A Belated "Thanks A Lot" to Earl

Earl kicked us out of North Carolina. OK, that was last week. It's kinda old news at this point, but hey, I've been a slacker.

I could give you all the riveting details, but, like I said, it's old news and you've probably forgotten there was even a hurricane last week. Plus lots have happened since the book-induced neglect. Here's the rundown:

OBX - oh how you are missed, my friend
Last summer my family fell in love with North Carolina's Outer Banks. This year we rented a beach house in Corolla with Otterpop's family. The benefit of renting the last week of the summer is that the rates are discounted. Deeply. The drawback is that you are gambling with hurricane season. Which usually isn't much of a gamble because hurricanes don't regularly hit the Carolinas.

We lost the gamble this year, and Earl sent us packing 2 days early. The silver lining is that we left the night before the evacuation order and didn't have to deal with the traffic. I have a nagging sense of superiority because we got out before the other vacationers. Of course I would have felt like a complete idiot had the storm blown over after we voluntarily skipped out on two full beach days.

Here are picks. To get an idea of our fabulous location, the picture of the dunes was taken from our deck. It really was perfect.

My nickname should be Freckles.

A Night Out On The Georgetown
Otterpop and I hit Georgetown on a double date with his sister's in-laws who also came with us to OBX. We don't go there enough. Then again, if I was a more frequent visitor I would probably spent a lot of money. Too many fun things in too many fun stores. We went on a Friday night, so I pretty much felt like an old lady next to all the bar-hopping college students. Well, sort-of. There were people of all ages, but I definitely noticed how young college kids are. They really are just kids. Weird.

Invading the Farm
A friend of mine took family pictures for us at the farm. I'm in the process of sifting through 500+ pics and editing the ones I like. So fun! Really. I love it.

Missing In Action...again
Otterpop has been out of town...all week. This time in the slightly more exotic Jacksonville. I have friends whose husbands leave for 6 or more weeks at a time, so really I can't complain. But it really is a drag.

Big Girl Unders and Puddles
Addie-Cakes has been working hard on using the potty. I tried it early this summer and gave up when after three days Addie-Cakes obstinately refused to even go near the potty. She's doing much better this time. Except for the times she asks for a diaper and tries to put it on herself. And as long as I remember to take her every 30 minutes or so. Otherwise it pretty much sucks to be me. The water fall on my bed this morning was great fun.

Tomorrow we're taking advantage of the beautiful weather to pick apples and make apple sauce. Yea for fall!!

More posts to come now that I've officially left behind slacker mode. At least for the time being ;)