Kathy Reichs Presentation

Mary has her book signed by the author.

MTSU has a great forensic anthropology program and they host different names in the science at a symposium. We went to see Dr. Kathy Reichs who is the forensic anthropologist behind the TV show Bones. The presentation was very good. It was a light introduction to forensic anthropology, some real world cases Dr. Reichs has worked on along with some discussion of how those ideas get translated to fiction and television.

Moving Into College!

This is Mary in her dorm room during move in. This is the face she makes when I'm supposed to stop taking her photo.

This is Richard loading the car the morning of the big move.
Sadly, we did not get any photos of moving out.

Look at all the nature

This is a dove that is nesting in one of our potted plants on the porch.
We have a new nesting pair of doves every year near our house and in our backyard.
They are very sweet birds.

I have been extremely remiss in my blogging duties over the past several months. But my class at Columbia State has ended and I now have a very small smidgen of free time that I didn't have before. I have a whole folder of photos to put up here and I'm going to try to do it in categories. :-) This is the nature category...

This is a photo of the Great Flood that affected our area. This house is at the bottom of the hill from ours at the Golf Course. Our house and neighborhood is built quite a bit higher than this, and there is a creek that runs through the golf course that contributed to the flooding in these lower areas. The water has since receded and the families down here are going through repairs.

This is a great bush that I got from my editor Mindy, who attended the Franklin Arbor Day several years ago and picked up some freebies. This thing is great, blooms white and red and is very hardy. I think it's an oakleaf hydrangea, but I could be wrong!

A bird feeder from Gardener's Supply Company.

I got a great gift card for garden stuff at the Hosker family Christmas and this very cool bird feeder is one of the things I picked out. I also got some more tubtrugs to use for household stuff. They are very handy and I highly recommend them. For my birthday, I got another gift card from amazon from my mom and Don. I picked up a little garden cart that holds tools and plants. Richard calls it my radio flyer wagon with a degree in landscape design. I also got a VERY NICE set of gardening shears. Many lectures about not leaving them outside, cleaning them properly, etc have ensued. For some reason, the garden shears make me want to watch the Godfather.

These are the Bradford Pears blooming in early April. See, I told you I was procrastinating!

Happy Mother's Day!

At the baby shower for me: Patsy, Granny Hodgin, Mom (and me!)
Granny Choate, Margaret Hodgin.

Just wanting to wish all of the mothers out there a happy day. Thanks for all you do to cook and clean and make the world a better place. No one would wear clean underwear or get haircuts without your influence!

Some water photos

Here are some photos from our house during the monsoon. We are much luckier than most people. No damage so far, just some damp areas in the garage and crawlspace. I am pretty sure we are flooded in since the main roads all have creeks next to them. We don't have any large build ups of water anywhere near the house, though.

Water flowing through the front yard as it drains downhill.

This is the water that's running in the back of the property.
My dad rebuilt the back door to where only a minimal amount
of water comes through with heavy rain.