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Friday, January 31, 2014

Random 5 Friday - Somewhere in Botetourt

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This was back in September, Labor Day weekend, what we Americans call the last weekend of summer. We had been to the creek so Ozzy could swim. Came home and had a crab boil. We do that every Labor Day weekend it seems! I guess it's become tradition. No, I didn't remember all that from this photo, but from the ones before it and after in my archives!

Randoms:

1) Yesterday morning, while letting my car warm up, I ran out of gas in my drive-way...

2) My car has been making a strange noise for a few days, so I thought that was the reason my car stalled. I called Nick and told him the car broke down in the drive-way. He left work to come help me out. Wanted to see if the car would start, it wouldn't and my gas light was on. He says "Tanya, could you be out of gas?" Me "Mmmmm, maybe?" In my defense, my gas light never came on the last time I drove it and my drive-way slopes down. So anytime I have a quarter tank, it shows empty. I guess it ran out while warming up...ruh-roh...

3) So, Nick took me to the gas station around the corner so we could fill the gas can up. While there, 4 or 5 police cars came speeding in with their lights on, parking their cars to block the entrances and exits and pulled out their guns....turns out Mama D accidentally tripped the alarm that signals she's being robbed. Talk about exciting!

4) So, the noise my car was making is a bad belt. I have to get that fixed today...at least it wasn't anything major, a tank of gas and a belt.

5) Someone turned the heat off last night..when I crawled out of my warm bed I began to freeze...hurried down the hall to check the thermostat and it was only 56 in here. Brrrrr!

Have a great weekend!



Join in, it's fun! Random 5 Friday

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Signs, Signs - Dude's Drive-In

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A couple of month's back while in Christiansburg we stopped at Dude's. Everytime we are in that area it seems like it ends up being on a Sunday and Dude's is closed on Sundays. This time we actually planned it right, went on a Saturday! We all got burgers and fries. I really love their french fries. When I got home and downloaded my pictures of the day, I noticed a string of shots of our waitress while helping the car next to us. This is what happens when my camera is in the backseat with the boys:


You never know what you'll find on the camera when those 2 have it ;)

For more info on Dude's and a view of the menu, CLICK HERE and to see more signs, visit Signs, Signs

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

ABC Wednesday - School is CLOSED

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3:30 p.m. We weren't supposed to see any snow from this storm. This was the big southern storm that was just going to bring snow to the south and east of us. It started to snow about the time I had to go pick Christian up from school and take to work....Here I am waiting in the school pick up line....little snowflakes are falling...

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8:30 p.m. Here I am picking Christian up from Kroger. What a scary drive. We only live about 10 minutes away but the roads were all covered in snow. I white knuckled it all the way there, driving very slow. Yes, I'm one of those drivers ;)

Got the text "Botetourt County Schools are CLOSED on Wednesday". Yay! That made a bunch of kids happy!

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8:30 a.m. this morning. I think we must have ended up with a couple of inches in the end! So much for forecasting the weather!

Linking with ABC Wednesday and check out some more pictures representing the letter C!

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Jail Time

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The Fincastle Jail. Built in 1897. Later housed the public library, now used for county offices.

I think the red brick qualifies me to link to Ruby Tuesday :)





Monday, January 27, 2014

Monday Mural - Blacksburg

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A random mural in Blacksburg. I combed the internet looking for info on this one and nothing came up. I did learn that there was a whole mural campaign in Blacksburg to clean up unwanted graffiti. It would be handy if the town had a website listing the murals, locations and artists since it was whole project and all.

Linking with Monday Mural

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Weekly Top Shop - Down-Town

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More summer. I haven't been anywhere. It's too cold to even want to go anywhere. So here I am, digging out the summer archives.

Linking with:
Weekly Top Shot #119

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Weekend Reflections - Lobster Lady

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Flash back to August. We're on our way to the Bacon-Fest. That's NOT us in the photo, just some random peeps. This was a HOT day. I felt bad for the Lobster-Lady!

