Fence posts

Every chance he gets, John heads to the woods with the chainsaw to find his next victims...Poplar trees. The mission is to find the perfect sized Poplar for the posts to our deck. Here is one of many piles



He is becoming quite skilled in skinning logs and the process that goes along with that.


Sorry for the poor pictures, I keep forgetting to take pictures during the daytime and our camera doesn't seem to do well in the dusk lighting.

♥ 4 years ♥

Our 4th wedding anniversary was on Sept 25. We celebrated by going to dinner at our favorite restaurant Smokey Bones in Fayetteville.

Woertman Brothers Construction

Yesterday we spent the day in Apex with the "Other Woertmans", building a fence along the street side of their backyard. Kate stayed at the house to watch the kids while John and Freddy went to Lowe's to pick up materials. (Candy, Jordan, and Caroline were out selling popcorn for Boyscouts so they missed out on the action!)



Woertman Brother's Construction got to work




I was the "aesthetics coordinator"


Then I passed along the duties to Heather


Uncle John put Ashton to work.


Jessica was the babysitter who watched Ricky, but came out to visit occasionally.


Here is Freddy putting on the last board! YAY!!!


And the finished product from the across-the-street view.

Off to the races!

So incase you don't know our story...in 2004 John proposed to me at the NHRA drag races in Sonoma, CA. So as our 4 year wedding anniversary is 2 weeks away, we struggled to come up with a celebration that fits into our newly created budget. God truly works in mysterious ways, even for such simple requests. Last week my friend from work, Joe, emailed me asking if John and I would like tickets to the American Drag Racing League's (ADRL) show in a neighboring county for this coming Saturday. I jumped at the opportunity and the tickets arrived in the mail the next day! Up until Friday night, it was looking as if John was not going to be able to arrange his work schedule to attend the race. But at the last minute someone switched with him and we made our plan: I was up with John at 3:30AM, we drove to Starbucks together, I slept in the truck for awhile, and spent the day hand-stitching things for my etsy store. When John got off work, we headed to the races.

Infront of a modified Chevy.


We walked across the street to The Rockingham Speedway where NASCAR used to race.


awww...the symbolism...


We had a blast! What more can you ask for on a Saturday? Cars that race at 200 MPH!! A place where Chevy, Ford, and Dodge still reign. Not to mention the awesome "people watching" that rivals any event I ever went to in California. :)Unfortunately we were so tired by the time evening came, that we had to come home before the finals and fireworks show. But we had a great time and got to reminisce about our engagement. So, THANK YOU JOE!!!

It's raining, it's pouring...

Well we survived our first "hurricane"! Actually by the time it hit land it had fizzled out and all we got was a good thunderstorm which isn't anything new for us. We were prepared for several days of no power and fortunately the power was only out for a few hours! I didn't even get to use my handy all-in-one "wind-up rechargeable power AM/FM radio, flashlight, emergency alarm, cell phone charger"! (Thanks Erik!! It's in our emergency kit ready to be used!)

I even BBQ'd ("grilled out") in the rain! I'm either a silly Californian who doesn't know better, or a hardcore North Carolinian...you can decide. (No, there was no lightning at the time)


We don't have a lot of updates so here are a few photos just to say we posted something. ha!

This is me on the back deck, on my favorite piece of furniture that we own....my World Market table and benches. One of the benches in on top of the table becuase I was using it for a background for my etsy pictures and hadn't taken it down yet.


And here is my redneck husband, truly fitting in with the southern way of life. Later that day he went Rattlesnake hunting on our property...no luck though. It's still out there somewhere.

Gunner sitting so proper...waiting for the smallest crumb to fall off mommy's pizza.


Gauge looking as cute as ever.

Here She Comes

Meteorologists expect Tropical Storm Hanna to accelerate and intensify into a Category 1 hurricane as it barrels towards North Carolina’s coast, possibly making landfall Friday.

Prayer is appreciated...

Working hard...

