Just the pictures, please

OK, so first things first. Here's some pictures from our trip to New York last weekend to visit family and meet the twins. Details are in the blog below.

From left, Ellie, Katie, Abby, and Phoebe

Eddie fell asleep while I was reading some Veggie Tales to him.

Andy shakes off the baby-holding terror to get to know Katie a little better.

How cute is he? Seriously. It's ridiculous.

Here's Keuka Lake in the spring. I'm always there in the winter, so it was nice to see it with everything green around it. You can see some guys fishing in the background too.

Here's the twins -- Katie on left and Will on right.

Babies, babies, everywhere (and kids, too)

Now that you've seen all the pictures, I wanted to catch everyone up. Andy and I went to New York for the long weekend to visit family and meet the twins, Will and Katie.

I know, it's almost too much.

The drive up was too long courtesy of a nasty traffic delay just before Binghamton that cost us nearly 2 hours. We ended up getting in so late that we decided to just crash at a Motel 6 rather than wake up Carrie's (Andy's sis) entire family at 2 a.m.

So after a restful night at that luxurious hotel, we met up with Carrie, Chuck, Phoebe and Ellie for breakfast. Chuck and Andy headed out shortly after to meet up with Dan (Andy's brother) to play some golf while I hung out with Carrie and the kids. We played some woofle ball, and I'm pretty sure we did better than the boys did at golf. No, offense, boys.

After that I headed out to keep Jen company and meet the twins. I think I was there maybe 30 seconds before I had to pick one up. And I don't think I was without one again for more than 30 more seconds. What can I say -- I love babies.

When the guys finally got back from golf, we headed up to Keuka Lake to have dinner with Andy's folks. Andy's dad has the art of grilling steaks down to a science. They were perfect.

See Andy's dad in the background? :)

On Sunday, the whole clan drove up to the Lake for a massive hamburger/hot dog cookout. Good stuff. I think there were 14 of us all together.

What a good lookin' crew!

We left early Monday morning after stopping by to visit Andy's grandma on the way out of town. We made it home just before dinner and Layla was psyched to be back with us!

Three years and counting

Before Andy and I head up to New York for a long weekend, I wanted to blog a little about our anniversary together. Otherwise it will get lost in all the excitement of seeing family and meeting the MacAlpine twins and all that good stuff.

To celebrate our 3rd anniversary, we both took the whole day off from work and enjoyed some quality time together. We slept in pretty late and then I made us some banana nut pancakes for breakfast. Good stuff.

It was a beautiful day, so after breakfast we headed to downtown Annapolis to watch the sailboats and look out on the water. For the past year or so I've been bugging Andy to try sushi, so he took me to a nice sushi place for lunch. He's always been hesitant, but I knew he'd like it (which he did). After lunch we walked around the Naval Academy campus along the waterfront and took some really pretty pictures.

We topped the day off down at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore at a really nice Italian restaurant on the tip of Baltimore's Little Italy. It was a nice romantic atmosphere and we got to watch the sun set over the city.

It was a great day, and we enjoyed it. Here's to many more happy anniversaries!

Busy couple of weeks

May is turning out to be a whirlwind month. It started out with my weekend trip in Georgia. Then earlier this week I was in Seattle. Next weekend we're off to New York and the weekend after that back in Georgia. Whew!

The Seattle trip went really well. We flew out VERY EARLY Monday morning, had a brief layover in San Francisco, then arrived in Seattle around lunch time (Seattle time). We worked in the Seattle office for a few hours and then headed to a fun restaurant/bar called Mexico for happy hour. A few margaritas and some nachos later, we went to grab dinner. It made for a long day -- by the time we went back to our rooms it was after midnight our time, and most of us had started our day around 4:30 a.m.

No, I didn't take these, but they give you an idea of how beautiful the city is.

The good thing about going to Seattle though is that even when you have to be in to the work at 8 a.m., it feels like you slept in. So I was fully rested for a another packed day on Tuesday. They put us in a bunch of meetings/brainstorm sessions with the Seattle folks, which was great.

For those of you who have no idea what I do -- I'm a copywriter for a fundraising agency that works with nonprofits. I write all sorts of fundraising packages for a range of clients. So during these brainstorm sessions we come up with concepts for new fundraising appeals and kind of talk through them. It's a chance to get fresh ideas by pulling together creatives (that's what people who write or design are called) from different teams. The great thing about the Seattle office (which is actually the company that Merkle, who I work for now, bought) is that their creative department has about 30-45 people in it. Ours has 7.


We spent about 2 hours coming up with ideas for fundraising packages for our mission clients, which are nonprofits that run things like soup kitchens, homeless shelters, adult education centers, rehabs, and services like that. Not to brag or anything, but my idea won. OK, so I guess that is bragging, but it was cool to be with all these people who have been in the biz for many more years than me and come up with the winning idea. Good stuff.


The rest of the trip was pretty routine business stuff followed by a nice dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant with very good wine. The only noteworthy event here is that I chickened out on ordering the baby octopus appetizer. I just couldn't do it, and I'm grateful because when they brought it out, it still look like an octopus -- suction cups and all. I had lentil soup instead. I know, what a daredevil, right?


So that's it for the Seattle trip. Hopefully I'll get to out there at least a couple times a year. That's the plan anyway. We'll see.


Next weekend we're off to meet the newest MacAlpines -- William and Katherine. But first we'll celebrate our 3rd anniversary on Tuesday. I took the day off so we could go spend a day on the Chesapeake. I think we're going to pack a lunch and maybe rent a canoe or small sailboat or something and just spend the day on the water. I'm looking forward to it!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mommies out there, especially mine! :) Hope you all are being pampered immensely and treated to a nice dinner.

