Easter Baskets – NC style

What do you think about when you hear the term “Easter basket” ?  Some will probably think about the typical woven basket the children closely guard and fill with some candy encapsulated plastic eggs that have been age appropriately hidden for them to find.   This term may also have others pondering  a family get-together with grandma’s home cooking or childhood stories of the biggest chocolate bunny they had ever eaten.

Well, this Easter  came on the “heels” of  Carolina Tar heels winning the NCAA men’s  basketball national championship game the previous weekend.   Other basketball teams like Wake Forest,  Davidson,  NC State, and Duke also play a little basketball in North Carolina.   Apparently just not quite as well as the Tar heels - at least for this year.   It seems that a North Carolina family  Easter celebration that included a few of these Easter baskets was more than appropriate.

 

Well, Grandma was not going to be left out.  First up, Grandma Carole!! 

All the kids get into the act

With a little basket height adjustment, a couple of dunks:

 

As a Tar heel  grad and fan , I love this sequence especially the ending(look closely):

 

This epitomizes the Duke season !!!!!  Go heels!

For those that attended this Easter basket session, the entire gallery can be found here.

See ya soon!!!

Here comes Jeff and John Cottontail

 

Here comes Jeff cottontail
Hopping down the bunny trail
Hippity-Hopping Easter’s on it’s way.

Bringing every boy and girl
Baskets full of Easter joy
To make your Easter bright and gay.

(Modern day bunnies need modern day footwear – You never know what you may step in)

He’s got jelly beans for Tommy
Colored eggs for sister Sue
There is an orchid for your  mommy
And an Easter bonnet too

Here comes Jon  cottontail
Hopping down the bunny trail
Hippity-Hopping Easter’s on it’s way.

 

The entire gallery can be found here for those that participated in this hopping good time.

The Original HD – Harley Davidson

I hope everyone is doing well.  Things have been crazy in my world lately with the various activities that the arrival of spring brings.  I have gotten a little behind on this blog as well as other things. 

Anyway, recently I surprised my mother in Racine, Wisconsin for her 70th birthday on April 9.  Like true sneaky detectives,  my brother “Intense Dave” and I arrived early morning of her birthday into Racine.  I made a few phone calls from my cell phone to our unsuspecting target in an effort to locate her. 

The first call was disguised as the ceremonious  son calling her mother on her birthday when he was on lunch break in North Carolina.  

Unfortunately, I was not able to reach her directly.  I am able to ascertain her potential whereabouts from her boyfriend Brian.  

According to Brian, my mother was out with my sister at a weight watcher session and then the plan was they they were going to Sam’s club to pick up a gift for my brother’s upcoming birthday.  Since the cat was already out of the bag on the birthday gift,  Dave and I headed to Sam’s club to surprise our target.  After searching the parking lot for signs of Sue’s or mom’s cars to no avail, we decided to head into Sams.   We headed straight for the Green Bay Packer desk chairs that they were scheduled to pickup. We waited for awhile and looked around a bit.  After awhile, we noticed that one of the chairs was missing.  We found out later that they came into  Sams and grabbed the chair and left.  The target was missed.

We then decided to head to mom’s favorite frozen custard place called Culver’s to see if they went have a treat on her birthday.  Again we perused the parking lot for the cars and did not see them. We decided to go in anyway as we like a little frozen custard and butter burgers ourselves.  Dave decided to call Sue about an upcoming camping trip.  He found out that Sue just dropped off Mom at her house and was heading home to do some work. 

We quickly headed to mom’s house to surprise the target.  We were greeted by Brian at the door.  He looked like may have had a slight heart attack but appeared to recover very quickly.  He was able to tell us that just after being dropped off,  mom headed out to door to run some errands.  

So,  since Sue was not in our surprise yet and we wanted to have some success in our efforts, we headed to surprise Sue at her house.  Besides the surprise, this would give us an additional resource to work on surprising mom.  We arrived at her house and rang the door bell.  No one answered.  We waited a minute.  We tried again with the door bell.  Again no one answered.   Now, there is no way we missed our secondary target or was there?   I decided to peek in the front window of the house into Sue’s office area.   Sure enough, she was sitting at her desk talking on the phone. 

