update from vacation

i've just started vacation day two and so far it's been really great. so far it's been full of family and watching trash tv, starting immediately when i was on the airplane (thanks, jetblue, for having individual tv screens in every seat!). and i've had a lot of bonding time with my big sis.

yesterday was my grandmom's funeral, which was beautiful and sad and hilarious and emotional. my dad gave a beautiful eulogy when he read a poem by my grandmom and embellished a bit with his own extrapolation. it really was very touching. then the waldies went out to lunch. when you get that many waldies in one room, you know foolishness will ensue. that's something that's so cool about the waldie family. we're all pretty goofy and we're sure to cut up even when it's a sad occasion. we really don't get together that often so it was so great to see everyone. it makes me wish we had a regularly-scheduled waldie reunion every year. after lunch, my immediate family (dad, stepmom, brother's family, sister and me) all went to olive garden to continue the waldie-fest. like we needed to eat anymore! we, of course, overstayed our welcome there and were laughing and making a scene in the restaurant for a few hours. it was really fun. (oh, and we got 2 bonus trips in to trader joes! we love you t.j. come to south carolina!)

everyone took lots of pictures, so once i get some on my computer i'll share them.

and now on to the second chapter in my vacation-the baby shower preparation!

the end of an era

for those of you who have visited our house over the years, depending on where we were living at the time, you might've caught a glimpse of this in our bathroom. many years ago (7 years perhaps?) my mother started buying this gel for herself, me, and my sister. it was quite a find at the time- gel that was inexpensive (under $5 probably), didn't cause dandruff, and tamed our wild, curly hair. so mom started buying us the gel regularly. whenever i came home for a visit or in our christmas stockings, for example, i was sure to be given a jar. so it was without fail that i always had an almost-full bottle of this gel in my bathroom (and sometimes extras in my cupboard too!).

i've been trying for over a year now to finish up this gel and get a more "grown up" kind. i don't know what the means really, but just something that doesn't come in an industrial-sized container and maybe something that's a little more earth-friendly. but seriously, it's taken me like a full year to finish it all up. i can't remember when the last time was that someone gave me a bottle of this stuff. but, as you may have guessed from the picture, the gel is officially finished.* it truly is an end of an era.**

*i say finished, but i still have a little bit left in my travel-sized bottle so i'll be using it on my vacation.

**and no mom, i do not want another bottle. thank you. i have appreciated it for all these years. but i'm ready to move on.

my grandmom, doris

on thursday of last week we found out my grandmom waldie died. she has had ups and downs over the past few years, but she has recently been on the mend and doing fairly well. so this was quite unexpected. i'll be heading up north a few days early (i was already going up there for a vacation of sorts) so i can go to pennsylvania for the memorial service on thursday.

grandmom was born in england around 1921. i believe she had one sister, vera. her father was a jeweler but when world war ii started they couldn't sell jewelry anymore so they lost the business. grandmom signed up to help with the war effort but we're not exactly sure what she did. it makes sense that she would have served for the british royal military, but my dad said she was a waac, who served the united states military. we do know that during her service she met my grandfather who was in the air force for the royal canadian military. dad said he thinks he was a lieutenant of some sort. they married and my granddad brought her back to canada to live with his mother and father. that didn't last too long and they eventually moved to a place of their own. they ended up having 8 kids. my father is the second/third oldest. he's a twin and i'm not sure who came first. while my grandmom was raising the kids they moved back and forth from canada to the united states a few times. i know they lived on the west coast (in oregon or washington?) for a short period and the family eventually settled in virginia. though most of the family has since moved out of that area (some even moved back to canada and i've never even met them!). grandmom was an independent woman all the way to her death. before my grandfather died, grandmom was his caretaker for many years. (he died of cancer when i was in the 7th grade.) once she was freed of the responsibility of caring for my grandfather, she took up painting, bowling, dancing, and writing. she event went back to school and took some art classes in the nearby high school just for fun. gradmom, you were an amazing, independent woman and you will be missed.


William Percy Waldie and his new bride, Doris at their wedding (1930's?)


grandmom and granddad at their wedding with who we presume are their respective parents


grandmom and granddad portrait (not sure if this was before or after they married)


the waldie family. from left to right starting in the back:
Row 1: Gail (dad's twin), Diane, Garry (my dad)
Row 2: Grandad (William), Donny, Grandmom (Doris), Barbara
Row 3: Tony (on granddad's lap, Terry, Timmy (in grandmom's arms)

goodbye harmons

our good friends, the harmons, are moving back home to utah. for the past year or so they've become a staple in our lives. baldman met jordan through school. it's rare for him to have a guy friend. plus i hit it off immediately with his wife, joanna. and they have 2 cute, cute kids. so we have really enjoyed their company. but their moving home to be closer to family and we can't blame them for that. plus, hopefully gainful employment will be in their future as well.

