Fantasy of Trees 2008

Here is my little tree I decorated on my own this year to donate to Fantasy of Trees which benefits Children's Hospital. In years past I have lead a group effort at my office to donate trees but this year I was able to do one on my own. The theme was "Fly Away Christmas" and I had a blast putting it all together! With a red and gold theme the tree is covered in butterflies, dragonflies, birds, planes and helicopters.

Thanks Bridgette

Okay, so I was checking up on our friends' blogs and saw that I had been "tagged". Not one to let others down I will do as the instructions say.

1. Choose the 4th picture folder on my computer.

2. Choose the 4th picture in that folder.

3. Explain the picture.

4. Tag 4 people to do the same.

So the picture above was taken while we were on a Duck tour in Boston back in June. I guess you can tell that I took it since it is focused on architectural "things". In a historic part of Boston the street lamps are real gas lamps. I thought that to be a pretty cool fact, and the building in the back was neat as well. Shawn and I were in Boston on our way up north to Vermont for Pa's memorial service.

I can not complete the last task. Do not know 4 other bloggers to 'tag' and carry this on any further.

Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Shawn and I fly down to Florida for Epcot's Food and Wine Festival. I will scan and post everything we tried. Shawn checked of everything we tried, it is amazing! The best part was spending the day with Granny at the festival. Sunday we spent with Mom and John and I BEAT THEM ALL at mini-golf at the most difficult course at Disney, or anywhere really. I will also post the scorecard soos as proof. It was a great mini-vacation for us!

The Flash and The Punisher

Shawn finally got a boat!

Here is Shawn and his brand new boat! He is also sporting his new Transformers Autobot watch. Two of his birthday gifts this year. The new boat is even red, his favorite color!

Halloween 2008

Here is this year's ridiculous costumes! I bought a hot dog costume for the dog and then got this "great" idea that we should be mustard and ketchup. Dusted off the sewing machine and started creating our costumes.....not too bad for a few nights worth of work. Here we are at Marcy and

Andrew's annual party, we were not allowed to bring Mac. Here is his replacement for the evening. We also carved our pumpkins but can not reveal what they look like till voting has been done in the first Annual Pore Family Pumpkin Carving Contest. Check back soon to see our enties (the winners) for the contest.

Facebook

WOW! We have finally joined Facebook. I have been avoiding following the crowd because I was not a fan of MySpace and thought this was just another version of it. I have been proven wrong and find myself spending too much time typing in names of friends that I have lost touch with. I was completely sold on Facebook when I found our Swedish exchange sister. After spending years wondering how she is doing and how in the heck would we ever find her again........WE FOUND HER!!!!! We will continue to keep up this blog and Facebook with photos.

Sarah East Photography

I have added a link to Sarah East Photography in our "Important People and Places." She has a great eye for photography! Please check out her website and browse her work. In the image above she has captured her daughter Lilly perfectly.

Norwich Homecoming Trip

For those who did not know, I went to a private military college. I was once a rook who had to do all the running, push-ups, sit-up, ironing uniforms and marching. Marching was tough for a gal who did not know her left from her right, THANKS MOM! This was my first trip up to Norwich's Homecoming in 7 years! It was a short trip up north to Vermont and New Hampshire but well worth it to see the Wick, Granny, Uncle Bobby and Dad!

Passed Test Eight!

Don't want to talk about the last test, number nine. Maybe in six months.

Candid cat photo

All the cats were lined up waiting for their dinner. I think Mo' was getting really irritable without his food!

Nothing really new.....

I know folks check our blog to see what is going on. Well there are no new posts because there is really nothing new to talk about. No word on my last two exams to be a licensed architect. Shawn's football team won their first game, unfortunately they were not so lucky in their second. It was a great season opener for his kids and it was an exciting game to watch. Tonight is game three, we all have our fingers crossed, might be another close one. The University of Tennessee football team started out with a bang, losing to UCLA. It looks like it is going to be another tough year to be a Vol (Volunteers) fan, at least for football. Next weekend I am going to Norwich's Homecoming, first time since graduating in 2001! This will make two trips there in a year. I will get to meet up with Granny and spend some time with her. Pa's name is getting engraved in a memorial wall so we wanted to be at the dedication and attend the football game in Pa's memory as well. Keep checking back, hope to have some exciting news soon!

Just waiting on two more!

My First Ground Breaking

It has been a while since I have posted anything because I have been in a marathon sprint to finish up my architectural exams. I took the last three in the last two weeks! Feels good to be done, even if it may only be for 6 months. If I fail any tests I am not allowed to retake the exam for 6 months, not sure why they do that. Now I have my free time back! What do I do?! Sunday evening we attended the ground breaking for one of the churches I have been working on, Holy Family Catholic Church. You will see me in the photo third from the left moving some dirt around. It was fun to be out there and share the excitement that the church has for their new Fellowship Hall to be built.

Are you sitting down?

Marcy is engaged!

She and Andrew took a trip to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC and he popped the question Saturday night. All of us are excited! His two little girls were more anxious then the rest of us for this day to come.

Congratulations!

