John and I just got back from Myrtle Beach. We had a great time. There is something for everyone there. Lots of things to do. We were just hanging out at the beach.

Reunited and it feels so good (to be sung aloud)

Hello All.
First- Happy Belated Birthday Christy. And I'll go ahead and throw in a double whammy and say Happy Belated Birthday Brittany because (even though I reminded myself ten times to call her) I didn't call the Brit-ster to send my love.

Second- Congratulations Linsey. Waking someone from a coma rocks! That's right up there with turning a gay man straight. I've done neither, and therefore I consider my life a waste thus far. So congratulations Linsey- you're done. You can die now.

Third- The family reunion. I don't want to start a fight with this suggestion, but how does everyone feel about just having the Official Braun Family Reunion in Cape Hatteras Labor Day Weekend of 2008? With that much notice, nobody will have an excuse! Plus, we can make lots of plans and invite extended family (like the Faiellos). This year, if we want to get together, we can probably do so for Tony's wedding. They haven't made any plans yet, but there's a possibility they will want to do a small reception. I hope I'm not speaking out of turn here, but I think Erin wants a beach wedding, and we can even use that time to scope out the Avon Cottages and what the beach has to offer. I just don't like the idea of calling it a family reunion when the whole family can't be there.

So how does that sound- Labor Day Weekend 2008- NO EXCUSES?!
Love you all,
Melissa

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTY!!!

We Are FAAM-I-LY! (to be sung aloud)

So now that I've got this blogging thing down (I'm not computer-stupid, it just would NOT work for me for a while there) I will start posting about the family reunion.

From what I've gathered (from the posts and from my mother's gossip) this is what you all think so far/and my responses:
-We don't want to be hit by a hurricane or lose our money being evacuated.
--This is a logical concern and a good point. What if we did the reunion closer to late May/Early June when school is first out. The prices are the same until July 1st. The only pitfall is that we lose the Holiday Weekend, but perhaps that's not a problem?

-We don't want to wait a WHOLE year and a half.
--Be patient young grasshoppers. But, keep in mind that if we move things to June, we've solved the problem?

-Nancy needs lots of extra notice & doesn't know when Labor Day is AND she's lived over in Wales for just one year and she's begun spelling things funny (I quote "Labour").
--It would not be a Family Reunion without The Caltabianos, and so we can probably work around that. Just let us know how you feel about the new date range suggested and what dates/times work for you all.

-We like the idea of Cape Hatteras?
--My pitch: It's an in between since we're now scattered all over the world. The beaches are beautiful, and the houses are HUGE- which helps when you're looking at housing the BIG (yet beautiful) Braun Family. The Avon Cottages will let us spread out a little, but stay close together. They're reasonably priced (I think we'll be able to do housing for up to one week for about $100 each!) and they are RIGHT on the beach.

-You'd like to know more?
--Nearby is Ocracoke Island which the famous pirate Blackbeard was killed on. They have ferries running there, and it's supposed to be a fun place to visit. Lots of history there and the people still speak with an Old English Accent (Nancy can translate). I figure that would be a fun day trip for the kids & adults. Also, I encourage everyone to look into Geocaching- which I think would be a fun team game for us to do. Check out www.geocaching.com. I'm addicted... to the idea (I haven't actually done it yet). But I'm pretty sure we could have a good time with it. AND there is a small town where we can do shopping. With all the decks and the large living spaces, we'll be able to gather nightly. And don't forget the Beach!

So that's all. As soon as we settle on a date, we can start this thing for real (presuming my sales pitch of Cape Hatteras was convincing).
Love you all!

Carl in Iraq

Carl and his Navy buddies doing the work that the Army should be doing.

Family Reunion

What do you all think of Cape Hatteras in the Outer Banks for a reunion?
What do you think of next Labor Day?
Here is a link to some cottages there http://www.avoncottages.com/
Melissa is looking forward to responses

Tony's getting out of the NAVY July 1st!!

I am so excited! Tony will be flying in to Seattle tomorrow night. He and Erin will be moving to Georgia in another week or so. Yeah!

