The Walker Blog

What A Weekend!

Posted by Steve and Cat Walker | Earth Day, meeting up with friends | 11:00 AM

We had a fantastic weekend!

It started with Friday, and Cathy had her last day of school before her track out. She had to move out of her classroom this time, so the room was totally empty. She showed a movie to her kids (Babe) and they loved it! Most of them had never seen the movie (it's older than they are), but they liked it so much that they clapped at the end of the movie (always a great sign of enjoyment). One her her parents brought in movie theater popcorn for everyone and then another parent sent in bottled water and flavored waters for everyone to enjoy.

After her movie, they had their "Fun Run" and the whole school participated. The kids just ran around the track and they set up an off-track course as well. They ran the course twice and then when they crossed the finish line, they had bottled water, fruit and some crackers.

Her class had their lunch and then recess and then they had their "Track Out Ceremony." Each teacher selects some students to get awards. There are awards for math, language arts, technology, best effort, responsibility, music, art, P.E., and Spanish. The parents come to watch their child get their award and then everyone celebrates.

When her class came back to her room, it was time for their guest speaker to arrive. This year, she's tracked out during Earth Day, so she asked Steve to come in and speak to her class as a guest speaker. He did a fantastic job! During his visit he even had the chance to enjoy a fire drill (lol). Cathy's class asked some terrific questions and Steve was able to share his passion for his job and got to tell the kids about the great things happening at Burt's Bees.

Speaking of Burt's Bees, Saturday we spent the afternoon downtown Raleigh volunteering at the first annual Earth Day Raleigh event. It was so much fun! There were vendors from all over the Raleigh area that deal with the Earth in some way. They had people selling Earth-friendly items, and then some various agencies were present to pass our literature and share their information with the public. There were a TON of people that came down and it was a huge success!!

We were about to go through the "Bee-utify your life with Burt's Bees" mobile tour, when the Junk Man (that's what he's called) came over and asked if we'd help with the trash parade. It was the weirdest thing that either of us had ever participated in, but it was fun. We marched in a big group through the mall and around the Capitol building playing trash and making a ton of noise.

There were two big highlights of the day. The first was that we got to see Burt, and even better, have our pictures taken with him. Cathy had told Steve that she wanted a picture taken with Burt and Steve said, "Yeah, so does everyone else."

The other highlight was seeing the Beemones play live! We'd only seen them play on youtube, but they had their "final" concert at the Earth Day Raleigh event. They were awesome!

Our job at the event was called "Roving Ambassadors of Burt's Bees." We didn't really have to do anything but walk around and answer questions if people had them. So basically, we got free shirts and got to enjoy the day. Our shift ended at 4:30, so by 5:00 we were on our way home just as it was starting to rain. Perfect timing!

We came home and quickly showered and changed, and then headed back downtown to a restaurant called The Pit. We met Joe and Monica Lang for dinner. They went to UD with Steve and live in Philly, PA. Joe is one of Steve's fraternity brothers, and Monica and Joe have been together since freshman year of college. Steve has always told Cathy so much about them, so it was awesome for everyone to finally get together! We were out until 11:00 at the restaurant!!

So that leads us to today. We're going to take it slow today and try to get the house picked up a little. We've got to go grocery shopping and then that's about all that we have planned. Cathy's parents are coming down to visit in two weeks (May 3rd-9th) and we're super excited to see them and show them our area!!

We'll write again soon!!

We Sold Our House!!!!

Posted by Steve and Cat Walker | | 9:26 AM

Last Friday we closed on our house in Michigan (finally)!!! YAY!!! The buyers made an offer back in January (before Steve's birthday) but their offer was too low for us to accept. We weren't in the position that we HAD to sell the house, so we were content with waiting for another offer that would be more around our range. The same couple that made the first offer played a little game with us (that we didn't like or appreciate) and tried to really put the pressure on us. Again, since we didn't HAVE to sell, we didn't play and it ended up in our favor.

Basically, they made the offer and then put all these contingencies on it. They HAD to hear back from us by noon the next day or they were moving on... bla bla bla. Steve was having oral surgery the following day, and we just didn't have it as a top priority to "jump" simply because they said so.

We ended up deciding to just wait until the next offer came in. We had several showings and all had positive reviews. We just didn't get any offers. The market in Michigan is awful (it's bad everywhere, but really bad in Michigan). About three weeks later, the same couple makes another offer. Again, they were too low and we couldn't afford their offer. It wasn't that we were not interested, we just couldn't go as low as they were offering.

