Haley's Haven

They have almost finished the interior - they were touching up paint when we got there - doesn't it look GREAT!? As you can see, we definitely went with the HGTV "neutrals" :). The fireplace, the kitchen (the stove isn't blue, just the plastic covering), and our bedroom - and a side view of the house - Matt was measuring the extremely small yard for fencing - hey, less yard means less fence, right? :)

Here is the house - a shot of the downstairs bathroom, the other pantry/closet, garage, and some heavy duty rolling around on the new buttery soft carpet. And then we have a shot of the passenger door of my Tahoe. Ask me if I bumped someone's car. Go ahead, ask me. The answer is no. Ask me if, even if I HAD, would it have been ok to key this message into the side of my car. The answer is no again, because if I really HAD, wouldn't any rational non-redneck person wait for me and get my insurace info to cover their damage? Oh my goodness you have no idea of our rage level when we saw this. It is big - covers most of the door.

Things I used to do at the beach: 1) lay out and read 2) relax 3) surf 4) walk my dog Things I do now: 1) chase my kids around 2) laugh at how crazed they are 3) build many of sand structures 4) a lot of sunscreen application I miss the old, but I like the new :).

Check out these Southern Belles... Haley was SUPER sour and refused to cooperate - apparently we weren't being adoring enough of her gorgeousness and fancy curled hair. Anyway, you can really see the personality differences between these two, especially at this age - so funny! Amazingly enough, they really do play well together, at least for a limited amount of time :).

I can't seem to plan these entries in the correct order - I know it is annoying to see the title "More ____whatever" BEFORE you saw the original entry.

Joe and Wanda hosted an "eggcellent" (so clever I am) Egg Hunt this year - the girls had a lot of fun! It is so nice to be in a state where the sun is usually shining on Easter. I remember last year the girls were bundled up in their winter parkas hunting eggs in Missouri :).

I believe it is a wood stork. Matt agrees. Normally they are more prevalent in Florida - Brooke, I bet you recognized him right away! This one is probably thinking "I've got to get out of South Carolina - first they are declining stimulus money, and now my nesting area is all hacked up...what's next?" But wait, about the stimulus money and Mark Sanford - let me get political for a minute. Think about it people (and this is coming from a public school teacher so you can rest assurred I have a vested interest) - he is right. Why in the world would we take money (on loan from China) to bail us out, in order to keep our system running the way it is? We will be right back in the same position a couple of years from now. What we NEED to do is change the system. And how can it be bad that our governor wants to use the stimulus money to pay off our state debts? The federal government is not allowing SC to do that with the money -they say that we need to stimulate the...

Too funny - they were so excited to try on all of dad's new stuff. Also, this past Friday I had a teacher work day so I didn't have to get to work until 8 am. SO I got to take the girls to school - it was fun to see them wearing their backpacks and showing me what they normally do in the mornings. I am so thankful that Matt and Edith and Eddie have all worked together over the past months to get the girls to preschool and back in the mornings - most mornings I have to leave the house by about 6:30 or so, and I don't even see them before I leave. That is hard - really looking forward to this next week to spend some quality time with my girls - SPRING BREAK! WOOT WOOT! We are going up to see all of the family in Greenville, plus see all the "aunties", my best friends from college. Actually, I think I will take them up to Clemson to see where mommy went to school. That will be a lot of fun.

Mema got the girls some sweet Southern style dresses - don't they look beautiful?

You know, I really am an "in spurts" person - I can never be accused of being steady and dependable - exhibit A/Blogging, exhibit B/Housework, exhibit C/Exercise (wait, my running pace is slow and steady, but not necessarily my FREQUENCY :). Anyway, here are some more photos of our house progress... Can you tell Haley likes posing? Here she is at the front door (technically side door) and also showing us the new windowsill and the nice interior paint job - and she and Matt are checking out some raccoon tracks outside. And we saw this beautiful bird crossing the road to the pond - thoughts of habitat wreckage and non-ecological consciousness came to my mind as I watched him picking his way cautiously across the asphalt. I am in the process of researching what kind of egret or heron he was - we have seen a lot of beautiful egrets and herons and a bald eagle and a mallard and his friend - I love the nature trails...but he is the first black and white big bird I have seen - h...