NASCAR Hall of Fame

Liam told us that he wanted to go to the Lowes Motor Speedway for his birthday. The same day that the Nextel Cup would be doing the All-Star race. So I called up Lowes and they said that the tours can't take place on a race day, but I was welcome do bring my family to the speedway to watch the All-Star Cup. The tickets were about $40 to $150 per person. Honestly, it is not a bad price for what you get. Anyway, we went tot he NASCAr Hall of Fame instead. It was more our speed. We got to see old cars and the boys were able to enjoy a very low key environment. One thing that really hit me, was that the branding on these cars were all over the place. The tobaccoo and alcohol adds are all over the place. Which is approriate, because one of the first things we say in the museum was a car that was designed to transport moonshine. we got to see an old moonshine facotry. It was two barrels and some pipes. One brand the boys recognized well was McDonalds.

I would post more pictures, but a lot have names of beer companies, and they don't need any free advertising from me.

Liam is Four

When Liam woke up forhis Birthday, he had pancakes with syrup. I didn't have the energy to make them so I ran to McDonalds and bought some Hot Cakes. I also got the 2 for 2. But, Asher wanted the other Egg McMuffin so I had to settle for a glass of V8.

Liam is now four-years-old. Here are some pictures of him at the park. Amanda made a Banana Fudge Cake. With the cake, we had American Idol Birthday Cake Ice Cream. One present that he got was a 2 Liter bottle of A & W Root Beer. This is Liam's favourite drink. He calls is "Beans Juice." I need to not kid around with him so much. I told him it was made from pinto beans once and he believes me still.

Liam brought worms in dirt for his class at pre-school. Amanda made all this stuff. The party in the park, the cake, all of it. These cups are basically chocolate pudding with oreos and gummy worms. I tasted them while Amanda was preparing them and it was great.

Teacher Appreciation Week

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week at the preschool and we were all VERY spoiled. Each morning all of the parents put on huge, homemade breakfast buffets in the staff lounge. We had all kinds of amazing breakfast casseroles, fruit and cheeses, breads and baked goods and treats it was obscene. Then on Wednesday after class they put on a formal luncheon upstairs in the church parlour, which was yummy as well as elegant. I think all of us who work at the school must have gained at least five pounds last week. As if all that weren't enough each teacher had a basket placed outside of her classroom for the families to put little presents in all week, and at the end of the week had a personalized gift basket to take home. All kinds of neat lotions and stationary, treats etc. It was very sweet,everyone was so thoughtful and one of my sweet little girls even brought me some beautiful flowers. I felt so overwhelmed by the end of the week, basicly I just feel fortunate to be able to have a job like this that doesn't interfere with my family life and allows me to provide my children with quality early childhood education when it would otherwise be finanically prohibitive. All of this extra generosity was certainly unexpected but made me feel very appreciated indeed!

Mother's Day 2007

Trying to get some pictures with the boys this morning before church was a little wild, but we did it! I am trying to be better at taking pictures when the occasion arises. Bevan made a nice Mother's Day dinner that featured a grilled chicken and strawberry salad, ranch breadsticks and a marshmallow-chocolate pie. Afterwards we went for a refreshing walk through UNCG campus...comencement was on Friday and Saturday so the place was pretty cleared out, its strange to be at a place that is usually so busy when it is deserted. I hope all the Mother's out there had a great day and felt adequately appreciated!

