Showing posts with label events. Show all posts

My President is in Town

Today President Trump will be visiting my town for another rally. This is exciting news to some and then there are some that just don’t care. 
I think it is exciting anytime a president comes to my town. 
Just a couple weeks ago Ivanka Trump was also in town. She had dinner at our upscale restaurant and took a tour through some other towns around us. Rumor has it, that she is purchasing a home here but I really think she was just looking at where the rally will be taking place. 

My Sister and several friends will be attending the rally today. I think Mr. Trump is suppose to land here at 2:00pm, gates open at 3:00pm, Trump will show up around 6:30 and the rally starts at 7:00pm. People will be lined up as early as 7am and the traffic is going to be hellacious.

I would really love to go to the rally too but with my inner ear and vertigo problems, I am afraid to stand out there all day. I am also not a fan of being in tight crowds. I like being around a lot of people but shoulder to shoulder crowds give me anxiety. However, I think it would be something great to put in the books. 

I hope everything goes well today for everyone attending the rally and there are no problems. They are expecting to have 15000 to 20000 people attend. I worry a little about everyone being in a crowd like this because of the pandemic but precautions are suppose to be practiced. Temperatures will be taken of all those that enter the gate and mask will be mandatory. Since it is taking place outside, it should be ok. For me, I will be watching bits and pieces of the rally from my living room. 

Have you ever gotten to meet a President in your life time?



Belated Thanksgiving

I just realized I didn’t make a Thanksgiving post. Heck, I’m behind on any kind of post actually.  It’s just been a little crazy around here.

So with that being said, “I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving.

My daughter came in to spend the whole weekend with us. She loves going to bed and waking up in “her room” on holidays. Thanksgiving morning is usually filled with the aroma of a hot breakfast waiting for her. Not this time.
She wanted to do a 5K Turkey run at 8:00 in the morning in Belmont. I decided last minute to join in. Since we have never ran a 5k together, I figured this would be the perfect mother/daughter work out.

Proceeds went to the “Catherine's house”. Catherine's House serves women and children facing homelessness due to a variety of circumstances such as: domestic violence, un/underemployment, the shortage of affordable housing, unexpected tragedies, and the lack of a support network. 


I ate a Nutrisystem Cinnamon Roll. She ate a banana. Then we threw on our running gear and headed out the door. We ended up with a good parking spot and made it to the registration tent ahead of time. There I ran into a couple friends and we all were hyped up to run. 
Well, they were. I was not prepared to run 3 miles but I pushed through and finished. Unfortunately, I did not finish in my record time. I was behind by two minutes. I can’t run the whole time, so I walk some and run some. If I had only ran for three more minutes, I would have beat my time. My daughter on the other hand beat her goal time and was 10 minutes ahead of me. It was fun and its always a proud feeling when you cross that finish line. 

Lucky for me, I didn’t have to cook anything for Thanksgiving dinner. I made a cranberry salad to take to Moms. She always has a big Thanksgiving feast and everyone brings a dish on top of that. We had plenty and lots of left overs. 
Later that evening, we had dinner number two at my brother in laws.

Here are two brothers working in the kitchen. 


I over ate that day and stayed in a Turkey coma all weekend. 

Now its time to start a fresh week.



Halloween at the Campground

We are spending some time at the beach. The weather has been nice. The sun has been shining bright each day with temperatures ranging from 75 to 85 degrees. I have done a lot of walking along with lots of relaxing. The crowd at the beach this time of year is at a minimum and that makes it nice when we go out.

The campground was pretty full this past weekend. People flocked in with their RVs and campers to enjoy the Halloween festivities here. On Friday night, the campground hosted a pet costume contest along with food and drinks by the new Tiki bar. We walked up to see the pet costumes and met a couple new friends. The funnel cake stand was a hit as well. 


Saturday was also a big night at the clubs around the area with costume contest and drink specials. We are not big fans of the club life so we opt to stay in the campground for the night. There was a kids costume contest, trick or treating, special music, and judging of the best decorated camp site. 
We did not decorate our campsite other than a little pumpkin on my picnic table. 

