Photo Album

China Trip 2006

Here are a few of the pictures from China.

Why did the american cross the road?

Guo and I wanted to go to the computer store on the other side. Here you see an average blend of people, bicycles, and autos in harmless harmony. I am trying to get some pictures to post...

The Great Wall

This is a short video of part of the great wall. Parts were very steep. The soldiers used to live in the towers along the wall. One of my favorite places of the trip.

Crafty Things

I had a "Craft Night" while Dave was gone. Above are a wrapping paper and a couple Christmas cards I made. We used foam stamps and paint to make our designs.
This is a gift bag I did- I painted in the bow myself.
Here is one of Sarah's wrapping papers and her snowflake gift bag.
Aunt Sandy did these two gift bags and this wrapping paper. I didn't get a picture of Gramma's before she took them home, but they were great too! We all had fun and everything turned out very nice. 

Forbidden City

Dave sent this picture from China. This is him and Gou at the Forbidden City in/near Beijing.
He gets home tomorrow, Hooray!! (Well, technically Saturday because it's midnight-ish, but we'll call it tomorrow.) 

To Infinity and Beyond!

Well, Dave is off traveling again...this time to China. He's scheduled to be gone 11 days! Turns out I'll be plenty busy while he's gone, so maybe it will go by quickly. He should be sitting in the Newark airport right now, awaiting his flight to Beijing. From Beijing he goes to Dalian, which is where he will be working/staying while he's there. From what I understood, he should be able to get some "western" food where he will be, so maybe he won't come back *too* skinny.

Beijing

Tired of Hats Yet?

OK, here's the last 2 I have made as of just now (JUST finished the red furry one...). I probably won't put any more hat pics on after these, even though I plan to make several more. I'm really having fun with these! And the pile of yarn is shrinking!!!
Didn't this one turn out pretty? I think it is my favorite so far. 

And even more hats...

Here are some more hats I've made... modeled by Mary, our Brazilian statue.
This one is going in my Operation Christmas Child box.
This one is for Dave...plain black, with a fold up brim.
This is actually the first one I made, somehow it didn't get its picture in the first batch. 

More hats...

AACK! Picasa is not being my friend! So here are the last 2 pics, which were supposed to be attached to the last blog...oh well...
 
  

Lately

I finally decided to try to use up some of this mountain of yarn I've accumulated. Cold weather is coming, so I thought hats would be practical. They are knitting up pretty quickly- sometimes I can knit 2 in a day!! I got Dave, Sarah and Delilah to model some of my first few...



 

The Windy City

We returned on the 12th from a trip to Chicago. Dave had to go for work to the International Machine & Tool Show (IMTS). It was huge, and there were lots of very cool things there. The coolest thing there I thought, were the machines that cut stone with water. They were cutting out these tiny little motorcycles from a big slab of rock. Very cool.
Chicago is a big ol' city! And yes, it was windy. It rained some while we were there, but not too bad. We ate at a place called the Cheesecake Factory. The food was great and the cheesecake was even better. We did some walking around Michigan Avenue and checked out some stores that I'm sure we will never see in Asheville.
Below is a picture of some of the food we ate the night we went to China Town for dinner. I didn't taste it all (most was pork-related) but the stuff I did try was very good. We tried some steamed bread, which we had never had before and it was quite tasty. We definitely didn't go away hungry. After dinner, we went into a little shop across from the restaurant and I found a very nice wall-hanging for my living room.
Altogether, our trip was a good one, though it wore me out. I slept for 14 hours straight when we got home! I think we'll be home for a while now....until Thanksgiving, when we head for Florida! -Rachael

Baby Oliver

Maggie's baby was due on October 8. She called me at 9am Wednesday morning and said they were on their way to the hospital!! I got a quick shower, jumped in the Jeep, picked up Mom and we zoomed to Greensboro. We got there just after the baby was born!
Maggie was tired, but very happy. The baby came pretty quick and he is healthy and adorable! They named him Oliver Lucian. He was 5lb 8oz and 19 1/2 inches long.
Isn't he cute?
I got to hold him! He's so tiny.

Our Vacation

We took a vacation to Charleston! It was a nice leisurely week and we enjoyed it. Even though we were threatened with Hurricane Ernesto while there, it ended up missing us and all we got was a little rain and some cool stuff washed up onto the beach. This is me hugging a really old cypress tree at the Audubon Swamp Garden. The tree was huge and very, very tall. The boardwalk goes 1.5 miles around through the swamp. We saw lots of cool things, including one alligator and about a hundred turtles!
Here is Dave inside a cypress tree. The sign said bats like to live in ones like this. It was hollow all the way up! There were no bats in this one though...
Here we are on the beach! Dave is always finding new and interesting ways to take pictures of us!
These are 3 of the shells I found on the beach the morning after Ernesto passed by. I put the water bottle there so you could see the size of the shells. I couldn't believe we found ones this size still intact!

Back to Charleston

I am pointing the way back to Charleston - off to vacation! 

Maggie's Baby Shower

Maggie and Bob are having a baby. My guess is Oct 9th. Bob and I had to leave, but sounds like they had fun. What do you do at a baby shower anyway? 

Play in the Park

We went to the park with some friends and watched Hamlet. They didn't ask for audience participation this time, so I wasn't able to test my acting ablility. 

Last Minute Decision

I went to get my hair cut last night. I was going to get the same old trim, but I guess I had too much time to look through the magazines... so I ended up getting it cut pretty short. I don't usually like my hair short, but this turned out cute I think. What do you think? 

Room Envy

This past weekend, Dave and I made the trip down to Georgia to help Lisa & Mike move into their new house. It was very hot, but I think we got a lot done. They still have a bunch more stuff to move, but all the "big" stuff got done.
Now, for the explanation of the title... their new house is huge! and very nice. The room envy comes from the GIGANTIC room which is going to be Lisa's scrapbook room. I would love to have a big ol' room like that for all my craft stuff. Dave would probably like that too- then my yarn, and paints, and soap molds and yarn and patterns and yarn and felt and ribbon and YARN wouldn't be piled in the living room, and computer room, and bedroom, and guest room closet....et cetera.
Oh well!

Clean as a Whistle

Sarah and I tried our hand at soap-making. It was pretty easy and we really enjoyed it. The pictures are of our first batch of soaps. We have made some more since then, but I don't have any pictures of those yet...

Uncle Daze

Sarah and Delilah recently spent a few days at our house. While Sarah and I worked on our latest craft project, Delilah played with her "Uncle Daze". He brought her some flowers from outside to put in her hair, they ran through the house with boxes on their heads, they "played" Bingo, watched some TV and Delilah got a horsey ride. Then they enjoyed some fresh chocolate chip cookies. Needless to say, they both slept very soundly that night....!!! -Rachael