Grandfather Mountain :: One

August 25th is the anniversary of our marriage. I really can't believe it has already been three years since we said I do! We wanted to do something together on our anniversary this year but schedules wouldn't allow any sort of out-of-town trip. So, we decided to take a day trip up to nearby Grandfather Mountain.



The weather was beautiful. About 72 degrees all day! It did not help ease my undying desire to move to the mountains. Didn't help at all, I tell ya.



On the mountain, they have a little animal refuge/zoo. Which is where we saw these bears. But if you'd like you can pretend we stumbled upon them while hiking in the woods...



I sort of love bears. Well, in all honesty, I sort of love all animals.

But there is something about a few species of bears (including black bears seen here and sun bears not seen here) that I really love. I don't know what it is about them... probably their sweet little faces. Don't get me wrong, I have a very healthy respect for the creatures and would reeeaaally prefer to not meet them in the wild. Not that I think they are people-eaters or out to get humans.... but, like I said, I just have a healthy respect for their abilities.



Their abilities are quite frightening, actually. You can't out run them. You can't out climb them. You can't out swim them. So.... our human capabilities do not compare well in a match up. Think about it. They run, swim, and climb. What would you do? Growing up we used to take an annual trip to northern Wisconsin. My youngster self was pretty terrified that I would walk outside and come face-to-face with a wild black bear. We were taught what to do if that happened but I was always afraid of the worst that could happen. I think I watched too many movies.



I'm really not sure how I went from "this is our anniversary trip" to "humans are not much of a match against a bear" but..... here we are. Maybe next time I'll be able to stay on topic. Either that or we'll discuss what to do if attacked by an alligator

Playing Favorites

This is Baxter. Do you remember him?



This is Baxter with his favorite toy. We gave it to him less than a week ago and as you can see he was so taken with it we couldn't even get the plastic hangy piece off quickly enough. You see, Baxter has a severe weakness for stuffed toys. And I mean severe.



Since the moment we gave him this teddy bear he doesn't want to spend a second away from it. He carries it everywhere with him. I use the term "carries" loosely since he spends most of his time snoozing. But when he sleeps, he typically sleeps like this.... toy in mouth.... face perpendicular to the floor. He's very odd.



And because he barely drops it from his jowls to eat.... the thing smells. I don't know what he has done to it in such a short amount of time but poor teddy was suffering from some severe body odor. So, I swiped it and stuck it in the wash. Why do you care? You don't. Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to suffer with me. Because right now as I type, as all of the other wonderful puppies are literally snoozing on the front porch on this glorious morning, one Mr. Baxter is standing at the top of the stairs barking incessantly for me to give him his teddy back. And I am not using the word incessantly lightly. Literally incessantly. Joke's on him! I had to sanitize that sucker so it will be another two hours before it is ready to see his droopy lips again!

NC Wine Festival

Occasionally... occasionally... we get off the farm and out on the town. Occasionally.

Back in May (I know... May... it is pushing late August but I couldn't post this before! I'm playing catch up!) we went to the North Carolina Wine Festival with a couple of friends.

These are our friends. J and D. We spend a fair amount of time with them, actually. J isn't an overwhelming animal lover so it must be my winning personality and fabulous wit that keeps him around. I've known J since middle school. We've seen each other in our gawkiest of phases and yet he doesn't cringe at the sight of my face. It's a miracle!!

Moving on.... it was super duper hot that day. DM and I hadn't yet told anyone of the growing bambino so it is fortunate that I'm not a wine drinker or it would have most definitely caused suspicion.

This sangria, however, did look mighty refreshing as I stood in the blistering sun. Too bad for me!!

I think everyone else had a marvelous time, however. They definitely enjoyed all of the different wines from the region. And I definitely enjoyed the Italian Ice cart that was set up on the outskirts of the festival. And then we all enjoyed listening to a little Chairman of the Board who played that afternoon.

DM felt a little guilty tasting all of the wine with me standing there watching glass after glass after glass go down. But deep down, I know he loves the fact that he has an automatic Designated Driver!

Summertime Wedding :: Part Two

As promised... more wedding photos from the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. S!

Who is that most handsome groomsman I see?

Fortunately, there were no wedding snags and everything went smoothly. Maybe one slip of the tongue by the groom... but it was pretty funny.

