Zoo Trip

Mom and I took the kids to the zoo today. We got there around 11:30. There were a lot of people there. Which surprised us, though with it being Spring Break I reckon we shouldn't have been too surprised.

After a couple hours of walking and looking at animals, we reached the halfway point and decided to eat. However when we got inside the restaurant, it was packed and the line was very long. We probably would've had to have waited an hour before placing our order. So we left and walked the rest of the zoo. There was a cafe near the Africa entrance/exit, and at first we were going to eat there, but then we decided to leave and eat somewhere outside the zoo, figuring the food in the zoo is probably overpriced.

We took the shuttle back to the North America parking lot where we'd parked and within minutes of getting back on the road, Sean was asleep. Kelly fell asleep a bit later.

We went to La Hacienda for lunch/supper. It was Mom's first time eating there. We all enjoyed our food.

I expect I'll be falling asleep on the couch once I get off the computer. I enjoyed the walking, but we did do a lot of it and I'm pretty tired. It probably doesn't help that I only slept 5½ hours last night.

A seal.

Bison.

Sean.

Kelly.

Tidbits of a Lovely Spring Day

It's 69° outside and the sun is shining. So nice to see after a couple days of chilly rain. Most people would think it's warm out today. But with the breeze that's blowing, I'm chilly and wearing a sweater.

A dove was cooing nearby for several minutes. One of my favorite sounds.

My kids are playing outside with the neighbor kids a couple doors down.

I think I caught a whiff of horse manure a minute ago. That's always lovely. And there's the occasional braying of a donkey. The neighbors behind us have a horse, a couple donkeys, a few goats, guinea hens, and a peacock. Geese and ducks like to hang out back there too.

I have the windows up and my cats are loving sitting in the windows and lying on the floor in the sun.

The grass is getting quite tall. My brother is supposed to come cut it this week. I reckon I should text him to remind him, just in case. He doesn't have the best memory. Something he acknowledges and apologizes for.

Temperatures are supposed to continue to rise over the next few days. The local meteorologists are forecasting a high of 84° on Friday. And with Saturday forecasted to be 81°, it looks like we may finally have a beautiful Easter Sunday. The past few years it's been in the 50s and cloudy and/or rainy. Easter is supposed to be warm. I have many lovely memories of warm Easters spent in a pretty Easter dress, going to church, hunting eggs and eating Easter candy.

Facts About Me

Yes, I'm bored and can't think of anything else to write today.

1. I have a pink birthmark on my left brow bone. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.

2. I hate long hair on men and boys. Except for Legolas and other ancient and/or medieval hero types.

3. I don't like short hair on women. I hate it on girls.

4. I've never tasted alcohol (the smell alone nauseates me), nor have I tried drugs or cigarettes.

5. I can't swim or skate.

6. I've never been to a bar or night club. I have no desire to go.

7. I've never gotten a speeding ticket. So far.

8. I almost drowned when I was 2.

9. I almost died when I was 1½ (Rocky Mountain spotted tick fever) and again when I was 17 (stomach flu/dehydration).

10. I hate tattoos and piercings. But that doesn't mean I dislike people who have them.

11. I beat up a boy in my front yard when I was 10.

12. The only man I'm interested in seeing naked is my husband. I have crushes on a few male celebrities, but I don't think of them lustfully and I have no desire to see them without their clothes on. I know, I'm different.

13. And just so we're clear, I'm not interested in seeing any woman naked either. Not even myself.

14. My favorite color is green. Red is a close second.

15. I was a virgin when I got married. My husband is the only man I've ever wanted to sleep with. Literally and figuratively.

16. I hate vegetables. Other than potatoes, tomato sauces and black eyed peas. I've tried some (green beans, carrots, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, zuchini, squash, onions, celery, pickles, corn) and had to spit them out.

17. I'm very tender-hearted and cry easily.

18. When I told my then ob/gyn (he moved on to another practice) that I wanted 4 kids (Sean was less than a year old at the time) he told me that I could never have 4 kids because my body is "too fragile".

19. I became infertile a year or two after having my daughter because of PCOS. We had tried for a third child for a few years before I found out about my infertility and why. Thank God I was blessed with two before it was too late.

20. I got engaged the first time (sans ring) when I was 17. My boyfriend was 19. I told him I wouldn't marry him though until I was 25. He didn't like that very much. lol Then I ended up marrying my husband (not the same guy) less than two months before my 22nd birthday. He was about 2 months away from his 26th birthday.

