Recap of the Fall

Here's a not so quick update on our fall.  We've been busy...

Let's start with Labor Day!  We went to Ohio to see Hubbie's Mom and extended family.  While we were there, we went to "The Farm".  Puppy came with us.  What is making ripples in the water you ask...that's Puppy.  He loves the water.  

Just swimming with my stick.  The only way we could get him out of the water,was to throw a stick in and have him fetch and bring it back to us.  If we just called him, he would just keep swimming around.   

Chewing on my stick in the weeds.  He was so funny.  He had to sit in the weeds.  But isn't he just the cutest!  Taking puppy to the farm is always so fun.  The only down side is you have to keep an eye on him.  When you aren't looking, he will head back to the pond to swim around.  Sneaky little dog.  

An update on Puppy.  He is currently at my Mom and Dad's house under surveillance.  He was starting to walk really funny and be so lethargic and so I took him to my parents for him to get looked at.  We found out that he has some compressed discs in his back.  Now he is on some pain meds and being watched to see how he improves.  Life at our house just isn't the same since he has been gone, but extremely thankful that my Dad is a vet!

Mid September.... 

We were invited to go to a UNC football game.  Not just any ole seats at the football game.  We got to sit in the Blue Zone.  Talk about nice!  As you can see they were in the end zone.  Inside there was a buffet that you could eat from the whole game and then outside we got to sit at these seats with cushy blue roller chairs.  Hubbie loved these seats.  Not because of the chairs, but because there were these little tv's every two seats so he got to watch the Auburn game.  He was living the high life.  

Livin the high life!!

Moving on to October...

Hubs got tickets to the Duke Midnight Madness!  Yup, we got to to Cameron Indoor.  What a sight and a fun night!  What a treat to get inside Cameron Indoor too!

The Blue Devils!  Not that we favor any team here in the Raleigh - Durham - Chapel Hill area.  We are glad to support all three and in fact we have.  Just keep reading.

We took a break from sports and one weekend headed to the NC State Fair with Andy's Dad and his wife.  This was the winning pumpkin and watermelon.  Yup, that does say 522 pounds.  Hello!!!!!  State fairs are always interesting and you can never leave without eating some of the fair food.  We did our share by eating corn dogs and funnel cake. I love funnel cake!!!

Mid-November:

Our friend here in Raleigh invited us to a NC State game.  This game was against Clemson and so we were really hoping NC State would win since Clemson beat Auburn, but we weren't holding our breath since Clemson was favored.  I don't know if we were good luck, but NC State won!!!!  Yeah!  Another bonus - Hubbie was able to do a lifelong dream....  

Yup, he got to cut a pig that had been smokin all day.  

He was so happy that he got to be apart of this!!  He could hardly wait for them to start and then he just moved in.  I first saw him with just a knife in his hand.  I was like how did he get that knife...then he got the tongs and I knew it was all over.  It wasn't even his pig!

The evidence!

That pretty much wraps up our fall.  In between events, we packed - moved - unpacked.  Fought with leaves and acorns.  Still fighting with leaves...we have so many!!!   At one point I thought they might win, but then we got a second wind!  I see a victory in our near future.  

Stay tuned for the story of Biscuit!  Biscuit - who is that?  Well, stay tuned and you will soon find out!

5 Things I'll Miss About Our Apartment!!

We've Moved!! And yes, while that is exciting!, our house is a pile of boxes that seems to grow rather than vanish.  Some of these boxes I haven't opened since I packed them last November when we moved to NC.  Kind of makes you wonder if you really need what is in those boxes....but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  I just can't part with my moose mugs!!  I must have them in my cabinet.  Doesn't matter if I haven't seen them in almost a year. 

I've digressed from the reason I'm writing this blog.  I will miss our little apartment.  So as a goodbye gift to that special abode - here is a list of things I will miss.

1.  Ability to walk across the street to the grocery store.  Talk about convenience!! 
2.  The easy running routes that were accessible from our complex.  I'll miss running in the country club down the street (even though snot rocket man lives there).  Such great sidewalks!  Can't over appreciate a good sidewalk.
3.  The gym at our apartment complex.  Convenience again.
4.  Our covered patio.  You could people watch for hours out there.  And since we were hidden in the trees, you couldn't really see us. 
5.  Some of the people who we have fondly nicknamed:  Bearded Man, Mr. Walker, Hut and Tut, AKC and we will miss seeing the ugliest dog known to the planet:  Guiness.  Oh how we will miss all your snorts.  You truly are the ugliest dog I've ever seen.  I mean that in the best way possible. 

