More Christmas portraits

Matthew had a lot of fun this Christmas and he definitely entertained us! Here he is with Robin and Steve. My one picture of his cheesy smile is too blurry.


  

Daru

Here is Daru in front of Doug's parents's Christmas tree....She was very cooperative about wearing a bow once she forgot it was on.

  

Life on the road

In our many hours of travel, we sought to entertain ourselves various ways: books on tape, fruit roll-up tongue tatoos, Christmas music, conversation, and taking pictures of road signs. I was not thinking clearly enough to get a picture of the Mason-Dixon line sign (either time we crossed it!), but we did snap a picture of the Preble sign for our friend Megan P. and a picture of the health facility sign for my sister and her "odd fellow" (this is apparently a chain of health facilities since there is one near where my parents lived in MI.). I am not sure who you send there!


  

Makenna

Adam and Kim had their baby December 11th. She has a lot more hair than your average kid.

  

Thanksgiving at the beach

The waves, the sand, the sunshine.....oops is that the moon?


  

So we're a few holidays behind...

I know some of you have found it hard to go on without an update in almost a month....This is the first time I have downloaded pics since Thanksgiving, so I am just a little behind. My parents came for Thanksgiving and we had our 3rd annual Thanksgiving beach picnic, except we went the day after Thanksgiving because it was (gasp!) too cold on Thanksgiving (and my dad didn't feel great). We saw a nice sunset and had all the Thanksgiving staples in some form.

  

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.