And She's Off!

A Braun Family Gathering

We had so much fun!

Rick surprised us
Kathy was surprised

Charlie surprised Barb & Gerry and came home for the weekend.

NEW CAR!!!!

THIS IS THE NEW CAR! I miss the cavalier, and it was a great car to me, but when you graduate college eventually it's okay to make your first big purchase. It is a really snazzy car and I love it. Isn't it fabulous?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR RICKY AND MARYELLEN, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!

Here's a laugh your butt off moment

Christmas 2005! It was an awesome year!

This is not a close up, but this is my Indigo Bunting. The damned Tufted Titmouse will not let me get a picture of him. He is too fast.

Health & Fitness

I keep reading that everyone is doing something to live a healthier life style. GOOD JOB EVERYONE. Linda is walking daily, Mary has joined a gym, Nancy is working out, and Kathy has bought an exercise ball to start working out. And I have gained back nearly 10 pounds of what I had worked so hard at losing last year. So lets motivate each other by letting everyone know what we have done GOOD as well as what we have done BAD (like eat a 1/2 box of cookies at a time) so that we can help each other out. We can also share any tricks that are working for us. They were Snack Well cookies by the way. I am going to get back on track today, no more low-fat frozen yogurt, if I am going to eat cookies it will be a serving size not 3 or 4, and I am going to do some sort of exercise. Signing off to go put in 2 miles on the tread mill. So everyone what are you doing today?

This is Linsey's graduation announcement!
Linsey graduated the end of May and is looking forward to starting a local college this fall.
I actually posted this picture right after graduation night but sent it out into cyber-space somewhere. I had to get the courage to call Barb to admit to stupidity AGAIN to get this to work.
I just got back from St. Louis (work related) and had a fantastic time. I really liked it there. Things are going good. Have a second date with a guy named Pete tomorrow. He's O.K.
Linsey started at a new day care center yesterday. She likes working with the little two year olds. her friend Erin is going to start working there as well, next week. Thats all I got!!!

The Georgia Aquarium

We went to the Georgia Aquarium today. Christy and Leeman brought Leeman's two nephews. They made our day.

?????????????????

I don't know why the birds won't come to my sanctuary.

INTENSE

That was Hank's only word to describe his eight laps at Daytona!! He now has a new found respect for those drivers. He actually felt light headed in the first turn of the first lap from the G-forces. It says it looks like there is only room for one car going into the the turns, but we all know they go three and four abreast. He also thought he was to close to his instructor, but the pictures say it all. Oh, and so does the flagman who was waving the flag and telling him to pick up the speed. That was only his first lap, then he stood on it and went as fast as they would allow him to go. He averaged 145!! He thought he was going faster, but you are not allowed to pass your instructor. He wants to do it again when Carl gets home. I'm thinking Carl, Brian and Hank can do it for their Birthday, since they all have Birthday's at the end of the year. Oh, and I got o be a drivers wife for about four hours!! Although no one asked us for our autographs.. I was a little disappointed.
However, the night before we had dinner with Monique. She brought some old photo albums, and all I can say is WOW!! I can't believe we ever looked like that. I had some ridiculous long hair that I was wearing in pigtails (like Suzanne Summers) and I had that same hair in several pictures. What was that!! Anyway, Monique looks the same.
Love you all

Working

So, I thought about writing this elaborate entry using words that nobody would understand to show how wonderfully I can write, but I've decided against that since it is late and I've been working. I will say that I knew Lori was my favorite aunt!!! Thanks for taking my back too Grandma. For the rest of you, you SUCK!!! Of course I'm kidding. I'm glad all of you are reading about my not so interesting life, but nobody else is posting anymore. Shame on all of you. It is certainly okay for you to post and not just comment.

