Happy Un-birthday to Liz...

Our friend, Liz, had a birthday this week. It's okay to publish that on the blog because she turned an age where people still celebrate birthdays. On one occasion, Liz and a few other friends were discussing the phenomenon that is Stuckey's. Anyone who has driven the stretch of I-55 from Jackson to Memphis has stopped here for a pecan log or trucker's hat with a catchy slogan from time-to-time. It's not just a convenience store and a great place for chicken tenders, but what people from Vaiden, Mississippi, use as a reference point.

Here we are on location....


Chester-Fried, Crispy AND Moisturized, is a specialty of this establishment. It looks as though Chester is saying, "Look at me! I'm good enough to eat!" The truth: he's no better than KFC. The cowboy hat and bandana are really too much to chew!

Mythbuster!

The porch ceiling has been painted a pale celery color for as long as we can remember. Traditionally, Southerners have used pastel colors over others because of a belief that doing so will keep bad spirits and harmful insects at bay. Screens also supposedly have been used as protection from our many six-legged friends. National Street, it turns out, is no place to test such lore. Just take a look at our friend, Benji, who crawled in the other day!

It's a bird, it's a plane...



This cucaracha was more enticed by the light fixture than frightened by the green paint!

Hola, senorita!

Olivia said she wants to re-claim her space on the blog. But, she hasn't been able to make many posts due to limited computer access. So, I decided to dedicate this post to her — since it will be awhile before she's able to blog. 

Below are some pictures of her that were taken for a story I wrote about junk art for a Home and Garden special section at the newspaper several years ago. The pictures, however, never ran in the paper. I thought this would be a great place to exhibit them. She hasn't done much in the junk art realm lately, but I'm sure she would be happy to take orders if you see something you like! 

Ned and Mary Beth are lobbying to be the next Home and Garden feature. Keep those tomatoes coming, and we'll see....

Here she is surrounded by her art, most of which is of the bottle cap variety.

The detail shot.

Another angle of Olivia and her art.

Sarah Heartburn

Lauchlin's nieces and mom spent the night on National Street last weekend so Lucy and Stephen could celebrate their 10th anniversary. It was a lot of fun to have them at our house! May had a melt down after they took a bath in the square tub. We documented the melodrama, but the video wouldn't upload before now.
We recorded it right after she told Ellen, "I never stopped loving you!" So funny! The Capri-Sun that magically appears seemed to nip the crying in the bud. 

We're working on posting some other May videos, where she does fun things like name all of the Star Wars characters, a skill she's had since she was about 2 years old. We'll have to spread them out, though, seeing as it's taken us nearly a week to post this one! Enjoy...

What a Gas!

Has anyone noticed the high gas prices? Well, with regular gas now approaching the $4 mark — especially here in Vicksburg, where "competition" causes us to pay more than any other Mississippi cities — we decided to look back to a different time.
In 2000, Olivia went on a road trip to California with Jenn, her friend and roommate at the time. The hilarious account of their trip has truly become a document of history. It was only eight years ago, but OMG, things have changed! Check it out — and drive sparingly...


A journal entry that describes "high" gas prices on the road.


Here's another entry that shows Olivia and the car they were driving cross country.

May in April

May turned 5 Monday! So, now she's 5 going on 30. She had her birthday party at McDonald's. Here she is 16 days before her birthday (we know this because she was counting down the days.) We're not sure what she's doing, but, as always, it's funny!
Five years ago we got the call, "May came in April." It took awhile for us to figure out that Lucy was talking about that sweet baby girl coming into the world.

GEe that's a nice appliance!

We replaced an old GE appliance with a new one. Our oven, dishwasher, and stovetop are all using our general electricity in harmony. Because we chose an energy-efficient model, we will get a small tax break. (That makes us AND Al Gore happy!) Clementine has already done her "dance" in the new one. (She likes to stand on the lid and run in place.)  

