THANKSGIVING

Sea World and Aquatica VACATION

We got back last night from our family vacation to Florida. We spent 3 days in Sea World and Aquatica the new water park beside Sea World. We celebrated Mark's 35 Bday and had a BLAST!! Here are a few of the pics!

Josiah Turns 2....

Birthday No. 2!!

Grandma Clary and Josiah

Jamie, Harrison, and Erin

SLACKING

Sorry I have been slacking on the blog thing lately. I will add some new pics! Also, if you live in Raleigh, mark your calendars for October 1-5th. My company, Unique World Trends will have a booth at the Raleigh Junior League SHOPPING SPREE. Come see me! Enjoy the latest pics...

APPLE PICKING IN MOUNT AIRY

New Merchandise

I am so excited about the new merchandise I just received for my business, Unique World Trends. It is all handmade from Vietnam, shipped to me directly from the artisans. Here is a preview for you with more to come. Let me know what you think, all input is GREATLY appreciated.

Olympics

YEAH for the Olympics, our favorite thing to watch on TV!! Mark and I's favorites so far are of course Shawn Johnson (gymnast, pictured) and Michael Phelps (swimming). We will be glued to the television every night cheering the USA on. It has also been fun watching the Chinese women compete in gymnastics, and they prove to be quite the threat to the USA girls. I look forward to seeing what will happen in the finals.

Quality Time

It is so hard to believe that our son will be 2 next month! WOW, time flies. It is so amazing to watch him grow and learn. His new favorite activities are coloring, and saying "on, off" while he switches the lights on and off ALL OVER the house.

Happy Fourth of July, God Bless the USA

We hope you all have a Happy Fourth. Remember to pray for the men and women serving overseas and for their family and friends they have left behind to serve. GOD BLESS THE USA...

I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!

I love everything about watching the Olympics. I get nervous for the people, cheer for them, cry when they win, cry when they lose, the works. So the past two days I have been watching the trials (Thank God for the rabbit ears given to us by our neighbors). Of course my two FAVORITE events are gymnastics and swimming since these are the sports I competed in growing up. The girls final gymnastic trial comes on tonight. I like all the girls, but my favorite so far is little Shawn Johnson. She is a little 4 foot 9, 16 year old POWERHOUSE and is one of the cutest girls I have ever seen. She looks like she could, (and I am sure she can), beat up anyone that crosses her, but she talks with this little mouse voice that is too cute. Her gymnastic ability in UNBELIEVABLE and I cannot wait to keep an eye on this one! I will get back to you on my favorites for swimming, I am watching diving today. I LOVE THE OLYMPICS! YEAH!!

Time Shares....Hmmmm

For Father's Day last weekend, Mark and I went to Myrtle Beach. Why Myrtle Beach? Well, for years Mark and I have been all about doing Time Share presentations in different areas to receive the free gifts. This particular vacation cost us $39.00 for a 2 night stay at the Hilton Resort in Myrtle. The room rate is typically $175-$200.00 a night. Also, since we went during a weekday, after hearing our 90 minute presentation they gave us a $50.00 Visa Card AND a FREE 3 night getaway! Good deal huh? The weather was beautiful and we stayed right on the ocean in an ocean view room. The Hilton has great ammenities (sp?), but I must say that the rooms are very similar to the Microtels...very small. None the less, the weekend was enjoyable (other than going to bed at 8pm since that is Josiah's bedtime and lights were out), AND they actually put us in the wrong HOTEL so they refunded our $39.00 fee AND gave us an extra $25.00 on our Visa gift card! Basically they PAID US to vacation! The company we did this through is Bluegreen travel if anyone is interested in going.

More Coffee Roasting..

Remember my blog about Mark and his new hobby, coffee roasting? Well, this weekend he decided to try to teach me to roast the beans. I like the idea, but do not sit still enough to turn this roaster for 15 minutes. It was nice of him to include me in his hobby though...now if I could get him to LOVE fishing like me, that would be nice.

AHHH..Summertime!

We headed back to Wilmington this weekend for a party for my business and for playtime, of course!

AWESOME QUOTE

"The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing; but in our culture, we apply for a curse and reject blessings. Something is wrong with this picture." ~ Doug Phillips

Memorial Day

Mark and I spent our Memorial Day weekend in Wilmington just relaxing and spending time with family. Our sister in law, Amy, is an artist and she was a part of an Art Festival in downtown Wilmington, so we got some great shots of the area. Downtown Wilmington is a huge, historic tourist spot and the scenery is beautiful. It is on the riverfront and there are several historic churches and buildings in the area. We also visited the beach (of course) and spotted the 10 foot alligator (in the picture below), sunbathing at Greenfield Lake. That was quite exciting! Anyways, enjoy the pics!

Feeding the Geese at the park.

Here is our "little" alligator friend we spotted on the back of Greenfield Lake.