Right now we are still dealing with this REALLY COLD weather. I heard from one of our resource officers yesterday that he thinks the reason we had school was because of the Governor's visit to our county. Kind of worked out that we did go to school because a group of kids attend a class where the Gov was and a friend from basketball's son got to ask the Governor a question, something like: "Why don't teachers get paid more?"...Good question.

Linking with Weekend Reflections

Oh and I forgot, today is the "Grow Your Blog" party! I'm new to this so I apologize for being so absent minded! For those of you visiting me for the first time, I'm Tanya. I live, along with my 4 kids, husband and our Rottweiler Ozzy, in Botetourt County (pronounced Bot-a-tot...don't ask), Virginia. We are right outside of Roanoke. Hence the name "Around Roanoke" ;) I started this blog while living in Georgia but then it was called "Monroe, Georgia Daily Photo, not Around Roanoke haha. I post a photo a day from my area, or sometimes from our travels outside of our area. I am part of the City Daily Photo group of bloggers. Hmmm, I guess that's about it! And you can check out more blogs entered in the Grow Your Blog party by clicking HERE! It's always fun to meet new bloggers! If you still want to know even more about me lol...you can click "about me" up top!


Hi from all of us...

and Ozzy too!

Friday, January 24, 2014

SkyWatch Friday & Random 5 - Etzler Road

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Heading home, down Etzler Rd, Troutville. It still pretty much looks like this out. Out of school Tues, Wed, and Thursday for snow days because of icy roads. Right now it's 6 degrees out. School is operating on a 2 hour delay. I don't understand what they think will change in 2 hours. I'm waiting on my call that they've gone ahead and changed it to closed. A bus driver was in Kroger last night saying how his route is still icy and he doesn't want to drive it. Sometimes I wonder how they come to these closing/delay conclusions.

SkyWatch Friday

Now some randoms:

1) If you love dogs like I do, go visit Landfill Dogs...a photographer has taken beautiful photos of shelter dogs.

2) I have to wake the boys up shortly but I'm still waiting on that call that they closed school. Last time it was this cold, school was closed. And we didn't even have ice then. I heard it was because the busses won't start when it is this cold.

3) I just recently started watching Medium on Neflix. I liked it when it was still on tv but rarely caught it. And I really like Patricia Arquette and her easy going personality.

4) I'm making Drunken Noodles tonight for dinner. I saw the recipe on Pinterest the other day and it looks amazing! Hope it turns out at yummy as it looks. You can see the recipe HERE

5) And now for your dose of stupid for the day...Hiker Being Rescued. This fool, along with his fool friends decided it was a good idea to go hiking in sub zero weather this morning and now have to be rescued. I hope they are fined. Now rescue crews have to get out there in this cold weather to save his dumb butt. Can't fix stupid.

To see more randoms, visit Nancy @ A Rural Journal

Have a great weekend and keep warm!!
Another Ozzy bonus ;)
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Thursday, January 23, 2014

Signs, Signs - 1 Hour Cleaning

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20 Campbell Avenue, Roanoke

Is that a great old sign or what?! Linking with Signs, Signs

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Rurality Wednesday - Breckinridge Mill Road

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An old house along Breckinridge Mill Rd, Fincastle.

The snow I showed you yesterday mostly melted by the afternoon but then another band of snow came along and left a couple of more inches. With the below freezing temps overnight, and our high of only 18 today, the snow will not be going anywhere. School was cancelled again. Happy, happy, happy, but we won't be all that happy when we have to make these days up! I guess we'll worry about that when the time comes ;)

And this is my front yard today:
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And a bonus of Ozzy because he just loves the snow! Here he is catching snowballs!
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Rurality Blog Hop #47

For the very first time I am linking with ABC Wednesday today. I have always wanted to play along but forget every single week. This time I have a picture, by chance to go with B...for Breckinridge! Hopefully I'll remember next week :)



Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Right Now

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This is what it looks like here at my house, this very second! It started snowing about a half hour ago and according to the weatherman, we may end up with 3-5 inches of this stuff before the day is done! Of course we got a snow day, yay!

