No photos yet, but, after Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving
Monday, November 24, 2008
No photos yet, but, after Thanksgiving.
Posted by Jami at 4:46 PM 4 comments
Movie Date
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, Jennifer, Rex, and I took Mia to the movies to see "Bolt". The movie was cute, but the little Princess was even cuter!
Catherine, I took my camera and took these for you!
Mia picked out her own outfit, and I am so proud of Jennifer for not only letting her do that, but loving that Mia has such fashion choices! Please note, not only is she wearing Princess shoes, but, as has always been a Mia preference, they are two Different shoes!
Posted by Jami at 8:20 PM 4 comments
Baby Klentzman Shower
Anywho.........a few photos I took. I always forget to get my camera out, so I don't have many. The one of Jennifer's baby "bump", I held the camera at her chest and took the picture, so, that is the view she sees when she looks down!
And, she has blossomed since these photos were taken! I think she looks GREAT as a mom to be!
Rex'a family gave them a wonderful shower! Thank you Klentzman's.
Posted by Jami at 8:08 PM 0 comments
Mia my darling Mia
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Shaking the Piggy's
Giggling Bath Time
Posted by Jami at 11:00 PM 1 comments
The final Chapter of Our East Coast Trip
We drove all day Sunday. It will shock those who know me and how much I hate riding in the car to know that I did not hate this ride. We stopped every time we needed a bathroom (no guilt to do so), we stopped to look at anything and everything we wanted, and Becky drove. Somewhere along the road trip we found this cute little New England church.
Becky laid in the grass/leaves in the front yard of the church to get this shot!
Washington DC
We stayed in Baltimore and took the train to Union Station in Washington.
I need to make a correction in post # 4 of the trip. I said we left from Grand Central Station/Terminal.........that was wrong. Those are pictures of Grand Central, and everything I said about it was true, BUT, we left from Penn Station. Another big beautiful building.
We arrived at Union Station, bought tickets for on of the tour buses and off went went. Our time in DC was limited, and we knew from the beginning that it would be, so, we were content to see most of it from inside the trolley. Besides, it was cold and raining...........BUT, on the list of MUSTS was the Lincoln Memorial.
I do not know why this particular memorial was such a necessity for me to see, but it along with Arlington National Cemetery were the two places that I felt I "needed" to see. They were on my "bucket list".
Audie Murphy is buried at Arlington
We were told over 320,000 soldiers are buried here.
For me, like the Grand Canyon, pictures just can not convey the real sight of this place.
I was moved by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the story of the guards who stand over it, 24/7. I know I have a whole lot of links on these posts, but if you follow none of them, please follow the one about the guards. It is AMAZING what these young men give up and have to sacrifice to have the honor of guarding this tomb.
The tomb
Standing guard
Changing of the guard
We drove past and I took pictures of the Jefferson Memorial, the Capital the White House and other national buildings. I won't bore the reader with more photos that you have seen before except this last one............
Can't you just hear Jenny hollering "Forest, Forest!", and see Tom Hanks running through this reflecting pool shouting "Jenny, Jenny".
Oh, and another fun fact we learned. There is only ONE Monument in all of DC, but lots of Memorials, and the difference being, a Monument (Washington Monument) was commissioned while good ole' George was still living............all of the other Memorials were commissioned after the passing of the one "memorialized".
Well, I am calling this "The End".........as I have been posting, I remember more and believe it or not, wish I had added some more info here or there, for my own sake so someday, I can look back and remember. Remember how much I loved this whole journey, how much I loved sharing it with my dear friend, how blessed I am to have had the opportunity to see sights I have always dreamed of seeing, and if I ever forget, how proud I am to be an American.
Posted by Jami at 9:03 PM 0 comments
East Coast Trip......part Five
And now we are off for the Catskill Mountains! a Preview maybe?!?!?
On the way to the Catskills, we ran across several apple orchards. We stopped at one for a few "Kodak moments" !
