Oh yeah - one more - in honor of the upcoming holiday, we had a peep show this year! Hee hee! 

Birthday decorating at work! (read from bottom up - I still haven't spent any time trying to figure out how to post two pics at once.)  

And just a touch of Japan for this guy - complete with a bamboo curtain, bonsai and sand tray and even gong! It's fun - a lot of the decorations have been left up. People who visit our department conclude we must have a lot of fun there. It's pretty much true. 

This was one of my favorites - a friendship garden. Very simple, with friendly quotes on paper dolls all over. Great idea from that team! 

This guy is an Oakland fan - both Raiders and A's (even when they have stinky seasons), so he got a schizophrenic cubicle 1/2 As, 1/2 Raiders. 

We have fun at work. Last year, we decorated cubicles for people's birthdays. We had a team chosen each month to pick a theme and decorate. This cubicle belongs to a gal who likes to garden,so she got a spring garden cubicle, complete with flowered arch entrance. 

Little Miss K (trying again, to see if it will stay) 

coming next - the wedding

Well, it's been a while, but we're still basking in the glow of being a complete and full and legal family. I've got a few wedding pictures, which will come soon, but until then, here's the scoop -
The day we adopted K, we jumped into the car and drove down to Santa Monica - about a 5-6 hour drive normally, but the weather sucked as did traffic, and it took us about 8-9 hours to get there. We added one to our family and were about to add another. We were going to my nephew's wedding.
And a beautiful wedding it was... (of course, have you ever been to a wedding that wasn't?) Somehow, the torrential rainfall that happened that weekend down in So. Cal missed us at all the important moments - waiting to get into the church - no rain. From church to reception (3 large deluxe buses took all 300+ guests from hotel to church, then to the USC campus where the reception was held in the "Town & Gown" building), it rained while we were on the bus, but not while we loaded in or got out and walked to the building. There was plenty of evidence it rained hard while we celebrated, but it wasn't raining when we walked to the buses again afterwards. Kind of eerie, but nice for everyone.
My nephew and his bride were beaming and beautiful, and their day suited them perfectly. He was part of the glee club in his days at Notre Dame (which is where the two met, btw), so they came and sang during the mass. Still incredible after all these years! The two of them took some dancing lessons so they wouldn't embarass themselves, and proceeded to entertain the crowd at the reception. It was actually very sweet.
My hope is that when my children find their partners, that my sons and daughters find someone they can cherish as much as J does A and that they are cherished in kind. The extravagant wedding was important to J&A, and was wonderful for them, and for us as well, but the most important thing was not the extravagance, nor the surroundings, nor the rain, rainbows or peeking rays of sunlight, not the multi-course sit down dinner, or the chocolate martinis, but the look in their eyes as they started their life together.
Good luck and many happy years together, my nephew and niece.

Our little miss K. (and now I can actually show her cute little face!)
One of these days, I'll figure out how to have more than one picture in an entry, but hey - I'm still at the point where I think it's pretty cool that I can even post a picture with an entry!
...of course, now that I've said that, my picture has disappeared and my hope is that those picture gremlins who took my pictures last time but gave them back will do it again. If not, hey, there's a teeny one of her with the family that has seemed to survive. It must have something to do with editing the post after the picture is placed, so I'm not touching anything else. C'mon gremlins - give little miss K's face back!

The gotcha bracelet (see adoption entry) 

Adoption pics