Camping at Table Rock

This weekend Harry and I decided to take a camping/hiking trip to Table Rock near Clemson, SC. We drove down Saturday morning and returned Sunday night. We had a wonderful time, despite the cold evening.

Here were are at Lake Oolenoy outside the visitors center.


Our tent on the campsite in Table Rock Park.

After setting up our campsite, Harry and I headed out to hike a bit before it got dark. We hiked the Carrick Creek Trail. Here are some of the pictures from that hike.

Harry crossing Carrick Creek. He didn't fall on this hike (I, however, did... big shock I know).

I fell taking this picture, so enjoy it.

After our hike, we headed back to our campsite. You see our tent off to the left, the picnic table to the right (loaded with our food), and our chairs around the fire pit.

Me around the fire, trying to keep warm.

Mmmm, dinner, along with baked beans. Dad, you'll have to notice we made our own roasting sticks!

The next morning after cleaning up our campsite, we started our hike to Table Rock.


Ahh, isn't it beautiful!
(Click on the picture to see it larger)

Us enjoying the view!

Lake Oolenoy, this time from a distance.

One More Quirk

So, after I wrote my meme I thought of 1 more quirk I should share (this is still Meredith).

7. I can still do the splits! I have amazed all 50 of my students doing this in class. When my dad taught he would get his students attention by jumping over his desk. I get their attention by dropping into the splits. A quote from one of my students was, "I didn't think people that old could do that". Wow, that made me feel good.

Tagged

I was tagged by Martha today. That means I will be posting 6 random thoughts/ habits/ quirks, about me. (This is Meredith) Here it goes...

1. One of my quirks, I have grown to really enjoy watching the news (at 6:30 am and 11:00 pm) and reading the news/celebrity gossip. You will notice that our links of interest include CNN, Google News, Fark, and my newest obsession, Entertainment Weekly. For me, reading the news or star gossip online is so much better than newspapers and magazines (which I do check out in the supermarket) because you don't have magazines to clutter the house up (Harry has enough of those for both of us; sorry honey, but you know it's true).

2. I HAVE to have a clean house. Thanks to my mom, who hated clutter and things out of place. I don't like going to bed with the kitchen/living room a mess. The last 15 minutes of each night, usually while the news is on, I spend cleaning up the house. I put everything in the dishwasher, fold the blanket I was using, put all the pillows on the couch and chair neatly, etc. It bothers me when there are things left out (Martha, we have this in common, again thanks to mom).

3. I love television. I can tell you what I watch each night of the week. I will tell my students not to watch so much television, meanwhile, I watch it way too much myself. The writers strike has been killing me. Harry can tell you that I have complained about it a good bit. Thank goodness there has been The Celebrity Apprentice, and yes, I LOVE The Apprentice. Many people hate the Donald so they won't watch, not me. While I don't agree with many things the Don does, you have to respect all that he has done in his life. (That was like 2 - love of TV and love of The Apprentice).

4. I really enjoy running but I suck at it. I ran all through high school, cross country and track, cross country was a lot better, but I always came in last. I know why I'm not very good, look at me! I don't have a runners body. First, my legs are too short, heck, I'm too short. That's pretty much it. I have to take 2 steps to a normal person's 1. It's not really rocket science. Harry and I run together and he is good enough to wait for me. I love days where it is about 50-70 degrees outside and I can go for a run (yesterday was perfect, 64 and beautiful). I would like to run more, but my knees are shot. If I can get a couple of miles in each day, 4 or 5 times a week, I'm very happy.

5. Hanging out with Harry is the best thing in the world. We can do nothing and I can have a blast. Sometimes we do things separately, like he will play poker with the guys or go to Eddies and I'll hang out with the girls, but I truly love just being with him. I think that makes me truly blessed, I get to spend the rest of my life with a person that makes me really happy.

6. Finally, a pet peeve... I don't like fake people. I avoid them at all costs. My favorite people are the people that don't beat around the bush. They tell you truth, not just what you want to hear. We all know people who are fake. They don't bother some people, they make excuses for them like, "That's just how they are". For me, that's unacceptable. I am a straight shooter. Sometimes that gets me in trouble because people don't always like being told the truth (especially some parents of students in my class), but that's me. One of my favorite sayings is, "let's call a spade a spade." Sometimes people will say that is the northerner in me, but there are plenty of people in the north that are fake; I really think that's just me.