It's been a pretty busy weekend here. Yesterday I did the Arthritis Walk. It was a great turnout and lots of people brought their doggies with them. (Dogs get arthritis too, so there were lots of activities and booths set up for them as well). The park was beautiful, and it's right around the corner, so I'm glad I got a chance to go. We'll definitely be going back. It's a very dog-friendly park, and in fact, has a few separate dog park and a dogs-only beach and swimming area. A friend of mine at work brought her pug, Hogan, on the walk and later we took him over to the beach. It was fun watching all the dogs go nuts, splashing around and having a blast. I'd love to take Layla -- just not sure if she could handle it.

I spent most of today cleaning and packing for my trip to Seattle tomorrow. It's a work trip, but it should be fun. Would've been more fun if Andy could have gotten some time off to go with me, but maybe next time.

I know I've been promising pictures and updates about the newest MacAlpines, so here it is. On April 26, Andy's brother Dan became the proud daddy of twins William and Katherine. So a special Happy Mother's Day goes out to Jen MacAlpine! We haven't gotten a chance to meet them yet (we'll be going up for Memorial Day weekend), but judging from the pictures, they're adorable. They're sort of famous too! They made it on the front page of the Syracuse paper because the hospital where they were born broke a record that day. Check out the article here.

Well, I better finish packing and get ready for bed. I have to get up at 4 a.m. for the flight outta Baltimore, then a layover in San Francisco, then off to Seattle to put in a day of work. It's going to be a LONG DAY.

Thank you!

OK, I hit my Arthritis Walk goal (thank you mom and dad Turnbow, mom and dad Mac and Carrie and Chuck!), so now I can update you on all the exciting, and not-so-exciting events of my life. But that doesn't mean you can't still give and support me!

Bear with me if I babble ... I've been sick the past few days so I'm not quite myself. I've got this cold that's been kicking my butt now for several days. I don't usually get them this bad but I think the allergies aren't helping. So anyway, on to the blogging.

A few weeks ago I took a short trip home to Georgia to work concessions for a basketball tournament my dad was having. I know, it may seem extreme to fly to Georgia just to work a tournament, but it's a lucrative gig ... one that came in handy when the Tax Man came. It's an exhausting weekend ... multiple trips to Sams to buy food and drinks and cooking and serving people all day. And let me tell you -- concession stands ain't want they used to be. Gone are the days of just hot dogs, popcorn and potato chips. We have fresh-made french fries, mozzarella sticks, BBQ sandwiches, chicken fingers. It's quite a menu. And did I mention completely exhausting? I put in a good 40 hours in three days. Good times. It actually is fun -- I hire a couple people I used to work with in the Atlanta office and we really do have a time. I'm heading back down to do another one the first weekend in June.

The hardest part of going down for these tournaments is being so close to everyone and not really having time to visit with them. This time I did get to have dinner with Amy, Amanda and LaShonda. It was kind of a Happy Birthday/Farewell dinner with LaShonda. She's moving to Utah in a couple months to be with her hubby. He took a job with GE and they'll be living out there for a year or two. (FYI, LaShonda and anyone else who might be inclined to take a job offer that relocates you, you have to pay taxes on all the moving expenses they give you. Put the money aside so it doesn't sneak up on you come April 15. Not that I personally know anything about that as I am a responsible taxpayer ... ahem ...). Anyway ... dinner was great and the company even better ;)

More to come -- details (and pictures) about the newest MacAlpines -- William and Katherine.

Serious catching up to do

OK, before I get into my trip to GA last weekend and the birth of the newest MacAlpines, I have to talk about my Arthritis Walk next weekend.

I meant to do this at least a week ago, and just haven't had a chance. Now I have exactly 7 days to raise $135. I set my goal at $150 and have only raised $15 ... and it was my $15. I know ... sad, right?

The Arthritis Foundation does some pretty amazing things. They fund groundbreaking research projects to find better treatments and hopefully one day cure arthritis. Plus, they have a whole bunch of community programs and support groups that are all free. You can check out AF on their web site, but then you have to come back here to support me in the Arthritis Walk.

Seriously, before I started writing for the Arthritis Foundation, I had no idea how bad it really is. I got the opportunity to participate in a summit on Capitol Hill and visit with some of the kids with arthritis. It was heartbreaking. These kids know more about drugs than most people learn in their whole lives. They're rattling off medications and surgical procedures. One kid had been to the doctor more than 200 times ... in one year. Another kid talked about how kids at school made fun of him because he can't walk straight. Then there's little Sam.

Sam's 6 years old and has suffered every single day of his life. He was diagnosed with systemic arthritis as an infant. He's in crippling pain every day. He's had to learn how to walk 3 times in his short little life. He's even had heart surgery to relieve the inflammation the disease was causing (it would have made his heart stop). He's a cute kid and with a recent advance in treatment, he's actually doing a little better now. He still moves with a great deal of effort, but I actually saw him walking up some stairs with a little help from his dad. Just a year ago, that was unthinkable. So it goes to show that the research and progress AF is making does work -- there's just a long way to go still.

If you're still not convinced, here are the top 5 reasons why you should support me in the Arthritis Walk:

5) It's is the #1 cause of disability in the U.S.
4) There are 46 million people who suffer from doctor-diagnosed arthritis (and another 20 million or so who have chronic joint symptoms)
3) Most people don't realize that some of the worst and most devastating forms of arthritis affect children (about 500,000!)
2) It's more than just aches and pains -- it's a serious, chronic and often debilitating disease
1) I'm asking you to, and you love me

So, PLEASE support me. It doesn't have to be much -- every bit helps. I'll provide more updates as soon the donations start rolling in. That's right I'm withholding information for donations. And the babies ... they're twins. Don't you want to hear all about them? Give today! ;)