Squirrel Invasion!

When I walked in the door from work on Wednesday, I heard a noise.  Then I saw a grey furry thing run across my floor.  When I got over the shock of this and noticed the ruined blind on our breakfast room window, I freaked out.  I immediately thought of Lydia's nursery and ran upstairs.  Of course the squirrel had run into her room as well.  As soon as I saw it, I was so mad!  I yelled "Get out of my baby's room!"  The squirrel, not understanding English and thus my motherly fury, ran further into the room.  I then walked to the window and was going to try and open it to shoo him out but he ran past me and out of the room.  I realize now I probably should have followed him and contained him in one room, but at the time my main concern was my baby's room.  I did a check to make sure everything was fine, which it was, and called Cory.  Luckily he was on his way home already and told me where I could find a net in the garage.  I'm walking around the house with this huge fishing net when he calls back and says "Actually, you should probably stop looking for the squirrel.  I've called Mike (my brother in law) and he's on his way and I'll be there in a few minutes."  So then I am again worried that the squirrel is in my baby's room even though I closed the door on my way out. This will become a theme for the night;  I think I have made Cory check it at least 5 times. I barricade myself in her room and call my cousin Nancy.  She is really more like an aunt to me and I lived with her my last year of college and Cory even moved in for a few months after we got married while our house was being finished.  A few years ago, she came home from a trip and her house had been ransacked.  Things were torn up, her blinds we all ruined, it was terrible.  At first she thought someone had broken in.  Then while her sister was there helping her get things back in order, they found the squirrel.  Cue the jokes about the squirrel burglar. After the second squirrel got in her house a few months ago, it became an even bigger joke.  At Christmas Eve this year, my cousin Wesley made a huge show of presenting her with a ring that looks like a squirrel.  We all laughed and laughed about it but I am definitely not laughing now!  (Even though she and I did share a few laughs on the phone tonight at the craziness.) Mike got there shortly before Cory and took over my net, but the squirrel was nowhere to be found.  I must be pretty scary because he definitely chose a good hiding spot from me!  After doing a full sweep of the house and some research, we decide to go to Lowes and get some traps.  We set those, pulled up all the blinds and left for church, where all my young women were in a tizzy over the squirrel (I had earlier called my YW president to let her know what was going on and that I might be late).  One offered to come help us catch it (I already jokingly refer to her as Bindi Irwin, so this was no surprise), and a couple even wanted it as a pet when we do catch it!  They have obviously never had one in their house or I think they would not be saying any such things!  I was hoping he would be in one of the traps when we got home, but alas, no.  He is still on the loose somewhere in my house and I am left feeling both trapped and extremely exposed.  While finding a squirrel in your house at 39 weeks pregnant is definitely not ideal, I guess it beats finding him after coming home from the hospital.  Here's hoping he has a taste for peanut butter...

Spartanburg Weekend

About a month ago Cory and I spent a weekend in Spartanburg running/walking a race and visiting some friends.  I left my camera at home and of course just got around to figuring out how to transfer pictures from my iphone to the computer.  So here are some pictures from our super fun weekend.

Last summer, my cousin Karl passed away from congestive heart failure at the age of 19.  There is now a scholarship in his memory at Wofford College where he was a rising Sophomore at the time of his death.  To raise money for the scholarship, his fraternity puts on the 5K for Karl in the fall.  This was the 2nd annual race and it was a wonderful success.  Notice one of the sponsors:  Baby Girl Watts. :)

 Cory and my brother Gilliam.  I didn't get a picture of them running across the finish line because Cory was running across it as I was getting back from walking a mile and Gilliam was already finished.  Oh well, I will pull the pregnancy card to explain why my husband can run a 5k faster than I can walk a mile.

 My dad and brother after the race.  Gilliam had the fastest time for his age division!  He definitely takes after my dad in the running department!  In his younger days, my dad ran a couple marathons a year.

 Cory and me at the Travis home.  We may or may not have been tormenting Joel the whole night with these photos.  He was still at school in Utah and extremely jealous we were visiting with his sister and parents.

 Cory and Zach the dog who is super awesome.  Also, another picture for Joel.

 Joel really misses Zaxby's so of course we went there for dinner and took some photos.

 Adriane and Micah who we had such a fun time hanging out with!  We ate Mexican, went bowling, hung out watching football, ate Zaxby's and watched a movie.  The movie part was really just Cory and Micah.  Adriane is in her 1st trimester while I'm in my 3rd so we didn't make it much past the opening credits before falling asleep.

No trip is complete without a stoney face Sunday school shot! :)  Despite the looks on our faces, we had a wonderful weekend with fabulous family and friends! 

Our Next Big Project...

We a redecorating one of the spare bedrooms. I don't have a current picture of it, but this is it right before we moved in.  I'm not really sure what that weird spot on there is, but you get the picture.