The "Dawn"ing of a New Age

I just found this picture and it reminded me of the fact that we're getting a new dishwasher tomorrow! You can tell by looking at it that the current one is no spring chicken. In fact, I think it's been around nearly as long as we have. And, we're quite tired of washing everything by hand.
The photo is also a reminder of how sweet and innocent Clementine, our youngest cat, used to be. Most of you who read this already know that it just ain't so any more! She's also grown quite a bit since then. I threw in some more updated photos just for the sake of comparison.

Here she is in a more recent photo — lounging where she isn't supposed to!
Here, she is watching her sister, Mojo, try to knock over some flowers in the bathroom. They are partners in crime, apparently!

Hmmm...I wonder who messed up the tablecloth! It couldn't be the cat on the table with the guilty look on her face.

I guess we're the only ones who love that Clemmie! Since she can't be seen in public — for the simple fact that she might maul our guests — it's worth showing her off in a safe way every now and then. 

Holy Water, Batman!

We're a bit late in reporting, but the weekend in Oxford was a good one. After many directionally challenged attempts, we finally made it to a bonfire where some friends had gathered.

The fire tried to swallow one friend (when he nearly fell into it) and, apparently, caught another's shoe on fire. We were only there for about an hour, but, man, that fire really caused a ruckus.

In the spirit of baptism, we were saved (no terrible pun intended) when we arrived Sunday at St. Peter's for Vici's confirmation. We ended up being her surprise sponsors, which added an interesting element. Here she is chatting it up with Bishop Duncan Gray.

After church, we ended the trip with some hibachi grill action at one of many new restaurants that town is sporting these days. More fire!

And, as promised, we had to check out the Mississippi River when we pulled back into Vicksburg Sunday. The water has now gone beyond the floodwall!


We made a friend while we were there — a city employee who was working on the sewage drain. Thank you, mister, for wanting to have that job! He was very nice and provided a short history in flooding — and took our picture — while we checked out the scene.

We couldn't figure out why The Vicksburg Post machine made an appearance.

Tumble What?

Artifical hair has been tumbling through the town and has been sighted at The Liquor Store (capitalized because that is its proper name.) We have heard that this is prevalent in St. Louis, where Lauchlin's sister lives and affectionately has termed this phenomenon "tumble weave."

Ole Man River

In case you haven't heard, the Mississippi River is flooded at Vicksburg. It's no 1927 "Rising Tide" — yet. These pictures were taken last Sunday. The gauge has risen several feet since then, which means where Janie and Beth are standing in these pictures is now completely covered in river water! It's expected to continue to rise to 50.5 through next Friday. Flood stage is 43 feet here just to give you an idea of how much water is seeping.



This is City Front (usually a parking lot and boat ramp) a week ago as a cement beach. We'll try to get out and take some more pictures before the river crests. For more flood info, you can always check www.vicksburgpost.com. Shameless plug, I know!


While we were on our stroll, we stumbled upon some murals.



Janie and Beth in front of the "Gold In the Hills" mural. They're standing next to Lauchlin's grandfather. Well, a depiction of him anyway. See the resemblance?


This is where Olivia works — in that classroom. What is now Vicksburg Junior High was once Rosa A. Temple, the city's all black school before segregation. Pretty cool.

Dining In...

There is nothing like a crazy week filled with sickness, power outages, and a big party to make someone want to stay home and chill for a while.  We are very thankful that Adam Corolla was asked to leave "Dancing with the Stars" this week and have caught up on some very necessary sleep (and grading.)  Lauchlin made a tasty meatloaf on Wednesday night.  

We're back to be boring again.
But, this weekend we're having some friends over to the porch in hopes of finishing the mass quantities of alcohol we have left from last weekend. Then, we're headed to Oxford for Vici's confirmation. She's joining the world of Episcopalians — God bless her! It's also Red-Blue Week in Oxford. We hear Joan Baez and Eli will be there for the festivities. Maybe we'll run into one of them and have something more interesting to put on the blog. You never know...

You Know You're an Adult When....

