Date Night (in the Afternoon)

This afternoon Arielle was sweet enough to come sit with the little boys so Kurt and I could go see Argo. We've been wanting to see it and had heard great things--and we agreed. We both enjoyed it. Suspenseful even though I KNEW how it was going to end =) Our last movie was Hotel Translyvania and next weekend we want to see "Lincoln". Our movie tastes are all over the map!

A boy and a dirt pile

Can a boy resist a whole trough of dirt? Not if they're one of ours. There is a built in planter/flower box that runs along a big window at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The boys are allowed to dig all they want until flowers are living there! I can live with a little dirt when the kid doing the digging looks so darn cute in a puffer vest =)

Decision 2012

Well, election day is behind us!!! And to be done with all of the ads (You're DAMN right, in Wisconsin comes to mind), the endless phone calls and smack talk on facebook (seriously, people unfriend each other over this stuff! For Pete's sake, I married a man who often votes differently than I do!), makes me very happy. But I'm happy most of all that we have the freedom to make the decision of who will work to lead this country. I'm also happy that Arielle and Parker chose to exercise their right to vote as well. We all went at separate times, with Arielle having to wait in line the longest---she couldn't even see the area where our district votes when she walked in the building, HA! And, I'm pretty happy that "my" guy is sticking around so that Big Bird can stick around!

Menu Planning Monday

Well, after having the last 2 weeks off (funny how vaction fell right in the middle of 2 weeks of meal planning--HA!), I am back at it and linking up to (and I have to get that fixed too!!!) where you can find many more great ideas for dinners. For us this week: Monday: Taco pasta (pinterest!), tossed salad Tuesday: Hawaiian chicken in crockpot (pinterest!), rice, veggie Wednesday: Ham, potatoes, green bean casserole Thursday: Burgers on the grill, potato salad, deviled eggs Friday: Chicken breasts (worlds best--pinterest), stuffing, skillet corn Saturday: Something with leftover ham Sunday: chicken/broccoli casserole with leftover chicken, rolls

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!!!