Fun Weekend Events and an Unexpected Arrival!

Did you know that it snowed on the East Coast this weekend? OK, I know. You knew. Anyways, I did not know that it was really going to happen until Friday at work when I looked at the weather map. It wasn't supposed to affect North Carolina, so I hadn't even thought about it. I didn't care if it snowed in New England but, the map said it was supposed to rain/ice in West Virginia, as well. Guess what we were going to drive through on Saturday? You guessed it. West Virginia.

My cousin John got married this weekend. We had originally planned to drive up to Columbus on Saturday early morning, get there for the wedding and then hang out on Sunday, driving home Monday. Those plans got changed a little bit after we saw the weather forecast. We decided to leave Friday night, stay somewhere close to West Virginia late Friday evening and then head up to Ohio on Saturday morning, with more time to get through any bad weather. Thankfully, the drive up through Virginia, while miserable because of spitting rain, was uneventful. We made it to a Hampton Inn at 11pm and headed out again at 7:30am. The drive through West Virginia wasn't that bad. The snow had come the night before and there was very little on the roads.

Once we hit Ohio, the sun came out! We made it to our hotel by 2pm on Saturday so we had some time to meet up with our family and to talk about the BIG NEWS!!!

At 7:15am on Saturday, I received a text that said, "Baby is on his way!" Holy cow. Why the major shock? She was due in mid December and they were supposed to be on an airplane headed to Columbus that morning! At 1:15pm, we got another text. Baby boy B was born!

He is a tiny 4lb, 2oz baby. For now they are going to keep him in the NICU until he gets a little bit bigger and a little bit stronger. He does have a feeding tube, but I heard that they're trying to bottle feed, as well. He's just a precious little thing. He'll probably be in the NICU for 3-4 weeks. Mom and Dad drove down to New Orleans from Columbus to help with whatever my brother and sister in law need. They should be getting there today sometime. I'm not sure when we'll be able to meet him but we're so excited he's here!

That night, we had a lot to celebrate. We had a wedding, a new baby and a lot of family around to celebrate with. It was a great day.

State Fair Part 2 and other things...

Remember how I said I would give you my part two of the fair today? Yeah. Today started off well but I ended up not bringing my pictures with me to work so, that flew out the window. The good news is, my friend Morgan documented the second half of what I was going to document for you already! Check out her blog, The Handcrafted Life. You'll see that after the piggy races, we went to the animal barns, side-stepped some really bad ...manure and saw some more animals. Cows, piglets!!, chicks, donkeys that looked dead but were really just sleeping and goats. There were lots of babies in the barn with their Moms. So cute! We also got to see some ginormous gourds, pumpkins and a sweet potato that still looked good enough to eat that was from last years fair!! We said goodbye to Morgan and her husband so Hops could go look at some sheds. We are in the market, it wasn't just a random stop. On the way out of the fair, it was absolutely nuts. We were stuck in this crush of people that was worse than any rush hour traffic I have ever been in. We came to complete stops quite a few times. There wasn't even room to do our bob and weave maneuvers we usually try to do to get through the crowd! At one point, I got ahead of Hops, looked back and he just waved me on "God speed, woman! See you at the finish line!"

This past week, including the weekend, has definitely been interesting. Hops was diagnosed with a few throat issues last week. He went to the Ear Nose and Throat doctor who sent him to a radiologist to do a barium swallow. It's a test where you have to drink a barium liquid and then the radiologist takes X-Rays of you to see how your esophagus and stomach are working. The radiologist sent him back to the ENT, who looked at the results. He has three issues that are all related:

• Acid Reflux (not major)
• Lower esophageal ring (aka: Schatzki's ring)
• Narrowing of the esophagus (Yikes)!!

So, you're probably wondering why he went to the ENT in the first place? We went to The Angus Barn for our anniversary dinner on October 15th. It was an amazing meal and we had a great time. He woke up the next morning, on our actual anniversary feeling like there was something stuck in his throat. He was very anxious because he could not seem to get whatever it was to go down. We were thisclose to going to the Emergency Room. Well, instead, we spent the day at home, watching TV and trying to stay calm. It was a nice day other than him not feeling great. On Monday he woke up and the feeling was still there. That's what prompted the visit.

