This is a post from Matt. Just something to pass along to anyone who is interested---one of my goals for 2009 is that by the end of the year I want to test for my blue belt (second level) in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. To that end, I have set up a blog to chronicle my training, my aches and pains, ad my thoughts as I progress toward the goal. My training blog can be viewed here

3 Doors Down...
Last night we went to the Three Doors Down / Switchfoot concert at the Gwinnett Arena! It was so much fun! Very loud and Great music. Also, there were two other openers- American Devils (a local Atlanta rock band) & American Bang. We were not familiar with either but enjoyed listening & watching the fun.
A few Switchfoot hits they sang: "I dare you to move", "Learning to Breathe", "Don't close your eyes" And, the headliner 3 Doors Down played these hits: "It's not my time", "Kryptonite", "Citizen Soldier" & "Loser" (just to name a few). Our ears were ringing at the end of the concert, they played pretty loud. We noticed the crowd was mixed with all age groups; there were a lot of families with young teenagers and a parent.
Through out the venue, the National Guard was out with photo opps. They gave us a card which we could use to redeem free photos online after the concert. I've never seen this before, a great promotional opp for the NG. Our friends Connie & Gerald were familiar with the photo deals from their nascar days. But, to us it was new and we enjoyed taking advantage of the pictures~ can't wait to scrapbook these pics!

Thanksgiving Day Marathon...
Yes, I realize I am behind on posting these pictures! But, I am so proud of Matt and I want to share his accomplishment with everyone. He trained very hard for 6+months and Thanksgiving day he succeeded in running 13.1 miles under 3 hours!

Waiting on his arrival to the finish line I managed to keep my camera focused to capture the moment he crossed! I had elbowed my way into the perfect position. Luckily I did not miss the moment- there were so many other runners I was afraid he would run right past me and I wouldn't get the picture.


For finishing the race everyone received a blue ribbon medal. Here Matt is catching his breath & proudly wearing his well deserved medal! The finish line was in front of Turner Field. And, this is also the location to the Atlanta "Hosea Feed the Hungry"... that line went around the entire stadium!


I was amused & amazed by all the runners...more than a few were running in pilgrim costumes, turkey costumes and the ARMY had representation with a bunch of men running in fatigues, carrying the American Flag. Shortly behind them crossed another group of men running in full uniform (backpacks, combat boots, etc.)! The crowd watching cheered them on with gusto!
Matt wore his "3M's" hat (the 3 Marvelous Miller Milers)- representing our family team (Matt, Ed & Julia). And, he is already planning on running again next Thanksgiving! Run Strong!

Tortola

The #1 reason why I (Julia) wanted to take this particular cruise itenerary was because it included a port with a Dolphin Excursion. Needless to say, this was a very special day neither of us will forget. Our Dolphins name was Elektra (with a "K"). She is between the ages of 13-15. We were in a group of

Matt Dancing with Elektra. This movement for Elektra was not easy. As she stood up in the water she was ferociously peddling with her tail fins. She worked hard to stand up like this.


Julia Dancing with Elektra. Okay, this is a horrible picture of Julia, but a very honest moment captured by the photographer. While Elektra is working hard she is also slightly moving backwards and she was pulling me off the platform and out to sea (which scared me).


Julia getting a kiss...

Matt getting kissed...

St. Thomas "The Ultimate Island Tour" Excursion

The view from our boat...

This excursion took us to the very top of the island and everything in between. The views were beautiful and the shopping was fantastic! This pic is on "Mountain Top" where you can see most of the surrounding islands. While there we had our pic taken with the St. Thomas Donkey- He/she was decorated to the hilt and was quite cute!


And, the view with Megan's Bay (National Geographic top 10 beaches. Legend has it if you are married on the beach then your marriage will last the test of time. Also, the top of the beach sands is in the shape of a heart, unfortunately we were not able to get that angle but we did see the heart along the way...

The view of our boat (the one on the far right). Luckily there was only one other boat in port this day. Others before us have said St. Thomas can get VERY crowded when mulitple cruise lines are in port.

Our First stop was Samana. These cream dogs where all over town. There were a few other color dogs but mainly this dog seemed everywhere! Same color & about the same size.


For the most part, this is a typical home. Most doors where wide open & you could see straight through the house. Aside from kitchen tables, not much else appeared to be inside. The typical family in Samana are 18 children!! All, sleep & live in these homes.

To bring good luck to their home, locals decorate trees with egg shells.

During our "Safari Adventure" excursion, local children walked with us to a popular watering hole.


At the end of our unstable, rocky hike was a beautiful waterfall. One of the older children climbed the limbs of a nearby tree and jumped into the water! It was very scary to watch because the waterfall was not very big and the water certainly did not look deep enough to jump into. However, the guide assured us the depth the child was jumping into was over 8 feet deep & the children "do it all the time".

We made it home safely! What a wonderful vacation we had on MS Norwegian Dawn! We are still in the process of unpacking and uploading pictures. I thought I would share two beautiful views we enjoyed on our plane ride home yesterday.

approximately 12:30 PM, Miami


approximately 2:00 PM, Atlanta, What a beautiful site she is!

I will attempt to upload a few more pics from our trip soon.

