Leaves, Leaves and more leaves

I fear that my favorite time of the year will continually be the most labor intensive time of the year.  I love the chilly weather (the need for layers ;-)  ), holiday comfort food, family gatherings and the COLORS!  I know I'm not an outwardly girlie-girl but man! these colors awesome for my complexion and hair color.  LOL  I am more inspired to go out and about when it becomes chilly then all of the summer....maybe it's that whole awkward humidity/sweating thing that gets to me. 

The only downside to those beautiful colors is when they begin to fall.  My husband and I have been living with my sister.  One of the ways we show our appreciation is we try to help out in the yard as much as possible.  This particular weekend our father drove down with all of his nifty machines (leaf blower, chainsaw, etc.) and gave us a huge helping hand in accomplishing the yard work.  The town in which we live comes by three times during the fall and winter season to pick up any leaves raked out to the curb.  So our mission this past weekend was precisely that.

  As you can see from the car in the background, this is quite the hefty pile of leaves.  This is in fact probably 10 years worth of leaves and pine straw that has fallen in the front and back yard.  I got a little carried away with the leaf blower....three and half tanks worth of gas type of carried away.  BUT!, the yard is as clear as it has been since my sister moved into her house.  She also took four (or five, I lost count) truck loads of trees and branches to the local dump.  Finally the sun can shine through the trees!!

See the line of leaves to the left, that's where her yard ends

Zeta is surveying her playground

I think the best thing I heard once this was all done is that my sister doesn't want to do anymore yard work for the rest of this year. YEA!!  Mission accomplished.

Festivals and Frogs

Let me preface by saying that I have decided recently to do some exploring of this fabulous state I have been a part of for so long.  And I must admit that I haven't been a very good North Carolinian.  Since I can't afford to take extravagant vacations, my husband and I are taking state-cations.  So, this past Saturday was the 29th Annual Barbecue Festival in Lexington, NC.  I brought the idea up to my husband that this year we should go to the Barbecue Festival.  We've gone to the NC State Fair three or four times and all we end up doing is walking around and eating the food.  So...lets walk around and eat food somewhere else this year.  The day was beautiful, especially consider what was around the corner.  (Praying for those in the midst of the Sandy damage.  We, North Carolinians, know all too well what it's like to go through those trials).  Since the food tents were scheduled to open around 10, we decided to take our time getting to the festival. 


29th Annual Barbecue Festival

We start almost every festival with the cars.  My husband tries to contain his excitement as he drools over any car he has deemed his "dream car".  I unfortunately just can't get on the same page.  Typical husband-wife scenario.  We slowly made our way through the crowds to get our peek inside each of the tents.  I will admit that either I go to too many festivals or the slow-going trend in today's crafts has become monotonous.  I only saw a handful of tents that peaked my interest.  I was more entertained by the stores who opened their doors to the masses. It all reminds me of why I loved living in a small town growing up.  I did break down a buy a soup cup to keep at my office.  Trust me, I wanted more than the soup cup but I restrained.

On to the barbecue.  This is one area of the festival that I was more than disappointed.  This is North Carolina people! AND a barbecue festival!  My expectation was endless rival tents of 'who's BBQ is better than whos' but that was clearly not the case.  When my husband and I decided have lunch we had to walk a few blocks before we even found a tent selling barbecue.  And if I'm not mistaken there were only two tents selling barbecue and one selling only sauce.  That does not make me a proud Carolinian.  This is the state of the East vs. the West.  (For those of you wondering, I am an Eastern BBQ girl)  I knew going to this festival that it would only be West but that was okay.  I was driving to the West portion of the state to get to this festival.  I guess the only thing I can really say now is that I've scratch that event off my list of Things To Do in North Carolina.

I managed to salvage the day though.  On the way home I stopped by my sister's house to visit my AAAADORABLE niece and nephew.  Nothing can make my day better than having my niece run and jump into my arms when she sees me walk into their house.  This weekend was just before Halloween.  My niece decided she wanted to be a princess.  And let me add that her favorite color is yellow.  So you can imagine my surprise when I found out her princess dress was.....wait for it.....yellow.  The cutest part of all of this is that her younger brother (7 months old) needed a costume as well.  So my ingenious brother-in-law sewed him a frog costume to coordinate with my niece.  It's the cutest site you will see this Halloween.

Princess and the Frog

The evening ended with a bottle of wine and countless giggles with my other sister.  All in all a successful day.