Girls, Girls, Girls

As I said, we pretty much had Mom all to ourselves this visit.  We were able to see Katie and her girls for a bit on the day we were heading out.  I so appreciated that also because Katie and I rarely get time together.  We had a really nice chat while Abbey showed me how she can roller blade.  Katie is like Aubi, she likes animals and they like her. 

 I had a little bit of time with my lovely nieces.  They are two of the cutest girls ever and they are just cool kids to boot.  Abbey is getting more grown up each time we see her.  She is getting ready to enter that pre-teen stage.  For now, she still seems to have a bit of the I'm happy being a little girl left in her.  She drew me some pictures and showed me her talent there.  She also loves animals.  She is a sweetheart.

  Mikaylah is the one who came and spent time with us in Arizona.  She is much quieter when everyone else is around, which is too bad because she is an absolute hoot when she does talk.  She is stunning with her beauty, both inside and out.  She's really creative.  She's smart as a whip.  She loves crafts like me.  And she is a sweetheart too.

They are typical sisters meaning they love each other and they fight like sisters who love each other.

One thing I did not like about this visit with the girls-Miss Abbey is almost as tall as me.  How this is possible, I have no idea.  I think she is going to be a tall one like Lauren, Auburn and Ambir.

Maybe Mikaylah will stay short like Ashleigh and I.  Either way, they are gorgeous girlies and I love my time with them. 

Living the life in Virginia!

Trip To Pick Up Austin

This weekend we headed back over to the Shenandoah Valley to pick up Austin.  Since he was at Mom's house and that made it an eight hour round trip, we decided to go ahead and just stay for the weekend.

 Since we went full time I've rarely been able to come and stay at her house.  In fact this year might be the first I've ever stayed at this house.  It is definitely the first I can recall staying when we were the only ones around for most of the visit.  Normally we all get together meaning the brothers and their families.  This time we had a whole day and a half with just her.  As much as we enjoy the others, it was really wonderful to just hang out and have time with her that way. 

We spent Saturday shopping with her.  She took us all over Harrisonburg.  We went to the Farmer's Market where we stocked up on bulk foods.  We went to Costco to look at some things.  We stopped at a few furniture places because we are looking for a kitchen island.  She went to a store and got us a popcorn popper that I'd said I'd love to have (and I do LOVE it). 

We then went to another Farmer's Market where she got us a cornhole toss game as part of our Christmas gift.  It is the nicest one we've seen before or since.  Really nice quality and much bigger than the ones you normally get in the store.  We played a few games with it and I think Mom and I were the best of the four of us.  I'm not saying the guys weren't good, I'm saying we were better.  I am sure that will be short lived though because Nathan and Austin will play 24 hours a day until they get better than me.  It's just how they are. 

Nathan, who is notorious for hating any physical labor at all, did some painting for her.

While he worked I went outside to check on him.  That didn't take long so I took advantage of the views from my MIL's yard.

We used the internet as much as we could because we've been without fast internet for a long time now.  Mostly we just enjoyed the time together with family though.  I had some complications with my healing, meaning I somehow managed to get boils where my dressings were.  This delayed staple removal, which meant by now the staples were hurting.  Even with that going on, I had a wonderful visit.  Very relaxing and lots of fun.  Thanks, Mom for everything!

Virginia Living Museum

The last two times we were in this area, we said we wanted to visit the Virginia Living Museum.  We drove over one weekend day just to find out they had already closed by the time we arrived.  Since I was in recovering mode and couldn't do a whole lot of physical activity, we figured today would be a great day.  We were not disappointed in our choice.

I'm not sure how to describe this place.  It is part museum and part zoo would be as good of a description as I can come up with.  The outdoors area has an area with water and boardwalks.

There are many animals out here to see.

The inside area is part museum displays and interactive learning fun and then has more animals too.  Their website says they have over 250 animal and plant exhibits there.  They also have a planetarium which we did not visit.  We loved this place!

On a side note: the pictures are not great in quality or number because I only used the camera on my phone to take them.  I could not bear the thought of lugging the big camera around today.  I stupidly thought when they released me and said no restrictions beyond heavy lifting that it meant I would be up to doing anything but heavy lifting.  Uh...no.  I really was shocked how sore and tired I was after surgery.  So this was a short trip and a laid back trip for us, due to my body telling me it did indeed have some restrictions!

Living the life in Virginia!

Enjoying the Local Beauty

I am still healing, but we are getting out and seeing some of the local beauty while here.  We don't have to go very far for the beauty because we are on one of the water view sites.