He put himself on a soft foods diet late last week. When we were at the fair, he ate some fries and had a few bites of my food but was afraid to eat too much there. He has been eating soup, crackers, cheese, smoothies, Frosty's and...more soup. I also made him the Virgin Green Monster on Monday morning and he really liked it. I've been making him one of those every morning for breakfast this week. I adapted it just a little by adding some peanut butter.  Thankfully he has an appointment to have his esophagus stretched on Friday of next week. I just hope we can make it until then!! The man likes to eat - this is a hard diet to be on for someone who really enjoys chewing and eating steak, chicken and pork!! Getting your esophagus stretched is an out-patient procedure but it's a bit frightening. They have to put you under anesthesia and it can take up to 2 hours to complete the procedure. Hops has never had anesthesia before so, of course I'm going to worry. I'm going to work from home and then work from the doctor's office that day so I can take him there and then take him back home afterwards. I'm sure I'll write about it after the procedure is done.

This weekend we're going to a family wedding. I'm hoping we can find him something to eat at dinner that he can get down without feeling like he's choking to death. I figure if I get enough beers in him, maybe he'll forget about eating? Ha! Right. One never forgets to eat.

That's it for now, a little update and some info on where my brain has been recently. I also know that I totally bailed on the 30 day photography challenge. I'm not even going to try to catch up. Maybe one of these days I'll get back into it but for now, I'm taking a break from challenges. 

North Carolina State Fair

We headed out to the State Fair this weekend to eat bad for us foods, check out some fun exhibits and, most importantly, people watch! We got there around 11:30 and parking wasn't that bad. It was also free, which was a huge bonus. We wanted to watch what we spent this time, so we kept tabs throughout the day. We went in with $70 between the two of us. It was $8 per person to get into the fair. That's $16 even before we ate anything. Honestly, that's really all we spend money on at fairs. We don't do rides (scary) and we really don't do games.

The crowds weren't too bad when we first got there. We could walk around without coming to a complete stop due to human traffic. We walked through the gate and up to the very important food section. There is food all over the place at the fair, but this one area seemed like it was your best bet for any type of food you could wish for.

The $1 refill any cup any size was helpful. We picked up a 32oz fresh squeezed lemonade for $5 and filled the cup up twice with soda for $1 each time.

Would you like something battered up and fried? Stop by this tent. Holy moly. I did try the fried mac n cheese, it was $4 for 6 pieces of fried mac n cheese. I forgot to take a picture. It was pretty good. It helped that I was starving by the time I got it. I have had better, though. The Cheesecake Factory definitely has awesome fried mac n cheese....better than fair mac n cheese.

We walked around the food tents and then through the games and rides section. I just have to say, some of those rides are seriously scary. I probably didn't feel that way when I was a kid but now that I actually think about how they're built and the fact that these rides get torn down and built again in another city is a bit unnerving. After we checked out the games and rides, we grabbed some real food.

Fries, liquid cheese and sausage with peppers and onions. I haven't had cheese fries in a long time and now I'm wondering why. Ok, I know why but I think this is definitely an ok meal to indulge in once a year!

Once we were done eating, we walked back up towards the games because we were going to meet up with Morgan and her husband for the pig races! I heard all about these pot bellied pig races, so I was really excited about them. Hops and I got there around 2:15 or so and the stands were packed already. We somehow found two seats up at the top of the bleachers, so we snagged them.  The pig races weren't just pig races, there were ducks and goats, too!

The first race was between some younger pigs, not pot-bellied pigs.

The black pig with the yellow tag won this race.

Next up were the goats. These guys made me laugh so hard. They raced for Cheese Doodles, too.

 See that little black guy there with the blue bandanna? He got a bit side-tracked by the kids in the stands. Hilarious! He wouldn't move. Finally, the MC came over and he started running around the track.

I forget who won this race but I do know that the guy with the blue bandanna was too late for cheese doodles. :(

Then, there were ducks. Duck/Geese hybrids? Not really sure but they have some seriously long necks! These guys didn't race for cheese doodles. They just ran around the track like...you know...chickens with their heads cut off? Haha. I crack myself up.

Finally, we got to the main event - the pot-bellied pigs! Oh my gosh, how cute are these little dudes?

This little dude was busy looking for food along the way.

Oooo! Ooooo it's a photo finish!!

