August 2017 Beach Vacation

We spent a week at beautiful Wrightsville Beach for our vacation this year. Ever since we bought our beach tent a few years ago it's made our beach vacations so much better because we can spend more time out on the beach without worrying about getting burned. This year Chad worked with my Mom to surprise me with FOUR beautiful bouquets of flowers in our room when we checked in! It was a great surprise and really started our vacation off great. Here are some pictures from our beach vacation:

Part I - the flowers and day one of our vacation.

Part 2 - rainy start to the day so we went to the Ft. Fisher Aquarium.

Part 3 - beach pics.

Part 4 - we got up early to watch the sunrise on the beach - TOTALLY worth it!

Part 5 - more beach pics.

August 2017 Events

August was a busy month for us - here are some pictures of what's been going on:

Our church had it's 7th annual backpack drive collecting school backpacks with toiletries and other supplies inside for A Child's Place, an organization that helps homeless children.

Chad and I gave the purple pack with lime green trim and the blue camo one beside it.

Our good friends Becca and Jason had their 4th child a few weeks early. Lillian Claire was born on August 6, 2017. Here are some pictures of Miss Lillian from our visit to the hospital:

It sounds crazy, but Lillian looked more like her sister Katie in person, 

but in the pictures she looks more like her brother Ethan! Welcome Lillie!

When our niece Kathryn graduated from high school earlier this summer, her Dad unfortunately was in the hospital and wasn't able to be at her graduation. Chad's Mom and Grandmother had to leave after the ceremony and couldn't see Kathryn afterwards. So, we offered to host a graduation party at our house so everyone could see Kathryn in her cap and gown and take pictures. Here are the pictures from Kathryn's graduation party:

I tried my hand at making homemade salsa for the first time this summer and it was SO GOOD! I made two big batches and canned it so we can enjoy it later in the year. It's so easy to make and tastes SO MUCH better than store bought!

When I started hearing about the solar eclipse on August 21, at first I didn't think much of it. I saw eclipse glasses all over the place and didn't get any because I just wasn't super interested. But, as the date got closer, literally EVERY SINGLE phone call to the library was about eclipse glasses - some library systems were giving them away, we were not... By the day of the eclipse I was kind of over it already, but some coworkers were nice enough to share their eclipse glasses and I am glad that I got to see it. It was pretty cool to see, but not worth all the craziness of driving all over the country to see the full eclipse. Here are a few pictures of the MH staff sharing glasses to watch the eclipse:

It's been SO HOT this summer and our garden was starting to be done by the end of August. I wanted to clean out some of the beds before we went on vacation in early September. When I was cleaning out the beds I found a volunteer basil plant and some volunteer dill! Here are a few pictures of the mostly done garden:

Hive Loss

It's recommended to get at least 2 bee hives so you can compare your hives and I'm so glad we did. From the very beginning Hive #1 was MUCH slower to grow and get going. We saw the queen every time we did a check and did see capped brood and honey, but they were so much smaller than Hive #2. In July we noticed more ants trying to get into Hive #1 - at first between the lid and the inner cover. I started thinking they might be building a nest in the cinder block base (we had the holes facing up). We were in the process of getting a new hive base (something with metal legs) when we checked the hives on July 15 and Hive #1 was gone and the ants were trying to take over the hive. It was so devastating, even though I didn't think this hive would make it through winter because it was so small. What I read online and from talking to other beekeepers is that if the bees can't fight off a threat they will often abscond and just leave the hive. I think that's what happened. We did see some dead bees who had tried to fight off the ants. It's hard, but just another learning curve in our beekeeping! Goodbye Hive #1.

The queen in Hive #1.

