Eye Candy.......

for the water lovers eyes!

Yesterday we attended the SW Va Boat Show in Roanoke.

This is our 3rd year attending this same show.

This year, however, wasn't near as much fun to me

as the previous two were.

The past two years I was in hot pursuit of a new boat!

We purchased an incredibly nice used boat in Feb 2009

so this trip was just for us to look without that

wonderful anticipation of hoping to own one of these babies!

Here is our boat. It is wonderful! We all love it.

The best part is it's paid for!! woowooo
It's not shiny and doesn't have that new boat smell anymore like all these new babies!


But just take a gander at that price tag! That was kinda a mid line pricing too!
So see we were just dreaming yesterday.


They sure are fun to look at too.

There was a Cutco knife booth there with a very pushy salesman.

Not the gentleman shown in the picture, he was just an innocent onlooker too.

Cuuuuuuttttteeeeeee!! With a capital "C"
These things scare the you know what out of me on the water.

It seems you have to have a Crazy degree to be able to own one of these around our parts.

It's a miracle there are no more deaths than it really is on these things each summer.

I have seen them flipped and flopped and people thrown from them but they seem to just bounce around drink a few more beers and forget about it!!

Gorgeous boat here. I bet this is just what my boat looked like in the showroom.

Here is my captain trying one on for size.....it fits!

He really liked this part of this boat but he didn't really like this picture.

I'll teach him to be goofy when I ask him to smile!!

hahahahaha.....there is a story here...

We go to the boat show each year with some of our boating friends, Jim and Lori.

Lori is a teeny teeny tiny thing but she is a bulldog when it comes to saving money and searching for bargains and freebies. She has guts and she will negotiate a deal with anyone.

They didn't need to negotiate a deal on a new boat because they have a ship bigger than anything that was at this show. When we are at the lake we look like we are riding in a dingy along side the cruise ship!!

anyway...

Lori was trying to negotiate a deal with this rep for a free beach ball for her puppy to play with at home. No no no without children with us the answer was no.

We ended up getting free tshirts if we would put them on and wear them around for the rest of the show and if we would both blow up a beach ball for her display she would give us both a beach ball to take home!! She took our picture and said it just may end up in the local newspaper! Of course I needed a picture of us in our Bigbird shirts too. The best part was when Danny and Jim were on down the aisle looking back and wondering what sorta contest we had gotten ourselves into!! The looks on their faces were priceless.

We had to make a pit stop by Super Shoes on the way down because Lori had to make a return. While we were there the boys decided that they needed some new Carhartt (BOGO free sale) and then they wanted a picture of them sporting there new Carhartt at the boat show.

..................kids!!

These guys are so much fun to be around.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at their home last year.

and here is that home......it is a mansion......my whole house wouldn't fill up their great room.

She has an Amish handmade table that seats 22 in her diningroom.

I felt like I was dining at the White House!!
[This picture does not show the views from their house but it is perched high up on a mountaintop. She feeds the deer passionately and has many that are in her yard almost all day long. Lucky deer is all I can say. With all the snow on the ground and the cold they are starving out this year. We have a coon and a possum that are in our catfood bowl each day now.

Remember I am married to the great white coonhunter too!!]

These are some of the hardest working people I have ever met.

They work hard so they can have nice toys like their big boat and his Corvette!!

It was a well needed get a way for all four of us.

Reminded us that boating season is only a few months away.

I sure hope the snow melts off the boat ramp first.

Our day ended with a great Mexican dinner last night.

What fun!!

A starry night boat ride!

Saturday was the Summer Festival at Claytor Lake State Park that I had mentioned previously. We have only been on this lake one time, and it was just in a cove near the marina that we put in at, so we knew NOTHING about it. We put in way down the lake from the festivities this time and ventured down to find the party.Only because we hadn't a clue where we were going. The map of the lake was at home in my office!! OMG the lake was beautiful!!!!
Soooooo many sailboats! I love sailboats!! There are never any sailboats on our other lake :-(

Look at him. He was astonished with the townhouses. Look at that jawdrop LOL!! He turned around and told me that we should sell both houses and just buy one of those and stay on the lake all the time. Allright by me but not in a townhouse. I picked out my piece of property on the lake that already has my big red barn on it!!! BEAUTIFUL!!! I'll have to hunt the pic.


This was a great way to kill some time waiting for the sun to go down for the fireworks to begin. We met up with some friends with a YACHT!! and we tied up with them to watch the fireworks. This is my land behind us ;-) hahaha....... what's not so funny is it was a loooooooong way down the lake from where we launched our boat. Did you know it's dark when you have fireworks? Think about it!!

Yep it's pretty dark by now. Let me tell ya now, this was the very best fireworks I have ever seen!! The sky was ablaze with continuous color and tricks I have never seen. We all loved it. Then suddenly no skylights. Only a little red, a little green and little bitty white light on a zillion boats trying to find their way in the dark. Well a bunch of the folks knew where they were or could really see in the dark. We couldn't. I have to hand it to Captain Danny because he just navigated his way in the dark on a strange lake and had us loaded in one hour and on our way home. We really had some tired little pups with us. 12 hours on the lake boating, swimming and taking in the festivities at the park. Whew we were all tired. We all loved it, even boating in the dark!!



