Update!

So… ivy is 80-90% pulled up, but right now I think we’re in the ‘origin’ of it all… the vines are thicker and harder to pull up and are crazy intertangled…. This is where the granddaddy vines live. And they are not giving up their claim on our backyard very easily…..thankfully chad and I haven’t gotten too much poison ivy this past month and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel… now if we can just finish pulling it all up before all of the bugs start emerging! (ive warned chad that once this starts, I’ll be MIA and he’ll have to finish the job all by his lonesome!) We’re piling up all of the ivy that we’ve pulled so far into a huge mound right over our fence line. When we’re all done, I’ll have to take a picture of the mound and post it so you can see the extent of our work.. its insane!! And we have to figure out what to do with the hhhhuuuuuge pile… maybe pour tons of gasoline on it and torch it all…..

In other news, last week I started noticing that my Civic was acting a little weird- when it would switch gears, it would rev up before sticking and I had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the transmission- I figured it wasn’t really that big of a deal though because my car only has about 70k miles on it and it’s a Honda- supposed to be a reliable car, right? And I know nothing about cars, so I was probably wrong anyway and my car was perfectly fine- so I just put it in the back of my mind.

....So… I absolutely hate putting gas in my car. (I guess I inherited it from my mom who refuses to put gas in her car- she’d rather run out of gas than pump gas so my dad has to stay on his toes and make sure that he fills up her car when it starts getting low!!... but I digress…..) My car was on empty, so Chad switched cars with me so that I could drive his car to work and he could fill up my car on his way to work. I am super glad that Chad drove my car to work that day, because while he was driving it, my Honda all of the sudden went kaput (well I’m not happy that it died on chad, but im glad it didn’t happen with me driving bc I would have become a major stress-ball- especially if it happened on I-85.. I don’t think it would have been very pretty to say the least …). It wouldn’t accelerate at all and he had to coast to the side of the road (highway 74) and call a tow-truck to take it to a repair shop. A tow-truck!!! My poor Honda Civic that has never ever given me any trouble at all had to be towed!!

So the verdict is, my car needs a new transmission (well actually its going to get rebuilt). Did you know that transmission work is EXPENSIVE!?! It hurts to think about what we could have bought with the money we’re spending on the transmission!! (not that we would have, but still, you know?) We could have taken an amazing vacation, or bought some awesome furniture, or paid for someone else to deal with all of the ivy! So anyways, I’m trying not to think about how much it is and to just acknowledge it’s a necessary part of life- part of owning cars- part of growing up. Thankfully, Chads dad is away on business this week so we can borrow his car and we don’t have to worry about getting to work at the same time with one car when we work in completely opposite direction!

On that note, happy spring! Wasn’t Saturday beeea-utiful!!!??

Poison Ivy. An enemy of mine.

Poison ivy and I do not get along. 25 years of a hate-hate relationship that doesnt seem to be getting any better as time goes on... Ive been horribly allergic to poison ivy for as long as I can remember, but a particularly bad incident happened during a summer in college when my brother and I went to visit my cousin in San Francisco. We went on a hike through some woody terrain in Big Sur and although I rinsed off in a creek near the end of the hike, I came back to Atlanta with an oozy rash all over my inner arm (one spot I guess I didnt rinse off well enough). You couldnt see any skin on the majority of my inner arm bc the rash was so huge (I’m not exaggerating at all). I had to go to the doctor and take steroids to finally get the rash to go away, but it was a month of awfulness- I was itching and oozing over everything - it was disgusting. (i'm sure youre getting a beautiful image in your head right now....)

From my many itchy experiences with poison ivy, I'm very good at spotting it, but somehow, that tricky poison ivy always manages to leave its mark.. I can be 50 ft away from it and boom, I'm covered. So, when we moved into our house and I noticed some poison ivy in the backyard, I knew it as going to be trouble.... and boy has it been trouble….

Our poison ivy is particularly hard to eradicate and avoid bc its mixed in with the English ivy that covers half of our backyard, so oftentimes you cant see it until you’re literally standing in it. Chad and I are trying to get rid of the English Ivy bc its taking over the yard, choking our trees (sad I know) and also creates a haven to many wonderful creatures that we want get rid of (snakes, ticks, spiders, etc). Much to my dismay, in our attempt to remove the English ivy, we noticed that the poison ivy was growing up the majority of our trees, some with vines as thick as my thigh (and even comparing it to my thigh, that’s pretty thick)! We even spotted a tree that was actually dead but looked like it was alive because the poison ivy had grown up it and had tons of leaves hanging off of it… (just what I always wanted.. my very own poison ivy tree!) To further complicate matters, our dog loves running through the ivy and then when I pet her…, another way that I can get poison ivy.

