Category: Family

Another Trip to Haiti

William 4 Comments

You may recall that my father is involved with the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation. Below is a picture of him being carried across a washed out road to get to the Hospital in Fond Des Blancs, Haiti.

“The Haiti trip was my second. I did not know that November is rain season. We got caught in the after affects of tropical storm Noel. pronounced “Noll” It took two days of ground travel to get to the Hospital because of road conditions and flooding. We did 13 cases in 2.5 days. We lost 3 of our surgical days to traveling. The Haitian people were very grateful for our surgical services.” -William, Sr.

Boyfriend/Girlfriend

William 2 Comments

This weekend five years ago Kyllan and I had a very important conversation. I don’t specifically remember how it went, but before we left for my boss’ holiday party we discussed how I would introduce her to my co-workers. This weekend five years ago we decided that we were a couple.

First Holiday Memories

William 1 Comment

Kyllan and I spent our first Thanksgiving together as a married couple. Somehow we went from planning a small dinner together and a quite weekend to a feast for two and a Christmas tree in our den. I think it will be amazing to look back 20 years from now at what are now our first holiday memories. How will things change? What little things will turn into long standing traditions?

Photos from the weekend can be found in my flickr account, Here. (As always, links to our photos can be found in the right-hand toolbar.)



Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday

Kyllan 2 Comments

William and I enjoyed our first holiday together as a married couple. I actually survived preparing the entire Thanksgiving meal and only had some issues with the white sauce for the mac and cheese, but with some assistance from my mom via phone, I finally got it. The entrees included Honeybaked Ham and Smoked Turkey Breast (both purchased from Honeybaked Ham) and side items that were prepared from scratch including sweet potato casserole, macaroni and cheese, green beans, roasted squash and zucchini, sweet potato pie (I even made the crust from scratch!), and crescent rolls (store bought). I enjoyed being in the kitchen cooking for my husband while he watched football, watched a movie, and played on our Nintendo Wii (trying to beat my bowling record). I also made chess squares on Wednesday night, a recipe I got from William’s mom. I wanted William to have something familiar, not to mention that I must have eaten half the pan the first time I had them in Jacksonville when William’s mom made them. Everything turned out great and I think William was happily surprised to find out that his wife actually could cook once she took the time to do it. I even made breakfast both yesterday morning and this morning. We had Belgian waffles prepared with a waffle maker we received as a wedding gift. Today, I made William a pecan Belgian waffle, so I was pretty proud of myself. My sister, Kim, brother-in- law, Rob, and nephew Drew stopped by not too long after we ate and hung out with us for the evening. Drew entertained us with his backflips off the couch and off of Uncle William’s shoulders. He loves to be flipped upside down and never seems to get tired of it.

Today (Black Friday) we hung out and relaxed for most of the morning and then decided to venture out to join the rest of the Black Friday shoppers. We stopped by William’s favorites first (Best Buy and Circuit City), but didn’t see any deals we couldn’t pass up. We then went to NorthPark Center (my favorite mall in Dallas). I ended up buying two sweaters from White House/Black Market (one of my favorite stores), and William bought some Polo Blue aftershave. I actually prefer shopping after Christmas when the real sales begin. We then met up with one of my friends and her husband and saw Fred Claus. It was ok, but I have to agree with Cherie that you would anticipate that it would be funnier than it really was. But, since we didn’t have much to do anyway, we didn’t mind it.  We saw This Christmas on Wednesday, and that was a little bit more entertaining, but still not as good as it probably could have been.

Tomorrow (Saturday) will be another day of relaxing. William is a Florida State fan and they have a big game against the Florida Gators. Go Noles!! (I hope my boss is not reading this… he is a Gator and I may get fired). Wake Forest (my alma mater) has a big game tomorrow also against Vanderbilt. They are already bowl eligible, but they are trying to become only the 5th team in school history to win more than 8 games in a season. Go Deacs!

We took lots of pictures (mainly William took pictures of me cooking as I think he needed to actually have documentation of my cooking) and we will try to download and put those on Flickr tomorrow.

Thanksgiving Plans

William 2 Comments

Kyllan and I will be spending our first major holiday together as a married couple this thanksgiving. We don’t really have any special plans, other than spend time with each other. The two of us will have thanksgiving dinner together Thursday. (After the classes and kitchen items we received as wedding gifts, Kyllan seems to be really excited about cooking.) I think Kyllan wants to do some black Friday shopping.  We will probably go see This Christmas at some point over the weekend. I am still on the fence about Fred Claus. Other than that, I don’t know. What are you guys doing for thanksgiving. Traveling? Any special traditions?

Must Do List

Kyllan 24 Comments

William and I had a nice weekend together in Denver. We saw a couple movies and just enjoyed being together again. It was even better when we realized we would see each other again in 9 days (when William comes to Dallas for Thanksgiving). We began to discuss what we would do the next time we see each other and it led to a discussion of things we would like to do during our lifetimes. We both agreed that traveling was something we definitely want to do more of. A second honeymoon to Turks and Caicos is a must (we would go every year if we could afford it). I also want to explore a few other Caribbean Islands.

