Mishu is as yet a bit unsure...
Friday, August 31, 2007
Little Leia
Last week Sandor stopped by the vet's office to pick up flea meds for Mishu and Kaylinn and came to my office to say the had 8 week old kittens one of the women working there was giving away. So, guess who we brought home today? A little 9 week old kitten as the newest addition to our growing zoo of a house :) I grew up in a zoo of animals so it's nothing new for me and I think Sandor is catching the animal loving bug!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Tour de MidAtlantic
I love my family! I love talking to them, laughing with them, and even just sitting around in the same room as them is fun. Two weeks ago I headed up to New York for my Aunt Cindy's wedding. For anyone who has not been privileged enough to meet the Walkers, it is an experience when you get 3 of us in a room, so you can only imagine the chaos that ensues when you put 20 or so of us together! My abs hurt when the weekend was over from all the laughing
I left to head north on Saturday, but before I left my best friend from high school, Lisa, was in town on her way to Hilton Head, so we had some time in the humidity of Charleston together. After a lazy morning (they were 2 time zones behind us after all, they flew in at midnight from AZ), we went downtown for a while and finished off the trip with a lunch on the porch at the Crab House. It was awesome to see her since I haven't since my wedding!
Round about 4:00 me and the pup finally headed north - first destination Richmond. My friends Rachel and Kevin recently moved there and I hadn't seen them since they left Columbia (SC not the country). I didn't get there until 11, but Rachel being the trooper she is waited up for me and the next morning she gave me a little tour of the neighborhood. They can walk to Gabriel's day care, Kevin's work, and a cute little grocery store. Gabriel was a little unsure of Kaylinn at first, but he grew to be quite a fan. He first of all loved her crate and kept climbing in it, saying 'bye, bye'. He also was a fan of yelling 'doggy' and dropping food on the floor, which Kaylinn was all too happy to clean up :) They were so cute together. I stayed for 2 days with the Beanlands in Richmond and then continued my northward trek.
I decided to take the method of 'play now, sleep later' for the trip as a whole, so I left Rachel and Kevin's house at 9 and made it home around 1am or so. Matt had arrived from Germany a few days before, so the next morning, mom, Matt, Nikole and I went out to breakfast and then I took a nap while they ran a few errands. That afternoon Brandy and John arrived with Dudley and the pups had great fun playing again. They are hilarious together, they just don't know what to do with themselves when they aren't playing :)
That night Brandy, Mom and I made these cookie popcicle things for Aunt Cindy's wedding. Aunt Cindy had sent me this recipe but we had to make a few adjustments. First we decided to put a different color cookie in the middle rather than try to make candy correctly. We also found out that apparently Martha Stewart makes her cookies in an air conditioned home (go figure) so our cookies were having a few issues with the whole melting thing, which made it rather difficult to get them off the table where we were rolling them out. So we improvised. I held a cold pack just high enough over them to cool them but not to touch them, Brandy got them off the table, and mom put the middle heart inside the outer heart. It was quite a fiasco, but the cookies were pretty impressive if we had to say so ourselves :)
The next morning we again moved farther north, this time to the main event as it were...well to the pre-main event. Brandy, Mom and I drove up and met Aunt Cindy and Jessica for a day at the spa! Aunt Barb, Tegan and Jordan met us there bringing delicious truffles Tegan made, and we all had a great time watching Cindy be pampered!
Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to get ready for a pizza party! This is when the real Walker world started to come alive. There were no actual written directions and when you have 20 or so people all attempting to get to the same place on the roads up there (let me tell you driving was less than logical) life gets interesting. At one point I looked around and there were people just everywhere all over the lobby, you could barely hear above the talking and talking, and yet we were all in our element. It was great. After a few embarrassing presents for my Aunt at the pizza party we headed back to the hotel to do the 'few' last minute things before the wedding. We quickly found out my Aunt's idea of 'few' was different than ours. Thankfully we had a mighty group of people ready to handle everything...even the rings and passports missing for a few hours. In the end it was one of the most fun few hours of the whole trip, but I generally feel that the night before a wedding is fun, so I may be biased :)
The next morning we got up and kept finishing 'last minute' items...oh you know like finishing sewing the dress (!!!). Brandy, Jessica, Sandor, John and I headed out to the wedding site to set it up and get everything ready - it was gorgeous! And my Aunt was beautiful!
