Traveler

by Ang

Our blog has been pretty quiet lately. I know for a fact that my sister has been busier than I’ve been, and I’ve been extremely busy!

So here’s a little catch up of what I’ve been up to these past few weeks:

1. I went to Nebraska to meet my new nephew and had a fantastic-family-filled-five-days! We had a BBQ at my parents house with family and good friends.  And I spent plenty of time at my brother and sister-in-law’s house visiting my favorite little people:

2. Right after I got home from Nebraska, we left for Colorado Springs. We went to visit very good friends of ours who were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. We also made two trips to Ikea in Denver (because one trip wasn’t enough?).  We came home with so much stuff that one of us had to sit in the back seat all the way home because of our seats being partially folded down.  It's probably a good thing that we don't have an Ikea in Albuquerque!

We went to Texas de Brazil, a beautiful and delicious restaurant in Denver:

Witnessed a beautiful Colorado sunset:

But of course our favorite part was spending time with our lovely friends. We always enjoy spending time with them! (Sorry no pictures…I don’t like to post pictures when I don’t have permission and forgot to ask). :) The 4 days we were there just flew by!

So things hopefully will be a little more calm in the next few weeks. We have no more plans to go out of town until July, and then we are Chicago bound!

He.....

....has stolen our hearts (:

Comic Expo 2012

by Ang

I have a whole list of things to blog about, because we have been so busy and I haven't been blogging very much lately.  I have my Nebraska trip, Colorado trip, and a whole bunch of other miscellaneous things.  But today, I'm going to blog about the 2012 Comic Expo that my husband and I attended right here in Albuquerque.  Because it was yesterday.  And it's fresh in my mind! 

This is the second year that Albuquerque has hosted a comic expo.  And it was even better this year than it was last year.  Stan Lee came again, and this year, my husband bought the VIP package, which included 2 Stan Lee signatures and a photo with him.  He had Stan sign the Daredevil comic of the month and year he (my husband) was born, and the Ironman comic of the month and year I was born.  Isn't that cool?  Then he sent them off to get graded and sealed and whatever else they do to them to keep them preserved. 

Here is Peter Mayhew.  He played Chewbaca in all of the Star Wars movies.  He is 7'3".  He was sitting down here.  He's huge!

Here is Adam Baldwin.  He played Jayne Cobb on Firefly:

Here is Katee Sackhoff from Battlestar Gallacta.  She was super nice and chatty. 



And of course....Stan Lee.

There was even more unusual characters this year than I remember last year.  I didn't photograph any extremely weird ones though...just the basics.

Ironman & Thor (and some random little kid):

A storm trooper and his girlfriend playing Dance Party:

The Back to the Future Delorian...if you look closely you can see the flux capacitor!  And please ignore the guy with the animal print clothing. 

There was a lot to see and a lot of fun stuff to browse.  Like comic books!

Thousands and thousands of comic books.  The vertical stack below towards the top of the picture is what my husband was negotiating with the owner on.

I didn't come home empty handed either.  I love Ironman.  Actually, I love Tony Stark.  Actually, I love Robert Downey Jr.  So I got a piece with his signature:

Sorry if it's hard to read.  Believe me, in person, it's beautiful.  :)

All in all, it was a really fun day!  We will definitely be going again next year!

LIFE

YOUNG LIFE

 MESSY LIFE

 FAST LIFE

 SILLY LIFE

 NEW LIFE

Waiting

By Ang I am currently at the airport waiting to board my plane to Nebraska. Why? To meet my new nephew! Little Miss A's little brother. I'll call him M.G. here. I. Can't. Wait! (sorry for no pic....I can't figure out how to do it while blogging from my phone. But I assure you, he is adorable!)

A Letter to My Nephews

by Ang

Dear D & M:


For years, I was able to see you very regularly, and from 2007 – 2010, I got to see you about every other day! I got spoiled. I got so used to being able to just grab you for the weekend or take you swimming for the afternoon. I got to work with you in service. I got to see you at every meeting. It was wonderful!

And then I moved. And got married. And you gained a new Uncle. Which are all great things, but I started to miss you like you wouldn’t believe. I’d just look at a picture of you and start crying! Yes, we’ve been able to see each other since then, but not like we used to.

Uncle J and I decided that we wanted to spend some one-on-one time with you. Sooooo………







At the end of July……

Uncle J and I will get on a plane…..

The two of you will get on a plane…..

And we will meet……











In…….

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We will be going here:

To see them:

And here:

And here:

(Willis Tower, formerly Sears Tower)

And staying somewhere down here:

And much more!

We. Can’t. Wait!!! I hope you are both excited about this. I know we definitely are!!!! We will get the whole Chicago experience….baseball games (Uncle J has been wanting to take you two to a Cubs game for a long time!), hot dogs, riding the el-trains, walking along Lake Michigan and visiting the Navy Pier, we’ll try to do it all! The four of us will have a great time!


*all photos from Google Images

Fight Night Part 3

Are you sick of this Fight Night stuff?  No?  Good.  This is the last post about it if you are.  The whole reason for this entire event is to raise money for Parkinson's disease.  Muhammad Ali has this disease and with the help of friends, started this fundraiser a few years ago.  He joined the table about halfway through the show.

 That would be my coffee. He is actually doing well.  He doesn't speak but he did smile a few times.  And it seemed like he wasn't shaking as much as he was last year. One of the main coordinators of the event is David Foster.  They call him the "Hit Man". Probably because he got Whitney Houston to sing "I will Always Love You." And Celine Dion "My Heart Will Go On."  Heard of them? Haha! He also discovered Michael Buble and Josh Groban.  Anyway, he's pretty talented to say the least.  And funny too.  When the audience was being really rude and talking while someone was trying to speak...he hopped on the stage and grabbed the mike and said,"SHHHHHHH!!!!!"  I sat by his wife.  I can sum her up in one word....Perfection.  Google her.  David and Yolanda Foster. 

 Then came this guy.  Sinbad.  Quite possibly the funniest man on earth.  And everything was impromptu.  He asked the audience for questions.  About anything.  He said, "I'm here to help!" I wish his act would have been longer.

 Lionel Richie was the final act.  Sorry for the bad picture.  There was a moment when he was so close to me I thought I felt his sweat drip.  Ew.  He was good.  I'm not a huge fan but he sounds exactly like he did when I was a kid. 

 Afterward all the celebrity's came on the stage one last time. Here is the main singer of Rascall Flatts receiving admiration from Rita Wilson. 

 And here he is showing his admiration to her husband Tom.  Tom looks a little....taken aback.

 Since it was Mr Ali's birthday, the Cake Boss made him a cake.  Of course. 

 The Cake Boss wasn't there but his brother-in-law was.  At least I think that's who it is.

 Confetti time!

So that was that.  It was quite the experience.  Alot of fun packed into one night.  It felt kind of like a dream really.  I kept thinking...these people are actually real!  Funny.  I was grateful for the up close and personal seat but I hated sitting at that table.  It just wasn't me you know?  I'm the girl who doesn't know what fork to use with what and who accidentally took a drink out of Yolanda's water glass because I forgot which one was mine.  They were so close together!!  And when they kept panning the head table with the cameras and showing us on the big screen, I wanted to dive under the table.  Thought about it a couple of times actually. I am not a celebrity.  Not even close.  I can't even pretend for a second that I am.  I mean, do you know of anyone even remotely famous who would turn to the person sitting next to them during dessert and notice they hadn't touched theirs and say "You going to eat that?"  I didn't think so.  (: