Photo of the Day - Moonlight

2.7.12 - Photo of the Day

Moonlight on the Potomac River

Photo of the Day - A Transitioning Sky

2.3.12 - Photo of the Day

The evening sky over St. Clement's Island never ceases to amaze me.

Photo of the Day - Bumps in the Road

I stopped to take this photo while I was walking around the neighborhood this afternoon.  It made me think about all of this hardships going on not only in my life, but in the world as well.  No matter what kind of bumps in the road we encounter, they only make us stronger. :)


2.1.12 - Photo of the Day

Bumps in the Road.

Photo of the Day - Calm

1.31.12 - Photo of the Day

The end of the Point, on a calm evening. Can you see the Blue Heron?

Photo of the Day - Free as the Breeze

1.30.12 - Photo of the Day

 There is nothing like a brisk walk after being cooped up behind a desk all day on a Monday.

Photo of the Day - Quiet Morning

1.25.12 - Photo of the Day

The early morning sky over the cold, still Potomac River.

Photo of the Day - God's Brush

This past Sunday, my family lost one of its pillars.  My dear Great-Grandmother, Granny, passed away at the incredible age of 93.  Witty, loving, and full of spunk, Granny never changed in the 25 years I was lucky enough to spend with her.  It hit me really hard yesterday, realizing how much I will truly miss her. Granny's life was never easy, but you never heard her complain about it either.  To give you an idea of what a strong woman she was, here is just one example; She gave birth to nine children, the fourth being my grandmother who was a whopping 10lbs.

As far back as I can remember, Granny has been in the picture.  She was always tending to her plants and flowers, reorganizing her living spaces, going on her daily walks, laughing at stories from the past, and ALWAYS telling it like it was. Granny really was the picture of health, until about 5 years ago when she started battling problems with her pancreas. Doctors will tell you, there aren't many other illnesses as painful as pancreatitis.  She was strong, and even managed to fight through a staph infection, only to be overcome a year or so later with severe pancreas pain again.  As sad as I am to see my sweet Granny go, I take comfort in the fact that I know she is no longer in pain.  I love you Granny, and will miss you everyday!

1.18.12 - Photo of the Day

Blustery Bliss.

They say that the sky is God's canvas; Tonight he painted a beauty, welcoming Granny home.

Photo of the Day

It is finally starting to feel like winter around these parts.  The temperatures are dropping and the wind is whipping, just in time for us to go back to work.  Which I guess works out, since I'll be trapped inside at my desk the entire day, but will only make it that much more miserable in the morning when trying to make my way in to the office.

1.2.12 Photo of the Day

This photo comes from the beach in front of my house around 4pm this evening.  I used my 75-300mm lens to capture the cold waves gently reaching the shore.  No matter how cold it is outside, there is something so peaceful about sitting on the beach and listening to the water's steady flow.

As Promised

Here are some more pictures of our home all dressed up for Christmas! I love, love, love white lights, so what better way to decorate, right? Right.  Two years ago, Bubba popped the question to me on a cold winter evening on our pier, surrounded by glowing white lights.  It was so beautiful and I truly could not have pictured a better place for us to get engaged, than right there in our favorite place; home.  Anyway, ever since then, I've had an incredible affinity for the pier in lights, not to mention EVERYTHING looks a little classier with some mood lighting.

Merry Christmas, from our home to yours!

Christmas Time is Here

There is one song that always gets me in the mood for Christmas, no matter what, and that is the opening song that is sung and played during "A Charlie Brown Christmas."  You can hear it by clicking here.

I must admit, I've been ready for Christmas since about mid-November.  A little extreme, I know, but it's just such a wonderful time of year filled with love, family and friends.  Not to mention all of the delicious treats, beautiful decorations, and classic movies.

Last year we had a mild tree malfunction, basically boiling down to the fact that our big luscious tree had lost about 85% of it's needles by Christmas day. I blame it on Lowes and the poor selection of trees that had probably been cut since October.  Definitely not the fact that I had a live tree, under a heat vent, up and decorated the day after Thanksgiving...Nope, couldn't have been that.

Anyway, this year I decided to quell my early urges to pick out our live tree by putting up a small fake one in the kitchen.  Growing up, my mom always had two trees; A traditional tree and a pretty tree, as I liked to call it.  Always a sucker for something that shines, I've collected several different ornaments that do just that.  And with that, I give you my "Gold Tree":

I'm sure my sister is shuttering just by looking at this picture.  Not because she wouldn't think it looks nice, she just has an extreme, unreasonable fear and general hatred for anything gold.  I was only able to wait until the second week of December for our real tree.  Bubba and I finally had a free day to wonder around the Christmas tree farm in Charlotte and we found the perfect tree!  Ok, there actually isn't ANYTHING perfect about it, other than the fact that it's ours.  Out of all the trees they'd freshly cut, tall or short, fat or skinny, I just had to have one that was still rooted in the ground.  It met all of my criteria, it was a good 12 feet tall to compliment our cathedral style ceilings, it was skinny so it would easily fit through our old cottage doors, and it was already decked with decorations- there were still pine cones attached throughout it. I'm not so sure it met Bubba's criteria as it was super tall, equaling super expensive, the trunk curves like an 's' nearly the entire way up, and it still had pine cones attached throughout it.  Either way, once we got it home and decorated, we knew it was just right for us.  I like to think of it as our "old-school" tree:

The last is a somewhat stalkerish looking photo, but I thought it would be neat to get a picture of our old-time tree through our old-time windows in the front of the house.  I don't want to give away all of our Christmas cheer and excitement in one post, so this is it for now.  But stay tuned for some photos of our home and pier in lights, you won't be disappointed! And now for an unexpected dinner date with the hubs...

