Birthdays, Weddings, Engagments, Oh My!

We truly enjoyed our weekend...

Friday night we spent time together to include a trip to Barnes and Noble where we spent well over an hour flipping through books. We both love books, however I LOVE the bookstore. I can spend hours in there no matter how cold they make the place. I love the smell and the feeling of new books in my hands.

We both left the bookstore with books in hand and empty pockets!

Philip purchased The Art of War, a GMAT prep test and a book of Fairy Tales that he swore was a great steal and critical for our library and future children. I left with junk...surprise surprise. Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand and Twighlight which I found out is a teen book series and I am tempted to return it just because of that! We are both deep into our books already and couldn't be happier.

Saturday morning we attended our next door neighbor Amelia's 2nd birthday party at the clubhouse/pool. I have never mentioned our next door neighbor's the Cardenas' in a blog but they are quite possibly THE BEST neighbors anyone could ever ask for. Amelia loves Bella. She will step outside and start calling her name as she is looking for her. She will come to our back door looking for her or if our garage is open go to the door leading to the house calling her name. Bella is still trying to decide what she thinks about this. After almost one year of exposure to Amelia chasing her she is not a petrified as she intially was, but won't sit still without her eyes bulging out as Amelia pet's her. Our neighbors are perfect in everyway. They look out for us, enjoy dinner with us and are always up for a great chat. We had a blast at Amelia's birthday party and got to meet many friends of our neighbors that we had not met before. Great people! (note this is a fairly old photo, Amelia loosk much older now, but she is such a doll!)

We also attended another neighbor's wedding this weekend uptown. We met Eryn and Paige before they even started building their house in our neighborhood. They used to walk through the neighborhood with their little white dog Daisy checking out the neighborhood. We immediately became friends with them and they just moved in to their newly completed house 2 months ago. They got married at the First Baptist Church uptown and the reception was held at Founder's Hall. The wedding was spectacular. The ceremony was beautiful, cocktail reception was perfect and the location for the reception was spectacular. Everything was put together with such finese! The food was fantastic (salmon, steak, asparagus and potatoes au gratin). We had a great evening with them and they were so gracious to make numerous visits to our table to make sure that we had met everyone (since we knew NO ONE but the bride and groom). We are looking forward to their return from their honeymoon next week so we can spend more time together!

Our dear friends Ben and Lisa that we stayed with in Atltanta last weekend got engaged on Friday night. Of course.... I knew he was planning on proposing after our visit last weekend. He told us his plans, showed me the ring (I got goose bumps!) and I lied my way through the weekend to protect his sacred proposal. We are so excited for the two of them and are looking forward to their Summer 2009 wedding in Chicago!!!!!

Sink your hands in this...

In college I took a semester of Ceramics. I loved it....If you knew me during this time you knew I would go into the studio at all hours to practice throwing on the wheel, hand building or work on some project that I was trying to master. I loved sinking my hands into the clay and turning out beautiful projects that I could keep forever. At the end of the semestser my professor even threw each of us our own project of chioce that he signed as a keepsake. Most of my stuff was pretty amatuer but still beautiful in my own eyes.

I now have the opportunity to put my skills to the test at the Whirling Wheel, a cute studio here in Charlotte. Sarah K. has had an artisitc craving and she asked me to join her in an 8 week course at the Whirling Wheel learning all of the techniques to throw pots, glaze pots and whatever else we might want to get our hands into. We will meet each Wednesday night and I could not be more excited.

Philip has challenged me to make a flower pot..
I want to make something for our bookcase to display.

Class starts after Labor Day. I will keep you posted on my progress....

Spent in many ways....

Home sweet home.
We have returned after a 5 day out of town work/pleasure adventure.

Between Philip and I we covered Charleston, Greenville, Columbia and Atlanta.
Philip really did the majority of the traveling while I worked in Altanta at a Users Conference for the week.

Philip visited a handful of clients throughout South Carolina and even got a chance to meet up with our cousin Paige, Aunt Janice and Uncle Craig at USC. Paige was moving into college and Philip wanted to bring her the "must-have" college basket of goodies. I loved his thoughtful idea and we got busy filling up a large basket for her. We included a USC t-shirt, white board, tin foil, food, pens, pencils, notebooks etc to prepare her for college life. Philip said she loved it and I was so impressed that he had thought of the idea all by himself.

While in Atlanta I went to the Braves vs Cubs game at Turner. They played a double header and the Cubbies won both games. Although the food and drinks were ridiculously pricey we (my co-workers and I) had a great time. My conference went well and I realized how much I missed interacting with people in the field . Definitely some food for thought in that area.

I also concluded that I am very different than my co-workers which should make for a very interesting experience in three weeks when I head to the Bahamas for 4 days with my company. Planning how many nights to get drunk is not my idea of a mature adult vacation... catch my drift. I am looking forward to relaxing on the beach and the great dinners....not getting wasted every night.

