The High Museum

Last week we went to the High Museum in Atlanta and had an amazingly great time. Not only did we marvel at the Monet exhibit, but we also were entertained by a jazz band at lunch. Also, while eating and enjoying the music we got the treat of a group of dancers who decided to stop by. I caught a little bit on video (with my new super phone!) You'll also see our friends Jake and Rachel with us. They visited us last week. We had a great time!




Abbi was in awe of the exhibit. The mural of Water Lilies was amazing.

Finding elbow room

They're still there but I have a feeling it won't be long now.

Look at the guy on the left, he's decided to find a little extra space on the pillar, out of the nest, don't fall buddy! And then look at the 2 on the right, the outside one has his wing around the other one. Close quarters will make you cozy up!


We keep jumping up on our chair that's in the piano room to check on our birds, wondering when they'll fly. We'll let you know when it happens :)

Soon to be leaving the nest

They grow so fast don't they?

And our kids too. I know people say it all the time and I'm one of them. It's so startling some days, usually when I'm seeing them the first time for the day it really strikes me.. can they have grown up this big already?

Alec is going to apply to Gamestop, I'm really excited for him. I think he'd be so awesome at helping people at a store like that. We've been talking about interviewing, what kind-of questions they might ask, what clothes to wear, those kinds of things. He's been practicing driving too which is a new feeling for me.. and another.. eek, he's old enough to do that??

He came up to me earlier this week and told me that he thought he was there. There??.. hmm.. I really wasn't sure what he was talking about but he told me he was feeling ready. I think maybe he was referring to some talks we had had the last couple of years when he would tell me he sometimes worried about jobs or the future. I would reassure him and tell him that I was pretty sure that he would figure out something and that it would come to him at the right time. I'd tell him that I thought he should keep doing what he loves and that I really believed that what he was doing would lead to something.

He also went on to say that he thought he was probably going to quit WoW, wanted to apply to Gamestop and he wanted to work on his handwriting. Wow! He said he's been thinking a lot and planning. He was excited and happy in telling me these things. What a cool kid :)


I did make a suggestion and say that he could keep his character around so he could play it casually if he wanted to, or .. maybe.. he would like to transfer over to the realm where the girls and I play! hehe...

I love these little realizations that our kids have, I feel so fortunate to be a part of their experience.

Need more shoulder room!

We were gone for the week-end and I wondered if our baby birds would be gone when we got back, but they're not! They do look like they'll be taking off soon though.

And... there are 5 up there!


We've discovered some interesting facts about these birds. Both parents feed them and sat on the nest when they were tiny or hatching. And the more interesting/gross fact -- the parent will keep the nest clean by grabbing birdy poo and flying away... efficient, but we were kind-of in a ... ewwww stage while watching.

Last week I was worried that they were going to fall out because they looked so unaware of their surroundings, kind-of wobbling around; now they seem to know right where they are, they even turn around when they have to do their duty, as to not get it in the nest.. only on my porch.

I think these 2 adult birds are BUSY..

Here are the babies wanting more food.

Daily Birdy Pics

You can almost see all 4




Feed ME!



Off to get more food.


And 2 of my babies. A sea of legs!

Baby birdies

The little family we've been watching. A little blurry but still so cute. Babies' heads resting on the edge of the nest, see them?


The nest is on the top of a post on our front porch.


I love watching birds. These ones are bluebirds, and that's new for us northerners. We didn't see many of them up in Minnesota.

Waiting for momma or daddy to return with food. There are 4 babies.

Early Saturday morning, Tim, Abbi and I trekked up to Helen GA. Helen is a town about an hour north of us that was built to resemble a German alpine village. Check out the buildings in the pictures, it's really fun visiting there, like a quick visit to Germany :)

But we weren't visiting Helen to look at the buildings or check out the quaint shops, we were there to see hot air balloons. The Helen to the Atlantic Balloon Race was going on and fortunately for us it had rained Thursday and Friday so the balloons were taking off on Saturday morning.



Abbi loved this group of balloons.



It was really cool to see.


After we got our fill of balloons we found a German cafe and had a yummy breakfast. I had fried battered apple slices that were so yummy.

Kyra funness!

How fun is Kyra?

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THIS FUN!




Now it's time for Sims 3

19 Years it is!

Tim and I have been married for 19 years today, wow! Time sure does fly :)

We've actually been together for a lot longer than that though. We met in gym class when we were 15. That's the first we talked anyway, I remember him from 8th grade Democracy class, he doesn't remember me though :P

We became friends then but weren't really that interested in each other. I thought Brian Stone was cute and he had nice legs. He was in between Tim and me, in our squads (group thingies). Tim had made a decision that he wouldn't date anyone until he turned 16 and could drive. So we knew each other but were just friends. We'd talk, but not a whole lot, I'm not much of a flirter and I wasn't much of a talker to boys.

So how did we get together? My friend Mindy was quite, let's say assertive :) I think she'd talk to Tim or have someone talk to Tim and say "you should ask Kelli Storsved out" and she'd say to me "I think you guys would make a great couple". I even remember laying by her at her house for a sleepover at that same time and get this.. I say "I think Tim and I would have really cute kids!" And she replies "Yes!" I'm crazy aren't I? Not even dating the guy but having his kids???

Well, needless to say, we were right, I think my kids are pretty ding-dang cute.

So I'm thankful to Mindy and to Tim for asking me out. He made the move :) although he wasn't the one to make the move for our first kiss!

This isn't our first, it's at our groom's dinner. Aren't we cute?


Happy Anniversary to my honey, I'm so glad you're in my life.