21. I live with pain everyday, though I usually say nothing about it to anyone. There are people living with worse conditions/diseases and greater pain than I have.

22. I'm quite introverted and have a hard time making friends. I sometimes wonder if people think I'm stuck-up. I have low self-esteem and lack confidence, so that doesn't help things. I figure people will think I'm not pretty enough, thin enough (ha! I'm not thin at all *shakes fist at PCOS*), talented enough, tall enough or interesting enough to get to know.

23. I like to dance with my children in the kitchen while I'm cooking or doing dishes.

24. I've lost my dad and all four grandparents.

25. I love Italian food and can't go a week (or sometimes just a few days) without it.

Easter Shopping

Kelly and I went shopping for Easter clothes yesterday. (As well as grocery shopping.) It wasn't the best shopping weather - misty to drizzly rain, with a shower or two, and chilly temperatures. But we enjoyed it nevertheless.

I didn't have much money to shop with, but I think we found some nice things. I got Kelly's dress (seafoam green eyelet) at Belk for $34.80, marked down from $58. I got her shoes at Target for $16.99. She already has a shrug that still fits her and will hopefully look good with it. She hasn't tried them on together yet.


I got my dress at JCPenney, marked down from $70 to just under $35. I need to get a bolero or short-sleeved cardigan to wear over it, in black or light pink. I have a pair of black heels I can wear with the dress. I wasn't expecting to be able to get a dress for myself, so I was happily surprised when I found a dress I could afford.

Unlike this model, the dress goes below my knees.

Sean's shirt wasn't on sale, but I got what I could find that was reasonably priced. He'll wear it with his khaki pants, which he hasn't worn yet because he didn't have any brown dress shoes to wear with them. That's something I'll have to buy him on Friday. Hopefully I can find a pair for a good price. Preferably less than $30. I'd like to get him a tie to go with his shirt (I saw a yellow/gold one with blue on it that I liked), but I can't tie a tie. :-/


After getting Kelly's dress, but before doing the other shopping, we had an early supper at La Hacienda. It was after 4:00 and I hadn't eaten yet. I couldn't see waiting a couple more hours to eat as I was starving. This was only our fourth time at La Hacienda and our waiter already knows what we like. He came right out with my water and mild salsa and knew what we would be ordering. Though Kelly didn't get her usual chicken burrito and beef soft taco. Instead she got the beef soft taco, rice and beans. Kelly and I were impressed by his good memory. And, as usual, our food was very good. And cheap. :-)

When we were done shopping, we came home and watched some TV. Clash of the Titans came on, so we watched that (while eating grilled cheese sandwiches, and later chocolate chip cookies) after watching What Not to Wear and a couple things on HGTV. I hadn't seen Clash of the Titans in many years. My brother and I used to watch it all the time when we were kids. My dad had recorded it on VHS tape. We also had Star Wars, Krull and Hercules (starring Lou Ferrigno) on tape and watched them pretty much every week.

Kelly went to bed when the movie was done and I of course fell asleep on the couch for a few hours before going to bed. I've been doing laundry and a bit of cleaning today. Sean's in Fayetteville with Mom visiting family. Kelly's watching a movie (Tinker Bell) and coloring, but needs to do some cleaning of her own.

A Simple Life

"Hobbits have been living and farming in the four Farthings of the Shire for many hundreds of years. Quite content to ignore and be ignored by the world of the Big Folk — Middle-Earth being, after all, full of strange creatures beyond count. Hobbits must seem of little importance, being neither renowned as great warriors, nor counted among the very wise. In fact, it has been remarked by some that the Hobbits' only real passion is for food. A rather unfair observation, as we have also developed a keen interest in the brewing of ales, and the smoking of pipe-weed. But where our hearts truly lie is in peace and quiet, and good tilled earth. For all Hobbits share a love of things that grow. And yes, no doubt, to others our ways seem quaint. But today, of all days, it is brought home to me, it is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life."

Bilbo said this in the early part of the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He's writing it in a book on the day of his eleventy-first (111th) birthday.

But this blog entry isn't about Hobbits or Lord of the Rings. It's about something I thought about yesterday which brought the above quote to mind.

I was watching a program on UNC-TV called Cruising Carolina: Currituck, and the images of the sound (Currituck Sound), the beach, the sea oats, and the seeming near desertedness of the area (there were some old homes, and further inland, some small local grocery stores and such) were so beautiful and idyllic that I longed for such a life myself.

I imagined myself living in a beautiful, old home near the waters of the sound with gorgeous sunsets and sunrises, Banker ponies roaming around, peace and quiet and simplicity.

