In case you care about my house furnishings...

I know you probably don't though. But look at it this way - until I get my dining room furniture, I'm not posting pictures of the house on the blog. So indulge me and I'll get there faster :-)

If you've talked to me about dining room furniture in the past four months or so, you know I'm pretty much obsessed with the Pottery Barn Montego table. Of course, I'm not so much in love with the price. But just for comparison purposes, here's what the table looks like...

I've been looking and looking for a copy cat that I could actually afford. I wanted a rectangular table that seats no less than six people, dark finish, turned wood legs, wooden seat chairs (so the cats don't ruin the upholstery by sleeping on the chairs all the time), and no small vertical slats on the chair backs (super country style).

I've been looking for months and I almost went today and bought a set I'd found, but it didn't fit all my requirements. I got busy this afternoon, though, and didn't make it to the furniture store. I'm glad I didn't. That set would cost nearly $1300 by the time I paid taxes and had it delivered. I looked at thesimplestores.com (where I found the TV stand I have now which I love) one more time and found this great set...

Including six chairs (all chocolate finish, no red ones :-) ) and delivery, this one will cost just over $800. I think I'll take it.

Pictures of the house soon! I promise!

Mom and Dad Came to Visit, Part II

I know my blog seems to be more apologies than posts. I guess all I can do is just try to post more often. So back to the blogging...

I believe I got as far as New Jersey in my trip description. I'll try to hit the highlights of NYC this time around. There was a lot more that we saw but either we drove by and I didn't have time to snap a picture or my computer was about to pass out from too much uploading :-)

I'm pretty sure this sign is a joke. I mean, everybody honks. It's the New York City way of driving.

This is the Dakota Building. It's the apartment building where John Lennon was killed. Yoko Ono still lives on the top floor (the entire top floor).

Don't you just love the attitude in this sign?

And the Empire State Building...

The Brooklyn Bridge...

The Manhattan skyline...

Ellis Island...

The Statue of Liberty...

And Ground Zero...

It was a whirlwind tour of the city and I hope I get to go back and see things a little more slowly. It was a good time though!

A Kiser Wedding

This past weekend, I went to Nathan's cousin's wedding about six hours from here in Butler, PA. Nathan's cousin, Eric, is the closest to our age in either my side of the family or his. Nathan grew up playing video games with Eric and Eric's older brother, Philip, whenever they went to visit grandparents in southern Illinois.

But back to the wedding. It was absolutely gorgeous! Eric and Amanda were married outside a mansion and it was as if they had custom ordered the weather for the day. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to be in the way, but their caterer has a blog and wrote an entry about the wedding. I really really want you to have a look. The thing I most want you to notice is the pink "flowers" in Amanda's bouquet. Eric and Amanda are both working on Ph.D.s in geology, so they have quite an interest in rocks. The flowers are actually stones that form looking like flowers. I don't think you could dream up a more perfect wedding for a couple of geologists :-)


Caterer's link

Mom and Dad Came to Visit, Part I

When Mom and Dad came to visit last month, we did tons of stuff. I can't possibly put it all in one blog post or I'll never finish it. How about I just start at the beginning? Here we go.

On Saturday and Sunday, I just showed Mom and Dad around the Watertown area. Here, I took them to Thompson Park (which I've mentioned in a previous post).

From there, we went out to Sackets Harbor which is right on Lake Ontario, but it started to rain pretty hard so we had to come back to my apartment and just sit around. Booooring.

Monday, we started our trip to NYC. On the way something interesting happened to my car...

Sorry. I was really excited about it. Sometimes I used to wonder if my car would live this long. We have a love-hate relationship. I love it about 20% of the time and hate it about 80% of the time.

Aaaaaaaaaaand here's a new state to add to my list!

But here's my first impression of New Jersey -

It's sort of dingy...

And there are a lot of cockroaches... (the tiny little dots along the refrigerator seal)

I know that's not a completely fair assessment. But it can't be too far off, right? Now that I've got you really interested in our awesome road trip (I mean, there are cockroaches. Who wouldn't be intrigued?), I have to leave you here.

Stay tuned for Part II - The big city!

New York Stars

There is this strange phenomenon with the houses here. I've never seen so many people with the same outdoor decor. People like to put these giant stars on their houses, barns, garages, whatever. I'm trying to think if there is something people liked in the South like this, but my best guess is those gazing balls in the garden. I don't think even they were this popular. I was just out for an afternoon and there were tons of these stars. I kinda liked them at first, but now I've just seen too many. What do you think?

