Wordless Wednesday

Maggie at the Parmenter's Northville Cider Mill last weekend.

Happy Autumn!

Maggie was having loads of fun at Grandma Judi and Grandpa Roger's place this past weekend. Grandma Judi hallowed out the largest pumpkin she could find and plopped her granddaughter down inside. Maggie had a blast, as the above picture clearly indicates. We are disappointed that we will likely be overseas for Halloween this year, but look forward to next year when Maggie will hopefully be a little more mobile.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Moving to Germany... sort of.

The initial move date has been set for October 22nd of this year (2007). Andy, Becki and Maggie will all be temporarily relocating to Germany for two months. It’s not as much a relocation move as it is an extended vacation. The family will be back home in time for Christmas, but Thanksgiving will be put on hold this year. Although we are a little shaky with our European history, we’re pretty sure that the Germans didn’t have a large harvest feast with the Native Americans shortly after landing at Plymouth Rock. Andy’s mother and Nolan were talking about visiting us over the Thanksgiving week. It would be nice to have English speaking visitors. Andy might have to go back for a few weeks in January, but Maggie and Becki will be staying in Michigan after Christmas.

Wordless Wednesday

American Cancer Society Relay for Life

This year, Maggie and I will be walking in the Hartland, Michigan Relay for Life in memory of my friend, Suzanne, who passed away two years ago from breast cancer.

She's part of the inspiration for Margaret Suzanne's middle name, and I hope little Maggie can get a portion of her positive outlook and love of life.

To donate, please visit my page here.

Awww!!!

Here's our baby Maggie having found her own thumb the other night as she fell asleep.

Labor Day Beach Party - 2007

This past weekend, we invited some friends from out of town up to the family cottage in Caseville MI for a weekend of good old R&R, Michigan style. Friends came up from as far as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, D.C., South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida and even Texas. People started showing up at our home on Friday afternoon. We spent all evening catching up on events and eating some BBQ'd burgers and dogs. On Saturday, the group caravanned up to Caseville and spent the rest of the weekend lakeside.

The jet ski's were a popular hit, especially since the big boat is (yet again) down with a bad motor. One of Andy's co-workers was kind enough to loan him an inner tube that could be towed behind one of the jet skis. All of the men lined up to prove their "manliness" on this inflatable tube of death, then paid the price the following days with sore backs, arms and butts. Everyone agrees that it was still well worth the pain and suffering.

Maggie and her Daddy Friday night at home.

Saturday afternoon on the Beach in Caseville. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was BEAUTIFUL!

Welcome Home Maggie Sue!

Sunday, July 22nd 2007:
Becki and I didn’t have any plans, so we decided to sleep in and lazily hang out around the house. In my normal fashion, I crankily laid in bed while Becki got up and shuffled around the house. Around 10AM Becki came into the bedroom and had a short conversation with me. It went something like this:

Becki: ”It’s time to get up.”
Andy: ”Go away, I’m sleeping…”
Becki: ”Come on, you really need to get up now.”
Andy: ”Leave me alone, I’ll get up when I’m ready.”
Becki: ”Well, I either pee’d myself, or my water just broke.”
Andy: ”I’m awake! I’m awake! I’m awake!”

Indeed, Becki’s water broke sometime around 10:00 AM. Soon afterwards, moderate contractions started to appear. Knowing that pre-labor can sometimes take days, Becki took a long hot shower while I cooked up some pancakes and sausage. After finishing breakfast, we noticed that Becki’s contractions were about 4 – 5 minutes apart and lasting at least 60 seconds. This is when I called the midwife and informed her of our situation. She told me to finish up breakfast, pack up the car, and then head over to the birthing center.

On the car ride to the birthing center (read: not hospital), Becki’s contractions were starting to get noticeably more intense. We arrived at 2:30PM where the midwife immediately got us comfortable and laid us down on the bed in the birthing room. By 3PM, the labor contractions were in full swing. It took us a few hours to find a good “routine” that helped us deal with the labor pains, especially in the new environment.

