New Photos

Here are some new photos from Asheville, the Outer Banks and a UNC football game.

Caroline Mei Mei Photos part 3

Here are a few more photos of Mei Mei

Caroline Mei Mei Photos part 2

New Mei Mei Photos part 1

Hello all,
Here are some new photos of Mei Mei that Kat and I took this week.

We finally got the call

Well after almost 4 years of waiting, we finally got the call. A couple of months ago Tom and I decided to try our luck with the China Special Needs program. Little did we know that it would happen so fast. Once we completed some more paperwork, we were would good to go. Karla called us at 1 in the morning and said she found her. A couple of hours later she sent us Caroline's information. Before we said yes we had an international specialist review the file. There are some risks, but she said everything looked positive. This was enough for us, so we said YES. The magic was that our little girl was found wearing a light blue jacket. Is that a sign or what? Our application was sent, so now we are waitng to hear back from that. We are hoping to travel to get her in June. Her 2 year birthday will be on April 25th. As you can see, she is very beautiful and we will be very blessed to bring this little girl int our lives.

American Tobacco Road Half Marathon

As if one half marathon wasn't enough, I did another one. In March I ran the American Tobacco Road Half Marathon. It was a lot of fun. I signed up with some friends from the Y. Again as luck would have it, the weather was beautiful. The course was challenging but pretty. It was fun to run through down the trail through the woods. My friend Maria did great. She ran it in 1:55. She came in 6th in her age group. I am so proud of her. The guys were happy because they had beer at the finish line. As always Tom was my official photographer. Without his support, I wouldn't be able to run these races. He also ran quite a lot helping me train for it.

Crystal Coast Half Marathon

In February I signed up for the Crystal Coast Half marathon. Tom did the 5k run. I signed up for this race to see how I would do in the Half marathon I signed up for in March. The course was flat except the bridge going over from Morehead City to Atlantic Beach. My father surveyed for this bridge and I thought it would be fun to run over his bridge. The run was challenging, but I completed. The weather was gorgeous. Organizers were nervous since the previous two were rainy. So far every race that I have signed up for has had beautiful weather. The highlight of the run was seeing my brother at the finish line. He came out to cheer his little sister on and it was so nice to see at the end of this long run.

Blowing Rock

In February my husband took me on a romantic trip to Blowing Rock for Valentine's Day. We had a great time. It snowed on Saturday, so we took it easy. We went to a bar in Boone and watched UNC defeat NC State. We were lucky that the weather cleared up on Sunday and we were able to go snow tubing at Hawksnest. This was a lot of fun. This resort also has ziplining. They got out of the ski business and took up snow tubing and zipling because the equipment is cheaper and both of these activities are family friendly. It was a lot of fun sliding down the runs in the tube. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. On Valentine's Night we went to a great restaurant named Twigs. Dinner was great and we had a lot of fun that weekend. On Sunday night more snow came in. We got out of there early and drove east out of it.

UNC 100 Years of Carolina Basketball

On a cold Friday night in February, we went to the Alumni Game at the Dean Dome. Carolina is celebrating 100 years of basketball this year. They had former UNC players from many decades. The oldest player played basketball for UNC in the 40s. The game was a lot of fun and we saw players we have not thought about in years. They did a great job showcasing the 100 years of UNC basketball. One of the highlights of the evening was when Dean Smith came out to greet the crowd. It was a lot of fun to watch all the former players out on the floor one more time.

Brewgrass 2009

We went to Brewgrass 2009 in Asheville. Tom and I drove to Asheville to attend our third Brewgrass festival. This year we were nervous about the weather. All week the forecast was a 50% chance of rain. When we got there Friday afternoon, it rained. Saturday morning we woke up to partly cloudy skies. We went to the festival and the sun came out. Lucky for us the rain held out all day. We tried some really good beer from some brewers we had not tried before. My favorite was the Red Devil from Pisgah. It was a cherry flovored beer that was great. It was not too sweet. Tom tried a lot of dark beers. The music was good as well. We set our chairs and enjoyed some good brews and good music. I hope we can go next year. This year tickets sold pretty quick.

Brewgrass is a great beer tasting to go to, because you can try beers that we cannot find around Raleigh. The crowd is great and not there just to get drunk. The festival lasts 7 hours, so you can take your time and enjoy the beer and music!

Dash for Diva Triathlon

One week after the C'ville 4 miler, I became a triathlete My friend Mary Charles talked me into signing up for the Dash for Divas Sprint Triathlon at White Lake. This was an all woman event that was composed of a 250 meter swim, 7 mile bike ride and 2 mile run. It is a nice small one to get your feet wet in the world of triathlons. Training for this thing, I learned that swimming was not my thing. I tried and tried, but I think I was a little afraid of the water. 250 meters = 0.15 miles, so I figured I could fake the swim, which is what I did. We went to a clinic and they said to do whatever you had to to finish the swim, this had been my strategy all along.

We arrived the night before to check everything out. I did learn that a triathlon is a lot of prep work. You have to pack stuff for all three events. The big secret is to be organized.

The morning of the race was gorgeous and lucky for us the water was not too cold. Lucky for me I was able to walk to the first buoy. I swam the best I could to the second one. Took a break and went from 2 to 3. Right before buouy 3, I could touch the bottom and walked in. Everything felt like slow motion. I thought for sure the swim took about 20 minutes, but I did it in 8:27. Unfortunately I was last in my group and this kind of played on me mentally.

