Chef Messy

Conversations With Matthew: At Grandpa's House

As reported by Grandpa, who is keeping Matthew at his house while we drive across the country (currently we are somewhere around the halfway point):

"Hey, Grandpa, is Mom going to move into that house we saw?"

"Yeah, she is.  You like that house?"

"Yeah, I really like it.  And is Dad going to live there to?"

"Sure is."

"Oh, good!  We will go and visit them every day!"

Graduated and Edumacated

It's hard to believe, but the big day came and went, just like that.  It's funny how you build up and build up for a moment, and before you know it, that's it, it's over, and it's time to move on to the next thing.

Not that W&L doesn't know how to throw a weekend-long graduation shindig.  A big highlight was the Friday night celebration with fireworks, live music, and some serious dancing (mostly by the kids, of course).  This was just about the cutest thing I saw all night:

Matthew, boogie-ing down with his buddy Ava on her 2nd birthday.  We are really glad that Seth and Lindsay are going to live somewhat close to us so that we can eventually marry Matthew off.

The whole weekend was basically one continuous party.  Of course, it doesn't hurt when you have 20+ family members here to help you celebrate!  I think Ryan quite possibly had the biggest crowd of anyone at graduation!  Ryan says that trying to get so many people any given place at any given time is a bit like "herding cats" but we had so much fun having everyone here!  I wish I could show you a photo of the crowd, but they're a bit blog-shy.  Just trust me, it was quite the party.

Funny moment of the day--just before leaving the house, while we were getting ready to go, Matthew ran into the bedroom and said, "Hey, Mom!  I have to talk to you about something."

"OK, what?"

"Ummmm . . . why is Dad wearing a dress?"

He was quite concerned.  I thought Ryan looked pretty hot, though. 

Here's Ryan with Jason and Seth, a couple of other favorite 3L's, pre-graduation.  (Hey Evan, where are you???)

The weather kept looking a little threatening, but we somehow managed to go the entire weekend without a drop of rain until everyone was just ready to go home.  How gorgeous is this setup?

I'm so going to miss seeing this campus every day.

The Commencement ceremony was great, and I think everyone enjoyed the speaker (Judge William Webster, former director of the FBI, CIA, and a number of other things), who made a brief comment on how the graduates were all growing up.  As soon as the ceremony was over, Matthew was wondering, "Hey, so is Dad a grownup now?"  Hmm, I don't think I'm going to answer that one.

 

You know, it's so exciting that Ryan's done, but so sad, too!  The end crept up on me a lot quicker than I was expecting it to.  I really can't imagine having a better law school experience.  We've had such great friends, and we've loved living in Virginia so much!  I'm excited to be moving on with life, but I am really, really going to miss this.  At the end of the weekend, though, I am so glad that we can leave Lexington knowing that we're going to have such great memories of law school.

Chalk

Neglected and forgotten by folks who had developed an odd obsession with cleaning supplies and brown cardboard, Matthew decided to pass the time by getting involved in his own home improvement project.

 

This is what life looks like at our house right now.

So, guess what.  Ryan is officially done with law school!  Well, not totally officially, since graduation isn't until Saturday, but his finals are done and he doesn't have to think about studying for, like, a whole week, when he will get to start thinking about the Idaho Bar!  Whoohoo!  No seriously, it is nice to know that he's done and moving on to the next thing.

Speaking of moving on, welcome to my world...

This is one of my more organized moves, I must say.  I even have cleaning checklists.  Ugh, I hate cleaning up during a move, but I am making good friends with this handsome feller...

Am I the only one that thinks that the Magic Eraser almost makes cleaning fun ("almost" being the operative word here)?  By the time I leave this house, it's going to be really, really clean.  It's almost too bad that we won't always have to move every two or three years.  I don't even want to think about what this house would look like if we were to stay in it for another three years.

We took a bit of a breather last weekend, though, and went up to see Ryan's sister in Pennsylvania, where they took us to play at this very cool castle park.

We also got to race cars at the Allentown Farmer's Market!  This was definitely a big hit with Matthew.

It was nice to get away from packing for a couple of days, but I've got to get back to it!  We have family coming into town tomorrow, graduation on Saturday, and a big move two days later, so posting may continue to be sparse until we get where we're going.  Guess we'll see how sick I get of packing!

