Baby"Zacky"

I was one of the hosts for my friend Jane's baby shower on Sunday. (She is also another friend from the White House) This shower was lots of fun because baby Zachary (or "Zacky" as big brother Austin likes to call him) was in attendance.

We would have had the shower earlier but Jane was on bedrest for a few month. But, by many prayers and modern medicine Zachary came right on time is a healthy, happy baby boy.


Jane, Kim, Zachary and big brother Austin

Close up of Baby Zachary

Katy with her new friend Zachary

White House Press Photographers Gala

After a busy busy Saturday of house stuff, soccer games, wedding make-up try outs -- Mike and I got all dressed up at went to the White House Press Photographers Gala at the Ritz in Washington, DC.

It's the 86th Annual Awards Dinner in honor of the President of the United States and the Winners of the Annual Still and Video Contest .

It is lots and lots of fun and we get to see people we have not seen all year. Here are a couple of photos from the event:



Self-portrait of Mike and I



Rochelle, Monica, Mike and John -- Rochelle and John are also getting amrried this summer and have bought a condo about a mile from our new place in Reston.



Chris and Janet -- Janet is a very good friend of mine from my days of working at the White House.



Packed gala -- lots of glam this year and great swag at the end that included a Domke computer bag, Nikon flashlight and Digital Railroad Edit Naked T-shirt.

Wood floors -- uncovered

We stayed at the new house for the first time Friday night. The kids seemed to get a kick out of the hot tub. We also had my neighbor Zach, who is a great carpet guy, come and remove the carpet and pad off the wood floors. They are in almost perfect condition !! Yea! And I love the color of the wood. We are not going to have to do a thing to them. It what an amazing difference it make to the room with the ugly blue carpet gone. :)

What is hardest in life...

I think one of the hardest things sometimes to deal with is having a teenager. They can be such a delight at times and other times you really do want to strangle them. A BIG, BIG Thank you goes out to my boss (who also has 2 teenagers) who let me leave early today and work from home while dealing with the latest teen drama. :)

It's official ...the house is ours !

All the i's are crossed and the t's are dotted. The house is now in our hands. Mike went ahead and moved his stuff in from storage. We meet our neighbors and they have 4 boys, two the same age and grade as Katy and Gabe. They are already fast friends and the kids wore so worn out from playing outside with them they feel asleep on the way home last night. I really like their mom - she seems very down to earth but protective.

I am already starting to learn a few things about home ownership and renovation. We had our first contractor come out. He wad great, gave wonderful ideas but I am sure we will never hire him because he was very expensive. But, right now I am just researching. Same way I did with real estate and that is one reason we got such a good deal.

First, renovating can be as expensive as building new. I found out a lot of the cost in renovating is the demolishing of all the really tacky stuff in your house. So, my new fashion accessories for spring will be a hammer, a strong putty knife, work gloves and a mask. Down the horrible drop ceiling, off will come the ugly brown paneling, out with the old half ass kitchen in the basement. (The photos you see here are of our basement) If we can do the work ourselves then that will save us lots of cash. Any company visiting will be required to take down at least one wall of paneling. ....just joking.

Pool room in basement now....


What we want the pool room to look like (and we would keep our "not as fancy" pool table)

Second, buy your countertops, cabinets, appliances from a direct wholesalers. Yes, this will be a pain in the ass to go pick up but it will also save us lots of cash.

What the basement kitchen looks like now...

An idea of what we want that area to look like...no stoves !

Third, once again Craigslist is are friend. It is amazing what people on Craigslist will take for free. Do we need to throw away the old ceiling tiles or 25 year old fridge ? Hell no ! People will gladly come to our house and take these things.

Main room in basement now....(and there is space behind me)

We want to separate that space to an extra room -- that can be bedroom, exercise area or what ever we want to do with it.

I am sure there will be many more lessons and ideas coming in. I have a company that specializes in basements coming in this morning. Another one I am sure we will not hire but I get so many ideas when they come over. :)

So I will leave you with this for the night.......