“Snow flurries began to fall and they swirled around people's legs like house cats. It was magical, this snow globe world.”
― Sarah Addison Allen, The Sugar Queen

Monday, January 20, 2014

Monday Mural - Blacksburg II

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Blacksburg

I showed you one half of this mural HERE a while back and totally forgot to show you this half...so, this is the other half ;)

Happy MLK day...school is out in observance. Is it out where you are?

Linking with Monday Mural

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Historic City Market

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Up ahead, the Historic City Market...downtown, Roanoke

Weekly Top Shot #118

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Weekend Reflections - Jellyfish @ Center in the Square

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Center in the Square, downtown Roanoke. For more info on Center in the Square, such as its history and the beautiful aquariums, which are free to see by the way, CLICK HERE!

Linking with Weekend Reflections

:)

Friday, January 17, 2014

Random Five Friday Fences - An Appalachian Trail Break

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In front of Kroger, Daleville

I wish this photo had turned out better. I had to zoom way in, through the windshield. But like the subject matter anyway so I'm sharing ;) The Appalachian Trail cuts through here. During the spring/summer/fall, you can find hikers just like him picking up something to eat and drink at Kroger, or just taking a much deserved break. The picnic table that he is sitting on is where you can find many Kroger employees on their breaks, on a hot day. I like his trusty companions. I wonder who he's calling? "Mom, dad, send more money"!

Friday Fences

Randoms:

1) The kids are out of school yesterday, today and Monday. Thursday and today are teacher workdays but Monday is MLK day. Yesterday I watched The Butler

Wow, what a great movie this was! Loved it!

2) While the boys and I were sick this week, we watched Blackfish on Netflix. You know, growing up in San Diego, Sea World was a big part of that. We went often. Then as an adult and having kids of my own, we'd buy season passes. I'd take Ashlyn and Christian at least once a week. I always thought Sea World cared for the animals in their captivity. While being in a tank isn't the best circumstances for the animals, I still believed Sea World was doing it for the bigger picture of them all. Learning about them and teaching us. Well, that's not the case and really I should have known better. Sea World is just another big money making conglomerate that just cares about the bottom line than the animals they have stolen from their natural habitats. I will never spend another penney at Sea World and if you have a big family vacation planned that involves a trip to Sea World, I hope you will watch Blackfish before your visit. Oh, and keep a big box of Kleenex next to you while watching. Serious.

3) An interesting story about The Blackfish Effect is HERE

4) Killer whales live in tight-knit families, similar to other highly intelligent and long-lived animals, such as elephants, wolves and humans. Off the Northeastern Pacific coast, we have two resident populations of orca, the Northern and the Southern Residents. Although the two populations do not associate with each other, the structure of their families is very much the same.
Resident orca live in large family groups called pods, with multiple pods making up a population or community. The pods consist of multiple related matrilines, with each matriline often containing 3 or more generations. Each pod is led by the head female or matriach, as orca are a female dominated species (just like humans, right guys?!) The matriarch tends to be the oldest female in the extended family. Her experience and knowledge guides the pod, and the matriach teaches younger whales about everything from parenting skills, feeding tactics, and navigation through the vast territories that they cover.

The true beauty of this species is demonstrated in the relationship between a mother and her calf. Once a calf is born into a resident pod, they remain in that pod for the rest of their lives, often side-by-side with their mom and siblings. Orca are the only known species in the world where both female and male offspring stay with their mothers and immediate family forever.

**SeaWorld does not care. They will take the baby from the mother and move it to another park and mix families up. They think by just adding another whale in with them that they'll forget about the family member taken away.

