Great weekend ahead

Well to start, we went to Shark beach. At first I was disappointed because I think I had been looking and sifting through sand for about an hour and couldn't find anything. The boys had pretty much given up and were swimming and doing other digging. Mom went too and she wasn't having any luck either. Well then finally....I found one!! Wow! I couldn't believe it. I had moved to a different spot down the beach and found a great spot. Once I found a tooth and knew what to look for it seemed a little easier to find them. Bry joined me in looking again. It was now fun and I found quite a few. It became addicting because as soon as I thought I would stop looking I would tell myself just one more batch of sand. There were quite a few people there looking for teeth. So it was a successful trip in the hunt for shark teeth!

A little side note: if you get an offer in the mail make sure you read it and the fine print. We got this nice little gift just for going to the dealer for a test drive. We didn't buy anything!! This will come in handy for our weekend ahead! Yep $75 for just test driving a car! oh yeah baby!

Today is the boys last day of summer camp. Wow...I can't believe it. I am glad that they really enjoy it though. They are always wanting to go earlier than I planned to take them or to pick them up later than I planned. Total evidence to me that they have a great time! yay!

Two weeks till school starts! I will have a 5th and 7th grader! The time sure flies! It has been a wonderful summer with many great memories! Next week I took some days off to spend a little time with the boys before school. I'm not sure quite yet what we are going to get into, but we will enjoy the time for sure.

We have a great soccer weekend ahead in Disney. It's the nationals for the 3v3 soccer. It will be exciting for Bry to get to play at Disney's ESPN complex. Of course we want to win, but I know just the experience itself will be fun for him!! The best part is that we only have 2 games each day and they are early in the morning. We will be able to relax the rest of the day at the resort and likely head to Disney Springs to walk around. I'm excited to see all the new changes that have happened since we were last there.

We have been lucky enough this week to fight with a smoke alarm! Of course they only beep at night, right?! Geez!! The other night  one started to beep in D's room at 1030pm of course...so Mike headed in and had to get D out of bed. The alarm is right above his bed. He changed out the battery and it seemed to be fixed. Then a minute or two later...nope! Stupid thing beeping again! Then he tested them and they all started beeping loudly and saying "fire, fire". Luckily he did some type of reset and it seemed to quit. Keep in mind, B is in the same room and slept through the entire thing! Seriously...the light was on, beeping and then the "fire,fire", kinda scary that he never even woke up just a bit. Anyway, we all went to bed. 3am or so....D comes into our room, the thing has started to beep again!! OMG!..so I told him to just get his pillow and head to the couch for the rest of the night. He did, and B slept through the rest of the night with that thing beeping. Luckily we couldn't hear it in our room. So day/night number 2. The thing didn't beep all day and Mike had messed around with it and figured he had fixed it. Uh....nope! On cue, the thing starts beeping last night around 1030 pm! Ridiculous! So....yep you guessed it he went in the room, took the battery out and disconnected the whole thing from the wall. Ah...no more beeping....except that dumb thing kept beeping even without the battery or wire...wow!! Luckily Mike knew how to discharge it so that it would stop, it was comical! So now we have to figure out what the problem is and get it put back up. Fun!! ha!

Well I hope it's a great weekend for us, good weather, great games, and lots of great memories!

Toodles.

Finishing up the week

Well looky here!! These guys were feeding in our back yard. I was playing with the camera trying to zoom in on his eyeball..haha... I love the 2nd picture where he looks pink! haha..almost like a flock of pink flamingos in our back yard! Not really but fun anyway.

They were probably looking for this little guy hiding in our lanai! 

I'm trying to grow a pineapple! It takes like about a year and a half to grow one I think. This is the top I cut off a pineapple we ate and I planted it. The top has grown huge! I am still looking daily to see if I see any hints of a pineapple emerging. For those of you that don't know...the pineapple will grow up almost like a flower sprout at the top of the plant! I sure hope we get one soon!

