Belated Birthday Tribute, " A Turbo Star", Natalie

"A Turbo Star"

Before December days have past

may this testament of love last

for a special Cain Clan daughter

whose spirit is like no other.

Around our table we tell tall tales

of Nat's blunders and stormy gales.
Our resource of perspectives

may sometimes prove defective.

Legend is that "No" was her first word.
We can laugh and say, "How absurd!"

Not from that sweet angelic face,

whose bright smile many embrace.

Thirty four years prove she's a "yes girl".
Yes to family, friends, and Life's whirl.
Challenge is her turbo "connectar".

As family defender, she's a bright star.

Cain Clan records bare deeper story.

Nat's pizzaz is an allegory.

Her stout heart, gentle spirit, devotion

sustains our family's evolution.

Trip to Nashville

On Monday I was thinking. My last final of the semester was Wednesday night (6pm-9pm, yuck), and Lauren had a long weekend - Thursday, Friday, Saturday off. I was thinking we could take a short trip somewhere. Neither of us had been to Nashville (or Tennessee at all), and it is only about 4 hours away, so that's what we picked. Good thing too, we had terrific weather. Friday it was sunny and it hit 70 degrees. It didn't feel like winter at all.

We saw a few things of note. Thursday we went to the Grand Ole Opry, they weren't any shows, but they had some neat Christmas lights inside and outside. The Opryland Hotel was staggering, several adjoining six story rooms, large enough to put a football field in each.

Friday morning we saw the Tennessee state museum. It was all about the history of the state of Tennessee - which is to say it was all about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War, with a small exhibit on the Native Americans. I'm sure several of you would've liked it. After that we took a long walk around downtown Nashville where we saw some excellent architecture including: the capitol building, a former post office (now a visual arts center), a former customers & tariff agency (now an impressive high school), gorgeous churches, a huge former railroad station, and several sculptures of dubious quality (I don't get post-modernism).

Friday afternoon we went to a park across from Vanderbilt University which had a full scale replica of the Parthenon in Athens. Going inside they had a full scale replica of what scholars and artists think the statue of Athena looked like inside the Parthenon. The walls were lined with casts of the surviving pieces of sculpture from the pediment of the Athenian Parthenon.

Saturday we went to the Frist Center for Visual Arts. It is a neat art deco building that had been a post office. They had two main exhibits, one showing many sculptures of Rodin and one showing the best of Photography from the George Eastman House. No pictures were allowed of either exhibit unfortunately, but I learned quite a bit about Rodin I hadn't known, and given I recognized several of the pictures from the Eastman House, sometimes you're much closer to home than you think.

For lunch, we went to the Loveless Cafe. It is a tourist trap way out in the middle of nowhere. It took a considerable amount of time to get there, and then we had an hour wait to be seated. Lots of celebrities have gone there, I think the reason we went was because Lauren picked up a pamphlet for the Cafe which had an endorsement from Conan O'Brien. The food was quite good, the biscuits were defintitely better than average, and some of the jams were excellent (especially the peach & blackberry preserves). We bought a jar of fig preserves to bring home with us.

We skipped the Country Music Hall of Fame (neither of us are fans), we skipped the Botanical gardens (nothing growing now), and didn't have time for the haunted Belmont mansion or plantation. The hotel only had about a dozen channels but two of them were Fox & Fox News. I thought that said something. The city was a bit trashy too, more so than even NYC I'd say. But the people were very polite & helpful over the phone and in person, the food we had was good, and downtown was fairly accessible. We had a good time, and here are some pictures:

Marshall Talks

How often do you read the blog?

We all have been talking
About who would be next
To bring a new baby
Into the nest

Is it Cara or Lauren,
Maybe Sheryl or Nat
Probably not the later
Could you imagine that!?

But in reality
It's not one of these
As a matter of fact
It's Holly and Me!

It's a wee bit too early
But we will be fine
The newest Cain Baby
Arrives in summer ‘09

Surprise!!!

Alex and Santa

His first visit with santa turned out well! He is so friendly with everyone. I wonder how long it will last. He plopped down on Santa's lap, gave him a quick smile, looked at the camera, another nice smile, and it was done with.

Jordan did not want to sit with santa, he hasnt the past couple years. Santa does still bring him gifts, but he knows the guy at the mall is in costume! Im holding on to this as long as I can, but Im sure the day will come, kids are already talking!

Just a promised video

Enjoy!

Gobble ,Gobble

The Walkers have returned from a whirlwind Thanksgiving vacation! I went early in November to help Carl's mom with her recovery. I was gone for a total of 3 weeks and while I loved being around family was really ready to be back in my own house.

We had a large gathering at Nat's house including Carl's parents and Mike's friend Troy. The food was fantastic. Nat and Mike were very generous in offering to host dinner in their new home. I was thinking how cool it is that now children are joining in the gatherings. We had Jordan, Grace, Alex and Marshall. I'm looking forward to having many more kidlets join our get togethers in the future.

