Nathaniel's Graduation

My (Naomi's) brother, Nathaniel, graduated from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary on Friday, May 25th. He now has his Masters of Divinity.


The ceremony was in their beautiful chapel on campus in Wake Forest, NC.



This is during the processional. Nathaniel is at the top left corner. They were walking kind of fast, so Andrew barely got a picture of him. But, this is proof that he was down among the crowd of graduates.


This is such a beautiful chapel. The ceremony was really nice as well. It was really neat to go to a Christian graduation. It was a big difference from JMU's graduation. The emphasis was truly on God.


Mom and Dad with Nathaniel



We couldn't miss out on the photo ops. (We should be in our blog somewhere, right?)



The family

For those of you who know him, we saw Tim (625, Tim and Willis, Tim. I forgot his last name. That is why you should always save the programs.) graduate as well.

Myrtle Beach

After Nathaniel's graduation we headed to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. But, before we could go, we had to have a little "Guitar Hero" time at Nathaniel's apartment.

Mom did pretty good after she got the hang of it. But, unfortunately she got booed off the stage. You just need a little more practice mom.


We finally arrived at the sunny beach on Friday night. So, it really wasn't that sunny since the sun was setting. But, it was still gorgeous!

The next day we loaded up our wagon and walked to the beach. My grandparents have a beach house. So we get to stay there whenever we go to the beach. Thanks MeeMaw and C.O.

Andrew forgot his sunglasses. So, he borrowed some from mom. They remind me of something that Elton John would wear. Every so often, while we were sitting on the beach, I would hear dad giggle a little. And then I would realize he was looking at Andrew.

We had plenty of time for some frizby throwing.

But, we mostly just relaxed under our 3 umbrellas. We don't want to get skin cancer!

The evenings were the most entertaining times as we drove to dinner. "Why?", you may ask. Well, it was Black Biker Week 2007. (Just so you know, I am not being racist. You could buy t-shirts, 3 for $10, that said Black Biker Week on them.)

Now, this couple here is dressed very modestly. But, that can't be said for most of the women on the back of the bikes. I think some of the locals call it "Butt Week" if that gives you an idea of what we saw all the way to dinner.

Saturday night we ate at one of our childhood favorites, The Chesapeake House. They have the best hush puppies in the world. But, the real reason it was one of our favorite restaurants is because you can take any leftover food and feed it to the turtles and crocodiles (or alligators- I don't really know the difference.) You can see a little turtle up on the grass in this picture. And then you can see an alligator head popping out of the water. He was a picky eater. He would only eat the hush puppies. (Which, I agree, that is really the only bread that I would eat as well.)

On Sunday night, we went to a Japanese Steak house. We got a little bored while we were waiting. So, we took a bazillion pictures. We ended up with a pretty cute family picture.

Mom and I

We finally made it to the table!

Just so you know, I am now taking applications for sister-in-laws.

Happy Birthday Kim!

This past weekend, we went to a surprize birthday party for our friend Kim Cavanaugh. Andrew and I, and most of Kim's co-workers, were supposed to meet at a restaurant and wait for her to come. Her husband did a great job of surprizing her until P.F. Chang's called earlier in the day to confirm the reservation and he answered the call on speaker phone. oops! So, Kim was a little suspicious that something was up.



We had a great dinner. Some of the highlights were seeing all the prom kids coming in their formal attire, learning about "muffin tops" (when your love handles hang out over your pants) and watching a waiter drop an entire tray of food. Some of the food spilled on a lady's sweater and purse. The restaurant was willing to buy her purse and sweater for her. But she was still angry and she just walked out. It was quite entertaining.

After dinner, we went to the Cavanaugh's place in Harper's Ferry and played a little Wii. I wish that we had a picture of it. But, my right sholder is still very sore from playing tennis. I think we definitely need a Wii now.

Pottery and Glassblowing Update

Andrew and I are still into our crafty hobbies. So, here are a few of the pieces we have made recently.

I know it is hard to tell size through these pictures. So, I put the first bowl that I ever made in some of the pictures so you can see that I have gotten a little better. :)




This is my platter.


I could also use it as a chip and dip. I just need to have some company over!



This is my berry bowl. I made it just in time for all the wonderful summertime berries.


I put the holes in the bottom so the water can drain out when I wash them.

These are a couple of Andrew's latest pieces. He wasn't too happy with them. But, I think they are pretty cool. He learned how to make that "scalloped" edge during one of his last classes.

Stay tuned for more to come.

The Story of Our Canoe

It all began about 3 years ago when we moved into our condo in Germantown, MD. Our condo is located on a beautiful lake which is perfect for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, and walking around and enjoying the beautiful views. But, we were only able to enjoy the fishing and walking because we did not have a canoe or a kayak.

Well, God provides in mysterious ways. One afternoon, while we were walking, we happened upon a nice red canoe. It was on the side of the road amongst matresses, dressers and other trash. It appeared that someone was being evicted from their home or doing some serious house cleaning. So, we checked out the canoe and noticed that it had a giant hole in the middle of it. There was a 12"x18" hole cut out of it. But, that didn't stop our excitment of finding a canoe. So, we waited until it got a little darker and we carried the canoe from the side of the road, across a bridge, through the woods and hid it behind our condo.

Andrew worked on patching up the hole with fiberglass and we went on a canoe trip with some friends for Memorial Day weekend. We made it about 9 miles down the Shenandoah River with no leaks and hit some rocks that scraped the patch off and we started sinking. I still have a scar on my knee from trying to evacuate. Andrew and Chris France had to walk the canoe the last mile and, needless to say, we didn't get to do the second day of our canoe trip. But, it was fun while it lasted.

So, we brought the canoe home and put it back in the woods. We went to check on it one day and it was gone. Someone had stolen it! We searched around the lake for it and found it on the other side. Whoever had stolen it had tried to patch it up with rubber floor mats (that go in cars). We kindly wrote them a note thanking them for trying to fix our canoe, but that we didn't appreciate them stealing it from us. So, we stole it back and chained it to a tree.

We worked on fixing the hole again. We used plexiglass and caulking this time. You can kind of see the patch on the side of the canoe in this picture.

We haven't used it too much since, just a few times around the lake. But, no major trips. So, this brings us up to date until a couple of weeks ago...

A couple of Sundays ago, we went to check on our canoe, just to make sure it was there. And guess what.... It was gone! It was stolen AGAIN! To be honest, I was a little happy because it still leaks a little and it gets bugs in it since it is kept in the woods. So, I don't really like to use it. But, Andrew was devistated. So, we searched the woods and the perimeter of the lake searching for our canoe. We thought all hope was lost until we saw a little red shining through some trees and a bright white patch on the bottom of a canoe. We got closer and realized that it was definitely our canoe. No other canoe has a 3'x3' patch made out of plexiglass and bathtub caulking on the bottom of it. But, it was no longer red. They had painted the sides of it black. Can you believe that. Someone cut the chain off our canoe, stole it, took it to the other side of the lake, and then they painted it black. What nerve!

So, we made a game plan. I wrote a note to leave for the thieves and Andrew stole the canoe back. The note said...

To whom it may concern,We have taken our canoe back! We clearly had it chained to a tree so that others would know that it belonged to someone and so that it wouldn’t be stolen. But, you have taken it and started painting it black. We do not appreciate having to search for our stolen canoe when we could have been enjoying it out on the lake today. We are disappointed that our neighbors would cut the chain and take something that didn’t belong to them. We trust that this will not happen again.

Andrew hid the canoe so well that I can't even see it. We haven't used it since. But, at least we have our canoe back.

(Wow, I thought this would be a quick little blog. Sorry, it ended up being a book)