In Memoriam of My Little Sister

My mom sent me a few more pictures of Mittens:


Mittens sleeping.


Mittens waking.


Mittens and my dad by the stream behind my family's cabin in Georgia (rented for our wedding).


Mittens celebrating my marriage.

Cameras #15 and #16 (and #17, sort of)

The c.d.'s I had made for cameras #13 and #14 are currently M.I.A., but rather than keep the next set of photos from you all, I'm posting the pics from cameras #15 and #16 and I'll post the pics from #13 and #14 when they turn up.

Also, camera #17 didn't have any pictures on it at all, so there is no camera #17.

Here are the pictures from camera #15 (click to enlarge):









And here is the web album for camera #16:

Reception Camera 16

Another Sad Goodbye; I Love You, Mitzi

My parents had to put our family cat, Mittens, to sleep this morning. She was suffering from kidney failure and, unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done to help her. Mittens was 21 years old.

I grew up with Mittens and so I'm very sad about losing her. I know that she had a great life, and a long one at that. She is very loved.

The Story of Mittens:

Just before Christmas of 1987, our next door neighbors' cat, Mittens, jumped off their roof and hurt one of her legs when she fell. The neighbors were in the process of moving when this happened and they moved away without Mittens. We found her in our bushes a few days later, barely able to walk.

My parents told us (Sara and I-- Laura wasn't born yet) that we had an important choice to make. We could keep Mittens as our own pet and take her to the vet to get help but have fewer toys for Christmas, or we could have a regular Christmas with no Mittens. Needless to say, we picked Mittens. And she stayed with us for 20 years!

Mittens was the best Christmas present I've ever gotten. I'll miss her so much. :(



This really dark picture of Mittens is the only one stored on my computer. She and Radar look a lot alike.

Soup Blog Becomes Recipe Blog

Elliot and I have decided to change the soup blog to a recipe blog! So, souperduper.blogspot.com will no longer be limited to soups but will include desserts, sandwiches, pasta dishes... the list goes on and on.

Please send me your favorite recipes. Elliot and I love to cook not-terribly-complicated vegetarian dishes. And we looooooooove desserts.

Here is proof that I love eating, and that I sometimes can convince other people that they like to eat, too:




Elliot actually made the sauce on the pasta that Kelli and I are eating in this photo! He's a good cook.

Cat Depot

Three years ago, my sister and I adopted our lovely lady cat, Radar, from a no-kill shelter called Cat Depot.

In 2003, the people at Cat Depot rescued over 200 cats from another shelter that was mistreating them, and Radar was one of those cats. She had a very rough life living in a "shelter" where cats were being starved and dying from diseases. The people at Cat Depot have good hearts and their organization continues to take in cats that need to find forever homes.

I've decided to adopt Cat Depot as the charity that I will send donations to when I have a little bit of extra money to give to a charitable cause. They took good care of Radar and I want to make sure that other families can be as lucky as mine when they decide to bring a new cat into their home.

Cat Depot's website: http://www.catdepot.org/Info.htm

I have also put a link to the website on the right side of this blog page, below the list of labels.


(Mary and Radar, June 2007)

Camera #12

Click on the picture to view the web album:

Reception Camera 12

Fun time at tha Butterfly Rainforest

This time with John and Sheila!



And we saw this guy,

and this guy,

and this guy,

and this dude

and this bug!

It was pretty as always.

Camera #11

Here are the pictures from camera #11. No album this time. Just click on the picture to enlarge it. You can copy it to your computer once you click on it.

Good-bye, Nori

My little snail Nori has passed away. He lived at my house, in Kenji's fish tank, for 6 months. I'd imagine that's a long time for a snail.

Kenji won't be lonely, though. Nori has left some baby snails to keep him company.

Cameras #9 and #10

Here are the pics from camera #9:

Reception Camera 9

We do not have camera #10. Hopefully, the pictures will be sent to us once they are developed.

Camera #8

Here are the pics from camera #8:

Reception Camera 8

Camera #7

Here are the pictures from camera #7:

Reception Camera 7

Cameras #4, #5, and #6

Click on the image to view the album:

Reception Camera 4

Reception Camera 5

Reception Camera 6

Camera #3

Here are the pictures from camera #3:

Reception Camera 3

Reception Cameras #1 and #2

I got the first two cameras developed this morning. Click on the image to view the albums.

Reception Camera 1

Reception Camera 2

Last 468 of Laura's Pictures

Here are the rest of Laura's pictures. Click on the image to view the web album.

Last 468 Wedding Reception Photos

Reception Photos From Laura

My sister Laura did a wonderful job of documenting the wedding reception last night using her new camera. She has shared all 568 photos with me. Yay!

I have included a web album, below, of the first 100 photos. Just click on the picture and it will allow you to access the web album. Once you open up the web album, you should be able to store the pictures on your own computer. If you have any trouble, please email or call us and we will help you to save the pictures that you want. (Elliot is a computer programmer, so PLEASE don't hesitate to ask... he loves to do anything that involves a computer!)

