Thanksgiving, What are you thankful for?

Every year Thanksgiving comes and I reflect on all that I am thankful for...my family, my friends, my wonderful life. This year is no exception. I have the best family that God has granted anyone. They are there whenever I need them and when I don't! :) My friends are put in that same category, the best God has granted. I have a great job, great place to live and I have perfect Grand dogs! I know that life has it's ups and downs. Marriage has it's ups and downs. Family and friends have their ups and downs. And I am thankful for it all. Thank you God for giving me all that I have and all that I love. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, take a moment out of your day to thank your family and friends...and don't forget our Veterans...they deserve our thanks.

Basketweaving Week

This past week I attended a week of weaving baskets in NC. We had a fabulous couple that taught the Nantucket style weaving. There were 8 of us, 5 from VA, 1 from PA and 2 from FL. We made 52 baskets and repaired 3. What a great time it was. The week started out with a nice 4 1/2 hour drive. The weather was perfect! We arrived to see our beautiful condo overlooking the Atlantic Ocean...now that's what I call a view! Laying down each night and rising each morning to the sound and sight of the Atlantic is my kinda vacation! For the next 6 days we arrived at our teachers home with smiles, sore fingers and ready for more weaving. Lunches were eaten at a wonderful little country cooking hometown feel restaurant on the water. We watched shrimp boats coming and going. Evenings were a mish-mash of dinners at our teachers home and dinners are our condo. All my roommates and myself brought something, which made the dinners extra special. We ate wayyyy tooo well! :) We had a few little mishaps. My nickname became the murderer, I hit a possum headed back to the condo one night. He ran in front of the van, I hit the brakes and thought he would dart back across the road and well he went to possum heaven. I'm sorry Mr. Possum hope you are in possum heaven running around...but stay out of the road! Another little mishap was our windshield wiper came off as we were driving down the road. We "twist tied" it back on until we could buy a new one and now all is fixed. My roommates were great fun and very easy to be around. We drank many bottles of wine, one of our ladies brought many bottles of her homemade wine...delish! I did get to do some walking and running on the beach, my favorite thing to do! And as the week was winding down, I developed a sinus infection...but was still able to take part in the final days of weaving. We are officially home and officially getting back to reality. Why can't I be independently wealthy? Oh well, life is great and I am enjoying every minute of it!
Thanks again to my roomies for a great week and thanks you Mr. and Mrs. K for a wonderful week. Cannot wait til next year!!!!

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted, lots has been going on. This weekend my Mom and best friend, Vicki were in town to walk the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Walk. We had a great time. They arrived on Friday night, we just chatted until bedtime. Saturday morning we awoke early to be on time for the race. The day was chilly and very windy but the walk was very heart warming! All those people there to support a cause that has hit many families and friends. When my Mom told us 20 years ago that she had cancer and she was going to fight it and win...well she did just that! We are so proud of her and her fight! Seeing people there at the walk in various stages of their fight brings tears to your eyes. I pray that each and every one of them fight and win! After the walk on Saturday we enjoyed each other's company. Saturday night lots of fun was had by all at our monthly Bunko. I play Bunko with a super great group of ladies and the night was complete having Mom and Vicki there. This morning, Sunday, my daughter's came home, had breakfast with us all and then Mom and Vicki left. I was sad to see them leave and then just walked around not knowing what to do next. Of course I found many things to keep me busy. With it being football season, well that's all I have on during Sunday. Happy October to you all and remember cancer is a terrible disease and let's all keep up the fight. Love you Mom and Vicki!!

Summer Vacation 2010

This year we did it again, our Annual Summer Vacation with the entire family at our local beach. We've been taking a family vacation of this sort for over 25 years and this year was no different. For hubby and I it's only a 45 minute ride, for the rest of my family it's about 2 1/2 hours. We all arrive with big smiles and tons of food! If nothing else, we eat very well that week! Loads and loads of bags of food, luggage, beach chairs, floats, toys and anything else we could fit in the truck was hauled up the stairs, one by one. This year in attendance were my parents, brother, his wife and two children, sister, her hubby and two children, my youngest brother, my hubby and two daughters. So we had quite the crowd! I am so very proud that I have a family that enjoys being together, there is no fighting, no arguing and no drama. What a fun time we have. We do enjoy just hanging out on the beach or by the pool and just relaxing. Isn't that what a vacation is all about, relaxing? We did our share of it. Long walks on the beach, long runs along the beach, great seafood and long sleepful nights. This year there was even time for some basket weaving. My Mom and two Sisters did a great job! Oh and a couple highlights...got to spend time with my daughters, time with my niece and three nephews and my bro-in-law and I were the first day's Cornhole Winners! So yes it was a great vacation and I cannot wait for the next one!

