Nature Photos

I took some time over the weekend to play with my camera and take some nature pictures around the yard. We have a ton of little creatures all around our place that I never really take the time to notice. I think I'm going to work on taking more of these types of photos. I could really use the practice with the macro.

Thank you Oonie!

My mom has been here for the last 3 weeks helping us with Avery so we could go to work. It was wonderful having the help around the house, the wonderful meals, shopping and childcare. We could get used to this!

This time she was here for about a week when she got sick. Poor thing gets sick everytime she comes to visit. This sickness was a yucky upper respiratory virus. I think she left home somewhat healthy at least.

The weather has been so hot and muggy lately. It's about this time of year when I start wishing we lived somewhere besides Florida. I'll have to keep on wishing, because it is very unlikely that we will ever move, unless we become super rich and can spend part of the year in a mountain home. Keep dreaming...

I really wanted to do a few photos shoots with Avery and Mom because usually when she comes to visit we never get to it. I am glad we took the time to do it last week. See below.

This coming Monday Avery starts back to school. We had her orientation on Friday and she (and I) are very excited about this last year of preschool. She will be in the same class, but has lot of new friends. I think we are all ready to get back into routine. I am hoping we are all ready to go because I haven't done much school shopping since everything is provided at her school and she can still wear all her clothes still from the summer. It makes no sense to get anything for cool weather anytime soon and surely she will grow some between now and October anyway.

It's Saturday around 2 and I need to get some motivation for this weekend. I'm not sure why, but my motovation is really lacking this summer. Blah, blah, blah, enough rambling, I need to get in the shower - yes, it is almost 2 and I still haven't showered.....*sigh*

Preschool Photo Shoot

School starts back Monday and this Friday is her class orientation. This year she will be a class leader. She received a post card the other day from her teacher and in the note it mentioned that Avery would be a class leader - when I was reading Avery the note from her teacher and I got to the class leader part - her face lit up. I can tell she is excited.

She is supposed to bring in a recent photo of herself to put on the class bulletin board. I looked though all the recent pictures and decided it was time for another photo shoot.

Below are the options. Please vote!

Option 1


Option 2


Option 3


Option 4

Otion 5

Cat Drama

I haven't really mentioned much about the kitties lately.

Back in May we got Satsuma and Paprika. It was really odd how Paprika went missing - we saw her when we left to go to the grocery store and when we got back she was no where to be found. After looking numerous times at the animal shelter, we gave up. She was really beautiful, so hopefully she is at a good home somewhere.

So, I was so sad about Satsuma being lonely, we ended up getting the little brother to Satsuma.

They were hanging around the yard and becoming brave and venturing out more and more. We left to go on vacation around the 4th of July and ask our neighbor to feed them each day. Well apparently the day before we got home, they went missing. I was so sad when we got back and made many more trips to the animal shelter. The last time I was there I saw 2 little orange boys that were up for adoption. And yep, you guessed it, they came home with me.



These little guys are trouble together. They often look like little orange tumbleweeds rolling around fighting. Once they went across the steet for a night and I got a call from our neighbor that she found them. So far they have stayed somewhat close to home, but last night before I went to bed they didn't come when I called them and I found them across the street with 2 girls that were walking downtown to go out. They were following them downtown and the girls walked them back, so they wouldn't get lost. These cats!!!!!!!!!



I don't know, I am trying to keep them close to home with multiple treats and even nasty wet food! If something happens to these guys I am DONE with kittens.



These little guys look a lot alike, so much I can only tell them apart by their collars. Yes, they have collars with tags, so hopefully if they do get lost, someone will call us.



Meet Fergus





Meet Linus

Lasik Surgery

I survived Lasik. It was not as easy as I had hoped it would be, but I can see 20/15 now without contacts or glasses, so in the end it's worth it.

