Congratulations Chris!

On TOP of the World!!

Nominated, interviewed and now selected as a Byrce Harlow Fellow for the 09-10 academic year!!!

**Your professional, academic, and leadership achievements, combined with your strong interest in a career in advocacy are extremely impressive. Being awarded the Bryce Harlow Fellowship truly demonstrates your achievements as well as your commitment to integrity in professional advocacy. It is a pleasure to be able to assist you in pursuing you graduate degree with this award**

From Mom and Dad Barber-
"We all recognize your efforts in completing your degree work for your Masters Program and we are all especially pleased that others (Bryce Harlow Fellowship) have also recognized your education, avocation, and continued efforts to improve yourself. Not only are we excited and pleased we now have new information to spread to our friends as we 'gush' about our family and loved ones endeavors."

Chase's boo boo and house updates!

Mom, Dad and Grandma have been here since last Saturday, and no, I didn't make them work the whole week. We actually treated them to the Baltimore Aquarium on Monday for all their hard work. We visited the American History Museum and the National Cathedral.
As for updates:
-new toilet upstairs (the upstairs toilet replaced the basement toilet)
-removal of the holly bush stumps
-removal of Cherry Blossom roots... Chris even used a mattock to bust up the stump and roots.
and most important:
-NEW floors and baseboard in the living room

As for Chase's boo boo... she snagged her dew claw on some of the roots we removed. She ran inside for a treat and blood was dripping everywhere. When we inspected it closely, we realized that she had split her nail up/down. I guess she didn't realize that we had already spent enough money at Lowe's this week and for the new floor, so we had to take her to the vet for a 45 minute "surgery". She has a bandage for 3-5 days to cover the partial removal of her claw and 3 weeks of antibiotics.


I will post more pictures of our trips soon!

Emily

I have returned home and am back to work after being in Chicago for four days. Emily is sooo cute and even more beautiful in person. Mom, Dad, Amanda and Dan all came up to see me...I am sure it was Emily, but they told me it was to see me too. We had a great time, Jessica and Eric received a Wii for their birthdays, so we played it and made fun of each other. We enjoyed Flat Top Grille and Giordano's Pizza, very yummy! We went down to Navy Pier, but Emily didn't think that was a good idea, so after walking around, we left. More pictures of that to come.

Camel no more

My friends in high school used to call me a camel when we would eat out together. I drank sooo much water.. all the time. (Camels drink large amounts of water - up to 20 gallons at a time.) I gave up soda when I was 16, never drank coffee, so it came down to water and milk.

Well, things have changed. I "forget" to drink throughout the day and it has finally caught up to me in the form of kidney stones. Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of passing a kidney stone. Let's just say, the nurse said many women would rather give birth again than to pass a kidney stone. The emergency room was a nice place to spend a Friday night, but not fun. After following up with an Urologist, I found out that I had a least six more stones forming in my kidneys. Yesterday I had lithotripsy done on my left side, and a followup appointment will determine if I had to have it done on my right side. At this exact moment I have downed 24 ounces of water, which is about 20 ounces more than I am acustomed to.

The lithotripsy procedure feels like someone has kicked you in the back with a steel toe boot on. I am bruised, sore, tired, and am praying that this is the last time I have to deal with something like this. Moral to the story... drink water, lots of it!

A lot to report

Becca was here visiting two weekends ago. We had a short, but nice time to catch up and hang out.

I made a cake for her homecoming and Brittanie and Jim's farewell for our cook out. I thought I would use decorating icing to write Welcome Home Becca, Farewell Brittanie and Jim, but 30 minutes prior to everyone arriving, Chris and I realized that the icing tube needed a tip (we didn't read the directions on the back) So, I improvised and it turned out horrible...but, everyone got a great laugh.
This past weekend was my birthday weekend. We started off Saturday morning with the removal of our HUGE cherry blossom tree...and before everyone freaks out on us for cutting it down, it was completely infested with ants and rotting from the inside. It was time. We also took the opportunity to dig out the HUGE dying rose bush in the back to. The bush was to the right of the grill. The yard is SLOWLY coming together, we still have a lot of work to do.




























And lastly, my birthday.. Chris' surprised me with dinner in Georgetown at Sequoia. We were able to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. He also took me to Coach and I was able to get my pink purse that I had been wanting. It is exactly what I wanted!! I also got a facial gift certificate to Lorien Spa from Chris, a Gift card to Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spas from the Andresen's, and (don't laugh) professional clippers (for Chase) from my parents.

We finished our weekend with the Lockards joining us last night for the next couple nights... they are moving to Texas on Wednesday morning, so we are lucky to have them with us their last nights!

Emily's #1 Babysitter

Mom and Falkor paid a visit to Emily over the weekend. Falkor, who has been around numerous babies his whole life, can not stand when babies cry... even on tv. He feels the need to rescue them. This picture was taken when Emily woke up from a nap and was crying. Apparently when she wasn't crying, he would go over and get on his back legs and look into the bassinet without touching it. I LOVE this dog!!