Giambattistas' Thanksgiving adventures

Hey everyone. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Sean and I were sad that we couldn't come home but we had a wonderful time with Aaron and Emily. Thanksgiving day involved much joyous feasting and several moans of overindulgence. Our friends Micah and Emily came over as well so there was a total of six. We had more than enough food and way too many pies. We watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving of course, and we were shocked to notice that several of the voices have been dubbed over. It just wasn't the same. Charlie Brown was no where near as depressed as he should have sounded.

Friday morning Sean, Aaron, Emily and I headed up to Chicago. What a great city. Despite being a bit chilly, the weather was lovely and the city had all its Christmas lights up. We did some shopping, went to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Sear's Tower. We ate more food, inculding the cheesiest deep dish pizza I have ever had. We made a stop a the Lego Store where Sean and Aaron were in Heaven. We got back late Saturday night and were very glad we went.

Sean and I received a very generous early Christmas gift from his parents. A Wii! Emily also bought us some extra wii-motes. So as you can imagine it has taken up a lot of our time the last few days. Emily brought a bunch of her games out so we could play. She took them back home, but I think that was a good thing. Sean may have failed all his upcoming exams with such a temting distraction. So for now we just have Wii sports, which should suffice for the time being.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday. Next up, Christmas.

Love,
Lauren

A Hodge Podge of Info

Oh she's a Cain alright. Welcome to the Buffalo side of the Cain family, where the world consists of cats, school, and the random wedding pop ups (I'm sure they'll get more frequent as the time draws closer). Anywhooo life here is relatively unexciting, but Mike and I are enjoying this period. It is slightly hectic with school tests, projects, making sure our schedules are completed for next semester (time sure flies considering considering I'm planning my FINAL semester as an undergrad!!). However, we have been able to find time to hang out with friends, play video games (the most recent of which is Fable II), cook a few meals (considering how many cookbooks I've been given over even the past month I think people are worrying about Mike's welfare...), paint some pumpkins and laugh at our cats. As you can see here Elouise is asleep on my lap with her mouth hanging wide open, and Ninja, the skilled warrior, performing the elusive Ninja Slide (sure he looks like he's asleep but that is one technique only the most cunning of warriors can perfect). While Sham takes a more laid back approach to her relaxing styles (I may look stupid for choosing the spot, but I'm cool with it and this plastic bag provides soothing music to lull me to sleep). Elouise is our more hmm how to describe her...destructive cat, has just knocked over the glass and is determined to get her reward the precious "water of life" that only tall creatures have access to, the legend has it that the cat that can drink of this liquid will have insurmountable powers and will lead their fellows in a rebellion against the tall ones. Too bad the tall creatures learned to finish their drinks before they put it on the floor anymore. Here Ninja is on the training field practicing his Ninja S.W.A.T. Swipe Wrong Area Tactic, where you look like a traitor by attacking your own team, but at the last minute you perform the Ninja Slide and save the day. Elouise is this picture just looks funny, I guess it's comfortable and is the real reason they destroyed their cat playhouse.








O yea did I mention Mike got a hair cut...

October flew by and now we are into November. The Walker family had lots fun and new adventures last month. We are all adjusting to life with a newborn. Grace is now more accepting of her new baby brother. Only once in a while does she ask us to send Marshall back or to take away all of Marshall's toys. Carl and I are amazed that we can "function" on so little sleep. We knew we would be up with Marshall but didn't anticipate the times we would be up with both kids. For example Grace has a cold this week so when we finished feeding/changing Marshall at dawn o clock in the morning we then had to administer to the sickee. Despite the hectic and sleep deprived schedule we are enjoying both of our kids.

In the midst of work, family and church callings Carl is trying to scratch out some time for hunting. We've had warm weather and some windy days which made it difficult during bow season. Now its black powder and Carl is hoping to get a deer. We'll keep you posted.

I've been training our dogs Smokey and Ginger. It's going well and I'm hoping to be mostly done with training by the end of the year. My goal is to have the dogs respond to come and down in all situations, eliminate signs of aggression (constant barking, growling) and in General have well behaved dogs when we have company over. I'm using a dog training video and what we learned from our dog trainer in NY. I know everyone thought we were crazy getting two new dogs so close to Marshall's birth. I admit at times I think it was a crazy idea as well. But I'm glad we did . I didn't know how much I would miss having a dog until Bandit left. I love both of our new dogs.

Grace and Marshall are doing well. Grace had tons of fun on Halloween. First she participated in Trunk or Treat at church on Wed night. Thursday she had a Halloween party at school and then Friday was trick or treat. I'm proud to say that our almost 4 year old WALKED the entire time we trick our treated. Many parents were driving their kids to houses right next to each other. Grace will turn 4 this Friday (I really just can't believe that!) She is now old enough to request her own special birthday dinner. She has asked that we go out for Mushroom Pizza. And she specifically said she didn't want mom to make the pizza.

Marshall is eating us out of house and home. He eats and eats. He is now nearly 10lbs and in the 75% percentile for both weight and height. He is cooing and smiling and loves to watch Grace. He will be blessed this Sunday.

Here is the latest in Grace "vocabulary"

Bees and butterflies get "connecter" from the flowers.

Mary Mary "fright and ferry" is one of her favorite nursery rhymes
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There are four "reasons" right now the "reason" is Autumn.

Can't wait to read some new posts! Amber