Photo a Day - Day 9

The name of our street at the cabin lot. Our cabin (whenever we actually get it built) will be on Pepperwood. I didn't like it at first, but it is growning on me.

Where have I been and why no Montana Pics?????

I'm going to blame it on my sister, Jenny's, since I'm, of course, never going to admit it is because I'm a procrastinator! Since we've been back from vacation I have been miserably sick all week. I'm blaming it on the airplane trip back home. Because of that, it has taken every ounce of energy I've had to finish my sister's wedding invitations. But I am happy to report, they are done, they have been mailed (and received) to her, and I've been told they are going in the mail this week. Here are a few pictures of the process in making them and the finished product.

And just in case anyone is going through Maggie withdrawl (like we were on vacation), here are a few pictures of her. As I was making the invitations, she was laying in the doorway of our scrapbook room.

Then Papa came to see what was going on and, without lifting her head, gave him kisses on his toes.

My next task is to catch up on personal email, work on the games for Jenny's bridal shower games, and FINALLY download our Montana pictures to share.

So until then.....

OH...one more thing....we received our final plans for the cabin from our architect this week. We just have to finalize the electrical plan and then the real fun begins (and work...and money...) I have some electronic files of that, so stay tuned for postings about that.

It's hard to believe it has been a month already since my last post. Time flies...Let's see what have we done since my last post...I won't bore you with all the details, but here are some of the highlights...

• Work has been busy as ever. Last month I had to do the hardest thing I've ever had to do as a boss...I had to tell six people that as of the end of the month of July, they will no longer have a job. They all took it very well...better than I did, I think.
• Del sold his black Porsche, only to buy another one - a dark grey one with more options. He says he is much happier with this one and will not be looking for a new car for at least another five years. :o)
• We went to a concert with Salvador, Todd Agnew, and Mercy Me. It was just last weekend so there were fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July after the concert. The rain held off during the concert, although threatened the entire time, but started raining as soon as the fireworks started. I was so disappointed. You see, I love fireworks and I was so looking forward to seeing them, particularly since I haven't seen any in probably three years - I think I wanted to see them even more than the concert. We got to see some of them from under the shelter, so it wasn't completely lost.
• Oh...probably the most excited thing...we bought a different cabin lot. This one has both long range and short range views (our other one only had short range views) and we absolutely fell in LOVE with it. Del and I are starting to look at plans now and are even more excited about it than before. Another step closer to our dream realized. Here are some pictures of the new lot.

Del's Dad came to visit this week. He and Del golfed everyday. We took him to see the lot yesterday and I actually golfed with them at Mt. Mitchell Golf club. It's really a beautiful course.

They were going to golf again today, but got rained out, so he decided to go home a day earlier than planned.

I've been able to do some things I haven't done in a while. I finished another really great book - Jodi Picoult's, My Sister's Keeper. I highly recommend it. A great story with a surprise ending.

I've also done some scrapbooking. I finished a whole album for a friend at work. She recently had a baby girl, Lily, after having two boys. The scrapbook turned out really cute. I bought a teddy bear with the idea that she is to take a picture of Lily with the bear each month to show how she grows. I, of course, cannot take credit for the idea - I saw it in Creating Keepsakes, which is where I get a lot of my ideas. For some reason I'm unable to upload the scans I took of it, which I guess is just as well since I plan on making a boy one for my great nephew who is due some time in September.

I also made some cards with the scrap paper I had left from the baby book. You can see those by clicking here. Maybe you shouldn't look after all, because some of you may get one of these cards in the future.

I think that catches you all up. I hope all is going well with everyone. Hopefully, it won't be another month before I post again.

Until next time...

I've missed you...

Has it really been two weeks already since my last post? I've thought about posting several times, but it's always been too late. Work has really been rough lately again and doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon. So by the time I get home at night, the last thing I want to do is sign on to another computer.

Last weekend Del and I went to the cabin lot to see what has changed, if anything. The gate to the community is in and working and they now have a mostly gravel road instead of just the red dirt road. We drove the Porsche that day because it was in the 80's and a perfect day to drive a convertible in the mountains, but Del wasn't too happy with the coat of red dust from the gravel road it put on his car. I'm sure you all feel very sorry for him, don't you?!?

We spent Sunday driving around neighborhoods looking for landscaping ideas. We're probably going to do some major overhauling of our landscaping this year, so we were taking some pictures of other peoples' yards and went to a nursery and took some more pictures of plants we liked. Del, of course, is not expecting us to have to do any of the work ourselves...his philosophy is...if we can pay someone to do it, why do it yourself?