We walked around viewing all the campers decked out for Halloween and tricks for the kids. I’m gonna end the post with a few photos of some of my favorites from Halloween at the campground. Enjoy.







Hope everyone has a safe an happy Halloween!


Old Glory

Happy Independence day! Hope everyone has a safe and fun day. I actually get to have this day off and I am so grateful.

As I look out over the neighborhood, I see neighbors showing patriotism by hanging flags on their porches and red white and blue decorations adorn their yards. Except for the Colombian family across the street.

I have also been wanting a bracket put on my house to hang my American Flag. My dear sweet husband promised to have me one hung before the 4th of July, so last week we made a trip to Lowes and grabbed the last flag bracket on the shelf then headed home to hang it. First he was skeptical about hanging it on the brick and wanted to hang it from the wood siding on the front porch instead. The problem was that this caused the flag to be set back too far and could not be viewed from the road. So he went with plan B and drilled into the brick beside the carport. It was the perfect spot to hang "Old Glory".


As we were finishing up the Colombian family across street shouted to get our attention and gave us a thumbs up. Today they have tiny American flags lined down their walkway. This made me smile. I’m glad they joined in on the celebration. 

I am not sure what we will be doing to celebrate today. It is just me and my husband. Our daughter and her boyfriend flew to Washington DC to celebrate the 4th there. I hope they have a good time and maybe even get to see the President. Our town is having an all day street party going on with vendors and food trucks. Later in the afternoon, they will do a spectacular firework show. I am not sure we will attend either event as we are not big fans of large crowds. We may just stay home and cookout while enjoying some of the fireworks from around the neighborhood.

FUN FACT: "Old Glory is a nickname for the flag of the United States. The original "Old Glory" was a flag owned by the 19th-century American sea captain William Driver, who flew the flag during his career at sea and later brought it to Nashville, Tennessee, where he settled". Wikipedia



HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!


May Celebrations

I started the Month off with a happy Anniversary and would like to thank everyone for your happy wishes. It was a great day. My husband showered me with kisses and hugs. We exchanged cards and he surprised me with an iPencil and a new iPad case with a keyboard.


I was overwhelmed. We will celebrate some more this weekend with a nice dinner somewhere.

May is also my birthday month. I am excited to say that on the 16th I will be turning 50! Wow. Bring on the wrinkle creams and potty handles!

I have my birthday outfit ready!


May will be filled with all kinds of fun and events throughout. Not only will I be having a birthday, but I have a sister, a brother, and my dad that will be celebrating birthdays too. This means lots of cake cakes. Mom will make each one of us our own birthday dessert of our choice and we all share. I can already feel the pounds adding on as I type.

This weekend we will be making a trip to Charlotte to celebrate my daughters boyfriends Birthday and also Cinco De Mayo. We plan to try a new Mexican restaurant in town.

Speaking of Charlotte. If you have not heard already, there was a student shooting at UNCC this week that left the whole town in a somber state of mind. It hits close to home. This is where my daughter graduated college. It feels a little different when it's your area that is affected with such tragedy. Please keep all the students, faculty and families in your prayers.

I see a beach trip happening this month too! Can't hardly wait to have some fun in the sun and more birthday celebrations!

DIY Wine Glass Charms

My daughter received a gift from a friend to host a wine tasting. She can invite up to ten guest. She only has to supply her home counter space, glasses and a few pick ups. Her boyfriend has a nice home and has allowed her to use his place for the wine tasting event.

I was invited but I will not be attending. I will leave it to her and her group of gals. Though I feel like I'm in my 20's, when I get around girls in their 20's, I feel I'm in my 40's again.

For the wine tasting, she will have some lite pick ups for snacking. She can sit back an enjoy the rest of the party as the wine demonstrator will be doing all the work.

She was looking for some wine markers for the wine glasses. These can be a little costly when you need to buy more than a couple. They usually will come in gift packs of four and can be as much as $10.00 a pack. I put on my thinking cap and came up with a simple and cheap solution. Wine tassels.


She liked the idea as most of her friends like the look of little trendy tassels on things they purchase.

I can hardly call this a DIY project as all I did was add a charm on an earring hoop.


