recap: life last month

i know i haven't posted in forever and that is just because i have been so busy with work and this new big girl life i am living :)

i really need to try and get better at writing more often!  since i haven't written in over a month, i am just going to do a quick recap of the past month to catch me up.  hope you enjoy :)

kindergarten has been fabulous and i have actually gotten to know 83 precious little kindergarteners and their many different personalities.  it is so fun to think that i am actually playing a role in shaping these 5 year olds into the learners that they are becoming.  i should start writing down some of the things that they do and say because i will want to remember them for years to come.

besides kindergarten...

 i have been enjoying a lot of gamecock football

we went to the south carolina state fair

i decorated the front door for fall

gair and i spent a wonderful weekend in the mountains with his family.  we visited sky top orchard and picked apples.

taylor on curtis' shoulders reaching all the good apples in the tree.

little elliot helping put the apples in the bucket

triple stacked on top of curtis to reach the apples that were so high :)

gair and i picking apples and having so much fun with everyone!

after picking apples we headed back to the mountain house to watch some football and hang around the house!  carolina was playing florida so we were hoping for a [win] but had to suffer with another loss :(

since carolina wasn't playing too great and the weather was so wonderful we all went outside to play for a bit while gair and big g were working on the new bridge!

this is the view from the top of the mountains. i know i have posted this view before, but i can't get over how beautiful it is.

on the way home from the mountains we stopped in chapin to visit with mummy and dada.  

(more on that in the next blog post)

halloween is always a great time, and this year we had some friends over to the house for dinner and to carve pumpkins.

travis carved the angry bird, gair traced his hand like sign language for "i love you," of course mine is just random shapes (so kindergarten), and carly did the awesome fish bone pumpkin!  i think we did pretty good :)

gair and i decided last minute that we were gonna go downtown with yates to meet up with ashley, mike and brandi.  i found this indian costume, from when i was in the 3rd grade, in my "costume box" that i have in the attic for when i get my own kindergarten classroom.  and yates had this indian costume at his house for gair to wear.  we sure were a cute little indian couple for putting this together so last minute :)

yates went to halloween express and picked out an entire costume get up for ash when she got off work.  what a great surprise.  we had so much fun all dressed up :)

the past month and some has been too wonderful with the beautiful weather, my new job, and having fun with friends :)  looking forward to an even more amazing holiday season!

will post again tomorrow (aren't you surprised?!?!)

coon dog day 2012

this year was my 3rd year going to the coon dog day parade with the heady family!  i am so blessed to have such an awesome family of my own and double blessed that i have this wonderful family in my life as well.

gair and i didn't get to stay in saluda very long on this visit because of course...i had to work :(

(i guess i should start by saying this was the first weekend in july when this took place)

gair and i drove up to saluda on friday night and enjoyed sidestreet pizza and spending time with the family.  saturday morning came very quickly and we all packed up and drove into saluda for the coon dog day parade.  when i say we didn't get to stay long on this visit, i mean we literally had to leave after the first 30 minutes of the parade :(  it was scorching hot outside and we were both sweating like crazy in that short 30 minutes of watching the parade.

you may recognize this picture being similar to the one from coon dog day last year

my good lookin' man :)

the other pictures i got weren't very good...i think because i was so hot, i was trying to fan myself off the entire time.

until next time.

maggie valley

like i mentioned in my previous post, gair and i went snow skiing a little over a week ago. 

poor gair!  he hadn't been skiing in a very long time.  the last time he was snowboarding and he tore his shoulder pretty bad, and that was probably 10 years ago.  needless to say gair wasn't feeling trying snowboarding again so we both rented skis for the afternoon.  i had no idea that i would be laughing so much that afternoon :)  one thing i do love about that boy is that he will not ever say he can't do something.  he put those skis on and we got right on the first lift up the mountain.  i just thought since he is very athletic and he had done it before (even though it had been a while) that he would just pick it right back up.

boy was i wrong :(

getting off the lift:  lift = 1, gair = 0

i am literally laughing while i am typing this because i can't stop thinking about how cute he was all day with his booty in the snow :)  

he is probably gonna kill me for posting this, but like i tell him, this is like my little memory book, so i don't ever forget these awesome memories!

anyways...as the day went on i kept trying to encourage him and tell him he was doing such a good job, but he was not appreciating my encouragement :(  pretty sure i heard more than once, "braden, if you tell me one more time, YOU CAN DO IT, i am turning my skis in!"  eeeekkkkk!  i was just trying to be supportive :)

okay so one more funny story!  we took a little break and sat inside to thaw out a little bit before heading up a different lift to a little bit more difficult slope (yikes)  so....we get to where it's almost time to get off the lift so i scooted over to give gair enough room so we wouldn't get tangled up when dismounting!  needless to say i got off the lift turned around to check on gair and he was almost going back around on the lift because he didn't get off soon enough and his skis were pointed down instead of up so they got caught in the snow and he completely FACE PLANTED right off the lift.  i tried not to laugh but the next thing i saw was gair's face with a HUGE chunk of snow up his nose and he was dying laughing!  we both couldn't stop laughing, gair's skis were off and his poles were thrown in front of him and all i could think of was what in the world was i thinking coming to the harder slopes.....oh no! well...yes it did take us a very long time to finally get down to the bottom of the mountain, but gair did the best he had done all day!  he only fell one time and that was right at the bottom :)