5) About ten years ago a researcher was out in his small boat observing one of the pods that belong to the Northern Residents off northern Vancouver Island. He soon noticed that a female had just given birth but the calf was stillborn. It is not uncommon for female orca to carry the body of their deceased offspring on their rostrum (what we would call their face), seemingly unable to accept the calf is gone. The researcher went out on his boat everyday and followed the pod. The mother continued to carry around her calf day after day, unable to eat or sleep. Orca need 200 to 300 pounds of food a day, so you can imagine how difficult it was for the mother to continue to carry her calf like this. Unable to hang on to the baby with hands, the mother and close family would dive down to retrieve the body of the calf every time it slipped from the motherʼs face.
On the eighth day of carrying her dead calf around, the pod came to a rocky shoreline at low tide. The pod formed a U-shape around the female and her calf. She slowly raised the calfʼs little body on top of a rock ledge. The pod then all hovered in the water very still as if all saying their final good-byes, cooperatively mourning the loss of a family member they never got to know. To this day, it has been reported that this pod returns to the exact spot where the babyʼs body was laid and they remain there for a length of time, everyone subdued. This is a true example of a motherʼs love and a familyʼs uncompromising support through difficult experiences.
Although this story is sad, it gives us an insight into the nature of these animals. It teaches us that humans are not the only species capable of deep emotions, and reminds us that we need to respect and protect the animals who we share this world with. We still have so much more to learn! Read more HERE

Obviously Blackfish had a great impact on me. While it was difficult to watch, we did. While parts of the documentary flashed to the laughing crowds at the Shamu shows, I was embarrassed that I was one of those people laughing and clapping at this barbaric treatment of these beautiful creatures. Hopefully our children's generation will know better. Off my soapbox now ;)

****update****
A friend commented on this whole Blackfish debate with a couple of links from the other side of the coin. You can read those stories HERE and HERE

Check out more Randoms at Nancy's Rural Journal! And have a great weekend!!

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Signs, Signs - Givens Books

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Givens Books(Salem Store)
1641 E. Main ST.
Salem, VA, U.S.A.
24153

Ashlyn buys many of her school books from Givens. You can walk in, things look a mess, ask the clerk if they have a certain book and voila, they have it. It's amazing how they know their inventory off the top of their heads and are super helpful. I've been there with her to get books and they have every genre, not just school books. It's the kind of book store I can spend a day in! I do have a Nook but am still an old dinosaur when it comes to books ;)

Linking with Signs, Signs

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

DeJarnette Peery Asylum

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Staunton. I really wanted to get close but there were so many "no trespassing" signs that we didn't. I had to zooooom in just to get the name of the place to research it when I got home. Found out though in my research, that people just disregard the "no trespassing" signs and wander around taking pictures....hmmmmm....I think this calls for another trip to Staunton ;)

You can read a little info on the hospital HERE.

It's been a horrible past few days. Remember when I told you Braden was sick on Friday and couldn't play in their first basketball game Saturday? Well, Dalton and I then came down with it. I guess it was the flu. We camped out in the living room with bottles of Gatorade and Netflix on tv to pull us through. I think we are finally well enough to return back to school today. The flu is no fun! And so much for that 365 Project. I didn't even make it a month lol...


Saturday, January 11, 2014

International Flags

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This was taken back in September at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton. To the right are a bunch of tables for eating lunch. I liked all the flags.

Today the boys have their first basketball game and sadly Braden will miss it. Poor guy is sick. Terrible sore throat so it's just the couch and popsicles for him today.

It's raining. And soggy out. Tomorrow is supposed to be all sunshine so hopefully we can get out and do something!

You can see my past posts on the Frontier Culture Museum by clicking HERE

Have a super Saturday :)

Friday, January 10, 2014

Random Five Friday Fences-Botetourt Courthouse

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Botetourt County Courthouse in Fincastle
The Botetourt County Courthouse was built in 1848; it suffered a severe fire in the 1970s and was rebuilt. The plans for the courthouse that preceded this one were drawn by Thomas Jefferson.Genealogists from around the country can find original, primary source documents in the County Clerks Office located within the Courthouse. Info found HERE and I've shown you another photo HERE

Linking with Friday Fences

Randoms:

