Here is a picture from the Snake Park. Gotta Love those long-snouted crocs. Yes, his eyes are open.

In The News

I have been meaning to post this for a while. It was the cover of time magazine on their 2/16 issue. Two of our pastors and another lady that I sing in choir with are part of the Blue Moon Group.

TIME Magazine Article

My Plate Is So Full - It Feels Like Thanksgiving!

To my dear neglected readers:

Life has been crazy lately. I am not sure where all the times goes, but it is always gone. We still do not have internet access at home, so sadly finding time to blog has become nearly impossible. Here are a few of the things that have filled up my days:

• My Puppy - playing with her, walking her, training her. We took her for her third round of shots Tuesday and she weighed in a a whopping 20.8 lbs at 13 weeks. She is going to be our little monster. She has tripled her weight in the 7 weeks we have had her. But we love her to death... so it is all worth it. :)
• Puppy Class - Monday nights are puppy night, thankfully another lab has joined the class, because before it was Ivy and a miniature dachshund, and a shitzu (both under 8 lbs), they just about fit in her mouth. :)
• Bible Study - I run from puppy class, home, feed Ivy and then head out and am not usually home until 11. Drew goes his separate way too, now that he is a Deacon at church, he usually has a deacon meeting or a missions committee meeting on Mondays.
• Choir - I sing in the church choir and practices are going from 1 1/2 hours to 2 in preparation for Easter... I love every minute.
• Moving - three of our friends have moved in the last week, so we spend Friday night, all day Saturday helping them move, and most of yesterday I spent helping one friend unpack. But now we have friends that live just a few minutes away!
• Coffeehouse - each year the youth in our church put on a coffeehouse as a ministry to the church and to unbelievers in the area. It is a night of live music, we clean out the sanctuary and bring in tables (each decorated by a high school student) couches, lamps, rugs, coffee tables etc. and we have coffee and tons of desserts... and I am organizing the whole thing this year. Fun, but time consuming.
• Not to mention the keeping the house clean, cooking, laundry, ironing, paying bills, filing papers part of it all.
• AND - as Sarah blogged about - Sarah, Dave & Jennifer came down for the weekend, which was an incredible time of doing nothing. :) Meredith is coming next week, and Drew and I are hoping to escape for a weekend in March AND we have a friend getting married in a few weeks in Raleigh and we are going to see Drew's grandma. Not to mention Ryan & Meredith's wedding a few weeks after that!
• And Friendships - forming friendships takes time! It was hard to move away from VA, and the amazing friends we had there, and it has been harder that I ever imagined making friends in a new place, but we are finally getting to the point where we have friends to call when life is hard, or when we have something to celebrate. What a blessing true friendships are!

So, all that to say, life is busy, but good. And again I leave with a promise to post more pictures soon.

L

India: DAY 6 - 12/15/06

Ananthi left this morning for a wedding and came back with Bobu (Bob – bu) who is the younger brother of Ram & Sham. He teaches English to Indian students who want to go to college in an English speaking country, Ananthi works in the same place.

We didn’t leave the house all day, we played games and hung out with family, read and ate too much.

Today is Sarah’s 19th Birthday! We pretended all day we didn’t know, and around 5pm mom and Ananthi came back with a garland, cake & engraved plate & cup. She was surprised, so that was great.

Ananthi & Bobu left on the night train. Micah is still sick but feeling a little better, his fever finally broke.

L

Celebrating Sarah's 19th Birthday!!! L-R Ananthi, my dad's cousin, Patti (Tamil for Grandma) is behind Ananthi, Bobu, another of my dad's cousins, my dad - drum in hand, Buzz behind him, and Drew is the doorway. :)

And just in case you ever wanted to know, Indians DO NOT know how to make a good cake. It make look decent, but they always taste horrible. Something like styrofoam with pastic frosting.

How long does it talk 2 grown men to do ONE sudoku puzzle???? 3 Hours.

Yellow

I love this house, and yes it was me who picked the color. Tell me honestly, it is ugly or do you like it?? Keep in mind, there will be big black shutters on all the front square windows.

Our Little Princess

We have loved having a puppy, although I do feel more like a parent that I thought I would. You have to feed her, take her out 10 times a day, not leave her for more than a few hours at a time, and she constantly wants attention. I get much less down now, I end up sitting on the floor playing with her for hours. She loves to be near you, and will just crawl up on your lap and settle down for a nap if you let her. This is a picture of the way she sits. I dont' think it is good for the posture, but it is really funny. It is like she is riding side saddle or something. We got her when she was 6.5 lbs, she is now over 14! She is going to be a monster! (Her dad was 110lbs and her mom 80.)

Bad Blogger

Ok, I admit it!! I am a horrible blogger! Between not having an internet connection at home and having a puppy that can't be in her crate more than 3 hours at a time, a husband away for 4 days, and blogger not cooperating when I do want to blog I haven't been able to find time to blog. So there you have it... not an exuse just a reason. :)

As always... I will try and post more pictures soon! India is still waiting and Ivy has more than doubled her weight since we got her! She is a little piggy but we love her still... especially since she goes outside and can sit, stay, lie down & retrieve things.

L

Momentary Fright

You know those days when you have a really "high high" and then a really "low low?" Well, yesterday was one of those days.

HIGH:

Yesterday we got our "Christmas" Bonus. (Yes, I realize it is February). We had a wonderful day, wrote the final check to pay off our car and life was good... then...

LOW:

Last night Andrew did our taxes and we realized that somehow we had managed to underpay state taxes so much that we OWED $3200. We spent last night staring at each other wondering how we were going to come up with all that money...

HIGH:

I was looking over our W-2's and Turbo Tax this morning and Andrew had forgotten to fill in the State Tax box!! So, now we have a Christmas Bonus, a paid-off car AND a $1200 refund coming!!!