For My Sister

Here are a few of my favorite photos that I have collected from people.

Enjoy!

How to create and Diffuse a Mary Moment

How to Create a Mary Moment

1. Wedding less than 3 months away

2. Buy a house

3. Pack a house

4. Fiancee leaving for Bachelor party weekend of big move

5. new house left a mess by old owners

6. Groomsmen still have pants at the store

7. House on market...not one call :(

8. Best man = Realtor

How to Diffuse a Mary Moment

1. Hire 6 big men to move Mary out of house while B is partying with 17 of his friends

2. Hire a team of cleaning professionals to clean the house before the movers arrive on Friday

3. Be very quiet while Mary is sleeping

4. Bring Mary's mother up to keep nerves to a minimum

5. Get Internet!

6. Have a mojito waiting

hmmmm. Barret you are a quick learner!

All about me...and a little about Barret!

This weekend was so much fun! First we put the house on the market! Whooo Hooo...say a little prayer please. Then Anne, Brian and Bert arrived for a crazy weekend of wedding fun. I have to admit I have never been a great fan of bridal showers, but I had so so so much fun at mine. It could have been that it looked like Christmas at Mount Airy when I walked in the room, but I really think it was because of great friends and family all together for 2 hours! Pam and Melissa outdid themselves. There was great food, a beautiful cake that Melissa's sister-in-law made and some fun non cheesy bridal shower games. I really have never laughed so hard in my life! Then it was home again to unload all the beautiful & wonderful gifts (thank you everyone), a quick nap and then we were out again! Caroline, Hobert, Gibson and Burlee hosted an evening of fun! Again the food was wonderful, the mojitos were delicious, the keg was kicked (sign of a good time) and again family and friends were there to share! Barret and I are so lucky to have such great friends and family who support and love us! Only 53 more days until the BIG day!!!

Musical Chairs-ghetto style

On Saturday I cleaned for 8 hours straight. This might sound not abnormal to some people, but it is very abnormal for me. I was nauseous with the smell of bleach by the end of the day. Our house is going on the market on Thursday and everything has to be in tip top shape. The windows are clear, the kitchen is now yellow, the toilet has a new seat...man someone is going to walk into the house and really dig it. But thank god it was not on the market this week with visitors on Saturday afternoon. What seemed at first like a great kids birthday party across the street took an interesting twist. I drove to go and get the painters and myself some lunch and in the alley was a huge blowup water slide where kids were having a blast! There was ribbons and balloons and pin the tale on the donkey all over the neighbors yard with kids running everywhere. What a great city birthday party. Barret and I started to work in the yard a little bit and started hearing some music coming from the party. A little Shaggy with Mr. Boombastic...nothing crazy. Then we heard one of the worst songs either one of us had ever heard full of the N word, the B word, the F word...you name it word and it was in there. But something was wrong with the CD...it kept playing and then would turn off and then play again and turn off. About the third time we realized there was giggles and screaming when the music was turned off...they were playing musical chairs. I mean I wish you could have heard this song...it was different. Both Barret and I were very glad no one was looking though our house at that moment...but there is always this weekend!

Cupcakes...yum!

Dear T2,

I hope you had a wonderful birthday party yesterday! I loved being there with you and getting to play with all your toys and write special notes on your chalkboard! I know you really loved your cupcakes, finger paints and new tractor that godfather peter brought for you! You have a very exciting year with a new brother on the way in 6 weeks! You are going to be a great big brother because you are possibly the sweetest child I have ever met. I never get tired of your sloppy kisses and huge hugs. You are a love my dear. I am so lucky to have you AND Becca in the wedding. I love you both dearly. I am glad you are back in VA and I miss you! Fins! Noggin!

