Archive for June, 2007

It’s a hard-knock life here in Sanibel, I know you all are pitying me.  Yeah probably not.  Mom and I have a “system” where we are going to work on the house in the mornings then do what I like to call “sanibelization” in the afternoons.  Sanibelization consists of the following; laying on chaise in the sun, laying on a raft in the pool, taking a nap, drinking a DP while on the chaise, raft or during the nap.  Sanibelization = perfection/heaven/paradise.  We did get a LOT of work done though, it’s not ALL fun and games (that is such a total lie, I’d rather work in Sanibel than have fun anywhere else…except the Lake!)  Yesterday after mom picked me up from the airport there was MUCH shopping to be done.  We bought new dishes and cups and mugs and rugs and pillows all for the house.  Thank you Homegoods, Target and Costplus World Market (who definitely had Milka chocolate bars on sale 3 for $5, I was totally all over that!).  There was a lot of piddling but we finally came home and started the overhaul.  We left the house to go eat at 8:00 PM, and ate at 9:00 PM!  I came home and collapsed in a ball of tired, over-shopped, I-woke-up-at-5-AM-and-haven’t-had-a-nap-ness.  This morning we cleaned the kitchen and made the hugest donation pile you’ve ever seen, you’re welcome Goodwill.  I wish I had taken a “before” picture so you could know how disastrous the kitchen has been looking as of late, but, alas, I did not and you’ll have to be satisfied with my “after” picture.

See that microwave to the left of the fridge, yeah it weighs seriously 100 pounds, I sadly know from experience.

Here is where I spent the afternoon;

you see that raft on the right, the only reason I am not in that raft RIGHT now is because I am obligated to post here for all of you.

Another of my favorite things about this place is this;

I mean seriously?, do I need to even explain why I love it here?  THERE IS A SWINGING CHAIR on the back porch, looking out at the canal, on Sanibel Island, in Florida.  Which brings me to a couple of points; Cesselot Franconia Riester, I cannot believe you have not been here yet.  It is absolutely imperative that you come down here within the year. 
and the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the shameless plug; this lovely house on Sanibel Island can be yours (and by “yours” I mean you can rent it) for your lovely stay here in Florida.  If you are interested please send an inquiry to harbourhouse1@sbcglobal.net.

Oh and there will DEFINITELY be pictures of the beach posted soon.  Gotta go, the scrumptious pool raft is calling my name…

LOVE!

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Okay people, bad internet would not let me update. I am currently on Sanibel Island, Florida not believing how incredibly blessed I am!! Although there is currently a tornado warning for the area, eek!

First things first, I thought all week about the anniversary of my Baba’s death and how I wanted to write something special on Wednesday about her. Tuesday night I laid awake trying to think of the BEST and most vivid memory I had of her to share with all of you. Yeah, that was silly because you can’t pick the best moment out of millions of great ones, so I decided to not do that. This is what I have to say; Most of the greatest things in my life are due to Baba, either through her or from her directly I have been given so much. When the whole side of my mom’s family gets together, it’s magical. I can’t really describe it but THOSE are the millions of great moments, when the descendants of that wonderful woman get together, well you just can’t beat it. I look forward to those family get-togethers so much and begrudgingly leave each one, practically dragged away. THAT is what she built for us and I think it’s one of the greatest kinds of legacies anyone could hope to leave. Also, our cabins at the Lake and the house in Sanibel are both directly linked to her and are my two FAVORITEST places in all the Earth. They aren’t just houses, they are HOMES because of her and the memories we created in each place with her. Tuesday night I also thought about how her laugh sounded when she was REALLY tickled about something and what she looked like when she woke up from her afternoon nap, the way she always kissed us on the cheek when we went in for a “hello” hug and then again for the “goodbye” hug. Oh there are SO many things. I hope she knows how much we miss her, and how much we loved her!!

I just wanted to tell you I’m still here and that I’m on Sanibel. I will be updating and posting pictures, so I hope you’re holding your breath!

LOVE!

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yeah we’re just gonna call this The Official Picture Weekend, because I got a new camera and now that I’m at the INTERNET HAPPY TOWNHOUSE I can upload those pictures, plus I know how much yall love pictures.

Thursday morning Loren was blessing us with his ability to sing “Kung Fu Fighting”. And that is exactly how many words of the song he knows, plus the “everybody was” before the title phrase, now go back and read that last sentence with heavy sarcasm, because that is how it was intended. Genavieve (the 3-year-old) and I were playing and listening when all of the sudden Loren scampers off. He comes back downstairs in FULL Karate garb, I kid you not people. He totally brought his Karate gear bag too, complete with weapons, he meant BUSINESS. So he put on a demonstration to end ALL demonstrations. He broke out the nunchucks and some other weapons of which I definitely do NOT know the names, much less know how to pronounce them. So what did I do? Giggle of course, hold the kick board when he asked and took pictures!

