17 Relatives and Counting

Thanksgiving 2010

For the first time in many years, all of my mom's side of the family got together for Thanksgiving and my parent's house in Cleveland, TN.  When I say "all," I mean all!  I didn't really think of us having a large family really, but I guess it's because we aren't all together at once very much.  Throughout the week, there were 17 of us total:  Mom, Dad, Alan, me, Carla, Nannie, Robbie, Tammy, Anderson, Mattson, Gibbs, Chris, Susannah, Scott, Michelle, Morgan, and Trevor.  Samson was also there, but he spent most of his time hiding in the sauna in the basement.  Will was the only person who missed out - he decided to stay in Dallas since he had just started a new job, I think the more I described the activity at the house, the more content he was at home by himself!

Samson comfy in a chair prior to everyone's arrival

Dad was home with us for a few days and then left early Thanksgiving day to go hunting; he missed most of the crowd and Thanksgiving dinner, but if he was at home, he would probably be in the sauna with Samson! 




Preparing salad with Mom's greens

Mom harvested all her crops in Alabama and brought all her veggies up to Tennessee for dinner. We made salad with her lettuce, herbs and peppers and for Thanksgiving dinner, we used her crop of broccoli and it was delicious!

On Thanksgiving morning we went to downtown Chattanooga to do the 'Greatful Gobbler' walk. Carla was the organizer of this outing and then treated us all to brunch at her house after the walk.

Two Turkeys

Chris and Susannah

All the Gobblers at Carla's house

*Carla, this picture is especially for you.

Thanksgiving Table (1 of 3)

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to see the Lost Sea.  It's a giant cave with a big lake in it.  When I told Will where we were going, his comment was "what a red neck vacation thing to do"... that turned out to be a pretty accurate statement, considering I was standing in line behind a woman with camo-overalls on, one strap undone.  The cave tour took about an hour or so and we walked around and looked at all the rock formations and such as our guide, Sheenah, pointed out special formations to us.  One particular formation they call "bacon" because, as you will see below, it looks like strips of bacon.  At the bottom of the cave you get on a little boat with a glass bottom and take a ride around the lake and look at the albino fish. All in all, it was a neat trip and Nannie even went on the cave tour, she did a pretty good job of keeping up, especially when we have her a snickers bar for a little energy!

Waiting to get into the cave

Will, see what you missed??!!!

Alan did a little shopping at the gift store at the Lost Sea and found these fabulous hats. They were on sale so he couldn't resist.  I asked him if they were Christmas gifts for people and he said "no, I don't think so, but I could probably do all my Christmas shopping here."  The girl behind the cash register looked at us and responded in all seriousness, "That's what I do!"  I tried to keep a straight face.

After all the company left, my childhood friend, Caitlin Johnson Rogers came over to visit and brought her brand new, 6 week old baby, Mabry.  She was absolutely precious and very good. Caitlin looked great and seemed to have adjusted to motherhood with ease. 

I want one...just not now!

Mabry wide-eyed and awake

That pretty much sums up Thanksgiving this year, lots of family, lots of food and a whole lot of fun.  We will have to get together more often... I'm certainly thankful we were able to be together this year.

*Note: I apologize if you are not in any of the photos, Alan was in charge of taking pictures for me and he missed a few people. 

PCBC Women's Touch Dinner

Last night I attended the Women's Touch Dinner at Park Cities Baptist Church.  My friend, (and co-worker's wife) Ashley Pope, was the "hostess with the mostess."  The dinner was themed around how we are called to be Christ's 'salt and light' to the world.  Each table was decorated by the hostess and then dinner was served by men of the church.  John, her husband served our table.  After the table viewing and dinner, a few women gave their testimonies on what it meant for them to be 'the salt and the light.'

It was a lovely night and the tablescapes (not to be all 'Sandra Lee' on you) were fabulous.

Our table - Willy Wonka decor

I found the golden ticket!

Ashley & me

Ashley & John Pope

*Click any photo to enlarge.

Ina Garten Comes to Dallas!

For those of you who do not know, I am a HUGE Ina Garten fan.  She is the 'Barefoot Contessa' chef on Food Network.  I have watched probably every one of her episodes (sad, I know), have all her cookbooks, and just love her recipes! 

