Memorial Day Vacation.....sort of.

If you are looking at this picture and wondering why Corbin and I are pasty white still...here's why. It's a long story so get comfortable.

On Wednesday Corbin, Gwennie and I headed to Arizona to see my parents, Aunt Pat, Uncle Frank and cousin Chris. The plan was to stay in Phoenix overnight and the drive up to Lake Havasu on Friday to enjoy some time on the water. Gwennie did great on the flight. She didn't cry at all and just slept the whole way there. Then we headed to my parents house and slept in Thursday morning (well...sort of, Gwennie only got up once and since my parents were so excited to see her they took care of her while Corbin and I caught some much needed sleep).

Thursday afternoon we packed the car and headed up to Lake Havasu where Pat, Frank and Chris were already enjoying the sun on their pontoon boat. For those of you that don't know much about AZ, it's hot...like 450 degree oven hot so usually we only stay out on the boat until around 4 and then after everyone is cooked we head in. Also, on Memorial day weekend, all of the crazy boaters come out to play with their new toys.

Thursday night, we all enjoyed a nice meal, and headed to bed early so that we could be ready to go out on the boat the next day. The plan was for me to work in the morning and take care of Gwennie since she's too little for water time. My mom was going to take over from there and let me go out on the boat after. I should have seen it coming that it wouldn't be that easy... Work kept me busy until around 2 PM and my mom figured since I was home she could jump ship and join everyone else on the boat, so the rest of the family just stayed out on the water. Gwennie and I watched a Star Wars Marathon on Showtime. The lucky boat people (as you can sort of tell...I'm a little bitter about missing out on the fun but that's life as a mom!) came back tired and dark...other than Corbin who lathered himself in sunscreen so that there wasn't a chance that his lily body would fry. We all had dinner again together than night and that is where things went downhill.

Around 1 AM both my mother and father started to get sick. Let's just leave it at both ends of my parents weren't doing so hot. My dad seemed to start to get better around 3 AM but my mother was just getting worse. At 4 AM Corbin and I decided we better start helping her or we were in for a long day. So Corbin headed to the Walgreen's and I worked on helping my mom. We tried everything...water, sprite, pepto, crackers....nothing was staying down! Around 7 AM Corbin and I made a judgement call....we were out of ideas and my mom could barely stand so I took her to the Emergency Room. 2 litters of IV Fluid, a shot of nausea medicine and some pills to help the other end and my mom was back to normal. They released her from the hospital at noon and we headed home. The rest of the day Corbin and I switched between nurse and nanny duty because both of my parents were pretty tired from the previous night. Frank, Pat and Chris went out on the boat but came back pretty early because there were too many people on the water and things were really choppy. That night my parents finally were able to eat some crackers and slept some more so they felt better. Frank, Pat, Corbin and I enjoyed a nice quiet dinner while Chris watched Chuck Liddell get the beat down on PPV. Sunday we all had seen enough of Havasu and packed the cars to come home. Once we got home, Corbin and I took a quick dip in the pool and everyone lounged around the back. I can honestly say yesterday afternoon was the first time my skin saw the sun or water since we got there! Gwennie was in a mood so the sun time didn't last long and we needed to pack up for our red eye flight home. I did some laundry, folded some clothes and Corbin enjoyed his last moments of sun with the rest of the family. Sunday night we had a farewell dinner and we headed back to the airport. Since we all were exhausted, the flight should have been a relief but everyone (including Gwennie) was restless so we all were pretty bleary eyed this morning. The plane landed at 6 AM, we picked up the girls from Doggie Hilton and have been sleeping every since. I can honestly say I don't want to go on ANY vacations again anytime soon....too much work!!!!

Click here for pictures of the weekend

Our First Big Trip

Well...we made it...barely! This weekend was out first trip on an airplane and in the car for more than 2 hours. Friday afternoon, Gwennie and I headed to the airport (with more crap that you can imagine) while Corbin drove the Jetta up with Ari's trunk in the back. Our fist stop...Owing's Mills, MD to visit Alan, Heather, Ari and Niko Eisrau.