The bride gave the groom a new camcorder as his wedding present. Towards the end of the ceremony, immediately before the pastor pronounced them husband and wife, the groom grabbed the camera and turned toward the congregation. You see, he wanted to use the camera and pan across the crowd showing who was present at their wedding.

He shouted, "I WANT TO GET MY FIRST MARRIAGE ON CAMERA!"

It was quite funny and the entire congregation was in hysterics. The silver lining? I assume he will have an awesome shot of everyone happy, smiling, laughing, etc for the video!

Summertime Wedding

This past weekend we attended the nuptials of a close friend.




I love going to different weddings... seeing the individual personalities of the bride (and groom?) come alive through their decoration choices. Choices like this:



Mason jars. I, myself, am a huge fan of using mason jars for different events so my bias may be getting in the way. :) I loved them! They were used as vases at the reception as well as glasses to serve the water and sweet tea. Plus, they were party favors in the sense that you were able to keep your drink jar!

This year has been filled with weddings for us and most of them have been "my" friends. That is sort of an inaccurate statement, I suppose, because after being together for (almost) 8 years I don't think DM and I truly have friends that are 100% his or 100% mine.... but you know what I mean. I think. Do you? I hope so. Oh well. Moving on. The great thing for DM is that this wedding was for "his" friend Mike and therefore he was able to see a few high school buddies. This is Mike:



This is Mike at the rehearsal dinner wearing what can only be described as the best.shirt.ever. Also? If you are wondering, he cut the sleeves off because it looks awesome.

(If you don't catch that reference then you obviously don't have a husband that forces you to spend three-quarters of your life watching football or football related material and therefore you are not bombarded with football related commercials. P.S. If you can't tell, I'm super excited that the season of molding our lives around what games are going to be on TV is here. Please send help.)



Back to the non-complainy story!

As I was saying, it's great for DM to spend time with friends. I know he has a great time. It is so great to see him having such a great time. Great!




The blonde one? I have quite a few pictures of him from the weekend. And would he smile for me? No. Would he typically give me weird, creepy stares just to ruin the picture? Yes. So, I only have a very select few that are somewhat decent. He must be getting me back for that time I took pictures of him throwing up in the surrounding water after a particularly rambunctious tubing session one afternoon out on the lake.

HA!



More wedding photos to come!!

Miss Bailey

We have had an extraordinarily busy summer thus far. In addition to the daily chores of life, work, tending to the critters, etc etc etc, we have found ourselves out-of-town for several reasons (unfortunately no vacations...). We have had a summer of weddings (I believe the count is at six) which have taken us all over. I love weddings because it is so great to see old friends!! We have also had a few other reasons to spend time away from home. Recently we went to Whiteville, NC (the home of many of DM's family members) for him to conduct some bidness.



While there, I tried my best to stay out of the way :)
Miss Bailey is a cousin of our pups. She and I played quite a bit and then I decided to whip out my camera.



It seemed appropriate for me to do so since I had not taken it to any weddings.... and therefore I have NO pictures of said weddings... but that is for another time. Anyway, Bailey was Miss Happy-Go-Lucky until.... I took out my camera. Something about a giant conglomeration of black plastic that had her spooked. She wanted nothing to do with it.



So, I was only able to snap a few photos... and they aren't very fabulous! But oh well! She is super cute, isn't she?



Just like me to have more pictures of dogs than people. :)

Big News!

Okay, okay, okay.....

Remember when I joked in my last post about hopefully posting again before the 4th of July???

And now it is August 13th?

Well, it isn't all entirely my fault. Most of it (approximately 99.9999999%) of it was my former computer's fault. Yep. So there.

We have had so much going on around here. I can't wait to catch everyone up!! But, let me just cut to the chase and divulge the biggest and most life-altering news.

Which is?

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Here goes nothin'!

In December, the hubs and I are expecting a little wippersnapper. Whippersnapper? Whipper snapper? Oh, who knows... but you get the idea!

A little boy tater tot will be joining our family in December and we will officially have 50 feet running around our homestead!!

Pretty exciting, huh? And terrifying? Yeah, that too...

So, let's raise a glass (of water) to the new bambino AND more frequent posts now that I have an awesome new computer to work with!