After laboring in pain on the bed for ~6 hours, we “thought” we were getting close to transformation (the pushing stage) since her dilation was at 9.5 cm (10 cm is fully dilated.) This is when we decided to give the hot tub a try. The tub was amazing. It took sooo much pressure away from Becki and her back. Unfortunately, it also slowed down the contractions. When she first got into the tub, contractions were about 3 – 4 minutes apart. After one hour in the tub, they had spaced out to 10 – 15 minutes. Another two hours in the tub, they were 20 – 30 minutes apart. The contractions were still VERY intense, but they weren’t as frequent anymore.

(Transitioning into) Monday, July 23rd 2007:
Becki tried to push during some of the contractions while in the tub, but they were no longer close enough. The midwife suggested that we use this temporary lapse in frequent contractions to “recharge” ourselves. Becki was actually able to get a few naps between some of the contractions.

Somewhere around midnight, we made the decision to go back onto the bed. Almost immediately, the contractions came back at a frequency of every 3 minutes or so. We did this for 3 hours, until I put Becki BACK into the tub. Sure enough, just as before, the tub had TOO GOOD of a relaxing effect and Becki’s contractions initially spaced out to 20 – 30 minutes. However, 4 hours in the tub later, the frequency finally picked itself back up to 4 – 5 minutes.

Becki tried a few pushes in the tub again, but the midwife suggested she get out and try to use the “birthing stool” aka: the metal frame of torturous death. Becki tried to push for an hour while sitting on the MFofTD, but little to no progress was being made. Since we had both been awake for almost 24 hours at this point, the midwife suggested we use the next few hours to try and sleep. This would hopefully “recharge” us enough to start the pushing process with more effect.

Sure, this might have sounded like a good idea, but the only thing comparable to sleeping with contractions ever 3 – 4 minutes is being NEXT to someone who is trying to sleep with contractions every 3 – 4 minutes. Needless to say, neither one of us got any sleep. The next 8… long… painful hours were spent coping with these contractions. Becki was told to try pushing whenever she felt the peak of a contraction, but according to Becki everything felt like one long continuous contraction. Shitty.

At 4PM, the midwife decided “it was time” and she was going to get this baby out of Becki, even if she had to reach in there and pull Maggie out by her ears. During the pushing phase, I noticed three main “stages” of positions that the baby was in:

Stage I: the baby’s head passes the pubic bone and is just barely visible
Stage II: the baby’s head crowns and the entire head is exposed
Stage III: the remainder of the baby (shoulders, torso, legs, etc…) is pushed out

Stage “I” was by far, the biggest hurdle for Becki to clear. It took Becki from 4PM until 6:30’ish to clear the pubic bone. There was some serious pushing that Becki had to do. On her right hand, there are some rather impressive bruises from squeezing the posts on the headboard ever so tightly. Once the baby's head had cleared the pubic bone, the midwives (there were two of them working with us by this point) were excited to show me the progress. I’m glad Becki couldn’t see this because my first reaction was: “That’s it? All that f$@#ing pushing and that’s only as far as this thing has come out?” Of course, I didn’t say this too Becki. My ‘softened’ statement was: “Wow, you are SOOO close! Just a few more pushes and we’re home free!” …which was 100% bullshit.

Stage “II” came shortly after Stage ”I” but Becki R-E-A-L-L-Y had to work for it. This is when Becki’s facial expressions transformed from that sweet and innocent wife of mine to something akin to “God of Hell Fire.” It still took almost an hour for the head to crown / clear, but this was a lot less (time wise) than it took to originally clear the pubic bone.

The crowning of the head is a pretty messed up thing to watch. I supposedly saw this once before while I watched my brother being born back in 1992… but I didn’t remember what the actual crowning looked like. Knowing what I know now, I intentionally erased that image from mind some 15 years ago (i.e. It’s not pleasant.) Anyway, the crowning is when the head has passed the “half-way” point and the rest of the head suddenly slides out. I use the word “half-way” loosely because the crowning point is not necessarily at the widest part of the head. Ya see, a babies head is very soft since the skull is still in a few smaller pieces. This causes the babies head to compress, a lot, so it can fit out of the birth canal.

