Surprise!

In the great tradition of not adhering to any traditions, WE ARE HAVING A GIRL! Yes many generations of Fowlkes' and Burks' male-only (or at least male-majority) progeny production have been interrupted with the news that our little one is a little girl. Literally, the first words out of our mouths were, "Are you sure?" Not surprisingly, these were Thomas' words as well.

So now we figure she'll have dark hair, eyes and skin tone. Why stop at gender?

Chomp and Stomp

The Cabbagetown Chomp & Stomp! Chili cook off and bluegrass festival! Now that's MY kind of fest! Can I get a yee haw?

I expect this is the first of many overlapping reports between the Fowlkes blogging, so apologies for the repeat. As Thomas and Elizabeth mentioned, it was a gorgeous weekend and the Atlanta festivals were abounding. I don't really have any photographic evidence that we were actually there with the T/E/C clan, but how about an updated 23 week belly shot?

And look at baby Violet!!! Pops lookin cool in his baby bjorn. I can't wait to see Park in one of those!

Conference on an Island

Greetings from sunny Florida.....well, Florida anyway. I'm on beautiful Marco Island, right on the Gulf!
The nerd conference, as Park has named it, has been pretty dull since most of the presentations have been way over my head. Actually it's a bit comforting to learn that I'm really not THAT big of a geek. As for sunny FL, the days have been really cloudy, but since it's not raining and I can still go for walks on the beach, I am happy as a
The beach is covered with shells like I've never seen. There are all kinds of various critters, mollusks, sea urchins, birds


and can someone please tell me what on earth this is??????????

Back in business with a tiny bit of news

In the tradition of Phish, Fowlkes Incorporated spent a bit of time on hiatus. We are back, and have finally brought the widely demanded photos of Ashley & Park in their reproductive state, and of course, the product. Unfortunately, we do not yet know the sex of our amazing little product, since it seemed that the kid was more interested in proving that he/she was indeed MY child.

So we are still using names such as "Cletus the fetus", "Little", "The kid" and "Babe, come here, he's kicking" (we've kinda been using he, since we've got some serious odds stacked against a girl). Hopefully, our next appointment will be a little more revealing. In the meantime, we'll just have to settle for being the most excited parents-to-be in world!!!!!

Hee!!!!!!!!!!!!

Q*bert

During a google image search for a picture of a cinnamon cake doughnut, a sadly undermade and underoffered delicacy of modern America that I now crave daily, I managed to stumble across an image of Q*bert.

If you were a kid in the 80s, you can stop reading as all further information will be well known to you. This was absolutely one of my favorite arcade games, and I took my task of turning all the little blue triangles yellow quite seriously. I do apologize for Coily the Snake's absense from this image.......we was a worthy adversary much deserving of representation. But worry not. I did manage to find both he and Q*bert memorialized in a pair of earrings.

My Christmas list is now complete.

Labor Day festivities

We had a very exciting weekend here in 'lanter. My mom and Allen were in town for some shopping and big city adventures. Though we sadly did not make our way to Dragon*con (next year or bust!), we certainly had much more fun at the Decatur Book Festival. JK. Actually, with the weather finally giving us a break, there couldn't have been anything finer. Sunday night we all headed to Burk and Heather's for a yummy bbq to celebrate Labor Day in proper fashion. Harrison was the clear winner of the "Cute with Bubbles" Award.

Peter proved his father with camera capabilities with this auto-timer pic of everyone as the night ended. What's with that giant belly on Ash? Hmm...anything going on there?

To wrap up the weekend, Thomas arrived to begin the 'lanter recolation project. Per their blog, we should have them settled in by October, but not without herculean effort. We'll be so happy for them to be here, but even happier for them to be here and finished with their month of mayhem. I think Carter's opinion on the subject shows in this picture ;)

book club

All the muchachas from book club.

the wedding.....after hours

A couple of snipits from the end of the night.

the actual WEDDING

Saturday, July 28th!