WLU loves UVA

I have been a busy little bee.  Lots and lots of photography going on around here.  (What?  You say this is an avoidance tactic to keep me from packing up my junk?  I can't even believe you would accuse me of such a thing.)  Anyway, here's a couple of photos from my most recent engagement session of not just one, but two Virginia law students, one from UVA and one from W&L.  That's right, folks, this is Virginia's newest up and coming power couple!  This girl is a friend of Ryan's, and it was fun to get to know her a little better.  She and her fiance are so very obviously completely in love with each other, so I had a blast following them around with the camera.  Such a cute couple!  They look so happy together that you would never dream they are both in the middle of law school finals.  (Wish WE looked this good during law school finals!  And I'm not even a law student!)

I asked them to "make out like monkeys" for this shot, and they did not disappoint!

Oh, I just have such a fondness for old dilapidated buildings, I can't even tell you.  In general, I am happy every single day that I decided to do more with photography.  I love every minute of it.

Tomorrow I'll have something else to talk about though, I promise!

Shanda, Minus the Beast

Well, there seems to be a severe lack of things to blog about around here.  I suppose I could have showed you photos of my yard sale, if I had thought to take any, but that's not much fun.  Don't suppose you care to see the updates on how much I have packed up either?  No?  Hmm...  I mentioned before that I got a chance during my trip to Idaho to take some photos of my sister Shanda in her Prom/Jr. Miss dress.  Though all other projects other than those that involve boxes and cleaning supplies have ceased around here, photography always continues.  Since there is a severe lack of anything else worth taking photos of around here, thought I'd share a few more of my faves.  (I always post these on my photo blog, but for some reason I like to keep them here, too.)

Oooh, so moody.  Love it!

 

Aww, I think she's so pretty!  Always nice to have such a gorgeous model to work with whenever I want, haha.  I heard several little girls on location exclaiming, "Look, Mommy!  It's a real live princess!"  Can't imagine where they would get that idea...

In the Wild Dirt of Idaho

Wow, it has been a while!  Please forgive me for my blogging delinquency.  It is, once again, law school finals time at our house.  But this isn't just any old law school finals time.  It's Ryan's LAST law school finals time!  Yep, folks, it's just about over.  The end has really crept up on me.  It's funny how the days can go so slow while the weeks and months fly by.

Anyway, the final season of law finals means that, on top of the usual finals time craziness, we are also preparing for a big move, which is quite exciting in many ways but a little sad in many others.  I am really, really going to miss Lexington.  I have so loved it here!  I'm thrilled to be moving on with life, but I realize we have been so lucky to spend the last three years here in this great little town.  I just got back from a little trip to Idaho (trying to get out of Ryan's hair while he studies one last time!), and it's really quite shocking how brown the rest of the country can look after spending a little time in Virginia, where stuff stops blooming only for about two weeks a year.  I will miss all this green.

So, I bet your wondering where we are off to in our post-law plans, right?  It's a long convoluted tale, and I will leave the transactional details out, but we are moving to Idaho, where Ryan has chosen a slightly atypical but very promising career option.  I'll give you more details in the future, but for now I'll just say it will be awesome and I'm really excited about it.  Ryan gets to start earning a paycheck, I get to do crafty stuff with my mom, and Matthew gets to go to the farm and help Grandpa drive the tractors every day.  Works out for everyone.

Oh, and also, I get a new (to me) house, with a big fenced yard, and a garage!  And it has closets in every room!  EVERY ROOM!  I can't even tell you how excited I am about this!  (Does it mean I'm getting old or slightly weird that the most thrilling aspect of moving is closets??)

I have really, really enjoyed my 150-year-old house here in Lexington.  There are many things about it that are quite charming (lack of closets doesn't quite make that list).  I am, however, looking forward to living in a place where the utility bill is less than the rent, haha!

So, finding a place to live was the major accomplishment during the trip to Idaho, but we did manage to have some other fun while we were there.

Grandpa recruited us to help him plant his baby beets...

...and also introduced us to several of his other 150+ new babies, who didn't quite know what to make of the girl with the big black clicking thingee.

