Goodbye, Carolina Avenue...

It seems so strange that tonight is our last night at 201 Carolina Avenue, Greer. I was trying to remember the exact day we moved in, but couldn't. I know we closed on the house 4 days after Noah was born, but the move itself is a bit fuzzy. I do remember that I was still in a fragile state, and didn't do a whole lot (when I tried, well, it wasn't good...I just remember thinking, "Uh Oh" and "Did I rip something?").

I remember it was very, very hot, and we had everyone pitching in to help move us in--Patrick, Mom, Dad, Dan, Janet, Rachel... We had Sonic for lunch (I think I still have the receipt we used to write the order down on), which again reinforces Patrick's belief that I only remember things when there's food associated. He may be right.

I remember the first thing to come into the house was Noah's Pack-n-Play--this was the only bed we had for him, since a true crib wouldn't fit in the apartment. Then the red sofa for a place for me to sit. Then I just watched our belongings being carted in by various family members.

We were so excited about the house, the yard, the location. It really has a lot going for it--lots of charm in the wood floors and original doorknobs; the large kitchen; the huge, fenced yard; the man shed that we had all sorts of ideas for (guest cottage was what we would have loved to have done. As it was, it was an amazing storage space). We loved the little dollhouse, and could just see a little girl loving it (at the time we made an offer on the house, I was still pregnant, and the sex of The Bean was still unknown). Then, when Noah made his appearance we thought when he got older we'd make some modifications to the doll house & make it a boy house someway--a barn-type house, maybe.

The house wasn't perfect, but I don't think any house IS perfect. We loved the porch, the deck, and the fact that we could walk to Downtown Greer. We really loved that last part when Greer went all-out and did a gorgeous park, and restaurants started moving in (then moving out...but then a resurgence, and more eateries are moving to Downtown). It had its quirks, as most old houses do.

I think I'll always have a special place in my heart for 201 Carolina--

It's the first house we brought our son to.

It's the house our baby said his first word, "Kitty." (Thanks, Mouse, for upstaging us yet again.)

It's the house our baby first crawled, and then rolled.

It's the house our baby took his first steps (finally!).

It's the house we took our Christmas picture in for the first 3 years of Noah's life.

It's the house that saw the transition from floppy baby, to baby, to toddler, to little boy.

It was our home.

I wish the new occupant many years of happiness, and hope that some of our joy we found within these walls will remain to bless the new families that will call this house their home.

Boo at the Zoo!

We had our first Boo at the Zoo last night, and Noah had a great time. We were a little worried--driving up to the zoo, they had a police officer directing traffic, and we noticed immediately that the first parking lot was completely filled up. Granted, this isn't Disney World, but it is a little intimidating when you see the line getting into the zoo stretching past the gates, and nearly down into the parking lot, doubling on itself... But, we figured that we were there, may as well see how bad it's going to be. And you know, it wasn't bad at all. We waited in line for maybe 15 minutes, and during the wait, Noah really enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up in the costumes, and it was great weather, and people seemed like they were in good moods.

Once we were in, they gave Noah a bag, and we went through the zoo, stopping at the various stations getting treats. We were there for about 1 1/2 hours, and got lots of pictures and some video of Noah the Dinosaur. He really enjoyed all the blow up decorations--in fact, he woke up this morning talking about one of the large decorations in particular (of course, it would be the one that I didn't take any pictures of, and Patrick thought he had video of it, but when we got home, realized he didn't get it).

I give it a big thumbs up, and hope we'll be able to go back next year!

Enjoy the pictures, and our love to all!

Out front, waiting to get in; they had a sorta Harry Potter theme going on.



One of the treats were vampire teeth; snapped this in the nick of time, because they promptly fell out of his mouth after the picture. I've got the teeth, though, and will sanitize them for future use!


Chatting with the "snowman."


Loved the kitty in the pumpkin.


This is one of my favorites, I think because it's something that I can see us getting a picture here each year...

In front of one of his much-loved blow up decorations.


With a fellow dinosaur!


One of the treats was an animal mask. He's the elusive Raccoonasaurus. I think there needs to be a comic book about him...


Looking for the piggy...


With his friend, the Owl. We were so proud of him--he saw "Boo" all over the place, and he pointed at it and said, "That spells boo!"

A new blog...

I am not giving up my blog--I've had it for too long, it's seen me through way too much, and I do enjoy it when I have time.

We think you'll like the new blog--it's basically a Noah Picture-of-the-Day.

I got a wild hair the other day to just take a quick picture of Noah before we left for school. We see him every day, and certainly notice the changes going on--legs getting longer, face looking more like a boy, ability to put outfits together.

So, we thought we'd document these changes on a new blog.

Hope you enjoy!

Noah Pic-of-the-Day blog

We're doing the Happy Dance

Okay, let me first say that we haven't gotten to the closing table yet--we still have inspections and the appraisal. I really don't think that there's going to be anything major found in either of those hurdles to prevent us from closing, but you never count on the closing absolutely happening until you're getting up from the closing table, handing your keys over to the new owner!

We put the house on the market late Monday night (the 14th--Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!); had two showings the following Tuesday; a 2nd showing on Wednesday; a contract & counter-offer on Thursday; and accepted contract on Friday.

We are thrilled.

