Leaving New Orleans

I'm sitting in a hotel in Birmingham, AL for Andy Penuel's wedding tomorrow night and am reflecting (and uploading pictures) of the past couple days.  I drove to Charlotte Tuesday night and stayed with Joy for the night.  She was gracious enough to drive me to the airport EARLY Wednesday morning to catch a flight to New Orleans.  I was heading to New Orleans (along with mom, dad and Denise & Tom Akulis) to help Matt & Carly move to NC.  When everyone finally got there Wednesday night, we spent the next couple of days moving furniture and boxes into a huge Penske truck.  We were easily distracted by Grey, who is tiny and precious.  He had a tough couple of days because his tummy hurt, but all of us thoroughly enjoyed being around him.  Carly & Matt were excited to get packed up and moved out of their townhouse in New Orleans and we successfully finished everything up this morning.  Matt & Carly went to closing (yay!) and the rest of us stayed back to finalize everything.  I will miss our tie to NOLA but will love having Matt, Carly & Grey only a few hours away in Chapel Hill.  I didn't get many pictures OTHER than Grey so enjoy.....I'll post on Andy's wedding when I get back to NC/SC.

Summer Sundays

David and I have started a little Sunday tradition (okay, so maybe its not a tradition just yet, but give us time).....We've been heading down to the beach house in Myrtle to hang by the pool, soak up the summer sun, walk on the beach, etc.  Jen, Curry, Liza, &  Margaret joined us today....as did Soo Soo, Lee & Janet.  Its nice to have a place we can all meet and hang out.....Liza continues to entertain us and Margaret is cute as can be.  My favorite line of the whole day was when I was lying in the pool on a float and Liza asked me (in 2-year old form), "Is that your bra and panties?" We all got a big kick out of that and love the lack of  inhibitions of a toddler.  We tried to teach her how to say "bikini" and it came out "Beccakini".  She is also really good at pointing out when you happen to have a beer.....she makes a point to say that Beer is for Big People and then points out who all the big people are that can have beer.  Really a cute kid!  As for Margaret....she just laid on Jen's legs and made faces, ate, slept, and just got cuter and cuter.  Anyways, its kind of laid back - do your own thing - Sunday but that is why we love it!  Its so nice having family close by!

Hopefully these Sundays will continue!  

Margaret Alexandra Martin

Margaret Alexandra Martin was born at 12:21pm on 7/23/09.  She weighed in at 8lbs 8oz. and was 20 inches long.  She has a THICK head of black hair and is precious.  Jennifer is doing great and they are coming home today!  We went to the hospital (now that they live in MB) to visit and see Margaret and I was amazed at how great Jen looked!  Liza was thrilled to have a "real baby" and wanted to see her in the nursery.  She'll have plenty of time to play with Baby Margaret now! Here are a couple pics!

Harrison Grey Raynor

Matt & Carly welcomed their baby boy into the world on Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 4:39 cst. Harrison Grey Raynor was 5lb 7oz and 19.75 inches long. He is a little thing but is so precious in pictures. I cannot wait to meet him in person and will get to do that in a couple weeks! "Grey" as he will be known, is going to be a loved little nugget! The Matt Raynor clan is moving to Chapel Hill in August and their new home is close to being completely built. It is so exciting to know that they will be SO close (comparitively speaking) and I can watch Grey grow up and watch Matt & Carly be wonderful parents. These are my new favorite pictures......


In this picture, he's already taking after Shelton...trying to bend his ears forward to hear better. Hopefully he'll have better hearing than his Grandfather currently does.


Cheesin'!!!

The Happenings.....

I've been out of touch for a while and it seems like I can't catch up with life! I guess I'll start by announcing the birth of BABY BOY RAYNOR today at 4:39pm Central Time. Matt & Carly have a new son and I could not be more excited! I don't think they have 100% decided on a name but there are a couple in the works. He weighed in at a whopping 5 lbs 7 oz and 19.75 inches long. Carly delivered a week early because the baby wasn't growing like the docs wanted it to. As far as I know, baby and mom are doing well. I can't wait to meet the lil man!