even after spending the day on his booty he still looked so cute :)

after conquering that harder slope gair was just about done!  i wanted to try snowboarding for a little bit and it was only $7 extra to trade in my skis for a board.  (honestly i wanted gair to see my spend some time on my booty from falling so much on the snowboard) hehe!  we went to the bunny slopes and gair showed me what to do on the snowboard...it was a lot more difficult than i thought, but it was fun.  i got the hang of it a little bit, but still wasn't ready for the bigger slopes.  after trying out the snowboard it was getting a little late so we decided to head back towards the mountain house and grab some dinner!  despite gair spending lots of time on his booty, we had a wonderful time in maggie valley!  i know gair isn't counting down until the next time we go skiing, but i'm looking forward to going back to learn how to snowboard again :)

i would post the video i took of gair skiing, but he used a few choice words....so i will just put up the one where he filmed me coming down the mountain for the last time!

happy saturday :)

skytop orchard

On Saturday morning we headed up to the SkyTop Orchard, in Flat Rock, NC, to pick apples!  I have never done this before and it was so much fun!  There are apples everywhere that are already in bags and ready to buy, or you can walk through the orchard and pick your own apples.  They have tables set up where you can taste the different types of apples so you know which ones you like, so you know which trees to pick from!

 Looking down on all apple trees!

Taylor was our climber!  She climbed up in the trees to get the apples because a lot of the trees were very picked over!

Our bucket full of apples!

(and my scarf and Gair's jacket --it got pretty hot while we were out pickin')

After we were done pickin' apples, we came back up the big hill and found Caroline, Mrs. Heady, Mrs. Avis, and the little one playing on the playground!

After we left the SkyTop Orchrad, my camera died, but we headed back down the mountain where there are some cute little antique shops and also a FUN shop called The Wrinkled Egg.  The only thing I bought was an EARLY Christmas present for my sissy! :)  It is a really cool little shop, that has been featured in Southern Living, NY Times, and Wall Street Journal!  You should definitely check it out if you are ever near Flat Rock, NC.

After we left Flat Rock, Gair and I headed back home because we had a Halloween/Birthday party for our friend Kristin (who just turned the BIG 3-0 might I add).  I will do a separate post about that party tomorrow :)

Happy Thursday!

gotta love Fall in the mountains

Since it was my Fall Break this past week (woo hoo) Gair and I packed up our bags on Thursday and headed to his family's mountain house in Saluda, NC.

We were so excited to get away for a few days to relax and enjoy the beautiful mountains!  You can't beat this breathtaking view from the top of the mountain :)

Thursday evening after we got settled in we headed back up the mountain to Tryon to go eat dinner at Sidestreet and watch Game 2 of the World Series!

Friday we got up and headed into Hendersonville for lunch and some shopping!  Mr. and Mrs. Heady, Caroline and Elliot were heading up to the mountain house that afternoon and were there when we got back!  We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with Elliot and waiting on Taylor and Curtis to get there.  We ate Sidestreet (again) for dinner, played, watched a movie and had a relaxing evening!

Little Elliot even loved sitting with Uncle Gair and watching videos on Caroline's iPhone!

We all went to the apple orchard on Saturday morning to pick apples!  I will post more about that tomorrow :)

...and Saturday afternoon Gair and I took a turn onto Pearson Falls Rd. to just drive around and enjoy the beautiful colors of the changing leaves and to explore parts of Saluda that we haven't seen before!

This was the perfect weekend to go to the mountains because of all the trees changing colors!  I felt like I literally got to watch as the leaves changed colors the three days we were there!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

weekend in saluda.

This weekend Gair and I went up to the cabin in Saluda with his friend Russell's family.  Russell and Betsy have two precious little boys, Cooper and Davis.  Cooper will be 5 years old in November and Davis will be 3 in January.  Russell wanted to take the boys canoeing down the Green River, so they were very excited.  We all drove up late Friday afternoon and met at the cabin!  When we got there the boys of course wanted to play in the river.  Not even a minute went by before they were both up to their knees in the water and covered in mud!  I wish I had gotten pictures, but we hadn't even unpacked the car, much less gone inside yet!

