Another Interactive Adventure with Chad Matt & Rob

The Murder...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNGhSk_gamk

I had some trouble loading the video but here's the link. Take a look...it's like one of those create you're own adventure books from days gone by.

Surprised Kitty

Surprised Kitty

The Farmer's Daughter

catchy little tune!

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken by a wonderful photographer, Brian Streett. It was such a fun day and the pictures turned out better than we've ever had done before! Actually, we've never had a family picture taken but we're VERY happy with them. Chris and I had our picture taken with Sydney when she was a baby but the four of us have never had photos taken all together so this was a real treat! We went to South Mountain State park and it was a gloomy day I'll have you know, but it turns out it's perfect for photos! Yay! So, we sat on rocks and walked around acting "natural" which is really hard to do when you know that your being photoed! I posted most of the pictures on FaceBook and played around with some too. This is my favorite of me and Chris. It looks great in color too.

Our little Sydney Liz is growing up.

and the camera loves her.... Truely lovely...and so interested in the world.


I played around with this one. I put a teal tint on it. This is Sydney if she was in the Twilight movies....

Melia has the most expressive face I've seen on such a little person. One minute she looks like she has the powers to kill you and burn down your house... the next she is melancholy in the woods...or a thinking little cutie...but all the time lovely.

Just Cute

No real story here just cuteness. It used to be that these two wouldn't lay anywhere near each other and now...awww...

Runaway Train

This is Rosanne Cash's 'Runaway Train' that I woke up to the other day. It drove me CRAZY because I could NOT figure out how to find this on YouTube! I kept getting other songs about other runaway trains. Well, I finally asked my good friend Kenneth about the song and he knew all about it, who sung it when it was recorded and on and on...funny he's a HUGE 80's hair metal guy, but he seems to be a whiz on any type of music trivia. I should have called him the first thing that morning to ask who sung it! Next time....

I still have no clue who runs that neighborhood....

Alarm Clocks

Chris and I have a sort of alarm clock system. His clock is set about 10 mins fast (something about tricking his brain to think that it's later than it actually is....whatever) and mine is set on regular time. His alarm is set for the radio and mine is that annoying buzzer and we each take turns pushing snooze until it is actually time to get up. Well, this morning his alarm went off and it was a female country singer singing, "our love has turned into...." then he pushes snooze and I sing (although half a sleep) ...."a runaway train". Now I'll have THAT song in my head for the rest of the day and I'll search all of YouTube to find the artist and hear the entire song so that one phrase doesn't drive me mad. (who sings that song anyway?) Then nine minuets later the news comes on, "...The van was found to have musical instruments and police also found (they said the weight but like I said before I was half asleep) heroin. (they said some other words that I don't remember) "and the neighborhood is run by....." THEN HE SHUTS IT OFF! Who runs the neighborhood???? Is it the cops? a gang? the neighborhood watch? WHO? I ask Chris, "who runs the neighborhood?" He says, "I don't care. I shut it off." WHAT?! how is it that he isn't even a little curious?, how can he hear half a story and not wonder about the rest? So, I'm left wondering and pondering....who runs that neighborhood? where is that neighborhood? what happened to the van filled with heroin??? Why do we have this stupid alarm clock system anyway?!
BTW~ Rosanne Cash sings the song runaway train. took me until 10:25 pm to find out

Lazy days with Mr. Cat

Melia has a cat. Yes, the cat is most definitely Melia's. He sleeps with her, he follows her, and he purrs whenever he is around her. He is definitely her cat. His name was originally Smokey and has since changed to Mr. Cat. It seems that all of our pets get their name changed, actually it's a family tradition. You name your pet then give them a nick name and the name just sticks. My sister Marsha is the best at this. She once had a black cat named Licorice and the
cat ended up with the name "Moose". The cat lived a really long time and turned psychotic...just FYI. But I digress, as of late Mr. Cat is going through a growth spurt....he eats and sleeps...and grows....Last week he was racing around the house, would stop and then just jump in the air and then run away, you know, normal cat behavior, this week.....snooze city!He's really cute and we have no problems with him at all! A big difference from the cats that Chris and I got when we first got married! We had weird problems with them! Our girl cat had some crazy bowl problem where she would spray crap all over my kitchen! I had her checked by a vet and she was perfectly healthy but would have crazy crap attacks all over my kitchen! WTF? She soon became an outside cat...no such problems with Mr. Cat.He does have an appointment on Monday to get fixed and declawed.....it will take him awhile to forgive me for that, I'm sure! He still has issue with me for the ear drops! Man, cats are ornery!

But he's cute and sweet and soft and fits in perfectly and we love him!

Space Dog

This is Max. He is not leash trained. He does not like leashes. He does not like string that looks like it could be used like a leash. He's my buddy and respects me...we have an understanding, I'm in charge and he conforms....mostly. Well, Melia got some glow sticks at school and I thought it would be cute/funny to make Max a 'space dog'. He didn't think that it was that great. "Why are you doing this to me? You really think this is cute? I'm not moving until you take this thing off of me. I give you 5 seconds to take you're little picture and then I'm out of here! You understand that I'm not chewing the crap out of this thing because you said 'no' right? otherwise I'd be all over this thing! I don't like this."