Please sing “Kung Fu Fighting” in your head while looking at these, it’s only right.

LOVE!

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Hi there, Whiney McWhinester here. Okay I promise this will not be a whine-a-lot post. But I do feel led to tell you this post was brought to you by naptime and viewers like you. Okay maybe not viewers like you but DEFINITELY by naptime. I feel like superwoman at the moment, I got the toddler to nap without so much as a wimpered protest, the dogs are currently occupied with a very fascinating hairspray cap, Alex is at SCUBA camp and Loren is outside playing with Eshaan, our favorite neighbor. Last night I PROMISED myself I would get coffee so this morning before I took Alex to camp, I left him in charge and totally ran to Starbucks and oh what a difference that made, world’s worst nanny, I know! It’s most likely all mental, but who cares, I feel good! PLUS it’s a gorgeous day, 75ish and breezy, I love it. I’m almost all packed and ready for the weekend at the INTERNET HAPPY TOWNHOUSE and I even did my hair today, which is quite a BIG deal. The packing and doing of hair happened during the nap, as well as the finishing of a movie it has taken me 3 days to complete. Now I need to finish a project and return some e-mails.
I hope that all of you have a wonderful, internet-happy-filled, naptime-sponsored, 75ish degree, Starbucks and returned e-mail kind of day. If that isn’t the opposite of Whiney McWhiner, I don’t know what is!

Oh and I promise to upload photos. Once I get home for the summer I can upload photos everyday, will you be able to contain yourselves?

LOVE!

edit: LOOK at my new gadget

LOOK at my new BFF of the K9 persuasion

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CRAZY DAY!
We, and by “we” I mean “I”, are watching my boss’ great niece today and tomorrow. Next week Alex is going over to her house to babysit, which should be really interesting. This little girl is 3 and a half (oh how those “half”s are important when you are that age) and I don’t think Alex has ever babysat before. I’m trying to give him pointers as we go, but it’s a tad difficult when he is in SCUBA camp all day. Why is it that it takes 100 times more energy to watch a 3-year-old than the human energy reserves hold? I’m pretty sure it takes that much energy to care for any child between newborn and 5, thank goodness they go to school at age 6! All I have to say is that this experiences has solidified my love of naps. Naps=sanity, say it with me. I know you think I’m a total wimp and whiner, but you just DON’T know(ok you may know). It’s not like the boys are really helping me with the little girl. Their stance is more of watch and when that gets boring, make a rucus so that it is nearly impossible for me to watch ANYONE. Plus these dogs are insane, they’re always chasing each other around the couch at like 100 miles per hour. Apparently “100″ is the number for the day, can’t you hear Count Von Count in your head? “One ah, two ah ah, three ah ah ah” hehe. Okay so if you still think I have no legitimate reason to whine, you can call me whiney mcwhiner or the world’s biggest wimp, fine by me. You know what else is great besides naps? BEDTIME at 8. YAY!
In other non-whiney news, I bought a digital SLR camera. I was hoping to accompany this announcement with some actual samples of my lovely camera’s ability, but alas, the internet will not cooperate (OH there is some whining again). So you’ll have to wait til this weekend when I’m at Cecilia’s place, the HAPPY INTERNET TOWNHOUSE, that should totally be its offical name. Just a little tip, never tell children how much you paid for you new digital SLR camera plus a lens plus a 4 gig flash card because when their relatives come over they will totally tell them how much you paid for it.

LOVE!

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXANDER D. RIESTER! YOU’RE THE BEST BROTHER A GIRL COULD ASK FOR AND I LOVE YOU MORE WITH EACH PASSING YEAR! I cannot believe you are 22, where has all that time gone?

22 reasons my brother is the BEST;
1. He gives the BEST hugs, seriously. You may think you’ve had good hugs before but that’s because you’ve never had a hug from HIM.
2. He’s so smart.
3. He smells good 95% of the time (the 5% is for after he works out, eek)
4. He listened to me talk about drama all the years we drove together to and from youth group and he STILLS answers my boy questions
5. One time, when we were little, he said, “you just wait Mandy, one day I’ll be older than you”
6. He had jaw surgery and sometimes people don’t recognize him. That’s pretty cool in my book, it’s like he’s a spy, only not.
7. He’s learning German, which means I’m totally taking him with me as my interpreter next time I go to Germany.
8. He always eats your leftovers so you never have to feel bad about wasting food.
9. He can do ANYTHING as far as physical/athletics, it’s like he has a superpower and I’m totally jealous
10. He picks me up when he hugs me (he’s the BEST hugger) and doesn’t groan or act like I weigh 2 tons
11. He’s SO funny, I love laughing til we cry…which usually happens late at night in the basement of our house after too many DPs
12. He does this thing when we are singing in church where he leans into me and it always makes me smile
13. He played football in high school AND college, if that doesn’t make you cool/THE BEST, I don’t know what does.
14. He reads my xanga and laughs over my nanny-conversations.
15. He does a lot of things he doesn’t want to because he’s so great
16. He is solely responsible for our family’s obsession with That 70s Show
17. He’s AWESOME at Speed and Spit (the card games), seriously don’t even challenge him. He’s so fast that even your eyes can’t keep up
18. He’s not afraid to moon you (it’s genetic)
19. He listens and listens and listens and listens (I’m known to talk…A LOT)
20. When we talk on the phone he always tells me he loves me
21. When you cry he holds you really tight and lets you get his shirt all wet.
22. He reminds me of Jesus.

