Romantic Weekend...

Since I am going to be going out of town for over a week, Jody decided to take me to the beach this past weekend. He chose an awesome hotel to stay at, Oceans One, and it was amazing.



























































Dining room. The flowers reminded me of Kate.















The road side view from our balcony. There is a small amusement park down the road from the resort.
















Ok, so I really suck at taking pictures. I was sitting on the bed and decided to make you all jealous about our beautiful view... Just open the curtains and viola!















Like I said, Jody had planned this a few weeks ago. He reserved a room on the 20th floor, with a street view... Just to be different. So, we arrive late evening on Friday only to find out that someone had been playing around in the reservation system and moved our reservation to .. wait for it... SEPTEMBER! GAHH... it took awhile but they upgraded our room.. and we got a beautiful one. Oh how sad, the room had a small jacuzzi tub in it! Guess who FINALLY got to take a bath for the first time in a year??? That's right, yours truly. Hooked the iPod up to a speaker, added some bubbles and read my book... I turned into a prune... ahh, sweet bliss! The only downside was they had to move us the next morning... So, instead of baking on the beach, we reloaded the car and went shopping. Jody took me first off to "our" little place to have breakfast, and then off to the outlet mall.

We found some CUTE shoes for missP, and Kelsea. Wandered around looking for an outfit for me to wear to Penny's wedding (no luck) and headed back to the hotel to get our room again.... It wasn't ready yet. So we headed out to Broadway at the Beach for some people watching and more shopping. We went to Senor Frog's for a small bite to eat. We shared a order of chicken nachos and some sweet tea. YUMM!

We hit the hotel, once again, was able to get into our room, changed into swim suites and hit the pool. Good times! We enjoyed the water, then went back to get ready for dinner. We went to our other favorite place to eat, Original Benjamin. YUM! I ate my fill of crab for a change. We try to go there if we stay in MB for a weekend. We ate our fill, and then headed back for our ritual walk on the beach. The tide was out, so we had some hard sand to walk on. We probably walked a good 3 miles round trip, hitting the main strip on the way back. About this time, my tummy started feeling "funny", but I didn't think much of it.

We check out of our room Sunday morning, and start heading back home. I'm not feeling too hungry, so we get my coffee and start looking for someplace to eat while we are further on the road. By the time we get halfway home, I'm SICK. Nothing says "I love you and am going to miss you so much" like a wonderful case of food poisoning! YUP... I got sick.. VERY sick. Poor Jody! He got me home, into bed and took such good care of me. I wanted to not work on Monday, but had to go in because another co-worker was at her Grandmother's funeral. Ahhh, the joys of being adequately staffed! I'm feeling so much better now, and am thinking about just what I'm going to take with me on my vacation.

Why I <3 my job.....

The babies LOVE the bubbles. I LOVE watching the babies play with the bubbles. It's a win-win situation. =) There are days when I have to remind myself *why* I do what I do....But then I get to go look back at old photo's/videos and remember allll the good times. Lucky me!

Non-family Family Reunions

Jody used to work with a young guy named Clayton. They went all over the country (or the East Coast at least) doing installs together, and if Jody left one company, Clayton followed. Clayton ended up moving back up to DC a while ago, but they still keep in touch. (yes there is a point to this rambling!)

Clayton called Jody a few weeks ago. Seems like there was going to be a family reunion in Orangeburg, SC and we were invited. So yesterday, we loaded up the cooler, grabbed Kelsea and rode on down. We arrived in the country on the road where Clayton's grandma and a few other relatives lived. We could see the 3 big barbquers going with a huge tent set up with tables under it. The uncles had the hog on the fire since early that morning, and you could just smell that yumminess in the car.

We couldn't find Clayton when we got there.. He had taken one of the uncles trucks and went fishing. I guess he doesn't get much chance to do that up in DC. We went looking for Clayton's mom (I asked Jody what her name was, and he looked stunned for a second and then said... "Mom") by heading over to Grandma's house. There were pictures of one the aunts with her family at the white house, posing with: George H Bush and Barbara, Bill Clinton and Hillary and George W Bush and Lara. In the picture with GHB, Barbara was actually holding one of the children! Crazy, right?