Once the baby passed the crowning point, the head expanded to THREE TIMES its previous size! It almost looked like a balloon that immediately was filled with helium. I couldn’t believe something that huge came out of a hole that small. Another thing that freaked me out a little was the color. Since Maggie wasn’t breathing on her own yet (normal) her entire head was purple. I thought to myself: ”Great, my wife just gave birth to a giant smurf.”

Once the head was fully exposed, it was time to push the rest of the baby out (Stage III). After clearing Stage II, Becki was almost completely out of energy. I remember her asking the midwife: ”Will the rest of the body be that difficult to push out as well?” The midwife just smiled and told her to keep pushing. ONE PUSH later, the rest of the baby just slid right out. Narrow girl shoulders for the win!

My immediate reaction was: ”OMG, what is that multi-colored slime covered thing?” Then about one millisecond later, I realized it was my own flesh and blood. Another millisecond later, I busted out in tears as I welcomed my little girl to her new world.

It was 7:20 PM on Monday July 23rd of 2007.

At this point in most birth stories, people finish up with ”and they lived happily ever after.” However, such was not the case with us. The real excitement was just about to begin. With Maggie happily laying on Becki’s chest, it was time for the afterbirth. After one more final push, the placenta slid out like a greasy 20oz prime cut rib-eye steak. No big deal, everything looked great. At this point in the evening, the midwives told Becki: ”Everything is great, you just need to stop bleeding now… OK, stop bleeding… anytime now… stop the bleeding… you’re not stopping… really, you need to stop bleeding… this isn’t good Becki, you need to stop right now…”

Obviously Becki couldn’t do anything about the bleeding and the midwives were just trying to subconsciously persuade Becki to stop bleeding. I’m glad I only saw the upper half of the action because that was a bloody enough show for me. The next few things that happened were kind of a blur, but I do remember Becki handing me the baby and hearing the midwife say “…get ready to dial 9-1-1!”

One of the midwives tried to locate the cause of the bleeding by reaching completely inside Becki and pulling out CLUMPS of blood clots. That was a sight I could have gone my entire life without ever seeing. The blood was still POURING out of Becki though, and there was obviously a larger clot that was still inside her. The bleeding needed to be stopped or else Becki was going to be transferred to the Emergency Room at the closest hospital (~5 minutes away).

A little known “natural” method of slowing blood loss is to ingest Oxytocin. A good source of oxytocin is the placenta… and hey, whatever was good for the baby should be good enough for mama, right? So, in a final natural attempt to save my wife’s life, one of the midwives cut off a small piece of the placenta, gave it to Becki and said: “Chew on this… chew on this as your life depends on it!” Being the ultimate trooped she is, Becki chewed on her own babies placenta… for three seconds… at which point she gagged and spit the piece right back out.

It took everything I had to hold down lunch.

Finally, just seconds before the assistant was going to dial 9-1-1, the midwife pulled out a H-U-G-E blood clot approximately the size of a softball. Shortly after the blood clot was removed from the uterus, the blood faucet slowly started to stop bleeding but not after Becki lost over a QUART of blood in the process. Yes, a QUART. Not a pint, but a QUART. Four Cups!!! Everybody was a mess. It looked like the set of a B-rate horror movie from the 1970’s.

Becki and I took a few hours to regroup before we left for home. Since Becki had lost a large amount of blood, she wasn’t able to walk on her own power. The midwives offered us the room for the night (again) but we were REALLY tired of being at the birth center. We wanted to go home. I grabbed one of the rolling office chairs from behind the work desk and wheeled Becki out to the car while the assistant grabbed Maggie in her car carrier.

After a short stop at McDonalds to get Mamma a celebratory chocolate shake, we were home. It was 11:58 PM on Monday July 23rd 2007. Even after all the delays, confusion, and scares, we are still glad that we were able to have the birth “our” way: 100% natural.

We were now home. The entire healthy family, all three of us.

ATTN: Laphams!

Hey! There's now a website for all our Lapham relatives :) If you'd like to check it out, please leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send you an invite. Can't wait to see more people around!

All's well...

