More Pumpkins!

I carved this pumpkin for the apartment...





























It cast the most beautiful shadow on the ceiling!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This is the pumpkin I carved for mom's house!! Happy Halloween everyone! Don't forget to vote!

funny quote i saw...

"When I meet a man I ask myself, 'Is this the man I want my children to spend their weekends with?'"~ Rita Rudner

McCain's Running Mate...

Female Gov. of Alaska
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

Joe Biden for VP

Barack Obama chooses Joe Biden for veep

WASHINGTON - The Associated Press has learned that Delaware Senator Joe Biden is Barack Obama’s choice to be his vice presidential running mate.
The 65-year-old Biden is a veteran of more than three decades in the Senate, and one of his party’s leading experts on foreign policy, an area in which polls indicate Obama needs help in his race against Republican rival John McCain.
The official who spoke did so on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt a text-message announcement the Obama campaign promised for Saturday morning.

No More Junk Mail!

https://www.optoutprescreen.com/opt_form.cgi

Fill out your address here and they will take you off of all promotional and junk mail lists for 5 years!

Pittsburgh and Philadelphia Pictures.... FINALLY

i will post my fav pics from each city here BUT here are the links to the entire albums.... enjoy!

Pittsburgh

Sister after the show

Mom and me on the second day

OK so that is just a mediocre picture of myself but I took a picture of myself like this with downtown Seattle behind me and I had to try to recreate it here :)

We walked past the cutest knitting store on Sunday and it, like everything else in downtown Pittsburgh, is closed on Sunday... booo!!!

"Coffee fries" from Six Penn... thinly sliced potatoes with lime juice, salt and pepper and coffee grinds!! They were AMAZING!

The most expensive tomato soup and grilled cheese I ever got at brunch

look at those lovely Patterson ladies! :)

This is how we look when we take pictures...

and this is how we look the rest of the time :)

Pittsburgh was great! Now on to Philly!!!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Philadelphia

I did forgo my vegetarian status for this cultural experience... it was ok. The meat was greasy and I didn't care for the fakey cheese topping... but apparently its not authentic without that?

Outside Independence Hall

doing this...

Click on the links if you wanna see more!

Pittsburgh and Philadelphia

Mom and Vickie and I just got back from Pittsburgh and Philly, PA! We were in Pittsburgh for 2 days to see Mary perform in the ensemble of West Side Story. Apparently, lots of the kids from U Mich go to Pittsburgh to do summer stock at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. Mary did Mame, Annie Get Your Gun and West Side Story. It was fantastic!!! She was, of course, the prettiest one up there and should have really been cast as Maria... ;)

Then we went on to Philadelphia just because we were up there and none of us had been! We crammed so much stuff into the just over 24 hours that we were there! We saw the Liberty Bell, Congress Hall, Independence Hall, Betsy Ross House, where Franklin is buried, the first post office, the Rocky statue outside of the Philly Museum of Art and we walked around in the Philly Museum of Art... it was amazing!

I have too many pictures on my Picasa page right now... it won't let me upload anymore. Until I can get around this technical difficulty, you will just have to use your imagination!! But I will send pics soon!!! :)

Happy Birthday Valarie!!

Monday is Valarie's birthday!! YAY! :)

John Edwards, I am so disappointed

Edwards Admits Sexual Affair; Lied as Presidential Candidate

In an ABC NEWS NIGHTLINE interview, Edwards Reveals He Cheated, But Didn't Father Child

By RHONDA SCHWARTZ and BRIAN ROSS
August 8, 2008

John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.

Democratic presidential candidate former U.S. Senator John Edwards (D-NC) speaks to supporters during a campaign event at the Keene State University in Keene, New Hampshire January 6, 2008.

(Carlos Barria / Reuters)
More Photos

In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.

A former campaign aide, Andrew Young, has said he was the father of the child.

According to friends of Hunter, Edwards met her at a New York city bar in 2006. His political action committee later paid her $114,000 to produce campaign website documentaries despite her lack of experience.

Edwards said the affair began during the campaign after she was hired. Hunter traveled with Edwards around the country and to Africa.

Edwards said he told his wife, Elizabeth, and others in his family about the affair in 2006.
Edwards made a point of telling Woodruff that his wife's cancer was in remission when he began the affair with Hunter. Elizabeth Edwards has since been diagnosed with an incurable form of the disease.

When the National Enquirer first reported the alleged Edwards-Hunter affair last October 11, Edwards, his campaign staff and Hunter vociferously denounced the report.

"The story is false, it's completely untrue, it's ridiculous," Edwards told reporters then.

He repeated his denials just two weeks ago.

Edwards today admitted the National Enquirer was correct when it reported he had visited Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hilton last month.

