Gram Update

Gram had her surgery today. I just got off the phone with her. She went in this morning around 7 a.m. Surgery was at 10:30. She said that her anesthesiologist was 'Da Bomb' and she didn't feel or remember a thing till she woke up 30 mins after the operation.

Also, the additional test on the lymph nodes came back negative. Further tests will be done but so far she is looking good. As of tonight, she wasn't in any pain. We are very proud of her for being so brave. We will keep you and gramp in our thoughts and prayers for continued healing and good health. Love you!!

Busy Busy

I think are dislike of the dentist is genetic. I don't know what happened, I never dreaded going to the Dr Petti, but now I really don't want to go. I need to go for a cleaning which is free, well I pay for it (dental plan), but mostly free. Ending this subject on the note that Grandpa must have passed on his bad luck at the dentist to Uncle Mike.

I have been extremely busy with work. Catawba Nuclear Station (CNS) started its outage a little bit ago. I went down there for a couple days to see how welding is done at the site level. In short, more paperwork than you could ever imagine gets generated on a weld per weld basis. Everything is tracked in a nuclear plant, everything. Traceability is a most. Anyways, that's good and bad, but because I support all three of our nuclear stations, I end up dealing with paperwork from all three sites. It really gets old quick let me tell you. I will be going down to Oconee Nuclear Station (ONS) tomorrow for their pre outage meetings. Oconee is right next to Clemson University in South Carolina, about a 3 hour drive. It is pretty country down there, but I am dying for the weekend.

The house has its drywall, I would have taken pictures but my camera batteries died. So new pictures when I get them this week.

I finally purchased my bike. I went to order my bicycle from the bike shop, and they had a sale on better model, one up from the one I wanted. In short I got a $800.00 bicycle for $600.00 bucks. I was going to spend $586.00 on the lesser model, for a couple bucks more got an awesome bike. Here is one picture, other pictures will be at my photo album online. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nickmhr/my_photos

Gram Where are You?

Gram and Gramp I should say. Where are you two? I know that Gram does email. So, Gram where are your posts?

Hope you had a wonderful B-day. I have been sick all weekend and took off yesterday from work to expel the remaining demons. Hopefully, we will talk today. We love you!

Angela

Before I'm posting again, can you tell me why my links do not show up. I try to use the link feature, which just puts tags on it. I tried it without, and it still won't show up.

Easter Plans in Cleveland

Jason and I are trying to get our travel plans organized for Easter. Gram mentioned that she is hosting Easter this year. What are the plans? We are still not certain if we want to brave the Holiday traffic but I would like to try.

Week Recap

Well it has been a while since my last post also. We had a good weekend and thank God the weekend is upon us again. Paige's friend came in from out of town. We really just hung out and relaxed, nothing real fancy. I BBQ'd out with some Burgers (I made three varieties of burgers Terriyaki, Roasted Red Pepper and Feta, and Roasted onion and Worcestershire). On Sunday we had a Lasagna, my first time making it and it came out real good. All in all it was nice for a visit, and we had a good time. St Patty's day was fun, got a little too wasted and felt bad on Sunday. Oh well.

I think I finally know what bicycle I want. It took some internet browsing to find what the best deal was. It turned out that a summer sale helped to make my decision for me. The salesmen at the bike shop we visited told us to watch the website for the sale announcement. Anyways, we get 10% off bikes and merchandise and there is a lot of deals. So this is a link to the bike I will probably get and to the bike store that we go to. It is amazing how much getting a good bike costs. We really are on the low end . However, I think Paige and I will really enjoy biking. I am getting the Marin Fairfax, I think Paige likes the Trek 7.3 FX. http://www.marinbikes.com/bicycles_2006/html/bikes/bike_specs/specs_fairfax.html
http://www2.trekbikes.com/bikes/bike.php?bikeid=1327010&f=26
http://www.charlottebikes.net/pages/379119/index.htm

Once you start adding in the helmet, tube repair kit, etc. It's alot to start with.
We will see how much I enjoy it once I have the bike.

On the house front, The house is coming along nicely. All the siding is up, which I posted pictures to my photo album online http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nickmhr/my_photos. I think substantial progress will have been made when I take more photos tomorrow. I am also going to go talk to my insurance agent about homeowners insurance tomorrow. Any advice on coverage, mistakes, etc.?

Work front. I will be a traveling man this upcoming month or so. A new add to my schedule is ASME code conference, I think in Florida. This will happen sometime soon, in addition to The week in Canada, and multiple other trips to plants. Traveling isn't all that it is cracked up to be. I think Paige minds more than I do. She misses me a lot, but can you blame her. Maybe it's the other way around too. I'll be sad when she goes to Duke U.. That's it for now.

Nick

First Posting

I am now officially joining the blogging world. It's soooo exciting. Life for us is very busy. The girls are really getting big. I just finished going through the whole "process" of registering Taylor for Kindergarden & it was definately a "process". In our school district we could choose Full day or half day and we registered her for Full Day. Very exciting. Andra is currently getting potty trained and will be doing pre-school in the fall. I'm also planning on going back to work in the fall. Lots of exciting changes.

We're now reaching a really good stage with the girls now that they are getting older. We're starting to be able to do a lot more. We even joined a club that is near us which is really fun. They have a work-out facility, indoor pool and an outdoor (man made) lake. The girls are loving the pool and it is great to be able to get some physical activity. So if it's any consolation to Kristan & Jason, it does get easier (everyone used to tell me that also).

Well, gotta get back to watching "Lost".

Sue

Snow in Columbus

Well, you saw my flowers. We are supposed to get snow tonight. What is the consensus on spring flowers and snow? I cover a few of the crocuses with empty planters. Aunt Sherry, Gram...anyone else have the real scoop on this topic?

Lola Faith

Lola Faith

Watch the video

Lola is always watching when I am outside. Isn't she a lovely cat?

The first flowers of 2006

The first flowers of 2006

Watch the video

Here are my brave and beautfiul crocuses.

Hello

Hello everyone. I am in.

Nick

Crazy Month So Far

March has been quite nutty so far! I have been to NYC a couple times. We just returned from Austin this week. Next week I will be going to Mexico City for a couple days with the VS team. A week later,I will be in Atlanta. Go go, go. I guess that's how it is.

Jason and I doing well otherwise. Jason is still loving his work with the web hosting company.

Welcome to the Buchan/Parkins family Blog

Here it is a new way to share info with eachother. Please forward family addresses to me so that I can invite them to become members of the blog. We can also change the blogs appearance if that is desired.