You went WHERE in January???

Yup, Chad and I just got back from Niagara Falls! Random, huh? Well, here's how it happened....

About a year ago, we sat in on a sales presentation for a type of vacation club because they promised us a "free trip." We knew we wouldn't buy anything from them, but were just curious about the trip they were offering...so, we chose 3 destinations and several travel dates. Ultimately, though, the company we were dealing with had the final say about where and when...so, about 3 weeks ago, we got notification that we'd be going to Niagara Falls! ha!

It was cold, but we both were disappointed that there was no snow on the ground! It was nice, though, because we were maybe 2 of about 15 people in the whole town! We parked wherever we wanted, never waited to see the sights, and didn't have to "wait to be seated." It was great! BUT, by Wednesday...there was plenty of snow on the ground, it was absolutely beautiful!

After a 1/2 day in Niagara, the next day we drove to Toronto, Ontario to see the sights there. We went to the CN Tower, Casa Loma, and a Maple Leafs Hockey Game! It was awesome!!!

I've put some pictures on my new Picasa website. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but try and check it out! I'll put a few here too...

Just some pics

Last month Chad and I went on a short backpacking trip with his best friend Abe and his wife Bethany. We hiked about 15 miles or so in the Nantahala Basin and partially on the Appalachian Trail. The worst part was the rain. Thankfully it didn't rain too badly while we were hiking, but it poured both nights we were there...and Abe and Bethany's tent leaked really badly. They had great attitudes, though, and were rather chipper for being so incredibly soaked.






After living rather primitively for 3 days, we decided it was time for a little Georgia mountain wine and cheese. We found this little vineyard/winery, Tiger Mountain Winery, and stopped by for a little tasting.



Then, from there we had the ultimate post-backpacking meal at the Dillard House...never been? Like greasy, fattening, all-you-can-eat, country cooking? You should go!




Chad and some of his basketball buddies joined up for the Mud Run. It was really fun to watch...and they placed 96th out of more than 500 people! Wow!

It was really funny to see all of these people running around mud-soaked...you see, the mud was rather flesh colored, and I'm not sure you've ever taken a mud bath in your clothes or not, but the muddy water makes your clothes stick to you like glue...and everyone, after emerging from the previous mud-filled hole, looked, well, naked! It was so weird!!!

Adding a new blog

Yeah, so it's called "Money Saving Mom" but nowhere on the website does it say you must be a mom to enjoy reading this...so, I'm cool :) Great ideas!

Another wrecked cake

Okay, so I'm aware that if you like the cake wreck blog, you are probably reading it...but there are some wrecks that are entirely too funny and therefore need special attention...on my blog!

I find this to be hilarious (commentary by the cakewrecks.com blog poster):

Happy Falker Satherhood!
As with the infamous USB cake, some Wrecks cannot be fully appreciated until you know the story behind them. Fortunately, you guys looove to tell me your stories - some of which I've been hoarding to include in the upcoming Cake Wrecks book - and now I think it's high time to start featuring more of them.Ashley J. had two male coworkers each expecting a child, so the office decided to get them a cake. They wanted it to say, "Happy Fatherhood Shawn and Glenn." Instead, they got this:

to see the follow up video the wreck recipients took at the bakery, check out the website!

We waited ALL winter for some snow. We got threats of snow a couple of times, but somehow Upstate SC was missed....until February! It was really pretty crazy. Chad and I were at a small group meeting about 20 mins from our house...as well as several of our friends. It had been raining and raining for hours and as we sat in our meeting we anxiously awaited the snow.

After about an hour, we noticed the rain had finally turned to snow! Wooohoo! We continued to meet for about an hour longer and we piled into our respective cars to head home. BUT, in that one hour, the accumulation had piled up several inches on everything......and even the roads. Needless to say, our friends Honda couldn't make it up the hill in the neighborhood, so she parked her car at our friend's house and we started our Subaru taxi service!

Another friend was further ahead of us, stuck, with his 3 children in their Suburban. We met up with him, put his kids in our car (now there are 6 of us) as he tried his hand at negotiation the icy, snowy roads without his children. Later, we met up with him, dropped off his kids with him, and took our other friend home. What would normally have taken us 20 minutes...turned out to be a 2 hour drive. I LOVE OUR SUBARU!

This is one reason we love our neighborhood...the great kiddies everywhere! The two ladies belong to the Rutlands (2 doors down) and Carson is the 2nd of 4 Rogers kids that live across the street. The pasty one in the middle is Joe...he only lasted about as long as it took to take this picture, and soon after he was violently kicked down be the angels in this picture! ha!

I know I know...

I know I need to make a new post. I have so many pictures I need to post, I guess I've just been a little blog-lazy. I'll try to make it up to you!

I love all things ironic...

I think well-intentioned misspellings fall into that category...especially when the object that has been misspelled is for sale to the general public. This is why I think the Cake Wreck blog is so hilarious. So, for those of you that would prefer seeing pictures on my blog rather than going to the Wreck blog...here is a particularly amusing 'holiday' wreck on their site...

Our new lamp

This is a lantern Chad and I found at a junk store on our way hiking one day. I thought it looked so interesting, and thought it had some potential.

We looked it up on the internet and found out it was a carriage lamp for a horse drawn carriage. It probably housed a candle, or a kerosene lamp, but there's obvious marks that show where they tried to convert it to DC power. The rusted wires were still inside. So, we brainstormed about it and decided to try and get it back to its origin and turn it into a lamp. Then, it sat in our garage for a while, and I then moved it to the ledge in our kitchen.

Then, this past Saturday, Chad and I exchanged Christmas presents (b/c we'll be traveling with family for the next week and a half) and Chad gave me a couple of components, which at first, I had no idea what they were....and then I realized, he'd given me what we needed to make our lamp! hooray! So, here are some pictures of the process and finished product. We simply added a wooden base, the lamp mechanism, and a flicker light bulb. We had a little trouble at first...trying to route the original base and shape it to size. After that base broke, we made a trip to Hobby Lobby and bought some replacement parts and whipped the lamp together in a matter of a few minutes! The best part is, that we didn't have to compromise the lamp's original structure at all to make the new lamp!