Love you,

Aunt Mary

No Jones or Smith

So it occurred to me that in 88 days not only will I be a wife, have a husband and in-laws, but I will also have a new last name. Don't get me wrong I didn't just think about it...I have been practicing my new signature but I just really started to think think about it. It kind of reminds me of when someone asks you how old you are and you just had a birthday. You say I am 25 but really you are 26, but for the past year you have been saying 25. Except I have had my last name for 26 years...not just one. And then all of the sudden poof you say a few words you are blessed and you have a new last name. I imagine it takes some time before you remember each time what your new last name is. Not only am I getting a new last name I am getting a new complicated last name. Emery has treated me fine...I usually have to spell it because people want to write down EmOry or for some reason they think I have said my name is Mary Emily. But that is nothing compared to what is coming. Leipertz. So now we are going to have a spelling and pronuciation lesson, because if you are my family and friends you should know how to spell and say it because you are going to get asked Leipawhat too. So spelling is a little tricky. It doesn't follow the "i before e except after c" little diddy we were taught in kindergarten. Nope...it switches on you and is LEI. But is pronounced LIE. Then the next slip is that everyone wants to put an 's' on the end...but it is a 'z'....but again it sounds like 's'. So L-E-I-P-E-R-T-Z. So we got the LEI sounds like LIE and the PERTZ that sounds like HERTZ with a P. So if you remember LIEHERTZ...you can remember to pronounce it LEIPERTZ! Jones or Smith would have just been to simple. Oh and as a side note...Barret has two r's and 1 t.

That's one big tree

The other weekend I was home doing wedding things and mom took me to this tree. For those of you familiar with home, you know where the oyster field is? As you come down millpond rd and at the stop sign to the right? That is where this is...Can you believe it? See me in the bottom left corner??? This thing is huge! Strange Spring here in Virginia.

RC Cola and a Moonpie

Well little Pie is all married up and has a new last name. Along with Anna, Pie took her vows to Chuck while I cried like a baby in the background. Really I started crying walking down the aisle. I am not sure why...I had been with pie for an hour and a half before hand and not even a lump in the throat. When I started walking down the aisle the waterworks came, then thru the whole ceremony and back up the aisle...then I was fine. Very strange. I make fun of bridesmaids like that. Won't do that again. Anyway here are some wonderful pictures of the most beautiful wedding!

Blue Lights

If you know me, you know you don't want to wake me up. Once I get up, get a shower and some food in my belly I am good to go. But I am not a nice person to wake. I think my neighbor may have found that out the hard way last night. My neighbor is very nice and would probably give me a cup of sugar if I needed it...but we have a few differences, the major one being that he is Muslim. I remind myself that differences are what makes the world go around and that what a boring world it would be if everyone was all the same...but sometimes I just don't get it. I hated him for the first 2 years because he would not talk to me. He would chat all day with Barret, but nope, he would never even mutter a hello to me. That drives me crazy. At least say hello. Then I am not sure what changed but I just started yelling hello to him and making a big scene that he finally starting talking to me. He is very educated and well travelled. Everything was going well...I thought. I had been helping my friend at animal control catch some feral pit bulls that were running in our neighborhood. My phone rings and my friend asks me to please stay inside. All of the sudden there are cops and animal control officers in the back alley. Wow they must have really caught some dogs I am thinking, then I see they are in my neighbors yard with a trailer full of goats. We live in the middle of the city. My friend says she had kicked the goats out of the city the night before in a different part of town and never expected them to end up next door. Goats leave...goats come back after animal patrol had finished circling...goats are slaughtered outside my window...mary is screaming...barret is offered goat meat in the morning. God bless those goats. I haven't seen any goats lately, but then my neighbor got chickens and ducks that he kept in a crate without cleaning the poop out and we had attack of the flies last summer. He also got a dog...a beautiful black lab...that he would not neuter and let out in his yard with no fence and wondered why it ran off and never came back. Okay so last night at maybe about 1am I am awoken to a dog barking. I listen downstairs and it is not Abbey. I think maybe it is the guy down the street's dog...nope. Then I see it...my neighbor's new black lab is tied up to their new garage barking its head off. I cannot stand to see a dog tied up...I think it is the saddest thing ever...but when they start barking it drives me crazy. So I am thinking well if this was me and it was Abbey out there barking I would get her in as quick as I could so I didn't wake the entire neighborhood up. At 3am I pretty much figured he didn't care. I was livid, stomping around the room. I told Barret we have 3 choices...#1 I walk over to his house right now after I have been awake for 2 hours listening to his dog bark and probably take his head off...#2 You walk next door and explain how you are not going to live to see the morning if that dog does not stop barking...or #3 I call the cops. Fifteen minutes later we see blue lights and hear no more dog barking. Should be interesting talking to him next time.

