Elf Ron

It was time for our annual work Christmas activities. First, our building had a door decorating contest. My department was two time defending champion. We found out the day before that no one else in the building was going to participate. What can I say, they were scared. We didn't care, we decorated our door anyway. The theme was Christmas carols. Our door was based off of the classic, "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer".



We tweaked it a bit to be "Our Budget Got Run Over By a Senator". We re-wrote the entire song. We even had it performed at the building Christmas lunch. What can I say, we're rock stars.

The big to-do at the building was a contest we had to raise money for a needy family. It was between me, Ron, and Alvera. Alvera is the HR Director. If you will recall, I plastic wrapped Ron's entire office one time. People put money in our respective jars. Bills were positive and coins were negative points. The person with the most points had to wear an elf outfit at the Christmas lunch. You've got to understand, Ron is a 6 ft 5 in black guy. Who wouldn't want to see him dressed as an elf?? He thought he was smart because he brought in a lot of coins to put in his jar. I was waiting until the last minute to make my move. I even requested help at the Principals meeting. At the last minute I put in plenty of money to ensure that I got the outcome I wanted.




Check out the rockin white shoes!! He wasn't happy but was a good sport. The best part were the ears. We says he's going to get me back but I couldn't have done it by myself.




This is the Finance department. Does this not look like a capable department??



We had to have our picture made with the Christmas elf!! So funny!! He may look like he was smiling but he was more gritting his teeth and mumbling under his breath.

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Two Wild and Crazy Girls

Went to Concord to visit with Virginia and check out the new house. Oh, and meet the newest member of the family, Cookie. The house was great and seemed to be perfect for their little family. So happy for them! Cookie is indeed a pup. He, yes, Cookie is a he, is quite enthusiastic. He is adorable though. Susan and Samantha also came up to visit.




Here they are making sweet music.

We went out to lunch. Check out Virginia's outfit...had me cracking up.



Love the boots. Only problem was it was about 60 degrees outside. I harkened back to a softball game I had as a kid. Mom dressed me in these god-awful gold shorts. They did not come close to matching my uniform shirt. I can still vividly remember knowing that my mom had dressed me funny. At least Virginia will be too young to remember this. Kathy tried to blame it on Virginia by saying that she picked them out. I had to remind her that she was the parent here.

It got even worse. By the time we left the restaurant, this is what she looked like.



Tragic!!!!

We did have fun in the car grooving to some Temptations. Samantha has good taste in music. We danced and busted out some classic Temptations moves. Too fun!

On the way back Samantha showed us her wild side. She let her hair down, literally, and proceeded to do some head banging.



Just makes me laugh!!! That's her 'don't mess with me' rocker look. I tried to get her to do a classic rocker pose but she couldn't quite get it. Virginia got it though.




Now we just need to work on her rocker look.





Just thought I'd throw this one in.

After lunch I schooled Kathy and Susan with my dance moves. I dominated in some Wii dance game.




Virginia wasn't the only one with funny shoes. Susan left the house wearing her bedroom slippers. But with those two cuties a round no one is looking at us.

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Redneck Thanksgiving

This post will not have pictures of your traditional Thanksgiving gathering. For entertainment we did some target shooting. We bought Mike's dad this for his birthday.





Our zombie was a notorious terrorist.



This was a good little target. It was supposed to 'bleed' when you shot it. It really didn't bleed a whole lot but I think we just weren't using big enough ammo.



We did some damage and we'll do some more later too.

We also did some skeet shooting. Brandon had a hand held thrower, which I sucked at. Thankfully, others were much more successful and it actually worked better than I thought it would for sure.

Fun times but I did miss my family and my sweet little nieces.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

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Fall Festival

Saturday I went down to Fort Mill to visit the Millers. It was time for some quality time with Samantha. But first we had to eat lunch at her favorite place, Jersey Mike's. And she knew just what she wanted, a turkey sub. I tried to get her to call Mike and tell him where we were going because it is his favorite place too, but she was a bit phone shy.

The Fall Festival was a bit disappointing. Not only was there no face painting but Pickles the Clown wasn't there either. But Samantha is only 3 so she is easily entertained.



This was hard work.



Playing in the kiddie maze. This, surprisingly, was very entertaining for her.



Cutest pumpkin I saw all day.



No matter how many times she threw it in the hole, she reacted like it was her first time every time. I think she just liked Susan and me cheering for her.




Last thing we did was take a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch. Susan made sure Samantha only picked out a pumpkin she could carry. Smart. After turning her nose up at the first ones we found, she ended up wanting those in the end.

The kid is lots of fun and is very silly!! She'll be a great big sis! It's always fun seeing Samantha. I do love her!!

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Carolina Ballonfest

This weekend was the 38th balloonfest in Statesville. This is the longest running balloonfest in the country. There were 51 hot air balloons at the event. I volunteered to work at the event on Saturday. I sold food vendor tickets from 11 - 3pm. Thank goodness I had a partner because it was very busy. I did have time to take a picture of the Ghostbusters though...