You get beautiful furniture for your birthday! Lauchlin has been waiting years for a new dresser. A magic fairy (and her helpers) purchased and delivered this Broyhill baby while she was at work Monday, which was her birthday.

Another birthday gift in the works is a new, stainless steel dishwasher. We are both very excited about both additions. Don't worry — we'll blog about it when it arrives. Perhaps even a video will be in order.

Lauchlin's mom took us, along with Lucy and May, to Main Street Market for a birthday dinner. We forgot to take food pictures, but here's a shot of Lauchlin and May inside.

After dinner, as we were walking to the car, May added insult to injury with the whole getting older thing when she asked if she could help Lauchlin up the tiny step. She also offered her assistance as she arose from this bench:

Bless This Mess!

The House Blessing has come and gone. It's nice to live in a blessed house — no more ghosts or evil spirits lurking. What we do have, however, is a messy house full of reminders of the fun we had — a full cooler (and a half) of beer, leftover food and some house work we will spend the rest of the week doing. Oh, and a potted plant that our friend, Sean, broke — not once, but twice! And, we're pretty sure our friend, Tom, hid empty beer cans and bottles in odd places — like a drawer and a cabinet. 

Here are some photos of the festivities:

May Spangler was definitely the life of the party. She entertained our guests thoroughly with her 4-year-old antics.


You can hardly tell that she consumed her weight in Diet Cokes!



Here we are — at the last minute — getting ready. Thanks, Vici, for the action shot!

This was us right before the house was blessed...
Catering provided by Janie Fields. Flower arrangements by Ardona Foshee.

Anne really enjoyed being the ordained "bowl bearer."

Ned and Mary Beth looking very chill on the front porch.

And, here's the late-night dance party that took place after plenty of margaritas (thanks to Mary Beth for her special recipe and Cortney for the cool, new blender), wine and beer.

I can't tell if that was before or after Sean broke the pot. Maybe it was in between breakings!

The Sun WILL Come Out — Tomorrow!

This is what the National Weather Service says is in the forecast for Saturday:

Highs are supposed to be in the 70s with sun and lows in the 50s at night.
It's good news, even though we could all be blown away today and tonight with the storms and tornados that are supposed to blow through Vicksburg. You know, Annie did say (or sing) it best. Included in this blog is a cheesy video for your watching pleasure. Please know that we didn't make it though. We should be ashamed enough by the fact that we're likely to sing songs from the soundtrack as we continue cleaning tonight. And, yes, we own the movie. We both find that we are inspired by that adorable, optimistic little orphan with a hard-knock life. Enjoy! We'll be back posting soon, I'm sure. Man, we're really on a roll!

Lauchlin's birthday!!!

Shhh...Lauchlin's birthday is on Monday, April 7.  

The Azaleas!

We had a post earlier about the azaleas being in full bloom, but they are really just showing off now! We cannot believe that nature can produce such a beautiful color.  They are even more fantastic in reality.  

It's my cat in a container!

This is not a reference to the Mark Steepe Crematorium incident! 

In preparation for the festivities that will be taking place this weekend, Lauchlin purchased a new vacuum cleaner to tackle the dirt in our kitty room.  The old vacuum we had just sucked...or didn't...whatever.  We decided that we would be hospitable and not make anyone else sleep with the litter (of cats).  When we mistakenly pulled the plug out during the middle of vacuuming, we decided to check and see that --yes-- the canister was past the "full" line.  

 It's a remarkable thing that we have only one room with carpet.  

Happy Housewarming!

Wow! We have so much to do this week. We are getting ready for our House Blessing on Saturday, which is a full time job in itself. Olivia is sick with some sinus or allergy thing, and Lauchlin is doing some crazy amount of work, so we hope that our friends will accept our house in whatever condition they find it!  

If you didn't catch some crazy Wheel of Fortune action last night, you should check out this April Fool's clip. Sorry, but I think you have to cut and paste it in your navigation bar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utBzdV2MUaE