Brandy and I with the parasols provided to keep us out of the heat!
my aunt and grandmother
My dad rented Cindy and Bruce a convertible to drive away from the wedding in, it was awesome, and they had a lot of fun driving around with the music blaring and the top down!
this is a classic picture of my dad and his sisters and brothers that they started taking back when they were little. it's hilarious!
The next day we all had to say goodbye as Cindy and Bruce were leaving on their cruise, the Ducharmes' were headed back to the west coast for the last minute plans on Jessica's wedding and the rest of us had to at some point deal with the real world. But, before we did that my Aunt Barb, Laird, Tegan, Jordan, Sandor and I went to NY! The first day we went to Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty and waved goodbye to Cindy and Bruce's cruise ship (although we later found out they were sleeping at that point, but we made a good show of it anyway).
waving goodbye to the ship
The next day we headed back to the city - this time getting lost in Jersey a few times - I'm telling you between the tolls and the lack of correct signs Jersey is my least favorite place to drive (they have signs mind you the signs just don't actually lead to where they say they will, or they lead to that road just drop you off going the wrong way). By the time we found out way to Staten Island, got across the harbor to downtown, checked out ground zero and took a taxi ride up to Central Park for a hot dog and pretzel picnic, Sandor and I had to head to the airport. Which I found, but got lost coming out of...seriously people, I am not a bad driver, Jersey has bad roads. Anyway, that night with my trip winding down I headed down to the Jersey shore to stay with my friends Kathleen and Jimmy at their beach house for 2 days of rest and relaxation.
Kathleen's family adopted me for 2 days - taking me to dinner, playing family cards, hanging out at the beach and most interestingly going to the Rubber Ducky Regatta. Yes there is such a thing as a rubber ducky regatta and we saw it!! only in Jersey :)
that's a LOT of rubber duckies!
But at some point I had to go back to work and pay for all this travelling so after 2 days I got back in the car went back to my parents for a day before heading back down to Charleston. Kaylinn was happy to see me again..although she was generally more interested in the birds and squirrels running around the yard :)
All in all the Tour de MidAtlantic was quite a success! Over 2000 miles of fun times and lots of laughter!
I left to head north on Saturday, but before I left my best friend from high school, Lisa, was in town on her way to Hilton Head, so we had some time in the humidity of Charleston together. After a lazy morning (they were 2 time zones behind us after all, they flew in at midnight from AZ), we went downtown for a while and finished off the trip with a lunch on the porch at the Crab House. It was awesome to see her since I haven't since my wedding!
Round about 4:00 me and the pup finally headed north - first destination Richmond. My friends Rachel and Kevin recently moved there and I hadn't seen them since they left Columbia (SC not the country). I didn't get there until 11, but Rachel being the trooper she is waited up for me and the next morning she gave me a little tour of the neighborhood. They can walk to Gabriel's day care, Kevin's work, and a cute little grocery store. Gabriel was a little unsure of Kaylinn at first, but he grew to be quite a fan. He first of all loved her crate and kept climbing in it, saying 'bye, bye'. He also was a fan of yelling 'doggy' and dropping food on the floor, which Kaylinn was all too happy to clean up :) They were so cute together. I stayed for 2 days with the Beanlands in Richmond and then continued my northward trek.