Yes, that's all. I went to the local craft store and found a pack of earring hoops for 2.99. I was going to make the actual tassels but since I was running out of time, I decided to purchase some from a crafter on Etsy. I got twelve different colors for less than 8.00.


I chose more regal colors instead of the pops of bright circus colors.
We liked how they turned out and each person will have a choice of their own color as no two colors are the same.

I put this project together in less than ten minutes but now looking at them, It's driving me crazy that the ring hoop and the tassel loops are two different metals. Maybe no one will notice. ya think?

You can use the same technique and add other types of charms or beads to the earring hoops.





Valentine Date

Hope everyone had a happy Valentines Day. My Valentine surprised me with some candy, wine and reservations at a fancy restaurant up town called Webbs Custom Kitchen. The reservations were for 6:00 so I took off work a little early to make time. This was our first visit to this restaurant but it was not the first time inside this building.

Webbs Custom Kitchen gets it name from it's history that dates back to 1920 when it was a popular movie house call none other than the "Webb Theatre" housing one screen and 826 seats. 

Here it is back in the 70’s

Here it is today

The streets were blocked in front of the restaurant because they were filming a Hallmark Movie. I was hoping to walk in the fake snow but unfortunately they had already taken it away.....here is a secret. It was only cotton and they just toss it in the trash cans afterwards. 

Walking into the restaurant brought back some memories. I remember daddy taking me to my first movie back in 1976 here. The movie we saw was King Kong. It frightened me and had me in tears at the end. Feels like just yesterday. I also remember daddy taking me to this same movie theater to see the first Star Wars Movie.


As we entered, it was like walking back in time. The original projector was on display and there were other preserved pieces of  history displayed through out. Even though the old building has had major renovations and a new modern look, you can see flashbacks of the rustic brick walls, arched ceiling and balcony that still remain. They had a movie screen showing old black and white (silent) movies during dinner. It themed well with the atmosphere like live art work.


We were seated on the lower section but the staff insisted we go to the balcony seating to get a good view of the movie screen and open view kitchen. They also encourage you to walk up to the kitchen window and take a look at the cooks preparing the meals.

We started off with an appetizer  of “Duck Cigars’”. (We call them duck egg rolls.)
Excuse the blurry photos but I tried to be discreet taking photos at the table. But I mean, A blogger has to do what a blogger has to do.


For our dinner course, we both chose the filet mignon medallions topped with blue cheese on bruschetta.  


I fell in love with the taste of this chocolate Martini. This was the first time I have ever had a Martini. I’'m sure they are not all this good. It was so sweet and creamy.........and small. 
But I just had too...Did I mention it was Godiva?
 

Oh speaking of desserts, we shared a piece of New York Cheese Cake to finish off the meal.


We took half of our meal and cake home with us because we did not want to leave feeling stuffed, but did leave feeling satisfied and now Nick has enough left overs for another meal while I resort back to Nutrisystem. 

This was a nice valentine treat from my love and we talked about doing it again soon. The food was delicious and the staff was pleasant.

We had a Hollywood night.




New Year New Goals

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hope everyone is doing great and recovering from the mid night activities. My husband and I went out for a nice dinner then back home to start the preparation for my annual family New Years Dinner. We are not fans of late night partying. We like to stay in and stay sober.

I started my morning off using this little New Years coaster I whipped up for fun.


Crochet pattern HERE.

I love having a coaster under my coffee mug so it doesn't clank on the table.

Later, we will be enjoying a feast of meat, black eye peas, collard greens, potatoes, macaroni n cheese, bread and dessert. When everyone comes, I can have a crowd of about 13 people. However, now that the nephews are all grown up, they can't be forced to come over and eat greens.


Do you make resolutions for the new year?
I don't make what I call resolutions but I do make goals for myself. Here are my top five.
I will always be adding new goals throughout the year.

1. I have lost the weight, now I want to get healthier.
My goal is to be able to run a mile without stopping, be able to do 50 sit ups by my 50th birthday, and loose another 10 lbs by Summer. I will also be taking more vitamins and collagen to help with my skin and muscles.

2. My car will be paid off in July.
My goal is to purchase a new one by Fall. I like to keep a new car so I never have to worry about putting money into always fixing an old one. I like warranty protection and new car smells.

