Big Brother Birthday Wishes

Now it is time to wish a 'Happy Birthday' to my other brother, Willie. He is the oldest of us three, so I will be nice and not say how old he is turning, well I do not think he will care...29! Not quite the big hump, but next year I can tease him relentlessly and then in a few years he can return the torment! Now what to say about Willie??? My brother is a very interesting character. He always keeps you on your toes in your conversations with him. You never know what direction he will go with the conversation; when he will choose to argue with you or throw out a totally random joke! I adore my brother and all of his crazy rants that he goes on about, especially the most recent, zombies! A few years back I bought him the book, The Zombie Survival Guide (located in the humor section, yes it really was Willie). Both of my brothers are not huge fans of reading, unlike me, but when I was poor and working at Barnes & Noble that is what everyone got (you got to love employee discounts)! Anyway, Willie is reading parts of the book and loves to share the information with me. It is hilarious!! I think that he has a bit of a conspiracy theorist in him!

I am hoping to convince Willie to come out for a visit (hint, hint). Poor Colin has yet to meet his other west coast uncle. I know that like Uncle Greggie, Colin will adore Willie. For one, Colin is amazed by tall people. He just stares, so if you are a taller person you already got it made! I just need to get him on a plane!!! Or Will and I will just have to hurry our plans to visit Oregon. Most likely the latter (I am pretty sure that I am the only person in my family that enjoys flying. I think Willie is the winner for being the one to dislike it the most)!

Willie - Happy Birthday!!! I love you and miss you! Cannot wait for you to finally meet Colin...there are a lot of Civil War sites to see in Virginia (hint, hint)! Hope you have a great day! The next time I am home I will treat you to a Bob's Deli sandwich!! I miss that place, please do not tell me if it has closed! There are so many food joints that I miss there and all of them are on my list of places to go when I visit! I cannot believe that it has been almost 2 years since I have seen you :(

Wishing My Favorite Marine a Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Greggie!!!!My little brother, Greggie (as I like to call him), is 25 today! He is sadly celebrating in Iraq...BUT, he is heading home soon (August) and will be getting out of the Marines (for a second time) this September. I am not that familiar with the military rules, but I hope that means that he stays OUT this time.

So, what to say about my little brother...

He is one of the sweetest people I know, a true sweetheart, and definitely one of my most favorite people. He does not talk a lot, but I can!!! So, it works out, unless we are on the phones, because we both suck at phone conversations. I was one grade above him so we were usually always at the same school, which was nice. We were very close growing up...I loved that I could beat up on him. Then he reached high school and grew taller than me! Now he gets his revenge by showing me all the things he learned in the Marine Corp...not cool! I was very sad when he told us he was signing up and I have hated it the whole time he was in, but I am so proud of him. You can tell that he has a lot of respect by the people he works with and he accomplished a lot while serving.

Even though he is my younger brother he has always been very protective of me and even treats me like I am the younger one sometimes. I was very sad to move away from him. He had spent 4 years stationed in Hawaii (lucky) and travelling between Japan and Australia (yes, I am jealous you made it there first) and when he moved back to Oregon, I moved to Virginia. He was able to visit me last summer though!! We took him to Gettsyburg and D.C., he loves military history. Colin ADORED his uncle! He had such a great time with him and he even looked around the apartment for him the day he left. That was sad to watch. I am anxiously awaiting the next time I get to see him (hint, hint). Just to explain, the above picture is of him and our cousin Chris, they are very close...and weird!

Greggie - Happy birthday!!!! I love you and miss you soooo much!!! I cannot wait for you to be back in the states so I can bug you to come out for a visit. I hope you have a wonderful day, hopefully you are not terribly bored :) The next time I see you I will buy you a beer to celebrate your quarter of a century on this wonderful earth! If you are still turned off of alcohol from your first and maybe last hangover experience (so you say) then it can be a root beer!!! By-the-way, I was so sad I was not there to tease you the morning of your hangover but talking with you on the video cam was priceless!