I decided to take the method of 'play now, sleep later' for the trip as a whole, so I left Rachel and Kevin's house at 9 and made it home around 1am or so. Matt had arrived from Germany a few days before, so the next morning, mom, Matt, Nikole and I went out to breakfast and then I took a nap while they ran a few errands. That afternoon Brandy and John arrived with Dudley and the pups had great fun playing again. They are hilarious together, they just don't know what to do with themselves when they aren't playing :)
That night Brandy, Mom and I made these cookie popcicle things for Aunt Cindy's wedding. Aunt Cindy had sent me this recipe but we had to make a few adjustments. First we decided to put a different color cookie in the middle rather than try to make candy correctly. We also found out that apparently Martha Stewart makes her cookies in an air conditioned home (go figure) so our cookies were having a few issues with the whole melting thing, which made it rather difficult to get them off the table where we were rolling them out. So we improvised. I held a cold pack just high enough over them to cool them but not to touch them, Brandy got them off the table, and mom put the middle heart inside the outer heart. It was quite a fiasco, but the cookies were pretty impressive if we had to say so ourselves :)
The next morning we again moved farther north, this time to the main event as it were...well to the pre-main event. Brandy, Mom and I drove up and met Aunt Cindy and Jessica for a day at the spa! Aunt Barb, Tegan and Jordan met us there bringing delicious truffles Tegan made, and we all had a great time watching Cindy be pampered!
Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to get ready for a pizza party! This is when the real Walker world started to come alive. There were no actual written directions and when you have 20 or so people all attempting to get to the same place on the roads up there (let me tell you driving was less than logical) life gets interesting. At one point I looked around and there were people just everywhere all over the lobby, you could barely hear above the talking and talking, and yet we were all in our element. It was great. After a few embarrassing presents for my Aunt at the pizza party we headed back to the hotel to do the 'few' last minute things before the wedding. We quickly found out my Aunt's idea of 'few' was different than ours. Thankfully we had a mighty group of people ready to handle everything...even the rings and passports missing for a few hours. In the end it was one of the most fun few hours of the whole trip, but I generally feel that the night before a wedding is fun, so I may be biased :)
The next morning we got up and kept finishing 'last minute' items...oh you know like finishing sewing the dress (!!!). Brandy, Jessica, Sandor, John and I headed out to the wedding site to set it up and get everything ready - it was gorgeous! And my Aunt was beautiful!
Brandy and I with the parasols provided to keep us out of the heat!
my aunt and grandmother
My dad rented Cindy and Bruce a convertible to drive away from the wedding in, it was awesome, and they had a lot of fun driving around with the music blaring and the top down!
this is a classic picture of my dad and his sisters and brothers that they started taking back when they were little. it's hilarious!
The next day we all had to say goodbye as Cindy and Bruce were leaving on their cruise, the Ducharmes' were headed back to the west coast for the last minute plans on Jessica's wedding and the rest of us had to at some point deal with the real world. But, before we did that my Aunt Barb, Laird, Tegan, Jordan, Sandor and I went to NY! The first day we went to Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty and waved goodbye to Cindy and Bruce's cruise ship (although we later found out they were sleeping at that point, but we made a good show of it anyway).
waving goodbye to the ship
The next day we headed back to the city - this time getting lost in Jersey a few times - I'm telling you between the tolls and the lack of correct signs Jersey is my least favorite place to drive (they have signs mind you the signs just don't actually lead to where they say they will, or they lead to that road just drop you off going the wrong way). By the time we found out way to Staten Island, got across the harbor to downtown, checked out ground zero and took a taxi ride up to Central Park for a hot dog and pretzel picnic, Sandor and I had to head to the airport. Which I found, but got lost coming out of...seriously people, I am not a bad driver, Jersey has bad roads. Anyway, that night with my trip winding down I headed down to the Jersey shore to stay with my friends Kathleen and Jimmy at their beach house for 2 days of rest and relaxation.
Kathleen's family adopted me for 2 days - taking me to dinner, playing family cards, hanging out at the beach and most interestingly going to the Rubber Ducky Regatta. Yes there is such a thing as a rubber ducky regatta and we saw it!! only in Jersey :)
that's a LOT of rubber duckies!
But at some point I had to go back to work and pay for all this travelling so after 2 days I got back in the car went back to my parents for a day before heading back down to Charleston. Kaylinn was happy to see me again..although she was generally more interested in the birds and squirrels running around the yard :)
All in all the Tour de MidAtlantic was quite a success! Over 2000 miles of fun times and lots of laughter!