We are also growing our lemons again. This is a potted plant made to stay on your patio. Last year I think we got about 8 lemons or so. This year I almost let it die by accident, but it recovered a little. I think we have about 4 or 5 lemons growing on it right now. Next I think I want to get a lime tree. That way I can have fresh limes for my margaritas!!!! YUM!

I got out early today and had a nice breakfast with a great friend before I headed to watch the soccer games. It is always nice to get out and have some girl talk and food! 

Soccer was very hot today. Another day of 3v3 soccer. Bry usually has 6 on his team but 2 are on vacation so they were short handed today. They played 6 games!! Yes...6! The boys all did great. They even played in an older age bracket. They pulled out a 2nd place win! It was so hot and I know the boys were tired but they hung in there and finished strong! I love the look on B's face in this action shot...I think he was really thinking about the ball heading towards his face. Luckily it did miss his face, but cool facial expression!

I tried to add a video here of Bry scoring a goal but it didn't work. I might have to upload to youtube first. I will check on how to do that......

More animal sightings this week! An armadillo in a neighbors yard! He was just snooping around and looking for food I guess. I only had my phone and not my camera so I couldn't zoom up any closer on him, but I did manage to snap a few pics! It's never dull around here I tell ya....wildlife everywhere! Almost like we moved to a zoo!!

Now it's time for a relaxing evening in our nice cool house. I think I'll have a glass of wine and chill.

Tomorrow morning we are heading up to Venice to a beach that is known for it's shark teeth. We went to Venice beach one other time, but we didn't know where to go. I got an exact location from a friend where they go to look for teeth and find them. So I'm hoping we are lucky and find some teeth. But...I guess we shouldn't do much swimming there since shark teeth are everywhere..uh...yeah obviously that means there are sharks! Right??!!??!! ha!

Oh yeah, and incase you're wondering the boys did catch fish last week at camp. They were happy that this time around they finally caught fish. They only have 3 days of camp next week then we are off to Disney for soccer nationals...whoo hoo!!

I spoke too soon!!!

Well as you are about to see, I spoke to soon about the harmless wildlife!! OMG....seriously?!  So Bry was taking out the trash and when he moved the trash can...holy snake!!! Luckily Mike was outside with him and he obviously screamed and ran in the house. As we went back out to investigate (me with my camera in hand, of course) we noticed a good thing. When he moved the trash can he actually rolled the wheel right on top of the snakes tail!! The snake could not get away. The bad news...I think it was poisonous! It sure looks like a diamond shaped head to us!  I hate snakes!!! Mike ran inside and got his pellet gun and returned to kill it. He did kill it thank goodness and then he even chopped the head off to make sure! Ha!! It was a little comical that me and the boys were trying to see while he was shooting at it! I guess we might have to move the cans into the garage after all.

On a happier note, here is a picture of the bird that keeps flying into the nest in the tree in our front yard.

Today was pirate dress up today at camp. As you can see the boys wanted minimal attire to dress up with. Dev insisted I take the picture of him with two eye patches!! Crazy boy! haha There are also going fishing again. The last time they went fishing at camp they didn't catch anything. So they are both hoping that today will be a lucky day and that they will catch some fish!! 

 So it's apparently a thing that boys give each other nicknames. I know during the school year Dev had a nickname (Yoda) and he told me names of his friends. Well now at camp they have given Dev the nickname of Noodles. I think it's funny. He said they gave it to him because of his hair. I have to admit, it does kinda look like curly noodles. He has such tight ringlet type curls up on top now that he's let it grow out longer. I really like how it looks. Oh, and Bry told me that his nickname is Noodles Jr.

How about this little treat? It's a bacon doughnut!! I haven't tried it yet. I brought it home from work to give to the boys as a treat. I have heard of them but never tasted one, so I'll let you know.

So....the last three days we watched all three of the back to the future movies.  A little known fact: I have never seen ANY of them!! I know....a little crazy, but now I have!  They were actually funny and it was neat to see all the "future" things in the movies of what they predicted would be in the future. Some of the things now actually exist! The boys really enjoyed all the movies.

Well that's all for now. Time to get the boys and see if they caught any fish!

