The Shiele Museum

I wanted to do something fun the weekend before my surgery to keep my mind off it. We originally wanted to go to the NC Zoo in Asheboro, but it rained off and on the whole weekend, so we didn't want to take that chance. In the end we decided to go to the Shiele Museum since they have both outdoor and indoor exhibits. Here are some of the animals in the reproduction of an 18th Century Farmhouse.

The sheep had recently been shorn - they do it as a live exhibit the old fashioned way with shears, but obviously we missed that.

Chad & Jessica at the Shiele Museum

Here is Chad in front of the replica of an 18th Century Farmhouse.

Here is Jessica on the nature trail.

Here is a picture of both of us on the nature trail.

Wild Animals at the Shiele Museum

While we walked the nature trail at the Shiele Museum we saw a bunch of turtles at the pond.

We also saw lots of squirrels running around in the trees.

Inside the Shiele Museum

The Shiele Museum is a museum of natural history, so they have a lot of recreations of historical things and events. When you first walk inside there is a replica of a T-Rex skeleton.

They also have a lot of animal dioramas that depict animals in their native habitat. Here is the American West Buffalo diorama.

Here is the American Southwest diorama with wild pigs.

Chad & I as sea creatures

The Shiele Museum was hosting an Ocean exhibit when we went, so of course Chad & I had to pose in the shark and octopus cut-outs!

Sea Horses at the Shiele Museum

Here are some really good pictures of the sea horses that were part of the Ocean exhibit at the Shiele Museum. The tank they were in was kind of small so I was able to get some good close pictures.

Sinus Surgery

I had sinus surgery (correct a deviated septum and remove a polyp) on May 26th. The surgery went really well and I've been doing great ever since. The doctor said that once everything is fully healed I should be able to tell a big improvement in my breathing. While I was recovering my family and Chad's family did a lot to help us out. My mom sent me a care package that was full of fun stuff for me and Chad to enjoy while I was recovering and my dad sent me the beautiful flowers that are pictured below! My brother and his girlfriend brought us some food one night and Chad's mom fixed some of our favorite dishes and brought them over after my surgery so Chad wouldn't have to cook that night. Also, my co-workers sent me a nice card with a gift card to Outback inside! I had lots of cards and gifts from friends and family and it really meant a lot to me while I was home recovering from surgery. So, thanks again everyone!

Vegetable Garden

This year Chad & I decided to try our hands at having a vegetable garden. Since we're in a townhouse and don't really have a yard, Chad's parents offered us the use of their yard. I hope it's successful - we planted tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, catalope and basil. Here's a picture of Chad getting ready to work on the garden space.

Here I am planting our veggies.

Here's Chad watering our new garden.

9 Year Anniversary!

April 29, 2009 marked me & Chad's 9 year anniversary! I can hardly believe we've been married that long. Each year just keeps getting better though! Here are the roses Chad got me for our anniversary.

Here's a picture of us on our front porch from the day we celebrated our anniversary with a late lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (thanks for the gift card Mom!).

Mountain Mini-Vacation

We decided to take a mini-vacation with our friends Melanie & Dave to the NC mountains. We ended up finding a great deal on this cabin in Saluda, NC (about 20 minutes away from Hendersonville). Our cabin was called Buzzard Roost - here's a picture of it.

This was the view from the cabin's front porch.

Here's the main bedroom.

Saluda, NC

Saluda has a great little downtown area with shops, cafes and other places to hang out. As a Librarian I like to find the library if I can and check it out. The Saluda library was pretty small, and here's a picture of me in front of the window/sign.

Here are me & Chad by a little garden area in downtown Saluda.

I got this awesome cat clock in a store in Saluda. We had already left the shop when I noticed it in the display window, so we went back in and asked about it. It meows on the hour too! We promptly hung it up as soon as we got home, but we did have to turn off the meowing feature because it was really freaking out the real cats at home!

Breakdown!

