Florida Rainbows

I don't think I've ever expressed the love for rainbows in Florida. For some reason, I always remember rainbows everywhere else as quarter (90 degree) arcs, but in Florida, they are always full arcs (180 degrees)! I couldn't get it all in the picture, but this one came out over our street after a storm this week and Jeff called from our neighbors house for me to check it out - it was crazy vibrant and reminded me of 1. God's promise and 2. those stickers you get for good grades in elementary school. It was a perfect rainbow.

Geo Picnic!

Last weekend, Jeff's company, geosyntec consultants, had a summer picnic - it was great fun with yummy food, a bounce house, and field day games. Shelley and I got third place on the water ballon toss and Jeff and I won the three-legged race as he screamed at me, "Run like the wind!" Kayla, the Hagar's daugher, stayed in the bounce house until she was so tired she couldn't keep going. Don't you love those bounce clowns? They are both delightfully colorful and scary.

A Cute Eggplant

Jeff took this very artistic photo of one of our cute eggplants from the garden!

Giant Kudos!

Last night was the geosyntec Giants final softball game of this spring/summer season and I just had to post that it was one of the most exciting games ever. Though they lost, as usual, the final score was 12-13 which is a HUGE accomplishment for them! I don't think they've ever gotten 12 runs, so it was very fun. Congratulations team for going out with a bang! This is an old picture of some of the team members and some have changed, but figured it was still valid.

Inspiration a la Tyler Family

Last year, I did a painting for Laura and Matt's daughter, Ana, that was crazy tropical colors and plants with Zen in it. Well, when I gave it to them, Jeff missed it (and I did too) and kept asking me to do another one but with Karma in it too. So a couple of weeks ago, when he was in NC visiting friends, I did a similar one per his request. I think it's going to start a series of similar psychedelic dog paintings that we will hang together. I've been wanting to get back into painting, so it's good to feel inspired! Thanks Tylers!

We Saw the German!

While we were in NJ, Jeff and I decided to take a bus up to New York on Thursday to visit a good friend of ours from the Michigan Tech days, Patrick. We hadn't seen him since we went to his wedding in Chicago last September so a day trip was at hand! Patrick and his wife, Polina, live in the village in a cute little apartment, so we met Patrick on a break from his studies, walked around the city a bit, and then met up later for dinner. Jeff and I hung out in Times Square a tad, discovered Bryant Park, and saw Ground Zero. On Friday morning, we went to see the "Bodies" exhibit downtown. It was incredible - if you haven't seen this yet, we definitely recommend it - even if you have a light stomach. Yes - the bodies are real - but it's amazing to see how intricate and complicated we were created. You gotta know there's a God out there when you see it. The cool thing is they show diseases and the development of a baby. Go see it!

Fourth of July 2007 - Ocean City, NJ

We visited the Ahrens' fam this fourth of July in Ocean City, NJ as we did two years ago. The fourth is the favorite time to get together and everyone was there this time - Aunt Nancy and Uncle Fred's crowd - Mark, Joyce, and their kids, Emma and Rebecca & Greg and Allison; Aunt Judy and Uncle Gary's crowd - Michael and Rachel & Greg and Taryn; Mom and Dad A's crowd - Jeff and I & Debbie and Chris with kids, Kaitlyn and Matthew. We even had a drive-by from Aunt BJ and Bill one night too! It was great seeing everyone b/c it had been 2005 since we'd seen a lot of them. We did a bunch of old fashioned relaxing - some bike rides, lots of walks with Matthew's red car, visits to the Boardwalk, ice cream at Kessel's Korner, dinner at 4:30 pm (we're all getting up there in age apparantly!), some video solitare sessions on the couch, dominoes, a Fourth of July feast, and a beach day when it even warmed up enough for us wimpy Floridians. Great times! Notice we found the taffy and peanut representatives for Ocean City, as well as the transfiguration into flip flops for us kids. One thing that was great was the fact that Matthew would actually let Jeff and I play with him - last time we saw him when Debbie and Chris came down to our house with the kids in March, Matthew was Mr. Wiggly - don't hold me or play with me. It was also great fun playing in the sand with Emma and Rebecca and making Emma into a mermaid complete with a seaweed bikini! Next time we are bringing the puppies with us so they can join in the fun - right, Mom and Dad? Riiiight.....

Tree Removal Update

We finally got the stump removed from the large olive tree that we took down a few weeks ago in the front yard. The machine that does it is the coolest - it's this remote controlled grinder called the Beaver, so I had to take a picture of it. It literally grinds the whole thing down in like 20 minutes. Awesome.

One thing I forgot to share when we took the tree down is that there was this huge staghorn fern that was growing off the trunk and losing the tree meant losing that fern, which was gorgeous. Well - we tore off pieces of it and wired it to a tree in the backyard and it is actually taking and has some new growth on it - hooray! Also, when we took the fern out, we discovered several bromeliads that were growing in the tree too. So we just stuck them in the ground to see if they would survive and when we got back from NJ yesterday, I discovered a beautiful flower growing from them - so they are also living. Hooray for transplant survivals!

Who Knows If This is REAL?!

This came across an email - supposedly it's from National Geographic or something, but it looks a little too photoshop style to me - if you know the story about this forward, let me know.

Family Trickery

For those of you that know the Ahrens' crowd, trickery is their middle name. They definitely like to joke around a bit and we saw a little of this on our trip to the Jersey shore area this past week. I just received an update in my inbox. It all started with Aunt Nancy's birthday surprise - Mom and Dad A decided to plant a pretty little flamingo in her garden one day. The next week, that same flamingo appeared in Mom and Dad's yard decorated for the Fourth of July and then right before Jeff and I went to visit, Mom and Dad put the decorated flamingo on Nancy and Fred's roof - blaring for Ocean City to see on the chimney top! Jeff then helped Dad craft a letter from the Ocean City mayor to Nancy and Fred, complaining of the Flamingo gawdy-ness and visual pollution. Well - Looks like Nancy and Fred got Mom and Dad back today while they were at church - by hanging large underpants (or PANT-IES, as Allision would say) on their front porch! This must have killed Dad b/c he definitely likes Sand Central Station in perfect condition. Nice pink ones Mom and Dad! hahahaha....looks like the Depends really take up some room. hehe.