This, That and 18!

This week our dear Casey turned 18!

She was surprised to learn that she is getting a very nice film camera to augment all the free film developing equipment that was recently donated to her. Surprise, surprise, surprise! Now all she has to do is get a job to afford the chemicals and paper. :)

For her birthday dinner she wanted Chinese dumplings (jiaozi) but decided to wait to make them when her dad got home. Instead she settled for the next best thing - Chipotle! She ordered 2 bags of chips, cause they're just yummy with the lime-salt on them.


First thing in the morning she opened her first gift - from Jordan. It's a cool pocketwatch she had been eyeing when she worked at the Fire Department during the summer. Who knew an 18-year old girl would want a pocket watch with a fire truck on it? Her brother. :)

That evening she opened her last gift from Marcus when he returned home from work. It was judiciously wrapped, 4 times! I'll spare you the pics of each layer.

Casey's favorite person, Antione. "Hide your wife, hide your kids" Thanks Aunt Kim for introducing us. For those of you who don't know Antione, please look him up on YouTube. :)

Friday night is pizza night. This Friday we were expecting a few more guests. This is half the night's endeavors. Yes, half!

Unfortunately some of our guests couldn't make it so we had LOTS of leftovers. All the bags, the cookie sheet under them AND another 2 pizzas in the other frig kept the kids happy until Sunday.

So I'm into the home repair business again. Luckily it's much cheaper and simpler this go round (Remember last time I retiled the bathroom, replaced the garbage disposal and the kitchen sink faucet, among other things). I am learning that there is a difference in good tools. I sent this pic to Mark and sang "One of these saws is not like the other!" I was cutting a metal trim for our front door. Can you guess which one was the most successful (read efficient and fast)?

One repair that I paid to have done was our fireplace. It's sooo nice to turn on a switch and have a fire! Did you know that the embers on the bottom of the fire are actually an old type of fiberglass/insulation? Cool! The repair guy was kind and didn't mind my sitting there watching him and asking him all kinds of questions. :)

Sunday morning we made good use of our newly working fireplace and our new subscription to the Sunday paper. I love seeing my kids all reading!

So - with winter I've found a new place to store my pump! Bad thing is it leaves a mark/bruise on my leg. Oh well, good thing I wear pants most days at work.

I got this cool dress at a discount shop. I had Marcus take a picture to send to Mark. I'm laughing because of the entertainment that was happening during my 'photo shoot'. . .

The boys were wrestling.

And Jordan was winning. :)

Hope you all have a great week!

Day 1 - Hanoi

I didn't want to do this, but I have WAY too many pictures to put on the blog. Even paring them down I have about 500! So... please go to my facebook and be my friend. Then you can see them all!! Above is the famous Pagoda on the Perfume River in Hue.

We sailed the sea in Halong Bay. Here's my beautiful princess.

We explored the Viet Cong tunnels in Voc Minh (the most famous ones are near Saigon - the Cu Chi tunnels). These tunnels were designed for living quarters for families. Casey and Mark are in a family's entire living quarter!!

We avoided ordinance everywhere!

We traveled many different ways. Planes, trains, buses, pushing vans, :). This was on our way to the DMZ. We almost got it started once, but then a lady on a bicycle cart cut us off. Darn those bicycle carts!

We had shoes repaired. Jordan and Benjamin found things to do with the excess rubber. "I want you!"

Our shoe repairer also offered to shine our shoes, even though we all wore tennis shoes. He got us on the repairs though. Surprisingly, the glue is still sticking!

Near our shoe repair guy was an actual shoe shop! Custom made!

There was a beautiful cathedral in Hanoi. But there were awful power lines in front of it...

We were to discover they were all over Vietnam! Apparently the government doesn't regulate this, so put up as you please!

For more pics and comments see my facebook. Sorry, but I can upload 60 at a time there, only 5, painfully at a time here!