Darling Darlington ...

Being a fellow scrapbooker, my cousin, Marianne, was happy to take me to the local scrapbook store in the larger town of Florence, South Carolina, with our hussbands and her two daughters in tow. Florence is just south of Darlington. Scrapbook Concepts had all the scrapbooking staples, patterned papers and embellishments a scrapbooker could hope for, but with the added bonus of an abundance of racing and NASCAR themed items - appropriate due to the store's proximity to Darlington Speedway, of course.




After touring Florence and eating at the Five Guys restaurant (think California's In N Out in the South - quite tasty!) We headed out in Marianne's husband, John's 1955 Chevy Bel Air for a local museum, produce market and bakery called Mac's.



Inside the museum of sorts was a huge collection of antiques, cars, furniture, collectibles and more.




I just HAD to take this picture of the antique and contemporary phones together ...


We headed back to the Rock-N-Horse Ranch ... it was time to feed the horses! Buttercup, a palomino quarterhorse, came to the ranch pregnant last year and had her filly, Clover, the day after St. Patrick's Day.


Here is the ranch, from left to right, as you might see it from the dirt road that passes by the front of it:

The gazebo in the front yard; the original barn, now potential guest house; and fenced-in pool and pool house.


The house, obviously, with a great wrap-around proch complete with rocking chairs and swing.


The ranch's stable - Marianne currently has 19 horses on the ranch.


This is a fabulous arena on the property, fetauring restrooms, announcer's stand and refreshment stand.


And, last but not least, a good steak dinner among family at the end of a busy day!

From one Carolina to the next ...

(Sorry for the delay on updates - I did not have access to the Internet the past few days!)
On Monday morning, Michi and I headed to the only scrapbook store I could find in Jacksonville, NC, called A Crafter's Dream. This small store had all of the scrapbooking staples and plenty of military-themed papers and embellishments, this being a huge Marine Corps town. We said good-bye to Michi around noon and then headed off West again, to visit my cousin, Marianne, and her family in Darlington, South Carolina.


NASCAR fans might know Darlington due to the speedway there. And it is clear that NASCAR plays a huge part in the community there.

For the past two years, Marianne, with the help of her husband John and daughters Alyssa and Amanda, owns and manages the Rock-N-Horse Ranch in Darlington.



While I was raised in the Orange County, Calif., suburbs, I love the rural side of life, too. Rodney was basically raised on a farm, so for him, our visit to the ranch was going back to his roots. I cannot say the same for our dogs.


While they have stayed in less sophisticated areas than these indoor horse stalls, Marble and Ripley were not pleased to have been "demoted" to the ranks of livestock after staying in the climate-controlled and pillowed indoors through the trip so far. But they were none the worse for wear when their "camping trip" was over and it was time to go a few days later...

(Note: If you are looking for updates on Will and Xan and their adventures in California, please click on "Nephew Brandon's Blog" on the right. They went to Sea World today for Brandon's second birthday.)

Hangin' out with Michi ...

... Chris has a two-week air space course in Biloxi, MS, so he flew out this morning and that was the end of our fun with him. Michi, however, was a wonderful hostess and showed us all around Jacksonville ... which took about 20 minutes. Really, there aren't any photos because there really wasn't much to take pictures of. Just imagine a small town where everything is very green, but very wet... it rained on and off all day. Rodney found some gear he had been looking for and I found some unique Marine scrapbooking supplies at the Camp Lejeune exchange - win-win for everyone!

After a bit of a break at home in the afternoon, Michi took us back to base to introduce us to her "baby boy," Amedeus. They compete in dressage events around the area and he is just a beauty.




Michi's European 2-horse trailer.

Each day, Amedeus gets to spend some time in the open pasture - complete with his anti-fly suit and boots on.


Last but not least, the stables had this telephone booth outside.


Seriously, this might be the last working telephone booths in America ... I took this photo so I could explain it to Will and Xan in a few years. :)

In to the Carolinas ...

We left Tucker, Ga., about 8 a.m., hitting the I-20 East towards the Carolinas. I had a couple of scrapbook stores on the list, Simply Scrapbooks in Augusta, Ga., and Scrappin' Creations in Columbia, SC. Scrappin' Creations was very much how I would set up a scrapbook store if I owned one.


It was a brightly-lit labrynth of scrappiness, differnt rooms dedicated to different things: the tool room, the theme room (papers and embellies organized by theme) and the one I could have spend considerable time and money in: the cardstock room.



I really enjoyed this store, with its friendly, knowledgeable owner and staff and it's great selection of products that were easy to find. I would have spent even more time (and probably money) there if we didn't have the dogs traveling with us in a black Ford Explorer in 92-degree, humid weather. There is only so long husband and dogs would be happy meandering around the grassy knoll behind the store.

Rodney, the dogs, and I headed for Jacksonville, NC, where our friends, Chris and Michi, also at the mercy of the Marine Corps, are currently stationed.


They have a beautiful home and a huge backyard the cleared themselves this past year.


They took us to a really interesting bar/museum, Sywanyks.




This place is huge, and covered from floor to ceiling in Marine Corps paraphernalia, contemporary and historic.



We played pool, listened to the Top 40 hits and just took in all the stuff. Chris said he's een there several times and he always finds something new.




Today we'll be looking around Jacksonville and Camp Lejeune.

