Debacle

There is no doubt, it has been a huge dramatic mess. If you know where I worked up until yesterday, then you will understand what I'm talking about. We have heard from family members of staff that it has made newscasts from DC to San Diego. Being brought up on Drudge Report and CNN haven't been exactly pleasant. Everyday we have had media outside and have been desperately trying to keep them from filming children. We have even had calls from Inside Edition and Dr. Phil...somehow he thinks he can help us heal our community...what a joke! Hopefully things will begin to calm down now that our holiday break has arrived.

Here is my biggest fear about the whole thing. The general public holds so many stereotypes about the poor already. This event being broadcast in the way it has will only serve to perpetuate those stereotypes. There are many poor people in our community and in this country who are doing the absolute best they can with the resources they have. Why doesn't the media focus on that?

Now that is original...

Sweet Jesus...I wish Andy and I had thought to do something like this!

Christmas Wishes

In order to avoid the inevitable struggling to think of something to say when people ask what I want for Christmas, I have created a wish list on Amazon. There is a lot to choose from when creating such a list, so it may change from time to time. In addition, I find that the Brahmin bag I'm coveting is, for some reason, not available from Amazon. Guess that one will have to come from Dillard's or Nordstrom. Ooooo... and I want some type of white ball cap. Life is Good would be awesome, but I really just need a cap (not a visor) that is more versatile than my orange UVA cap.

As always, Andy is particularly difficult when it comes to Christmas shopping. He has mentioned needing some more casual long-sleeved shirts. In addition, he would welcome Euros for us to spend while we are visiting his family this winter.

Did I mention? My wish list is at the top of the links list to the right of the page...

Long lost...

Greetings from the slacker blogger. I've been really thinking about writing more, photoing less...but neither has happened...except for the less part and that has been across the board! So..for this post, I am planning to go with more writing, less photos.

What has happened lately??? A bunch of nothing unless you smack in a game that UVA won by sheer luck. How can a kicker who has only missed one field goal (of 58 yards) in the season turn around and miss twho much closer in one game? Frankly, I don't know and I don't care. All that really matters is that we are the luckiest team in the ACC right now and there is an off chance that we will play in the ACC championship game...thank you Chris Long!!!



As far as regular life goes, it is all the same. We are both working constantly, but have managed to sneak a few hours together here and there.

Halloween/Sean's 40th

Last night, I went to our friend Sean's 40th birthday party. Being a Halloween baby, costumes were required for the event. I saw some truly original ideas...Rapper and his pregnant beauty queen girlfriend, a baked potato, the Greek gods, and a certain former football player from my hometown with his dog...

The night was a lot of fun! It is always good to go to someone's birthday party when they are older than you. It makes you realize that no matter how old you feel, there is always someone older!

More pics are on facebook, but you have to be a user to see them...

Sara's Birthday

Last night was Sara's birthday party. I'm always happy when Andy is able to join me for one of these events! They had a fire pit going, so people were roasting marshmallows and enjoying the cooler evening...FINALLY!!!

The Oak Hill Crew--sorry, if you left early you didn't get to be included!

Evidence that Andy was with me...

The rest of the pictures are posted here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8988&l=313a9&id=550489299

It's a public link, so everyone should be able to open it.

Kermit brings back memories...

I came across this video while I was on facebook today. I've always had a slight Kermit obsession and this brought back many memories!!!

Out with my folks...

Simon's bro was here from the UK this past week, so we took the fall break opportunity to show him downtown Greensboro. It was pretty dead, considering it was a Wednesday night, but we all had fun anyway! Unfortunately, my digital camera disappeared from my office at school and facebook is not cooperating by letting me copy the pics, so I have none to share from the experience...

Aunt Katie

After months, really years, of trying Cindy has had good news! Look at the first picture of Baby Evans!

Of course, everyone is delighted as can be! She is thrilled and looking forward to mommydom. I made her start her own blog so she has an outlet for the next 33 weeks. I've added a link so you can visit, but all that she has posted so far is right hear for you to view it.

I can see clearly now...

I made it through! Thanks to several doses of Tylenol PM I managed to sleep pretty consistently until Saturday morning. At my post op Dr. Shapiro confirmed that I am 20/20. Other than a somewhat consistent feeling of sand in my eyes, I'm feeling pretty good! I go back 10/24 for another checkup.

Today I decided it was time to try driving. I started to do it yesterday but thought the sight of the ground sloping away from me was a sign that I wasn't quite ready. After driving to/from the grocery store and TJ Maxx and shopping for a bit, the eyes were definitely ready for a rest.

