A Visit From Shane & Patty!

A couple weekends ago, we had the great honor to have my brother and sister-in-law in town for a few days! We had a great time just catching up and getting to know my new sister since their whole dating, engagement, and now year long marriage have been while Don & I have been here in Virginia. Not a great way to get to know the "new" family. We felt like we were attached at the hips while they were here. Since we do not have the privilege of having family around, when we do, we don't want to let them out of our sight! (Watch out Mom & Dad Turner - you're next!) It is also a great way to see the sights in our area. Most of you probably do the same thing - take for granted the things you have around you and when people come to town you get to experience it with them (most of the time for the first time as well)!! This visit was no different.

The first full day they were here, I bummed with them while Don was at work. We went to the Cape Henry Lighthouse which is north of the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. We went down to the Chesapeake Bay and chased some crabs around and found a few shells. The dolphins even came through to give Shane and Patty a little show! **Sorry, no photos - forgot the camera!**

The next day Don had the day off and we continued our journey into Norfolk, but instead of driving into the city, we took a passenger ferry over the water and walked to our destinations from there. We headed to see the USS Wisconsin - a battleship docked for visitors to tour for FREE! We then had the hunger pains growing and decided that we would walk to what we thought would be a nearby burrito bar, but ended up being not-so-nearby, which Patty's feet could testify! However, the burrito bar was a delight! And for those locals - we even saw Craig Moeller (from 13 news) enjoying his own burrito! We later made it down to the ocean and allowed Don & Shane to get a late-afternoon dip.



Shane & Don on the Ferry!



Patty & Katrina on the ferry!



Don & Katrina with one of the MANY Mermaids in Norfolk.



Shane & Patty feeding the fish by the USS Wisconsin.



We're exploring the huge battleship - USS Wisconsin.



Nice look Shane!

Thanks again Shane & Patty for spending your first anniversary with us! We had a great time with you guys and loved each and every moment with you!

Oops . . . I almost forgot . . .

We have also been keeping busy with . . .

1. Camping with Logsdons



2. Busch Gardening




3. Picking Strawberries



4. Being Appreciated - (Teacher's Appreciation Week Loot)



5. Playing with Pirates



We had a costume party to celebrate the openning of the Pirates of the Caribbean III. Here is our best shot at it . . . we only spent a little bit of our life savings on these as you can tell!



The dice game that the pirates played in the 2nd Pirates Movie.



Digging for gold - another game we played that night.



T.J. is walking the plank!



The crew!



Our hosts (no, not Jack Sparrow) James & Jessica! (which I have nominated them for the following awards - Best Costumes, Best Theme Decorations, and Best All Around Hosts Ever!)

What We've Been Up To . . .

. . . Cleaning out the attic . . .
I've been going through ALL of our stuff to organize the things we have accumulated the last four years. Some of it has been placed in different boxes to go with its catgory or simply given away. This was my finale!




. . . Trimming our bush . . .
As you can see, it was a monster. The new trim bush doesn't necessarily look better, but it will grow back. Thank you Flatt's for allowing us to borrow your truck.

BEFORE

AFTER


. . . Seeing Family back in the grand state of MICHIGAN! . . .

Michelle & Greg


Taylor


Braden


Grandpa & Grandma Lightfoot & Uncle Jim


Nick & Soon-to-be family


Mom, Dad, & Sean (well, the back of his head!)


Me, Shane, Mom, Patty, Doug, & Don behind the camera!


Mom & Doug


Don & I with Shane & Patty (my brother & his wife of one year - almost!)


All of us in front of our rental - an HHR (free upgrade! Wah hoo!)


. . . Congratulating Erika! . . .
Good luck with college in the fall!



After receiving her graduation gift - Concert Tickets!



. . . Going to the Langley Speedway . . .
With Nate & Emily Flatt


The Legend Cars

The Stock-Trucks

. . . Killing Cockroaches . . .
Yes, this Jurassic Park runaway was in my home.


. . . Saying Good-bye . . .
We love you and will miss you Tim & Julie Baylor!





. . . Worrying about Godiva's bestest friend, Cali . . .
She was staying at our house while her mom and dad (Stephen & Sarah Branine) went to NYC. She decided to be adventuresome and find a way out of our backyard on July 4th. Since then we have been trying to locate her. The horrible nightmare ended this morning at 5:00 when our little Godiva woke us up. I took her to go potty and she went. She still continued to whine when we got inside. That probed Don to say maybe we should look outside for Cali. Sure enough, Cali was out on the street in front of our house looking at us. She came running inside and we were finally able to break some good news to the Branines! Welcome Back Cali! We hope you enjoyed your vacation, next time tell us where you are going before you go . . . we were worried sick!

June 7, 2007

Our fourth anniversary ended up being a great night!

Don was sent home by 2:30 in the afternoon - and those of you that know Brink's, know that this alone is shocking! He showed up at the door with two dozen pink roses in his Brink's uniform. I thought he was just stopping for a brief moment to surprise me with flowers and then off he goes to finish the rest of his afternoon jobs, but he was DONE!



He was excited about coming home early so he was able to squeeze in a nap before going out to eat.