Love you little brother -

Cambridge, MD

Since Wednesday I have been in Cambridge, MD. I had a lot of fun! Even though I love traveling to the other locations, it was nice tobe close to home, so that Will and Colin could come up for the weekend. So much to talk about...where to start??? Well, the hotel was BEAUTIFUL!! There was so much to do. Plenty of pools, sand volleyball, a huge gym, golf, beautiful trails and of course the bay. A great place to relax and was just wonderful. Most of Thursday consisted of meetings. One of which we were split into teams and had to build a boat out of cardboard and one member of each team had to paddle the boat through a coarse in the bay. The guest speaker this year was the founder of Cakelove. A bakery in DC, which has now grown into 7 stores over the northern VA and MD area. Even though I am not much of a dessert person (and actually did not try any of his cupcakes - I gave mine to Will - which he loved), I found him to be a very interesting speaker. He was a lawyer for the Federal Government but decided he wanted to follow his passion for baking. He is very into natural ingredients and baking everything from scratch. . So, for my dessert loving family members maybe we will venture to his store when you visit!
The food was wonderful! Maryland is known for their crabs (blue crab mostly), so of course, we had a few opportunities to have steamed crab and crab cakes. So, for the first time in my life I actually picked the meat from my crab. I had to break its legs off and everything (gross) I made myself try it and I only did one. The meat was really good, but I had issues with seeing it in its normal form (shell).I luckily was next to someone who has been eating crab like this since she was a kid, so she gave me a lesson.
So, this year Will and Colin came up for part of the week. It was great! I am usually not away from my two guys very often so I was really missing them. Colin loved the hotel, he was running around every where. On Friday night, Will got to play in his new band. They were fantastic! Will, John and Lloyd got to play about 6 songs during the middle set. They played "No Matter What" (Badfinger), The Joker (Steve Miller Band), "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide" (ZZ Top), "Handle with Care" (The Traveling Wilburys), "Redemption Song" (Bob Marley) and "Brian Wilson" (Barenaked Ladies). They did great!!!!! I was so proud of Will! Everybody loved it!
The other star of the night was Colin! With the exception of when Will played, Colin was dancing on the dance floor all night (and I was afraid he was going to be shy)! He entertained everyone...they thought he was so cute! He even was chasing a friend's girl who is about the same age (I am probably getting a glimpse of the future, haha). I will post pics on myspace/facebook but not here since another person's child is in most of them.
 

We also got to visit with Will's aunt Mary Anne, uncle Jerre, cousin Kristin and her husband Terrick and son Garrett on our way home today. Will and Colin also visited all of them yesterday as well (his cousin Kevin was there then). We had a very nice visit.

It was such a wonderful week but I am so glad to be home!!!!

A Movie Review - My Sister's Keeper

Last night a friend and I went to see My Sister's Keeper. I had very high hopes because I am a big fan of the book ( I have read it like 3 times). If you have not read anything by Jodi Picoult, then I highly recommend her - she is a great author and one of my favorites!

To give you a very brief synopsis of the story. An 11 year old girl is suing her parents for medical emancipation. She is a test tube baby that was conceived to be a perfect donor for her older sister who has cancer.

The movie has a great cast:


Cameron Diaz (nice to see her try something with more depth)
Alec Baldwin
Abigail Bresslin (smaller part for her than I expected - Main character in the book)
Jason Patric
Sofia Vassilieva (she was really good)

If someone has not read the book, then you may really enjoy the movie (bring tissues). If you are a fan of the book, then you may end up pretty disappointed. For the most part, I thought the movie was good, but Nick Cassevetes (The Notebook) did not stay true to the book. The changes were not minor either. A lot of good storyline was left out, making it hard to get to know the characters; even the main character in the book. Plus, the ending (obviously I will not give any details) but it was not nearly as good as the book. I was probably the only person that was not crying at the end. I was soooo disappointed with the changes that they made that I was too frustrated to cry.

The changes that were made take away from the essence of the story. Jodi Picoult tends to write about controversial topics (which is one of the reasons I enjoy her so much) and the movie was just turned into a typical "we want to make you cry" movies.

So, if you do not have plans to read the book, I am sure you will really enjoy the movie, but if you have any interest in the book, I highly recommend that over the movie.

Rocking Out!!!!!!!!!!