After a bunch of back and forth negotiations, we were able to reach a compromise and they bought it. Cathy's Dad went and signed for us at the closing (thankfully!! It would have cost $200 to have an outside person do it for us). So... we're enjoying having ONE house now!!

In other news, we got a Wii. It's the most amazing thing ever. If you've never seen one or had the pleasure and delight of playing one, you're missing out! We got Guitar Hero III and Backyard Football. We also have the Sports pack and another series of games called WiiPlay. So far we've only played the sports (tennis, bowling, baseball, golf and boxing) and then Guitar Hero III.

Cathy is a natural on Guitar Hero III. Steve started to play it and wasn't very good, so he passed the guitar to Cathy and she killed it. She has started her own band (C@strophy) and she's played a ton of different gigs. She's even had to battle Tom Morello and Slash and she's won! She was most excited when she got to play "EvenFlow" by Pearl Jam. She was definitely in the zone. Steve has been calling her "Nancy" from Heart because she kicks butt on the guitar!!

What's even cooler about the Wii is that it's a Nintendo system. There are these "points" that you can buy (a penny a point) and with the points you can buy classic Nintendo games. We're not kidding!! We bought Excitebike for Cathy (she LOVED this game as a kid back in '85), as well as Kid Icarus for her. She played it all night and couldn't get past the Grim Reaper guy. LOL. We got Zelda for Steve and then Super Mario Brothers 3 for us both to play. Steve thinks it's brilliant for Nintendo to offer these classic games for like $5.00 a game (500 points). It's a great way to make additional money on really old games. However, for people in our age group, these games bring back wonderful memories and put HUGE smiles on our faces!! (Cathy remembered going to Children's Palace (a toy store that was WAY bigger and better than Toys 'R Us) with her allowance and buying Nintendo games).

This weekend is Easter and we're just hanging out for the holiday. Cathy didn't have school yesterday, so she drove up to Burt's and met Steve for lunch. Today we're going to Wii and then maybe go to the new Chinese World Buffet for dinner (lol). Tomorrow we're going to make a ham and then have baked beans, potato salad, rolls and then something yummy for dessert.

Cathy went to the store and bought a TON of candy for an Easter basket for Steve. She hid it in the house and he had to search for it. He's not allowed to eat anything until Sunday.

Enough from us for now... we are thoroughly enjoying having 74 degrees today while Michigan is getting 5-8 inches of snow. It's not too late for everyone that we love in Michigan to move to North Carolina!!! The weather is a hell of a lot better!!!

:)
The Walkers

Update...

Posted by Steve and Cat Walker | | 2:39 PM

Well... it's been a while since we last posted so we thought it was time to write something!

Last night we went to a Leap Year Pig Pickin. It was at the house of someone that Steve works with and it was interesting. Our experiences with Burt's Bees events has been awkward to say the least. This one wasn't as bad as the Christmas party, but it was a little strange still. We fully expected a pig-roast and instead it was more of a fancy-schmancy dinner party. The only pork that they had was in kabob form and they went with the rest of the Mediterranean-style food. Weird.

Anyway, we did have fun and enjoyed seeing how the rich live. The guy that hosted the party lives in North-Raleigh in a million dollar home.

Last weekend we drove to Wilson, NC to meet Cathy's cousin Corey and his fiance Heather, for lunch. It was a nice afternoon and we enjoyed spending time with them. It's really nice that we've been able to see them twice now since we moved down in June. We're hoping that more family will come down for a visit soon!!

This last weekend after driving back from Wilson, we found a Costco and had a taste of home. We went in and enjoyed all the eye-candy and then of course, had to grab a few gallons of extra-cheap milk. :) In case we haven't said it before, the milk here is SO expensive. It's more expensive to buy a gallon of milk than a gallon of gas. And that's saying a lot because the gas is expensive!!

We've been talking about getting a Nintendo Wii since before Christmas. Well... we finally bought one! Yay! It should be arriving Monday. We also bought Guitar Hero III and are super excited to play!!

That's the latest from here. We're eagerly awaiting the visit of Steve's dad next weekend. Soon after, Cathy's mom and dad are going to be coming down (April/May). Yay!!

:)
The Walkers

Go Tarheels!!