John and I have been attending Financial Peace University at our church on Monday nights. It has been a great experience as we are learning to manage our finances, save for emergencies in addition to regular savings, and plan for the future. As most of our friends, we have felt stuck here in the middle class, living paycheck to paycheck, and always feeling stretched. FPU has given us a plan (not just hope)to build wealth steadily to move into a more relaxed financial state of mind. (now, hopefully Obama doesn't get elected and penalize those of us who work hard for their money by giving it all away to those who don't!) One of the suggestions is to get a second job.

So I'd like to introduce my new online store!!

Yes, like the bug. Also what my dad called me growing up! :) I'd like to say that the name is spelled funny because I'm just that creative, but it's spelled phonetically because other people already had the correct spelling. Luckily I have a creative husband who came up with the new spelling when I had already given up on the name! :) It is definitely in the beginning stages but now that I have free time in the evenings and weekends, I'm sure I'll build the inventory quickly.

www.kayteedids.etsy.com

I would love feedback, constructive criticism, and ideas!

Phase 1 complete

John completed phase one of the deck project last week! He put stairs on too!
This is the view from one end

and from the other end

and the view overlooking the fenced in acre


Stay tuned for updates on the rest of the deck

Railings

Benches around the two trees

Storage "room" underneath



and just for fun, here is a young Five-Lined Skink on the wall of our house

Too Much Nature, Part II

Last night John and I returned from a class at church to find both our dogs howling as if they had something cornered or treed. We whistled for them, and they came running like scared little boys. Normally it would take multiple whistles and bribing with treats to call them off something they had cornered, but not tonight. They came in the house very subdued and way too calm compared to the norm. So after looking them over head to toe, waiting about 10 minutes while trying to figure out what was wrong with them, we slowly started to see their faces swell. We eventually found a snake bite on Gunner's face, and Gauge's face was too swollen to find anything without causing him more pain. The emergency vet is an hour drive from us, so we called for advice. Fortunately, the on-call vet said that large breed dogs can handle snake bites with just a few benadryls and some antibiotics which they could wait until morning for. So we gave them benadryl and I stayed up all night watching their breathing and making sure they didn't go into a coma. So morning FINALLY came, we went to the vet, all was well, left with some antibiotics, and returned home where both dogs proceeded to immediately search the corner of the property where they had been bitten....such smart dogs. *sigh*



Here in NC we have 37 species of snakes...6 are venomous. I don't care what kind they are, they are all snakes. Did you know that "the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake is the most dangerous North American snake. Specimens have been captured as large as 8 feet long and weighing 15 pounds. The snake's 3/4" fangs are capable of penetrating almost any boot." AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! No more flip flops for me, it's all steel-lined boots from this point on.... actually, more like full body armor. And did you know that Rattlesnakes have night vision?? If I can't see it, I don't want it seeing me!



In my web research, I also found this statement "Living with venomous snakes is really no different than living with hornets, or other minor risks of daily life." Sure, I despise hornets as well, but I can smoosh a hornet, or SureShot (bug spray) a hornet from 27 feet away! Not so with a snake! There is a product called SnakeAway sold in every store out here. It's a granual that you sprinkle around the perimeter of your property and snakes don't cross over it. When we moved here in 2007, we did just that...and viola! no snakes last year! So of course this year I figured "we didn't have snakes last year, so we must not have snakes in the this area"....someone please hit me upside the head! That is like a schizophrenic saying "well, I took my medicine today and I didn't hear the voices in my head, so I must be okay and can stop taking my meds". Needless to say, SnakeAway will be outlining our fenceline and front yard by the weekend by my husband who I will force to drive his lawn mower around to spread the SnakeAway to keep him from walking anywhere a snake might be hiding!


In the end, both Gunner and Gauge are fine. Milking it for all its worth, looking pitiful while standing next to the treat jar so that mommy will give them doggy candy because she feels so bad for them.

If you are a snake lover, or just want to hone your knowledge on NC snakes http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/gaston/Pests/reptiles/venomousnake.htm Have fun!