A finish!! At last!

J is finally finished!   It feels so good to finish something!  Now I am trying to decide if I am going to put the alphabet on hold to get some other things finished or just go ahead with K.. hmmmm...

We made it through Hurricane Irene safe and sound.  Here are a few photos of things afterward-

This is, sadly, the bright pink Crepe Myrtle from a previous post.  They have since cut away the fallen part and it is just a shell of it's former self. :(

On a happier note, my plants still stand, thanks to Rob and Hanna putting them up against the house..

still standing!

Things are getting back to normal, again.. the kids were off school Monday because so many were without power but were back today.

I've been watching "Lost in Austen" on Netflix- I haven't ever seen it and I'm very curious how it's going to end! Though I'm not sure I should stay up that late... another decision to make.. hmmm...

ok maybe now that school has started..

Yep, first day of school pics! My little one is in 1st and my oldest is in 7th! (which made me tear up a little when I thought hard about it today)..
anyway, as I was saying, in my post title, maybe now that school has started I can get back in my stitching groove.. it's like lately I know I should stitch and I want to, but other things take me away and I get wrapped up in them, and then it's time for bed. So after I post this, I WILL stitch. I will! I haven't decided on what yet, but I will stitch for a little while. 
Rob and I celebrated our 18th anniversary on Sunday.  We have never done anything really special for our anniversary, not because we don't want to celebrate, but because finances or schedules don't allow.  Well this year it worked out that we actually could do something.  Our friends kept the kids overnight and Rob and I took a little trip to Wilmington, NC.  We had such a great time, as we had not been on a trip alone since I 

don't know when- our honeymoon maybe? Yikes! We ate at Bonefish Grill Friday night- we had never eaten there before as we don't have one nearby. It was sooooooo good.. shrimp and scallops that melted in my mouth, nice atmosphere.. after we get Harris Teeter to build a store here (our page has gotten over 2000 likes, before the deadline!) , we will have to work on getting a Bonefish Grill here. :) We stayed at a very nice hotel on the riverfront, and after dinner took a night time walk on the river walk.  They had a section of the street closed off and had a live band, and tents where you could buy food, drinks, etc.  It was really neat!  Then the same section of street is closed off on Saturday for a farmers market.

Saturday we walked around downtown and checked out some of the shops- Rob bought me some opal(esque? not sure if they are real or not) turtle earrings from one of the shops.. went to the Celtic Shoppe and got some Christmas tea.  It was extremely hard to control myself in that store, what with the Celtic CDs and jewelry and all.. but I was a good girl. The town is very dog-friendly- dogs are allowed in lots of the shops.  We stopped for an iced mocha at a cafe called Java Dog- when we went in a man was there with his little fox terrier on a leash, just as calm and good as he could be.  The cafe had a giant coffee cup with dog biscuits in it that you could give your dog. Very cool!

Well enough of my rambling- here are some photos from our trip- here are a couple of views from our room-

My breakfast at a great little place called the Dixie Grill- they put their pancake/waffle syrup in Coke bottles!

Their coffee was really good too!

When I saw this, I immediately thought of our fellow blogger and friend, Edgar!

One of the trolleys you can ride for free- we never did but maybe next time!

Sorry these are a little out of order- here is a night view of the river walk and the festivities

This was painted on the side of our hotel :)

Where we ate lunch- Paddy's Hollow- delicious!

The Cotton Exchange- where the Celtic Shoppe is, as well as Java Dog and a lot of other neat little shops!

One of the restaurants on the riverfront- would love to eat here next time we are there.  We didn't have time this time.

I should've gotten some close-ups of this fountain- there were statues of turtles on it. :)

And one more- the kitty in the window of the Celtic Shoppe- he weighs 19 pounds! He was so sweet.

Ok, if I am going to get any stitching done tonight, I better finish up here.. I have a few more photos- maybe I will post them in the next day or two, and hopefully some stitching progress as well! ;)

A little update..

It's been a bad stitching week for me. I haven't been giving my stitching the time I should.. I will try to do better this week! I have been obsessed with something rather odd.. our local chamber of commerce has created a facebook page to bring a Harris Teeter grocery store to our town, and the company has said if we get 2000 likes to our page by the end of the month, they will explore further putting one of their stores here.  I have been trying to get the word out to my friends and getting after them to like the page. I know it seems kind of strange- but Harris Teeter is a higher end grocery store, and we do not have one in our town at all.  Our grocery stores are limited to Walmart Supercenters, Food Lions, and an IGA, and our Target has a limited grocery supply, as most do.  None of these stores offer double coupons. Walmart of course has the most competitive pricing, but as a result they are continuously busy and often have shelves that are picked over.  Harris Teeter offers double coupons daily up to 99 cents, and sometimes super double coupons up to 1.98! I'm sorry to ramble, just wanted to let you know why I haven't blogging/stitching as much.. I know it's kind of a weird reason. lol
I did start a new project a couple of weekends ago- Beach Cottage by Country Cottage Needleworks. I have gotten a little done- here is my progress so far-

Yesterday I took David to run some errands-but since it was relatively nice out and not too hot, we made a stop at the park to ride the train the Kiwanis have for the kids.  We did that first, thankfully, because it started sprinkling as we were riding.  David wanted to go look at the fountain before we left, because sometimes they keep koi fish in it.. there were no fish but I did take a picture of our fountain.  I think I have posted a pic of it before but I just think it is really lovely!

Good thing there were no fish in there, as the water was pretty green! After we stopped by the fountain, we headed over to the library to return some books and get some more. After we left the library, the rain got a lot worse, in fact I had to stop on the way to the store because it was raining so hard I couldn't see! Fortunately I had brought a book and David had his library books.. so we pulled over into a park and read and waited for the storm to pass. :)  We are supposed to get more rain tonight, and are actually under a flash flood warning.  We'll see what happens!

EEK!

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted- time flies! I haven't been stitching as much as I should- have been getting into couponing and also swapping coupons with some friends, and that takes a little time.. also been spending too much time on facebook- I don't mean to- I will get ready to sign off and then think of something I wanted to look up or someone I need to message, or just get wrapped up in a game.  I really need to set a timer when I get on there, and sign off when it dings!

I have been getting a little stitching in on my lunch break project - "Decorating the House" by Brightneedle, from one of the JCS Ornament issues.. am stitching it one over one on 32 count something or other.. hee hee.. I think it is a Silkweaver fabric of some sort.

I have been working a little on Summer House too this week- will post a pic soon. I'm almost done with the trees, have a chimney to stitch and then I can start on the sky.  Then comes alllllll the beads.. sigh.. maybe it will go faster than I think. :)

My garden has been surviving the heat, some of it anyway.. here are some new flowers that have popped up recently-

I have a couple of other plants that are growing really tall but no blooms yet- maybe they are waiting for cooler temps! I know I am!

As far as books go, I am still reading Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien.. I am in the home stretch now, less than 100 pages to go.  I confess I am reading the notes that go with the stories but not all the appendices, I am a huge Tolkien fan but I just can't read through all those minute details.  I am really enjoying the book now because it is dealing with the characters I'm familiar with, from the main trilogy.  Tolkien's imagination just blows my mind - his world of Middle Earth is so detailed and planned out, I just can't even express it.  It's just amazing.

School starts soon- hard to believe! I will miss seeing my kids a little more but look forward to getting back into a routine.  I hope it is a great year for both of them. Only about 3 more weeks now!

Thanks for checking in, I know I haven't been the best blogger for a while now.. thanks for hanging with me. :)