All in all we did great on the airplane. Gwennie just chilled and slept during the flight. Alan picked us up at the airport where we headed to their house. Corbin got in about 2 hours later, tired and in dire need of a beer! That night we got sushi at a local joint and enjoyed our first night out without a baby. Many thanks to Myrtle for babysitting both Ari and Gwennie!!!

Saturday afternoon we headed down to Arlington, VA to visit Dave, Missy, and Henry Dixon. Dave is graduating from GW Law School with his Masters in International Law. The last time we saw Henry he was only 3 months old and I was about a month and a half pregnant (and didn't know it!). Henry is now walking and sounds like a turkey..he runs around all day babbling to himself and you'd swear he's speaking another language!!! Sunday morning Dave and Missy were the smart ones and told us to skip the graduation and leave from their house. At first we thought we would be fine leaving from DC but they know what it's like to travel with kids and we took their word for it.

Let me forewarn anyone that likes road trips. Add atleast 2 hours to your travel time with a baby. We left at 1 PM, had to make a stop every 1 1/2 hours for poopie diapers, feedings, searching for diapers (we ran out 3 hours from home), food, etc... Overall the trip was supposed to take 6 hours but we didn't get home until 9 PM...8 hours later!

Click here for a movie that I took at Heather's house. We were trying to get the kids to sleep so that it why it is so dark

Click here for Heather's pictures

Click here for our pictures

My Manny

No, that's not a typo...daddy is a man-nanny (Manny) for the month of May. Microsoft actually gives it's male employees 1 month of infant care leave (paternity leave if you can believe it!). So for the last week and a half Corbin has been Gwennie's entertainment from about 9 AM to 5 PM. It's hard work and he can't wait to get back to Microsoft so he can rest!!! Little Miss Gwennie is pretty exhausting.

Yesterday we had lunch with Matt, Jenny, Grace and Emmaline Myers at Zio's which is a great Italian restaurant in the area. Of course we forgot the camera but since they are in Charlotte until the weekend, we might try and meet up again.

Gwennie's Auntie Jess Christenson in Boston and Uncle Mike Leichtner in California requested we take more photos of her since we have been slackers lately so click here for some snaps from this morning.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope everyone has a great Mother's Day!!

Yippeee!!!

More exciting news over here. First, our friend Parks Workman graduated from Law School today. Parks was Managing Editor of the South Carolina Law Review while he was at University of South Carolina Law School (not too shabby, huh!). Even better news is that Parks proposed to our cousin Rachel Webb (she said yes incase you were wondering). Welcome to the Family Parks!

More Big News!

I usually don't post twice in one day but there's some big news over on the Webb side of the family as well as from the UVM side.

To start, our cousins Clay and Brandt Gilbert have moved to Charleston, South Carolina for Brandt to start Dental school in the summer. To top that in the "big news" category, they are expecting a baby in November!

Over in Norfolk, VA - cousins Russ and Gini Webb moved from Hawaii in January and are expecting a baby in December too!!

In addition to family, my sorority sister Meghan Westwood and her husband Bob are also expecting in December...identical twins!!!

We are very excited for all of them and can't wait to have friends and cuzzins (as Russ puts it) for Gwennie to hang out with!

I'm 2 months old and we are moving!!!

Big weekend over here in the Meek household! On Thursday afternoon Corbin went to look at a house with our realtor and called right after to say I better check this place out. So Friday morning the whole family (Ginger and Ruby too) piled in the car to check the house out. That afternoon we put in the offer and it was accepted on Saturday morning. Click here to check out pictures of the house.

Sunday, Miss Gwennie turned 2 months old. As you can see from the photos she smiles now when you make funny faces and is such a little diva!

Sick for a few days....