I was not going to be confused and ignored as a door-to-door sales person.  I moved to the side of the house, put my face squarely in the window next to her desk, and gently rapped on the window.  This did get her attention. You should have seen the look on her face.  Soon the front door was opened, and we were greeting by my sister wearing her headset in conference with a client on the phone.  We quietly waited for the conversation to end. 

Once it ended,  Dave called mom to see what she was up to on her birthday.   He determined that she her next errand stop was a Christian book store called “Commitments'” to pickup a gift for one of her many grandchildren.   The three of us piled into Dave’s car and headed to the store.  Upon arrival, we did notice that her car was parked on the street out front of the store.  Our target was in close proximity. 

I was dropped off at the door and they went to park the car.  Once inside the store, I found the target discussing gift options with an employee. I grabbed a book from the children’s section and waited for the employee to leave.  Once she left,  I approached my mother with my book in hand and asked her if she thought this would make a good gift for a child.  She promptly offered her help and started asking me questions about the child to determine if this book was a fit.   It seemed like it was years before she finally realized that she was talking to her son from North Carolina that she had not seen since last summer but it probably was less than a minute.   I was proud of mom for her verbal restraint as no inappropriate words were uttered/screamed at the point of surprise impact.   This could have proved  disastrous in a Christian book store. 

Anyway, it was a great visit with mom. 

One of the things we did was to visit the Harley Davidson museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Here are some shots from this visit.

   

Now to the my “peeps”

Here is “Indiana Ethan” my nephew Ethan.

Here is  my niece “Angel Abi.”

Finally, my co-conspirator and big brother “Intense  Dave” .

 

Talk to you soon.

Linda Craft – A Hurricane of a Realtor

Back in November, after months of discussing our daughter’s school situation, we decided to put our house up for sale.  We met with a discount real estate broker who came to our house to evaluate the  listing price for our home.   Our goal at the time was to attempt to sell the house before the end of the school year with a pipe dream that we would sell it before the Christmas holiday. 

Very shortly into the process, we discovered that you get what you pay for when dealing with discount real estate brokers.   He promised to get back to us within a day or so with listing price.  Well, the day or so , turned into over a week.  We finally gave up on him.

One of Jackie’s friend suggested using one of the more successful full service realtors in the area.  With the market the way it was, we needed to have any advantage we could get in selling our house with a price that we could accept.   We knew that the number of years in the business did not necessarily provide the best measuring stick when evaluating a particular real estate agent or broker.  We needed to measure based on the number of homes that were sold by the agent/broker in the area especially recently in market.  In essence, experience does not always equal success.

The same friend suggested that we contact one of the most successful firms in the Raleigh-Durham area named Linda Craft and Team.  Since my wife at the time was mostly handling the search for the real estate assistance,  I was not really up to speed with the real estate movers and shakers in the our area.  I remember when she mentioned that we should talk with Linda Craft,  I immediately recognized both the name and face.  In our area,  Linda’s likeness can be found on yard signs(mostly marked sold) for home listings, and sides of her moving and signage trucks,  and easily found through search engine searches.  This type of visibility is a definite advantage especially in the tough real estate market that we were facing.

We called the office expecting to speak with one of the members of Linda’s team not Linda herself.  One of the first steps in working with Linda Craft and Team was  to meet with Linda Craft herself to discuss a game plan to sell our home.   Upon meeting Linda, we quickly learned that in this case experience does equal success.   Linda was very interested in understanding why we were selling our house and not just getting another listing for her firm. 

In our initial meeting,  she suggested on several occasions that we may want to consider getting our daughter some reading tutoring instead of the selling our house in this tough market.   This was a good sign for me that we would not be just another “listing notch” on her belt.   She spent some time explaining very patiently the current market and what we could expect with both a selling time frame and price for our home.  She also shared her very detailed and thought out staging/sales/marketing plan that was presented in organized home selling book.   We knew that if we were going to sell our house that this is the firm that we should should use.

We made the decision to take the plunge and sell our house for the sake of both of our children’s future education. 

We used Linda Craft’s firm for both the selling of our home and also as our buyer’s agent.  Linda assigned Jessica Hunt as our buyers agent.  So the expected goal was to leisurely look at properties with Jessica and hope that our home would sell fairly quickly in this market. 

