Going to the Pumpkin Patch

The Pumpkin Patch

We went to Hodges Dairy Farm to get a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. This is one of the few working farms left in our area, so it's nice to support a local farm.

Sandy wants to work out too!

Sandy wanted to stretch with Chad after we came back from walking around our neighborhood.

Here I am doing a pilates video while Sandy watches and tries to participate too!

Sleeping Sandy

I was finally able to get a picture of Sandy sleeping. Most of the time when I try to take a picture of the cats when they're asleep they immediately wake up and look at me. But, I was able to capture Sandy's sleeping face. I may even try to submit this to Cute Overload!

Here's a close-up of the same picture.

The best church ever!

This past weekend our church celebrated it's 15th anniversary. Chad and I have been going to Mecklenburg Community Church for the past 5 years. We absolutely LOVE it - it is the best church I have ever attended. I always tell everyone that this church is the best thing that has happened to me spiritually other than salvation. Our pastor, Jim White, is incredibly intellectual and has written a number of books, but is still very understandable and is probably one of the best speakers I have ever heard. He can effortlessly break down the most complicated theology so that anyone can understand. Chad serves on the worship team and the music is great too (very rock 'n roll - not hymnals)! Our church focuses on people who do not currently attend church, so a large percentage of our members have never attended church before - sadly this is not the case with many churches today. I always tell people (especially people who don't currently attend church) that Meck is NOT like what you might think of when you think of "church". I am so happy to attend such a great church where I can honestly say I really look forward to attending each week and I have met some really great friends!

Such a great husband!!!

This past Friday when I came home from work Chad had these roses waiting for me! There was no reason other than the fact that Chad is the best husband ever! They are so pretty and have just opened up more and more all week - and the cats haven't eaten them either!

Cats in the sun

Now that's it has finally cooled off some we're opening the windows more - after Chad mended the screens that the cats had pushed out. Sandy loves to sit in the window when we have it open.

Here is one of Roxy's favorite spots recently. I realized yesterday why she has been sitting here so much. I have a small houseplant on the dining room table and yesterday I caught her in the act of eating the leaves! So, she hangs out in the chair until she thinks we're not looking or we're gone and then she hops up on the table to eat my plant - no wonder it had been looking so rough recently!

Lounging cats

Roxy absolutely loves the Tarheel's blanket I made Chad for Christmas last year. It was so covered in her fur that once we got it clean we took it off the chair so she wouldn't sit on it anymore. But, after much trying she was able to work her way back onto the blanket.

Here's Sandy lounging on the couch.

Putting me to work too!

Since I had Labor Day off work Chad had me come work with him!

He also insisted that I drive the forklift too!

I won't be giving up my day job or anything - just helping him get his business started. I am way too spoiled by working indoors with AC/Heating year-round!

Laboring on Labor Day

Here is Chad driving a forklift at one of the companies he contracts for.

Since Chad had just started his business he didn't want to not work on Labor Day, so here he is hard at work on the holiday created for laborers to have a day off!

Chad's new business

At the end of August Chad officially started C & J Services - his own business. He is basically doing what he was already doing, just for himself. He cleans and repairs mobile offices and now contracts with trailer companies instead of being an employee. I surprised him with some shirts embroidered with the business name - this is one of them in the picture. Chad & I are both very excited about this new business venture!

Sandy vs. the balloon

In a previous post I showed a picture of Chad with his birthday balloon - well, these are the pictures of Sandy attacking the balloon strings. She had already chewed on one of the strings before the balloon started losing air. She and Roxy finally pulled it to the ground and popped it - which scared them both pretty well!

Sandy watches TV

You can't tell from this picture, but I was watching the Animal Planet channel and Sandy became VERY interested in the sounds of the animals coming from the TV. Any time I have the TV on Animal Planet Sandy stops what she is doing to "watch".