*****BEWARE!!!! LASIK DETAILS BELOW. READ AT OWN RISK******

I got there at 7:30AM and they took me back to a room and gave me 2 little Xanax pills to relax. I sat there for 45 minutes and never once felt like I was relaxing, so they gave me one more right before I went into the laser room. When I went in, none of the pills had kicked in, so I was tense.

I laid back on the table and they talked me through everything. Looking up was like looking under a space ship. They started with the right eye and taped my eye lashes up/down, then put in the numbing drops and the antibiotic drops. The next part was gross - they had to put on something that kept my eye in place - I guess it would be like the "rubber dam" from the dentist but for your eyes. It felt like my eye was bugged out (which it probably was). Then I had to look up at the green flashing light until I couldn't see it anymore, then they turn on some vacuum and that's when they took off the cornea. Let me tell you how GROSS that was - I thought at that exact point I was going to throw up, pass out or both. I tried to tell myself this would all be over soon and I tried to take deep breaths so I would not pass out. When the cornea was off everything looked very, very blurry - then came the laser. The laser smells like burning hair - GAG! So, if I wasn't already queasy from before I am about to lose it now. After the laser they sponge the cornea back on and drop in a ton of drops. I made it through it!!! Yay!

Oh crap! They have to do the other eye. That's when I was thinking to myself, "why am I doing this, why am I doing this, why am I doing this!?!" I was a wreck inside and totally regretting ever considering this surgery. A few minutes later, it was over. They moved all the equipment away and asked me to sit up and look across the room to see if I could see the clock and I told them I could tell it was a little before 9AM, but it was blurry. I was not able to stand right away because I was too woozy. The entire surgery really only took about 15 minutes.

With all of that said, the Dr. and staff were really great. If I had to suggest anything, it would have been to give out stronger drugs!!! I do understand why they don't though - you have to work with them to make sure it all goes correctly, but dang, it would have been nice to have been up on some cloud instead of the stone cold sober feeling I had.

When I got home I took a two hour nap and mom made me the best lunch ever. Time seemed to go very fast and I ended up napping again later in the day. I imagine it was either the stress of the day or the Xanax itself, but I was sleeping so well.

I had to wear these silly glasses for 24 hours. And for another week I have to wear them at night so I don't rub my eyes.

Scott has been making fun of me asking if I am headed out to play racquetball.
Sexy, huh?

Pirate Treasure Hunt

Avery has really been into going on pretend treasure hunts ever since she had Pirate Week at her summer camp. On the weekends we would walk around our neighborhood to look for 'treasures' (and in our neighborhood you'll never know what you'll find). Scott got the idea that he would like to create a real pirate treasure hunt one weekend and anyone that knows Scott, knows he doesn't doing anything half way. If I had to guess it took him about 6 total hours over the last few weeks to prep everything for the treasure hunt. Of course all of this was done as a surprise for Avery, so I had to take her out of the house or play in other areas of the house while he prepped.



First he started with the treasure map. I think this was done with a lighter and it also went into the oven for a little while as well.

The night before they made swords and a telescope together.
Before the hunt we dressed Avery in the pirate costume. Here she is 'reading' the map.

It read:

Avery Raine~

"If it's Bo-Bo Bone's treasure you seek, you can't be scared,
timid or meek. You'll want your sword, eye patch and telescope
if of success there's any hope.
First you must find the silver brick, where little lions prowl
in the jungle thick!"

You can see the homemade swords in the background.


Each note had a silly/scary different skull face. This one had her "take the shovel near the okra so thick, 'neath the white faced brick the next clue you'll pick."


Here she is on the front porch, posing before heading to find the next clue.

The final clue - which read: "You've found me treasure trove
on the top of skull hill. Now of golden coins you'll have your fill!"



Skull Mountain - if you look closly you can see it's the multch pile with a face carved and a little tree planted on top.

Digging for the treasure.

She found it very quickly!

Her treasure!

