Will And Won't

These past few months I've been compiling a list of what we WILL and WON'T miss about this area. I thought it would be neat to look back on, maybe I will remember to make another list after we've been in Nebraska for some time.

What We WILL Miss MOST About Virginia Beach

• Friends
• Flip Flops are Considered Acceptable Attire EVERYWHERE
• Neighbors
• Warm Winters
• Beaches
• Historic Sites Everywhere
• Sugar Plum Bakery
• Massive Amounts of Trees Everywhere
• Green Grass Year Around
• Not Needing A Warm Coat
• Having A Five Guys Burger Joint on Every Corner
• 9 Malls With In 20 Minutes
• A Starbucks On Every Corner
• Selection of Restaurants
• The Summer Pig Pickin'
• Gregg's Half Work Days on Friday
• Handel's Double Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream
• More Target Stores Than Anyone Really Needs
• Selection of Shopping Options
• The Boardwalk
• The Awesome Library System
• Beers In The Garage
• The Fresh Market
• Knowing What Every Sound is EXACTLY Inside This House at Night
• The Cul-de-sac
• Trader Joe's Grocery Stores
• Plaza Azteca Restaurant
• Fireworks at Mount Trashmore
• This Back Yard
• The Beautiful Landscape
• Bunnies in the Back Yard
• Ducks in the Front Yard
• REAL FRESH Seafood
• Wild Horses at Corolla
• The Proximity to the DC Area

What We WON'T Miss At All About This Area

• Traffic
• Seagulls
• Jet Noise
• Humidity
• Mosquitoes
• A Sex Offender Living Right Down The Road
• Smell of Sea Water When It Rains
• Leeches EVERYWHERE
• Big City Life
• Overwhelming Military Presence
• Naval Medical Center Portsmouth
• Norfolk (ick)
• The Lack of Good Hunting for Gregg
• Portsmouth (ick)
• Allergy Issues Because of the Humidity
• Hampton (ick)
• How it Never Snows
• Newport News (ick)
• Our Nasty Neighbor STEVE and His Family
• Spotty OU Football Coverage
• Politically Correct BS
• Our Neighbor Chip's Lady Friend, Stella, and How She Drives 40 Through The Cul-de-sac Into the Driveway
• Paper Ads Showing OU Gear, But the Stores Never Having It
• Paying 2 Water Bills Every Month For No Apparent Reason
• People Who Don't Know What "No Soliciting" Means
• Did I Mention the Humidity?
  

4 Days Until The Movers Arrive, Should Be Interesting...

Wordless Wednesday

Going Away Party

Saturday we said good bye to some of our Virginia Beach friends. It was a real fun time and we really are going to miss this place.

Here are the hosts, our friends and neighbors, Margaret and Joe Thornsbury.

Here are some of the men folk playing "cornhole".

Joe got a photo of Gregg and I. I think it turned out pretty good.

Then there was this guy, isn't he too cute!!

And then this one just about broke my camera.

There were "refreshments" consumed...

lots of friends, food...

... and talking.

The whole gang at Joe's house.

The kids had a great time too. Here is Payton and a friend raiding the desserts.

Here is Austin riding his bike.

And drawing pictures in the sweet sunshine.

One Week Left...

I thought I would share what we've been doing lately...

Austin has been writing sentences because he doesn't understand he HAS TO follow the rules.

Gregg mowed the lawn for the last time.

Some of our friends and neighbors moved out this past week. They didn't move far, but it's still odd seeing other people stuff outside the Maxwell's house. It's kind of funny, they moved INTO this house just a few weeks before us and now they have moved OUT just a few weeks before us too.

I lumped all of Payton's crap up on her bed that was out of place. Not sure if you can make out part of her new furniture under the heap of trash.

She's really happy about having to clean it all up. This is what she gets for giving me too much attitude.

We have also been trying to fill our garage up with excess crap, or so it seems.

I have been trying to use up the random food in our freezer, it's not very fun.

One Week Left.

