random beautiful child

so johnny and i have been taking the dogs to a new dog park a lot recently and i honestly love this park because there's a large fenced in area and then a large field next to it with lush clover patches. today was such a beautiful day and the clovers were so green i laid down on the ground and snapped some photos. then out of nowhere a little girl shows up next to me and asks, "what are you doing?" and i replied, "taking pictures of the grass." without skipping a beat she asks me, "why?" and i had to kind of laugh because it was a good question. i said, "because it's so pretty." so she sits down next to me and looks at the grass and i asked her what her name was. she said her name is Beatrice.


she looked about 5 years old. I told her that i was also looking for a four leaf clover, because they are hard to find and they will bring me luck. so she settles in and starts looking for four leaf clovers. she was so cute, with bright red hair and freckles on her nose and cheeks. i couldn't help but take some photos of Beatrice.


she was a sweet girl and so innocent and precocious. her mother was sitting on a bench watching us and came over to chat. she said she was 47 years old and her daughter was 5. obviously a very much wanted and loved child! she helped me look for four leaves and picked a bouquet of clovers. i can't wait to have my own daughter!

pictures of life in the S-A-V

it's the end of december and we are sweating our boobies off in the dirty south...

bibi and louie decide it's too effin' hot out here too!

louie sniffs a palm rose.

there are about half a dozen people making palm roses in the park.

the fountain in forsyth park was all decked out for the holidays.

bibi window surfing on truman pkwy.

i shit thee not, this is a Wendy's on hilton head.

the chicken, potatoes & peas samosa filling we had for xmas.
'twas gooooood!

pppbbttttt! bibi says poo on xmas, too!

at the beach in december!

this is my favorite pic of smooshie enjoying his unlimited digging privileges

yea, it's been freakishly warm lately. i keep hearing on the news about all the snowstorms and just wishing a little of that will blow our way. the warm weather was supposed to end by sunday night (which it did!) so we took the bored dogs to the beach one last time for the year. hopefully the dog park will open back up soon and we can start taking them there again. i swear as soon as i have some money we will be donating to the dog park!

it seems like its taking forever to settle into this new apartment, mostly because of a major lack of storage. we have no closets!! we had way more stuff than this place could hold, plus a bunch of Kim's crap and suejin's stuff (mostly for baby). so, johnny in all his magnificent manly glory and handiness had to put up a bunch of shelves and stuff so we could put things away. my first concern was the stove area, which had no place to put spices and just two tiny little slivers of counter space on each side of the stove. I had johnny install a small shelf level with the top of the stove's display console and voila!


i just love organizing things and putting them in the perfect spot. even though this apartment has no storage, it has a lot of nooks and crannies perfect for making your own storage, which i love! the bathroom is my next task to tackle. friday night i made the first official homecooked meal: pot roast. i just love it when pot roast comes out good, and there's practically no way to mess up a pot roast in a crockpot. i don't even go by a recipe, i just play around with it knowing the basics of a good roast is to broil it first. i use about 10 cloves of garlic stuffed in the meat and a good bit of red cooking wine and mushroom broth. yuuummmmm....


my momsent me back to savannah last time with a van load of stuff, including plants, paintings, 100 year old mushrooms (i'll make a whole post on this topic, too), paintings, and fabric - oh! and a sewing machine!!! I cannot wait to use that baby! anyways, i still have to set up a sewing station so don't get too excited yet... right now there's a banana tree and a mango tree living on my kitchen table and i just wanted to show them off. thanks, mom!

smooshie has a new nose

I've only been gone for a week and it seems like an eternity. I've come to think that I don't consider Atlanta home anymore. a week is all I can take. The stress level there is beyond high. I can't even imagine how people live there anymore with all the smog, traffic, corruption and panic. My body and mind were screaming "get out of here!" and my ankle flared up along with my insomnia and indigestion. At one startling moment, I realized I was homesick, and I felt sad and insecure. I was drowning in sorrow with all of the rest of the city.