Hey! Anyone we haven't touched base with - surgery went very well. The surgeon said it was a perfect 'textbook procedure.' Woo-hoo! I'm still not up to full speed, but getting there :)

Me again :)

I've been trying to get the Mr. to post, but no luck so far :( Of course, he's usually busy with car, boat and house stuff. Especially since I'm not much help all broken :( Today he put wider steps on the deck, so he can drive the tractor up into the shed on the deck. Creativity rules! I'm counting down to surgery on the 15th of this month. I'm haveing a micro discectomy L5-S1 left side. Or so they say...something like that, anyway. I can't wait for the pain to go away and me to be able to function outside of a drug induced fog... What's new with you?

Clutter, anyone??

Wow! Andy is going to be sooo happy when he gets home. I've been working today on clearing some of the PartyLite boxes out of the office. Anyone have a spare set of utility shelving? I need to put something in our lil basement to organize the billions (or so it seems...) of boxes down there now! hahaha

He's working out at my parents today. Helping by brother with some brake or wheel stuff, and (I think) putting the new torque converter on the Datsun to bring it back here tonight. I feel a Telegraph cruise coming on soon, I think... Sure do wish the weather would cooperate!

Relay for Life

Becki will be walking in Livingston County's Relay for Life to raise money for the American Cancer Society in May. Her personal goal is to raise $1000 so we are asking everyone we know to donate $10, $20, $50 or whatever you can. Every little bit helps. Money raised goes for research, educational programs, advocacy and patient services.

She will be walking to honor our friend Sue, who passed away in August, 2005 at the age of 36 of breast cancer.

Luminaria will be lit to honor cancer survivors and to remember those who have lost their battle with cancer. If you would like to purchase one in honor or in memory of a loved one, they may be purchased for a $10 or greater donation. Please let us know if your donation is going for a luminaria.

We would like to reach our $1000 goal by May 1st. By making a check payable to the American Cancer Society and returning it to us, together we can make a difference! If you can donate using your debit or credit card, please visit Becki's donation page here. There is no finish line until we find a cure! Relay is about being a community that takes up the fight.

Thank you in advance for your support! If you have any questions, or would like to be a part of this exciting event, please leave a comment and we'll respond promptly.

Life

So what's life like for the newlyweds? On this exciting Tuesday night, he's out working on my car (for the fourth day running, poor guy!) and I just finished washing out the fridge. While it's empty is the time to do it, right?

Andy might have his own say on it, but I honestly don't 'feel' all that different married then I did just living with the love of my life. I was just saying tonight, I still feel like a kid, I can hardly believe I'm married! But we definitely are. I'm still working through all my accounts to get my name change done, but the biggies are taken care of - I got my new drivers' license and social security card in the mail this week :) Becki Bayley is a very lucky - and happy - woman!

The Wedding!

"Sorrow can take care of itself, but joy, to be fully appreciated, must be shared." - Mark Twain

Thanks to all of our friends and family for sharing in our joy!

Okay, so we're actually writing this slightly before the wedding, but here's the plan:

We're headed to the courthouse in Westland to meet up with our friend Jay Blanchard and another witness and have the judge marry us! Becki was able to get something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue, and now we're ready to go!!

After the ceremony, we'll be headed out for breakfast, then Jay is dropping us and our luggage off at the car rental place. By the time you're reading this, we're at least on our way to Miami, Florida, where our cruise sails Saturday afternoon!! (Can you tell I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!! -Becki)

We'll be on our seven day eastern Caribbean cruise/honeymoon until February 25, then stopping to visit Grandma Jessie (Tennessee) and heading home.

By February 27, life will be returning to what will come to be known as 'normal' for Mr. and Mrs. Bayley!

Thanks for reading, and we hope to get together with you soon!

Leave a comment, we can't wait to tell you all about it when we get back!

The Proposal

Laying in bed one night, Andy and Becki were making small talk about how each others days had gone.

Andy: "So, how was your evening out with the girls?"

Becki: “It was fun...”

Andy: “Did they ask you if we were married yet?”

Becki: “(sigh) yeah...”

Andy: “Have they figured any of our plans out yet?”

Becki: “Not that I know of.”

Andy: “Did your telling them of our upcoming cruise vacation tip any of them off?”

Becki: “I don’t think so.”