Anyway, I've started work and it's been great so far. The cast at the Roaring Fork is great. Shelby (19), Michael(27), Stacey (?) and Dennis(?) are all finishing their college program and have enjoyed it. Shelby is even going full time when her program ends friday. Keysha(19) is a culinary student but is working with us for now. She's been with Disney for 3 years and her father is a chef at a restaurant in the Wilderness Lodge. Bolivia is from the Dominican Republic and she cracks me up. Josue doesn't speak English, so he's lots of fun. We were closing tonight and he was supposed to be training me on how to close. He would just point to things and I would have to figure it out. It was a lot of fun and it certainly keeps you awake at midnight. My manager this week (we have 3) is Johnney and he is awesome. He's provided my dinner the last two nights and has been very welcoming. The area manager, Nancy, has also been very nice. Everyone else seems to be scared of her, so I'll continue to have my little chats with her everyday when I come in to make sure I stay on her good side. I work the rest of the week 3:30-12 and then work mornings next week. Things are going well and people are starting to invite me out, so I'm making friends. Congratulations me. haha. Everytime Keysha smiles at work it reminds me of Melissa, which keeps the family at the forefront of my thoughts. Love you all and can't wait to start seeing some of you.

P.S. - Lori, I'm checking into whether or not I have a discount at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and if I can apply that to your room while you guys are here. I'll get back to you on that soon.

so lost

This city makes me feel retarded. I can't go anywhere without getting lost. I thought Georgia was bad with having several names for each road, but orlando far exceeds anything i've seen back home. AND every road is a toll road, so if you make one wrong turn, IT'LL COST YOU to get home. My friend adam came to town for a convention, so i got him to go to lunch. Most definitely got lost on the drive home and ended up on a toll road to the airport. Then the lady at the toll plaza told me the only way to get where i needed to go was to make a u-turn and come back through the plaza onto the main road. I said "you want me to pay the toll twice b/c i'm stupid?" She said yes and i did. She was a LIAR. i looked at the map later and she was just being hateful. So i will never take that toll road again. except of course tommorrow when we go to the airport to pick up gannon. Haha. I also got lost going to the university for training classes. the backstage area at disney is confusing. why they can't make that look as nice as what all the guest get to see is mind-boggling to me. the nice colorful signs are so helpful coming in the main entrance. good luck backstage where everything criss-crosses and the lines on the roads are fading and the new lines are fading too, so you're not sure which way you should be going. oh, did i mention they are doing construction too, so they have cones everywhere, but i'm not sure that cast members who have been here 15 years care about these new lines or cones, they just GO. needless to say, i was 5 minutes late for my training basics class. i had 5 classes yesterday. nothing more exciting than learning about how to properly clean dishes. so much of the class didn't apply to me, but i guess when it's all over i'll be a cast member at Disney and that always puts a smile on my face. When security can't stop you b/c you have your cast nametag on, you think you are unstoppable. until orange county police pull you over. haha. that hasn't happened to me yet, but it's fun to laugh at the other cast members who drive too fast at night to get home. this i do not understand b/c they are just hurrying up to turn around and come back to Pleasure Island. these kids are just crazy.

well i just felt like ranting on about really nothing. the next update should be exciting b/c i'll actually have worked a day and finally have a schedule. oh, don't worry, i've found my route to work so i won't be late or confused. good job charlie! love you all.

The Happiest Celebration On Earth

I haven't updated in a while, but life has been hectic with packing and moving. I took a short trip to Destin before departing for Orlando. Destin was absolutely beautiful. We stayed in the seacreast beach community. the house was amazing and the weather was perfect for the beach and the pool (picture below right).
I came to orlando a few days early to stay with my friends gannon and courtney (above left-during spring break this year at Animal Kingdom with the new ride Everest, which is amazine, and the Tree of Life behind us). they've taken care of me and prepared me for the experience. they both finished the program in january. they loved it so much that they did management internships and looking to get full time status positions this summer.

I officially registered with the College Program yesterday and filled out my I-9 today. I take a 6 hour traditions class tommorrow and have a day of training on saturday. Sunday is a day off and I officially start as a cast member of the Walt Disney Company. I will be working in The Wilderness Lodge Resort as a quick service food/beverage cast member of the Roaring Fork. I don't know what i'll be doing exactly because I haven't started, but I will update. I got to watch the "wishes" fireworks display over the Magic Kingdom last night from the contemporary resort as well as visit the VP suite of the wilderness lodge (gannon and courtney allow me to do fun things b/c they are in management). I will have to post some pictures soon too.