So, I couldn't take it anymore and posted an ad on craigslist in a moment of weakness; despite the obvious stupidity, and searched for a ride to savannah. To my surprise I got a reply the next day from a woman named Maureen telling me she was headed that way and if I could tell her who I was. I hitchhiked on the internet. So I replied back,

Hey Maureen,

I'm Heather, I went to SCAD and my fiance and I live in Beaufort (which is only 30 mins from SAV). I'm stuck in Atlanta with my parents cause I had to go to a funeral and they were supposed to bring me back to Savannah this weekend but then they had other plans they forgot they already made. I don't want to wait until next weekend so I thought I'd try to find someone heading my way. I can literally be dropped off anywhere in Savannah, I have friends and family all over the place. I just don't want them to waste gas coming to get me cause gas is so freakin expensive. I was hoping to get a ride with a female driver cause ya know.. parents would freak out if i told them i was hitching a ride with a strange man...not to mention fiance would probably not like that! Soooo glad you're a girl... or are you a guy with a girl's name? I'm betting you're a girl. Anyways, I'm not psycho, don't smoke, don't care if you do, and will listen to whatever you want to listen to as long as it isn't gospel music. I'm scad alum (masters in architecture) so I'm not some crazy college kid with pink hair and piercings everywhere. Pretty normal, relatively.

my cell phone # is ******** and I'm staying in Doraville, right by spaghetti junction. I can be up and ready at 7 am and I can even take turns driving if you want. Let me know what you decide and I will go ahead and tell my parents peace out!

So now we are friends on facebook. Maureen turned out to be a really cool chick with two beautiful kids, a 3 year old boy named Reed (a.k.a. Diego) and a 8 year old girl named Ridley. I watched cartoons and movies on the DVD player in the car with the kids and talked about homebirthing with Maureen (she did solo homebirths for her brood). It was actually a really pleasant drive and we enjoyed each other's company. Her kids were "in showbizness" cause they were going to savannah to be in a SCAD thesis film. The little boy was really happy go lucky and bright as a star. He liked to watch the cartoon Diego (like Dora the explorer, fyi) in spanish. The little girl was a bit ornary at being awakened on a saturday morning at 6 am to take a 4 hour car ride. Before even leaving atlanta she was asking if we were there yet. But she was adorable and sweet, too. She would touch the back of my elbow with her big toe from the backseat.

The whole thing just made my desire to have kids flare up and we even talked about that. Her advice was to "just do it". heh. alot easier to say than do. Anyways, we had lunch at sentient bean coffeeshop at forsyth park and then went our separate ways. I'll miss my 4 hour friend.

But once I got into the car with johnny, I felt 100% better. I realized that I felt more at home in savannah and beaufort than I did in atlanta, and how weird that was because I used to hate savannah. When we got home, the dogs were naturally really happy to see me and I got kisses all around. I noticed smooshie was not in the horde of dogs attacking me, so I called out for him and I heard him start his happy whining and crash through the doggie door, nails all slipping on the linoleum. I guess he was outside, but once he realized who was standing before him, he became frantic to find a toy to pick up and offer to me (he always greets bearing gifts). It was the best feeling in the world. I noticed immediatey that his nose had changed to a light pink color.

When I find my damn camera cord, I'll be uploading a ton of new pictures.

trying not to drown

in self-pity and pessimism. it seems like we are just simply screwed. everyone is having a tough time, everything is lousy. there is just a few precious drops of hope that evaporate as each day passes. could it be that we have to hit rock bottom before we get a break? in any case, things need to brighten up soon - i hate this feeling of failure. i am still happy and grateful for the people around me but right now gas being $4.89 is making it really tough to do anything. it's making me mad, too. did you know some gas stations will charge you an extra .07 cents a gallon for using your card at the pump? is that freakin' evil or what???

johnny's dad gets better one day then gets worse the next. it's bewildering.

do you know what it's like to live in a place where the daytime heat index reaches 95 degrees with relative humidity of 59%?!? At night the heat goes down to 78 or so with the same amount of humidity. it's the closest thing to hell on earth - especially if you have big boobies. i want a big de-humidifier for our apartment.

