Work, Work, Work...

I've neglected my writings about my daughter and our lives. I've been a little busy...

A full-time job, a full-time mommy and what's becoming a part-time job on the side keeps me moving and shaking (and tired), but I like busy. And while I struggle daily to find that balance to keep everything flowing as it should and have none neglected - first and foremost my family - the one thing that has been knocked to the bottom of that priority list is this blog. I would like to write more, but oh, I have work to do...

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So What Do You Do with Your Shredded Paper?

Georgia and I? We throw our shredded paper on the floor, roll around in it, throw it in the air and run circles in it... that's what we do with it.

There are moments in life when I get to see pure bliss on my daughter's face, and oh how I love those moments. Today was one of those moments, all thanks to some paper meant for the trash.



Who would've thought a little bit of paper thrown on the floor could bring so much laughter.

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A Happy 4th and First Fireworks

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

We started our celebration of America's birthday with a parade in the small community we live in right now.

Americana at its best!

Then why not a few hot dogs and a picnic by the lake? We're going for the full gut-busting, Norman Rockwellesque American day here.



Of course, these days that American day would include work, and that's exactly where I got to go in the afternoon. Yeah me! That means I missed out on a first in Georgia's life - a thought which still has me pretty pissed off and hating my job right now. I missed her first fireworks show. Her daddy tells me she had a great time, although she did need her headphones on to accomplish that, and that she kept saying, "that's neat," when the fireworks exploded above the river. I wish I had seen it.

But I did get the next best thing, I guess. Before the hubby and daughter left for the show, I got to come home on my dinner break and set off a few little sparks of our own.



I'll take it, but I hope next year I get a bigger bang out of the 4th. I hope you all enjoyed your Independence Day.

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Do We Have a New Home?!?!?

After almost one year of living here and months of house hunting, we finally put an offer in on a home!! The inspection was this week and went great - only a few minor issues - and now we are just filling out a lot of paperwork and signing page after page after page after page...

Hopefully, on July 18th, this will be ours:

Dare I mention we could already be moved in and well-settled in this home? It was one of the homes in the very first showing we had with our realtor months ago. We loved everything about it except wanted something with one more room for a dedicated office. It never appeared - or when it did, there were issues we couldn't overlook. So this home stayed at the top of our list, and like I knew would happen, we finally just got tired of looking and waiting. So who cares that my spare bedroom and office will share a room? I'll only have guests a few times a year anyway.

This house had one of the best backyards and screened-in porches. I can't wait to enjoy them both!

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Splishing and a Splashing!

What's summer without a little fun in the backyard pool? No, no, sadly not a real pool... but still there's fun to be had!

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Chicken Necks on a String

This past weekend, we gave a go of another pastime in our new hometown - we went crabbing! The Pamlico Sound here is full of Atlantic Blue Crabs, and we were out to catch our fair share. And how do you catch said blue crabs you might ask? Well, you skewer some chicken necks to a rig at the end of a string. And then you toss it in the water and wait for a tug.

I feared my camera would take a swim if I took it with me, but here's a quick cell phone pic:

You pull your bait back to the dock slowly and then scoop up the crab with a net. Our very first try netted us a big 8-inch crab!



Our second try got us this little guy, right at the minimum of 5-inches.



The rest of our afternoon, a whole lot of nothing on our line but a whole lot of fun for the three of us. Honestly, we had a blast!

And you know what happens when you put a big crab in the same cooler as a much smaller crab? Big crab kills small crab - yep - put his claw right through the poor guy's shell.



What's worse... you can't eat these guys once they're dead because they release toxins into their system, so the fish in the canal behind our house got to enjoy him.

But we got to cook up the big guy and watching my hubby try to get him out of the cooler and into the pot was worth every ounce of sweat I exuded that afternoon.



Now, I think we would have gone crabbing again before tasting this critter, just because it was so much fun, but after tasting him - we will definitely go again! Delish!!! I am really starting to love our new home more and more.

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Look at Her!

No matter how many times I say it or think it, I will never know when I turned around and my baby grew up. I'm saying this... and she's not even three yet! That means I can't begin to imagine how many more times I'll say this or think this in my lifetime.

But look at this! My baby has gone from incoherent scribbles to trying her darndest to stay between the lines - and for the most part - succeeding.

(now just to clarify, I colored the flower, but Georgia colored the body and wings of that butterfly. How awesome is that?)

She's going to be graduating from Harvard before I know it!

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