Lets chit chat, shall we?

Are you wondering what this photo is? Well it's a photo I took while my son and I were in North Carolina. It's a mural that was painted on a side of a building. I took a double take when I first saw it, made a U-turn as fast as I could and whipped into the parking lot to snap a few photos, to show all my blogger friends.

One thing I discovered in Cary, North Carolina, there are no emergency lanes, or no where to pull over like a shoulder on the road, nope, didn't see one as I drove past darling , pretty as could be houses. I won't even talk about when we went to Duke University, couldn't find a parking anywhere or the University of North Carolina, same thing, NO parking spaces, no where to pull over to walk the campus or to take pictures. You see, my son Michael who is 13 years old, likes to look at colleges, we do alot of travelling to different states for baseball. Whatever state we are in, we find the university to take a look, to do a little sightseeing around the campus.

So, the only pictures I have to share with you are the murals from two different buildings. I'm sure if these darling houses were built after Blogs were discovered, I'm sure that along the roads there would be little turn off lanes for picture taking with a sign that would read something like this: "Turn off lane for taking pictures for blogs."

I don't want you to like that I'm here to bad mouth North Carolina because it's a pretty state with lush green landscaping all around, huge trees with breath taking views, I just wish I had some pictures to show you.

Since I've been back from my trip, I have come to the realization that I need to slow down while driving. I've always been the dare devil on the road, driving just a little faster than the posted speed limit....just a little. The other day on my way to work at 5:30am, listening to my favorite radio channel, I looked in my rear view mirror and what do I see, yep, flashing red lights. I pull over to the right so the police car can pass me and get to where they were going but the car pulled up right behind me. Humm, I thought, what did I do? The nice police officer informed me that I was driving way faster that the posted speed limit. He informed me what the posted speed limit was and told me how fast I was going. Only 11 miles over the posted speed limit (I thought to myself, why is that considered speeding). We had a lovely conversation and I drove away without a ticket, yippeee! I considered my self lucky and since then, I'm driving the posted speed limit, well, most of the time.

I seem to drive just a little over the posted speed limit on my way home from work. So before I got off of work today, my son called and asked if I could stop off at Starbucks and get him and my youngest son their favorite frappuccino drink. I get their Starbucks request, come home for about 15 minutes, then it's off to physical therapy for my son. After physical therapy, went home and by now my husband is home from work. I'm home for about another 15 minutes and then my husband and I go grocery shopping.

With two growing boys, we buy alot of food! An hour and half in the grocery store, we head home. Unload the car, put the groceries away, fix dinner, clean the kitchen, make sure home work is done, tell the kids three times, "its time for bed" (they swear they didn't hear me the first two times).

With the house all nice and quiet, I can enjoy some blog time.

I have a lingering thought. Am I the only person who looks at the key board when typing? I thought about that today. Is it just me or are there others who do the same thing......please let there be others!

I'll be posting again real soon.

Make it a great week, Janice

Our Trip to Cary, North Carolina

Michael and I had a great time while we were in Cary, North Carolina.  As stated in a previous post, we were there as my son Michael who is 13 years old was trying out for the USA International Baseball team.  This was the second  round of tryouts. This was more of a showcase than a tournament.  Sure the kids played baseball games, each team played four games.  The games were played so the scouts could see the abilities of each player.  The ages were 14-17 years old, my son being one of the youngest kids there.

The best of the best baseball players were there so the games were really good!!  Michael's name was on the scouts list as one of the players to watch out for.  Michael did what he knows best and played his best up until the last game that was played on Sunday.  Michael was in the bull pen warming up with his pitching as he was going to pitch the next inning.  As he was in the bull pen, he "tweeked" his back and could barley move.  He told his coach what happened and Michael was pulled from the pitching position (the scouts wanted to see him pitch one more time).  Michael was next to bat and he ripped the ball up the gap between first and second base.  He could barley run up the first base line to get to first base, he was in severve pain!  He got out at first and everyone could see the awful pain he was in even the scouts.

(This is Michael #57, 5'9 tall, 180 pounds, not an ounce of fat on his body!)

Michael was having back pain before we left, he's  had it for about two months now.  We've been to his sports docotor and many tests have been run to figure out what is causing his back to "tweek" (it stiffens up).  All the tests have come back negative.  He's been going to physical therapy 2 times a week and doing his exercises at home.  His doctor said he may be going through another growth spurt which could be causing the problem (humm, not to sure I agree with that).

My husband received a call today from the one of the coaches who will be coaching the USA International Team.  He said that  he was really impressed with Michael and was one of the best kids out there in the showcase and  Michael was their number one pick but  due to the fact that  Michael had gotten injuried, he is the first alternate on the team.  Which means he didn't make the team per say.  Each team consists of 24 players.  If one of the kids backs out then Michael will be on the team. 
I have to say, that my husband and I are not upset about the news.  We would rather concentrate on Michael getting better than him playing on the baseball team (although Michael doesn't see it that way).  Plus if Michael made the team he would have to miss 10 days of school, yep 10 days, that's a whole lot of school to miss!!  Michael is still young and has a long baseball career ahead of him.  He has been gifted with the most amazing talent and athletic ability, these things can't be taught, you either have it or you don't, and Michael certainly has it!!
Thank-you all for reading as I bragged about my son, we are so proud of all his accomplishments and love him to pieces!!