Daddies and their Girls
Last week I got pictures from both of my friends who are new parents with pictures of the babies. I specifically noticed the cute dad pictures because I think dads and little girls are the sweetest thing in the world. Granted this is certainly due to the fact that as my dad's father's day card a few years ago said 'I've outgrown all my hero's but one'. Then this morning I was going through my pictures from my trip up north to pick out which ones to put on here and found one of my sister and dad and I and it hit me that what I find so sweet is that somehow you never outgrow thinking your dad can do anything. Now I'm sure people who don't have great relationships with their dads would not agree, but I'm glad that I have a dad who would give anything to see me happy...and has many times.
one last one of my dad and I before we walked down the aisle - I love this picture
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Delinquint Blogger
Wow, sorry guys, I have been super behind on my blogging. I was out of town for the better portion of the beginning of the month (one of my stops can be seen on Rachel's blog) so at least I have a bit of an excuse then, but these last two weeks I've just been lazy! So what have I been up to? Well during the day mainly try to catch up at work from all my missed time, and then in the evenings Sandor and I have been finishing up the last season of Six Feet Under.
For anyone who has not watched the show, I HIGHLY recommend it. Topped only by LOST at this point, it's kinda funny that my number 2 show I never actually watched on TV. It's about a rather dysfunctional family that owns a funeral home in LA. The first episode starts with the father dying and looks at how people who have dealt with other's grief for their whole lives grieve themselves. Kinda interesting. And then each episode has another death and somehow weaves that family's experience or parallel situation into the Fisher's lives. It's incredible how they use characters. So anyway, we are presently waiting for the library to open Monday morning so we can get the series finale. Last night we stayed up until 1:30am watching it because after every episode we said 'ok, just one more then we'll go to bed'. I would have been insane if I had been watching this when it was on TV and had to wait a week between each of them!
What else...well during the day yesterday, before the Six Feet Under marathon I finally got back to scrapbooking. I am officially 2 years behind at this point, rather pathetic really. So my goal for the weekend was to catch up to September of 2005 so at least I have my sister's wedding scrapbooked. She will be celebrating her 2nd anniversary next weekend, so it's about time I get some pictures in the books! But I first started with my trip to Guatemala and Gabriel's page.
So, right now I'm getting ready to head out for more glue, which I ran out of in the midst of my Aunt Barb's wedding page. The dog and cat are passed out in their own respective sleeping spots, and Sandor is helping his dad with computer stuff. Lazy days, lazy days. But, I will report back on my trip up north this week, it was fabulous!
For anyone who has not watched the show, I HIGHLY recommend it. Topped only by LOST at this point, it's kinda funny that my number 2 show I never actually watched on TV. It's about a rather dysfunctional family that owns a funeral home in LA. The first episode starts with the father dying and looks at how people who have dealt with other's grief for their whole lives grieve themselves. Kinda interesting. And then each episode has another death and somehow weaves that family's experience or parallel situation into the Fisher's lives. It's incredible how they use characters. So anyway, we are presently waiting for the library to open Monday morning so we can get the series finale. Last night we stayed up until 1:30am watching it because after every episode we said 'ok, just one more then we'll go to bed'. I would have been insane if I had been watching this when it was on TV and had to wait a week between each of them! What else...well during the day yesterday, before the Six Feet Under marathon I finally got back to scrapbooking. I am officially 2 years behind at this point, rather pathetic really. So my goal for the weekend was to catch up to September of 2005 so at least I have my sister's wedding scrapbooked. She will be celebrating her 2nd anniversary next weekend, so it's about time I get some pictures in the books! But I first started with my trip to Guatemala and Gabriel's page.
So, right now I'm getting ready to head out for more glue, which I ran out of in the midst of my Aunt Barb's wedding page. The dog and cat are passed out in their own respective sleeping spots, and Sandor is helping his dad with computer stuff. Lazy days, lazy days. But, I will report back on my trip up north this week, it was fabulous!
