House Update

We had quiet a busy weekend, Jade had a party on Saturday afternoon, it was her BFF Maggie from preschools birthday, so while she enjoyed her party which was a big girl Hannah Montana birthday party, Dave and I took advantage of the free time and went out for lunch, then went to pick up our new flat screen TV that Dave has bought for our bedroom in the new house ... now I just have to figure out where the hell to store that huge huge box in our little apartment :-(

After getting Jade we went through to the new house to see the progress and were shocked once again by the progress ... The roof was on and all the windows and outer doors were on, I cannot believe it !!! This is going so fast !!! They had also delivered the two baths for Jades bathroom and the spare bathroom and our bath for our master bathroom, wow !!!

Anyway it started to rain so I didn't manage to get any pictures but this one.



After that we went through to our old neighbors TD and Sylvia, Dave needed to fix something on his PC so we popped in there for a while. On leaving TD said he wanted me to take a picture of him for my blog ... I don't think he thought I really would put him on my blog but here you go TD ... now you too are famous amongst my blog followers :-)



Yesterday, Sunday we went through to the SA'n Festival which was being held about 30 minutes from our house. I thought it was going to be quiet a big event since it was running Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend but really it was almost a waste of a trip, I say almost because I got a yummy bag of koeksisters which made it a little more worth while. I think the organizers put a lot of work into getting it off the ground but in all honesty, it was really disappointing, and if it is going to be an annual event, I know we will pass on it and thinking many others will too, sad but true.

Then being out that way we went to Concord Mills for a bit, I love Concord Mills, anyone that knows me knows that !!! After that we went to check out a house being build in a neighborhood close to the Mills. It is the same model as ours we are building but we thought was ready for sale but it wasn't it probably is a week or two ahead in being built than our house so we didn't get to see too much there or get any ideas. At least it showed me how the house will look flipped, you see the model that we have been looking at it is built the opposite way to the way our one is being built, this all depends on where you house is situated in the road ... and me not being too visual knew it was going to be difficult for me to figure it all out. Our old house was the same so we are used to that but still, you know when you buy something on the idea that it will look almost exactly like the model and now it is flipped ... well that messes with my brain.

We got home in enough time thankfully for Jade to get her homework done, can you believe she gets homework every day and a project every weekend !!! And this is Kindergarten, gosh I have a lot too look forward to.

Anyway I need to get done and get out of here, I need to go get gas now that Charlotte has gas again, it's been crazy with almost all pumps being out of gas and people not being able to make it to work because they dont' have gas, not to mention the prices the gas stations are asking for gas because of the shortage, and those that have gas have 2 hour wait lines outside, madness ... but hopefully today it will be much better, hold thumbs.

Week 3

We popped by the house yesterday, Sunday ... this is week 3 and I house is completely framed. Here you can see the house from the front and from the side, remembering I can't really get far enough from the house at the back because of our small garden back there and all the wooded area to get a shot from the back but hopefully this helps :-)

Pre Halloween Costume Pics

Ok well this week my concentration was on finding some dress up stuff for Jade, you see the stores are now full of costumes and usually at this time of the year, I go around and find some good bargains and add it to her dress up closet.

This year she is going to be a glowing fairy but you will have to wait till Halloween to see those pics, I will keep you in suspenders till then (hehehe).

In the meantime I thought I would tease you a little with some of the costumes that I bought her to dress up in :-) but first I have to say ... there is nothing wrong with Jades right eye !!! I have no idea what was happening but only after the fact when I looked at the pics did I see that her right eye was closed or smaller than the other one all the time, she said it was the wind or it was too bring or something but it's really weird if you ask me ... kids you have to love then right ? I figured after the Flapper pics I took indoors that came out so badly that outside our apartment was best, this was just off our balcony :-)

Ok this first one is a Barbie Princess dress, actually it said wedding dress but I think it should be longer then but oh well, I love it all the same :-)





Then later you will see a regal dress fit for a queen, I bought it for her to wear to the Renaissance Festival that we go to every October, remember mom :-) sorry !!! Anyway last year she was upset seeing all these little kids with costumes on so I thought this year I will buy her something special but the queens dress is beautiful but too long to wear there, it would get so messed up so when I found this one I thought it would be perfect and we would buy her head gear there as they have tons ... but what do I put on her feet, I have no idea, she needs gold sandals or something, not sure, need to give it some more thought ... but I am excited that I have something for her to wear there.



