Prayers needed

I know not many people ready my blogs, but I know that the few who do are prayer warriors.  I'm friends with a couple who just lost their baby who was due later this month.  I can't even imagine...  Please pray for them!  Words can't even describe what they must be going through right now.

Concord vs Kannapolis

A couple weeks ago, Clay and I attended the annual Concord vs Kannapolis game, a rivalry that has been going on since 1924!!  The difference this year was that the game was 2 months earlier because Kannapolis moved to a new conference.  It was weird not packing blankets and coats like I normally have to.  Concord won the bell for the second year in a row!  Don't ask me the score...those details aren't important to me.  I was just enjoying the company of Clay, Beau, Jennifer, Jackson and Allan!

To the beach...

Earlier this summer, Clay and I snuck away to the beach for a few days.  We stayed in Cherry Grove and had a great time.  Despite the rain this summer, we had sunny/overcast days and the rain held of until the evenings.  Clay and I were introduced to the art of looking for sharks teeth.  I also learned how to dig for shells!  I have always just looked for shells on the sand surface, but I watched a man actually dig for shells, so I did the same.

Day one was just a travel and beach day.  On day two, we went to the beach of course, and then we ate at The Boundary House in Calabash, which was amazing.  On the third day, Nugget and I walked North from our beach to the very end of the beach...where the river cuts the beach off and flows into the ocean.  It was so pretty!  There was absolutely nothing developed on the other side of the river.  We were homeward bound on day four.  This was a good vacation because we did nothing!  Clay and I sometimes tend to pack too many activities into our vacations and end up exhausted by the end!

Clay looking for sharks teeth.

Nugget was beat...she didn't enjoy the beach b/c she hates the water and hates being rinsed off after walking on the beach.

Emmi plotted harm on us after leaving her alone for 4 days!!!

First Grade Begins!!!

Today was Alexa's first day of First Grade.  She has Ms. Craft this year and said that she is only somewhat excited.  Stay tuned to find out how her day went :)

Update:  Alexa said she had a good first two days of school.  She met a new friend, Eli (none of her old friends are in her class), and she "learned about math."  She also said that Ms. Craft is "Reaaally nice!"  She has a reward system in class that includes an Avatar that she has to make of herself.  Looks like things are off to a good start!

Will she be an angel...or a devil???

No excuse is a good excuse

There are no good excuses to explain why I haven't been keeping up with my blog.  I hate excuses anyway.  However, the fact that Clay started grad school means that he has been hogging the computer that I put all the pictures on, and we have not been doing anything very interesting.

Tonight I am baking Lemon-Zucchini Loaf with a lemon glaze.  It's still in the oven, so we will see soon how it turns out soon.  Here is the recipe:  http://nancycreative.com/2012/03/25/lemon-zucchini-loaf-with-lemon-glaze/  I wanted to squeeze one last lemon out of summer before I move on to pumpkin yumminess.

A little drama at the house: our air conditioner finally died.  It was 29 years old!  Clay was secretly overjoyed because he has been unsatisfied for 2.5 years with our air conditioner.  He claimed it never got cold enough and that it ran constantly to maintain a nice temp.  However, Clay would probably only be comfortable in a walk-in cooler.  Joe graciously and promptly replaced it so we only went 1 night without air.  Thank goodness it hasn't been so hot lately  :)

On a funny note, Emmi fell out of the bed last night!  I woke up to her clawing her way back up to "huggle" with her mommy  :)

 

Wednesday Night

Sorry for being such a blog-slacker.  I really have no good excuse.

Anyway, here is a sneak peak into Clay and my daily conversations:

Clay informs me tonight that we don't have to have kids because we have Nugget (as he cradles her like an infant).  Furthermore, we are actually Grandparents because Nugget has a baby too (her toy I made for her that she LoVeS).

Clay proceeds to sniff her baby and decides, "Ew Nugget!  Your baby needs a diaper change!!"

Later on, Clay lets me know that, "Nugget is smart," and that we need to teach her to eat with a fork.  What brought this on?  Smarty-pants Nugget used her paw to lift her Baby into her mouth when Clay threatened to take it.

Never a dull moment in the Bolton household.  I think Clay may be delirious from too much homework!!!

Father's Days

This year we celebrated our dads on 2 separate days.  Last week on Father's Day, Clay and I spent the afternoon at Roger and Belinda's after church.  Clay grilled chicken wings and steak while Roger enjoyed not having to cook.  Belinda had all of the sides prepared, which were amazing as usual. I brought over a lemon bar dessert because lemon is Roger's favorite.  We had fun hanging out and admiring how much the landscaping has grown with all of this rain!s

Today, Clay and I drove to Greensboro to spend the day with my dad.  We started off with a private tour of the Natty Greene brewing facility from one of the owners.  It was really cool to hear how the company got started and see how they grew.  Then we went to the Natty Greene bar/restaurant on Elm St for lunch.  They brew smaller batches of beer there that they pretty much keep in the restaurant, so we tried those too.  The food and company was good!  I think Clay is even more fired up about brewing after this trip.

Even though I used to live in GSO, I never spent much time downtown and I had no clue that there were so many antique shops.  We saw at least 5 within 2-3 blocks and visited 3 of them.  Dad brought us to the store which supplies the antiques displayed in The Fresh Markets, which I thought was pretty cool.  I told Clay we would have to go back soon for a whole day of antique shopping :)

Clay and I are very fortunate to have such awesome Dads and the ability to spend time with them!