Linda sent a “home stager” to provide us with advice on getting the house up for sale.  We followed her suggestions and replaced the carpet,  touched up the walls, re-arranged furniture, performed some yard work, and de-cluttered the house.  Well, Jackie(wife) was the bigger part of the “we”  on this effort as I was out of town due to work for part of this process.   She is a Jackle of all trades – mother, wife, best friend, painter, organizer, home decorator etc..  By the way, the people that replaced the carpet were suggested by this member of the Linda Craft family.  They were prompt and did an excellent job. 

Once the house was ready, the next step was to have Linda’s photographer take marketing pictures of the home and have a walk through with all the buyers agents from her firm to add it to the list of options for her clients.  The house was finally listed and ready to sell.

The effort paid off.  Within 24 hours of the listing, we had a showing and an offer that was real close to the listing price.  The house was sold and the rat race to find a new home began since the closing of the sale was going to be about a month later on December 19, 2008.   I am very impressed in how flexible and patient Jessica Hunt was to make sure that we made our goal of buying a new home in the right area for our child’s education with this deadline. 

It seemed like we spent most with our time for the next few weeks with Jessica and her lovely daughter Saige.  Bringing Saige along on the house hunting was a stroke of genius  as this occupied our two children(2 and 6 years old at the time) while we talked business.  As a side effect,  our kids now have a new friend that they can not stop talking about.   We now have not only a great real estate agent but also a couple of new friends.

Late November and early December was a complete blur.  After house after house of searching we finally found a home that met our needs. 

We scheduled the closing on the same day as our sale.   We used Linda Craft’s third party resources for the punch list items,  moving services , and another other moving related items.  Linda Craft is a one stop shop for all the resources that we needed for the move.  Check out her web site for more information. 

Backing up a bit in the Jackle timeline,  a couple of years ago I promised Sophie that I would take her to a Carolina Hurricanes game.  This promise was made on the heels of a successful father-daughter trip to Lambeau field  on one rainy day to see the Green Bay Packers play the Seattle Seahawks.  

Another perk from working with the team was a pair of Carolina Hurricanes tickets.   These were not just any tickets. These were Lexus Champions club tickets with premier gold parking passes.  This evening included two food buffet lines, drink tickets, and some of the best seats in the RBC arena.  Not to mention who better to spend a few hours with than my lovely daughter Sophie and one class act realtor named Linda Craft.  My daughter is still talking about this night.  The only problem here is that I will never be able to replace the royal treatment we received if we decide to go to a game in the future.  That is a small problem to overcome (fingers crossed).

At the end of the Hurricanes game,  Linda  asked Sophia what color of hockey jersey that she was interesting in getting.  We left the game with smiles on our faces as this was one of the best father-daughter evening that one could expect.  The Hurricanes won in overtime over the Pittsburgh Penguins to clinch a playoff berth and I had another enjoyable conversation with Linda. Thanks again Linda !!!!!

The next weekend was Easter weekend.  I was away at my mother’s home in Wisconsin surprising her on her 70th birthday and Jackie and the kids were at grandma’s house in Winston-Salem, NC for the Easter weekend.  Jessica contacted us to let us know that Linda had purchased a hockey jersey for Sophia and she was dropping it by.   Fittingly enough, she placed the jersey in a cooler on our mud porch at the new house.  

When Sophie arrived home on Easter Sunday,  I asked her to help me  with something.   I needed her to carry in whatever was in the cooler on the mud porch.  You should have seen Sophie’s excitement as she pulled out the jersey from cooler. Imagine for moment a girl running, jumping and screaming for joy as she proudly wore her new jersey.   Well, since then it is almost impossible for us to get her to take it off. 

I find it very fitting that this process began with a plan focused on Sophie’s education and ended with a special gift from Linda Craft also for Sophie.  Linda Craft, you are best!!! We truly truly feel part of the Linda Craft family.

Ok,  you know that a one of my blog postings would not be complete without some photos.

Sophie and Linda Craft at the game:

 

Shots of Sophie proudly wearing the new jersey around our house:

 

 

 

“Hit-and-miss” weekend.

The past weekend was another busy weekend for the Jackle family.  I will call this past weekend the “hit-and-miss” weekend.  The good news is that the “hits” out numbered the “misses” but one of the “misses” was a big one.