We had a mostly relaxing day, little hiking, little eating...the good stuff :) Then it was time to get ready for the big day!!!! The wedding took place in the amazing backyard of Shannon's grandparents "cabin".

At last! The moment arrives!
Mike and Jill busted being extremely cute :)
Trip won the travel award. His flight out of Baltimore was delayed, making him miss his flight out of Denver. He ended up with a hotel 35 miles away, instead of the 5 miles he had been told. The following morning, in classic fashion, his flight was cancelled. He made it to the wedding with about an hour to spare.
They were being sweet and cute there for a second, but really just didn't seem right. We all agreed this was much more fitting.
Even WeeCarter made a guest appearance!!

Marc & Shannon's Wedding

At long last, my blog laziness is at an end. We actually have so much to tell, but I can't let another day go by without sharing pix from Marc & Shannon's wedding in South Lake Tahoe. I've explained the story previously, but to sum up, this was my cousin Shannon's marriage to my brother-in-law's best friend. Surprisingly, none of them are Southern ;)
We shared a "cabin" with my mom & Allen, Thomas, Elizabeth & WeeCarter, and Ron & Bronwyn. We filled our days hiking along gorgeous lakes and mountain trails, then spent the evenings celebrating with the family. Needless to say, it was a BLAST!!!

Our hike along Echo Lake

Shannon (aka bride) with cousin triplets Jefferey, Allen and Clayton, with Jeff towering above.

I know it's blurry, but this picture of Lynn, mother of the bride, and Vivian, mother of the groom, was too adorable to pass up.

Thomas and Elizabeth charting out the tale of our wacky relations and how Marc & Shannon got together.

Our near-cabin mates, and Thomas & Elizabeth's other best friends, Rob & Rachel.

Murph!

A quick post to welcome our newest member of the household, Murphy! He is the most awesome cuddle chunk. The Murph-man could not be resisted. I saw a poster in the hallway at work describing a roommate situation that was requiring them to give up Murph instead of the roommate.....an arrangement that would have gone the other way in my house.

We arranged a meeting, and it was truly love at first sight. He a true love monkey, and of course reminds me of Cheesecake (aka Best Cat Ever in Universe). He has swirly stripes like Miles, is soft like Flounder, gives looks like Panda, is goofy like Ollie, and is chunky sweetness like Weezer. But he is definitely his own man....well, cat.

fun wedding pix

Yes indeed, much fun was had at the NC wedding, so I thought I'd share a few more.

Pat & Anna's Wedding in NC

Sorry for the shamefully late update on last weekend's wedding, but we forgot our camera. Enjoy the pirated pix, compliments of Deuce.

Pat is a buddy of Park's from college, who met the most incredible woman in the world a couple of years ago. We could not have been happier to celebrate their big day with everyone. As always, Chad delivered a memorable and unique ceremony by which our two pirates were joined to share their eternal journey to the buried treasure.

OK. This is a hideous picture of me, but everyone else looks good. We are the witnesses/accomplices/pirate crew...

a cape town accomplishment

We made it to the end of the world twice during days in Cape Town. The very tip of Africa ends in a little U-shaped cape. On one tip is the Cape of Good Hope, where we ended our 2nd day, and Cape Point, where we ended our last day. Cape Point is really interesting because it actually has a big rock formation that jets out into the Atlantic, which of course we could not skip walking out to the end to see. We were dodging squalls and slippery rocks on our not-so-short hike, but it was sooooo worth it!

Just a few work photos

In the craziness of being away, plus the ridiculously slow connection, many posts that I had wanted to do just had to wait. I just want to share a little more of my time in Malawi. And don't worry, there will be many more of Park and I on our vacay!
my guys: Andrew & Edward, or as we lovingly call them, Adverse Events :)

Baby scale
OK. I'll admit it, we staged this one. But really only because I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to catch Edward talking on the phone and coordinating at the same time with someone else by CB for real!!!