A Little Peek

We've been back from our vacation for 24 hours now and I was really hoping to have at least one post done, but I've been doing laundry...an all day chore after a week of vacation. We rented a cabin that had a washer and dryer, but the dryer would only dry a few things at a time so we came home with tons of dirty clothes. I also ran out of space on my laptop after the first day and couldn't empty the memory cards from the camera and get the pictures ready for blogging.

So today was full of laundry and swimming (I missed our pool) and downloading like 2000 pictures. I'll leave you with a few pictures to wet your appetite for more...

Our cabin:

Our front porch tenants:

Lunch in Gatlinburg:

The little creek behind our cabin:

Dollywood:

Wonderworks in Pigeon Forge:

Old MacDonalds Putt Putt:

The Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga:

Had a blast, but it's nice to be home :) The cats missed us.

Love,
Mrs. Bauer

The Book.

For Father's Day the girls and I put together a photobook for Duane. Some of the pictures he had seen before, but some of them he hadn't. We snuck out to the park and to their schools and even to his work. It was a Saturday, the one when we had gone to the mall. While we were at his work taking pictures we locked the keys in the car. Out in the middle of nowhere, keys and phones on the front seats. We certainly couldn't call Duane and tell him where we were. That would have compromised the mission!

Luckily the security guard came out to tell us that we couldn't take pictures. He reluctantly (!) let us use the phone to call the locksmith.

Anyways, here's the book...








He got teary and so did Bri. It was a sweet moment. And we've been catching him looking at it all day. I bet it comes with us on vacation :)

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

Today is Father's Day and this is my Dad.

We've had all these birthdays and holidays in our family lately, so I've been going through all the old pictures that I have. When trying to find a perfect picture for my Father's Day post I kept coming back to this one. When I look in his face I see me. And my sisters. I never noticed a resemblance between my parents and I until I started getting older and saw pictures of them around my age.
I wouldn't like it any other way :)

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Lordy Lordy...

40 years ago today, at 2:08pm Pacific Time, I was born!

FORTY YEARS AGO! It's hard to believe that this sweet, tiny baby is FORTY!! And to think that I thought my mom was ancient old mature when she was only 34. I'm so sorry Momma!

I've always loved this picture of me. When I was younger, and could never tell who was who in the baby pictures, I was always glad to hear this one was me! I say "younger", but it was only about 6 or 7 or 8 years ago that my Gramma gave me a tri-frame for Christmas with 3 pictures in it and I asked "Who are these people?". I thought they were those pictures that come with the new frames. It was my mom as a child. Again, sorry mom!

It wasn't until recently that I realized I was drooling like Niagra Falls when this picture was shot! I still like it. And you probably wouldn't have known about the drool unless I told you. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything!

Happy birthday to me and happy birth-day to you mom!

p.s.

I've always been thrilled to share my birthday with Garfield. Here's his strip today..on his 31st Birthday!

Happy Birthday Garfield!

(And you too, Paula Abdul)

Happy Birthday Gramma!

Today is my Gramma's Birthday!
And boy do I wish I could be with her
celebrating like we always used to.

Our birthdays are 5 days apart
and we would celebrate our special days together.
But now I live in Louisiana and she lives in California
and she is going to have to settle for me
splashing her picture all over the blogosphere
for everyone (that means all 5 of you that read this) to see.

This is Gramma Violet and my Mom, way back when.

Don't ask me when though, because I don't know.
Mom will know though. Look at that pretty little bow
on Gramma's pretty suit. I wonder what color those outfits were?

And look at Gramma here. She is the one standing
behind my Grampa. I love this picture because of the
way that my Grampa Duane (yep, my Grampa's name is
Duane and I'm marrying a Duane!) is kneeling.
I'll forever remember him kneeling like this,

whether it was to get the fire going in the fireplace

or if it was to help us cut the ribbons on Christmas presents

with the knife he used to always have in his pocket.
I sure do miss my Grampa.

While looking for pictures for this blog I found this
Mother's Day card that my sister and I sent to
Gramma Vi back in 1975!

I like #5 where we said we liked her red hair.
Gramma colored her hair red and drove a red Camero!
She is one hip Gramma!