there's an empty house right next door to johnny's parents that i have actually fallen in love with. i keep going over there to snoop around and i just LOVE the backyard - it's like a secret garden. i have to take pictures and upload them for you to see...

there... and back again.

we were gonna move. but at the last minute, we decided it wasn't the right time. so we just visited beaufort - again. and for just a week, but it feels like longer. it's hard to get on the internet out there! by now, the dogs are used to driving for hours, eating meals in the car, playing at rest stops and staying at their cousin's house. it's like a traumatic childhood, huh?

we are still moving, though. we just needed more time to see how things played out. living day-to-day. it's hard to make decisions when you have so many options but so very little resources. it's like the toughest game of chess you ever played - with your future at stake. what's ironic is that i feel more in my element now than i did when things were stable. i'm used to moving around, temporary living arrangements and traveling. it makes me wonder if i am even well-suited to the american dream lifestyle of living in a house with a new car, 2 kids and a dog. i think i might have been a nomadic mongoloid in a past life. i dont mind the idea of living in a yurt and living off the land actually. ok, snap back to reality.

we are also still getting married. neither one of us has chickened out yet, so that must mean something! Except now we have to pay for everything ourselves and the theme of my wedding went from beach to bohemian over the course of the last couple weeks. i found a dress to wear for $49 from a store in the mall. i'm going to keep it a surprise from johnny but i can tell you that it's a cute dress. not a wedding dress in the slightest, though. kim was dissappointed - she wants there to be more lace and silk and ruffles. she wants shoe-dress-hair coordination going on and i don't even plan on bothering with shoes. like i said before, i just want my guests to be there, food and drink, and someplace for us to sleep (even if it's under the stars in the sand). i'm pretty excited, i think it's going to be the best day of my life.

johnny's dad is doing much better. he's got his own room on the 7th floor and he can talk. maybe he'll be well enough to come to the wedding, but i'm not going to count on it. i'm just happy he's still with us.

pictures of paradise

well, the fence didn't last long as an effective barrier. the chickens have decided that the grass is far better on the other side. B and i must have chased the chickens from going into the street 3 times. once they were actually all hanging out right in the front lawn! the chickens can literally walk right through the fence. so a new project for this weekend will be reinforcing the chicken barrier.

we also realized that 9 chickens should not go through 40 lbs. of feed in one week. they are getting really big fast and eating a LOT. i'm afraid jerky is going to be sunday roast pretty soon. i liked the little guy - he follows me around the most. maybe we'll eat one of the smaller ones instead...

From SPRING 2008

it's been a long time since johnny and i were up at dry pond. it's a little piece of paradise with all the plants and ponds. the dogs just love running at top speed in the fields and lounging in the lush grass under the pecan tree. even the weeds at dry pond are awesome and beautiful. my mom's koi fish are friendly - they will eat pellets out of your hand. you can actually pet them. my friend was just fascinated with the koi so she wanted to bring her new baby and i wanted to show off my mom's crazy landscaping obsession to B. we also planned to fish in my mom's lake not far from dry pond. as soon as we got there, the dogs were out running and me, johnny, and B walked to the far edge of the property picking wildflowers and watching the dogs play.

From SPRING 2008

it wasn't long before we heard the splash. bibi found the spring and soon all three of them were splashing around in the stinky mud. i was busy snapping pictures of weeds. we came back to the lawn and played in the pecan tree. syrus had to prune it, first. B had to climb up and syrus even climbed up the tree! bibi wanted too, but she can't. ahhh... fresh air. sun. birds chirping. trees.





i have no clue what's in this bouquet, but it's pretty and i gave it to my mom :)



look at the size of this weed! it's huge! it had big, fat, furry leaves.



the berries on this bush look delicious. i wonder if they are edible?



according to johnny, they are not.



let's go bananas!



water lillies are so photogenic, aren't they?



B is practising cartwheels. you just can't resist doing a cartwheel on a lawn like this.



syrus went right to work. look at him in the tree!