Eeek! 18, 19, 20 & 21

Uh oh...looks like I lost some serious ground on my countdown of thankfulness.  Let's see...Friday I was thankful for Electric Lizards; my go to drink at Cheeseburger in Paradise.  Bubba and I swung into the restaurant on our way home from work for a quick bite to eat and a delicious refreshment.  The Electric Lizard is my all time favorite!

Saturday I was thankful for my Uncle John.  He asked my sister, Marci, and I to play co-ed softball with him this fall and at times it was trying because we certainly weren't the best team in the league, but it ended up being a lot of fun.  Well, Saturday we had our "league banquet" which wasn't like your typical ball banquet, but it was still nice- a free meal is never bad, right?  Well, I am thankful for my Uncle John because he is always so much fun to be around and really made the evening enjoyable.

Swedish Engineering is what I was thankful for on Sunday.  Ok, maybe I should be a little more specific, Ikea is actually what I'm thankful for.  My mom and dad accompanied Bubba and I to Ikea on Saturday to help us pick out, and haul back down the road a new sofa.  And what an easy to put together and LOVELY sofa it is. We decided to go with the 2x2 sectional in a svanby gray.  It finally gives the living room a reflection of who Bubba and I are.  Style and comfort? Yes, please :)

Please excuse the insanely dark cell phone pictures of the couches...higher quality coming soon...

Finally, today I am thankful for my iPod.  I made myself run tonight since this 5K I just HAD to sign up for is right around the corner and I realized that I don't think I could do it without my iPod.  For some reason I develop a horrible case of ADD when I run and I get so bored.  The only thing I can focus on is how slow I'm moving...Well, with that said, my iPod allows me to sing along (in my head of course or I'd REALLY be struggling) and keep up a good pace as long as a slow song doesn't creep up on me.

Shew...that's a lot of thankfulness in one post!  Thanksgiving is just a few days away, so my heartfelt thanks will be coming up soon, I'm sure. Until then...

15. There's Still Time for You.

Today I am thankful for my husbands sense of humor and acceptance. After an incredibly long, hard day at work we met up with my parents and sister for a quick meal at the local Mexican Restaurant, Salsas.  (Salsas is something else I'm super thankful for, but I thought I'd look like a totally fatty if I dedicated a thankful post to just that...) Once we finally made it home, the fried ice cream must have gone to our heads.  And when I say "our" heads, I mean mine.  Play fighting is most definitely a learned behavior I got from my Dad.  For some reason, while we were growing up, we'd always pretend to box each other in the kitchen with light taps of course, but it drove my mother absolutely insane.  I'm not sure what came over me, but for some reason I put my dukes up and egged Bubba on.  It was either the sugar high or an extreme state of tired, I'm not sure which, but I turned into a straight goof.  I'll spare myself the embarrassing details, but I pretty much killed a half hour of our evening play fighting, laughing, and chasing him around the house.

When moments like this happen I always think to myself, "Thank God I found Bubba, because I'm not sure any other normal human being out there could tolerate me right now." He plays along, participates, and laughs.  He actually laughs and doesn't think I'm some major freak or geek. So thank you, Bubba, for accepting me and having such a great sense of humor. For this, I love you...and a couple other reasons.

14. Short and Sweet

I'm keeping it short tonight because I am exhausted!  Not only was it a long Monday at the office, but I signed up for a 5K on December 3rd so I've been pushing myself almost every evening to run.  I have to admit, trying to beat the sunset is a pretty good motivator to keep my rear-end moving!

On this 14th day of November, I am thankful that I made it through another day.  Sometimes you just have to be thankful that you are happy, healthy, employed, and have a roof over your head.  Life is good.  Now for some How I Met Your Mother reruns and Monday Night Football...

Day 6.

Thank God for Sundays, otherwise I'm not so sure my house would ever be clean.  Today, as a team, we tackled our weekly chores to the best of our abilities.  We power-washed the house (and our neighbors patio), cut the grass, hung some shelves in the bedroom, vacuumed, cleaned the hardwood floors, tackled a few loads of laundry, and then made our way to my parents house to help them with a few renovations they've been working on.  Today I am thankful for Sundays.

While I was moving the furniture off the porch so Bubba could get to the porch with the power-washer a rather large bird caught my eye at the end of our pier.  I'm used to have the hundreds of seagulls gawking at me in the mornings, but something seemed a little different about this bird.  So I grabbed my zoom lens and went to investigate.  Now I can't be positive, but I'm pretty sure what we had on our hands was a brown pelican. Please excuse the blown-out quality of the photos, but the angle of the sun made it hard to get a decent shot.  Oh, and did I mentioned there were two?  One larger bird at the end of our pier, and a smaller more reserved pelican that wasn't in the mood to move in any way, shape or form to the left of our pier.