Sorry about that! Grandma Susan came up for a visit 2 weeks ago and joined us for our first voyage back to St. Martin's Church overall everyone did well. Gwennie slept through the entire service and after listening to all of the 6 and 9 month old kids chatter throughout the sermon, we figured kids are pretty welcome over there.

Last weekend Gwennie and I (Natalie) were sick from Sunday on. We both have a persistent cold/cough that we are fightinhg but thus far things are getting much better. Next person to get it will be Corbin, he's trying to stay healthy but his throat is starting to get pretty raw so we think he's not far behind us.

Sunday Gwennie turns 2 months old! Allie Pine (who shares her birthday with Gwennie) will be coming down to celebrate and then we head out to Arizona to visit Grandma & Grandpa Mead, Great Aunt Pat and Great Uncle Frank.

Grandma Gary and Great Aunt Nina

This weekend Grandma Gary (Gwennie's middle name is Iris - after this grandmother) and Great Aunt Nina came up for a nice visit. For those of you that have met Grandma Gary, you all know she's pretty reserved....watch out when Gwennie's around!! She's pretty smitten with this baby! Corbin and I were both commenting on how happy both Nina and Iris were to meet Gwennie and how much fun everyone had. Here are a few more pictures from the visit

1 Month checkup

Today Gwennie had her 1 month checkup at the doctor's office. So far she's doing great...10 pounds, 21 inches long and healthy! The doctor said she can start a little rice cereal in the nighttime bottle to sleep a little longer (which both of her parents are very happy about!).

Easter Weekend

This weekend was FREEZING... literally! After layering the baby and ourselves in fleece and everything else, Saturday we headed over to watch the 2nd annual Easter Egg hunt hosted by Carson, Cannon, Cole, Brenda and Barry Clough. The whole neighborhood looks forward to this event (especially the parents who can enjoy a glass of wine or a beer while the kids are occupied with eggs). Gwennie got a little chilly during the hunt so her dad brought her inside to "warm up" (AKA watch the Masters).

Saturday night we drove down to Sparkle City to Aunt Lynne and Uncle Bill's house for our first overnight adventure. Since the Webb family Easter Egg hunt is about 3 1/2 hours from Charlotte, we decided to start from their house so we would actually make it to the hunt on time....or 40 minutes late since we are never ontime now that the baby is around.

We piled Lynne, Bill, Corbin, Gwennie, Rachel and Natalie into the car and were surprisingly not the last people to arrive! Gwennie was a big hit and behaved herself. Everyone had a great time and I (Natalie) was lucky enough to find the money egg. For those of you that don't know, everyone donates a few bucks to the hat and we split up the money, someone hides it (usually VERY well...under trees, in snake holes, buried with the fire ants) and the adults and children all run around trying to find the eggs....or in the adults case the cash!

Then we drove over to the family cabin to take a few pictures and headed home. The last set of pictures was our failed attempt to get a nice shot of Gwennie...she was much more interested in dinner.

Click here to see the pictures

Charlotte Easter Egg Hunt

Yesterday the whole family joined the Fishers and the Linny Brown over at Charlotte Country Club for the annual Easter Egg hunt. Crawford did pretty well in the 0 to 3 catergory. Gwennie and I looked on and coached from the sidelines!

Here's a picture of Gwennie with the "wacky wabbit" aka Mr. Hardin Minor who is the highlight of the hunt (other than the candy and the easter eggs).

Click here for a few more pictures from the hunt.

More Pictures!

Here's some updated pictures of Gwennie in her new favorite onesie...thanks you Gladys!!

Click her for pics

A little late...

OK... so we tried to get this up on Tuesday when Gwennie actually turned 2 weeks old but as you can see we aren't moving that fast. Click here to see Mommy's other "tries" at getting this picture.

Gwennie's "other" mom

As you can see Ginger likes her new sister. Ruby is also pretty interested in what Gwennie is doing but seems to like to watch the baby more than interact with her. Whenever the baby cries, Ginger checks things out to see if she's OK and constantly wants to lick the baby. If anything, Gwennie will have the cleanest head around!

