Jimmy Eat World Concert!

Jimmy Eat World is another one of my favorite bands that I hadn't ever had the opportunity to see live.  They were playing in Asheville the week after my birthday, so going to this concert was going to be part of my birthday gift from Chad.  They played at a venue called the Orange Peel, which was a really nice venue other than the fact that there was not much parking nearby.  We did find a spot about 2 blocks away, which was fine.  The band was GREAT - they really put on a good show!  They played for an hour and a half which was great.  It was a really good show and I was able to get some good pictures of the band.  Here are my pictures from the Jimmy Eat World show:

The view on our way up to Asheville.

At the Orange Peel in Asheville.

Jimmy Eat World Live!

The lead singer and other guitarist.

The drummer and bass player.

The lead singer, Jim.

The whole band again.

Me in the shirt I bought at the concert.

Flyleaf Concert!

Flyleaf is one of my favorite bands and I've never gotten to see them live.  So, I was extremely excited when I found out they were coming to Charlotte the week of my birthday!  Chad and I got to see them at Amos' Southend, which is a great concert venue, on Friday September 17th.  When we got there we even ran into my brother Fielding and his girlfriend Kasey too!  The concert was GREAT.  Flyleaf is such a great band and even though they are a Christian band they have gotten tons of secular exposure on radio, MTV, etc.  And it was really cool to see a band at Amos' get up and talk about Jesus and what their songs mean and they even promoted World Vision, which is a wonderful Christian relief organization.  It was a great concert and even better that is added to my birthday week celebrations!  It was very crowded and I wasn't able to take very good pictures, but here are the ones I did take:

Me & Chad before the Flyleaf show.

Fielding and Kasey before Flyleaf.

Flyleaf!

The lead singer Lacey.

Another picture of Flyleaf

Happy Birthday to Jessica!

Last year for my birthday Chad and I were lucky enough to get to celebrate it in Hawaii with my Mom and Mike.  This year unfortunately we couldn't do that again, but I decided to take a couple extra days off work to celebrate my birthday.  Since my Dad's birthday is a few days before mine he came to Charlotte and we celebrated our birthdays on Sept. 11th with dinner at Carrabbas with Chad, Dad, me, my brother Fielding and his girlfriend Kasey.  Then on my actual birthday Chad and I went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  Here is a picture of us when we got back home - stuffed from our wonderful birthday dinner!  Chad even wore his plaid shorts that he knows are my favorites!

Here is the oreo cheesecake we brought home from the Cheesecake Factory!

I'll post pictures of my birthday gift from Chad later - he made me a custom craft table!  I was so surprised and it's perfect for all my craft stuff to be organized.  I need to get everything organized and he's going to put up a shelf above it for me too.  Once it's all set up I'll post pictures of my wonderful birthday gift from Chad!

Sandy and Roxy

Sandy lounging in the living room.

Roxy looking outside on a nice day.

Visitors to our yard

Our neighbor's cat Harley is so sweet and always comes over to visit us!

Another hummingbird hanging out at our feeder.

This hawk was flying around our neighborhood and stopped to perch on the power line tower in the field behind our house.  This was as close as I could zoom in to him.

This garden spider built it's web between our front porch and our neighbor's.

Labor Day weekend gardening

Since we are starting to head into fall most of our garden is done producing.  So, on Labor Day weekend Chad pulled out all the dying plants and now all we have left is okra - which is still going strong too!  Here are some garden pictures:

I love the okra flowers!

More beautiful okra!

Chad working on the garden - you might be able to see Roxy inside watching if you look closely!

Both cats in the windows watching Chad work in the garden.

When pulling up the tomato plants Chad found some horn worms.

This is a horn worm that's been parasitized by a wasp - all the white egg things are wasp larvae that will eat the horn worm when they hatch.  Pretty creepy!

Here is the current garden with only okra plants and one little basil plant left.

Matthews Alive 2010

Since I grew up in Matthews I always try to go to the Matthews Alive festival every year and the parade when I can too.  This year the weather was absolutely perfect for the parade and festival!  Also, since I attended Matthews Elementary School for 2nd through 6th grade it's nice to go back and see my old school too.  Here is a slideshow of the parade and the festival:

Bikes!