1) Muir: "I've always thought the small hours was a deep, tender, and terrible time. Late at night all the fat and sweetness of things are gone, and you feel hard up against the cold bare facts. If you think too much in the wee hours your life don't seem worth nothing. Late at night you feel stripped down to the bone and facing the emptiness and awfulness of the world." A passage I like from the book I am reading


2) The boys had a scrimmage game last night at Central Academy Middle School in Fincastle. As I was driving us there and passing the courthouse I thought "hmmm, how funny, I've decided to feature the court house for Friday's post so I should pull over and get a night shot of it." And so I did:

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3) I have used the old records inside of the court house for, well, old records. When we first moved here, we bought a very old house, 150+ years old. I went to the court house to find records on it. The people there were so nice and helpful. The woman who helped me knew the family who had it in their family for much of the 20th century. We knew that that gorgeous old house would never be the "Breese House" and would always be known as the "Hancock House". I am at peace with knowing it is back in their family now.

4) We watched Despicable Me 2 this week. Rent it, or buy it, but watch it. So cute!

5) Speaking of buying movies, I used to buy new releases that I thought we would love the day they came out. Now I can't remember the last time I bought an actual dvd (not counting my workout dvd's). Although I did buy The Conjuring on Hulu a couple of months back. I guess that's the way of movies now...

6) Did I say 6? Why yes, yes I did! Lucky you, I just remembered this site I wanted to share with you, if you are an avid reader, Book Perk. Enter your email address and every day they send you "book perks" for your e-reader. This week I purchased
for $1.99! I love Adriana Trigiani and will start this book when I finish This Rock.





Check out more randoms HERE

Have a great weekend!! :)

**UPDATE**

Ciel was wondering if the courthouse was rebuilt to look the same as the original and I found this old photo of it:
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and a newpaper article about the fire, you can read that HERE


Thursday, January 9, 2014

Signs, Signs - Get Some

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Seen in the Kroger parking lot, Daleville.

A common Marine Corps saying, Get Some. I hear this quite a bit being married to a Marine. In fact, I can hear my husband shout this in my mind right now as I get this post ready lol...

Linking with Signs, Signs

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Old Van

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Fincastle

Just up a few houses from yesterday's photo. Well, we survived the Polar Vortex! School is operating on a 2 hour delay today. The weather is supposed to shoot up to 34 for a high. After yesterday that should feel like beach weather!

Rurality Blog Hop #45

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

More Summer

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Fincastle

I remember this day. Christian had baseball practice at Breckinridge Elementary School in Fincastle. It was early evening, warm...just really pretty. I love baseball season weather. I brought my camera and walked around the track taking pictures as his team practiced.

Right now as I get this post ready (Monday night) it is 5 degrees with the windchill -17! They cancelled all the schools in the whole Roanoke area early in the day on Monday, for Tuesday. Ozzy is scratching at the door to go outside one more time before bed. Oh, I guess I'll see what -17 feels like!

Linking with Ruby Tuesday

Monday, January 6, 2014

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Winter...

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...to bring you a little summer storm...

As I get this post ready for tomorrow, (it's currently Sunday), they are predicting a little snow for us tonight and in the morning (half inch-inch). We'll see what we wake up to. First day back to school after Christmas break. Will we get a snow day? We'll have to wait and see!

**UPDATE**
Not one stupid snowflake. Can you tell I'm getting annoyed at the fact that we just can't get any snow here? What's the deal. Oh, but we to have record breaking windchills tonight/tomorrow. Looking at the forecast, could be -20 windchills here. What? That's a little scary!

Sunday, January 5, 2014

The Other Half of the Picture

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The rest of yesterday's photo. RT 11 in Buchanan. It says "Askeys Mill Gro" on the front but I wasn't able to find out any info. Hopefully someone will enlighten us. I swear the land is slopey there because it looked even in my camera lol. Every time I drive by this I mean to stop and take a photo because I would just feel sick driving by one day and finding it gone and I never pulled over to photograph its existence. Took this on Friday when I took Christian out driving. I made him pull over. Of course he complained a little and told me he wasn't pulling over any more lol...and he didn't ;)

The front of this kind of reminds me of The Alamo...n'est ce pa?

just a little?....

