Thanksgiving Weekend Continued....

Thursday after dinner Lori was looking at the ads in the paper for black Friday.  There were some things she wanted at Wal-Mart and the sales started at midnight.  She had never been to Wal-Mart on black Friday.  So we decided to stay up and go over around 11:30.  When we arrived there was not one parking space in the whole parking lot.  We had to go down to the other stores in the shopping center to get a parking space.  The store was packed, turns out people could go through the store and get the midnight specials ahead of time but could not check out till 12:00.  I was so proud of Lori, she just made her way around and got what she wanted. The crowds didn't seem to bother her.  There was only one thing they were sold out of.  It took us about 45 minutes to check out. That was actually the smoothest I've seen it go on Black Friday at Wal-Mart.

Friday we woke up to rain off and on throughout the morning.  We were going to take Alex to Mike's Farm http://www.mikesfarm.com/ to eat dinner and see the Christmas lights.  We decided if it rains to long it would be to messy to go there since most of the things are outside.  We decided to see if the Crab Shack was open to get a good seafood lunch.  It turns out they are closed for the season so we decided to go to the shopping center where Rucker John's restaurant is https://www.ruckerjohns.com  This is one of my favorite places to go to on Emerald Isle.  Turn's out this is now one of my son's favorite places.  He had a grilled fish sandwich and he said it was one of the best he has eaten.  Lori got a Cajun Shrimp wrap and really liked it.  Greg and I got the Shrimp BLT sandwich which was excellent.  We also ordered their crab dip which is really good.  We then walked around some of the shops.  We didn't get to go in all of the stores but I'm sure we will be going back there when they come to visit again.  Before we left we went to Andy's for some frozen custard.

Alex at Rucker John's

Emerald Isle Shopping

We decided since we would not be able to go to Mike's farm to see the lights, we would stop in Swansboro which was on the way home to see the Flotilla.  Well because of the rain it was canceled till Saturday night. So we walked around the shops a little.  The shops are in the Historical part of Swansboro and by the water so it is neat just to walk around. The stores are not usually open late but because they were expecting a crowd  to be there for the Flotilla they stayed opened.  Even though it was canceled some of the stores still stayed opened.

Saturday when we woke up and after breakfast we decided to take Alex to see the beach before he went home. 

 

Alex had some much fun collecting sea shells.  He wanted to take some home to his school teachers.

Then on the way home from the beach Alex noticed the store with the big shark outside.  We stopped so he could have his picture taken with the shark.

Alex sitting on the shark

Alex's teacher told his parents that he is really into science.  So when we got home we told him we were going out back to do an experiment with him.  We had taken a bottle of soda (diet works best) and dropped Mentos mints into it.  It's really cool the way it shoots up out of the bottle.  We had tried it with just a few mints but then we found a Geyser Tube at one of the shops we were at.  You set the tube on top of the bottle and it holds seven mints.  Once this is done you pull the string so they all fall down at once.  We couldn't believe how high the soda went up, Alex thought this was so cool.  The picture I have of it going way up you can't see because it was in line with a tree behind it so all you see in the picture is the tree.  I do have other pictures because we did it several times.

Alex and Grandpa

 

This was really fun, it you want more information on this tube go to:

http://www.stevespangler.com/category/mentos-experiment/  

Well it was then time for Alex to go home.  It's always hard for me to see the grandchildren go. I try not to cry but I always do.  After they left and I was sad Greg decided to take me to the Flotilla in Swansboro.  Since we had never seen one we decided to check it out.  There were probably about eight boats decorated. Below are some pictures of a few.  They are not that great, my camera does not do well in the dark.

The Flotilla didn't last very long so we decided to go to the movies.  We went to see Burlesque with Cher and Christina Aguilera.  It was a good movie with some really good music.   Well that was it for the Thanksgiving weekend.  We sure had a busy weekend but we had so much fun visiting with my son's family.  We sure are thankful that they were able to travel to visit with us and made it home safe.  Till next time....

