The Embers - Beach Music Medley

Carolina Beach

Sand...

I have no idea why it had that texture. Our best guess would be the 25 mph sustained winds and 45 mph wind gusts at CB on Monday. Pretty cool, though, huh? Except you should try walking a couple of miles on wet, weird-textured sand. Ouch!

The white streaks running perpendicular to the water are streaks of blowing sand. 

Apparently the seagulls recently had a huge party. Cracked clam shells lined the stretch between our condo and the end of the island.

Winter seems to make it easier to find lots more cool marine treasures.

I love the beach in winter. I love the beach in summer. I love the beach in spring. I love the beach in fall. I pretty much just love the beach.

What on earth?

CB spectacular...

CB is headquarters for Surf Carolina Magazine, and the guy who makes things happen -- Robbie Johnson -- lives in our complex.  He has some spectacular photos of all things coastal.  Here are a couple of the photos he posted today on the Surf Carolina Magazine Facebook page. 

Photo © Robbie Johnson

Photo © Robbie Johnson

Photo © Robbie Johnson

Happenings down at the CB...

On Jimmy's birthday, our sweetheart of a daughter agreed to supervise her youngest brother while Jimmy and I headed to the beach for a few hours to rest and relax and do a little maintenance on the condo. When we got there, we discovered the painting project was already underway. Woo hoo! We're going tropical colors in the ol' complex. They all have snazzy names (that I don't know), but basically the two oceanfront buildings are purple and aqua, and the three courtyard (second row, ocean view)buildings are melon, lime green, and Carolina blue (and by Carolina, I mean Tar Heel).


The rocks are uncovered again. That chunk of stimulus money disappeared into the ocean, never to been seen again (and I will refrain from writing what I'm thinking beyond that statement). Sad, but goodness people, it's the ocean. It causes erosion. Always has; always will. And that would be why we didn't buy oceanfront.


It's still gorgeous down there, though. So beautiful. So peaceful. Someday we may live there year round. :)

So... yeah... Earl...

Just in case you were wondering...

... how the surfing is at CB today...




Go to Swellinfo.com for free local
Surf Forecasts, Surf Reports, Surf / Swell timelines, and more.

I want to do this...

Britt's for breakfast...

We've had our little CB place for five years. It will be five years this coming weekend, actually. Yet, we've just now managed to relish the goodness of Britt's donuts. Ahhhhhh...

Better than Krispy Kreme? Yep. They are.

Don't believe me? You can read about them ...

- in the CB local blog ... here

-on About.com ... here

-in the Wilmington Star ... here

-in an N&O blog ... here

-on the local Chamber of Commerce blogspot ... here

As for our own first encounter with Britt's, here's a picture of our sweet new friend as we enjoyed an early morning stroll on the boardwalk. :)

Beauty and the beach...

Photo credits: Kelsey

Oh, the humanity...

That was the catchphrase of this week's trip to our beloved beach. It was a little bit of a sight to behold. You see, they (the town council and the area merchants' association) have decided that what the little beach town needs to breathe life into the faltering Boardwalk is a carnival. Yep, nothing says "Classy Beach Town" quite like a carnival full of overpriced rides, screaming kids, and grease-covered carnies.

Yep.

It was quite an eclectic gathering of folks, the oceanfront carnival.

I think our little beach town is trying to be Myrtle Beach. The last afternoon we were there, a chick rolling a flavored-ice kiosk made her way down the beach. Not quite the Lemon Quench girl of MB and NMB, but a nice try.

The pinnacle of our journey east, though, was the lady at the Exit 364 Rest Area. She took the opportunity to place her dentures on the side of the sink and re-apply Fixodent. There are lots of things we'd expect to see at a public rest area. That wasn't one of them.

Oh well, as we drove west, homeward bound, the whole car broke out into the chorus of "Ain't that America."

Ain't that America, indeed.

Why, yes... yes, it is...

... a humorous diorama of shells playing poker. Classy.

Bathhouse... maybe?

I mean, if you're going to go to that much trouble, why not just go ahead and build a real bathhouse?

Picture this - Spring Break...

Spring Break 2010!

It is Spring Break! Finally!

