fresh weekend

this was a jam-packed weekend for me and chris. i had to work saturday morning for the 4th annual rubber duck race benefiting boys & girls clubs of the midlands. even though it was work, i had a good time. we released 250,000 rubber ducks into the river to race about 1 mile (i think). i worked a booth giving out sun glasses and potato chips to kids. since i forgot my camera i have no pictures of this.

following the rubber duck race i cashed in on one of my birthday presents and got an awesome hot stone massage at urban nirvana. it was bliss but the massage was over too quickly. luckily i have more on the gift card so i can go back again for more.

then saturday night chris and i went out for our 4th anniversary (by the way, thanks everyone for all the well-wishes). we had dinner and dessert at terra. this restaurant tries to get ingredients from local sources and buys its vegetables daily from a farmers market. despite lack of vegetarian items, the meal was wonderful and our waiter was really good. to start, chris and i both had delicious salads (chris's had a home-made goat cheese ball deep fried!). i had a wonderful veggie plate for an entree and chris had a pear and escarole pizza. then we both had dessert (espresso cheese cake and pistachio creme brulle (sp?)). it was all so good but we definitely overate!

sunday we had our first harvest from the garden.



i wasn't sure how to tell that the broccoli was ready for picking, because it was not very large (this picture is of 3 heads combined). but i read up a few links on the web and discovered that if i didn't pick them now it'd be too late. so i picked this broccoli and an onion (just to see if it was done--it was) and we had them in a salad for dinner on sunday.

sunday afternoon chris and i picked up our little somali friends, kadijah, ikra and mohammud and took them strawberry picking.



there were so many good strawberries, we couldn't get the kids to stop eating and picking them. we filled out 2 buckets in like 15 minutes and then spent the rest of the time catching up with mohammud, who had filled his t-shirt with about 1/2 bucket's worth of strawberries.

since the kids weren't ready to go home, we decided to take them to congaree national park, which was just a few miles down the road.
we took about a 1 mile walk to weston lake where we looked at turtles and fish in the water. then we raced back through the forest as chris and mohammud raced me, ikra, and kadijah. it was such a good time and the kids were so well-behaved!

4 years

happy anniversary, sweety!

a nod to chris

here's a little article from today's metro section of the state newspaper about chris's somali initiative.

week 4

4 weeks in and my garden's not looking too bad.



the colder weather is doing good things for these spring plants. the broccoli is just starting to bud out from the broccoli plants and the spinach is no longer turning yellow. they have a few more weeks to go until they'll be ready for harvest. then i'll plant our summer crops (tomatoes, okra, probably squash)!

also, barbara kinsolver put up a website for the book i was talking about. it's got recipes, info and links to resources about eating and growing locally.

winners and wieners

it's appropriate that at their goodbye party, brian would finally win connect four against chris. (from the picture, you can tell that chris wasn't too happy about it.)

i (along with lots of others) helped brian and nicole pack up (all!) their stuff today into the truck. they're on their way to their new home in charleston right now. best of luck guys! you'll be missed in good ol' cola town.

not-so-bad news

thanks for all the well wishes and prayers over the last few days. to use a word from my brother-in-law (?*), it's been a rollercoaster. but here's the latest on david from chris's mom's blog. it's in no way a cure, but the news was a whole heck of a lot better than we were expecting.

(*i'm not sure if "brother-in-law" is the right word for my husband's sister's husband, but it seems right.)

post easter post

we had a nice trip to mississippi, albeit short and subdued. but all sickness aside, it was a really great trip.



this picture was taken by chris just before tricia and i set out on our easter egg hunt. apparently i was a deprived child because i never did easter egg hunts at my house growing up. i didn't even realize that people did them in their homes (i thought it was only a public event) until my brother and his wife started doing them when they had kids. anyways, the reid clan hides the real eggs (the ones you dye, not the plastic ones). so david and chris hid our 10 eggs (tricia and i both ate one) and we had to find it. even though the weather was chilly (yes, CHILLY! as seen by tricia's hat), we all had a great time and we were successful in finding all the eggs with only a few hints.

other highlights of the weekend included an awesome lunch buffet at horizon. good times at the coffee shop. lots of stevie ray vaughn. and watching some funny videos of chris and erica (and other family members of course) from 1990-1991.

now the down side. read tricia's latest post to hear what's up with david. i won't really say too much but prayers are appreciated for the whole family.

pre-easter post

it's been a crazy, hectic week, which is always how short work-weeks seem. it's like you have to make up for the day off* by working extra hard the other days. yesterday we had a big fun day with the kids, which ended with them being able to throw pies in the faces of the staff members. needless-to-say, it was a crazy day; but the kids had fun so it was worth it. (that will explain why my hair was sticky and i smelled distinctly like whipped cream at mass last night).

as soon as chris gets home from work today we're going to head out to mississippi to spend a few days with his parents. for those of you who have been reading tricia's blog you'll have seen that david's not been doing too well. so we decided to take advantage of having an extra day off by going to visit them. we're both looking forward to it.

so i hope everyone has a very happy and blessed easter.

*i didn't really have a day off today because i spent the morning at the computer doing work.

summer weather

seems like the weather has gone straight from winter and right into summer here. the 60/70 degree spring has disappeared. mokey is enjoying it now that we can open windows and she can purch to look out. but my spring veggies in the garden are slowly wilting (and will probably die when we're in v-burg over easter). and tonight when chris and i took a walk in the cooler evening weather we got ate up by the first misquitoes. darn!

no foolin'

thanks for all the well-wishes and greetings on sunday. my birthday was a good one! here's to a great year!