Goodbye Apartment!

Things that happen while running...

I can't believe it!  I really can't believe it.

I was running the other evening.   As I was running, I jumped off the sidewalk to pass this man walking his dog.  As I was passing him, he shot a snot rocket!!!!  I mean right as I'm almost parallel with him boogers being shot out of his nose in my direction.  I'm sure I got hit, but I don't want to think about it.  There isn't that much space between the sidewalk and the road.  My reaction:  I just kept running in disbelief.  I did do a quick glance to see if the fellow knew what he had done, but he didn't seem fazed.   No expression on his face, like "oh I didn't see you there", etc.  Nothing!

So here is my warning to all you runners out there:  BEWARE OF THE SNOT ROCKET SHOOTER!!!   He walks his dog in the evening and he doesn't care.  Just doesn't care if he hits you.  If you see him, quickly run in the opposite direction. 

U2

This post is so overdue, but hey better late than never!

For a Christmas present two years ago, my sister and her husband gave Hubbie and I tickets to see U2 with them in Denver at the Broncos Stadium.  Isn't that such a cool present?  No, I'm not 2 years behind in posting.  Bono, whose real name is Paul (how boring after being called Bono your whole life),  hurt his back the summer we were supposed to see him and so he canceled his tour and scheduled it for the following summer.  So in May, Hubbie and I flew out for the weekend for the concert.  It was a once in a lifetime concert.  I mean when is the next time you will see U2??

Anyway, I took some pictures with my phone, which I will warn you did not come out well.  I think I was just so excited.  My favorite part of the whole night was after the opening band (the frey) finished, they turned off all the lights and all you could see were cell phone lights.  It was pretty neat.

This was their sound booth.  Kind of cool - right?

This is the stage - the spider looking thing.  

It was Mid May in Colorado, so it was kind of chilly.  Fine with my fleeces.  This is Hubbie's new favorite hat.  He got it at the Durham Bull's game (the local AAA baseball team in Durham).  I think it is also his favorite because it is Auburn colors.  

In between the opening band and U2, they would put up all these random facts on the screens.  Some were interesting, some depressing.... Later it made for a really neat screen to see U2.

Not a great photo, but this is when they turned off the lights and all the cell phones popped up.  You can't get the feel from the photo, but it was really spectacular.

Yup, that's them.....U2.

So, that was the trip.  Kudos to my sister and husband for a fabulous Christmas gift.  We are always up for more concerts:)
 

Bailey goes to Camp!!

This week, the place where I work, hosted a day camp for the kids at the Durham Rescue Mission.  They have a shelter for women and children.  The children from the shelter came everyday and we did all kinds of fun things with them including a slip and slide on the last day.  We also taught them about Jesus!   They were so precious and I wanted to take each one of them home!  Another fun thing is I got to bring Bailey to work with me!!

Bailey was a huge hit and such a good dog.  They loved him!!  They hugged on him and combed him, took him on walks and threw the ball to him.  Bailey was so tired at the end of the day.  He would come home and just sleep the whole time. Usually in the mornings when we get up, Bailey will hear us and come into our bedroom.  On the mornings after being at camp, we would have to wake him up.  


Here are some pics!  Enjoy!  

Just adorable!

Puppy getting combed.  He loved this! All the attention!

Strawberry Pickin'

Hubbie and I went Strawberry Picking last weekend at Page Farms (pictured above).   It was only about 4 miles from our house and had tons of strawberries.  I was so impressed!!  Neat and clean and strawberries.  What more can I ask for?? It wasn't crowded either.   Another plus.  Enough people for entertainment and people watching, but no fighting over strawberries, although that would have been fun to watch.  My fav are all the kids with the pink all around their mouth from eating strawberries.  Right before you get your bucket to pick, there is a sign that says, "Tasting allowed, but please do not graze!"  Loved it!