Make it a great day, Janice

I have a new look

Look what happened to my blog when I was away in North Carolina. Yep, My blog got a new look and I absolutely LOVE it! I owe it all to my creative, fabulous friend Kristen. I swear, there's nothing that girl can't do!

Let's see, just for starters, she's an author(not yet published, it's only a matter of time before that happens), a singer, an inventor, a mother of two children, a wife, works full time (we sit right next to each other at work), a Harley Davidson motor cycle rider, the ultimate, loyal Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Kristen also owns and operates several power tools, and built an entertainment center for her lovely home, she built it in a day! This is just a very small listing of her many talents.

Kristen has impeccable taste in interior design, you should see her beautiful home. Nothing is ever out of place and you will never find any dust settling on her furniture, trust me on this, I've looked, :)).

Kristen's new adventure is creating amazing designs for blogs and has a new blog called glamjunkgirl. Looking for a new, unique design for your blog, visit Kristen's blog, she's even opened her own etsy store where you can find several already made blog designs. If your looking for a one of kind design, Kristen can help you with that as well as there is no limit to her creative ability.

My son and I got home, early this morning. Our plane got delayed in Atlantic City due to the terrible thunder storm they had last night, 22 inches of rain.

I'll post more about our trip tomorrow. It's time to unpack and do loads of laundry!

Make it a great day, Janice

My Mini HP & Cary, North Carolina

Wednesday morning my oldest son (Michael, age 13) and I fly out to Cary, North Carolina and will return home Sunday evening. This is the second round of tryouts for the USA Baseball National Team. I won't go into all the details just in case your not a baseball or sports fan. But this is huge and a honor that my son made the first tryout which was in California. If he makes this second round of tryouts, then we'll be off to Tampa Florida for the third and final round which will be held the second week in October. If Michael makes the third round then they will immediately fly to Ecuador, South America where they will play baseball for 10 days, playing against different teams. Not every baseball player can tryout for this team. You have to be the best of the best and be invited to attend.

With all of this traveling and being away from home for extended periods of time, my husband and I decided to get a Mini HP from Verizon. I have to stay connected don't ya know, hahaha, and keep up with my blog. The Mini HP is a mini laptop, just perfect for what I need it for.

I've wanted a laptop for such a long time and I'm so excited to finally have one!

Ohh, can't you see my fingers just typing away on these big nice keys! Yep, love everything about it!
I bought a nice carrying case for it with lots of pockets, this will be a carry on for the plane ride.

I hope to post on my blog while I'm there and share my trip with you. Not sure how much time I will have to travel around as this trip isn't about me, haha. I've never been to Cary, North Carolina, have you?

Ok, I just had to have some pretty picture on this post,:))

I found some antique shops while I was online looking for things to do in North Carolina and I do plan on stopping at them.

If any of you know of any fabulous places to see or things to do, please leave a comment on my post, I'm open to any suggestions.

Time to double check all the luggage (again) to make sure everything is packed.

I'll be posting real soon, Janice

Mail Delivery

In August, Elyse at the Cottage had a "giveaway" to celebrate the first birthday of her blog, calling it a Blogthday. Since I stalk, I mean visit her blog on a daily basis, I decided to enter in the giveaway, and to my lucky surprise I won!

This is what I found inside the box.

A darling handwritten congratulations note.

A French themed glittered canvas print

&.......

Five adorable, pretty embellished clothespins,

L O V E them!

Fairy Dust, pink and yellow chicks, clown pick, an assortment of pretty millinery flowers, stems/picks and look at these,

I'm gonna put all of this in a pretty little vintage glass jar and display it in my craft room.

Thanks so much Elyse, I loved winning your "giveaway"

Stop by the Cottage and check out Elyse's sweet blog.

Make it a great day, Janice

It's Chippy Paint Fridays, The final episode

It's Chippy Paint Fridays over here at the Faded Cottage. This is the 11th and final episode. When I originally started this segment, I planned on running it for 8 Fridays but when the 9th and 10th Fridays rolled around, I couldn't resist showing you another vintage item that had chippy paint on it.

To conclude this episode, I am featuring my chippy paint cement dog, named Shabby Dog. As you can see, I have it pictured on the right side of my blog but here's another look.

I rescued her from a estate sale I went to months ago. She was sitting outside in the back yard just calling out for some attention, she didn't want to be left behind. I grabbed her and took her home with me and now she sits proudly in our cottage style formal living room.

She looked like this when I bought her but she needed a little something, I think the pink hat fits her just fine, makes her look a little more prim and proper.

Yep, Shabby dog loves to show off her cute tush and wiggle her tail at you.

And that gorgeous face will melt your heart every time!

A great big thank-you goes out to Mary at marysteacottage
and

Ana at apetitecottage

who had joined me for the 8th episode of Chippy Paint Fridays. Check out their lovely blogs when you get the chance, their blogs are super sweet and they are tooo!!

I hope you all enjoyed Chippy Paint Fridays as much as I enjoyed sharing them with you:))

Have a safe and Happy Labor Day weekend, Janice

PS, I just found out that Mary at marysteacottage as joined in for the final episode of Chippy Paint Fridays, make sure you head over to her blog to what she is featuring, it's too cute.!