Ready, Set, Goin' to MN

We're getting ready to go to Minnesota. We'll be flying up there tomorrow afternoon. It's been almost a year since we've been back, more accurately, it'll be a year the beginning of July, a long time anyway, for us to not see a lot of our family and friends.

We'll be flying into Minneapolis, visiting with friends and family. So excited to meet my new great niece.. or is it grand niece? Anyway, my niece and her husband had a baby girl so that's one priority we have.. SEE.. NEW... BABY! :) Then we'll head up to Grand View Lodge which is a resort in Brainerd MN, and hang out with most of Tim's family. We're all anxious to see family and enjoy the lakes in that area. There's also a very cool pool house that we enjoy too.

Memorial Day we'll head over to the Fargo-Moorhead area to stay there through the week. Hopefully we'll see more family and friends while there too. Fun fun!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone and it's back to packing for me!

Time to Drive!

We're pretty excited. Alec passed his permit test today and we're about to go out and drive! Wahoo!

Kyra's 12!

Happy Happy Birthday to my fun lovin', colorful headed, creative, inspiring 12 year old Kyra!


We're all so happy to have you in our lives! We love you and your pixie horns too!

Mother's Day at the Renaissance Festival

I had a great day yesterday. We decided to give the Georgia Renaissance Festival a go. I love festivals but sometimes it ends up being too hot, since many are held in the summer, or too crowded. Well, yesterday ended up being neither, it was a great day :)


Tim was excited to be there too!


I'm not going to write much because Abbi wrote about it last night, and quite eloquently at that! So go check out her account of the day.... here.

Hope all you mommas had a wonderful day!

May Birthday Bash

We went up to Tennessee this week to celebrate some birthdays. Quite a few fall in the same weeks so we decided to gather together for a happy birthday time.

Here are the birthday peoples getting ready for cake!

Sierra, Samuel, Karina, Kyra, Sadie

We had lots of fun.

Just hanging out and talking is always something we like to do.


In fact, when I asked Kyra if there was anything in particular that she would like to do at this party she said, "hmm, not really. I just really like being with my friends." They really are happy being together.

I think they like making faces.


Hanging... done with style, right? Or this could be titled "expressions"


We brought some canvases to paint on for each of the birthday people. Here they are being worked on.


Ren shared her gift of make-up artistry.



Just beautiful.




We also celebrated this wonderful couple's anniversary.

Happy Anniversary Clint and Wendy!

We feel so fortunate to have such wonderful friends. It was a great time!

Just me

Madeline tagged me and you're supposed to take a picture of yourself.. right NOW! No primping, no nothin'. I don't usually wear make up so this shouldn't be too bad now should it?


Hmmm, and here I am, right after watching On Golden Pond and telling Abbi and Tim about this tag.


Look at that cool necklace.. made by a certain talented artist... and I'm gonna tag her, cuz she'll soooo love it.... *cough*

Taggin' ---> Rue, Gail, Ronnie, Abbi, Kyra

And this girl can SEW

Kyra made this shirt.







She got the inspiration from a dress of mine. She's sewn several things now and never used a pattern. I think it's really cool that she doesn't let that stop her from sewing. She thinks about what she wants and gets to sewing. Pretty awesome.

A Rainy Sunday

Abbi asked if we wanted to play The Mystery at Hogwarts Game. Which is just like Clue but with a Harry Potter theme. Abbi, Tim, Kyra and I played it a couple of times. (Alec was still sleeping since it was early afternoon) As we sat there waiting for each others turns to go by we started spelling words with Bananagrams which was sitting right by us on the table. We decided it would be fun to just spell words that had to do with Harry Potter. We worked on it a bit while playing the Hogwarts Game but then we had enough of the Clue thing. So we moved Banagrams to the living room and popped in Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone.

Tim had work to do for Monday and Kyra wanted to work on leveling her character on WoW, but Abbi and I decided to do this:



We knew we had to find homes for the z and x first or we were going to be in trouble. Azkaban came in handy as did phoenix and expecto (part of a spell) The only liberty we really took was JK, we thought that was OK ;)

It's fun bringing together some of our favorite things.

**oops, Alec just got up and pointed out that we spelled Gryffindor wrong.. back to the table!**

A Monday afternoon blurb

Some random Monday thoughts:

We had wind from a storm this morning that was so strong that the umbrella from our dining set on the deck blew up into the air, pulled the table to its side and the broke the glass top. We also had a branch from some tree stuck javelin style into our back yard. I had to really tug to get it out. It was lodged in about 6 inches.. eek!

I'm worrying about Saddi, she's breathing heavy and the vet we saw doesn't think there's anything to worry about.

Alec is just starting his day, he's on more of a night schedule again.

Abbi is running upstairs on the treadmill after watching the last 2 episodes of Bones Season 1 with me.

Kyra has decided to learn some French and is reading through my French book from college.

And a here's a quote that I just came across, I like it:

"'Always' is never true; reality isn't a vast, fixed scheme trapping you without choice. At any moment you have the choice to break out of what is really trapping you--your automatic reactions dredged up from the past."

- Deepak Chopra

Family Resemblance? A clue, yes!

Grandma Jan, Abbi, Aunt Betty

Just for your information, Abbi looks a bit like Tim's mom and aunt.

They like spelling things.

Playing Bananagrams yesterday I realized I have my own personalized spell checkers right beside me. Yes, Alec and Abbi have surpassed me in spelling skill. I've always been a pretty good speller, but they can by far remember words better than me. Maybe it's an age thing, maybe not, all I know is that they're good and they have fun doing it :)

Alec had maybe 1 1/2 school years of spelling tests, Abbi had 1 year (1st grade... I can't believe 6 years olds have tests...) Testing did not make them good spellers; learning about what they think is interesting did. (And their grammar is better than mine too ;)

Cool, huh?