Ok, I think I'm done. It's not very exciting, but I think that's ok. I can only tag a couple of people because Martha tagged a lot of people already. I want to tag Harry, Barb, and Clay (I know Martha already got Karen). Thanks for reading everybody!

Elementary School Dance

Today was a day that children at my school love, and I tolerate. We were supposed to start out the day like a normal Friday; however, today we were to have our Valentine's Day parties. Then, this evening, the school had the first ever Valentine's Day dance. Although Harry and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day (a nice homemade dinner with no cards or presents works for us) I think it is a great holiday for kids. Just remember back to your elementary school days. The excitement of filling out your foil Valentines, creating your Valentine bag, and then reading all your Valentines. What a great day for kids!

This evening, Harry and I treated ourself to the elementary school dance. It was utter chaos! About 400 kindergarten though fifth grade students, full of sugar, dancing like there is no tomorrow (you haven't really lived until you see a group of kindergartens dancing like they are pros). I know I was overwhelmed when I walked in to the dance, so I can't imagine Harry's feelings. As a teacher at the school, the second I walked in the door I was surrounded by kids (and parents) hugging me. When Harry and I finally made our way over to the area of the cafeteria where my fifth graders were dancing, we were immediately surrounded by 15-20 screaming boys and girls trying to hug us all at once. Since it is impossible for 15-20 kids to hug you at once many of them just settled for hugging the kids that were hugging us (Harry likened it to a laying on of hands at church). The kids were all very impressed with Harry's height. Overall, we had a great time. It's wonderful to see kids really enjoying themselves (even if it does overwhelm us at times)!

The Flu and the Grammys

Harry and I have not posted in awhile... this time for a great reason. Last weekend we were both suddenly struck with the flu! Surprisingly, Harry got it first (I think this is surprising because I am the one locked in a room with 50 kids each day). Because of the fever, body aches, and extreme exhaustion, we were unable to post. This also meant that we were unable to enjoy a Superbowl gathering. We had planned to eat fattening nachos and brownies to celebrate the big game, again, that didn't happen.

We decided to make up for our last ruined weekend this weekend by celebrating the Grammys. We cooked our fattening nachos and brownies and settled in to watch the performances. We really enjoyed some of them, Amy Winehouse did a fabulous job despite being in rehab lately. I have to agree with EW.com that stated one of the best things about her performance was the smirk on her face when she sang her song "Rehab". We did enjoy the Beatles Cirque du Soleil performance, Feist (1234 has become one of my favorite songs), The Foo Fighters, and the performance by Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli.

As for the disasters, we thought Brad Paisley's "Ticks" was laughable. This just goes to show why I don't enjoy country music. A song about ticks... how hillbilly. The will.i.am performance was just plain weird. I don't understand how in an auditorium of the most talented musicians in America this guy got to perform tastes of other people's hits. We also didn't understand the Kidd Rock and Keely Smith performance. It left us wondering who canceled last minute.

To see how EW.com graded the performances click here. I will have to say that I agree with most of there grades.

On a sad personal note, over the weekend one of my favorite actors died... Roy Scheider. Every time I think of him I remember Clay and I watching Jaws over and over and over as kids. We have every line memorized (sad, I know). No cause of death has yet been released, but he has been treated for skin cancer for the past few years. You can read about his death by clicking here.

Mmmmmm, The Penguin

Harry and I hate Tuesdays. We feel that Tuesdays really have nothing to offer the work week. Everybody knows Monday is rough; first day back from the weekend, you're tired, overall, it's just going to be yucky, but you get through it. Wednesday is, for lack of a better term, hump day. You are half-way through the week. You know you can make it. Thursdays mean one more day to go; meanwhile, Fridays rock! You've made it. But Tuesdays, what redeeming quality can Tuesdays offer? The answer, my friends, is none!