311 & Ziggy Marley

Last night Will, Michael and I saw Ziggy Marley and 311 in concert at Nissan Pavilion (plus the opening band The Expendables, I think). They were actually pretty good. We had such an amazing time! This was the first time at Nissan Pavilion for Michael and I; a very cool venue. I really liked how it was set up. This was also the first time that we both had seen 311, Will had seen them once before. 311 is Will's favorite band. I knew of them in the 90's but did not listen to them a whole lot. I have become a more recent fan, thanks to Will. I really have been enjoying them. They were crazy at the concert!! They are really good live. I hate when bands/singers sound good on CD but terrible in concert. It was great seeing Will so excited and into the music. I got to see a side of him that I had not really before...I LOVED it!!! He was dancing all over, but in a good way, not embarrassing at all! My favorite songs were "Come Original", "Daisy Cutter", "Amber", "Beautiful Disaster" and "India Ink".

Ziggy, was someone I was really excited to see. I am a fan of Bob Marley and have heard a few songs of Ziggy's that I like a lot. I thought he was very good. He had a fun, relaxing vibe and he is oh so cool. He was just beautiful. Beautiful hair. Beautiful smile. Beautiful essence. Just a beautiful man! My favorite songs of his were "True to Myself", "I Love You Too" and "Love is My Religion".

So, all-in-all a successful and fun trip. Will and I both agree that this was the BEST concert we had ever been to hands down!!!! We are glad that Michael was able to join us and hopefully we will be able to go to more concerts together. I was trying to talk Will into seeing Def Leppard and Poison! I like Def Leppard and Will was a fan of Poison when he was younger. I think it would be a pretty crazy concert!

Thank you Grandma Liz for babysitting!!!

Good Wine & Live Music - Who Could Ask For More?

Today we went to a local winery for some wine tasting and live music. It was such a relaxing night. We went with Wendy, Eric and the boys, Aidan and Alexei. The winery was such a beautiful location and the weather was perfect! We had our blankets spread out a nice distance from the band and next to the beautiful lake, which did have a sign warning guest of a "very large snapping turtle" - a little scary...

We brought tons of food; cheese, bread, crackers, spread, fruit, olives and much more. Colin had a wonderful time exploring everyones' plates. The wine was good as well. One was called the "Long Bomb", which was named after a football play. It was a tribute to a man who had passed away last year that had been a quarterback for a local college. The label was cute it had a drawing of the football play, I wanted to buy it for that reason alone! The wine was a dry, red wine...very strong.

The music - was nice. Not my favorite but definitely entertaining. The band, The Shane Gamble band has a myspace page...haha, throwing in a little plug for the guy! Wendy and I did enjoy critiquing his regular speaking voice...maybe that was due to the wine.

Colin got to hang out with the big boys while they tried to catch fireflies. He tried to lead them to a good place to hunt!

Colin got to stay up very late tonight, so hopefully he sleeps in tomorrow because mommy is a lighter sleeper than daddy...

Master Colin - The Protector

I just wanted to share a quick, cute story about Colin that happened over the weekend.

While Will was at a friend's house practising his bass, I thought I would try and get some cleaning done. Usually, the vacuum cleaner excites Colin and he just laughs at it, yesterday that was not the case. When I started it he instantly started crying and ran (well, ran as much as a toddler can run) to his toy basket for his lightsaber! He looked like he was going to charge the vacuum cleaner, but instead he reached up for me to pick him up. I tried to complete the cleaning while carrying him, but when I turned it on again he started swatting at it with his lightsaber (at least he was not crying anymore). Needless to say, it was not an easy task vacuuming while holding a baby that is trying to attack the heavy object you are trying to maneuver around the furniture.

It was cute watching Colin go into protector mode though! I finally gave up and will have to finish another time, when Will is home and can distract Colin with something else.

Such a cutie and cool baby!

Happy Father's Day

Today is a day to celebrate fathers! I am making a shout out to two wonderful men; my dad and my husband.

I was a daddy’s girl, and still am. My dad will always hold a special place in my heart that no one can replace. I have great memories of my dad and I when I was younger and now I am excited to make more memories of him as a grandfather. Love you dad!

Will is newer to the father job, but is doing a wonderful job! I love watching him with Colin, it is such a beautiful thing. I am so excited to spend our lives watching him grow as a father! I love you honey!

