Halloween Crazies

Last night Jason and Holly had us over to their house for a Halloween party of sorts. We decided ahead of time that Ellie was the only human that was to be dressed up since none of us really wanted to spend energy deciding on a costume (yes we are lazy, what can we say?). Joe, Julia and Nick however made us laugh showing up in semi-costumes - well worth it I'd say!


We decided that instead of having poor Holly cook for all of us (who could have done everything because she is supermom, but we decided to give her a break), we would make pizzas. We split up bringing the ingredients and it turned out superbly delicious! We had a barbque chicken and red onion; pepperoni and peppers with fresh oregano; pesto, roasted red peppers and mushrooms; and spinach, feta and tomato. We decided it was best if there were not three dogs wandering about while we cooked, so they were confined to the outside for the beginning of the evening. Kaylinn was very unhappy about this set up and decided to bark at the door for the better part of her seclusion. Ellie, however, decided just to sleep through the whole thing.



While the pizzas were cooking, Holly and Jason prepped Ellie for the big event of the evening. Jason did an amazingly good job of not letting any clues slip as to what her costume was going to be, so we were so excited to see Little Ellie the Lobster!


We finished off the evening with caramel apples, pumpkin ice cream and a viewing of our scary movie of choice: The Shining (which I had actually never seen until last night). It was great fun!

Sweet Little Girl

So yesterday was Emily's baptism. She was so cute in her white dress, and actually quite in a good mood for the service. She sat quietly in Andrea's arms while the pastor talked and then was actually also sitting quietly in the pastor's arms...that is until the actual baptizing event. She wasn't so happy once she got water dumped on her head, which how can you blame her really? Apparently it was Reformation Sunday, during which the Presbyterian Church celebrates their roots in Scotland by having a bag piper play. The majority of the music though was not with the piper until the last song when we sang Amazing Grace with the bag pipe. It was beautiful!

After the service we went over to Jack's parents house to have lunch. Jack's friend and Emily's godfather Thomas and his family where there. Ava is Jack's goddaughter so we decided that Ava and Emily were godcousins, although I'm not sure that this is an actual relationship :) Ava was cracking us up with her stories. We definitely realized why you don't say anything around a 3 year old that you don't want told to anyone who feels like listening! She was hilarious!

We went home to play with the pupster and then headed back to Andrea and Jack's for dinner . The boys decided to make a fire in the back and the girls stayed inside with the baby and made fondue. While I'm a fan of fires, I think that chocolate fondue wins the contest :) At this point Emily decided that the day has been far too long and she was not in the mood for company so she was a bit cranky until the majority of the guest left. Then I guess she decided it was quite enough again to be social. So she hung out with me on the bouncy ball in her cute little Halloween sleeper :)It was a fun little day. And I'll tell you those baby hormones are awfully strong - after a day of babies screaming and kids running around I was still sure I was in the mood for one of my own :)

W is for Wedding

This is really rather belated, but I realized that I never actually posted this on my blog and instead kept sending people to Rachel's blog to get the link. So now, my wedding present from Rachel is officially one of my links as well as right HERE!

Wild and Wonderful

Anyone who has gone to more than a few conferences know that the one thing about them is that they don't always look at the location based on the time of year they are holding the meeting. Take for instance a conference I went to in December in Vancouver, or August in Miami. Flip those two dates and you've got some good weather, but otherwise those of us who are temperature regulating challenged have some issues. Well, the conference I was at last week got it right - West Virginia in October! The trees were beautiful and even though it rained the better portion of the week the temperature was perfect.

I also like conferences in the mid-Atlantic because that means I get to go home either before or after the meeting. This time I went home the Thursday before and got to stay at home for 4 days! I went shoe shopping and got manicures with my mom, went rock climbing at an indoor rock gym with my dad, helped my grandmother finish planting her garden, visited my friend Melanie who recently moved up near my parents, and had a glass of wine with my aunt who I haven't gotten to visit in the past 3 or 4 times I've been home! It was a fun filled weekend.

On Sunday my mom and Nikole drove me down to my conference, and we decided on the way to stop by and visit Harpers Ferry since my mom and Nikole had never been there, and although I have a vauge recollection of it from a middle school field trip, I don't remember much. It was beautiful!

the fall trees and the Potomac River

The meeting was at the National Conservation Training Center, which is a beautiful little training center out in the middle of nowhere. Mom and Nikole stayed Sunday night and Monday morning my mom and I got up to take a walk around the training center trails before they left and I headed to meetings. We took a walk down to the river, which was all covered with fog where could hear the bald eagles across the river. And of course I forgot my camera because it was the only morning walk I got to take not in the rain!

an aerial of the training center I stole off the internet :)

the lodge I stayed in

a picture I took when I got back to my room one day - we decided there were no predators in a 100 mile radius based on how many deer we saw :)

The meeting was great, although my brain was about dead by the end of it. It rained on and off the rest of the week, but the training center had umbrellas that anyone could use at each of the buildings so you could just grab an umbrella to walk to your next meeting spot - quite ingenious! Although I had fun, I was happy to head home. We landed in Charleston at midnight Friday night, where Sandor and Kaylinn were waiting to take me home (Miss Kaylinn was not very happy about my absence and decided to eat 2 pairs of my shoes in protest). The next morning we got up and took the crazed girl to the beach to run off some energy, which we think she greatly appreciated :)

Never a Boring Moment

Life has seemed a little dull this week, especially after reading Rachel's story about Gabriel and George. But, I guess fun comes with the 2 year old territory :) So I was going to write about how boring my week has been until I realized I am WAY over exaggerating. Granted I have no cute Gabriel to keep me entertained, but I have had quite a few entertaining moments in the past few weeks. Since not all of them were captured on the blog I figured I would highlight a few...