To help us get through this deplorable day, Harry and I decided to go to the Penguin Drive-In downtown. If you frequently watch "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" on The Food Network you may have seen the Penguin. It was featured last year when the show came to Charlotte because of it's remarkable (greasy) comfort food. After our run, Harry and I loaded up in the Jeep and headed to the Penguin. We got a half order of fried pickles (yes, they fry everything here in the south), 2 single blocks (cheeseburgers), and shoestring onion rings. Delicious, although we completely canceled out any good we did with our run. Oh well, you have to do what you can to get through the worst day of the week.

Thank you, Penguin, thank you!

A Nice Little Saturday (and Sunday)

Yes, Frank-the-Tank uttered this phrase in "Old School" and Harry and I are going to steal it for our next post. Our past weekend was pretty uneventful; however, 17th Most Popular readers demand more posts, so we are trying to meet this demand.

We started out our Friday with a little karaoke and bowling... a stellar combo! We did not sing, but every wana-be country star in the Lake Norman area did. You have to love it when amatures sing "Red Neck Woman". Classy. I amazed the bowling alley with a 61 my first round. I really stepped it up my second game and bowled an 82. I lost the first game and Harry lost the second (there were 3 other people, we are both just that bad). Clay and Karen, you leaguers would kill us!

Our bowling hero... Ernie McCracken from Kingpin.
Reminds you of Harry, right?

On Saturday Harry began working on his next wood-working project. He is making us a new desk for the office. You can see our Pottery Barn model.


The only difference would be our desk will have 2 file drawers on the left (and no smaller drawers). It is coming along well and should be complete soon. We'll keep you posted.

Yesterday I worked on my resume' for a political office... I shredded documents! Oh, I know, the excitement never stops for us Thompsons. Harry continued to work on his project. Despite this lack of activity, we are still both exhausted today. I guess it's just our awesome lives that keep us going.

As the good times keep rolling here, we'll keep you posted!

The Office Complete!

Today, we took all the tape off the trim in the office, loaded all the furniture back in, and are ready to share the finished painted product. Check it out... the room looks fabulous!

The view from the door again. I know, it's wonderful.

The futon, again, set against a blue wall. Ohh, ahh!

All I have to say is WOW! Look how incredible!
(Yes, I did clean up the corner we don't speak of, it is much more organized now.)

Now, those of you that complain that we don't post enough, are you happy? I mean, just imagine how empty your life would be without seeing the before and after pictures of our office this weekend. We get it, our lives are just so awesome you have to see what we do every weekend. We will try to keep up the posting; but with all this excitement, you can see how we sometimes run out of time! :)

Snowy Day and Painting

Yesterday, the Carolinas got snow again. Unfortunately, the snow didn't stick. It did, however, ruin our plans to go hiking. So, Harry and I decided to paint the office (no, not scenes from the show, The Office, but our office) the last unpainted room in our house. So far, we don't have any after pictures, but I will post some later today. Here is what the room looked like before we painted.

The view from the doorway. Yes, it is very tan.


Another view of the room with our fawesome futon taking center stage.


This is the corner I don't speak of. It is cluttered and unorganized. Hopefully it will look better when we load everything back in.

I would also like to show everybody that it did, in fact, snow here yesterday. I even got an email from our church saying that the 8:45 service and the 9:45 Sunday School is canceled today, due to icy roads. Give me a break.

A picture taken from the office window. (The snowman still stands, although it looks pathetic.)


The same view this morning. DANGER! Ice is clearly taking over the road. (Insert sarcasm here)

The Idiot or The Tiger?

So I was surfing the internet, I mean, working today and I came across this article. Turns out that the teenagers were in fact taunting Tatiana, the siberian tiger at the SF zoo that attacked (naturally selected?) a California moron on Christmas day. It really irritates me that they killed the tiger after the "attack"...after all, Siberian tigers are a critically endangered species, but the world is overflowing with idiots. I'm just a little upset Tatiana wasn't able to peer pressure a couple of her cellmates into jumping out to take care of the guy's friends.

This kind of reminds me of another ignorant human-animal story. A couple of years ago, one of the local parks in Charlotte decided that the Canadian geese (and their respective droppings) were making the park unpleasant for visitors. Rather than maybe saying "Hey geese, sorry we destroyed your natural habitat with our construction projects", we apparently decided that the best course of action would be to try to persuade the geese to leave (I'm not really sure they expected them to go...). A number of methods were attempted: dogs; probably some signs...because you know, geese can read; but the final solution (Hitler pun not really intended) was a series of lasers to discourage the geese from landing. Lasers. REALLY?

