Busy busy..

Well, it's been a crazy month and a half.. my daughter's friend came to stay with us for three weeks in August, followed by my mother-in-law who left today.  Both very nice visits- it's going to seem strange without and extra person around!  While my mother-in-law was here we visited Emerald Isle, NC and stayed over night. Our house was right on the beach.  It was the first time we had ever done something like that and it was just lovely!  One of the most relaxing times I had ever had, and I'm sure my pictures will show you why. ♥

Couldn't keep my son out of the water!

Can you spot the crab in this picture?

I didn't get any stitching done, even though I did bring it.  Did a lot of walking on the beach,  got in the water a bit, even talked to a couple who had their sweet Corgi there! The house we stayed in didn't allow pets, so we couldn't bring Ginger and Kona.  Their Corgi was sweet, she even brought her ball to me to play fetch. ♥  I hope to go back soon! 

I have been working a little on the tavern, hoping to get more done now that things have settled down a bit.  I have kind of put my other stitching by the wayside but may work on my Maryse freebie once in a while since I only have to finish the border.  It's kind of funny- the copyright date on this tavern pattern is 1977- I was only 5 the year it was printed!

I

Ginger and Kona have been their usual silly selves.  They always love when we have company.  Here is a photo of them pouting when they were shut out of the kitchen.  My mother-in-law and the kids were making cookies and deviled eggs.

I 

So pitiful! 

I recently downloaded an app to my iPad called "Retype" -it's usually a paid app but I happened to find out about on a day that they were offering it for free.  It's fun to play with.  I took a picture of Ginger when she was sleeping on her back one day and made this-

I thought it was kind of funny. ☺

Well, that's about the latest here- hope to be on a little more now.  Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend!  Thanks for sticking with me. ♥

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! ;)

Loads of pics (but no stitchy ones)

In fact, I have so many pics that I will probably post them over the next couple of days-Mom and Dad's visit was great! We went to one of the aquariums while they were here- here are a few snaps from that day-

an albino turtle in the hatchery

we also went to the beach-

like my new nail polish?

I'll post some more soon- I have some great ones from today- went with David's class to the Life and Science museum- and they had a butterfly sanctuary!

Ow.

I got two teeth pulled today. :( Actually it's not hurting too bad right now- thanks to the Advil I took earlier. :) But still feeling a little sorry for myself due to the very limited things I can eat right now. I have no idea what I'm going to eat for breakfast tomorrow- as I am not a big fan of cream of wheat or oatmeal..  any suggestions?

I have been stitching a little bit more- the Brooke's Books group I'm in is having a challenge right now- Brooke supplies us with an exclusive freebie and we stitch it but make it our own by adding embellishments, changing the design a bit, etc.  I don't think I am going to have mine done in time for the deadline but it's still a fun stitch, and going to be so pretty when it's finished! Here's what I have so far-

Hooray~ blogger is putting the pictures in the right places again. :)

I have also been working on an ornament from a JCS Ornament issue- that I have not gotten very far on but here it is:

I haven't worked on F yet this week- maybe tonight. I'm almost finished with my Snow Sweet snowman, so I will wait til he's done to post him.  Plus I'm too lazy to get up and get him out of my work bag. hee hee.

 We've been keeping busy this summer, aside from birthday parties the kids have been invited to, we have been invited to things as a family as well.  My pastor and his family celebrated the confirmation of one child and graduation of another- they had lots of relatives visiting and we were having so much fun we ended up going over to their house two days in a row!  Then for the 4th of July some friends invited us over to their house for a cookout- their children are about the same age as ours and are good friends as well.  We had a great time! This coming weekend the kids have been invited to another birthday party, but so far I think Sunday will actually be- a day of rest. ;) I hope so! I'm having fun but am ready to take it easy- although I guess I did do that on the 5th. LOL

Well, that's about it here- I will leave you with some more beach pictures courtesy of Marsha-

and..

one of the mountains! :)