Lounging on the beach

We got new beach chairs this year complete with attached pillows and they can recline in stages all the way to completely horizontal. Here's Chad enjoying the new chairs.

Here's another picture of Chad lying on our oversize towel.

The beautiful Wrightsville Beach

Here are some pictures of the beautiful Wrightsville Beach. The weather was so nice while we were there that towards the end of the week we stayed out too long and got a little sun-burned.

Ft. Fisher area

Here is a view of the beach at Ft. Fisher.

Here is a picture of the Maritime Forest at Ft. Fisher.

Aquarium statues

Here I am with an otter statue.

Here's Chad with a giant frog statue.

Turtles at the aquarium

These two box turtles were in one of the aquarium exhibits and instead of hiding in their shells when they saw us they stayed out and followed us while we were near their exhibit.

Here are some turtles that live outside of the aquarium in a pond area.

More aquarium creatures

Here's a picture of a spiny lobster.

And here's a picture of a sting ray.

More fish pics

Here are some more pictues of fish in their aquariums. Above you can see Chad's silhouette in front of the aquarium and below is a close-up of one of the fish.

More aquarium pictures

I was really surprised at the pictures we were able to take with our digital camera of the fish in their tanks. Above is a sea horse and below is a close-up of moray eel.

Some of the aqarium's non-living exhibits

Here's a picture of me with an alligator model. They have a live alligator exhibit too and it was really creepy because the alligators seemed really agitated when we were in front of them and they kept trying to get at us. Chad said it was because of my faux alligator purse...

Here's what Chad would look like if he were a fiddler crab!

Chad & Jessica at the Aquarium

Here are some pictures of me & Chad at the North Carolina Aquarium at Ft. Fisher.

Me in front of the entrance and Chad at the bird watching area outside.

Wrightsville Beach Vacation

Here's a picture of one of the views from where we stay in Wrightsville Beach. If only the powerlines weren't in the way!

8 Year Anniversary

Here are some pictures of the beautiful roses that Chad got me for our 8th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that we've been married for 8 years, but each year just gets better and better!

Sandy's new spot on the bed

Recently Sandy has decided that sleeping at the foot of the bed is not where she wants to be. Whenever I get up she immediately takes my nice warm spot under the covers. What can I say, she's a pretty smart cat!

Roxy pics

Here are some shots of Roxy. I particularly like the top one where it looks like she's posing!

Sandy's favorite spot

Sandy loves to lounge in the sun. Here's another picture of her soaking up some rays.

A New Low for Society...

Apparently plastic surgeons aren't making enough money augmenting anyone with an A-cup or a few wrinkles, so now they're getting into publishing children's books. Dr. Michael Salzhauer has written the children's book "My Beautiful Mommy" (pictured above) to help children understand what happens when their mother has plastic surgery. My favorite line is when the mom says to her child that she "won't look different, just prettier." Seriously - I absolutely cannot believe this book exists or that apparently so many people need it to help their children through all their cosmetic procedures! What a bunch of messed up kids they'll be - maybe that generation will be so emotionally scarred from seeing mom all bandaged up from plastic surgery that they'll decide to go back to being 100% natural. We can only hope right?!

Yard sale success

Here are some pictures of how we had our yard sale laid out. Since they were calling for rain that day my biggest concern was that we'd be rained out. It stormed the night before, but it did not rain at all until about 11:45 or so right when we started to pack up. So everything worked out pretty well. We didn't make a ton of money, but we did get rid of a lot of stuff we didn't need anymore and the rest will be taken to Goodwill. Other than the signs getting taken because of the ordinance, I was really happy with how smoothly everything went with this yard sale!

More yard sale pics

Here are me and Chad at the yard sale. Since Chad was taking most of the pictures the only one I have of him is one my niece Kathryn took of him being silly - but that's most of the time anyway!

Yard sale co-hosts

Chad's sister Amy and her family (pictured above) and our friend Dave (pictured below) also helped out with the yard sale.

Yard Sale time

We decided to have a yard sale this year. Because of our neighborhood's HOA we can't have a yard sale whenever we want, so Chad's parents let us have it at their house. Here are some of the signs we made and me working on them. Unfortunately because of an ordinance about signs in Harrisburg two of the three signs we made were taken before the yard sale and we had to quickly make new ones Friday night.

Sandy "paints the town read"

The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County created a literacy campaign called "Paint the town Read" to promote reading and literacy. Here is Sandy showing her support for the campaign.

Toy favoritism

Sandy & Roxy got these wooly mice toys for Christmas.

Can you tell which one they play with more?

Cuddly cats

Here are Roxy & Sandy cuddling on the couch.

Chad and the flu

In March Chad got a nasty case of the flu. He was sick for a week and I even stayed home from work 2 days to take care of him. Of course as you can see from this picture the cats helped take care of him too!

Valentine's pie

Since Chad loves the pumpkin pie I make so much, I decided to make him one for Valentine's Day too. And I just happened to find a heart-shaped pan to bake it in too!

The fence continued...

Chad also added privacy fencing to back yard and added a gate (picture below) as well.

C&J Services first residential job

Chad's first residential job was building a fence at my boss's house. It was also right after he bought the trailer and it really came in handy with hauling away the old fence pieces. The picture above is Chad finishing up the fence job with a lattice section.

This is a picture of part of the fence - the gothic picket style sections.

More trailer details

The shelves that are on the left side of this picture are ones that Chad built into his trailer for more storage.

Here's Chad's business motto - posted in his trailer.

Chad's new business purchase

Chad's business is going really well and he had more and more stuff he needed to carry with him, so he decided to buy a trailer. You can see his truck and the trailer above and a picture of the inside of the trailer below.

Final Four Meltdown

Well, I was hoping that my next blog post would be celebrating the Tar Heels as National Champions, but unfortunately that won't be the case. Carolina played their worst game of the season in the Final Four against Kansas. I don't know what happened, but they just totally fell apart. Down by as much as 28 points, they did manage to come back within 4 points, but just couldn't make it happen. Tyler Hansbrough scored 17 points and Wayne Ellington (pictured above) scored 18, but it just wasn't enough to bring them back to a win. All I can say is that hopefully Hansbrough and the other juniors will stay for their senior year at Carolina and work that much harder for a National Championship next year.