Kaylinn and Dudley playing on the beach during a walk up near Brandy's house

one of the fish we were getting ready to tag on my weekend fish tagging trip to Myrtle Beach. the camera was waterproof even though it didn't look like it so it took me a moment before I could convince myself to stick the whole thing underwater!

Emily Daniels being as cute as can be. I stayed at Andrea's house for a day a few weekends ago to help her with Emily while Jack was out of town

Sandor and I at Micah's 2nd birthday party being backyardigans (which I didn't even know existed until I got there)

but most of the entertainment has been due to these three crazy animals, who I somehow convinced to actually sit still all in the same room for enough time to get this picture

It's Finally Fall!

Ahh, I have been waiting for October in Charleston! It is the most glorious of all weather...well I guess April in Charleston is also pretty nice. But I think that since the winter is not all that bad down here it's not as refreshing to have warmer weather as cooler weather is refreshing after the summer. I thought that October was going to pass me by un-wonderful until last week, when it finally started cooling down at night and as of Thursday we have yet to turn our air conditioning on in the house. So, needless to say Saturday morning we took advantage of the beautiful temperature and lack of bugs and went ahead and left the porch door open while we hung our in the living room. The animals were very intruiged in this new region of their home, specifically the kitten which has not yet explored this little area of her world.

Kaylinn as always was pretty much just obsessed with wherever the kitten was

this was Leia stalking the dog, we can't really blame all the mayhem on Kaylinn, Leia initiates a good deal of it

Mishu, preferred to ignore them both and bask in the sun

The next day to continue our celebration of fall we headed to Daniel Island for an Oktoberfest celebration! The weather was gorgeous! There was a German band playing, tons of brats (although we were sad that they ran out of sauerkraut by the time we were ready to wait in the 30 minute line for them) and a variety of German beer to boot.

Jason and Joe ready to break out the plethora of German beers

Ellie enjoying the sun

our musical enjoyment for the day

A New View

I have a new office at work! It was kinda a pain moving everything - which is what I have been spending the better part of my week doing. There is less space in my new desk, which necessitated moving what was in my desk to my filing cabinent, which necessitated organizing my filing cabinet, which made more things need to move into the storage cabinet, which again necessitated more organizing of the storage cabinet...you get the point. But for my new view I think you'll agree it was well worth it :)

during the moving process

my old office all empty and sad

my new office! it's a little dark because of the sun from the back

new much larger view of the harbor!

this office is also a LOT bigger - I have a whole wing for files, books and storage

there is also a 'relaxation wing' - Maia and I on the couch after a week well spent

Duplicate Call to Action

So, not only was I way behind in posting to my blog, but I was also way behind in reading my friend's blogs. Which lead me to many laughs this morning as I read Rachel's escapades of the house and Gabriel. What did not lead to laughs was a very serious issue with adoptions from Guatemala. Please take a moment to visit her more in depth explanation of the problem and consider signing the petition. And just in case you need some help seeing why it's important I put some pictures of the sweetie Gabriel, who they adopted from Guatemala two years ago. Check out Rachel's Blog

Gabriel and I in Guatemala

The Beanlands!

ah, he's so cute!

Bruise Central

Ok, I know I've been way out of touch the past 2 weeks. For some reason work has been pure insanity. So, I figured I owed you guys a new post, and what better to write about than my trip to NC to visit my sister...since I still have the bruises to prove it.

The pupster and I drove up to Brandy's house 2 weekends ago since my parents and Nikole were coming down - we figured we'd meet in the middle. As always good food and lots of laughs were in order. The dogs alone were endless entertainment. Kaylinn and Dudley as always wrestled and played the entire time, barely taking a break to eat and drink (and Dudley up to the point when Kaylinn got there was even so sick they took him to the vet that morning).

family dinner

this was the general state of the two puppies...insanity!

that is until John literally cut (I'm talking using a large saw) the newest bone in half for them. the other 5 bones in the house were not good enough, they both needed this one.

poor Belle is too old for their shenanigans. she was happy if they just left her alone.

a rare moment of calmness

On Saturday, Brandy, John, my dad and I went rock climbing (Brandy and John's newest hobby), which was in fact the whole second time I've ever done this outside, and the first time I've climbed in about 8 years. Needless to say I had to loosen the leg loops of the harness I had set up from when I was just out of high school :) It was an awesome trip and I realized it sure is different climbing outside! First of all you have to lug all your stuff up the mountain, which is not an easy task. To get to Crowder's Mountain you walk about a mile uphill before you can find a spot to drop your rope over. Jo

Brandy and John setting up the ropes

believe it or not this is the easiest way to straighten out the rope once you set it up - repel on down to the ground, which is actually quite fun! granted dropping yourself off the side of a mountain to trust yourself to those carabeiners and ropes you just set up is a bit disconcerting, but much like skydiving if you just do it without looking down it's far easier :)

Brandy repelling down on the second line - we set up two then went to the bottom, climbed those, then went back up to have lunch, set up two more and climbed those. it's amazing how tired you get just climbing 3 or 4 walls!

this is actually what you spend much of your time doing...gets a bit of a workout on the neck

And now for a few superstar shots of us climbing...

yep, still looking up

My mom was kind enough to walk all the way up there and bring us lunch...carrying a cooler, bag of food and lugging 2 dogs that were trying desperately to escape and run free. What can we say, she's a trooper!


Needless to say we were a bit tired when we got home, so after a delicious 'pile everything you can on your plate' taco dinner we headed off to an early bed. Apparently I bruised myself up a bit more than I realized because I still have them all over my legs!