The former Senator said his wife had not known about the meeting.

these are a few of my favorite things......

Posted on Thu, Jul. 24, 2008

Opera sets ‘Little Women' to music

Poignant hit on stage in Brevard next week may find its way to Charlotte

Steven Brown

sbrown@charlotteobserver.com

ADRIANNE BONAFEDE

Conductor Christopher Larkin rehearses with performers for Mark Adamo's “Little Women,” which will open Thursday at the Brevard Music Center.

For a new opera, this is off-the-chart success: More than 50 productions around the world in a decade. And that's without a famous composer or performer for a PR boost.

Then again, Mark Adamo's opera does have a great name attached: “Little Women,” the Louisa May Alcott novel that inspired it.

Opera Carolina has talked about producing Adamo's “Little Women” in the 1,200-seat theater under construction on South Tryon Street. But Jo March and her adored sisters will arrive first at the Brevard Music Center, which performs Adamo's opera Thursday and Aug. 2.

The director of Brevard's opera program, David Gately, has directed two of those 50-plus productions, in Texas and Kentucky. He has seen the opera's effect on viewers firsthand.

“Audiences go away just loving it,” David Gately says.

Adamo, born in Philadelphia in 1962, by no means had a sure thing when he turned to Alcott for his first opera. He was several years ahead of the Broadway “Little Women” of 2005 – and even that one was no smash. Adamo's version, by opera-world standards, is one.

Adamo, doubling as composer and librettist, has shaped Alcott's story into two acts playing out in a bit less than two hours. He has won admiration for ingeniously boiling down Alcott's story; for capturing personalities and feelings in a few well-chosen words; and for fleshing those out with lively, heartfelt music.

Adamo has focused the novel into “a story of dealing with change in your life,” Gately says. “That makes it a very universal piece. We all deal with change…. Sometimes we fight it, and sometimes we welcome it.”

The opera revolves around Jo, who fights it. Adamo, discussing how he worked, has written that Jo is different from most of American fiction's young protagonists. Unlike Tom Sawyer or Holden Caulfied, Adamo explains, “she's happy where she is.”

“Jo knows adulthood will only graduate her from her perfect home,” Adamo writes. “She fights her own and her sisters' growth because she knows deep down that growing up means growing apart.”

Adamo's music has the sweetness to capture Jo's delight in her family, and the bite to drive home how sharply she resists any threat to her idyllic existence. But there are some forces that even the most vigorous will can't block. When those take hold, the opera “has all the poignancy of the book,” Gately says. He points again to seeing the opera in action.

“It usually manages to get the audience to cry twice during the evening,” he says. Yet the opera ends with a hint of future happiness for Jo: the arrival of a suitor.

Standard-repertoire operas have gotten the bulk of Brevard's attention in recent years, Gately says. Taking over this year as head of the opera division – after several visits directing shows as a guest – Gately hopes to give newer works a place amid the familiar ones. He picked “Little Women” for his first try at getting Brevard's audience to branch out.

“I thought we could get them into the opera house to hear a contemporary opera,” Gately says. “And I felt like we could send them away actually liking it.”

Batman on the History Channel!

If you have the History Channel, there is going to be a couple of really cool pieces regarding the new Batman movie, Dark Knight. I have seen it twice already since it came out last weekend... I love the Batman movies (except for that horrible one with Arnold Schwarzenegger that I walked out on!!).

Anyway, at 7pm this Saturday, July 26th on the History Channel is a piece about the Psychology of Batman and right after is a piece about Batman technology. Are all of his gadgets even feasible??

Anyway, I am very excited and wanted to pass it on!! :)
kp

Vanity Fair Making Fun of The New Yorker

hahahahahaha... they are making fun of the new yorker for making a caricature of all the reasons ppl make fun of obama...

Mom sent this to me and I wanted to pass it on to you!

Free Obama Button

July 23rd, 2008

Hey,

Want a free Obama button? MoveOn’s giving them away totally free–no strings attached. I just got mine, and wanted to share the opportunity with you.

Click this link to get a free Obama button:

http://pol.moveon.org/obamabuttons/?id=-7912417-yN54e3x

Thanks!

adorable picture of sonny

just took this adorable picture of sonny... had to share :)

The Power of the Dog
by Rudyard Kipling

There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie--
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find--it's your own affair--
But...you've given your heart for a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!);
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone--wherever it goes--for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart for the dog to tear.

We've sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long--
So why in Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

Oh its time for some campaignin'

these little jib jab videos are pretty funny... they capture their subjects perfectly!!

this one is about this year's presidential campaign...

VOTE OBAMA!

:)
much love

YAY!!!

