Charlie's Back!!

And he picked up some new tricks at the North Pole during the off season...

After the Storm

Eventually Sandy ran out of steam in NC and took her destructive self to the North and we were left with flat, wet, smooth beach. We had to brave a little water to get to it, as Brigette demonstrates, but it was worth wet feet. Chris and I found lots of shells to take home to our boys, a few unopened clams and SpongeBob Squarepants' friend Patrick Star, who clearly lost his green boxer shorts in the storm!!

Hurricane Sandy--as seen by a Wisconsinite!

I am usually a "people picture" type of gal, but when you plunk a Mid-western girl in the middle of a major weather event on the ocean, things shift gears =) These are just some pictures of the Atlantic doing its thing during our portion of Hurricane Sandy. On Monday the water found a way to get to us, without even coming up over the dunes and down the access road we used from the beach. And once it started coming, it came hard and ran fast!! You can see that the tire tracks stayed put during it all. Our house is about 3 rows back from the beach, so our yard/driveway never flooded, but the road right along the house did. That became a barrier to us being able to get out. Luckily we were able to tack a day on and the water went down enough for us to drive through it to get ourselves on the beach. Mother Nature is not someone to mess around with---especially water, it is a powerful force and I can understand how things (including people) get swept away in fast moving currents.

Our OBX Digs

Well, our time in the OBX is over, we're all back home after Hurricane Sandy and have lived to tell the tale. We all got lucky too, because with the way the storm tracked and the havoc that happened in the direction we all needed to go, it could have been a very different story!! We pushed back our departure by one day and had a wonderful day for driving back up the coast. These are just some pictures of the house we were "holed" up in for 6 days. We had wanted to spend some more time at the beach and walk through a nature preserve area, but the weather of course thwarted that plan. BUT, it was heavenly to just be able to lounge around in jammies, read our Nooks/Kindles, NAP, sip wine, watch movies, NAP and play games with no noses to wipe, snacks to make or fights to break up =) The outside of the house is the side that faces the ocean, my room was top floor, very right. So each morning, the ocean was my wakeup sight! Also a shot of my bedroom, the living room where we really lived--HA! The pool area was gorgeous, but of course unused by us this week. It is a wonderful home and we're so grateful that we had the use of it for a week--thanks to Mr and Mrs Golden!!!

Our Unitvited Guest...

Well, our long-awaited girls weekend at the beach for five has turned into a weather event for 6. Hurricane Sandy is indeed at the beach with us =( Our beach (North Cordova) has not been evacuated (not that we'd have to leave anyway as we are considered "owners" not "renters") so we are staying put! That means that we aren't able to do many of the things we'd planned to do, like hit the little shops and do lunch in town (Duck or Nags Head), but we all brought our Nooks/Kindles, we have laptops, lots of movies, food and oh yes, maybe a bit of liquid refreshments! We did venture down to the beach on Thursday night when we got here, but it was a little too dark to get good pictures =( We came across 2 fishermen who were happy to take our pictures of the 5 of us, but mine didn't take and Brigettes are very blurry, so we have none of the 5 of us =(

Greetings from the OBX!!

WooHoo!! I am on a 5 day get away with 4 of my very favorite people in the world. We've come together from Canada, PA and 2 from VA and then drove down to the family beach house of Brigette's parents. We are right on the ocean in Corolla, NC. WHICH, if you're following the news at all, you know that another female is trying to join our little group---Hurricane Sandy! We are watching the weather closely, but also enjoying our girl time =) These pictures are of the view that I have from the deck outside of my room. That's the Atlantic Ocean, Baby!!

Labor Day Camping

We had the opportunity to camp a few times this summer. I even purchased a tent and big fat air mattresses for our "comfort". Kurt has to work most weekends, so the boys and I just glom onto where my parents are camping. They (them and my cousin Courtney) have the bulk of the necessary supplies, so we're pretty lucky to get to horn in on their plans! These are pictures of the boys "celebrating" Labor Day in style--HA! Paxton is our little pyro--it is his personal mission to be in charge of burning all paper products in the campfire. In fact, Courtney will hoard some things and when he thinks he's out of material, she'll pull it out in exchange for an "I love you" out of him =)

St Patrick's Day

See, I TOLD ya'll I missed posting about a whole bunch of stuff!!! WAAAAYYYY, back in March, I went to my BFF's house for the weekend (she lives in the Quad Cities, I made the mistake of introducting her to her husband and his job has a stinkin' residency requirement!) I'm able to make it down to stay for a weekend a few times a year, and one of them happened to be over the big Irish holiday weekend. Davenport/Rock Island host a big parade every year, it starts in Illinois, crosses a bridge over the Mississippi river and ends in Iowa (it's the only parade in the nation to utilize an Interstate!) Well, this year it was UNSEASONABLY warm. Like 80 degrees warm. In March. In Iowa. Needless to say the turnout was incredible. Most of the parade entries have beads (think mardi gras) to hand out and the people lining the street to get neck-ful's of beads were in the tens of thousands. Patti's hubby is a firefighter in Davenport and we walked with their entry and passed out beads. I don't even know how many thousands of strands we had to hand out, but we got rid of them all---and that was just the one entry! The sight that greeted us when we crested over the bridge was unbelievable: people as far as you could see. They were on rooftops, parking garages, vehicles--anything to make themselves a little higher. Beads were hanging from tree brances (no leaves on the trees yet!), street signs, power poles and lots on the necks of little kids =) We had a wonderful time (and yes, the celebrations continued in an adult fashion afterwards). I think it'll be a LONG time before the stars align again to allow for such a gorgeous day.

There's an APP for that....

Before I went to Boston, I bought an iPod Touch. For a variety of reasons and I love it!!! Internet access wherever there is a WIFI signal (yes, I know a "smart phone" will do the same thing, but I'm too cheap to pay for a montly data plan--HA!) Anyhow, just like an iphone, you can download an app for practically anything! Her are some that I'm enjoying =)




This one is da bomb!! You can scan the UPC code of ANY product and it will pull up what that item costs are area stores! For example, if I see a lego set at Target, but want to be sure that the best deal is in front of me, I can scan the UPC code on the box and it will show me what those legos cost at Walmart, Shopko, Kmart, even online options! I am going to LOVE this one with upcoming Xmas shopping!!



This one is a "knock-off" version of Scrabble. I usually have several games going at once with many different people. Did you know "xi" is a word? Or "qua"? "Jo" is a great way to offload that J!



And this image is apparently shy! It's an app where you can make lists of gifts you need to buy, or have bought and keeps track of budgeting too!! I'm excited to play with this one b/4 I head out for my big shop trip in a couple of weeks =)

Great Wolf Lodge

Kurt has his semi-annual union (for all that means in WI anymore) meeting here in the Dells, so we are taking advantage of some family time at the Great Wolf Lodge! Who doesn't love a little time at a water park? We certainly do =)