July 2017 Events

So, our cat Roxy started getting recurring upper respiratory infections starting last fall. Each one would clear up with antibiotics, but she started getting them closer and closer together. She also really needed some dental work done and the vet thought it might help with the infections as well. So, she had a dental cleaning and a few teeth pulled, but they also found an issue with her jaw that required a wire to go through her chin until it healed and because of that she was supposed to wear a cone for 2 weeks. That did not go well. After the dental she was very loopy from the medicine and kept running into things with the cone. Then she wouldn't eat, drink or use the litter box! The first night home she peed on me in our bed, so we all had to get up change the sheets, etc. The next night she peed on Chad and I knew it wasn't from the medicine it was her being pissed about the cone. I was also very worried about her not eating or drinking. On day 3 I took the cone off and stayed home with her all day - she never messed with the wire (it was VERY small) or got it stuck on anything. And as soon as I took it off she ran over to her food, then the litter box! So, she trained us well and was NOT going to wear that cone! Even though the dental work didn't clear up the recurring infections, we did see a specialist who thinks it's a viral thing that is just going to flare up regularly and as long as she responds to the antibiotics we should be good. It was a rough time this summer when all this was going on, but thankfully Roxy is still showing us who is boss!

Roxy's brief time in the cone!

Look at this sweet face!

We love the 4th of July in Harrisburg! We've been watching the parade with the same friends for at least 10 years now. Here are our pictures from the parade this year:

Our garden is still doing well and for the first time we've had success with peppers! Every year something eats the pepper plants and we never get anything. I don't know what was different this year except maybe the bees, but we finally have bell peppers and jalapenos!

We also canned some tomato sauce with tomatoes from our garden - I LOVE to can food from things we've grown in the garden!

June 2017 Events

So, our oldest niece Kathryn graduated from high school this year. Definitely makes me feel old since she was 1 1/2 when we got married and this year is my 20th high school reunion (not that I'm going)! Apparently Cabarrus county has all their high school graduations at the Cabarrus arena, which is great in theory, but in actuality since there is only 1 road and 1 entrance we sat in traffic FOREVER. When our younger niece graduates, we'll know to tailgate it and get there WAY early. Here are some pictures from Kathryn's graduation:



Our garden is really taking off at this point! The herbs are huge and everything is starting to produce. We made our first batch of dill pickles this month too. Here are some June garden pictures:


One night while we were fixing dinner we hear a THUNK on our sliding glass door and the cats both run over to it. When I walked over to see what it was I saw a HUGE hawk on our deck and a young cardinal on the deck in front of the door. I guess the hawk was chasing the cardinal and it ran into the glass door. As soon as the hawk saw me it flew away, and thankfully after a few minutes recovering the cardinal flew away too. But, the cats definitely enjoyed seeing the cardinal that close!

May 2017 Events

In May we attended the Mother Earth News Fair in Asheville, NC. This was our 3rd year attending the fair and this year we stayed in a newer hotel that was much closer walking distance to the location. The hotel wasn't great, but it was VERY close so we'll probably stay there again in the future. Even though the fair was almost a month later this year it was VERY cold and we weren't really prepared for how cold and windy it was. After the first day we went to a nearby Marshalls and I found ONE earcover/headband thing to help protect against the cold wind! We had a great time at the fair and our new neighbors actually came up for the first day too, so that was nice to get to spend some time with them. Here are some pictures from our visit to the 2017 Mother Earth News Fair:



We are really enjoying watching our bees grow and thrive. When we were doing a hive check recently we happened to see a new bee emerging from a cell! I don't know how I noticed it, but it was so cool to see and thankfully I had the camera with me. Here are some recent beekeeping pictures:


Our garden is starting to produce, so here are some pictures from our garden in May:

And no month is complete with out cat pictures too:

April 2017 - Bees and Planting the Garden

In April we got 2 packages of bees! Right before the bees were supposed to arrive Chad got sick with the flu and we had a ton of stuff to do to get ready - including taking down a small tree in our yard. Thankfully my brother and our neighbor Daryl were able to come over one afternoon and help us get the area ready for the hives. Here are some pictures of installing the two packages of bees:



We also planted our garden in April. We got all of our plants from the farmer's market plant sale and we also planted our okra plants from seed. Chad had a really great idea of replacing our garden bed borders with downed cedar trees from our woods. Cedar is much more rot-resistant, but it's very expensive. My brother came over one day and helped Chad get some of the downed cedars out of the woods and cut down to the sizes we needed. I think it makes the garden look more rustic too. On the day we planted our garden we found a king snake in our basement curled up with some of our gardening tools! Thankfully Chad was able to get it out and they are not poisonous, but we're still not sure how it got inside... Here are pictures from our garden:


