wanna nut?

i mentioned in my previous post that david and i saw a couple of squirrels while in north carolina. never seen anything like it before. it turns out that the white squirrel is a species that only resides in brevard, n.c. click here to read how they've evolved...it's pretty funny. here's a pic that we captured on brevard's college campus. i thought that we had found a rare albino squirrel...ends up they populate the entire town. dude, they have an annual white squirrel festival every may. insane.

as for the other squirrel...we kept hearing this "tink tink" from a bird feeder on a tree while we were watching fireworks late one night. it finally dawned on me (clicked in my subconscious) that there was something messin' around in the birdfeeder. so we got a flashlight (and a shovel for defensive purposes) and flashed the feeder. there sits this creature...david was like...WHAT is that!?!? from some odd reason, i was like, "it's flying squirrel" (i wouldn't say that i am smart...but for some reason...i logically thought it's nighttime...it looks kinda like a squirrel...therefore it must be a flying squirrel). so we played a flashlight game with him/her. everytime we'll say "he" came out, he'd stay for a sec or two and then hop off the ledge of the feeder back behind the tree. then we got the telescope out and DUDE, you could see what he was clearly munchin' on. he finally got annoyed with our light game and scurried off. unfortunately we didn't get to see him fly. and our camera battery died (with the charger at home), so we couldn't take any pics, so i grabbed this one off the internet.

the mountains

david and i took advantage of july 4th and took a little chunk of time off from work. we headed down to cashiers, n.c. and spent some time with my parents who came up from athens. we had an awesome time hanging out, enjoying the incredible scenery, rocking on the front porch, and exploring the mountainous towns. we went to an arts and crafts show in town one afternoon, and i've been totally inspired to take my artistry on an adventure and use different materials. i've always been...i don't know, scared, lazy...whatever...and have always stuck with pencil, colored pencil or pen. i just recently have been using charcoal. this weekend kicked my butt to start painting. i guess i've been scared of failure. painting is a whole different bird. anyways, more on that later. the weekend was great being with my parents in a beautiful mountain home compliments of her college roommate. the evenings got down in the 50's, so we slept with opened-windows with the ceiling fan on. BURRR....loved it. who knew it could get that cold in the summertime? be sure to check out our slideshow below (cool feature compliments of our friends robin & andy). here are some highlights of our trip:

• rocking on the porch everyday and looking at the gorgeous view
• playing scategories with my parents and laughing hard at my dad’s ridiculous answers
• observing a “white squirrel” and a “southern flying squirrel”
• appreciating other artist’s work at the craft show
• eatin’ southern barbeque and drinking “real” sweet tea
• trying to watch fireworks through a telescope
• sleepin’late with the windows open to 50+ degree weather
• playing the hook-catching-ring-on-a-string game (i have no earthly idea what it's called..there's a pic below)
• going on a hike with david and getting’ caught in the pouring rain
• visiting the lindrum’s, deschane, and the hall’s along the way (amazing berry friends)
• getting tickled with my mom (when she starts to laugh silently…it’s all over…)
• taking jack johnson’s advice & eatin’ banana pancakes pretendin’ like it’s the weekend