Only two days of work this week...

...before we head to Seattle, WA for the weekend. But until then....

...some pictures from this weekend.

Del got up a little earlier than usual on Saturday morning to go to Bruegger's to get breakfast since he had to be back home to play a Starfleet Battles tournment game. While he was gone, Chalupa and I were awakened by an odd tapping on the bedroom window. Chalupa became vey alert and did not budge from this spot for several hours.

So what held her attention for so long, you ask? This little fella...

I was so pleased to capture the moment, since I thought it wouldn't happen again. Wrong!! The next morning he came back - so we had to name him. Meet Bob the Blue Bird. He is a very pretty bird, but we cannot figure out why he keeps tapping on our window with his beak - constantly!!! I'm guessing he sees his reflection in the window - but that's all I got. Anyone have any other ideas? Here are a few other shots that I got of our new feathered friend and Del took the one of Chalupa intently watching Bob.

How cute is that??


I also got to do some scrapbooking this weekend - something I feel like I haven't done in forever...no excuse really - just haven't felt that creative lately. I did my side of the family's 2006 Christmas gathering. I had some fun using the sewing machine a little on this layout.






















I will try to post some while on the road this week. I'm realy excited about Seattle - I've never been to the state of Washington.

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....

Spring has sprung in NC...

All the Bradford Pear trees are in bloom here - and there are a lot of them- - one in every yard almost. It was probably the upper 70 degree weather last week that tricked them into believing that spring is finally here. Although today's weather has regressed - upper 40's and windy - not very spring-like.

It feels like forever since I've posted last. Work has been a bear lately. I've averaged 65-70 hours a week over the last 2-1/2 weeks. It is annual incentive time for one of our toughest clients which has caused a lot of late nights (one night as late as 2:00 a.m.). I'm hoping the worst is over and we can start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel soon.

Other than work, not much else has been happening, so I guess there isn't much to report anyway. We are both planning some trips soon. Del gets to go to Seattle in April for a stock option conference and I'm going to Las Vegas for a week for the American Payroll Association Congress in May. We are also planning on a vacation some time in June with Del's parents. The tentative destination right now is Maine. Neither of us has ever been to Maine so it will be something new for us..

I haven't surfed the web in over two weeks, so I'm looking forward to catching up on all the blogs I normally read. I'm planning on some scrapbooking and reading and just plain ole veggin' out this weekend.

Talk to you soon....

Why do they go so fast?

Well, my girl weekend is almost over. So, let's see, what from my list did I actually accomplish...



Sleeping in both days - I slept in until 9:30 this morning - can you believe that?!? I'm such a bum. Although I did stay up until 1:00 a.m. last night, something I haven't done in forever. I did wake up at 7:00 am., but decided that was too early to get up and rolled over and went back to sleep.

Scrapbooking - I did some, but kind of cheated. I had some old layouts that I did in scrapbooking classes at the NC Convention, but never added pictures to, until today. This is one from our trip in Septempber 2005 to Yosemite.





















Trip to Victoria Secret and Stein Mart - Only made it to Victoria Secret, and didn't come home empty handed.
Blogging - I've updated my blog, but haven't read the blogs I normally read yet.
Reading - Not as much as I really wanted to, but did read the little bit I usually do each night before going to sleep. Currently reading Girl Meets God.
Watching chick flicks - I watched a couple - one that I rented - Little Miss Sunshine, and one that was on TV - Raising Helen.
Trip to two new (at least new to me!) scrapbook store - Made it to two, one nice one and one not-so-nice one. Lucky for me the nice one is the closest one to me. :o)
Taking pictures of every day life - I took several - I will post them later.

Some other things I did this weekend that weren't on my list...

• Finished and mailed Josie Martinez's Disney book - finally (it only took me 2 years!)
• Did all my laundry
• Did my ironing for the week
• Packed up all our 2006 paperwork
• Paid bills and...
• currently watching the Oscars (why must they be on so late??)

I hope you all had a great weekend. I did, but I am ready for Del to come home, although I wasn't exactly pining for him, I did miss him!

Weekend Bachelorette....

Del left yesterday afternoon to meet his dad and a friend in Orlando, FL for a weekend of golfing. That leaves me and Chalupa spending a "girls" weekend alone. Oh, the plans I have...

• Sleeping in both days (today I slept until 8:00!)
• Scrapbooking
• Trip to Victoria Secret and Stein Mart
• Blogging
• Reading
• Taking pictures of every day life
• Watching chick flicks
• Trip to two new (at least new to me!) scrapbook store (since the one near us closed its doors - how sad! - you would think I alone would be able to keep them open!!)
• Pedicure
• Working out (notice how low in the list this one is?!?)
• Work (lower still!!)