She loves this one and said that if for some reason the glowing fairy didn't work out, then she wanted to wear this one, she loved the arms. It's actually a witch costume but it kinda looks like bat girl if you ask me :-) I love the purple colors on it, but we will see ...







Well this as you guessed is her Little Mermaid costume but I have to get her some red hair for sure ...





And last but not least as this one is my favorite, this is the queens dress, it would be perfect for the Renaissance Festival but maybe she can wear this one next year when she is a little older and a bit taller and the dress doesn't touch the ground, now there's an idea :-)









Well we are off to the house again sometime this weekend so keep a lookout for updated pics :-) Have a good weekend.

My Flapper Girl !!!

These pictures came out terribly in the light I had and I am so sad as I took a lot of cute ones but really even doctoring them some light wise, they just didn't come out well :-(

Anyway went to go look at Halloween costumes yesterday and in the process bought a few items for Jades dress up closet, this one was really cute though and as she did her little fashion show I had to shoot a picture or two ... I will send more later, I have to figure out the lighting in this apartment first.

Another Trip To Lawson - 13th September 2008

Yesterday we took another trip out to the Lawson house and couldn't believe how much framing they had already done, wow ... it's really exciting !!! This gave us a better idea of how little a back yard we really would have and how high in the air our deck out our back door would be. Dave seems to be happy with how little mowing he will have to do but we are both hoping that we have not made a mistake having such a small really useless back yard. For us I think it will be perfect because we never use our back yard, not ever, if anything we use the deck and that we will have, a nice big one so ... I hope the privacy is what sells the house when we want to resell one day ... golly I hope that is a VERY long time to go so really worrying about it now, is not worth it. I think we will love it. I know we will love it !!!

Jade has been with us out there on two occasions and has already met a few kids that live right there in the area, apparently there are many that are close in age to her so I feel confident we will be happy there. Also we heard that on Friday nights they have a very social outside life and we love that so we are now even more excited to move in, we were worried about not being in a cul de sac but now I think we will be just fine :-) here's hoping !!!

Here you can see the framing from the front ...





And here you can see the back of the house, you can tell where the back door will come out half way up the house ... that bottom area for those that don't know how houses work here, if you build on a slope and don't go for a basement plan, they build what they call a tall crawl, it's a huge, huge and I mean huge storage area under the house. Most people just keep their mowers etc. down there but we plan to use it like we would use attic storage, only we need to make sure that stuff doesn't get wet down there ... we need to research it all a bit more. But you can also see how small the back yard will be, once we move in, Dave will clean out the brush a bit to make it look nicer but really our grass won't run too far into the forest area, it's not a forest but you know what I mean, wooded area.



Both neighbors on either side are new, the rest of the houses around us have been there at least a year and one or two are into their second year. But both neighbors on either side of us will be really new, you can tell the one on the right as you face the house is a little more ahead of us in framing but the one on the right, a real Charleston looking house, closes this week so they will be moving in really soon. I didn't like the look of this one when I first saw it, maybe it was the color but I love the Charleston look with the balcony's :-) Dave loves more of a brick frontage which is what we have gone with so I don't think he likes this one much.



Anyway stay tuned, we will keep updating as the house progresses.

Daves Birthday - 6th September 2008

Well today is Dave's birthday, we had a lot planned for the day but because Dave came home with a bad cold on Thursday our plans were on hold, thankfully though he felt a lot better after spending most of Friday in bed and we were all able to have some fun with him today.

We got a slow start, Jade woke us up very early, she is getting into the school routine but weekends are hard when she automatically wakes up at 6am ... something I definitely need to do something about, anyway since today was a special day, she and I went and got his gift bags and woke him up with the Happy Birthday song ... neither of us are ever going to be the next American Idols so I felt sorry for him being woken up to that but hey ... what can I say !!!

I tried to buy Dave a bunch of little goodies to make him feel special since the trip away was really his birthday gift, I think he was happy, what with a trip he enjoyed, all the little goodies the morning of, his nice new watch from his folks and a Black and Decker tool from my folks, I think he felt spoilt :-) I hope so.

I then made us breakfast and got us all ready to go to the Cabarras County Fair for a fun day ... Thank you to everyone that emailed, sms'd, called and even sent cards to make his day special, you guys are great !!! I also bought him a small birthday cake, here you can see him and Jade about to blow out the candles.