The film from the disposable cameras will be developed soon, and I'll post the pictues ASAP.

Thank you again, Laura. If you ever want to start a career in wedding photography, you can use these photos for you first portfolio!

First 100 Reception Photos

Wii Are The Champions

Our friends Sarah and Mark came over last night to play games with us on Elliot's Nintendo Wii. Elliot's YEARS and YEARS of video game playing gave him an obvious advantage and he quickly beat us at most of the games we played.

(Notice the happy and excited looks on Sarah and Mark's faces, compared with the intense look of concentration on Elliot's face.)

Introducing Clotilda!

Clotilda is the newest addition to our family. (I know that her eyes look creepy in this picture, but they look like that in all of the pictures I take for some reason.)

When Elliot and I bought our house two years ago, the previous owners left her behind. She lived outside, sleeping on our front porch, until this past May when Elliot and I decided to bring her inside with Applesauce, Radar, and Yoink. She's been a very good inside cat and gets along with the others reasonably well.

The vet said she is very healthy, although she needs to lose some weight. We've been working on that, even though trying to keep her from eating Yoink's food has been a challenge.

Mall Rats

Elliot's sister Katie took these pictures about a year ago (Sept 2006) while we were at the mall. I just found the pictures stored on our computer and I thought I would share. The picture of Elliot is especially nice. Thanks, Katie!

Our gracious hosts are awesome!

left to right
Nicole, Jonathan, Elliot, Mary, Steve



Last weekend we went and stayed with our friends in Atlanta! We played videogames and ate home-made Oreo ice cream. It was great! That is their new dog, Jake.

Thanks Jonathan and Nicole!

Mary and Amy

Elliot took this picture of my cousin Amy and me when my family reunited in Louisiana for my grandmother's funeral this past June.

Amy and I are just 2 months apart in age, so there are a ton of cute baby pictures of us hugging and kissing and playing on the floor together. It's so weird that we're all grown up now-- we're both married and Amy has 3 sons!

Happy Wedding again to Jonathan and Nicole

Yesterday we were honored to attend our friend's Hometown wedding reception! Here is a shot of us all together. It was a good time with good food.

A Giant Among Men

Sara and I look so short next to Elliot.

Hootie

This owl and its mate live in our neighborhood. They spend a lot of time in our yard, and Elliot snapped this picture while the two of them were sitting under the roof of our pole barn.

Mary and I had a great time hanging out with Parker and Ella!

Last weekend ended up being tons of fun because we got to hang out with one of our nieces and nephews each. We played games and ran around and had a good time.

Culturally Diverse Kitchen

For reasons that I won't go into now, Elliot and I have decided to make a very positive change in our lives by trying to create a regular rotation of meals that is inspired by cuisine from all over the world.

Now, neither one of us is a master chef, neither one of us has time to cook long and complicated recipes, and we eat a strictly vegetarian diet at home, so the recipes that we are making might not be entirely authentic. For example, the Greek soup recipe that I love to make (click here for the link to my soup blog and this recipe) is traditionally made with chicken broth, but I make it with vegetable broth instead. However, I feel like we maintain the spirit of the recipe and therefore embrace a little bit of the culture that it originated from.

I'm having trouble locating good African recipes, but I checked out an African cookbook from the library tonight, so hopefully I'll find something in there. Anyone have an African-inspired recipe that they want to share with me?...

The Rest of the Wedding Party Photos...

There are almost 200 pictures, so I hope you have a few minutes to look through them.

These are all the rest of the photos that were taken of the wedding party before the wedding. Some of me and my sisters, some of Elliot and Katie, some group photos. I left the pictures of just Elliot and Brendan out, since I posted those yesterday. (Click on the picture below to view the web album.)

Wedding Party

And here's a How-To article that has nothing to do with weddings:

Learn how to make a grilled cheese sandwich with an iron (and some aluminum foil).

Happy 4th of July!

Elliot and I celebrated America's birthday by watching the movie Transformers, which was quite good. We both grew up watching the Transformer cartoons, so it was great fun to see them in a live action/computer graphic movie.

We've been posting so many wedding photos that we haven't really been able to update you on what's been going on in our lives since the wedding. I'm participating in an externship this summer, and working part-time at a pre-school. I took all of the necessary tests and I've been certified by the state as a pre-school instructor! Yay! Elliot has been working and playing video games and reading interesting books.

If you click on the web album, below, you'll see all of the pictures of Elliot and Brendan that were taken before the wedding.

Brendan and Elliot

My Sisters

Kelli took this picture of my pretty sisters the night before my wedding. Thank you, Kelli!

(PS~ The wedding photos start on May 8th, or click on the "wedding" link below.)

Elliot and Katie = CUTE!

This is one of the cutest pictures from our wedding photos. Elliot and his sister look adorable!