I hope you two have a wonderful day!

Busy Monday

Today Will and I both worked a half-day, so we could get everything ready for Aunt Donelda's visit. For the west coast friends and family, Donelda is Will's Aunt from Florida. She was married to Grandma Liz's brother, Ed. Uncle Ed sadly passed away a few months ago from cancer. I only met him once, but Will was very close to him and always has so many great things to say about him. After meeting Ed and Donelda, I instantly liked both of them and was very excited to get to know them better. I am sad not to get that chance with Ed, but I feel that through his family that so respected and loved him I am definitely getting to know the sort of person he was. After his passing, there was a site for people to read about Ed and to leave comments. I looked through quite a few of them and there were people leaving comments from all over the globe. His life touched so many and he accomplished so much. Will and I were so impressed and inspired. My heart goes out to all of the Gallagly's and Brack's that lost a wonderful man.



Donelda is currently driving the eastern states on her way to Canada to visit her family. We are so glad she could stop by for a visit. We had some fancy cheese and wine at our place first. I had a lot of fun picking out the cheeses and we got to try a new Chianti wine (both mine and Will's favorite) from Italy. It was a very good, dry wine.



Donelda looks amazing! For all that she has been through this past year, she really looks great! She was also in amazingly good spirits. Colin was very interested in her and the new books she brought him. She bought him an Elmo potty training book and a Thomas the Train book, both are the ones that have buttons that make sounds. Colin LOVES them!! He pushes the buttons that play music and starts clapping. Then looks at us to let us know it is our turn to clap, so cute!



Liz and Michael were able to make the trip up as well. Michael's cat Missy, passed away today. She lived a very long life for a cat. Michael has had her since he was in pre-school and now he is 21.



We all went to Red Robin for dinner. We thought a kid friendly place would be easier than a fancy place, Donelda agreed and thought everyone is in need of a good hamburger everyonce in a while. Dinner was great! Colin kept everyone entertained and ate a ton of food (as usual).



**Note** I started this on Monday, but was not able to finish it until this morning.



We had a great visit with Aunt Donelda, Grandma Liz and Uncle Michael! Thank you Donelda for making time in your travels to see us! We love you and hope to see you down in Florida soon!

A Party and a Zoo

We had a weekend full of family time...I loved it!!! On Saturday, we made our way up to Maryland to Jamie and Ann's house for our nephew Ryan's 4th birthday party! We had a great time, which we always do when hanging out with them! Colin was a bit shy at first but he warmed up after a little bit. Playing with water helped. Out on the deck was a table that you put water in and kids can splash around. Colin LOVED it!!! He had fun playing with his cousin Brady, well playing next to him. I do not think that they are at the age of really playing with someone else. Colin got a little to happy with the water and ended up pretty soaked. Brady amazingly stayed pretty dry and he was trying out some pretty intense maneuvers with his cup! I think he will be a clever one :) Colin will be the talkative and loud one!



Colin also met a teenage girl that he adored! He was trying to chase her around and have her chase him...ADORABLE! At one point, he had a magician's hat on and was waving a butterfly net attempting to run around the house! He is still working on the running, which makes it even funnier to watch. I sadly forgot my camera, but will try to get some pictures of the magician's had from Grandma Liz.


On Sunday, we made our way to DC, which Will just loves to do!!! Not really. He is not a fan of the metro or the crowded district, but he did wonderfully yesterday! We met up with some of Will's cousins from Florida, Gavin and Penny. It was such a beautiful day! We ended up going to the National Zoo!!! Colin loved the elephants!! He had a harder time noticing the other animals who were escaping the heat by relaxing in the shade.


Afterwards, we had pizza at this little restaurant outside of the metro area. It was pretty good. A French/pizzeria...kind of an odd combination, but good food! Colin did very well for not having much of a nap. He took a turn sitting on every ones' laps, even Cousin Gavin! He just made himself comfortable and ate their food! Once he was somewhat full, he started the task of organizing all the ice cubes at the table, which in a way helped the waiters clean the table!



Colin slept the whole way home and so when we got home, he had a burst of energy. His parents did not. We were so tired from carrying him, walking and running after Colin.





What a day!