Of course here are some pictures of Sandy & Roxy in April:


Chad & I also celebrated our 17 year wedding anniversary on April 29. Time really flies because it feels like just yesterday we got married! We went out to Outback which is our anniversary tradition and Chad got me some beautiful roses. Here are a few pictures on our anniversary:

March 2017 Events

Our pastor created a website called Church & Culture about how the Church can affect our culture. For the last few years we've hosted a Church & Culture conference at our church and also in the UK to help pastors and church leaders understand our changing culture and be culture changers in their communities. This year I was able to attend the conference and it was VERY informative and interesting. My favorite parts were the sessions where my pastor opened it up to Q & A - I could have attended an entire session of just Q & A. Here are a few pictures from that event:

Our pastor, Jim White.

On March 5 we went to Asheville to see Jimmy Eat World at the Orange Peel. We decided to stay at a hotel within walking distance to the Orange Peel since parking is hard to find in downtown Asheville. We stayed at Aloft in downtown Asheville and it was a really nice hotel with an attached parking garage which was really nice. We were able to walk to dinner the night of the concert, to the concert, and to breakfast the next morning too. The concert was sold out so it was REALLY packed. Jimmy Eat World played a two hour show and were fantastic as always. But because the venue was so packed it was hard to find a spot where you weren't crowded. We ended up near this completely insane girl who literally "danced" like full body heaves - it was like Elaine from Seinfeld on speed. We eventually had to move because she kept running into us. She was crazy and I wanted to video her, but it was too dark for her to show up on my phone. I was able to kind of get a picture of her, but it was still blurred because she never stopped moving. Other than that it was a great show and I love the Orange Peel.On the way home we stopped by Brushy Mountain Bees to get our hive supplies - it was more out of the way than I realized, but it was worth it because the staff were really helpful and we got all our hive materials. Here are some pictures from our Asheville concert trip:

For Valentine's Day this year I got Chad tickets to a Charlotte Hornets game. We had always talked about going, so I decided to get the tickets for him as his Valentine's gift. Chad is a big college basketball fan (and turned me into one too - Go Heels!) and always said the NBA had changed and it wasn't as fun to watch as college basketball. We never really watched any NBA games, but going to the Hornets game I realized he was right - it was boring! You would think a live game would be more fun, but it was like the players weren't really trying that hard. Plus, we were seated near this unbelievably loud guy - he wasn't being ugly or saying anything bad, but he was SO LOUD I literally had to put my finger in my ear that was facing him. Unfortunately he was sitting right beside my friend Gail and her husband - they got season tickets this year and so did that loud guy - they had sat beside him at every home game. I don't know how they did it. He was SO LOUD. Overall, we had a good time, but I wasn't super impressed and probably wouldn't go back to another Hornets game. Here are our pictures from the game:


On March 12 we got a freak snow storm. We've had some pretty warm weather this spring, so when they were calling for snow I didn't think it would do anything. But, we actually got a few inches! It snowed in the early morning and by lunch time the sun had come out and it had all melted. It was pretty crazy. Here are some pictures of the freak March snow day:


And no month is complete without cat pictures! Here are some super cute pictures of Sandy & Roxy:

February 2017

Chad and I celebrated Valentine's Day at one of our favorite restaurants - Outback. Since we did have some cold weather in February there are some great pictures of the cats snuggling. The best part of cold weather is having BOTH cats on my lap! I was also finally able to capture a picture of Sandy getting what we call "pufftailed." Every once in awhile she gets freaked out - usually after seeing another cat outside - and she will get all big and puffed and try to attack Roxy. Thankfully they get along most of the time and Sandy the pufftail doesn't happen much. Here are some pictures from February:


The beautiful roses Chad got me for Valentine's Day:

January 2017

In January we finally started a long delayed project on our driveway and yard. When we bought our house we knew there was some water coming into the basement, but it wasn't a lot and it never got worse. But, our yard DID get worse. We had water coming off our neighbor's property and running down our driveway which had caused damage to the side yard, a void under the driveway, and the leak in the basement. Our driveway was also connected to our neighbor's property and we had access to our property via an easement - this was explained to us, but I don't think we REALLY understood the reality of that. It's not an ideal situation, so since we had to do this work anyway and our driveway was the issue we tore up part of our driveway and redirected it out to the front of our property. We added a berm to the side yard to redirect the water. While I wasn't super happy with the company we used, the work did fix the water issue in both our yard and the basement and we are really happy with the new driveway direction.

