"stand up straight"

ok. so who hasn't been told at least once in their life to stand up straight? seriously. i think we can all say yes. so, after remembering some great shoes the wonderful julie hunt was wearing on the day of ashley's bridesmaids luncheon, i have searched online and found some fabulous shoes. they are called earth shoes. http://www.earth.us/ and they have "negative heel technology" which makes you stand up straight by putting your spine in alignment. yes. they are on the expensive end. about as much as one would pay for a pair of dansko clogs. but i figure if it helps my spine to align correctly and helps my posture... maybe it'll even help my hips to not hurt so much either. and this would be nice. i can wear them to work. i can wear them around town with jeans and khakis. they are versatile. and cute. http//www.earth.us/shoeDetail.asp?Gender=women&cat=3&ID=2362 this is the shoe i purchased. and, i got a nice discount. about the only thing my employer is good for. haha. i didn't say that. :) so check out the website. save up. try some new shoes.

at play with sparky

http://www.atplaywithsparky.com so the girls went to sparky's. and i know we keep mentioning it. so here is a link to sparky's. they run and run and run some more. and then they are just plain tired. and lazy. and unmotivated to do anything.

camping and riding

ok. so i think we are finally up to date except for this weekend. the girls went to play at sparky's and jay and i went (car) camping. the last time he camped was a couple of summers ago. the last time i camped was in girl scouts. and let's face it, it wasn't real camping. sometimes we camped outdoors. but mostly, toward the end, it was cabins. it was fun, but i have not ever gone real camping. so i am being broken in slowly. on saturday, our plans were to meet up with some members of the upstate cruisers (the western and upstate s. carolina land cruiser association) and drive from mt. pisgah to mt. mitchell on the blue ridge parkway. so we thought it would be fun to camp at the mt. pisgah campground on friday night and be ready to meet up with the group on saturday as planned. so we did. and we had a great time. it was really cold. and we had some "neighbors" a few sites down who must not be able to read that quiet time is from 10pm - 6am. i know i heard them last around 1am. yeah. those kind of fun neighbors. but i did eventually fall asleep and jay missed all of their noise. lucky him. but we woke up saturday and packed up and did some driving further south on the parkway before meeting up with the club at the pisgah inn restaurant. we got some great pictures, as the leaves are beginning to change. i won't describe them all. i am sure they can speak for themselves. but we had a great weekend....











these three were taken at mt. mitchell. it was unbelievably clear. the clearest it has ever been on top of that mountain. (the highest east of the mississippi.)

ready for halloween

ok. so dave loves to dress up. all cats do, right? haha ok. so he doesn't. but here is dave in his halloween costume. isn't he a cute little rooster?

lot 151

ok. so this is it. the site of our new home.



this is lot 151. it is in the meadows of river stone. it is in fletcher, north carolina. (about 10 minutes from where we live now.) our street number is still unknown. we have now picked out all of our colors for the exterior and interior. we made a few upgrades. we have signed all the papers and are just waiting for the contractors to call us and for everything to get started! we are very excited. if all goes according to plan, our new house will be ready the beginning of may. the dogs will have a fenced in yard to play in. not huge. but more than they have now. and we won't have any neighbors above us. and none directly connected beside us. it will be fabulous.

blueberries in september

so back when mom and dad and larry and mitos came to visit, we went up to craggy pinnacle. on that trip, we noticed that the wild blueberries were ripe. so jay and i decided to go back up the end of september to pick some for ourselves. and we decided to take the dogs along, too. they really enjoyed the hike. cotton seemed so excited to find whatever was at the end of the trail. and barley was just there. haha we picked about 1/2 cup of fresh mountain blueberries. ok. i did. while jay minded the girls. we all had a good time and got some great pictures that day, too.




so even after the blueberries had been picked over and cleaned out, there were still more to ripen up. and all those pretty blue-green leaves... blueberry bushes. deliciously organic. (now i sound like i'm from asheville, yeah?)

and, of course, the dogs were enjoying the fresh air, oblivious to the altitude.






cotton knows what stay means. barley couldn't figure out that we just wanted her to sit on the bench with us. so she didn't. but the picture in the middle, of her... she is on the bench. alone. she figured it out. too late, though.

jay started a bad trend after some picture taking of his own. he climbed over the wall to sit for a picture. it was a lovely, almost clear day.

a month of updates... all in one day

ok. so work has been busy and i have been tired. jay has been busy working. not that he updates this. but when we do have time off we spend it together. and we have had some busy and fun weekends. i just haven't sat down here to write about anything in much detail. well, today is your lucky day. it is post central here. enjoy.

are we crazy?

ok. so we decided to go camping tonight. and we decided this a few weeks ago. there is a land cruiser association which is driving the blue ridge parkway tomorrow from mt. pisgah to mt. mitchell. it should be really pretty with the leaves starting to change. it will be a long day of driving and stopping but nice just the same. so we decided that we would camp tonight at the mt. pisgah campground. and now that the weather has changed... it will be around 38 degrees in town, so climb 3000-4000 more feet in elevation and lord only knows what the temperature will be tonight!!! i will post on sunday with all the fun details and share pictures.

quick note

well, there hasn't been an update lately because there isn't much to update. however, this past sunday, we signed a contract on a new house. we are going to build a new house because that is actually cheaper than buying an old one. crazy, yeah? not really. we will be in henderson county, just over the line from buncombe county (where asheville is). buncombe co. thinks a lot of its land. sort of like williamson county does. but being just outside of the county and not in city limits, we lucked out. we got a great lot, number 151. it has decent views of the mountains. i would link the website, but it isn't working at the moment. i will send pictures of things and keep the building posted and updated. it should be finished around the beginning of may.... when our lease is up at the apartment. so that's it for us. new house. soon. no more kids running around in the apartment upstairs. yeah!