Cold, Rainy Monday

Great news - my nephew, Matt, got engaged over the weekend! We are all so happy for him and Steph. He had just moved out to California a couple of months ago when he got the job as head baseball coach for one of the colleges out there. His fiancee is from Jersey and is a LaCrosse coach at one of the PA colleges, but plans to go out to CA within the next year. My husband and I have known about this and kept it a secret for well over a year when Matt bought the ring! lol! And we didn't tell a soul in all that time because my sister-in-law had sworn us to secrecy when she showed us a picture of the ring on her phone at a football game we were at. Although we did come to find out that my husband's mother knew (how long she knew I don't know). Because while we were on our recent family vacation in the car she asked "do you think Matt and Stephanie will get married?" And I said "it's a good possibility". Not knowing she knew of course. Then my husband almost blurted out "didn't he buy her a ring?" I had to smack him from the back seat because I didn't want us getting in trouble with his sister (Matt's mom). His mother laughed and admitted she already knew and that she had even seen the ring! lol!

I just wanted to post here quickly on this cold 40 degree, rainy Monday morning to show you what I've been up to in my scrapbook room this weekend. I finally decorated the cover of my December Daily 2011 album. And have been trying to finish the days in the album that I need to do yet. Although I took pics everyday from Thanksgiving through New Year's, and I have them in the page protectors where they all go, I still need to adhere things down and do the journaling for quite a few days yet. I want to get this completed before I start on our 2012 holiday album here in a few weeks....

I had gotten the DCWV Christmas & Winter Stitched Stack on clearance after the holidays last year, and so I used a couple of the papers from that for the front and back covers. Love the texture of the stitched flourishes. I added a few tiny buttons with embroidery floss threaded through them, glittered chipboard Thickers, twill ribbon, and stamped an Ali Edwards sentiment from her Dec Daily stamp set from last year. The cover is also glimmer misted with iridescent gold. I didn't like the way it comes off on your hands, so I ended up wiping the cover off very well with a paper towel. It's still a bit glimmery, but doesn't come off anymore.

And here's the back cover...

and the inside covers have this pretty, glittery patterned paper from last year's DCWV Merry Christmas stack on them...

I painted the edges of the chipboard covers with metallic gold acrylic paint. As you can see, it's rather chunky. But this album worked perfectly for me considering that I started on Thanksgiving and went clear through New Year's. I plan to use the same album and page protectors again this year...

I picked up the DCWV Evergreen stack and the cardstock stack yesterday both 50% off at JoAnn's. The Evergreen stack is very pretty and has green and red foil accents on some of the papers. I didn't buy any Christmas cardstock last year because it was rather thin. But this year it's not which I am happy about....

I hope everyone in Hurricane Sandy's path stays safe in the coming days. We are on the border of OH and PA  and we are supposed to get heavy rains with 30-35 mph winds and gusts up to 60 mph at times later on today when the brunt of the storm hits our area. Then more wind and heavy rain in the next couple of days. Hopefully, we won't have any power outages though. *crossing fingers*.

 It's hard to believe how much the weather has changed since Friday when  B. had her Fall Festival at school. She got to wear her Halloween costume to school and she made a cute Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. It was hot, sunny and gorgeous out that day and the days before during Indian Summer. Now it's freezin' cold and rainy. It's a good thing we made our annual trip out to the pumpkin farmers' back on Oct 17th...

Thanks for stoppin' by and I hope everyone stays safe while they ride the storm out. Gotta go bring the trash cans in before the winds kick up later on today....

Our South Carolina Vacation

I can't believe it's been three months since I last posted anything on here. But when I get behind on blogging, it just seems so overwhelming to try and get caught up, ya know?

We just got back from a week long trip to South Carolina last Tuesday. We went down for A's wedding in the Charleston area. We travelled with my husband's parents to split the cost of gas and a condo we rented in North Myrtle Beach and had a really nice time together. The first day, we took a little bit of a detour and stopped at Spruce Knob/Seneca Rock, WV like we do every October. My husband wanted to show his parents how beautiful it is there since they had never been there. They said it was their most favorite part of our whole vacation. It was absolutely gorgeous there that day (Weds. Oct 3rd) - the weather was beautiful and we didn't even need to wear a jacket! Usually when we go to Spruce Knob this time of year, it's freezing cold and we have to bundle up in our winter coats and hats. This is the highest point of elevation in the State of West Virginia. It's also where my husband proposed to me many Octobers ago....

 

 We spent the first night of our trip at a hotel in Wytheville, Virginia near the North Carolina border and then the next two nights in Summerville, SC near Charleston close to where the wedding was. We spent the better part of the evening on Thursday, Oct. 4th in historic Charleston looking at all the beautiful homes there. Some of which were built back in the 1700's!....

What a beautiful place Charleston is. I would like to go back and tour some of the homes someday...
 There are also LOTS and lots of squirrels in Charleston. They are in the trees as you walk along the streets and all over Battery Park....

The squirrel up in the tree in the first picture was making quite a bit of noise. I didn't know squirrels made noises before. lol! Aren't they cute??

We drove across the huge eight-lane bridge to get to Isle of Palms. We were only there for a short time - just long enough for B. to see the beach since it was getting dark out. She took her shoes off as soon as we got to the sand and went running towards the water. We hadn't been to the beach in four years...

The wedding was on Friday, Oct. 5th.....

Besides all the (adult) people in this wedding party, there were also all of A's brothers and sisters, including B. - seven in all that were junior bridemaids and groomsmen all ranging in age from about 16 years old down to age 9.... A. has five sisters and two brothers total.

Anyway...

The next morning we got up and headed to Myrtle Beach...