Day FiveK.

Today, I am thankful that this is my treadmill:

Obviously not the water part, just the road.  I'm very thankful that I have such a peaceful neighborhood to run in.  For some ungodly reason my sister and I decided to run a 5K in December so I've been making myself run almost everyday in order to prepare for it.  Running typically pisses me off since I'm slow and just not one of those "running type people", but being surrounded by the serenity of Colton's Point always encourages me to keep going.

Fall Forever

I wish it could be Fall year round.  Ok, well maybe that is a bold statement, but I do love the season of Fall.  The weather starts to cool down, the leaves start changing, and the pumpkins start growing! Let the decorating being.

Found this lovely fall wreath at Lowes

This is the first time we've put a Fall display out in the front yard.  Not much, but still cute. A pair of mums, dried corn, a pumpkin and a gord, all atop of a hay bail with a Mr. & Mrs. Scarecrow and a cornstalk background. Festive :)

Oh, and for a few giggles...I put this display out yesterday evening.  When I came home from work this afternoon I found this:

I'm going to guess the tailless Squirrel who lives in our backyard is to blame...

The Rivah'

My dad has been connected to the water, more specifically the Potomac River (aka the 'Rivah') since he was born.  His parents worked the water together the majority of their lives, as well as the Morris relatives before them.  It's in their blood, it's what they do.  And it's what my dad did too, but times changed and it's nearly financially impossible to simply work the water today without an additional income, or two.

Having sold the boat he worked out of several years ago, he decided to get one made, that way it would be exactly what he wanted.  After several trips back and forth to the Eastern Shore, he finally got his dream boat: The Rose Marie.  Ok, well he hasn't painted a name on it yet, but I'm pretty sure that's what he's going to call it, in honor of his late mother and my grandmother, MawMaw.

He wants to get a cabin built on, but that is taking longer than he originally expected, so he hasn't take the boat out much at all this year. He has gone out a couple of times Oystering since he invested in some new tongs, also from the Eastern Shore, but no pleasure trips really. (Except for the photo above, that was the first time putting her in the water). So you can only imagine my excitement when he called me this weekend  and asked if I wanted to take a ride on the River to Cobb Island for some lunch.  Didn't. Think. Twice.

Our family LOVES the show "Swamp People"...I wonder if it has anything to do with the resemblance between Capt. Jeb and Capt. Troy...

A Weekend Off

I’m counting my blessings today.  It’s my CWS Friday, and I don’t have a single commitment this weekend. Thank God!  Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends and my family dearly, but sometimes you just need a weekend away from it all.

I slept in this morning and woke up to find that the weather was finally back to normal. Not too hot, not too cold, just perfect. Of course Bubba was out the door by 6:00am heading to Mechanicsville so I took advantage of the empty house and did something I only do behind closed doors.  I cranked up my iTunes, belted out a few of my newest downloads and started cleaning.  The mail lady sat outside the house for longer than usual while delivering my mail, I hope she couldn’t hear me…

Tyler and Allie (my brother and his girlfriend) are both celebrating birthday’s this week.  They are in Florida for school so I bought them some goodies and packaged them up with every intention of mailed them this week.  Work was so busy I didn’t get a chance to sneak out to the Post Office so I figured today would be the ideal time to send it. I hopped on my pink bike and rode up to Potomac Gardens (right next to the PO) only to find the metal window down and not a soul in sight.  Apparently in an attempt to save money, the PO is closed this entire weekend.  Sorry Ty and Al, but your bday gifts are going to be a little late!

Which brings me to where I am sitting right at this moment: The most peaceful and sunny spot I can think of, my front porch.  I can’t think of any other way to start off my relaxing and event free weekend than to be sitting right here, with the seagulls and butterflies.

I hope you all have a beautiful weekend! 

Look Around

It's a sad day when you can have something so beautiful blooming in your yard to let you know Fall is on it's way and you've been so busy you didn't even notice it!

Don't pay all the weeds and grown up grass any mind...

There will be light!

I'm trying to catch up on my blogging, and wanted to share this great find with everyone.  Last week during my lunch break, Bub and I wandered over to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store.  We like to browse around in there every so often, but this time we went with a project in mind:  My new workshop!

If you didn't know, my mom, sister and I have started a business and Etsy shop called, Point Breeze Cottage where we sell all kinds of ReFabulous items.  Basically we are giving old pieces or furniture and decor a fresh new look or use and voila, it's ReFabulous!

Anyway, we found this sweet chandelier, in working condition, for only $20.  Since my new "workshop" is only about a 1/4 of the garage, this pretty puppy will provide plenty of much needed light.  I can't wait to get a new color of paint on this thing and hang it up.  Oh and it might help to have the walls put up, finish painting the existing cinder blocks, assemble a few shelves and move in all of our projects, supplies and furniture.  Regardless, I am still pretty pumped about this chandelier!