Then, again, I may do none of those things and just veg out in front of the TV - that's the beauty of a weekend alone - I can do anything I want, or nothing at all. Of course, I told Del that I would be pining for him all weekend, waiting for him to come home - not being able to eat or sleep without him. And since he doesn't read this blog, he will never know any different. :o)

Update on Mom - She is still at Heartland Holly Glen. Her visit with her doctor this past Wednesday granted her permission to start putting weight on her feet (none up to this point). She is able to put 100% on her left foot (the one she had the surgery on) and 50% on her right foot (the one that the heel was fractured). She will be in the rehab center (boy - that sounds like she has more of a substance problems, doesn't it?) for a while longer to get the therapy she needs. Her spirits are still good. She is also talking to a lawyer about the negligence her doctor feels she received from the ship's doctor and the Grand Caymen doctor.

Other News - I found out last week that my niece, Heather and her boyfriend, Jesse are expecting a baby, probably sometime in September (haven't heard the exact due date yet). Although, it may not be the ideal circumstances, we understand any baby is a gift from God and we will welcome him or her with open arms! Congratulations to Heather and Jesse - I wish you the best!

Other than working quite a bit this week, no other major news to report. I will post more later to tell you how exciting my weekend is coming along - hopefully, with pictures (for some reason, I'm unable to upload any pictures right now!)

Until then....

Men in Black, Blues Brothers, or just cool dude?

Everything went well with Del's surgery, other than the timing. His originial appointment was at 3:30; they called to tell us they were running behind and we should come in at 5:30 instead. We arrived at 5:25, only to wait 3-1/2 hours. His surgery ended up being at 9:00 p.m. They explained to us the laser equipment didn't have the proper "energy" in the morning and they had to call the engineers in to fix it that morning, which put them behind a little over 1/2 day. There were about 25 people that were scheduled for the surgery yesterday. Del ended up being the third from the last in the day.

He had a little rough time of it immediately following the surgery - very light sensitive, a lot of watering, but no pain, really. They gave him an Ambien to knock him out, so he slept well and woke up being able to see better than ever.

We went for his follow up visit this morning with Dr. Jaben. His vision is now 20/15 - as good as it was with his contact lenses. He is having some halo effects around lights and a little haziness (which they say is normal for the first 24-48 hours), but is able to do pretty much anything (i.e. read, watch TV, drive, etc.) other than strenuous activities for at least a week. He was even able to get his bagel fix this morning after his appointment



His regiments is quite comprehensive:
One multi-vitamin once a day
Three Omega-3 supplements once a day
One drop in each eye of Acular twice a day
One drop in each eye of Zymar four times a day
One drop in each eye of Pred Forte every hour
One drop in each eye of Lubrication drops every 1/2 hour
One drop in each eye of Refresh Liqui-Gel before sleeping/napping

He has to wear the plastic shields that you see in the very front of the picture for the first four nights, then he can wear the protective glasses. He has to wear the sporty sunglasses whenever he goes outside, but because he has been having extra light sensitivity, he's been wearing them inside, too. He thinks he looks cool in them (I will let you be the judge, yourself, on that one!)

We aren't planning on doing much this weekend - just taking it easy and putting some form of drops in his eyes every 1/2 hour (oy!).

Overall, everything was a success.

More Every Day Life...

So, I took the day off from work because Del is having his Lasik surgery today. So where is Del? At work, of course, working half a day. I could have done that, too, but decided to take the entire day to do some decompressing. So this morning I took some time to take some more everyday life pictures for my photo assignments



Something or someone that makes me smile. I could have put several things here, but Maggie, our neighor's dog, is the one thing that consistently makes me smile everytime I see her. She is the sweetest thing. She'll see us pull into our driveway everynight and run (not walk, not plod, not jog, but run!!) around to the back yard (since she can longer come to the side in the front yard due to the electric fence they put in place) to see us. Of course I know she is only looking for the Milkbone treats we always give her, but it boosts my ego to think she is happy to see me - not just the Milkbone!








Something I use everyday. I know it isn't horribly exciting, but it is the one thing out of everything else in my life that I use every day - twice a day.



Favorite Drink - Did you expect anything else?


















Family Shoes: I wanted to be sure to represent both our "work" shoes and our "play" shoes. Of course, it was extremely hard to pick which pairs of shoes I should use out of 66 pairs I own, but I think I chose a well representation. Del's was a little easier - less to choose from. ;o)









Pictures of family photos or any group of photos: I love my family photos on our sofa table!












