Waiting

As most of you know, Matthew and I have been (sort of) patiently waiting for our new house for quite some time. So far our closing has been delayed twice and we still don't know if we will actually make the new closing date of March 30th. The bank we are working with is terribly disorganized and severely lacks communication. Some of our belongings have now been packed for 5 months (including Matthew's shorts, which he is missing now) and most of our stuff has been packed for at least two weeks. Luckily we didn't pack up the kitchen, so we can still eat! I have brought my horse trailer to the house twice now and the second time we actually packed it up so now it will be staying until we move. I am not great at backing this trailer but somehow managed to back it into our driveway so that we won't get in trouble for having it parked on the street for too long. Most of the pre-rental work on our current house has been completed so our weekends have been relatively uneventful. I was able to take one of my horses to a park to ride last weekend and we will go ballroom dancing this weekend.

The trailer parked in the driveway. No curbs, parked cars, or flower planters were harmed!

Rabi all geared up for our ride. The mosquitoes were quite annoying at this park but it was nice to see some different scenery.

On a side note, everything is growing like crazy around here! We have actually had some good rains and the early spring has triggered a lot of early growth. My planters (which we will be moving with us!) are really filling back in after the winter frost.

Packing

Matthew and I worked hard this weekend packing and getting our house ready to rent. Our entire front room is pretty much full of boxes and we haven't even started on the kitchen yet! We have already taken one large load to goodwill but I'm sure we will have another load soon (not to mention all of the stuff we have given away or sold on craigslist, including my wedding dress). I brought my horse trailer home today so that we can start loading it up for our first trip. We are supposed to close on the new house on Thursday and hope to move in on Saturday. Fingers crossed that it will all go as planned!




















We did take a break from work this weekend for some delicious quesadillas at our friend Ben's house followed by some great contra dancing. Then we stopped by a new country bar with a live band where we did a little more dancing.


Using Ben's Quesadilla Maker.

















Matthew enjoying dinner.


















A view of Contra dancing from above. Matthew is in the light blue shirt in the middle of the right side of the photo.


















If you've never seen a contra dance before, here's a little snippet!

Salty the Sea Turtle

The Tybee Island Marine Science Center's loggerhead sea turtle, Salty, was found on Tybee Island as a straggler (a hatchling that didn't make it to the ocean with the rest of the nest) in August of 2010. As he (or she, we don't actually know) has grown, a congenital shell deformity has become more pronounced. I have been working with the vet at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island to treat Salty's symptoms. He has been floating and unable to dive properly so we decided to start him on weight therapy. We attached a piece of Velcro to his shell using epoxy and used a neoprene weight pouch to attach weights to the Velcro. We also started feeding Salty in a "basket" made of mesh so that he can dive to eat but the fish cannot get to his food. Two weeks ago I took Salty to a hospital in Brunswick for a CT scan. It was really neat to see the scan and how Salty's deformity is affecting his lungs. We don't know what the future holds for Salty but will continue to use the weight therapy and encourage diving. Click here to see an article from when we first started treating Salty.

Salty is buckled up and ready for a trip to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.
















Salty's velcro.
















Salty eating in his new feeding "basket". We call it his playpen!
















Salty was lightly sedated for his CT scan.
















Salty's scan is on the left monitor. You can see him in the scanner in the top right corner of the photo.
















A 3-d image of Salty. You can see his curved spine and asymmetrical shell.