Love,

Jennifer

Thanksgiving Weekend

My son and his family came to visit for the Thanksgiving weekend.  They arrived Wednesday afternoon and the first thing Alex had to show me was how he played football.

 

Thursday morning Greg and I started to work on making Thanksgiving Dinner.  Greg's family came over and we invited a Marine and his family to join us since they didn't have family in the area.  We really had a nice day together eating lots of good food, played baseball in the yard with the kids and then dessert. 

I guess I should go back to the morning when we started to make dinner.  Greg peeled the potatoes and put the peels down the garbage disposal.  Well I guess he put to many down at one time and clogged up the pipes. He went to the store to buy something to unclog it but it didn't work.  So he then decided to take the pipes apart.  I'm sure you can guess what happened next,  Yes the clog came loose and the water came squirting out everywhere.  We did put pans under just in case but it really let loose.  My son and I were running around grabbing towels to catch the water.  We got it cleaned up and went back to making dinner.  It was pretty funny and it'll give us something to talk about.

Alex and Grandpa worked on two projects together.  They made a tic-tac-toe board and a bank.  These were kits from Lowe's and were really nice.  Alex really enjoyed them so I guess we will go back to get some more for Christmas.

 

 

We really had a nice day, I sure am thankful for our family and friends.  Since it is 11:30 pm I'm going to bed.  I will write more about our weekend tomorrow.  Till next time.....

Love,
Jennifer

Happy Thanksgiving

To all my friends and family....HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Love,
Jennifer

Trip to Tennessee

This weekend we made a trip to Knoxville, TN.  We left Friday morning at 6am and drove for eight hours.  Greg's Aunt's townhouse is up for sale.  We went up to check on the house and to meet with a new Realtor.  It's a really nice townhouse only being 30 minutes from Pigeon Forge where all the tourist things are.

The Realtor wants us to paint the inside just to freshen it up.  We have also decided to add a dishwasher and garbage disposal.  So we took it off the market so we could do the updates.  Then we will put it back on the market.  In the evening we decided to rent a movie from redbox, thank goodness for the laptop because we didn't have a TV. 

Saturday we decided to drive to Gatlinburg. We drove through the town to the bottom of the smokey mountains.  I have been there before and didn't feel like going shopping in all the tourist shops.  So we turned around and went back to pigeon forge.  We went to the Titanic museum (which I tell you about in the next post.)  After the museum we went to a wine store that was close by.  

While driving down the road I spotted a Christmas store http://www.christmasplace.com/.  This was a very large store with some really neat Christmas things.  We found a place where the men could wait and watch some sports while the wives were shopping. What a great idea.

There were so many Christmas things you didn't know which way to turn.  I did get two Christmas ornaments for our tree.  We also drove by the Worlds largest As seen on TV store .  We did not go in, just stopped to take a picture.

I spotted a large sign advertising a clearance scrap-booking store so we went to check it out.  There were two stores, one with everything 1/2 price and the other with the regular merchandise.  It actually was a little overwhelming because there was so much to look at. 

We left on Sunday morning to head back to Jacksonville.  The mountains were very nice even though we missed the changing of the leaves.  We still thought it was a pretty drive.

We had a nice weekend with great weather. 
Till next time......

Love,
Jennifer

Titanic Museum

The Titanic museum http://www.titanicpigeonforge.com/ was wonderful.  I would suggest that if you have any interest in the Titanic you go see this place. 

  When you first went in you were given a card with the name of a person that sailed on the Titanic and some information about them.  You were to look for information on this person as you went through the museum.  It was set up like you were going through the ship from 3rd class to 1st class.  They had so many artifacts that were recovered from the ship. We took two or more hours to go through because it was so interesting to read all the information.  They built the grand staircase which was beautiful and was very cool that you went up one side and later came down the other side.  They also have weddings on the staircase.

There was a frozen iceberg that you could touch and water that was at the 29 degrees so you could feel what it was like for the people in the water.  I have to tell you that we could not keep our hands in it for more then about 30 seconds.  It was freezing and your hand started to hurt.  It sure made you think, I can tell you I would not have made it for very long in that water.