B monkeyin' around...

now we come to the lake adventure. my mom had a bunch of her korean friends and their families over for a picnic and some fishing. the funny thing is, the only one who caught fish (besides my mom of course) was V's vegetarian husband, who promptly threw his fish back into the lake. Kiera (pictured below with my momma) almost jumped into the lake after the fish. she just couldn't believe why he would do something like that. so, to make up for it, he caught her a bigger fish.





did you notice that my mom is wearing two sun visors? she is ALWAYS wearing a visor, making her look like a perpetual tourist. the worst thing is, they are never plain visors. no, hers are always sparkly.

when we first arrived at the lake, i almost got the mazda stuck on a hill and almost tipped it into the lake. that was a little scary cause i don't think mazda mpv's were meant for bush hogging through thistle. the guys went through shoulder-high grass to try and find a suitable path to drive my mpv through but the weeds and grass were too thick. the dogs followed the guys and i guess louie didn't see the barbed wire fence and ran right into it....



we all got some minor boo-boos from being out in the wilderness (i found a tick on my thigh later that night!!) but poor louie got the biggest boo-boo of all - on his face, too. he heals fast, thankfully.



syrus and my mom look back at our camp from the boat on the lake.

so that was memorial day monday. it was a nice holiday and we remembered to thank the men and women who sacrificed their lives protecting our freedoms.



oh, i almost forgot - i joined blogcatalog and NaBloPoMo with the username seagrass. i still don't know how the hell to use twitter.

bloody monday

**warning, this content may not be suitable for the squeamish** (no chickens were involved)

oh, it was an eventful weekend. well, eventful for me - other "normal" people might consider it boring.... anyways, things were going great once friday was over. it was a long weekend ahead of us and everyone was happy. we decided to go visit dry pond for some fresh air and beautiful scenery and fishing. we wanted to spend the night but that didn't work out so we spent all of monday at dry pond and my mom's lake (unnamed so far...). we made it a priority this weekend to clean the house. in an effort to run a more effecient household, we have all agreed on setting some goals for the house, and ourselves. i obviously need help in this department cause it's hard for only one person to organize and keep up what's going on. so i started a fridge inventory to keep a running tab on its contents and monitor spending and waste. i will be coming up with a cleaning schedule to help keep my very messy house somewhat under control. and B and V and i are resolving to lose some weight with exercise and diet - all of us together. i really really hope it works. unfortunately, it may mean i have to wear a bathing suit. ugh.

anyways, back to bloody monday. i guess you could also call it... yesterday. i woke up around 6:45 and let the chickens out and fed and watered them. i let the dogs out and sat outside a little bit. nobody else was awake. so i went back to bed and must have fell asleep because i missed the commotion. when i woke back up about 9:30, B was in the kitchen cleaning. i was impressed that she woke up and cleaned and she informed me that the dogs caught a possum and ate it in the kitchen (or dining room, depending on what side of the fridge you are standing). she spared me the anguish of cleaning up blood and guts and threw what remained of the poor creature on the bramble pile to be picked up by refuse. i felt so bad for the thing - it was just eating my chicken feed! somehow it must have wandered into the backyard right into the waiting jaws of three large dogs. B was right, there's no way i could have cleaned up that mess without losing my cookies.



then i remembered that earlier that morning i saw choco in the side yard carrying a rather large (dead) frog in his little mouth and eating it by the curb. i watched him chew off a leg and bite the frog several times. it didn't bother me, but when i went back to that spot i noticed the frog was still alive! and minus two back legs! it was a sad, sad, situation. i felt horrible for this pretty frog but i can hardly scold my cat for being a cat.



so, i made johnny move the frog from the curb over to my mother's backyard where hopefully some frog deity will have mercy on it and let him re-grow his legs. more than likely it will die, but i chose to believe there are frog deities. fairies, even. so that was bloody monday (morning). a lot more happened that day which i will probably have to continue in another post later. it was a beautiful weekend, hanging out with awesome people and animals. we put up a small wire fence to help keep the chickens from wandering onto the street. it's working so far. i am amazed that they seem to know where their home is. they stay close, so i let them roam all day. they mostly peck and scratch around or sit in the monkey grass or the straw pile. last night they even tucked themselves in bed! i was being lazy and didn't herd them into their coop and when i finally went out, they were already inside, sleeping! awesome!

i told you guys i was going to be the next georgia o'keefe! the magnolia tree in front of my porch is blooming! you can sit there and smell the scent of magnolia perfume the air - and enjoy the beautiful view as well!



our weekend was fun and productive! like i said, we resolved to gain control over the household so we busted ass and did a lot of cleaning. johnny did a lion's share of the landscaping, but look at the beautiousness of the porch now!!!