Harmless wildlife

     It's been a fairly relaxing Sunday. That wasn't quite the plan, but yet I'm glad it worked out that way. We have a tree in our front yard that needs to be cut down, it's a new rule of the subdivision....long story and not that interesting, haha! Anyway, we had finally decided that today was the day to cut the tree down. We get all of our supplies ready and get the ladder in place and guess what......a birds nest! Really....that seriously puts a damper on the whole tree removal idea. Geez.....so we checked for eggs and yes there were three! Go figure....I have to admit at first I was a little selfish and not sympathetic to the birds that I wanted the tree gone, but we decided not to cut it down just yet.  I don't know how long it will take for the eggs to hatch and the birds to leave the nest so we will just play the waiting game until time to cut down the tree. We see all kinds of crazy wildlife around here all the time, so I have to say it was refreshing to see some wildlife that wasn't harmful or scary...lol...

So then I tackled my bike. It's had a flat tire for quite awhile. Mike helped me and instructed me on how to change the tire. It didn't take long and wasn't that hard. Now if I get a flat when I'm out riding I'll have a spare with me and know how to change it. Yes, I got a flat tire when out riding one day. Mike was out of town for the day and I was probably about 1 1/2 miles away from the house. It was not fun walking my bike back. So now I'll be prepared and probably not get a flat but I'm ok with that :-)

The rest of the day has been nice and relaxing. It has rained on and off and I've been mostly on the couch, sometimes looking at the back of my eyelids..heehee. We haven't had too many days like this for the last several months with either soccer, vacations or work obligations. I have picked up some extra hours at the hospital along with some call hours so sometimes I'm working on the weekends now also. Today was a nice little break with not a lot to do. Of course, I need to make a grocery run but I think I will just postpone it to tomorrow.

I can't believe there are only 3 more weeks left of summer. It's been a great summer and very busy but I don't want it to end. The boys are enjoying their summer camp. They get to swim, go fishing, go kayaking and lots of other fun stuff. Bry got camper of the week last week! yay...they only have two more weeks of camp left. There isn't any camp the week before school so we will just do some fun things on our own and enjoy the last week before school. 

The end of July Bry has a National 3v3 soccer tournament in Disney. It will be very hot, but we've heard it's a fun tournament, and of course it's at ESPN Disney so that will be fun!! I don't think we will do any parks while we are there, just resort relaxing in between soccer. I do hope we make it to Downtown Disney or as it known now as Disney Springs. There is a statue there of Tigger and Pooh that we've been getting pictures taken there since we first went in 2008. It's fun to watch how much the boys have grown over the years. You can see the picture here

So if you are new to my blog this is an example of what you can expect. It's sort of a diary of our life. I do post some things that I also post on FB but I tend to post more personal things here, silly stories, recipes, and other odds and ends things that happen in our everyday life. This started as a way for me to share with our long distance family and friends what we are up to. I had this blog before FB became popular. Now, most people that I would share this with are on FB too, but again, this is much more personal. It also archives my posts for me (there's a list on the sidebar) and I can always go back and see things we've done years ago, fun!

So I leave you today with a great picture from this summer!! Toodles..

It's been a long time ...I know it.

Well hello there,

     It's been a long time since I've blogged. But lately I find myself returning to my blog to find old pictures or posts. I have realized something....it is so fun to read back over things that have happened and to see pictures that I probably would not share on facebook.  This blog was originally started as a fun way to share our life with our family that did not live close to us. Over time as we moved around from place to place, it then became a way for not only family but also our close friends to keep up with the traveling Carters! ha!
     Obviously we have moved yet again and are now pretty far away. I have enjoyed reading over past posts from this blog as sort of a diary of our life. I have decided that I want to continue it. I also believe there are companies that can put my blog into a book format...which would be very cool to have a hard copy of this blog in the future.
      Anyhoo....alot has happened since my last post so I am not going to even try to recap. But, I will just start with where we are now and continue on.

For now I'll just start with this picture of us in Hawaii at Hanauma Bay for snorkeling this past June. Wow...totally amazing is all I can say!!!

I'll be back soon....for now Toodles.