13 years ago today

Well, really really early this am (4:32am to be exact)
I became mom to the greatest kid in the universe.

I never knew I could love someone as much as I love him.

He never ceases to amaze and frustrate me
(come on he's a TEENAGER).

I have been blessed, lucky, whatever you want to call it.
I'm one proud M.O.M.

Let Me Take You to Funkytown...

Okay, mom snapped this in the grocery store parking lot.

Only in Asheville would you find this bumper sticker on a car :)

Life on the Farm

This year everything seems to have clicked just right for our little garden venture. We have a huge bed of lettuce and spinach... lots of blooms on our squash, zucchini and cucumbers. The okra is taking it's time (but that's ok with me since David is the only one who eats it). However we have broccoli (ok, they are the size of a floret, but STILL :) we have broccoli. I also harvested these beauties Sunday and had them for dinner - sugar snap and snow peas - they are so sweet and yummalicious.




A few nights ago I kept hearing a soft little squeal - like something was stuck - I thought something (a bunny maybe) had gotten into the raised bed where the veggies were but couldn't get out... so at 4am (yes, 4am) I took the flashlight and went out to investigate. About the time I passed by the outdoor dining table - this guy flew over my head and landed on the garage roof. Amazing! He and his mate were calling back and forth to each other!




I love living this close to the parkway and all it's wildlife :)

This is why everyone should have a dog

They make you smile no matter what.

They give you unconditional love and will follow you anywhere.

How Does Your Bookshelf Look?

I found this very interesting. I was raised by an avid reader. Every Saturday my Mom would take my sister and I to the library on the island where we would pick out 2-4 books that we would read over a 2-week period (the average time you were allowed to check out library books). So we read - a lot. Now I came across this over at Red Bird Knits' blog and took the quiz (answers beside the titles) and I find it sad that the average person has only read 6 books from the list.

My number is 71

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - yes
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien –
Read them in middle school and again before the movies came out.
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - yes
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling – yes - thanks mom :)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - Yes
6 The Bible - yes, but I've never read it cover to cover
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - yes
8 1984 - George Orwell - Yes
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - no
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Yes
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - Yes
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy – Yes
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller – Yes
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare – I haven't read all of them, but I do have them all
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - Yes, see #2
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - no
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - Yes, and more than once
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - it's on my bookshelf
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot- Yes
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - Yes
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald - Yes and I have ALL his works
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens- no
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - Yes, but I loved Anna Karenina more
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - yes
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh - Yes
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - no
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - Yes and read it again last year, just because
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - Yes - one of my all time favorites
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - Yes, Yes, Yes
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - Yes
33 The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis - like Tolkein, once in middle school
and then again with David
34 Emma - Jane Austen - Yes
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen - yes
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - Yes - see above
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - No, and I really have no interest in it
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres- No, why is this on the list?
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden - Yes
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne – Yes -
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell -Yes
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - Yes, Angels & Demons was a better book
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Yes, and HATED every page
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving - Yes, Yes, yes
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - no
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery - Yes
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - no
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood - Yes
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - Yes
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan - no
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel - Yes
52 Dune - Frank Herbert- Yes
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - No
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - Yes
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth - No
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - No and haven't heard of this one
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - Yes
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - Yes
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - No
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Yes, and LOVED LOVED it
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck – Yes.
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov - No
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt - no
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold – it too is on the bookshelf waiting
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - Yes, and ALL his works are on the shelf
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac - No
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy - No
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding - Yes
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie - No
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville - Yes, and again with David
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - Yes
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker - Yes
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - Yes, may be my all time fav book
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson - No
75 Ulysses - James Joyce - no
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath - Yes
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome - No
78 Germinal - Emile Zola - No
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray - Yes
80 Possession - AS Byatt- Yes - No
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - Yes
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell - No
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker - Yes
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro - Yes
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - Yes
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry - No
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White - Yes, multiple times
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom - No
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Yes
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton – No
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad - No
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery – Yes
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks - No
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - Yes
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole - No
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute - No
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - Yes
98 Hamlet – Shakespeare – Yes
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl - yes
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - Yes

So where is the Hemingway? Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises - Why not The Grapes of Wrath, No Ayn Rand or Carson McCullers? ...all missing. Puzzling

By going over this list I found that I used to read a lot more than I do. I'm going to try to read 3 from this list this year - wonder how I'll do?