And by the way, I could find dozens more. I just didn't think it was necessary to make the point :)

A Weekend of Fourth of Julys

Maybe it's that American history has some deep roots around here. Maybe it's that the most deployed division in the Army is right up the road. Maybe the locals are just very patriotic. Whatever it is, they did tons of fireworks shows and historical presentations of sorts for several days around Fourth of July. I missed the war reenactments (War of 1812, not Civil War...that's different from the South, right?), but at least I was off work in time for the fireworks shows. I basically googled some photography sites on how to get pictures of them, but some turned out pretty good. Now if only I had a tripod...

I wish you could see these full-sized. The tiny versions just don't show the clarity very well. Not that I'm an amazing photographer - I just picked my very favorite ones out of the dozens and dozens I took and I like 'em :-)

Hello Again

Hello everyone! (All 2 of you that still read my blog :-D ) I've been pretty slow on the blogging lately, I know. Most of the summer has been pretty uneventful but I've got some great stuff coming up in blogs. My parents have come to visit and we've been trying to hit most of the major sites of New York. We've seen New York City and all the local attractions (St. Lawrence river, the Thousand Islands region, Wellesley Island, Fort Drum, etc.), and we're going to Niagara Falls before they leave. I'll be blogging about all of that soon, but for now I just have to share one thing with you...

This picture was taken today (Mom's camera, Mom taking the picture, moving vehicle - sorry for the blur). Please look closely, then tell me what color you think the leaves are...

Red? Yellow? Why, yes, I believe you're right. It is now FALL! Leaves have been falling from the trees since the last couple of days in July. Summer didn't arrive till the 4th of July, and it's already ending. Now, before some of you who have been enduring the heat waves tell me how lucky I am, I just want to explain something. I genuinely feel sorry for you, but please remember what I get after fall happens - lots and lots of snow. And by "lots" I don't mean six inches of snow - I mean six feet of snow. Well, at least six feet is what is considered a "normal" winter here. We never had more than three feet this past winter but everyone goes on and on about how mild a winter we had.

So anyway...I'm a little bummed out.

A Piece of Family History

A lot has happened since my last blog post and I know I'm getting behind. I've got parts of a lot of posts together, but a lot of them aren't ready. In the meantime, I thought I'd share some family history. This won't be any stellar piece of genealogy or accuracy as far as time lines go, but it makes a good story. I think.

First off, this is about my dad's side of the family (so obviously, the Lentzes). His family comes from the Oklahoma/southwest Missouri part of the country, at least the last couple of generations. Many years ago, in the mid 1800s, my grandpa's grandparents moved to Missouri on a wagon train. Yes, in a covered wagon. They stopped with their traveling companions on a small river and founded what is now the town of Stella, Missouri, named for the granddaughter of the first mayor of the town. These early days are depicted in a large mural in the Newton County courthouse.

There were a lot of natives in the area at the time, many of them Cherokee.

Together with the Carter family, the Lentzes opened a general store, the only one in the county at the time.

Being such a tiny community, all the families were important. In addition to the general store, the Lentzes also ran the mill that you can see in the far right of the top picture. Once the town began to modernize, streets were built and named after families that played a role in building the town.

My grandpa's mother's side of the family was also involved with Stella. They were the Cullers family.

Of course, as time moves on, towns begin to age along with their buildings. Many of these pictures were taken in 2006 when I was in Missouri for my grandpa's funeral. At that time, the old general store was a run-down shell of its former self.

I didn't really expect the building to last much longer, but when I was back in Missouri this summer for my grandma's funeral I heard it had been renovated and a restaurant was operating successfully there. I was pleasantly surprised.

Paying homage to the building's origins, old drawings of both the general store and the old Lentz mill are displayed in the dining room.

And do you know what this restaurant is called?

:-)

I feel like things have come full-circle.

Northern Excursion

Yesterday, Sarah, her friend Shannon (who is visiting her this week) and I decided to take a drive up to Alexandria Bay and into the Thousand Islands region. Yes, this is the area where Thousand Island dressing originated. Also, Alexandria Bay is often called "A bay" by the locals, but I just can't stand to call it that. Every time someone says it I hear a Shanikka or Chiquita or someone with a similar name saying "A bay bay". Kinda makes my skin crawl.

But I digress. We drove up to Alexandria Bay and over a bridge to Wellesley Island. From the edge of Wellesley Island you can wave across the St. Lawrence Seaway at Canada. So... we went to the edge of the island and waved at Canada. Even with temperatures in the mid 80s, the breeze along the St. Lawrence was distinctively chilly. The water was a bit on the icy side, too, but that didn't stop plenty of people from swimming and boating.