Bike ride was not too bad. I think I would do better with a road bike, but my mountain bike did just fine. We saw bikes of all shapes and sizes out there for the race. The run was not too bad either. I had a few difficulties in the transition area which cost me some time, but overallmy time was not too bad. My goal was 1:00-1:15. I did it in 1:13. I learned a lot and I know I can do better. My first thought was I will never do this again, but now I am thinking I want to do it again, because I know I can do better.

Thanks MC for talking me into this. It feels good to be a triathlete.

C'ville 4 Miler Number 2

Hi everyone,

Two days after my day as a Chef, I ran some of the calories off in the C'ville 4 miler. My friend Lisa and I ran the 4 miles. This is a great race. The town of Charlottesville really gets behind it and supports it. The proceeds go to breast cancer. It is an awesome sight to see 3300 women show up to run and walk this race. The day was beautiful. It was a little cool in the morning, but warmed up nicely. Lisa and I had a lot of fun. Her husband and kids were out there cheering her on and my husband and nephew were out there cheering me on. I love the crowds that come to cheer people on and the signs made for survivors and family members lost is so inspiring. I love to run when it is for a good cause. Lisa and I ran the whole race and cut 7 minutes off of our time from last year. Good job Lisa, I am so proud of you. Hopefully I will be able to run it next year.

Chef Kat

Hi everyone,

I was a Chef for a Day. In June I won a gift certificate to the Siena Hotel and Il Palio Restaurant where I became a Chef for a Day. I even got my own chef's jacket with Chef Kat embroidered on it. The day started at 11 am when I met with the Head Chef. We came up with two menus. There was 4 of us so we did two mneus so we could share. Then we went to the kitchen. He gave me a tour and explained some things to me. After that I met with the Pastry Chef. We came up with my desert. We decided on chocolate souffles with chocolate cherry ice cream. Let me tell you, they were wonderful. The cherries we used were the best cherries I have ever eaten. After Chef and I made mussels which we were having as an appetizer. They were wonderful as well. Then I worked with the sous chef. We made pasta from scratch, risotto and the muse. Muse is an appetizer the restaurant makes to give to all of the tables beofre they have dinner. The muse had mayo in it and I actually liked it! The chefs were happy. The challenge for a chef is to take something someone does not like and then have them eat it. After all of the cookng, I met with the sommelier and tasted all of the wines we would have with dinner. He picked some very good wines. He also picked some beers for my husband who is not that keen on wine.

Dinner was wonderful. The staff of Il Palio treated us great. We had so fun and the dinner was delicious. The best part was we had a free room, so we didn't have to drive home after all that wine. I can't believe I won this prize. It was definitely a wonderful experience and I did learn some things about cooking.

O.A.R. Concert

This past weekend Kat and I were lucky enough to attend two concerts that we have been looking forward to for quite a while. On Saturday we joined our close friends Don and Scherri at the Alan Jackson concert at Walnut Creek. Don is a close friend of Danny who is the lead guitarist for Alan Jackson. Danny was nice enough to have 6 tickets waiting for us when we arrived. The concert was wonderful with Alan singing most of his hits.
On Sunday, our nephew Zach stopped by for the day and we along with our other close friend Mary Charles went to see O.A.R. at Koko Booth Amphitheater. Zach and I have been big fans of this band for a long time now. The concert was just awesome, with them playing close to two and a half hours. We had a great time tailgating before hand for a couple of hours.

Richland Creek Zip Line Canopy Tour

Kat, myself and our close friends Lino and Tara decided a few weeks ago to travel to Asheboro to do a little zip lining. It was all of ours first try at it and we all just loved it. They did a wonderful job on designing this course. The longest one being about 250 yards long with the highest being about 65 feet high. It took us about 2 hours to finish the nine different lines that they had layed out for us. We are planning a return trip this fall when the trees are at full color.

Our New SUV

Hello all,
I know it's been a while since we posted an update. I hope to start posting on a more timely manner. This is our new Mitsubishi Outlander that we purchased about two months ago. We couldn't pass up the great deal that we got. This Outlander has all sorts of bells and whisles in it, including a killer Navigation and sound system.

2009 National Champions

Hi everyone,

As you all know we are big Tar Heel fans. This year UNC did not disappoint us. We are the 2009 National Men's Basketball Champions. What a season! We had a lot of great games this year. At the beginning of ACC tournament play, we were not sure if Carolina would make it to Detroit, but they regrouped and played well. The best part was they beat Duke twice!

The tournament was great for UNC fans. We won all of our tournament games by double digits. Michigan State was a scary opponent to face in the finals. They had knocked off two number 1 seeds already. We had played them earlier in the year and had beat them pretty good, but everyone was saying it was their destiny to win and they had the hopes of all Michigan on them.

The Heels were not intimidated one bit. They came out focused and nerves in check. They played great defense and were hitting their shots. It was great to watch. Some say it was a boring game, but I don't care as long as UNC was on the winning side of the game.

We are very happy for Hansbrough, Lawson, Ellington, Greene and all of the 2009 Tar Heels. They did what they set out to do and brought home another championship to UNC.