Our little girl ain’t so little any more. Mary turned 12 on the 28th of August (I’m behind on blogging, I know). Her big presents were a new cell phone and tickets to see a Miley Cyrus concert. We had a party for her while we were in Marietta over the Labor Day weekend. Her grandparents, uncle, great-grandmother, great aunt and unlce and cousins were there. Click the pic to see more.
Mary’s 12th Birthday
Soccer Season has Started
Noah’s soccer season got under way this past weekend. He had a fantastic game and scored a bunch of goals for his team. Click on the picture to see a bunch more.
Grow it while you’ve got it!
Football is back on the grass this month (instead of artificial turf) so out comes the camera. Now as many of you know, Ken is a card-carrying member of the Grow-It-While-You’ve-Got-It Society and his son clearly reflects that. Enjoy.
Happy Easter
Its a beautiful rainy Easter morning here in England! In true English form we spent the evening at the Ellis’s and Noah and Mary set their alarm for 7:00am for the feastivities. I am embarrassed to say that we made them bring them up to our room to go through their baskets. We can’t ever find Easter egg dying kits here so I think we are all looking forward to dying Easter eggs next year. All the eggs are brown here so I don’t think they would look very nice anyway.
Yesterday in true Lynlee form, Noah and I got to the butcher’s at 3 minutes till closing time to buy the lamb. I have found a real butcher here which I don’t think I will ever see the like of again. I will say that the place is advertised as a “luxury” butchers, whatever that means. The butcher was recommended by the landlady at the Dolphin pub where we get some of the best meals in the area. Mary and Noah eat the ribs at the pub all the time and at Christmas the landlady told me I should try Hursley Butchers. It was a great experience for Noah. I asked for a leg of lamb and the butcher goes back into the walk in refrigerator and brings out the entire leg, asks me how many I am serving for dinner and begins to cut the leg with a saw. Noah was a bit stunned – he asked the butcher if it is a real saw. The whole shop floor is covered in sawdust which Noah had to ask about as well. Since it was closing time all the meat cases were cleared out so I think I need to take Noah back for a true experience of seeing whole slabs of meat on display. As we are leaving, Noah asks to carry the lamb and proceeds to hold on to it the whole way to the next shop.
Today we will begin getting ready for our trip to Normandy. We are spending 4 nights at a B&B in Caen and will be visiting the D-day beaches and Roen where Monet lived and worked and Joan of Arc was um…. burned.
Happy Easter!
I Quit My Job!
Last Friday I informed my boss at the ISVR that I will be leaving the University of Southampton at the end of June. We will all be moving back to Nashville where Lynlee has already arranged for a job transfer. What will Ken do? House husband for a while, maybe try for some engineering consulting work. But I really want to try my hand in the photography business.
There couldn’t be a worse economy in which to quit a job. But I did it anyway. There also couldn’t be a worse time to try making money at photography. Newspapers are laying off experienced photographers in droves. The traditional revenue streams for photographers have been upended by digital media and the web. But I’ll try anyway. Why? Did you ever see the movie Being There staring Peter Sellers? At the end of the film he exits the scene by walking on water over a pond. Why? Because he didn’t know he couldn’t.