The closing date is October 14--it was supposed to be the 16th, but the closing attorney is going on a fishing vacation, so we had to move it back 2 days. Now the next step is finding Mom & Dad a house--we've looked at a few that have NEARLY everything, but not quite, so we're sure that the house is out there, we're just not sure when we'll find it!

We are just thrilled, though, that we got a contract that quickly! I guess it has something to do with having a really awesome Realtor who knows her stuff! :)

Our love to all!

Videos!

I upgraded my phone to a nifty little model that takes videos! Unfortunately, the format that I set some of my videos in, MP4, doesn't quite translate to all the players that our family has out there. SO--with some fancy footwork and some help from Patrick, we uploaded them to YouTube so we can embed them here.

Hope you enjoy!

Am I a frustrated entymologist?

At least, that's my bet. I kinda like bugs. Not ALL bugs, mind you--cockroaches do make me run away, screaming like a little girl (but they're really, really GROSS! *Shudder*).

To bring everyone up-to-date, I'm growing 'maters. LOTS of 'em. I've never really had much luck, so figured if I planted 12 (and then Mom & Dad gave me a Beefmaster--love that name, by the way...I picture a tomato dressed in animal skins, wielding a sword above his head--so 13 plants in all), then we'd maybe get one or two plants. Well, I took Dad's advice, and planted them in a good spot, with good soil & have actually fertilized them. And guess what?

WE HAVE TOMATOES.

I've already harvested 2 Beefmaster and about 6 Romas. YUM. There is NOTHING like a fresh, garden-grown tomato. So, I've got 13 vigorous plants:



And, if you have tomatoes, chances are you're going to have hornworms--a lovely, fat green worm with a horn on it's backside. These little buggers can defoliate a tomato plant pretty quickly, and from my research, the best control for a home gardener is to just pick them off & drown them.

Or, my preferred method is to pick them off & fling them to the street so the mockingbirds have a juicy snack. (Patrick said he never realized I was so bloodthirsty.)

So, I went out & picked off 3 one morning...all were about 3" long and had these white egg thingys on its back. Well, not knowing about hornworm reproduction, I was afraid that these were little hornworms just waiting to hatch. So, as per my method, flung them to the street (by the way--they were gone the next time I went out, so I can only assume that 1) they're either much faster than I give them credit for & they hot-footed it back to the garden, or 2) there were some VERY happy mockingbirds).

I started thinking, and though I remembered something about parasitic something-or-others, and consulted the all-knowing internet.

Voila!

The tobacco hornworm (there are 2 varieties--tomato and tobacco, and the only difference I could find was the color of the horn. Tomato are black, tobacco are red, but both are equal-opportunity feeders of both plants) IS a host to the paper wasp. So, those little white egg thingys WERE eggs, but for the paper wasps, and according to my research, by the time you see the eggs, the hornworm is pretty much done. Apparently the larvae of the paper wasp eat the hornworm from the inside. Yeah, ain't nature beautiful?

Anyway, I've been pretty vigilant, and have not seen many hornworms. Until Saturday morning, when we found a beauty. I say "we" because Noah made a friend: "Pah." Yup--found a nice, big one, and Noah carried it around for a long, long time. I think he may have nearly loved it to death. We thought it would be neat for him to watch the hornworm spin his cocoon and morph into the hummingbird moth (I think that's what the tobacco hornworm becomes...but don't quote me on that. And oh, yeah, the other difference between the tomato and the tobacco worms is the type of moth they turn into--but both turn into HUGE moths. Quite impressive, really.). Unfortunately, it wasn't to be--Noah wanted to carry him around. And, something my research didn't reveal is that when hornworms are picked up, squeezed a bit and carried around, they emit this greenish juice stuff (much like the "tobacco" that grasshoppers spit when you pick them up). Not sure if it's supposed to make them taste bitter (we didn't try it, thank you very much), but it was interesting.

We finally convinced Noah that Pah had to go take a nap, and then we put Pah out to pasture (sort of like sending the aging family pet to an unnamed, geographically vague "farm.")...which probably caused him to end up a really, REALLY juicy snack.

See how happy Noah looks with his friend:






Okay, so I go out tonight, and I find one of Noah's little friends with eggs on it:



And I look closer, and I see that the eggs are HATCHING!






So, okay, some of you may be totally grossed out by this, but I think it's pretty cool. You can even see their little antennae and eyes... I guess they got a little irked with my flash! Maybe it's for the best that I left when I did...not sure how aggressive baby paper wasps are, but I know that the adults do sting, but I think for the most part they're fairly passive. But, the way I react to stings and bites, I really don't want to find out.

And, for those who ARE grossed out, and want a little cuteness to go with your bugs, check out the movie(s) that Patrick's posted on his blog:

http://www.possumstar.blogspot.com/

On a completely unrelated note, the house is getting closer...the roof is DONE; we should have the missing part of our hall baseboard and our laundry room-kitchen threshold done tomorrow. We're getting the carpeting estimate tomorrow. The inside of the house is painted (except for going over the trim work); and today Mom & I did a bang-up job on the front rails & planter boxes (they're now white, and it really looks great!). It's coming along, and we keep crossing stuff off of our list, but if anyone wants to come and help, well, we won't turn it down...

Our love to all!