Then off to the Fair we went, Dave and I used to really like this Fair but somehow this year, I think we had just grown out of it and were ready for a nicer and much bigger Fair. We decided that we would find out when the North Carolina State Fair was going to be on and then we were going to take a road trip and go and see that one, it would be a weekend away since I think the Fair is in Raleigh but I still need to investigate more. Jade of course loves any Fair so we always get our money's worth with her :-) We always buy her the 'all you can ride' ride ticket, and we were there for about 7 hours and she just didn't stop, thankfully this being the first weekend the Fair was on, we didn't have to stand in too many lines, obviously the later you stayed the more the place filled up but how can you go to the Fair and not stay to see all the lights :-) I think we counted that she did about 14 different rides but did each of them 5 or more times, so non stop ... did I say non stop !!!

We always start with the livestock exhibits etc. Jade loves all the animals and there were tons of baby everything there this year, horses, cows, donkeys, there was even a pig that gave birthday which unfortunately we missed but we did get to see something that even I have never seen in my life which I was thrilled to bits we got to see, we actually watched chickens hatch, it took what felt like forever but we watched a little baby chick break it's way out of it's shell and come out into this big bad world for the first time ... it was amazing, brought tears to my eyes for sure, what an experience, I am sorry we missed the pigs though although I think that might be a conversation I don't yet want to have with my 5 year old no matter how smart she is !!! I wish I had videoed that, I didn't think of it but anyway we were glad to see that.



There was this little area for the kids to play in, above you can see her doing the milk can toss which none of us were very good at, but she enjoyed playing in the corn and even the hay, we stayed in there a good hour I think.



What was funny though is she had an opportunity to milk a live cow and she wanted absolutely nothing to do with that, she even said she wasn't sure whether she wanted to ever drink milk again ... don't blame her on that one (hehehe), anyway in this little interactive play yard above you can see there was this mock cow milking station and she totally loved that ... I thought I might be able to talk her into actually doing the real thing after that, but no way ... she was not budging (hehehe).

Then it was first off to see the pigs racing which she got a good kick out of and then off to the circus which isn't a real circus but a family that does a whole bunch of different acts. They even included their 5 and 3 year old in their trampoline act and since Jade is now in a trampoline and tumbling class, she could really have done all those kids did so asked me ... Mommy do you think I can join the circus too, now what is a mom to say to that ?

After that there was this really hickville show going on, mainly aimed at the kids but here you can see her on stage with them, she and a group of kids played along on a soap board, it was pretty cute actually :-)

The next few are just some of her on some of the many rides she went on.





After all the coasters she went on in Disney, these little ones were no big deal for her :-)







Oupa you better get your boat ready coz she loved this ride, unfortunately this was one of the rides that just had a crazy long line so she only went on this one once.



This one is always a favorite of Jades :-)



Anyway we left just before 9pm but it was a good long ride home, she fell asleep on the way which is very unusual for her these days so I knew she was totally worn out !!!

Sunday afternoon we went to Tina's house and between she and I we organized a little party for Dave including a cute ice cream cake ... we are really spoilt to have such great friends, thank you Tina, we love you guys !!!

And that was the end of yet another birthday weekend, how is it he always seems to get a birthday weekend ... not fair right !!!

Quick Trip Out To Lawson ... 2nd September 2008

Today we took a very quick trip out to the house to release the contingency to build, we knew they had gone ahead and cleared the lot in a hurry to get started while we were waiting to close on the house we were selling but to our surprise when we got there, they had already started on the foundation, take a look :-) very exciting ...

Video's From Our Myrtle Beach Vacation

I just wanted to add these two videos, I know I dragged my tail on this one but uploading to YouTube just seems to take forever and I haven't had the patience lately ... anyway here you go.

The first one was the two kids, Jade and Louis playing on the beach ...

The other was of the kids in the pool with Dave, Jade has been doing back flips all Summer but when Louis wanted to do it too I almost freaked out ... but he eventually after many tries got it right ... you will hear me tell him no when he is out of frame ... he got so confident that he wanted to do a back flip off the side of the pool which I would never even let Jade do so when I saw him about to try, my gosh I almost had heart failure, thus the yelling !!!

The kids had such a ball in the pool :-)

Labor Day Weekend Away At The Beach

Oh well Friday was a little hectic, actually the scary part started on Thursday afternoon ... Thursday Dave and I went to go sign the papers for the house closing, the buyers were going to sign later the afternoon but Jade had her first day at gymnastics that afternoon which by the way went really really well. Let me tell you about that quickly before I go on about the house, I might have mentioned to you that we were taking her out of her gymnastics class and putting her into a trampoline and tumbling class, well Thursday was her first day in that class. The age range if I remember correctly was 6 - 10 but because she had been doing gymnastics there the past two years they were confident she would be ok in that class. Anyway I expected the class to be really really full but was pleasantly surprised to see that only two kids were signed up. Now I know that will change in time especially since many folks would have left early for the Labor Day Weekend but my gosh if it stays two, she will be having semi private classes, that's awesome !!!