Here's a few more pictures from today....click here

1 week old with the Hiccups

Well, we finally got some video uploaded. For some reason there is some earlier stuff here from the hospital and the first bath but the main video is from Gwennie hanging out in her bouncy seat battling the hiccups again. She seems to get them about 2 or 3 times a day.

More pics

Hi,
Aunt Lulu came over yesterday and took some great shots of everyone. Corbin's learning how to download video with our new camera so expect to see some movies soon.

Click here for Lynne's Pictures

First Few Days Home

Well, we made it home safe and sound and now are enjoying the lack of sleep and landing of the grandmothers. Overall both Susan and Verna have been very helpful and we don't know what we would have done without them. They have been doing all of the laundry, hovering over the baby, making dinner, hovering over the baby, walking the dogs, hovering over the baby, doing the dishes, and ofcourse hovering over the baby :-)

Gwennie is going to be a diva at this rate but I know she loves having her grandmothers around as do her parents!!! No harm in giving the baby tons of attention, she's pretty cute (we are a little biased though).

Here are more pictures from the last few days including the ride home. Click Here

Introducing Gwendolyn Iris Meek

Well, 17 hours and 1 C-Section later...Gwennie finally decided to come out and meet everyone. This is a picture from the camera phone so it's not too clear. Corbin will be posting more pictures either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. So far everyone is doing great. Gwennie is weighing in at 8 lbs, 11oz and is 20 inches long. She's just like her father in that she loves to sleep. Hope everyong is doing well!

Click here for a few pictures of Gwennie

Weekend Projects

This weekend Corbin and I decided that spending the weekend relaxing was for wussies! Instead, we decided it was time to stop talking about the new bed we needed and to go out and get it. I had been talking about this fabric headboard I wanted to try to make and so at 8 AM on Saturday morning...project build a bed started!

The first step was moving the bedroom furniture downstairs. As most of you know, we are expecting a baby in 3 weeks so I figured this was the fastest way to induce labor...not so much! It's Monday and I am no closer to labor than I was last week.

Here's a picture of the furniture down in the guest room.

So, once the furniture was moved downstairs we had to get rid of one of the extra mattresses. I never would have thought the craigslist in Charlotte would be as fast as the Boston craigslist but free is free so we posted an add at 9 AM and by 9:30 we had someone coming to pick up the old bed in the guestroom.

Then Corbin headed to uhual to pick up a truck, the new bed and some plywood, I went down to the fabric store to pick up the materials and we met up back home at noon to start putting together the headboard.

By 5 PM, everything was done. Here's the headboard without any pillows so you can see what the finished project looks like.

Huh????? What's this white stuff?

As you can see here, the girls had their first experience with snow. For the first time since we moved here (almost 3 years ago) it is snowing in Charlotte. Apparently this is not normal and basically the entire city has shut down. I like to call it a "retail storm" because as usual, all of the bread and milk in the area is gone and people look like they are preparing for a blizzard! Run...buy up all the firewood, we could be stuck at home for weeks!!! We are supposed to get about 3 inches which will then turn to freezing rain. By tomorrow it should melt and life will be back to normal.

Baby Shower

This weekend friends and family traveled from all over to attend Natalie's baby shower. What a fun weekend! The Saturday events included brunch at Providence Cafe and yummy Edible Art Cake...who seem to think my child will spell her name GWYN :-)

Corbin's mother's side of the family included Susan, Aunt Lynne, Aunt Anne, Aunt Emily, Cousins Page, Rachel, Emily, and Clay. Corbin's father's side of the family included Grandma Iris Gary, Aunt Nina, and cousins Megan and Caroline.

