Mallory Update

It's been two months, which means time for a new post. It takes that long for us to generate news in the family. :)

My big news: I stood 1 hour and 15 minutes in line to get a free pie, and it was worth it. Grand Traverse Pie Company gave away 1000+ free pies last Tuesday. I was thrilled when I got a peach one (you had to take what they gave you), since I don't like pumpkin. Anna stood in line with me. I asked her several times if she wanted to leave and get a pie later (seriously...for $14 or $15 I myself would've just come back), but she wanted to stay. She is determined, especially when it comes to food. Anyway, it was a really great pie. I'm glad I got one.

We got to babysit baby Sammy this week for the first time. He was great and we loved having him. It's so great to live near family...what a blessing.

This will come as a shock to those who know us: we did yardwork. Yes, amazing. We had to have a tree taken down. It was right by the side of our house, and in the big storm a few weeks back one of the huge limbs fell down and missed our house by, like, 6 inches. Our home teachers happened to be in our driveway saying a prayer when it fell. So we had to take the rest down, and to save money we decided to get rid of the tree ourselves. Thanks to some good friends and neighbors it is gone, mostly.

Two great positives came from this...actually three. One, our house isn't at risk for major (costly) damage. Two, being outside we interacted with our neighbors...finally...after 2 1/2 years of living here. Three, we got motivated and took down some other dead stuff, and are excited to get our yard in decent shape.

Okay, I lied. Four positives. The other great one was we had the kids outside all day last Saturday and some evenings, and they worked and played with us. It was really fun.

That concludes this update. I'll post some pictures of our tree later.

What? A New Post?!

It has been a long, long time since I posted anything. I've decided my life in general is too boring to blog about.

Isaac says he's sure the world is waiting for my next blog post. That's exactly why I'm putting something up here today.

My big news, though, is that I am now an aunt. I'm very excited about my little nephew, Sam. You can check out his many photos here: http://www.jordanandmaggie.blogspot.com/

Paris and Other Thoughts

I should really go to bed right now, but I'm not tired. Instead I'm ready random blogs that are friends of friends of friends. Does anyone else do this??

I got my first speeding ticket last week as I was leaving the airport. I decided to write a letter rather than go all the way down near the airport to fight it. He was nice, but wrong! Any tips from fellow speeders?

If anyone can tell me how to keep my pictures lined up, I'd appreciate it.

Lastly, I would like to watch season 2 of The Office but can't find it online. Is there anywhere to do this? I have 1 and 3 done, but am desperate for 2. :)

Here are some more pictures. One is of Notre Dame which was incredible. I loved walking through and thinking about how long it took, thinking about people worshipping there so long ago. One is at the Louvre which was also incredible. We, unfortunately, never went inside, but the exterior is breathtaking. And I loved the pyramid. It was much bigger than I imagined and really beautiful. One of these is Anna with Uncle Adrian, and then a couple of Isaac with the girls. I'm not in too many of these you'll notice! Um...one is just a shot of the boats on the river, and then a couple of the baguette girl.

Trip to France Part One...Arles

Here are a few pictures from our trip to France. I'm having a hard time getting the pictures to just be straight. I'm still a novice at blogging.

We spent the first four days in a small town in the Provence region (southern France) called Arles. My favorite thing about the town was the cobblestone streets and the colors of their doors and shutters. The narrow streets were frightening at first...the little cars whip around the corners while we'd shuffle to the side with our double stroller. But we got used to it. This was one of my favorite doors...I love the mail on the doorstep.

We saw some really amazing Roman sites that are a couple thousand years old. The ampitheater in particular was really cool.

Thanks to Rick Steves, we found a FABULOUS ice-cream shop that also happened to be super cute. She only opened her shop from 2:30-6:30 or something. Everything was red and yellow. She had great flavors - pear was a huge fave and I loved the plum. She closed on our last full day because it rained in the morning. Quinn and I were very, very sad.

This next picture comes from another favorite part of the trip...the market. See those crates? Those are chickens and rabbits. You know, in case you want some fresh meat. We did NOT buy any of those. Here are some other maket pictures.

