Office Remodel

Derek and Mary Kay decided to update the house, The couches in the den needed to be downstais. Once that was done, why not move the office? So that's what we did...



Don't think that getting those monster things out of there was easy!!! We then put them in the garage, which for me was maybe even more of an accomplishment than the office. (Pics coming soon)





This is Mary Kay's new music room. She's going to get a piano when she gets tenure. Wish her luck. Publish! Publish! Publish!!! She is in two minds if she should get the new digital baby grand, available at Costco, or the traditional string piano.


Finally, the new office!!!

You can see Derek's new Mac. It's fancy. You turn it on and it's ready to go. Virtually no boot time. Amazing. The walls look great. (Mary Kay is doing taxes.)

Christmas in March

Here is the long awaited photo of my new bike. I love it. I like to think it makes people smile when the see me riding it. On one of my rides, someone even told me, "Nice bike!" Probably the drivers who have to go around me in the morning on the way to work don't like me very much, but that's ok. I don't like cars much on my bike, either. So that works out well. I had to buy new lunch containers. The old ones' lids would pop off and when I got to work my lunch was in my bag. :( Now I have locking lids. :) But my basket is a bit too small for the new lunch containers. It's still a work in progress.

New furniture!

Here are some pictures of our new furniture! We got cherry, so it will darken over time... it's a pretty color now but will get quite a bit darker in the first year, then slowly darker for pretty much ever.

Cake decorating class

I forgot to take pictures of my cupcakes AND my last cake... but here are some pictures of Shandi and I finishing our cakes from our cake class. Unfortunately I have to wait until June to take part 2, so stay tuned...

The Pete cake is mine...

The star cake is Shandi's.

Here we are in Costa Rica......

This is San Jose's version of San Marco.



This picture is on one of the ceilings. The Italian artist had never been to Costa Rica, and he didn't know that coffee plants are over 6' high, and that a bunch of bananas this large would weigh over 100 lbs.
Most of the paintings and artwork is Italian.

Here we are in San Jose. Yesterday, we went to the Teatro Nacional. It's a lovely old building, built in the late 1800's. After the Teatro, we found a nice bakery and had some coffee and delicious pastry.

Happy Birthday, Mary!!!

Mary had a great first birthday. We ate hamburgers, beans, carrots, and cucumbers. All chosen with Mary's 4 teeth in mind!


Then she had TWO cupcakes! Katie also had cupcakes while the rest of us enjoyed an ice cream pie.






Finally she and her daddy went swimming. Tonight was the last night of lessons. Don't worry, the new session starts next week. Happy Birthday, Mary!!!

Gymnastics

Here are some pics



Katie was pretty excited to have someone else there taking pics. She did really well. Jumped over ropes, has good balance, lots of things...

Ogni riccio é un capriccio

In Italy they still use curlers!!! And not electric ones!!! I had to try it.

It took a while to get them rolled.

Marco and Gabriella gave me a magazine so I could be very Italian.

Getting them out took an act of congress!!! They were all tangled in my hair.

Look at the result. I was hoping to be beautiful, but instead I thought it was just goofy. After 6 hours. And they didn't even last so that anyone on the plane the next day could see me with curls or people in customs could think I wasn't me.

Santiago

I am back from my Spain Italy tour and here are a few pics. I wanted to post some from over there, but I only had access to dial up, so no thank you for uploading pictures. More will come soon
This is inside the cathedral. If you bump your head on this (the statue of the person who created it, Mateo) you will get some of his genius.

This is a picture of the tapas bar where we had lunch everyday. It was YUMMY!

We got Mom's camera this evening. She's pretty excited. We'll post some pictures from her camera as soon as it's charged and she finds something to take a picture of.

New Paint

Here are a few pictures of what the new
painting looks like in our living room, dining room, and entry hall. It looks a lot warmer than just white.....

For Sale

All good things must come to and end. Molli and Josh are selling their house. You can see more details at www.randysellshomes.com. Good luck! Hope you sell soon so you can get something else soon!

Be still my heart

Today Katie saw my yarn lying on the desk and was curious about it. So I told her that was for knitting. She said, "I wanna knit." Never have more beautiful words been spoken. I ran upstairs and as soon as I could cast on we were having our first lesson. You can imagine the progress we made...There is time. There is time. BUT we've got her!!! (I hope.)

SOLD!!!

For $215,000. And they don't have to do any repairs.

Bumper

You can see the bruise (a little) from Mary continuously bumping her head. We're going to nick name her Bumper. I couldn't quite capture the bruises on her forehead. The look a little like she is going to sprout horns.

So you don't get worried, she is still cute as ever! Maybe she'll be a cowgirl!


Katie, on the other hand, really likes the shirt Marco's mom got me for Christmas a few years ago. Think of it...A pole dancer and Bumper.


I'd like to apologize for not posting in so long. I did have some pictures of the Christmas Tree out front for pick up. Alas it was too sad. Rhoda from Northville asks, "When are we going to see some pictures from Italy, Marco? You got a fancy new camera AND a haircut! We are waiting!!!"

Ringing in the New Year

Well we had our first party at 11570, and it went pretty well. Here are some pictures from the big night!

We had about 25-30 people there, and the floor was black and sticky by the end of the night, but it sure was fun. We wish you all could have made it!

Cheeburger Cheeburger

Well, there are 4 big hamburger lovers in the house!!! Marco, Derek, Josh, and I all ate a 20 oz cheeseburger at Cheeburger Cheeburger to get our photo on the wall.



The waitress said I was only the second woman she had seen do it. That was a proud moment. I think my strategy of not drinking too much water before hand was helpful. There was a moment with about 1/4 left where I thought I might not make it. I received some words of encouragement and finished. Josh took first place, followed by Marco, who was still eating fries when the waitress, Brittany (I noticed the weird spelling) took away his plate. Derek rounded out the top 3 while I came in fourth. Our of four.

The photo was signed, "We could eat more than that in a day." We placed it under the photo that said, "I can't wait to poop."

We're screwed

Mary can stand. She'll be walking soon. We're looking forward to explaining to a NINE month old why she shouldn't pull on the Christmas tree.