A husband, a wife, 3 dogs, and a chinchilla

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 15:31:00 +0000

A Year Late but Better than Never

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 01:08:00 +0000

Get ready for a lot of posts! I'm starting with some knitting I've done over the past few/several months.

These are the Snapdragon Flip-top Mittens designed by Ysolda Teague. I made these for my Aunt Betty for her birthday in January. I started these a couple weeks before Christmas.

And here is a beautiful and delicious cake I made a few weeks ago! It is Esther's Orange-Marmalade Layer Cake from Jan Karon's book Esther's Gift.

You can find the recipe at other online sites but I really enjoyed the book and recommend it if you get a chance to read it. The cake is not difficult to make but it does require some prep work and time to make. It is definitely worth it!

God Bless!

-Emily

Is it Spring yet?

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:13:00 +0000

Hi All!

It's been a long delay since my last post but I'm back and hope to be a more consistent blogger. This week in particular has been a difficult one for myself and my family: my Dad's father passed away Sunday night March 7th. He was a great man, a wonderful grandfather to me and he is greatly missed. I love you Grandad!!!

On a different note, Spring will be here in 7 days!!! Hubby and I are itching to get outside and enjoy the nature around us. We recently began talking about raising chickens. And yesterday we brought home 14 little chicks! They are so cute!!! They are doing great and I am very excited about taking care of them and about the fresh eggs we will be collecting in the future. Right now I'm just enjoying watching and petting these cute fluffy little balls of sunshine!

Happy Saturday!

God Bless!

-Emily

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Sat, 09 May 2009 14:14:00 +0000

I've been temporarily absent from my blog but now I'm back! We've had so much going on that I just haven't had the time/opportunity to blog. I hope to post more regularly now.

My latest adventure was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival which was wonderful!!! My mom and I drove up together on Friday. The drive was beautiful!

Mom spotted several rainbows along the way. Look closely and you can see 2 together. The drive to Maryland was quite nice weather-wise but the drive back left something to be desired.

The reason for our trip!!!I'll post more later!

GO TARHEELS!!!!!!!!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:06:00 +0000

I am so proud to be a Tarheel! Last night we won the NCAA National Championship and it was so great to see such a great basketball team achieve what they had been striving for. Those guys are awesome! Congratulations UNC!!!

Reprieve from Winter

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:06:00 +0000

We got a little taste of Spring weather in the midst of winter and decided to take advantage of it.
We took the boys out to the river a few days ago and had a Great time! Murph loves the water! He's definitely got some Newfie in him. Hutch and Charlie are not quite as comfortable in the water as he is but they are coming around. See the big smile on Murphy's face in the picture below:

This is as deep as Charlie got in the water.

Here Murphy is fetching a stick.

We all left pretty wet and dirty (it was hard to escape the dogs when they shook the water off their coats) but we had a great time.

Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 22:16:00 +0000

Christmas is wonderful! It's my favorite time of year. This is the first year out of the past 3 years that I've been in my hometown for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Christmas Eve was spent with my Dad's side of the family. We had crab legs and orange roughy...yummy! As you can see below Jason is loading the crab leg plate sky high. My aunt (pictured) and I were trying to discourage him from piling them even higher.

Here's the whole bunch of us gathered around for the feast! It was SOOOO GOOD!!!

We also played pool, opened gifts, and sat around and talked. Wish we did this more than once a year!

Mom is trying out her Christmas present. She sank one on the first try!

Jason and I spent Christmas morning at our house and celebrated together, enjoying a relaxing Christmas day. This was the first time we exchanged Christmas gifts since we've been married :-) We decided that we should do the same next year! I had no idea how good he is at picking gifts for me ;-) He picked out a beautiful pattern and the yarn to make it. I cast on immediately. I love it! I'll post a picture once I've gotten a little more done. We ate a late Christmas lunch with my mom's side of the family. It was another delicious meal (pot roast, potatoes and gravy, deviled eggs, etc. followed by rum cake and molasses stack cake). Yum! I didn't get a picture of that spread b/c I was too hungry :-) Trust me, it was good.