Now, it is time to get back to work. Two days of no reading have put me extremely behind on coursework. Thank God for another week of fall break!

PreOp Jitters

...though I don't know if they could be legally categorized as such.

However, a little more than 36 hours pre op I find myself what would happen if the laser goes suddenly awry and I end up blind.

How would I get by? What would I miss?

The answer to the first question is probably just fine. I would learn to get around the house because I have already become so familiar with it...at least until we decide to relocate. And, when I leave the house, I have my husband, great friends and enough family to help me get around. And, I'm sure I could stay in education, it would just be a little more challenging...

The second question is much tougher...Reading (until I learn braille), driving (on my own anyway), vegetating while watching TV (I would have to settle for listening), seeing newborn babies :-), the sight of an Irish morning when we make the flight from Shannon to Dublin, Andy's face, the sight of my dogs emphatically wagging their tails when I get home each day...I'm sure there is more, but those are the things that stand out the most.

That being said, I really am not worried at all...I'm thrilled that I'm doing this and I really hope to be corrective lens free by Saturday!

Hysterical!!!

I saw this clip on YouTube...it's a trip!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pGusFXhWyY

The rest of the beach

We really enjoyed the rest of our week at the beach, although it too quickly passed us by...

Thursday we took the boys on waverunners while Jim and Andy played golf. Although Cindy and Mike have been before, it was my first time. Everyone said my legs were going to be killing me the next day, but I didn't feel a thing...yoga is gooooood! The little speck on the yellow waverunner in this picture is me.


Thursday night we had dinner at Sugar Creek (formerly known as RV's). We spent some time out on the docks while we were waiting for our table and witnessed a beautiful sunset as we were leaving the play. Andy and I spent a little time reminiscing about our first date when we went to watch the sunset and went to the movies to see "Big Daddy."

Friday we spent the majority of the day relaxing on the beach. There wasn't much swimming going on, as the water temp was steady at 59. But we all took a few dips. I couldn't stay in more than 10 minutes before I started getting tingly legs. Kyle and Cole dug a huge hole with a trench around it and the rest of us sat around and watched (although Mike and Mom got in on the action a little).


Overall, we had a really great time! I hope we can coordinate our schedules to go again next year.

The Beach So Far...

We are having a great week at the beach. We've spent some time laying in the sand, swimming in the pool and ocean, and relaxing in the hot tub. As we all tend to value the same things, we have also played a bit of golf. I've played twice this week, so has Andy. However, Jim has been able to take someone along every day, so he has played four times and has another 2 tee times before we leave. I think that is what he has missed most about living in Houston...he could always play after work.

Cindy and Big Mike while we wait for dinner at the Black Pelican.

Cole does some serious damage on the boogey board.
Kilmarlic is the course we played on Wednesday. It was beautiful and probably the toughest course I have played to date. Accuracy was the key, so we were playing a lot of target golf. Fortunately, my lack of distance makes that a little easier for me. Andy shot slightly above his typical score, as did Jim. Mike was nearly 20 shots over his average, but I was almost exactly the same. Same score on a more difficult course...this tells me I might be getting better! We played another course on Sunday and I played the best I have ever played there. Of course, it had a much lower slope than I'm used to, so I don't know that it counts for much...

More fishing news

The official word on Cindy's croaker is 13 and 3/4 inches. It beat Dad's by a full 1/4 inch. She is quite proud to have caught the largest croaker on the Kee record. However, not to be outdone, Dad and Wanda went out Sunday after we left town. She decided she needed to beat everyone by pulling in a 10 pound shark. Next stop, Oregon Inlet. I need to get new line put on the surf rods, as they have not been used in quite some time. But Cindy and I don't care what everyone else is doing, we are going to get in some surf fishing while at the beach!

Fishing Excursion

Today was one of the best fishing excursions I've had in a long time. You know those days when the sun is shining and those huge fluffy clouds are in the sky? Today was definitely one of those times. I slept on the bow of the boat for the first hour we were out and still managed to catch a number of fish. I thought I was going to hold the record for the biggest one until Cindy reeled in this monster. It was the biggest croaker I had ever seen until 5 minutes later when Dad brought in this one that was almost as if not larger than Cindy's. When the live well was full and Cindy was the color of a freshly steamed lobster we decided it was time to call it a day.

Farewell Simon!