These three were just walking around the event. It was hilarious.

After my shift Mike and I decided to go drive and park right outside the event to look at the balloons as they had their afternoon launch. We ended up being in the perfect spot to see the balloons.



We then drove down the road a bit and that's when we really got a good view of the balloons as they flew right overhead. We had the top down on the Jeep so it was perfect.












Then we went to get pizza and the balloons were still all around so we got a good view of them as they landed any where they could.







There was perfect weather this weekend for the event. There were so many people that they had to stop letting people in on Saturday. We really had a good time watching the balloons. They were so pretty and it's not something you get to see everyday.


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Fall Colors

Sunday we took the Jeep to the mountains. We were hoping to see some of the Fall foliage. We took the Jeep because we figured the Parkway would be too crowded to be much fun on the bikes. We rode with the top down, even though it was a bit chilly.

Once we got on the parkway the leaves were awesome. I took these pictures standing up in the Jeep as we went down the road.










We also took the Jeep down some of the dirt roads off the Parkway that we've ridden the bikes on before. I really am loving the dirt roads. It feels like it's our little secret. They are so pretty and no one is on these roads but us (mainly). There are miles and miles of dirt roads off the Parkway between Linville and Lenior.

These pictures were taken from a dirt road just off the Parkway.









Needless to say, all that dirt and dust you see behind the Jeep did find its way into the Jeep.



It was EVERYWHERE!

We also had a hitch hiker too...



It was really great to see the leaves today. So beautiful. It is nice to live so close that we can make a short ride up there in a day. Hopefully we can make another ride up to the mountains before the leaves all fall off.


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Weekend Getaway

Mike and I made another run up to the mountains this weekend. We were a bit early for all of the leaves to have turned colors for the fall but we've got to get away when Mike has time with his work.

We left work early on Friday and got up to Cherokee in time to do a bit of riding. Mike got a tip on a little dirt road from the hotel clerk. It was a nice little road that ran along a pretty creek. There were some nice country houses that set right on the creek. It was very serene. The road had some muddy ruts that were a bit intimidating for me. Mike rode my bike through them. We rode along until we didn't think we could go any further up the rocky road. Plus we had to be getting back for our bingo date. Good news is I didn't need Mike's help to go back over the muddy stuff!! Really wasn't that bad.

Yup, we went back to bingo and yup we were winners again. Well, I won on Friday. Mike won on Saturday. Yeah, we went back on Saturday too. What can I say, we love the bingo. And we got to sit in non-smoking this time. Now, back to my winnings, I won the first TWO games. That is unheard of!!! I've got skills. Mike also won on Saturday but had to split it five ways.

Saturday morning we were off again. It was a bit cold in the morning but not too bad. We again found some nice dirt roads. Some helpful hiker told Mike we could make it up this path he was just on. That is right after we made it around the gate that had the path closed. We decided no way would I be making this trek. We decided to ride two up on my small bike. This caused us to bottom out on some of the rocky sections. We couldn't make it all the way too the top because it was so rocky. We walked the last bit.



This was the 'trail'. Pretty crazy huh!! Mike is a rock star on the bike!!

Once we got to the top there was a lookout tower.



Views from the top...






Just imagine how awesome it will be when the leaves turn.

We made it back down alive and after lunch we did one more dirt road. This one had a bit of history to it.




This was part of the trail of tears. Poignant considering the area we were in.



It was a nice weekend. I could get used to these little bike and bingo getaways!!


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Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!

My adorable Grandpa Brown turned 80 on Sunday. My aunt Annette had the great idea to have a birthday party for him. Mom hosted at her house. Grandpa loved the party!! He deserved all the attention he got. He has always served as a role model for me. Growing up he was always fun to be around and was quick to pick on all us 'boys'. I'm very grateful that my nieces, his great grand daughters, are able to get to know him as well.




The yummy birthday cake!! Not only does it look awesome but it tasted awesome too!



The birthday boy looking festive in his birthday hat. Do you notice the party pooper in the picture?? He thinks he's surrounded by idiots!!



Everyone's in the birthday spirit.

Mike and I loved getting to spend some time with Samantha and Virginia while at the party. Those two are at a fun age. Mike and Virginia really bonded!! They were funny as heck playing together.



I think we've got a little softball player on our hands...carrying on the Ford tradition.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!! We love you!!!!

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Motorcycle Mania

We spent last Saturday night at a small dirt track in Woodleaf. You know Woodleaf right??? Yeah, me neither. One of Mike's client's called and invited him to come. It was some amateurs and some professionals racing. It was pretty fun.






This guy was super good. And he was, I'd say, in this mid fifties. To look at him you'd guess him to be a doctor. Just goes to show that you never know.

They also had races for the little ones.



This kid was good. Usually in the kids races there'd be only two on track and usually one was much better than the other so it wasn't much of a competition.




Mostly the night was accident free. On the last race of the night there was a crash and the rider broke his hand. Word was it was a compound fracture.

It was good redneck fun.


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