Just a quick post from Matt. For those of you who don't know, we are going to be on vacation but, as much as possible, will be continuing to post comments on our Twitter feed (see the right margin of this blog to follow us on Twitter).

Adoption Update...

"CCAA’s cutoff date for this month was February 17, 2006.
I wanted to explain the CCAA’s cut off date. The cut off date issued by the CCAA is the date through which they were able to match referrals. For example, last month the CCAA’s cut off date was February 15, 2006, so all families with LID’s before and on February 15, 2006 were sent a referral. As for this month, the CCAA’s cut off date was February 17, 2006 so families with LID’s before and on February 17, 2006 were mailed their referral."

Wow! Good news that they are moving forward. Bad news it took 1 month to refer 2 days of LID's. Slow, slower, slowest... this is getting painful!!

Below are two videos of things we have been up to recently. The first video is Julia and Connie working on Connie's Halloween costume. The second is Julia's "pre-tea" tea party. We are still learning how to use the camcorder and the video editing software, so the videos WILL get better. Promise!

carving jack-o-lanterns

Matt and I had a good time last evening carving our pumpkins. We were behind the curve on the newest craze~ my Bestie, Connie,shared with us (2 yrs ago) about the pumpkin patterns. Now we are hooked and carving pumpkins is just a little more fun!

Here's our two jack-o-lanterns before night fall...


and, all lit up ~ VERY spooky!


Also, one of my fave things to do is roast the pumpkin seeds! Unfortunately I put a little too much salt on them but they are still tasty!

BOO Y'all!



We enjoyed another Fall Festival this weekend~ Gold Rush in Dahlonega, GA! We have decided it is our fave of the fall festivals. The weather was perfect! And, the leaves are just starting to change.

Again, we managed to beat the crowds by getting there right when they opened. Gold Rush is the largest fall festival (that we know of) and it took us twice as long to make our way through all the vendors {as it did last weekend at The Apple Festival}.

This time we remembered to bring our tin cup to get $1 refills at the root beer stand. In this picture Matt proudly holds the cup toward the camera.

Adoption Update

"...This month, the CCAA completed the matching process for families with dossiers registered through February 15, 2006..."

Just wanted to share the above information. We appreciate every one's prayers for our patience! Looks like we will be lucky to have a completed adoption in 2010! We are certainly on the slow boat to China.

Fight Club

A few Friday's ago I stopped into watch Matt's Fight Club training. Luckily I brought my camera. I hope Matt won't mind me posting a few of my favorite pictures of the evening. And, I'm sure he will post more respectful ones once he notices this post! LOL

So, I walked into a balmy sweaty session. Once I figured out the settings on my camera I was armed and ready... hehehe, I can't help but giggle over the earnest expression on Matt's face here:


Here Matt has a good submission hold on his trainer...


Side control BAYBEE! Rock it MY Man! That's MY man on top in side control, uh-hmm!


Anyone think they can Hang? Anyone wanna rumble?! :)
I can't wait to make a scrapbook page LO, or two!

Happy Fall Y'all!


Today Matt and I drove over to Elijay, GA for the Annual Fall Apple Festival. It was a beautiful day and as luck had it we managed to arrive before the main crowd! Did a little shopping...enjoyed a caramel apple& southern BBQ. On our way out of town we peaked in to one of the main Apple Orchids and purchased some apples. And, this evening we made an "Apple Walnut Carmel Bundt Cake" using the apples we picked up today! It oozed of fall Yumminess!

Matt posing for the camera...


One of the oddist sights was the camel ride, yes, camel ride! This was my first time seeing a real honest to goodnest camel!


Me, on our way out of the festival, headed back to our car...

Hello! Matt was able to upload some recent scrapbooking (sbing) layouts (LO) from our summer vacation to NY... I thought I would share them with you :)

The Brooklyn Bridge... what a beautiful bridge!!


Page Six Headlines... we saved 2 copies of the NY post so we could scan the images for our sb


Have metro card, will travel...

Matt and I picked out Baby E's 2008 Christmas Ornament. We chose "Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who!" Matt's favorite children books were Dr. Seuss. 6 months ago Matt joined a Dr. Seuss Children's book club for Baby E and her/his book collection has grown quickly. Thus, the Dr. Seuss ornament was the perfect selection for Christmas 2008!

This is Matt posting. I was roaming the web a bit while at work today and I ran across this website MagMyPic.com which will put the picture of your choice on a fake magazine cover. I had to do one of one of my favorite pictures of the kids...enjoy:

My Boyz...

What a sight to behold... how precious!

Another addition to our Christmas Village

Michael's Arts and Crafts store had a 50% off coupon in Sunday's paper ... so, back to Michael's we went on Monday to pick up the center piece to our Christmas Village!! The people file in and out on a rotating platform much like one of those German Clocks. It is so cute! Also, you can hear singing and talking or turn of the sound and just watch the motion! So cute!!

Lemax Caddington Village: Guiding Light Church

"Parishioners file into church for holiday services.' The Guiding Light Church is a large, beautiful, animated piece. The animated parishioners file past the priest into the church. This is a great centerpiece for your Village. And it plays music. The Guiding Light Church, from the Caddington Village series, will look great in your Lemax Christmas village. This Lemax village building will also coordinate with other Christmas villages in the same scale, such as Department 56 and Carole Towne. Add this Lemax village collectible to your collection today!"