Party Time!!

We spent the afternoon at a birthday party for the daughter of some friends from Mo's mothering group. What a blast!! Kids running around and playing everywhere and absolutely beautiful weather. Nice breeze through the trees....The party was at a boathouse on a little key near Savannah, complete with peacocks and chickens.

Really cool family day.

Going straight to touch the horse....

He got a big kick outta this!

Mommy talk...

Gonna catch that dern cat before we leave.....

Some of the older kids.....they were really good to the younger guys. They even pulled Levi around the yard in the wagon and taught him to throw pine cones in the creek.

My hot little gal...

Off the porch....

This is a wise policy.

Bok!!

Buncha Pics!

These are some random pics from the last few weeks....everything from Tybee Island to an old Lab. Below, me and Levi with our nightly book routine....my favorite time of day with him.

Mo's been on a blueberry pancake kick lately. She spreads apricot jam on them....she and Levi love them!

Buns of steel....he's potty training and it makes it easier if he can just go when he needs to without taking off a diaper.

Mojo in the kitchen....spaghetti night!

The kid has been scaling this wall for months now....all the way up and then down the slide, and over and over again.....

Cutting the rug with his friend Sadie. Molly and Sarah (Sadie's mother) spend alot of time together. We swap baby sitting duty with them as well....gives each of us a free night now and again.

Mo and Levi and a whole bunch of Moms and kids went to Tybee the other day. Levi and one of the other little boys had a blast in the sand.

Sandy kids!!

Sweet man...who lives in the backyard.

Mo whippin up spaghetti sauce...Levi's favorite!

My old gal Sadie....she'll be 10 in the fall. We've been on many a spree, but her hearing is about gone and another little critter gets most of my attention these days. Levi gives her plenty of love and attention, though (and ear pulls, and crawling on her back, etc.)

1st Publication

My colleagues at the immunology lab I used to work at just received noticed that their paper, "Relative imbalance in T regulatory cells and activated T cells in mice with differential morbidity in chronic Schistosoma mansoni infections" (yeah, that's a mouth-full), has been accepted for publication in the journal Parasite Immunology.

I am excited, as I'm listed as a 'co-author', although I had nothing to do with the writing of it, but did do a fair part of the bench work involved (think lots of mouse killing, blood collection, sample processing/analysis). Yay!

Shampoo: Less is More

So, this last week we've had a bit of a debate in my house over the frequency we wash Levi's hair. Let me tell you, up until now it has not been very often (think weekly/monthly here). My reasoning is that it's rinsed with water all the time - he's in the shower with one of us about once a day (he rarely bathes alone). And, I just feel that babies don't need all that much shampooing with so little hair and delicate skin.

Serendipitously NPR highlighted a shampooing news story this week - and it turns out where shampooing is concerned: less is more. The article (click here) was so convincing I've decided to forgo my every-other-day habit & think more on weekly terms.

Apparently, Americans love to shampoo (over 4.5 times a week). The result is a vicious cycle: the excessive shampooing strips hair of its beneficial oils, your sebaceous oil glands then compensate by producing more oil & then your back to the shampoo bottle to tackle your greasy hair. When you shampoo less your sebaceous glands began producing less sebum oil.

According to the article, until 1908, when media influences began to say otherwise, once a month shampooing was the norm. Decades of marketing later... and by the 1970's daily shampoo use was common.

New Pot Policy

I support the legalization of marijuana for a myriad of reasons - I believe it should be a regulated substance very much like alcohol or tobacco - graded, taxed, and readily available at your corner gas station - and like home brewing (beer/wine) laws across the US, which allow the hobbyist to produce tax-free quantities for personal consumption (ex. 200 gallons of beer annually), allow a permissible number of plants to be grown for personal use.


So, I was thrilled today when I heard several NPR news stories reporting the change of federal policy on marijuana. I think this is a great first step on the way to ending pot prohibition.

"The official word has come down from the Obama administration. Attorney General Eric Holder says the Justice Department won't prosecute marijuana clinics, which are operating legally in California and a dozen other states. This is a big change in terms of federal policy."