Hubbie picking strawberries.   His favorite part about picking strawberries were the the old timers (his term) that were sitting in their lawn chairs when we pulled up wearing overalls and the old time baseball cap.  They must have been the owners of the farm observing operations.  Anyway, he knew it was going to be a good place after seeing them.

We chose the small bucket.  Those strawberries were so red and so good!  I went to work on Monday and they asked what we did over the weekend.  I told them and they asked what I made with the strawberries.  Much to their sadness, I said just a pie and then gave some to some friends where we ate dinner.  Their response, no jam, no freezing, nothing else.  Jokingly they said, somebody got the LB this weekend.  Unfamiliar with what LB meant, I proceeded to ask what that was.   They said, "Lazy Bug".  Yeah, I didn't feel like doing a lot.  Just wanted to pick and eat and then be done.  So, maybe next year I'll jam it up. I did end up making 2 pies since we had so many strawberries and then we just had some plain sliced .  I tell ya, I forgot how good my grandma's strawberry pie is.  Just yummy!  I'll give you the secret ingredient:  7Up!  Who knew people still drank 7Up, but they still sell it in the stores.

Strawberries, Strawberries, Strawberries.  They were everywhere and so many and so red and beautiful.  Hubbie gets the award for finding the biggest strawberry.  I had a picture, but it didn't turn out.  Too many shadows.

More of the farm.  It was a great day. Not hot, just perfect.  

Stanky Leg

This is hilarious.  Hubbie and I laughed so hard.

I know it is long, but be patient!  If you can't wait, then scroll to around the 2 minute mark. You will be rolling...

Holla to all my Memphis friends...doin the stanky leg!!

Thirteen.One

First and foremost, I must take my hat off to all those who have run a marathon.  You should get a medal (if didn't  - you got cheated...go ask for one)!  After running a half, I can't imagine what running another 13.1 miles would feel like.

Now that I have that out of the way and off my chest, in January, my sister called me and asked me if I wanted to run a half marathon with her in April.  At the time, I didn't have a job and so of course thought it was a great idea!  I had all the time in the world to train - what else was I going to do besides look for a job.  Thus the training began.

I was pretty disciplined in my training and even spent a week training in Colorado to do some altitude training.  Just kidding, that isn't the real reason I went to Colorado.  I was there visiting my sister and still needed to train.  That weekend was a 9 mile run - the hardest run of my life.  My 10 mile run the next week was a piece of cake compared to that. 

I want go give a shout out to Hubbie for a few things regarding the half:

• taking the photos 
• driving us to the start on Sunday morning at 6:45am, when he could have been snoozing
• running the last few miles with me on some of my longer training runs
• And the BIGGEST SACRIFICE OF ALL...missing some of the Masters on Sunday.  We drove back Sunday afternoon and so he missed some of the Masters...you know the tradition unlike any other or whatever their slogan is.  We couldn't even get it on the radio so I was giving him leaderboard updates every ten minutes via my snaz phone.     I do have the best Hubbie!

Here are the photos... 

Yes, the name was the Flying Pirate Half Marathon and was in the Outer Banks, NC.  They even shot off a canon when the race began.  Hubbie was fascinated with that.  Arrrghh you ready to run???

One of the fun things about running in a race are all the people.  I am a huge people watcher and so lots of excitement for me.  A lot of people were dressed as pirates, patch and all.  Some women were wearing black and red tutu's.  Not my preferred running attire, but whatever gets you to the finish line.  

Here we are before the race, walking to the starting line.  Note to all you who want to run a race: the port a potty line will be long...make sure you arrive early if you need to go.  Props again to Hubbie for finding a set of porties without a line.  You da best!!  It was maybe 50 degrees when we began the race.  Chilly...
I think we are wondering what have we gotten ourselves into at this point.  It was too late to back out...they had our money!

Right before the race.  Off went the fleece...go time!!  We were in Corral #2, the black bibs.  I felt like a bunch of cattle in those corrals.  Couldn't they have given it another name.  There were 4 corrals total, so we felt good being in the second one.  Each Corral started a few minutes behind the other, I guess this helps spread out the runners and allows the fasties (what I called anyone wearing a red bib since they were in the first group) room so they wouldn't have to pass so many people.  Don't we look so excited to run 13.1 miles!!!

