Summer: Waiting for Irene...

I've grown up near the coast and have always been use to the possibility of experiencing a hurricane around this time of year. I'll never forget Floyd, which caused major flooding where I am from. This was the first time I had ever experienced so much damage in my own hometown.

Chris & I now live at the beach. I'm grateful that where I am isn't going to be hit quite as hard this time, but still concerned for all those that will be. I debated on going back to Rocky Mount (hometown) since Chris is out of town, but I decided to stay. I will be staying with some good friends tonight and maybe tomorrow depending on how things go. I cleaned my house and packed up almost everything that is important to Chris & I. I don't think anything will happen at our apartment, but I'd rather be safe. I can't even imagine losing my pictures, hard drives, stuffed animals, and all of our keepsakes that mean so much to us! Our car is now packed full of those items.

Now I'm just waiting. I have my Ben & Jerry's (that happens to be the flavor of my favorite cake!) and I am content! Hopefully I will say the same thing when I return to our place in a day or two!

Friends Post: Amie

We get lots of visitors in Wilmington, which means we get to spend a lot of time with good friends (especially in the Summer). Amie spent quite a few years living here herself. She's a beach girl and still has many friends in town. She recently came up for a weekend visit with me and I was so excited! I love when I get the opportunity to have one on one time with my girls!

Take a few steps backwards and you'll get to the picture up above. Amie & I officially met in kindergarten. It's a shame that we didn't remember each other, but we do have a yearbook to prove it and the two pictures above! Later in life I started attending my best friend Amy's youth group. This is where Amie (IE) & I reunited and a true friendship began. I was lucky because I spent time in public school with Amie for a year and than we had many Church adventures to grow on! She became one of my closet girlfriends and since then I still consider Amie one of my closet friends. We may be separated by a few hours, but I always know that she'll be there for me when I need her. It's always good to have those long term friendships that continue to grow over many, many years!

Here's a few more flashback pictures of Amie & I :

This was always one of my favorite pictures of the two of us.

(Me, Amie, & Amy)

 Trip to Orlando

(Amy, Amie, Buzz, Me, Dana, & Maria)

Flashback forward to a few weeks ago! A brief summary of our hang out weekend went like this: Friday dinner at Flaming Amy's ( a local burrito restaurant in town), hang out time on the couch, Saturday lunch at Our Crepes & More with Christina, beach day, movie night, and we said our goodbyes on Sunday morning. The best part about it all is that we just got to talk and catch up. Those times are very meaningful to me with my friends.

I didn't take a lot of pictures on Amie's last visit, but I captured a few:

Our Crepes & More is a place I've been really wanting to try out and it was amazing! Pretty much everything they make is all homemade! If you're in Wilmington, NC this is a place to try!

Christina got this yummy looking sandwich.

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Amie & I both tried the spinach & feta crepe

We couldn't pass up desserts! Christina tried their raspberry and lemon sorbet.

Amie & I shared this ooey gooey goodness of chocolate, powdered sugar, banana's, whip cream and  dessert crepe.

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My friend, Christina, was down in Wilmington for some photo sessions. I was glad she was able to join us for lunch that day!

Goofy!

After leaving Our Crepes & More Amie and I ventured to the beach. We spent a few hours on the beach until the crazy blowing sand drove us away!

Sunday Amie went back to the beach & I headed to Rocky Mount to prepare for the lake trip. I think we both will be looking forward to our next hang out time together. I sure hope it's in the near future!

Family & Friends: The Lake

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I can't even tell you how true that statement was around 6pm last Friday at Kerr Lake in Henderson, NC. I was laying there talking with friends and was in no hurry to leave. My original plans were to leave at 3pm that day, because I had plans that Saturday in Wilmington. We went to get ice cream at the Freeze Maid Dairy Bar instead, so I moved it to 6pm and before you know it it was 8pm. Eventually it turned into making muffins over the campfire around 12am. I just couldn't say goodbye yet. I was enjoying my friends (or shall I say family). I left that Saturday morning still wearing my bathing suite from Friday. I said goodbye to my brother and headed down the highway. I must have sighed the whole way home! Thankfully the early morning sun helped my journey.

With that said, Kerr Lake is a very important tradition to me and many others. I have been camping there for 28 years (29 if you count the year in the womb!). I have a record of never missing a year of camping and I really don't want that to end anytime soon. Kerr Lake is filled with endless memories, love, tears, hugs, stories, and most importantly the people who you care about so deeply. It's the kind of place where you don't want to just let anyone come (trust me, I did that once and that sucked!). It took 26 years for me to invite one of my best friends! That should say a lot about what this place means to us.

Here's a little flashback to the past: (most people pictured were at the lake this year)

(Baby in right hand corner is ME!)

There are so many pictures that I could post and introduce you to so many more amazing people that are part of the lake. Maybe I'll have to make a special post just for that! It's hard to leave people out!

Now I want to share some pictures I took from this year!

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 I gave myself a little project to work on at the lake this year and that was to take pictures of things that are GREEN! Green happens to be one of my favorite colors and I love making collages like this!

Home for the week (Proctor/Proctor-Adams crew & Hardy #1 crew. Hardy #2 crew's camper is so big I didn't have room to post it. Just kidding!)

 Me, Mom, & Brother (Kevin)

 Me & my beloved hammock.

 Some of my closet friends & family that I have. Eating at Pizza Inn, playing putt putt, and hitting up the arcade is just another one of our traditions!

 Kathy & I have been buddies my whole life! All of the "kids" got friendship bracelets at the arcade.

 Friends & Family

Meet Copper...one of the cutest dogs ever!

The Hardy crew showing us what they got!

 
We all must have skills though!

This years new trick! Kevin & Kathy make it looks so easy!

 I really can't talk about the lake if I don't post a few pictures of the food we made! We had chocolate/peanut butter chips pancakes one morning. They were delicious!

 Perfection!

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 We have a grilled cheese maker that is for using over the campfire! It's always a little better than your typical plain sandwich for lunch! You can also make great dessert sandwiches in this sandwich maker too.

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These little yellow jackets were every where this year! It's amazing how close they would let me get to them with my micro lens on. They just wanted food, so I don't think they noticed half the time. I did get a small sting on my last day, but it wasn't too bad!

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This seems like the perfect way to closeout this blog post. A simply gorgeous sunset at Kerr Lake. The quote that Matt & I would always write on school pictures and notes when we were younger was "See ya at the lake!" Until next year (or if we're lucky I'll see some there again this year!)...