We’ve been able to get rid of some of the English ivy and Chad has sprayed all of the poison ivy that he can find, but until we are able to totally get of the English ivy, I guess I’ll have to resign myself to being itchy :(. Today I’m sporting a few rashes on my arms and a nice spot on my eyelid that looks like I haphazardly applied some red eyeshadow.

Unfortunately, I’m not the only casualty in this war with poison ivy. Chad, who has never gotten poison ivy in the past, has been able to share in my itchy experiences- a few months ago, Chad and I had matching poison ivy rashes around our wrists just above our glove line and wonderful splotches on other places from where Chad accidentally weed-whacked some poison ivy and sent the juices flying . What a wonderful way to bond with each other….

Check for updates in the future on how our Operation Ivy Removal is progressing…

In the meantime, here are my tips on how to relieve the itching associated with poison ivy without actually scratching the rash- (bc scratching inevitably turns the rash into an oozy mess, which is best to avoid) All of these tips have been tested and proven by me to alleviate the itch- at least for a few minutes…

(1) Slap the itchy area as hard as you can
(2) Pour scalding hot water over the rash
(3) Apply duct tape to the rash and quickly remove (this method works but is discouraged as oozing can soon follow duct tape removal)
(4) Scratch in the immediate vicinity around the rash (this tricks your brain into thinking you’re actually scratching the rash, buying you a few seconds of peace)

And my personal favorite…

(5) Put the hair dryer on the hottest setting and blow-dry the rash for as long as you can stand it. In my experience, this method works the best and doesn’t necessarily result in oozing.

After doing any or all of the above methods, quickly apply calamine lotion. Although the lotion might not alleviate the itch as successfully as you would like, at least you look cool with random pink patches all over your skin.

Snow!!

so in the spirit of non-MARTA related posts.....

It snowed pretty intensely all afternoon here in Tyrone! I would venture to say it was around 2-3"- maybe more? I was constantly watching the radar at work to see if I needed to duck out early because I have no experience driving in snow....luckily, our office decided to close at 2pm so I made it home before snow started to stick on the roads. Bella loved the snow and played in the backyard for around 3 hours before deciding she wanted to come back inside and get out of the cold!! The snow was really awesome... not the normal slushy snow that I'm used to getting in GA, but solid snow that you could pack down and make into some really awesome snow balls! Playing in the snow was a great way to kick off Valentines/Presidents Day weekend :)

 

 Bella chilling in the snow

 

Bella displaying the numerous ice/snow balls that formed on her legs!

 

Our front yard looking beautiful covered in snow!

 

Chad trying to sled in our front yard- didnt work too well.. haha :)

  

Chad putting the finishing touches on Frosty!

 

Frosty close up! In case you were wondering, his eyes are made from pieces of a chocolate bar and his mouth is a rotten banana. Chad and I were joking that the carrot is going to get eaten tonight by some of the deer that like to destroy our plants... we'll see if Frosty and all of his body parts survive until the morning...

2 more marta encounters

I really should just name this post 'Adventures on MARTA'!! :) When I'm sitting in front of a computer, it's normally right after I've ridden MARTA so its fresh in my mind... maybe in the future I'll actually post about my life outside of public transportation. but that day is not today.

1) So this morning, I said goodmorning to the newspaper man (mentioned in the previous post) and he walked towards me, which is weird bc he knows by now that I never buy a newspaper. He proceeded to hand me an envelope that said "you so sweet" on the outside. When I opened the envelope, there was a hersheys bar inside! So I guess I now have a MARTA valentine.

2) Yesterday on my ride home from work, a short gray-haired man stood up and stood in the middle of a very crowded train and asked 'does anyone have a cigarette?? I'm nic-ken like a chicken'. It made me laugh- I've never heard that phrase before.

In other MARTA news, have yall heard about the controversy of the naming of the 'yellow line'? Apparently the route takes you to a large Asian community, and some people living in that community were offended that they decided to name the route 'yellow'. MARTA has caved and will now rename the line the 'Gold line'- which will cost xxxx amount of dollars to do. Awesome.

Happy Valentines Weeekend!

