thanks to my kick ass memory...

i got a straight A in anatomy!!! i think i deserve a mint chip ice cream cone...

after destressing for one week, suffering two ocular migraines involving loss of VISION, and one doctors visit i have already started my next class, developmental psychology. now, you think this would be interesting. but, if you have a professor who talks like molasses for three hours and twenty minutes you might think differently. i'm not kidding about the molasses. the first day of class i did not even fill one page of notes...after three hours and twenty minutes! not only does he talk very slow and with a horrible, horrible michigan accent, but he goes on very random tangents for very long periods of time. yesterday's tangeant: a replay of the conversation he had with his daughter the night before about who would win in a fight--the colour kids from rainbow bright or the care bears. his conclusion: the my little ponies would probably come in and kick ASS (only it sounded like aaaaaaaass b/c of his nasal tendencies). who cares! why are you telling us this? keep your stories and let me out earlier!! give me anatomy and crazy amounts of memorization any day...

-SN

world cup from a distance

this is my cousin's blog. he's whoopin' it up with his wife at the world cup
http://markandlisaworldcup.blogspot.com/

it started as a vision...

i have not had a real yard since i was ten years old. i grew up in the city and city life doesn't have much to offer as far as yards go. you usually only have enough grass to tight rope walk on and you have to share that small green strip with your neighbors. and since moving away from home i have always rented, meaning that if there was grass it did not belong to me.

but now i own my own home and it came with enough grass to stretch out on, and in the city no less! brett and i moved into our house in november and during those long, cold, gray days of winter i dreamed about my yard. i made "plans" for the yard.


my first plan was to build a box garden. i have always wanted to grow my own vegetables. i think that someday, when the oil runs out, we will all have to be gardeners...so, i'm just getting a head start. i looked up on-line the materials i would need and then i headed over to home depot. i love that place. the people are really helpful and they cut wood for you. not only that, but they did all of the measuring for me. i'm a horrible measurer. i think the people at home depot were just as excited about my raised garden as i was. how could you NOT be excited about a raised garden? it took me about an hour and a few helpful screws from brett and wa-la. i was finished. (i just realized that perhaps that sentence didn't sound very prudent. this post has taken an X-rated twist. shield young eyes).







when the weather started to warm up i went to a garden center and chose my seeds. i planted them carefully and stood over them every night pleading them to grow.


at first i could not tell the difference between something edible and a weed. but now brett and i often add to our meals with produce grown from the sweat of my own brow. feast your eyes on......success.


my second plan was to make our yard look somewhat decent. as you can see from the pictures below there was just a lot of, what may look like to you, ugly dirt spaces. but to me, that dirt was SOIL.



my uncle owns a nursery in holland and brett did some web work for him. we decided to be paid in plants. and paid we were. last weekend we bought enough plants and flowers to compete with the jones'. we spent all day sunday digging and planting and transplanting.




during the dig we unearthed a plastic jesus. we planted him under our boxwood. you never know when a plastic jesus will come in handy when you live in a neighborhood caught in the cross-fire.

what started as a vision now fills my belly...as any good vision does. -SN

*sorry that some of the pictures are hard to see. you'll just have to stop by...

don't do it

never buy asperagus in a can. the end.

by the skin of our teeth

brett and i do not live on one of the five streets that make up the ghettos of grand rapids. but we do live in the heart of the city very near to some of those streets. in the last few days or so there have been five shootings within blocks of my home. that's not to mention the sixteen other southeast side shootings that have occurred since January. some area pastors have had the idea to start walking the streets more, getting to know the neighbors. residents are pleading for police to have a greater presence in the area, young, black, male residents. i hope the police listen to them. i'm not afraid of being shot. and i'm not afraid to continue to jog, bike, and walk through the streets of my neighborhood. in fact, perhaps i will join those pastors and do these things more so that i can be a positive presence too. i care about those streets.

in other news...brett and i went backpacking in Ludington last weekend. apparently, officials caught an alligator in the area. we will continue living by the skin of our teeth. -SN

*for the record, i do not have skin on my teeth.