we wanted to have a cookout last night but the weather wouldn't cooperate. so we had dinner inside and got a fire going just enough to make s'mores. (big ups to baldman for starting a fire with wet wood!) best of luck, harmons, we'll miss you!

here are some shots from the night (again, not as many as we'd like because our camera wasn't cooperating):


joanna making sonny a s'more


joanna, waldie, and jordan making s'mores


sonny enjoying his treat


eli and sonny playing in the yard

farm pot-luck

saturday night was a pot-luck dinner at five leaves farm, a community supported farm out in cedar creek. baldman and i have been members for a few years now and even helped out a bit on the farm two years ago. but we've not been out to visit since then. so we were thrilled to have this excuse to go visit. we brought along some of our somali friends to share in the beauty. hawa was especially happy that it reminded her of africa. i think she got a little nostalgic for home.

our camera died during the trip (a common occurrence) but here are some shots. the set can be found here:


ben, the owner, leading a tour of the garden and grounds


the garden


corn and buckwheat


checking out the movable chicken coop


ikra and rose in the tree house


goats

more picts and stories from the gerdes/reid visit

check out erica's blog for more pictures and stories from their visit. there are some great shots of our bees and the queen! (you can also go straight to her fickr set to see them all, but you'll have to wade through all their other cool shots from the rest of their enviable vacation.)

this i believe - partners in health

partners in health is an organization that baldman and i have really supported over the years. it started when i read the book mountains beyond mountains, which i highly, highly recommend everyone read. i think that their model for small community health systems is truly the right way to help some of the most poor in the developing countries. check out their co-founder on "this i believe" from npr. you'll see why they're an organization to stand behind.

more photos from graduation

i finally have caught up and added the rest of the pictures from baldman's graduation to flickr. here are a few more shots.


baldman and his mom in her pretty tunic


baldman and jordan before the ceremony


the big graduation


the reids after graduation


baldman going up to be hooded at the college of social work hooding ceremony


baldman being hooded by 2 professors that he liked during the program


baldman exiting the stage and speaking with the associate dean of the college of social work

erica and fuzzy visit

boy, we had a great visit this week with chris's sister, erica, and her husband, fuzzy. they came in sunday night. while i worked monday, they spent the day driving up to charlotte to deposit their mom at the airport. tuesday i took off work and we all had a fantastic time hanging around the house, doing a little window shopping around town, and tearing it up at frankie's fun park. we were all surprised that this little scaredy-cat conquered all in laser tag. i guess my terror of people chasing me with guns served me well in shooting the hell out of everyone on the course. i can't say i did so well at mini golf, though i did get 3 holes-in-one. despite that, i still came in tied for third*, which speaks to how awful the rest of my scores were. after mini golf we played in the arcade and the husbands used our combined tickets to "purchase" the wives a skull and crossbones cuff bracelet. cool. we rounded the night out with a chill cookout in the back yard using our fire pit. good times, folks. good times.

here are a few choice shots. there are more to come i'm sure. but here's a little taste of what i've got uploaded so far.





**















*thanks to generous scoring i came in tied for third. i really should've come solidly in fourth place.

**by the way, the bees look to be doing well. we spotted the queen and we named her latifah, of course. erica and fuzzy got a great shot of her on their camera. she was laying eggs and things looked to be strong. hopefully that continues.

graduation boy

graduation boy

my baby boy* graduates today. congratulations, sweet sweet sweetie for successfully completing your masters in social work! woot woot!

*this is really an inside joke because baldman told his mom today not to call him that. and i find humor in doing things that people ask me not to do, especially when it's my husband.

hive sweet hive

the bees are back home!

traffic court

so i had the pleasure (that's joke) of sitting in traffic court for over an hour this morning. let me first just complain about a few things. i hate how they tell you to be there at X time but then don't actually get rolling until 30-45 minutes later. i'm an overly punctual person and i get really testy when i show up on time and feel like my time is being taken advantage of. it's not like i expected it to start on time. i know that's how these things go. but still. it seemed like an eternity before they got started. plus, three is no free parking around anywhere. so i had to park at a meter. and, of course, i only had 2 quarters on me, only enough for 40 minutes. so i put the money in the meter thinking, "certainly this'll be more than enough." but, to my dismay, 40 minutes passed and they hadn't even STARTED yet. and, of course, i couldn't leave to feed the meter because you're really not supposed to leave and i was also afraid to miss my call.

so we waited and waited. once they finally got started i found it really interesting to see how the process went. i was also surprised at the number of alcohol and drug violations were going on in traffic court. also suspended licenses. once they finally got to us (me and the other girl involved in the accident), i got nervous for a second because i thought it wasn't going to be thrown out right away. but everything was okay and they dismissed the charges.

