New things

I'm getting old. I have a house plant. Yep. I do. I have two of them, actually. And I feel this huge responsibility and, well, burden to keep them alive. So far so good. One of them is called a prayer plant. It's so beautiful! It was actually a plant that Mama, Mike, Mamaw, and Pap sent when Papaw passed away. There were so many flowers and plants that the funeral home stopped taking them and put the rest on a "hold account." Basically, people bought flowers, but the actual order was held. We'll just go get them whenever we want to put new flowers out there. I swear there are enough flowers to last another 15 years.  So anyway, I brought this plant home. At first, I didn't want one. I didn't want to look at a plant and think of my Papaw's funeral everyday. I decided that it would just remind me of him, not of a certain day or place or time. It does. I think it's pretty ironic that it's a "prayer plant," considering the circumstances. It's pretty. It's homey. I like it.

So I went over to my cousin Paige's house, and she has quite the collection of house plants. I was telling her that I'm trying my hardest not to kill my one plant. So what does she do? She gives me another one! I'm pretty dadgum excited about this one. It's an aloe plant. I told Mama that I hoped someone gets burned soon so I could whip it out, break a leaf off, and use it! I know that's terrible. I just meant a small, first degree, wimpy burn. Don't worry, I'm not going to throw boiling water on any houseguests. Be not afraid. Grayce may eat it first, anyway.

I guess actually I have 3 plants. One stays outside though. I'm pretty proud of it. Mama gave me and Katie both a gerbera daisy for Easter. I don't know why. She knows I don't do plants. However, I did keep it alive for about a month. Then I went home for a month to study for the Step. Do you think Katie watered my plant? Absolutely not. AND it got put on the ground (as opposed to the table where it lives), and Polo peed on it! Repeatedly! Upon my return, my plant was pretty dead. Hers was dead too, but she wasn't as heartbroken as I was. (Who do you think had been watering her plant since Easter?) Mine had a little bit of green left in a couple of stems, so per my mother's instructions, I cut off all the dead parts and started watering it. Lo and freakin behold it came back to life! I'm thrilled. I took some pretty pictures of them before. Mine is red; Katie's was pink. Before:

Red gerbera post-rebirth:

Enough with the plants. Gah.

I thought I was going to have one more "new" thing to put on my post, but thanks to Bonnie, it'll have to wait. Project spraypaint-my-rusty-old-iron-table has been postponed. Stay tuned.

Lastly, I just want to say that I've received so many messages, comments, emails, and texts about my last post. Thank you all for your sweet words, but I just spoke the truth. My grandfather was, is, and always will be an inspiration for me.  I'm so lucky to have had such an extraordinary man in my life for so long :)