"Whatever you want in life, you must give up something to get it. The greater the value, the greater the sacrifice required of you. Everything has a price. There's a price to pay if you want to make things better, and a price to pay for just leaving things as they are. Nothing worthwhile ever comes easily."

This must have been talking about renovating the basement !!

Can't wait for tomorrow....

In less than 12 hours Mike and I will be closing on our house. Whee !! I can't wait -- it is like waiting for Santa to come. :) I also feel so incredibility blessed. I have future husband who wants to build our lives in this great house. I have three beautiful, smart healthy children. And many, many family and friends who love us, pary for us and think good thoughts for us everyday.

In honor of our new house - here is an Irish Blessing for our new house. Read it and think happy thoughts and many more blessings for us.

Irish House Blessing
We believe in living deeply, Laughing often and loving always. We believe we were brought together To support and care for each other. We believe that everyone's feelings count, And that the uniqueness of each of us Strengthens all of us. We believe in the power of Forgiving to heal And the power of love to carry us through. We believe in one another, In this family, In this house. Failte!

Saturday's in Annandale means soccer time

Soccer madness -- For the next 6 Saturdays (and a couple of Sundays) Mike and I are dividing time between Katy's and Gabe's soccer games. This is Katy's third season to play and she is getting much better. Mike has been work some with her and even has noticed a difference in her play. Gabriel, who always did baseball decided to switch over to soccer this spring. His coach, Coach Randi, is a kick-ass coach that also plays. Her son is on the team but she still gives lots of support to everyone. She says that for it being his first year he is doing great and plays like he has been doing it for several years.

Here are a few pictures from their first games:


Gabe along with his best friend Eric (on left beside him) and other players eat oranges and listen to Coach Randi during the half. They won the game 5-2.




Katy and her teammates look to see what their positions on the field are during a break while Coach Mark give a pep talk. They also won their game 2-1.


Katy and Gabe before the game. Gabe has the serious game face on while Katy smiles (as usual)


Mike and Katy soccer mascot "Tiger" watch Gabe game. Notice how bundled up Mike is. It was very brrrrrrr this past Saturday.

Almost ours.....

I took a quick drive by of the house this morning before work. Only 5 more days until it is ours.

This has been an amazing process. Our realtor, Bonnie Donald-Peters, a cute, half-Korean, mom of two, PTA Fun Fair coordinator and bulldog real estate agent, has been so wonderful throughout this whole ordeal.

Yesterday, we found out there were about 5 things that the sellers and us agreed they would fix before closing that had not been done. Never fear future owners -- Bonnie is here !

She whipped their realtor into shape and I know she will make sure it all gets done. :) Of course with Bonnie that might mean she bring over the hammers and fixes it herself...lol.

We are also finally going to get the cable, Internet and phone arranged to today to be hooked up. The owners, for some reason, have not wanted to put it the cut-off order. But, thank again to Bonnie and their realtor Belinda, they will be doing that today.

We have the movers set up for Monday to move all Mike's stuff from storage over. We also have a contractor coming out to give us an estimate on some work we what to have done.

And next weekend we have our neighbor in Annandale, who also is a carpet guy, come out and take out all the old carpet so we can see the condition of the wood floors.

I am sure over the next year or two Mike and I will spend our weekends at Lowe's and Home Depot. :)

More stuff from the shooting....

Found out the shooter was from Centerville, Va. Of course he is from Fairfax County!

Mike sent me this earlier.....

AOL News has obtained two plays a classmate says were written by Cho Seung-Hui. Ian MacFarlane, the former classmate and current AOL employee, provided us with the plays. A note from Mr. MacFarlane and links to the works appear below.

Plays and story

I know he was 23 and at college but didn't his parents have a clue that smeothing might be seriously wrong with him. I imagine we will hear over and over again that something was not quite right with him all through high school and college.

I worked with a reporter once that was like that and it would come as no surprise to me at all if I read that he shot up a newsroom one day.

On a happier note

Our wedding invitatations were mailed on Saturday. Those close family and friends should be getting them this week. :)

We are trying to firm up plans - Mike and I picked out the tuxes last week. I finalized the menu. We are going to hopefully pop by La Grange in the next few weeks and pick out the wines that will be served. Everything is moving along.

