On Cloud Nine

Well, my dear Lucas, you are now Nine months old.  So much has happened this past month and I just can't believe all the accomplishments.

Finally had another check up (no shots this time - Yay!) and here are your numbers.

Weight: 18lb 5oz (28%)

Length/Height: 28.5" (56.5%)

Head: 45cm (50%)

These are all slight improvements since our last unofficial measurements.  Our doctor thinks Lucas is doing really well!

And now a word from the boy himself.  :)

Milestones

This month we celebrated the Fourth of July!  A few days before we went to Mama's friends' house where they had a cookout and fireworks.  Boy were those loud.  On the actual Fourth we had Dada'd family over to our house and cooked out some too.  And we went swimming!

And on the Fifth of July my two toothies finally cut through.

Then Mama and Dada went away for the weekend to celebrate their anniversary and I got to spend the weekend with Nana and Grandpa.  I sure gave them a run for their money.  As active as I have become just this past month I don't think they were ready for me.  Hehe.

Not much longer and I really started pulling myself up on everything.

We also went on my second trip to Florida.  {My first trip was when I was only four weeks old to visit my Great-Grandma at Thanksgiving time.}  We went this time to go to a wedding for Dada's cousin.  We stayed in a great big house where I got to swim every day.  And they also had stairs for me to climb!

And then most recently, this past weekend, we went to my first circle track race.  We went to Orange County Speedway to watch the stock cars race.  Boy it sure is louder than Dada's drag races.

So much more growing to do!!

Call me a Traveler!

I got my Passport!!  It came in the mail today.  I did the standard application and still managed to get it in three weeks.  That was quick.

They even let me take my photo with glasses on.  ;)

Now I just need to figure out where to go first.  Guess I'll let work decide that for me!

A Florida Wedding, in July, Outdoors...

Yesterday after I last posted we spent more time at the pool.  I even got a little more sun than I usually do.

Later on we all got dolled up and headed over to the venue for Hubby's cousin's wedding.  Here's my little baby doll!!

We waited inside the bar/restaurant area of the golf club to stay cool until we needed to be seated for the outdoor ceremony.  Then we were seated and eventually the music started.  I only took my phone again and it quickly ran out of battery since I had used it for GPS earlier. 



** Mr. & Mrs. **



And here's a quick shot of the Sun beating down on us.

And then we went back inside into the reception area.  By then my phone battery was hanging by a thread and I didn't get any photos.  Except for Lucas trying break dance.  :)

Also, I had to get a quick shot of the name cards -- Lucas had his very own!   I thought that was great.

Once I put the phone down we did our thing.  Cocktail hour = Rum Runners for me.  Yummy food and cake {red velvet!} and some dancing.  I even got to slow dance with both my boys at the same time.  <3 

I know some family got more photos with their cameras, especially a family photo of the three of us.  I'll just have to do a follow up post with those later on.

Now we are close to packing up and making the good ole drive back to NC.  So long Florida.

Travels to Florida

We are currently in Kissimmee, Florida for a wedding in the family {my in-laws side}.  There are a bunch of us staying in a huge house rental, some have been here all week, but just the weekend for us.  It has a pool!

Just a few photos to enjoy.  I haven't been taking too many.

We decided to leave in the evening to drive the eleven hours to our destination in hopes that Lucas would sleep majority of the way.  It worked out extremely well.  The above picture is at a truck stop in the middle of the night.  We needed to gas up and of course once the car stops he has to wake up. 

First things first.  This place has stairs.  Our house doesn't.  Didn't phase him a bit.  He just started climbing like a Pro!

A little car ride with his cousin, Desiree.  She's just three weeks old and always sleeping.  ;)



No Saturday morning is complete without a little early morning play time.  Lucas and I are trying to play {quietly} while Dada sleeps in the bed.  Everyone else is asleep including some on the couch downstairs, so we couldn't go down there to play.

Just a little Disney cartoons too while Dada sleeps.

And now we are about to go for another round in the pool!

One for the Birds

I collect bird houses.   Bet you didn't know that. 

Well, I'm not obsessed about it, I just like to pick them up every once in a while.   Actually I haven't picked up a new bird house in quite some time.  I think all of them I've collected so far were from my time in Wisconsin.   I don't remember if any I have were recent acquires since moving back to NC.

My collection is small.   Only a handful.   And they are strictly decorations only.   Maybe when we get settled I might branch out and get some useful houses for outdoors.

I suppose it all started with my grandfather, Pop.  Pop used to raise birdies a long, long time ago.   And he collected small scale bird houses.  I remember painting one for him before he passed.   And he and Gram have them displayed along their all-season room's ceiling.

So here's my little collection.  I look forward to adding to my collection again soon.

How 'bout a little White Stripes?

I've been finding my way the past few weeks with my new job and staying rather busy.  It's been difficult to find time to play around on the computer much or just to get a little personal time to read my books even.  I've renewed the same book from the library twice already, and I get two weeks at a time...yeah, that's six weeks so far, and it's probably been at least two weeks since I even picked the book up. 