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Half of the Picture

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Along RT 11 in Buchanan

I'm not normally a weekend blogger but I'm giving this 365 Project a try. Adding 2 extra days a week shouldn't kill me right?! I just don't get much time to visit on the weekends but I'll try and make my way around eventually!

Weekly Top Shot #116

Friday, January 3, 2014

Random 5 Friday Fences

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A sweet little antique shop, Main Street, Buchanan. Just up a bit from the theatre. Did I go in you ask? No, all those children I had with me protested. But I LOVE the checkerboard tile. Such a welcoming entry don't you think?

For the Friday Fences portion: Does a hand railing count? This one does, I think? Kinda sorta? To see more fences, or ummm hand railings, visit Friday Fences

Random time:

1) Right now I'm drinking my coffee.....BLACK...gasp...I ran out of cream and milk. Actually it's not too bad. I've been weaning myself off cream/sugar by only putting it in my first cup so as I refill it has less and less and then it's practically black anyway by my last cup.

2) I'm reading this right now:


3) I've got to head out shortly. Having Christian drive. Tomorrow is his first actual day as a LICENSED driver. He wants to take my little mini van to visit his girlfriend. In Buchanan. The drive to Buchanan is terrible. One way is Springwood. Although it is my favorite way, it's very rural and narrow, very narrow. I worry about him driving that route. Then there's the freeway. Of course I worry about that too. Driving fast, big trucks...ummm no...then there's 11. I think that's a better drive for him, and me ;) So we are taking it for a trial run today. 11 is a pretty drive too so I think I'll bring my camera along. That will annoy him ;)

4) We watched The Wolverine last night. I liked it.

5) This is our last day of Christmas break. I am going to miss these boys when we all go back to school on Monday. BOO! I really love hanging out with them.

Visit Nancy over at Rural Journal for more randoms!


Have a GRRREAT weekend!


Thursday, January 2, 2014

Signs, Signs - Buchanan Theatre

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On Monday morning the Buchanan Theatre was running a special. A viewing of Epic for only $3 per person. It's not expensive to see a movie there anyway, but heck $3 is awesome! I took the boys and we really enjoyed it. This photo though was from the week before when we went to pick up Christian's girlfriend. I've shown you the theatre from across the street HERE and funny, I zoomed in to see what was playing then and Rango was. Epic was made by the same people who created Rango! How ironic!

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I love the ticket booth! And if you look carefully, you can see a sweet couple in the reflection to the left, that's Christian and his girlfriend and you can see me and one of the boys in the booth :)

Linking with Signs, Signs

Be safe if you are getting hit with that monster storm. It's missing us. Supposed to get some rain/snow later but nothing accumulating.

For more info on the theatre CLICK HERE

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

City Daily Photo Theme Day - Photo of the Year

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Wait, what? Another City Daily Theme Day, another year. Wow...Honestly I'm not a fan of how quickly time flies. As I sit here preparing my post for the theme day, it is almost 9:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve. Dalton is sitting in the same room as me playing XBox and randomly tells me he loves me. Nick is sitting in the other room with Braden, who has a stomach bug but is feeling a bit better. Ashlyn and her boyfriend are out to dinner together and hanging out and Christian is at his girlfriend Alyssa's house. I'm leaving shortly to pick him up. I told him I'd get him around midnight but Nick doesn't want me out driving past midnight with all the drunk people. He says NYE is amateur hour for drinkers. Those who don't usually drink, over drink. This NYE is so different than all those past. Usually it's a big party with just us, the kids and lots of fun and finger foods and drinks for both the kids and the adults. This year has been real low-key with the older 2 away. Not liking this. Not liking this at all.....

Anyway, back on track...the theme, just like every Jan 1 is "Photo of the Year". The photo I am showing is one of my favorites. I took it at the Pittsburgh Zoo and actually used it for another Theme Day, "Decay" which you can see RIGHT HERE...to see other renditions of the theme, visit City Daily Photo ...and....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!