Ina emailed me about a month ago letting me know that she was coming to Dallas for a book signing at my local Williams-Sonoma and hoped I would be there. Yes, we are on a first-name basis.  I jumped at the opportunity to stand in line for two+ hours with all her other Dallas-based fans (my co-worker, Meredith Hubble included) to get my book signed.

Finally in WS, Ina was in sight and my heart pounded with anticipation (I'm a huge dork, I know).  She was every bit as lovely in person as she is on tv, thanked me for coming, and I shared with her that I had already made the sea-salt caramels from her new book and loved them.  She responded 'Oh, I'm so glad you enjoyed them'.  I should have told her I used really good sea salt!

She was in Dallas all of two hours for the signing, and by now, she's probably back with Jeffrey in the Hamptons. I'm still waiting on my dinner invitation.
 

Making sea salt caramels



I covered some in chocolate...really good chocolate



Final product - wrapped up like candy and delicious!



Ina was wearing her signature color - black

That's Meredith to my right (Ina's the one at the table)

The signed book - worth the wait!

How easy was that?!

The Tale of Two Bikes (...or three, or four, or five...)

The Beginning
In the beginning, Will and Melanie bought two hybrid bikes to leisurely ride around town **together**.  Trek hybrid's did the trick and looked a little something like this:

Trek Bontrager Hybrid

After a few freezing cold bike rides in Lincoln, Melanie decided that bike riding should be enjoyable, so she 'hung up her shoes' for the winter.  Meanwhile, Will signed up for a triathlon class at the local YMCA.  Ten minutes later, he officially became an addict.

In short, the leisurely rides that the young couple was to enjoy together came to an abrupt end. 

The Middle
In the spring of 2007 in Norfolk, Nebraska Will participated in his first sprint triathlon (and also got his first pair of spandex shorts... little did we know that he would prefer spandex to real clothes!).


First triathlon and spandex experience

After a few races, Will gets a Trek Madone road bike for his birthday and the races get longer and more intense.  Melanie continues to be the supportive wife, spectator, and runner.



Prairie Man



Athens Triathlon: With Trek Madone



Texas Man - happy in spandex and neoprene

Texas Man pre-swim

Melanie's First Triathlon - on the Trek Hybrid

Will's second 70.3 - Redman Triathlon

Nowhere Near the End
On a recent trip to Plano Cycling to get a spare tire for Will's bike trainer, somehow we ended up walking out with these beauties:

Kuota K Factor TT Bike

It went a little something like this:

Will: Look Melanie, two Kuota tri-bikes on sale, carbon and exactly what I need for my race in June.  And they are on sale!  Only two left and they happen to be our size.

Melanie: Fine, I guess we could at least try them out and take a quick test-ride, but we AREN'T BUYING ANY MORE BIKES.

Will: I know, I know, but it won't hurt to take a test ride to see if they fit.

Melanie: Fine.

Ten minutes later, we are at the checkout. Ask me how these things happen...



And the fourth bike in 3 years (I failed to mention that he got a Trek mountain bike, too)

Melanie's first "real" bike

 

Happy on the new TT


In closing, I will say that I'm very glad that we got TT bikes, we have actually ridden them together (since I can kind-of keep up with Will) and I'm actually thinking of signing up for another race. Oh, and I have a beautiful blue Trek Hybrid for sale if anyone is interested.

Lance, it's all about the bike!

Linda Comes to the "Big D"

All her bags were packed,
She's ready to go,
She's standing there, outside my door.

What a lovely weekend, Mom came to visit me.  I didn't realize how long it had been since I last saw her, too long!  We spent the weekend mostly shopping and running and eating, all very fun things.  Not much is needed for this post, just loved having my mom in town.

"Mother" is such a simple word,

But to me there’s meaning seldom heard.

For everything I am today,

My mother’s love showed me the way.

I’ll love my mother all my days,

For enriching my life in so many ways.

She set me straight and then set me free,

And that’s what the word "mother" means to me.

 

Before a run - I must mention that we ran 8:40 minute miles :)

Linda enjoying Real Simple ... the best magazine in the world.