Posted by Steve and Cat Walker | | 4:18 PM

So this weekend we went to the UNC-Clemson game at Chapel Hill. Talk about an amazing experience. We arrived about an hour prior to the game starting and had some food in the courtside club. They had all kinds of free desserts, drinks and appetizers. Steve gorged himself on warm brownie bites and these chocolate mousse thingy-ma-bobbers. :)

The game was way better than the game in Richmond. Don't get us wrong, we love UD but the Tarheels play on an entirely different level. The game in Richmond was disappointing. The Flyers lost to the Spiders (lol) and the stadium was really small. There are probably high schools with bigger arenas! Anyway, the Flyers were down the entire game and the Spiders just kept hitting 3-pointer after 3-pointer. It was fun to spend the night in Richmond though.

We had dinner at a place called the Capitol Ale House and it was okay, but a little pricey. Steve had French onion soup and then this kielbasa and pretzel thing and Cathy had a chicken ceasar salad that tasted like anchovies. (YUCK)

We drove home on Sunday and stopped in Nashville (NC) for our first taste of Bojangles. If you're not familiar with Bojangles... it's an over-priced KFC but instead of being tasty, it's really gross. LOL. They're known for their sweet tea and biscuits. Whatever. Lunch made us both sick and wishing that we stopped somewhere safe, instead of trying something new.

Back to the UNC game... in case you missed it, the heels were down the entire game. The average was nine-points down. At one point they were only six down, but that's as close as they ever got. It was a big deal because Clemson has NEVER won at the Dean Smith Dome. Not in 53 years... every time Clemson plays Carolina... they LOSE. This was a game to go down in history! All the way until the final seconds of the game we were down and then somehow we managed to tie the score and force an overtime. The crowd went absolutely ape-shit and it was as if they had just won the national championship game!

Five additional minutes were added to the clock and it was time for OT to begin. They were down for most of the 1st OT and then they were able to come back and tie it up and force a 2nd OT. Unheard of!! Once they started the 2nd OT they took control of the court and ended up winning 103 to 93. It was amazing! People we losing their minds and going bananas. The people around us were celebrating and grown men were crying like little children.

On the way out we snatched some cups and popcorn buckets (you know the ones that are super expensive and everyone leaves behind) as tokens of the game. We're too cheap to buy them ourselves, but we grabbed like eight cups and two buckets. :) Steve grabbed one for his boss Tom (he went to Clemson).

Cathy goes back to work on Thursday. Just in time for Valentine's Day! Steve is the greatest man alive... he sent Cathy a dozen baby roses today and she got them delievered and was totally surprised! They're in a really nice vase and smell soooo good! We're going to celebrate Valentine's Day either today or tomorrow by going to Outback (yay)!

Until next time... take care and be well!
:)
The Walkers

Update

Posted by Steve and Cat Walker | Life Update | 4:36 PM

Hello! We hope everyone that reads this is doing well. We're okay... hangin' in there. Steve went to the oral surgeon last Thursday and had his tooth extracted. It wasn't as bad as he thought, but it was still pretty painful. He's still recovering and has pain.

We went to the UD vs Richmond game on the 26th. We drove up to Richmond and arrived just in time for the game. We were excited to see Dayton (ranked 14 at the time) beat the Richmond Spiders, however, we were shocked at their performance. Richmond's team was hitting three-pointer after three-pointer and UD did nothing about it. No clue what the score ended up being, but Dayton was crushed.

Anyway... Steve had his birthday last Tuesday. He's 33 now. Cathy made him a birthday cake and made him dinner. She also bought him a UD Basketball t-shirt and a UD business card holder (glass) for him to use at work. His co-workers went all out with gifts. Apparently they call him "Bevis" and decided to take the theme as far as they could go. They bought him lunch and then also gave him a placemat that said Happy Birthday. On the back were numerous pictures of people with mullets (they love his mullet picture that's on his calendar at work). They also gave him the Bevis and Butthead Do America movie and a Bevis bobble-head. All wrapped in mullet-picture wrapping paper.

The calendar that they love so much is one that Cathy made for Steve for Christmas. It has pictures of friends and family thoughout the calendar and because Steve's birthday is in January, he is the spotlight for the month.

Anyway, that's the latest... Cathy enjoyed spending February 5th sitting outside reading a book in 75 degree weather. Does it get any better??

:)
The Walkers

Our First Snow in NC!

Posted by Steve and Cat Walker | Life Update, NC | 11:31 AM

We were able to experience our first snowfall here in NC this last weekend. Cathy had a Junior Circle outting planned for Saturday and she had to cancel it due to the weather predictions. Though she could have still had the event, the snow started to fall around 3pm on Saturday and kept falling until Sunday.

In other news, Steve went to the dentist and found out that his tooth will need to be extracted. He has an appointment on the 31st to get it pulled. He's not sure if they'll be doing a bridge or something else. He's really hoping that the bridge is a last-resort.