We wait around for Mom to show up, she and some of the "girls" had to go shopping. =) After she arrives, we walk back down to the "party"... and that's when Jody points out the aprons a few of the uncles were wearing...

They had the White House crest on them, one of them said EXECUTIVE CHEF... Jody then mentions that most of Claytons family works as chefs for the White House, or are in the CIA. Kinda cool, huh? The food was, in a word, YUMMO! They roasted a hog, grilled up some chicken, there was some chitlin's (I didn't try that... ), lots of homemade mac and cheese, in a word, too much food to keep track of! I brought my Chocolate Pudding cake, but after finding out the White House Chef's were there, well, I'm not too sure how that went over (but I didn't see any of it get thrown away.)

We were enjoying ourselves, a few of Clayton's cousins took us under their wings and taught us (well, mainly Jody, cause by that time, i was a wee bit tipsy!) how to play domino's. Looks like it will be fun to play. The DJ showed up, and the music started blasting and the kids started dancing. Now I'm wishing I had let go of my inhibitions and just got out there too, but well, I really AM shy and didn't want to make a fool of myself.

All in all, we had a good time. We were made to feel like family, even though we most definently weren't. =) Emails and phone numbers were exchanged with our domino's group at the end of the night (they wanted us to go back to their home and continue the party, but we had to get home so Kelsea could get some sleep so she could get back to her house early this morning). We were invited to go to next year's reunion. How cool is that? Sorry I didn't take any photos, but well, I left my camera at home and wasn't sure how well an "outsider" would go over taking photos and then posting them on their blog. =) So you just had to deal with my rambling. What are your plans for this long weekend?

Woodpeckers, squirrels and DRAMA

So, Jody and I bought a suet feeder for the birds at the daycare. We know how much the babies love to look out the window and see the birds in the morning, and wanted them to see more than the finches that show up. The other day, THIS is what we saw. Pretty cool, huh. I'm guessing she's female, because the crest is missing. She doesn't come by often, but at least I was able to get a semi-decent picture on my phone. After I snapped this picture,I remembered I had my actual camera with me, zoomed it in, to get a real nice shot, and NO LUCK. She wouldn't come back! I was sad. =( So far, I've seen some kind of jay (it has gray coloring, and no blue to be found!) wrens, finches, chickadees, cardinals, woodpeckers, A dove, and some rust colored tiny bird that I can't quite identify yet. We put that feeder up for a variety of birds, and we sure got it! If the babies are fussing, we take them to the widow to see if the birds are out there... that usually quiets them down for a little bit. It's kinda cool.







I was trying to describe the squirrels antics. I could sit and watch these silly things all day long. =) Our babies love to watch them, call them "keey-hee". It's so hard to sound out the noises that the babes make when they are trying to talk. These guys can clean out that bird feeder in a day and a half! YIKES! It's a good thing Jody loves those babies too. He's the one that pays for the bird seed to feed the critters, because he knows how much the babies enjoy them.


So, there was some drama at work yesterday. It shouldn't be too surprising that you get drama when working with just a group a women. I hate it that we have lived up to the stereotype. Here's the deal:

DSS (Department of Social Services) requires that all children go outside for at least a half hour daily. Outside, in the sunshine....not ouside on the covered porch. The one exception is the baby room. (whew, we aren't equipped to do that!) Anyway, down in my building that hasn't been happening with all the children. If you get down to the nitty-gritty, it's because it's starting to get hot and my coworkers don't want to be uncomfortable. AND, I do have to admit, it's kinda a pain to get the kids out there. HOWEVER. As the building director, we've had a few parents ask if their children were going to be taken outside to get their daily dose of vitamin D or not. I assured them that I would talk to the teachers/the director and see what could be done about it....

I mentioned it to the teacher that was having the problem getting the kids outside. I got the whole "I'll do it when it's convienent, not too hot, blah blah blah" line, so took it up with the director. (I mentioned it casually to the coworker, without saying a parent was having a concern, because she would know which parent was asking and make a HUGE deal out of it!) H assured me that she would send out a memo, not pointing fingers, but reminding teachers that kids need to be out side for at least 30 mins a day. The teachers read the memo and automatically assumed that it was for our afterschool teacher, because she too was having problems getting the kids outside! After hearing them bash her, I told them that from my understanding it was a program, wide problem, and that the ALL the kids needed to be taken outside.

