Mixed emotions . . .

YEA for Boston Red Sox!!!! In case you didn't know or don't follow baseball, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series last night over my Colorado Rockies. I was very excited about this year because two of my favorite teams made it. So, I wasn't going to be too disappointed no matter who won. :) Although, I would have preferred the series last a little longer AND for the Rockies to have won, I'm happy for my Sox. All this to say . . . baseball is officially over for this year. I'm looking forward to spring! :) Have a great week!!

Time's running out

As of right now, I only have about 3 more weeks here in North Carolina. As usual, contract negotiations are dragging their feet. :) So, I decided I should probably go & see some stuff on my "to do" list since I had today off. As surprising as it may seem, I headed to the Outer Banks this morning! (not surprised? huh) When my family was here earlier this month, we weren't able to go see the Wright Brothers' Memorial, so I decided to go today.

I'm sure I heard about the history of their famous flights back in at least one of my history classes, but it was one of those things I remembered for the test & forgot as I left that room! So, I learned - again - about their flights today. :)

This marker represents their 4th flight that day, the one that was recorded with the Smithsonian Institute. Something I thought was cool was that a piece of the original machine they used was taken to the moon. How sentimental of NASA!! :)

So, after walking around the memorial for a while, I started back towards the mainland to go to an aquarium. There's NOTHING (at least in my opinion) more relaxing than watching fish swim around. I used to sit & watch my big fish, Beauford, swim as a form of "study break" in college. . . fewer calories than the Moonpie/Sprite Circle K runs!! :) What better way to spend a few hours before another weekend at work, which can be a bit stressful at times?!?

I'm not sure if I've ever been to an aquarium this close to Halloween, so I don't know if this is a common practice, but this one decorated almost all of the fish tanks with skeletons, pumpkins, spider webs, etc. It was pretty cute!

Tiny Sea Horses around the skeleton

After this, I decided I should come on back to the real world (or as real as it gets when you work 3 days and play the other 4 every week!). :) I did see something fun on the drive home, though. I took a different back road coming home than I took this morning so I was in unfamiliar territory. Otherwise, I would have pulled off the road to try & capture it on my camera. With the rain & humidity this evening, there was some fog, but it wasn't down on the ground like it usually is in the morning. These were just little "clouds" of fog caught in some of the trees off in the distance. Talk about setting the mood for Halloween!! Thank goodness it was still daylight or it could have been a little creepy. :)

Great Quote!

Give me the ability to see good things

in unexpected places,

and talents in unexpected people.

And give me, O Lord,

the grace to tell them so.

-Written by an anonymous 17th century nun (Having a Mary Spirit, pg 231)

Howdy, Folks!

You guessed it, I went to the state fair this past weekend . . . just not the Texas one. :) Saturday, I went to the North Carolina State Fair. In spite of the lack of a ginormous cowboy greeting everyone with the phrase, "Howdy, folks!" it was a great fair! As I've mentioned before, I love fairs & festivals, so a state fair is the ultimate treat. I enjoy looking at all the displays, especially the arts & crafts people bring. One building (I think it was the hobbies & crafts building) had all kinds of projects people had done that were judged for the fair. One entire section was devoted to scrapbooking pages. I spent a lot of time looking over their pages in admiration & trying to get some ideas for when I get to scrapbook all of my travels. Two of the pages were on Washington, DC, so that was fun. :) Next to this section was a huge grouping of homemade cards. This was fun to see, too, since I've dabbled a little in making cards. I think my favorite was a Christmas card (shocking, I know). On the cover, it had a crab standing on a beach with the phrase, "Merry Christmas, from Sandy Claws." Pretty punny, but it made me laugh! :)

There was another section on gardens that was really pretty with lots of different water features.

Later in the day, I met up with one of my friends from here. We found the places with the free food samples - always a favorite. :) Never before have I seen a $5000 turkey, but I did that day! We went through the building with all the 4H or FFA champion animals, and there it was . . . the grand champion turkey. Now, not being a turkey expert, it looked like any other white turkey to me. And, as sacrilege as it might sound to the kid that raised it, I immediately thought of Thanksgiving! YUM!! :) One pin had a pig and about 10 adorable, round piglets. They were TOO cute! On the way out of there, we stopped to watch the goat judging, which is incredibly similar to dog judging. Some of them were really pretty. Who knew? It was kinda funny to watch these poor people trying to lead stubborn goats around a ring. After riding one insane, flippy ride - not really sure if I was upside down or right side up more on that one - we staggered over to the petting zoo. I thought I got a picture of a goat resting on top of a cow laying down, but I'm not exactly sure what happened. It was hilarious!

All in all, it was a great day. I was very impressed with the fair here! But, the next day, I realized how out of shape I've gotten since leaving the DC area. While there, I was used to walking around for hours on end while doing touristy stuff. Apparently, I've lost that because my legs were SORE on Sunday!! :) I did snap a quick picture of the leaves starting to change on Sunday before I headed home, though.

Now, how pretty is that?!? Trees like this one lined a good part of my drive home, which made it very enjoyable. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to seeing how pretty the trees get over the next few weeks!