Mini Working Vacation

Last week I had to go to Charleston for meetings and decided to take the hubby. The meeting was attended by three of us from my office and we brought our spouses. Charleston is such a beautiful city that I was very excited. The hubby and I left on Monday morning and drove the red Mustang. Hubby had washed, cleaned, buffed and shined the Mustang for the trip. We packed, left and drove about 7 hours to our hotel in Charleston. One of my co-workers had arrived and he, his wife and hubby and I all went to dinner at a little quaint place. The next day we were picked up by the boss man and headed to the first of three days of meetings. Our meetings went great, I met many people that I needed to meet. The evenings were met with great dinners. What a nice time that was...other than the heat, it was really cool. I was worried that the hubby would be bored, but not him, he exercised and toured the city each day. The last night there was really cool..we took a carriage ride through downtown historic Charleston, after the carriage ride, we (four of us) went to dinner at a really neat little pub. Dinner and drinks all night long, we had way too much fun! On this trip I learned a lot about my co-workers. He and his wife were so much fun. On Friday we left Charleston, my work was complete. Hubby and I drove to Myrtle Beach for a few hours then headed north. As I was looking at the map I decided we should drop by Wrightsville Beach. What a neat little area. After three hotel stops, we finally found a room. After checking in to the beautiful Holiday Inn, we changed clothes and walked to dinner. It was about a mile walk until we found this very busy seafood restaurant, after being told it would be a 45 min to 1 hour wait, we went to this great little Mexican restaurant, Tower 7. It was so busy we sat at the bar, which was really nice. We had dinner and drinks and it was delish! After dinner, a little souvenir shopping and then the hike back to the hotel. We had a really nice night. The next morning we left and headed to Swansboro to visit my favorite Marine. This retired Marine has been a good friend of ours for many years. We don't get to see him and his wife often, this was a great treat. After hanging out with them we decided to stay the night. Sunday morning it was time to come home. Our trip home was uneventful. It is always good to take a trip and it is always good to come home. Had a really nice time exploring the east coast from South Carolina to Virginia and cannot wait to do it again!

My First 5K and Happy 4th of July

Today was the day, I did it, I ran my first 5K run. It was soooo incredibly exciting! Crossing the finish line...I did it!!!! Let me back up a bit, you know I have been training for a 5K and just have not been able to actually sign up. I have searched the local races, thought I would sign up for this race or that race and just never made the commitment. Friday I was watching our local morning news channel and one of the anchors mentioned an Independence Day race benefiting the YMCA and the best part was you could sign up the day of the race. I thought a moment, OK maybe I will, maybe I won't. I still could not commit. Then I told my sister I was going to do it, well after you tell someone you have to go through with it! I would have looked like silly had I not. I told hubby and he was all for it. The hard part was going to be waking up so early, we needed to by there around 6:30am to register. Then Saturday night we attended the Tidewater Tides Baseball Game. Fun game and the Tides won, well the game didn't get over until around 10:30-11:00 pm, then a nice fireworks show, then the drive home and then trying to sleep. The anticipation was getting to me, I saw the clock hit 1:00am! My alarm went off at 5:00am and I was awake and nervous. After showering, makeup, hair, light breakfast and a few trips to the ladies room, I was ready to go. Hubby asked, "why are you doing your makeup and hair?" My reply, "Two reasons, pictures and you never know who you might see!" We drove over to the YMCA, I registered and then waited, and that was getting to me. Finally it was time to line up and get ready for the start. The gun was fired and the bunch of us started running. I remember that everything I read was to not pace yourself with everyone, you can burn your energy really quick. I kept playing that in my head, so I was the slow girl in the back for about the first mile. Then the second and third mile I was moving up the line, I kept my continued pace and kept saying, "I just want to cross the finish line!" And in 36.25 minutes I did it! I really did it! Hubby was waiting there so proud and taking pictures for me. I really am proud of myself. I have never been a runner and then a friend motivated me to start training. I put my mind to it and I did it! I told hubby on the way home, "Now I want to sign up for another one!" On my goodness, we have created a monster! And I'm loving it!!! Happy 4th of July Everyone...I am proud to be an American!

Weaving Mini-Vacation

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted...my apologies...life has been a bit crazy!! Today I am getting ready to go on a mini-vacation in the in the mountains of Virginia. I love the mountains!! I 'm taking my camera and hope to get some really good shots of the beautiful scenery. The real reason I'm headed there is to weave. Three basket cases and I are headed that way to meet up with a few other basket cases to weave for a few days. I really enjoy the company of my basket friends, they truly are the best people I know! I'll be sure to post a picture or two of my travel and creations. Have a happy, wonderful day and weekend to all!

And to my Father, my Husband and all the Fathers out there, Happy Father's Day...I love you all!