Graduation celebration cruise!! (Part 1)

My school sponsored a brunch cruise along the Potomac River this past weekend for graduates and their families, and Steve and I had such a great time!! (We even got a little sunburned!)

Our cruising vessel, the Odyssey III, ready to depart from downtown DC:

Waiting for our ship to set sail!

Me with my friend Andrea:
Our table on the boat

(L to R: Steve, me, Andrea & her family,

far right: my professor Dr. Arveson and her hubby Paul):

Graduation celebration cruise, Part 2!

More fun...

The view from our table as we chowed down:

The President flew over to say congrats...haha

Waving hello to our apartment!!
The bridge there in the middle is a view of our daily commute, VA to DC:

My professors, Dr. Dy-Liacco & Dr. Arveson:

Me & my hero, Steve (aka, world's best hubby!): Tune in next week for pictures from the REAL graduation!! :)

As promised! The finished basement pictures from Steve...

Steve has been laboring on and off for several years to turn the basement of our NC house into a separate apartment ~ a slight challenge given that we live in a different state! Nonetheless, with many trips up and down I-95, he has completed all the architectual, framing, electrical work, etc. himself...and I am SO PROUD!!
A few years of hard work later, the finished product is here!

Below photo: the front entranceway is to the left,
tiled in with a coat closet (sadly, not visible in this picture!),
the office nook (back right corner),
and defined by the archway, the great room:

This view below is on the opposite side of the great room from the above view (what you see when you walk in) ~ it shows the entrance to the bathroom, the kitchen and breakfast nook, and the look-through window above the bar area (the bar tiles match the kitchen tiles):
Inside the kitchen & the view through the bar into the great room:Bathroom:
The super spacious bedroom:
Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?!....and, it's bigger than our apartment in DC! ;o)

I was a teacher today!

Doesn't that look like me?? haha. But math...not so much!

Since you all are wondering what exciting things are going on in our life, I thought I'd update you. I taught a class today!!

I was asked to be a guest speaker/substitute teacher for a Deaf Studies class here at Gallaudet. The deaf students who are preparing to become sign language teachers wanted the perspective of a hearing person that has learned sign language and is now fluent. I had to discuss the process of learning this difficult language and second language acquisition techniques...finally, my linguistics graduate studies paid off!! What fun!! :)

Also in exciting news, Steve has FINISHED the basement project in NC and he has moved our renter down there!! Yay!! He promises pictures soon...

Happy Birthday to Stacy!!

To a great sister and sister-in-law, we love you!!

(L to R: Sharon, Savannah, Stacy; Thanksgiving, 2006)

Stacy will be celebrating her birthday STUDYING!! Yay!!

Aaaah...Ten pounds lighter!!

Well, I'm not really, but I sure feel like it. There's nothing like a thorough Spring cleaning - it makes you feel so good! This past Saturday and I cleaned our entire (albeit 800 square foot) apartment from top to bottom...I know, it's not much, but it felt so refreshing!! Maybe we really did lose ten pounds... of dust, that is.

And though there is still snow on the ground, I have so much hope in Spring that I packed up all my winter clothes and several bags of Goodwill donations. A great start to spring indeed...now, if the weather would just catch up to me!! ;)

And what, you may ask, was my dear Steve doing while I was scrubbing away?! He was being super handy, as usual!! I ordered a fancy trash bin with the idea that it would combine several functions into one and give us more counter space in our teeny-tiny kitchen. Steve assembled all of the pieces, miraculously turning it into a super-multi-functional counter-top and trash bin!

...I love him!

See the progress below:

He has so much patience and attention to detail...
Viola! Doesn't it look like it's always been there? Perfect!
...and now we have a huge new section of free counter space!

Happy Easter!

This is striking!

Okay, a quoteworthy and very convicting thought from a woman that I respect...

"I had a very poignant moment soon after my mom died five years ago. I wrote out the kind of woman that I wanted to be. Now, and I’m always doing that, but this was particularly poignant, because my mom was gone at 62. And I wrote out the kind of woman that I wanted to be, the character, what I wanted to be known as; basically my eulogy, what I want my eulogy to be. It’s a good exercise because you know what I did next? I took my “to do” list and compared the two. There was no overlap—none. And it was so poignant because I thought, “This is the woman I say I want to be, and here’s what I’m spending all my energies doing? And there’s no overlap? This is a problem.” Compare your priorities with your schedule. Compare your priorities with your “to do’s”. -Sheila Pennington

Spring was in the air!

Yes, I said was...
Monday of this week was the beginning of a beautiful Spring ~ 75 degrees, sunny and breezy. And of course, we took full advantage by going to the National Cherry Blossom Festival here in DC!! We packed a picnic and enjoyed an evening stroll and dinner on the bank of the tidal basin under the gorgeous cherry blossoms...

...THEN IT SNOWED TODAY!!!!!!!!!

Crazy weather, I tell ya. And it's supposed to snow again tomorrow. Hmpf!
Anyway, here are some pics from our (short lived) spring adventure!

The view upon entering the Tidal Basin:

Aren't the blossoms beautiful?!
The whole Tidal Basin scene is very picturesque
with the surrounding trees, blossoms and various monuments as backdrops.

Our picnic spot underneath a canopy of trees where it was
raining petals the whole time we were eating!! So lovely...

PS- we don't recommend eating the blossoms though...we couldn't keep them out of our food!!;)

Happy me:

Our view from the picnic spot: (Can you see the Monument?)

The amazing sunset behind the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool that we caught on the way back to the car:

I must admit, we had fun! Steve and I are NOT typically the touristy/museum/festival-going-types, but we have done this for the last two years and enjoyed it. The traffic during this week though - I could definitely live without. Grrr, tourists!! ;)

Grandparents are truly GRAND!

Finally, something worth posting about!

Steve and I recently had the delight of visiting my sweet grandparents for the weekend, and we had a blast! They are 85 years old, preparing to celebrate their 57th wedding anniversary, and are by far some of the coolest people that I know! Their hospitality extended beyond gracious - we hiked, we dined, and we stayed up late laughing and eating ice cream - what could be better?!

From our hike: (Yes, this beautiful setting is

practically my aunt's backyard...I am soooo jealous!! ;) We visited my T'Aunt Amy (gotta love those family nicknames!;)

and her kids Andre and Raya (our "hike" hosts and leaders!)

L to R: Steve, T'Aunt Amy, Andre
Raya's fort...quite impressive!
Steve catchin' a snooze on the riverbank!
What a fabulous looking lady my Nana is! Clearly, I adore her...Hopefully I will be as LUVLY (our favorite word) when I am her age!

Thanks Nana & Poppy, Amy, Andre and Raya...I wish we could've spent more time with you ALL!! And to our family that we didn't get to see (and never do because they visit our blog and don't post - you know who you are! haha!!)...we missed you ALL!!! ;0)