Dr. Paul N. Ulrich, PhD

Paul received his PhD in Marine Biology after years of stuyding and writing a dissertation and traveling all over the world. He, I think, has now officially received his degree. In his recent crabbing experience, he was asked a question about the blue crab and he told me that the blue crab was a (to his credit, which tells you I am about to discredit his years of hard work, he did use a scientific word that starts with a "p" that I don't remember) __________ clam. Yes, a clam! This is what the education system is coming to- those with PhDs in the field think that crabs are clams. Whom can we trust?

Surprise!

Last month we went to have dinner with Luke and Megan- well, we went to catch our dinner with Luke and Megan, and when we entered Luke's house, a surprise came out from behind a corner! You can see that surprise here with part of our dinner....

  

Freedom!

Daru is a smart dog- she knows when others are visiting who are not used to slamming the door in her face to heep her in the house and she takes advantage of that to get some minutes of freedom. She really is well-behaved but once she gets out the front door the word "come!" means nothing to her.

  

My little lizard friend

This is one of my many failed attempts to get a good picture of the lizard that was living on our yucca plant (I don't know what lizards do in the "winter"). I saw him/her every day for weeks and then not for weeks. I did see it yesterday so it is still alive. I tried to get a night picture of it sleeping, but my camera does not like low light. Or up close pictures.

  

Tool kitty

Kina loved Doug's dad's tool bag and was ofetn found in it- here she has taken some screws out to play with. The red scarf is one of her other favorite toys.
  

I am getting a little crabby

This is the 3rd time I have tried to post this picture! Doug's mom was the first ot catch a female crab and I think the first to catch any crab....
  

More crabs

Doug's parents came to visit for a few days on their way to FL (never mind I think I already menitoned that). His dad did take one break to go crabbing and of course they caught crabs. In addition they caught a flounder (weird!) and some shrimp. Apparently it is shrimp season, but crab nets re not the ideal tool to catch shrimp with. They kept nothing, but they did have fun. I really like this picture of his dad with a blue crab.

  

Memories of Dr. Howard

Okay, not a picture, but I think you can picture me loving this!

http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html

A series of unfortunate events

You can see here a timeline of recent events at our house (okay a month or so ago). We purchased a new storm door at Home Depot- a story in itself! Who knew you could bargain at Home Depot? The door would have cost over $300 but we got it for $100! Anyway, we took the old one off, and started to put the new one up. 4 hours later we were at the emergency room for Doug to get stitched up and a week later he took his own stitches out. Yesterday, he and his dad finished the door by putting the closers on. Right now they are fixing some screens while his mom washes windows and me? I am working on school work....really I am! I realize our blog does make visiting seem awful (getting shots, doing repairwork and cleaning) but I promise it can be fun! Our days in SC are numbered so don't miss your chance!

  

Raindrops kept falling on the car....

We packed a lovely picnic for Labor Day and ate it in the pouring rain in the car with the dog in the back seat.....this is a picture of the rain through the windshield.
Doug says, "That is beautiful honey, beautiful."

  

praying mantis

A recent visitor to our yard.

  

Baby turtles

We went to Folly Beach to try to see the baby turtles hatch, but alas they did not hatch that night.

  

Croquet....in the dark

A few weeks ago, Luke and Megan acquired a croquet set (from where we don't know- we didn't ask questions). They needed a place to play, so we mowed our lawn and made dinner. Luke printed all 14 pages of rules for us and then it got dark. So we didn't play. Except for Luke.....
  

Under the mat

Kina has taken to sleeping under the doormat lately. It seems to me that this would be itchy, but it is one of her favorite spots....She had a rough weekend with us dogsitting Gino and she spent most of this weekend under the bed.


  

1 down, 8 to go....

This is Doug's house that he stayed in for his first rotation. Thankfully his second rotation fell through and he will now be staying home for his second rotation! Unfortunately he was completely spoiled in his surgery rotation, free food all the time and they gave him scrubs. His 2nd rotation will not be so luxurious since he will be living at home =)!

  

Bumper boats

Need I say more?

  

Oldest and youngest

Stephen and Matthew in a tree...

  

The White Coat

Here is Doug getting "coated". The coater was one of his profs- I can't remember what he taught. He is actually not wearing his coat in his first rotation, but he probably will in his next one.

  

The Graham Fam

All of Doug's immediate family in front of the castle....


  

The bride and groom

So I realized that I have no pictures of Dawn and Nathan from the front-oops! So here they are with Mom G.


  

the three amigos

The Friday after Dawn's wedding Doug had a white coat ceremony. After the didactic year, they have a ceremony for the students before sending them out on rotations. It was a nice ceremony though a little surreal. This is Doug with his two study buddies Adam on the left and Mark on the right.


  

Flower girl/ringbearer

We think for Becca it was love at first sight....

  

Doug- pay attention!

Sarah took a great picture of Doug as a groomsman...

  

The barge

This giant orange barge went by the wedding during a prayer. We decided that only Shan (the pastor) had his eyes closed during it....

  

The castle

Doug's youngest sister Dawn got married to Nathan on July 29th at Singer Castle in the 1000 Islands, NY. Here his oldest sister poses for her daughter Sarah to take a picture with the castle in the background. It was a beautiful day despite some early clouds.....

  

A dog nap

Daru was sleeping with her teddy bear which she has ripped the head and several legs off of and pulled all the stuffing out of. Kina likes to play with the empty legs. It is kind of weird. The teddy bear empty head is in our backyard. One day Matt and Gaby came over and the head was laying on the patio. Matt was a little creeped out by it.


  

Before and After

Here are the before and after pics of the first color in the living room- I forgot to take afters of the second color....