Pumpkin Patch

We went to Baughers in Westminster on Friday and Kyra had a blast playing on the straw tower and getting our pumpkin.

Golden Shoe Race- Rockburn Elementary

Kyra ran the Golden Shoe Race today. It's a race by grade, and the class that finishes first gets the "Golden Shoe". Kyra wanted me to run with her, so I did. We started the race together, then she took off! She was the first girl across the finish line!!!

Buffett

Mom and I went to the Jimmy Buffett concert on Aug 30- great day, great show, great music- as always!

Brayden Brewer

The newest member of the Brewer family was born on September 2, 2008 at 2:15pm. He weighed 7 pounds and 2 ounces. He looks like Nathan when he was born. Lorie, Justin and Brayden will go home today to big brother Nathan. That Ravens jersey that Kyra had as a baby is getting a lot of use!

First day of school

Off to school for the first day of 2nd grade!

Bethany Beach 2008

Here are pics from our latest beach trip with the Brewer clan. This year, Mandy's fiance Soren joined us. We all stayed in the same place on Parkwood Street, just 2 blocks away from the downtown area (Garfield Pkwy) and 2 blocks from the beach. Linda, Rod and Great Grandma Brewer stayed in a condo about 3 miles inland, where the kids were able to play in the pools, the adults played tennis, and there was a game or 2 of foosball. It was a great trip- there were 2 days that I stayed on the beach for 6 hours- I didn't think I still had that kind of endurance :)

Kyra and Nathan going "nite-nite"; Me and Mandy trying to play tennis!

The Brewer siblings and their better halves!
Mandy & Soren;
Lorie & Justin;
Kelly and me.

Brewer Garden

Kelly has done a fantastic job in the garden this year. We've been talking about having a garden since we moved in here in 2002. We dabbled in it last year, and got some hot peppers out of it (Kegger ate most of them though!), but this year Kelly went all out. He waters everything all the time- he definitely has the green thumb!

I've been telling Kyra how I used to go out to our garden in Beltsville and pick an entire salad for dinner. I got to tell her yesterday- "go pick some dinner"- she came back with the tomato!

Finally- my hydrangeas!!


The beginning of the watermelon-

Here's the watermelon 1 week later!


We have green peppers on the deck-


The cucumber snuck up on us. We kept looking for cucubmers, and this one attached itself to one of the tomato plants!


Out of hundreds of little green tomatoes- a red one is ready!!!

Mandy is getting married!

Some exciting news from the Brewer family- Mandy and Soren got engaged over the 4th of July weekend in Minnesota! The wedding will be July 5th in MN, where Soren's family has a lake home. We can't wait to see where Mandy will be spending her summers after her and Soren settle in Minneapolis in a few years. We'll all get to know Soren better when we all go to Bethany Beach in a few weeks.

Vegas, baby. Vegas.

Kelly and I decided it was time for Kyra to see what Vegas was all about. We got Uncle Todd to take care of the beasts at home and we hopped on a plane. We lined up a limo ride to pick us up from the airport to take us to the Vegas sign and see the strip. We went to m&m World and Margaritaville. We saw the atrium at the Bellagio, took a gondola ride at the Venetian and saw LOVE at the Mirage.


Kelly found his best friend from high school in CA on-line about a month ago. Jason and his wife Tonya met us Saturday night for drinks and dinner. The boys had a great time catching up, and Tonya and I got along great. We look forward to meeting up with them in the future, either for an adult weekend in Vegas, or a family trip somewhere.


Kyra's favorite thing of the whole trip was Margaritaville. We went there for dinner the first night in town, and she loved the guys on stilts that made her a balloon hat and dog, the girl going down the volcano slide into the big "blender" and the drinks- she had a virgin strawberry dacquiri. We walked past Margaritaville on Saturday on our way to the Venetian, and Kyra says to us "It's hot; we need to go to Margaritaville and get a drink!". That was the BEST quote of the whole trip!!


Kyra lost another bottom tooth in Vegas- now the bottom middle teeth are grown up teeth, and now there's a hole on either side!

Tarso's HARLEY!

Tarso finally got his Harley- he so deserves it. He LOVES that bike, and man is it COOL!!! Kyra got a ride last weekend. I'll get to go when Tars is back in the country and remembers to bring me a helmet.

Spring Recital- 5/10/08

Phoenix Rising Dance put on a performance of "Matilda" on May 10 at the Slayton House. It was a wonderful show!