In Atlanta tonight ...

... actually, we are in Tucker, which is in the Atlanta metropolitan area, on the East side. We left Pensacola at about 8 a.m., first stopping by Scraphappy so I could drop off my sample for the beginning acrylic class I am teaching there next month. Then it was off to Alabama!

Fortunately, the drive was uneventful. We did stop at a Guthrie's chicken restaurant in Tallassee, Alabama (Not to be confused with TallaHAssee, Florida) for lunch. Rodney managed to drive 12 miles past the exit before I looked up from answering my email via iPhone to ask him what was taking so long to go 13 miles ... but we turned around and went back to Guthrie's anyway, simply for blog fodder. We even asked an amused stranger to take our picture for us. By the way, the chicken was excellent. Off to Georgia!




We arrived in Tucker at about 3 p.m. Well, we thought it was 3 p.m. It was actually 4 p.m. - we forgot about the time change to EST. Whoops! Good thing we didn't have anywhere we really needed to be. Unless you count the scrapbook stores ... There were two in the area I wanted to go to, but due to the lack of time (both stores closed at 6 p.m. and we needed to drop the dogs off at the hotel) I only got to one of them. Paper Impressions was on the opposite side of town, in Murietta, and traffic was starting to get bad. So I settled for just going to ScrapChic Boutique, which was only about 6 miles from our hotel, in Decatur.

We actually just drove right by ScrapChic before we saw it ... not because it was small, but because we were looking for a strip-mall type store and ScrapChic is actually housed in a turn-of-the-century house. I really loved the feel of the place!


The three owners had done a great job keeping the antique, rustic feel with their decor, use of space and fixtures, such as this ladder ...



The range of supplies was good. I picked up some of the new Sassafras, some Hambly Screen Prints transparencies and Atlanta-themed paper. But I loved the crop space.


While you did have the climb stairs to get to the crop space up there, there were three spacious rooms filled with tables. The huge windows gave great natural light for day crops and there were plenty of tools and computers for croppers to use. Rodney even managed to keep himself occupied with all the fun goodies to look at! And, of course, I just HAD to drop off some samples of Kits2Remember products while I was there ...

As always, the dogs traveled well. They were excited to be on an adventure and were thrilled this morning when they found out that they weren't going to be left behind, They had been edge all day yesterday ... the suitcases were in the house! For the trip, Marble has her crate, which Ripley sometimes sleeps in, so we got a travel crate that was chew-resistant fabric and folds down, sort of like a car sun shade. I laughingly call it the dogs' "sleeping bag."


We put Marble in it first, since she is smaller than Rip, but while we were at ScrapChic, and they were at the hotel, she managed to UNZIP it and meet us at the door when we came in to the room. Seriously! So, when we went to Fuddruckers for dinner, we put Rip in with a clamp on the zippers. That seemed to work out better.

We're off across I-20 tomorrow, headed for the Carolinas!

Hammock stands, Aunt Gina's birthday and Preschool Road Rage

Gina celebrated her 37th birthday (her birthday was in May, but she was in Korea then, so the American family celebrated this past weekend) - sorry we weren't there to celebrate with you, Gina!

It looks like somebody got a hammock stand, which Xan especially liked. My Dad writes: "Here’s a couple of photos of Xan playing on the hammock stand. Now picture this hammock stand on Joe & Gina’s patio!"



The grandparents also managed to find a cool car for the boys to play with. Dad calls the second photo "Preschool Road Rage."

See the boys ...

... and their latest excursion to Irvine Park for horseback riding, goat grooming and running amuck, on Nephew Brandon's blog... just click on the link to the right...

The three boys in California and my foot-long zucchini ...

Apparently, having all three boys under their roof is exhausting my parents. Mom never takes a nap, but here she is, along with my Dad's emailed comments:


"Jessica:
Here’s a few photos from this week. (one) of them was taken VERY early on Wednesday morning. The boys were told not to get up until 6:30 am but this is what it looked like @ 6am. The next two are of grandma after the boys had gotten up from their nap @ 5pm. They had gone to Irvine Park earlier in the day with Joe, Gina, & Brandon. The boys covered Grandma up and Xan gave her a stuffed toy to sleep with."


As far as Rodney and I on the home front, we have been keeping busy, amazingly enough. I have accepted a summer job with Pen Air Credit Union in their marketing department and I start June 22, after we get back from our road trip to the Carolinas. My garden has begun producing now... so far I have a jalepeno (it was supposed to be an anaheim chile plant, but I have found that some of my veggie plants from Wal-mart were mis-marked), six cherry tomatoes and a foot-long zucchini. Not sure what I am going to do with that, yet...

Will's end of the school year accomplishments ...

... Will broght home a number of certificates and awards his last week of school. He's done very well in first grade:


His report card from Mrs. Perry.


Reading scores - he reads like a third grader.


Citizenship, perfect attendance and A-B honor roll.


Will's class made dioramams of different habitats the last week of school. He chose the desert. Parents donated different items. At the dollar store I found these cool fake cacti and insects.



Last, but not least, the day Mom flew in to Florida to pick up the boys, Will had his closing ceremonies for his baseballl season. He got this medal to commemorate the season.

The boys in California ...

... check out the photos of the boys having fun in California on Nephew Brandon's Blog - click it on the right hand column of this blog.