Lauren and I love having visitors! This weekend my folks, John and Jan, came to visit. I just don't understand why you northerners pull the cold down with you. It dropped almost 20 degrees from Friday to Saturday. Sunday was cold (relatively speaking) and Monday it bounced back up 15 degrees. We still had a wonderful time all weekend, despite the unpleasant weather. The photos are from the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in downtown Fayetteville. We went to the museum on Saturday morning/afternoon. It is a nice museum and one of the few things to do in Fayetteville. Despite the propaganda distributed by the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, Fayetteville is not traditionally known as a vacation hot spot. As it turns out, I was not the only person there that day who graduated in 1996 from Lakeview High School in Battle Creek, MI and had parents visiting that weekend. While exploring WWII artifacts, I glanced to my right and, despite all statistical probabilities, saw a fellow L.H.S. graduate, Trish (surname being withheld for privacy consideration). Although not close friends ourselves back in high school, Trish and I did have some mutual friends. She is now a teacher here in Fayetteville and her husband looked to be in the Army…that or he is adept at assimilating into indigenous cultures. They were doing what apparently everyone does while their parents are in town: take a trip to the museum.
sidebar:
There were 200 graduates in the L.H.S. class of 1996. According to the CIA World Fact Book, the population of the United States is approximately 300 million people. My fuzzy-logic concludes that the chances of you randomly pulling out a person from the general population, and that person being a part of the L.H.S. class of '96, is 1 in 1.5 million.
end sidebar:
Throughout the weekend, Lauren, myself, and the folks also drove around Fort Bragg, watched two movies, went out for dinner, walked around our neighborhood, and sat around enjoying each other's company. I had not seen them since I left Michigan last September, so it was uber-wonderful to spend time with them again. On Monday morning, John and Jan headed back to MI and made it safely home Monday night. We had a great weekend and look forward to doing it again! Thanks for visiting, you two!
Inspired by the unofficial 10 year class reunion, I'll leave you with this...
It's a world of laughter
A world of tears
It's a world of hopes
And a world of fears
There's so much that we share
That it's time we're aware
It's a small world after all
There is just one moon
And one golden sun
And a smile means
Friendship to every one
Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small world after all
...I'm sure you know the rest. Happy singing.
I noticed this sign while waiting for my carry-out Chinese food. It struck me as humorous for many different reasons. I think the sign is implying that only cigarette smoke is not obnoxious. I guess you have to smoke your "hand rolled cigarettes" out back by the dumpsters with the cooks.
No story here. Just still love the novelty of 80 degree weather on November 29. 
I guess with the decloration, "yes, we are still here."
In September, this cute little guy was born. This is Spencer DeVore. This is my sister and brother-in-law's 3rd child/3rd son. He was born on the 6th of September. Welcome aboard Spencer. As you can see, I always try to coordinate my outfit with the baby I am holding on the day. I did one heck of a job on that day.
Two of Lauren's best friends were married this summer (not to each other). Tanya was married in July and Beth in September. Congratulations! We wish you a whole lotta love.
Lauren and I are officially home owners now! Actually it's been two weeks now, but we are finally feeling settled in. We closed on the house on Thursday, June 30th. That morning we got the keys and went to start painting. The first project was the blue dining room. We thought that we could knock it out in one day. We knocked it out in one week. Painting always sounds more fun than it is. That first week and a half we finished painting and Lauren cleaned and moved boxes while I was at work (thank you Aunt Theresa for all your help!) Last Saturday, July 8, We rented a truck and some guys from work helped me move all of the furniture from the apartment.
“Lauren, I think I left my sunglasses at the checkout.” So I turned back into the parking lot of Wal*Mart. As I approached the entrance I noticed a lady giving away kittens. The one she was holding looked just like a 1 lb Spot. Lauren had to see this kitten. So I went back to the car. “Lauren, you have to see this kitten.” As we walked up to the kitten corral, a young couple was walking off with the little-spot. There were plenty other fur balls to play with. As the cute little things squeaked and nuzzled, we decided that it would be good for Spot to have a friend at home. So, here she is. We don't have a name picked out yet. She is very friendly, but Spot doesn’t know what to do with her. He sits across the room and keeps an eagle’s eye on her. He has approached her a few times, but the encounters keep ending with him hissing in her face. Not the way we raised him to treat his baby sister. She doesn’t seem to mind him though. She is so relaxed that she’s slept for four of the five hours that we’ve had her. It seems it might take awhile for their relationship to blossom.
Earlier this month Lauren and I had our favorite treat: visitors!
Last week we had severe storms roll through town. It was the heaviest rain I had ever seen. The locals tell me that it looked like a hurricane, but only lasted 5 minutes rather than 5 hours. The wind and rain was so heavy at it's apex, that the silver SUV in the photo would not have been visible. The storm knocked down a power line in front of the dealership and caused an electrical fire. I had never seen an electrical fire before and was amazed by how bright it was. The light was so intense that it hurt your eyes to look at it for more than just a few seconds. The fire lasted for about a half hour; luckily it was contained to that location in the road (the busiest road in Fayetteville). The next day a road crew was out patching the holes that were burned into the road. No one was hurt in the incident. Just a safety reminder: Never touch a downed power line...especially one that has turned into a raging inferno.
On Thursday morning I saw the first snowflakes I've seen since last March. It was kind of exciting. Big, fluffy, beautiful flakes. We were all like little kids with our noses pressed against the showroom glass, looking into the snow globe world. An hour later the show was over. No more snow. In fact, it became a pleasant 55 degree day. The sans-snow photo is of the cloudless sky at sunset that evening. Gotta love NC.
Pittsburgh Steelers