I'm glad it's not in writing that I asked
my Gramma for her music boxes when she died.
I sure would hate for you all to know what an uncaring child I was.
But it was completely said with love
and I knew that I was going to be at least 72
before I ever got those music boxes in my hot little hands.

Here is all of us in front of Gramma's Camero, along with the dog Cleo
(or Mindy, but I'm pretty sure Cleo. They looked an awful lot alike).
See Gramma's red hair?

Ahh.. a better shot of the hotrod!
You'll have to excuse the quality of the pictures,

and the thumb, as I don't have a scanner
and had to take pictures of the pictures!

Here is Gramma and I during one of our birthday excursions.
That year we went to the San Francisco Zoo, obviously.
The year was 2001 and Gramma fed the goats.

And sat on a turtle.
(a fake turtle)

I love you Gramma
and hope you have a wonderful day today!!!

Happy Birthday.

Love, Stephanie

The Cutest Card Ever!

I love the week before my birthday.
When wonderful things start appearing in my mailbox.

On Friday I received this gem from Duane's Mom.
My soon to be Mother in Law.

She is the most creative person I know!
She makes all of her own cards.

Going to her house is like going to the craft store!!

You can get stuck in there for days

and never want to leave.

And when you finally do leave you can be assured

that you aren't going home empty handed.
You always leave with some craft you've made or started.

And leftovers. Always leftovers :)

Thank you Norma, I love it!!

Stephanie Dianne at 40!

I've always been the type of person
that can't stand surprises.

One year I opened all my presents
under the christmas tree and taped them back up.

I thought I was pretty sneaky.

I wasn't.

Then there was the year
that I opened my presents so fast,
not even stopping to see what I had received.

Then I cried.

And my mom had to help me dig through
the wrapping paper to find my gifts.

My birthday is in 6 days
and yesterday I received a package in the mail from my Mom.

As I started to tear that ribbon off
I noticed the card said Stephanie at 40!

I was stopped in my tracks.

I'm NOT 40
and I'm NOT opening it until I am.

It's not stopping me from shaking it though :)

Pool Art

Words can't describe what you're about to see...

Well...
I'm sure you could come up with some,
but I couldn't.

So I didn't.

Blairee is always such a willing participant!

<3
Love you girlie.
Broke toe and all.

More on that later.

My Day in Pictures

First thing I saw when I left the house:

They're in my neighbors front yard.

The most beautiful hibiscus that I've ever seen.

They come back every year.

And I always look forward to them.

You should click on the picture to see how pretty it truly is!

After I'd been at work for a bit
we walked across the parking lot
to our new building.

This is what I saw on the way there.

It's aptly named a Stick Bug.
And it looks exactly like a stick!!
We have the most bizarre bugs in Louisiana!

Then I saw this truck waiting on the scale.

And upon closer inspection noticed that the
driver had a Chucky doll hanging in his passenger seat!

Whaaa?

If you click on the picture below you can really see him...

I was almost scared to go in the building after this!

This building has taken years to get to this point.
I was hired 2 years ago yesterday...

Happy Anniversary to me!!...

and this building was supposed to be built
before I started.

This is our new breakroom.

Love love love the windows.

This is our new space.

And below is the building from the outside.

We're supposed to start moving in on July 13th!!
But I'm not holding my breath.

The darker part is where all the offices are
and the lighter part is where all the labs are.

We currently have one little lab in our old building
and the rest of our labs are in Rhode Island.

It's going to be great having them all on site :)

This is Debra!
Today is her birthday
and we all went to P.F. Chang's for lunch.

It was delicious and I *think* Debra had a great time.
It's kinda hard to tell from the picture though.
What do you think?

Went home, saw this moon.

And now I'm watching college baseball.

LSU is up 12-7 and Rice is down to their last out....

Strike 1

Strike 2
Ball 1

Foul Ball

2 Run Home Run.

Geesh.

Let's try this again.

LSU is up 12-9 and Rice is down to their last out....
Strike 1

Strike 2

Fair ball...out at 1st!

Geaux Tigers!

Game 2 tomorrow :)