Springtime Trip to WV

Every spring I go to visit Alexander to see him play baseball.  I was really looking forward to it this year since he started in the position of catcher.  Unfortunately the weekend I went it decided to rain so baseball was canceled.  I went along to Karate class on Saturday.  My son and his wife found a really nice new place for Alex to take classes.  Since I was there he has gone from his white belt to his yellow belt and now has his orange belt.  I'm so very proud of him and really hope he sticks to Karate.

Now that's what I call being flexible

That night Alex had his club scout banquet.  We needed to bake and decorate a cake for the cake raffle.  It needed to be decorated in the club scout theme.  We decided to go with a camping theme and I think it turned out pretty good.

They sold tickets and you put your ticket into a bag of the cake you wanted to win.  I put a few in Alexander's bag and some in others.  Well when they were pulling tickets we won our own cake back.  Alex thought this was so funny.  All night he kept saying "Grandma  I can't believe we won our own cake back".

Alexander

I had a great time, I can't believe how fast Alex is growing. 


Till Next Time.....

Love,
Jennifer

Home Design Part 2 & Trip to WV

When we moved to NC we bartered with Erica for a fish tank and rain barrels.  We finally decided to get the fish tank set up after Greg's sister came over and said "You know that storage container you have there...some people put fish in it"  We took the tank outside to wash it out and after a while we went out to find a lizard swimming in the water.

We were going back and forth as to what color to paint the stand.  We ended up taking the arm cover from our sofa and had the paint store match the color.  It turned out really nice & below is the finish tank. My mom really likes the tank.  She said her father had a big fish tank when she was younger.

Our dining room set is from Greg's grandmother.  The chairs were so old and the wood was breaking that we ended up trashing them.  We went to an antique store and found a nice set of antique chairs at a great price.  The fabric was nice but did not match the new dinning room color.  We went to the fabric store and redid the chair seats.  I think they turned out pretty good.

Old Chair Fabric

New Chair Fabric

I took a trip to see Alexander in West Virginia.  The cub scouts went to the food bank to help separate the food donations coming in that day.  They were collecting food for Thanksgiving.

That afternoon he had a school fundraiser. We sure did have a lot of fun. Alexander's cousin Hayden came along with us.

Hayden & Alexander

Alex & Hayden

 

The same weekend was trick or treating.  Hayden came along with us and I had so much fun watching him.  The look on his face the first time he knocked on a door and someone gave him candy was priceless.  He had a blast that night.

 

It was a great weekend!

Till next time....

Love,
Jennifer

Back On The Blog

I cannot believe it's been a year since I've written on my blog and what a year it has been.  I will catch everyone up in the next week with some new posts.  Last August started a crazy year for me.  Within a three week time period I drove to Pennsylvania twice, once to move my mother to NC with me and once for my stepmother's funeral.  I also started a new part time job at Walmart.   My mother was getting to the point that she could not take care of herself anymore.  When she decided to take a walk to the store and got lost going home and ended up in someones yard I decided it was time to make that decision.  She came to me with her legs being so bad with open wounds that she was close to the point to losing them.  She ended up in the hospital then in a Nursing home for over a month.  We had to drive 45 minutes to a doctor each week to have her legs wrapped.  She sure did fight me on this but I was not going to give in as others have in the past.  I can say that after a year her legs are finally healed.  Hopefully they will stay that way.  We have her in a hospital bed at night so that keeps her legs up and helps to keep the fluid from building up.
She was in her same apartment for over 20 years and was the 2nd resident to move in when they build the complex.  It was a hard adjustment moving to another state, she has her moments but overall she is doing well.  But I guess that's part of getting older she will be 84 this year.  She does love the southern sweet tea.

Since we moved here I could not make up my mind on the colors I wanted to paint my downstairs.  I wanted a color for the dining room but since that wall goes straight across into the family wall we needed to figure out how to separate them.  Here is the result:

This picture is looking at the wall as you are coming down the stairs.  As you can see we painted the dining room to the right a blue and the family room to the left a light tan color.  We decided to put a piece of woodwork on each side to separate the spaces.  Then we painted a darker shade of the the tan in the center.  It really turned out great and I love it.  I then got an idea off pintrest for some of the shells I've been collecting.  I bought some shadow boxes, painted the back cardboard pieces the same color of the wall.  I  spray painted the shells I was going to use white.  I then glued them onto the cardboard and put them back into the frames.  I love the way it turned out.

Well I guess this is long enough for now, I'll be writing soon to catch up on the year and all our adventures. 

Till next time....

Love,
Jennifer

Shackleford Banks

Sunday we decided to go over to Shackleford Banks http://www.shacklefordhorses.org/.  We wanted to check out the shells and see if we could see the wild pony's.  We decided to take the ferry boat over (no I wasn't crazy about this part since it is a small boat) but since I was told there were really good shells I decided to try it. 
We got there right at low tide but next time we will go about an hour before.  This is the best time to go out in the ocean to find good shells.  After getting off the ferry we walked a ways over to the ocean side.  Greg went out into the water over to a sand bar.  This was the best place to find the conch shells.  He wasn't out there to long before he found a really nice one.  There was someone else out there that found a black conch shell, which I had never seen that color.  It was really neat so next time we'll have to try to find one.