Hits:

Friday Night “pre-Easter” Easter egg hunt – We packed up some of Jackie’s famous coleslaw, some plastic Easter eggs,  two kids, and a camera and headed to our friends house in Wake Forest for a Easter egg hunt.   Beside the hunting festivities, we ate some charcoal broiled northeastern hotdogs, baked beans, coleslaw(of course), and drank either some punch or an adult beverage or two (depending on the age and the designated driver status of the participant).  Also, we watched our precious children punctured  a piñata and scurried happily to indulge in its contents.  Last but not least, we had a surprise visit by one quite large and fuzzy pink and white Easter bunny.  The bunny could jump right out of his birchen stocks.  Quite amazing actually!!  Photos and blog post to commemorate this event will be coming shortly.

      

Saturday night Hurricanes–Penguins Hockey game -  As Sophie would say,  “Daddy you promised me that you would take me to Carolina Hurricanes game since I was four.  I am now seven and it is about time!”  Last Fall, we contact Linda Craft and Team to help us sell our house and move to a better location in the Raleigh area for our Sophie’s (and eventually Savannah’s) education.   We sold our house in less than 24 hours and moved just before Christmas to our new location.  Besides just the sale, the resources for moving, plumbing and electrical work for the our new kitchen all came from Linda’s resource list.  If you ever has visited Linda Craft’s office, you may get the impression that she is a Carolina Hurricane fan.  That is to put things lightly.  One may also think she is married to Rod Brindamour with all the pictures of the pair of them in the office.  She offered us some Hurricanes tickets for an upcoming game.  I gladly and appreciatively accepted this offer and set the date for the April 4th game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.  I was finally off the hook with my daughter with the help of Linda Craft.    So the father-daughter date night was born.  Linda provided us with a truly VIP treatment as we were treated with Premier Gold parking passes, admission to the Lexus Champions Club, free food, and drinks, some of the best seats in the RBC center, and last but not least a Hurricanes overtime win that clinched playoff spot.  A side effect, was my wife was a little bit jealous.  Pictures and a dedicated post to follow.

    

Saturday night Tar Heels win -  If you ever want to see an excited look on Sophie’s face, just mention to her that she can stay up to “midnight.”  This excitement comes from her first new years eve dropping of the ball experience.  I promised her that after the game she could stay up and watch the rest of the Villanova-Carolina final four semi-finals game with me.  This could result in her staying up to midnight.  The good news is that the Tar heels did not drop ball and are competing for the national championship this evening against Michigan State.  Since the games starts after 9 PM eastern standard time, it will be a late night for me tonight. Go Heels!!  P.S. Sophia fell a sleep on the couch at about 10:45 PM. :)

  Sunday Savannah’s 3rd birthday party-  Though her birthday is actually on Tuesday, we celebrated Savannah’s birthday with about 30 people at the Marbles kid museum.  This place is kid heaven!!!  I will save more details and photos for a later post once I get a chance to go through the hundreds of pictures that I took to capture the event.

Misses:

       DirectTV’s slow death- Since we moved to the new house, I have had many outages  for  HD DirectTV  that caused me to miss much of the ACC and NCAA tournament in HD.   Thank god for the HD feed on www.ncaasports.com  on my computer. Every time it rains I lose the signal.  I have had DirectTV for several years without an issue.   The technician came out on Sunday.  He was surprised from the placement of the dish by the previous installer that I was even receiving a high-def signal.  Apparently, we would not have a clear view to the HD satellites without cutting down some oak tree limbs in our yard.  The wooded lot is one of many traits we like about the house so that would not happen.  He marked the service ticket “NLOS”(no line of site).   This week we will be looking into other options for our TV needs.  Bye Bye NFL Sunday ticket and the NFL network !!!!

       My mother’s surprise 70th birthday party-  In another time zone and region of the United States  a surprise birthday party took place for the world’s greatest mom on Saturday in Racine, Wisconsin.  This is the one miss  I truly regret.   I called her last night to apologize for my absence.  In typical mom fashion, she was more interested on how things were going with me and how Savannah’s party went.  It made me feel a little better but  I still wished I was there like with my brothers and sisters to see her surprised face and share the special night with her.