She loves her coach and he actually is not only a gymnast but he also trains with the Charlotte All Star Cheerleaders so thankfully she is going to get great training from him. Because the class was so small he managed to jump right into the training and said both girls did really well, the other little girl is 7 but she has no gymnastics background so Jade kept up to her just fine :-) So we are excited about all that, I will keep you updated to let you know how things go.

Ok back to the weekend or Thursday ... so we went off and signed everything fine but come 4pm and this is all way too long to explain here but the buyers were not happy about an inspection on our aircon units so wouldn't sign the papers so potentially we could have lost the sale of the house which was scary as heck, not only would we have to then move back into our house again out of our apartment but we could have lost the contingency on our new house we are building so, Thursday was not a good day, and it didn't help that we had an absolute jerk as a realtor, we cannot believe how much money he gets on this sale when really he has done nothing to help us but oh well what can you do.

Thankfully the buyers realtor got someone in on Friday morning bright and early to do an inspection on the aircon units and it turns out we have to pay for some sort of repair that we didn't didn't even know was broken to start off with but we had to go ahead and make the repair or we would lose the sale and that wasn't worth it. So as crazy as things were that morning, those that know me know how organized I am and well it was Friday morning and I had not started packing for the weekend and we were leaving Friday afternoon ... and now I had to run around to the lawyers office etc. gosh crazy crazy crazy but thank God it all got signed in the end and Dave and I could get away and hopefully relax for the weekend.

Now you all know most every year I take Dave away for the weekend of his birthday, it normally falls on the Labor Day weekend or around there but this year it was a week early but still I went ahead and planned a long weekend at the beach, Myrtle Beach. Dave and I had been there a few times but Jade I think as far as we can remember had only been there once, but his time things would be a little different. We were taking my girlfriend Tina's child Louis which is a week apart in age to Jade wish as company for her, she was so excited.

Anyway we got a slightly later start than we wanted to but we eventually got going, it was a very long 3 1/2 hour trip to the beach, my car has never been that noisy, don't laugh ... what did we get ourselves into ? I knew I should have brought my MP3 Player. I think the difference is that usually Jade watches a dvd by herself so she is quiet but can you believe our dvd player just packed up so I thought I would wing it ... what was I thinking ???

We got there pretty late on Friday and both kids were worn out since they had been at school since very early. When we arrived, we checked in and then quickly ran out to get dinner, on returning the kids hopped into bed and were out for the count within seconds. Below you can see our two little angels asleep :-)





Saturday was a very long day ... the kids woke up really early so we got an early start thankfully we bulked up on a good breakfast at the Marlins Buffet Restaurant at the hotel so we were ready to go.

These are two pictures from our hotel, one of the pools outside our section of the hotel, there were many other pools but we only really made use of these, you can't really see but the outdoor pool actually runs into an indoor pool and there is a lazy river too which the kids and Dave and I enjoyed :-) And that is the Springtime Peer which is awesome, unfortunately I did that walk by myself, the kids wanted to be on the beach more so they missed out on that.





Our first stop was to collect our tickets for the Dixie Stampede that we were going to on Sunday night as well as our Spy Glass Miniature Golf tickets which we were going to use later in the day ...

Then it was off to Barefoot Landing where the kids enjoyed feeding the fish and the one lonely swan. The kids enjoyed shopping too, Dave said thank God he only had one their age because just one asking 'daddy can I have' was enough but both of them asking ... too much as far as he was concerned. Here are a few of the pics we took walking around at Barefoot Landing.









This one is of a truck that was parked close to our car, it's no bigger than the normal trucks over here, what I am meaning is that it isn't a big wheel truck or anything but just look at the size of it with Jade in front of it, isn't it amazing, gas guzzlers if you ask me !!!



Then it was off to the beach, we grabbed some lunch on the pier which was neat and then off to the beach for the afternoon. Unfortunately a couple of people got stung by a jelly fish so our ocean swimming was limited, but thankfully the kids had had a lot of fun in the waves with Dave already so were content to play on the beach building sand castles and big dams ... as you will see below.







Our very own Baywatch :-)









Then it was off to the pool and the lazy river where we all had a bunch of fun. I took a few videos too but I don't think I will have time to load them today, but I will try and do them as soon as I can.





