South Africa

Chris and I are getting ready to travel to one of his old stomping grounds, South Africa.  He lived there during our Junior year of High School as an exchange student.  Needless to say we are eager to make this trip and anticipate a great adventure.  We are gearing up for our trip by contacting friends who live near Cape Town, making tour reservations, buying the necessary equipment and gathering information for our parents who will be taking care of our kiddos during our excursion.  Besides viewing the Big 5 and some, we have plans for these activities too:

Paragliding, quad bike safari, cycling the coast, hiking the Otter Trail and Table Top Mountain and great white shark cage diving.


I'm sure we'll find other activities to occupy our time...a day (or 2) at the beach, a township tour and spending time with friends.  Anyone been to the Cape Town area and have any suggestions of things we shouldn't miss?

Florida...

My sis and her man came to Florida with their friends Peter and Sarah. Chris and I coerced our friends Jona and Julia to watch our kids for 4 days while we went gallivanting.

Making mom proud :)

We had fun traveling to several parks and going on the "grown up" rides! We ate too much food and stayed up late and slept in.

Me and Lizzie

Thanks Lizzie and Alan for a fun trip! We sure wish you guys lived closer, hint, hint.

Mr. Johns...another great year!

Happy Birthday honey. Thanks for all you do to make us happy!
Breakfast in bed is tradition in the Johns' household. Derek enjoyed it just as much as Chris, if not more:)
  
  
and here's the grill. At long last, we have a grill to put on our deck. So far it is working out fabulously. He even received an apron to don while grilling. I need a picture of that!
 

Favorite Faces

We've been so busy since school let out that I feel like we are still in school! These were taken on one of our "relaxing" days as a family, playing soccer, frisbee and just having fun. My favorite people...
  
  

Sturdy, well-built, good looking...

That's the way I like my man...oh, wait that's not what I am blogging about. Although I should because he took on a project which, needless to say, I am very pleased with. I know he is pleased too as he came to wake me up at 11:30pm last night to tell me about it. When we moved in to the house we talked about getting some stands for our newly acquired washer and dryer. Chris said, I can make one. With the inheriting of some of his Great Grandpa's and Grandpa's tools, he made a darn sturdy platform for my machines. No more back breaking laundry switching and $200+ still in our pocket that we didn't spend on those cheaply made, flimsy, plastic stands. Now for my laundry chute...Thanks honey!

  
  

Mmmmm....pizza

A while back I got the hankering to figure out how to make a great pizza. Everyone has a different definition of great pizza, but for me, I was most interested in making pizza like it is made in Naples. A thin, yummy crust with just a few extrodinary toppings. Simple, but delicious. I played around here and there but never really satisfied with what I was getting. This summer, though, while we were visiting Portland, OR, I got a copy of Peter Reinhart's The Bread Bakers's Apprentice from the semi-famous Powell's Bookstore. Among many other great recipes, he had one for Pizza Napoletana that sounded like what I was going for. My first few attempts were OK but had me wondering if I was ever going to be able to bake at home the kind of pizza I really wanted.

Recently, though, I can finally say that I'm starting to get the results I am looking for. I'm not positive what has made the improvements, but my best guess is it is due to the sifter and scale that Katie bought me for Christmas this year. All the recipes in Peter's book are given by weight as that will be most accurate, especially for dry ingredients like flour and that has helped me keep from over or under shooting the right amount. I'm too cheap to splurge on more expensive flours (I just get big 'ol bags from Sam's that are all clumpy) and the sifter helps me smooth it out.

Now that I feel like I have a good handle on the crust, I'm having fun playing around with different toppings. Here's a few shots of my most recent one (before, during, and after).  For toppings I have just cheese (mozzeralla, and a little asiago), fresh basil, red onion, and a few dabs of ranch.

Mmmmm....

Sailing the Cheasapeake

The scout troop that I have been the scoutmaster of for the last few years had the great opportunity to go sailing in the Chesapeake Bay this last weekend. We could not have asked for better sailing weather. It was unseasonably warm but the winds were fairly strong so we were able to move along at a good clip. All of the boys that were with us had never been on a sailboat before. The first time a really strong wind came along and tipped us over far enough to have water coming over the edge I would have sworn that we had a boat full of young girls - they were screaming so loud. After the initial shock, though, they had a great time leaning over the edge and seeing how far we could get it too tip. After the sailing, we had a great time playing around in little kayaks and playing ping pong. It was a wonderful way to end my time with them - they are a great bunch of young men.

Me getting ready to set sail

 

Panoramic shot of the boat and the dock

 

We are moving!!

Well, everything is official now. We are moving to Cary, North Carolina in a few short weeks. I start at my new job on October 29. It's happening very quickly. We have our house on the market now and are crossing our fingers for a sale before we have to leave. The market has really dropped so it may be a bit hit or miss. We are really looking forward to the move and the kids are excited as well. They are eager to meet new people and go to a new school and have a new house. Everything is an adventure for them. It will be nice to have a less hectic pace of life without the mass of people all around like D.C. has.

My new job is with a company called The SAS Institute. They make the statistical software that I have been using as a statistician and as a student since 1998. As far as I know they are the largest privately held software company in the world and are consistently ranked among the best places to work in the nation each year. My new job will be to develop testing procedures and software to make sure that their financial risk software is functioning correctly. It is a change for me in that I haven't worked in the financial realm much, but I hope to pick it up quickly.

So anyway, it is an exciting time for us. New baby, new job, new house, etc. We don't have a new address in Cary, yet, but will let everyone know as soon as we do.

Chris goes to Texas for snow

Well - it's been so mild in D.C. up to this point that I decided to go to Texas to get some snow. I heard they were having a big storm that was blanketing the entire state! Well, I did want to see snow but I actually had to go for work. While there I got the added perk of being able to hang out with Katie and Luke and Ginger. We had a great time and Katie proved herself exceptionally talented in the culinary arts! Most of my work was in the afternoon so I was able to spend mornings with Katie and Ginger. We did a few projects around her house and had a nice visit to McKinney Park where there are some neat geological features and American history.

Chris with Ginger at McKinney Falls

Katie with Ginger in McKinney Park

Katie with Ginger in what used to be a living area for Native Americans