The rest of the places are within minutes of the park.

Unexpected Not So Fun Trip

We were so excited to settle into one of our favorite places to land, and catch up with the local crowd here.  I have said before how much the people here make this place so great.  They are seriously the most friendly crowd of any of the parks.

We played some pickleball with them.  We signed up for the (Ken and Faye's) Labor Day pickleball tournament.  Then we headed to bed.  A few hours later, I woke up in intense pain.  I was sitting in the living room doubled over and only a few choice words kept rolling through my brain.  By the time Nathan got up to check on me, I told him I think we need to get to the hospital.

We get to the hospital where it seems they have an unusually busy night.  I was having so much pain that I wasn't helpful in telling them where it hurt.  So it took them some time to narrow down what exactly was wrong.  Early in the morning they said they could tell the gallbladder was enlarged and there was water around it.  They thought it needed to come out. 

Long story short, at 8 am the next day I had my gallbladder removed.  It was infected and had needed to come out.  This is not a trip I wanted to take at all.  The upside to this trip was I couldn't imagine a better place to have this surgery done.  The entire staff that we encountered was top notch.  I have never had a staff be more interactive with us, explaining each and every step of the way what was going on.  This is by far the best experience I have ever had in a hospital.

The funny part of this story:  I realized the next day that I came in wearing my PJ's.  I am guessing I was in a LOT of pain for this to happen because I don't think I've ever left my house in my PJ's.  Well, not entirely true.  I used to wear my PJ bottoms to pickleball.  I will probably still wear my PJ bottoms to pickleball but I can't recall ever wearing the top out and about.  

I am grateful to be not working so I can fully rest.  Mom gave me a gracious gift towards my scrapbooking fun, so I will rest while doing something I love.   Right now I'm very, very sore and very, very tired.  I think surgeries are like having babies, they are probably easiest on the body when you are young and bounce back quicker.  Sadly with surgery stuff, you tend to have more of them when older and not the other way around.  Here's to hoping this is the last surgery I have for a long, long time.

Greenville VA to Gloucester VA

Today we headed over to Chesapeake Bay Thousand Trail's park.  It was a very nice and easy trip and one that is always beautiful.  We were thrilled to get our favorite spot when we did land here.  And we hear that Mira and Rene are here too!

Lauren's Significant Other, Dustin

For years, I've heard Lauren talk about one of the biggest loves of her life.  I kept telling her that I hoped we could meet someday.  Yesterday, I was finally able to meet Dustin.

I can think of a few people off the top of my head who understand Lauren's love.  Jaci, my Mom and Merrin are who come to mind right away.  I think horses are incredible and I enjoy time with them.  But I do not have the all encompassing love for horses that Lauren has.  Lauren eats, sleeps and breathes horses.  She has been this way for as long as I can remember.  So to see her in her happiest place in the world was a treat to say the very least.

To watch her ride, and see her great form was a special thing for us.

 Most of all, I loved seeing her smile.  She is a pretty serious person, so to her her look downright radiant made me smile from ear to ear. 

Thank you, Lauren for letting us meet Dustin and getting to see you ride.  We loved every minute of it!

 

I'm gonna smile every time I see this picture!  Just beautiful!  Both of them!

Josh and his friend, Friend

Not to be outdone by Lauren, Josh also introduced me to his friend.  Named friend.  I know that is his name because I heard Josh say, "hey...that's my friend.  Friend!  I'm here!"  He and friend did all the regular boy stuff then.  There is really good boy stuff on a farm!

I mean, there are really, really cool boy things to do on a farm.  We should have lived on a farm just for my two boys sake.

Thank you, Josh, for letting me follow you and friend around and snap shots of you doing your boy thing!

 Yup, I got a shot of you that will make me smile every time I see it too!

Hurrican Irene's Destruction

When we left the OBX area, we had plans to come back quickly.  Today we realized that is not likely to happen given the devastation there.  Out of all the places we have visited so far, this was by far the one that felt the most like "home" to me so I'm sad we won't be going back just yet.  We hope to return in the spring and in the meantime we will send supplies and do other things to help this area as they rebuild.

 

White Oak Lavender Farm

Today I tagged along with Diana, Josh, Austin and Lauren.  First stop was at White Oak Lavender Farm.  It was a lovely little family owned and operated farm and store.  Not only did the have the lavender growing and lavender products galore, they also had some animals we could see.  It was a really neat place.

