Dog Days

Most importantly, Casey got Avery and I'm so excited I get to go play with her in about 6 weeks! How freaking cute is she? Casey posted a bunch of photos below you have to check out. I'm dying.

 

My friend got this dog and I'm a little bit obsessed... It's called a Tibetan Mastiff. How many dogs can we get, again?

I went home this weekend and Skye-boo says hi! I don't know how she wrapped herself up with this but, she's decided to join a convent.

In the news world: France has a new president! As promised in your e-mail, I will elaborate a little bit on this new (totally objective) disaster. First, his name is Francois Hollande and is the first Socialist Party president since Mitterand. Remember how I argued that the rich should pay proportional tax rates (if not slightly higher) ... well Hollande agrees. In fact:  "Domestically, he has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and raise the tax rate to 75 percent for those earning more than one million euros a year."... How to destroy an economy in one step. Step One: Tax the rich 75% (!?!? )

He is also lowering the retirment age to 60... He is raising min. wage, cutting payroll tax and starting off with a huge spending spree, which I suppose could be a good thing for the Euro strength. He is also making owning a second property in France a taxable nightmare for people who might just have a second place over there....  He is also famous for a "secret" life long affair (and four children) with Segolene Royale- the 2007 Socialist party presidential candidate in France who ran against Sarkozy...

I have to give him one thing- he wants to pull all French troops out of Afgh. by the end of 2012. So, my brother is not getting deployed. If only Obama would do the same...

Anyways, that's where France is... so maybe we should hurry up with that trip there before it falls apart. I'm exaggerating, but I'm betting France will miss Sarkozy more than it thinks.

I did a quick sweep of the NYTimes today, and the news is pretty uneventful. I suppose that is a good thing. The big stories today were a foiled terrorist plot, a wife Skyping with her husband in Afghanistan watched him collapse/die in front of the screen mid-sentence and no one knows how it happened, 50/50 Obama/Romney dead heat in election polls,  Biden stating that all people including gay/lesbian people should be allowed civil rights and Obama is tentative to agree. Actually, North Carolina voted today against allowing same-sex marriages.  So I'll leave you will all those positive stories... :)

 I hope you enjoyed the puppy pictures. I had a lovely chat with your sister today about her sweet puppy, and your mama yesterday (who said she would adopt me if we didn't work out, which might be a little awkward for you, so I guess that means you'd be out!) Can't wait to see your family and I wish you were going to be there, but they will be nice to me the whole time, which will be a nice change from another Reed.

Missing you!!

Here is a few pictures of Coleman meeting the new puppy (we named her Avery). When Ryan took her out the crate and put her in the grass, Coleman took off running and hugged her! He has been attached to her like glue since we got her, they do almost everything together. I put her in a crate in our bedroom when she starts to get tired so she can get some rest away from him, when I do that he just cries and cries. When he wakes up in the morning I go and get him out of the crib and put him on the ground he runs to our room and opens the crate to let her out! Ryan just THOUGHT he was getting a dog for him! 

I had to include one of Gracie also... we don't want her to get jealous!

Ok, so here are some pictures of Coleman. I PROMISE I won't take over this blog with all these pictures and posts. I rarely have time to sit down and post things so my posts will likely not be as frequent as others so I am trying to cram it all in during his nap!

He walked through the puddle the other night and started crying because the water was too cold. I loved the little baby foot prints so I had to get a picture.

This was Coleman this morning relaxing in his chair in his PJs with his hat on eating breakfast. I mean, really... he has it made! Love the crossed feet.

This one is a little dark but he was still cute cheesing for the camera.

Chugging my cold black coffee on our camping trip. He had been fighting me for my coffee all morning and I wouldn't let him have any. Then he snagged it off of the picnic table and looked so proud of himself. Ryan said to let him try it and then he wouldn't want it anymore... I mean what 1 year old likes coffee, much less, cold, black coffee? Coleman... that's who.

His dirty camping face. He ate, literally, handfuls of dirt. Yum.

Yes, this is your nephew. I take no credit for this. He is wearing Gracie's water bowl on his head as a hat. I tried several times to take it off but he would just put it right back on. I am pretty sure everyone else at the campground thought we were crazy letting him run around with a dogs water bowl on his head! He kept trying to put it on Gracie's head, she would shake her head and it would fall off and he would laugh so hard.

Yes! I finally got the coffee away from Mom!

What? Are you talking to me?

Playing with his Easter Bunny presents. Lucky Boy.

First Easter egg hunt.

Stealing candy from a baby... just kidding, that sweet little girl was sharing her eggs with him!

This is what he really thought of the Easter egg hunt.

Coleman on his first "date" with Maddie. SHE gave HIM the first kiss, please tell him this is not how things are supposed to go!

Of course, I had to include a few pictures of Gracie for you to dream about, maybe one day you will be lucky enough to a sweet dog like her.

Not sure if you can see her in this picture or not, she is right in the center of this picture. She is braving the rapids for her orange ball.

Grace Girl.

She loves the water.

She could do this for hours on end. She is such a lab.

Ryan and I did this for you... however, Ryan is making fun of the size of the flag. He says it is way too big for our house. He said it is the size of the flags they fly at baseball games at the end of the stadium. Boys... they drive me crazy.

So you mentioned that I should post some pictures on the blog of some cakes I have done. I am just posting a few... I don't want to bore everyone to death. 

This was The Very Hungry Caterpillar cake I made for Caroline's 2nd Birthday Party.