Feline Dentistry Lesson

Below is an x-ray of Maurice's teeth from his surgery today. During his yearly exam it was mentioned that his teeth were looking bad (gingivitis) and he needed to have them cleaned. I finally forked over the money to do it about a month ago and come to find out that was just the tip of the iceberg. Maurice has something known as FORs, I can not even begin to tell you want the stands for in medical terms. It is a disease that is being researched heavily as it happens in 60% of ALL cats. Basically his teeth are disintegrating from below the gums and working up. In the x-ray below you can see a tooth of his that has just about disintegrated completely, the "fuzzy" looking tooth to the left in the image. The roots of the other two teeth are "fuzzy" meaning that the decay has worked its way up to the gum line and is causing pain for Mo'. When all his surgeries are said and done (yes, multiple surgeries) he will only have his front teeth left and maybe his upper canines. First prognosis was only four teeth would need to come out but that was only based on a consultation visit and exterior appearance of his teeth.

A celebration of life in Vermont

Marcy and I sat with Pa looking out over his view of Norwich after his service. It is a beautiful spot and it is comforting to know that Pa is home. This past weekend we made a trip up to Vermont to Norwich. I had not been back since the day I graduated, seven years ago. We made this trek north for Pa's memorial service which turned into a celebration of friendship, family and memories. I want to THANK everyone who has supported us through this and who continue to do so. We were fed well and taken care of in every way possible. We are surrounded by wonderful friends, old and new, and a loving family. Pa was (and is) a very loved man and he loved everyone just as much. Continue to share stories of those we have lost and make sure to make memories to cherish forever! In our travels we were able to spend a day in Boston and see some old college friends of mine along the way. Shawn and I landed in Boston the night of the big parade celebrating the Celtics big Championship. We did not see any of the celebration just the remains of some confetti in the streets, a banner on the capitol building and all the

souvenirs that you may want (or don't want) in green. We were able to take a Duck Tour through Boston, I had never taken a Duck tour so we thought it would be nice to see more of Boston in a short time by riding around the city rather than walking.

Cherokee Rugby 2008 Bowl Champs and State runner-up

The South-Doyle rugby team had a very successful year. This is the fourth year of the program and continuing to improve each year. This year we moved up a classsification and competed in the Bowl Division in the SMAC (Smoky Mountain Athletic Conference). We won our division defeating Catholic 35-5 in the championship game earning us a seed in the State Tournament in the Plate Division. We defeated Brighton Storm 24-5 in the semi-final game. We played Coffee County Barbarians in the Championship Game losing a hard fought match 12-10. The team is already working this summer to be better next year practicing 3 days a week and playing in a 7's tournament.

Study Break in Florida

For Memorial Day weekend we planned a Florida vacation. Warren, Kristi, Shawn and I visited SIX amusement parks within three days! One 12 hour day was spent at Universal Studios and Island of Adventure. Two days were spent at Disney World hitting all four parks there AND Downtown Disney. Now that we are back we need another vacation to recover from all the walking we did. We even managed to squeeze in a game of putt-putt at Fantasia Gardens. It has to be mentioned that Warren beat Shawn by ONE stroke, which is a butt kicking in their book. Mom was actually tied with Shawn and Granny was next, while Kristi and I did all we could to just finish.

Three more to go!!!!

National Women's Build

If you look in the back row, left side, you will see a gal in a white hard hat, look to the right of her and you will see myself and Birdie. Yep, this build day was a family event. Shawn brought his mom up and they got to do some interior painting will I help construct the flooring for another home. We were fortunate to have good weather for the Women's Build and everyone had a great time! Soon to be posted is news about South Doyle's Rugby team. Coach Knapp will be traveling with his team to compete for a State title this weekend!

Happy Anniversary!

Shawn says it is two years down and only 78 more to go. Leave it to the math teacher to create a countdown for wedding anniversaries! We had a wonderful meal at Regas, one of the older restaurants in town. The food, atmosphere and service was great! Shawn got me some beautiful flowers, a tray for me tea, an embroidered blanket and a nice record player to play the old vinyl records on. I got Shawn a HUGE bean bag (gaming chair). I made sure it was big enough to me a movie chair too that both of us could fit in. It is definitely big enough! I have included photos of our blooming front yard. We have a couple plants that still have not recovered from the bad frost LAST spring but the rest of the yard looks great.

Happy Birthday Pa!

And Happy Birthday to the Pope as well, who knew! Today we all will celebrate Pa's birthday in our own quiet way, all of us released a balloon in celebration, even Mac had a balloon. Marcy and I will each release a balloon with a message as well as plant a lily in our gardens for Pa and hopefully place a frog by them as a little memorial spot to reflect upon.
This past weekend Shawn and I were at Dollywood for a VIP reception and dedication for Porter Wagoner. We were excited at the thought of possibly meeting Dolly in person. Unfortunately we were only able to see her, and honestly that was pretty cool too. We got to hear to talk some as well hear her laugh that ever so popular Dolly laugh. The weather forecasters had been predicting a chance of rain and cold temperatures for the day, they were WRONG! The day turned out to be beautiful and we had a great time at the park. Shawn and I actually spent the rest of the day with my boss and his youngest daughter. The three of them rode the water rides while I stayed on shore and held anything they did not want to get wet. We got to see the new portion of the park that I did a lot of work on, it looks great. Hopefully we will go back soon and actually ride the new ride, by the time we got to it everyone was too wet and did not want anymore water thrown at them. The weather down here is just as crazy in the spring as it was up north! Saturday we got sunburned, temperatures in the 70's and then the past two nights we have had to cover our plants to keep the frost off! Make up my mind! Tomorrow we will be back up in the 70's again and hopefully stay int hat range for a while before the humidity sets in for the summer.

Over half way there!