The Shenandoah Valley

We have been busy, busy, busy since we hit the valley.  Between seeing Austin and the rest of the family, we've hardly had time to catch our breath.  We spent the night at Memaw's, and Ava decided that Memaw is the bomb....just like Austin thinks she is.  On Sunday, the guys took the kids and they went up on the mountain and went skeet shooting.  The ladies all went to see the movie The Help.  Nathan and I had already seen the movie, but I loved it so much that I was happy to see it again. 

We have a very short visit, due to the holiday weekend coming in (we can't stay at this place then).  So we are trying to enjoy what little time we do have.  The valley is as beautiful as always.  Beyond our heavy hearts over the devastation in OBX, we are trying to enjoy where we are.

Hurrican Irene Evacuation

I am catching up on blogging and it's a strange thing to be catching up on posts from last week, because so much has happened since then.  Our friends, Barb and John, stayed the weekend with us and immediately after they left we had our eye on Hurricane Irene that was heading our way.

Monday we thought we would stay and ride it out.  By Tuesday it was looking like we might need to rethink that plan.  By Wednesday we had decided to leave.  We packed up and went to tell people goodbye, and were handed our evacuation notice as we were saying goodbye. 

To say this was sad and hard on us is putting it mildly.  We love this place.  We love the people here.  It just felt wrong to be heading far away when disaster was about to hit here.  Still we headed out at night, hoping to beat the traffic some.

We landed in Williamsburg, VA very late at night.  Tried to find a spot in the Outdoor World, decided it was too dark to properly park and ended up in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  We woke up the next morning with only a few hours of sleep and our hearts still very heavy.  The next day we headed over to the Shendandoah Valley, while I was on the phone trying to find a place to live for the next week.  We landed in Greenville, and geared up for our highlight of the trip, which was seeing Austin!

Friends and Their Place in Our Life

This is a picture of our friends that visited us, on top of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.  I have to give a sincere thanks to them for their visit with us.  We had such a wonderful, wonderful time with them.  We truly just soaked up every minute we were them.  It was interesting, it was easy to just spend time chatting about our lives with them and they were such grateful company when we extended even the slightest things their way.  They honestly were just a joy to be around and we felt lucky to have them as guests.  When they thanked us as they left, we said it was our privilege and we meant it.

Now that we have had the craziness of the hurricane, we see all the more how important our time with them was.  They brought such joy and peace to us, and that carried us through our evacuation and the days to follow.

It has me pondering the role that friends hold in my life.  The older I get, the more I realize that I get by not with just "a little help from my friends", but rather I get by with a lot of help from my friends.  This past winter, I really realized that.  While going through what we did, it gave me the gift of analyzing exactly what friendship is to me.  It gave me the chance to evaluate what I want from my closest friends and why it was necessary to ask for that from someone that is a close friend of mine. 

Barb has played a significant role in all of this for me.  While I was sorting through one friendship in particular this past winter and sharing it all with Nathan, he wasn't quite understanding clearly what I was explaining to him.  During this same time we met up with Barb and John for a few hours in Florida and as we left he said, I can see now why you are so frustrated with that friendship.  Barb and your friends like her have spoiled you.  They are such good friends to you, why would you want to settle for something that is so much less than what they are willing to give you?

And he was exactly right.  I have friends like Barb that have set a higher standard in my life than I would have asked for myself, and they have shown me that I don't have to settle for friends that are only there when things are happy and fun if I don't want to.  I am so grateful for that.  It doesn't mean I don't still love the other friends in my life, just that I don't want to put as much time and energy there at this point in my life.

He said he was in awe at how well Barb knows who I am and how supportive she is of me being..well, me.  I agree.  I hope I give the same to her in return. Because at the end of the day, isn't that all you can really hope for in a friend-that they work at knowing the real you and appreciating the real you?  Not to say my friends like Barb don't speak up when truth needs to be spoken to me.  They do.  Boy, do they sometimes!  And they still love me and stick by me even then.  Because I trust how much they do know me, I trust their input.

They also let me share honestly with what I see in their life without taking offense, even if they disagree.  If something is a big deal to one of us, we don't downplay that or try to talk them out of seeing it that way.  We let it be what it is to them.  If someone is sad or depressed, we honor that as much as much as if they were happy and full of joy.  We work at adjusting our behaviors where who we are is spilling over onto each other in ways that hurt or cause stress for the other, while still remaining true to who we are.  And this particular group of women that I am talking about has managed to do this for about a decade now.  I hope we are still there for each other for many more decades. 

I value friendship far more than I ever did when I was younger.  I wonder if that won't continue to be more and more true the older I get.  I hope so, because when a friendship is a good one, it is a rare and precious thing.

