Picnic with horseback riding...

Weekend with My Son...Matt

My son lives in South Carolina with his dad. He is in the 9th grade and plays football for his high school. Mark and I took off for the weekend to see Matt in action on the field. It is really hard for me not being close enough to go to every game. I listen to his games on the computer via a local radio station. I can't tell you how great it makes me feel when the announcers start talking about my son. I smile, I laugh and then I cry because I am here and he is there. We saw him play on the JV team on Thursday night and then Varstiy game was Friday night. It was thrilling being in that 'football heaven' atmosphere. They are really serious about football down there. He looked so handsome, so athletic and so much like 'my little boy'. (well, he's not so little anymore) Matt just turned 15 last week and he is already 6'2" and wears a size 14 shoe. He is definately not my 'little' boy anymore. However, he is my 'boy'. Mark and I spent the entire day Saturday with him. We played miniture golf, swam in the ocean, got in the lazy river, had some jacuzzi time and then ended the day with crablegs. We had a wonderful time with him. Even now and I type this two weeks after our visit. I miss him so much. We talk often, but it's not the same. I am one proud mama.

Canning tomatoes...

I don't know about any of you, but I have never 'canned' anything in my entire life...until now. I work for an herbal manufacturing company and one of our employee benefits is that we get fresh produce every summer. Our company has a 250 acre organic farm in which we grow herbs to manufacture and every year they have the farm help plant, maintain and harvest all the fresh vegatables that we could even imagine. We have had fresh corn, beets, zucchini, basil, parsley, all kinds of 'peppers, watermelons, cucumbers and tomatoes. And when I say tomatoes, I mean tomatoes. I have brought home over 4 boxes of tomatoes and my mom and I have 'canned' them. I remember her canning when I was very young, but I have never done it. I was a little bit intimated at the thought, but nonetheless, I set out to tackle learning how. I went over to my mom's house after church this past Sunday and we went to work.

It wasn't all that hard, it was just time consuming. I never knew that there were so many steps involved. Thankfully I was doing this with my mother, who knew what she was doing. It took use many hours to get them all done, but I have to say, when it was all over and I was loading up 'my stash' of the finished product, it felt really good to have accomplished this. My dad snapped this picture of me and my mom as we were bringing out the first completed jars of the tomatoes.

It is something I would do again. It was a wonderful afternoon with my parents. It was my mother handing down a 'way of life' that I had yet to encounter. I am 40 years old and I now know how to can. vegatables. It made us feel so domesticated. It made me want to 'put up' more vegatables and make preserves and jams. Oh Lord, what I have gotten myself into? Have a nice day, Cherri

Labor Day, Waterfalls and Hiking...

We live in the mountains of Western North Carolina in an area that is known as 'The Land of the Waterfalls'. We have over 250 waterfalls in our county. So, we decided to get out of the house for Labor Day and go exploring. Tiffany was the only 'child of ours' with us. She had us all to herself. (that hasn't happened in a long time) First stop, after an hour drive, was at the Rib Shack in Highlands, NC. We have been there before and remembered that it was a quaint little place that had good BBQ. (my husband loves good BBQ) Then, we were fueled with energy to go tackle the Falls. We First went up to Bridal Veil Falls. In this first picture Tiffany and her daddy are standing under Bridal Veil Falls. I know you can barely see them, but I wanted to show the height of the entire falls. Don't worry, I show them closer up in the next photo. Here I zoomed in closer and it looks like the water is hitting them. It is actually in front of them. You can drive your car behind these falls. I think it is a cool shot. White Water Falls was our next stop. This was our first time here so we were up to exploring the whole area. It was about a 1/2 mile hike to the falls but there were several 'look out' spots along the way that we stopped for photo opportunities. Here is my husband 'pretending' to 'hold' the mountain. He is such a goof-ball. (I love that about him) Here is Tiffany climbing the side of the mountain. She was such a climber all day long. She has those long legs and she's only twelve so she has the energy to 'tackle' any mountain.

Here she is at the top. (well, only as far as we would let her climb-she probably would have kept right on going if we had let her). It is really way up there.

Here is White Water Falls. It is a 411 foot cascading waterfal. It was absolutely beautiful. When I stand in front of something like this, I just become even more in awe of God than I already am. He is so amazing and His creation never ceases to blow me away.

So, speaking of, it's the young one that is supposed to have all the energy, I ended up carrying her 'piggy-back' for a little while by the time we were making our way back down. (not really, we were just posing for a picture) We had an awesome day filled with fresh air, beautiful views, great food and a very special time for just the three of us.

Layouts from last weekend with my sister

Hi Everyone, I have worked and worked on a 'slideshow' using photobucket and it won't accept my link. So, I am just copying the link and adding it here. If you would like to see a few pages that I did last weekend, please click on this link. I sure hope this works and that (when I find more time) I can get the slideshow feature to work. I guess it's just operator error, who knows? Enjoy. http://s367.photobucket.com/albums/oo111/cherriengle/?action=view&current=61e1728d.pbw

'Twin Only' Weekend was a blast...

My sister and I had such an amazing time together this weekend. We met in Greensboro, NC to have a 'scrapbooking' weekend. It was amazing, we arrived at the hotel within a minute of each other. (we live in different states and met in the middle) We got a suite so that we had a kitchen and living room so that would give us enough space to spread all of our 'scrap stuff' out. It was perfect. It even had a kitchen table that was wonderful. We scrapped, shopped, had coffee, ate out, watched the olympics, stayed up really late, and talked almost non-stop the entire weekend. I think I have only slept about 10 and a half hours since I left here Friday morning. I will crash later on tonight. Here are a few pictures of us. I will post my layouts later this week.

Girls Weekend...Yeah!!!

My sister and I recently turned '40'. I know, I hated even typing that number down and it being associated with my age. But, I don't want the alternative...death. So, at least I had someone to face it with me. Well, we asked our husbands for a 'girls-only' scrapbooking weekend for our birthday. We have planned this and had to cancel it twice, but it is finally happening. We leave tomorrow morning to meet for the weekend. We are so excited that neither of us can stand it. I am about to drive my husband absolutely crazy with my carrying on about how I can't wait until Friday morning. You should see all the 'stuff' I have packed to take with me. We are going to 'scrap' the entire weekend. I had to take so much stuff, just in case I need it, right? I can tell you, it will be a chore to 'unload' and 'put back into it's place' when I return, but right now, I don't even care. We are going to have such a wonderful time. I will post pictures of our weekend when I return.