I just don't get it...

I heart Peeps

A Note From Abbey

Dear 4 legged and 2 legged friends-

My mom and I are hoping that you will help us raise money for our walk or walk with us! This year the Richmond Animal League is putting on Woofstock...which is a day full of music, vendors, food and drinks! You and your owner can come! Before the music starts there is a 1 1/2 mile fundraising walk. Do you want to walk with us???? We would love it. I have a pack and if you are interested in joining the pack let Mary know and she can set you up. I know I have a lot of friends who live in other places like California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, other parts of Virginia...just to name a few who might not be able to walk with us, but you can help us by making a donation! Click here to make a donation We would really love to help those dogs and cats that don't have a home like some of us more lucky ones do. If you have any questions let us know!

xoxo

Abbey (& Mary)

P.S. if you are looking for a new pet check out www.ral.org

Moving On Up

Silly me, I forgot to tell you all yesterday that I bought a house. It is shown above. Isn't it fabulous? Let me tell you all about it because it really was a steal at only 14 million! This place is insane...here is what is written on the web site "There are 3 apts over garage, mostly level land w/in 5-10 min. of I-64 and Short Pump. Rooms on first floor: Grand Entry Hall w/ spiral staircase, open and light conservatory, Tea Room, Dining Room with plaster barrel ceiling and easy access to the adjoining kitchen, wood paneled Library with spiral staircases and iron balustrades to built-in bookcases along the walls above, Trophy Rm with grand fireplace mantel and buffalo hide walls with nail head trim, Bar along galley hallway provides excellent location for entertaining guests. The Kitchen is thoroughly modern with the best in appliances, high ceilings and Travertine countertops and is adjoined by the Family Great Rm. Second Floor: Spacious Master suite encompasses one wing of the second and third floors, there are 8 additional bedroom suites each w/ private full baths,, including a child's suite on the north end of the home with two story ceiling and game loft above. Each room has been finished in the standard found throughout the home and are comfortable spaces providing room to relax, read or sleep. The Third Floor master suite dressing areas, both his and hers, are attached to individual offices and exercise rooms. This floor is complete with a Tanning salon and beauty parlor. The Terrace Level is accessed off the main entry via dual staircases that allow you to take in the vastness and enormity of the room. Everything in this room was planned on a grand scale, including the mantelpiece which began as the entryway to a building in and was finished by local craftsmen to become the focal point of the 30 x 60 Ballroom. Adjoining the ballroom are private men's and ladies lounges and a hallway documenting the evolution of Dover Hall. The Tap Room adjoins the ballroom and provides a more casual atmosphere for relaxing or visiting with friends. The wine Cellar is also on this floor and may be accessed from above by the spiral stairs ascending to all four floors of Dover Hall. Unique limestone treads lead up from the basement to the main entry. The opposite end of the terrace level provides further storage, a caterer's kitchen done in the Old English country house style and a LG Utiliy Room. There is also access to additional storage and the area where the geothermal system is housed. Facade of Brick is wavy as is typical in old world construction giving the appearance of older home. Slate on roof is high quality Buckingham slate and includes snow guards. Spiral staircase off foyer runs all 4 levels with unique chandeliers traversing all four floors. NOTE: Adjoining parcel of 8+ acres w/ 3 BR brick residence and 14 stall stable/barn, outdoor riding arena, indoor arena and several fenced paddocks may also be available."

Really...how crazy is that. Let me know when you want to visit!

