Charlotte or Bust!

Emily and I made a trip to Charlotte, NC this weekend to visit my cousin, Megan, and our friends Jon and Jackie!

We had dinner with Megan and her friend John on Friday night, and then ate a fabulous brunch on Saturday (thanks Uncle Johnny!)...then on our way to see Jon and Jackie (who live about 30 minutes north of Charlotte) we stopped by Emily's old stompin' grounds at UNCC.

Em's tour included her dorm, the practice fields, soccer stadium, field house, and all her old running routes! I don't think she had much of a life outside of soccer in those days!

After Em's trip down memory lane, we made our way to Jon and Jackie's. They live near Lake Norman in a nice neighborhood. We had more good eats that evening, and lots of beer!
Then Sunday brought some time in the sun, and a great Thai lunch.

Minus the sunburn that Emily picked-up, we had a really good weekend.

Summertime Shades!

Elwood sporting his summertime shades!

A Summer Garden

For the first time ever, Emily and I planted a summer garden! We started out with a couple of basil plants, 4 tomato plants, 4 squash plants, and 6 pepper plants. We are now down a few pepper and squash plants, but the tomatoes are growing strong!

Emily was a great helper in the initial stages of preparing the soil and planting, but now she merely takes pictures of the "evil" pests trying to eat our harvest!


Thankfully, the horn-worms Emily was so excited about taking pictures of were easy to remove, and didn't get too many of our tomatoes. But even before the horn-worms there were aphids, which I took care of with peppermint tea!

I love having a garden, but must say that I have found it very tough and somewhat time-consuming. I now have a TON of respect for organic farmers!

The Evil that is Walmart!

I've been reading this book that Em's sister Bib had in the house, it's called "How Walmart is Destroying America (and the World) And What You Can Do About It."
Full of behind-the-scenes insights into the business practices of Walmart, this book is a real eye-opener. I was aware of the low-wages paid, lack of healthcare for most of their employees, and I figured that a ton of their merchandise came from sweatshops, but this book reveals horrors beyond my own imagination...Discrimination against female workers, costing tax-payers billions of dollars per year, exploiting undocumented workers, destroying towns, and on and on and on...WALMART is truly EVIL!!!

This book just reaffirmed any negative feelings I had for the mega-business that is Walmart. But more importantly, it gives info on what you can do about this EVIL business...

Wake-up Walmart is a great site for more info!

So I pledge today that I, Beth Yash, will never shop at a Walmart store again!!!

Give Me A Boost!

I must say Emily did some good work with the dogs...they went from wanting to eat the cat to giving her a boost!
Emily=Caesar, I think yes!

Where Have I Been? Mrs. Nixon's Classroom

Friday was my last day working in the small animal clinic, but instead of rest and relaxation, I have a million little things on my to-do list. First and foremost was helping my sister, Jenna (aka Mrs. Nixon) set up her classroom.

Jenna is teaching 4th grade this year and at a new elementary school--Holsenbeck. She always has so many creative ideas for her classroom. And since she is working on her masters in Children's Literature, she also has plenty of books and ideas for reading, writing, and language boards.

But, sometimes she needs help limiting her imagination and pulling her ideas together. That's where I come in!

I love helping her work on her classroom. This is probably because I don't have to be there when the kids are present! Plus, since she is sharing her room with the EPI teacher (who helps the slower kids), we had to do a LOT of brainstorming to get everything to fit!

We have the classroom more or less finished and now need to get started on her paperwork!!! YIKES! Maybe next week....

story time!

hello everyone and anyone who cares. i am reading the newest david sedaris book (collection of essays), "When You Are Engulfed In Flames" and am thoroughly enjoying it - as i do all of his books. i could have finished reading the book in its entirety in one day, but i have tried to spread out my reading time and am holding on to the last 10 pages or so because i just don't want it to be over. the entire last chapter, which is the longest, is all about david's life as a smoker and his move to Japan when he decides to quit. It is aptly titled, 'The Smoking Section' and is hilarious! if you haven't read any of his books, i recommend that you check him out.