MOVING DAY!

HOORAY!!!

We moved to the "New House" this weekend. I guess it's not the "New House" anymore, just our house. I'm so happy with the house. I'm not thrilled about moving...but happy to be in the house. I guess you don't know how much stuff you really have until you have to put it all in boxes (or bags or cartons or whatever you can find) and put it in the back of the moving truck. It took 4 loads for us to move all (or most of all) of our stuff! WOW!

It will take some time for us to get everything put in its proper place - but that will come. I've been working on the kitchen and laundry rooms, first.

A picture of my new pantry - we are starting to organize and although we don't have much food (I've been holding off going to the store until after we moved), we do have PLENTY of mustard it seems.

The Cromers came and helped us move, all weekend! We absolutely could not have done it without them. Marc helped Brian and Poppy move all the heavy stuff and Peggy wrapped and packed my entire kitchen! WOW! Poppy Lee and Mimi came and unloaded some stuff, too. Even though moving is hard, we did laugh alot of the time.

I've posted a few pictures from our move...We can't wait for you to come and see us in our "New House"! The kids seem to really enjoy their new rooms. They have just been running from room to room, checking out everything to see if anything has changed.

Here is are living room after the move - you can see I have piles and piles to go through

Here is our littliest mover. That girl can unpack a box faster than you can pack it! Here she is sitting in the room she and Sarah Grace share - apparently she likes her new bookshelf.

Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley is a character in a children's book. A bulletin board falls on him and he stays "flat". At first he thinks it is very fun - only realizing later that he wants to be normal again. Luckily he pumps himself up in the end.

As part of a school project for Sarah Grace, Flat Stanley went to work with me at Lander University today. Here are some of the pictures of what he did....

First he rode the elevator to class

Flat Stanley studying hard for class.

Flat Stanley taking notes in my Essentials of the Legal Environment class.

Flat Stanley taking notes in my Income Tax class.

Flat Stanley is so crazy - here he is posing with a pumpkin on my friend's desk.

We sure had a fun day together. I'm sure Flat Stanley is ready to go home and take a nap!

Boxes, Boxes everywhere...

MOVING DAY IS SCHEDULED FOR THE WEEKEND OF OCTOBER 25TH! Can you believe it. I'm so happy. I'll post pictures of the finished new house soon - it's so great!



As you can see, we've started packing. Good news - the Slurpee Machine and Ice Cream Maker are safely packed up. I've packed up some of the kitchen, and some of the living room. As you know, I can live without my kitchen stuff - it is on the list of items that can get packed early.







These shelves are in our living room. Most of you know they are usually crammed with toys and books and movies. Now, just a few sad leftovers.






Living room boxes - what kind of boxes would we pack in? Dell computer boxes and diaper boxes, of course! I've gone through our bedrooms and cleaned out, but not really packed up - I guess that is a job for another day.



I will keep you all posted on our progress. Hopefully you can come and see our new house, soon!

The Deer Hunter

Yesterday was the last day of Muzzleloader Deer Season here. John explained to me what a Muzzleloader gun was - you actually load it from the barrel.

Anyway, John and his Poppy Derek went hunting last night. As you can see, they were successful. John was thrilled because he got to take along his BB Gun last night. After the hunt, they took the deer to the processing center. It was quite a night. (sorry for the grainy pic - it was late last night).

I'm not sure how my children came to love the great outdoors, camping, hunting and fishing so much - they must get that from their Daddy. I was happy for John because he was so excited and grateful to Poppy Derek for taking him along and teaching him all about gun safety, the woods and hunting.

Regular rifle season opens today. John says he had a great time last night and he is really looking forward to more hunting. I'm sure I'll have more pictures to post soon (John says I definitely will).

The NC Trip

This weekend we (all 6 of us, plus Nana and Poppy) went to the North Carolina Transportion Museum http://www.nctrans.org/ in Spencer, NC to ride Thomas the Tank Engine. We went for a train ride, rode on the turntable at the roundhouse, and checked out the museum exhibits. The museum itself, without Thomas is really neat, so with Thomas it was just too much fun. Poppy Derek took some pictures for me (you know I just carry a camera, but never take any pictures). Here are a few.

Brian and Will enjoying a ride on the Trolley - Will said is it "Charlie" we said no, its a Trolley. So he named it Charlie to Trolley, although that was sort of confusing for him since the Trolley in the Thomas series is named Bertie.

Will is playing in a Thomas the Tank Engine made out of Legos.

This is the actual Coach Car we road in. Ours had air-conditioning...

Nana and John and Mags riding along.

SGM - note the tattoo of Thomas on her forehead. She proudly wore that to school today.

Riding the turntable on the roundhouse. I was a bit worried I might get sick since it just spins around (3 times), but I stayed focused and didn't. It was really neat. That's how they turn the trains around, so they don't have to go backwards.

An old train at the museum - ready to go into the roundhouse. Fun for exploring.

On Sunday, for even more fun, we stopped at the Kings Mountain Revolutionary War Military Park http://www.nps.gov/kimo/ in Kings Mountain, NC (although the park is really in SC, right over the border). It was really neat. The park was very nice and this weekend was the 228th anniversary of the Battle of Kings Mountain. The battle was a turning point in the Revolutionary War - we won, by the way.

Re-enactors doing a shooting demonstration. They explained their weapons and their clothing.

Summer Memories

Sometimes it's the "little things" that we enjoy the most. Brian downloaded all of the pictures off of Poppy Derek's camera a few days ago. We have enjoyed looking at all of the pictures. Here are a few of our Summer Memories...

Will and Mags playing together at the beach.

John playing baseball

Will at the ballpark - I think he looks like me here...

SG and "cookie", Nana's new cat

SG at Fort Sumter this summer - isn't she cute!

John, looking cool at Fort Sumter

Mags playing on the swing on Nana's back porch

Baby Mags - look at her, so smiley...she's a walking, talking (OK, talking her language) little person now.