"You're seriously going to blog about this aren't you?"

Yup!

Letterboxing on Holloween

A few weeks ago I heard about letterboxing from my facebook friend Laurie Eller. It's a type of treasure hunt for letterboxes that are hidden in different places all over the US. So, I checked out my area online and discovered there were a lot! We went to two different ones today in cemeteries. What better time than Halloween to go hunting through a cemetery or two right? The clues took us all around the cemetery and into the woods. Here's Sydney looking in the pile of tree limbs for the box. It was only lightly raining but it added to the mysteriousness of the day. The girls really enjoyed following all the clues, rain and all.
We saw this really creepy stone. Looks like a Hollywood movie prop.

Just a normal Halloween day walking through the grave yard. While we were there we came across the grave of one of Sydney's classmates that died last year. His name was Ayden Crawley and he accidentally hung himself from a tree in his backyard, so sad.
Well, it's still raining and doesn't show any signs of stopping...should make for an interesting time trick - or -treating!

Pirate Day....Argh!

Today was dress like a pirate day at Salem elementary school. Just pay a dollar and the kids get to come to school dressed up like a pirate! (kinda like casual Fridays at work) Melia was all into it! It's amazing...I didn't know that I had pirate clothes just hanging around the house but the outfit turned out great! Melia enjoyed the 'finger hook'! LOL!

I told her to make sure she keeps the bandanna over her forehead or else she might look like a cleaning lady! hehe. She looked at me weird.

Mutant Ladybugs

Once upon a time (within the last 15 years or so) the farmers in our area were having problems with a sort of fungus or something destroying their crops so the scientists discovered a mutant ladybug that would eat the fungus and not harm the crop (or so the story goes...). So now every late October and the weather is nice we are bombarded with mutant ladybugs between the hours of 2 -5 p.m. We're not talking your adorable, bright red, cute little lady bugs here. We're talking about big, dull reddish brown, stupid mutant ladybugs. When I say bombarded I mean BOMBARDED! Just to step outside those suckers land all over you and in your hair and try their darnedest to follow you in the house. Once, at about this time of year, we painted our large oil tank outside and by the time we were done it was covered with said bugs just a wigglin and a squirmin away. Serves 'em right if you ask me. Anyway, outside is not the only problem. They crawl through any little window screen space and walk all over the windows and fly in crazy circular patterns above the lamps bashing their little bodies on the ceiling....very annoying! The most humane person will take a glass of water and gather the suckers in it and pour the water outside and save the bug. I am not one of those people. I get the vacuum out and suck them up, which is easy if they are just wondering around on a flat surface but it's trickier to suck up a free-flying one that is flying in a circular motion! You see the extension rod on the vacuum is only so long and pulling on it to reach the ceiling to chase down a bug is very tiring and takes determination! (and it probably looks totally ludicrous to anyone watching and not ticked off at a bug) Not only are these bug annoying because they attack you and crawl all over the house but they leave a very stinky stink if you tick them off. The smell is a sort of cross between metal and rotting...no, it smells like rotting metal (if that were possible.) So, every year they crawl out of hibernation, mate, and annoy us like crazy....thanks scientists!

Mindless Ramblings

I spend most days being followed....I get up to do something and have at least 2 little critters at my heals wondering what I am going to do next. Fluke could really care less but Max and Tater notice my every move. When I go outside to the barn or building Tater will jump up and down at my side and I swear she is thinking..."where are we going? what are we going to do? I bet it'll be fun!? where are we going? oh, boy!" then she'll spot a grasshopper and run to chase it. In the evenings Max will come and sit at my feet and just look at me. He'll tilt his head and talk with his eyes, "you're going to do something interesting aren't you? Isn't it time for you to go to the bathroom? I'll follow you and make sure that everything is safe. It's dark in there you know!" Max, my ever devoted body guard wants to be the first in a room, or won't leave the door if it is shut (no matter what side of the door he is on!) A shut door some how creates little paws that appear under the door, just making sure that I know that they are there. You know, moral support.
Tater loves to keep tabs on the neighborhood (from inside the house). She'll start with a small bark and then break into a full fledged rampage! "I heard something about .4 miles from the house! I must go check it out and let everyone know that I heard it! I must go!" So out she goes and runs around and barks randomly.
I took the girls to the eye dr. for their annual eye exams. I went to the eye dr. at the super-duper deluxe WalMart in Hickory.....SOOOOO much easier than the dr. that is in town! First of all, the dr. in town is so booked that it takes nine (9) months to schedule an appointment and then it takes four (4) weeks for the glasses to come in and there are only a few frames to choose from. What a hassle and so I said forget that! errrrr.... Melia got her eyes examined (well, they actually took pictures of her eyes) in Pre-K and they recommend getting her to an eye dr. Well, they (the eye picture people) harassed me to see if I had taken her to get her eyes examed for months until I told them to basically buzz off. So, Melia wanted glasses and Sydney couldn't didn't want to waste her time with another eye exam. I made an appointment and took them in and come to find out that Melia doesn't need glasses (she was rather disappointed, let me tell ya) and Sydney's Rx changed a bit. So, Sydney picked out really cute purple frames and they arrived in a week! OMG, this was SOOOO much easier than the other BS I/we had to go through! Plus these frames (which were only $9!!) are guaranteed for a full year!
Now Sydney is stylin in her cute and trendy purple frames, short hair cut, and Old Navy wardrobe (we did some fall clothes shopping, had a good time too!).
Yes, my Sydney has hit her tween years. She is 10.5 going on 16...we even put her boobs in training! (don't tell her I'm letting all of you know) She is counting down the days until middle school and lockers. I'm looking forward to it also (not the locker part...well, you know what I mean). I really enjoyed middle school and I think that she will to. She's in the stage where I still exist but I need to keep my distance. She's always been a touch-me-not but now there is added eye rolling. hehe! Ah, the days of adolescents!
We, well Melia, now has a cat. She named him Smokey but I call him Mr. Cat and now everyone calls him Mr. Cat so that is his name. (I need to change his name at the vet's office) Anyway, he was going to be a mostly outside cat but he has become a full fledged inside cat because any pet that I invest $$ in at the vet is going to be well taken care of. I took that little guy for his shots and a check up and we walked out of there with vaccines and tests from everything from rabies to leukemia! (because who wants a cat with leukemia? the radiation treatments alone would kill him and who wants a bald cat?) He had ear mites and I had to put drops in his ears for 5 days. I still don't think he's forgiven me for that...you know how cats can be. Next is getting him fixed and declawed mostly because whenever we play with him we look like scratching posts....we must fix that!
And that's pretty much it peeps! Until next time...