Thank you, my friend, and all of you women in this particular circle of my friends.  You all rock!

Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge

 I've been counting down the days for something exciting-my dear friend Barb and her husband John coming to camp with us.  We met them at the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge and wandered around for a short time.  A very short time compared to how long we probably both would have stayed because the mosquitoes were out in killer force even with bug spray on.  It is a beautiful refuge from what we did see and we saw a few birds while there.

Refuge Facts

• Established: May 17, 1937.
  
• Size: 5,834 acres (land), 25,700 acres (Proclamation Boundary Waters).
  
• Located on the north end of Hatteras Island, a coastal barrier island and part of a chain of islands known as the Outer Banks.
  
• Approximately 13 miles long (north to south) and ranges from a quarter mile to 1 mile wide (from east to west).
  
• Location: 10 miles south of Nags Head, North Carolina on NC 12.
  
• Administered by Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge as a part of complex; Alligator River Manager supervises the Mackay Island, Currituck, and Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge Managers.
  
• The Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan for Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge is complete.

Natural History

• Area was historically used for market waterfowl hunting, commercial fishing, farming, and
  livestock operations.
  
• Refuge is comprised of ocean beach, dunes, upland, fresh and brackish water ponds, salt flats, and salt marsh.
• Bird list boasts more than 365 species; wildlife list has 25 species of mammals, 24 species of reptiles, and 5 species (low number due to salt environment) of amphibians.
  
• Concentrations of ducks, geese, swans, wading birds, shore birds, raptors, neotropical migrants are seasonally abundant on refuge.
  
• Refuge has 1,000 acres of manageable waterfowl impoundments.
  
• Several shorebird nesting areas and wading bird rookeries are located on the refuge.
  
• Endangered and threatened species include: peregrine falcons, loggerhead sea turtles, and piping plovers.

Refuge Objectives

• Provide nesting, resting, and wintering habitat for migratory birds, including the greater snow geese and other migratory waterfowl, shorebirds, wading birds, raptors, and neotropical migrants.
  
• Provide habitat and protection for endangered and threatened species.
  
• Provide opportunities for public enjoyment of wildlife and wildlands resources. Public use programs focus on interpretation, environmental education, wildlife observation, wildlife photography, and fishing.

The Nights in Rodanthe House~Serendipity

 

After leaving Pea Island, we headed over to Chicamacomico Life Saving Station, but they were closed.  So we asked Barb and John if they would want to see the Nights of Rodanthe house.  We have seen this house from the road many times, but still hadn't driven up to get a closer look.  We didn't get too close of a look this time either because there wasn't a place to park that wasn't so sandy that we feared we would get stuck.  So we did a drive by "shooting" instead.

 

If you are wondering what makes this particular house so special, it was the house used in the movie "Nights in Rodanthe" based on the book written by Nicholas Sparks.  It was called The Inn at Rodanthe in the movie.  At that time the house sat in a different location.  

At some point storms and hurricanes shifted the 45 foot tall houses location to the point where it was deemed unsafe.  The owners were told to move the house or it would be condemned.  The house found itself new owners, Ben and Debbie Huss of Newton, North Carolina.  They vowed to move the house and restore it to its former glory. 

From Everything Outer Banks: 

"The Huss family hired Expert House Movers (who was the company that moved the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse), and the infamous Matyiko brothers that own Expert House Movers moved on the job quickly. The house, which weighed in at a whopping 83,000 pounds, was jacked up, shored up with cribbing underneath, loaded up on beams and four pairs of huge wheels, and readied for its move in a matter of just two days. Permits were pulled, electric crews stood by to move power lines, as did the police to stop traffic while the behemoth was to take the approximate 30 minute journey down highway 12 to its new location.

The original move was scheduled for Friday, January 15th, and as the pilings were cut away and the massive truck pulled into position to move the big girl everyone gathered in anticipation. The house jostled to the left as she started moving and everyone cheered as she was pulled away from the Atlantic. Unfortunately the excitement was short lived as the house evidently wanted to stay in its long time location for one more weekend. The massive truck got its wheels stuck in the sand as it was trying to pull the house out of its birthplace, and with nightfall coming fast the move had to be rescheduled for the following Monday.

On Monday, January 18th with the truck unstuck, its wheels secure, all police, electrical, cable television and telephone company crews ready to take down their lines again, water department folks standing by, department of transportation officials there to supervise and a village of onlookers in position the house was moved at 10:30 AM. The move was uneventful if you don’t count the news helicopters, and hundreds of onlookers gawking at a once in a lifetime sight."