Andy: “Do you think THIS would give them any clues...”

(as Andy slides this onto Becki’s finger)

Once upon a time...

Rebecca Nancy Smith was born June 13th, 1972. From 1974 until 1980 she lived (with her family) at 15405 Brookfield in Livonia, Michigan. The house was on the paper route of Andy Bayley by the mid 1980's. She went to St. Paul's Lutheran Church on Farmington Road (next to St. Aidan's). She never met Andy Bayley back then.

(Becki at 2 years old)

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Andrew Gregory Bayley was born June 12th, 1975. He and his family lived at 14154 Farmington Road in Livonia, Michigan. His family went to St. Aidan's Church (next to St. Paul's). He had a paper route the included Brookfield, where Becki Smith used to live, but they never met back then.

(Andy posing for his Kindergarten School picture)

Years later

In 1993, Andy graduated from Livonia Churchill High School and moved to Houghton, Michigan to start classes at Michigan Technological University. At MTU he met Drew Sulkowski. A neighbor of Drew's from back home in Howell, Michigan started attending MTU one year later. Drew's neighbor was Randy Smith, Becki Smith's brother.

In the spring of 1997, Becki Smith made the 10-hour trek north (FYI: Andy's personal record still stands at 6 hours and 20 minutes...) to visit her brother and finally met Andy Bayley.

It may seem obvious where the story goes from here, but it actually went nowhere for the time being. Andy and Becki exchanged a few e-mails but eventually lost touch.

Andy and Randy stayed in contact after graduation though. In 2003 they bought Subaru Impreza WRX's just a couple months apart.

Soon after that, Randy joined a fun off-topic web forum and invited Andy to join. Becki was already a member there. Shortly after Andy joined the website, he and Becki were reunited.

February 2004

The story finally started gaining momentum in February of 2004. An out of state (New York) member from the off-topic web forum was coming to Southfield, Michigan for business. The Michigan forum members decided to make Prem (the forum member) feel welcome. For two weekends in a row, Becki and Andy met up with the other forum members (including Becki's brother Randy) to enjoy dinner, drinks, and dancing in Royal Oak, Michigan.

(Andy, Becki and Prem sitting down for Dinner at the Royal Oak Brewery)

Easter 2004

For the long spring weekend, Andy and Becki headed to South Carolina to meet up with Dave Welsh (who went to MTU with Andy) and his then girlfriend (now wife) Kristie Martinez. The four of them went on to spend the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Tail of the Dragon - May 2004

In May of 2004 Andy and Becki headed to a famous stretch of US Highway 129 that hugs the southwestern edge of the Smokey Mountains National Park to meet with some fellow forum member friends. Tail of the Dragon is an eleven mile stretch of highway that is said to contain 318 curves. Andy made sure Killboy didn't miss his Subaru WRX when it came time for some photo opportunities!

Firsts - Summer of 2004

Becki's First Boat Ride... Andy, Greg (Andy's Dad) and Becki took Andy and Greg's boat (a 32 foot Sunsation) from Caseville to East Tawas for lunch. The lake (Huron) was rough that day, but Becki loved every minute of her first boat ride. Unfortunately, more engine problems were revealed, so it was her last boat ride on that particular boat for quite a while.

Andy's first solo flight... Andy started taking flying lessons in January of 2004. Six months (14 hours of flight time) and a couple thousand dollars later, he made his first solo flight. Andy said he loved the birds eye view of the world below.

1000 Islands - August 2004

Andy started going to the Thousand Islands Poker Run in Kingston Ontario in 2002 to meet up with his boating friends that he had met at a Sunsation Owners' Rally in Lake St. Clair, Michigan. This was Becki's first experience with the offshore boating scene and she appeared to love every minute of it.

Autumn - 2004

Becki was now at about six months without a full-time permanent job (her last day had been January 2nd). Her lease at the apartment she lived in with Gloria and Audrey (her cats) was ready to renew... or expire September 1st.

Andy didn't seem to be doing much better with the house. Everything seemed to be falling apart at the seams. A loss of coolant caused the A/C compressor to seize, causing a power surge that knocked out the TV and computer monitor, which also froze up the condenser, causing the condensor to freeze up into a giant block of ice, which eventually thawed and fell onto the furnace heat exchanger, which cracked the exchanger in half.