Snail Love....

Awww, snail love...:)

and I love this song....

C'mon It's funny!

Getting married in a park you take a chance....

A Day at Kool Park

We had a fun day at the Kool Park in Hickory today. Sydney of course, hit the high dive first thing and she said that she wanted to beat her record of 11 jumps, well she did! I asked her on the ride home and she said that she jumped 25 times! sheesh! Next year it will be 51! umm...maybe 30.

Melia enjoyed the bigger part of the pool more this year. She learned how to turn front flips under water and was simply ecstatic! We found a nice shady place (far away from the bee ridden trash cans!!!) and had a picnic.
Both girls had a grand time!

Sydney made a friend and the three girls went down the water slide backwards choo-choo style.

Doggy Place Mat

I was at Wal-Mart yesterday and decided that my dogs deserve a little more class, so I got this doggy 'place mat'. My dogs are messy drinkers and the floor under the water dish was getting very dirty/nasty and this helps with that. I want to get a steam mop soon because my floor is practically impossible to get really clean (Carolina clay is a bugger!). Nice huh? I think so! It's the little things that make a big difference.

New Pool

Yesterday the guys from Ken Ray Pools came and put up our pool! It's an 18 foot round above ground pool. I was amazed that it only took one day to put up! They did a great job and I am just loving looking at it, it's so nice! We should be able to get into it later today after the guys come back to make sure the pump runs smoothly. It took about18 hours to fill it up with water.

They got to my house at 8:00a and when I woke up at 9:00a this is how far they got. First they scraped the sod off with the bobcat and then put a layer of gravel dust/sand to level out the circle. The main guy (in the hat) I forgot his name, said that there isn't a level yard in Burke County. lol.

Then they put down a circle of what looked like roofing shingles to bolt the track for the outside of the pool. The outside of the pool was all one piece that they rolled out and bolted together. The whole process was very interesting.

Then they set out those side braces, and put in some more sand inside to make the bottom level.

I didn't see them put in the liner, they were just to quick I guess. There were so many different liners to choose from so I just went with the one the guy said was the most popular and the prettiest. He was right. I am very happy with it!

Then they hammered on the top rim.

Here she is! The ladder is really cool. The outside ladder part flips up and can be locked so no one gets in, which will be great until we can get a deck put up. (They do that in the off season.)

I should have moved the poll. lol. Ohhhhh, aaawwww!

After the deck is up I want to do some landscaping. I'm so happy with the pool!! Yay!

The Beach...Again

Last weekend my girls and I went to a beautiful 10 year vow renewal ceremony on the beach for my bff. The trip was an adventure for sure (365 mile drive with just my girls made me a little nervous) and the ceremony was simply beautiful. The beach was lined with houses and the beaches were very private, a much different atmosphere than the commercial Myrtle Beach. It was nice. The girls enjoyed making sand castles and the beach had lots of shells to gather.

We got to hang out at the beach all day before the ceremony. You can't beat a nice relaxing day at the beach!

The vow renewal ceremony was just lovely! Teena and Brian walking the isle...

Teena gave Melia the special job of "shell girl" (instead of flower girl) She felt soooo special and happy to be involved! The girls gathered the shells earlier that day and picked out just the right ones. Melia handed out the shells and we all threw them into the ocean as a part of the ceremony.

Here we are with the "newlyweds"....

The pictures that they had taken were just so beautiful! So I snagged some to put here. These guys are so great...

This is one of my favorites! I love the look on Brian's face and to see Teena laying in a white dress in the sand and surf is just not something that you'll see very often!