My comfy place: I used to not use this chair at all unti we moved it closer to the rest of the bonus room furniture to make room for our Christmas tree this year. It looks a little bare by the window now with the tree gone, but I didn't want to move the chair back to its original place. This has become the place I read my morning devotional, the place I update this blog, and the place I surf the web and read in the evening. I've grown to love my comfy chair!

That's it for now. I have more assignments, but they are all outside and haven't taken those yet. Of course, as I do, I will share.

I will post more later, to let you know how Del's surgery went. He is VERY nervous - to the point he wanted to back out of the whole thing. I can't say that I blame him, really, knowing what's at stake, but I know he will so appreciate not having to put contacts in every morning. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Better late than never...

Del's sister, Laurie, asked the question on their blog "Have you made any New Year's Resolutions?" In previous posts, I alluded to some of the resolutions that Del and I made this year, but today, I actually committed to them even more by creating a layout of them.

I stole (or what is better known in the scrapbooking world as "scraplifted") the title for this page from one I saw in one of my scrapbooking magazines. Some of these intentions are pretty lofty, but having them down on paper will help us remember throughout the year what we should be working on.

I also started the projects from my scrapbooking class. The first project was to decorate an ordinary composition book and make it into a daily journal. I've never been very good at journaling, but I hope to use this book to write down a few words or statements each day to remember at least one thing special from that day I want to remember.

Well, another weekend is about over. Since Valentine's Day falls during the week this week, and since Del is scheduled to have is Lasik surgery next weekend, we decided to go on our Valentine's Day date last night. We were going to go to a very upscale restaurant for dinner, but Del ended up taking too long of nap and I ended up watching a movie too long (a movie I had already seen, none the less), so we had a little change of plans. Instead of going to The Capital Grille, we went to Hops before going to see the Charlotte Symphony. Since neither Del or I have ever been to the symphony, we can count this as our "new" thing this month! Yeah!

Although I talked with her on her actual birthday - I wanted to wish a very Happy Belated Birthday to my niece, Lisa! Her birthday was Thursday, February 8th. Hope you had a great day, Lisa! Lots of love of wishes coming your way!

Until next time...

Everyday life

So I signed up for another online scrapbooking class called 28 days. Outside of having a project everyday (which I have yet to actually complete one!), there is a photo assignment each day. The idea is to capture every day life in pictures - one photo for each day of the month of February. The first three days' assignments were...

1. Our pantry. It really looks pathetically empty - a true testament to our eating habits (that which we rarely eat at home!) At least in this picture, Chalupa's food dish is full - we aren't starving her - at least not this day! Yes - it is sad to admit, we sometimes forget to fill her dish and she has to remind us with a lot of meowing. Poor thing! That's why we can't have kids - we'd forget to feed them! :o)

2. Our mailbox....with its stickers of identification. The orange represents weekend only of the Charlotte Observer (mainly for the adds and coupons!) and the green circle for Del's Wall Street Journal. You can't tell it in this picture, but our mailbox is a little crooked on its post. Our neighbor down the street hit our mailbox with the mirror of her minivan. We're still not quite sure how she managed that.

3. Our refrigerator...it, at least, looks a little better than our pantry. Our biggest eat-at-home meal of the day is breakfast. I usually make breakfast every morning during the week, except when Del decides he needs a Bruegger fix. We can never eat breakfast at home on the weekends because Del has to have his Bruegger's - it really is an addiction - do they have a bagel's anonymous?

I haven't done all my homework yet for the other four days of the month so far, but as I do I will post more of our every day life...

For those of you in Ohio - We feel for you!! It is colder than usual here, too (only been in the mid- to high 30's), but I'm sure it feels like a heat wave compared to what you are having. Think warm thoughts and stay warm!

Until next time...

Snow Day!!!

Well - it was for some people anyway. We got our first snow fall in quite some time this morning. It ended up being only a couple of inches, but it was enough to close all the schools and prevent people from getting to work. Del was not happy about having to drive the Porsche in the snow and freezing rain, but it (and he) is back safely in the garage.

The pictures are taken from our back porch. Maggie, our neighbor dog was enjoying (or not so much) the snow. She's pretty funny - she doesn't like to get her feet wet, but willing to sacrifice to get her Milkbone treats from her favorite neighbors.

We are expecting more freezing rain tonight, which should be fun for the morning commute, so we are off to go pick up bread and eggs for breakfast, since we will probably be stuck here until the ice is melted later in the day (darn!!).

Stay warm!

Until next time...