Here are some pictures of the driveway project, a snow day, and of course cat pictures!




Snow day pictures:



Cat pictures:

2016 Year in Review

I like to keep track of things - how many books I read, how much our garden produces, and how much money I save by couponing. So, here are my totals for those things in 2016:

Top 10 Books of 2016

In 2016 I read 96 books and 35 cookbooks. Here are my top 10 books for 2016:


Fiction

The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin
A Robot in the Garden by Deborah Install
To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
News of the World by Paulette Jiles
Pax by Sara Pennypacker

Non-Fiction

Seinfeldia by Jennifer Armstrong
Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist
A Deadly Wandering by Matt Richtel
The Marvelous Pigness of the Pig by Joel Salatin


Cookbooks

Learn to Cook 25 Southern Classics 3 Ways: Traditional, Contemporary, International by Jennifer Brule
Homestead Kitchen: Stories and Recipes from Our Hearth to Yours by Eivin and Eve Kilcher
Eating in the Middle: a Mostly Wholesome Cookbook by Andie Mitchell
Rise and Shine: Better Breakfasts for Busy Mornings by Katie Sullivan Morford
Savor: Rustic Recipes Inspired by Forest, Field and Farm by Ilona Oppenheim
Scratch: Home Cooking for Everyone Made Simple, Fun, and Totally Delicious by Maria Rodale

2016 Coupon Savings

In 2016 we saved $2,277.43 by couponing! We went down slightly from last year, but still I'm super happy it's over $2,000!

2016 Garden Totals

Squash - 21 

Zucchini - 12
Tomatoes - 216
Grape tomatoes - 63
Cucumbers - 543
Okra - 863

We got a lot less squash and zucchini than last year and about 100 less tomatoes. But with more plants we got a lot more cucumbers and a lot more okra than last year. Every year is different with a garden!

From our garden we canned:

11 pints of tomato sauce
10 quarts of tomatoes
131 pints of pickles

From outside our garden we bought peaches, a bushel of green beans, a bushel of Golden Delicious apples, and a gallon of apple cider to can:

11 half pints of peach butter

19 quarts of green beans

10 half pints and 12 pints of apple butter

16 half pints of apple cider jelly

Mark Kano and Mike Garrigan Concert

The week after Christmas we were lucky enough to get to see two of our favorite musicians play at the Evening Muse - Mark Kano and Mike Garrigan. I've been a fan of Mark Kano and Athenaeum since I was in college. They don't play as much now, so when they do I definitely try to go see them. It was a great mix of Athenaeum songs, Collapsis songs and both Mark and Mike's solo stuff. They are just so incredibly talented and it was such a great show. Here are a few pictures:



I was also able to record two of my favorite songs on my phone. Here is one of my favorite Athenaeum covers of Little Red Corvette by Prince:


Here is Comfort by Athenaeum:

Christmas Pictures

We had a very full and busy Christmas season this year. For the first time in over 10 years I didn't have to mail ANY Christmas gifts! My Mom and Stepfather came up for an early Christmas with us and took gifts back with them to family in Wilmington and my Dad is back in Charlotte so we got to see him on Christmas Day too. Here are pictures from Christmas this year:

Christmas decorations at our house:


Early Christmas with my Mom and Stepfather the weekend before Christmas:


Chad started a new job working for our church a few months ago, so that changed our Christmas Eve traditions a little because he needed to work most of the Christmas Eve services. We had our Christmas Eve traditions the day before Christmas Eve. These pictures are from our Christmas Eve service at Meck and Christmas morning at our house:


On Christmas Day we had lunch and opened gifts with Chad's family:


Later on Christmas Day my Dad, brother and my brother's girlfriend came over for gifts and dessert - homemade pumpkin pie (forgot to take a picture of it):