That started the whine fest, and all the reasons they couldn't take the kids out... I told them to make a list of what they felt needed to be done in order for them to be comfortable taking the kids out side, and I would pass it on to H.

Here is a sampling of THE LIST:

*cut grass
*sand flees
*sticks pick-up
*trees need to be cut back (by trees, they actually meant bushes, and I was supposed to read their minds!)
*mosquitos

(yes, i tried to remember THEIR spelling!) On top of it, I was asked why H didn't know this stuff already because the former owner, Lara walked the playground everyday and took care of stuff, blah blah blah (every time someone has a complaint, it always goes back to what the former owner did/didn't do). They KNEW this list was going to H.

So, I called H and gave her the lowdown on THE LIST. Ok, this was something that I asked for so I could give her the lowdown. Needless to say, she was kind of upset about the whole thing. And I did ask her why she didn't walk the playground everyday, like the previous owner (told her that was a question asked!)

So, all HECK breaks loose. H calls her aunt, the new owner of the facilty. They have had it. Usually A is very much "keep the peace, I'm sure they didn't mean it the way it sounded" type of person. Well, she shoots off a memo to them, addressing ALL their concerns about the playground, why she and H don't walk the playground, etc.

The girls (I say this lightly, one is 25, another is my age, and the oldest is in her 50's) in question get their memo yesterday morning.... OH MY GOODNESS! You would have thought that they had been accused of abusing the children or committing treason. They start yelling at me because I told H what they felt needed to be done. The "matriarch" of the group started talking to me while I was in my room and she was in another, about how some things needed to stay in the building, and not be talked about with H. WHAT? THEY WROTE THE LIST! THEY ASKED THE QUESTIONS!!!! Holy Cow! Well, I was ready to walk out, but I didn't.. I called H and told her what was going on, FORCED Jody to take me to lunch, and tried to have a decent day. I'm just hoping that things will blow over by Tuesday.

Anyway.. I'm just glad we get a 3 day weekend. *whoot* Jody and I are taking Kelsea to a party/bbq/family reunion with Jody's adopted family today. Should be a good time! I'll post pictures and tell stories later. I'm hoping to take a drive up to Concord and see Danielle. I wont even anticipate seeing Adam, he is still avoiding me like the plague. I know, I know... he's young.. he'll grow up. I keep holding onto that hope.

Anyway... Not much of an update.. more of a gripe session, huh? sorry!

Mother's Day 2009 (yes it's taken me nearly a week to write this!)

I figure since it's been a few weeks I should at the very least post an update. We've been on a pretty even keel these days, I'm still working and Jody has been doing camera installs for Charlie. Yeah Charlie! They are mainly doing installs in (on???) shopping centers these days, which is nice, except when there is bad weather. :(

Ahh, Mother's Day. Jody and I received phone calls from Tansy during the week with problems with her car overheating. Jody suggested some things she could try, but they didn't work. So, we got up fairly early and headed to the junk yard on our way up to Durham. You know, Durham, that town where Tansy lives... and is on a good day 4 hours away? Yeah, that Durham. Well, there was no luck with the radiators at the yard, so we went to the parts store and picked up a radiator, and got on the road.

Did I mention that Durham was 4 hours away.. yeah. We finally get up there around 3:00pm. Jody immediately gets to work taking out the old radiator and installing the new one. Doesn't take him long. He starts the car and water starts squirting. NOT GOOD. Looks like a blown head gasket. We decide that *maybe* this product will help get her limping along until we can get the car down to us. Go to parts store, invest $25 in this crazy looking goop, go back to her apartment, dump it in the radiator, and Jody drives off. He didn't get too far when the car starts smoking, he drives it back, and breaks the bad news. Best case scenario, blown head gasket, like we thought. Worst case scenario, blown engine. It's something that will have to be worked on down here, or in a garage somewhere. I told her she needed to talk to Vicky (David's mom, who *owns the car*) and see what she would like to do.