We had a nice breakfast at the IHOP in Summerville first. My husband wanted to take us all out for a nice breakfast that morning since we had been eating the breakfasts provided by the hotels thus far in the mornings. His mom wasn't feeling well and doesn't like IHOP anyway,  then she dropped the car keys down the elevator shaft from the 5th floor in the hotel. Oy! She was so upset about it. My father in law had a spare key, so my husband, B and I went to have breakfast while they waited for the maintenance guy to try and get their keys for them. He came in at 9:00 and thank goodness he was able to get them back for us. A lesson learned to be careful of those big gaps between the elevator and the floor.

We stayed at Barefoot Beach Resort in a condo for three days. It was really nice there and not far from the beach. We spent some time browsing the shops along the boardwalk area they have there called Barefoot Landing...

We stopped by Maggie Moos for some homemade ice cream. B. got chocolate and I got their yummy pumpkin ice cream. Yum!....

Afterwards, we stopped at one of those places you see all over Myrtle Beach that have all the big windows displaying beach towels. I didn't pack any beach towels and we needed some. We got a few that said Myrtle Beach on them along with a nice beach bag...

Then we headed off to spend some time at the beach. Saturday and Sunday (the 6th and 7th) were both gorgeous beach days. Monday, eh, not so much since it was cold. But at least we had two nice days....

And Sunday...

B. had so much fun playing in the waves, collecting seashells, and trying to catch the little fish that come in with the tide...

Sunday afternoon we stopped by the Tanger Outlets there in Myrtle Beach after lunch at the Steak & Shake to do a little shopping. My mother-in-law went one way, and my husband, B. and I went another. This was B.'s first time getting to shop in a Justice store. I had ordered things online from them, but had never actually shopped at one of their stores before. She picked out a cute pair of slippers, a cute pink furry monster bag, and I found the halter top that she wanted online in the store on clearance for a little over $3...

We tried to do a little swimming at the HUGE. I mean HUGE swimming pool there at the resort. But the water was freeeezzzzinnnngggg.... The water in the ocean was actually nicer. But it was starting to get cooler anyway. We were only in the pool for maybe 10-15 minutes.

That evening, as it was starting to rain, my husband, B. and I went out to get some pizza to bring back to the condo. We were on the lookout for a pizza place that my father-in-law mentioned going to when they were in Myrtle Beach back in June. We found Lucky's by Kroger and wasn't sure if it was the right place. It turned out that it was. They have some of the best pizza I've ever had. Love their crust....

It was rather chilly on Monday. So we spent the better part of the day at the condo. My husband helped B. with her math homework since we had brought all her schoolwork with us. And I did some laundry. Love that they provide a washer and dryer...

Here are some other pics of the condo we stayed at. It was really nice there. Two bedrooms, two full baths, living room, dining area, kitchen, a nice little patio off our bedroom and the living room....

The view from our condo. That bridge opens to let the boats through and turns from side-to-side. We got to watch it one morning while we stayed there....

Across the water is where that boardwalk place is that we went to the first day we were there. We could see it from our condo...

Late Monday afternoon, we took a walk along a long pier out into the ocean. There were quite a few fishermen there....

Then we decided to visit a couple pawn shops. The first one was rather large and really nice and I got a couple Wii games for B. one of which was a Disney music one that was brand new, never opened with a microphone. Plus a Sims game that she wanted - both for $20. Not bad. The second pawn shop isn't even worth mentioning. So I won't. lol!

We got up at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, to get an early start since we were driving straight through all the way home. We ate breakfast at the Spring House Family Restaurant there in Myrtle Beach and were on the road by 7:30....

They had a big bird cage up there on the balcony with four or five tropical birds.

It took us twelve looooonnnggg hours to get home. Good thing B. and I had downloaded some game apps for the road the first night of our trip. I don't really play games on my iPod or iPhone but I have since become addicted to Bejeweled Blitz....

Although it was a fun trip overall, we are glad to be back home. Our Samsung Plasma TV finally died for good while we were away on vacation and my husband's sister and her husband were taking care of our dogs. We started having problems with it back in April. My husband fixed it a few times. But he didn't want to dump any more money in it. This is the second Samsung big-screen TV that has has died on us after only a couple of years or so and we are not happy. The first one was one of those DLPs with the little mirrors in it. So no more Samsung TVs. We are done with that company. Our new laptop that we got back in April is Samsung, but I hope we don't start having problems with it like the TVs. It made my husband sick to have to go out and buy a new TV already. He ended up getting an LG LED one this time from Sam's. It's a tad bit bigger than the last one - 55" and it has 3D and came with six pairs of glasses which is pretty cool. We can rent movies through the LG app  that are in 3D, which is even cooler. I guess you need a 3D DVD or blue ray player to watch those types of movies otherwise. In the meantime, the Samsung TV has been put in a box and carefully stored away until my husband decides what to do with it. He mentioned something about it possibly needing a power supply which is $$$.  If and when he ever does get it fixed, we may end up using it up in the living room where we don't have a TV.

Our ancient computer that I've mentioned before (the Dell) finally died completely this past month or so. We had it for probably ten years so it lasted us a long time. So now we've had to come up with a different way of backing up our pictures on Carbonite. Apparently, they want to charge you like a business if your house is wireless or networked which costs more. ugh.  Always something.  Anyway, I want to take down the huge computer desk in that room, which just so happens to also be where I scrapbook and try and talk my husband into getting me an Expedit shelving unit from Ikea. I need someplace to store my scrapbook albums. In the corner, on the floor by the couch in the living room just isn't my idea of safe storage. Plus an Expedit would help me organize that room a bit better I think. My husband is not too crazy about the look of them though. So we'll see....