Lauren

Lauren Moore - or lwnmower as her email states and her brother calls her - will be getting a visit from us starting today. We are headed to 'the sunny state of Orlando!' today after work. Mason has been dropped off at his doggie resort (seriously - they have a pool!!), bags are packed by the door, and all that is left is to complete a full day of work and then drive 7 hours there! Besides the traveling part I am really excited!
This is Eric and Lauren making a serious face at our wedding. This is their favorite kind of picture to take (I stink at it!)

I bought new clothes, painted my toes...I am ready! I believe we will be visiting a nice theme park while we are there, maybe laying on a beach, maybe catching some live scallops! Its gonna be a great time. Look for lots of picutres next week when we get back, but for now, these are the best pictures we have of us with Lauren (and its a good excuse to put up some wedding pictures!)

Gardening (kinda) Post

This is our garden. Its bigger than last year (by a lot). I have already been told it will be bigger next year. Eric wants to make it the entire backyard (that he cleared out last year - lets just say its DOUBLE if we do that!) Anyway, in this garden you see (front to back) hot peppers (40), pickling cucumbers, edamame, asparagus, squash and zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes (and more tomatoes!), snap peas and corn on the right. Since this picture the snap peas have been replaced with regular beans and the second round of corn and edamame has also been planted.

We have tomatoes (and cucumbers) coming out our ears! We have 17 tomato plants and so far have made brushetta (twice), cucumber and tomato salad (almost every other night - yuck!), salads full of fresh veggies, coucous with tomatoes - everything we can think of to eat them up. We will probably make a tomato pie soon with some bigger ones and then have to start canning - its ALOT of tomatoes folks! Eric has been making lots of pickles (and the cucumber and tomato salad) to use up the cucumbers, all to no avail. We both bring about 5 a week to work and still - cucumbers!

The picture below is the amount of food (minus the 10 pickling cucumbers we had to go back and make a second trip for) that we picked last weekend after being gone for TWO days! We are planning a trip to Orlando to see Eric's sister over the 4th - we might need to pay some friends to come pick for us if we really think we can be gone for 4 whole days!


That being said, if you were thinking about coming to visit anytime in the near future - please don't hesitate. I swear, we will have enough food to feed a couple more mouths!
This picture makes me want to sing the Jonny Appleseed prayer:
Oh! the Lord is good to me,
and so I thank the Lord,
for giving me,
the things I need,
the sun and the rain and the appleseed.
The Lord is good to me!

Indeed, the Lord is good to us! We have been blessed - hope you are all having a blessed day as well, and I still promise I will make Eric do a post thats actually about gardening - and not just the garden overview I gave!

Wedding Weekend

Well, I know I promised a post about gardening, but alas we have other fun things to report before we get to the gardening. This weekend we attended a wedding of our good friends, Chris and Melissa. They were actually dating LONGER than Eric and I before they got engaged and married so we are very happy for them that they finally decided to tie the knot. We had a great time with all our friends.
The Bride
The Bride and Groom!

FriendsKelli and Melissa
and us (heart!)I hope everyone had a great weekend as well and I swear, we do garden, and I will show you pictures! :)

Baby Bellies!

Well, I mentioned yesterday that my weekend was ALMOST all about Beck, and the one little bit of the weekend that wasn't devoted to being his paparazzi was spent at my friend Beth's baby shower. I had a FABULOUS time and was so thrilled when I got the invitation that I would actually be home for it! See, not only is Beth having a baby - but four of my friends are having new babies. The battle of the bellies is documented below!

Lauren is due at the end of June, Kim the first of July, Beth the third of July and Lindsay in August! Soo fun!!

I can't wait to go home in September and see all the new babies, and new mommies (and my other friends too!) It was a great blessing to see all my friends. I love living down South and the wonderful friends I have here, but my girlfriends from High School and I went through alot, and there really isn't another group out there like them!


The next post will be about the much requested topic of our ever growing garden! I might even let Eric come back and tell you all about it - since really he is the gardener in our family. til next time...

Beck (aka the Graduate!)

