Christmas is Here!

What is a better way to kick of the Christmas Season then to have a flag football tournament. During the last game a ball was tipped and the trophy was hit. A nice tape job was done and the trophy was fixed.

Of Course Josh had to go see Santa

And we got Santa to come see Abby.

Rocks and Trees

Josh, Abby, our neighbor Ray and I headed up to Linville Gorge to get some rocks for our neighborhood fire pit. Once we got to the bottom of the Gorge, Josh found the biggest pile of rocks ever and concured it before Abby even had a chance.

Ray and Josh loaded up the truck while I supervised.

When we got back the team needed a picture with all their treasure.

Josh and Abby started digging the pit

Of course Abby would not stop digging even when both men worked with shovels.

As they were digging and building I decorated the house, and then Abby. I think Abby is a cute Rudolph.

Frisbee Golf

Friday Josh, his parents and I went to play a round of Frisbee golf in Hickory. We were not the only ones who took advantage of the beautiful day.

Almost the entire course is in the woods.

We climbed up hills, and ran down hills,

we ducked under branches, and rustled through bushes.

Josh even retrieved my Frisbee from a never ending puddle.

The score was neck and neck until the last hole

the odds were on Michael to win, but Josh came back to steal the glory.


The day was super fun.


Josh and I are looking for a fun Christmas picture,
this is our favorite so far.

Josh Buys a Fourwheeler

So my daddy bought a four wheeler. It is big, red, and loud. Daddy loves it almost as much as he loves mama, but I don't think it is as cute as me. The Friday he bought it my people went riding with Steven and his girlfriend Bonnie.

The next day daddy decided it was time for mama to learn. Her side of the story is that he wanted mama to learn, and daddy's side of the story is that she was begging to learn. Believe whichever tale you would like to, but I don't know why either one would want to ride it. The first time mama rode it daddy said he almost ended up on the ground. He let her practice before he hopped back on. Sadly we do not have a picture of BIG RED.

I don't mind the machine if one of my people is with me, however if they both are on it I don't like the four wheeler.

This weekend daddy and Shovel went hiking and spent the night on Table Rock. Neither mama or I were invited so we had our own special night at the house. Daddy told me to take care of mama, so I barked at everything. It is better to be safe than sorry.
Today I went with daddy to paint the flag football field. I followed him all around the park. I came home covered in red and white paint. I love the weekend!

Disc Golf and Halloween

Friday Josh and I took a half day for work and headed to Gastonia to play disc golf.

Neither one of us took into consideration that the ground would be quite muddy.

By the second hole we learned golfing would be a new experience

The first 9 holes were out in the open while the last 9 were in the deep in the woods.

Arden came prepared for the long walk with her Camel back full of water.
By the 17th hole we determined the course we were on was for the professionals,
no wonder we were having a difficult time even seeing the holes.




HALLOWEEN
We pulled together our costumes pretty quickly yesterday and headed to Elm street where we passed out candy for hours. Elm street gets about two thousand kids over a three hour period.
Nowhere else in Cherryville gets close to that number.
Josh was a farmer and I of course was his hoe



We went to the Levine's home,
between spurts of children Josh got a photo opp with Dalton,
Tony and Christine's middle child.


Sadly Josh also found Michael Myers

We thank Tony for inviting us to his wonderful party

Back to the Future

Friday Josh and I headed up to Newton. Since Josh had the day off he went up in the morning and played Frisbee golf with his father. When I got there around four we went back out to the course. After a round of 19 we met Beth at the Tap Room in Hickory.


Saturday Mike had four tickets to go to Hearts Square. Dr. Heart bought hundreds of acres and has put buildings from the 1840's on his land. This working village is only open one day a year and all the profit goes to the historical society. Michael woke up on Saturday with a horrible cold and was unable to go, so Beth, Josh, and I enjoyed the 1840's all over again.

Many people were dressed in historical attire.

As we walked around the village we stopped for photo opportunities.

At first Josh was weary towards the old school way of life,
but then he found his niche.




Josh never meets a stranger especially of the canine persuasion.

Saturday night Josh and I went to to the seventh annual Blingham Festival where we camped out in the 44 degree weather and listened to a live band. We received t-shirts and BBQ as party favors. Josh is still the Corn Hole champion of Cherryville. We both had a wonderful time.

Our Olympic Dream

Josh and I have been working on a little routine we like to call "Sparkle Sparkle Magic".

Please check it out and determine for yourselves.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/S1GICGtonVpXoyko

Thank you Hannah for your choreograph and believing in us!

A Clean Beautiful and Very Tasty Weekend

Saturday-The three of us went to Camp Karyae to help clean up on Saturday. Abby was the most excited out of the group until we got to the park and discovered five hundred boy scouts. Abby hates boy scouts, children in uniforms are her worst nightmare. We reassured her that there were only about two hundred of them.

Abby found a Spider man ball to play with while we worked.

Soon she found a doughnut dropped by a boy scouts.

She has determined that not all men in uniforms are bad,

just the mailman

Josh was on pressure washing patrol.

As you can see there were about four leaks in the hose.

As Josh continues to pressure wash the park to make our country more beautiful,

Abby stares at the flag proud to be an American.

The hose was replaced and Josh was able be more effective with his work. I helped pick up trash, move logs, and threw tons of junk away.

The dumpster was full by the time the day was through.

*Last night Josh came up with a wonderful date.