I imagined ignoring the outside world ("quite content to ignore and be ignored"), no more internet, no more cell phones, maybe even no more TV. (*gasp*)

I would walk a quiet path, chat with townsfolk, go seashelling, and take lots of photographs when I wasn't doing my usual household chores.

A part of me finds that kind of life very attractive. To get away from it all - permanently.

But then I'm also the type who enjoys having good shopping and restaurants close by. (Not that I get to do either all that often.) Would I be able to handle such a simple life? In my dreams, yes. But reality could be a different story. Though I suppose one never knows until one tries.

These days, a simple life seems more attractive than ever. Perhaps I was born too late. I'm an old-fashioned girl with old-fashioned values. There doesn't seem to be much room for that in this world anymore.

Email warning. Change your passwords! UPDATE

I received the wonderful news from friends that they were receiving spam from my Hotmail account. (Something about an Iphone.) Apparently some useless hacker got into my account. Grrr. Not only was spam sent out from my account, but all my sent emails from this year, all the emails in my Inbox and my entire list of contacts was deleted.

I changed the passwords for my Hotmail account, as well as my blog. I don't know if anyone ever hacks into blogs. It wouldn't surprise me. I love my little blog and I'd hate it if someone hijacked it.

I thought my password was too difficult for anyone to ever figure out. (I guess that's what happened.) It was pretty much an unknown word to most people outside of NC. And even people in NC probably never would've thought of it even if they have heard of it. I had been using that same password for 11 years without incident. *sigh*

I also did a spyware scan, a virus scan and ran Ccleaner. No spyware, malware or viruses were found, thank God. Which hopefully means the hacker only got into my email and didn't get into the guts of my actual computer. I've had my share of viruses over the years, even with protection, and cleaning it out is no fun. I'm sure many of y'all know about that. It takes so long to clean out a bad infestation.

I hope my email account is fixed and safe now.

If you have a Hotmail account, change your password (make sure it's strong!) and your secret question. Be sure and list an alternate email. If you can't get into your account, support will need another email at which to contact you. If you can get them to respond. :-/ While you're at it, you may as well change your passwords at other email accounts, your blog, Facebook, etc. Better safe than sorry.

Some have said that there's a virus going around at Facebook, I believe either through an application or a YouTube video. Don't click on anything, no matter who it's from. I don't know what the YouTube video is of, but I don't recall looking at one at Facebook anytime recently.

I hope none of y'all have to deal with this. It stinks.

***edited in***

Apparently I spoke too soon about my computer not being affected. I decided to run AVG (I'd already run a-squared and it found nothing) and it's found a trojan virus. *sigh* Hopefully it won't be difficult to get rid of.

***new update***

AVG's forum says it's probably a false positive. I hope so.

Sean update. Kelly's dr visit. Park photos.

Sean's foot was feeling better over the weekend, but by Monday afternoon he was limping and hurting again. I called and made an appointment for him at the orthopaedic's office for 3:50 the next afternoon. I got Sean out of school early (a couple hours before his appointment, since he was hobbling around) and after Kelly got out, we went on to the doctor's office.

They took x-rays and couldn't see a break. The doctor said either it's too small a break to see or he sprained it. (The part of the foot he hurt is the top/front part near where it bends between the foot and the leg.) He was fitted with a special boot and we were out around 4:30.

We went to La Hacienda for supper, then to Food Lion to pick up milk and cereal, before coming home.

Wednesday was Kelly's physical. Her doctor said she looks very, very good. Her height (52 3/4 in.) and weight (67 lbs.) go together "perfectly". She passed her hearing test, but we may have to keep an eye on her vision. Her right eye is 20/25 and her left eye is 20/30. The doctor said it could just be that she's growing (I don't remember how he put it) or she could've just been having an off day - maybe her eyes were dry. But since I had to get glasses when I was 11 (Kelly's 10), there is a chance that she too could develop vision problems.

After leaving the doctor's office and getting Sean from Mom's, we came home and I made a quick supper. I then helped Sean with his school project (another one!), which he actually didn't finish until before school this morning because he "hated" doing it and kept sitting around not writing. Very frustrating. But he got it done.

Kelly and I went to the park after she got out of school today. I wish Sean could've been with us, but with his sore foot and his boot, he wouldn't be able to do anything except sit on a bench. Instead Mom got him from school and he played video games at her house.

We walked one of the trails for awhile and then Kelly played on the playground some. Naturally I took pictures. I look forward to the trees blooming and blossoming and turning green again. Some are beginning to bud.