"Given the limited resources that we have, our focus will be on people & organizations that are cultivating substantial amounts of marijuana in a way that's inconsistent with federal and state law," the attorney general said.

There's also a huge economic spin-off from this new policy = it could lead to the drug becoming a regular source of tax revenue in states where it's legal. Analysts predict this could result in millions for state coffers. Medical marijuana clubs, without the threat of federal prosecution, may finally open the books and give economists, which could only speculate up until now, a better idea of just how much the pot industry is worth.

Thirteen states have laws permitting medicinal use of marijuana. California is unique among them for the presence of dispensaries, which are businesses that sell marijuana and even advertise their services. Legal under California law, such dispensaries are still illegal under federal law.

EWV

Edward Wayne Vinson

16Mar79 - 11Aug08

He would have been 30 today...
I still wake sometimes & cannot believe he's gone. Surreal. Impossible. Why?

Little fisherman

When we were at Papa's a few weeks ago, Levi went with me down to the pond.....I caught a fish and let him hold it before throwing it back. He was tickled beyond belief. After that he wanted to carry his own fishing rod....actually, insisted would be a better way to put it. So I got an old one that he couldn't hurt and let the big man "fish". Only had a camera phone, but they're still cute.

It is Thursday

Morning here - my half-naked barefooted child is running around in the backyard rearranging my houseplants which have been moved to the warm sunny outdoors. I'm listening for the washer to unlock - hang this load up & get another one in. No dryer for 10 days now. Hope the power bill reflects this. Also, with the warm weather - have had windows open & shut OFF the thermostat. The weather is beautiful here - perfectly warm with a slight breeze - just enough that the 'airplanes' on the spiderplant are swaying...

Sunny Tuesday

My sister, Beth, visited last week during her Spring Break - we got outside quite a bit, & even got a short canoe trip in - here, reading the Very Busy Spider to Levi after breakfast:

During our canoe trip I ran across a new marsh plant (new to me) that appears to be 'flowering' - it's got a slender stalk with a knobby yellow tip - I haven't ID'ed it yet... - anybody know this one?

We spent most of Sunday afternoon over at Fort Stewart - here's my obsessive husband hanging out the window checking out the turkey tracks - we even had to stop so he could scuff out tracks that crossed a main road, just 'in case' another obsessive turkey hunter came by...

On my birthday - before going out for the evening

Mo turns 31!

It's a FULL MOON & my BIRTHDAY - what could be better!?!... A babysitter & sushi for supper! :)

Feb pics

Just looking thru the Feb pic file today & found a few of interest...

In Cairo, Ga visiting Papa a few weekends ago & we went to a recent find in Grady County - a 15 acre colony of trout lilies - the largest know this far south - a rare find in this part of the state. There were blooming trilliums (above) found in the area as well.

acres of trout lilies

Back at Papa's house - his pineapple guava bush had ripe berries - I did a little search on these & didn't find a scientific match. Anyways, I picked enough berries for a batch of jam - and probably ate just as many!

Last weekend we went to Atlanta for a wedding - and stayed with my Grandma Huckins in Kennesaw. We left in a hurry on Sunday morning - trying to avoid the oncoming snow storm - but ended up driving thru hours of it anyways.

The last month

February was a good, busy month. Molly thought I should post some of the stuff we've been doing so here goes the next 3 posts. This one is a prescribed burn we did just northwest of Ft. Stewart. We burned some longleaf sandhill as well as one of the most diverse bogs in the state. Fire maintains and rejuvenates the bog as well as the sandhill. The bog has 5 species of pitcher plants and 3 species of native orchids. Mo and I are going back in April when they are blooming.

Lighting the first backfire...

Tired at the end of the day.

Sunset over the burn

The Altamaha

We needed to do some work along the Altamaha. The best way to reach the majority of it was by water.

For scale, that's me way down at the left base of the tree below.

I love this one....there are camps spaced along the river in random places. To get this thing in here, they strapped it to big pieces of foam and floated it down the river. It's still sitting on huge pieces of styrofoam. Folks will come up river and stay for weeks in these hunting and fishing. Looks good to me, one heck of a nice porch.
.

An oxbow connected to the river....

An old Cypress log...