This weekend a bunch of us went out to wish Simon a great trip and visit back to the UK. He decided he wanted to go bowling, which is something I don't do, but he still convinced me to bowl half of one frame(wearing flops nonetheless)...yep, I still despise it. At any rate, I did enjoy sitting around with good friends, drinking some drinks and generally laughing at everyone's antics...Here are a few pics from the night.

Maggie makes Mike uncomfortable...Is it possible he arrested her at some point?

Maggie and Cory get down!

Simon and Tammy...

Maggie and I...yes, we were happy!

It is at this point, I realize Maggie is a ham...and will do anything in front of a camera! If you were there and want some of the "other" pictures from the night, email me and I will send you a few.

Kate Back East

Kate was back East from Montana a couple of weeks ago and I headed up to P-town to spend the weekend with her family. We spent a number of hours by the pool and played a little golf. On Saturday night we cooked up a shrimp feast and Jen came over with her youngest. As you can tell from the pictures, we all had a great time. Brucie has a "secret drawer" with lots of little toys for children to play with so Hayley was completely preoccupied with that and playing hopscotch with Wardo. That is, until the camera came out. She had to be in on all the photography action and even snapped one of the "women" herself!

Kate and I hang with Hayley (who was extremely sticker happy)!

Hayley's picture of the "grown-ups"

What Gertrude does in her free time...

Gertie digs a hole...

Gertie takes a nap in her hole...

Anna's Sweet 16

Last night, I attended my cousin Anna's sweet sixteen birthday party. I picked up Jon at Wake and we headed down. She looked beautiful...and I felt really old!!! Her dress was absolutely adorable (very 16 years old!) Mom and Cathy came down to help, so both Jon and I got to see our moms and Grandma.

Guess the next time I'll see Mom, Cathy and Jon will be at the beach this summer...

Long time...no blog

The last month has been extremely busy! I haven't had time to post, so let me go through everything!

Spring Break wasn't much of a break, although I did take one afternoon off to meet up with Holly and little Dennis for lunch. We went to Uno's so she could finally meet Andy! On the way home, I came across a train that couldn't make up it's mind which direction it was going. It went forward slowly, came to a dead stop for a few minutes and then reversed. I would have been highly ticked, except that as identical flatbed after flatbed crossed my path, I noticed something amusing. Check out the label that was on each car!





After all of that excitement, it was time to leave for Chicago. I really learned more than I thought possible in 4 days at AERA. And I got to see some of the "greats" in educational research speak. I may even have nailed down what I want to do for my dissertation based on my synthesis of several speakers I heard. Each night we went somewhere interesting for dinner. Andy was proud that I made it to the original Uno's. From our hotel window, Katie, Kathy and I could see the Imus picketers outside the NBC offices and we had a lot of "fun" dealing with the snow and ice that April Wednesday (note that last part is dripping with sarcasm). I tried to take a picture through our hotel window, but I don't know if you will be able to tell how truly miserable it was. Our last night in town, we went to the Art Institute to soak up some culture. This was before dinner...and I was hungry, so I took a lot of pictures of the food paintings...I thought it was funny!

Following all of that excitement, I returned to a very stressful week at school. So, of course, we decided the next Friday we needed an afternoon out. After 3 hours of "relaxing" at Liberty, we weren't ready to call it a night. So we all went home, changed into our evening clothes and hit the Box Seat to bring us all a little closer to home. Definitely relieved stress for all of us...and I've never seen JB is such a light!

There will be a lot going on this month too...but I will try to be better about the updates!

Many Faces of McCrary

Postwedding we moved the celebration to Natty Greene's for some St. Patrick's Day beverages. Simon was thoroughly amazed by his first St. Pat's in the States...he agrees with Andy, it's a completely American way of celebrating the holiday. Rebecca got picture happy once the camera came out and had to have a goofy-face picture with everyone there. May these images live in infamy...



We all had a great time, but about midnight realized how old we all have gotten and went home.

Manseau-Duncan Wedding

Last night one of our 3rd grade teachers tied the knot. Two of our fourth-graders were flower girls and I think it is safe to say that they will never forget the evening they spent on the dance floor with half of the teachers from their elementary school.

What Happens to Gertie When She Spends All Day Outside

One day this week neither Andy nor I could get home to let Gertie out of

her kennel during the day. We decided it might be best to leave her out all day and see how she did. Other than chewing down one branch of a rose bush, she wasn't bad. But, she was quite tired and didn't move much from the position shown here for several hours that night.

FYI- She is up to 25 pounds now!