A Calf in the Road

Every day when I'm driving to work I pass some cow pastures near our house. Today when I passed one I saw three calves all standing together. As I got closer I realized that one of them was on my side of the fence! I was afraid that he would get out into the road and be hit by a car or get lost further away from the pasture - also, I assumed that the fence must be broken somewhere for him to have escaped. I wasn't sure what to do so I called 311 (Mecklenburg county's info line) and asked for animal control. The operator told me that she could take the call and so I explained the situation. She said I should call 911 because a police officer would have to come out and determine the owner of the calf, so she transferred me to 911 and they said they would send someone out. I would have never called 911 about something like this since I don't really think it was an emergency, but hopefully someone was able to get the calf back in the pasture. It was funny to me that however this calf escaped the pasture he still stayed right beside the fence and the other cows - he wasn't wandering down the road or into neighborhoods. I think these cows are owned by Hodges Dairy Farm, so when I got to work I also left a message on their answering machine in case they got my message before the police got out there. Hopefully, the little calf was able to get back in the pasture with all the other cows!

Un-Common Courtesy

Recently Chad & I encountered situations where people we interacted with did not seem to understand what "common courtesy" is. I am really starting to think that "common courtesy" is not so common anymore. I don't know where the ball is dropped on this, or if people are just becoming more and more selfish and just do not care how their actions may affect someone else. I think our nation and culture as a whole promote selfishness and looking out for #1 only. Check out some of the T-shirts around. I have seen countless people wearing shirts that say "It's all about ME" or some other derivative of that message. But, the two situations we experienced recently would not have requried some huge effort on the part of the people, but just a small display of courtesy - which apparently is still too much to ask of people.

Here are the situations:

At work Chad was working and another vendor needed to move the trailer Chad was working on, but instead of letting Chad know and explaining the situation. This other vendor just starts moving Chad's tools, etc and did not say anything to him at all. Chad quickly moved his stuff out of the way and was fortunately able to work elsewhere for the rest of that day. He did speak with the other vendor the next day and ask that if something like that happened again could he just let Chad know the situation. I mean how hard would that have been?

My situation was that I was contacting a large group of people that attend our church about possibly joining a small group. Out of 11 couples only about half even responded to me at all. Now keep in mind that these people gave their information willingly knowing that they would be contacted shortly. Throughout my time as a small group leader I have been continually blown away that so many people just never respond - when they have ASKED to be contacted! How hard would it be for them to quickly e-mail back "thanks, but this isn't going to work out for us right now."?

I hope that somehow we can come back to practicing courtesy and somehow make is commonplace again. I don't think it's too much to ask of anyone to be nice and courteous in small everyday things. For now unfortunately, courtesy is all too un-common.

The Honeymoon's Over

I just finished reading this great book "The Honeymoon's Over" edited by Andrea Chapin and Sally Wofford-Girand. The reason I even noticed this book was because of the great cover. I mean what says the honeymoon's over better than completely burnt toast?! The book is a compilation of stories about love, marriage and divorce. It's interesting to see people write about all the red flags they ignored in their now-ex or to see how hard other couples work to stay together. I think most people who have been married a few years and are happy know that marriage is awesome, but it is work. It isn't great by accident. My proudest accomplishment thus far is my marriage to Chad. We've been married for 7 years now and there have definitely been some "burnt toast" times, but we have worked really hard to make our marriage good. That's what I liked so much about this book was all the people who were willing to write about such a private thing like marriage. Maybe if more people talked about marriage and the work of it, rather than just all the wedding day hype more people would actually stay married. Anyway, this is a great book with an even better cover!

July Birthday Dinner

Both Chad and my brother Fielding have birthdays in July, so we usually go to Outback to celebrate. This year my mom was in town too, so the whole family was there. Here is me & Fielding with our mom and dad.

Here's me & Fielding - I had to include a picture of him without sunglasses!

Here's me & Chad.

Happy Birthday to Chad!

The birthday cake I made for Chad.

Chad's official birthday present was an iPod, but I gave that to him before we went on vacation. So, on his actual birthday he got his cake, some candy, a six-pack of Newcastle and this balloon. What says "Happy Birthday" better than a six-pack of beer anyway?!

