529,600 Minutes!!

We've been married for an entire AWESOME year!!

Snakes... In a Pond!

While walking along Pandapas Pond Trail a few weeks ago, we came upon an active nest of water snakes. Angela took several pictures of them, and we later googled them to discover their exact species of Northern Water Snake. We witnessed at least 15 snakes moving about in the afternoon sun, perhaps hunting, mating, or just swimming. We were only about 15 feet at most from them, but the tiny bridge was enough protection as the snakes were not curious of onlookers or aggressive. This must be snake season in this area, as at work one day some coworkers found a timber-rattle snake on main street near the big ABC store. They boxed it up and took it out past Brush Mountain I assume... For those who don't know, I am landscaping for the Town of Blacksburg while I await a date to report to the Naval Officer Candidate School. I am a glorified horticulturist and have been busy planting perennials in all the town parks!

Pandapas Pond Blooms

I love these flowers at Pandapas Pond!!

Yo quiero agua

We discovered that AJ has a huge tongue after a small walk around Pandapas Pond. Apparently AJ is not used to the heat, despite being a Texas native, and the weather really got to him. It is kind of disproportionate to his head, but so is his head to his body. He is still super cute though!

Hokie Quilt

Yay Staff!

Every year, Virginia Tech throws a staff appreciation day for their staff members, and this is the first year I am a non-student staff…so I was invited! It was a lot of fun, and I greatly enjoyed being out of the office for a day. There are only three staff members in our office, as everyone else is faculty, so me, Tabatha, and Cindy enjoyed a day off of work with David, Tabatha’s husband. We started off by taking a tour of the Lane’s new west end…which was freakin awesome! The suites go for about $50,000 a year, plus all of the tickets for each game, plus a 5 year lease. I’m pretty sure James and I will never be able to afford that…so this was probably the only time I will ever be in one of those suites. A more affordable option is to buy an inside seat for only $2,000 a year plus your season tickets, which we still will never be able to afford. Once you buy a suite you can decorate it however you would like, and one of the suites had one of the new Hokie Birds in it. Of course we had to get a picture with it. Steger’s suite was probably the most impressive, with large Hokie stone fireplaces, gorgeous views of the mountains, and plenty of catering spaces, as well as lounges, and over 200 seats facing the stadium. After our awesome tour, we enjoyed some great barbeque…I love Virginia! You are only supposed to be able to go on one tour, but we snuck in on the Hahn gardens tour. After four years of living on campus, I was shocked how huge the garden was! I thought it was just what you could see from the road, but really there is a waterfall, and a pond, and nice gazebos. If I’d known it was there, I would have studied there all the time! We ended the day at the greenhouses planting some cool plants, which is great because I got rid of a ton of mine when we moved from Texas.

Congrats Class of 2007!

Graduation this year was a special time, filled with both sadness and joy. Two of my dear friends, Cathy and Sarah James graduated, and I was so excited for them! I was so proud of them as they graduated, and kind of wished we had also been on a five year plan as well. Festivities began on Friday afternoon as I went to the donning of the Kente ceremony for graduating black students on campus, to watch one of our sweet coworkers receive her Kente cloth, and Stack’s family receive his. (A Kente cloth is an African type of fabric made of interwoven woven cloth strips and is native to the country of Ghana.) Graduation was so stress free this year! It is AMAZING what not doing finals, having surgery, and checking out rooms can do for a person! Ha! I still don’t know how we got through it, nor can I believe that it has been a whole year since we’ve graduated. This last year has been full of learning, adventures, and finding ourselves. It’s a weird transition going from being a college student to not, and I hope that all of the new graduates make the transition well. They large ceremony was very nice this year, with Steger receiving two standing ovations!! He has done a great job…although he still makes me laugh when I look at him. It’s just funny that he only comes up to my shoulder…and he looks so goofy! But…I love him!

Hokie Stone Hokie Bird

Lego Hokie Bird = AWESOME

Enjoying the ‘Burg

We didn’t just move when my mom and Paula came to help, but we enjoyed some special aspects of Blacksburg. There is nothing quite like enjoying a huge Pop Sundae after a day of moving, so we made sure that we did that. I still can’t believe that four people can get full off of one sundae…but it definitely happens! We also enjoyed an evening of Mexican at El Rod’s, as well as their awesome Margaritas. We deserved it after moving in two days. We ended the trip by visiting some of the Hokie Birds around town. They really have been a very pleasant addition, and I am thankful they are everywhere around town. :-) I hope to get a picture with all of them, which is hard, because some individuals bought them and have them for private use.

Nuestra Casa!

Yay for our own place to live!!! We have an adorable one bedroom apartment to ourselves now, and I absolutely love it!! James and I couldn’t be happier…we have all of our wedding presents out again and we are having fun experimenting with cooking and we’ve enjoyed plenty of movies already! :-) It is very exciting to have a place of your own! My mom and Paula came to help us move, which we are very grateful for. We could not have done it without them…as it only took us two days to get everything out of the townhouse and the storage unit. If it had just been James and I, it would have taken us all week!! And…we had already moved once in the last six months by ourselves, and it is very hard without any help. So, everything is in the apartment, and now we are just spending some time unpacking and making it home. We cannot wait to start having people over for dinner and movies and having people come and visit us now!! :-)

Moving Again!!!