6th Anniversary

Bevan and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary on Cinco de Mayo. I suppose people usually make a bigger deal about celebrating 5th anniversaries...but last year at this time Bevan was in finals, had a slave labour job at UPS and I was nursing a five month old...so needless to say not many festivities took place, (Bevan came home for 45 min. between school and work and we ate dinner with Liam!).
Anyhow, what a difference a year makes! No more UPS, Asher is now a big boy (comparatively speaking) and since Bevan's semester was comprised mostly of an internship; schoolwork had been squared away in time for us to have a weekend get away! It has been a very long time since we had done anything of the sort and my parents graciously made the 13 hour drive down to watch the boys for us while we went to Charleston, SC.
Charleston is one of the most beautiful and historic places I have ever been...in fact it has one of the biggest historic district's in the world second only to Rome! We took a night time walking ghost tour that told us all about the more macabre history of the city (very fascinating...lots of neat graveyards in this town!), we took a guided horse drawn carriage tour and learned even more historic background on the city, we toured Magnolia Plantation and its famous gardens, we took a boat ride out into Charleston harbour and toured Fort Sumter...where the first shot of the civil war was fired AND last but not least we ate way way to much good southern food and walked around just enjoying what is a very lovely place. (If you ever find yourself down that way you have to try Jestine's Kitchen...amazing!). Thanks for a great weekend Bevan! This was by far one of the best things we have done togethor and I look forward to many more adventures with our little family!

Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter is an island that sits in front of the Charleston Harbor. It was built there to protect Charleston from invaders after war of 1812. This is where the Civil War started. This island was Union controlled, at the time of April 12, 1861. Since the Confederates were already in Charleston, the fort was attacked from behind. This place was 3 stories high all around. Now only one side has one story. The other side is a mound of rubble. I didn't take any of these pictures by the way. We forgot to bring our camera. And that is a good thing. It was so relaxing to go on a vacation and not have a camera. I recommend doing just that in Charleston.

When visiting Charleston, this is a must. The boat ride is a great way to relax from all the walking and eating and walking and eating. If you want to bring a snack, stop by the candy stores and pick up some pralines before you get on the boat.

Also make dinner reservations before you get on the boat. SNOB was a great place. We ate there for our 6 year anniversary. I think this is has been oneof the best vacations. All we did was get a hotel on hotwire and drive down. We had no idea what we would do until we got here. It was just really nice to have no commitments. I don't feel like posting anything else, so I will leave it to Amanda.

Hearts

I own this game. It is hard to see this picture, but I just shot the Moon 4 times in a row.

First Place

Right after our unplanned but very fun trip to DC, I had been in town for only 1 hour and I was waiting for class to begin. The name of this class is Accounting Theory. It is a Masters Level course that lasts 8 weeks long to accommodate the Accounting Grads who need 3 credits and can't take any classes until after March 15th. The reason we can't take classes before March is because we were all doing full time internships. So last Wednesday the professor sent us an email that said, "you all have an A or B. If you want to know which one, come see me." So I was too busy to do that on Thursday because we were getting ready to go to DC. (One of the errands was to go through Stamey's drive-thru and purchase some Eastern Carolina Barbecue.) And besides, who cares? I might have an A. If not, I will still pass.

So one of the classmates says, "hey guess what?" I asked what. She was one of the many who had the time to find out her grade. She said that she was told that she has the second highest grade in the class. She was upset and wanted to know who was ahead of her. The answer was Bevan. The Professor simply explained that "Bevan participates in an intelligent manner and that even though I disagree with him, he formulates his arguments in an intelligent manner." I guess that explains why he never cut me off from speaking in class. She congradualted me and I felt pretty smug. I like feeling smug. Especially around a bunch of others who have higher GPA's than me. So for the last day of class, I thought, I could just put my head down and say nothing. But of course, the people presenting on pensions said something that wasn't true so I had to correct them. And then the people presenting on derivatives gave a scenario where a a ski resort owner will give 33% of his profits to a ranch owner if it snows more than 60 days. And if it snows less than 60 days, the ranch owner does the same. I couldn't resist, ski resorts don't make a profit. So either way the ski resort wins. Because giving someone 33% of a negative number means they give you something.

This is one of the few subjective classes I have been in. I like it because it does not allow morons to slip through the system. I think at the Masters level, it is appropriate to punish those who make untimely or inane comments. In fact, it should be done no later than the 5th grade.