and of course, i returned to my car to find a $7 parking ticket. thanks city of columbia pd, for being so on-point.

while the hubby's away...

the wife will play? well, sort of.

baldman left saturday for a graduation-present-vacation in california. he's not really had much time off for the past few years. and i've certainly had my share of quick trips to ny or nj. so i figured this was more than well-deserved.

in all honesty i've not "played" all too much. on saturday i worked outside, babysat, and partially cleaned the house. that night after the husband left i attended my first kentucky durby party and partook in my first ever mint julip. man, that's a serious drink! it was interesting to see what the horse races were all about. and the horses were certainly amazing to look at! i'd never really seen racing horses before. i obviously didn't have a favorite going in so i chose flying private because his name sounded so dirty. he came in last place. oh well, good thing i'm not a gambler.

the rest of the weekend i spent errand-running and working in the garden. a bunch of my seeds never sprouted (probably because i'm a really inconsistent waterer), so i bought some transplants of okra, yellow squash, green peppers, banana peppers, marigolds, and a few lantana to put in the garden.

i've also taken off work tomorrow. i have a few flex hours that i have to use. so i have my court case in the morning for the accident from april. and i plan to finish cleaning the house and get a facial in the afternoon (that's was a gift from my birthday that i've yet to use). so the facial is playing, right?

i was just talking with baldman on the phone and we were discussing how i don't really know how to relax and do nothing. i always long for free time to do nothing. but when i do nothing i'm constantly feeling guilty and thinking of the million things i should be doing. for the past few nights while the man is gone, i've been sitting down and either reading a book or catching episodes online of the office or 30 rock. it's been great to do that, but it's hard to enjoy fully when i feel like such a big, lazy fatty. eating a bowl of ice cream tonight didn't help too much on that front. and i had a beer with dinner.

i guess that's my idea of playing.

catching up- an anniversary, bees SOS and a new car

so much has happened this week i've just been running to keep up. so here's a quick run-down.

first, sunday was mine and baldman's 6th wedding anniversary. we were fortunate to be invited to a little lady's first year birthday party in greenville. so we got to share our anniversary with the dells who were celebrating their 12th wedding anniversary.

this is pretty much what we did most of that day.

though, baldman, dogwood dell, brian and sean did get up for a little to play a good round of redneck golf. brian and sean were the victors by a close margin.

then, of course, the bee problem. i left my readers hanging on this one. so last week i had a few folks from midstate beekeeping association come out and look at the hive. we're still not really sure exactly what happened. but we do know that we do not have a queen and that we have a few egg-laying workers. this is a problem for many reasons, one of which is that a worker can only lay unfertilized eggs, which produce only male bees (drones). so the population will decline and eventually just die off.

so wednesday night, mr. frank, my teacher from the class, came to pick up my hive and bring it back to his house. now the problem is to get the egg-laying workers to get out of my hive. if he introduces a new queen into the hive the workers would kill her. so he has taken all of my bees and frames out of the hive. he is going to put some of his bees and frames with larvae into my hive and introduce a new queen. once he knows that the queen is accepted and laying eggs, he will then try to get some of my old bees into my hive. the hope is that the egg-laying workers will not return. so he will keep my hive at his place for about a week to watch it and make sure that everything goes okay.

i feel so badly that we've had to get someone else to bail us out. but on the other hand, i'm just not at the skill level yet to work all this out. so i'm treating it like i've called a doctor to fix it and hopefully i will be able to take it over from here. i owe so much to the folks at MBA. they're the best!!

and lastly, we bought a car! a new car! what what?!! after the wreck a month ago we've been borrowing a car from some very generous friends. that, of course, couldn't be a permanent solution. so once baldman lightened his workload* we could concentrate on researching and test-driving several cars. it was a really tough choice. we knew we wanted a 4-door hatch-back. and there are a lot of really good, inexpensive cars out there right now. in the end is was a choice between the 2009 vw rabbit or the 2009 subaru impreza. wednesday night we ended up purchasing the impreza. the decision-maker was that there were very few 4-door rabbits left in the country, let alone our area, and their financing deals weren't really great. so wednesday we signed the paperwork and then thursday we were able to pick up our car and drive it home (the one we wanted had to be shipped from charlotte). here she is:







ain't she a beauty!!?


*i know i should do a whole post on this and not just an aside at the bottom of another post. (bad wifey!) but baldman has officially finished all of his coursework and internship to complete his masters! he'll be graduating in about a week. i'm so proud of him! he has worked so hard and has been so diligent. he's truly an inspiration. plus, he's already gotten a job. did i mention that? hence, the ability to buy the new car!