From SPRING 2008

we mulched the hibiscus with this really dark bark-y mulch, and put down a weed cloth under the pea gravel. we edged along both sides and johnny re-wired the landscape lights. B and i planted the marigolds and the lilies are growing happily. i moved all my herbs over to the greenhouse roof so we can still enjoy them from the porch but they are out of the way.

i also tackled the gargantuan task of cleaning out my closet. i thinned out my wardrobe and gave away a whole bunch of clothes i don't wear (or fit into) anymore. i made enough room for johnny's clothes by packing away our winter clothes under the bed. now we can share a closet! now all we have to do is organize and sort the sheets and blankets. since louie decided to take a shit in the bathtub the other night, B also scrubbed the bathroom down with some brand-new environmentally conscious cleaning products from target called "le scrub" by method. i like it.

white cocks and black pussies

we've learned a lot in the past week. i for one, have learned that chickens are like pets. they have personality, and it's surprising to say some intelligence as well.... we have decided that we have 4 males and 5 females. in order of size from largest to smallest we have given the cocks the following names: Jerky, Roast, Pot Pie, and Stew(ie). We have named a few of the girls, from smallest to largest they are: Henrietta, Estelle, and Phyllis. there are two nameless girls, which i humbly request from my readers to help me name. Weezy, i know you got some good ones. so, yesterday morning while we were naming our poultry, we got footage of the chickens and cats co-existing somewhat peacefully.

everything was going swimmingly until i tried to go back into the fenced-in backyard to get some more chicken feed. syrus made a run for it and slipped past my legs and went straight for the nearest chicken, which was one of the girls - estelle maybe - and pinned her down by my garden. once that happened, bibi and louie were out of the gate in a flash and i whirled around in slow motion to see louie run straight into the coop and bibi tackle a big male under the tree. i thought massive bloodshed was surely going to happen but my screaming actually made the dogs stop attacking and i got them back inside the fence. syrus was guilty, and he knew it - but deep inside he was thrilled with himself. the chickens were fine. i gave them some food and they soon forgot all about it. they don't care for the table scraps as much, but i covered some watermelon rind in chicken feed and now they are eating it.

i also did something unexpected this weekend. i chopped off all my hair. it used to be halfway down my back and now it is just a touch longer than chin length. it's a dramatic difference. i've never had hair this short before in my life. well, my first year of college it was almost this short but not quite. i'm not 100% sure it suits me, but everyone seems to like it. plus, i don't have those ratty dead ends and my hair catching on everything. i don't have to worry about dragging my hair across my food at the table or getting it rolled up in the car window. i worry that i look like edna from the incredibles....

and we have decided to enter in some videos to america's funniest videos of louie trying to swim. he actually got it figured out today when we took the spoiled brats to the lake again. he's even beat bibi to the ball a couple of times. but we've got some good footage and i plan to take more videos of the dogs howling with my harmonica and louie wrestling with bibi from under a blanket. watch the videos below to see what i have to pick from to send in. tell me what you think by casting your vote in the poll to the right of the page. thanks!

louie swimming take 1:



here's take 2:



here's the original video i posted a while back, maybe this one will work?




oh, i almost forgot - here's a video of choco and moto, pretending not to notice the chickens, or pretending not to care... in truth, they're a little scared of them.....

observations on poultry

well, i've spent some quality time with my birds and so far i have noticed these things:

1. we have way too many chickens.


2. they all pretty much look alike.


3. the only differences is size, and we have 3 big ones, 1 medium, and 4 small.


4. they really prefer their chicken feed over strawberries and apples.


5. they don't trust me.


6. they stink, and they poop anywhere and everywhere.