I live in a 4 bedroom/2 bath apartment with 8 men. How nuts is that? Chris is italian, kelvin is large black man, alex is from the USSR (and really really loud), "C" is from nigeria, gregg is a short little white man from philly, jeff looks 35 but just turned 21, robert is my immediate roommate and is from just outside denver, colorado. It should be quite the experience here for 7 months.

As far as getting people into parks and such. They've very much so limited the number of times we can go in the theme parks ourselves and with family/friends. We do however get 40-60 percent off some resorts (i'll post that list when i get it).

Mary's Bird Sanctuary

This is what I have been busy with the past two weeks. John and I have been digging up the back yard because I wanted a bird sanctuary. I know it looks a little sparse, but once these plants fill out and the bulbs come up, I think this will look beautiful. We still have to place two bird houses and a butterfly house. I also saw another hummingbird feeder that I think I might have to have. We have lots of plants to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Our next project is going to be beehives. And I want to do some bat homes in the woods of course.

More of Melissa and Stephen's Wedding

I met the photographers today to pick up Melissa & Stephen's pictures. They are fabulous! I told them I didn't know if they noticed, but our family has a few hams. They were surprised. They said they didn't notice.

Susan's Baby

My friend Susan had her baby. She is only 4lbs 6oz. (The baby, not my friend) She was supposed to come home from the hospital Monday, but she has jaundice and dropped to 3lbs 14 oz. Now she is supposed to come home in 2 more days.

Take your children to work day!!

Guess who?? Isn't he brave. However, he doesn't realy want to be an Electrician, he wants to be a Zookeeper!! He just wanted the day off of school. He did say that Grampa works hard. I don't know if I believe that one, they started work at 7:00, was on break at 8:30, lunch at 11:30 and break at 1:00. I wish I had that schedule..He was exhaused when I picked him up to take him home. Getting up at 4:30 wasn't his cup of tea.

I think -I- am the Family's Greatest Asset!

I have figured all of this out on my own!! hahahahahaha, Finally!!

Prom

This is Linsey and her best friend Erin getting ready for the prom. Barbara, another friend is in the backgroudl Neil took Barbara to his prom. I know you all are thinking, ENOUGH, of the prom pictures but Aunt Barb just took two days out of her busy life to talk me through this blogging thing and I kind of felt obligated to at least show off for her efforts. Thank you Barb. I really hate being so thick headed about the computer.
I went to the doctors today. I get an EGD or something like that on May 17th. I get a TV scope down my throat to check for hyennas.
And yes I know what I spelled, I just don't know the name of what their looking for but it sounds like hyennas.