Check out all the sailboats on this video!

One more trip around the sun, boating adventure and NO PATIENCE!!!

Well, where do I begin?

I guess it begins with a tiny little blurb about my birthday being yesterday. I would not mention it due to the fact that I have had too many of them in the past and that story has gotten old!!! Not really, I am so thankful for the fact that I am able to continue having them so I can see more of my lovely family and friends and be able to do the things that bring me joy!! Thank you God for letting me turn 47! I LOOOOOVE MY LIFE!!!!

Next the big boating story! Sunday afternoon was gorgeous (NOT RAINING FOR ONCE) so we decided to hit the lake. This was Leslies first trip on the new boat, probably her last one!
Look at it go! The wind in our hair. Smooth sailing!

Emma loves the new boat cause she loves to go fast!! The faster the better for her!!

Danny on the other hand, likes it real slow. He enjoyed a nap while the kids were in the water. That was until they splashed him, I am not sure where they got the idea to do so ;-)..........So anyway after the nap we were going to cruise the lake for a bit......got 5 miles down the lake from the truck and BAM!! The hub in the propellor came out so we were only able to barely putter back to the truck. Colton napped the whole way back. I nearly cried. I would have had we not had enough propeller action to keep us moving at least at a snails pace! Better than rowing right? We only had to be pulled about 40 feet by another boat, and we had help getting it pulled up on the trailer too. We now have a new prop on the boat and the old one repaired and in the boat for a spare.
We had to get the boat fixed this week cause we are all anxiously awaiting a Summer Festival this Saturday at Claytor Lake State Park. There will be festivities all day and then at dark fireworks on the lake. A big barge sits in the middle of the lake and there are about 100 boats around it to watch. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

My birthday gift!! My new microwave. The other one died over a month ago. This one matches, in color only, my fridge and dishwasher. ...........drum roll Please!..........the best part is I get the matching range too!! It is on it's way to me but I just found out it is to be here on Tuesday. I have no patience when it comes to things like this. When I buy something I want it right then. My other appliances are Whirlpool. I did my consumer research junk and got the best on the market at the time, a couple years ago. I don't understand how they came to that conclusion that they were the best because they are horrible. I have never liked them from day one. I will replace them soon. This time I did no research and bought what I wanted due to the bells and whistles that the item had that matched my needs. I can't trust a bunch of overpaid geeks telling me what I should buy.

The range and microwave are Samsung. The microwave is very basic, I don't do much microing anyway. The range however.........another drum roll please.......is a smooth top 5 burner, CONVECTION RANGE with the hidden element, has a warming drawer and it is a steam clean!!!!! OMG I can't hardly wait. I will have to learn how to cook all over again with convection. I will probably burn everything and end up cooking on my wood cookstove!!!!!! LOL!! I burn everything on it too ;-)

I have salesman bred into me I guess!!

My father was a car salesman and I have always thought I could do that too. Now I really think I can. You see, I really really wanted a new bigger boat as you read in an earlier post. The only way my dh would even consider looking at a new boat was for me to sell some of my toys that I already have.

Such as this great popup camper that has hardly been used.

And 'Ole Faithful' our small but great boat that has been a blast for the past 2 summers.

And What do ya know!! I did it. Here it is!


Our new .......new to us that is.....1998 Bayliner Rendevouz deck boat!!!

~~

Yes I sure did it. When dh gave me the ultimatum I jumped on it and posted both items to Craigslist and in 20 minutes....not a typo ....20 minutes later the camper sold and in a few days the boat was sold and picked up in just over a week. The gentleman that bought the boat traveled 5 hours one way for it because he loves classic Checkmate boats and wanted this for he and his family. I really wish him at least half the fun that our family has had on this boat.

~~
So we were able to obtain our new upgraded boat with only a little bit of difference in money. Frugal boat shopping huh??? It is 14 years newer and soooooo much bigger (21 foot) than our other boat. We are both very excited and apprehensive about our maiden voyage with this ship!!! I am sure my skipper will be just fine on the water. We do have to wait a couple weeks for our paperwork to come in from Richmond. The guy who bought ours is in NC and he got his paperwork done the next morning and is ready to hit the water.....NO FAIR..

We have spent a lot of time sitting in it in the driveway though. Stereo turned up, sitting in different seats and we even put the bimimi top up last evening just for effect!!!! We both love it. He is really excited because it is tricked up for fishing with all the boy toys. I guess it is OK that we can't run it yet because I have been so sick with some sort of URI that is getting the best of me. I have had it for about 4 weeks and just finished one round of antibiotics and I am worse today then ever!!
~~

Have a blessed day!
Becky

Snow bound but dreaming of summer

(The pic above is a friend of ours that was neighbor kid who grew up beside us and we ran into him at the lake last summer and pulled him and his son on the tube. The area of the lake behind him where the kids are playing is called Ryan's Branch and we have spent some great summer afternoons playing in the water there most of my and my childrens life. It is about 2 miles from our land.)