Friday the fun began. We stayed with our good friend's Ben and Lisa. Philip and Ben grew up together like brother's in Charlotte. Lisa is Ben's girlfriend and we could not be anymore alike. She and I headed to the pool after she picked me up from my conference and the guys went to see a movie and play basketball. We met back up in time for dinner at Nava in Buckhead. We enjoyed prickly pear margaritas and fantastic fine mexican cuisine on the patio. Saturday we hit up the Perimeter mall for some shopping, played Putt-Putt (I won!) and took naps. Saturday night we went to Taverna Plaka a Greek restaurant with family style food, belly dancer's, hooka's and great company. Jill and Jason (Kaplan) announced that they were expecting their first child and we met Sam's new girlfriend Natalie. The belly dancer's were quite entertaining...dancing on tables and tossing handful of napkins as they shouted OPA! Philip thorougly enjoyed this dinner as you can see...We met up with Darren and Allison at Fado a 3 story bar in the Buckhead area after dinner for drinks. Quite a late night for us home bodies but definitely work all the fun!

We have missed our little Bella Bean so much this past week and are ready to head home, get back to our gym schedules (after a 5 day hiatus) and sleep in our own beds. Thank you to everyone for such a fantastic weekend. We already miss you and can't wait to hear more great news from everyone in charlote...cough cough....ENGAGEMENTS!

Olympic notations...I was fortunate enough to be able to watch all 8 of Michael Phelps World Record breaking gold medals (both individual and team: 7 world records). Last night I had goose bumps as I watchted the US team swim their final relay that broke the world record for the team and for Phelps. The guy is truly inspirational and amazing...What a way to represent the U.S.A!

signing off...we are spent... empty pockets and tired bodies.

Shabbat. Lake Norman. Gym.

The title sums up the weekend.
Friday night we had Shabbat dinner at our house with some friends.
We had a great time and everyone left with full shabbat bellies.
Finally the patio was put to use as well as the new patio furniture.
An all around great way to end a really crazy work week (work has been hellish lately).

We finally hit up Lake Norman this weekend with our good friend Jason Trompeter.
He has a boat name The Court Ship. His dad is a judget in Roanoke and he picked the name because he had a friend whose boat's name was The Scholar Ship. Fitting I must say. Note his boat was gorgeous and it could sit a lot of people. We took the boat out and enjoyed the day on the lake. Philip wake boarded (which is not easy at all), we blew up and floated around in our new floats from target that were the perfect addition to our lake trip. The weather could not have been better. 85, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. We will definitely be hitting up the lake many more times before the summer is over. Possibly my new favorite thing to do.

We also had a great dinner with friend's of Jason's after boating. Amy's husband works with Jason and Darcy is one of Jason's best friends from work. Darcy and Jason. Amy and Darcy cooked up a fantastic meal as we watched the Olympics...

Olympics. I am a sucker for the olypmics. I love watching all water sports, gymnastics, track and field etc. LOVE IT. I could sit planted in front of the TV all day watching the olympics.

We also managed to squeeze in a Gym work out, pool time, tennis and some relaxation.
This was the best weekend I have had in a long time.
The good news is this upcoming weekend is going to be even better.

GOOD THING BECAUSE WORK BLOWS! :)

The Large Family I Never Had

We adventured to Fontana Village in Fontana Dam, NC this weekend for the Taranto Family Reunion. The Taranto's were Philip's great great grandparents and they had 11 kids. As a result of this Philip has quite a large extended family on his mother's side and every two years they get together in different parts of the country for a very large reunion. This year we headed to the mountains of NC to join 100+ other family members. This was my first visit to the family reunion since the last one was only a few months after we got married.

On our way in we stopped a few galleries in Waynesville and Bryson City to shop. Momma Sara (mother in-law) bought some fancy yarn for me and is knitting me a gorgeous shrug sweater. We also picked up some baby gifts for the many upcoming baby showers and I got a new wallet!

We arrived at camp after creeping up the VERY windy and twisty mountain (12 miles) in the dark at around 10 PM. We were welcomed by many family members and new faces (for me!).

Reunion weekend went something like this:
Breakfast, Family meeting, Pontoon boating, tubing, cook out (that was delicious), nap, dinner, hang out, spend time with Grandma, Boya Brunch (sephardic food the is yeast dough filled with spinach and/or potato and cheese!) and off we went back home and down the mountain again.

A few highlights.
Boating was a blast! The boat we originally took out didnt sound right so we took it back and ended up with this large fancy pontoon boat that didnt have a ladder. We didnt realize this until we all jumped into the lake and couldnt get back into the boat. We also happened to get the rope from the tube stuck in the motor. This made for many laughs! We had two 3 yaer old twin boys on our boat and they were precious. One of the boys fell asleep leaning over the edge of the boat and his hair was blowing in the wind. We had a great day on the boat and made it home safely thanks to our captain. Note: The Fontana Dam is the highest dam in the NC mountains so our view was amazing!

