City of Brotherly Love

This statue is way smaller than I expected it to be. We had fun! Lots of walking, and we stopped at the Amish market on the way home for some goodies.

Sis is here

It's so good to have her here, I have missed my family soooo much. My cat too. I begged her to sneak Squeak into her suitcase, but Hubby said no way. We went to DC on Monday and went to an art museum. My sister is very knowledgeable about art and was explaining otherwise meaningless globs of paint to us in a way that actually made them interesting! DC was beautiful with blooms everywhere, and the weather was fantastic. On Tuesday we went to the DC Zoo. I love zoos. One of my favorite animals is the Meerkat, and they happened to have a baby one there! I was tickled pink. They are hysterical to watch. Last night Hubby, Sis and I went up to Philly to see the Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute. It was absolutely amazing. They have a lot of the artifacts found in Tut's tomb along with many others dating further back. Its weird to look at everyday items like a child's chair, and think that a child was actually sitting in it 3300 years ago. (Did I do the math right? ~1330 BC?) What were they like? What did they look like? Did I mention I love history? Hubby really likes Egyptian art and architecture so he really enjoyed it as well. Tomorrow we are off to Philly to do some more sightseeing.

New Baby

For those of you who know my cousin Heidi, here is her new baby girl, Lexie. Congrats to new Mommy and Daddy!

There are some more pictures on my uncle's website:

http://philsautoteacher.tripod.com/lexie/

Missing home

I had the worst craving for shrimp cocktail. Not the kind they have here though, which consists of just shrimp and dipping sauce. Back home the mexican restaurants would serve it more like a soup. La Casita near where I used to work had the best. So, I decided to make my own. Start with homemade salsa, then add shrimp, avocado, cucumber, cocktail sauce, ketchup, green onion, and cilantro. Man, I love that stuff. Served with tortilla chips, it hit the spot. Hubby actually liked it too!

Back from Virginia

We just got home from our last minute trip to Lynchburg,Virginia. Mark and Andrea R. were down there with their family at a home-school basketball tournament, when Andrea was taken to the hospital. She learned she had a massive bacterial infection that started from a bladder infection (or urinary tract inf., I can't remember). After a few days of being really sick, with what she thought was food poisoning, her blood pressure tanked and she fainted in the hotel room. This prompted her to call 911. Before the medics arrived, she drank a Pepsi... Wouldn't you know -it brought her pressure up long enough for them to tell her she was going to be ok. (what are they putting in soda now days?!) Mark took her to the hospital to get checked out at Dr. Philip I.'s advice. By the time they got there, her pressure was down around 70/40, and she was septic. After pumping antibiotics through a central line, the doctor said that if she had waited one more day to come in, they wouldn't have been able to save her. That was Thursday.

Hubby and I drove down there on Saturday. Andrea had been steadily improving, and by tonight she was walking around and looking much better. John and Lorie R. and Joseph and Joanna C. were also down there with us. We ended up having meeting in a hotel room in Virginia, which turned out to be one of the nicest I've been to. Even those who don't normally, participated. It gave me fresh appreciation for Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Andrea's doctors say there doesn't appear to be any permanent damage to her kidneys, and she should recover completely. Hopefully she will be released Monday or Tuesday. Morals of the story: 1) prayer is a powerful healing tool, and 2) go to the doctor right away when if you get a bladder or urinary tract infection - it maybe caused by something very bad.


In other news, we got our carpet cleaned by Jim and Brian. They did a fantastic job.

New Toy

Hubby is now the proud papa of a new Xbox 360. He spent all last evening cleaning up the wire jungle that occupied the guest bedroom/office, and installed his this new little box. I was told this is a more space efficient way to go, and he was right, the jungle is gone, and there is just the one little white box. Very nice. Aparently Xbox also has Windows Media Center, so we can watch tv, recorded tv/movies, and music from the Xbox instead of a pc, AND he can play Call of Duty 3! :0) Windows Media Center is pretty cool, I have to admit. It manages practically everything using a computer.

Phun with Photoshop

Woohoo! This small feat took me a whole evening to do. I have been fighting with Photoshop for days. It would help if I actually read the manual first. I have a .pdf file on the computer that is a tutorial of sorts, but I have to keep switching back and forth between screens (love Windows Vista, btw). I got the background off the internet, and Kate is wearing my high school prom dress. Yikes, that was over 10 yrs ago!

Play Day

For all of you enjoying California sunshine, I would just like to point out that it has snowed twice since I posted last. I have uttered "it is such a nice day" a few times, and felt really guilty/annoyed/deceived when I realized it was only in the 50's.

On Saturday, Kate, Jodi, and Jolene came over and went through all of my 'dress up' clothes I have collected over the years. They were having so much fun trying them on and parading around the house I had to bring out the hats and gloves too. I wish I still fit into some of those!

Yes, that is my wedding dress. I didn't mind really. I'm not planning on wearing it again, and they might as well have fun with it. I want to make sure its taken care of though. One of my many fond memories of playing at Grandma F's was that she let us play with her wedding dress. It was out of really heavy (for a little girl) cream satin, and I remember feeling sooo elegant as I pranced around the house and down the stairs in it.

New Table!

This is our new dining room table. I am very thankful for it. Hubby and I both really like it. Yes, the pool table light is still there... for now. : )