James and I are moving again!! Yes, we truly have become nomads, only this time unexpectedly. Our landlord sold the townhouse and decided not to honor our lease, so these last few weeks we have been scrambling to find a place to live!! After not much sleep and lots of stress, we have finally found a place to live!! A cute little one bedroom apartment to ourselves!! No more messy roommates and other people’s schedules to have to worry about!! I’m very excited, and this way we know we really have a place to live until the lease ends!! We move in on Monday, and I couldn’t be happier!! Our new address is as follows:

1315 University City Blvd. Apt. #5
Blacksburg, VA 24060

The Duke Dog

Our youngest sister Mary will be attending James Madison University in the fall, home of the Duke Dogs. We are very excited for her, but can’t help but laugh at this statue. We stopped by JMU on the way home from a wine-tasting tour in Northern Virginia, and LOVED this statue!! It’s so funny, and he looks drunk! Definitely the high point of our 15 minute stay on campus!!

Cinco de Mayo fiesta!

I can’t believe Colin is already a year old!! He has grown up so much, and he is absolutely adorable! We went home for his birthday, and celebrated in style with fun kid presents, Mexican food (he was born on Cinco de Mayo!), and cake to put all over your face. Colin did that quite well…although it took him a few minutes to learn he was supposed to. He had a stylish Mohawk all day, which was very cute, and it was the first day he didn’t cry when I touched him, so I was very excited. Although, I did have to remind him that I was the mean Aunt once when I took him inside and he wanted to stay outside (which he was telling me by pointing his arm in the other direction). He got these adorable camo ducks from my mom, and he had so much fun taking them out of the plastic bag (his “purse”) and then putting them back inside. We learned a little bit more about Baby Einstein and the caterpillar and noticed that Colin can keep a beat! It is pretty impressive, so we think we need to get him some musical instruments so he can perfect his skills young. He’s going to be a Tuba player in the MV’s one day…or if he’s smart he’ll play piccolo and be in a section with all of the cute girls. Hehehe… we’ll see!

Kids' Expressions

This is probably my favorite Hokie Bird ever!! And...the flaming VT....kids are awesome!

Hokie Angels

We stumbled upon these beautiful crosses by accident. We just found them yesterday while looking for a place to live (yes, we are almost homeless again!) on the outskirts of Blacksburg. What a sweet surprise, and what an awesome way to remember 32 amazing lives.

No Mas Media!!!!

Thank goodness the media has finally left us in peace! These signs are posted on EVERY door on campus. We are very thankful to have our university back to ourselves.

We are the Hokies...we will prevail

It’s hard to put down in words what we are feeling right now. It’s up and down…grief…sadness…pride…disbelief. We have been celebrating the life of our dear friend Stack (Ryan Clark), remembering all of our good times, and how awesome he was. (Because…he was absolutely AMAZING!!!) We’ve been grieving him, along with 31 other lost Hokies. It is difficult walking around our beautiful campus, our home, our alma mater, and understanding that this happened here. You never expect anything like this to happen, and it breaks my heart, as this is the place we love. James and I met in AJ, where the first shootings took place, we lived there for three happy years, and named our puppy after the hall. He looks like Hokie stone, and we wanted to always remember our happy memories at Virginia Tech in AJ (Ambler Johnston). Stack was killed in AJ, at 7:15 in the morning, doing his job as an RA. It’s hard to imagine that we were RA’s in that building last year, responding to arguments and strange situations all the time, never expecting to get hurt, only there to help. Stack gave his life trying to protect one of his residents, doing a job that he loved. Our lives will never be the same, but he is with us as we share memories and see all of the lives he touched besides ours. The outpour of love and support has been amazing, and the support from our fellow Hokie family has been indescribable. We love this community, and we support Virginia Tech and our administrators and police force. Though the Hokie stone is haunting right now, we still love it, and we will never ever forget Monday, April 16th. It is hard to move past what we still do not fully understand and can’t fully comprehend, but we know that we will. We love Virginia Tech, and the Hokies will prevail. We will prevail.

When Great Trees Fall

Maya Angelou dedicated this poem to Ryan, and asked that it be read at his memorial. So much of Stack is in this poem...it makes me cry...it is so powerful, we wanted to share it with you!



When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down in tall grasses,
and even elephants lumber after safety.

When great trees fall in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die, the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile. We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,see with a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines,
gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken.

Great souls die and our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us. Our souls,
dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away.
We are not so much maddened as reduced to
the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves.

And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.

Stack's Hokie Stone

329 Strong...

The Marching Virginians have always been 330 Strong...but now we are 329. We miss you Stack!!!

Candle-light Vigil

A beautiful film done by our very own Tim Leaton.

http://timleaton.com/candlelightvigil.htm

Remembering our fellow Hokies

WE ARE VIRGINIA TECH!!

We couldn't be prouder to be Virginia Tech Hokies right now. We would love for you to share in these two amazing videos with us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnuYyOjUA4M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snuc1hDDSiI


Nikki Giovanni said it all!! :-)

We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech.

04-16-2007

James and I are both fine, but ask that you continue to pray for Virginia Tech, those injured, and the 32 members of our community who lost their lives today. Pray for their families, healing, and Blacksburg.

Winter?!

Spring is slow to arrive here in Blacksburg, well, throughout most of America. We left a birthday party in the middle of a night snow storm. The next morning we discovered many buds and blooms covered in snow. The Roanoke paper mentioned some damage to local crops due to the late cold snap. We had a very chilly Easter and several snow flurries. We bought new bikes a few weeks ago and have not had weather conducive to even trying them out! Hopefully for Spring Game next weekend the weather will cooperate with us!