Spring happenings

The first tulip of the year!


A Lily/CJ totem pole


With a little TLC (wash and wax) the old girl's still got it....Flo was most appreciative of the attention she received today.....and I was appreciative for the help I had giving her that attention!

Chasing Snakes 2012

I would like to begin this post with a hearty happy anniversary to my beautiful wife Emily....we met 12 years ago today on River Street in Savannah (I know, sometimes I can make it seem like way longer than that :)

This is the third year that we have participated in the Chasing Snakes road race put on by St. John's Episcopal Church (this is the church Uncle Julian attended). After the race, as usual, we went to replenish all those calories we just burned with a pancake breakfast at Cracker Barrel...yum!

A big thanks to Lee Fierbaugh for taking the family picture this morning...she keeps a blog of excellent pictures, poems and deep thoughts that you can access on the right nav bar called "From These Hills"

Making Whoopie Pies

Guess who had the idea to bake whoopie pies...


And time, goes by, so slowly...but time can do so much....like bake our whoopie pies!!!!




What Daddy!?!? No....I have no idea what that is on the corner of my mouth!

Off the Top of My Head

This is our minister's blog, and Gator has recently decided to add it to his list of favorite blogs to the right.

Each week, at the Wednesday night church program, they put together a slide show of pictures from the evening's activities. Here is a link for the most recent slide show....how many Campbell's can you spot? ....how many Harkey's?

More Spring Break Fun!

Alright, I admit it, I'm just down right enjoying spring break. I've still got some grading that I'm finishing up, and am gearing up for next week's volley of meetings with the SACS folk, but most of the time I'm just haning out with the family. Now that the weather has turned nice, we were able to go out back and play on the swingset. What great days :)

Thatcher saluting the camera!

Gator being Gator.....tired after chasing a tennis ball, laying in the shade with his tongue hanging out.

Tatcher saluting the camera again....this time with a smile :)

I've never see rosemary go to bloom before, it has pretty lavendar flowers (at least this one did).

Caroline was so interested in Thatcher rummaging around in this bush for some reason....not sure what it was, but its good to see her interact with the dogs with such ease. By the way, that is the rhubarb plant coming up already behind Caroline's feet.

Caroline has recently become very concerned about our practice of having the dogs "clean up" after meals. She is appealing for adult intervention here as the boys enjoy the remnants of her lunch.

Spring Break Pictures

One of the more fortunate aspects of spring break (other than getting to hang out at home, for a week, sleeping in, reading and relaxing, etc) is that with Mattie out of town, we have stayed home with CJ. It has provided us a lot of quality time to get to know her without her big sister around, and is she ever something. Here is a picture of her getting up from a nap, with a smile ready for the world!


In other exciting news, we've got seedlings coming up already! Now, if only I remembered which seeds are in which pot...

Kickoff for the 2012 Gardening Season!

Spring break for Milligan can mean only one thing around the old Campbell Estate....time to start seeds for the 2012 gardening season! This year our garden is going to be simplified to a large extent given our time constraints. We'll be planting a lot of popcorn and sunflowers. But that's not all, we'll still mix in a few interesting plants here and there. The seeds we started this weekend are:

Roma tomatoes
Morning Glories
Nasturtiums
Hot Pepper mix
Butterfly bush

As you can see by the pictures, I really did have two excellent helpers! We're working on timing this year, so I'm waiting until May to start the pumpkins and gourds in order to actually have FALL squash :)

Happy VG Day

We got to celebrate a day that most people don't have the chance to experience....Happy Valentineduation Day! Emily graduated from residency on Valentine's Day this year. We are very proud of all her accomplishments, including her upcoming year of fellowship at Wake Forest. Here are some pictures from our family celebration.




Pictured below is an amazing gift to Emily from one of her colleagues. He actually went around and got each person at her program to write a farewell message on one of the stones. Every single stone in the container has a message on it.

Nana and Papa's Super Bowl Visit

Nana and Papa came down for a short visit several weeks back, and I just haven't gotten around to posting the pictures. But, better late than never, so here are pictures from the Super Bowl weekend. Nana and Papa started out by giving the girls some early Valentine's presents.




Nana and Papa took the girls out into the driveway for a little bubble time before the big game.







Started off the Super Bowl fixin's with some deep frying in the garage....chicken wings and definitely some oysters!

Feed Your Mind

This picture is a link to an album of pictures sent from my microeconomics students. Somehow, as I was talking about fried okra in class, I came around to the idea that students should graph with their food as part of their studying for the first exam on Friday. So I offered a couple points of extra credit to whoever graphed with food and sent me a picture of it. Here is the result.

An Extraordinary, Ordinary Saturday Morning

With two girls, two dogs, and two full-time jobs that can have unusual hours, we are learning that nothing can be taken for granted, particularly a lazy Saturday morning spent together as a family.

We started out the morning with a little breakfast (which after the week of stomach bugs we've had, this in itself is quite an accomplishment). Caroline had some oatmeal, and gradually became more efficient at getting it from the bowl to her mouth.



Lily took a perch on the table to watch the show....and listen to the Fresh Beats on Mama's phone. Which reminds me, I asked my Micro class on Friday if they have heard of The Fresh Beat Band. The response..."No, is that, like, some group from the 80's?"


Thatcher, ever the dignified one, couldn't bare to watch the spectacle.






But Gator kept opportunistically close in the event a little something dropped his way.


When the vacuum came out after the family walk this morning, some eager to lend a hand, while others attempted block out the noise by any means possible.