More animals...

Here's one of the llamas up close and personal...

There were a lot of goat/deer/hooved animals that I really wasn't sure what they were at the Ranch. These guys below were very persistant and followed our truck very closely hoping for some food.

These goat type animals were always near the tree roots and sometimes blended in with the color of the roots.

Pigs, pigs everywhere!

I think my absolutely favorite animals at the Ranch were the pigs. I know pigs are not exotic, but I think they are so cute. There were lots of pigs of all different sizes and ages - even some very tiny babies as you can see in the next few pictures.

Here's a close up of one of the baby pigs - so cute!

Prarie Dogs

At the Ranch they had a Prarie Dog mound - I'm not sure how many were in there, but you can see one of them starting to peek out of one of the holes.

Here's another one eating.

Me & Chad at Lazy 5 Ranch

Here's Chad in front of a very old John Deere tractor.

Here's me with one of the goats.

Some of the "un-pettable" animals

There are quite a few other animals at the Lazy 5 Ranch that are not allowed to be petted - some for very good reason. There were 4 or 5 camels, but only this one came up close to the fence.

Here are some animals you definitely wouldn't want to pet - porcupines!

There were also 3 giant tortoises.

Ring-tailed Lemurs

There was an island of Ring-tailed Lemurs. They were very fun to watch jumping all over the place and playing together.

Here's a picture of me in front of their island.

Sleeping In

I LOVE to sleep in whenever I can. Almost every day that I go into work late or have the day off and I'm able to sleep in I wake up to find both of the cats on the bed with me. This morning even after I got up for breakfast they both stayed in bed and Sandy even moved over to take my spot too. I think they like sleeping even more than me!

Harrisburg Flooding

Because of the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay Charlotte and the surrounding areas had a lot of flooding. Cabarrus county schools had to cancel classes one day because of the widespread flooding. We were very fortunate that we didn't have any flooding at our house or in our immediate area. But, Chad's parents neighborhood was completely flooded and people had to be evacuated in boats! Luckily Chad's parent's house is up on a hill and did not have any flooding or damage. Here is a picture of their road when conditions are normal...

...and here it is totally flooded over.

Chad said the water was waist deep over the road here.

More Flood Pictures

This is someone's driveway and mailbox.

Here's the "normal" picture...

...and the day it flooded.

C & J Services new tradition

C & J Services has officially been in business for 1 year and is still going strong! Last year Chad had me help him work on Labor Day since he had just started the business and this year he had me working again on the Friday before Labor Day. He said that will be C & J Services new tradition that I always help him sometime during Labor Day weekend! Here's a picture of Chad using his new paint sprayer.

Here's a picture of me painting the hitch of a trailer.

Here's a picture of the finished trailer we worked on.

Matthews Alive Parade and Festival

Every year the Town of Matthews has a parade and festival on Labor Day weekend. I grew up in Matthews as a kid and we always went to the parade. Chad & I try to go whenever we can. Here's the start of the parade.

Here's a float from Matthews Elementary School,

which is where I went to elementary school.

Mascots in Matthews

Both the Charlotte Bobcats and the Carolina Panthers were represented in the Matthews Alive parade. Here's Rufus from the Bobcats.

Here's Sir Purr from the Panthers.

Marching bands make a parade

The one thing that I think is missing from the Harrisburg 4th of July parade is marching bands. In the Matthews Alive parade I think there were at least 4 high school marching bands. Here's a picture of the Providence High School band.

Roxy loves tight spots

Roxy loves to squeeze into very tight spots where you would not think an adult cat could fit. Here she is under our computer armoire.

Labor Day weekend wedding

One of my co-workers, Kate, got married over Labor Day weekend this year. Here's a picture of the happy couple - Kate & Mark!

Here's a picture of me & Chad at the wedding.

Please try to ignore my devilish red eyes.

Sandy & Roxy turn 4!

We adopted Sandy & Roxy (then called Marmalade & Amber) from the Cabarrus County Humane Society in Aug. 05 and they were approximately 1 year old then. So, we've had them for 3 years now and this August they turned 4 years old! Here are their gifts - a new scratching mat and 2 packs of treats. As you can see Sandy couldn't wait to test out the new mat!

Here is a picture of both cats checking out the new mat.

Sandy & Roxy's enjoy their gifts

Sandy & Roxy were very excited about their birthday gifts!

Here's a picture of Sandy on the mat.

Here's Roxy rolling around on the mat too.

Sandy has become very territorial about the new mat.

She is always trying to fully lay on it so Roxy can't get to it.

A Very Busy Weekend

This past weekend was jam packed and very busy. We had a wedding shower, a baby shower and two concerts over a three day weekend. Saturday night we saw probably my all time favorite band Athenaeum at Amos' Southend. They played an awesome 2 hour show! I could only find one picture from that show on Flickr, but it's a good one since it's a close up of Mark, the lead singer!

The other concert we saw was the Stone Temple Pilots on Sunday night at Verizon Wireless. When I heard that they were getting back together earlier this year I bought our tickets as soon as they went on sale! We were lucky enough to see them in 2001 on the Family Values Tour and they were just as good as ever. My only complaint was that there was an hour of waiting between the opening band and STP, but once they came out they totally rocked! I found a lot of great pictures from that show on Flickr too.

Here's a picture of Scott Weiland at the beginning of the show.

Here's a picture of Scott with the megaphone.

Here's a picture of the whole band at the end of the show.

More Baby Shower Pictures

Here are the guests working hard on one of the baby shower games:

Here is Becca opening her gifts:

This is Jackson, my co-host Kelly's son, holding Braden:

A Long Awaited Baby Shower

As I mentioned earlier in the blog some of our friends, Becca & Jason, were recently able to adopt a baby boy after waiting over two years. My friend Kelly and I threw Becca a baby shower last weekend. You can see the cake below:

Here's a picture of mom Becca with baby Braden.

Another picture of Sandy in the sun

Sandy loves to lie in the sun. Here she is on the scratching mat stretched out in the sun.

The Biggest Roses I've Ever Seen

Chad got me the most beautiful roses last week. They just kept opening up bigger and bigger every day! I love roses, but particularly white roses and these were some of the most beautiful roses I've ever seen!

Here's a close up of one of the roses.

House Lust by Daniel McGinn

I just finished reading a very interesting book, House Lust by Daniel McGinn. He basically explores our society's obsession with newer, bigger and "better" homes. McGinn does a great job of exploring all aspects of this issue, from the increasing size of new homes, the increased popularity of house "flipping", all the HGTV shows and how realtors also play into this issue. I am willing to admit that Chad & I got sucked into house lust when we bought our house. By the time we bought our house we had been married over 4 years and I felt like we were the last married couple who didn't own a home. We also got sucked into wanting a new home so that we could pick the flooring, appliances, etc. We have a very nice townhouse, but now we would choose something completely different. We didn't think we'd even still be in this house now, but with the housing market falling apart we're pretty much stuck here for now.

I think most homeowners can relate to some parts of this book. Although I cannot relate to one homeowner McGinn profiles in his book. This family consists of the 2 parents and 3 children and their house is 9,000 square feet. Compare that to probably the same size family in the 1950's where the average house was 983 square feet. I think the housing issue is just a reflection of what our society values now - quantity over quality and bigger = better. I also think that the people who live in 9,000 square foot homes, along with all the Hummer and other huge SUV drivers out there, are just trying to compensate for something that they lack in their lives.