I thought I would post Brittany's prom photo that i just got from Angela

Brittany is Charlie's granddaughter who is 16 and she is a junior this year. She is the last one on the right. Aren't they all beautiful??

Charlie & I went around in the "gator" today taking some photos...

All of my blackberry blossoms are in full bloom so I can only hope they will be ready for picking around Father's Day like last year. Remember last year I got the "chiggars" real bad so I have got to do something this year so i do not get them. I itched for WEEKS!!! When Charlie came back from FL last week, he brought back 2 things. Our pineapple we had planted over a year ago has finally grown a pineapple. It will be ready to eat when it turns yellow :). He also had not had much luck in growing a palm tree from a coconut ... until now that is. He brought that back too. We'll see how that does here in the Carolinas. Usually palm trees can't grow here as its too cold in the winter. We need to get our garden planted this week. I will post more photos after that is done :).

A whole week has gone by and my mom's best friend wants to know if I am ok ...

So Loretta ... this post is for you!! Yes I am fine, the kids are fine, the hubby is fine. This has been a uneventful week for the most part plus my internet has been going on and off for days. Not sure what the problem is with it!! The chickens have been keeping us busy gathering eggs. We get anywhere from 8-15 eggs EACH day. I think I gave out 4 dozen this week alone. Come this summer I think we will sell them but for now, the teachers at Nicholas' school are enjoying free eggs :). Emily has her 2nd drivers ed class tonight. 3 more to go ... She can get her drivers permit on her birthday which is June 25th (did I mention this already before?). Nicholas has a birthday coming up next week. Wednesday he turns 12! (how can that be?) He is still deciding if he even wants a party so we will probably have it late. He wants it at the Nascar Speedway Park at the Concord Mills Mall where they have go-carts, rock climbing wall, laser tag and lots of video machines!!! Its almost time to get our garden planted. I am pretty sure we are out of the danger of frost so I want to scope out Home Depot and Lowes and Walmart for squash, zucchini, and mostly tomatoes for those yummy tomato sandwiches I have GROWN to love :). So this note is really about nothing but I want Loretta know we are all alive and well. :)

Emily started driver's ed this morning ..

how is even possible my "little girl" is old enough to start Driver's Ed? Its just hard to believe. She will go 5 Saturdays in a row from 8-2 so that is 30 hours class time and will have 6 hours of drive time. Then she can get her driver's permit on her birthday (June 25th). She is so excited to get driving (I'm not so sure I am).

Charlie made it back last night. He said all the snow birds were headed north so traffic was really heavy. Most Canadian cars :).

Yesterday was a record day for bringing back eggs. I collected 15!!! And there was 1 I could not reach so I just left it there. I need to get a step ladder and leave it down there I guess. ha

I have been giving away eggs to Nicholas' school and to a few other people and I still have more than plenty.

That's it for now. I think I may go back to bed... this is too early to get up on a Saturday.

Its Monday ... I didn't post all weekend. How did that happen?

Saturday I went to a scrapbook/stamping convention in Winston-Salem. I met up with Debbie from the Stamp Shack there. It was somewhat of a disappointment. Not a whole lot of stamps at all, alot of scrapbooking supplies and alot of beads. So .... I did manage to buy some really cute stamps of what they did have so that was good. On the way home, I stopped at ACMoore, Joanne's and my favorite stamp store in the Carolinas. I definitely spent WAY TOO MUCH there!! But I needed new stamps and they had just gotten a whole bunch of new stamps in so it was wonderful! :)

I spent the morning with Robin this morning. She got news today the cancer has spread to her brain (again) so she goes up to Duke tomorrow to get another scan of her head to tell her more. She was crying, I was crying ... but she is the strongest person I think I have ever met. I just hope she can continue to beat it and stay strong but its so hard on her and her family.

It seems like winter has come back for a few more days. Where oh where did Spring go? It was 40 degrees this morning. I had to drag back out the winter coats. I am so ready to put them away till October.

Charlie left for FL for a few days. We got a written offer on our house down there on Saturday but it was way too low. Our realtor is showing it twice today, once tomorrow and a couple is coming back for their 3rd time to look at it on Wed. so at least we have alot of activity going on!!

That's all my news. I will try and come back and post sooner :).

Blog contest for my Shackie friends ....

Ok gals ... I have made a map of all of my Shackie friends from all over the world. I have 2 questions that you need to answer:

1) Which 3 states in the US has the most shackie friends in it? (this is according to my map and I am not sure its 100% right. LOL) but it must be close.

2) Name all of the people in each state. If I have multiple winners, I will put all winning entries in a hat and have Nicholas pick a name out of the magic hat. Now put on your thinking cap ....

The winner will receive .... something I buy new at the Winston-Salem stamp convention this Saturday. So I will not know what it is yet until I get home but I am sure it will be a great surprise!!!

Contest deadline is Saturday night 5 pm est.

Have you been feeding my pig and panda bear on my blog?

Nicholas INSISTED on getting these 2 so i took the llamas off for awhile. If you hold your mouse down on the pig and keep clicking, he starts to roll all over in the mud and then if you click the more button, you can wash him off with the water bottle plus you can feed him an apple or two. He gets hungry you know :). The panda bear will eat bamboo lying on his back when you click on him. Not sure what else he does, if anything else.