There we are in the pink!  I have my hands raised.  This is between mile 8 and 9.  My sister now has shed her yellow shirt and has on a pink one too.  We didn't even plan it!  Hubbie and my parents were here to cheer us at this spectator point.

There I am in the pink behind the lady with the blue/turquoise shorts on.  Hubbie said she got in the way at the last second.  The last 3/4 mile was up and down hills on mulch (horrible running surface).  But I really felt great.  On my training runs, there was a hill at the end and so I think that helped prepare me. 

Hey, there'z my peeps!!!  Confession time:  You may be wondering why sister is not in the finish photos with me.  Fact: I am still competitive.  Just when I thought I was doing so well.  The story is there was this lady wearing a pink jacket and earlier on the race, I made my sister speed up so we could pass her...I really wanted to pass her.  Then she passed us later in the race.  She was slowing on the hills and so saw my chance to take her.  I took it and in the meantime left my sister (whose knees were hurting her) so I could beat her.  I did this after I told her I that it was okay that she passed us and I would stay with her.  Horrible sister am I to leave her.  Well, good news is our time difference was only seconds and so way to stay with it SIS and still pleading for forgiveness for leaving.  I just had to beat her....

Yay!!! We are done and have our medals and others goods they give you after the race.  I must confess what I was really looking for was a donut.  I ran a 10 mile race several years ago and they had this big tent full of food at the end and they had Krispy Kreme donuts.  Yummm!!    

Couldn't resist this photo with the pirates. They were the greeters into the after race party.  
We are just missing our bandana and patch!  That one pirate might want to be careful that he doesn't do any drastic moves or he might pop one of 
those buttons.

 Little fact, there were over 2000 runners and i think something like 65% were women.  GO LADIES!!

Well, it was fun!  Thanks again to SIS, Hubbie and my parents!!!  We'll do it again soon!!!!

One more Hunter Quote

Just one more Hunter quote that came to me today as I was driving...

One day it snowed.  There were a couple of inches of snow on the road and so as I was taking Hunter to the bus stop I was traveling slow.  They live on a mountain and you have to go down the mountain to the bus stop.

Hunter:  "We are going human speed slow.  I think you can go faster."

Thanks Hunter for your wise counsel on driving in the snow...And just for the record, I wasn't going that slow, but that hill is steep.

Colorado

I've just spent that last 10 days in Colorado with my sister and her boys. What fun!!

While I was there, I spent a lot of time with Hunter (my oldest

nephew who is 6). These are some of the funny things he said to me. Warning: they may not be that funny to you, but they were funny to me so context may be important.

Here are some quotes from my time there (in no particular order).

1. "Heather, why do you look younger than Mom?"

(for those of you that don't know, my sister that lives in Colorado is older than I am.)

2. "Don't forget to pick me up at the bus stop today."

(One of my duties while there was to pick Hunter up fro

m the bus stop each day. He would say this numerous times as we are driving our short distance to the bus stop.)

3. "I was afraid you had forgot to pick me up."

(This is what he said as he got off the bus.)

4. "It's okay this time, but Mommy and Daddy usually get out of the car when I get off the bus." (Oh, I didn't know there was a proper way to pick up kids from the bus stop.)

5. "Schmeather"

(What he calls me sometimes. To which I respond, Schmunte

r.)

6. "Can I keep this dough in my room?"

(We made cookies and were making shapes out of the dough - kind of like playdough, but with cookie dough. He wanted to make one that looked like a fire truck. After he made it, he wanted to keep it in his room. You forget kids don't understand that some things have to be refrigerated and can't just "sit" in your room and rot and have bugs crawl on it.)

7. From Hunter's friend as I'm picking him up from school, "Can Hunter and I battle? I taught myself karate and I want to try it out on someone who kno

ws karate?"

(Ummm, no - you can't just beat up on someone who is 2 years younger than you just because you want to try out your karate moves. Hunter does take Tae Kwon Do lessons, but not sure if after school is the place to try out your moves. I did respond in a nicer way for those of you thinking I said this to a 2nd grader.)

