A Thankful Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for a few things Thanksgiving brought around this year:

1) Thankful for a Mom and little sister who came to visit.


2) Thankful Mom and Kayla patiently sat at the airport for over an hour because I drove to the wrong one in Raleigh. No picture here. Just imagine me with this look on my face :(

3) Thankful Kayla will happily humor me by chasing oversized, quail-looking birds. That is, until one chased her back.

4) Thankful we are not too old to sit with Santa.


5) Thankful for this guy who was happy to entertain and suggest only the best places to visit.

6) Thankful for the nice fall weather.


I'm lucky to have so much more to be thankful for. The visit was great. Thanks for coming!

Dani Doesn't Do Scary

Dani has never like scary stuff. There was a time in high school when I made her go see "What Lies Beneath" in the theater. Even though we ran into a kid I knew and got to see it for free, she hated it. A few years later I made her watch "Road to Perdition", which isn't even scary, but Tom Hanks got his head blown off at the end. She hated that one too. Then, I tried to describe to her how cool "Vacancy" was while we were staying in a old motel near Universal Studios in CA. She freaked out at just the description and Chris told me I had to quit pretending to pound on the door adjoining our room to a second (supposedly empty) one.

Its just sad. Because ever since I started watching scary movies with Anna, I was hooked. I used to be terrified of "The Exorcist" and "Silence of the Lambs".Then was scared of "The Grudge." I talked Mark into seeing that one with me and suffered for it practically a whole year later. In the middle of the night I would hear the "uuuuuuuuuhhh" sound. He thought he was so funny.

Now, its the governmental conspiracy/zombie movies that get me. Like, the "Crazies" and "Quarantine" Because, even though it is unlikely that there would be manufactured virus that would make us zombie-like killers, it is more plausible than the existence of vampires. Right? Unless you want to defer to the book The Passage which tries to come up with a scientific version of vampires.

This brings me to the whole purpose of this blog. 1)It October and a blog about scary stuff is timely; and 2) I can't go to the bathroom because I am completely creeped out by the bathtub lady in Stephen King's The Shining. (The book, not the movie, because his description of this scene is so much scarier) The second I go in there I'm imagining the bathtub lady standing up, hearing the water sloshing and her soggy footsteps as she chases me down the hall...

Scary stuff. No wonder Dani hates it.

Viva Greensboro!

The internet is running, TV is hooked up, kitchen stuff put away in cabinets lined with new shelf paper ($9 bucks a role- way overpriced), and a load of laundry is going as I type. We are officially moved in.

It took two loads in the U-Haul, and a lot of lifting on Thursday. Two big guys to help with the heavy furniture on Friday and fast food whenever we had the chance. But we are happy to say this place already feels like home. Our neighbors on both sides of the house introduced themselves. We had a bird fly into the glass window. We rode our bikes across the street to the park this morning. Not a bad weekend.

Pictures will be coming!

What Else Would I Blog About?

Mark saw this really big spider building his web in a tree outside. He is a fast spinner. Really amazing. And gross. Click on it for a bigger picture. You know you want to.

Chicago

We just got back from Chicago a few days ago. The purpose of our trip was to attend Mark's cousin's wedding, but we stayed a few days to enjoy the city. We went to the Chicago Art Institute, Sears Tower (no one pays attention to the building's name change), took a architectural boat tour, went to a cubs game, and went to to the Field Museum. Transformers 3 was filming, and even though it was inconvenient to be blocked off from some of the bridges, we enjoyed seeing the movie magic. We loved staying at the historical Whitehall Hotel (even though the decor reminded us of 1408 and The Shining) and eating pizza and hot dogs. Thanks Sue and Brian for coordinating everything. Lots of love to my "sis" Marti!

I can't post all of my favorite pictures, here are just a few:

Happy 2140 Days

(Engagement Photo 2004)

A few months after we were married, we bought our Altima. At the dealership, the salesman suggested red because it was already on the lot. I thought back to the conversations Mark and I had about cars and remembered Mark saying that he liked red cars and so I said that I liked red. Mark was happy with the choice and so we drove the car home.

Not long after, Grandpa bought an Altima, except his was a charcoal gray.
"I love that color!" I said.
"Me too."
"How did we end up with red?"
"I thought you wanted it."

Now, occasionally we have to ask each other, "This isn't another red car, is it?" Our communication has improved but our sentiment remains the same. Happy 6th Anniversary, Mark.

"Yes, I'll Finally Take You to the Haw River"

It started with a coupon I found in the weekly mailer. It was from a local business offering $10 bucks off rental of a canoe that you can use to float down the Haw River. I first saw it in January, when it was way too cold to even consider going outside, let alone renting a canoe and floating down the river. But ever since then, when Mark asks me what I want to do on the weekend, it has become a longstanding request (and now a joke) that we go to the Haw River. Suprisingly we ended up actually going to the river last weekend. We didn't float down it in a canoe (need to leave something to do this summer) but we hiked alongside the river.




This is the same dog that won't go to the bathroom on the grass if its wet.







A picture for Mom so that she'll recognize me when she picks me up at the airport :)