It's not easy going green

I am a really big fan of the trend to go green. It is really hard though. I find myself stuffing the washing machine to the fullest so that I get the most out of the water that I am going to just drain. If I am not in the room, I turn off the light and any other electric devices. I turn my computer off every day and try my hardest to remember to turn off the moniter too. I use cloth towels instead of 30 paper towels. I keep meaning to buy some of those bags for groceries (although I don't grocery shop much...good old Barret). However we do recycle the bags that we get from the grocery store for trash liners in our wastebasket and dog poop pickerupers. I try and carpool if possible. Barret and I will use my car if we are going somewhere together because it uses much less gas then the moster truck. I recycle all the paper at work. But yet I still think I am leaving a nice carbon footprint :( I have to say that what I am really impressed in, and again because I think this is happening because it is a trend, are big companies trying to go green. Right now I think that people will choose one company over another if one is green. I think Obama could win as President if he said the White House was going green. I would vote for that. But I have to tell you that there is one company that really stands out in my mind. I have no idea if they have just won me over, because I haven't done a ton of research on them, but I LOVE their commericals. I don't claim to be a commerical expert, but I generally give each commerical on TV a rating, a comment or the worst, a channel switch. Great commericals capture me and make me want to buy and believe in the campaign. OK commericals I watch but don't really remember what they are selling within 1 minute of it being over...and channel switchers...well imagine Big Roy shouting at you on the TV to come on down and test drive the Big Ass Truck for one day only. Those are the ones that I cannot stand. If you don't have a budget to make a commerical...don't make it. Anyway I have completely gotten off track...my favorite commericals are the ones for GE. My love for them started with the elephant dancing in the rainforest. It was a couple of years ago, but I still remember it because it was different, and green before green was cool. Recently (during the Westminster dog show- GO BEAGLES!) I saw another one by them. There was this house with sunpanels and you could tell it was an enviornmentally friendly house. There was a tree who uprooted itself and at first I thought it was going to bash the house in for taking its sun...but instead it hugs the house and the man leaning against the fence says..."househugger". Brilliant! It was simple and to the point and I look for that commerical everytime I have the TV on. You can watch it on GE's website
Those are your thoughts from me today!

Big Rock

I am not the only girl in the house to get a rock!

Barret gave one to Abbey too!

Well we are back safe and sound from our trip to the Dominican Republic. It just wouldn't be a Mary trip without some sort of confusion. Basically we woke up, drove to the airport in Richmond because the shuttle forgot to pick us up, checked in, flew to Charlotte, flew to Punta Cana, and took a crazy shuttle ride to the resort. We were greeted with halfway naked ladies and glasses of some passion fruit mixture and surrounded by people already in their bathing suits. Life seemed good...until the man in half Spanish half English told me the reservations had been cancelled. I felt the Emery mercury rising and really close to boiling and I hear Barret in the background say "hmpf. Mary calm down, it is not his fault." This is before I say much of anything...I would say that boy knows me well...because I was getting ready to explode. So i bit my lip for a second and the man said you can call your travel agent. I said, OK where are the phones? He points to the left and says it is $20 just to pick it up and $7 a minute. I could have reached across the desk and strangled him. But I didn't. Luckily Burlee's cell phone worked and after talking to the travel agent and letting them know we would be sending the cell phone bill to them and that I was in a third world country with no where to stay we were finally upgraded to a suite! See that Emery Mercury works sometimes. Other than that things were great. We didn't do much of anything...ate, laid on the beach, ate, laid by the pool, ate, drink, bed. It was nice and relaxing.

ho ho ho and a bottle of rum...see you in a week!

Santa's stressed out as the holiday season draws near
He's been doing the same job now going on two thousand years
He's got pains in his brain and chimney scars cover his buns
He hates to admit it, but Christmas is more work than fun
He needs a vacation from bad decorations and snow
Mr. Claus has escape plans, a secret that only he knows
Beaches and palm trees appear night and day in his dreams
A break from his wife, his half frozen life the elves and that damn reindeer team
Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of rhum Santa's run off to the Caribbean
He thinks about boat drinks and fun in the sun
Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of rhum
Plastic creations and crass exploitations aren't good
He wants to go back to simple toys made out of wood
Just for the weekend he'd like to be Peter Pan
Get out his long johns and dance with a sword in the sand
Chorus: Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of rhum Santa's run off to the Caribbean
Marimbas, calimbas, he's playing steel drums
Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of rhum
Chorus: Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of rhum Santa's run off to the Caribbean
Marimbas, calimbas, he's playing steel drums
Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of rhum
Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of rhum
Santa's run off to the Caribbean
A week in the tropics and he'll be all right Sporting a tan as he rides out of sight
Merry Christmas to all, and to all... good night