Maggie!!

Here's pics of our newest addition to the family, Maggie! She is Ruby's half sister, same dad, different mom. But just as cute! She arrived from Montana late Friday night, April 9th, at Richmond International Airport. A very long day for a very small puppy-she was tired and scared when we finally got her, but she is perfectly at home today!
On the page of pics, you will notice Ruby's legs are shaven funny. That's because they shaved them for her IV's when she was in the hospital.

Trying again..

Post Holiday Blues..

I was getting dressed the other day, it might have even been Christmas day, and as I was drying my hair, I thought "I really need to get my hair done". Then I looked a little closer. I have gray hair. A lot of gray hair. I was shocked! I mean, I have been getting "full highlights" in my hair for so long now, I don't often see my natural hair color. Shades of blonde in the summer, warmer blondes and golds in the fall. I don't usually see any kind of "roots" in between, certainly not gray ones! So now coloring my hair is no longer a fashion choice, but a necessity. I don't know if all these old age indicators were there before and I just wasn't noticing, but once you hit forty, these things seem to develop a neon glow. Sometimes that neon glow is generated by a well meaning teenager, who is always happy to point out a flaw for you. There is just something terribly abnormal about having a pimple and a wrinkle in the same spot. Am I over the hill or not? Make up my mind!

Swogorfaulds Christmas-2009

Swogorfaulds, in case you have not figured it out, is a combination of Ogorchock, Faulds and Swartz. We got together last year and had Christmas at Jodie and Alex's house at the lake, and we had so much fun, we decided to make it an annual event, and Swogorfauld's Christmas was born. Jodie put up a beautiful tree with lake-themed ornaments and had candles lit and dinner waiting when we arrived Friday night. She even had made vegetarian dishes for Courtney, which I thought was very sweet and thoughtful. Saturday Caren and I took the girls to see "The Princess and The Frog" while Jodie and the guys got ready for the evenings festivities. We had a big afternoon planned, complete with a visit from Santa and Christmas craft stations. Allison, covered in chocolate and busily moving from one station to the other, told Courtney "I love this day!". She is so sweet and so cute. While Carli opted not to take part in the stations, she was quite entranced by Santa. When he rang the doorbell, Allison said "It's a guy with a beard..." Carli took one look and ran down the hall-she was so torn-Santa was in her territory and that is not the way it is supposed to be, she usually goes to see him-but this was a surprise, and surprises are sometimes a little difficult for Carli. She likes to have a plan. Allison opened the door and let him in-she showed him what chair he could sit in, and Santa went on to ask about all her teachers-he knew their names! He knew what she had for breakfast and knew her friends names-Allison was just chatting him up one side and down the other. Carli, on the other hand, had relocated to the kitchen, where she could watch through the wall cutout and see Santa, but not actually be in the same room. But when he said "Hello Carli!" and waved to her, she blushed and smiled and said "Hi Santa". Then he asked her if she wanted to come over and open a present, she stomped her foot, and was so torn-it was so funny, she really, really wanted that present and it took everything she had to walk over to him and accept it. Then she kind of leaned into him and let us take her picture. Santa stayed awhile and chatted with the girls, and when he left, Allison looked right at her dad's video camera and said "Dad? I think that was Dr. Steve, because he wasn't here when Santa was here." Smart girl. Smarter than us, apparently!
We had a very nice dinner after that, roasted leg of lamb, potato gratin, roasted brussels sprouts and carrots and spinach salad with red pepper vinaigrette. Steve had paired some really nice wines. Then we opened gifts and sat around talking until we all had to go to bed. Jodie prepared us a delicious stratta for breakfast, and we got the house cleaned up and went home. Another marvelous weekend. We are so lucky to have such great friends. We always have such a great time together!
This will be a busy week. I am working three days and still have shopping to do and Mark and I are hosting a dinner for his branch managers this Saturday. Alex will be here Friday night to fly over to visit his mom for Christmas. I am sure she will be so happy to see him. Have a great week everyone-Don't forget to click on the "Wanna see more?" link on the right to see the pics from the weekend....

Happy Thanksgiving-2009!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope everyone else did, too. We had Alex visiting, he had planned to go to New York with friends, but realized that he had so much homework and studying to do, so he decided to come here instead. We were so excited to have him! He is always pleasant and helpful to have around. He fits into our family like he lived here all his life and we are always happy to see him. The poor guy has been sick almost the whole time he has been at school, and looked terrible when he got here. Courtney immediately gave him a sisterly lecture on getting rest and taking care of himself-and he did. By the time he left he was all better and all of his homework done, with just a little more to do in the library this morning. He is still settling into a routine and balancing his studies, and we all just need to trust that he is good kid, extremely smart, and will do the right thing. He is in no way perfect, and we all need to step back and remember what we were like at that age. He has our unconditional love and support, and I hope I speak for everyone reading this.
We also had Casey and her boyfriend Nick for Thanksgiving. Casey has been dating Nick since the summer and dated him in high school, also. She was a bit nervous about bringing him here, and he was nervous, too-who wouldn't be nervous? But it was all good. Nick was perfectly polite and pleasant and we had a great time. I made him a cheesecake-his favorite, and I think that may be one of the reasons they committed to coming for Christmas! It was great to see them and we had a great time.
After dinner and Casey and Nick had left, we all went over to Steve and Caren's house for Pictionary. We played guys against the girls- it was fun. Caren's son Josh and his girlfriend showed up and they played for a while, then they left just as our friends Jodie and Alex showed up! Jodie and Alex were here having dinner with her sister, who lives here near us. So we got to see everyone! We had a glass of wine and chatted for a bit. It was such a nice ending to a great day.
I am putting up some pictures of Carli raking leaves today. The weather was nice today, but should be getting much colder this week, so she was outside enjoying the warm sun!
Make sure you watch for Courtney next Saturday morning on the Today Show-her class is going to New York for the weekend and will be outside the Today show trying to get a little face time. Her teacher says they always get on! We will be setting our DVR and hopefully will catch them!
Courtney finished out the cross country year by lettering in varsity cross country, not easy to do as a freshman and we are very proud of her. Her report card was excellent, too. She has already started indoor track and has practice everyday after school. It seems like we hardly ever see her anymore!
Have a great week....