Luckily, Andy and Becki had each other to fall back upon. Becki helped Andy organize the needed repairs to the house (many phone calls) while Andy opened his heart to Becki, Gloria and Audrey. Becki took over his third bedroom as her new PartyLite office, and added more than a little clutter to his (now their) three-bedroom ranch.

It was only a 25 mile move, but a huge step in the future they both knew they would be sharing.

Willkommen von Deutschland - December 2004

Shortly after enjoying Thanksgiving dinners with their families, Becki and Andy hopped on a plane and flew across the Northern Atlantic for Germany. Andy’s company (BHTC) was sending him to their corporate headquarters for two weeks in the northern Germany town of Lippstadt. After getting the green light from his boss, Andy purchased a second ticket for Becki and the two of them traveled for their first time to Europe.

The challenge came in when they got there. Lippstadt is a beautiful city, but small. Andy's co-workers all spoke English, but Becki saw no one during the day who did. Once Andy got back to the hotel each night, she talked (English) non-stop!

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During their weekend stay in Germany, Becki and Andy traveled to southern Germany and spent the weekend in the quaint Bavarian town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. After exploring the town of Garmish, the duo setout to locate their hotel for the night. This was not an easy task as their hotel room was nestled deep in the heart of the alps. In order to get to their room at the Foresthaus Grasek, they had to take a gondola ride up the side of a mountain. The gondola looked - and felt - like it had been installed for the 1936 olympics... and not improved or enhanced since! Once they reached their destination for the night however, their trouble was all worth it.

After spending the night in their Bavarian retreat, Andy and Becki took a drive into Austria to catch at better glimpse of "Zugspitze," the highest peak in Germany at 2964 meters (9724 ft). The weather in Austria was much nicer than the foggy valley they left behind in Germany.

Miami - February 2005

2005 was Andy's fourth trip to the Miami boat show and Becki's first. They shared a hotel room with Greg and had a great time catching up with our (mostly) Canadian friends. Admittedly, Becki was more interested in socializing than in boats, but Greg and Andy enjoyed the boat show as usual. Miami in February for the boat show is a great way to break up the Michigan winter.

Saturday morning Stan and Inez called to say they were going for a drive and invited Becki and Andy along. They ended up all the way in Key West, Florida at the southernmost point of the continental U.S. It was a beautiful ride through the Keys.

Sunday night found Becki and Andy sunburnt (from the beach that morning) and very ready to go home. Unfortunately, their flight was cancelled! Luckily they said it was due to crew problems (instead of the weather) so they got a free nights stay at the Airport Marriot and flew out Monday morning.

Easter - 2005

For the long Easter weekend, Andy and Becki decided to head south to Myrtle Beach. While on their way down, they made a side stop at the Tail of the Dragon to meet up with a friend from the off topic web forum. The friend brought with him a few other fellow Honda S2000s for Andy to play with. Unfortunately, they didn't play very nice and Andy wore out the ring and pinion gears in his front differential. This caused a very loud and annoying "whine" for the rest of the trip.

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This minor mechanical setback (the first of MANY more to come) didn't stop Andy and Becki from driving onwards to Myrtle Beach. The two were put up on the top floor of an ocean front hotel complete with their own private balcony. Saturday was spent lazily strolling along the beach, in no hurry to do anything.

A summer full of weddings

In June of 2005, Becki and Andy, along with Becki's parents (Roger and Judi) and Randy, headed out to Las Vegas for the wedding of cousin Jake. While in Nevada, they all took a quick side trip to explore the Hoover Dam. On the last day of their vacation, Andy and Roger rented a 21 foot powerboat and took the rest of the family (Randy, Becki, Judi and Aunt Rheta) out for a day cruise on Lake Mead. This little boat excursion ensured that everyone would be fast asleep during their red-eye flight home that night.

July of 2005 brought the marriage of Denny and Terra. Denny is a friend of Andy's that lives in Windsor, Ontario. Becki was most impressed with the seemingly endless supply of Croatian pastry desserts that is said to be a tradition in this family. Too bad Denny was the last family member to get married, those desserts were G-O-O-D!

