spring break on fripp!!!

My boys and Fripp...nothing better!  We had such a good time and this pix was taken on the last night of spring break.  We went to the beach to see the cross that they always put up the night before Easter.

Isn't it beautiful!  The skyline was breathtaking.  It reminded me of the verse in the song There Is A Green Hill Far Away that says, "There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin.  He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in."  

Well, this was our first night meal...shrimp night!!!  I took this picture for my friend Tina:)  She loves shrimp night on Fripp!  Honestly, it looks like a mess, but I have to admit it was the best shrimp night yet!

The before picture of the swing didn't come out so well...but it really needed to be cleaned.  We had to use Googone and it took forever but it was worth it...

...see...

This is the view from the guest room.  I am glad that we didn't get this hung until near the end of all the hard work because every time I sat in it I did not want to move...right Mammy!!

Well, before we were able to hang the swing poor Todd had to clean the ceiling boards...with bleach and water!  His shirt, shorts...you name it and it was bleached out.  He had bleach burns on his skin when he finished.  But...

...this is the result!  We have electric sources on both ends and someday we will have some ceiling fans.

In between working on spraying benches, cleaning the swing (and getting high from it might add) and helping Todd bleach the ceiling, I found time to do some weeding, trimming grass, planting flowers and laying pine needles.  I just hope that the deer don't eat my pretty flowers.  They didn't last year but we'll see...

We didn't work the whole vacation.  The guys went to Hilton Head to play the Berkley Hall course.  Troy and Evan were against Todd and Graham.  The stories that night were great and I am still confused on who won the traveling trophy?!*

The boys had a great time playing "pong" on the drive.  In this picture Graham didn't want his picture taken so he dove under the table when I came out of the door.

On the last night we went to the Boathouse to eat at the Marina. 

Yes, they just had to do it!  Too funny!

Evan had crab legs and ate them all!

This is one of the views out of the windows where we were eating.  I always love going to the Boathouse at sunset.  There are windows all the way around the room with ocean and marsh veiws.

Here are some after picutres of the final product.  

I added these tiles that are supposed to look like slate.  Todd wanted to protect the wooden floors.

These buckets are ready for some empty crab leg shells!

Thanks Tom for all of your help on this project.  Hopefully you and Karen can come down and enjoy it with us!

Time to pack up and head back to Indiana.  The next time we go to

Fripp it will be for FIVE weeks...yippie!!!!!!!!  Good times, good times!

happy birthday g!

Today is Graham's 15th birthday.  He went to school, had cupcakes in AP Eng (one of his friends baked them for him), went to the eye doctor and then on to tennis.  He wouldn't let me snap a picture so I had to get them when I could.  He was practicing his serve stance and then "snap!" he turned and I got him!  He broke a string at practice so he was in the process of cutting them out...hence the mess of string! Happy Birthday my sweet boy! You make us so proud and we are so blessed to be your parents...what a joy you are!  Love you buddy:)

busy weekend

My sweet precious poodle!  Last week for two days my Angel was in and out of seizures and awake the entire time.  After several phone calls and trips to the vet she has only had one seizure (this evening).  She is on a lot of meds, but hopefully the side effects will subside and she will be "normal" again. 

Meanwhile, Evan celebrated his 17th birthday and Graham celebrated his 15th (early). Evan went to a dance after we had a birthday dinner at Panda Express with Mammy, and spent the night with a friend on Friday night.  Graham had his friends spend the night on Saturday.  They went to Indy to play laser tag, played a lot of hoops (until midnight!) and hot tubbed it! 

As if that weren't enough excitement Todd, Tom, and I were busy making benches and re-purposing our old kitchen table (which was Todd's desk before it was our kit table) for our porch on Fripp!

In this picture Todd, Tom and Dale (one of Tom's connections) bent galvanized steel around the wooden table top.  They are loading things up to get ready for the next step.

This step involves cutting two holes in the top to sink galvanized buckets (seen below) in them.  The buckets will be there to throw crab legs and scraps into.  After they are full we'll just pick them up by the handle and dump the scraps in the trash.

These are the benches that Todd made last weekend.  After he sanded just a little bit more it was time to prime and paint!

But which "white" do I choose!

There's still time to decide...this is just the primer.  I will show you the final results after our trip next trip to Fripp!  What a beautiful weekend it was spent with a healthy doggie, good friends, family, awesome neighbors and weather!

happy b-day e!

Evan turned 17 Saturday!!!  He always brings in Spring:)  You know when your child likes the gift that he gets when he sleeps with it!  We are so proud of you Evan and have loved watching you grow into a man.  You are so loved and such a great son!

this and that

Todd and I got away for a few days over the weekend and headed to Fripp!  We really did have a purpose other than wanting to get out of the cold and leave the Christmas snow behind us...which by the way was all gone when we got home! Todd won a small trailer, on e-bay, to tote behind our Enclave when we travel.  Anyway, we went to Union SC on the way to Fripp to pick it up. While we were at Fripp we picked up the yard, cleaned the garage storage area because we were given a free ping pong table...sweet!, and went shopping for porch furniture...even sweeter!

