A Birthday Surprise!

Me and Dave rode up to Michigan last weekend with Mom and Dale to be a part of surprising Grandma Florence for her 80th birthday! The drive wasn't too bad. This is the cake they got for her.

Here is Mom with all her siblings! They were all trying to remember the last time they had been all together, and I think they came up with close to 30 years! Front Row: Carl, Cheryl, Diane and Ray Back Row: Linda and Valerie.

Grandma Florence was shocked to see everyone there! She kept saying how surprised she was! Yay!

We stopped by to see her apartment as we left. It's a cute little place! Here is me, Grandma and Mom.

Cousin Kolbie

A couple weeks ago, Greg & Kristen came for a visit to NC so everyone could meet their newest addition, Kolbie. She's a cutie! (And I'm a bad photographer) She was around 2 months old.

Here are Uncle Greg and Mackenzie playing. Mackenzie is two now! She's a lot of fun...and she loved Dave's mac & cheese!

They brought their Wii with them and we all took turns playing. Here are Greg, Gramma, Ben and Kristen trying some carnival games.

Three Generations

Here I am with Grandma Florence and Mom. Three generations!

A New Nephew!

This is little Wyatt Oscar Walkup- the newest addition to my sister Maggie's family. He was born August 11 at 1:43am(!) and measured 19.5 inches and 7lb 9oz at birth.

Here is me, "Aunt Rachael", holding little Wyatt. He is just about 8 hours old there.

The happy family.... Wyatt, Bob, Maggie and Oliver.

Spic'N'Span and Up For Sale

Our house is now officially for sale! We did some major cleaning last Thursday and took some pretty pictures for our listing...and maybe to prove that it actually was that clean at least once! Now to KEEP it that way....

Thinking Pink

Hooray!! Today I have officially reached HALF of my fund-raising goal for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer I'm doing in October!! I need $1800 altogether, and as of today, donations have reached $901!!! Thanks so much everyone!!!

Pink-ish

Dave brought me flowers again yesterday! They are these beautiful lillies...white and pink-ish. They have a very strong smell...good thing they smell good! These are the only 2 that are open right now, but there are several more that should be opening up over the next few days. I like the way the petals twist around...makes me think of a starfish.

Gaffney for the Fourth

It had been tradition for Harrimans to gather in Gaffney for July 4th. We missed a couple years of that, but this year it happened again and it was great! Good company, good weather and GOOD food!! It was nice to have a few days to relax and visit with people we don't get to see often.

The girls took on the task of tie-dying some shirts (and socks!) while the guys were working on the deck. We mixed the colors, rubber-banded and decorated. I must say, we're a pretty creative bunch! After all the shirts were dyed, we wrapped them in saran wrap and let them sit for a few hours to let the dye get good and set. Then we washed and dried them. They all turned out SO PRETTY!! (Or manly, as the case may be...tee hee)

Fourth of July Weekend

Here are the guys working on the porch. Matt and Uncle Gary had already been working on it for a few days, and the rest of the guys helped out once they got there. Dave enjoyed helping with it too. They worked until well after dark on Thursday night- it's shaping up to be a beautiful deck!

And here is the reason for the new deck! Uncle Gary and April decided to put in a pool. It's a nice one! It's 28 feet across (I think...) and it was about 4.5 feet deep around the edges to almost feet deep in the middle. We all enjoyed it during those hot SC summer days!

More pics from Florida...

Dave's Boat Ride

Dave, Lisa, Dad (Carlson) and Jordan went out for a 3 hour ride on a boat in the gulf one day while we were in FL. Here are some of the pics he took.

St. George Island Vacation

This is the St.George Island Lighthouse. This morning we walked down past it and back for some exercise. The weather has been pretty nice and not TOO hot. We've been in the pool a few times, down to the beach (just across the street), and into the town of Apalachicola for dinner and shopping.
This is the house we've been staying in. It's a nice one! We are staying on the bottom floor, which is still a story above the ground. It's for sale!!
A St.George Island sunset. Isn't it beautiful? We get to see 3 or 4 more of these before we come home.

Not Your Average Cupcakes...

I went to Sarah's yesterday, and she had some frosting left over from her cake class on Monday, so we made up a batch of cupcakes and decorated them all fancy...well....we decorated them anyway. We each made a clown....I did Spiderman, a cat, a garden, some spaghetti and meatballs, a carrot and a couple aliens. Sarah did a lion, a piggy, a puppy and a froggy. They turned out really well I thought, and we had a lot of fun doing them.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, we rounded up Mom, Dale, Sarah, Greg and Delilah and headed into Asheville for the Mother's Day Greek Luncheon put on by the Greek Orthodox Church. You can see a picture there of the new sanctuary they've built. We went inside and it was gorgeous! The brick building behind is where we went to eat. The food was superb as usual! We also enjoyed the Greek dancing- they did a little more performing than last year. It was beautiful weather too, so what a fun day!

Cookout

Our friends Larry and Christy invited us to their cookout on Saturday. It was a great day at lake Julian. Lots of sailboats out on the lake. Looks like fun. They must have been having races. They had buoys set up and kept blowing horns. This one guy kept tipping his over. I think it was mostly for fun. It was gusty. Larry threw some turkey burgers and dogs on the grill. We also had chips, beans, and salad. It was good. We rented a paddle boat and took a lap around the lake. We kind of put ourselves right in the middle of the action at one time, as you can see in that picture of the sailboat headed right for us. We went to their condo and had some cake afterwards. Which they might have sold today. You can stay with us until you find your new home. Maybe Randy can make it next time.