August of 2005 took Andy and Becki up to Mackinac Island for the marriage of their friends Jeremy and Renee. Andy was hoping to make the weekend a "camping trip" on his boat, but prolonged engine troubles prevented that from happening. Instead, Roger and Judi setup their motor home in St. Ignace and invited Andy and Becki to setup a tent on their site. This meant that Andy and Becki's trip to the island was only be a day trip, but they still had just as much fun.

As the summer was winding down, Becki and Andy found themselves invited to their fourth wedding of the year in September. Craig and Hannah were married in a beautiful outdoor garden in the town of Holly, Michigan. Afterwards, their reception was held at Canterbury Village in Lake Orion, Michigan. More great treats from another southeastern European family - the food and entertainment were both top notch!

Back to the Dragon - June 2005

In late June of 2005 Andy, Becki, Randy and their friend Matt all headed back down to the Tail of the Dragon for their web forum's second (now annual) Dragon "Meat" run. The event this year was much larger than the previous year with more than double the number of attendees. Andy and Becki were happy to finally put faces to many friends they had otherwise only known through messages posted online.

On the way down to the Dragon, Andy, Becki, Randy and Matt all stopped in to visit Randy and Becki’s grandmother Jesse in Rockwood, Tennessee. Jesse was excited to see us all and prepared a nice southern-style fried chicken lunch.

1000 Islands and Niagara Falls - August 2005

For his fourth (and Becki's second) year in a row, Andy returned to Kingston Ontario to visit with his and now Becki's Canadian friends. Sadly, Andy was not able to take his own boat up to Kingston as he had been planning all summer. However, their good friend Jeff picked up the slack and accommodated both Becki and Andy on his 36 foot Apache. Not only did Jeff offer up the ride, but also put up Becki and Andy in his own personal boathouse for Saturday night.

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On their way home, Becki and Andy decided to make a side trip at Niagara Falls to take in the sights and grab a bite to eat. What a better way to cap off an exciting weekend with the one you love.

Halloween 2005

For Halloween of 2005, Natalie invited Andy and Becki to a party out in Royal Oak with her and some friends. Andy invited his German co-worker Wolfgang to join him and Becki. While down there, they ran into many of their friends and had a great time dancing and drinking (not necessarily in that order ;) ). Becki was dressed as Betty Page (1950's pin up girl); Andy's costume was designed after Jerry Only (bass player for the Misfits) and Wolfgang grabbed the first costume he could find off the dollar rack at Meijer... an Arab Sheik. Here are the three of them donning their Halloween costumes (sans Arabic headgear.)

Goodbye to a friend

Shortly after Thanksgiving, both Becki and Andy started to notice Gloria (the older of the two cats) losing weight at an alarming rate. They both also noticed her loss of appetite and her inability to get around on her own. After many trips to the vet and a feeding tube to help get her to eat again, Gloria finally gave up the fight and was euthanized in early December. The final diagnoses (never confirmed) was liver failure. Becki, Andy and Audrey miss her tremendously but are glad she's surely comfortable now.

New Years Eve 2005

For New Years Eve, Becki was able to score five free tickets to watch the Detroit Pistons play the Cleveland Cavaliers. The good news was that the home team won. The bad news was that Becki and Andy took a bus down to Cleveland to watch the game. No matter, Becki, Andy, Matt, Byron (friend of Andy’s) and Keith (another friend of Andy’s) all had a good time.

Becki was able to get these tickets through her new job at Quicken Loans that she had been working at since the beginning of August. Her new job has had plenty of perks by offering many free tickets to local sporting games, concerts and trade shows. A job that Becki loves doing AND free concert tickets… can things get any better???

After getting back from Cleveland, Becki and Andy quickly drove downtown (Detroit) to visit Andy’s oldest sister Alicia and the new town house her and boyfriend (of 18 years) had recently bought. While there, they also met Greg’s new girlfriend Ellen.

About an hour before midnight, Andy and Becki hurried up to Northville so they could welcome in the new year with Randy, his now fiancée Shannon and a few other friends.