we ended up giving most of them away because we just couldn't eat them all!
I made a lot of gardening mistakes last year, it was our first big garden and I really let the weeds get out of control [I won't make that mistake again!] I also didn't realize that the vegetables that we did grow weren't going to be as big as the ones we buy at the store, so I ended up waiting too long to harvest and we lost a lot that way as well. The bugs also killed up last year. I tried everything! Neem oil and hot peppers, nothing kept the bugs off the plants.
This year, I managed to use companion planting to naturally keep the bugs away! I lined the outer most ring with marigolds, planted my tomato plants outside the garden and put plants together that will help each other grow and stay bug free. [I.e. if you grow beans with your corn, the beans will put off nitrogen while growing which in turn makes the corn happy!]
Another thing we discovered this year is diatomaceous earth! Woo hoo. I sure wish I had known about that magical little crumbled dinosaur bone powder before! It will kill bugs, fleas, ticks, ants, everything that creepy crawls around your yard! I've killed a ton of fire ant mounds this way!
So I'm all planted. We have a ton of heirloom tomatoes, peppers of all shapes, colors and spice levels, 2 types of okra, kohlrabi, corn, beans, peas, sunflowers, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, cukemelons, arugula, spinach, pumpkins, squash, watermelon, cucumbers, brussel sprouts, cabbage and eggplant.
Phew, that's one heck of a list, but everything seems to be thriving in the soil. I know in a few weeks I'll be kicking myself for planting so much stuff. I'm sure it's going to grow so fast that I'll be out of control trying to keep it weeded. But for now, I designate 30 minutes to an hour each night to go out and see how the corn grows and pull up the weeds and grass that is trying to start reclaiming it to the wild. All of this rain has really been beneficial for the plants, but also for the weeds! I figure if I go out there every night, I may just be able to keep things under control.
Onions.
Snap Peas.
Watermelon.
Garden Beans.
Corn.
It sure doesn't look like much right now, but just wait a month!
