Here an Oink, There a Bark

On the most epitomizing of rainy days, we are overcoming the blase to blog. We realize that our last blog was a little anti-climatic since most already knew about the wedding. Woo we got married, big whoop. That wasn't news to you. What is exciting is that yesterday was our three month wedding anniversary. We marked it, as usual, by going to Mountain Java. Needless to say that we are perfectly content and enjoying every minute of each other's company.
It has been a very rainy weekend. We watched an "oldie-but-goodie" this weekend, Multiplicity. I was hoping that I would see Andy McDowell this weekend at my yoga class because she co-starred in that very epic film. Needless to say, it is ironic that we watched that movie this weekend, and that it is raining; for our life is definitely alluding to both. The animals in our life seem to be multiplying inside and out. We have a new addition to the family; my dog I picked out, and named, when I was in seventh grade, Priscilla Briana. Similarly, there seem to be cats multiplying outside. As we look out the window right now we can spot 6 cats. Paired with the rain, it is resembling Noah's Ark around our house.

Prissy is a Shi-tzu. My parents moved last weekend. They are downsizing (apparently that means animals too) hence our adoption of this 12 year old pup. My mom had already found a new home for her and had her packed up ready to take. Sam made me call and tell her that we would take her. It is just a matter of the head vs. the heart. She is a good dog and really not any trouble...it just wasn't in our plan to get another animal right now. We have accepted that life will throw us curve balls and up for the challenge of all that is Prissy.
We just drove down to see the French Broad River because word on the street is that it is up to nearly 16 ft. over its normal level. Or it will be later on. We live near the river so it was easy to leave our dinner on the stovetop and quickly drive down there for a "looksee". Perhaps a possiblity of a flood...which, in the back of my mind, I am always thinking no school! These are current pictures of the river. It is near capacity...maybe has about 6 inches to a foot left on its banks.

The park that is right down from our house, which was under water a few years back, is on its way to being underwater again. This is its sidewalk.
This is all super exciting to Sam as he just finished the book Zeitoun today, which is about the chaos that errupted due to the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. It is a true account one man's experiences in post-hurricane New Orleans. Most people are oblivious to the mistreatment that took place during this time and even harder to believe that this happened in the U.S.

In other news I have decided to start a yoga licensure program. It is a nine month program that will require me to go one weekend a month. My first weekend is in October. By weekend, I pretty much mean all weekend. I also have a lot of reading to do for my classes. I have 10 different books I have to buy. I have already started reading...and while the philosophy is somewhat contrary to my beliefs, and in some regards over my head, I still find it interesting. The philosophy is moreso founded in the Hindu religion. While I am not practicing yoga for religious purposes, I can still appreciate the history and the good/kind intentions behind the Hindu religion. I think that most teachers or yogis presently (in the USA at least) practice yoga because of its many health benefits, both physical, mental, and emotional. Here is a link to the details of the program: Yoga program. I needed something to focus the next year of my life on, and since I can't start the Master's progam that I am interested in until next fall, why not focus on a personal interest?? Plus I think that it would be interesting to teach and deepen my practice of yoga.

We have finally completed our fall display(as pictured above). We are pretty proud of it. I have also been pricing beanie babies, another inheritance from my parent's move. They dropped of several (12-13) containers of my stuff. At least three of which were beanie babies from back in the day. They are still worth something, but unfortunately not much. I am going to ship off 204 of them tomorrow to a vendor that buys beanie babies...for .50 cents each. I have a few select others that may be worth a little more that I will probably try to sell on Ebay. Too bad we couldn't retire on my wealth of beanie babies. That craze was apparently just a phase. Who knew? If only we didn't have to work and could soley pursue personal enrichment.

Speaking of which, Sam whipped out the banjo this weekend and is watching You Tube videos in an attempt to learn clawhammer banjo. Apparently the difference is that you hold your hand in the shape of a claw while you strum, while in traditional bluegrass banjo you pick with individual fingers. I had to have him explain and demonstrate this for me. He is doing pretty good. Maybe on those long weekends while I am at yoga, he can perfect this skill. In other Sam news, he recently suffered a severe setback when he learned that it is illegal to raise chickens and/or bees in Woodfin, unless they are 100 ft from the nearest house. Perhaps when we move to our farm, his dreams can come true.

On top of all that has been going on, we have both been sick. We can now say that we are survivors of the swine flu and it does not deserve all the attention that it has gained. While it wasn't pleasant to be congested, achey, and feverish, it doesn't seem to be life-threatening. At least not threatening to adults with well-developed immune systems... Sam is still getting over a pretty mean cough though which has caused us a few nights of interrupted sleep. (While we didn't go get diagnosed at a doctor's office we are pretty sure it was some form of the swine. Health experts are saying that any flu like symptons arising right now are probably some strain of the swine flu as it is not flu season...plus it is something contractable that seems to be going around.) But Sam's cough is another story. He claims he has a "lung condition", but he makes these gross hacking sounds before spitting up phlegm. I'm pretty sure the noises have nothing to do with his lungs, but have to do with him sucking phlegm down from his nose to the back of his throat. (By the way, he's helping type this ;)He sounds like an old man that swallowed a shi-tzu.