Please...no more laws on gun control

Note to Lawmakers:

Don't let what happened in Virginia Tech be a reason for MORE gun control. As noted in the Washington Post today -- Would the university have suffered the same tragedy if Virginia law did not prohibit the carrying of guns on campus?

You know -- having more laws on the books do not make the crazy people out there say "Hey ! I could not buy that gun. I'll just give up the idea of getting a weapon and gunning people down"If they are determined enough they will beg, borrow or steal a weapon while the rest of us are sitting there defenseless.

If our second amendment right - The right to bear arms - was not always being challenged then maybe someone on that campus would have been armed and could have protected themselves.

OK, I am not a card carrying member of the NRA, but I do believe that should have the fundamental right to protect ourselves. Maybe people would think twice about arming themselves to the hilt and gunning people down if they knew that someone might be able to defend themselves

Great blog today that puts this much better than I.

Dozens massacred in gun free zone. AGAIN!

What is the world coming too ?

Virginia was in the news today but for once it was not good news.

From the AP: A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and then, two hours later, shot up a classroom building across campus Monday, killing 32 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history. The gunman committed suicide, bringing the death toll to 33.
Virginia Tech is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia near Blacksburg, basically in the middle of nowhere. It campus is home to more than 25,000 students - bigger than most Virginia small towns.

It is a place where as a parent you would feel pretty safe sending your child for college. It is one of the one top universities in Virginia and also a good 4 1/ 2 hours from here.

Now instead of Virginia Tech being known for a great engineering and math school or for having a winning football team it will also have a place of being the site of the most deadliest shooting in US history. Not quite the accolades Virginia is looking for.

What causes this type of violence to come out in our young ? When I went to high school and college we didn't worry about being shot. We didn't have to go through security check points at football games and have our bags checked. Why has society turned so deadly ?What the hell is going on ?
My heart goes out to parents who had to make that long drive today to check on injured children or just to go to hold them in your arms and KNOW the are safe. Or worse the parents that have to go identify their child in the morgue.

As more details come out on this story we must remember one important thing -- you never know is going to happen in life. Hold the ones you love dear and never let them forget they are the are the most important thing in your life.

Countdown.........

7 more days until we close on the house

56 more days until Adam's Graduation

60 days until the wedding

67 days until I get to move to Reston


I am not sure to be excitied to or to look for a part-time job to pay for all of this :)

More cold weather ??

I have to say I am so sick of the bleeping cold weather here ! It is suppose to be spring ! Now they are saying lots of rain, wind, cold and maybe snow flurries for the next few days. GRRRRRR !!

From Capital Weather --
There's no spinning this for positive press. This weekend will, in general, be mostly undesirable with a chance of miserable (Saturday night through Sunday) thanks to a powerful Nor'easter. Find the duck boots, waterproof scarf, dress in layers -- oh, and any umbrella you try to use later this weekend will prove useless as it is destroyed in the wind.

As Mike likes to say...bad, bad...bad, bad, bad and bad.

Parent bragging -- Warning !

Ok -- taking a minute here to brag on my daughter Katy who had pretty much all O's, which means Outstandings, on her report card this time. Her teachers could not say enough good things about her progress. When I told eight-year-old Katy how proud I was of her she says "Mom, this is how I am going to get in a good college. " Well, duh on me ! :)

She also brought home a cabbage plant that she had been growing. She told me that if she plants it and grows it the biggest she can win a $1000 scholarship which she is all excited about. :)

Gabe did really well too -- he struggled a bit with reading this time but we are going to be working on getting that pulled up. His soccer coach called last night to brag on him. Even though he has never played before she said he did the best of all the players during practice Thursday night. They both have their first spring games on Saturday. Hopefully the rain will hold out until after the games.

Vacation.....The Atlantic side of Flordia and Key West part....

On our way to to see Shirley in Delray Beach we took some of A1A and stop to see the Atlantic along the way. I was very surprised how blue the Atalntic was here -- a little south of Port. St. Lucie -- must be the nuclear power plant up the road.