Becky by the apple trees
Lovely
We had decide to drive to the Catskill Mountains to really get the full extent of the colors of the East Coast. We stopped at a little bagel shop and visited with some nice folks there who told us about a little drive where we could see a great view. We drove to Ferncliff Forest.
There we took a 30 minute hike into the forest, and climbed fire watch tower that is open to the public.
I will admit that we did not go all the way to the top...........it was VERY high, but, we did go high enough to get these photos.
The Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River.
Oh and have to say, from a little road side fruit stand, we got an apple cider donut and shared it..........it was very good, but I could not tell it from any other cake donut!
From here, we drove through Pennsylvania and on to Baltimore. The scenery was beautiful, with a mixture of trees and rocks and colors and hills and a great friend to share it all with!
I promise the last installment will be Washington DC and the final chapter of this saga!
Posted by Jami at 6:00 PM 1 comments
Blindsided
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Pictures first
When Becky and I left for our trip, Cindy was here and graciously offered to drive us to the airport. Cindy told me that she had some work to do for this lady in town, and she was going to stay at my house an additional night. Little did I know, she stayed here and built me these shelves, custom made and painted, floor to ceiling, for my movies. Words can not describe how much I love my shelves. They are perfect! For the first time ever, I have enough room to organize and find my movies. I have tons of home movies..........I am getting to my point.
Finally having room to organize, I have been going through the old ones, the unlabeled ones, etc..........so, I have also found home movies, made on the old super 8 MM, silent movies, that I had put on VHS.........I found the movies of Jennifer's birth and homecoming, and Jessica's and Catherine's.
I am systematically copying these VHS tapes on to DVD's. This is a bittersweet process. I can not watch these films without seeing my family, my life, and myself as it was...........I don't mean the youth..........I mean the family. Husband, wife, father, daughter(s), in-laws, aunt, uncles, cousins..........lots of extended family on the Waldrop side, and for me, they are all gone, the relationships and the family gatherings, and holidays. ........so I wonder, is this what it is like to lose a close family member to death? Is there always mourning, even with the fond memories? I can't help but smile when I see my babies, just born, me holding and cradling them, even on the delivery table. The babies crawling and then walking for the first time..........and through all of this, he is there.............the one man who broke my heart, crushed my spirit, and took away the dreams we had together, and in my opinion, single handedly, destroyed our family.
It was a long time ago, and it seems like several life times. I can honestly say I am happy with my life and I think my girls are remarkable, considering it seems I did everything I could to screw them up.
Funny how a wonderful surprise of perfect shelves opens up an overload of emotions.
Posted by Jami at 12:29 AM 3 comments
East Coast Trip......part Four
Monday, November 17, 2008
We checked out of the hotel, caught a cab and went to Grand Central Terminal/Station
We had visited here before and tried our first Filaphal and couscous.....but this time we were catching a bus to New Jersey to get our rental car. This is a beautiful building, and it is HUGE!
I forgot my drivers license at home, and Budget rental car almost didn't let us have a car. I had a credit card, but no license and Becky had a license but only a debit card and they would not take a debit card. Finally after several negotiations, they said if I could get a copy of my TDL faxed, they would use that. No one was home, parents were not home...........nada. Becky suggests Juda Hegar, Mia's other grandmother. Thank you Juda for keeping us from having to walk all the way fro NJ to Texas!
Now, we are off to Rhode Island to see Catherine.
We stopped in Southport, Ct. at the Athena diner-restaurant. This is one meal we did not share. Becky had Moussaka (layers of fried eggplant and ground beef baked with a cheese souffle topping) and I had Souvlaki(marinated chicken breast on grilled pita bread with feta cheese). Our waitress was very nice, and really from Greece! Then we shared a piece of baklava.
