Where is the rain?

I haven't had that much time to put up any posts as of late. So here is the summation of what has been going on: School, work, no rain, sleep, repeat. It is hard to find anything exciting about those things. I don't want to seem negative, but just more of the same old boring stuff I always write about in this blog......Cathrine and Anna are in school again, Anna is officially a first-grader and Cat is in kindergarten. Cathrine's' school started two weeks later than Anna's, so last week was her first week of school. They both seem to enjoy school, and for that I am glad. As for my schoolin', I can't wait until it is over. I am ready for a break. This is the first and last summer quarter I have taken, and it is has not been fun. I am nearing the end though so I am hitting it hard to finish up. After this quarter I will have but a handful of core classes left......We are in the "dog days" of summer, it is hot,it is dry, and the yard is struggling. We need rain. Hopefully the rain from the looming tropical depression will be headed our way. Fingers crossed. The leaves are falling, from lack of water, making it seem like early fall. It is August for Pete's sake. It has also been rather cool the past couple of nights with temperatures in the upper sixties, an anomaly for Georgia this time of year. Not complaining about that one.......Other than that everything is going well. Same old grind, but every one is well around here.

Rain, rain go away.....no wait...it's supposed to rain...

It has been raining...a lot. We have had over four inches in the last week at our house. It has been great. I have seen downpours that I haven't seen in years around here. It has really changed things here, even within one week. The grass is finally growing, the wilted plants are back to normal, and my mood has improved. I love to see it rain; after two years of being in a drought(of which we are still in), it is nice to see it rain. O.K. that is enough about that, I just get excited when it rains like this, hell it is raining as I write this:) I started back to school this week. Back to reality, or more of it. The classes should be a lot easier this quarter as I am taking a greenhouse class and an herbaceous perennial I.D. class. I have a lot of experience in these subjects, so they shouldn't be that bad. They will still be demanding though. Business is going well. I finished a large job this weekend that has been going on for over a month. That was a good thing. It turned out nice, I believe, and I will post some pictures of it soon. I have two more medium size jobs lined up for the coming weeks. Good times.....thats about it. Cathrine is doing well, and Anna is on vacation with here grandparents in Boston. It is an annual trip. She is having fun. These girls have had it made with all the vacations they have had this summer. I wish I had their schedule! I am glad for them, as they are at the age that all the memories start to stick. I hope they are making good ones......

Weekend get home, I mean get away...

We took a little trip to "them there Smokey Mountains" this weekend;> It was a nice weekend getaway. The girls, as usual had a blast. We did all the touristy things. We went to the Rip-me...I mean Ripley's attractions(the highlight being the aquarium), went out and walked the strip(man my feet hurt), and went to the top of the Smokey mountains. We hiked to Clingman's dome, the highest point in Tennessee, and it was the highlight of 'my' weekend. I hiked trough that pass a lot of years ago when I crossed that section of the Appalachian Trail. It brought back some fond memories......Over all it was a pleasant trip, albeit an expensive one. Gatlinburg is a cool little town, and the backdrop is always spectacular. I will; however, never be there on the Fourth of July again.....Bad timing......Mooooooo cows! I am not complaining, as even a mediocre vacation beats no vacation. Besides, it is all about Anna and Cat, and they are not complaining....Another highlight of the weekend....We had the chance to see it rain. Two days in a row! Sure do wish it would do that around here Damn-it!.....It is dry as a bone....

What a day..If only everyday.......

It was a very nice Easter day at the Bowens'. The weather was perfect, the eggs were plentiful, and the dinner was phenomenal. It really was nice . The girls had a good time searching for the not so skillfully hidden eggs. The weather could not have been better, with temps in the low sixties. We had "The Grandparents" over, and we had a good time. It was a good day all around.

Feels like Spring, but it isn't....

We had Cathrine's Birthday today and it could not have been a better day. It was a perfect Spring day. No humidity, temperatures in the seventies, and the daffodils were popping out of the ground.........I can not believe Cathrine is five years old. It is amazing. She is such an amazing little munch-kin that is growing up so quickly. I believe she had a fun day. This is the third birthday party that she has had in the past 10 days. What a lucky child. Five years old. Here comes kindergarten. We waited to have her party until this week because everyone was sick last week and it was a dreary couple of days last weekend. It was a good party and a lot of the family made it which was nice....I have included a pic of Anna sans her two front teeth. She has been making a killing off the tooth-fairy as of late!.........Not really much new around here. School is moving along relatively smoothly, and I finally understand the process of factoring polynomials (no small task).I have a full class load next quarter, I am attending full time(plus some).I am ready to get it over with. I will take a big step closer to my degree next quarter. I don't have anything else as of now........

A nice fall weekend

It was relatively calm around here this weekend. We had a chance to relax and do a couple of chores around the house. The weather has been nice, still no rain though. The temperatures are perfect, and the HVAC unit is getting to take a break. I love this time of year. If it would only rain....Halloween was Wednesday, and Cathrine and Anna had fun trick-or-treating. They both dressed up as princesses, and toured our neighborhood, and the surrounding subdivisions in search of candy. They made out well and I, I mean they, will have candy for a couple more weeks......There isn't much else going on. Work is the same, school is the same, and I'm not complaining. This quarter of school has been tough, but it is already half-way over. I have gotten used to my new computer, and although I don't like it as well as my previous one I enjoy the new programs. It has Windows Vista on it, and although it eats up a lot of memory and processing power it is reliably stable. I also upgraded to Office 2007, and It is a good bit different than 2003. I haven't used it much though, as my school work has to be in office 2003. The two versions are not compatible with each other which is really stupid......The leaves are turning. What leaves are left that is. This will not be a good year for fall color, which is a bummer but the weather is not cooperating this year. When is this drought going to end?......

