Basement Continued

Dwayne is now tiling the basement bathroom floor. He is using leftovers from our upstairs bathrooms. We didn't have quite enough of either one, so he made a pattern mixing the two. I think it looks quite nice.

Kayak

Dwayne bought a new kayak with his birthday money. He looks a bit excited to use it. :)






Dwayne's friend, Kurt, instigated a fishing/kayaking weekend adventure.

Irving, Kurt & Dwayne at the end of the two days on the water. Irving's wife Sandra was also along and Kurt's uncle, Donnie, fished the first day.

One note of interest, Dwayne's paddle ends broke off the rod and he had to paddle most of the second day by just holding the little paddle ends with his hands down in the water!

Lacrosse Season Continues

Derrik has managed to knock an opponent off his feet and is charging through the crowd toward the goal. He hasn't scored yet, but has made some good attempts.

Devin has had games, but I wasn't thinking about the blog and used the film camera. Oops!

These shots are of one of Derrik's games where he played about 3/4 of the time, an improvement over his previous 30 second appearances. The coach has changed Derrik from middie to defender--note the longer stick.

More Blooms in Our Yard

This is the first year our little twig of a lilac bush bloomed.

It was a beautiful sight to see.

A special thanks to my friend & co-worker, Milli, who gave us the sprigs a few years back.

I just love grape hyacinths and their purplish blue color.

The dogwood is Virginia's state flower, so we definitely needed one in the yard.

Family Fun

Grandpa Leonard gave Devin a little wood piece I remember from my childhood. You put a leather belt in it and balance the tip on a table or your finger. It looks like it should fall, but it doesn't. Devin got creative and decided to balance it on his teeth. Pretty impressive.

The boys introduced Grandpa & Grandma to the fun of a Wii. They were cattle racing, bowling, batting, boxing, golfing and giving us a good dose of entertainment. We all got a good workout, too.

Grandpa Leonard made us a pegs & jokers playing board and taught us how to play. It seemed that whoever partnered up with Grandpa managed to win the game. It's fun and doesn't take too much thought.

Out of Town Faces

Tess & Madison came for lunch one Sunday. They live in Warrenton, which is about an hour from us. Rob, Tess' husband and my cousin, was gone to training in the mid-west for the week.

Uncle Johnny & Aunt Martha appeared out of nowhere on a quick trip up from Georgia. They had lunch with Uncle Benny and then stopped by our place to visit us and the rest of the family who were there that day.

We took a day trip to Maryland to visit my great aunt & uncle. Art & Dorothy live on a beautiful farm. We decided to use pitchfork props to show their love for the faming life.

Carie's Birthday

We stopped by the cemetery on the morning of Carie's birthday. She would have turned 37. We came back later and Margaret Ann had put a new bouquet in the vase and we tied on a birthday balloon. The flowers below Derrik & Devin selected and put there last month.

Very Special Visitors

We took Mom & Dad on a tour of Lewis Ginter Gardens. It was wonderful to see it in it's springtime glory.

We're dressed and ready to go out. We had a night at the dinner theater to see "Thoroughly Modern Millie". The food was good and the show was spectacular.

We did our March of Dimes Walk. Afterwards, we were served lunch in the park. The food wasn't very good, but we enjoyed the walk.

We had a family dinner at our house on Sunday afternoon. This was a nice shot of the grandparents and grandkids.

Feathernester's

Two of my friends planned a surprise ladies outing. We all knew about it, the surprise was that we didn't know where we were going. We ended up down in Richmond at a neat little store that also served "tea".


This is my lunch. The tea was probably the best I've ever had. The soup, sandwich, salad and rosette muffin were also very tasty.


We did some family shots of different ones after our tea. This shot turned out good of Margaret Ann & me.

Another Birthday (#42 shhh!)

Dwayne fixed a fabulous birthday lunch for me. The first course was spinach tortellini soup. The second course was caesar salad. The main entree was orange dijon chicken saltimbocca with a side of bowtie pasta and green beans. The dessert you see below was an awesome keylime cheesecake. Thank you, Honey, for your outstanding efforts on my behalf!

The gift I hoped the most to receive was a Garmin and Dwayne came through. It has proved very useful these past couple of weeks, too!

This is a beautiful pin that Margaret Ann purchased for me on our "tea" outing with a group of ladies from this area.

Licensed Driver

This is the first day of "behind the wheel" instruction. The instructor is Bill Wishard and the other student driver is a girl named Alicia. Derrik was happy to drive a vehicle that was so small and easy to maneuver.

This is the last day of "behind the wheel" and he's signing the documentation that is his temporary license until he gets called to court and given the more customary looking driver's license.

Two happy teenagers. Derrik was too busy squinting into the sun to smile, but he was happy! (His unique outfit is due to leaving lacrosse practice early and heading straight over to drive. He kept on his shorts, but changed out of his sweaty shirt on the drive over.)

Meet Lewie

Don't take my picture, my hair is a mess!

Just wanted you all to meet Lewie since he's so cute and full of personality. He is one of the hamster babies we gave away over the summer. He was the last one to go and had the most attitude. We called him Cusser. His name now is Lewie, short for Merriweather Lewis, as he is quite the explorer.

He is currently in a Perfect Pet contest and survived the first cut. If you would like to vote for him, go to: http://www.wper.org/html/pet_voting1.html

You'll have to scroll down the page a little bit to find him.

Basement Update

We selected a paint color called "tea stain". It is a very light greenish-brown. I had wanted a yellow or peach to brighten up the windowless basement, but it will be an area mostly for the males of the house so I let them have a greenish hue like they wanted. It will go nicely with the carpet we intend to buy. It's not what I had planned, but it fits in the budget.
This shot is taken near the base of the steps. The dark doorway is the utility room. Dwayne is in the family room/office area.

The two doorways on the left are closets. The doorway on the right is double glass doors to the outside steps. We intend to have air hockey, darts, foosball, ping pong and possibly a pool table in the open areas.