After the boys got cleaned up from the river, we headed back up the mountain to go eat a late dinner at Sidestreet (a delicious pizza place in Tryon, NC).  For some reason we didn't discuss what everyone was going to order, so we ended up with 3 medium pizzas with 4 adults and 2 children to eat.  Needless to say, we went back to the cabin with 1 whole pizza, and half of another.  When we got back to the house, Russell and Betsy put the boys to bed, and we watched a movie/I fell asleep on the couch :)

Saturday morning we all ate breakfast and got ready to go on the river.  I don't think the boys were excited at all (ha) because all morning I heard over and over, "when are we going in the canoe?" :) Since there is only one canoe, Gair and I rented tubes so we could join them.  We packed a cooler with sandwiches and drinks and loaded up the canoe!  Since we were on the river, I didn't want to take my camera AND of course there were many great photo opportunities!  The Green River is absolutely beautiful (nothing like floating down the Saluda in Columbia).  After about an hour and a half (half way) we pulled over and had a little picnic on the river.  Cooper was loving the river, he didn't even want to stay in the canoe, so Russell tied a rope to his life jacket and let him swim beside the canoe (when it was calm).  After we ate, Davis fell asleep in the front of the canoe, and pretty much slept the rest of the way.  Cooper wanted to ride with me on the tube at the end, so for the last 30 minutes or so Cooper rode with me on the tube and tried to take a nap.  Someone needs to invent a DSLR camera that can go in the water, because there were so many times I wish I had MY camera!

Once we got off the river we loaded up the car (Russell and Gair had dropped one off earlier that morning) and headed back to the cabin.  We played, hung out, and heated up leftover pizza for dinner.  I have always babysat little girls, so it was fun to see little boys just be boys!  They are so different from little girls!

They loved to beat up and wrestle with Mr. Gary!

Russell, Betsy, and the boys had to head back home after dinner, but Gair and I decided to stay and just chill then head back early on Sunday.  I actually read some for my classes this week and then we watched the movie Grown Ups!  It was a very relaxing evening!

It was such a wonderful weekend, and I am not glad to be home with all this reading and school stuff I have to do :(  Well...I better get back to reading!

Have a Terrific Tuesday!

Every Dog Has It's Day

It was that time of year again, when people come from near and far to attend the annual Coon Dog Day in Saluda, NC.  Last year was the first year I had ever been to Coon Dog Day, and Mr. Heady informed me that this was the 21st year they had attended.

The Heady's have a mountain house in Saluda, NC, that is right on the Green River.  We went up Friday evening and enjoyed visiting with the family.  Saturday morning we got ready and went to the parade . . . which I don't even have words to describe.  The Coon Dog Day Parade is everything BUT what you would see at a normal parade.  Coon Dog Day put a whole different meaning to the word hillbillies!  Before the parade began we enjoyed walking around and looking at the different booths that were set up.  Many local and out of town people set up booths to sell all types of things . . . toys, art, photography, fudge, homemade ice cream, and many other neat things.  There was also a really cool acoustic mountain bluegrass band that played before the parade started.  When it was time for the parade, we all took our seats on our blanket to enjoy the parade.  It was very hot and one of the first floats in the parade had kids with -- what I thought was just water guns, I waved at them to squirt me (not realizing it was going to be an INTENSE spray) and he definitely got me . . . completely SOAKED me!  These were some pictures I took during the parade.  I would like to know what the qualifications were to enter into the parade?

 Of course I had to take pictures of my little model at the parade!  It was also Elliot's second year at Coon Dog Day!

As you can tell from the vast variety of pictures . . . this was a very interesting parade :)

 After the parade, we all went back to the Cabin on the Green and relaxed a little bit.  We sat down by the river and watched and laughed as people tubed by!

Gair and I decided to walk up to the river a little bit where the kayakers and some tubers put in.  When we were up there we saw these little creatures in the trees . . . .

These are some little rapids and rocks right next to the put it.

Since I was wanting to take pictures, Gair said that we could hike up the river about 10-15 minutes and that is where "The Narrows" are.  "The Narrows" is just like it sounds, a very narrow part of the river that goes between really big rocks.  You have to be a very skilled kayaker to paddle through "The Narrows."  So, Gair and I walked back to the house to see if anyone wanted to hike up there with us. Tay and Curt decided to join us!  As we were walking up . . . all of a sudden I felt an extreme sting on my left side . . . I don't think I have been stung by a bee since I was a kid so I didn't remember what it felt like . . . but that's what it was - some kind of bee stung me.  I still wanted to see "The Narrows" so I kept on going!  I am so glad that I did, because it was really neat and so beautiful!  It was really cool because when we got up there a group of kayakers were about to go through "The Narrows."

Gair and I walked over the big rocks so we could watch them paddle through.  Tay and Curt were behind us and while we were walking over the rocks we heard Curt scream, I couldn't exactly hear what he said, but I turned around and thankfully I had the camera in my hand because I was able to capture this . . . 

Curt had a feeling similar to mine . . . except his sting was up his britches :/ While Tay was trying to help Curt get the bee out of his pants, Gair and I were watching the kayakers go through "The Narrows."

This is where you have to come through.  You can see how narrow it actually is!  Not only is it narrow, it is also very steep!

 A little waterfall on the opposite side!

 Gair and I sitting on the rocks!

Even after the bee stings it was a great experience!  I can't wait to go back and see more of the beautiful Green River!