On our way back from the grocery store Melanie's car broke down. Fortunately we have AAA, but we still waited on the side of the interstate for an hour before they came. Even more fortunately Melanie's brother lives about 10 minutes away from where we were staying and we were able to cram into the cab of the tow truck and drop the brokendown car at his house and borrow an extra vehicle to get home in. It's never fun to break down, especially on the side of the interstate, but we were very fortunate in a lot of ways that it wasn't much, much worse.

Here's a picture of Melanie's brokendown car.

Here's a picture of our rescuer gettting ready to tow the car.

Here are the four of us crammed into the tow truck cab - and I do mean crammed!

We are gonna relax like crazy!

When we were all crammed in the tow truck cab Chad said that when we got back to the cabin "we are gonna relax like crazy!" We all thought that was hilarious, but when we did get back we basically colapsed for awhile, but then Chad started working on the fire pit so we could make s'mores. Here's a picture of Chad intently working on the fire - complete with head lamp to find small brush in the woods in the dark!

Pearson Waterfall

Right outside downtown Saluda there are the Pearson Waterfalls. It's a really neat area with lots of picnic areas along the trail toward the falls. If we go back there again we'll bring a picnic lunch, but here are some pictures we took along the way to the waterfall.

Here's Melanie & Dave along the trail.

Here's me & Chad at a bridge.

More Pearson Waterfall Pictures

Here are some more pictures from the Pearson Waterfall area. Here's me & Chad by a big rock at one of the picnic areas.

Here is the Pearson Waterfall.

Here's Chad standing on a big rock by the waterfall.

Nancy's Retirement Party

One of my favorite library people retired this year my former boss/co-worker/friend Nancy. Her party theme was Cinderella - complete with a tiara for her to wear at the party. Here is her princess cake.

Here is Nancy opening some of her many gifts.

Here is a picture of me & Nancy at the party.

Nancy's blanket

I made a fleece blanket for my former boss/co-worker/friend Nancy when she retired at the end of March. Here she is looking at the blanket after she opened my gift.

My cats were very interested in this blanket while I was making it - maybe because the of the cat pattern. Here they are checking it out.

2009 NCAA National Champions!!!

Carolina won the 2009 NCAA National Championship! And even better for all the fans out there was the fact that almost all of the games in the tournament - including the championship game - were won by double digits. What a great way to end the basketball season! Here are some pictures to commemorate.

Cat Pics

You can see how excited Sandy and Roxy are about the Carolina Championship!

Here's a close-up of a sleeping Sandy.

New Bird Feeder

We recently bought a bird feeder for the tree in our front yard. Either we have a LOT of birds eating from it or the wind is blowing the seed out because we've already had to refill it twice in just a few weeks! Here's a picture of the new feeder.

Here's a picture of two birds eating at the feeder.

2009 Spring Plants

Since we're finally heading into spring and summer we planted some new flowers in the bed in our backyard. Here's Chad digging the holes for the flowers.

Here are the new flowers all planted!

Easter at Verizon

Our church (Mecklenburg Community Church) had our Easter service at Verizon so that we could have one service with everyone there. It was pretty cool to have a church service there when you're used to going to concerts there and dealing with hundreds of drunk people - not the case at our Easter service by the way! They also had egg hunts for the kids and Chad's sister's family came with us, so one of our nieces participated in the egg hunt. Here's a picture of Karissa (in the blue and pink jacket) in line for the "hunt".

Here's a picture of the egg "hunt" in progress - I lost track of her at this point!

Inside Looking Out

Sandy and Roxy love to look out the windows - especially if we open the windows and they can see and smell what's going on outside. Since the weather has been so nice recently I got this picture of them both looking out the same window.

Facebook

Well, I finally caved and joined Facebook! Chad has been on for awhile, but I stubbornly didn't want to be on a social networking site. But, then almost everyone I know is on there now and I just couldn't hold out anymore. Now, I'm glad I did. I've already reconnected with some old friends and it's such an easy way to keep in touch with a bunch of people. But, I'm sure many of the people who check out our blog already knew I finally joined because most of them are on there too!