Easter Sunday

I tried to write this yesterday, but somehow I started my own blog, which Barb helped me delete today. Anyway, just wanted to see how everyone's easter was. Ours was great. We went to church then met at Lori's for brunch and a food fest for the rest of the day. We talked about everyone that wasn't there, oop!!!! Not really, we actually just talked about ourselves. Imagine how interesting that was!! I did find out that when Carl and Brian were in high school, they were following the bus to school one day and all their friends were on the bus shooting them birds. So Brian decided to moon them, bare ass tight agaist the windshield and he broke Carl's windshield. He said Carl was so mad at him. From that day on, his friend's called him 'HARD ASS"!!! Of course Rob got the best of Mom. He kept talking to her (which is unusual in itself) until he found a subject that he kew was bothering her. He asked if Tommy had any kids and then what were their names. When Mom said Siobahn, he asked if that was a black person's name.. Of course Mom said no, it was Irish. Rob kept bringing this up all day long and even went in on the internet and looked up "Black History" to see how many Siobahn's there were. And there were quite a few. By the end of the day, Mom had her arms folded across her chest and kept saying, Rob "It really doesn't matter". However, not ten minutes after Mom got home, she called me and Lori to tell us she had looked up the name Siobahn and it was the Irish name of Joan. As she said, "not that it mattered" but she just wanted us to know. Anyway, the day was beautiful, not to hot, just perfect. I was wishing you all were here. (not really, I would rather be there).
The week before Easter, I went to see a nutrition specialist. They put me on a 1200 calorie a day diet. Ya know what 1200 calories a day will get ya! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! I just pretend I'm on survivor and I don't win the million bucks. I had to go buy diet pills to get me thru the day. Otherwise, I swaer I was gonna die of starvation..They should arrest that dam woman, at leat take her license away. And then she weighed me. I know her scale was wrong. You would think with the amount of money I paid her, she could at least get a scale that worked.
I started walking too. Around here you really have to be careful. These old bastards would just as soon run over you, then stop for you. They're just a bunch of grumpy old people. I stopped because I could see a UPS truck had his blinker on, so I'm waiting and waiting and waiting and I finally see the driver's big white pearly teeth. If it weren't for them, I would probably still be standing there. He had his arm out the open door trying to wave me by, but the problem is that it is a brown truck, with a brown uniform and a brown driver. His arm just blended in with the truck. Thank god he lived in Fl and had teeth, if he lived in Dalonega, he would have no teeth and we would have had a standoff.
I suppose since this is my first post, I should make it short. Lindsey looked beautiful for her prom and Neil looked pretty HEALTHY here on Easter Sunday. He is not missing to many meals. Hell I thought we would have ham left over for three days, but after Neil got there, I was only able to bring home the bone for pea soup..I love pea soup, but that's probably to many calories for me to eat anyway...
Love and miss you all.....

Linsey Goes to the Prom

Just thought I would share this picture of Linsey ready to go to the Prom. Is she beautiful or wht?

Thankful

I just visited little Rachel's care page. She is absolutely beautiful. It is so sad that she is going thru so much and is just so little. I can't even imagine what Liz is going thru. God some how gives you strength when you need it most. I am so thankful for all I have, a beautiful family, great extended family, nice house, I could go on and on. I really have never had to go thru anything that would really test my strength and faith and I am thankful for that. I just wanted to say how thankful I am for all I have. My thoughts and prayers are with Liz and her loved ones during this challenging time.

By the way you can click on the title "Thankful" and it will take you to Rachel's care page login.

Soup and Fish for Dinner

Okay everyone. Enough of the nicities. John said he was going to cook dinner Friday night. I naturally said okay. After all I wanted to be sure John had an opportunity to do something nice. Well, he calls to tell me what's for dinner. He decided to make Broccoli Cheese Soup, never mind it was 80 degrees out. Then he tells me he bought beer battered fish. I asked what we were having with the fish and he says, "soup." I don't know about the rest of you, but soup and fish do not a dinner make. This kind act of John's has turned into torture. I tried, in vain, to explain to John that fish and soup just don't go. You can have just soup or you can have soup with dinner, but the dinner must be more than fish. He doesn't understand which really annoys me. What the hell was he thinking? I couldn't even talk to him because he just sounded stupid. This has been bothering me for two days. Am I nuts or is John? If you think it is me, do not respond.

Doing Something Nice

Here is a picture of the Arbor all decorated. Just thought it would be nice to have a picture with the post.
For those of you who have not been on Nancy's Blog, she and Hayle have started something. It is do something nice for someone. And you have to do something nice everyday. I wish I could do something nice for me, but they aren't buying that. I like to be kind to myself. Well, everyone needs to get going and report so we can hear all the good deeds. I look forward to hearing from everyone.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLIE

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Charlieeeeeeeee,
Happy Birthday to you.

Hope you have a fabulous day.
Love, Mom xxxxooooo

Word From Tony

Hey everyone. Tony emailed me and told me the NAVY blocked his blog. He will not be able to post until he gets home. If you have his email, email him. I have an idea, why don't I just give it to you all. anthony.hussain@CVW2.navy.mil