Cathy tracked out yesterday. She taught all day and then at 4pm she was free at last! She's been having some issues with her team. They do not communicate and as a result, there are a lot of bad feelings and resentment among them. Cathy gets along with all of them for the most part, but is easily frustrated with their words and actions. She was more than ready to track out simply to remove herself from the team!

This weekend we're going to the UD vs. Richmond basketball game in Richmond, VA. We'll be getting a hotel for the night and coming home on Sunday. Steve was emailed by the UD Raleigh Alumni club about the event and we decided that it'd be a lot of fun to go to a game and support the Flyers. They're ranked #14!!

In other basketball news, one of Cathy's students, Anna, has grandparents that are really into UNC sports. The grandpa attended UNC and has season tickets for football and basketball. Earlier this week he sent Cathy a letter that thanked her for all that she does as a teacher and offered her two tickets for the UNC vs. Clemson game on the 10th. Cathy was so excited!! We're both really excited to go to a UNC game!!

That's it for now. Nothing else really to report about!!

:)
The Walkers

The end of 2007

Posted by Steve and Cat Walker | | 1:30 PM

Sorry that it's been so long since we've blogged!! We're not sure where the time goes, but it definitely goes and then it's been a month and we're behind!!

The last time we wrote it was the day after Thanksgiving and Steve's dad had just arrived for a visit. He stayed with us through Monday and then drove back to Indiana.

We went to the Burt's Bees Christmas party on the 9th of December. To use the word "interesting" would not express how different the party actually was. They held it at a museum and then it was open for exploration. They had several "stations" set up throughout the museum with food. We went to the butterfly house and had some cocoa. Though, we were quite disappointed because the invitation said there would be a hot cocoa bar... and it was just a big thermos thingy filled with generic cocoa. We also went on the train ride... oh so fun! LOL At the museum we weren't sure how it all worked, so we assumed the food in the general area was all that they had to eat. We stuffed ourselves with meatballs and other "junk" and then decided to go explore and as we went around the corner and into a new area of the museum, we saw a carving station with beef and ham, a big salad bar and a potato bar. To say we were disappointed would be a huge understatement.

Cathy got to meet Tom (Steve's boss) and wasn't too impressed with him. He was rather arrogant... which is comical because he always uses the word arrogant to describe Steve. He was "Joe Cool" and had a bunch of punks hanging around and laughing at all his lame-ass jokes. Cathy told Steve that he reminded her of the "cool guy" that everyone wants to be friends with.

At the end of the party they had an awards presentation that we stayed for. The CEO said that there were multiple people nominated and he wasn't going to announce all their names, but he'd let everyone know who was nominated for each award via email. Steve didn't get an award (he didn't expect to), but to his surprise, he was nominated and received a certificate and a $25 gift card to Harris Teeter.

Cathy finished the 2007 year on the 21st. She had her holiday party on the 20th and came home with a ton of gift cards and special presents from her 4th graders. The parents took up a collection and bought her a $150 gift card to the spa... for her to go and relax after all her hard work teaching. She also got some cute handmade gifts. We went to dinner on the 20th with Lisa and Katie (Cathy's coworkers) and had pizza at Mama Mia.

Cathy's principal has announced that she's leaving Oak Grove. She'll be opening a new school in Wake County and February 1st will be her last day. She asked people to consider coming with her to the new school, but Cathy most definitely will not be joining her. Cathy was very happy to hear the news. She likes her principal and came to Oak Grove because of her, but has had some issues with her. It'll be a good change for someone new to come in February.

We flew to Indiana on the 21st. Our flight was very delayed and we didn't get into Indianapolis until after 11:30 pm. By the time we got back to Steve's dad's it was after 1am. We stayed with his dad and Sue Ann Saturday and then got up Sunday and drove up to Michigan to visit Mitch and Jess. Cathy had wanted to arrange a visit with Beckie (she was home from Arizona) but the timing didn't work out for us. We stayed Sunday with Mitch and Jess and then got up Monday and had breakfast at Bob Evan's before leaving to drive to Westland.

We arrived in Westland around 10:30 at Cathy's parent's house and then we went Christmas shopping. It's been a tradition for years that on Christmas Eve, Cathy goes shopping with her dad and brother to shop for her mom. It was really important to Cathy that she be able to continue this tradition this year, so we made sure to get there on time. We went to the mall and then headed all over hell and half of Georgia to find a Nintendo-DS for her mom. We finally found one at Costco and then while we were there, there was a guy buying a Wii. Cathy's dad really wants one. We headed back to the mall to have lunch with her mom at Olga's and then we finished our shopping. We dropped off Cathy's dad and then we headed to two different Costcos to see if we could find a Wii for her dad. Unfortunately, no one had any.