3. I want to get more involved in blogging.
My goal is to get more involved as an influencer while still keeping my blog personal. 
I want to build my blog followers and reach out more.

4. Keeping up- I can never keep a planner going. I always fall short. I find it easier to just jot things down to remember other than adding them to a certain date on a calendar.
My goal is to start a bullet style journal using my new "Rocketbook" for keeping blog ideas, to do list, social media activities, and goals. I will keep using my Google calendar on my phone and iPad for appointments and events. This also keeps "Alexa" in the loop. haha.

5. Call me crazy, but I want to start a small Loofah garden.  I think it will be something different to try and fun results at the end.
My goal is to be able to actually get it to produce.

....Not sure about number five. Nick is over there shaking his head. Well, see. I have already bought the seeds.

Do you have any new plans for the new year? 



Uptown

So this past weekend we visited my daughter and walked two miles to the Greek Festival going on nearby. You can read about that here.

After we left the festival she wanted us to see where she worked. Each morning she will get on the monorail and ride into town to work, but since she is only a little over a mile from uptown where she works, we decided to walk. We wanted to get our exercise in and walk off some of those sweets we ate at the festival. 

As we were walking we could see the Bank of America Stadium in the distance. Home of the Carolina Panthers.


It was a nice little walk into the city. The streets were busy and I saw lots of street vendors, beggars and homeless people sleeping on benches. I live in a town full of homeless people, but most are just drug addicts looking for a fix. Here in the big city, they looked really homeless sleeping on benches without shoes. Everything they owned was stuffed in trash bags and used as pillows. It broke my heart. 

I told my husband that we only live 20 minutes from uptown and in 49 years, I have never been on the streets of Charlotte. I have never seen inside any of the buildings. My daughter was exited to show us where she worked so she took us on a tour inside some of the buildings and I was in awe. 


They were as beautiful on the inside as they were on the outside. I would love to show you her offices but for her protection, I’d rather not. They were very modern and looked like something out of a magazine. I could only dream of having an office like hers. 

These little scooters were everywhere. 


You download an app on your phone, scan the code on the scooter and it will charge you 2.00 to ride until you put the kickstand down. Then it’s free game for someone else to grab. So if you take it to a store and park it, most likely it will not be there when you come out. No worries though, you can just use the app to locate the nearest one. They were just all “Grab and go”. I though it was just the funniest thing. 


People were riding them everywhere and they were pretty fast. I could not get Nick to try one. (For the record, neither did I).

I gave this man some money while he played a tune on his guitar. 


As I walked away, I looked back and saw him lay the guitar down, but the playing kept going. Why? Because he wasn’t even playing! It was all on a music box. I was tricked! But he was obviously getting rich from it. I had sucker wrote all over me. 

We spent almost all afternoon exploring uptown and all it had to offer but I still would not want to live there and I still fear for my daughters safety every single day.

Before we headed home, we stopped at the ice cream shop for a snack. 


I order a scoop of blueberry cheese cake and Nick had the Pistachio flavor. My daughter walked next door for a smoothie instead. 

It was a fun day and I walked 10.23 miles and 21,615 steps that day according to my fitbit. 

Fair Photo Contest Finalist

I am from a small town where very seldom anything exciting goes on. During the Fall, we see small festivals popping up in places we go but we do not have a fair ground. The biggest thing we have is a dirt race track and a ball field.

Well, our city has decided to put on a “Gaston All American Fair” this month. It will be held in the parking lot of our mall. Sounds more like a carnival to me but it’s happening and they are calling it a Fair. It doesn’t take much to get us excited around here. I mean throw up a tent and we call it revival. 

The fair starts on Friday the 15th and goes until Sunday the 24th. 
I can’t wait to see what its all about. I love the smell of cotton candy and popcorn as the lights from the rides blink in bright colors. Another reason I am excited is I get to have a part in it.
Yes. I entered one of my photos in the amateur photo contest held online. They picked the top “liked” photos from 4 different categories to move on to the fair. Mine was one of them. Not only did it have the most likes in it’s category, it had the most “likes” over any of the others. So it moved on to be displayed and judged at the fair.. 

