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saturday was a fun day.  we set our alarm early for saturday morning so we could crawl out of bed and head down town to the raleigh christmas parade.  strange, i know – a christmas parade in november.  the funny thing is that i was just telling will earlier in the week that i wanted to make sure we did not miss the raleigh parade since we were not aware of it last year.  then thursday night i turned on the news and the weather man announced that saturday was going to be a perfect day for the parade!  wowsie!  well, thankfully we caught it – early or not.

we arrived down town, gathered our mocha  latte, and headed into the crowd to find a cozy stance to watch the bands, balloons, floats, and animals parade down the street.   we found a pretty good spot in front of the wachovia building and settled in.  there was a myriad of different floats, a couple balloons, stunt artists, dance crews, collections of horses/tractors/harleys/cars, bands, and some amazing jump ropers.  we really had a good time watching all of this craziness going down the road.  after the parade we had to run some errands before we could gear up for the roller derby that evening.

around 4pm we headed back downtown to the dorton arena to watch our first roller derby.  i’ve been drawn to these bad asses for some time now.  there is just something amazing to me about these gals gearing up and laying it all out to skate their butts off.  we prepped for the event by going to see “whip it” a couple months ago and were ready by knowing the rules and what the point was before we got there.  one thing we later learned was that we could sit on the floor right beside the track.  we figured this out during the first part of the game, but the good spots were all taken, so we shuffled in behind some other people and kept inching forward as people moved, or got up to get a funnel cake.  next time, i will be there front row with my lawn chair – on the front line.  yeah, you run the risk of getting a skate to the face, but its a really intense game – and if you are gonna go you should make it the best.

we were a wee bit disappointed with the first match between the raleigh bootleggers and the alabama dixie derby allstars.   we got creamed by the dixie derby gals, and the moves were not so dramatic as we had hoped for.  however, the second match between the raleigh allstars and the pennsylvania steel city derby demons started out very similarly.  the first jammer to break out was for the pa team and she raked in a fast 25 points.  scary indeed.  however, it was not too long before the raleigh gals made a come back.  for a while the raleigh team was on top, and then we lost it again back to pa.  it bounced back and forth a couple times.  however, with 4 minutes left in the game the raleigh girls were down 20 points.  we thought we were in the crapper.  however, just when all hope was lost we made a come back, an amazing comeback.  everyone in the auditorium stood up and cheered as our girl “holly wanna crakya” kept breaking through time and time again.  then, with seconds to spare she scored the last series of points that pushed the score for the win – 144 to 143!  it was unbelievable!  everyone was going nuts!  after the game the raleigh roller girls do a spin by to give you a high five (sort of like you did when you played little league in elementary school), but i was super jazzed to be able to high five all of these kick ass skater chicks.  super cool.

after the roller derby we headed to five star down town for some dinner.  we’ve wanted to try it out for a while now, and had not found a good time to go, so we figured with all of the turkey coming up next week we should go ethnic for the dinner.  we really enjoyed the atmosphere and the food.  will definitely go back!

we definitely had an amazingly fun day!

this past weekend was a total downer.  sure we got to go to the park on saturday afternoon for an hour, but other than that we’ve been up to our eyeballs in tissues and tussin.

will thought for sure on saturday night that he had just a head cold, but by monday he figured he had h1n1.  we called the doctor to get him an appointment and they saw him on tuesday and confirmed (thankfully) that it was just a sinus infection.  these days we’re happy about sinus infections, so long as we do not get blessed with anything worse.  i was feeling fine until yesterday around 7pm, and then like a ton of bricks it hit me.  i felt terrible.  it seemed to have come in with the latest rain storm that was brewing up more mold spores in my back yard.  it seems we cannot escape this water logged feeling lately, and my allergies are living proof of the suffering.  today i am totally doped up on benadryl, mucinex, allegra, claratin, and vitamins.  i am a total advocate for vitamin water saving me everytime.  (thank goodness they make it now in reduced sugar versions.)

we were so bummed out for a sickly weekend because we had plans to go to newport news and meet caleb kaplan for the first time.  we have been dying to meet the new little guy, but were so nervous that we’d infect him with our toxic germs we had to remain at home.  i hate cancelling plans.  but what can you do?  we just hung around the house and tried to lay low.

with tissues stuck up our noses, will noticed that the christmas cactus that jen and daniel gave us last christmas was starting to bloom!  its really amazing since we are the WORST caregivers of plant life on this earth, and we’ve never had something hit the 1 year “happy birthday” to you plant time.  i snapped some shots to have printed proof that we can, if we try our best, keep a plant alive and well. 

amelia also wanted to share some pictures of us hanging out in the foyer on saturday afternoon.  she’s got mad jumping skills.  who needs air jordans?

it’s been raining since tuesday.  lots of rain.  raining hard.  even when you thought it was hardly raining, it was still coming down.   we were about to get moldy and turn into mushrooms.

then, finally – today it stopped, the sun came out and we were able to go outside.

glorious.

we took the doggies to the park and trotted them around.  they were in heaven.  they loved to check out where all of the other doggies had been and made sure to empty their bladders on every blade of grass.  when illy decided she needed to be picked up – we knew it was time to go home.

then, this evening we caught another amazing sunset!