Random Randomness

Things around here are crazy. We have our pack out dates and if everything goes smoothly, we will be headed to Nebraska the evening of the 5th of November. Our lovely neighbors are throwing us a going away party this weekend and with Halloween the following weekend, there will be no shortage of busy work around here, but nothing really post worthy.

So I thought I'd post a few random photos from my cell phone.

Payton thought that Jolie needed glasses. I'm not too sure she likes the these frames.

Pumpkin scones - YUM!

We have been doing a significant bit of furniture shopping these past few weeks. Payton was in dire need of a new bedroom set and we had to purchase some new furniture for the guest bedroom also. This kid was laying at the entry of one of the stores we went to check out. After all of the furniture shopping, I felt just like him.

You can't give a cat a bath without getting soaked yourself.

Somehow Austin thought I'd believe he hadn't been eating candy. He obviously thinks I have idiot scrawled across my forehead.

I found these pretty candlesticks at a junk store, for $4. I thought they were pretty cool, not sure where I'm going to put them yet though.

Gregg and I were both sick a few weekends ago. I say there is nothing better for a cold than sitting outside in the garage, in your pajamas, drinking a beer.

Here's a random photo of the outside of Gregg's work.

We have this old fridge out in the garage, it is our beer fridge. Anyway, the handles on the thing were yellow and stinky for some reason. I decided to paint the handles to try to cover up the stink and the ugly yellow plastic.

They turned out mighty fine, except a few weeks later they were stinky again. Luckily I don't bend down to smell said handles very often.

And finally, A photo Payton took of me while watching a recent OU game. I do not look happy. I think I've given up on this football season.

Flashback Friday

I thought that since we will be leaving the area in 18 days (but who's counting?) and Gregg will most likely never deploy again, I thought I'd post a photo Gregg took while on his last cruise. This photo was taken in Dubrovnik, Croatia in 2005.

We Have Orders!

Last Tuesday we finally got orders! 20 Days until the movers come . Two days for them to pack our stuff and one day to load, then we are out of here.

This photo above was taken when we moved to Virginia, 6 years ago.

Flashback Friday - '55 Chevy

When I was a kid, my dad always had old cars. The one I remember most was his 1955 Chevy Bel Air. I don't have actual photos of that car, but I did find some other folks photos that represented what it looked like in my mind.

The car was red and white when I first remember it, with no AC and an aftermarket 8 track player, for which he only had the one Eddie Rabbitt tape that played constantly.

There was some fuzzy dice that hung from the rear view mirror and some sort of black fur in the back dash. The car smelled funny to me, like an old car would I suppose. I was always afraid that my friends would see me in the back of this car, I just couldn't appreciate it's nostalgia at that young age.

Later my dad had it done up all black, because I suppose that hot rods are supposed to be black, and put in a huge engine. I personally liked it a lot better red and white.

There were some good times in this car, I even recall some street racing out at the Woodward airport. But mostly my cat Fluffy slept in the car, in the garage, when we weren't taking it out on Sunday night drives for ice cream at Braums.

Ah, small town life.

Wordless Wednesday

(Oops, I think she saw me.)

Not So Good Sooners

Absolutely. Not. Good. At. All.

Flashback Friday

The weather here in VB has been beautiful this fall, but cold mornings like this have me dreaming about the warm weather of just a few weeks ago. So I thought this weeks FF post would showcase our trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico back in May 2007.

Here's my little Payton posing at the edge of one of the pools.

Here's the family eating some tasty lime peanuts and having a cold one while waiting for our dinner reservation. I've never quite been able to recreate these peanuts - man were they good.

I would love to stick my toes into that hot sand right now. The sunsets were beautiful there.

Payton took this photo. I had a rough first day or two of this trip. I'm not sure if I ate something while in the airport that I shouldn't have, or what, but I was deathly ill for a good portion of the trip. Me being sick and Payton having her game boy stolen right out of the room were the only two issues we had, but they were real downers. The resort was beautiful and the rest of our time there was really relaxing.

Next time I will be careful in my food choices in the airports, will not have more than 2 drinks upon arriving poolside, and I will be sure to lock up all electronics in the room safe. Oh, and I will take a silicone based hair product with me, humidity is not my friend. You live and you learn.