couldn't resist

Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona.

The Charlotte Observer held a photo contest this summer. I pulled these (along with other breathtaking shots) off the website. The winners will be published in Sunday's paper. These are a few of my favorites. BEAUTIFUL!



Yellowstone National Park. Heart O' the Hills Trail, Olympic National Park. Storm, Emerald Isle, NC. Ammoudi Fishing Village, Santorini, Greece.

i can smell freedom

...because it's friday! :)

i haven't blogged much because i've been busy with work. next friday's the deadline, and there is A LOT to do! i still haven't uploaded my pictures of my new bead work. i'll probably do that tonight, and post them next week..so stay tuned! :) i am in a super good mood..i hope it lasts throughout the day.

weekend preview: my mom is coming to visit tomorrow. she still hasn't found the perfect mob dress and the wedding is 7 weeks away! eek! plus, i'm looking forward to having her all to myself! (well, and bella of course) so tonight, i'll be tidying up (there's not that much to do, thank goodness) and catching up on this week's tv that i missed. tomorrow & sunday afternoon = mom time. sunday evening, i'll be regrouping for another week...weekends are too short!

after a winning start, the pirates are 1-2 after falling behind the tarholes last weekend. saturday, they take on central florida & it's a purple-out game as the team opens up conference play.
U goooooooooo pirates! argh! U

my sister's getting married

In just over 8 weeks, Paige & Paul will be saying "I do."

Here's a photo of the Gladwin women at Saturday's shower.

It's a true showing of our heights because we're all wearing flats.
Just imagine if I'd decided to wear my heels!

a new day...

Ordinarily, I don't post on Mondays because I'm usually bitter the weekend is over, but I'm feeling pretty good today. :)

This past weekend, Bella and I rolled into town Saturday (afternoon) for my sister's bridal shower. It was a lovely afternoon (the food/cupcakes were delish!) and I won the door prize! They set an egg timer and if it went off when Paige was opening your gift you got the prize. It was a bag of coffee (I gave that to my dad), some tea tins (I'll give 'em a shot-not usually a fan of tea) and some glass latte mugs (those are in my dishwasher now). There were some women that Paige cheered with in middle & high school that I hadn't seen in easily, 10 years or so. Apparently, I've grown since they saw me last. ;) It was nice.

Bella stayed home with my dad. We looped her to a tree with a chain & a 25' cable. She didn't like it much..she whimpered and barked a lot. It made me sad, but she likes to wander and when my dad's on the other side of the house painting, that can't happen..especially now that the Wards got a new fluffy puppy (looks like a cotton ball). I think B scared the poo out of her a couple times with her big girl bark. :) I think her Christmas present will be (if I can find an inexpensive one), a remote controlled zap collar so she can learn to stay in the yard. Otherwise, she'll need to stay leashed or inside, in her crate. :/

I had my date Saturday night when I got back into Charlotte. It was..okay. I think he is a great guy and I really like his personality. I don't want to be shallow or vain, because he is cute, but..he's a big guy. Not fat, just big. I've never been attracted to a linebacker...I couldn't even wrap my arms around him to hug him. I don't know. I am planning on making a day trip up to Boone at some point this weekend to see if it's really an issue or if I'm just being me. Ho-hum.......

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon on the couch since the house was clean and my laundry was done. I was in and out of naps, as was B. It was lovely. :)

This week: I have our first Artitudes event at the Mint on Randolph (a follow-up to Charlotte's Fashion Week) Wednesday evening. Thursday evening, I have our Planning & Zoning Board meeting. I have two rezonings going before the Board, and it's my first meeting in over a year! Friday's pay day (yay!) and the first Mint After 5 and the MMC+D rooftop. It'll be my first one too..I'm excited. :)

Sports recap: UNC barely beat UConn (due to an obscure safety rule), State blew Murray State out of the water (but let's be honest..they should've won that game anyways), ECU lost to WVa by 20 pts. Not a good showing for our second game, but after we spanked the Mountaineers last season, I knew they'd be ready. This week, ECU meets the Tarholes. They're 2-0, we're 1-1. We'll see. ...

Hope everyone has a great week.

weekend preview

This weekend, I will be...

1. in Raleigh for my sister's bridal shower on Saturday afternoon;

2. back in Charlotte Saturday night for my date;

3. doing a little cleaning and more organizing (because hopefully next weekend I'll be painting some more).

It's not an exciting list, but that's good after the whirlwind that was last weekend.

Hope everyone has a great weekend & remembers today, and always.