I'm currently sitting in a really nice townhouse in Orlando, FL. I just got here today with 3 of the girls from the gym and will be here until Tuesday. They are working out at a college recruiting camp and I brought them here so I, too, could learn what the ropes are for getting a scholarship or competing college gymnastics these days. So far, everyone is having fun but the first workout is tomorrow, so we'll see!

The link below is pictures from July 4th.....Mom & Dad came to town and we (me & david, mom & dad) went down to the Dunes Club to hang with the Magenbauers, Martins, Woodards and Soo Soo. We decorated golf carts for the neighborhood golf cart parade and went to an amazing cook out hosted by The Dunes Club. We saw some of the greatest fireworks I've ever seen and I was so upset that my camera battery died right at sunset. : ( We had a great time nonetheless and we are grateful to have family so close to us now.

This week (prior to Orlando) and the remainder of next week, I'm busy with gymnastics camp at our gym. Its so much fun to have so many kids in town for it and especially to have so many of my coaching friends in town. We all really get along great and are able to learn so much from each other in the gym. I'll be glad to rest after it is over with and I'm sure david will be glad to see me for more than 20 minutes a night.

David is heading to Oklahoma on Saturday to meet with a consultant. He and his dad are flying out there and going to soak up all the information they can.

Summer is flying by and I will do my best to keep the blog updated on more activities going on with The Fort's. Life's a Beach!


I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
http://www1.snapfish.com/fbshareredirect/p=28691247194145693/l=1889166017/g=9279622/redirectURL=share/otsi=SALBBL/AlbumID=926955017/a=9279622_9279622/usercomments=I_xqd%20like%20to%20share%20my%20Snapfish%20photos%20with%20you.%20Once%20you%20have%20checked%20out%20my%20photos%20you%20can%20order%20prints%20and%20upload%20your%20own%20photos%20to%20share./counttext=91%20photos/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Playing Catch Up....