I could not believe the nice shells we found there.  I'm glad I took a couple bags because I came home with a lot.  All I could keep saying was how much fun Isabella and my niece Stephanie would have there.  Here are some of the shells we came home with.

We stayed for three hours and had lots of fun picking up shells.  We didn't see the pony's but then we didn't walk around the island.  Next time we'll stay longer and try to find them.  Now we know the place to go to get good shells.

Till next time....

Love,
Jennifer

Our trip to Charleston, SC

For our anniversary we decided to go to Charleston, SC for a few days.  On the way down we got gas for $2.89, we were very excited but sad we only needed half a tank. 

We arrived Friday afternoon, checked into our hotel then drove downtown.  We found a really good place to buy cupcakes, if you go to Charleston check them out.  http://freshcupcakes.com/

We checked out the visitor center and bought passes to go into some of the old homes.  These homes were built in the 1700's and were really neat.  The tour guide told us one just sold two years ago for 6.2 million.  Guess we won't be moving there anytime soon :)

Most of the houses they would not allow pictures inside.  This was the only house I was able to get some picture inside, love the staircase.

Friday night I found a comedy place that did improv so we decided to go that evening.  They were so funny and we laughed the entire time.  I will be sure to go back the next time we head that way.  http://www.theatre99.com/

Saturday we went to the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens http://www.magnoliaplantation.com/  it was very nice but next time we will go mid-march or April when all the flowers are in bloom.  The house was really nice and I fell in love with the really wide wrap around porch. 

A pretty bridge to get a wedding picture taken

We then went downtown to tour some more homes, then just walked the streets to check out all the pretty homes.

We found the city market which was really cool, had several buildings with vendors selling their crafts. 

 

At the park near the market they had an area that the kids could play in the water.  It was so hot that I was ready to go in it myself. 

Driving the roads by the hotel there was so much construction that there were signs calling it construction land which was pretty funny.

Then we found this sign outside a Wendy's which was really funny.

Sunday we went back to the market and walked around before we headed home.  A cruise ship came in on Sunday and was heading back out at 4:00, I so wanted to stow away on the ship.  Haven't been on a cruise for some time and I'm getting the itch to go.  Looking to go to Bermuda on the next one.  We have gone out of Charleston for a cruise and it's a very nice port and easy to get in and out of.

We had a great time and will definitely be going back. 


Till next time.....

Love,
Jennifer

July 4th Week

My son and his family came to visit with us the week of July 4th.   We decided to go to the beach on Monday.  Alex had a lot of fun jumping the waves and building sand castles.

Tuesday we went to the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium since it was Turtle Tuesday. 

Alex's turtle he made in the craft room

We cooked out Wednesday before we headed out to the fireworks.  Our friends Frankie and his wife Toni came over for dinner.  Below Frankie, Greg & Alex are setting up a 2-liter bottle of soda.  We have a holder that you set on top and fill with memtos mints.  When you pull the string and the mints hit the soda it goes way up in the air.  Alex really likes doing this.

Alex ready for the fireworks

Nice family picture

 

One day we played mini golf and hit the batting cages.  I don't know what we were thinking in this heat, by the time we were done we went home and jumped in the pool.

It was so hot this week that we spent a lot of time in the pool.  The day they arrived Alex was in the pool within 15 minutes.  He loves swimming and is very good at swimming under the water.  We even went swimming several nights after it was dark which he thought was very cool.

 

We had a lot of fun this week and already have a list of things to do next year when they visit.  I miss my pool buddy already.

Till next time.....

Love,
Jennifer

West Virginia Trip

I took a trip to WV to see Alexander play baseball.  He knows how much I love baseball and has been telling me how well he is hitting the ball.  I left on a Thursday morning since he had a game that evening.  Since Alex has been hit three times with the ball he has been a little unsure.  He did really well this game, he hit a single and a double.  It's so much fun to see his excitement when he hits the ball. 

Alex plays left field and sometimes he gets bored waiting for a ball to come his way.  So he dances, no one has told him when grandma has her camera she takes lot of pictures.

Alex dancing in left field

Aunt Erica was there also and Alex was telling her about his games:

Alex:  If I get to first base I get a dollar, if I get to second base I get two dollars, if I get to third base I get three dollars and if I get a home run I get twenty dollars...

Aunt Erica: Get out of town...

Alex thinking for a second:  well if I hit it out of town I'll probably get fifty three dollars...

Don't know where he came up with the fifty three amount but I'm sure if he hits it out of town his dad will be glad to give it to him.  It sure is funny the things kids say.

He had practice Friday night and another game on Saturday.  It was nice to get to see two games that weekend. 

We went to the park and Alex showed me how he does his cartwheels.

I cannot believe how big he's getting and that he will be going to first grade next year.  He is such a sweet boy and it's always fun to go and visit with him.

Till next time.....

Love,
Jennifer