Yes, it's something Jody can do. The timing really stinks though! Jody finally has the work rolling in so "spare time" is at a premium. HOWEVER he says that he doesn't mind working on it (as long as she promises to keep on maintenance from now on!)

We then went down to Concord, hoping that we would be able to see Danielle on the way home (and oh yeah, pick up the cargo trailer!) No such luck. Danielle was hanging out with her boyfriend.

Happy Mother's Day!

Jason (George's son) sent me a text yesterday to wish me a happy mother's day, I got to see Tansy and Danielle called me. Adam? Well, Adam still isn't talking to me. I guess I'm still on his hit list.

OK OK OK!!! So, I started that Sunday night, it is now Wendsday night, and I haven't posted this. I guess I need to wrap it up, huh? One more story then I'll let you go.....


I have a window in my room at work. There is a bird feeder hanging outside said window, and for the longest time the bird feeder hung empty. I did some exploring and found a barrel of birdseed in the pantry. Needless to say, we now get visited by birds and squirrels.

The babies LOVE the squirrels. MissP (remember her?) calls them "kit-eee". The kiddos know when I'm due into work, because they start watching for me, and hanging out by my door so they can RUSH my window and look for the squirrels. So, we've run out of birdfood. What do "Uncle"Jody and I pick up after our dinner tonight? Not only do we get some sunflower seeds for the squirrels, we get ANOTHER feeder for the birds! Sweet, huh? Nothing is too good for the babies. =) Don't even get me started with the bubbles. That's another story for another day....

It's been awhile....

So much has been going on, and I don't even know where to start! There are some things that I would LOVE to talk about, but can't, because it's not my story to tell, and others that I should that would just reveal all my insecurities. So, let me just say, this past month has been fairly enlightening, but I really don't want to repeat it. Ever. Again. EVER!


Jody and I went to Pinks All Out yesterday up in Concord. Jody's birthday is on Thursday (he'll be the big 40) and in order to celebrate we got tickets a month or so back. We were planning to have a HUGE party for him, but he was like "Most of my friends would miss my party to go to Pinks.. Heck, I'D miss my party to go to Pinks".

We got up early Saturday, loaded up the coolers, and headed out. Got to Zmax Dragway by 11ish. They were already running cars for time trials. By the end of the day, they had run over 400 cars. There were 35,000 people in the stands. It was CRAZY! You know what??? I LOVED every minute of it. I know it's not quite the same event as what Chad does... but man, I GET IT. I understand what they love about it. And there is something to be said about building your own car, making it go fast, and blowing peoples minds.











We didn't leave the track until 1130pm.. Yup, nearly 13 hours at the strip. The day was beautiful, warm, not too hot, dry. We were pretty smart about applying sunscreen and keeping hydrated. No sunburn (well, a few red patches, but nothing major.) It was such a nice night that we took the top out and rode to get a moon-tan.

Today? Well, we spent lazing around, downloading pictures to facebook and doing laundry. NICE weekend.

So, there is my boring life.

I've been....tagged!

So, Kate tagged me and I guess I should follow through.. I'm really good at caving into peer pressure. So, the rules are:

1. Go to your pictures on your computer
2. Go to your 6Th folder
3. Go to your sixth picture
4. Post it
5. Blog about it

(I have to admit, I'm a little afraid of what I might find....)













So, Jody and I decided to take a day trip into the mountains back in October. We were hoping to see some fall color. We were off by at least a week, but we did make it to the old mine shaft where Clemson University developed their blue cheese. There was a nice little hike through the mine, and then, down the mountain a little ways (in the same park!) there was a trail by a waterfall.. ABSOLUTLY stunning.

Not much is going on in my life right now. I've started taking belly dance classes on Wednesday nights, Jody is going to be working a 3 month stint for the census bureau tomorrow. My Jeep is coming together, and I will post pictures when it's all done. :)

I'm supposed to meet up with a new friend (that I met at bellydance class) to go do some kind of "touristy" hike type thing. I'm kinda excited. Went out Salsa dancing with her too.... Well, let's just say we went to a salsa club Friday night, we got on the dancefloor once, and ATTEMPTED to do a few moves that our instructor showed us in class... but still, we are stepping out of our comfort zones, and it's a good experiance.