August 18, 2008

My grandparents came for a visit this weekend! I like having folks over to entertain. They didn't want to do much while they were here, just hang out at our house for a few days without having to worry about a yard or a doctor's appointment. Mema did water my flowers though. They got in just a little before I got off work on Friday and left around 11am on Sunday. Mema and I did a bit of shopping (Hamricks for clothes and AC Moore for decorations) on Friday and Saturday evening after I dropped Jamie off at work, and Friday after we got back from shopping we played games. I love games! On Saturday they took us out to eat. It was a sweet little visit, but didn't last long enough!

Mom went away for the weekend too, but she didn't come see us. She went to our Aunt Gloria's sister's house and they played card games all weekend. Mom, Aunt Gloria, and I play cards when they come up to Winston. I love cards!

Mom will be starting chemotherapy sometime in the next few months, unfortunately not as soon as she'd like. She went for a CT scan last week that required the injection of some dye with a really big needle. Two nurses (including a Chemo nurse who is used to working with big needles) had a very hard time finding a vein to accept the needle for the dye. So, Mom will have to have a port in her chest for her chemo, which will require another appointment at the surgicenter to be put to sleep. She won't be able to start the chemo until after the port site has healed up completely. The good thing about a port is that medicine can be delivered there and blood can be drawn from there -- she won't have to get stuck every time she goes for treatment.

I bought two yellow mums to replace our dahlias that died. They're kinda small at the moment, not picture worthy yet, and one of them has been almost completely eaten by a squirrel. Mema suggested I put cayenne pepper on it and that seems to have kept the squirrel from doing any more damage. Right before we left to go out to lunch on Saturday we saw the little booger on the porch and shoo'ed him away. He went as far as the tree in the front yard. As we were driving past the house, I watched him sneak back onto the porch. He did MAJOR damage to the plant in the hour that we were at lunch. MEH!

If you want to see a really cute baby, go to theharrisonhome.blogspot.com. That is the blog of my best childhood friend, Angie. She had a precious little baby boy on July 15. Go marvel at his CUTENESS!!!!!!

July 27, 2008

Here's a picture of the necklace I made last night while I was bored.

I put two different pictures of it on the Jewelry Page of Stylishly Crafty. Enjoy!

July 26, 2008

Last weekend we trekked down the road to see my folks. Mom had to have a lumpectomy on July 18, so we went down to be with her for the weekend. Her surgery went well and she didn't have too much pain afterward; she even went to Sunday school just two days after her surgery. The doctor was concerned that he might have to go back for more surgery, but said he'd wait for the pathology report before making anything definite. She got her follow-up report from the pathologist this past Thursday and the report was very good. She gets to keep her boob! YAY!

On Saturday of last weekend we went to the Nature Center in Kinston. They had HUGE snakes and lots of other things, as well as a nice nature trail by the Neuse River. It was very hot and very humid. Then we hit the road for Greenville to see The Dark Knight. Awesome movie. If you haven't seen it and are a Batman fan, it's a must see. Even if you aren't a Batman fan, it's still a very good movie. So far this summer we've seen Incredible Hulk, Wall-E, Hellboy 2, and Dark Knight. All have been awesome.

On Sunday (since there wasn't a NASCAR race), we headed down to the coast so Jamie could see the Atlantic. We went to Beaufort (we NC'ers pronounce it BOW-fort, not Bew-Fort like those weird SC'ers) to visit the NC Maritime Museum and check out the boats at the marina. Then we went to the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, which had undergone a HUGE expansion and renovation since the last time I was there. The largest exhibit is a huge tank with a 1/3 size replica of a German U-Boat that was sunk off the NC coast during WWII. We actually got to see three divers in the tank with all the fish, including some really big sharks. After our visit to the aquarium, we went to Fort Macon and to the beach. It was a very nice day trip. Pictures of our beach trip are in our Flickr album, as well as some pictures I took out in Mema's yard. I'll warn you now, my husband takes really good pictures of snakes.