Catherine helping carry stuff for their house
We shot a game of pool with Catherine and some of her friends, and played a game of Foose Ball, both of which I have not done in a very long time. We then sat in the game room and visited with some of Catherine's fraternity brothers (or something like that because some of them are girls). Catherine then showed us around campus some (it was dark) and we went to a little Crepe' shop to have a bite to eat. I didn't want to wear out our welcome, so, Becky and I hit the road. I mean, really, what are you going to do with your mom and her friend?
We headed for Boston, stopped for the night at a cheap dive of a hotel. We didn't see bugs, but that was about the best you could say...........
Next entry.........Boston and the colors of Autumn!
(I know, this is going on FOREVER, but I want to be able to look back and remember)
Posted by Jami at 6:52 PM 0 comments
East Coast Trip......part Three
Sunday, November 16, 2008
This is where Good Morning America's studio is.........the sign was Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We did not see Diane Sawyer or Robin Roberts, but we were not there early in the morning either!
And another view of Times Square.
We really did walk ALL DAY LONG!
But before we called it a day, we went to Ground Zero. We really debated over if we wanted to even go or not. So sad and we didn't want to go just to "see" it. We then decided we really wanted to go to pay our respects. We followed signs that said "World Trade Center PATH". Now, wouldn't you think that would be the "path" to where the World Trade Center was? I suppose it was, to a degree. But in this case PATH stands for Port Authority Trans-Hudson..........Now this is where I need to add, we were going there between 5 and 5:30 PM........quitting time for 3 MILLION New Yorkers heading home to New Jersey through the PATH! I thought we were going to get run over. Those guys walk SO fast, while we were just strolling along.
From here, we journeyed on to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty at sunset. We did not take the ferry out. These photos do not do justice to the beauty, the grandeur, the magnificence, and the pride of being an American I felt.
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Posted by Jami at 5:37 PM 1 comments
East Coast Trip......part Two
Saturday, November 15, 2008
The weather our first morning in NY was perfect! Cool and crisp and sunny. It was lovely. We ate at the Ben Ash Delicatessen across the street from our hotel. We shared french toast made of Challah bread, (I had never heard of this Jewish bread, but Becky had) fresh fruit and an extra large quantity of crisp bacon (the bacon was my idea!)
Since our hotel was just a few blocks from Central Park, we walked to the park. We decided to take a carriage ride through the park, and this was really one of my favorite parts. Our driver was from Ireland, and he had the most beautiful accent. We also found out that Central Park is like, 850 acres, so I am glad we didn't take off thinking we could see it all.
Sean Denehay...........our Irish gentleman
Central Park
Me and Becky in the Carriage
Then off on the sub-way we went, heading for Chinatown. We found Chinatown with no problem and Becky bought some perfume. We found a place that made bagels and shared a warm fresh bagel.
Then walking, we went through the areas known as Soho, Loho, Greenwich Village, on our way to find Quincy Market (as seen on the Food Network).
Becky at a Greenwich Village Park
Somewhere along the 500 mile hike we took while we walked the entire length of NY, we found a wonderful little French Bakery. We shared a small cream brule (it was awesome), and the famous Black and White Cookie, along with a few small raspberry tart like cookies. All of it was wonderfully tasty and fresh.
When we first arrived in New York, we spotted these signs. They are numerous, and we found it odd that there were particular places your could not stand! We later learned that those signs mean "no parking".....not literally no standing......I still think its odd.
On our walk we shared some sort of chicken wrap from a street vendor. It was great, and we sat along a building, on the ground and ate it. Now the interesting thing to me was the looks we got. I am not sure where the New Yorkers go to eat the food they buy off the street vendors, but we found no benches or anything of the sort, and we were tired, so we sat and ate. I think if we had put a can out in front of us, we might have been given some money!
Two quick notes:
1). I know it sounds like we ate a whole lot all the time........we didn't, but part of our trip was to try the local food, so I am mentioning the food on purpose.
2). That is all for this part Two.
Posted by Jami at 10:51 PM 0 comments
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