MARTA encounters

Some of the folks I’ve encountered on my adventures on MARTA- never a dull moment..!

Every morning, I’m always greeted by the same newspaper man. He always tells me good morning- how are you? And have a good day! Except today he switched it up to have a good weekend. He makes my day more cheery and he’s always there without fail- so maybe one of these days I’ll switch it up and actually buy a paper (even though I get my news from the internet)

Last week, I had the good fortune of getting on a train with a crazy Asian woman. She was sitting in her seat looking around and speaking Chinese quite loudly and animatedly like she was having a conversation with someone. Except she wasn’t having a conversation with someone- just a conversation with herself.. she looked quiet normal, so it was surprising to see her doing that (there are plenty of people who get on MARTA talking to themselves, but its normally because they are rather inebriated). People kept their distance from her, but as the train started to fill up, a lady wound up sitting next to her who didn’t know she was a crazy talker. The look on her face was priceless when the Asian woman started talking again… I had a hard time that morning not laughing out-loud.. The lady quickly changed seats at the next stop.. I was trying to think of a legitimate reason for the Asian woman to have been talking like that- maybe she was praying out loud? Or practicing for a presentation? Or maybe she was just crazy? I wish I could have understood what she was saying!

For those who watched the Atlanta auditions of American Idol, you are familiar with the “pants on the ground” guy. I’m sure you can look it up on YouTube if you don’t know what I’m talking about… So several months ago I get on a train to go home from a work, and there’s a man who’s in the aisle singing some really weird song about ‘pants on the ground’ and all the sudden he gets down on the ground on his back and starts gesticulating around doing some sort of weird dance. I thought he must be some crazy or drunk guy and I started to get a little worried that he was actually going to take his pants off- People were looking around the train thinking “what is going on!!?!” Thankfully, he kept his pants on. Well, this guy was the same guy on American Idol! So I’m thinking I must have seen him right after his American Idol auditions- it all makes sense now!

About twice a month, I get on a train with an African woman (meaning born in Africa- she has a very thick accent). She gets on the train, stares straight ahead, and starts preaching about the second coming of Jesus. I can’t understand anything she’s saying except when she says “Jesus Christ” and an occasional other word or two. One time, another passenger got quite unruly about it all and started standing up and speaking something else really loudly to drown out the voice of the African woman- and she proceeded to speak even louder. It was like a shouting match was going on. She was actually on my train yesterday, but thankfully no shouting matches happened.

About three times a month, I see a rather angry woman who walks up and down the train asking for money. She gets very cranky if you don’t give her something, and she makes it a point to ask everyone on the train for money. I’m actually scared of her because she seems like a rather violent women so I sort of shrink in my seat whenever I see her.

So these are just a few of the MARTA characters that I’ve encountered…I’m sure I’ll have more postings later- this is all I wanted to write about for now :)

Happy Friday!

Emily Piper McGill

My friend Emily passed away on Monday morning. She was in my pledge class at Phi Mu and was involved in CCF, the campus ministry I was involved in at GT. She was the best of the best. A woman of incredible faith who made everyone around her feel loved and cherished. A woman who devoted her life to serving others. A women, that as Joe, her husband said, lived more in 26 years than most people live their entire lives. I will miss her. I will never forget her incredible smile, her zest for life, her willingness to try new things, the way she made others feel, her incredible faith...

I never realized she said this, but according to our campus minister, right before her first surgery when her brain cancer had just been discovered, she looked at Rick and said- "The worst thing that can happen Rick is I will get to see Jesus sooner than you." Its hard not to be sad about the loss of such an incredible girl, but I rejoice in knowing she's in a better place.

Here are some of my pics that I have of emily that make me smile (well all of her pics make me smile, but I narrowed it down)-


Emily having fun on a cruise we took in college :)



Emily enjoying her food on the cruise with Laura looking on



Emily looking beautiful at one of our Phi Mu formals



Emily and I at CCF



Emily hugging Lindsey at mellow mushroom



Ashley, Bethany, the chick-fil-a cow, Emily, and I at the Mission Massai benefit concert


Emily, me, and Ashley sitting outside of Phi Mu


"There will be a day, with no more tears, no more pain, no more fears. There will be a day, when the burdens of this place, will be no more- we'll see Jesus face to face"

muddy pups

Here's a quick picture of our mischievous puppy, Bella, covered in mud. Hopefully it'll make yall laugh as much as it made Chad and I laugh :)