8. I went to Hunter's class for show and tell one day. As he is introducing me, he is patting my head like a dog, "This is my Mom's younger sister." His introduction wasn't the funny part, the fact that he was stroking my head like a dog was funny. He must have had this thing with me being the younger sibling. Maybe since he has a younger sibli

ng he was making a strange connection, but nonetheless...younger sister who I pet like a dog and comes when commanded.

9. During his show and tell, kids from his class are allowed to ask questions about the show and tell. One of the kids asked a question that Hunter had answered in his presentation, so when this girl asked it, this was his response, "Actually I already answered that. Do you have another question.?" So business like.

10. "While you put Colton (his younger brother) in his car seat, is it

okay if a do booty and head slides in the bank?"

(It snowed while I was there and we went sledding. Not sure why I think this is funny. Maybe because I was like, sure go ahead...Do a booty and head slide into the snow bank. Or maybe it was because he used the word booty. It could also be that I just let him do head dives into a snow bank. He had on a helmet so I guess I didn't think he could do that much harm to himself. Guess you had to be there.)

Picture of the nephews who I will miss until I get to hang out with them again...Until then, I need to brush up on my monster truck tricks and jumps...

Note: this picture was not taken while I was there. Come on, would I remember to bring a camera and take a picture. You must not know me...

Welcome 2011 and Welcome to Raleigh!

Hello! Happy New Year!! (even though we have been in the new year for a couple of weeks!)

Here is a little update on us:

1. Where did we spend December:

• In Raleigh (in a hotel for a week as we got a few things settled).
• Went to the mountains of Western North Carolina and stayed in a friend's cabin for a couple of days. It snowed!! Yeah! We almost lost our car (okay almost might be an exaggeration), but as I watched it slide down the hill with a sharp drop off to the left I kept yelling for Hubbie to bail. All I could picture was the car sliding off the road down the steep hill. Good news! We made it down!
• Went to see Hubbie's Dad in Charlotte.
• Went to see my family in Virginia. While we were there it snowed 13 inches. Hello, we never get snow in VA much less 13 inches. We actually stay with my sister who lives 30 minutes away and then come to my parents house each day. Well, we drove in the snow twice before staying at my parents house. Testing out the 4 wheel drive on the Ford I guess. I don't think VA owns a snow plow. We drove in some nasty weather. Again...as Hubbie drove, I would sit in the passenger seat, heart beating fast, wondering if we would ever see a plow and hoping someone wouldn't hit us! Puppy loved running in the field and even caught some kind of animal while we were walking.
• My sister and her family came from Colorado and stayed at my parents house, so we got in some great family time, especially with the snow. Not to mention, there were 6 dogs at my parents house (including puppy). It was crazy at times, but a good time.

2. We are finally in Raleigh in our apartment in the beginning of January! Love our apartment, don't love having to keep puppy on a leash every time we take him outside.

2. Watched Auburn win the National Championship with some other Auburn fans in the area!! War Eagle. "It's great to be an Auburn Tiger (even if I married in!). It is amazing that everywhere we go we find Auburn friends. It is a bitter sweet now that the season is over. Bitter because it was so fun to watch Auburn win, Sweet because now I will no longer have that feeling like I'm going to have a heart attack watching them play games. I swear years have been taken off my life being a fan.

3. I read 3 books in December. That is what happens when you don't have a job! I read, count sheep, read more, count more sheep.

• My life in France: an autobiography of Julia Childs. Love that woman! What spunk!!
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: This book is a collection of letters between folks post World War II. They talk about life during the German invasion of the island and its effect on people. (Okay so that is not a great summary, but it was a great book.) I learned that in the English Channel there are islands. Didn't know that before. Guess I need to brush up on my geography.
• The Forgotten Garden: Since I'm so good at giving book reviews, the one is about a grandmother and granddaughter's search for where the grandmother was born. She was put on a ship in the 1913 and landed in Australia by herself. So the book tells of how the grandmother searched for her past and how her granddaughter helped. Fascinating book. Can't wait to read another book by this author.

4. Now we are looking for jobs and learning about the area we live in. This past weekend we drove through the Duke Campus. Bea-u-ti-ful!! Hello, can you say prestige!! Don't love looking for a job, but that comes with the territory of moving to a new area!

That's a brief update on us! I'll send pictures....maybe!