Lance and Jason are pictured below (too full to move after eating). This sight struck me as funny (they both have their cell phone/PDA's out).

I think this post has gotten a bit too lengthy so I'll just leave you with a teaser for the next post. It felt like a Spring day today so we took the dogs to the river. We all had a great time! I can't believe how warm it was. I'll post more pictures of our day at the river later.

Graduation!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:26:00 +0000

Jason graduated from BLET on Tuesday evening. It was a fun night and a very nice ceremony/dinner. Jason's mom and dad drove out from Missouri to celebrate with us. We all had a great time and are very proud of Jason!

Carolyn and Mary smiling for the camera.
John and Al talking before the graduation ceremony.

The dogs were in Heaven with all the attention they got!

Here are Mary and Murphy on the couch:
Here are John, Hutch, Charlie and Jason.

Snow Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:59:00 +0000

We had a beautiful snow on Friday. In fact, this is our 3rd snow so far this winter! It's beautiful but not so much fun for driving. It's been extremely cold and windy here too. Last night it was 14 degrees and the windchill was 3 degrees.

Check out the video below!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:15:00 +0000

The dogs gave me a good scare today. When I went to let them in this morning before work, they were nowhere to be found. None of them came when I called either. I was very worried to say the least! They couldn't have been outside for more than 15 minutes. I called Mom and Dad for backup. Mom was on her way to help me so I got in the car and drove around to hopefully find them. I drove around and then saw a black dog from a distance. The dogs were about a quarter of a mile away at a tree farm. I pulled in and started calling for the dogs. The first one to see me was Charlie and he started sprinting toward me as fast as he could. Murphy and Hutch were right behind him. They all got right in the car just as Mom pulled into the tree farm lot.
We went to a wedding this weekend. One of Jason's Army buddies got married. Here we are afterwards (back at the hotel). We had a good time.

Remember these? I finally finished Jason's socks. One has been done for quite some time now but it's mate was just completed this week. Now his feet are warm :-) (If you are wondering what that dark spot is, it's apple cider: Jason accidentally dropped the sock in his apple cider mug right after I finished them).

And also I took a little video of Lilo rolling around in her ball. She's such a cutie!

Preparing for winter

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:23:00 +0000

Tonight it's supposed to be cold so we brought most of our plants inside, covered our tomato plants and put our ceramic vases in the basement. Jason mowed the yard (hopefully for the last time this year). We also went to the pumpkin patch and bought some pumpkins. We both love fall weather!The trees have been gorgeous. The colors are so beautiful.

I just got back from Nashville last weekend. It was just a weekend trip (and it was a day of class) but I had a good time. I went with my mom and dad. Dad and I took a course. We also went on a carriage ride and to the Grand Ole Opry. It was a lot of fun packed into a weekend. I hope Jason and I can go to Nashville sometime soon for a nice mini-vacation. I think we could have a lot of fun!
This was my second visit to the Opry. It was the Opry's 83rd birthday the night we went. Below is the group Riders in the Sky with the huge birthday cake. Kenny Rogers and Darryl Worley were also there.

This was pretty cool. Check out all the pumpkins!
Here Mom and Dad are in downtown Nashville.

And below is a really cute gift that the girls at the office got for me for bosses' day! Even though I'm not really the boss (they were very kind to include me). :-) See her earrings and hair bow!

And here she is having a beer. I guess Jason thought she needed one ;-)

This week in Pictures!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:09:00 +0000

It's been a pretty busy week! I got my hair cut and colored on Saturday (a week ago). I've been wanting a change since most of the time my hair is up in a ponytail. So, I went for a pretty big change!

I also finally finished a pair of socks for my mom. I intended to make them for her for Mother's Day...then her birthday...but it just became a matter of me getting them done at some point :-) Fortunately it was before Christmas! :-) She tried them on for me last week and they fit very nicely! I am very pleased ;-)

How does your garden grow?

