Salsa Garden !!

The year before last, a co-worker of Mike's kept bringing him baggies of home-grown jalapenos. Mike enjoyed them so much on pizza, tacos, home-made salsa and the like, that last spring we bought 2 jalapeno plants of our own. It was great fun to watch the progress of the plants and eat the fruits of our labor.

In fact, it went extremely well except for a brief battle with 2 tomato horn worms. They were very gross - bright green and as big around as my little finger. They EAT leaves, stems, etc. Crazy. They nearly brought our growing to a halt until I picked them off and destroyed them.

This year, we decided to branch out a bit and make a [partial] Salsa Garden! Jalapenos, Serranos, cilantro, green onions, and tomatoes too. I didn't bother with the garlic this year.


These are the green onions. Turns out that we didn't plant nearly enough seeds, so we will only get about 6 green onions on the first harvest. Jason planted most of the remaining seeds, so hopefully in about 6 weeks - we will have plenty more!

This is the Cilantro! Turns out we may have over planted this. We have 3 large bunches of cilantro and probably NO way to use it all before it goes bad. We have already made 3-4 batches of salsa with the cilantro and it is terrific!

These are 3 tomato plants. It is hard to differentiate the plants - but the one on the right is cherry tomatoes, and the other two are small tomatoes - not cherry sized - but a bit bigger. I can't remember the name.


This is a cluster of the cherry tomatoes. They have not begun to turn red yet. I am beginning to think we need to tie up the plants so they can get more sun! We want to harvest tomatoes soon! If, they get red.....

This is a broad view of 4 pepper plants - 3 are jalapenos, and the 4th is a Serrano pepper plant. We just had a taste test with the peppers recently when we had homemade pizza. The family decided the Serrano's have more heat than our jalapenos.


Here is a close up of a jalapeno.


Here is another shot of the jalapenos. I think Jason forgot to snap a picture of the Serranos!

MEGAN: BEFORE & AFTER Phase I Braces

On April 2, 2007, at age 7, Megan & Ryan began their journey in Phase I Orthodontics. Both of the twins had severe issues that simply had to be addressed while their mouths, jaws and palates were still malleable i.e. able to be molded and/or expanded with orthodontic appliances such as palate expanders and head/neck gear, etc.

Megan had an open-bite and over-jet of her front teeth from sucking her thumb, plus in general, her mouth was just too crowded to accomodate the size of her future permanent teeth. These permanent teeth were visible on her panoramic xrays.

So, 25 months later Megan has completed her Phase I journey with absolutely beautiful results. But, before you scroll down to the bottom to see the finished results - please take a look at Megan's before pictures that the orthodontist took!

BEFORE

You can see in the lower 3 pictures (in the above photo) how 'open' her bite was - not only from missing teeth - but from sucking her thumb. You can also observe in the top right photo that her lower jaw had not grown enough and appears almost receded.

Here is Megan a few weeks before her braces were removed. She is so proud of how far she has come!




This is the day her upper braces were removed. Her lower braces were left on 4 weeks longer to aid in straightening the lower 4 front teeth.


Here is Megan following removal of her upper braces. Look at those pearly whites!



Below is Megan wearing her top retainer and with her lower braces. She is waiting on her turn to be called back to have the lower braces removed!

AFTER !!!!!!

And here she is! Miss Megan - with no metal in her mouth at all!!



Doesn't she look so proud of herself?!?

Where the Irritable Yellowbelly Water Snake lived

Joyce asked where our creepy visitor came from on Friday. You can read my post here.

This is the view from our front yard. It is definitely safe to say that the skunk-scented, very-irritable Yellowbelly Water Snake came from this body of water.

I think it is also safe to say - that was one stupid snake!! The information found regarding the habits and habitats of that species state that Yellowbelly Water Snakes are often found in yards, garages and other cool dark places when they attempt to find new water sources, especially if the yard is watered on a regular basis. Regular watering also attracts frogs and toads, which are a favored food item for these snakes.

Duh!! There is a LARGE body of water 100 feet away from my garage!

Snake !! **Not for the Faint of Heart!**

Yellowbelly Water Snake
Nerodia erythrogaster flavigaster
Nonvenomous
The Yellowbelly Water Snake is the harmless snake most often incorrectly referred to as a "water moccasin" (even though there is no such snake) in Harris County. This is because of its generally dark coloration and its irritable disposition. When threatened, Yellowbelly Water Snakes will behave like all other local harmless water snakes of the genus Nerodia. They will usually coil up and flatten out their head, making it look arrowhead shaped. However, head shape cannot be used to tell venomous snakes from harmless ones. They will also vibrate their tail, let out large amounts of foul smelling musk which smells like a skunk, and strike out repeatedly at whatever is threatening them.

So, after school today, we found one of these in our garage! Bless Mike's heart! It really sucks to be the Dad sometimes! A snake that looks like this was coiled up in the corner of the garage. And irritable it was! Mike was truly forced into whacking it with the hoe. This is a bit graphic: When he chopped the snake in two - out popped a LIVE baby frog! FOR REAL.