Catching up for the holidays...

(December 24, 2008)

I apologize for not having written in some time….life has been a little more crazy than usual.

After my husband’s surprise sumo party we’ve been running around like college students with a great group of people and having a blast!

At my husband’s party, he reconnected with a lot of his high school friends (some of which we’ve spent a little time with, others I’d met for the first time). Since then, we’ve gotten together with most of those friends on a consistent basis which has been a great treat for both of us!


A few days after my husbands party, there was a mini-high-school-reunion that we all attended and got to know each other a little better….

Me behind a bar....not a good idea.....=)

Then it was suddenly my birthday and I found myself having a great time bowling with some friends!

After bowling (and unbeknownst to me) my husband had gathered our friends for a surprise Hibachi/Pirate birthday dinner.

Next thing we knew it was another friend’s birthday, and another. =)

One of the birthdays included a limo and the tacky lights tour of Richmond. Let me tell you…there is no better way to tour the tacky lights of Richmond than cruising around in a posh limo drinking rum and coke, having the driver stop at Starbucks AND the Jefferson Hotel to use the bathroom, getting in and out of the limo at your leisure at the craziest decorated houses, getting into the wrong limo at a few of these stops and getting close and personal with your limo mates. =)

The one thing that would’ve made that night perfect….not having to work the next morning!

In-between all of the birthday get-togethers and work we've managed to get our holiday shopping done and will be having Christmas Eve dinner at my mother-in-law's tonight.....and then.....(enter dramatic drum roll here)....

tonight marks the start of the 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story on T.V.!

Fudge yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy holidays all!!!!

Operation Sumo Surprise

(November 22, 2008)

My husband turned 30 today.

He had been dreading it for some time; little comments like "I may as well be 40" and "I'm old" clued me in.

So I decided to throw him a surprise party......not just any surprise party though.....a surprise sumo tournament. =)

I tracked down as many of his high school buddies as possible in addition to his closest friends and Comfort Zone Camp friends and family and rented a sumo ring and sumo suits.

The mission....

throw him a "fake" surprise breakfast with his family (so he wouldn't expect anything else for the rest of the day), have a friend kidnap him for the afternoon while I set up for the party and then at 6 p.m. he would walk into a surprise sumo tournament....

mission accomplished.

Here's a timeline of what went down....

At 11 a.m. we met the family at the clubhouse (where we would be hosting the actual surprise party later that night) for a "fake" surprise breakfast.

He totally bought it. We had breakfast, pastries, a cake with candles and presents. He thought that was it.

At approximately 2:30pm his buddy Tony picked him up for some G-Force go-karting. Once he left the house, I jumped in the shower, got ready, packed up the car, picked Amy (Tony's wife) up and headed back to the clubhouse where we set up for the party.

At 5pm I picked up the food (veggie sushi platter, terriyaki chicken platter, veggie platter, european cookie platter) and got the food and drinks set up.

At approximately 5:45pm I called my husband and told him I had forgotten my coffeemaker at the clubhouse when we had breakfast there earlier that morning and asked if he could pick it up on his way back to the house.

At precisely (well, I don't actually know what time it was because I was freaking out about the surprise), at some point about 10 or 15 minutes later my husband walked in......

SURPRISE!!!!!!! Let the tournament begin.....

Obviously....I had no chance. =)

I had the honor of being the first sumo wrestler to actually fall all the way onto the ground. =) There was a collective gasp in the room (you can even see my little nephew in the background looking very concerned) but I was totally fine...until my husband squashed me! =)

Everyone was having a great time watching, eating, drinking sake and giving sumo wrestling a shot. It was an awesome night!

All in all....I think my husband had a pretty good 30th birthday! =)

For Steve (2008)

(November 15, 2008)

Happy Steve Irwin day!

How are you celebrating?

I ran a half-marathon in Steve's name.

Hope I made him proud!

I was completely exhausted by the end of the race but it was totally worth it!

Happy Steve Irwin Day!

An early birthday gift...

(November 6, 2008)

Got a very early birthday present from WillowJP4 who just recently returned from a Scotland vacation....

land in SCOTLAND!!!!!!! =)

She actually got me my own little plot of heaven!

Subsequently....owning land in Scotland gives you the title of Lord or Lady!!!!!!!

I'm a Lady!!!!!!!!!! =) How about that!?!?!

Seriously one of the coolest birthday presents ever!!!!

Thanks WillowJP4!!!!! You're the best!!!!!!!!!

Mom-a-palooza (Part II)

(November 5, 2008)

Woke to another beautiful breakfast at the Stafford House B&B and to an equally beautiful day at the Capitol!

We started our journey at the Smithsonian Institute...

It was.....gorgeous. I'd never actually been in the castle...it was HUGE! The gardens were pretty spectacular too!

After playing in the gardens for awhile we headed (on foot) toward the Native American museum.

Mom was generous enough to take a few calls on the way....

 So while she talked story...I took pictures....

We explored the Native American museum for a little while (that's me howling at the moon)...

and then decided to go in search of the National Japanese American Memorial.

Now...let me tell you...this memorial was not easy to find. It did not show up on our GPS and it only appeared on a few of the map directories in the area!

After walking for what seemed like hours...we finally found it....

and it was completely worth the walk.

The memorial is extremely small....and unfortunately not well-kept....but we had the entire place to ourselves...and it was so..................so humbling....

After standing in the presence of these powerful words....words of forced justification...words of apology...words of regret....I felt physically and mentally exhausted. How is it that I can feel so ashamed and proud of my country at the same time? Ashamed for what it did...but proud that it realized a wrong had been done and addressed it. No amount of apologies or compensation will ever override what our country did to those forced into the camps and their families...but at least the mistake was acknowledged and addressed...unlike other countries where the issue would've been buried and left out of history books.

After the Japanese-Americam memorial we headed back to the car and back to the b&b.

Don't know if I've mentioned this...but I love GPS. =)

We hit up a cool diner...got some dinner...took home some dessert....got the jacuzzi going.....relaxed in the hot, bubbling water and just talked girl talk. =) It was lovely.

I think we both slept pretty well that night.

Woke the next day with an extra hour at the b&b thanks to the end of daylight savings (and we totally used that hour!) and then headed toward home.

As we drove, Mom spotted a neat little town that reminded me of a few fishing villages I saw in Scotland....

Welcome to the town of Occoquan...population 700! =)

It was super small, super cute and was right on the Occoquan river.....

It was in the lovely little town of Occoquan that Mom and I had an actual (yes...actual) encounter with an R.O.U.S.!!!!!!

Mom spotted this guy running from one yard to another....in broad daylight...very slowly...and when I approached to take this picture he just starred at me!!!!!!!! Mom thought he was going to charge me. It was very entertaining!

Kid you not...the thing was the size of a fat house cat!

One R.O.U.S. and many pictures later we were back on the road heading home.

We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch and then finally made it to the house.

What a road trip!