"My hallucinatory Edwards were usually better fed..."

Last night I had book group. When I saw the sea of cars parked outside my friend's apartment, I knew we were in for an interesting night. The book we read is called Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. I should say books though, because almost everyone had also read the two sequels, New Moon and Eclipse. Poor Eric is still recovering from the week I spent reading and obsessing about them to the exclusion of him, the kids and all household duties. I'm going to start calling them the crack books- you can't put them down! He actually hid Eclipse from me and wouldn't give it back until I made dinner. So, I recommend them, with the caveat that they are pretty badly written (it's the characters and plot that are so compelling) and the suggestion that you do laundry and clean the house first. In all seriousness though, I loved the underlying message that love really does conquer all.

Summertime catch-up

A summary of our summer: We kicked things off with a beach trip to Emerald Isle, NC with five other families (heretofore known as "the beach house crew"). I was apprehensive about all those kids and adults packed into one beach house, but we ended up having an incredible time and are already plotting our return. See, my problem was that I grew up going, first, to my grandparents cottage on the Outer Banks, and then to my mom's beach house in South Carolina, so to me, a beach house is of normal size- not a fun place to be with 30+ people. I had only ever glimpsed those gigantic beach rentals (what my mom lovingly refers to as "monstrosities") from the outside. Yeah. Turns out they're pretty dang nice on the inside, with more than enough room for you and however many of your closest friends you care to invite. Ours had a theater room and a pool, and was right on the beach. Briggie had his 4th birthday there.

After that, we did my mom's wedding, another trip down to her place in July, and a wonderful visit from my Dad. Then came what I will refer to as the "what-the-heck-were-we-thinking-taking-all-these-trips-so-close-together?!" period. I went with my family to the mountains of Virginia, where I spent all of my summers growing up at sleep-away camp. (Eryn- wish I had some pics of that so I could illuminate an East coast mystery for you:). As soon as I got home, Eric went to Chicago for two weeks for a course, and I turned around and went right back up to Virginia with the boys and a friend and her little girl. Then I went out to Chicago to visit Eric for the weekend. When he got home we decided we weren't travelling anywhere until Christmas, at least. Of course I already miss the beach and am trying to convince him to make one last trip while the weather's nice :).

So that was our summer. School started for Eric and the boys this week, and, I have to say, HALLELUJAH!!! I now have every morning from 9-12 free. So I'm going to start re-learning how to swim, in preparation for a triathlon we're planning on doing in October. Eric promised to stop racing and save me if I start to drown:).

More wedding pics

Here are the bride and groom...yep, a kilt and a Vietnamese wedding dress...I told you my family's nuts!

Beach wedding

So here are some pictures from my mom's wedding back in May. She and Jeff got married on the beach on Isle of Palms, SC, where they live. It was a really special weekend and we all had a great time. I made the wedding cake, with help from my cousin, Laura and our 2nd (?) cousin, Nan, who used to be a professional baker. It was touch and go for a while, but in the end it tasted great and looked pretty darn good (a little lopsided, but as my grandmother always says, that's how you know it's not store-bought!). The pictures were all taken by my brother's good friend, Suzanne.

Welcome

Well, I'm feeling pretty silly right now, because starting a blog has been on my mind for months, and when I finally sat down to do, it took less than 60 seconds. If only all the things on my to-do list were that way:). I still need to learn how to get the pictures from my camera onto the computer, but this is a start....stay posted!