Triple Falls

I went hiking last weekend too. This is Triple falls inside Dupont State Forest. Its really 5 water falls but three of them are close together and the other two are spaced out a bit. This was a lot easier hike than the last one. More scenery too. I'll have to see if Greg, Sarah, and Rachael want to go there sometime. If you click on the slide show, it gets bigger. Rachael went shopping with Sandy this time, so she missed it again. The pictures might not be the best because I took them with my phone.

Looking Glass

Here are some pictures from last weekends adventure. Rachael and the girls went to the yearly womens conference, so I had to think of something to keep me busy. It was supposed to rain so I stopped by Walmart and picked up a rain jacket. Also stopped by Subway and got a sandwich for the prize at the top. Its 6.2 miles round trip. Mostly up hill all the way there. Being nearly 40 now, it took some convincing to make it to the top. Good thing I have been working on being healthier this year. If you click the link you'll see a picture with a tree that all the bark was rubbed off. I was wondering at this point if I still had enough energy to outrun a bear. The view at the top was great. I remember the first time I came up here was with a friend from the airport. Hot Rod Martin. Don't know what happened to him. He was a chemistry major, last I heard. I forgot my phone at work or I would have called somebody to go with me. Get ready, because I'll need some company next time. Its a hard hike, but I enjoyed it.

Something to Blog About

Dave brought me these flowers yesterday! Aren't they pretty? I took the picture looking down on them.

Lately

I'm sorry I don't have any better pics to post than this. We just haven't taken that many pictures yet this year. We should have a few next week, as we are going to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia on Saturday and will be sure to take many pictures.
What we have been doing is working on the house some. We're trying to get it into sale-ready condition, though we have not decided for absolute sure that's what we'll be doing. Dave is doing most of that it seems, as much of it involves caulking and ladders and other things I try to avoid. We have packed quite a bit of stuff that we don't use on a daily basis and have put it into storage.
We spent a couple days in Georgia with the Croteaus. I did my best to help Kelly get her room organized, and Dave did a few "handy-man" projects like putting some shelves in Jordan's closet. We met Brian and Christie for dinner on our way home.
We helped Sarah & Greg move into their new condo...in the rain!
And I have been knitting. A lot.

Fit for a King....er, a Queen

Delilah came to spend the day (and night) with us on Monday. We had a lot of fun, especially with the building blocks. Here she is placing one more block on the "precarious" tower, which caused it to collapse. "Precarious" is her new word I guess. She was great for her whole visit...ate her dinner well, didn't splash too much in her bath, and went to bed without argument.
Then Tuesday morning....Dave and I both woke up with the flu! I called Sarah to come get Delilah ASAP- fortunately she didn't catch it. We spent all day Tuesday in bed, achy and miserable with fever. Wednesday was a little better, not as achy...we made it to the living room, but spent a good part of the day sitting there staring at the walls or napping. Thursday morning both of our fevers had broken and we were able to eat stuff that actually resembled a meal. Friday and today we are still improving, though we are both still a bit stuffy and have a nasty cough (which I've read can last up to 3 weeks!) But at least we are on the road to recovery. According to the stuff I read, we are toward the end of being contagious.
On another note, I'm looking at revamping my revolving menu to make it a little healthier and 2-person friendly. If you have any good, healthy recipes that can be cut down and don't have anything "exotic" in them, please email them to me! I'm not looking for soy-burgers or tofu or anything, just less fatty, greasy, fried kind of stuff... more veggi-ness. Anyway, that's all for now.

Blarney!

Don't forget about the limerick contest!! C'mon, you can do it! The link to the contest blog is over there if you need some samples...

Stuff Lately...

I walked out into the Living Room the other morning, and to my surprise, saw not one, but TWO peliated woodpeckers on our feeder!! They were both helping themselves to those square seedy things you can see in the sides there. Well, I had to take their picture because I've never seen two at once before. Cool!

Also, last week was my birthday. I am officially living out the last of my twenties. LOL! Anyway, above you can see Dave's gift to me- a real, actual computer desk!! I like it a lot! I got some other very nice gifts too- thanks everybody!

And finally, this is a picture of the 4 mini loaves of banana bread I made today. I don't know why...just felt like taking a picture. I made the minis because I like nuts and Dave doesn't, so I made two with and two without. I ate some warm out of the oven with the butter melted all into it....YUM!

Happy Valentines Day!

Today I worked at Kolorful Kitchen with my Mom because Dale had to be out. Surprise! Who should show up at lunch time? It was Dave with these beautiful flowers! He came to tell me Happy Valentines Day. There was a very nice card, and a Chinese lady figurine too! After work, Dave came and picked me up from Kolorful Kitchen and we went and picked out some dinner at the Fresh Market. We had a nice meal together, then watched a movie on the new Apple TV Dave brought home the other day. What a lovely day!

Even before Valentine's Day??

Yes, even before Valentine's Day I have decided to go ahead and post the St.Patrick's Day Limerick Contest on the contest blog. This gives ya'll plenty of time to rack your brains for a few lines that rhyme. C'mon, try it- it's fun!
You can find the link to the contest blog with the other links over on the side somewhere. I'm hoping for a lot of response to this one!