How did you do?

Fall is here and it's time to get serious about some knitting

Wow, there is a snap in the air. I'm baking.
I'm jonesing for some soup. It must be fall. Yay!

I've got my projects all lined up and ready to go.

I've been saving some money for SAFF (Southeast Animal Fiber Fair) and to visit the Knit Witch for a knitting bowl...OMG have you seen those - awesomely coolness. Oh and I need some Potion Lotion and sock yarn...

It's Official!

The launch is this Saturday at the Mars Hill Heritage Festival.

Stix n Scones is a real business.

Please visit www.stixnscones.com to learn more about this new venture!

Bend it like Beckham? Well...not quite

So you're in 7th Grade now. School sports are encouraged. So you and a couple of your buddies get together and decide to go out for the school's soccer team. Might be fun - right?

Well you ALL make the team. Fun times are ahead. New cleats, shin guards, uniforms and you are well suited for left midfield.

First game of the season... your opponents came out strong, but you totally shut them down in the 2nd half - way to go rockets!

I'm in the mood for a melody...

Saturday night.

Robert Plant and Alison Krause. Man, it's hard to believe he's as old as my parents. He can still rock it out. And be darn sexy while he's at it.

My generation was a bit too young to be able to see the Zep on their last tour in 1977... now we probably won't be able to afford too. Ah well, nights like these are nights well spent.

I will say that I had to pick my mouth up off the floor when he sang a gospel song - holy crap - what was that all about. Seriously he seemed to be having a great time. Alison was a little too reserved, but all in all a great show.

/review

Smile time

So we have begun our journey into orthodontics.

David was a model patient for the initial xray, moulding, photo visit.
Of course the dental technicians are all so nice and help make everything go smoothly. (They even held his hands down so mom could get the picture!)

A straight beautiful smile will soon be his.

Spring is here

Our flowers are blooming out.

The birds are nesting. The leetle baby snake keeps hiding in the front flower-bed (shudder). And we are enjoying our dinner on the porch - al fresco - each evening.

Of course the prettiest thing in the garden is the Princess Izzy Belle, who holds court on the swing, in the bird bath (when it's empty) and generally anywhere she wants.

Raleigh Bound

8am tomorrow morning the Science Olympiad Team heads to Raleigh for State Competition. 4 1/2 hours on a bus with 25 middle schoolers, overnight in a hotel and two days roaming a college campus. God bless teachers!

The kids will be fine, they will be busy competing and watching events. The teachers will deserve an extra gold star (or several) after this weekend. How fortunate we are to have teachers who willing give up weekends and family time to help our kids learn, grow, compete and flourish. Most of you know, mine is a science geek in the best of ways - he also happens to be a closet NC State fan (don't let all that Duke blue fool you - he's been a Pack member a loooong time).

How will mom fare? Hm, it's little man's first - overnight - without a family member or close friend involved. I'll worry. He won't think twice about it. Another growing up milestone comes to pass.

Spring Break Adventures

Well, here we are 'back to the grind' after 10 days of fun, sun and well more fun. We ventured down to St. Augustine to visit with Julz and Mark - who put us up for a few days. We had a fantastic time. We visited the World Golf Hall of Fame, climbed the lighthouse, visited the Castillo de San Marcos (aka the Fort @ St. Augustine), took a ghostly pirate cruise around the bay and yes, they DO fire the cannons from the Fort at nighttime! That was just the first day!

We slowed down after that however... we did manage to see all the sights - the Old Jail, the Fountain of Youth (who really would drink sulfur water??) we especially enjoyed walking around the Mission of Nombre de Dios and Our Lady of La Leche Shrine which was beautiful and peaceful.

We had our fill of shrimp at Barnacle Bills (aka Barnacle Bobs - thanks to Mark). And good home cooking thanks to Julz' mom on Easter Sunday :)

Probably one of the best things about our trip was our day spent at TPC/Sawgrass - THE hub of the PGA. If you know anything about golf (and I know just a little) this place is like Mecca for golfers. And it is breath-takingly beautiful. The clubhouse is open to the public - you can go and have drinks or lunch.

