Saturday, June 27, 2009

Our Dear Sweet Shawnie

So, it's taken me almost two months to be able to post about Shawnie's passing. My sweet sister in law (Travis's wife) passed away unexpectedly and suddenly on May 1st. It was shocking and devastating and we are all still walking around in disbelief. She left behind my brother Travis and three little boys: Drake - 9 yrs old, Luke - 6 yrs old and Mason - 4 years old. It is always sad when someone passes away and my family has sure had it's experiences with death of loved ones however, this passing has affected us all in such a strong way and we have all said it's like nothing we have dealt with before. We miss her terribly and we ache for my brother and his three little boys.

This is one of the last pics that Travis and Shawnie took. They took a week vacation - just the two of them- to Cancun in February. They had a great time.







This is the last Granny's Goombata that all of us were together. It's very fitting that Shawnie is in the center of the picture.



Travis and the boys are doing okay. They are living day to day. My mother lives with them and has taken over helping Travis raise the boys. Dori and Brian moved down to Lake Ridge and will live just 2 miles from Travis and the boys. Dori's kids and Trav's kids will go to the same elementary school. Dori and Brian live right across the street from the school so ALL the boys can go to Dori's after school. It's hilarious to have all the boys together ALL the time....they are so funny and Dori and my mom are in for an adventurous summer! The stories they will be able to tell!

I think it's going to take a long time for us all to feel "normal" again but it helps to have all the kids around and hopefully we can all start to put the pieces of our broken hearts together again!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

It must be in our blood

So, this is Robbie and Shane in their sparring equipment. I LOVE this picture. They just got their yellow belts a few weeks ago. My mother gets her black belt in 2 weeks. My nephew Drake (10 years old) already has his black belt along with my older brother Dustin who got his YEARS ago. I'm thinking family reunions will be fun from now on - we could start it off with a good sparring match! I'm thinking in order to survive in our family I should get mine too!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Midnight Madness

It was decided that some of the"essential" staff at the club would stay overnight on Monday because of the early street closures due to the Inauguration. We wanted to be sure that we would be there on Tuesday. All of our guest rooms (57) were booked months ago, so the women (10 of us) stayed in the spa and the men (20 of them) stayed in the exercise studio and a conference room.
This is the facial room where I slept. We put 2 women in a room (there are 3 treatment rooms that have massage tables) and then 4 women slept out in our "waiting area". Judy shared a room with me....I'm so glad she stayed over because it would not have been the same without her!


Judy and I went to dinner around 6:00 and then we went to Macy's at Metro Center. We decided to walk back and we walked past Fire Station No. 16 in hopes to see a handsome firefighter I had the pleasure of riding in an elevator with a couple months ago!! Well, it didn't look like he was there so we decided to get some dessert. We walked over to Georgia Brown's because our good friend Norbert has a part-time job there. They had a 3 hour wait; we decided to go to CVS and get some Haagen Dazs and we went to the employee cafeteria to hang with some of the staff. They were watching the movie 'U.S. Marshalls' in Spanish.

We finally made it to the Sports Lounge around 10:15 and set up camp. The party began with me and Masra playing some Rummikub and then Marchese and Regina vs. Me and Masra in a games of Spades. Masra and I KICKED BOOTIE!!!!







Soon, others joined in on our fun. Most of us were in our pj's by then. I brought my laptop with some speakers and we put on my iTunes. Every one was a bit hyped up...it was fun.











John and Sean showed up around midnight. They are the chefs at the club and made some food for us. John is holding some peanut butter ice cream that Sean made..it was pretty tasty!











John eventually took over as DJ. He was impressed by my library of music - it's rather eclectic.









Amela showed up for a while but retired rather early. (around 12:30 am) She is the Housekeeping Manager and had already had such a busy day and would have an even more busy day on Tuesday.







This is Norbert. He was showing us how to dance.....yah.......don't ask.












Me, Marchese and Miguel. This is around 2:30 am.....we were pretty tired at this point.







So, we finally got to bed around 3:00 and I woke up around 6:00. Everyone was exhausted but we had a great time. It was a fun group to spend the night with!

D.C. was absolutely crazy on Inauguration Day. We work a couple blocks from the White House so Judy and I walked to Starbucks in the morning and the streets were lined with vendors selling food (chicken, shrimp, funnel cakes) and Obama memorabilia. The people making their way to the mall (literally thousands) were so excited and I have never seen so much fur in my life! Everyone was wearing fur coats....it was a sight to see!

I have always been grateful that I grew up so close to D.C. and know I am glad that I actually work in the district. I never thought I'd like to work in D.C. but now that I've been down there for 4 years I really love it.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Got Cough Syrup?

So, I have bronchitis and my Dr. prescribed a cough syrup with codeine. Well.........I think the pharmacist made a mistake because I got a whole PINT of cough syrup! It is as big as the speakers for my computer!






It's kind of blurry but it says "BULK CONTAINER - NOT FOR HOUSEHOLD USE"

Really? I even have a refill!!! WAHOO!!!!!!

Monday, January 12, 2009

My last 2 months

So, here's a quick look at the highlights of what's been going on for the last two months. I'm going to summarize so that I can move on to writing about THIS year~


Robbie, Shane and CeCe sleepover. We made Christmas cookies and watched ELF. I love when we have sleepovers~











Went to the Redskins vs. Steelers game with Daredevil. We LOST but it was fun!








This year for my annual Halloween party I took the boys to a farm. It was POURING rain~ They ran through the corn maze and got FILTHY. Everyone got a pumpkin and a toy from the gift store. You can tell that the boys are freezing in this picture. Luckily, Dori brought a change of clothes for everyone~





Robbie and CeCe at Drake's football game. Robbie takes great care of CeCe and she ADORES him!!!










Drake at his game - he's an AWESOME quarterback!












Coach (and Dad) Travis giving Drake some pointers~









The boys at the game~










Girls Night - it was my turn to host dinner. Merianne, Seabreeze and Jen. We try to get together at least 4 times a year. I love these girls.....we have a great time when we are together~







Jen and Seabreeze