We checked into our hotel and then headed back over to her parent's house for dinner. We had pizza and watched The Polar Express. We left and went to the hotel for the night. Christmas morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed back to her parent's to open presents. Scott gave Cathy the Simpson's movie and then Cathy's dad gave Steve the Simpson's movie. It was funny. Steve also got a bottle of Maker's Mark and then the rest of our gifts were sent to NC so we got them when we returned home.

We went to Fr. Terry's for Christmas dinner. It was nice seeing his sister and then Mary Breeding and Francine (family friends) were there too. When we were done with dinner, Cathy's mom joined us to go see a movie at Emagine. We saw Juno (very cute). After the movie we dropped off Cathy's mom and then headed back to the hotel.

We packed up our stuff and headed back over to Cathy's parents on Wednesday and we went "day-after-Christmas-shopping." Another holiday tradition of the Ghrist family. They go shopping the day after Christmas and everyone can get one gift that they didn't get from Santa. Before we went shopping we met for lunch at BD's Mongolian BBQ. It was sooooo good. We hadn't had Mongolian BBQ since May!!! Scott came with Gunnar (his friend Emily's son) and then we headed to Target. Steve got the new Jason Aldean CD and Cathy got a wireless transmitter thingy for her iPod and some pens.

We said our goodbyes and then drove back to Indiana. We met everyone at a place called Joe's for some pizza. It was the out of town get together for everyone coming in for the wedding from out of town.

After eating pizza at Joe's, we drove back to the farm and stayed the night in the barn.

We got up Thursday and started running errands with Steve's dad. We went to the country club to pay for the reception, we went to the tuxedo place and picked up 11 tuxedos for the wedding party, and then we went to the hotel. We stayed at the hotel for a bit then drove to the rehearsal. It was easy-peasy and then they had the rehearsal dinner. Steve's dad gave him a John Deere pocket watch as the best man gift (it

even makes a tractor sound). Then we went to the Silver Dollar Lounge for the bachelor party (yes, Cathy came too). We watched football and then had some beer and then drove back to the hotel (Steve was the DD).

Friday morning we got up and met Steve's dad for breakfast in the restaurant in the hotel. He was getting more and more nervous and could barely eat. We went back to the room and had some time to read Harry Potter. We ended up going to Bob Evan's for lunch before we had to get ready to leave for the wedding. Cathy's parents arrived at the hotel around 2:15 and that's about the time that Steve and his dad left for the church. They were supposed to be at the church around 3:00 for pictures. Cathy and her parents arrived at the church around 3:30.

The wedding started around 4:30 and it was packed. There were people standing in the back because there weren't any additional seats. The wedding was perfect and Steve's dad and Sue Ann were blissfully happy. Steve did a fantastic job as the best man. :)

We drove together to the country club and Cathy's parents followed us over. The reception was beautiful and everything went perfectly. Everyone seemed to have a great time. Steve's best man speech was heart-felt and perfect, and caused quite a few tears. Steve's friend Greta and her husband were there and so were Mitch and Jess. They all sat with Cathy's mom and dad and then we eventually joined them.

We got back to the hotel Friday night and crashed from exhaustion. Saturday morning Steve's dad and Sue Ann had a breakfast for everyone staying at the hotel. We went down and had breakfast with them and then everyone went back to their rooms to get their things for check out.

We headed back to the farm for a luncheon and then a bunch of people came over to watch them open gifts. We weren't able to stay very long because we had a long drive to Indianapolis ahead of us.

Cathy's mom and dad drove us to the airport and then we caught our flight back to North Carolina. We had a very short flight (only an hour and fifteen minutes). Cathy called her friend Katie and she came and picked us up (saving us $60). We got home and dropped our stuff and then headed over to Matthew's house (the boy from Cathy's class that took Ned for us) and picked up Neddy. He was very excited to see us!!

We got home late last night and watched the Patriots cheat their way into the history books (lol). Then we crawled into our bed and slept like babies. There's nothing like your own bed and five cats having a kitty party to celebrate that you've returned home!!

So... that's about it. LOL. We decided to do absolutely nothing today and so far we've done exactly that. Tomorrow Cathy is going to go into work and get some lesson plans done for Wednesday. We don't have anything planned for New Year's eve... but we're more than okay with that.

We hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas and have an even better New Years!!

:)
The Walkers