Natalie's mother Verna and Aunt Pat fly out from Arizona. And last but VERY not least Natalie's friends Jess and Parrish flew in from New England, Heather from Baltimore, from Cary/Rocky Mount were Allie and her mother Lorena. From Charlotte were Melissa, Michele, Kristin, Brenda, Linny and who can forget Janet. A special thank you to Janet, Allie and Verna for planning the shower, Jess and Ashley (who could not attend but was missed...Happy Birthday!) for making the cute favors and Parrish, Melissa, and Heather for the cake. Click here for pictures from the weekend

On a side note...another very special thank you to Lynne, Faryn & Kamryn for the huge box of clothing & gear!!

I can't believe I am saying this...

I can honestly say I LOVE this stroller. We don't even have a kid yet and this thing seriously is pretty amazing. For those of you who haven't gone through the mortal hell of heading to a baby store to check out strollers, let me enlighten you...Corbin and I folded, unfolded, shook, tried to break, dropped and tested all of them. Then we went home and read consumer reports and were even more confused, then we got sucked into the latest new thing (www.orbitbaby.com very cool strollers but still weren't sold on them) and finally decided to pull the trigger and got the Bugaboo Frog.

As you can see we immediately put it together and starting driving it all over the house. I even went so far as to try to get the neighbor's kid (Crawford...who immediately said "No nanni, baby stroller, I big girl!") and the dogs to try it out but nobody would have any part in it. Guess we will have to wait for the little poop to arrive in March!

Christmas in Arizona and the Crib Project

Happy New Year! For the Christmas holiday we traveled out to Natalie's parents place in Goodyear, AZ. Corbin's mother Susan joined us in our week and overall a great time was had by everyone. Natalie, Corbin, Susan, Verna, Mel, Aunt Pat, Uncle Frank and Natalie's cousin Chris all enjoyed a week of food, food, football and more food. Susan was the only active person in the bunch and managed to go on a few hikes in the area, what a trooper! We also visited the Heard Museaum, enjoyed Mexican food and Susan bought a new pair of authentic cowboy boots to bring home with her.

Once we got back home, by some stroke of luck, one of the Microsofties happened to be selling his almost new baby bedroom set so we decided it was a great purchase. Luckily the crib, changing table and chest of drawers (not pictured since the nursery is so teeny...for now Natalie is enjoying her new dresser!) are a beautiful cherry wood that match the glider Mel and Verna gave us for Christmas! As small as the room is, everything fits well, there's space to walk around and we even have a spot for the small white bookshelf at the end of the crib for future baby readings! For pictures of the AZ trip and the nursery, click here.

Oh yes, and a special thank you to Clark Spencer for sending Ginger and Ruby the yummy smoked bones!

Lake Christmas Weekend

It's that time of year again! We headed down to Lake Bowen for the Webb family Christmas. Which now includes 2 new Webbs....Gini and Alexandra Webb! Russ Webb married the wonderful Gini (and is now a step-father to her awesome daughter Alex) on December 1st. And promptly told his sister Rachel and mother Eileen to keep it a secret!

So we get there, meet Gini and about 2 seconds later I hear..."wife, where are you wife" and find out they were married in Hawaii (BTW..they live there) on the beach. I'll post pictures of their wedding soon enough.

Overall it was a great weekend, lots of fun and a good time for all. Click here for Clay's pictures from the weekend.

Hi Mommy...Ho, Ho, Ho!!

It's that time of year again. Crawford headed over to the Charlotte Country Club on Wednesday for pictures with Santa and to show off her new dress. As you can see, there was lots of other fun things to play with including decorating trees with stickers, face painting and LOTS of food (of which Natalie, Janet and Andrew made sure to get plenty of). Click here for pictures from the party

On Thursday Crawford then was a huge hit at the Little Church on the Lane Nursery School Show....Her mommy and daddy were very proud!

Watch Out Paris!