I haven't blogged in a while and have done a lot since then! After our week off from the gym, I had to get back into the swing of things with our new summer schedule. Its nice because we work Monday night and Tuesday - Friday mornings. Typically I'm done a little after lunch but sometimes I stick around and do administrative/team work until mid-afternoon. Either way, its a nice change for me to get home before 5pm 4 days a week. Last Wednesday, David and I drove to Raleigh and spent the night with Billy & Meredith so we could catch an early flight to New Orleans on Thursday. We got to Nola early on Thursday and walked around the French Quarter waiting on our hotel room to be ready. We had a great time in New Orleans and came home Monday night. We went to watch my brother graduate from his residency at Tulane University. My parents rode in Winford Williams' RV and got to NO Thursday night. We stayed at the same hotel we took the gymnasts to last year. Its one block from Jackson Square and two blocks from Bourbon Street. Its a cool place and the prices are VERY reasonable. The majority of the long weekend revolved around food which was awesome.....eating is a hobby of mine. Thursday lunch, we went to the Gumbo Shop and had red beans and rice, shrimp creole, jambalaya and crawfish ettouffe. So good! For dinner we went to a great mexican restaurant on Magazine St. that Matt & Carly go to. Friday, Matt & Carly both had to work, so the rest of us walked around (again!) and went to the WWII museum, ate lunch at Margaritaville, relaxed and Mom, Dad and I went to see Harry & Nell Leveque who live in the French Quarter and have done so for YEARS. They are Linda Gralton's parents and I coached Linda's 2 girls, Katie & Sarah. They are such nice people and their house is really neat. Later, we met Matt, Carly, Carly's sister Jackie and their parents at Dante's Kitchen. Dante's is on River Rd. on the levee and is SOOOO good....most likely the #1 place Matt & Carly will miss when they leave Nola. Saturday, Winford, Mom, Dad, David and I took the Natchez River boat tour and enjoyed our time on the water. This was after eating breakfast at Johnny's Po Boys and walking around shopping (again). After the tour everyone went to their respective sleeping places and got ready for the big night (graduation). Graduation was held at the rooftop of the Windsor Court hotel and it was a nice dinner and cocktail hour ALL for Matt! It was really neat to listen to a couple hours of speakers all talk about Matt and his accomplishments as resident and chief resident of the Tulane Urology Dept. One of his fellow residents made the comment that Matt has probably done more surgeries than any other urology resident in the country this past year. He will be missed by all he worked with and that is no surprise to me however, we will be glad to get he, Carly & Lil' Raynor closer to us. It was also special to recognize him as the last graduate of the Katrina residents. Matt was in his first year of residency when Hurricane Katrina hit and since he was on call, he spent the better part of 4 days trying to get the patients out of both Tulane and Charity hospitals. When the helicopter picked up the doctors on that particular Thursday, he had none of his belongings and was dropped off in Lafayette, LA. Another resident that WASN'T on call and had evacuated to Houston actually drove to Lafayette and picked them up. They drove to St. Louis and matt caught a plane to NC. He truly had NOTHING from his house and was displaced for 19 months. He worked at UNC, still as a Tulane resident and when Tulane got back up and running, his boss in New Orleans asked him to return. After hearing the speeches Saturday night and the opportunities being at Tulane has given him in terms of experience, I'm glad he went back for his final two years. Saturday night David and I went to Bourbon Street and stood on the balcony of Bourbon St. Blues (The Gralton's uncle own that). It was packed but certainly not Mardi Gras packed and we saw some characters as always! We ended our night with some jazz at Maison Bourbon. Sunday was spent hanging out with everyone....David and I had some beignets and we eventually met up with Carly & Matt at Chartres House Cafe for lunch (see, lots of eating)! Everyone decided to go back to Matt & Carly's house and relax after that but David and I were quite antsy to do an activity. We decided that an airboat ride through the bayou would suit us just fine. After haggling with the owner, she gave us a deal and we spent and hour and a half on the muddy waters of Louisiana. I got to ride on the top seat of the boat and only scared myself twice on the whole trip. We got to hold a baby gator (well, 9 months old) and a Gator egg. The guys that were with us were funny....I swear they haven't seen a woman in years. The captain would get off the boat to take pictures and one of the guys said "Make sure you get the hot girl in the picture." Like I wasn't there. Dude. But he was funny nonetheless. The captain of the boat (interestingly enough) was on ABC's Wife Swap. He swapped wives with a family in California who are ballerinas (?) or something like that. He's mighty funny as well. After getting off the airboat, we picked up Winford from his RV (he needed a rest day) and we went to dinner at Zea Brewery near Matt's house. We got up early to catch our flight Monday morning and made our way back to the beach Monday night. It was really nice to be with everyone for Matt's graduation and it was certainly a special ceremony. Their plans are to move to Chapel Hill and work for UNC Hospitals....Matt in the Urology Dept and Carly as a CRNA. She will be on maternity leave until November as she is due to have that baby 7/17!!! Click on the title of the blog to see ALL my pictures......

Such a good week....