They had three mini decks built to show you how steep the deck was as it was sinking.  I made it up the first one, it was hard but I made it up the second, the third when the ship was almost standing straight up, I didn't make it.   There was also an interactive area for kids.  At the end there was this very large wall with all the names of the survivors and the names of the folks that did not make it.  My person did make it, but Greg's person did not.  They did not allow any pictures at all inside the museum. 

They did not tell you at the Museum, but did you know that in Halifax, Canada there is a cemetery where some of the bodies are buried.  Halifax was the town that went out to recover bodies.  Since not all the families could afford to have the bodies brought back home they were buried there.  Greg and I stumbled upon this on one of our cruise tours in Canada.  They actually put the headstones in the shape of the bow of the ship.  Some neat places to check out on vacation.

Till next time....

Love,
Jennifer

Christmas Craft Idea

Greg and I stopped at my favorite shopping center on Emerald Isle. They have some really nice gift stores that I just love to go in and look around. There also is a scrap booking store there so I went in to check it out.  I usually don't buy to much there because so many of the things I can get at Michael's with my coupons. While I was walking around  I had seen this cute Christmas craft idea and took a picture of it.

It is a mini muffin pan that has 24 muffin cups. They cutout squares and put magnets on the back, then decorated the fronts.  Each one is numbered and has a treat in the tin.  It's a countdown till Christmas calendar.  

We also stopped to eat at Rucker John's https://www.ruckerjohns.com/contactus.html for lunch. This restaurant is at the same shopping center and is really good. We had a bowl of shrimp chowder which was really good. 

I do love the seafood here in NC.  We got 20 pounds of shrimp right off the shrimp boat for $2.50 a pound.  Of course when you buy the shrimp like that they still have the heads on.  Till Greg took off the heads (yes he did the whole 20 pounds himself) and froze them we ended up with about 13 pounds which came out to about $3.50 a pound.  Still a great price, but I think he'll make me help him next time.

We actually made some of the shrimp tonight.  We cooked some green pepper with some spices, added shrimp and some cut up tomatoes.  Then we mixed in a jar of Ragu garlic and Parmesan cheese Alfredo sauce and whole wheat penne pasta.  It was very yummy. 

Till next time...
Love,
Jennifer

Home & Gift Show

Saturday we drove to New Bern for their Home and Gift Show.   This is the town that Nicholas Sparks is from.  It wasn't as big as I was expecting but it was nice.  I did fine some new home party company's.  One was called Homemade Gourmet http://www.homemadegourmet.com/HG-redesign-index.aspx

Another was jewelry by Cookie Lee http://www.cookielee.com/

Another was called Thirty-One http://www.thirtyonegifts.com/catalog.htm

Celebrating Home http://www.celebratinghome.com/PWPHome.ashx also had a stand set up.  I actually really like this company.  They have some really nice things for your home.

Since it didn't take long to go through the show we decided to walk over to the park.  I really like to walk to this park because it's by the water.  We had a chance to see the bridge go up for the boats to go through.

You can stand right by the railing and look out over the water.  The sun was shining and the water looked so pretty.

There is a place where the kids can feed the ducks.

We then decided to take a walk through town, we went to the Farmer's Market.  New Bern has painted bears throughout the town.  I took pictures of a few as we were walking around.

I do love the weather here in NC.  It gets chilly in the morning and evening but during the day the sun makes it very warm.  It's great to be able to walk around in short sleeves or a thin long sleeve top. 

Sunday while I worked in the toddler room at church Greg worked on closing our pool for the winter.  This is our first time ever having a pool so hopefully everything goes well and it'll be go to go in the spring. 

Till next time...
Love,
Jennifer

Baked Goods

I was very busy baking this week.  I made 4 dozen Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I made several dozen Pumpkin Cupcakes.