After church - HPUMC

Redman Triathlon, OKC

REDMAN
We went to OKC this weekend for a Half Ironman triathlon, the Redman.  I think they named it the 'Redman' because the lake has red clay but it could also be because the athletes become 'red men' once they finish the race!  Will neglected to wear sunscreen so his tan lines are pretty hilarious.

Will did fantastic and placed 11th in his age group out of 30 people and 80th out of 227 people overall!  His time improved 35 minutes from his last H.I.M. so that was a huge confidence booster for him.  I volunteered during the race while I waited to see Will transition and got to put the finisher's medal around his neck at the finish line.

And they're off!

I finished before Will!



Off for a 56 mile bike ride

Off for a half marathon run



Finished!!!!

And... ice bath!

Great race, great trip (no flat-tires or other incidents like last time!) and lovely weather. Proud of you, Will!

Cooler Days and College Football

Ahh...September.  The beginning of cooler weather (unless you live in Dallas) and college football!

NORTH TEXAS GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI CLUB
An exciting thing happened this year - I involved us in the North Texas Georgia Tech Alumni Club.  I say 'I involved us' because I am signing Will up for events with me, he really has no choice.  We decided to attend a meeting in July because it was being held at an alumna's house about two blocks away from where we live.  Usually the 'Dallas' events are outside of 635, so we have not been going.  But, since this meeting was so close to us, we went and are glad we did.  We met some very nice GT alumni, and one of the women there was on the GT gymnastics team with me (and it turns out that she and her husband, who is also a lawyer, live on our street).  Small world. But, the best thing about the meeting was that I met my running buddy, Ashleigh.  She took over as President of the NTGT club and has done a great job of
A:  Improving my running time by more than a minute/mile (thanks Ashleigh!) and
B:  Planning events for the alumni in Dallas
*Not to mention that she's been a great friend :)

PAINTING WITH A TWIST
The first event with the GT Alumni Club was for the ladies in Dallas; we went to Painting With a Twist (PWAT).  http://ntxgtclub.weebly.com/photos---painting-with-a-twist.html
I had a lot of fun and met some nice GT women who live in the area.  It goes without saying that I was the only ID major, and one of only two non-engineers.  PWAT was AWESOME!  The class is taught over the course of two hours and is very easy and fun. All you have to do is follow some simple instructions and drink wine if you like.  We painted a peacock in this class and mine turned out a bit more 'free form' than most everyone else at my table (again, please note that I was with engineers, so imagination is limited - a straight line means a straight line!).  I did learn a few things that night that I would probably not have learned had I not attended, such as electronic circuits are built on single pieces of silicon now, versus separate pieces.  This is why all our electronics get smaller and smaller -- they used to build each circuit on individual pieces of silicon.  Thank you Bahavna for that information (Masters from Tech in Electrical Engineering, currently working at TI... or in other words, very smart).  I also got to sample a glass of the Range Reserve Chardonnay '10.  This is a special wine that is only available from Ashleigh and Brad's house - he makes his own beer, red wine, and white wine.  I was most impressed with the presentation; he had a corking machine or something just like wine from the store would have. He also made stick-on labels with the alcoholic content and everything, but then, why should I be surprised, Brad has a BS and a Masters in ME from Tech (again, another smart person).

GT Alumni Ladies

My Peacock, Henrietta

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH: GT VS KANSAS GAME WATCHING PARTY
I think it's easiest to sum up the game as Will said: 'We got Jay-hawked.' 

It looked as if the Jackets went into the game thinking that their #17 ranking was going to guarantee a win.  Well, it didn't.  The only thing that it guaranteed was a messy, embarrassing game.  But that didn't stop us from going to Fox & Hounds (in a very sketchy part of town, the only place that would dedicate a room to the Tech game!) and cheering on the Jackets.  We chatted with Ashleigh and Brad and other fellow alumni who showed up.  Ironically, I met a woman who's sister was one of my Phi Mu sorority sisters --- again, small world!

Ashleigh & Brad

MGT '04 + ID '05 = Lowest SAT scores in the room

Even though we lost, we can confidently say that 'our athletes are smarter than yours!'  If you haven't seen the GT commercial for this season, check it out at the link below:
http://www.gatech.edu/music/psa.html
I believe it was Ashleigh who pointed out that the commercial features a woman, and music --- see, Tech is well-rounded! hahaha