So I've been in Southern Pines since Monday and have LOVED it.  I have wanted to spend more than one night here for quite some time and with the gym being closed this week, I finally got to!!  I have had the best week filled with good food, good shopping, good (long) walks downtown, a good dentist appointment and above all else, GREAT friends and family.  I got home on Monday and we just sat around the house and watched TV, ate dinner, etc.  Later that night (like at 10ish) we took the dogs on a long walk through town.  Tuesday, mom and I both had dentist appointments in Robbins, so that took up part of the morning.  We met Julie for lunch at Sweet Basil in downtown SP and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around to the precious shops that I love dearly in SP.  We met a big group at Vito's for dinner (YUM)......It was Julie (again!), Alison (& Lil'Man), Becky, Alex, Karina, Kileigh, Herb, Patti and Chris for a short while.  We left there and went to see Alison's house and nursery which was SO cute.  All of it.  I love her colors, what she did in the nursery and her taste in decorating.  I also think Ilir has done a great job with her yard, etc.  Wednesday, after our daily morning walk of 2 miles, I left for Chapel Hill/Durham to meet Jake, Page & Ford Fehling, along with Jeff Beaudin for lunch at Mellow Mushroom.  Jake works for USA Baseball and his office is in the Durham Bulls Park area, so we went to eat at the American Tobacco district.....cool place.  Lunch with those guys was awesome.....we had a good time catching up, laughing, watching Ford and grubbin.  I poked around Chapel Hill for a while before heading on back to the Pines.  Did some shopping, walking up and down Franklin Street and of course, stopped by The Loop for a sweet tea.  On the way to AND from Chapel Hill, I stopped by Matt & Carly's house to check out the progress.  On my way UP, they were beginning to put on siding on one side of the house.  On the way home, they were done with one side and working on another.  I also snuck in the house to get pictures.  It's coming along nicely and hopefully the progress will continue smoothly.  Tonight (Wednesday), my parents always go to El Vaquero and meet some friends for dinner and tonight was nothing different!  We walked downtown to EV and met up with Becky, Alex, Karina, Kileigh, Anne & Bob Ryder, Anne & Wiley Fields, Jane & Scott Newton.  After that, we took the dogs on (another) 2 mile walk through town.  I'll be heading out sometime tomorrow although I think I could stay longer......there is something very special about this town to me and everytime I'm here, its never for as long as I want.   But, the beach is a pretty cool place to live as well and I need to head back there and get ready for company this weekend and a Dixie Lane Reunion on Sunday.  I'm sooooo excited about that!  A few pictures for your soul.....

The waitress who took the above picture said, "It's perfect!" after taking it.....really???? We aren't crouched over a stroller for nothing!!!

Kileigh Turns 1

Last weekend I went to Southern Pines for sweet little Kileigh's first birthday party.  Karina and company did a great job planning a fun afternoon for all the kids, including Kileigh.  There was lots of food, drinks, toys, presents, desserts, etc and I think everyone was worn out after it was over.  Kileigh got lots of cute presents from all of her friends and I got lots of cute pictures of her.  A couple of my favorites below but click the title to see the whole album on snapfish.  

Our little fern dove

So I bought 6 ferns a while ago (4 to hang) and I'm seeing how long I can make them last.....I'm kind of into plants and flowers these days and we have a great front porch to have hanging plants.  I walked out of the front door one day and a bird popped out of one of the ferns (and scared me to pieces).  Several days later I noticed a nest.....and today I got some pictures......its a dove's nest.....I hope taking pictures didn't scare it away for too long!

Miracle Picture

No one will quite understand how hard this picture was to take.....it took 4 people, and about 15 minutes and this was the ONLY decent picture that came of it:

Back Row L to R:  Jackson, Maddie, Bec, Kali, Reba, David & Hank

Front Two L to R:  Ginger (Grandma) & Sally (Mom)

My Baby

Kali, the newest puppy, is doing great and I thought I'd share some funny stories and pictures from the last two weeks.  First of all, the crate training (which I fully believe in) is working.  She is understanding that the bathroom is outside for her.  It's still a lot of work for us because she doesn't have the bladder capacity that Jax & Maddie have but she is able to stay in the crate without being let out for a good while (4-5 hours).  According to articles I've read, that is outstanding for a dog her age (9 weeks).  She is starting to understand commands (or so I think...maybe its a coincidence) but "hurry up" and "here" seem to grab her attention.  Occasionally she will run in circles around the house (when we let her play out of the crate) and then stop suddenly and bark at us.  Just one, high pitch bark, as if to say.....PLAY WITH ME NOW.  She is a good retriever but doesn't always bring the sock/toy/ball right back to you.  Again, who would expect that from a 9-week old?  She had her first bath on Tuesday and did great.  She is so adorable and sweet but now that she is more comfortable in our house, she doesn't really like to be held and cuddled....she is more into exploring and finding trouble.  Speaking of exploring.....she got out of the fence yesterday!  Her skinny butt can fit through the pickets in the fence and she made her way out.  When I figured it out and got myself out of the fence, that Einstein of a dog was waiting for me at the FRONT DOOR.  I love smart pups.  Anyways, she's great and she loves visitors so if you are in the area, come meet her.  I promise you will fall in love with her little face!

