Check it out....

I got to see our new place to live today and I have to say, my hubs did GOOD! To tell the short version of the story, when we were looking for a place to live up here, we started searching apartment places. We then looked on craigslist and found this jewel... a guy our age bought it to make an investment.. it's actually a condo, privately owned by this guy. The price was incredible and I was almost skeptical. So, Kevin headed up the next day (after contacting the owner) to see it. I would have gone with him, except it was our last day of VBS at the church and there was basically no way I could have gone.

SO, I had to TRUST my hubs to check it out, ask all the important questions and then we made a decision (WITHOUT me seeing it in person, just pics the owner had posted) whether or not to take it. We decided yes, and I'm so glad we did! Not only is it a really great space, it's in a fabulous location as well. It will literally take K about 2 minutes to get to his work and it's about 1 mile from the interstate, which can get you anywhere pretty quickly (if you don't get confused about the new I40 as compared to the old I40... another story for another day.) Anyway, I can't wait to get moved in and get "settled." The only problem with it: it doesn't come with my SIL and her family! Ha ha! We have officially gone into "Mercy and Gini withdrawal!" Poor little Stone has been asking for Mercy ALL day today... and then he started naming off his little friends from church and his teacher, Ms. Sybil... agh... that's killing me!

So, here's a little tour....

Here's what you see when you walk in... love the fireplace and window!!

This is slightly to the left of the above picture... the dining area and door to the patio.

The kitchen.... love all the cabinets!

Our little hallway to our bedrooms. Our bedroom is the one straight ahead.. we have a bathroom inside our room along with a walk in closet. Stone's room is to the right and his bathroom/guest bathroom is the door on the left. It also has it's own little laundry room, which is on the left, the first door that is basically cut off.
Stone's room!

Our room...
Stone also seemed to like the place... especially the fact that he has some room to run and the hardwood floors provide a great surface for racing his cars/trains/trucks!

So, who wants to come visit us first??!!

I met N.D.'s in-laws the other day.....

....and found out that he's a pretty decent guy. For those of you who are wondering who N.D. is, I abbreviated since I didn't want to get googled! It stands for N*apoleon D*ynamite. Yeah, that's right... the guy who played that character in the movie... his in-laws are staying at our hotel.. in fact, his father-in-law also works at the same company where Kevin works and is one of the VP's. Small world? Interesting world I guess. (To Gini, my SIL, you'll have to tell your hubs to read this post.)

The way all this came up: I think I already mentioned that we made friends with another couple who have been staying here for over a month and about to move into their house. They also relocated here after Heath (the husband) got laid off and now he also works at Kevin's company. Kevin met Heath and his wife Sommer and daughter Alex before Stone and I got up here. When we got here and met them, Sommer and I kind of hit it off and we started hanging out. Well, Sommer and Bonnie (N.D's MIL) had also become fast friends before we hit the scene. So, last week, we all met. The hotel not only provides breakfast daily, but every Wednesday night, they have a cookout of hot dogs and hamburgers for any of the hotel guests who want to eat it. Free food... so of course, we partake. Well, Sommer and Heath had gotten to the dining area first, pulled 2 tables together and invited us, along with Bonnie and Randy to all eat together. We sat there chatting about this and that and somehow, the conversation about Bonnie's son-in-law who played the character N.D. came up. At first, I thought I was hearing things, so I had her clarify, but yeah, that's her son-in-law. She and her husband are super nice and started talking about John (N.D's real name) and how he wouldn't play roles/characters that were nasty or vulgar due to his beliefs. I believe they are all mormon, and Sommer is checking out the mormon faith as well, which is another whole post in and of itself. Anyway, since I had nothing else to post about at this point in time, thought I'd tell this short tale.

If you're a fan of the movie, or at least thought it was funny in it's own demented way, here's a few interesting facts: The original movie was only about 10 minutes long and was a school project for John and one of his friends. Then, somehow (can't remember these exact details), a movie company picked it up and only gave them about $40,000 to make a longer version. They made the movie and it won at the Sundance Film Festival. Who would have guessed that? Then another, bigger, company picked it up and released it nation-wide, which is how it got so popular and made all the money once the word got out and it grew in popularity amongst younger folks mainly. However, the unfortunate part was that when this bigger company picked it up, John and his friend had to sign over the rights and release it to them, which meant they didn't get any of the royalties or any of the millions it made from the movie itself or merchandise. Bummer huh!!??

On anther note, I have been taking pictures of the hotel and our activities since arriving, but I lost those pictures with the other pictures lost (see post below). Then, the memory card started working again, so I experimented again and started taking some more pictures. Tried to download them, didn't work again. SO, I broke down and used the new memory card and will hopefully have some fun pictures to post soon of our "suite life" here in the residence inn. Toodles.