 

Dad thinks this little spot would be the ideal location for my future menagerie, once I convince Ryan that there is some good reason for having a flock of turkeys and some alpaca.  I have to say I quite agree.

And on the topic of menageries, we also took Grandma to McKee's Pet Shop, where the wild tortoises roam free...

Yep, these guys just cruise around the store.  You'd think that the store owners might be a little nervous that one day they might just make a run for it.  Sheesh.

We also went to Shanda's totally awesome ballet (of which I took much better pictures, but she keeps forgetting to send them to me)...

...and took some photos of her totally awesome prom dress (everywhere she goes, little girls mistake her for Belle!).

We also met several members of her unruly harem of men, but unfortunately I didn't get any photos of those.

And then we farmed some more (gotta go out and sing songs to the baby beets, you know, or how will they know where to grow?)...

   

We also spent a few hours on our way back to the airport at the Gateway Discovery Center in Salt Lake.  This is an astoundingly good kids museum, if you happen to live in the area.  I don't think we've ever been to a museum where Matthew had more fun.  You can pilot a real helicopter...

...or work on some projects in "The Studio,"...

...but the definite highlight of the whole museum is that they have this little miniature city, with a farm, a construction zone, a gas station, a grocery store, a postal system, a city water department, and little houses for the little people to live in.  Matthew spent a good hour working as the farmer, harvesting the crops, delivering veggies to the grocery store, and bringing milk to the little girls cooking in the little house.  You suppose he might take after his Grandpas? 

Isn't this just the very picture of domestic bliss?  I love it.  Nice to see a fella who will help around the house after a hard day at work.

 

He also made friends with a local firewoman.

After all that hard work, we couldn't miss out on a stop to our other favorite SLC location!

In other unrelated but very exciting news, did you know that I got a new baby niece?

OK, well there's the latest from our little world.  Blogging may continue to be sporadic over the next couple of months, but I will do my best to pop in and give an update or two!

Book Meme

Wow, I have been tagged many times lately.

The Rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (with at least 123 pages)
2. Turn to page 123.
3. Find the 5th sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag 3 people

The nearest book is, oddly enough, the Harper Collins Atlas of World History.

5th sentence: Like Alexander III before him, Innocent IV (1243-54) allied with the Italian cities to resist Frederick II's efforts to subject the whole of Italy to his rule (the Norman kingdom of Sicily was his by inheritance) and to unite it with Germany by controlling the lines of communication between them. (Sheesh!)

Next three sentences: The bitterness of the struggle, in which the Pope openly expressed his intention of extirpating the Hohenstaufen dynasty, produced a strong reaction, and the papacy only succeeded when Clement IV (1265-8) called in Charles of Anjou, the brother of Louis IX of France, to evict the Germans from Italy. Charles of Anjou's victories at Benevento (1266) and Tagliacozzo (1268) brought the Empire down in ruins, but the papacy had jumped from the frying pan into the fire. After Louis IX's death in 1270 disputes with the increasingly centralised French monarchy over taxation of the clergy and royal sovereignty led to open conflict in 1296. Boniface VIII proclaimed papal authority undiminished, but was kidnapped by his French and Italian enemies in 1303, and in 1309 his successor, Clement V (1305-14), took up residence in Avignon, directly under French supervision. (Sheesh, again!)

Well, I learn new things every day. For obvious reasons, I will not be tagging anyone with this one, but take it if you want it!

Pinkie is Pink

"Pinkie is pink.
She's plump and flutters her eyelashes.
She loves pink.
She also loves flowers.
Actual gender and species unclear.
'Pinkie is pink. That's all you need to know.'"

I love the Aranzi Aranzo craft books. Besides the fact that none of the projects take more than about an hour, they just crack me up. We made a couple of these (Matthew helped) from a recycled Danskin pullover. One is for a little friend of ours, and Matthew is trying really hard to convince me that he should get to keep the other one. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the world who think it's totally fine to give a boy a pink doll, but I'm just not sure if we're quite that progressive.

In other unrelated things that crack me up, have you seen this video yet? Me and Matthew watched this over and over yesterday.

Conversations with Matthew

"Wow, I'm so happy you're being such a good listener today.  How come you were having such a hard time being good yesterday?"

"Well, I just forgot to turn on my brain yesterday."