In future updates we hope to share a photo blog of our adventures in Spain con narration. We also hope to share our five year plan with you, which we both drew illustrated timelines of last night!

October will be a busy, but exciting month for us. For one, we are having a Halloween party and dressing Delilah, Weezy, and Prissy up as the Three Amigos!

May the "oink" not be with you.

Summer is over, but also just beginning.

We find ourselves employed and with a hint of fall in the air. Summertime is over, but the time of the Summers' is just beginning... and what a busy time it has been. We apologize for the large lapse in time between blogs, but like we said, we have been busy. We got hitched, went to Spain, have been dealing with house shenanigans, writing thank you notes, going to the beach and Philly, reading The Time Traveler's Wife, seeing GI Joe and Julie and Julia, brushing cats, making Paula Deen Mac'N Cheese, dealings with garden chores, and school has started back. Actually, since school has started back things have been a little more leisurely.


We recently had a new roof put on the house. It was in pretty desperate need of a little TLC as apparently there was basically no gravel left on the shingles. It's not like we really have to go up on the roof, but I guess it is a pretty important component of a house to keep in good shape. In order to get the roof put back on the roof over our porch had to be redone because there were boards that had begun to rot. That was a task. Sam and his dad worked many long hours tearing down and resurrecting this structure, all the while we were suffering a tad bit of melancholy because we utilize our porch pretty frequently. Thankfully all is now complete. The roof guys stampeded the project and were done in just a few days. While they were up there we asked them to put a piece of metal over the chimneys. Soon after our return from Spain my niece and nephew stayed the night with us. It was fun: we hiked; made pizza and ice cream; had a dance party; and watched a movie. Unfortunately when it was time for bed, a slight annoyance was uncovered. Sam and my nephew slept in our bed. My niece and I slept upstairs. While doing so I, the only one still awake, heard squirrels busily chirping away in the chimney. Soon after we started investigating and found that there were chimney sweeps in one in other room. Needless to say we had them cap off the chimney to keep unwanted guests out.
The new roof is our project focus for this year as we are also learning about finances. I bought my first new car. Conveniently during the "CARS" Cash for Clunkers program my dad offered me his yellow truck (The Golden Goose) as a trade-in. It was a pretty stressful few days because I was making my purchase in the few days after the money had run out from the first allotment and the government was deciding whether or not to reassign more money to the program. I had to go to Spartanburg. SC to get my car because the Honda dealership in Asheville which I had originally decided to go and had a deal in progress decided to freeze the program. Nevertheless, I am now feeling pretty swanky driving around my new metallic gray 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid...but am only able to afford it because I have to spend next to nothing on gas. Needless to say, it was definitely a good deal and while my car wasn't exactly ready to kick the bucket, it is getting up there in age and can't be depended on for long trips. Even with the monthly car payments, I feel like it was a good deal and a good decision. Here is a link to a picture of a car like the one we got: Honda Insight
This very large purchase was all made feasible by the very good news of Sam getting a job. At the end of the summer we were left with the disarray of the budget and Sam being jobless. He was in the paper and everything. Luckily, being one of the 80 in the school system that was layed off, his name was sent out to schools in need of English positions. He now works at the Buncombe County Early College which is described to be "a bunch of kids with rolling bookbags" AKA a blessing for teachers. These are the students that teachers love to have. They are the nerd birds that the traditional high schools do not cater to; the ones who do not play sports or are not interested in the extracurricular activities offered by a normal high school and thus need an alternative high school setting. They are willing to learn and all have very unique personalities. Sam is very satisfied with this career move and thinks that all turned out for the best.

So here we are at the beginning of the 09-10 school year with blurred images of a summer. However, the images from our wedding found at the following link are not blurred: The Hitchin'

And of course, I'm sure you'd like to know what happened after the wedding....dun dun DUN! Until next time!

Ages and Stages

Sorry for the dedicated readers out there. We've been doing some serious slackin'. But we've also been doing some serious movin' and shakin'. On top of teaching and wedding planning and remodeling and finishing up grad classes and tornadoes, time has been non-existent. Beg our pardons. Since we left you hanging with the last snowman post, we will let the next picture do all the talking.Remember Mr. Snowman? Some punk kids decided to roll him down the hill. So Sam broke out his teacher voice and scared them a bit by threatening to call the cops on them!

This is us before a lovely shower thrown by Sam's Mom's friends.


This is Kellie and her niece hamming it up for the camera.

This is us tearing into some awesome presents. Everyone's having a blast.

This is us after opening presents for about 2 hours.
Here is the bedroom. It's starting to come together. But we have a whole room upstairs filled with presents.