It was a little something he liked to call the 3 B's (Burgers, Beer, and Bed)

He made double cheese burgers, brought beer and we ate in bed
while watching Benjamin Button.

It was quite enjoyable!*

Sunday- We had a very productive day today. I repainted the bathroom white. When I was growing up every room in our house was white. I have always disliked the color, or the absence of. However that was one of the only colors we had in our building. Over the summer I painted the bathroom peach, after the paint dried it was determined our bathroom would not stay that color for long. It took three months. Hopefully by Christmas we will actually have the bathroom a color we both like.

Josh's saga continues with his buildings. Today he put up shelves to show off his beer bottle collection. He still needs about five more shelves to complete his project. He is starting to run out of wall space. The collection is now reaching 400 bottles and grows every time he sees an new beer he has not tasted yet.

It is the best tasting hobby a man could ever have.

We are happy North Carolina does not have earth quakes!

Josh would love your help building his collection.

The rule is that he must try the beer before the bottle goes up.

A Busy Weekend

Last week we found out that even if you have the flu shot you can still get the flu. It is quite amazing, Josh got the Shot about three weeks ago and last week he was diagnosed with the flu.

By Friday he was feeling better and so we headed up to Newton to spend the weekend with Mike and Beth. After dinner we headed to October fest in down town Hickory.

On Saturday Josh got up early to set up a wonderful tale gating experience for Lenoir Rhyne's Homecoming. When Beth and I got to the parking lot we had Bratwurst waiting for us. By halftime pizza was on the grill. Josh caught up with his old college buds while I talked with some Lutheridge friends. A good time was had by all!

Sunday when Josh woke up he had Poison Ivy. We have no idea how this happened. He is extremely allergic, therefore on Monday he got a wonderful shot. Even though it is not spreading anymore it still looks pretty Gross! I took pictures, but you might get sick. Honestly... sick.

The Building Saga Continues

The Great Building Clean out continued yesterday. Josh worked for almost six hours to finish up his project. Since he had finished the left building on Friday night he opened up the right building, and this is what he saw.

The neighbors came around again to check on Josh's progress. Sadly Jimmy decided not to come visit. Apparently on Friday night he helped compact the hobo with his body and fell out of the trash can. Once it was determined that he was not dead, the story became the highlight of the night.

Abby found the pile of sleeping bags and decided that there was nowhere else she would rather be.

Since Jimmy the entertainer did not stop by, the other neighbors did not stay long. Leaving Josh to a ginormous mess.

He finished last night, but it was to dark to take pictures. Here are our beautiful buildings!

The left Building

The right building

Josh should be very pleased with himself.

The Great Building Clean Out

Josh has been wanting to clean out our two back buildings for the past couple of weeks. However we have both been super busy with work we have not had a moment to think about anything besides work. Tonight after we went out for Mexican Josh decided to start the process. And what a process it has been already!

Building Number one was the less severe of the two, so Josh decided to start their. Neither one of us found this an exciting event, but the neighbors thought otherwise. Ray and Jimmy came over to see what all the excitement was about. Soon they had pulled out chairs and were making themselves at home.

Soon Jimmy decided that Josh was not cleaning out properly and thought it would be good to give his expert opinion on how to rearrange. As he supervised Josh, Jimmy decided that we need to build a porch off the building, get some electricity and have a party. He also thought it would be a good idea to put me in charge of fundraising.

As the project continued important questions were asked such as:

Why do you have an inter tube in that building?

Who wants the Candy Cane Christmas decorations?

And

Who was the funny guy from Gilligan's Island who hung out with the Skipper?

When dark finally arrived the men decided to forget about the buildings till tomorrow.

The building saga will continue after Soccer tomorrow.

Sunday Evening

Abby and I are tired of the wet. It has rained almost everyday for the past two weeks. There was one random day of 90 degrees. The rain has prevented many fun activities that we have had planned. Last weekend we were supposed to have a kick ball tournament, but it got rained out. We did however go over to Ray's, our neighbors, and play darts. The tournament is scheduled for November 1st. I will be in Greensboro for the states Special Education conference.

School has been crazy busy, almost everyday there has been a meeting or training of some sort. All I can really say is that I miss elementary school more than I thought I ever would. Each day I come home and work towards my masters. 13 more weeks and I will be officially done!

Soccer season is upon us in the great town of Cherryville. Once God realized that children can't play soccer in thunderstorms the season will get underway. Silly God... Josh will be spending Monday, Thursday, and Saturdays at the park with all the children. This is his second year in charge of soccer and he is in the grove.

Josh has a different way of dealing with the weather

A September Weekend

Saturday
Our weekend was packed with excitement. Ray had a big block party. We played horse shoes, washers, ping-pong, corn hole, and darts. Seven Boston buts were cooked for the event.

Our day was filled with lawn games and laughter

Josh is especially happy Ray invested in a Porto potty for the day

Even Shelby had a good time

Sunday
Mike took Josh and I to the Panthers vs. Eagles game. Due to recent events with Micheal Vick, Abby decided to stay home. Instead she watched the Vikings game with Ray and ate hot dogs.

We found out later that Josh should not have mocked Mike's corn hole abilities

Josh has never met a stranger!

Even though we enjoyed the panthers game we know who our REAL teams are!

The stadium stayed full for the first quarter until the fans realized that we were going to get whooped. The game ended with a 10-38 loss.

What a busy Weekend!