Then as if that wasn't enough for the day, we went to go play our miniature golf which was a lot of fun, the golf course had a pirate like theme so there were always cannon ball blast going on all the time and there was this awesome waterfall which you will see in the picture but what you can't see is that behind the waterfall is a cave like structure which we had to walk through to play two of our holes, the kids got such a kick out of it. Just for the record, Dave and I tied and Louis and Jade tied so everyone was happy :-)





Then last but not least and the kids were so tired but Tina had told us that they had awesome fireworks at Broadway at the Beach so we quickly got a quick dinner and then it was off to watch the fireworks ... what I haven't told you yet is that last minute Tina and her family also decided to go to Myrtle beach and it was so weird knowing they were so close and we didn't see them ... I still think they didn't totally trust us with Louis ... huh Tina ??? Anyway we thought we might see them at Broadway but we didn't and it worked out for the best, Louis was happy :-) and having fun and that is all that mattered.

Anyway the fireworks were awesome so we are glad we made it but the kids were exhausted and well were out like a light as soon as they hit the pillow. Dave and I actually got early night all nights we were there too so I think either the fresh air had gotten to us or the kids had just worn us out :-)

Sunday was also hectic, we had planned to take it easy so that the kids would last for the evening show but we still did a bunch ... we actually went to Broadway by the beach to go look around during the day since we were only there late Saturday night, it was hot though and the kids took strain. Oh before I go on ... on the way we stopped at Warbird Park which is a memorial park with three war planes in it as well as a memory wall which I had never seen before, it gave me goose bumps ... anyway the kids loved being close to the big planes, here are some pictures before I go on about the rest of the day.







Then to go on ... at Broadway while I looked at a couple of other stores Dave sat and watched the kids play in the fountains, we had planned on going to the beach first thing this morning so thankfully both of them had their bathing suits on so they had fun.







Something I didn't mention yesterday was something else we did was stop at the Tanger Outlet stores, we always get lucky there with Fossil watches for me, you know the dual time ones, well Dave has been meaning to get a decent watch for a long time but he really just hasn't found one that he totally loved, well even though he didn't find 'the' watch he did buy a nice Fossil watch this time around, I am sure this will will bide him over until he finds the right one. Actually I think this one is nice but I know we can do better :-) but I am happy he finally got one since I know his mom gave him birthday money what maybe a year or two ago and it's his birthday this coming week and only now he got one.

Here the kids are again feeding the fish but these were big ones ... golly !!!



These were some pictures I took from the peer, gosh my dad would have loved it there, there were so many fishermen out there, and on the tip were the real serious fishermen, you paid a fee to stand there and I get not be disturbed as there is a rope up there, crazy actually coz there are so many other fishermen out there and I sure they catch the same fish no matter where they stand.



This is a picture of our hotel from the peer, the funny thing is I was looking to see Dave and the kids in the water or on the beach and I thought I saw them when taking this picture but couldn't be sure till I got it home and zoomed in and I was right ... nothing wrong with my eyes (hehehe), there they are right in the centre !!!



This was in the other direction.



Then this guy caught a little shark, still scary if you ask me.



Then we went off to the pool and lazy river again for the rest of the afternoon, we got done early and the kids rested as you can see below, they watched Tv and took a break before we went off to see the Dixie Stampede.



Dave and I have seen this show three times but every time it has been so different, the only thing that has been the same is how much food you get. Shame poor Louis eats like a bird and when this entire chicken, ok it's a baby chicken but it's an entire chicked got put on his plate, along with some pork loin, a half a baked potato, corn on the cob, well the poor guy didn't know what to do with it. That was after a serving of really yummy soup and a biscuit with it, and desert was a yummy apple turnover thingi.

The show was good as usual, unfortunately we can't take pics in there but heres a link for you guys to go take a look http://www.dixiestampede.com/ The kids loved the show, we had gotten them so excited about everything that I think they couldn't wait to see it all, it was fun to see their faces through everything.

And well that was it ... that was the weekend in a nutshell ... a long nutshell I know but it's been a long time since I updated and now I have given you tons to ready, below you can see all the other big events that ran up to this weekend away, so scroll down.

I hope the kids and Dave had a good time, I really planned it as best I could so fun was had by all :-)

Shame Louis phoned us last night to say, please can he come on our next vacation with us ... poor thing :-) well Miss Tracy has to recover from this one still but I am sure we can make a plan :-)

Until next time, bye for now.