Friday, August 3, 2007
Visitors to Charleston
Last weekend my mom, my grandmother (my dad's mom) and my sister came to visit. 5 people and a dog in our little condo was quite crazy, but all Walker get-togethers are crazy so I think Sandor has just gotten used to it. They were on a week long visiting trip, first up to Brandy's house and then down to mine. Nikole had gone to Brandy's house when she and John got back from the west coast (since they are teachers and have the summer off, they got to extend their trip after Rainier). So my mom and Granny drove down to pick her up, helped my sister do some landscaping, and then headed down to my house for some hot and humid relaxation! Needless to say I thought it was rather cool outside for a Charleston July weekend and they were not in agreement. :)
The first night my mom, Sandor, Nikole and I took the Kaylinn pup to the beach. It was hilarious. Nikole and Kaylinn went swimming/running in the water. Nikole kept tripping over the sand and falling in the water and Kaylinn would look confused and unsure why this strange person was running around with her. But in the end she decided this strange person was in fact ok, and kept running around.
nearly full moon at the beach
Kaylinn LOVES digging holes!
Nikole and mom
I like having my feet in sand
hanging out in the shade working on finishing Harry Potter
As my family learned you do things in Charleston in the morning and then you head back indoors during the middle of the day. So we hung out at the house, my grandmother worked on a quilt and Kaylinn was quite happy to assist :)
Kaylinn was loving life with all the attention :)
Another carriage in front of us on Broad St.
the battery - we looked into getting married here, but you can only have 20 people at your wedding! I've got 20 people just in my dad's side of the family!
The first night my mom, Sandor, Nikole and I took the Kaylinn pup to the beach. It was hilarious. Nikole and Kaylinn went swimming/running in the water. Nikole kept tripping over the sand and falling in the water and Kaylinn would look confused and unsure why this strange person was running around with her. But in the end she decided this strange person was in fact ok, and kept running around.
nearly full moon at the beach
Kaylinn LOVES digging holes!The next day we got up and took a real beach trip - i.e. the umbrella and towels and Twizzlers! If you have never had Twizzlers after they sit in the sun and get warm and then have sand and salt in them from the ocean, I highly recommend it!
Nikole and mom
I like having my feet in sand
hanging out in the shade working on finishing Harry Potter
Granny looking for shells on the beach
As my family learned you do things in Charleston in the morning and then you head back indoors during the middle of the day. So we hung out at the house, my grandmother worked on a quilt and Kaylinn was quite happy to assist :)
Kaylinn was loving life with all the attention :)The next morning we headed downtown and took at carriage ride around town. My mom and I had done this when I first moved to Charleston and knew that my grandmother would love it. Last time Nikole - who initiated the carriage ride - fell asleep during the middle of it. This time she stayed awake :) It was quite entertaining and I learned some more about Charleston that I didn't know. And we got the tour that went down to the battery, which is my favorite place that I wanted to show my grandmother (for those of you not from here - the city controls where the carriage rides go so that they are not all lined up in one spot, so you don't know which tour you are getting until you get it).
Church St - I love that church
Another carriage in front of us on Broad St.
the battery - we looked into getting married here, but you can only have 20 people at your wedding! I've got 20 people just in my dad's side of the family!
I didn't realize there were still houses with damage from Hugo!
love the cobblestone
Michelle and the not so little anymore Tobias
Aniko opening presents - she had previously opened a present with dress up clothes which she insisted on trying on immediately, hence the ballerina outfit
Sean opening presents - Sean was much more into the opening of the presents than the seeing what they were :) - it's funny how twins are so different!
We made it back to the house just in time to get out of the torrential downpour! I love rainy days hanging out at home though. My mom and I went out to the grocery store and got food to make for my two new mothers, so that took up most of the afternoon. And then after we dropped off the food and said hi to the two sweeties (who were both happily sleeping during the day so that they could stay awake a night and keep their parents in a state of sleep deprivation) we headed up to Summerville for Sandor's niece and nephew's birthday party. And go figure - more babies! This is our friends Evan and Benita's little girl Ava...
Michelle and the not so little anymore Tobias
Aniko opening presents - she had previously opened a present with dress up clothes which she insisted on trying on immediately, hence the ballerina outfit
Sean opening presents - Sean was much more into the opening of the presents than the seeing what they were :) - it's funny how twins are so different!But the next day everyone had to head home. It was great fun while it lasted!
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