So… since we have friends and family members who have done so many interesting things and have taken so many wonderful vacations, we are soliciting feedback on things we should add to our “Must Do” list. Below are a few things we have so far (no particular order and I am probably forgetting some)

1. Second Honeymoon to Turks and Caicos

2. Italy with William’s parents

3. Marathon (William’s must do, but I may join him)

4. Go to the Olympic Games (We are considering London in 2012)

5. Go Skiing (We should probably take advantage of Colorado while William is there)

6. Go to a Broadway Musical (William has been, but I have only been to Off Broadway)

7. Become a Pro Tennis Player on Nintendo Wii (I am a Pro Bowler already!!)

8. Attend a Fight in Vegas (This is another William must do, but we will probably bring the girls and do girls night in Vegas while the guys go to the fight).

9. More vacations, some probably post retirement (Phuket($), Bora Bora ($$), Grand Maldives ($$$), Caribbean, Spain, etc…)

10. Much, much, more….

Help us add to our list. Give us your suggestions!

A Beautiful Occasion

William 7 Comments

I remember sitting next to my friend Jamaal at a basketball game our sophomore year at Xavier as he pointed to a girl across the gym and explained that she was the one from his class that he had been telling me about the past couple of weeks. This past weekend, my parents, Kyllan and I were all in Montego Bay, Jamaica attending the wedding of Jamaal and Maya (the girl from the basketball game). I take full credit for event, seeing as back at Xavier I took it upon myself to harass him until he called her. Having watched their relationship develop during those years in undergrad, it was surreal standing next to them as they exchanged vows. It was an emotional ceremony with few dry eyes and the reception lasted long into the night. It was amazing just being part of their day and great seeing so many old friends. Hopefully I will get some photos up by the middle of the week.

EDIT: Apparently Kyllan and I took over 600 photos over the weekend. Looks like there will be a roll out of photos  through out the week.

Caroline Cody

William

I was unable to make a post this past weekend due to the $14 an hour charge for internet at the resort in the Jamaica. This Saturday would have been my sister’s 30th Birthday. A few days before his wedding, Jamaal asked if the groomsmen could all wear orange ribbons in her memory. Orange was Caroline’s favorite color and, like at our wedding, friends and family often wear the ribbons on special occasions. I don’t have the words to explain how much it means to me that others are helping my family keep my sister’s memory alive.

Please take a few minutes to read the post I made on Caroline’s birthday last year to learn more about what is being done to preserve her memory here.

Comments have been turned off for this post. If you would like to share your thoughts and memories of Caroline, please call or e-mail me or my parents. We would love to hear from you.

Parent’s Visit

William 2 Comments

I had a good time with my parents this past weekend. We saw The Bourne Ultimatum during their visit. It was one of the best action movies I have seen in a long time and I will probably go see it again. I highly recommend it to everyone. We ate at Texas de Brazil Saturday night, which, if you remember, is quickly moving up my list of favorite restaurants. My mother gave me a stack of photos to scan for a slide show, which included a rare photo of me and my dad in his Navy uniform.

Where is this?

The lost 7/7/07 Post

William 9 Comments

I really meant to make a post on 7/7/07. I was going to tell everyone how it had been such a lucky week for the Cody family. For those who missed it, the 2nd was my mother’s last chemo treatment. On the 6th I found out that I passed my qualifying exam at Colorado. For those that don’t know, I transfered from Tulane to Colorado (it’s just easier now that the lab is here). Passing their exam was a condition of the transfer and I was a little nervous about it, considering that I hadn’t taken a course from any of the professors giving it. I had been waiting for about 20 days to hear back from the university. (If you don’t know what the qualifying exam is, you can think of it like boards for a physician or the bar for lawyers).

Kyllan and I saw “knocked up,” “Oceans’ 13” and “Transformers” in the theaters and watched “Music and Lyrics” and “Stomp the Yard” on DVD while was in town. “Knocked up” was hilarious. It’s been a long time since I laughed that hard in a theater. I thought “Oceans’ 13” was just barely just okay, but Kyllan liked it. “Transformers” was a little campy, but I still found it very entertaining. “Music & Lyrics” was formulaic, but not necessarily predictable. For a chic flick, it was pretty good. “Stomp the Yard” was horrible. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 0.5 (p<.001). I would tell you why it is so bad, but it is not worth my time to even type it out. It's back to work this week. I've been having some success in the lab recently. With the new found motivation that has come with knowing the exam is behind me, hopefully I will experience some more. Below is the mandatory photo from our trip. It is a picture of the board game "Scene It," which I beat Kyllan at three times in a row. More photos of the trip are on my flickr, including a couple of my nephew Drew, who told his Aunt KyKy that the two of them had brown thumbs and I had yellow… He later asked me if I was white..

I can't be beaten