Last night my son, Anthony, advanced to the rank of Life Scout. He achieved this with much hard work and determination.

Next:  EAGLE SCOUT !!

Anthony is apart of Troop 38 sponsored by Poplar Tent Presbyterian Church in Concord NC.

He has been a Boy Scout for 2 years and really enjoys all that it stands for.

He holds the office of Assistant Patrol Leader.

(Anthony in an older photo)

Anthony is also one of the priveleged who will be attending the 2010 Boy Scout Jamboree.  In 2010, Scouting celebrates it's 100th Anniversary.

Woo Hoo!!

Happy Halloween to everyone here in the rain.

It rained a little on the kids tonight so they, too, were playing in the rain.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays...I love the costumes and especially all the candy!!!

There goes my diet!

: (

Hope your Halloweenie was safe and lots of fun!!

Oh yeah...don't forget to set your clocks back tonight!!

Ciao!

I dropped my youngest daughter, Katrina, off at girl scouts at a neighborhood church.

Upon leaving, I noticed the cemetery behind the church.

I couldn't help notice this headstone.

How's that for a fitting name. Not sure I ever met a Goodnight.

I've had many but never met one.

You can't make these things up!

lol

After leaving the office one day last week I could see a circle off in the distance up on a hill.

As I got closer, I realized it was a ring of mushrooms.

Immediately thinking I have to post this on Active Rain, I stopped the car, jumped out and snapped the pic.

I thought how odd for them to grow in a circular pattern.

Has anyone ever seen this sort of phenomenon before?

Let's hear about it or better yet if you have a pic of it post it here.

Below is market information on Cabarrus & Mecklenburg counties in North Carolina. I've supplied info for sales from 2008 as compared to the same time period in 2009.

Cabarrus                                                                                          Mecklenburg

This includes but not limited to the towns and cities of:

Concord NC, Kannapolis NC, Harrisburg NC, in Cabarrus county

& Huntersville NC, Cornelius NC, Davidson NC, and North Charlotte NC in Mecklenburg county.

****************************************************************************************

The following charts show: new listings with average list price, how many of those new listings went under contract, the average list price of those under contract, how many of them sold, the average sale price, sale price to list price ratio, and how many days on the market.

Single Family

Cabarrus county

Line 1 - report period: 1/1/2008 through 9/30/2008

Line 2 - report period: 1/1/2009 through 9/30/2009

               New      Avg LP     Under Contract     Avg LP     Sold      Avg SP      %SP/LP     Avg DOM

Line 1      3760   $247,091         1740          $209,335   1519   $198,611     96.85%        95

Line 2      2931   $228,273         1264          $191,142   1074   $182,593     95.36%        118

Mecklenburg county

Line 1 - report period 1/1/2008 through 9/30/2008

Line 2 - report period 1/1/2009 through 9/30/2009

                New     Avg LP     Under Contract     Avg LP     Sold      Avg SP      %SP/LP     Avg DOM

Line 1      3586   $238,221         1787          $214,713   1631   $215,096     97.13%         91

Line 2      2823   $234,482         1359          $196,189   1139   $188,257     94.12%         106

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Condo/Townhouse

Cabarrus county

Line 1 - report period 1/1/2008 through 9/30/2008

Line 2 - report period 1/1/2009 through 9/30/2009

                 New     Avg LP     Under Contract     Avg LP     Sold      Avg SP      %SP/LP     Avg DOM

Line 1        295   $174,139          132           $152,361    110    $144,367     97.17%         78

Line 2        248   $158,692           94            $140,323     85     $135,052     99.01%         93

Mecklenburg county

Line 1 - report period 1/1/2008 through 9/30/2008

Line 2 - report period 1/1/2009 through 9/30/2009

                 New     Avg LP     Under Contract     Avg LP     Sold      Avg SP      %SP/LP     Avg DOM

Line 1        744   $173,520           393          $144,483     362    $149,241    98.22%        119

Line 2        685   $146,603           263          $133,356     213    $130,489    95.96%        114

While some agents are reporting a rise in business, you can see that the numbers continue to drop.

Hopefully 2010 will be the turn around year for Charlotte area Real Estate.

School has started up again...

summer will soon come to a close...

here is my loving tribute...

to things appealing to my eyes & nose.

(ok, so I'm not a poet)   : )

These flowers are some of the kinds I have growing in my front garden. It is saddening to see them start to die out, preparing for Fall.

Guess it's time to plant some Fall loving flowers.

Any suggestions??

As promised in Part 1...here are some pics of Florida's Animal Life.

I wish I could have captured more but this is what I saw...

Look for more pics from our Florida trip!!

Hey everyone, I'M BACK !!

My youngest daughter, Katrina, performed with her dance troupe at Disney last week. We decided to make a family vacation out of it and went for 2 weeks.

We hit the parks:

 Disney (Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Animal Kingdom),

Universal,  &

Sea World. 

We also spent time at the resort pool. I even took my two older kids to Cocoa Beach!

Some of the nights we went to a dinner show. All lots of fun!

Yes, it was HOT!! However, we had odd weather as well.

We all know how Florida seems to have it's own weather pattern...rain comes through briefly some time during the day.

This trip, it rained everyday and for a longer period of time. There was no rhyme or reason to it. At least it cooled things off for a while.

Se La Vie! 

Check out some pics I snapped of the Flora around Florida...

Next entry...Florida's Fauna!

I guess I picked well when I decided to move to Huntersville in beautiful North Carolina.

Forbes Magazine placed Huntersville, NC second on their list of America's 25 Best Places to Move To.

WooHoo!!

The article included such facts as:

Population: 42,901

Median Family Income: $90,739

Median Home Value: $231,400

Huntersville was picked for many reasons, some are:

Pretty tree-lined neighborhoods,

Charming,

Has a small town feel.

2 other towns in North Carolina were also in the top 10,

they are:

Apex - rated # 3 and

Cary - rated # 8.

Come check out Huntersville and surrounding areas - Concord, Cornelius, Davidson, Harrisburg and of course, Charlotte, NC.