A Clean Sweep

Well . . . The Colorado Rockies are going to the World Series!! Who would have thought it possible?!? :) I've liked this team pretty much since they were formed. My parents were out in CO for something back the year the team was formed and brought us all back T-shirts & shorts with the Rockies logo. I remember thinking - "How pretty, purple & black!" I've been to Coors' Field there in Denver a couple of times, and it is just gorgeous! I love watching the waterfall in outfield. We went one year on vacation while my favorite baseball player was still getting to play - Javy Lopez - for the Braves. We got to see a couple of games that year. I don't remember who won the games, but I do remember how cold it got at night . . . even in July!! :) Javy started spring training with the Rockies, but he went into retirement before the season actually started. How cool would that have been if he'd gotten to stay with the team as they went to the World Series?!? What a way to end your career! :) Oh well. I'm very happy for Todd Helton, who's been with the team since the beginning (I think). He must be on cloud 9!! VERY EXCITING! I can't wait to see who they get to play . . . Go Red Sox!!!! :)

Partying with the Poes!

North Carolina will NEVER be the same! :) My mom, dad, mema, and papa Joe flew into Raleigh this past Thursday for a 5 day visit. They came, they saw, they laughed. We had a wonderful visit and saw a lot of the state of NC. I think we're all ready for a vacation after this "vacation". I, for one, am tired and ready for a nap. :) Here's an overview (complete with pictures) of what we got to do:

Thursday:

I met up with them in Raleigh after they arrived and picked up their rental. We piled into one car and drove around Raleigh a little through the Historic Oakwood area. While doing this, we found an old cemetery, so we pulled in to see if there were any "Poe" headstones there. We knew that we had some relatives that lived in the area a LONG time ago. We also found the Confederate Army section of the cemetery. All the headstones had been replaced with marble ones like at Arlington Cemetery. There's one that was a Union soldier mistaken as a Confederate and buried here. OOPS!!

Friday:

After a full day of travel on Thursday, we got off to a later start on Friday. We went to a city about an hour south of here, New Bern, NC. By far, my mema's FAVORITE part of the trip! :) They're restoring the downtown area, and it's very nice. Pepsi, by the way, was invented by a pharmacist in New Bern.

We also visited a beautifully restored church downtown. They have a silver service for communion that was brought over with the 1st rector of the church when the settlers arrived. AND, they still bring it out to use on occasion! George Washington took communion off of this service.

After lunch at Captain Ratty's, a great seafood restaurant, we went to the Tryon Palace. This was the 1st capitol and governor's mansion in NC. It has some very nice gardens to walk through!

Saturday:

One of my patient's moms told me about a festival not far from here taking place this past weekend. Being a festival/fair lover, I suggested we go. :) It was The North Carolina Seafood Festival, and it only happens once a year. How lucky were they that it was during their visit?!? :) We got to see some great NC artists, hear some live bands, and eat some GREAT food. I was having so much fun looking at all the arts & crafts, I forgot to take any pictures of the festival! But, on the way home, we stopped at a Wendy's for an ice cream & potty break. Inside, they had a "wendy" cut out that we could get our pictures with . . . so we did!

Mom

Me

Mema (making a silly face) :)

The guys didn't want to "be Wendy". Go figure! :)

Sunday:

Sunday, we hung out in Greenville. We went to church, and then watched some football. My mema loves the NC Panthers - which makes her popular in this area! - so we all watched/napped through the Panthers game. I'm so glad they won, since it made for better moods all around! :) After the games, we went to a couple of local stores, and I got my mema addicted to Starbucks! I introduced her to the "mocha frapucinno," and she was immediately hooked. Everywhere else we went, she was watching for coffee shops and wondering if they might have a frapucinno. :) In our shopping, we three girls found cute straw hats and decided to form the "Vanilla Floppy Hat Girls Club", or the VFHG. We wore them Monday and took our pictures all over the Outer Banks with our hats on!

Monday:

The above picture is us waiting for the 1st of 2 ferry rides (my mom's dream come true - a day on the ferry!) we took while touring the Outer Banks. We went out to Ocracoke Island to see the lighthouse there. I had planned on taking everyone to the restaurant I went to last time I was there, but it was closed. So, we found an even better one, Captain Ben's (are you catching the theme in food, too?!?). :) After our tummies were full, we went to my favorite beach spot to collect shells and get our feet wet. Not paying much attention to the size of waves headed my way at one point, I got MUCH more than just my feet wet! :) I had gone on & on about how beautiful it was, and no one was disappointed after we got there! I just can't say enough about how pretty the beaches are!

Dad & Papa Joe on the beach

We caught the ferry to the next island and the next lighthouse.

Dad & Mom on the ferry boat

After seeing the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, we drove (& drove & drove!) up Cape Hatteras until we reached Bodie Island, the place of our 3rd & final lighthouse stop for the day. Cape Hatteras is a VERY, VERY LONG island!! By the time we finished with the Bodie Island Lighthouse, it was too late to get in the Wright Brothers' Museum.

Tuesday:

This morning, we went out to breakfast, they checked out of the hotel, and we had just a little more time to visit until they needed to head to the airport.

It's been a WONDERFUL 5 days, and I've thoroughly enjoyed having some family around! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. Let me just say, if you've never "partied with the poes" (pretty much any Poe), it's a lot of fun! Everyone should have the opportunity at least once in their life. Now, I'm off to take a little recuperating nap. :)

Ags win two ways

Here are the standings after today's games per ESPN:

Standings Conference Overall
Big 12 - South W-L W-L
Texas A&M 2-0 5-1
Oklahoma 1-1 5-1
Texas Tech 1-1 5-1
Oklahoma State 1-1 3-3
Texas 0-2 4-2
Baylor 0-2 3-3

Not only did we win again today, but t.u. lost (again)!! :) This put us as #1 in the Big 12 South. WHOOP!!!! Who knows how long this will last, so we MUST celebrate and enjoy our victories as they come. Gig'em!