That's Piggy Gordon and Rutter Martin, enjoying being the winners.

Hilarious. That was a fun event. I'm so glad Morgan mentioned it and we ended up going to it!!

I'll post part two of our State Fair adventures tomorrow Friday! (I know my limits)!

A Disappointing Night Out

Do you know how it feels when you get soooo excited over something and then it ends up being much less than what you had hoped for? Yeah, that's what happened to me on Thursday night. I am a member of a photography meetup group here in Raleigh. They posted a meetup for food photography about a month ago and I have been looking forward to it every since I saw it posted. The organizer said they would have lighting set up for us to use and the chef would bring out a bunch of different entrees for us to take pictures of. I figured this would be a great time to test out taking pictures of food with good backgrounds (brick walls in the building) and props with fantastic lighting.

That didn't happen.

We had the meetup at 518 West - an Italian restaurant in downtown Raleigh. It's an old building and they have some really neat features like brick walls inside, super high ceilings and fun nooks and crannies throughout the interior. We were taken upstairs to the loft area that was sectioned off for our group for a couple of hours. I started to worry as soon as we got up there because there was no lighting and the area was set up for people to eat dinner. The tables were soon fixed so we could use some of the outside light (what was left considering it was now 6:30pm) and some were pushed up against the brick walls. I tested the lighting we had in the room and knew unless a miracle happened, I was going to be disappointed. I don't have a tripod, so I can't set my camera settings super low and take pictures without them turning out blurry. I guess I should be thankful I took my prime lens with me because I tried to use my other lens and wasn't able to get one good picture from it.

All that excitement turned into such a let-down. I can take pictures like this when I'm at a restaurant eating dinner. I really wanted the chance to take some really good photos. Hopefully next time we get the chance to do this, we'll do it when we can have some natural light coming into the building! One good thing did come out of this meetup, though. I found a new restaurant for Hops and me to try!

Wedding Scrapbook Layouts

I promised this post quite a while ago. My bad.

Three weekends ago, I got together with some of my girlfriends to do some scrapbooking. My plan for the weekend was to make cards. I want to make some card sets for our family members for Christmas. Once I got there, after we had our hugs and hello's all around, I sat down and looked at my bags. I couldn't wrap my head aaround making cards, so I decided to pull out my wedding photos and start working on them. Here are a few of the layouts:

Getting Ready with my Mom and Maid of Honor:

Even though I don't have the best handwriting ever, I do like to handwrite my journaling areas. They make it feel so much more personal to me to see it written by me.

The First Look between my soon to be husband and me on the covered bridge in St James Plantation.

I haven't completed the title page yet but I wanted to show it anyways since I looove the paper I used.

I used Close To My Heart products for all of the layouts. I have to admit, my favorite papers are the Dreamin' papers used in the First Look photos. I didn't get around to finishing all of my titles, but I wanted to show these anyways since I promised them to you...last week.

Here I documented some details of the chapel. We got married in a little chapel in St James Plantation. It has a capacity of 84 people. We fit just perfectly. We had a violinist for our ceremony music - Maura Kropke. She was fantastic. Family and friends helped out with decorating the chapel and the reception. They also made sure it was done "properly" once the florist had finished his job (long story).

And...a layout of just a sample of our photobooth pictures. We had so much fun with this photobooth and are so glad we did it. Otherwise we wouldn't have a lot of pictures of our friends and family! I made this whimsical and fun just to match with the theme of the booth itself.

All of the photos used in these layouts were from Elizabeth Scott Photography. That's a link to the post of our wedding on their blog. A year later and I'm still so happy we chose this couple as our photographers - without even meeting them before our engagement shoot! Something just felt right. 

October 11th through October 15th

October Photography Challenge

I'm accepting the fact that I don't have time right now to take a picture a day and blog about it. When I have time, I'll do it. When I don't have time to do that, I'll do a recap like today!

Day 11: Something Blue

My funny puffer fish who got banished to the loft upstairs after we moved. I love him because it looks like he just ate something and dribbled a bit. I do that, too.

Day 12: Sunset

An evening sunset post-storm that gave us two beautiful rainbows in our backyard. Even though you really don't see the sun setting, I love this picture. I've never seen a rainbow in our backyard before!