Yep...Mrs. Janet Fisher is giving Paris and Britney a run for their money. Sorry the pictures aren't any better, they were taken with a camera phone

Janet decided it was too much work to grow long hair so she took a page out of the Paris Hilton handbook and had her hair dresser put extensions in. As you all know I (this is Natalie ofcourse...Corbin does not keep up on hair lingo) couldn't keep my mouth shut on this and for the last two weeks have been calling Janet's upcoming hair unvailing "ho hair."

As you can see the finished product was much better than we anticipated.

Football at Notre Dame

Well, we went up to watch the beating of UNC vs. Notre Dame on Saturday and were pleasantly surprised. Yes, the Tarheels lost by 19 points (45 to 26) but compared to the Clemson slaughter, this was fun to watch! I think we confused all the Notre Dame fans when the entire Tar Heel section would start clapping when we actually held the Irish to a 3rd down and you should see what happened when they had to punt!!!

Most of the conversations of the weekend talked about the new UNC Fooball coach - Butch Davis- but overall it was a fun time. Joining us up in Chicago were Matt &Michele Kislowski (Happy Birthday Michele!!!) and Kristin & Mark Bordeaux. 

Happy Halloween!

As you can see from the picture, Crawford Fisher was showing us where Nani's baby is (and wondering why the baby seems to constantly want chocolate!). After weeks of worrying that she wouldn't wear her costume, Kim her trusty BFF nanny just plopped her into the outfit and by the time momom (janet) came home she was ready to go trick or treating!

Before going house to house we walked down the street over to Carter and Mary Royal's for a kid party. Here's a link to all the madness.

Hallloween

'>Party Pictures

Corolla Light

Last week we took the girls out to Corolla, NC in the outer banks for a nice vacation. This is a picture of our beach house. Our friends Clark and Nancy Spencer met us there and everyone enjoyed the time away from work. Clark, Nancy and Corbin went offshore fishing on Wednesday and caught 5 yellowfin tuna ( about 100 pounds). The girls also enjoyed their time away from Charlotte. Ruby played in the ocean whenever possible and Ginger is now a master swimmer in the pool. She jumps right in after the tennis ball and can't wait to go back next year.

On our way home we stopped by at Allie and Harold Pine's new house in Rocky Mount, NC. They were having a bbq Saturday afternoon with a bunch of friends (Bobby, Wendy, Austin, Deb, Matt and Eric). Harold had crabs shipped in from Maryland that were delicious! We then moved on to hot dogs, hamburgers, salad and peach pie. The new Pine house is absolutely AMAZING!!! Corbin and I have such house envy! Ginger and Ruby love the big back yard and had fun playing with Beni, and Titan (Bobby and Wendy's new yellow lab). Great vacation...too short!

Ari Spencer Eisgrau

On Tuesday Natalie headed up to Baltimore Maryland to meet the newest member of the Eisgrau family, Ari! He's quite a bundle and keeps his parents Alan and Heather on their feet. Ari also had his Briss Ceremony on Wednesday afternoon. Overall Ari did very well (so did his parents and grandparents). The day couldn't have been nicer and the weather was absolutely beautiful! Great food, great people and a overall a great day!

So Far So Good...

For those of you that don't know. Corbin and I are expecting a new face in the house March 17th. Yep, that's right, there is a bun in the oven. A lot of people have been asking whether we are going to find out if it's a boy or a girl. Well, to answer all of your questions, yes...we just found out.

We are having a girl! Here's a picture of her all scrunched up, she's only about 6 inches from head to rump and weighs about as much as 1/2 of a can of soda.

Clemson 52, UNC 7

Yep...that's right, Clemson put a hurting on North Carolina this weekend. Luckily a majority of the family are Clemson fans so they were very happy with the win. Everyone bunked out at the Clemson condo on Friday and Saturday night for a big sleepover that included Lulu, Susan, Eileen, Richard, Lynne, Kamryn, Faryn, Corbin and Natalie. In addition to that Brandt, Clay, Rachel, Parks, Page, Jeremy, Sarah, Mike, Emily, and Bill all came over Saturday morning to tailgate with us. We all feasted on breakfast casserole, ham bisquits, fruit salad, Krispy Kreme donuts, cookies and ofcourse Calabash Chicken until around noon when we headed over to the stadium. The pre-game festivities were great, Clemson fans really get into the game including watching the team run down the hill onto the field. Corbin and I knew early this was going to be a beating!