ITS WORKING! i am so glad you guys signed in and gave us an update!!

ok here is mine...

i am still in austin... been here for about a year and a half now. i am living in sin with my boyfriend paul of just about one year.













i quit working for the texas democratic party about 5 months ago and am now working for a non-profit organization called the Central Texas Library System. we act as a kind of consulting firm for school and public libraries. i am really loving it!! such a wonderful change of pace from the political world...

paul is in vegas with some friends right now. he has a cat named petra
















and i have my little puppy dog named santino
















well thats is all of an update i have for now... hope everyone is well and will find this useful!!

:) love you all!!!!!
kp

Umholtz Family Update

Hello everyone..happy summer to you all. We are getting ready to head to one of our favorite places, Rockport. We are staying in a house at Racquetclub Condos with two other families! We hope to catch lots of fish!

We are having a busy summer with many changes to our family. Alan is working in Overton Isd as there Superintendent. He is loving it. It is a small one A district. So he may have to mow the grass occasionally! But it was his dream! They all love him and he is in his glory telling all his stories again.

Hillary is a beautiful 10th grade honor student who is auditioning today for a part in the local theater's Hansel and Gretel. Theater is her life! She just went to see the Jonas Brothers concert and is totally in love with one of them! ( Sound familiar)( Donny)

My Blair is cheering and has just returned from Tarleton's cheer camp. She will be a 7th grade honor student. Blair is in love with Mikael! Oh so young!

I am going to work in the middle school this year as the 6th grade reading teacher. I was growing weary of the same phonic lesson in second grade. I really love middle school kids. Blair and I can get to school on time together.

We will join Alan in the beautiful East Texas pines as soon as we can. We need to sell the house and finish things here for them. Hopefully we can finish the school year here, but who knows!
I am taking one day at a time and waiting on the good Lord to lead the way.

Hello there Katelyn...I'm such a geeeek!!!! I think I'm set up with the help of Jessica.

Anita Perry launches private fund-raising for mansion

By W. Gardner Selby | Tuesday, July 15, 2008, 11:34 AM

In the shade of an oak tree hanging over the iron fence surrounding the Governor’s Mansion, Anita Perry accepted a $10,000 donation this morning toward a newly created private fund devoted to restoration of the charred landmark.

“We hope that all Texans will join us,” Perry said, adding that there will be an effort to involve schoolchildren.

Perry introduced Pamela Willeford, former ambassador to Lichtenstein and Switzerland, as a key adviser to the fund-raising effort. Willeford has been a player in previous restorations of the Capitol and mansion.

Perry fielded the check this morning from Julian Read, the Austin public-relations executive and former longtime aide to the late Gov. John Connally. Read is the president-elect of the Heritage Society of Austin, which donated the $10,000.

Perry conceded she otherwise had little information — and Perry and other officials did not speak to any aspect of the search for arsonists believed to have caused the June 8 fire.

Perry said former governors’ families would be enlisted and that U.S. First Lady Laura Bush has expressed interest.

Perry said she didn’t know if she and Gov. Rick Perry will make a personal donation, that no one knows the ultimate cost of restoring the mansion, that she doesn’t know if there will be a target portion of the restoration to be covered by private dollars, and that she doesn’t know if expenditures from donations will be limited to paying for certain aspects of the restoration or not.

Workers have finished cleaning and shoring up the mansion’s first floor and are focused now on doing the same on the second floor. By the end of August, the building should be readied for removal of its damaged roof to be followed by the construction of a temporary roof that effectively seals the mansion up, enabling the state to maintain the interior humidity and temperature with temporary air conditioning and heating units.

About the same time, look for the State Preservation Board to settle how it wants to proceed with the restoration — including decisions related to how much state money to seek from the 2009 Legislature toward the project.

Read, whose daughters include Ellen Read, caretaker of the mansion, showed reporters a handwritten letter from a Georgetown veteran accompanied by $30 cash. Dan Graham wrote that he was “proud of my state and proud of my Governor’s Mansion.” He referred to his contribution as a “small, but from the heart, restoration contribution.” His money, along with $10 sent by another mansion fan, was rolled into the $10,000 check, Read said.

Donations can be made online here.

hahahaha... just wanted to share!

The New Yorker Cover of Mr. & Mrs. Obama

This has been all over the news today. It's pretty horrible... I hope they give equal time to making fun of all of the caricatures of Mr. McCain.

First Post

This is the first post of many, I hope. I think this might be a good way for us to stay in touch better... emails fall by the wayside sometimes and can get buried under forwards. Please feel free to sign in and post whatever you want! A recipe... some pictures of an event... special news you want to share!

Please let me know if you have any questions about how it works! This is my first blogger blog so we might be learning together... but I think it will be worth it in the end! :)

I love you all very much! Can't wait to see you guys post stuff!