This is Kellie in the office, printing invitations. She's really excited because after two hours, she's finally figured out how to align the text on the invitations.
This is the guest bedroom. Plan your visits. We are now taking reservations for Fall '09.
This is our cozy home. Minus two kitty cats. The bookshelf holds two worlds collided. Sam and Kellie's favorite books!

This is us in our backyard. Not really. After lots of hard work we had a nice trip to the beach with the White Dragons. It wasn't quite long enough, but Sam got Squiggled, and after we get married it will be one long vacation!
This is Sam practicing for his starring role in the upcoming movie "Kite Runner 2".
Sticky Buns, Kellie, and Sam building a fun sized sandcastle. Complete with wheelchair ramp a la Tanya.

A bitter sweet picture because it's the last day of a fantastic weekend. It looks like Mathew is wearing one of those Japanese hats.

As the wedding nears, we'll probably get busy, but no worries. You have the wedding and Spain adventure photos to look forward to next time. Hasta la vista...baby.

In the meadow we can build a snowman...

It is flat puttin' it down! Not a blue patch of sky in sight! Just what the doctor ordered; another day for Kellie to rest up from the plague. In an attempt to break some of the congestion in her chest loose, we went outside to play in the snow. We assembled a snowman who was very striking and easy on the eyes. The snow is perfect for packing today. If you want a closer look at any of the pictures you can click on them and they will get bigger. But don't do this on the last picture!

And last, but not least: Sam's proudest moment. Things got a little snotty!
YUCK! Well, odds are we won't have school tomorrow, so expect more snowday updates! Maybe even a picture of Sam flying a helicopter!!! Now for another mug of hot chocolate! Cheers!

I to the N to F-L-U-E-N-Z-A -girl you sickly

We were supposed to have a post-Valentine's Day post, but there were some technical difficulties in transfering the camera to the computer. We were preparing for Spain, which is where we've decided to go on our honeymoon, by cooking paella and sipping indigenous Spanish vino. I


So all our wonderful readers will have to settle for night of the living flu patient. Sam's still alive because he had the flu shot. Kellie is coming back from the dead. Sadly, we cannot blame these pictures on Nyquil, as it was only 7:30 when we took these pictures. Kellie's been sick, so she didn't want her picture taken. So lucky for you, our loyal readers are getting a sneak peak and what Kellie will have to live with for the rest of her life.

ain't she purdy?

on a serious note...
We are hard at work on the house and the next update will be about that! But for now...

Wedding updates!

While the wedding planning has been on a standstill this week due to unforeseeable sickness, quite a lot has been accomplished.

The wedding is going to be at a venue called Homewood. http://mybelovedhomewood.com/
It is a beautiful place! The ceremony will be outdoors in a glenn across from the actual building. The reception will be held inside the building.

Colors, tuxedo's, and dresses have been decided on.

We now have a cake. It is going to be prepared by The Sister's McMullen Bakery, which is delicious. The icing is vanilla buttercream; the cake is going to be almond and chocolate.

We have a photographer: Bevin Coffee. http://bevincoffee.com/ She is reasonable and very talented!

Artisan Deli and Catering is going to be catering the event. As of right now it is undecided whether or not we want hors d'oeuvres or entrees yet. However, we are leaning towards heavy hors d'oeuvres. http://www.artisancatering.net/ We eat there whenever we can. They are open very limited hours, so we usually only make it on teacher workdays.

Entertainment: harpist (or as Sam says "a harpoonist), and a D.J. (any song requests/dedications?)

Invitations have also been picked out. Target...clearance... was a definite score.

Oh and maybe the most exciting part: The rehearsal dinner is going to be held at Twelve Bones!

Next items of business are flowers and centerpieces.

And while I was updating on wedding shenanigans this occured:
I'll leave you with that. Goodnight.

P.S. We're hoping for SNOW! 3-8 inches! AND anyone should be able to comment now!

All work and no play make Sam and Kellie dull...or NOT!

Es sus casa! Imagine the shore of Cape Cod...ah.... So for updates, we did some more remodeling...



Here's a finished product. FINALLY! (minus curtains, complimenting color scheme and bubble bath)



While the rest of the house looks like a disaster zone, there has been a lot accomplished behind the scenes... For starters, Kellie's dad put down some baseboard and now the house looks like an entirely new house! Some plumbing occured. NO MORE LEAKY FAUCETS!!! The backyard is being "worked on". We refrain from posting pictures before there is a finished product. Plus there is some sort of "surprise" factor being incorporated... (Kellie wiggles eyebrows). AND new windows!!!

And now, an insulation story...in pictures!

AHHH!!!! Cotton candy for everyone!!!









Sam's mom came up with this solution. She's the real brains behind the operation.




Now, on to the attic....



Is that snow?













so
tired!










Me too!







Sawing logs.








still smiling!












let's go for a hike! Strike a pose... ahhh purrfection! (stop and SMELL *note the surprise shnoze* the flowers)