My time for the most part is spent with Hubby and Lucas in the evenings, making (or ordering) dinner, and especially lately chasing the boy around.  He has been NON-STOP!

So pretty much, this is how I'm feeling right now.  I just don't know what to do with myself...

J.O.

We were headed back from our weekend trip, just a few miles to go and we'd be home. 

Both my cell phone and Hubby's both sounded with a text.  Hubby was driving so I got to mine first.

Just to let u know   jim died in a motorcycle accident last night

???!!!

I read it again - out loud to Hubby.

???!!!

What???

He was riding home last night and went off the road close to his house and was pinned underneath   he was dead on the scene   i just wanted 2 let you guys know ... i just found out about an hour ago

The text came from a friend of ours in Wisconsin.  The text was about another friend of ours.

Hubby and I were in disbelief.

As soon as I got home I tried to look up online in the Fond du Lac news about anything on the accident.  I couldn't find anything.

This morning I checked again and finally found the article.  Only it didn't identify any names.

At work I did another search and they had finally released a revised article, releasing the identity of the man in the accident.

Yes.  It was in fact Jim.

Now, it's real.

We met Jim when me moved to Fond du Lac.  Hubby had visited the local race track and made some friends and one of them invited him to be on their bar's pool team.  Jim and his dad was on that team.  Eventually Hubby had joined both the Sunday night and Wednesday night teams.  And when Summer came they all played in the softball league too.  I regularly attended as a spectator until eventually I joined my own bar sports team for Darts.

Jim was a stubborn and angry young man.  By that I mean, that their pool team would never win the Sportsmanship Awards at the end of each season.  Jim was very competitive and whenever he would mess up a play he would often either slam his stick to the floor or toss his hat across the room and loudly mutter a few expletives while at it.

That was Jim.

Eventually he met Sarah.  And he calmed down significantly.  She was great for him.

Jim was an avid biker.  I remember before we left Wisconsin he borrowed Hubby's old Suburban.  He and some of his biker buddies were traveling to South Dakota for their "bike week" and they were going to pull all their bikes on an open trailer.  I remember how as beat up as that Suburban was it still managed to have no problems, but the trailer was actually the problem and actually blew out a tire instead.

Eventually we moved back to North Carolina.  We visited a few times when we could.  We were fortunate to travel back to Jim and Sarah's wedding two years ago.  Two years ago next month.  I feel awful for Sarah.  They were both so young and just starting their life together.  It makes you think about the little things, and making sure you "don't go to bed angry" or make sure to always say you love them when you say your usual goodbyes just to go to work each day.

I wish we could have gone back up to Wisconsin again this past year.  We had planned to do so last August, but I was 7-8 months pregnant, not feeling up to it, and I wasn't working at the time so money was tight.

Jim and our other friend, Shooter, had previously talked about coming down this way, possibly to Myrtle Beach's "bike week" and coming to visit us on the way.  I wish they had been able to.

Now I regret that we won't be able to make it up for Jim's funeral.  We enjoyed the time we had with him.  He made our lives all the better during our tour in Wisconsin.

At Curtis' Going Away party, 2008

The Wednesday night Pool team

Seven

It's been seven years.

Since I married my best friend.

Happy Anniversary!

A Vino Vacation: Part Two

In continuation from the first part of our weekend, this part actually contains the Vino!  And again, we opted not to bring our Canon so all photos are taken with my phone.

After our morning breakfast at our hotel we made our way back downtown Hendersonville to meet up with our tour guide, Kimberlee, from Travels in Wine tours.  There were seven couples in our group, four of us celebrating our wedding anniversaries this weekend.  <3  Love was in the air!

We all jumped on the party bus and made our way to the first stop, an Urban Winery right there in downtown Hendersonville.

Falderal Winery was a great introduction to our tour.  We learned what a small-scale winemaker looks like and how they operate.  Out of the four wines we tasted I loved the first, called Sandburg's Goat White.  We even left with some to-go glasses and a bottle to take home.



We had to brown-bag our to-go glasses.

The next stop was a 35 minute drive out to the Green Creek Winery which has its own vineyard.  There we were greeted with some snacks to start, cheeses and crackers and some shrimp with a yummy lemon chardonnay sauce.  We also tasted four wines as well.  I swear to you that the second wine smelled and tasted just like liquor.  I think we determined it tasted like a whiskey or bourbon.  Wooh.  We were also served the owner's signature Chardonnay cake, and YUMMY it was. 

I had to snap a shot of the sign in the bathroom about employees washing their hands AND their feet.

After the tasting we were served our BBQ lunch and I was so excited to see the western Carolina tomato-based sauce as opposed to the eastern Carolina's vinegar-based.  It was delicious.  Green Creek also offers some wine ice cream too.  We tried six different flavors.  I like the raspberry and chocolate flavors the best.  Unfortunately we didn't prefer any of the wines at this vineyard so we didn't leave with any bottles.

The third stop was also a vineyard/winery and it had the most beautiful scenery.  Overmountain Vineyards not only produces and sells their own brand but they sell majority of their red wine grapes to the Biltmore.  We tasted a new grape known as the Petit Manseng as well as some Muscadine wine.  Again, I wasn't too fond of the wines offered.  I prefer a dryer red and this is the point where we found out that most of the reds in the area won't be available until this Fall because they tend to sell out quickly.