Alex, you are my best friend and I love you so much. I can’t imagine my life without you (I bet I would have whined a lot less and had to eat a lot more salad thought)! Thanks for being you!

LOVE!

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Have you ever had a thought, a mental request of sorts, and then POOF! the thing you were thinking occured? This has happened to me a handful of times, though not when I think, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have a billion dollars” for some reason, darn. Tonight I took my new best friend of the K-9 persuasion (I shall post pictures of her soon)(her name is Bailey and we’re dog-sitting her), and my other K-9 friend (Koda) for a little walk, and when I saw walk I mean stroll around the house for a potty break. I was thinking about how absolutely wonderful summer nights are. I cursed the summer today, it was SO hot and SO humid and the AC is pooping out in the family minivan and did I mention it was hot? But the nights are JUST SO PERFECT, especially at that special time after dusk and before it’s completely dark, the ideal time to catch fireflies in my opinion. That’s when it HIT me, I have YET to see a firefly this summer. Granted it isn’t technically summer yet, but the boys are out of school (which is a whole ‘nother story that includes me pulling my hair out every hour on the hour) and it’s hot enough to be qualified as summer, therefore there should be FIREFLIES I tell you. And right after I thought about not having seen a firefly (apparently you have to actually go outside at that ideal time to see them, go figure), I SAW ONE. This makes me happy on several levels, first that I saw a firefly and is there anything more magical than seeing fireflies on a summer night? and secondly THAT I CAN MAKE THINGS HAPPEN WITH MY MIND, YESSSSS!

LOVE!

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a lil snippet:

me: Oh there is a coupon for free lo mein, ah but you have to spend a lot of money…
Cecilia: A free old man? They give you a complimentary old man?

hehe

LOVE!

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I bet some of you thought I would never be able to go a week without xanga, well I SCOFF at you, muhahah. So my hiatus was partly due to the fact that I could not sign into xanga but partly also because this has been sort of a tough week for me.
In unrelated news, I’ve been thinking a lot about who I am. Cecilia and I were talking about the fact that we will never be the type of girl/woman who has it all together. You know who I’m talking about. The woman who is ALWAYS put-together, even while playing tennis in 100-degree weather, she won’t break a sweat, her make-up is flawless and her clothes perpetually wrinkle-free. I’ve known many women like this and what’s worse is that they are constantly nice too! I’ve thought I could turn myself into this type of person but after many failed attempts (the weather NEVER cooperates) and some perspective I realized that ISN’T me. I don’t want to be that person, thus I’m withdrawing my application to the position of senator’s wife (or the like). Sorry Jackie O., I did my best. When I saw I don’t want to be that person I mean I want to be ME, but I do want to be constantly nice, just not constantly coiffed. I will still try to be a classy lady.

I got some pictures developed and thought I’d post a couple! These are all from a while ago because it took me a lot of time to finish the rolls.

This is from our mini-golf excursion a couple weekends ago. This is not posed, I was honestly terrified because there was a frog on the course and the boys were trying to get it to jump toward me. Apparently when I’m scared I try to eat golf clubs.

Matt and me and a strange girl he invited into the picture.

The pier in Annapolis

LOVE!

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I have to leave Alaska in less than 12 hours and I don’t wanna! I honestly mourned today as my last day, I moped around all day. I’m excited to get back to DC of course and see my loved ones, but I’m thinking it would be easier to just move DC to Alaska as well as all my family and friends, right? That’s what I thought. I’ve said that this may be the only opportunity I will have to come here but I refuse to say that now. I WILL MAKE more opportunities to come back. I can’t describe what it is about this place, but I just can’t let go. It feels like home here. You know what else I will miss? Having 500+ footprints a week, I gotta go on vacation and post pictures more often!

PICTURE TIME!

the bleeding hearts I saw at Alaska Botanical Gardens

crossroads in Anchorage. you may not be able to see but they have DC on here, only 3322 air miles to go tomorrow, sweet! although Jerusalem is only 6004 air miles, tempting…

goodbye anchorage, I really do love you and shall come back for you soon, I promise!

LOVE!

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