Notes from the beach...

My trip to the beach was very relaxing. Here are a few notes from the trip:

• On the way down (Wednesday night) I hit a racoon. He was sitting smack in the middle of my lane...green eyes just staring right at me. Before I could even decide what to do..."K-THUNK"...and then, "Oh my gosh, I hit a racoon!"
• Thursday was a day wrought with many emotions...while out shopping we learned that Andrew Kenney (the 22-year-old son of a good friend of ours) passed away. He had been diagnosed recently with an unknown but very aggressive form of cancer. Please keep his family in your prayers. (Chris and I will be attending the funeral tomorrow morning in Winchester.)
• Four of us spent a lengthy time in the hot tub on Friday morning...what a life...waking up and jumping in a hot tub...I could get used to that. We also went to Manteo where those of us with Pandora bracelets purchased a couple of beads (thanks my friends for the 2 lovely heart beads...you really will be in my heart forever).
  
• Saturday was the most beautiful day of all. A nice relaxing morning and a little more shopping before we headed home (thanks Donna for the awesome gift...a new Vera Bradley purse in Peacock...I love it!)

I am so thankful I got to go on the beach trip again this year. It was such an amazing time and I truly cherish my relationships with the women of Crosslight.

Here are some pictures.

View from the house we were staying at.

The ladies at the big chair in Manteo. We do this every year.
Note: We had an older man take the picture and he had a hard time not cutting off people's heads.

I tried to do a self portrait with the beach in the background, but let's just say that they turned out not to be so flattering!

Back from the beach...

Had an awesome time at the beach but too tired to go into anymore detail. Getting a snack and heading to bed. Specifics and pics to come later.

Headed to the beach...

Leaving for the Outer Banks tonight after church with the ladies...can't wait. The last couple weeks have been incredibly stressful and I'm looking forward to a little relaxation.

I'm taking my laptop but don't know if I'll be able to pick up a wireless signal or not. If so, you'll hear from me. If not, you won't.

Sentimental saps...

That's what we are. In getting ready for the move we are going through everything desperately trying to downsize. I can't even believe all the junk we have...let's just say I have bank statements for our checking account from more than 7 years ago. Hello...that's insanity.

Anyway, we also have a habit of keeping cards, notes, etc. that people give us and that we give each other. We had an entire plastic file crate full of stuff. So this afternoon we sat on the floor of our bedroom and went through all the cards.

It brings back a lot of emotions...friends who are no longer together, friends who we aren't friends with anymore...and from the writing on the card you'd think we would have been friends to the end of time. It just goes to show how things change over time.

I found one birthday card from my best friend, Sonja, that made me laugh out loud. At the bottom of the card it said, "P.S. You look young and beautiful for your age." Yikes. The card was toward the bottom of the crate so it has to be from a while ago...I had to call her and read it to her...she can't remember why she wrote it but she said, "You must have been stressing over wrinkles or something."

We were able to slim it down so the crate is only a quarter full...not too shabby for a couple of sentimental saps!

Rain, rain go away...

and it did...but only after we decided to end the yard sale early because of the steady down pour.

We woke up at 6:15 this morning and started taking stuff outside and setting it up...we had a ton of stuff. It wasn't but a few minutes after we got every last thing outside that it started to drizzle. We had some clear trash bags that we draped over stuff...and then the rain stopped. It started and stopped a couple of times, but about 9:45 it really started to rain steadily and it didn't look like it was going to stop.

So, we made what we thought was a good decision to stop the yard sale...we got everything inside (much of it was wet). About 15 minutes after we got everything inside...guess what? It stopped raining...and it hasn't rained since. Go figure.

We did okay for the couple hours we were outside...about $150. But the amazing thing is, we still have a ton of stuff. Even though I'll be away next Saturday (beach trip with the ladies from church...woohoo!), Chris is going to do another yard sale to try to get rid of the remaining stuff. Hopefully it will be a bright, sunny, warm day.

Good news/bad news...

Today was one of those days. We got some really great news...woohoo! And then I got some bad news. Don't really want to talk about it now...

Cute doggie pics...

Haven't posted any new pics of the doggies lately.

Chris & Bam Bam hugging

Sleeping back to back (they love each other!)

Laying in the sun

Snow and flip flops...

Yesterday was the first day in a long time that we were able to sleep in. Of course we woke up early but I was determined to go back to sleep. Chris got up to let the dogs out and this is what I heard from downstairs: "Oh my gosh, you have to see this" (decible level: high).

I thought that the roof was leaking or something had overflowed and water was everywhere. But when he clarified his statement and told me to go look out the window, this is what I saw:


Um...snow in April...okay. It all melted fairly early in the day.

Yesterday was also my book club meeting...we left around 2:30. Chris looked down as we were leaving and said, "I can't believe you're wearing flip flops. It snowed today."

"I can't ruin my reputation," I replied. If you know me, you know that once I make the switch to flip flops (usually in early to mid-March) I don't go back...rain or SNOW!

Morning came early...

Chris asked me to call him this morning to make sure he was awake. So I called:

Chris: Hey (we have caller ID)

Me: Good morning. Are you up?

Chris: Yeah...I'm in the shower.

Me: I didn't sleep very well.

Chris: I slept great, but morning came really early.

[Rest of brief conversation not included]

I guess in a sense morning always comes early, but when you go to bed so late (or early) it seems to come even earlier.

Second wind...

Saw Jars of Clay in concert tonight at Lisner Auditorium at GW. Awesome! I love Jars, but actually my main motivation was to see Burlap to Cashmere, one of the two opening bands. Man were they incredible.

Their first, last and only album came out in the late 90s and it's amazing...so much so that when I couldn't find the CD at home (in the millions that we have), I paid to download it off of iTunes even though I knew it was somewhere in the house. Not a very practical use of $9.99 but then again I tend to want immediate gratification. ;-)

Anyway, concert was awesome...Chris is on his way home. He's doing a sunrise Good Friday service at the Y tomorrow morning. I drove out to crash at my mom's house in Centreville and almost fell asleep on the 25 minute drive here (after dropping Chris at his car). Now I seem to have gotten past the point when I can barely hold my eyes open...gee, great. A second wind at 12:30 in the morning...woohoo! NOT.

I'm hoping that reading a few pages in my book will do the trick.

Good night...hopefully!