It was so beautiful; I really regret not taking my camera with me.

I realized once we got there that even though I went to Niagara Falls when I was younger and even went into Canada, that was probably not as far north as Wellesley Island. I checked and, sure enough, I set a new record. Have a look!

I zoomed way out so you could kinda see where the states are. If you zoom in, Wellesley Island is really toeing the border. That reminds me...some Border Patrol officers walked in at a restaurant where Sarah and I were eating the other night. It seems strange for there to be so few Mexicans but so many Border Patrol officers. I think if I were Canadian I'd still try to sneak in though.

Anyway, just thought I'd share!

This is another opinions-needed post :-)

And also, this is probably one more for the ladies, because guys really just don't care about this sort of thing. Usually. That being said, guys, feel free to jump in!

After my last few experiences flying American Airlines where they've made me "valet check" my carry on bag for every flight, I've had it up to my eyeballs. After hours of calling customer service and trying to get some sort of answer about why they keep doing this, the best answer I got was along the lines of "Too bad, just get a duffel bag and not something with wheels and that'll be your best chance to take it on the plane with you."

So now, I'm looking for a good duffel bag. I didn't want to get a Vera Bradley bag just because so many people have them, but they're so much prettier than most duffel bags and sometimes I just want something girlie. Even after looking through a lot of sites for other kinds of duffels, I've narrowed it down to these three:

Large Duffel in Make Me Blush:

Large Duffel in Poppy Fields:

Both of those look better on the Vera Bradley site, but I couldn't get pictures of the bags where you can see the whole things so well. I swiped these from amazon.com.

Or there's this Vera Bradley one that I've loved since it came out last fall. It's just so classic Americana:

So what do you think??? Do you know of any cuter ones somewhere? Please share!

Household 6

Okay, I know being an Army wife doesn't make me an official member of the military. But if you think about it, in many ways (very different ways, but still...) being an Army wife is almost as hard as actually being a soldier. When a soldier deploys, he deploys with his coworkers. His wife may not know anybody at all. His wife doesn't get shot at, but she might have to juggle work, kids, a home and vehicles for two people, bills, and chores all by herself. Without a wife to support him, a soldier might have to put all his belongings in storage during a deployment and just hope that nothing goes wrong.

For all these reasons, soldiers developed an unofficial title for the Army wife - Household 6. In the Army world, a 6 is a commander of something like a platoon, company, or batallion. Since soldiers are often at work long hours or deployed, their wives by default run the household. Household 6, then, is basically the household commander.

So girls, if you ever hear your guy say something to his friends to the effect of his household 6 won't let such-and-such happen, he's talking about you! :-)

Welcome to Watertown!

I've been here nearly six whole months and I have yet to post any pictures of Watertown. I guess that might make it difficult for anybody to see what my new town is like, wouldn't it? Here are some pictures I took back in April on an unusually nice day.

These show the view from Thompson Park, an Olmsted Park built on a hill overlooking the city. Olmsted was the landscape architect who designed Central Park.

This picture is especially interesting. It's at least eight miles from Watertown to Sackets Harbor, the nearest town on Lake Ontario, but that has to be what this body of water is in the distance.

This church is on the public square. It would be more beautiful without all the street signs, but too many main roads converge at the square. For those of you who were at MSU before maybe 2005 (or even earlier???), think 5-points/malfunction junction, only bigger. If you don't know where you're going, you're in big big trouble.

This statue is at the top of a large (maybe 25' across) fountain in the center of the square. The fountain is lit up at night and is really very pretty.

There are two soldiers and a plaque on another large statue in the square.

The plaque reads "Mr. and Mrs. George Cooks Memorial - In grateful memory of the soldiers and sailors of Jefferson County who fought or fell in defense of the Union and the Freedom of Man". You don't see that in the South very much.

Stones are used to build just about everything - bridges, houses, fences, or tunnels.

The Black River is the water for which Watertown is named. The water powered factories and mills that paid to build the whole town. After industry collapsed several decades ago, the town was struggling to survive. Then in the 1980s the 10th Mountain Division of the Army was reactivated and located here at Ft. Drum, and that brought money and people here and the town started revitalization.

I'm debating going around to take pictures of houses in town. I don't want to be the creeper outside who looks like she's casing your house, but there are so many beautiful Victorian houses here I might just have to do it. I hope you enjoyed the brief tour!

~Shellaine~