We were supposed to cook out for Caroline's 2nd Birthday on her actual birthday but plans changed at last minute but I already had her cake made. Great practice though!

I made these baseball themed cupcakes for Shannon Grubbs baby shower.

This was a Captain America themed birthday cake I made for a cute little boy, Gavin, who turned 6!

These were the matching Captain America Cupcakes

I made this Thomas The Train cake for a sweet little boy, Miles, who turned 2. Unfortunately, it was raining outside that day and the #2 got really soft and didn't stand up like it was supposed to. I have since learned how to make them without that happening!

I made this cake for a sweet couple who was celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on St. Patricks Day (hence the green ribbon!). Such an inspiration!

I think Emily took a better picture of this cake but this is the one his Mom sent me. This was, obviously, an Elmo themed cake. 

Thoughts

Remember how I said you can always tell a French person in NY by their shoes?

Well I got on the subway, and saw this lady. I looked down at her shoes and thought- "YOU!". I waited so long until she finally turned to the man next to her and lo and behold, what came out of her mouth but baguettes and fromage.

I know they look like Keds here, but really, I promise, they aren't. They had a little gold design but I was too embarrased to take two pictures of this poor, unassuming Frog, so they came out like this.  I just had to show you.

In the world:
Super well-written NYTimes article on the isolating effects of social media and how the youth can no longer hold conversation: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-conversation.html

Obama gave out the National Teacher of the Year Award (who knew?) and gave a whole spiel about "if you want to know you're making a real difference each and every day become a teacher", etc etc, which made me exceedingly happy. I'm so ready to go. The lady who won had been an aspiring lawyer and was a goofball. Kindred spirits.

Health section on why humans and dogs (but not ferrets?) get a runners high.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/the-evolution-of-the-runners-high/?ref=health

The NY Marathon lottery drawing was yesterday AND... I didn't get picked :(. So bummed, but next year inshallah! And you're coming with me. You can at least cheer me on.

Otherwise, I'm spending this weekend cramming my last 2 papers and studying for a final. I've tried to make all the periods size 14 and do anything I can to make it to 20 pages, but it's a struggle when it's about psychotherapy and repression and all this nonsense. The size 14 did very little just so you know when you are writing your own dissertation.

Thinking of you all the time and wish you could be here to distract me.

Chip's Deployment: Welcome!

Hi Bud,
I just came home from a Credit Union mtg. They bought us all new iPad3's. Sure right after I bought an iPad2. It's supposed to make better pictures. We will see. And it looks like I will be going to Long Beach in October after all. Jerry and Trish are going too.
Love you,
Mom

Hey baby,

Beautiful New York day, hunkering down this weekend to pull that GPA up .14 ridiculous points. A little over two weeks left of this semester and then I get to start teaching in June! I'm chomping at the bit, so naturally I thought I'd be proactive and start out the day sending you some pics instead of studying:

Your mom sent me this amazing picture of Layla. It reminded me of something, and I couldn't quite figure out what it was.

Then I remembered. 

 I fell for you even as a hairy Wolverine. How?

Lastly, I wanted to show you I've been working on my curtain OCD. It's called exposure therapy. Eventually, after seeing it like this day after day, I will no longer respond physiologically and every time you try to tilt it to make me mad, you'll lose!

P.S. http://www.tc.columbia.edu/admissions/index.htm - I decided to apply yesterday on a complete whim. Will send you more details in an e-mail.

Happy Saturday, love!

Hey little brother! nothing much going on here. BBQ weekend this weekend at church so I will be busy, busy. I've got a couple of busy weeks with church activities coming up. We are trying to raise money for mission trips this summer. I am going again as a leader. We are going the week of July 4th. Should be fun, July 4th on the mountain. I've been reading alot lately. Trying not to watch as much tv. Diet is going ok, I've not lost any more weight but Ive maintained. Miss you alot but when you get back hopefully you will see a lot less of me. Take care!!! Love ya!!

Hey cuz!  I'm sitting in my New Testament class, not paying attention because my professor didn't show up to class today but sent in a sub instead.  He emailed all of his other classes and cancelled but he couldn't go ahead and cancel ours?!? Ugh professors! :P
I don't know if you are aware of Boone weather but let me tell you, it is pretty unpredictable.  Today's forecast was a high of 62 with lite rain starting around noon.  So I wore a sweater and brought my rain coat with me to campus so I would be prepared for this mildly chilly/wet day.  Well the weather actually turned out to be 70 until 2, and then a waterfall hovered over Boone for 30 minutes.  I hope the weather isn't as crazy for you as it is for me here because this is ridiculous!  On the plus side, before it started to rain a local restaurant was giving out free bean and rice burritos and it made me think of you because I jumped in before there was a line :P
I've got two more classes for the day and then I'm off to wind down my day with Scott by watching a movie.  We watched True Grit last week and it was a pretty good movie! Thanks for the suggestion :) The entire time i kept staring at one of the officers thinking "Is that Matt Damon? It has to be! No wait it can't be because he has all of that facial hair. " Then I realized how old he was getting and then I knew it was him for sure!  If you get a chance to respond back, what other movie would you recommend us to watch? You have such good advice when it comes to stuff like this (that's as much sweetness you're going to get from me right now ;P)
Guess what?! When you come home I'll be old enough to drink in this country so I would love to go out with you and your lovely lady sometime! :)

I love you Charles! Take care and be safe.

Flossie :)