The final stop of the tour was considered the "comic relief".  The husband/wife team from Parker-Binns Vineyard were, in fact, hilarious.  And they had a beautiful garden!  Hubby enjoyed the Pearidge Red so much that he got a to-go glass along with a bottle to take home. 

I enjoyed the blackberry wine mostly because it was paired with yummy chocolate.  And since Hubby doesn't care for chocolate I got his!  I also enjoyed browsing around their wine room. They had these cool cork boards made from real wine corks. Now I know what to make from all the corks I've collected!

Once the tour ended we had made some new friends.  We exchanged our information with another couple who are locals and plan on being in our area next month for another drinking event.  Needless to say that went into our calendar.  :)

We headed back to our suite to freshen up and then trekked back to Asheville to make our dinner reservations that night.  I had booked dinner at The Admiral which was recommended to me by our tour guide.  Apparently it is really hard to get in without a reservation in advance.  The restaurant itself is downtown and looks like "a dump" from the outside, and to be honest it looks like a dive in the inside too.  But a dive with linens and an upscale atmosphere.

We were shown to our table for two which we found had a lovely card wishing us a Happy Anniversary, a nice sunflower bouquet and some cocktails they called Pros and Poms {Prosecco and Pomegranite}.

Now I have to mention that I allotted two hours for us to spend there because with most fine dining restaurants you wait forever for your food.  But we were in and out in less than an hour!  And that was great.  I ordered the duck breast and Hubby the steak.  Both were DELICIOUS.  You can tell the chefs were classically trained based on the food and the presentation.  We opted not to get a bottle of wine or any other alcholic beverages since we indulged all day long.  But we did treat ourselves to a chocolate torte.  Mostly me again, since Hubby doesn't care for chocolate.  Hehe.

And with it being such a long day we ended the night there.  We headed back to our room to call it a night.

...Brown Chicken Brown Cow...

All in all, we had a lovely weekend.  A very much needed vacation, just the two of us.  But we were eager to get home the next morning to see our boy.

A Vino Vacation: Part One

Several months ago I found this Groupon for a Wine Tour and immediately thought that it would be a great idea for Hubby and I to do together.  Even better yet, we could make a weekend out of it.

I ran it by Hubby and he thought so too.  So I snapped it up and began planning a long weekend getaway for our anniversary.  I contacted the tour company and booked the date for our tour.  I also went through them to arrange our lodging and get some other ideas for the rest of our stay.

To Biltmore or not to Biltmore?  It's the main attraction in the area since it's just outside of Asheville.  But to be honest I could care less about walking through a mansion and seeing all the luxurious things.  I know many people are into that but it's not what Hubby and I are attracted to.  You can't even take pictures inside the house, only the Gardens.  And it's crazy expensive just to do that.

So Friday morning we headed towards Charlotte, dropped the boy off at my parents, and then made our great escape.  A weekend all to ourselves!!

For Friday we only had dinner reservations, nothing planned for that afternoon.  So we just took our time leaving my parents' house and driving up the mountain.  We stopped at Fatz on the way to grab some lunch.

Note: We opted not to bring the Canon on the trip, so all photos were taken with my phone.

Once we arrived at our hotel we found a goodie basket in our suite!  Cupcakes = YUM!



The note says "Welcome + Happy Anniversary!"

 Then we headed downtown Hendersonville to eat at 2 Guys Pizza & Ribs, a local hot spot that was recommended by our travel agent/tour guide.  We were welcomed by the owner, Melody, with hugs!  We found a nice spot at the bar and had some drinks.  They were getting our private high top ready for us, but we decided the bar was nice enough for us and stayed there.  {It was also the coolest spot in the restaurant under a wonderful fan.} 

I ordered a new drink since I'm trying 50 new beers.  I tried out "Original Sin" - it's a hard Apple Cider.  Get it??  Original Sin...apple...  Anywho!  I wasn't a fan.  A bit too much apple for me.  And I'm not one for the sweet drinks like I was back in college.  So my next one was a Bud Lite.  Can't go wrong with that.

5* for the label though!

Hubby tried the famous ribs which were YUMMY.  He got a half rack and it was still huge.  He only ate half of it!  And I knew I was going to try his ribs so I got something different, an Italian sub.  Also YUM.  And we arrived at a great time because within the hour that place got packed.  We met a lot of the regulars.  Definitely recommend it if you are in downtown Hendersonville.  If a place has regulars then you know it's great.

When we were done with our meal we headed out to give up our seats to the next couple.  Just outside the town was having their Summer Friday night Music on Main event.  And it also coincided with their monthly car show.  {Lucky Hubby!}

We did some more exploring on Main Street.  And even stopped for some ice cream.

They had dozens of artsy bear statues throughout Downtown.  New Bern, NC should be jealous, because they are also known for their Bears and have the same statues throughout town.  Also, I loved these benches!

That was our Friday Night!

Now off to enjoy our Saturday!  :)