On the way home from Fontana Village we stopped in Cherokee and made a visit to Harrah's Casino. I could've done without this stop. I can't stand gambling and casino's. The place reeked of smoke. I now know why our economy is in such bad shape. We also stopped in Hendersonville to see the galleries and shops which was a much more pleasant visit. Hendersonville was celebrating their 49th Annual Art Walk in downtown Hendersonville and we got to see all of the amazing artists work displayed on the streets.

We had a great weekend with the family and were so thankful that we had the opportunity to attend this year. I really enjoyed meeting everyone and look forward to the next reunion in 2010!

Bringing back the past...

Before I began my blogging days....
I made one blog post on my mypspace page that I really want to bring back and re-post.

I am sure this is a big No-No in the blogging world but many of you didn't get to enjoy the blog and we have a reason to celebrate this blog....

So first enjoy the blog, supposedly many people found it funny. If you already read the Christmas blog from last year please scroll down.

Dear Neighbor Part 1 - Written November 17, 2007

I love holiday lights...especially the candles in the windows....Elegant tasteful lights are my favorite...BUT Your blow up/light up atrocity's that showed up last night amongst the many others in this neighborhood are HIDEOUS. I can't stand them. Even If I celebrated Christmas I WOULD NEVER HAVE ONE or TWO or THREE or SIX ON MY LAWN. They are everywhere here. What are you people thinking? Did you really think that all of my Hanukkah house guests and friends and family would want to stare at your santa popping out of a pot for the next 60 days!? You put it in your backyard!? Who does that? Are you intentionally trying to sabotage my Hanukkah? Are you trying to out-do my Hanukkah flag and menorah!? Oh, you just wait!"My neighbors whose backyard backs up to the side of my house... PUT ONE IN THE BACKYARD!? WTH!? Everytime you walk up to my house to see this blow up MOVING thing."There has to be something in my homeowner's manual that says no ridiculous blowup ANIMATED Santa's in your BACKYARD...I am about to bust out some Hanukkah flags....bah HUMBUG. HAPPY HANUKKAH!
Love your Jewish neighbor, Renee'

Dear Neighbor Part 2 (It get's better and I have footage) - November 21, 2007

Dear Neighbor's....Oh yes... more have joined in on the quest to adorn our lovely street with the MOST TACKY Christmas lawn set up....I am telling you I have had it.The 2 blow ups on ONE YARD have now almost tripled to 5 blow ups on ONE FRONT YARD....plus lights everywhere that flash to the beat of the blaring music coming out of your house has taken this WAY OVER THE TOP.Your music is way too loud....so loud I can hear it in my house. No offense but I dont want to hear your Christmas music while I am lighting my menorah for 8 days.... nor do I want to hear it for the next 38 days till you are forced to take it all down.Your lights are so bright and you leave them on ALL NIGHT LONG...I'd hate to see your electric bill this month. I can only imagine what your house looks like on the inside. Ps. You know your neighbors are all talking about how hideous your set up is right? Even the ones that celebrate Christmas are talking....For your viewing pleasure photos of the set up on the .25 acre lot and a video of the lights flashing to the beat of the music. Mind you this was taken from my driveway. Home Owners Association here I come....GOD HELP ME!
Dear Neighbor Part 2


UPDATE....
The neighbors referenced above with the 5 blow ups on their front lawn have put their house up for sale. Just in time. Christmas 2008 saved by the For Sale Sign. Now the story for WHY they are moving isnt so peachy, but I can't tell you how thrilled many of our neighbors are that they will be returning to NY (as well as us).

These neighbors are drama. The kind you don't want in your neighborhood. Both suposedly on disability. House paid for by one of their parents (no mortgage). They have 4 kids. One dropped out of high school and they kicked him out and he went back to NY to the grandparents that bought the house. They put a retaining wall up in their backyard by themselves, fenced their yard and put in a 60k swimming pool and patio that spans the back of their entire house. Note we have a pool in our neighborhood and they are THE only house with an inground pool in the entire 2000+ home neighborhood. They attempted to file a class action lawsuit against our builder. Their home is built on a slab that didnt pass inspection and there their entire foundation cracked.... as in it looks like an earthquake hit their slab. Not the normal settling cracks. How do we know this? Because the wife came and personally knocked on each of our doors to come take a look. Supposedly the builder paid them 60k and fixed it to code to avoid a lawsuit. How much of this is true.... is beyond me. Every week we hear new snippets from neighbors. I personally try to avoid these people like the plague. After the foundation disaster the husband supposedly had a heart attack because of all of the stress which they later discovered was Muscular Dystrophy. This summer they left for 3 weeks to go back to NY. They returned last week and the rumor was that they were moving back NY. Up went the sign last night and off they will go. I am sure they will list the house at some ridiculous price since they got the 60k and its paid for just to get out of it. Who will buy that house anyone. The builder wanted to knock it down!

I am sad that I won't be able to blog about the ridiculous Christmas decorations this year, but I think our neighborhood will be a better place as a result of this.

Good ridance....and good luck.
Who the heck is going to buy that house!?!?!?!