South Carolina / North Carolina Vacation PART TWO

The next stop was Greenville, SC where our cousins live. We went to the pool, played in the yard, cooked great meals, went to the Happy Cow Creamery and went out for some wonderful sushi while we were there. A few days later we headed up to Asheville to visit the Biltmore and stay a night in town. After that we headed to Lake Jocassee in the NW corner of SC - even parts of the lake are in NC. This lake was one of the prettiest southern lakes we have ever seen. We would love to go back one day and rent a cabin for a week.

The Biltore. The weather was really beutiful our entire time in northern SC/NC.


Taking a break after walking through the house.


Avery LOVES the homemade water slide.

We went to the Happy Cow Creamery and saw some kissing cows.

Tomatoes from Bobby's garden. And they were excellent in the cucumber salad that night for dinner.

This lake had multiple waterfalls throughout all the many hidden areas off from the main lake


This jump looks small here, but he said it was much longer than it looked. If you look real close you can see that Scott is so white he sparkles. (Must read/watch Twilight to know what I am talking about)

Scott must have taken this picture of Sherri enjoying the day on the boat

Spring and Avery playing in the water

Davis called Scott the "Merman". Here he is being slowly pulled behind the boat.

Davis

Reid (and Avery in the background pouting about something (always drama at 4 1/2)

'Cousin Cautious'

Avery enjoying herself

Avery and Reid pose - Avery is tired of my camera.

One of the many islands on the lake. This was our last stop before heading in.

Swimming to the island


Enjoying the cruise on th way back in - what a GREAT day on the lake!

South Carolina / North Carolina Vacation PART ONE

We headed up to Charleston on a Friday morning. We got a later start that we had planned and Avery wanted to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes or so. Needless to say it was a very, very long ride. Once we finally got into town we met my cousin and his wife at the restaurant and I think I must have downed a beer in less than 2 minutes. No kidding. Driving with these two can be rather stressful and I drove the entire way. Once we wrapped up lunch, we headed over to see DD (she came up and stayed the night at her neice Claire's house right up the road from where we were staying) so we could drop Avery off with her for the evening (actually, the next two evenings). It was such a nice night of no kids, good food and too many drinks, but it was all so very necessary - we were in need of some serious adult time. We were in Isle of Palms/Sullivan's Island to see JJ Grey & Mofro. We had planned to go Saturday night, but ended up going Friday night (last 6 songs) as well. They were great! Saturday AM about 11 we finally were ready to go to Charleston to have breakfast/lunch and I was the only one that was a little rough around the edges, but nothing that a McDonalds hamburger couldn't fix.

It was SO hot in Charleston - the car registered 107 degrees. That weekend was the tall ships festival, but it was entirely too hot to even get out of the car. We all met our other cousin Kenneth at Hymen's and enjoyed a few po boy sandwiches. I was lucky enough to sit at the very seat where Sandra Bullock had sat once before. This restraunt leaves little plaques where all the celebrities sit at the tables. Kind of cute. Saturday night we had a great meal and headed out to Sullivan's Island to see the concert. The concert was just as good as the night before.

Sunday morning we all got up and headed out of Charleston. We headed to our next vacation destination - Bennettsville, SC. We needed to go pick up Avery and spend the night on the farm with Grandad and DD. When we got there we were pretty much useless - all that adult partying had caught up with us, so we laid in the hammock and took it easy, cooked dinner and took a few 4 wheeler rides.

Charleston, SC 107 degrees

In Bennettsville, SC...
We took some pictures out in the fields.

Riding the 4 wheeler out to the fields.

Chillin' with her Daddy


Scott was trying to take a cool Stafford pic.

7AM 4 wheeler ride down to the pond to take pictures.

Delayed a bit

Sorry about the lack of bloggage. I am about 1/2 way through sorting and editing the vacation pictures. I hope I can get to it soon. In the meantime here is a picture of Avery on a hike in the woods on our trip to SC.

July 4th on I-75

We are on our way back home from a fun filled SC/NC week long trip.
More pictures and stories to follow tomorrow, but in the meantime, here is my view from the last 6 hours. Thank goodness for the wireless card. Now if I could just find that baby Sominex...