You can see my red car on the other side of the lake.

Cute duck. Kelly said he (or she) sounded like he was laughing.

Follow the leader. While on land, one of these geese sort of went after the duck. Then they followed him into the water, but didn't go after him.

Anyone know what kind of tree this is? I'm thinking a rose tree of some kind, but I'm not sure.

I picked a flower from the tree and Kelly put it in a bowl when we got home.

Daffodils near the playground.

When we got home I made arroz con pollo. I had never made it before and it turned out so good. We loved it. I'll definitely be making it again.

Pictures of more of our flowers:

Daffodils

Hyacinth, I think.

Favorite Vacation Pictures

Of the vacation pictures I have uploaded to my computer, these are my favorites. This will be a long entry, but it will be mostly pictures. We didn't get our digital camera until after our vacation in 2005, so these will start with 2006.

June 2006

Sean (age 9) on the balcony of our hotel room in Topsail Beach, NC.

Cockscomb at the Ft. Fisher Aquarium in Ft. Fisher, NC.

Reeds at Ft. Fisher Aquarium.

Sago Palm at Ft. Fisher Aquarium.

Kelly (age 6) on a train at the Railroad Museum in Wilmington, NC.

Sean (age 9) on the same train, other side.

Fixin' to go on a boat tour of the sound.

In a "beaver dam" at the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science in Wilmington.

Kennan Fountain in downtown Wilmington.

Bellamy Mansion in downtown Wilmington.

Fixin' to go fishin' with Daddy.

Topsail Beach, NC.

June 2007

Kelly (age 7) crossing the bridge from the Elizabeth II on Roanoke Island, NC.

Sean (age 10) on the same bridge.

Hydrangea at the Roanoke Island Festival Park , outside the museum, in Manteo.

Bodie (pronounced "body") Island Lighthouse on the Outer Banks.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the Outer Banks.

Taken from our hotel room balcony in Kill Devil Hills, NC.

The Whalehead Club in Corolla (cuh-RAH-luh), the Outer Banks. That's an osprey nest on the far left chimney.

Kelly throwing rocks into Currituck Sound in Corolla at the Whalehead Club.

Currituck Lighthouse and the Whalehead Club boathouse in Corolla.

Sean on the footbridge near the Whalehead Club. Currituck Sound behind him.

Trees at the end of the footbridge.

Watching a man catching crabs.


At the Roanoke Island Aquarium. We like the one in Ft. Fisher best.

At the Roanoke Island Aquarium. Possibly Croatan Sound behind him, and Manns Harbor Bridge in the distance.

Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse in Manteo, NC.

The Elizabeth II in Manteo. Taken from the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse.

Jockey's Ridge, Outer Banks. Tallest sand dune on the east coast.

Feeding the seagulls while waiting for the ferry to come that would take us from Ft. Fisher to Southport.

Peeping into the car.

Seagulls, aka Laughing Gulls. I love the way they sound.

On the ferry to Southport, on the Cape Fear River. You can barely make out the islands that separate the river from the Atlantic Ocean on the horizon.

Looking out across the Cape Fear River in Southport towards Bald Head Island.

Water lily inside the Ft. Fisher Aquarium.

June 2008

Sean (11) and Kelly (8) at PJs where we eat breakfast when we're in Southport.

Sean fishing with Charlie on Southport Pier.

Alleyway in Southport. Looking towards the river.

Southport Pier. Charlie and the kids are center, near the lamp. Oak Island Lighthouse in the background.

Cape Fear River/Intracoastal Waterway. Taken from the Oak Island Bridge.

In the hotel pool.

April 2009

Sean (12) and Charlie fixin' to go fishin' on Southport Pier. Kelly and I browsed the shops.

Not sure what this is called. It's some kind of marker. Southport Pier in the background.



Ft. Johnston on the Southport waterfront.

Tree-lined W. West St., looking towards the marina and PJs.

Kelly (9) standing along the Southport waterfront at Waterfront Park and near Ship's Chandler Restaurant, now called the Cape Fear Restaurant.

At the hotel pool, which being April, it was almost always empty.

Dolphins at Caswell Beach, NC.

Back at the pool.

An azalea bush in the Old Smithville Burying Ground, an old cemetery in Southport.

Eating ice cream at Frosty's on Oak Island.

At Frosty's. "Peace out."

We really enjoy going to the coast every year. Especially Southport, where I lived as a little girl. I don't know if we'll be going this year or not. The thought of not going makes me sad. It's a beautiful, peaceful area and vacationing there is the highlight of our year.