Happy NFL Day

Yesterday marked the beginning of the NFL season. Which made my husband a happy man. A very happy man. He spent the majority of his morning serenading me with various well-known melodies that he changed the words to be about football. Anything about football. Not only that, but he wished me a Happy NFL Day approximately two thousand times throughout the day and continuously reminded me that, for him, this was the happiest day of the year. Although he didn't specify for him. Because I think in his eyes it is just plainly the happiest day of the year for everyone.

In honor of him and his happiness, I hope everyone else had a very happy NFL day!

Grandfather Mountain :: Part Three

Things have been very busy around here! Both of us have been busy with work, etc and I can't believe I haven't finished posting about our trip to Grandfather Mountain! Don't worry, this is the last.... then you get to see beautiful Blowing Rock followed by family pictures from Roaring Gap! It's a good thing I'm obsessed with the mountains.... In the meantime, if you don't hear from me it is because I have literally been buried in paperwork and filing. Send a personal assistant STAT!



Grandfather Mountain really is quite beautiful. It was terribly foggy on this day which was actually okay with us because it provided a different vista than we would have seen otherwise. It was quite interesting to watch the fog move across the mountains and once we were at the top of Grandfather we watched it come toward us and engulf the pinnacle. I tried to scare David by telling him it was The Mist (since I think he read that book at too early an age and it left him shivering and scared...) but apparently he doesn't have residual PTSD from it and, at age 27, it was not scary at all. Color me depressed.



They have a really beautiful butterfly garden on the mountain and these photos you saw the other day were all taken there. I wish I could say that they were taken from our beautiful butterfly garden at our house.. but that would be a big fat lie. Although we have had tons of butterflies around the last few days! Love it!



The eagles they have at the "zoo" on the mountain are all rescues. I believe they come to the preserve if they have been shot or otherwise wounded and are unable to be returned to the wild. At the moment they only have one.



Personally I find eagles very fascinating and I love to see them soaring above. Until they try to dive bomb your boat with their razor sharp talons exposed and ready to rip the poor saps on the boat apart limb from limb. Have I told you that story? It is pretty shocking how scary a bird can be! :)

Beautiful Day!

Today is an incredibly beautiful day!



The skies are the bluest of blue, the temperature is magnificent, and I love it!

The horses are munching on grass, the puppies are snoozing on the front porch, the husband is mowing the grass... all is right on this homestead.



Now, if my laundry would somehow just magically fold and put itself away...

Bambino Update :: 24 Weeks

Wow... 24 weeks! I can't believe it! Time is moving quickly... which means I really need to get on the ball and get everything in order for Baby M's arrival!

So, what is the little guy up to these days? Well, he has started kicking quite a bit! I'm a little nervous for what his kicks will bring in the next few months since a few of them are already making me jump. I wonder how much he has grown since the above picture was taken at 18 weeks!

We are really starting to work on the nursery.... especially since I've done nothing for it up to this point. Well, I've looked at cribs and fabrics but have made no decisions whatsoever. Now that things are creeping closer I am definitely needing to work on it and get everything pulled together. I think I've picked out the bedding... but that is it for now. Fingers crossed that I'll be able to make more big decisions over the next couple of weeks so that Baby will have a room to call his own and won't have to sleep in a basket on the floor....

Grandfather Mountain :: Two

While on our day excursion to Grandfather Mountain, we crossed the famous Mile High Swinging Bridge.



It used to be the classic wood and rope structure that you conjure in your mind when someone says "swinging bridge." Fortunately, that has been replaced with a much more sturdy and less death-inducing metal bridge. I would not have crossed the old bridge. Especially since inside the nearby building that houses memorabilia and the history of the mountain (and, of course, a gift shop) there is an old photograph of the wood/rope bridge after a storm. Let me see if I can describe the picture to you. ... There was the top rope used for hand rails and the bottom rope used to secure the wooden planks... and then there were about three or four dangling planks that were caught in the ropes. That is it. I don't mean three or four out of the hundreds of planks were dangling. I mean there were only three or four planks. Period. The rest had been carried off by the wind. YIKES!




It was very foggy and much of the view was obscured by fog. Which was probably a good thing when you are walking across a narrow bridge that reminds you at the exact point you are one mile above ground. On a narrow bridge. With no life-saving equipment in case of need. Fortunately we were not of need.



But we made it! And it really couldn't have been a prettier day!




The only thing that could have made it prettier would have been if I had worn make up. And therefore not looked like someone smacked me in the face with a hammer. But no such luck. Plus, I thought you should all have to suffer in the way DM did that day :) Seriously though, I just wanted to share what is quite possibly the worst picture ever taken of me. This is right up there with any photos taken during my 7th grade year. Fortunately - or unfortunately?- I'm not sure which is the proper way to go here- you don't really get to see the ever rounding mid-section that matches the ever rounding face. :)

Grandfather Mountain :: One

August 25th is the anniversary of our marriage. I really can't believe it has already been three years since we said I do! We wanted to do something together on our anniversary this year but schedules wouldn't allow any sort of out-of-town trip. So, we decided to take a day trip up to nearby Grandfather Mountain.



The weather was beautiful. About 72 degrees all day! It did not help ease my undying desire to move to the mountains. Didn't help at all, I tell ya.



On the mountain, they have a little animal refuge/zoo. Which is where we saw these bears. But if you'd like you can pretend we stumbled upon them while hiking in the woods...



I sort of love bears. Well, in all honesty, I sort of love all animals.

But there is something about a few species of bears (including black bears seen here and sun bears not seen here) that I really love. I don't know what it is about them... probably their sweet little faces. Don't get me wrong, I have a very healthy respect for the creatures and would reeeaaally prefer to not meet them in the wild. Not that I think they are people-eaters or out to get humans.... but, like I said, I just have a healthy respect for their abilities.



Their abilities are quite frightening, actually. You can't out run them. You can't out climb them. You can't out swim them. So.... our human capabilities do not compare well in a match up. Think about it. They run, swim, and climb. What would you do? Growing up we used to take an annual trip to northern Wisconsin. My youngster self was pretty terrified that I would walk outside and come face-to-face with a wild black bear. We were taught what to do if that happened but I was always afraid of the worst that could happen. I think I watched too many movies.



I'm really not sure how I went from "this is our anniversary trip" to "humans are not much of a match against a bear" but..... here we are. Maybe next time I'll be able to stay on topic. Either that or we'll discuss what to do if attacked by an alligator.

Playing Favorites

This is Baxter. Do you remember him?



This is Baxter with his favorite toy. We gave it to him less than a week ago and as you can see he was so taken with it we couldn't even get the plastic hangy piece off quickly enough. You see, Baxter has a severe weakness for stuffed toys. And I mean severe.



Since the moment we gave him this teddy bear he doesn't want to spend a second away from it. He carries it everywhere with him. I use the term "carries" loosely since he spends most of his time snoozing. But when he sleeps, he typically sleeps like this.... toy in mouth.... face perpendicular to the floor. He's very odd.



And because he barely drops it from his jowls to eat.... the thing smells. I don't know what he has done to it in such a short amount of time but poor teddy was suffering from some severe body odor. So, I swiped it and stuck it in the wash. Why do you care? You don't. Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to suffer with me. Because right now as I type, as all of the other wonderful puppies are literally snoozing on the front porch on this glorious morning, one Mr. Baxter is standing at the top of the stairs barking incessantly for me to give him his teddy back. And I am not using the word incessantly lightly. Literally incessantly. Joke's on him! I had to sanitize that sucker so it will be another two hours before it is ready to see his droopy lips again!