Ella's Birthday

Several pictures from Ella's birthday party.






A little pre-party snack. He loves those Craisins (notice the bed-head from nap time).


Mom makes the most delicious stuffed pepper appetizers (with fresh jalapeno's from her garden) and I convinced Ella's older friends to give them a try.






Miss Rose was brave enough to try one, but you should have seen her dive for the water when her mouth started burning!




Mister loves being with the big kids (notice messy, long hair).







He didn't care that it wasn't his birthday, he just enjoyed the festivities.








After everyone left, it was time to give my dad a hair cut. Well, I decided (after a few drinks), that I was tired of combing Mister's hair in the morning, so he got a buzz as well!

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Seven?!

Someone, please help me with my math... she was born in 2002, so does that really mean that she's seven? It just can't be true.


Aren't you listening to me? She was JUST born.

Maybe we should stop feeding her.

Because a mother's heart just can't take this growing up business.

She said to me the other day, "obviously you don't know what little kids are thinking because you were born as an adult."


That's funny, cause I still feel like a kid. Which means I couldn't have been born as an adult.

And her favorite word lately is, "obviously." This pose in the tree was her idea because, "obviously she likes climbing trees."


Obviously I need some help, because I think I'm in denial about her being seven.

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Living Treasures Animal Park

We finally had a chance to take the kids (and the grandparents) to Living Treasures a few weeks ago. We really enjoy it there and try to make it a few times in the summer. New this year is a horse and wagon ride, which is how we happened upon this fella. Mister was pointing and laughing until he decided to charge the wagon. Then he started screaming, "UH NO UH NO UH NO!!"

He took some food from grandma....

then ran over to the ducks...


and tossed some food over the fence. It was so cute.


I love the way he stands on his tippy toes.


Ella loves feeding the animals as well.







"Wait, come back! I have more food for you!"

Doesn't Ma look pretty?

I think he was signing all done to the goat. Something made me think that this particular goat doesn't know sign language.



Notice the chubby baby arm in the lower right of the frame. He was asking daddy, "wuts dat?"

It took some convincing, but Ella finally decided that she could feed the llama with her bare hands.



Mister says, "ohhhhh, rrrrwwwrrrr."

For some reason the prairie dogs really made him chuckle.



Has to be just like his big sissy.




Living Treasures also added a small aviary this year, it was nice.


An albino kangaroo. I made the mistake of telling mister that a kangaroo goes hop hop. Because what he heard was, "pop pop," which is what he calls lollipops. So the rest of the afternoon he kept saying, "pop, pop."




It was a really nice day and it was fun watching him interact with all of the animals for the first time. We really need to go back again soon.

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The End of an Era

Craig and I met when he moved from Houston to Pittsburgh and began working at Arco Chemical Company. I will never forget the first time I saw him... he was at the plant site for his interview and I was beginning my first engineering co-op term after completing my freshman year at Penn State. It was July of 1993.

Craig worked for Arco, then Nova, for 16.2 years (the image is of his first badge at the Beaver Valley Site, notice the area code). His climb up the corporate ladder was sure and steady as he is highly respected in his field. As of this upcoming October, his connection with Nova will be officially severed, as part of another restructuring act.

Nova has endured several cutbacks in the past year, and Craig made no secret of the fact that he was ready to move on. Essentially, he told his manager that if severance packages were made available, he wanted to be first in line.

We have spent many hours dreaming about the avenues we might like to explore should he no longer have the responsibility of a 9-5 job. Whether that means growing my business, or pursuing another entrepreneurial type business, we're not sure.

But there is one thing we are sure of: together, not even the sky is the limit.

Working at Arco/Nova will always hold a special place in my heart. My dad worked there for nearly 30 years. The year I met Craig was also the year I met my best friend Jody, I certainly had no idea how much of an impact that chemical company would have on my life. Ironically, Jody opted to take a severance package and leave Nova this time last year.

There is only one thing that leaves me sad, the fact that we do not have any photographs of our time together at the plant. Camera's are strictly prohibited inside the facility (lest I try to steal the technology to make expandable polystyrene) and I never bothered to get a camera pass.

Craig enjoyed his career and is looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead. Nova has been good to us, and I would like to think that he has been good to them. He will be leaving with one year's salary and benefits, a very nice cushion while we work towards new goals. Craig is exceptionally gifted and I am confident that whatever path he chooses will be successful.

We have been so blessed, in so many ways, and are grateful for this answer to prayer. I don't believe that there are many others that feel this good about losing their job. We will certainly need to restructure our budget, but that topic deserves its own post. Basically, no debt = no worries, but I will expand on that at a later date.

My dad retired from Nova several years ago, I took an early retirement package during the 1998 restructuring (at the tender age of 24), Jody left last year, therefore Craig's leaving truly is the end of an era.

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