**P.S. ECU heads to West Virginia this weekend..GO PIRATES!!**

question

it's wednesday...instead of making it wordless with a photo, i'd like to pose a question to all the non-single readers out there in blog land.

if you are married or are engaged, how did you know? how did you know that your significant other was in fact, significant? what about them, or what happened, to let you know without a doubt, that this was the person you were going to spend the rest of your life with?

i've posed the question before, to various people i've worked with who were married and the consensus (sp?) is that they "just knew". i'm not sure if i could ever "just know" and with me trekking down the hill towards 30, i'm curious.

how did you know?!

When good girls go bad...

they attack their cousin!

Just kidding...Ramses and Bella had a great play date on Sunday but man! Does she looks scary or what?!

in case you didn't hear...

the pirates pulled out the victory against the mountaineers on saturday!

..and when i say "pulled out," i mean it. ecu seems to always want to give the game away. if there had been 5 more minutes, the result may have been different. but, no matter. state lost, virginia tech lost and east carolina WON! :)

i have just one thing to say....

Loyal & Bold, We are the Purple & Gold.
GO PIRATES!!

It's HERE

I've been waiting since January! :)

I promise not to include all the teams in future posts...

Thursday, September 3
South Carolina @ North Carolina State (7pm, ESPN)
Troy @ Bowling Green
Villanova @ Temple
Coastal Carolina @ Kent State
North Texas @ Ball State (7:30pm, ESPNU)
North Dakota State @ Iowa State
Eastern Kentucky @ Indiana
Utah State @ 19 Utah
16 Oregon @ 14 Boise State (10:15pm, ESPN)

Friday, September 4
Tulsa @ Tulane (8pm, ESPN, C-USA)

Saturday, September 5
Central Arkansas @ Hawaii
Navy @ 6 Ohio State (12pm, ESPN)
Akron @ 9 Penn State
Towson @ Northwestern
Montana State @ Michigan State
Appalachian State @ East Carolina (12pm)
Minnesota @ Syracuse (12pm, ESPN2)
Kentucky @ Miami (OH) (12pm, ESPNU)
Liberty @ West Virginia
Toledo @ Purdue
Northern Iowa @ 22 Iowa
Western Kentucky @ Tennessee
Youngstown State @ Pittsburgh
Northeastern @ Boston College
Nicholls State @ Air Force
Portland State @ Oregon State
Weber State @ Wyoming
San Jose State @ 4 USC
13 Georgia @ 9 Oklahoma State (3:30pm, ABC)
Nevada @ 23 Notre Dame (3:30pm, NBC)
Western Michigan @ Michigan (3:30pm, ABC)
Baylor @ Wake Forest (3:30pm)
Jackson State @ Mississippi State (3:30pm, ESPNU)
Illinois @ Missouri (3:40pm, ESPN, neutral site)
Rice @ UAB (C-USA)
Southern Illinois @ Marshall
Citadel @ 21 North Carolina (6pm)
Middle Tennessee State @ Clemson
William & Mary @ Virginia
Stanford @ Washington State
Charleston Southern @ 1 Florida
Louisiana-Monroe @ 2 Texas
3 Oklahoma @ 20 Brigham Young (7pm, ESPN, neutral site)
Florida Atlantic @ 24 Nebraska
Northern Colorado @ 25 Kansas
Louisiana Tech @ Auburn (7pm, ESPNU)
Missouri State @ Arkansas
Wofford @ South Florida
Richmond @ Duke
Connecticut @ Ohio
New Mexico @ Texas A&M
Northwestern State @ Houston
Northern Illinois @ Wisconsin
Southern University @ Louisiana-Lafayette
Army @ Eastern Michigan
Alcorn State @ Southern Miss
North Dakota @ Texas Tech
Mississippi Valley State @ Arkansas State
Massachusetts @ Kansas State
San Diego State @ UCLA
Indiana State @ Louisville
Western Carolina @ Vanderbilt
Samford @ UCF
5 Alabama @ 7 Virginia Tech (8pm, ABC, neutral site)
Idaho @ New Mexico State
Stephen F. Austin @ Southern Methodist
Central Michigan @ Arizona
Buffalo @ UTEP
Maryland @ 12 California (10pm, ESPN2)
Idaho State @ Arizona State
UC Davis @ Fresno State
Sacramento State @ UNLV
11 LSU @ Washington (10:30pm, ESPN)

Sunday, September 6
8 Mississippi @ Memphis (3:30pm, ESPN)
Colorado State @ Colorado

Monday, September 7
Cincinnati @ Rutgers (4pm, ESPN)
Miami (FL) @ 18 Florida State (8pm, ESPN)

wordless wednesday

:)