The reason we are redecorating is that in January it will be home to this little guy or gal!

We are really excited and can't wait to make a space in our home for this little munchkin. :)

Recent Adventures

We haven't really done anything big lately which has been nice.  I feel like we have a few crazy months where we are out of town or super busy every weekend and then have a few weeks to just relax around Columbia.

In those few weeks we have:

Gone on a hike with the Young Women at Sesquicentennial State Park.

One of my YW who I now refer to as Bindi (after Bindi Irwin) because she was crazy over any animal we saw on the trail. 

 This poor guy didn't make it through the hike... Unfortunately, I think a lot of kids learn how fragile baby frogs are this way. :(

 Cory and me in the great outdoors! :)  Everyone was jealous of my super sweet Camelback! 

We all had such a good time!  The trail wasn't bad at all and it was a fun bonding time with the girls.

My brother Gilliam graduated from Clemson University.  My parents threw him a graduation party and it was so much fun!

 Awesome purple and orange carrot cake my mom made in honor of the graduate.

Me and Gilly Gil!

For Memorial Day, we had Cory's parents and sister over for a cook out.  I made these delicious brownie dipped oreos.  They were so easy to make too! All you do is make up any brownie batter, dip the DoubleStuf Oreos in and put them in a cupcake pan.  Bake for about 12 minutes at 350.  I read in some places that said you can just spray Pam in the tin and it will be fine, but I liked using the cupcake foils.

 YUM.

Finally, today we went to Lake Wateree to have dinner with Cory's grandparents.  It was really nice to see them because we don't get the chance to very often.  I got a yummy sounding recipe for fruit cobbler from his grandma I'm now itching to try.  I may have to post about it if it turns out well.

Always time to say "Cheese!"

Thrifting

Cory and my first date was to the thrift store.  I had never been to a thrift store in my life at the time but we have made it into sort of a tradition now.  It is really fun to have things in mind you are looking for and find them for a great deal.  That doesn't always happen, but luckily for me it did on Saturday morning.  We woke up early to get a good start on the day and headed out.  My biggest goal was to find some cute plates for a plate wall I am doing in the kitchen.  When I am done collecting, I'm hoping to make it look something like this:

These are the plates I found on Saturday:

They are sort of a plain collection right now.  I'm probably going to have to branch out a little to add more exciting ones to the mix. We stopped by Marshalls as well but they really didn't have anything I loved and if I'm going to spend more than a dollar on it, I want to love it.
Total on my plates: 4.25

One of my very bestest friends bought me a picture frame just like this a few years ago.  A few months ago, someone knocked it off my kitchen counter and shattered it into a million pieces.   I was really upset about it, although I didn't say so because as a clumsy person, I know how badly you feel when you break something.  Usually in my case it is something of my own so I'm at liberty to be frustrated about it; however, this time I just smiled and swept up the pieces assuring the other person I totally understood and it was no big deal, which really, it wasn't.  Well, I got my reward for being so nice.  I found this barely used one for 50 cents at one of the thrift stores we went to.  It even still had the little plastic covering on the metal parts so it wasn't scratched! Talk about exciting! :)
Replacement picture frame: .50

I like everything to have a place.  That includes my sponges.  They have driven me crazy just sitting there on the side of the sink looking so forlorn and without a home.  Homeless sponges!  Can you imagine having those living in your house?!  I have been searching for a while for a little home for the them and finally stumbled upon this little milk glass candy dish.  It is just perfect!  Now my sponges and and I are both very happy! :)

Sponge House: 1.50

We had such a fun time and it was great to find so many things I wanted for such an awesome price.  I can't wait to see what we find next time!

Grand Total: 6.25.  

Sesqui!

This weekend Cory and I went to Sesquicentennial State Park to go kayaking. It is only about 5 minutes from our house but it was the first time we have been since we moved here. It was a gorgeous day and we had such a fun time! The lake is pretty small, only about 30 acres, but it was a nice refresher since we didn't go at all last year. Before we left we had a race "around the island and back to the shore." Cory said I sounded like a pirate when I challenged him. I should have taken advantage of him laughing to get a head start but I didn't so of course I lost. My only hope was that one of the geese on the island would start to chase him or something which probably would have made him go faster and win by even more so oh well! I still like to race even if the chances I will actually win are slim to none. :)
It is nice to have somewhere to go that is really close. We are thinking of buying the Palmetto Pass that lets you into any state park that charges admission for $50 a year. The best part is that it applies to your car, not just the people who bought it so we could take people with us, which would be fun.
Here are a couple of pictures I took. I didn't take the camera on the lake because this was our test run for everything. Meaning: Cory knows how clumsy I am and wanted to make sure I didn't end up in the lake before risking the camera. Well, I passed with flying colors!

The Kayaks loaded up and ready to go!

After kayaking.