Chad and I have been talking about getting bikes for at least the past 5 years or so.  Well, we finally got some in August!  I was so happy that the one I really wanted was on sale for a great price and was the exact size I needed too (mine is the blue one and Chad's is the black one).  We also got these great stands so that we can store the bikes in our sun room and they are very easy to get in and out.  Here are some pictures of the new bikes:

Craziness at UC

Ever since the library shortened our hours we have been MUCH, MUCH busier on the days we are open.  Mondays have become especially busy because we don't open until noon and none of the other nearby libraries are open at all.  Here are a few pictures from this Monday of people waiting to get in and waiting to get an internet computer reservation - it's craziness!

August 2010 Bird Pictures

I have been trying to get pictures of the hummingbirds that come to our feeder, but they are so fast it's really hard to get a good picture.   Here are a few decent ones I got:

This is a picture I got of two Goldfinches on the feeder at the same time!

Sandy and Roxy - August 2010

Here are some new cat pictures.  In this first one Sandy trying to hide "under" the newspaper.  She loves to try to get underneath anything she can!

These next two are of Roxy sticking her tongue out - you have to look closely.  I tried to zoom in on the second one, but it's a little blurry.

Cat Clocks

I am a big cat person and I LOVE my two cat clocks.  I had this Felix kit-cat clock when I was in high school that I thought was broken, but recently I pulled it out and with new batteries it was working again - not only does it keep time, but the tail and eyes move back and forth!

This clock I got last year when we went to the mountains with some friends.  It meows out loud on the hour, but I had to disable that because it was freaking out the real cats!

Going Organic

For the past few months Chad and I have been trying to eat more organic food. Organic has become such a buzz word that I almost hate to use it, but basically what I mean by “organic” is food that is grown without chemicals, hormones, not genetically modified, humanely raised, etc. We planted our own vegetable garden this year and were very happy with how much food we got from it - and I know each year we’ll get better. We’ve also been trying to buy most of our meat from the local Farmer’s Market. My theory is that we can save money in other areas and that will help when we buy the more expensive local meat. But, I also think when we buy super cheap food we pay for it in other ways - at the expense of the animal’s health and well being, with our own health and the health of the environment as well. We had been trying to incorporate more organic food into our life anyway, but after watching Food, Inc. I don’t plan on going back.

Food, Inc. does more than just talk about why organic food is better - it covers a wide range of issues that impact the food world and what we eat. It talks about the government agencies that are supposed to regulate the food industry, but are really impotent, about huge conglomerates who are taking over the food industry, about how Monsanto and their genetically modified seeds could give Satan a run for his money in pure evilness, the poor animals in factory farms - I could go on and on. I would say this movie changed my life, but really it just confirmed the direction I was already moving toward. But, after seeing this movie I have decided to make some long term changes to our lifestyle:

1) I will not buy non-organic/humanely raised meat anymore.

2) I will not eat at fast food restaurants anymore (they are the main factor behind factory farming - especially of meat).

3) I will eat more meat-free meals (both for health and also to help balance the cost of the meat I’m choosing to buy).

I would highly recommend this movie and also it’s companion book of the same name edited by Karl Weber. Here are a few other books that really had an impact on me:

Farm Sanctuary by Gene Baur
The Compassionate Carnivore by Catherine Friend
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Bird Visitors

I love watching the birds at our bird feeder in the front yard. 

Here is Mr. Goldfinch coming to visit.

I am also very excited that we have a Cardinal pair who come by regularly!

More Garden Pictures

I am so happy with our garden this year - we have really had good production so far and should get lots more before the season is over!  Here are some new pictures of our garden:

A beautiful okra flower.

Some okra pods growing.

Lima beans growing.

Pie pumpkins starting.

Our neighbor's cat Harley likes to hang out in our garden in the mornings.

Harley sleeping in the garden.

Cuddling Cats

Here are Roxy and Sandy cuddling on the ottoman!

July Birthdays

Both Chad and my brother Fielding's birthdays are in July.  Our friends Becca and Jason's son Braden's birthday is in July too, so we had lots of celebrations this month!  First we celebrated Fielding's birthday - here are some pictures from our dinner at Carrabbas:

Next we celebrated Braden's 2nd birthday:

Chad's birthday is the 24th and we spent the day together just hanging out and then went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  Here are a few pictures from our day:

New Cat Pictures

This is Roxy's favorite spot - on the back of the chair on a blanket.

Sandy sleeping in front of the coffee table.

This is one of our neighbor's cats, Harley, he loves to come visit us and occasionally peeks in the door!