This weekend was (almost) all about one fantastic guy "El Presidente" or my little brother, Beck.

I was his personal photographer all weekend and as president of his class all four years, a standout guy, and just a guy with really great sideburns made him very popular for pictures. I won't post all 176 of them here, but a decent sampling with some fun stories. We had a GREAT weekend!















First as foremost as president of his class he was required to give a speech at graduation. He knocked everyone's socks off! His whole class stood and gave him a standing ovation and my heart almost burst with pride for even being related to him!! My parents (who actually birthed and reared him )- well lets just say 'boo-hooing' was an understatement. He was fantastic and lots of parents and students stopped to tell my parents just that for the next two days. Pretty outstanding this one...

Another pretty cool story is about family. Beck graduated with his second (?) cousin Jacob Oberholtzer. They were born less than a month apart and will be roommates next year at Miami of Ohio (or MOO as Eric affectionately refers to it). And we realized while taking photos that we had three generations, on both sides, all related Oberholtzer men and took the photo op. Here are:
(L-R) Kevin, Kenny, Jacob, Beck, Jack and Craig. (Kenny and Jack (my grandpa) are brothers).













We had a little fun taking photos before the ceremony too - this is our whole fam (minus Eric)

And this funnier one...See, my mom always yells before a picture "No draping arms!" b/c the men in my family are notorious for it - and it ruins a picture. So we did an all draping arms photo just to tease her, and it actually turned out great.


Finally Sunday we had Senior Sunday at the church, another celebration for the graduates. Pastor Mitchell gave a great speech about being empowered...and sent. That you have been taught and trained (or given grace) and now so as not to disappoint those who have invested the time, love and training to empower you (or save you) you are to GO and to DO - you have been empowered...AND sent. It was a nice message for the graduates as well as the audience. And another great photo op...

I guess that is going to be about it for today. I will try to post again from this weekend. I got to enjoy a friends baby shower and we have some other fun family pics. I miss my family already - we had a WONDERFUL time! Congratulations Beck!! and for the millionth time, I could not be prouder!

Vacay!

We headed to the mountains this weekend for the first vacation of 2009! I was so excited, we packed up the truck, including the dog and headed out Friday morning. We went to the Biltmore (Ah-mazing!) and toured the gardens and the winery on Friday and headed back Saturday to tour the house (took hours!) and the farm.

The flowers were unreal - and although it was rose garden season these HUGE hydrangeas in the greenhouse caught my eye the most (maybe b/c they are my mom's favorite and I can't wait to see her this weekend - missing her so!)

On Sunday we got up and went hiking at Chimney Rock State Park (in the rain - yuck!) but the dog was super duper excited about it and going nuts in the car. He enjoyed the 400+ steps to the top and the hike the most. It actually looks like a chimney - makes sense.


And here is our family at the waterfall - it was in the opening scene of "Last of the Mohicans" - neat! And finally the most GORGEOUS view - these were my FAVORITE flower the entire weekend and they were everywhere, but with the view behind them I think this is my favorite landscape photo.

Hope everyone had a great memorial day!

Weekend Happenings

hmmm...well, seems we aren't very good at this blogging thing. But since we have 'followers' now and I know how lost I am in the morning with my coffee if my "blogroll" isn't updated, I thought I would throw a crumb out there for everyone. As I type I am thoroughly enjoying Pandora Radio and my DMB station and reminiscing of the FANTASTIC concert we got to enjoy on Friday. If I wasn't such a rule follower I would have pictures of that to share, alas.. I was the only one in 18K people without a camera (or weed for that matter!:)
Anyway, in other weekend news, we had the Augusta MS walk and we proudly support Team Z. Largest team three years running! We love supporting Kelli and it was GREAT weather. Mason really enjoyed himself, but thought walking with his winter coat was cruel and unusual punishment. He looked cool even if he was really hot - in his bandana. Best dog - EVER!

















I was -as usual - quite a baby hog holding Lily, but I did give her up to let Eric hold her - that's right folks! Eric now holds babies. He has decided he better start practicing!