Yes, it has been awhile and yes, in true Crook fashion a lot has happened.
Last May, I landed a job with a company located in Downtown Macon that relocated from the DC Metro area – ironic- considering we just moved away from there. It was by great luck that I found this company. One summer day Andrew was listening to NPR while driving and heard about this company at Fort Gordon who was looking for cleared personnel to fill positions and how difficult that was becoming. After he told me about it, I looked up the story on NPR.com and found Quantum Dynamics, Inc.. I located the President's email address and proceeded to write. Attaching my resume I hit send and waited. This was on a Friday; the next Thursday was scheduled as my first day. I was now the Contracts Manager and Facility Security Officer for a DOD contracting company. Great gig! I was so happy to have a job after 2 years of being unemployed and this was a fun bunch of people, hard workin' and hard playin'. Now for months my schedule was work, gym, home, school. With this increasingly demanding schedule, I lost time for blogging and in that, lost moments. Since there is no catching up on each single event over the last year, this is my attempt to sum it up so we can move into new posts.
During the past year we enjoyed a great relationship with the Atlanta Thrashers and in turn received many complimentary games and a few jerseys. Unfortunately, for us and all Georgia hockey fans, the Thrashes have moved to Winnipeg and revived the Jets name. I would think at this point it is proven that Atlanta is not a hockey town...
Included in those games were invites to all 4 of the Capitals games and at one we even sat next to the bench where we talked to a few players periodically and a trainer handed me a puck. Andrew took Nick Backstrom’s water bottle off the bench (hey, he’s a crook by nature) and we were both surprised that it was full of Diet Pepsi!
The 4th Caps game in Atlanta was Colten's first game, he was enthralled! He is such a natural hockey fan... and player. (maybe a season of sitting in the Verizon center while in my tummy rubbed off on him) We bought him a little stick and he is currently perfecting his slap shot. If there is one thing that kid knows, its the NHL shield, he gets excited no matter where he sees it.
For New Years/Anniversary weekend, we attended the NHL Winter Classic in Pittsburgh (Capitals v. Penguins) - the first classic night game - AWESOME - and our first trip with no children... ah the single life! ... and yes we had a Primati Bros. sandwich.
We spent alot of time in Atlanta, mostly do to the withdraw of not being in DC and also how boring Macon is. Probably more so the latter. One trip to the ATL was a Stone Mountain/ D&B/ Lego/ Medieval Times birthday weekend for Drake: that was alot of fun!
In January, Andrew debuted his comedic genius on stage. He performed at the One mic comedy show at the Alexander ballroom in Macon Georgia. He did great! He was asked back three more times after.
Andrew's Birthday/Our Valentines Day weekend this year consisted of - yes, Thrashers hockey, a room at the Omni, a great dinner at Tantra, lots of champagne and chocolate strawberries! The next day we slept in then hung out at Dave & Busters - All Thanks to my Daddy who watch Colten!
Avery had her very first birthday party with a DJ, Piñata and pony rides to boot.
In May we had our annual trip to Disney World. We stayed at the Marriott's Harbour Lake - which is fabulous. They have two great water parks and a nice slide. We were lucky enough to purchase military park hopper passes which allowed us 4 days at the Magic Kingdom, 1 day at Animal Kingdom, 2 days at Hollywood Studios (where Avery was the "princess" in the Beauty and the Beast show). We spent a day at Sea World, which was a little disappointing and did not live up to my childhood memories of the Shamu show - it was pretty weak. We had dinner at the Pirate Adventure show - I would recommend you not do that if you find your self hungry in Orlando OR the Boston Lobster Feast either, GROSS!
We left Orlando and headed to Tampa for our last night in Florida. Andrew's Uncle Ake owns to Thai restaurants (Thai Coconut & Chang Bistro) so we met the family at TC and had dinner together. It was THE BEST sushi and pad thai I have ever ate. On the last day before heading back to Georgia, stopped by Tampa Bay Downs to see the ponies run. I won 4 out of 5, and the one I didn't win, I didn't bet but I did give Drake a pick and he won so I was really 5 for 5. This was such a great trip. We had many adventures and made some great memories. It really was 'Magical'.