I'm really suprised the animal kingdom hasn't staged a meeting of the minds (like this scene from Bambi) to develop a full fledged attack on the idiot humans...or maybe they have?


Since we're being all nature-conscious today, I thought I'd recycle a picture used in a previous blog post, from our trip to Grandfather Mountain. At the time, we thought this sign was humorous, but it turns out that for some people, I guess you can't rely on common sense. Oh well. That's all for now.

Let it Snow, Then Rain, Then Freeze!

Last night we got snow!!!! Yea! Wonderful, beautiful snow. It was not a lot of snow, only about 2 inches, but that was enough to cancel school. (Yes northern readers, school was canceled for 2 inches of snow.)

I got some pictures of the snow before I left for school (teacher work-day). Enjoy!

The view from our kitchen. Our little peach tree is in the foreground and the street beside our house is in the background.


The view from our front porch. (Notice our Clemson Flag proudly displayed.)

Once I got home from school I took some more pictures. Much of the snow has melted because it is now raining. The weather forecasters are predicting ice tonight.

This picture was taken from the sidewalk next to our house. This road leads back to the community pool.


Our next door neighbors created a snowman. Very cute!


The front of our house.


Finally, this picture could only be taken in the south. Our front garden is planted with pansies each winter. They will actually live all winter long, and get quite large. I love pictures of them covered in snow because this would never happen in Ohio. The pansies would have died long ago.

O-H-I-O

Today must be Ohio day. I got 2 Ohio emails today. Now, I have gotten both of these before, but many of you not from Ohio may never see them; so I decided to post them for all to enjoy! Thanks Barb and Joanne for sending them.

THE CREATION OF OHIO

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Heaven, God was missing for six days.

Eventually, Michael the archangel found him, resting on the seventh day. He inquired of God, "Where have you been?"

God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look Michael, look what I've made."

Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?"

"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put Life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance."

"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.

God explained, pointing to different parts of earth, "For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth while southern Europe is going to be poor; the Middle East over there will be a hot spot. Over here I've placed a continent of white people and over there is a continent of black people," God continued, pointing to different countries. "This one will be extremely hot and arid while this one will be very cold and covered in ice.

The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a large land mass and said, " What's that one?"

"Ah," said God. "That's Ohio , the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful lakes, rivers, sunsets and rolling hills. The people from Ohio are going to be modest, intelligent and humorous and they are going to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable, hard working and high achieving, and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace."

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then proclaimed, "What about balance, God?" "You said there would be balance!"

God replied wisely, "Wait until you see the idiots I'm putting around them in West Virginia, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Kentucky!

Jeff Foxworthy on Ohio

You might be from Ohio (pronounced O-hi-uh), if:

• You think all Pro football teams are supposed to wear orange!
• You know all the 4 seasons: winter, still winter, almost winter and construction.
• You live less than 30 miles from some college or university.
• You know what a buckeye really is, and have a recipe for candied ones.
• 'Toward the lake' means 'north' and 'toward the river' means 'south.'
• You know if other Ohioans are from southern or northern Ohio as soon as they open their mouths.
• You can spell words like Cuyahoga, Olentangy, Bellefontaine, Tuscarawas, Wapakoneta and you know which letter is doubled in Cincinnati .
• 'Vacation! ' means spending a day at Cedar Point in the summer and deer hunting in the fall.
• You measure distance in minutes.
• Your school classes were canceled because of cold.
• Your school classes were canceled because of heat.
• You've had to switch from 'heat' to 'A/C' in the same day. (Or, if you have no A/C! - added by Meredith)
  
• You know what should be knee-high by the Fourth of July.
• You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. For example: 'Where's my coat at?'
• You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
• You think of the major four food groups as corn, pork, beer, and Jell-O salad with marshmallows.
• You carry jumper cables in your car.
• You know what 'pop' is.
• You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
• Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow. (Amen!)
• You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and a flannel nightgown.
• The local paper covers national and international headlines on one page but requires six pages for sports.

