Great weekend

Grumpy and I had a wonderful weekend in the Outer Banks. We stayed at the KOA campground on Cape Hatteras. The weather was perfect it was sunny but windy enough to where you could be outside. We took a nice walk on the beach. Mac was fine until some wave snuck up on herIt was funny everyone stopped to look at the pups - see the weather was nice so we had them on their leashes attached to the picnic table - I guess people just never see Great Danes. Saturday night we walked over to the sound site to watch a beautiful sunset. It was so great to just sit there and watch the sun go down.

All in all the weekend was very relaxing I can't wait to go down there again in July when my friends from Germany are in town.

So far my week wasn't to bad either Sunday night I got an email from where I was to be Monday stating they had to cancel the visit so I got a day at home to catch up on reports and stuff. Today I had doctor appointments - things look good this cycle and they added another injection - this one in the AM - got to go back Friday. Tomorrow its off to Ohio State University but its a short trip I will be back Thursday night.

we finally made it to the beach

We have been trying forever to go to the beach with the pups but our schedules either didn't match up or the weather wasn't playing along or we were just to tired. But today we made it! Grumpy took a nap after work so we didn't head out until about 6pm. But it worked out well we met up with my buddy that was fixing my little laptop and got that. And then it was of to the beach.

Here are the pups in the car they love going for rides. sassy looks like she is stoned or something in the first one. I have no idea what the hell happened to my cam all my pictures after the ones in the car were almost black. The camera program let me enlight them but its still not that great. However the shot was just to cute. Of course Mac wouldn't even go near the water. After the swim we went for a walk down the Promenade. I took my phone for the pictures to be sure we had some in case a cute shot presented itself and sure enough ...
Awww aren't they cute????

Here is Grumpy with his girls. I am glad we finally made it to the beach but especially after last night. I hadn't seen Grumpy all day yesterday so after homework I decided to stay up till he got home from the bar. I asked him how is night went and he said okay aside from a guy getting shot outside the bar. He said he was about to go out and tell some people they couldn't hang out on that sidewalk when he heard what he thought were fire crackers and then a car drove off. One dude got shot 3 times in his leg. Arg I can't wait till he can get out of that bar that neighbor hood is trouble. When he got back from the store he said one of the EMT's stopped by and said there were 3 more shootings in that area in a matter of 2 hours.

Memories to keep from 2006

January: I was naturalized. I am now officially an American citizen. I also got to see my old friend Paul while at a meeting in Dallas. It had been a few years that we had seen each other. I had dinner with him and his girlfriend and we had a few hours of catching up. It was very nice.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

February: V-day was nice we went to my favorite restaurant the day before (we both had to work v-day of course) otherwise nothing special just work. Got to go on a business trip to San Francisco which is one of my favorite cities.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

March: mhh nothing much the AP's and I continued to write cards to recruits. The local press heard of it and came out to do an interview with all of us.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

April: I went to see Maureen graduate from Marine boot camp in South Carolina. It was something else. (the oldest of the kids whose au pair I was a long time ago)The nice part was her whole family was there so I got to see everyone. It was great. We are all so proud of her. She was 17 and a Marine so grown up. I took her back with me to Virginia since her boyfriend was at the music school near me. She would go there to after she went home for her high school graduation. She was the first person ever to walk in Dress Blues for her ceremony. I wish I could have seen that but I am sooo glad I got to at PI.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May: Oh there is too much, my 1st anniversary with Grumpy which got cut kind of short because I left for my 10 year highschool reunion in Germany that day. Due to that I missed his college graduation :(.
The 2 weeks at home were wonderful but my favorite would have to be the Saturday before I left. I had gotten in touch with a few friends including Uwe and old childhood friend, who I had not seen in 8 years.
I met my best friend Dani and her man at 3pm and we went into one of the many Ice cream parlors / cafés that you have everywhere. There we met another childhood friend of ours and celebrated her first pregnancy (it is a baby girl) and birthday.

A little while later another one of my friends and her husband joined us. After 3 hours of amazing looking Ice cream cocktails we said goodbye to the soon to be mommy and walked down the street to my favorite Chinese restaurant. [The Chinese food in Germany tastes different than it does here - so does all the other chain food].

There Uwe joined us. We had a great time. Around 9pm we said good bye to my best friend and her boyfriend as they left to go watch the German version of Dancing with Stars. The rest of us sat and chatted for a bit longer before walking down the street a bit further to a bar. There we stayed until we said good bye after midnight. Uwe and I chatted a bit longer outside my moms house until I finally go home a bit after 1 am. It was great. I got to see everyone and have a great time.