So here's the quick update:

1. The picture is old, but pretty... yes? I love the beach.

2. My USB cable for uploading pics is MIA. I have good new pics, but...sigh... they are stuck on the camera.

3. My job almost ate me alive again. Back down to 4-5 hours sleep a night for 3+ weeks straight... including weekends.

4. Due to #3, most everything else in the world went on hold, including laundry, cooking meals, cleaning house, and (sadly) family time. Our house is a very scary place right now. Eek.

5. I still love working with teenagers, but I've discovered I'm not really called or cut out for teaching middle schoolers all day long. There will be a post in a couple of weeks; I can't 'splain it more yet.

6. I simply adore my journalism class, from my teaching partner to our editors to each and every student in the class.

7. I simply adore my fifth period class... freshman English. I spent April 1st hiding my cart from them and their duct tape. :) Yet they are learning to write and "getting" the literature. I am proud of them. They make me smile.

8. Parenting a teen girl is WAY harder than I imagined. Her disappointments filter through my own memories. It's like a megaphone for emotion. I pray a lot.

9. As a result of doing Beth Moore's Stepping Up, I am finding that the best place for me to pray is on my face.

10. Jimmy decided shortly before the SuperBowl that we needed digital TV. Now no one can figure out how to work the remote. It's been nicely quiet in the house.

11. I am going to paint furniture like a crazy lady over this break. Kitchen table and chairs. Chairs that once belonged to my Granny. A bunch of picture frames.

12. Our pool looks like a biology experiment gone horribly wrong. Ick.

13. Working on getting taxes together. Yeah... we're a little behind where we usually are. See #3.

14. I am trying to figure out what Bible study to do over the summer: host study for teens, do study with my friends, go to whatever study they have a church... ???... I NEED a Bible study group this summer. I desperately miss the fellowship and depth of discussion.

15. Zack and I have watched specials on the lost city of Atlantis, the lost City of Gold, and the lost Ark of the Covenant this morning. The Ark special is sparking some pretty cool theological discussions with the eight-year-old. I love Jesus. He is doing awesome things!

16. We've gotta help Gramma get her garden space set up. Zane is her landscape maintenance specialist this year (mowing her lawn... ftw).

17. Oh goodness... I have Sweet Sixteen party to plan this summer. Yowza!

18. I like to vacation in two places: home and Carolina Beach. My world is small, and I am good with that. Unfortunately, the rest of the family doesn't feel the same.

19. Our summer hasn't even started and we have already maxed it out with camps and mission trips and sports. Sigh...

20. I am waiting for some news about next year. See #3.

And that is all for now. That's quite enough, don't you think?

Grace and peace, friends! And much, much love...

Annual trip...

There's truly no place like home, but sometimes it is very good to get away for a little while. We are packing up to make our third annual journey to Amelia Island, FL. Here at home we sprawl all over the place, each one heading to his/her own "space" when relating to family gets a little old or intense. But at Amelia Island, we stay in a one bedroom condo. Close. Very close. So we all have to get along.

I don't think that's a bad thing.

One of the things I noticed in my years of selling real estate was that people want space... as much space as they can possibly afford. They want closet space and bathroom space and living space and play space and entertaining space and parking space and, above all else, storage space. Space is nice. True. But space, for all its perks, has a down side too.

For starters, when we have tons of space, we tend to accumulate tons of stuff. Then all our time goes into stuff-management instead of relationship-management. Building solid family relationships gets even more difficult because we're just not in the same space much at all. So space for all it's glory has distinct drawbacks.

One of the wisest parents I've ever met is a lady named Kandy. She raised four girls largely as a single mom. I marveled at the close relationship Kandy had with her girls. She always talked to them plainly and openly and she never ever seemed embarrassed to tackled the tough topics. She was ALWAYS in the loop and not only knew what her girls were up to, but she knew what everyone else's kids were doing too. One day I asked her how she stayed so connected to her kids and she shared two secrets that we have chosen to put into practice in our own family:

1) No TVs in the kids' bedrooms. If they want to watch TV, they have to come into a common area with other family members. We've extended that to include computers.

2) No phones in the kids' bedrooms. That one's a lot easier in theory than in practice, with cordless phones and cell phones. But we have made limits on phone use in terms of time spent on the phone and where in the house they are allowed to talk on the phone.

It's a culture-battle to stay together as a family. Everything from technology to floor plans seems to pull us apart. So every summer when we head to the coast, I'm grateful for the chance to pile into one place with one TV and one phone line, sharing one bathroom (OK... maybe two of those might be nice) as we once again become one family.