First morning out in awhile.

As previously mentioned, it's been pretty hot and muggy here, so for the most part Teddy and I have stayed indoors. We go to our complex office every morning to see the manager and the maintenance guys (they all like to see Teddy and Teddy likes to visit). So, this morning brought cooler weather and we were gone from the house for the better part of the morning. We had the playground to ourselves for most of the time we were there and then bombarded with 3 Russian speaking nannies and the children they care for. Teddy played the part of the welcoming committee a little too well and his efforts were rebuffed equally as well. No one seemed to care that we were there and very few pleasantries were exchanged. Needless to say, we didn't stay too long after they got there. I did, however, manage to tick Teddy off with the constant camera watching his every move.

Shoo fly don't bother me! Yep, he really was saying that too! He HATES flies and will not go down the slide, even when I tell him they will fly away if he comes near them. Of course, I give him a couple of years and he'll be bringing home all kinds of things for me in his pockets, up to and including snakes, I'm sure.










"DON'T TAKE THE PICTURE MOMMA!!!!" Heard that several times during our outing. *sigh* You'd think by now he's just suck it up and give me a smile from time to time. He's going to wonder, when he looks back on all of his pictures someday, whether he ever smiled or not...

We watched as the waters rose...

Last Saturday was an interesting day for us. We've been dealing with the hot and muggies for about a week solid, storms on and off and it came to a head Saturday, late afternoon. We had been getting flash flood warnings for a couple of days and it began to rain, hard. This was the end result, actually when the pictures were taken, it was during the worst part. Funny thing is, about an hour after the rain stopped, you wouldn't have known this had taken place. I found out today that we got about 3 inches of rain in an hour.

The scene from our living room window.


This was a shot taken from Teddy's bedroom window of the courtyard. There was a crew in that ambulance, bringing someone home, presumably from a doctors or dialysis appointment. They sat there for about 45 minutes with the patient in the back, not sure why they waited so long.


The parking lot behind our building, our van is behind the red car. Thankfully, spared from any damage.


These next two are also from our living room window, I was kind of hanging outside of the window to get these. Our maintenance manager's car got the brunt of the water. We were watching out the window when we saw him come out to move it (again, not sure why since the damage was done). He was waste deep in water!! The second shot was just after he started to move it, that's why it looks closer. A few guys come from the complex came out to help him. They pushed it to our lot, against the current. David just got his car back today from the mechanic.




We are expecting a lot of rain again this weekend. We'll see what happens...it all depends on how fast and furious it comes.

A little about our visit from family.

We had a good time with my sister, mom, and grandmother. We didn't see much of my grandmother really, as she spent the weekend with my aunt. She did treat us all out to dinner on Sunday, which was...interesting. We got there before anyone else and had to wait about a half hour and for a toddler, that is a few eternity's time. Teddy seemed to take to my grandmother, though, and didn't hesitate to call her "Grammy". Once we were seated, he did fairly well, though. But, that is getting well ahead of myself. The really really great part started on Thursday when my sister landed. Teddy knew who she was, however, had the look of "Wait a minute, you live in the computer!" He knows Marianne from talking with her via the web. He didn't waste time, though, making the connection of who she was and talking to her just as he would Garnet, who lives just a few miles from us. We spent a couple of hours walking through IKEA before heading home (IKEA was on the way). We had some dinner at home with the big boys (Ed and my brother-in-law, Joe) and just spent time together catching up. Here's a picture of my sisters, goofing off.

Friday, Marianne and I spent the morning together, in the kitchen actually. She made lemon curd and scones for a few people as gifts and I got my baked ziti together in preparation to have everyone here for Saturday supper. Garnet worked and then came and picked us all up to head to the shore. We had a gorgeous day to head down there, which we weren't sure we were going to get. We spent some time on the boardwalk, Teddy rode the same carousel I did as a child and he rode some of the quarter rides too (although I think they are more like $.50 at this point, which considering isn't too bad). My sisters and I played some games and then we walked on the beach. Let me say, it's quite a workout walking in the sand with a 36 lb. toddler on your hip!! He wouldn't walk in the loose sand, but didn't mind it down closer to the water. He wouldn't let me put him down in the water though, which I suppose I can understand. The ocean can be quite intimidating. Here's a few shots from the boardwalk and beach.





Saturday was spent with my mom, as Marianne took off to visit some old high school friends. We headed to the farm (see a previous post), but found they were closed for the day. :( So, we headed to a Peddler's Village, which is a cluster of boutique-y shops. They also have a place for kids called Giggleberry Fair, which has games and quarter rides as well as a carousel. Yep, Teddy got another ride on a carousel. Mom treated us to lunch and then came home to our house while Garnet and Joe got some things done elsewhere. They came for supper and we all watched a movie. It was a nice night. Just a couple more shots from Saturday.



Sunday we went to church, had a light lunch and then I came home with Teddy, got some things done around here and then we went to dinner. Here are a couple more shots. The first ones are with my mother and grandmother, so it's four generations. God bless my grandmother. She's 85 years old, still has every wit about her and drives like a bat outta hell!! LOL. She drove most of the way here from NC, actually. The second ones are with my mom and sisters. Yeah, we really do look nothing alike. We didn't seem to get it together and get one really decent pic, but they are okay. I did not get nearly enough pictures I wanted to, but I was living in the moment and just didn't think about the camera too much. Bummer, I know, but that's the way it goes sometimes. It was a great time and went by much too fast.

Some befores and afters.

Well, I finally got my pictures done! Here are some of my pieces as they appear on my website now...very basic, one dimensional, blah.





Here they are after many many tries and re-tries to get it right! I think I did a pretty good job in the end.

A lot to catch up on.

Just realized it's been much too long since I've updated. I'm just doing my best to stay busy here and Teddy helps out with that quite a lot. I will try to cover the last few weeks over the next couple of days. In the meantime, I will share with y'all my newest creations in my beading ventures. It's been quite awhile since I have worked with my beloved beads, just never enough hours in the day and little hands grabbing at my supplies just doesn't excite me. LOL. Ed's manager, Matt, just got married a couple of weeks ago and I thought these would be nice to give as gifts. They are wine glass charms. The pictures are my attempt at a more professional presentation, not sure how much I like them. I am still playing at all the settings on the camera and since the charms are packaged up, these pictures will have to do. I am trying to retake pictures of all of my pieces in preparation to move my domain and in the process, I am learning just how exhausting taking staged pictures can be. Anyway, enough of my babble, here's the latest...