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:08:00 +0000

We've made some updates since our last post! Notice anything different about the barn? Even though we got a late start on our mini-garden this year, all the plants are growing beautifully! We've even eaten our first cucumber that we planted.

I just took this photo today. I really like this picture!

These sunflowers are getting ready to bloom too!

Here's our little garden:

Our first cucumber! What a beauty! And tasty too!

Some healthy looking Roma tomatoes!

They're growing fast!

Growing cucumbers!

And here I am in the first sweater I made myself. I just finished it last night!

A Relaxing Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:51:00 +0000

Do you know how difficult it is to get a picture of a hummingbird? It's tough! This is the best I've been able to get. Jason and I love watching the hummingbirds! They're such awesome little creatures.

I took a few pictures of the view from our house today. It's Beautiful!!! I love seeing this view everyday.

I also took this picture today. Jason put up a couple of American flags and I think they add a lot to the house!This is the shed in the back yard. We planted a little garden around it.

Here's a close-up of our tomatoes.

Earlier this week Jason and Murphy did some work on the bathroom. Check out Jason's beard.Later that day, Charlie helped Jason send some emails. It's a good thing that Jason has so much help around the house! ;-)

Jason and I went to a political dinner last night and I talked Jason into a picture. We don't have a lot of occasions to get dressed up :-)

Moved in and HAPPY!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:40:00 +0000

It's been quite awhile since we've posted anything but I assure you there's been a good reason! :-) We moved! We're now in the mountains of North Carolina. And life is Good!

This is our new home. This house was built by my great-grandfather on my Dad's side of the family. Jason wasn't able to move in at the same time as me and the animals since he was at his National Guard training and finishing his last weeks of work. So when he finally arrived I wanted to welcome him home (that's why the balloons are there). We've since added more plants and bird feeders so I'll try to add some updated pics soon. One of my favorite past-times is watching the hummingbirds come by to eat and hover around the house.

A few weeks ago I was sitting on the front porch and saw this go by:

You don't see that everyday!

It's great to be in the mountains! We are even growing a little garden. A very little garden! We have a hot pepper plant, a cucumber plant, and 3 tomato plants. We also have some sunflowers that are growing pretty fast (a little piece of Kansas) :-)

I hope to write more soon. I have several topics to blog about so hopefully I'll get back up-to-date soon.

Hutch the Mouser

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:07:00 +0000

A few days ago I was sitting in the living room and heard some noise in the kitchen. I turned around and saw Hutch standing on his hind legs in the pantry. We keep rawhides in there for the dogs and I thought that's what he was after. But he was on the opposite side of the pantry from the bones so I went to see what he was so interested in.

Here's what he was so interested in: At first I thought it was a lizard b/c I just saw a tail but then I realized we had a mouse!
Hutch was determined to catch him! And he did!!! I pulled a chair over (for me to kneel on while I moved some stuff out of the pantry). I pulled things out one by one and Hutch stood there the whole time ready to pounce on the mouse. After I moved 4 items out of the way, the mouse made his escape but didn't even make it out of the pantry. Hutch grabbed him unbelievably fast. I ran to the door, opened it, and told him to go out. Thankfully he took the mouse outside with him. The 3 dogs all took turns prancing around with it outside. Hutch was very proud of himself. I'm proud of him too!!!

He caught that mouse on Friday and today he caught another one! We got home after being away for a few days and Hutch was staring down the refridgerator. Jason moved the fridge out of the corner and out darted a mouse. Hutch grabbed it in an instant! Jason opend the door and Hutch took the mouse out. We are very proud of our mouser! We had no idea a dog could be fast enough to catch a mouse.

Beach Bums

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:50:00 +0000

Jason and I went to the Outer Banks this week for a little getaway. We stayed at the First Colony Inn in Nags Head. It was a great place to stay and we highly recommend it! It has a bed & breakfast feel but with more privacy than typical B&B's. (This is from our limited experience with B&B's - we've only stayed at one). :-)

Here we are at the Bodie Island Lighthouse.