Pumpkin Cookies

I also made 2 sheet cakes of Banana Bars with Cream Cheese icing.  But I forgot to take a picture of it :(
Greg was helping to icing the cupcakes while I made the cookies. We made the desserts for Greg's Mother's Sunshine Club at Church.  They had their Thanksgiving dinner at the church on Tuesday and we made all the desserts for 50 people.  I love to bake so I had a lot of fun doing this for everyone.  Next month will be making cookies for the Sunshine Club.
Till next time....
Love,
Jennifer

Richlands Street Fair

We decided to stay close to home this weekend.  Saturday we headed to Richlands Street Fair which was only a few miles up the road.  It was ok and has potential, but needs to grow some.  I was told it was really nice some years ago but then they stopped having it.  Someone in the town is trying to get it going again.  This was the first time we were in the downtown part of Richlands.  They have some really neat old buildings and it would be a really cute place to shop if it would get restored.  We checked out the stands that were there and I found this really cute bumble bee doorstop.  It is made out of cement and painted.

We went down a side street and found an antique shop.  Well it actually was a place where they did screen printing with some antiques also in the shop.  But the cool thing was the other part of the building was an old theater.  The guy that owned it had some really cool antiques.  Of course most of it you couldn't get too because he has so much piled up.  He did however pull some furniture outside to try to sell.  He said he wants to clean the building out and do something with it.  Greg gave him the idea of bringing back the theater look and putting up a large screen TV and turning it into a sports bar / restaurant.  Anyway we spotted 6 really nice antique chairs.  We have been looking for chairs to go with Greg's grandmothers dining room table.  The chairs we had were falling apart.  Everywhere we looked we would only fine 2 or 4 but never a set of 6.  We ended up buying them and they look great with the table. Some day we'll change out the fabric on the seats but for now they look nice and were so glad we found them.

 

Sunday after church we decided to start refinishing a kitchen table we brought with us when we moved.  It's a really nice sturdy table and has 2 inserts to make it longer.  I have always liked it but the finish was coming off. I can't wait till it's finished hopefully by Thanksgiving.

Table after taking most of the stain off

Table legs before the stain was removed

We had a really nice weekend.  Till next time....

Love,
Jennifer

Sweet Potato Festival

Saturday we were off to the Sweet Potato Festival http://www.ncsweetpotatofestival.com/ in Snow Hill, NC.   Snow Hill is a pretty funny name for a town that does not get snow and certainly does not have any hills.  The cotton fields look like snow so that could be it.

Cotton Field

 As we were walking across the road to the festival there was a big helicopter that flew over and landed somewhere by the festival.  So this was the first thing we went to check out.  Turns out it was a Marine rescue helicopter.  They opened it up for people to go through it.  It was pretty cool as you went in through the back and then went out the side door.  It was there for a few hours and then needed to leave.  They made an announcement when it was time for it to take off and we went over to watch it. 

 

 

There was a nice area for the children to play and some really cute animals for the kids to see.

 

 

The guy that owned the animals had this cute cart that the donkeys pulled to take a ride on.  He also had a baby cart that the goats pulled for the very little ones.

When we walked around the craft stands I seen this cute witch made out of flower pots.  I actually bought a smaller version.  Next year I may try to make a bigger one for my front porch.

McDonalds was there giving out samples of their iced coffee.  It actually was pretty good.

We decided to get something to eat.  Greg tried a bacon wrapped deep fried hot dog.  He said it was just ok.
I decided to get some sweet potato ribbon fries.

Then the strangest thing happened.  As we were standing there eating the fries, a man and lady came up to us.  He was looking at my fries and asked if they were good.  He actually was eating a dish of regular sweet potato fries.  After standing there for a minute staring at my food he ask if I wanted to trade some fries because he wanted to taste the kind I had.  So I took one of his fries and he took some of mine.  Now I have shared my food with my family and friends but never a stranger.  I still having trouble believing that a stranger ask me for some of my food. 
We walked around checking out more of the vendors.  Before we decided to leave we stopped at the mini donut stand.  Fresh made mini donuts with cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar.  We ordered them half and half, the cinnamon sugar was the best. They were really good just made and hot.  We had a great day with great weather.  Till next time......

Love,
Jennifer