Quinn figured out she loved the baguette, so we have a series of pictures with her holding a fresh one. I happened to

love the croissant. But we didn't take pictures of me holding them. Somehow that probably wouldn't have been as cute.

That's it for this post. There will be more to come.

Important Correction

Oops...I CAN'T buy watermelon anywhere else. Costco watermelon rocks.

Get ready for a massive number of Eiffel Tower pictures coming soon. :)

Admission...

In my first post in, well, over a month, I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit I have become a fan of The Office. In fact, I'm watching it right now online (it's a commercial). I'm not quite sure why I like this show now, but I do. In fact, I'm hooked.

In other exciting news, Costco has watermelon again and I love it. I've just decided I can buy watermelon anywhere else.

Pretty exciting right?

Girls!

Here are the girls, pretending to have babies in their tummies! My friend, Emily, sent an email the other day out about her life with 3 boys...superheros, swords, super powers, etc. It sure is different with girls! Babies, princesses, house...it's very girly around here!

Pictures

My friend, Laurel, took some picures of us a couple weeks ago. She did an amazing job. I'll post a few of them...her website is laurelphotography.com.

In other exciting news, I'm a soon-to-be aunt! Yeah! Maggie and Jordan are having a little boy. Quinn is really excited to have a cousin. We have a family tradition where we throw a party to announce the baby's gender. I don't think we have a consensus on what to call this event. I like my father-in-law's name - the Great Hat Party (because we wear boy party hats if we think it's going to be a boy, and girl party hats if we think it will be a girl). I think we've also referred to it as the Coming Out Party (not my fave!) and the Sex Party (referring of course to the gender and not the creation of the baby...ha ha...is that inappropriate?!).

Ok, it won't let me post any more pictures. I'll have to upload them later.

I Heart Obama

Barack Obama makes me tear up sometimes.

Yes, Hillary kind of debates better. Yes, McCain has a million more years of experience. But I seriously welled up at one of Obama's speeches, and I think that counts for something.

I frankly am tired of having to choose between what I personally consider mediocre options (i.e., Gore/Bush, Kerry/Bush). Shouldn't a leader be inspiring?

I love that this somewhat obscure man could stand a chance against the McCain/Clinton political machines. I find him quite respectful and humble, and in spite of his excessive use of "that" in his book, I have enjoyed reading a more honest and complex view of the political landscape, rather than the rhetoric we usually hear.

I certainly don't agree with either side of the aisle completely, but I really like him.

Now...if it's Clinton and McCain, I'm in trouble.

As a side note, I really think they should have squiggly lines in these blogging boxes to tell you when you misspell a word. Don't you?

That...

So my reporter brother, aka the next Matt Lauer, mentioned to me a few months back that his professors in college discouraged using the word "THAT." My mom agreed and said her grad school professors said the same thing.

Well, I'm a little bit of a grammar junkie. As I contemplated this most important topic, I decided (that?) I agreed with this advice and began eliminating my usage of "THAT" whenever possible.

But...I just read a book (I happened to be editing it actually) and deleted the vast majority of "THATs." Out they go!! Now I'm reading Barack Obama's book (The Audacity of Hope). There are THATs all over the place. It's rather distracting, really. Frankly, it is detracting from my reading experience.

I'm still not sure it is correct to banish THATs so liberally. So, I have set out to find the answer. Are you ready?

It looks like "THAT" is a relative pronoun. These link clauses together, for instance: I'm wearing the coat that I bought at the store. In English, if the relative pronoun is not the subject you are allowed to not use it. This is called a "zero relative pronoun." (See http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/grammarlogs2/grammarlogs361.htm)

Therefore, I say we do away with a lot of our THATs. They make things far too wordy for me.

Life with a Blog

So I finally put some links up to other blogs, but I really want a cool blog. I am so behind! I guess I have to make some little graphics and pictures to stick on here. I'm not sure I'm buying into this whole blog thing yet though...what is the point exactly??

I do love reading some of my friends' blogs, but I'm not sure the Mallory household has too much exciting to talk about.

Well, I'll try to make this cute and try to make it semi-interesting to read...later.