We went to several places but ended up getting the Better Homes and Gardens set at Wal-Mart.  It is powder coated aluminum frames with all weather wicker backs.

I love the color and the covered ottoman.  We have several projects ahead of us.  I would like to hang a swing on the porch but it needs to be painted and we are going to use our old kitchen table out there but we have to put a galvanized steel over the top of the table and make some benches and paint.  I will post "before and afters" when all projects are finished.

One other thing that I did was plant some DEER RESISTANT (we'll see!) dwarf buford holly bushes and lay some pine needles, which people use for "mulch".  My parents are headed there in the morning and we are going back in two weeks for Spring Break...Woooo Hoooo!

winter sunset

Yesterday the sun came out for awhile and it did so again late this afternoon.  I was talking to Todd's mom and was telling her about the beautiful sunset out my back window and she said, "Get real! It's already dark here, what sunset!"  I hung up the phone and ran outside to snap some winter beauty.

It is getting darker here. When I was standing on the deck everything was so still ( and freezing) but I heard the geese on the water just livin' it up.  It sounded so neat. I wish that I could have endured the cold a little longer to listen to them more...but I'm wimpy like that!

Red at night a sailors delight...it should be a pretty day tomorrow, right God?  Unfortunately, the calm before the storm. We are to have bad weather at the end of the weekend.  Oh well, that's Indiana for ya!

sharing the sunshine!

Well we had a little sunshine around here for about 3 hours today...yippie!  I talked to my mom who lives about 15 miles from me and said, "Hasn't the sunshine and blue skies been great this afternoon?" and she replied, "What, what sun?!"  She hasn't had any all day...sorry mom.  So, I took some pictures for her to enjoy;) 

Who knew how much I missed seeing shadows!

The tree's silhouette on the pool.  You can see where some little critter has been walking on the cover.

Since the snow has kept me in I officially have all clothes (except the one's on our backs) clean!  Just ask anyone...this never happens!  I think that I may have worn my dryer out.  It is only 3 yrs old, but it is beyond repair so we are off to find another one...Lowe's here we come!

I wanted to show off the work that my handy-dandy neighbor Tom did for me two years ago.  He put up peg board so I could arrange and re-arrange all of my sweepers, swiffers, aprons, my grandma's ironing board (it needs a new cover bad!) etc.  Thanks Tom...you're the best!

Everyone should have a neighbor like Tom:)

'super-blue' monday!

Well, the colts didn't win the Superbowl but I wanted to share this super cute picture of my friend Cathy and her "kids"!  Also, thanks Tom and Karen for THE BEST Superbowl party yet!  The food was AWESOME!!!!  Maybe next year Colts!

snowy days and memories...

Don't you just LOVE snow days!!!!  I had to make chocolate chip cookies because it's not a snow day if you don't smell them baking and look forward to eating them:)  I used to make a dozen cookies every day at 12:30 (while Young and the Restless was coming on).  The boys would be taking their naps and this was what I looked forward to everyday...it was also my lunch! lol!  But, I was the best mom because the boys always knew that there were fresh cookies ready for them when they awoke from their naps:) It was a snack filled with lots of love...not the most nutritious, but love is better than carrots and celery any day!

Soooo, while the cookies were baking I went outside and took some pictures of all the snow that came through the night before.  It is so beautiful how it hangs on the trees.  The white woods behind us with the blue skies above is a picture only God could paint.

My beautiful arborvitaes are about a foot shorter with all of the snow on them.

This is a picture of the tree house that Todd made the boys 10 years ago when we first moved in.  It looks so cute snuggled by itself in the snowy woods.

Awww, how I wished that these were covered with sunshine and beach towels instead of snow!

Well, cookies are done!  I think that I'll eat the rest of the batter and save the cookies until the boys can share them with me.  Graham is at a tennis tournament and Evan is with his friend buying his clothes for an upcoming dance...hmmm, I miss nap time days:( Oh well, "batter up"! YUMM!!

happy birthday troy!

Happy Birthday to my dear brother!  Here he is at Christmas cleaning up my mom's kitchen.  He is a stickler for things to be clean!  I love you Troy and hope that the Colts can give you a victory for your day:)

a storm is brewing...

Here in Indiana we are to get 5-8 inches of snow today, but headed to Miami is a storm of Blue taking over...and I don't mean blue skies!  GO COLTS!!!!!!!!!1

happy birthday theresa!

Today is my sister-in-laws birthday!  I wish that we could celebrate with you:(  I hope that you had an awesome day, sweetie!