Misty Mountain Inn

Here's the Bed & Breakfast where we stayed in GA.

Here's our room.

We stayed at the Misty Mountain Inn & Cottages in Blairsville, GA.

Alyson's Wedding

Chad's sister Amy and her husband Kevin dancing.

Chad & Kathryn dancing.

Me & Chad - another opportunity to get all dressed up!

Always the librarian

Here is me beside the sign for the Blairsville library. Unfortunately we didn't get to go inside because they are only open on Saturdays for a few hours. Always the librarian - we try to get pictures of the local library when we go on vacation.

A Mule Ride

Here are me and Chad with our nieces, Kathyrn and Karissa, on a Mule at Uncle Guy's farm. Chad said that this is his tribute to Matt Roloff from the TLC TV show Little People, Big World. On that show Matt and his family use Mules to drive around their farm - Chad always says that he gets a Mule when we get our dream house on lots of land (which is still a long, long way off!). So, he got a little practice driving one while we were in GA.

Uncle Guy's Farm

Chad's uncle Guy raises cattle on his farm in GA. Here are some pictures of his cows.

Alpaca faces

Here are some closer pictures of some of the alpacas.

They are so cute, but unfortunately they don't really like to be petted.

Alpaca Time!

One of Chad's cousins got married in July in Blairsville, GA. We found an alpaca farm that was nearby where we were staying so we decided to check it out. It was really cool. The farm we went to is called Lasso the Moon (click on the name to go to their website). The farm owner not only raises the alpacas, but she also makes really cool glass bead jewelry - there's a section on the website where she sells it online too. I bought a blue/green bead shaped like an alpaca.

Greedy Kitties

If you can tell from looking at this picture - Roxy completely ripped open this bag of treats. I made the mistake of leaving them out on the coffee table and when we came home they were torn open. Both of them LOVE treats, but Roxy in particular will try to get into the bag if you don't watch her!

Parade Prizes

During the 4th of July parade this year we sat at the beginning of the parade route, so we scored better freebies than we have in the past. Chad got me the Chick-fil-A cow and I got the flag, plus we got TONS of candy. Chad also got the hat that he's wearing in the fireworks picture too.

Fireworks!

It's very hard to take a picture of fireworks, but Chad got the hang of it and took some really great pictures of the fireworks display in Harrisburg.

More 4th of July

Here are our nieces, Kathryn & Karissa, with their 4th of July ribbons.

Here's a picture of me & Chad at the Harrisburg park for the fireworks.

More pictures from the 4th of July Parade

This farm decorated their float with Sandra Boynton characters.

One of the Harrisburg fire engines.

Harrisburg 4th of July Parade

Chad loved this Carolina Tarheels Mule from the parade.

Paul Revere rides through the streets of Harrisburg.

Sandy's jewelry

If you look closely you can see that Sandy is wearing a milk cap ring like a bracelet. The milk cap rings are one of her favorite toys.

Biological clock ticking...or not...

I just read this article from Newsweek online called "Stop Setting Alarms on my Biological Clock" by Carrie Friedman. Basically the author talks about how much she does want kids, but is very frustrated and irratated with all the people she comes into contact with who want to know when she's going to get pregnant - and basically she says it's none of their business. All the harrassing doesn't really encourage her to want to join the motherhood club that so many people are hard-core recruiting for. It's like I could have written that article, except for the part about really, really wanting kids. I'm still very ambivalent about whether I want to have kids, but I'm really sick of everyone who has kids trying to recruit me into their exclusive club. My husband and I are the only couple I know that doesn't already have kids, is pregnant or actively pursuing pregnancy, adoption, etc. - but many of my friends think that when I hold their newborn I'm going to be suddenly converted to the cult. If we decide to have kids it will be on our terms and because we want to - not because we finally caved to all the pressure from other parents. I think this is a great, very relevant article - click here if you'd like to read it.