They even have "Storytellers" who are like private tour guides that take you around and explain the history of the place and I will say - ours was FANTASTIC. He drove us out in a golf cart around the course, pointed out where game winning shots were made, how a full 6 weeks before the big tournament there - the crew is already setting up for the event (and will be at a dead run until gameday). He explained how some of the holes were designed, where pin placement is on a weekday vs. a weekend vs. a tournament - even how the ladies tees were set (by the designers wife!)

Toward the end of our tour - after he had been gracious enough to take us up to the 2nd floor balcony so we could see Fred Funk out on the practice area and take cool panoramic pictures (he even took our picture - I now have proof that I was ON this vacation!)...anyway, we are walking down the stairs on our way out and he asks if we are in any particular hurry to move on to our next thing that day.... uh...no... THIS is our only thing for today... Ok, follow me - around the corner, down a hallway and another staircase down and we find ourselves in .... THE PLAYERS AREA.
David's face was lit up like a Christmas tree. Down the tunnel of champions, where the players walk unaccosted by the public. The caddies were hanging out in their own area - and it's so NOT at all like Caddyshack! So we make it all the way down the tunnel and were heading back when a man is coming toward us (hmmm) ok, it's Jim Furyk - we were quickly escorted out another door - but, how cool was that? Two pros in one day!

After our jaunt in Florida we headed back north - stopping for a couple of days at Lake Hartwell with Mom & Dad - I kid you not when I say the highlight of those few days was my dad wrapping his arm around me and singing (yes-singing) Happy Birthday to me.

As much as I love to travel and visit with friends and family, I am honest when I say I did laundry for one complete day! Oy...and the pile on my desk...I'm still digging out. Oooh I feel the waves beckoning me back to the beach now...

Science Olympiad WINNERS

Recently we attended the Regional Science Olympiad competition.
Little Man is on the Trajectory Team.

They built a trebuchet from scratch and had to launch a tennis ball to land inside a 5 meter target and a 10 meter target - they took 2nd place.

The day was filled with various events: bottle rockets, egg-onauts, biology, anatomy, etc.

The school won/placed in enough events they took 2nd place overall.

State competition here we come!

New Year's Resolution

Twelve months ago I took my first knitting class.
Twelve months ago I acquired a new addition.

Hi, my name is Anna and I'm a knit-a-holic.

Really.

I received the most amazing hand spun alpaca yarn from a local farm. It's gorgeous. My mom's reaction was..."pay someone to make something for you, and this is nice stuff." ah-hem. If you know me, you know I heard..."you really don't know what you are doing you don't want to mess this up ." So, with the help of my knitting buddy Becky I ventured into the world of knitting. Wow, what a year it has been. I've made scarves, baby blankets, hats, socks and even a top for me (that I can no longer wear since I've lost weight). I love it. It gives me something to do with my hands on these cold winter days, or when I'm sitting at basketball practice or the doctor's office, on the plane ride to and from, any down time... I'm being productive.

And I love it. For Christmas I made socks for my dad.
He really, really likes them. I've made 2 other pair too - they say either you love to make socks or you hate it (right Becky?) I love it. I've made baby blankets for two (and now a third) friend who have welcomed little ones into the world. I've made scarves for my mom and myself. I've made purses - and even felted one! I have taken chances and succeeded more than I've failed.

So much of our lives are spent buying things. In my small effort to simplify, I have returned to the luxury of handmade things. Things made with love (remember the cooking post? see below). Love is the main ingredient both in what you make and how you make it. So if someone gifts you with a handmade item, remember, they aren't being cheap...they have put their time and love into making it. They are gifting you with a piece of themselves. They thought about YOU each and every hour they spent working on something with YOU in mind.

But with this new addiction has come purchasing... yarn, yarn, needles and more yarn. I am resolving here and now NOT to purchase any more yarn, not to begin another new project until I finish what I have already purchased or started. Yes, David I know, your sweater... your scarf... the two hats that are still in the bag. I promise! I will power through. So if you find me wandering into the yarn store with that deer in headlights look, kindly steer me back out and away - far, far away. I have what I need for now... well, at least until the Fiber Arts Fair in the Fall ;)

Have a great year - I hope it is filled with love and lots of yummy yarn and handmade goods of both the eating and the wearing kind!

Coco