I came across this website for American Idol and you can download your own bobble head

on your blog. http://www.americanidol.com/games/bobbleheads/ If you click on Blake's head, it will bobble back and forth :). I want Blake to win!!!

I got the cutest new stamp set today called Green Thumb.

http://www.papertreyink.com/stamps_greenthumb.html

Happy Easter!

Woke up to 19 degrees this morning. This is like our weather in December, not April. It was COLD!! I slept horrible last night as I was up coughing from 3-5. I could not stop coughing. Finally went back to sleep and slept till 10 :). Nicholas & I had an Easter egg hunt in the front and back yard. I found 10, he found 34. He found one that was the "golden" egg - it had $5.00 in it. He was happy about that. Ladybug hasn't gotten into any Easter baskets - it will only be a matter of time though. She LOVES LOVES LOVES candy!!

We went down to see how many eggs were laid but Joker (our neighbor) had taken them as there were only 5 that he had already put into an egg carton. We thought we were going to get to see a hen laying an egg as she went into her little "bed" and was going around and around and around circles but we finally just left. The roosters were cockadoodledoing at us really loud wanting us to leave I think.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter today.

Someone sent me a link to these adorable otters

they are actually holding hands in this video. I have no idea where this was taken but they are so cute. You may have to turn down the volume on my radio so you can hear them ooooh and aaaah over these cute guys :).

I can't believe how cold it is here today. Its only about 40 degrees and getting down to 19 degrees tonight. The record for Charlotte is 30 degrees for this time in April so we'll definitely break that!! The kids want to search for Easter eggs in the morning but I am betting we'll have the Easter egg hunt INDOORS. oh well.

I think Old Man Winter is back in Concord.

Its 33 this morning, frost is everywhere. Easter Sunday we are expected down in the low 20's. Brrrrr!!! I had put all my clogs up, now I gotta drag them back out :). Good thing is its warming up by next Tuesday so we'll just have a chilly weekend it looks like.

I wonder how many eggs we'll get today!!!

You must check out this chicken & egg game if you are bored ...

It cracks me up. These chickens sure can lay these eggs fast. And then tell me how great you did! LOL http://gamescene.com/Chicken_And_Eggs_game.html Enjoy!!!

Winter is coming back?

I took this photo of my tulips as they may be frozen by the weekend. We're supposed to have 3 mornings of temps below freezing this weekend. What happened to Spring?????

Saw our first hummingbird today!!

Our neighbors put out their hummingbird feeder every year on April 1st. So I thought well, if they do it, then I will do it. I actually put it up a day early and thought "I bet I won't see a hummingbird for awhile". Sure enough, there he was this morning all thirsty from a cold NC winter :). Ok, we didn't have that cold of a winter but you know what I mean ... so I hurried, grabbed my camera and actually got a photo of him through my back door and he didnt' even fly away. Here the little guy is :)

The chickens are here, the chickens are here!!

Yesterday our neighbor (who we bought this house from) brought down 14 chickens to keep in our barn. He is taking care of them, feeding them, we just get to watch them and get fresh eggs. In 1 day, they laid 11 eggs. What the heck are we going to do with that many eggs already? HA HA They are Rhode Island Reds and the males can be very aggressive so I went into their cage real quick and took some photos. One of the hens laid one while we were in there. Nicholas is insisting on naming them all so that will be interesting when they all look alike to me!! Wish us luck! :)

EMILY SCORED HER FIRST GOAL AT A SOCCER GAME!!!

and we missed the whole thing!! Her game was away at Anson and it was a 2 hour ride so she took the bus to and from and I picked her up at 9:30 PM at the school. She left this morning at 7 am for school and just got back. Talk about a long day!! Anyway, she scored her first goal in the 2nd half of the game. She said they were all jumping up & down and they were so excited!! Unfortunately, they lost 4-3 but at least she scored a goal! WOO HOO Emily!!

I saw my first lightening bug tonight. I couldn't believe it. Its only April 2nd!! I think the first ones usually do come out in May so this is really early but its been in the 80's so I guess they are ready to come out of hiding. Where do lightening bugs go anyway in the winter?

Monday afternoon

Guess what I did today! I got a head start on my inchie swap for Angie. I haven't done a swap in so long I thought I better get started. These came together so quick. I just think they are so cute. I may not be able to part with them. I stuck with an animal theme but then ran out of animal stamps so I dug out my flip flop stamps and we all know I have LOADS of those but I did 2 of them and will finish these up later. Just wanted to post what I have done so far. I have to make 12 plus a 3x3 to mail it in.

Its Sunday and I have been re-organizing my blog ...

After looking at other blogs, I realized mine did not look good at all. I had all my photos to the right or to the left so I fixed that. I think this looks alot better.

I have been fighting a sore throat since Saturday. Not sure if its allergies or a cold is truly coming my way. I sure hope not. I hate being sick! Its worse at night and I have to sleep with my head propped up which means very little sleep and lots of coughing :(. I did sleep in till almost noon this morning so that was a relief!

I really don't have much more to say. Enjoy my "new" and "improved" blog! Thanks once again Angie!! :)