We ended going to The Melting Pot. It is an all fondue restaurant. It took two hours to enjoy our four course fondue feast.



We started with a cheese fondue that we dipped three different types of bread, vegetables, and granny smith apples (strange, but yummy!)

Next, we were brought out our salads.

Then onto our entree. We could choose from two different broths that we would cook our meat in. We then were brought out our plate of meat. We had shrimp, tuna, fillet minion (spelling?), teriyaki steak, curry chicken, and potstickers. It only took 1 - 2 minutes to cook the meat in the broth and it was a lot of fun!



Finally, we gorged ourselves on the dessert fondue. We chose a smore chocolate to dip our cheesecake, poundcake, brownies, strawberries, pineapples, and bananas. This, of course, was my favorite!



We basically held our bellies all the way home moaning from the wonderful meal we had just had. Don even went to confess that this was the best meal he had ever had. I would have to agree! It was fantastic and we would highly recommend it to anyone!

Happy Anniversary to US!

Today marks the fourth year of our blessed union before God and man. We woke up this morning to the sound of the song "You're Still the One" playing on our ipod. And it is so true. Don is still, I believe, the best guy ever (and I am sure all the wives out there echo this for your husbands as well!) and God has designed for us to be together. At times it seems like we have been married longer than just four years (maybe it's because we have known each other and dated for four years previous to our marriage) and at other times I can't believe it has been four years. We have had a lot of fun times together and here is just a brief picture show commemorating our previous June 7ths together!



June 7, 2003 - Our Wedding Day!



June 7, 2004 - 1st Anniversary - Niagara Falls!! As you can see, the free little garbage bags wouldn't really help against the spray from the falls!



June 7, 2005 - 2nd Anniversary - Myrtle Beach - Purchased Godiva the day before we left on this trip. She was at home by herself whining as she was depressed from having left her siblings and now we up and leave her blockaded in our kitchen. Our neighbors came over and let her out a few times a day, but she was mainly by herself. The trauma hasn't seem to affected her at all. I just remember that trip we were thinking up the name we would give her . . . Madison and Hershey made the list, but we eventually went with Godiva - the best choice - We think!



June 7, 2006 - King's Dominion - We stayed at the campground and had a two-day pass. It was a lot of fun!

Thank you, Don, for being the man of my dreams! You love the Lord suprememly, you provide for your wife not just financially, you're my best friend, and I am thrilled to celebrate once again our marriage and look forward to many more years together! I love you Donny!

(P.S. Sorry the photos are a little messed up, those were taken with our 35 mm and scanned funky!)

Teacher's Appreciation Week

No, your Google Reader is not messed up, The Hines Herald is posting again! Can you tell that I am finished with school?! Before it gets too far away, I wanted to show you some pictures of things I received for Teacher's Appreciation week. Although it was not mentioned on our school calendar, I still received some nice gifts.

Don has begun his summer schedule where he gets Saturday, Sunday & Monday off one week and the next he will only get Sunday. They call it the swing shift. He actually doesn't mind it because every other weekend we have a 3-day weekend and we are able to get away to see the area. His first weekend on the swing shift, I still had to work Monday and I was feeling quite well, so I couldn't use one of my sick days =). Then, it was also the night we had a shower for Kristen, so I was getting home late. I had asked him to do one favor for me . . . to clean out my dryer vent because it was taking sometimes 3 - 70 minute cycles to dry our clothes. He did that and it works like a charm! Also when I arrived he said he did something else for me. So, he sat me in front of the computer and flashed up the following pictures that he took throughout his project . . .







Pastor Eric and Jalyn had installed lights under their cabinets and I loved the effect. So, I simply told Don about it. We tried a cheap way of doing it, by putting those battery operated lights that you push in and the lights come on. It lasted about three hours before the lights burned out or the batteries died. So, when I arrived home I was shocked to see Don had installed real lights and ran the wires through the cabinets. Thanks to Brinks, he has learned a lot about running wire and electricity. Thanks sweetie for thinking of me and giving me something that I didn't need, but something I wanted for your Teacher. And thanks for the fabulous shots of you being my handyman and allowing me to laugh at you! Your so funny!

Here is a picture of my pile of stuff that I received from school. The one special gift was the bouquet of flowers that I recieved from one of my students from TWO years ago. It is always special when they come back to see you and give you hugs!



Here is some pictures of my kids during our fundraiser - the Lions' Pride Golf Classic/Walk-a-Thon.





That same week, the second grade class went on their annual field trip to the Virginia Living Museum, SPCA Zoo, and Huntington Park. We had one little hitch, our bus broke down and were late getting back to school. But I was so thankful that we broke down in the park, so the kids had an opportunity to get out and play in the park, while we figured out what to do with them. We were headed across a major bridge in just a few moments from that place and I can not even fathom what it would have been like to be stuck on the bridge with 40 second graders who cannot get out of the vehicle when it was 80 degrees outside and stopping traffic. The only good I could have seen out of that situation would have been, that we would have probably made the news! =) However, God's sovereignty would have us break down in the park - I'm so thankful!