Month: August 2006

Home Sweet Home!

Kyllan 3 Comments

William and I are officially home owners! The closing went very smooth. My bank account is crying, but I am thrilled to have a beautiful new home. It’s the best money I have ever spent. I have posted new pictures on my flickr page. So now the long weekend of moving begins. I am moving tomorrow, mainly b/c my lease expires and I don’t want to pay for an additional month, but since the house is ready I may as well move now. It gives me the long weekend to unpack. My internet service here is suppose to turn off tomorrow, so I will be MIA for a while. I may not have internet service until sometime next week, but I will still have access to my e-mail via my phone. I will try to get an e-mail out as soon as possible with my new address. Thanks for everyone’s support during this process. It has been very exciting, but I am glad is is finally over!

Pictures, Blogs and Katrina

William 1 Comment

Kyllan has posted some more pictures of the house to her flickr account. It seems like just yesterday she was complaining about rain delaying the pooring of the foundation. It’s amazing to see how far things have come.

The House

After much “discussion” my good friend Neil has decided to start a blog. If you check out the url you will notice that he wasn’t very creative. He and his wife Tammy are expecting the birth of thier first child sometime this week. I know a few friends from Xavier have been reading my blog. You guys should visit Neil’s and say hello. There is now link to his blog in the right sidebar under the “Friends and Family” section. We will see if he actually updates it.
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Just in time for the anniversary of hurricane Katrina this news story popped up. A man took a boat and saved over 200 poeple during the flooding is being sued by the boat’s owner. “Embarrasment” and “mental anguish” are cited sited as some of the reasons. I will not be making a Katrina anniversary post. I wouldn’t know where to even begin. I tried watching Spike Lee’s “When the levees broke,” (the first Lee film credited “A Spike Lee Film,” and not “A Spike Lee Joint”) but it was too much and I turned it off. Here are a few news articles if you to see what other people are saying about the upcoming anniversary. I’m sure plenty more will pop up on the 29th.
Here, here and here

Better yet, if you want to get a sense of what life is like here in New Orleans one year after Katrina, check out “B’s” flickr page and blog. He is a faculty member at Xavier, my alma mater, and lives in an area of mid city that was flooded. His blog, “Life in the flood zone,” really provides a peek into how the aftermath of Katrina has effected our daily lives. Even if you don’t read a single post you should scroll through a few pages just to get a sense of what life is now like in their neighborhood post-K. His flickr page is filled all to familiar images of the damage that still remains. If you go back far enough, he has pictures of Xavier’s campus about a month after the hurricane. I am adding links to his blog and flickr page to the “favorite blogs” section of the sidebar.

Closing time!

Kyllan 2 Comments

It is official…. I am set to close on the house next Wednesday, August 30th!  I am very excited.  I am already making plans to move next Friday so I can take advantage of the long Labor Day weekend to unpack.  I am also excited b/c it worked out perfectly with my lease that ends Sept. 2nd.  I was hoping I would not have to pay September rent, so that worked out great!  The only thing that has not worked out so well is that DirecTV can’t come install my new dish until September 11th!  But, there is nothing really on TV during this time of year anyway.  I tried to take pictures yesterday, but my camera was out of batteries!  I will try to take pictures at the walkthrough on Saturday.  So… the next few weekends will be packing and unpacking for me and trying to remember to make all the proper contacts to change my address.  More pictures and updates to come! Stay tuned…. 

Treatment

William 9 Comments

As many of you know, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year. The diagnosis occurred before I started the blog and while many of you inquired about her health in e-mails and phone calls, I have never discussed it in a post. I asked my mother to send me an e-mail about her treatment so that I could post it to the site and she could tell everyone in her own words about the progress she has made.

Hi William,
I was diagnosed with breast cancer on April 13, 2006. Chemotherapy started May 1. I finished chemotherapy on August 7. I have been on immunotherapy for one month and have 11 months to go. I will be having several weeks of radiation sometimes during the immunotherapy. When radiation starts, it will be 5 days a week. My chemotherapy was once every two weeks. My current treatments are once a week. I’m hoping the oncologist will change my treatments to once every 3 weeks soon. This will mean that I will get 3 times the Herceptin that I’m getting now but only once every three weeks. The toxins should be out of my system in 4-5 months. I look forward to seeing all of my side effects from the chemotherapy disappear. I have been very fortunate not to have had severe side effects and I have been very blessed to have so many caring family members and friends supporting me through this.

Love,
Mom”

Thank you to all my friends and family for your continued support. As my mother’s treatments continue, I will post updates on her progress to the blog.

I have a dress!

Kyllan 5 Comments

As you have already read in previous posts, my parents and William’s parents were in Dallas last week and it seems everyone thoroughly enjoyed their time here despite the triple digit heat each day and me running the moms all over town.  We made great progress on the wedding plans.  I now have a dress!  I am not sure how many dresses I tried on, but I would say close to 50 at the different bridal shops we visited.  This includes several dresses I tried on just for fun… no serious interest.  I seemed to have disapointed the salespersons at the bridal shops who were waiting for the “wow” factor from me, but despite what people may say… I liked the dress I chose from the beginning.  I had to think about it for a few days just to make sure it was indeed “the dress”, but I am very excited about the decision (Actually… I think my mom was more excited than I was).  My measurements have been taken, the dress is ordered, and I have been asked  by the stylist not to gain or lose any weight between now and September 8, 2006… we will see how that goes.  My thoughts are I will probably lose 10lbs since I am on my fitness kick right now and then gain them back later next year when I find excuses not to work out. 

After 5 cake tastings, we also settled on a bakery for the cakes and I even found a design for the groom’s cake that William gave the thumbs up to (those of you who know William well know this is not an easy task)! 

We are still undecided on a florist, but we have a bit more time to make decisions for that.  The major items are out of the way…bride, groom, ceremony location, reception location, photographer, cake and dress.  With a little bit over a year left, I think we are in good shape.   

I am not sure who won the golf tournament my dad and William’s dad had going each day, but I think there was some fierce competition on the course.  It was good to see the Brown & Cody families come together and it appears there are already plans for another gathering, so that is great news. 

So the planning continues as we approach the 12 month mark.  Make sure you are saving your pennies!  I think everyone will be in for a great celebration next September. 

The Tour

William 3 Comments

While in Dallas our parents toured the construction on the new house. My dad used the video capture mode on his camera to record a brief tour. You can check it out below. My parents flew out today. Kyllan’s Parent leave tomorrow. I’ll let make kyllan post and tell everyone about all of the wedding details they planned this past week.

2 more days to go!

Kyllan 2 Comments

As I mentioned on a previous post, my mom and William’s mom are in town this week and have been accompanying me on the visits to the wedding vendors.  We have seen lots of good vendors so far…. I already have a few dresses I really like (although according to the stylists at the bridal salons, I am not giving them the “wow” factor), we have tasted many wonderful cakes and visited a few florists.  It appears that we will be able to begin making some decisions as early as tomorrow!  I still have several on the list for tomorrow and Friday, but we have made great progress!  So… that’s the update so far.  I will post this weekend to let you know what choices I made.