About7 minutes into the first quarter Clemson scored its first TD. Then all of 5 minutes later they scored again. At that point Eileen, Susan and I were all roasting in the sun and we had seen enough of the slaying. Yes...we lasted all of 15 minutes into this game and decided it was time to head back to the condo for some A/C. Not 20 minutes later did everyone else come back at the half because at that point I think the score was 35 to nothing.

Corbin, Rachel, Parks, Page, Jeremy, Sarah and Mike all spent the next 10 hours tailgating around campus while the rest of us watched all of the crowds and grazed on leftovers. Around 8 PM we decided to head over to Mellow Mushroom for some pizza.



Here are some pictures I took from my camera phone this weekend. As you can see Kamryn and Faryn just love the camera!!! Click here for Lynn's Photos

August

Wow..talk about a long pause...sorry everyone, we really have been slacking on updates. Here's a recap of the last few weeks.

August 21st Natalie headed up to Boston for work and stayed with Addie and Ryan. We all headed to California Pizza Kitchen for Dinner with Parrish Blaszka. Great food and even better company.

August 23rd Natalie headed up to Baltimore for Heather Eisgrau's surprise 30th birthday party. As you can see Heather is about a month away from delivering. Her real birthday is in September but her husband Alan didn't want to push the envelope so he planned her big bash for the month before just to be safe.

In attendance were Heather's inlaws, friends from Hasa, Scottie too Hottie (pictured with Heather) and his parents, Heather and Alan's friends from Owings Mills, and Peggy/Keith from DC also drove up for the event. Everyone had a great time and we all were pretty stuffed from the amazing Italian food by the end of the meal.

Afterwards Heather and Natalie and Heather's inlaws drove back to the Eisgrau Casa to open presents and give Niko some leftover cake! Sunday Natalie, Heather and Alan tested out "Bling" the new mini-van and drove around, shopped, had some chicken from Cluck-U and then ended the day with a trip to the Maryland State Fair to pick up some of the best caramel apples EVER! Natalie brought 2 home to Corbin with proceeded to be eaten within a few hours.

Last week we finally decided to redo the porch so our handyman Artie came over and tore the floor out of the front porch. Turns out the porch was pretty old and rotting so we have to do some serious replacement work to get things back in order (and to make the floor level).

Here'a a picture of the current state of our front entrance. as you can see its still a mess but hopefully by the end of this week we can start using the front door again.

Over the labor day weekend we headed up to Chapel Hill with our friends Mark, Kristin, Matt, Michelle, Jeff, Keeley and Big Joe for the UNC football game against Rutgers. Tailgating was really fun. Big Joe (I'll take a picture next time so you can see what I am talking about...Big Joe is about 6' 6" and could have been a line backer for UNC) and his friend Duke were the grill masters...they can really make a good burger and london broil sandwich. Here's a picture of the fans walking to the game.

The game itself was another story...could have been better. UNC lost to Rutgers 16 to 21. We also had some roudy UNC fans that needed a talking to...Jeff, Duke and Big Joe scared the pants off of these kids for berating some Rutgers fans sitting near us. Apparently last year the same 2 fans were pretty mean so Joe put a quick stop to that. I said I would love to come to next week's Virginia Tech game to see these guys try something with the thousands of Hokies sitting next to them...Corbin is heading up there this weekend and said he would report back on the "2 lame UNC fans".

Today was a big day at the Fisher house..Crawford went to her first day of Nursery School! Here she is with her new Ladybug backpack ready to head off. Janet reported back that she did pretty well. Apparently one of the other boys there had a few trains so Crawford decided this place was OK if there were trains to play with.