It’s just a little photo taken from my iPhone as I was leaving the post office one day. It was rainy and gloomy but something about the dreary town with the bright American flags made me snap a picture through my windshield while I was stopped at the traffic light. Now it could possibly be a prize photo. 


I had to mount it on a 11x14 mount board or canvas and I will be registering it on Saturday to be displayed and judged on Sunday. The judging will take place between 1-3 on Fathers Day Sunday. The winner will be announced at 3:00. I will be there waiting to see if my photo wins. I do not have much hope as it will now be up against a photo of a cute little girl, a farm pig and a dog. I have little chances of winning with my “Cloudy day on Main” photo but it’s exciting just to be one of the finalist. 

Fingers crossed I win and go home with a prize but good luck to all that entered.

To be continued........


Mothers Day Weekend

My mothers day weekend started with a trip to Charlotte Saturday to pick up my daughter. We figured this would save her on gas since her boyfriend will be joining up with us on Sunday and he would take her back with him.

Once we arrived in Charlotte, my daughter buzzed us into her apartment so we could help her with her things. Yes, she stays one night with us and she packs for a week. It’s a girl thing. Once we were in, she had me a dozen mixed donuts sitting on the counter along with dish of bacon. 


She had went to a bacon festival the night before and she knew how much I love bacon. I had all the bacon and a donut eat before we got back home.

Her boyfriend got me some flowers for Mother’s Day which I thought was so sweet. ummm yes, hes beginning to get real sweet with us. Wonder why? Time will tell. But he is absolutely a sweet heart.


We spent Saturday doing some shopping. Not really buying anything. Just looking around. Nick told us to go without him and enjoy our mother/daughter time. Later he took us out to eat Mexican food and then Ice Cream. I was stuffed and tired. 

Sunday I woke up to a sweet card and this beautiful necklace along with a manicure gift card some eye shadows and lipsticks. 


After breakfast we headed off to church to honor God and mothers. It was a wonderful service.

Here is a little funny about church this morning:
They called all the mothers to the front of the church to give us all a little gift. This year we received candy dishes full of candy. Well, they were not exactly candy dishes but rather Margarita glasses. The pastor realized this after the fact and told us all not to get any ideas!  I found this so funny as I have never seen my mom hold a margarita glass until a day in church! Ha ha. It was sweet though.

After church Nick took us to Sweet Frogs yogurt shop then to look at some beach chairs I had been wanting. 
We ended the day with a family dinner for Mom at her favorite Chinese restaurant. 

It was a great weekend!   

Easter Run Down

Saturday my daughter came home to spend Easter. We spent the morning doing a little shopping until the crowds started getting on our nerves and we ended up coming back home. Nick took us up town for some ice cream and coffee. Yep. I had ice cream and she had both. Seriously, even the jingling ice cream trucks around here sell ice cream and coffee. I find it weird, but whatever.

After ice cream we met up with a neighbor and purchased some fresh eggs from her lovely hens. I just love how they look in this vintage basket that mom gave me last week. Just look how colorful they are by nature.

Me and my daughter dyed eggs later. I boiled some regular store bought ones and some of the fresh ones. I decorated a few of the fresh ones and she dyed the white ones using the dyed rice method. Its so easy. You just drop some food coloring in a small bag of rice and shake the egg around to create a unique look. 


While I made a cake with the some of the fresh eggs and will eat some of the eggs for breakfasts. While I made a cake, my daughter made some marshmallow Easter fluff. The recipe can be found HERE.


Sunday morning it was rise and shine at 6 am to make it to church in time for sunrise service on the church lawn. This is one of our favorite things to do on Easter. After the service we all headed into the fellowship hall for a hot breakfast that included biscuits, gravy, eggs, bacon and grits. My oh my was it good! My mom and dad made the breakfast so that made it even more better. I love my moms gravy. She makes it dark and so thick that a spoon will stand in it. 
When we came home from church, My daughter had an Easter basket waiting for her. Did I mention shes 26? I mean, your never to old for an Easter basket are you? She also surprised us with our own basket full of goodies. 


After a short rest, we put on our Easter outfits and headed out to regular church services .