On Monday before we left, we took Mom out for lunch in Greenville. It was a good weekend and we were all very glad to have the opportunity to be together, even under the circumstances. Mom will see an oncologist in a few weeks to make the decision on chemotherapy. We're all still hoping that she'll only have to have radiation, which is a lot less taxing on the body than chemo. She just wants to be able to go to the Charlotte races in October, since she already has her tickets bought and her hotel room booked. We'll be doing a lot of praying in the meantime!

July 12, 2008

Haven't been up to much this week, but I did just upload 183 zoo pictures to our Flickr album. Go and behold the wonders of our new camera at the zoo!

The other night I learned a valuable lesson, just because the ATM machine doesn't charge a fee doesn't mean the transaction is free. We used one of the ATMs at the zoo, which didn't charge a fee. However, today when I look at the credit card statement online I see that the dear, sweet, loving credit card company charged us TEN DOLLARS for that transaction. Next time I'm using the bank card. They only charge $5, I think. What a flippin' rip off!

Anyway....enjoy our zoo pictures!

July 5, 2008

Happy Day After Independence Day!

We were lucky enough to both have the day off yesterday, so we decided to go to the zoo. It was very hot outside and there were a lot of people who decided to do the same thing we did, but we had fun and took a ton of pictures. Here are a few of Jamie's favorites.

We took over 400 pictures, and so far I've weeded them down to just over 200. I hope to get them on our Flickr album soon, but in the meantime take a look at some new pictures I uploaded to Flickr of our Backyard Critters and of our trip to the zoo last November.

July 1, 2008

Maybe I should have my own HGTV show. Take a look at one of my weekend craft projects.

We've had the iron sconce over our bed for about a year now, but it always looked so lonely on the big bare wall. During my Friday afternoon trip to Michael's, I found a bin of silver letters that were only $1 each and some very pretty embossed gold scrapbook paper for $1 a sheet. On Friday, I bought an H (I have a thing for monogrammed stuff ever since we got married) and one sheet of the gold paper. I had no idea what I would do with them until talking to my mom and working out the idea of putting the letter in the middle of the gold paper and putting them in a black frame. It worked! We haven't put the H up yet, but Jamie is going to put it over the computer desk.

The H was so elegant and rich looking that I decided to go to Michael's on Sunday to see if they had a J and a B. I'd also received a 25% off coupon on Friday. Luckily, there was a J and a B in the bin. Huzzah! I put them together and then Jamie helped put them up over the bed. Now our sconce doesn't look so lonely on the big bare wall. We have a mix of gold and silver frames in the room, so the silver letters on the gold paper helps bring everything together.

Of course...just before going to bed last night the B fell off. And, this morning after we woke up I noticed that the J was missing too. Jamie said it had fallen off sometime after I fell asleep. The letters are currently on the bedside tables waiting for me to figure out how to better attach them to the paper. But isn't it nifty looking?

Last night, we also finally bought a subscription to Flickr so we could upload more pictures and better organize them (the free account only allowed 3 different albums). So head over to our Flickr Photo Album 1 to see some new pictures, including the full set of pictures from our trip to Reynolda Gardens. We have tons of pictures to add. I hope to add a new album every few days.

June 27, 2008

Jamie's at work tonight and I knew I'd be bored. So I browsed Michael's (right next door to Target) for some weekend craft projects. Here's what I found and made tonight:

What is it you ask? It's a brooch for my bodice.

I think my outfit is finally finished. I did some work on the sleeves from the previous picture and semi-sewed them to the armholes of the bodice so my shift doesn't show as much. Plus, I sewed a partlet (i.e. Renaissance dickie). Let me list the stuff that I put on in the order that I put it on.

• Shift (complete with blackwork embroidery around the neck)
• Corset
• Farthingale (hoop slip)
• Partlet
• Bumroll
• Underskirt with forepart
  
• Overskirt
• Bodice with sleeves and wrist cuffs
  
• Necklace, rings, earrings, neck ruff
• Beaded cap
• Pocket watch on a ribbon hanging from overskirt
  
• Pomander for warding off nasty Elizabethan smells, also hanging from overskirt
  
• Feather fan

Maybe one day I'll to wear the outfit out of the house, if I can drag Jamie to the Ren Faire in either Charlotte this fall or Raleigh next spring.