On our way to Key Wesy we stopped by a place our friend Robin recommended- Key Fisheries Market in Marathon. Mike tried their Lobster Reuben which was very interesting. And Shirl and I stopped for a quick picture.


Finally - we are in Key West -- the home of many, many chickens and roosters. Including a few that come for a drink in the bar.


Where we hung a business card at capt jack's. There were 1000's hung up all over the place. We were going to hang up one of our but thought this might be more creative.


Mike and I on Mallory Square


The gang -- Me, Shirl and Mike on Mallory Square

Mike was one of 12 guys choosen to be part of the "act" during the sunset celebration at Mallory Square in Key West.

Mike (last on the left) as part of the strong men pulling the rope during the act. Yes..the guy was juggling swords while balancing on a rope.

Sunset in Key West :)

A few vacation photos....the St. Pete part...

Mike on jet ski (and me too) off St. Pete Beach -- very cool and choppy water but lots of fun



This is shot from my cell phone (kinda blurry) but shows how choppy the water is while jet sking -- on shore is St. Pete Beach



There is a reason why they call it the Sunshine Skyway
This is on our way to Sarasota -- didn't take any pictures there -- too busy having fun.




Sunset at Clearwater Beach -- the clouds came in the way right before it hit the water but still pretty. We were sitting at Jimmy's Fish House and Iguana Bar, having dinner, listening to reggae with these folks pictured below....



My friend Leonora, her fiancee Larry and gorgeous daughter Lauren. Katy and Lauren were buddies when we lived in St. Pete -- they are the same age and grade.



Lane, Me and Leonora -- what a bunch we are. Our kids are all the same ages and what adventures we have had. Mike and I along with the kids are going back for a visit in January.
We plan on doing the Orlando thing with all of our kids before they all become pre-teens with attitudes.



Lane and Dan's boys Ry and Tucker -- along with Murphy -- sorry would have gotten Taz (there other dog) but he was to hyper to sit still. :) Gabe and Ry played baseball together when we lived in St. Pete.

We had a great time in St. Pete -- we also got to see our friends Dirk, Bill and Robin but we were silly and forgotten to bring the camera when we saw them. It was a short trip this time. Hopefully we will see them all at the wedding in June. If not, see you in Jan 08.

What Flordia is really like

Most people like to think of Florida as this.....pretty sunsets in Key West


but really it is more like this....

dilapidated buildings......

tacky signs......


and lots of orange groves :)

We're back...and greeted in Virginia with SNOW!

Wow ! What a wonderful greeting back from Florida -- an expected 1 to 3 inches of snow tonight here in Virginia. From Capitol Weather - "An unusual, although not unprecedented, late season snow event is likely late tonight and early Saturday as a low pressure area develops and strengthens off the Delmarva coast. Based on the latest model runs (including the one still in progress at post time), the most likely amount in the metro area is 1-3", with higher amounts to the south and east, toward the Bay and the Eastern Shore."

Well, the weather in Florida was great. We wore shorts the entire time, got to see many friends, visit great places and see two sunsets from both Clearwater and Key West. It was a wonderfully nice, relaxing and full of adventures.

I will post more photos and tales this weekend. :) Stay tuned.....

Big winner...yeah..my man

Mike took home a second place in the Best of Photojournalism Contest !! WHEEE!!!!!!

In the Photo Galleries/Sports (Over) category, judges picked “Crazy or Sane?” by The Washington Post (washingtpost.com) for first place, and “Did You See That?” by America Online Sports for second place.

Meltzer said, “Second place went to a well-edited selection of sports photos of the year, in which we couldn't find a weak image. Well thought out and well edited. "

Well...of course ....Mike was the editor. :) Here is a link to the DYST gallery if you would like to see his awesome work.

Wedding dress ....done

Finally ! I ordered my wedding dress. I found it in Florida and ordered it from there. Very non-traditional but it looks great on me. And one of my closest friends, Shirley, helped me pick it out. (Along with some long-distance help from Jill too).

The only hint you get before my wedding day is that it is not white. :)