So many things happened this week!

Well, we had a very busy week! On Thursday night Mark, Steve, Caren and I went out to dinner for Caren's birthday at a restaurant called Lemaire's. It is in a hotel called "The Jefferson", it is a Richmond landmark. It is very old and beautiful. The restaurant was outstanding. We were joined by another couple,friends of Caren and Steve's, and we had a great time. After dinner, Steve arranged a limousine to pick us up and take us to The Tran Siberian Orchestra. It is mostly Christmas music, but not all. It was 3 hours long! A bit long, really an hour or so would have been plenty...but it was much, much longer....anyway, we were all very tired after that and, showing our age, went right home and went to bed!
I worked on Friday, then Saturday, Mark and I split up to spend time with each of the girls. Mark took Courtney to her last cross country invitational, which was in Hanover. She did really well, she finished first in sub-varsity for Cosby High School. She really wanted to run varsity, but she has 3 more years to do that. She is very determined and works hard at cross country. Courtney never does anything half-way, she always tries her best. I love that about her, although sometimes I wonder if she doesn't put too much pressure on herself. Anyway, she did great and we were all very proud of her.
While they were off doing that,Carli, Ruby and I went to an apple festival in Charlottesville, Va. Caren and Steve picked us up in the morning and we all went together, and we met up with our friends Jodie, Alex and Allison up there. It was so so neat to meet up with them and do something together-the six of us and our kids have become like family and don't go long without getting together. We had a great day, it is a small family-run festival and they have a few local farmers selling their wares, there's a bluegrass band, and a hay ride, a few food vendors-that's about it, but it's very quaint. We went last year, too and Ruby is always quite popular there!
We had lunch on the lawn while Carli jammed to the bluegrass band, Allison and I got freshly made doughnuts for dessert (yum!), and then Caren, Jodie and I checked out the antiques and purchased some fresh chevre', fresh organic meats and chestnuts and of course apples! What a great day! Tonight Caren and I prepared a dinner featuring all of our purchases-we had homemade butternut squash soup, roasted brussels sprouts and apples, fresh organic pork marinated in rosemary, olive oil and garlic, homemade applesauce, and fresh apple pie. It was all soooo good.... so all in all, it was a good week. Today I let Courtney pluck my eyebrows. Random, I know, but she is really good at it and I have been admiring hers for awhile, so I figured I would let her try. I warned her about overplucking, and she did fine, although it did hurt-bad. Other than that, it was just your ordinary laundry, grocery shopping day, followed by a delicious dinner. Have a great week everyone!

So with Carli feeling better, Courtney and I left Carli in Mark's capable hands and met Brandi at Alex's Washington and Lee's Parent's Weekend. It was so fun! Alex is an awesome cousin-he kept such close tabs on Courtney he almost scared some of his friends! We had a great time-pics are on Facebook, because I did not take my camera! Bummer!
On a sadder note, this week my grandmother passed away. Grandma Whaley lived on a beautiful ranch at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains in Shell, Wyoming. It is breathtaking out on the ranch, but to grandma, it was isolating. She failed to see the beauty of it, looking for something else instead. She left her children several times, looking for that "something else". Sadly, the "children" are now left trying to function as a family, when they really were never taught how to function as a family. They fight so bad it is unbearable to listen to. As soon as grandma died my sister and I got on the phone and discussed our own mother's funeral wishes, as grandma's were destroyed right from the moment she died, due to lack of communication on the children's' part. I am sure when they read this they will all be mad at me for airing our dirty laundry, but honestly, why keep it a secret? That is not the way family should function. I hope the memorial they talk about is planned and I hope all of my aunts and uncles will attend and that everyone will at least pretend to like each other, just for the service. I hope that all my cousins will come, the ones I grew up with that I never see, and their husbands, wives and kids I have never met-wouldn't that be so great? I saw grandma two years ago and I am so glad we made that journey out west. Mark, Brandi and I pulled campers all the way across the country, and we went to visit grandma and our kids have a memory and a picture of that and I am so glad. Brandi and I spent a night alone at grandma's house "tucking her in" and although we laughed our butts off that night, I am so glad we did it. We have a memory of grandma that is special-of grandma laughing and making us laugh so hard-it will always be special to us. Rest in Peace Grandma and tell Grandpa we all said hello and we have missed him!!!