Fall?......No it's still summer........

I have some amazing news. It's hot here. O.K., so thats no surprise. It is August. It is the south. It has definitely been hotter than average, with highs over 100 for four days or so. Brutal. Add to the equation that it has not rained in two weeks or so and you have the perfect formula for crappy days. It is very hard to keep up with the plants, especially the water loving ones, when it is hot. Then there is the sod, or should I call it grass now. Three or more inches of water a week, sometimes four waterings a day, and it is still not all that it wants. It is definitely an uphill battle, but it is greening up and rooting. I would take a picture of it, but that would require that I go outside.........I have been feeling good as of late, knock on wood. I have went on what I would call a health kick. It started off lowering my sodium intake, and has progressed into lowering saturated fats, getting more fiber, and all of the other boring nutritional junk. I have lost about twenty or twenty five pounds and I wouldn't mind to lose about fifteen or twenty more pounds. I have also given up on caffeine, and haven't had any going on two months. I still miss my morning cup of coffee, but over all it wasn't that hard. I am thinking about going for broke and giving up the cancer sticks. Whew, did I just say that? I am thinking about it.........Everybody is good . The girls started school last week and they both enjoyed their first week. Anna has a loose tooth and of course she is scared to pull it and won't let us close enough to pull it. Maybe next week, the 'tooth-fairy' is broke this week anyways.

Instant grass

Holy crap we have a lawn. We put in sod this weekend. Yup. It was a pain in the rear, almost lost Valerie to heat stroke, but she pulled through. It was only 98 degrees, come on. It looks bad, nice and yellow for the moment, but it will rebound nicely into a lush green lawn. That is what happens to sod in Georgia in August. It only sat on the pallet for about 10 hours and it cooked it. I am glad it is done. Having a lawn is a major landmark in this yards progress...I'll have pictures of a green version of the turf in a week or two........It has been hot. And it has been dry, again. We have officially entered the dog days of summer. Thats alright, only a month and a half to go until those cool fronts start moving in. I am ready to have a fire on a cool night. I love summer, but time for a season change......Cathrine and Anna are well, they both start school in a couple of days. Cat will start Pre-k and Anna will be starting kindergarten. Oh boy. It's hard to believe. They will have a blast......Speaking of school I am ready for some more furthered education, and I will definitely be enrolling in the fall quarter. Two quarters off, man what a slack-ass.:)

What's this wet stuff?

It has been doing something that it hasn't done in a while. It rained. In fact it rained again today. I never guessed I would be excited about it raining. After planting all of the plants however, it is much needed rain. I have almost completed the first four zones of my irrigation system, so that has helped out. I installed one zone of drip line that I like a lot. Little wasted water, and it puts it right at the roots of the plants. Other than that work has all but stopped on the yard.....We took Cathrine over to the pool today and let her swim. She is a natural. She swims like a fish. I am glad for that.......We have Wednesday off for the fourth, we are looking forward to that. It is kind of weird to have a day off in the middle of the week, but I'll take it. I think I hear thunder, I had better investigate. Finally, back to the Georgia we know.

Cat's B-day

We had Cathrine's birthday party today. It was a lot of fun, we had everyone over to the house for the first time. As a group that is. Cathrine, Anna, and all the other children had a good time. It was nice to have everyone over, and it is especially nice to have a home to host a party. It was a fantastic day outside, with the temperatures flirting with the seventies. Oh man I can smell spring. It makes me want to do some things around the house(on the outside for a change). I did a bit of landscaping this week, and I am glad that I had the chance. I am not finished with the bed, I plan on adding a crepe myrtle, and a couple other plants. I did accomplish one thing, however that I had been putting off. I managed to put down pine straw around the house, and I made a couple of beds around the shrubs and trees. Its getting there. I am getting the gardening itch, it must be getting close to spring.

Sunday, already?

Oh boy. Don't really have much to say. Same old thing really. Homework, going back to work, greenhouse. Same ol', same ol'. We did a grading job today, and it went well. I loath working on Sunday, but money is money. It was a good job though, I basically sat and watched a bobcat for five hours. That is my kind of work. We are seeding the entire house this week, or I should say Hybrid Landscapes is. I pretty much have done nothing but talk on the phone, and make arrangements. Ah the life of the General Contractor. I would much rather talk on the phone than push a shovel all day. The money is just not as good......The folks went on a vacation to Cabo San Lucas, so Cat didn't get to spend the night with them, I was glad to have the whole weekend with her. I finally got around to planting some arrangements for the deck. I used all of our stuff, with the exception of the pansies, which I broke down and bought. Yeah, ours are still not ready. Those are our violas in the picture though. I put some tulip bulbs in them for spring. They don't look like much now, but in the middle of winter they will be welcome color....I ordered the plastic for the greenhouse, so I guess that is what we will be doing next weekend. I also ordered a new exhaust fan that we will be putting in. Next up a heater. Heat, heat, heat. Wish I had it now. I will turn that thing into a greenhouse, damn it!. I have finally got YouTube, so I will be posting some videos from time to time.