Kyra and her friend Lily Deitch.



Kyra checking out her makeup.


Kyra's best friends Maddie Sommers and Kaitlyn Carino.

Meet "Mrs."

Kyra had to do a school project where she created a character from a Barbara Parks book. Barbara Parks writes the Junie B. Jones series. "Mrs." is Junie's teacher, whom she likes very much. Kyra had a lot of fun creating "Mrs."!

O's game 4/17/08

Kyra went to her first O's game on Thursday April 17. It was a perfect evening for a ballgame! On my way home from work that day, I was listening to the country station, and the DJ's were talking about Kenny Chesney being at the ballpark. What luck- Kyra's first game and she got to see one of our favorite singers throw out the first pitch!

Just some misc pics from the past week or so. Kyra had a "spa" bath, complete with a conditioning treatment for her hair and a mask. The dogs are still tearing the house up- Kegger specifically. We are thinking about getting hardwood in the LR too- that's the last room in the whole house that has wall to wall carpet. As soon as Kelly steam cleans it, one of the dogs (Molly or Kegger) pees on it within hours. I give up.

My new job is great- the commute to Baltimore is 30 mintues, 40 w/traffic, but I'm going against it, so it's usually not bad at all. I haven't worked in the Columbia office yet, but have at least seen it- right across the street from HCC, and right around the corner from David's Natural Market- one of my fave places. I ran into Produce Galore the other day for lunch- I don't think I've been in there in 10+ years. When Meme was alive, I'd go to her house every week and bring her dinner- I'd always get stuff from Produce Galore. Walking in there on Tuesday brought back a lot of memories!!

Job change

This is the last time I am making a job change- at least for several years (hopefully!).

My last day at Maxim will be February 1st. I will be off the week of February 4th, and start with Capital City Nurses on February 11th.

This is the company that my Mom worked for when she and Dad got divorced. Her lifelong friend, Sue Rodgers, owns it, and Sue’s son Brian is now running a lot of the operations. I’ll be a manager that will work in the Baltimore office (in White Marsh), 3 days a week and in the Columbia office (by Princeton Sports) 2 days a week. They do private duty nursing and have contracts with the VA in Baltimore and the Office on Aging.

It was a very hard decision to leave Maxim, but I think that CCN will be a better fit for me in the long run. Eventually I should be able to be in the Columbia office 2 ½ or 3 days a week, and will be a Regional Manager as we hire coordinators in both the WM and Columbia offices. They will open more offices as well, and I may be able to help train new employees and get the new offices up and running.

I’m very excited for my new venture. This is a company where the “big bosses” know me. My direct supervisor (another Maureen – I’m taking that as a very good sign!) knows Mom, and I know I will feel comfortable there. I think it’s a great opportunity, and will offer the flexibility that I know I’ll need as Kyra gets older and enters (gasp!) middle school, etc.

Crusin!!

My friend Tina turns 40 (tomorrow!!), so a bunch of us headed out for the ultimate Girls Night Out! We all boarded the Sovereign of the Seas on Jan 11 and headed for Nassau! We docked Saturday the 11th in Nassau and went to the Strawmarket. I got some deals....nothing for me, just for Kelly and Kyra.

On the Sunday, we went to CocoCay, an island owned by Royal Caribbean. It was so beautiful. We ate, had a water balloon fight, sunned ourselves, searched for shells and ate some more.

We docked in FL on Monday the 14th, and all headed to the Orlando airport for HOME!!!!

All of us on Beth and Karen's balcony- what a great room with outside space!
From the left: Christine McGrath (son Justin went to the Young School w/Kyra), Beth Slomine (daughter Rachel also from TYS), Karen (Beth's college roommate- HIL-AR-IOUS!!), Tina Sommers- the birthday girl and Kyra's best friend Maddie's Mom, Sonya- Tina's best friend, and ME :)


The GIRLS on our first night out- we played "Name That Tune"- LOTS of fun. The champange, WOOWOO shooters and vodka drinks finally caught up with Christine and me at dinner. We crashed around 10:30!



View as we pulled into Nassau, Bahamas, on Sat. Jan 12.


Tina and I on the "formal" night- Saturday, after SEVERAL vodka drinks and more WOOWOO shooters and Lemon Drop shots. That was a fun night!!


View from the island CocoCay- the ship was beautiful!!