You'd think this would be easier...

First of all, our sincere apologies for taking SO long to put up another blog post. Some of this may be old news to some of you now...we'll still try to do better.

We've finally finished the updates to our house! It took a while, but we think it's paid off. We pulled up all the floors in the upstairs and put down hardwoods, gutted and re-did the entire kitchen, took out the wall between the kitchen and living room, re-finished and painted the stairs, and did lots of painting, etc. Some pictures shown here.

We also went to a James Taylor concert in Baltimore in June. He's the bright white humanoid figure in the center of that photo. John found tickets at face value on craigslist, which was unbelievable! We had a great time at the concert and hanging out in the Inner Harbor looking at the pirate ships...

And, as always, a gratuitous picture of the dogs...

For those of you requesting pictures of the dogs, we're including multiples for this post. And we promise to become better bloggers, maybe even going to weekly posts rather than semi-monthly.

These pictures were taken by Lauren's cousin Billy, who was kind enough to join us for an Easter lunch. As you can see, Burley and Willie made themselves comfortable as always.

Also, Lauren once again created a 3-D animal-shaped culinary masterpiece with a spectacular Easter cake. This fully fuctional, egg-laying, dark chocolate Easter bunny delivered eggs for Lauren, John, Aimee, Aunt Kathy and Billy.
(We hosted an Easter lunch, and John cooked a delicious ham. )

Also, work continues on the house as we have painted most of the upstairs and replaced many switches and wall plates. Next comes the floor, which should be delivered this weekend, then the cabinets and demolition of one minor, possibly load-bearing wall. (No big deal, right?) Finish that up with a refinishing of the deck, and that's what you call a relaxing spring.

We have been working with Willie on his drinking problem. We think we're getting through to him, and your support is greatly appreciated. Please keep him in your thoughts.

This coming weekend (3/29) John is officiating a wedding for a high school friend in Pigeon Forge, TN. This trip may include a visit to Dollywood. Yes, Dollywood. Just when you thought our life couldn't get more glamorous.

But probably the biggest news of all is that we are now the proud owners of a fabulous Toyota Prius, which is pictured below. (Yes, the sun always shines on the Prius.)

And, as our last tidbit of news, the neighborhood kids have started coming by every day to see if they can walk Willie and Burley with us. They think Willie and Burley are "awesome," and they fight over who gets to hold the leashes when we walk them. They switch out on pre-set schedules. It's quite the fan club. We'll see if we can't get a picture of them for next week. And maybe we'll provide some photo evidence of John's foray into ministry/wedding officiation.

The Longos Are Live On The Internets!

Well, we're starting a blog. We're hoping that this outlet will accomplish two things:

1. Help us to communicate with people that we care about.



2. Help us to assuage the guilt we feel about not communicating with those people enough.

So, what will you learn from Living As Longo?

• recipes



• injury reports (there are more than you'd think)



• dog updates (Willie and Burley are often more interesting than we are)



• travel observations



• movie, music and theatre reviews (our opinion matters and you will respect it, or ignore it, or whatever...

So let's get into the real meat of it; here's what's happening in the Longos' lives:

• Lauren burned her crotchal region with boiling water at Aimee's birthday party. On the plus side, the spaghetti turned out great. The burns are healing nicely, we are keeping her pretty doped up on painkillers and such. They say that once the skin graft happens we should hardly be able to tell anything happened at all; and she should be walking again in two to three weeks. (Just kidding, she's fine. Minor, and small, second degree burns. Keeping neosporin on them and they're healing nicely.)



• We went to see THE theatre event of the season up here. As a benefit for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Young Hearts put on a performance of the musical Pippin. The show was organized, produced, and performed by high school students with the assistance of Lauren's Uncle Mike, Aunt Barbara, and cousins Sarah, Mary, and Regan McLaughlin. The Young Hearts group was started in honor of Ryan McLaughlin and continues to set records in the DC area for most money raised each year. And in the most fun ways! The show was fantastic, and John was re-inspired to wear sequins more often.



• Let's see. What else. Oh! We got married and went on a honeymoon! You can view all 500 and something photos of our wedding and reception on our photographers' website here: http://www.bergerkingstudio.com/lauren/mclongo/092207.html. You can also view photos of our honeymoon trip to London by visiting http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=217057296/a=110148698_110148698/t_=110148698

That's it for the first post. Tune in every-ish Sunday for more on the Longos' awesomeness.