7. i think we have roosters in the mix.


8. they are pretty stupid. we had to put them in their henhouse at night.


9. they are warm, slightly squishy and soft.


10. they like to boss each other around.


11. they fluff up when they sit down to sleep.


12. i think they can fly.

they're here! calling all chicken advice-givers!

we have fowl! my mom came by with 20 chickens! i told her several times we only need 4!! she just came over and kept throwing in one chicken after another in the pen and now we have 9 chickens. they are the typical chicken farm chicken and about 6-8 weeks old (we're guessing). we don't know if they are all females or not. they have sparse feathering and kinda stink. but they still make those cute chickie peeping noises.

they're pretty scared, too. they are warming up to being in there, and to me a little bit too. they have not gone inside the nesting box, partly because we haven't put in an adequate ramp yet (working on that now). i put some mixed grain and fresh water in there, and some hay and sand. they seem to be happy, pecking away at bugs. they poop. it's gross. our eggs are coming out of that same hole. ew. but, it will be a while before we get any eggs. i'm thinking we are going to fatten them up and start eating the big ones and let the smaller ones grow and lay eggs.

the dogs were excited. choco is a bit intimidated but curious. i don't think moto is aware of the new roommates he's got. and i'm a little paranoid about our neighbors protesting...

we let the dogs come out and sniff around the pen. louie knows chicken tastes good. they are hiding under the nesting box right now. i was wondering if we can give the chickens baths? they are white and covered in poo. if you know anything about chickens, leave me some pointers, i could use it!

worms :)

to hell with trying a new post layout. i was experimenting for the last couple of posts and have now decided it just isn't working out. oh well. yesterday johnny and i planted the hibiscus bushes and re-grading the ground where the big boxwood bushes used to be by the front sidewalk. there are a ton of roots and when we disturbed the soil, all these red worms appeared! so we quickly picked as many as we could to put in the new compost pile (which was attracting bugs). some of them i had to pull out of the ground, which was kind of gross - especially if one accidentally got ripped in half - eeewwww.... but we got a good number of them and they are now happily feasting away on our rotting kitchen scraps.

i didn't realize just how fast the bamboo shoots were growing until i went behind our shed. B and i came across several HUGE bamboo shoots - some of them already way taller than us and fat, too! i'd say this one was about 15' tall with about a 4" diameter. that's BIG!

the beautiousness of spring

it's been gorgeous outside the past several days, with random rainshowers here and there that makes the whole world burst with green and colorful blooms. today is one such day. i have been enjoying my new front porch so much lately i haven't been able to bring myself to sit at a computer any longer than at work and therefore am way behind on pictures (believe it or not). so, let's see...shall we continue in chronological order?

the other day we all sat out on the back patio and had watermelon and lemonade and conversation. the dogs, especially syrus, were trolling around the table, wanting to taste the scrumptious watermelon we were eating so we gave him the leftover rind. we had no clue how much they would end up enjoying it! syrus's underbite serves him well as a melon scoop!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNMZTy7mdIg


here is a final shot of the new front porch, which i heart so much. we will eventually get prettier chairs out there, but damn those camp chairs really are comfy! to the bottom left is the newly planted tea olive tree, which is one of my favorites. the hibiscus is still waiting to be planted in the front yard, by the sidewalk.

and a closeup of said hibiscus, with a particularly pretty bloom which my crappy camera and my shaky hands did a terrible job of capturing. i'll try not to complain too much about that crappy camera because it is better than no camera...

and the best pic out of many that B and i took of this gorgeous dragonfly that appeared out of nowhere and chilled on the screen of the front windows all early afternoon with me. i remember catching these as pets in korea and keeping them in little cages - but none of them are as colorful as this little guy.

so i told B how to catch a dragonfly and she did! she said it was so cool! then we let him go and he flew and briefly landed on my stevia plant. but before i could snap more pics, he flew off into the sky.... ahhh the freedom of being a beautiful dragonfly!

so, that's the gist of it. god, i love spring! i still have some planting to do but i am expecting a nice bounty of herbs and veggies this year. weeeee! i can't wait!!