Since I haven't downloaded any of those pictures from the camera yet and since a post without pictures is boring...I will post some more of my "everyday life" pictures...

A pile of anything: This is the pile of books I'm reading right now...well mostly...
The top book is the "idea" book I made
I finised the second book Girl Meets God - a memoir of a girl who explores and sometimes even questions her decision of converting from Judiasm to Christianity.
The next two are my daily devotional books I read every morning - Daily Light and My Utmost for His Highest.
I just started reading The Audacity of Hope by presidential candidate Barak Obama - a very interesting account on politics, America, and life in general. So far pretty good. The next...a special magazine edition from Creating Keepsakes called Photography for Scrapbookers - I love my scrapbooking magazines!!! And finally, You on a Diet. I haven't started that one yet, but I keep it out to try to motivate me - hasn't worked so far...


Something colorful: I love my ribbons in my jars. These are sitting on a shelf above my scrap-booking desk. They just make me happy. Being able to spend more time in this room would make me even more happy, but I'll take what I can get right now.














Well, I guess that is about it for now. I'll try to be better about posting more regularly (Laurie - forgive me if you're still checking daily!). I know next week is going to be another horrible week at work - especially Tuesday, but after that, I'm hoping it will ease up a little bit.

We did decide that I am going to make the trip to Seattle with Del on the 18th of April. I'm looking forward to that.

Until next time....

Cabin View Photos

Sorry I haven't mentioned anything more about the cabin lot before now, but I was waiting to get the pictures from the guy that sold us the lot. We took another trip up to the site this past weekend. We don't close on the property until around December 5th, so we can't say it is officially ours yet, but here are some of the pictures we took of some of the views we will have. Some of them may be hard to see at first, but imagine most of the trees in the forefront gone and just seeing the mountains in the background.

Our lot is 1.5 acres in a community called Forest Heights just outside Marion, NC (about two hours from where we live). It is only 4 miles from Lake James - a fairly large man-made lake - which was an added bonus we didn't realize until after we decided to buy. It will still be quite a while before we actually have the cabin on the lot, but we are excited about it just the same.

Aloha!!!

We made it safe and sound and already have a fun-action-packed schedule planned. We arrived in Kona, HI at 3:00 p.m. Hawaii time (8:00 pm EST) but didn’t do much but buy provisions that day. Our clocks are still on EST time. We wake up at 4:00 am and are wiped out by 7:00 pm. That is slowly changing, though.

The first day started with an hour walk. (Tina and Kim - the resort we stayed in last time is completely in shambles. They are apparently doing major renovations - you can’t even get to it through the front door. We’re REALLY glad we aren’t staying there again!!) We visited the spot we got married - it seemed much smaller to us for some reason - but just a beautiful. (I will try to post pictures later, but I’m having some difficulty in figuring out how to do that. I’m very technically challenged - just ask Del, he’ll tell you!) We then laid by the pool at the condo complex for about an hour or so before we went to play a round of golf at the King’s Course.

Today, we woke up early and went to the Hilton resort for breakfast. We then booked all our excersions for our trip. We are planning hiking at the National Volcano Park, a night of sunset watching and star gazing at the Observatory, helicopter ride over the island, deep sea fishing, and kayaking the sea caves. As we made our way back to Kona, looking for hiking shoes for me because I forgot to pack them, we came across a scrapbooking store. Although I’m sure Del would much rather have passed on by, he did stop to humor me. Can you believe it? I’m shopping for scrapbooking supplies even in Hawaii!! :o) (Del says no one should be surprised by that!)

We will keep you posted (hopefully with pictures) as the week goes on.

By the way…we ended up putting a deposit down on one of the lots we saw on Saturday. We are on our way to having our dream cabin realized!

The time has come…

We are officially on vacation!! No more work for two whole weeks (although Del is still working from home right now). As anxious as I am in getting to Hawaii, I’m really glad we aren’t leaving until Sunday morning since I still haven’t done anything towards packing or even really figuring out what I’m going to pack. Del says that packing should be a 15 minute job. How is that possible?

I’m not even going to have the day tomorrow to get ready and pack. Del made an appointment to go look at some property in the mountains tomorrow. He has this plan (a pretty good one, I must admit, if all works out) for us to buy or build a cabin in the mountains within the next five years. There is a devleopment around Marion, NC (about 2 hours from us) that is having “first dibs,” if you will, on some lots. The only day they were scheduling appointments was tomorrow - the day before we leave for Hawaii.

Oh well…all you really need in Hawaii is a bathing suit and a grass skirt, right?? :o)