Thinking back about that night makes me homesick I do miss my friends from home a lot.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June: Well it was Grumpy's b-day but he had to go into work. I was obsessed with the Soccer world cup since it looked like Germany had a chance. I switched my blog from myspace to the blogger. My mom came to visit so we could do her green card paper work. Since we were near Virginia Beach we went down the prominade and then hoped over the the Little Creek base where the school of music is to visit Maureen and Austin. My mom had not seen Maureen for 9 years.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

July: I got to go jet skiing as part of an Au pair meeting. This was awesome I love jet skiing. Its like riding a motorcycle on water. I also got to go to Chicago for a meeting where I saw my former host family and my friend Evelyn who was an AP with me. She and her boyfriend had flown in from Switzerland for a wedding of the niece of our host mom. Also

*drum roll*

I got to meet our very own Miss Jin and Brioche in person (well and Mister Jin and ....). Jin made lunch for Erin (she is the youngest of the kids whose AP I was) and I, then we got to sample all her goodies. OMG talk about a kid in candy land. I can't wait to go back and try the things I couldn't fit.





-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August: Mhh nothing major - I got to go to Seattle for the first time. While I was waiting to go up on the Space needle I get a call form one of my girls saying she got kicked out by her host parents. WTF. So when I got home I had to house my first AP. After I found her a new family, Grumpy and I took the puppies to the beach Mac hates the sound of the waves and will not go in the water. We don't know what it is with her and the ocean. Sassy was in the water , swimming and having a good time. We took a nap on the greens later but I couldn't read my book because people kept coming up to us to ask if they could pet the doggies. What can I say to cute for their own good.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September: Well there was Ernesto the nice little tropical storm that cost us power for a few days and caused quiet some damage. We got lucky while it snapped of a tree limb the size of most trees, the limb missed the house by inches.

There was also my first Sweetbox from Jin. It was a early b-day present so we could take it with us to our trip. MHHHHHH so good.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

October: Happy Birthday to me!!! I got my wish and Grumpy, the pups and I went to a cabin in the West Virginia mountains. It was sooo pretty. I loved it. The cabin was so isolated in one of the valleys no one would ever find it. We saw the local sights and took a drive to the Maryland side where we got to see the beautiful colors of the leaves. It was soo relaxing and the pups loved it because they got to come with us everywhere we went.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November: The house turned into Hotel Katy as I housed one AP for 2 weeks in the beginning of the month (I will see her when I go to LA next week) and then after Thanksgiving I got another AP that needed a place to stay until we found her a new family. Thanksgiving was nice and I since I was off the day after I went and did my Locks of Love donation. I think Grumpy is still getting used to the short hair. I am mean I never tell him when I do it, just show up with short hair.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December: Ohhh so many things. Mhh I got a Cherry box, a Jin box and I saw the Transiberian Orchestra live. And most importantly Grumpy and I got to go out for New Years ever for the first time in 6 years. We had a ball. We went to the bar where we met and just hung out. Mhhh what a way to finish this year.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I started the post I didn't think the year was all that, but now looking at it it almost makes my life sound interesting doesn't it? Wonder what this year will hold I mean I am supposed to graduate from college with that a new job, Grumpy and I are planning on going to Germany for Christmas and New Years (I haven't been home for the holidays in 10 years!) .... Lots of potential

Going to the beach

Grumpy and I have been trying to go to the beach for several months now. I was close to being comical, every time we planed for it something came up; weather, work or just exhaustion. Today we finally manages to do so. I got home around 4:30 and by 5pm we were ready to go.

Mac knows that once the prone colar is on her she gets to go out with us so she was waiting patiently in front of the door while we got ready. We took the expedition (honestly there is no way Mac could fit into the escort or tracker) and generally they both ride in the back. It didn't take long for them to climb over the 2nd row seats to get a better view out of the windows and still be comfortable. When we pulled up to the beach we saw a huge otter running across the lawn. Look closely to the right of the tree in the middle.

Here is a close up on the otter. I didn't realize that they live in Saltwater. Somehow I always assumed the are more in freshwater lakes and rivers.

Now can you tell that Mac does not like the water? We were hoping that she'd be over it by now but she fought so hard to get away that we took turns on who was holding Mac and who went in the water with Sassy.

I think this picture says it all.Here are Dave and Sassy enjoying the nice warm water. Sassy did great until one of the wave smacked her in the head after that she had enough.

Poor Mac she was so exhausted from fighting us on her leash she just laid down flat when we got to the picnic / grassy area of the beach.
All three were watching this Sailboat out on the bay, I had brought my book (actually I always have a book in my purse) and was trying to read.

I wrote trying to read as Sassy decided to mimic the cats and did her best to disturb me. But how could I not give into this cute little pest.
She loves having her belly rubbed.
Finally a good picture of Sassy. Since she is black it is really hard to get a good picture of her.

We only stayed for a little bit and got home around 8pm but it was nice that we finally got to do it. We are debating if we should leave Mac at home next time but I don't think thats fair. Maybe she'll get over her fear of water some day.