Merry/Happy

Beautiful SNOW

Jazmine's concert

Day trip to Biltmore

Thanksgiving at our daughter Amy's

Christmas Morning 2010

Our stockings are grocery bags and this year I got star balloons and wrote everyone's name on them....they turned out so cute!

Chesson Family

The Robinsons

Hello

So we are inbetween Christmas (Merry) and New Years (Happy), this is a good place to be...between merry and happy! hope you are both!


I "think" I might be able to uploard a couple of photos...we had a wonderful open house with tons of friends and family....did I take a picture???? nope


We had a wonderful Holiday season. 1)Thanksgiving at our daughter Amy's



2)Wonderful day-trip to Biltmore



3) Jazmine's winter concert



4) Christmas Bunco



5) Woody's concert





6) Our open house



7) Christmas eve day shopping, lunch and church at Hope



8) Christmas Day with family



9) BEAUTIFUL SNOW



Of course I cannot put the photos in order, but you get the idea....lots of good food, good fun, good memories.

Now, I have to figure out what we are going to do with all this "stuff" since we are not going on the road....157 boxes in storage is alot of UNPACKING!!!

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cathy

New Stuff

Hi all,
Since last I blogged on a regular basis I have acquired a new computer....HP netbook (xoxoxo) a new camera....and a new gadget called a Flip video recorder....they are great, but I am technically challenged as to how to integrate these into use with this new computer! Let me tell you, I have some awesome photos of our Chrismatized home....wish I could share....and I want to share a tour of Sarah and Eric's cozy cottage all finished and looking oh so charming...hopefully, they will be available in the near future.
So I am getting ready for a big open house here on the 23rd....should be tons of fun and I love to feed friends, so I am in my element. I have some vegetarian buddies and want to make sure I have enough meatless tasties to make them feel all warm and happy....not to mention all those carnivores in my acquaintance. Tomorrow is our daughter Amy's birthday and we have a surprise road trip planned.....more after the event!
Blog without photos = boring....sorry.
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cathy

OH MY....IT IS I

Ok, let's get it over with. Yes, I have been awol for a long while. Yes, I have been avoiding you. And NO, it is not your fault, you did nothing wrong and I am not mad....really.
1) I forgot my password and it was a hassle to get into my account....
2) I was bummed over not selling our home
3) I had nothing very interesting, informative or even remotely funny to share.
4) Big, boring changes going on that have to do with getting old, being old and living old.
5) Everybody else's blog seemed much "cooler" than mine and far more captivating
6) I was bored
7) I lost my direction
8) I also lost focus
9) I had put my life on hold and could not get the button that said "forward" to work
10) No motivation....zero....zip....nada
SO.....what's changed????
Well, since the house didn't sell and it looks like that will not be happening in the next few years....come on economy.....we have decided to dig in, do some upgrades that WE have wanted to do ourselves anyway and stick around here for a while....hey, this is a great place to live. We love our home, our kids, our church, our friends, our neighbors. We are so blessed, so staying here is no sacrifice.
Enough about me, how are you?
Here's hoping I will be better blogging in 2011
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cathy

Urban Pioneers/drat...no sound

Meet Sarah and Eric, our daughter and son-in-law. They are working very very hard in some very hot, humid summer weather to build a home! This is our first visit and we are so impressed by their hard work, talent and determination to make this happen!!! Eric has been in the construction business for many years and knows what he's doing, plus, he also knows others who are super talented...Sarah knows how to work very hard....we applaud them....TEAM CHESSON rocks.

This is my first try at uploading a video from my new Flip. the file is way huge....so sorry...need to figure out how to make it smaller????? taking forever to upload!

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cathy

Number 98

I pulled into the parking lot and found quite a few good spots. After parking and making sure I had my list, I headed for the door past a couple of friendly-looking ladies thanking me for coming out....when I pulled open the door, there were four friendly people, all intent upon....ME, I was the only one there, for a moment, then another "Cathy" walked up. Really, her name was Cathy too, how's that! After making sure I was who I said I was...all conducted in English, thankyouverymuch, I headed over to the kiosk, marked my ballot, fed it to the machine and realized that as of 1pm, I was number 98 voter for the entire day so far! I am so disapointed in YOU guys.
The good news is that the folks I voted for all won! The bad news is that so very few of the voters showed up. Can't think of another clever thing to say. So will say, God Bless America
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cathy

Get out and Vote

Dear ones,
Today is an election day in counties all over the USA. Small beans in the scheme of things one might say...I mean, how important is a seat on the school board???? HOW IMPORTANT! V-E-R-Y. Can I say it more clearly? With this election we can send a message to congress, we not only don't agree with how you're running our country, we will DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. We legally and morally have the authority to do this, so get your umbrella out and go vote (in the rain here in NC). Lots of good people have died so we can do this. Lots of good people sacrificed so we can do this. Lots of good people all over this world would love to be able to do this....we are blessed above all to have this liberty. Shame on all who decide to not participate. How dare you?
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cathy

Making a List!

Good Wednesday friends and family...(not that my family is not "friends"...)
We, Paul and I, have a dream/goal. A dream is something that your heart desires...a goal is the end of a process in which you obtain your dream. Is that clear? Maybe not. Well, a dream is something out there...a goal at the END OF A LIST OF "TO-DOS". One dream was to be debt-free and live on our AF retirement (check!). Another dream is to save all Paul's regular paycheck (check!). And the big dream is to head out to visit every single state in the lower 48 and include perhaps a side trip to Canada a couple of times and perhaps Mexico too...anyhow...a longgggggggggg road trip of at least a year, THEN, head to Europe and spend at least 6 months in Great Britian and the continent....now, here's where the list comes in....
1) get some things fixed up on our house to get ready to sell in January 2010.
a. get yard in shape
b. get ceilings repaired and painted
c. power-wash
d. new counter-tops in kitchen (maybe a new sink???)
2) begin packing/sorting/tossing our belongings with an eye on a long term storage situation. Ask ourselves, "is this something that we will be glad to see 2 years from now?"
3) make long range medical plans
a. Dr. appointments and a full year's worth of prescriptions
b. Dental procedures...and regular appointments
c. Eye exams and new glasses
d. Fiona's shots and such...
4) Make final decision on travel trailer to purchase...think Casita is our choice!
5) Buy Blackberries or IPhones, don't know which...
6) New laptop?
7) Flip thingy for videos
8) Begin a new blog for this adventure
9) Continue to live life normally as we have no idea when the house will actually sell since we have never been able to sell it before!!!

That's the list. That's the plan. That's our dream/goal
So far, we have 3 books on road trips and a nice gps, it's a beginning
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cathy