On the way to the OuterBanks we stopped at the Blackwater Pro Shop in Moyock NC. Notice the shirt :-)

Here we are relaxing at the beach. The difference in Virginia Beach and the Outerbanks is amazing! We had a good portion of the beach all to ourselves. We even had space to fly a kite! See more pictures below.

Once we had enough sun for the day we decided to hit the outlet mall. It turns out Brad Paisley was just there filming a music video with Andy Griffith! We missed him by just a few minutes. We were told he was on his way to Oregon Inlet to film another portion of the video. So, after we finished our shopping we drove over to the Oregon Inlet to see if we could spot Brad. We couldn't get on the beach exactly where he was filming but we did get on about 50 feet away from where they were shooting the video. It was a pretty secluded area as you can see below where Jason is standing. We didn't see Brad but it was still cool to be out on the beach!

In the evening we drove over to Manteo which is a cool place. We walked down to the waterside and saw a couple of ducks. They were very cute! I've been trying to post a video we took of a cute duckling with his momma but haven't had any luck yet. That's the big reason it's taken me so long to post this. I'll keep trying.

Pungo Strawberry Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Sat, 24 May 2008 23:11:00 +0000

Welcome to the Strawberry Festival!

Yum! A strawberry taco (a "waffle cone" taco filled with strawberries and whipped cream and topped with chocolate sprinkles).
Have you ever seen a pig race? Make sure you check out the videos below!

Did you know?
While we were at the festival we had to check out the livestock.

Check out this video!

And the winner is...

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:46:00 +0000

LILO!

Nearly a month ago, Jason and I went to see Dockdogs in Virginia Beach as you might remember from a previous post. While we were there I registered to win a "small pet cage" from Care-A-Lot Pet Supply. Actually I registered for 3 different cages. They were all different sizes and had different small pet supplies inside. Yesterday, I received a call from the store telling me I won the 3-tiered cage and all the goodies inside! Today I went to the store to pick it up. This won't replace Lilo's current cage (shown above) but it makes life easier for when we need to transport her to a different location. It's so exciting to win something!

Here's a picture!

And here's a better look at all the goodies inside.

Here, Lilo is trying to con me into giving her another raisin :-)

Jason's Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:16:00 +0000

Saturday was Jason's birthday. We decided to go to the beach; it's been awhile since we've been there. We thought it would be a pretty warm day. When we left the house it was 70 degrees but by the time we got to the beach it was 58 degrees! A little chilly, especially with the wind! But we made the most of it. We ended up buying VA BEACH sweaters to keep us warm. That's really the only way we could stand to be outside. Amazingly there were people in the water! I can understand the people surfing in dry suits but the people in swim suits are a little crazy!

We left the beach and drove around for a little while looking for something to do. We drove through the community of Pungo and saw people picking strawberries. So, we decided to pick some fresh strawberries! We actually thought the strawberry festival was going on but found out that it's not until May 24th/25th. It was a lot of fun to pick strawberries and they are delicious!!!

A view of Pungo

Later, we went to the Crab Shack Seafood Restaurant for dinner.

The View of the James River from the Crab Shack.

Another view of the James River (from the Monitor Merrimack Bridge).

View from the James River Bridge.

And now, some pictures of the dogs. These were taken before we went to the mountains and I've been slack on posting :-)

Hutch loves looking out the window! This is one of his favorite spots.

Murphy thinks Charlie makes a great pillow! :-)

I'm a little behind on my posts as you can tell since I'm just now posting about Jason's Birthday (May 10th). I'm trying to make up for it now with lots of blogging. Make sure you check out the previous posts like "Fishing!" I don't want you to miss those great pictures!

Fishing!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:11:00 +0000

The beautiful New River!