Now back to reality!!

We are setting here under about 5" or maybe more of snow and are expecting it to snow thru 11 AM tomorrow. I am not liking this either. You see I live in the boonies and I work an hour away in the town of Blacksburg Va where the roads are always cleared early. The roads out my way, at least half of my commute in are always covered until the last thing. So I am expected to be at work no matter what kind of weather we have here. Most all the rest of the staff live close by the office and can be there no matter what. I am praying that they will close the office tomorrow so I won't be in trouble.

I know that winter is almost over even though it doesn't look that way. (I am sitting here listening to the sleet beat down on my metal roof as I type.) DH and I took in the Roanoke Valley Boat Show yesterday along with some friends. The troubled economy was evident at the show too. The amount of vendors were about half as many as last year and the crowd was very slim, of course it was raining buckets of nearly frozen precipt all day. It is hard to get in to boating with frigid nasty weather.

I was into it though. It is in my blood I guess, being raised in a boating family. DH however loves to boat and fish and look at the new boats but boy that is it. He draws the line at purchasing a new/newer boat. He would really like to have a bigger boat for all the family to be able to ride together (instead of looking like a refugee boat loaded down ;-) but I think he is waiting for someone to give it to us. I found a great deck boat on Craigslist and at first he was OK with calling about it and as the day went on he started talking about his usual thing that he brings up when ever I want to spend any money........the undercarraige for his bulldozer needs to be replaced. I have heard this so many times that I am sick of it. Enough already.

You see I am not that much of a spendthrift that I would not allow him to spend the $12,000.00 + on this because that would be obsurd. You see he brings this up to make me feel guilty and change my mind about the purchase that I am wanting to make and agree that he should just go ahead and get this taken care of........then in about a week or two we are talking and he says that he doesn't feel that it will cost him 12K that he can do it cheaper and then in another week he says it doesn't need to be done for a long time......3 weeks he says "Well I am not using it that much anyway so it will last forever the way it is." Why does he do this to me?? I guess I will will just have to go find the boat that I want purchase it and bring it home and show him. I told him today that was my plan so he will be wondering when he will come home to a newer pontoon or deck boat. That's OK I can play mind games too!!!!

Wet and Smoky Sunday

Well we tried yet again today to have an enjoyable sunny Sunday afternoon on the lake but no such luck. As soon as we launched the boat a huge cloud came over and we knew if we were to get any swimming done it better be done soon. As soon as everyone but me had gotten in the water the rain started coming down. So back in the boat.
And off we go down the lake trying to outrun the storm. Emma loves going fast so the wind is in her hair!!
OK for another quick dip!! He is such a little fish!!
Then Katie Barr The Door the sky opened up and we ran for shelter under Union Bridge, just around the cove from where our truck and trailer was but it was raining too hard to try to get there until the rain let up a little.
The boat would turn around and around and each of us would get our turn getting drenched by the steady stream of water coming off the bridge above us. We felt like we were on a water ride at Carrowinds that turns certain riders into the streams of water and some of the riders stay dry!!

We did however wait out the storm and the sun came back out for about 30 minutes of swimming and then another downpour. We had stopped by our land that is 2 miles from the lake, and had a picnic lunch on our picnic table by our camper and then went back by there and ate again on the way home. Good times!!!!

We made it home and backed the boat in to the driveway and was getting ready to open the truck door to get out and I think all of us noticed at the same exact time that the boat motor was ON FIRE!!! Well Danny may have been very tired but he was able to hurdle over the trailer and get to the motor asap and get the cover off and get it out immediately before much damage was done. Some of the wiring had caught on fire and hopefully after the wires are replaced we won't find any further damage. The boat had ran better today than it ever did and Danny was so happy with that. I was afraid we had had our last attempt at a sunny boat ride today when I saw the smoke!!

My first trip to "THE POND"

I usually pull the boat, haul the feed and hay, camping supplies and pull the camper around!
Well Dad had a great idea one afternoon that he needed to put me in the FISHPOND...what?...to make sure I would crank when I got him on the lake this summer......OK!

That is it was OK until he found out that I had NO GAS and I WAS STUCK...... HELP!...GET ME OUT OF HERE!!! I HEARD THE STORIES ABOUT THE MUD TURTLES....I KNOW THEY BITE!.....AND OMG THERE ARE CATFISH IN HERE....GET ME OUT! ...HELP MA!!!!!!

DAD DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE IS DOING!!

HOLD ON SON I'LL SAVE YOU!! HAVE NO FEAR WONDERBOY IS HERE!!
WONDERBOY WHO HAS LOT'S OF BIG BOY TOYS THAT IS!! GOOD THING THE SKYLIFT WAS HERE SON OR YOU MAY HAVE BEEN A GONER!!All gased up and fired right up like a Chevy!! Now for the pond aeriation....I'll scare those big ugly white catfish!!! They don't know who they are messing with!! OK Wonderboy anytime now.. here comes a bluegill and look at all those Crappie...OH CRAP!! ...oh Wonderboy do you hear me??... anyone?...