Sunset on the Albemarle Sound taken from Colington Island, New Years Eve 2007

Happy New Year to all !!

It has been a nice holiday season for myself and my family. Christmas eve was spent at my house with just me and my boys. We had a great dinner and exchanged gifts, we enjoyed some family time together. The boys spent Christmas day with their father so I went on up to Virginia Beach and had dinner with my niece and her kids (their dad is deployed overseas this year). Mom is down in New Orleans with my brother and his wife. She is havening a good time being spoiled and visiting the casinos.

This year the holidays have been kinda bitter sweet because if all goes according to plan next year I will be in the mountains. I debated weather or not to give the boys there Christmas stockings, the ones they have had their whole lives, and decided to hold on to them along with the ornaments they have made for me through the years. While I know that I want to move to the mountains, I feel so at peace there, I also know that come the holidays I will miss my family and friends here at the beach

Right now the dogs and I are just sitting around watching the rain, (the cat went outside, dumb cat) I guess that I need to start cleaning things up. I like to take my time taking down the holiday decoration and I hate taking the tree down its so pretty, but I need to pull the boxes back out from under the house eves and go ahead and store the wrapping paper and bows you know just get things started.

I hope all have had a good holiday season and are looking forward to the New Year, I know I have and am.

These photos do not do this gift to the folks of the Outer Banks justice.

I had a few of my niece’s kids down this week and we took a trip to the Poulos house to look at the Christmas lights. Mr. Poulos works hard on this every year and it is a real treat for the folks of the Outer Banks especially the small children.

I finally started wrapping Christmas presents. It has taken me a while to get into the spirit this year, I don’t know it just hasn’t felt like Christmas, but I have started watching my Christmas movies, you know the classics “Die Hard”, “Leathel Wepon”, “Christmas Vacation”, and “It’s a Wonderful Life” just to name a few, to get me in the mood and it seems to be working. I will be icing cakes tonight and delivering them tomorrow, that always make me feel good.

Well off to the wrapping paper and tape.

This is my dog Zeke lying on his blanket surrounded by his favorite toys at the foot of my chair near the computer. Now sad to say Zeke is not the sharpest tool in the shed and this morning while I was listening to a CPR video with the head phones on so as not to disturbed the #3 son Zeke started to emit a low growl. Well I looked up and peeked out the window just to make sure no one was coming up the steps and told him to be quiet, well not a minute latter he sat up and started to bark at me. It took a moment for me to figure it out but the dog had heard the instructor talking through the head phones and was freaking out. Trip the girl dog just looked up raised an eyebrow as to say “you dumb dog” and went back to sleep. Dogs ya gotta love em

photo of the boys and 1 girl paint ball Friday after Thanksgiving.

Its another nice day on the banks and I have been spending it just lazying around, surfing the net and catching up on some reading. The net is an interesting ride, I started out reading my e-mail then landed at the Delta airline web site, from there I went checking on some Jeep stuff, then to the writers strike and the price of oil, from there I cruised on over to info on the prime rate, then I found this interesting video while looking up Outer Banks real estate info. It has noting to do with real estate and I hope you smile and shake your head like I did.

YouTube - AppleIraq

Well as usual I have been keeping quite busy. The weather here on the Banks is just too good to stay in so between work and the great outdoors I just haven’t had time to blog.

The new house project is taking up a lot of time also and its amazing to me how much time getting nothing done can take. I’m chalking it up to the Holidays and am hoping that after the first of the year things will start moving again. Of course in all honesty my house building budget is very limited and I think builders look at it and laugh. I am looking into modular homes now and if that does not pan out I’m going to take my sons and a few of their friends up in June or July and just build the dam thing myself. All I want is a small cabin with 1 bedroom and a loft!!!! Cheese and crackers how hard can that be!!

Well I’m off I’ve caught the stomach flu. I seem to have peaks and valleys in the feeling good thing and right now and I seem to be heading to a valley. What a waste of a really nice day. :-)

It’s been a while since I have written in my blogg. It’s the 4^th of December, the end of the year and I can hardly believe it. November flew by. It’s hard to believe that just over a week ago was Thanksgiving and my family and I were together in Pennsylvania. In November I also took a short trip to Norfolk to visit my sister while she was visiting her daughter and grandchildren. In the beginning of November I took a quick trip to the mountains to get things started on the “build a mountain home” adventure. November was a travel month for me; I hope December becomes the stay at home month although on the 15th I do have to go to Norfolk, mom is flying to New Orleans to be with my brother and his wife and Christmas day will be spent in Norfolk with my niece and her kids.

Well it is promising to be a typical winter day here on the Outer Banks, I spent yesterday afternoon bringing the plants in preparation for the front that came through with strong winds and cool temperatures. This morning there is a stiff wind with temperatures in the 40’s. The skies are overcast but that promises to change. It should be a nice cool, windy day, a day perfect for curling up with a hot cup of coffee or tea and a long neglected magazine or two.