Nothing Like a Mom

With Mother's Day almost a week in the past, I wanted to reflect on the fact that most mom's are awesome. First of all, my mom is wonderful. That's a given!  But I wanted to use this blog to point out the new mom's in the world and how great i think they are.......These smiles show how great they are!

Lauren & Hadley....this was right after we got back from KS

Liza Martin learning how to brush her teeth

Karina & Kileigh last Thanksgiving

Em & Nate in Nashville

Lily Andrea Grieve....Kalispell, MT

Jackie & Noah

Page & Ford Fehling

Ruby Red Slippers & Sore Legs

This past weekend we hopped on a plane to Wichita, Kansas for a good friend's wedding.  David Glover & Ashley Shroyer met in DC several years ago.  Glover (as we call him) is from NC & went to UNC.  We have a great group of friends from UNC and most of our closest friends flew out to KS to see him get married.  Ashley is from Kansas and the entire weekend was loosely based on the rivalry between Kansas & UNC.  It was great!  We (me and my david) flew in Friday and barely made it in time to go to the rehearsal dinner.  Thankfully Emily & Greg, who rented a car, waited on us to get changed.  The RD was nice....at Wichita Country Club with good food, drinks, toasts, videos and a darn good MC.  :)  Someone in the wedding party had a grand idea to run a 10K the morning of the wedding and the bride and groom were totally up for it.  They (Team Dashley) encouraged us to do it and 33 of us got up and ran it like champs.  Some of the guys did really well, finishing up near the front  but most of us accomplished a lot just by finishing!!!  I had a great running partner in Emily and if it hadn't been for her, I don't know that I would have finished it like I did.  We did stop a couple times to walk in order to get rid cramps, etc, but she figured we ran 90% of it.  I've never run more than 3 miles at a time so I was completely pumped about it.  David also finished it before I did and I was so proud of him! He hates running....its amazing what a man's pride and a little competition can do.  :)



 We all were wearing shirts that said "Worst Idea Ever" on the front and "Best Idea Ever" with a picture of a UNC Ram & a Jayhawk getting married, on the back.  So many runners pointed out our shirts and said how cool they were.  It was also fun to see each other as we were running.....made it easy to point each other out and cheer each other on!  The wedding itself was held at Botanica Saturday night.  We had lots of time between the race and the wedding to eat, rest, shop, etc.....most people just rested.  I think Klug found resting to be for wussy's so she and Talley entertained themselves with scarves for what sounded like hours.  The wedding was beautiful...all of it was outside and Ashley did an amazing job with the decor, colors, set up, etc.  I took tons of pictures and thoroughly enjoyed being there to watch Glove get married.  Ashley was wearing the cutest red shoes with her beautiful wedding dress and Glove wore a turquoise-y tie with a black tux.  the bridesmaids dress color matched Glove's tie and the groomsmen's ties matched Ashley's shoes.  It was really pretty.  There were tears, laughter, cocktails, hugs, kisses and more




......it was a great reunion of our college friends and I look forward to many more reunions as the years go by.......

**Click on the title to see pictures**

Kali(Spell) Fort

We are insane and we know it.  BUT, we got another dog.  She is a German Shorthaired Pointer and is SOOOOO cute.  Our two favorite places on our trip out west were Kalispell, MT and Jackson, WY.  Obviously, we have a Jackson (although he was named that long before we went to Jackson), but Kalispell, MT was another awesome spot.  It could be because Andrea & BJ (and now Lily) live there but it was really a great town.  SO, we decided to name this little girl KALI.  Her full name is Kali-Spell Fort but from here on out, she'll just be Kali.  She is energetic, precious and sweet as can be.  So far, Jackson & Maddie are having fun with her!