Yes, We are Boring

You may have noticed that there have not been any posts in awhile. It appears that we missed the entire Christmas season. Actually, we did not. We did, however, spend the holiday with my (Meredith's) family. That is going to be my excuse for not posting... we weren't home. After we returned to Charlotte we went to movies, shopped, and spent time with Harry's family. Yes, we are boring.



So, what are we up to? Nothing! Harry works, I work, and on weekends we play. This past weekend we went to our friend Kevin's birthday party at the Forum. It was a blast. Kevin had rented out the VIP lounge. We really enjoyed helping Kevin celebrate his 35th birthday.

Now, I am trying out some new recipes from some of my Christmas cookbooks. Tonight, home-made tomato soup. Yummy.


The tomatoes stewing


The completed soup

See, I told you we were boring. If you want to check out another couple that thinks they are boring you can see Clay and Karen's blog. In their Monday, January 14th post they declared that they had "become that boring couple we feared". To them I say, join the club! :-) We love our boring life, even if it isn't that exciting for others to read about or for us to write about.

Crowders Mountain Trip

Today, Harry and I awoke out of our turkey coma and decided to take a hiking trip to Crowders Mountain State Park. We hiked a little more than 5 miles up to the top of Crowders Mountain and back. We had a fabulous time and got some great pictures, even though many of the leaves had already dropped on the mountain due to the drought.


Us on the way up.



Getting close to the summit.








Views from the summit.



We had a great time on our hike. We even managed to get a Christmas card picture; however, we did not post it... stay tuned to your mailbox for the chosen picture!

Turkey Day

It truly was a "turkey day" for Harry and I this Thanksgiving. We not only hosted Thanksgiving dinner again this year but ran in the 2nd annual Huntersville Turkey Trot. Our day began at 7:30 when Harry and left for the Turkey Trot. The event hosted a half marathon, 10K, and a 5K. As you can imagine, Harry and I ran the 5K. We did pretty well, Harry ran the 5K in 28:12. I finished the 5K in 28:23. We felt really good during the run, and felt even better when we returned home and could eat guilt free for the rest of the day.



After our early morning run Harry and I began to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. Mom and Dad came in for the event on Tuesday so they were also here to help dinner preparations. Martha, Ed, Madison, and Luke also were here Thanksgiving morning, as part of a pit stop on their way to visit Ed's parents in Knoxville. Harry's Mom, Dad, and sister Laura came up in the evening for our 6:00 dinner. We had a great time, but didn't manage to get any pictures (a first for us). We hope your Thanksgiving was as fun and filling as ours!

Happy Halloween!!

This year Harry and I decided to carve a Clemson pumpkin. I even took it to school to be judged in the pumpkin carving contest (I'll find out if it won anything tomorrow). I hope all you Clemson fans enjoy the pumpkin!



Go Tigers!!!

More Thompson Reunion Pictures

John Donald (Harry's cousin-in-law) took a lot of pictures this weekend at the reunion and has shared them online. Click here to see them!

Clemson vs. Central Michigan

Last weekend Harry, Joanne, Ashley, and I made the trip from Charlotte to Clemson for homecoming. We got up at 4:45am and left just after 5:30 so we could get there in enough time to tailgate and go downtown. We had a great time and the best thing of all was Clemson won 70-14. Go Tigers!


Our view of the game.



Harry, Ashley, and Joanne



Harry and I

Thompson Family Reunion 2007

This past weekend Harry and I attended the annual Thompson Family Reunion held in south Charlotte. We had a blast... literally.

When we first arrived on Friday night we were greeted with a "bang". We thought some of the Thompson's, in their zealous to reunite, had run into another Thompson. As it turns out a passerby hit a deer. It was then decided that Harry would be the perfect candidate to put the deer out of its misery; we don't know who made this decision or how it was made, but Harry did the deed. It was very sad and he felt really bad shooting an injured doe, but we both know it was the right thing to do. After that incident, the whole evening seemed a little down.

We continued the fun the next day with breakfast and the pig roast. The men chopped the pigs around 4:00 while the ladies enjoyed a good old fashion English Tea Party; although none of us were really dressed for it. Last night we finished the reunion up with a delicious BBQ dinner and a Clemson victory!!! What a great weekend!