We spent last week in the mountains. The weather was great and the scenery was gorgeous! On Sunday we went out on the river with my (Emily's) mom and dad. We took three rafts and tied 2 together (for those of us who wanted to relax rather than fish). We all fished a little and we all caught fish! We were also pretty much by ourselves out there. We did see this guy out there though :-)

Here's Dad in his kickboat. He was tied to the boat Mom and I were in.

Here's Mom with her big catch.

Here I am with my whopper! :-)

Here's Dad with his catch.

At some point I switched boats and joined Jason. Here he is with his biggest catch of the day.
A picture of Mom and Dad making their way down the river.

Here's Mom rowing down the river. She looks pretty serious! :-)
Here's Jason navigating the river.

Jason's pulling in yet another fish!

A couple more scenic pictures.

Sheldon (Step by Step)

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:42:00 +0000

Meet Sheldon!

He doesn't have eyes yet but they're coming :-)

I thought I would show you a step by step of how Sheldon was made.

I made Sheldon's body/head first and then the legs.

Next, I made the top of his shell.

Then, the bottom of the shell.

Then, I sewed the two together and stuffed the shell.

Next, I knit the shell underbelly.

And then crocheted a couple of rounds to make leg openings.

Next, the shell and underbelly were attached using an I-cord. This part was a little tricky until I figured out what I was suppose to do and then it was actually pretty fun.

The finished shell!

DockDogs

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:10:00 +0000

Jason and I went to see Dockdogs this weekend. We've seen them on the Outdoor channel and now we've seen them in person! We took all 3 dogs with us out to Virginia Beach for the event. Check out the video below. It's a clip of Country, a dog with one of the longest Big Air jumps ever! Keep watching til the end and wait for the splash.

Here's another jump, different dog.

We took each dog out separately to walk them around and let them partake in the festivities!

We also bought a new toy for the doggies. It's a big hit with all 3! We've never seen Hutch get so excited about a toy.

It's mushy!

It's squishy,It's portable,
It can also be used as a headrest.

And it's just plain fun!

CHEESE!
In this video you can watch the boys in action. Jason and I had a lot of fun just watching them all afternoon.

Murphy is thoroughly enjoying himself!

The dogs were worn out after all the playing.

Pictures!!! Lots and lots of pictures!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:51:00 +0000

I took some cute pictures of Jason with the big dogs. I even managed to get in the picture below!

Does this look comfortable to you?

Here are Charlie and Hutch sunbathing.
Jason got a new toy! Jason got his birthday present early. He bought a bow which arrived last night.

And now for Sheldon...

Sheldon is a stuffed turtle toy I've been working on. The shell is now stuffed and ready for the next step. You can find the pattern here.

Here's the top of his shell.

Here's the bottom layer of the top shell.

And here's the shell sewn and stuffed.

The Battle of Yorktown

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:23:00 +0000

Jason and I went to Yorktown, VA this past week. We had a great time! We walked through the town, had a great lunch, and toured the battlegrounds. Jason taught me a lot about the way the battles were fought and pointed out a lot of things that I wouldn't have noticed on my own. It was pretty amazing that the trenches and cannons were still there after more than 200 years. Before going back home I twisted Jason's arm to stop in the knitting/yarn store in town. Not really. He usually doesn't mind if I go into knitting stores, as long as it's not a lengthy stay. :-) Just like I tolerate Bass Pro Shops every now and again!

Here we are, in our usual pose, along side of the York River. Yorktown is a lot prettier than I had imagined.
Here is the Carrot Tree Restaurant where we ate lunch. It was delicious! Jason and I both had a crabcake sandwich and we shared a piece of carrot cake which was quite yummy!
The 2 pictures below are British Howitzers that were captured during their surrender.

This is the Moore House. It's the house where the British surrendered to the Americans. It's a beautiful home and in a beautiful location. Apparently it was quite damaged during the Civil War but it has been restored to it's original glory.

This is the view from the Moore House overlooking the York River. Great view, huh!?!

This is the room in the Moore House in which British General Cornwallis' representatives met with General George Washington's representatives to determine the terms of the British surrender.