:( I'm so mad!! (and other updates)

OKAY... I'M TYPING THIS SECTION IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I'M SEETHING, AND HAVE BEEN SINCE YESTERDAY WHEN I DISCOVERED THAT I LOST ALL MY PICTURES FROM THE JULY 4TH WEEKEND. YEP, THAT'S RIGHT, ALL OF THEM (which was about 130 or so).

We're not sure exactly what happened. I could have sworn I had downloaded the pictures, as I normally do, and was going to post them here and send some to my folks. When I went to look for them, couldn't find them. So, I tried looking on the camera's memory disk. That's when I discovered that the disk was BLANK... somehow, it got corrupted. I will have to say, though, that thankfully, it was just pictures from the 4th (although there were quite a few) and not ALL of the pictures that were on there. I did have some cute ones of Stone and Mercy, and Stone and Nate (both his older cousins) along with some of my family, swimming, them watching the fireworks, and my Aunt Becky who lives in FL who we got to see as she and her husband came up for the motorcycle thingy going on. So, as you can see, and as most of you know, I love pictures and am quite distressed over this. We have searched and searched on my hard drive to no avail. So, I will try to get over it, but it may take a while. :(

Next on the update: We got Stone back tonight! He went for a weekend visit back to Greenville to spend some time with his grandparents and to be present at his Cousin Mercy's birthday party. From the pics on my SIL's website, looks like M and Stone had a great time. Click HERE if you want to see them... So, he had a great time (according to reports from my MIL) and I think I missed him more than he missed us!! Ha!! But, he was super excited to see us both tonight and had a hard time settling down. But I didn't care, cause I missed him so much!

Interview update: The interview went well... at least I think so. It's always hard to tell, right? But I liked the people with whom I talked with and the pastor of the church. There's no expectation to have to join their church if I do get the job, but of course, we're welcome to go there if we choose. So, I'll keep everyone posted as to the outcome. As soon as the interview was over, I hopped in the car and drove to Charlotte to meet my MIL half-way to get Stone. We got back in time to put some pizzas in the oven and meet Kevin who got home late from work. He's feeling a little overwhelmed as the training part is already over. But, he still likes it and is trying to get into a groove with it.

And finally, had to post about this: I was trying to complete an application for the possibility of working at another local church as a preschool teacher or aide. I was happily filling out the information when I got to the section that said "Standards of Conduct." It had the normal stuff in it (as it's a church and Christian school) but then it had this line: "We have deemed social networking websites (example: My Space.com, U Tube.com, Blogger.com, etc.) as inappropriate to the purpose and mission of (School's name here.) Any staff member found with a website/blog or website/blog material will be in direct disobedience to this ruling and will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including immediate termination of employment." So, I figured that I shouldn't continue applying when I'm not about to give up my blog! Besides which, I don't see anything biblically wrong with having a blog. I wrote the administrator back and thanked him for his time and explained why I was not going to continue to apply. Interesting stuff! So, I will keep looking/applying for jobs and let the Lord be in control of all that. :)

Interview

If you think of me, please pray fo rme as I have an interview this Monday, July 14 at 1pm. Hopefully, it will be the only interview I have to have, as I'd really like this job possibility. It's for a Director of a week-day preschool program at a local Presbyterian church. The preschool is only half-day, which would be perfect for me and for Stone. So, I'll keep everyone posted as I find out things.

Picture Slideshow

If I could pick another career, it would be "professional photographer." Yes, I love it that much. No, I don't think I'm all that super great, but I do love it. I had a friend in Memphis who loved photography and she taught me lots and would help me practice. I actually took a class and then when I moved to Greenville, fell in love with a friend's photography talent. Anyhoo, whenever I get a chance to "practice" I take it. My SIL let me take black and white pics of her newest addition to her family. So, here are the shots... I could have taken more, but only had 1 roll of black and white film, and not much time. So, these are what I got... :)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Finally, a moment....

.....to catch up... well, lots have happened in a week and I have lots to post about, but it's not going to happen yet! But, I will say that all 3 of us are in Greensboro/High Point for the moment and I'm trying to get my bearings... one thing is for sure, I don't remember any of this stuff when I lived here in college. It has changed so much. We're settled in our hotel suite (we're a little spoiled having maid service every day, breakfast provided for us, and an indoor swimming pool at our disposal) and Stone seems to enjoy riding the elevator all the time and making friends with all the employees. We've also already met a couple of new employees and their families with New Breed (Kevin's company) and hope to continue making friends with them while they stay here and then afterwards of course.

Kevin continues training with his job and we've been to Uncle Rob's and Aunt Martha's a couple of times this week already (they live about 20-25 minutes from us). This is also where Gigi and Pop are staying for the time being, so Stone loves visits there! I guess I now need to find a job, now that I'm up here and have a little more time to look.

We still don't have all our stuff up here yet... that will come the first of August, as that's when our lease begins in our apartment we're renting. So, we still have another "move" to do, but for now, we can take some time to breath.

Will post more later along with lots of pics....