The finale (up to this point), for Andrew and I, was my birthday gift of a weekend cruise to the Bahamas! (with Jason & Keri Punyahotra - who also celebrates a July 15th birthday) FUN in the SUN...with lots of RUM! Day One in Nassau we rented scooters and really got to see the island. It was like being on the Amazing Race or something! There was some sort of traffic jam and if we had to sit in it, we would've missed the straw market... and the kids just HAD to have souvenirs. We dipped through cars and on sidewalks, it was alot of fun and pretty crazy looking back at it. That night we hung out at Señor Frogs at enjoyed watching Andrew and Jason jump over the railing into the ocean. I was laughing so hard and trying to grab their shoes and clothes that I could not even hear the waiter talking to Keri about what had just happened. Since the guys were wet and we were pretty lit, we continued our party on the ship where there was an actual pool party happening. OMG - we were dancing so hard, it was one of those nights where my brain forgot how old I was and my body was like slow down! no, you can't drop it like its hot anymore! what is going on!
The next morning, after only a few hours sleep, we went parasailing... it was nothing like i expected. I was expecting this adrenaline rush but it was so peaceful... until I noticed that we were only connected to the boat by this one little knot tied to the bar of the chute. I would do it again. Next was jet skiing around the island followed by lunch, a nap on the beach then snorkeling. Paradise.
So that’s a very short recap of our good times this year. There have been stressful moments in between all of this good stuff - mostly due to trying to balance work, home, school and a budget... where does sanity fit in? I will spare you the few miserable times – I mean really, who wants to hear that crap.
Fast forward to today, we have temporarily moved back into my Daddy's house; sold all of our furniture; chucked alot of other material things that were weighing us down and now we are planning for a new chapter in our life. This, by far, has been the most excited I've been in a while. Again, we are making quick decisions but with LOTS of research behind them and looking for another adventure.
It will be just a matter of days before we announce our future plans. We have slowly begun telling our family and a few friends but soon we will let everyone know.
"We rarely regret the things we do -- only the things we haven't done."
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Well, I thought I would be the only one to not celebrate a birthday in China but thanks to the red tape of visa changeovers - we couldn't go home..JPG)
In the evenng some family friends took us all to dinner to celebrate Avery's birthday. We ate a (maybe the best) hot pot restaurant called HaiDiLao. There the staff sang to Avery and we also had the pleasure of eating "king fu noodles" - basically the guy slings the noodle around in front of you - but its pretty neat to watch.
On New Years Eve, the whole family eats together and children are given new clothes, new toys, and money in red envelopes. After, each day of the week, for the next five days is spent at a different family mambers home. The food was delicious, by the way and all of the children had a great time playing together. 
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Due to the lack of wrapping paper in Nanjing.. or atleast my lack of finding it we decided to hide Drake's gifts and send him on a wild goose chase to find them. .JPG)
On Saturday we had a big party for Colten and lots of his friends from school came. We had pizza (from Papa Johns) and cake - a 16" Xi Yang Yang (Happy Goat) head with white chocolate shavings as the wool and fruit whip filling). 
We celebrated the day with just family and a small cake with angry bird balloons (Colten's favorite). I set it up with Drake and Avery's help while Andrew kept him occupied in a different room. When all was in place and the candle was lit - we called him in - he was shocked! The lighting is bad in the pictures but the moment was priceless. Once he figured out what was happening he was so excited.
The finale (up to this point), for Andrew and I, was my birthday gift of a weekend cruise to the Bahamas! (with Jason & Keri Punyahotra - who also celebrates a July 15th birthday) FUN in the SUN...with lots of RUM! Day One in Nassau we rented scooters and really got to see the island. It was like being on the Amazing Race or something! There was some sort of traffic jam and if we had to sit in it, we would've missed the straw market... and the kids just HAD to have souvenirs. We dipped through cars and on sidewalks, it was alot of fun and pretty crazy looking back at it. That night we hung out at Señor Frogs at enjoyed watching Andrew and Jason jump over the railing into the ocean. I was laughing so hard and trying to grab their shoes and clothes that I could not even hear the waiter talking to Keri about what had just happened. Since the guys were wet and we were pretty lit, we continued our party on the ship where there was an actual pool party happening. OMG - we were dancing so hard, it was one of those nights where my brain forgot how old I was and my body was like slow down! no, you can't drop it like its hot anymore! what is going on! 
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5 years old >