We did not do our usual Easter dinner with Nicks side of the family. Instead, we headed to my moms house where my Sister in law created a large delicious meal. It was a change from the normal but it was great to spend time with family. 

Now it’s late and I'm typing this blog with one eye open as I’m about to fall asleep. (or coming off a sugar high). So excuse the rambling. 
It’s back to work tomorrow and the morning will come quick. 

Happy Easter! 




Lucky Me

I can't normally call myself lucky. I have the worst luck in the world. I can't even win a prize out of gumball machine. It's that bad.

I entered a give-away to win a beautiful ceramic message board from Botanic Bleu. I will sometimes enter different blog give-aways but never think I will be a winner. I went home that afternoon and told my husband about the give away I entered and already planned a place for the message board if I win.

I was going to go out and buy a little chalk board for my kitchen, but now I put that off because....

I WON! I won the lovely fleur-de-lis ceramic message board.


I plan to use it in my kitchen. Not sure what I will be writing on it yet. The possibilities are endless. I can use it to display a doodle, dinner menu, love note to my sweet husband or daughter, holiday inspriations, or simply to welcome you into my kitchen.



Now, go check out http://botanicbleu.blogspot.com/. Its a French country home and garden blog that is sure to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside as she displays so many of her photos and decorations. This is just another reason I love her blog. I would love to visit France one day so in the meantime her blog is the closest Ill get.


Thank You Botanic Bleu!

My College Grad!

My daughter has just graduated 4 years of College. She received a Bachelors degree in Psychology and a Minor in English. She is the first on my side of the family to ever graduate college and we are so proud of her. It has definatly been an experience for us all.

 
She worked hard to get where shes at. She was a straight A student in High school and even though she didn't have a perfect score all the time in College. She did manage to be on the Deans and Chancellors list a couple times.


I have been ready and prepared for this day but no one told me it would be such an emotional time. Really, Its like for the last couple weeks, all I can think about is her first day of school, what teachers have told me through the years, all the crazy phases she went through, Her best friends that came and went, all the homework, the sports, the awards, just everything and now its seem to just all come to an end and it makes happy/sad, Im excited and scared at the same time of what her future holds. We know the struggles she will now have to face. We hope and pray college pays off and she can be successful.


Here is just a few hints if you are fixing to put a kid through college:
  • Save hundreds of dollars by buying books from EBay or Amazon.
  • Sororities can be expensive but also worth the experience.  My daughter is a Kappa Delta.
  • Umbrellas miraculously just disappear. keep a few on hand.
  • Printers may become tables and a place to stash candy and other snacks.
  • Breaking a toothpick off in the door lock because you locked yourself out, is considered vandalism and cost you alot of money.
  • Keep extra chargers and cords available. They just break for no reason.
  • Laptops just fall off the bed and break at some point. All by themselves. Save for the extra one you will have to purchase.
  • Bobby pins, paper clips and staples will tear a printer up so save money to buy another one of those too.
  • and wall mirrors, flip flops and shower caddies are a must.

CONGRATULATIONS ASHLEY!

 
Check back next weekend as I share details of her party!

Valentine

Happy Valentines Day!

I love Valentines Day. I spent the past weekend with my daughter at school. We did some shopping and exchanged Valentines Gifts. I miss those days when she was little and I would make her Heart shaped pancakes and a Valentine goodie basket before she headed off to school. Then I could not wait to hear her stories when she came in that afternoon.

This year I made her a batch of heart shaped brownies.


She made us this wonderful turtle cake. It was delicious.

 

I decorated my mantle just a little. I didn't spend much time on it, I actually left the Christmas greens up and added some heartsy things I found laying around the house.


My daughter did the famous art piece you see.

For my Husband, I hand made him this little tiny book that can fit in his pocket. I hand wrote 100 reasons why I love him.


The book charm was hand made by LowderCreations. You can find them on her Etsy shop. She shows a standard size but will make it to the size you want. I fell in love with these little things and just knew it would work perfect for my project.

Hope everyone has a LOVELY day full of sweetness and surprises, meanwhile, I cant wait to spend the evening with my Husband and maybe come up with a 101 reason I love him. Ha!
 
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
 
 
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