A new park opened up right across capitol a few months back.  We drive past the park every time we’re headed down town and finally got a chance to stop by this past weekend.  The park is huge and has a ton of things to occupy everyone.  They have some historical landmarks, jungle gyms for the kids, large adult sized swings on walking trails, and an amphitheatre.  Husband and I walked the paths and got a good look at the steeple on the Baptist church down town.  I loved the view of the skyline with just the steeple visible from the hill top.

the sun rises and sets every day.  some days we are lucky enough to witness it.  some days it is so spectacular you just have to be thankful for the colors painted along the skyline, because even if you planned it out, you could not have created something so magical.  here was the view from our front porch last night.  thanks to lori, i caught it.

will and i were fortunate enough that he heard about discounted casting crowns tickets while rockin’ out to the radio last week, and was able to get us an awesome deal on some tickets to the concert at the RBC center.  i checked on-line for the tickets a few months back and saw they were about $70 each.  knowing that we did not have that kind of cashola to splurge on some concert tickets around the holidays i figured we would just have to catch the show next time they were in town.  then, when husband found the great deal, he surprised me with the ticket purchase!

casting crowns is husband’s all time favorite!  he turned me on to them about a year ago when he started heavily listening to christian radio on his car rides to and from work.  so many of their songs really have powerfull messages that hit you right in your spirit, right where you need it. 

the concert was everything we hoped it would be and really made the words of our favorite songs hit even closer to home. 

we wanted to share our favorite:

Praise You in This Storm
Words by Mark Hall/Music by Mark Hall & Bernie Herms

I was sure by now, God, that You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it’s still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
“I’m with you”
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.

Chorus

took the dogs out tonight and saw a wonderful moon rising.  it’s amazing to me how it can rise so quickly.  within 15 minutes the moon had gone from just above the horizon to far up in the eastern night sky.  just looking up and watching it makes you feel so small.

here are some photos that really don’t do it justice, but i had to share in the experience.

I felt terrible Thursday night and thought for sure I was coming down with the HINI.  I tried to sleep but couldn’t but I made sure to dose up on Vitamin C, Zinc, Echinacea, and called out sick for Friday.  I slept all most all of Friday, and actually felt a lot better on Saturday morning.  Thanks to 20 hours of sleep on Friday, we had a great Halloween!

Late Friday night, when I finally felt up to it, we carved our pumpkins.  Will was in charge of gut removal, and coming up with one face design.  I was charged with the actual carvings.   Both pumpkins turned out super cute, and we really had a lot of fun making them!  We woke up late on Saturday and Will made a delicious breakfast for us before we began our day of chores.  We had to get some things accomplished before we could party the night away!  We made peanut butter stuffed chocolate chip cookies for a party at Kathy’s house to watch “Paranormal Activity”.  The movie is supposed to be similar to the type of film we saw with the “Blair Witch Project”, under the guise that it is supposed to have “really” happened.  However, before we went to that party we were supposed to head across the street to Kevin’s for a neighborhood Halloween Party.  For that party we made little fudgey brownies covered in alternating orange and purple sprinkles.  We also had to run a few errands and clean up the kitchen from all of this cooking!

It was raining when we got up and I felt badly that the little kiddos were not going to have a very fun trick-or-treating night, but by around about 1pm the skies cleared up and made way for a perfect afternoon and evening.  By about 6pm we went ahead and lit our candles in our jack-o-lanterns so the little kids would know we were open for business.  we waited and waited, but it was not until about 7pm that we got the first surge of doorbell ringers.  The first few rings of the door bell resulted in doggie chaos madness where Will was trying to hunt down the dogs and scoop them up so they would not lunge at the kids as I passed out the candy.  Then we came up with a plan.  We leashed the doggies up so Will could hold the leashes and keep the doggies away from the children, while not keeping him, or the doggies locked up somewhere.  This way everyone got to participate.  Lots of kids came this year, but mostly in large groups.  There were lots of Transformers, Princesses, Kitties, Hannah Montanas, and Belly Dancers.  All of the kids were thankful and excited to be out trick-or-treating.  Even a  group of 3 4-year old Transformers told me “Trick-or-Treat, Smell my Feet, Give me Something Good to Eat!”  Too cute.  After trick-or-treating we packed up our gear and headed across the street to Kevin’s house.  Kevin and Paige had gone all out with a fire pit, chairs, tents, a slide show, drinks for kids and adults, hot dogs, chips, and desserts galore.  They even had a bunch of hay bales for the kiddos to search for candy in!  Everyone had a great time, and we got to catch up with a bunch of the neighbors.  After some time at this event we had to load up the car and head over to Kathy’s for the movie night.  We arrived at about 9:15 and pulled into the drive way.  As we made our way inside we were greeted by 2 serial killers, a grim reaper, and a vampire!  The kids had gotten back into their Halloween attire to put on a fright-night!  Thankfully I did not drop the plate of cookies!  After we made it inside we settled in for some corn dogs (Thanks Oprah), chips and dips, and desserts.  We filled our bellies and showed off our funny little costume.  Will was “DSDV”, my guitar hero, and I was his number 1 fan.  We took some pictures earlier in the night to show off the funny attire.  Everyone prepared for the movie.  We sat in anticipation as the movie dragged on and on.  There were a couple of creepy parts, but nothing to warrant all of the hype.  All of us were seriously let down by this one, but thankful we had not paid full ticket price to see it in the theatre!  It was late and we had a long drive back home, so after the movie we packed up and headed back  out.  We made it home and made sure to set the clocks back so we would not get up any earlier than we had to!  We needed all the sleep we could get after that long day!