Day 13: Yourself with 13 Things

Glue gun, 6 cut pieces of paper, one card base, one long strip of raffia from our wedding, one stamp set, one paper cutter, one book telling me how to make the card (I like instructions), one stamp paper (under everything).

I thought I would show you the finished product, as well:

I added some opaque pearls, chocolate ink, chipboard and bamboo ink. I love those chipboard pieces, they have marks on them and don't obsorb ink so they leave the pretty images when you ink them. All of the products I used, other than the raffia is from Close To My Heart.

Day 14: Eyes

Day 15: Silhouette

Please excuse the dirty doors...we have dogs.

365 Days Ago Today: I Take You To Be My Husband

I take you to be my husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love and honor you all the days of my life.

*all photos by Elizabeth Scott Photography  

If you've ever been married, you have probably been there. The rush of emotions, projects, people and events that lead you up to that day when you finally marry the one you have waited all your life for. You may be 22, 36 or 49, either way, you've waited so long for this one day that you never want to forget it. This is a note to my husband. Something I want to not just share with him, but to share with everyone who shares our lives with us today.

To my husband on our first anniversary.

One year ago today, we were married. It was the best day of my life. It was the day we committed ourselves to each other. We made our promises. We laughed, we cried, we danced and we had a lot of fun. We learned so much that day and we did it all to show each other that we are committed to one another forever.

The one thing I wish I had done was toast to you that day. There are so many things I could have, should have said in front of our family and close friends. We planned for 9 months for this momentous event and I forgot to toast you! Today I will tell you some of the reasons why I was so happy to marry you one year ago today.

• We met in 2005 and 2 years later, we spent a weekend in Ocean City with mutual friends. I called you the day after that weekend and asked you out on a date. I left a long, rambling voicemail on your answering machine. You said yes. You saved that tape and I know you still have it somewhere.
• On our second date, a drunk threw a raught iron chair on the patio of the bar we were sitting on. It hit me on the head and split my head open. 
• You did not hesitate when I didn't need you at that moment. I told you to find my friend Courtney. You did so without question.
• You asked the ambulance driver to play the siren for me since he couldn't understand what I was rambling about while strapped to the gurney in the back, slightly sort of totally intoxicated. You understood me.
• You carried my pink, purple and white purse for me around the ER and laughed with the nurses when they told you your purse matched your (also pink) shirt.
• When we were dating long distance, I sat in my car in your driveway and I didn't want to go back to New York without you. I asked you if you would drive with me. You said, "Give me 5 minutes." You took that ride with me from Maryland and stayed a few days before flying back home.

• On one of the weekends you visited me in New York, it happened to be the weekend I was moving. You moved all of my possessions while I was at work.
• You sat through numerous ER visits for my constant ear issues.
• You slept on the floor with me on New Years Eve when you were moving me back to Maryland. 
• You dealt with the fact that I wasn't comfortable living with you if I had a place at my parents house.
• You let my cats live with you even though I wouldn't.
• When I finally decided it was OK to live with you (or, when my parents sold their house and I had to move out before I was living with strangers), you moved me into your house by yourself because, surprise, I was sick again.

• I found a job in North Carolina. You said, Go for it. We have this whole long distance thing under control. We've done it before. 
• Six months later, you quit your job and I helped you move down on (wait for it) New Years Day. What is it with us and moving on New Years? 
• You moved to a state where you knew no one except me. You had no job and you must have been so worried about the what-if's. Thankfully, you were lucky. You found a job and are still working for the same company 5 years later.

• You let me get a dog. You fell in love with that dog. You let me foster another dog. You fell in love with that dog. We were supposed to give the second dog back. You couldn't. We kept her.
• We struggled to figure out what we wanted to do with us. You fought for me. You were willing to do whatever it took to keep us together. You knew. You knew we were meant to be together.
• You do things with your sole intention to make me happy, without thinking of yourself.
• You have never said one mean or unkind word about me.
• You would rescue every sick, injured or sad animal in the world, if you could. 
• When you love, you do it right. Your love is strong, forceful and with purpose. Your love for me helps me get through even the roughest days.

I couldn't ask for much more. I'm so lucky to have found you and even more lucky to have married you. I can't wait to see what the next 50+ years bring. Happy First Anniversary, Hops.

And one more for fun - the Maid of Honor Photobooth Photo-Bomb