Springtime in Charleston

We have been enjoying the flowers in our yard. The palm trees are beautifying the place but it is taking lots of watering to keep them happy!

Nathan's Graduation Party

Stephen did a fabulous job on Nathan's graduation party along with all the help from our friends who did a marvelous job on the food

Stephen's Event at the College of Charleston

Fabulous event at the College of Charleston...Just couple pictures to depict some moments...

Cooper River Bridge Run 2008

No, we did not run the 10 kilometer race.... But it was fun cheering on the participators including two of our friends












Some were very creative in how they presented themselves during the race....














Zuka seemed to enjoy the race as well-but he preferred to rest and watch













At the end of the busy weekend, we had fabulous time hanging out together

Trip to Miam

Stephen and I spent several days in Miami, FL where I attended a medical conference. Our adventures included

1. First night-ghetto Brazillian restaurant found on the internet. We were the only non Latinos....Everybody was staring at us....

2. Second night-we moved up a little bit...Found a local "best" Cuban restaurant. Still we felt like we were back in Puerto Rico...but there cafe con lache was excellent

3. Third night-Newly found friends (2 Russian physicians) who took us out to a nice restaurant and a harbor tour.

4. Fifth night-Finally, a romantic dinner at Touch a famous restaurant in South Beach were we enjoyed lobster and tuna tar tar.....

Pictures will follow!

PS Our recommendation: never depend on the internet to decide for you what is a good restaurant in town...Ask somebody who has been to that city....I am being so profound....

Vizcaya

While in Miami during Anna's Vein Conference, we visited Vizcaya which was the winter residence of American industrialist James Deering during 1916-1925. The gardens were breathtaking....there were several brides getting their portraits. The house was intended to appear as an Italian estate that had stood for 400 years and had been occupied and renovated by several generations of a family. It had 34 decorated rooms. The expansive gardens combined elements of Renaissance Italian and French designs.

Gift from Stephen to Anna

Stephen keeps on suprising me....I woke up on the Easter morning and found this package waiting for me at the door.. He is so creative...I love that about him!

Imaging Center Open House

Open house was a lots of fun. Fireworks, jaz band, oyster bar, delicious food, and lots of fund with my friends from work.

Philip, Sarah, and Meg Visiting Us

What a delight to have Philip, Sarah, and precious Meg visit us for a whole week. We had lots of fun. Zuka found himself somewhat jealous when Meg was getting lots of attention but he was not (I wonder what I am going to do when I have kids :)

Anna's 30th Birthday Festivities

Wow! My Husband is amazing-When I woke up this morning, there were bouquets of flowers with sweet notes all over the house...He took me by surprise when he sent my good friend Temple, Hope, and I to the Sanctuary spa where we enjoyed the amenities, and where I got a 60 minute massage. Well, we all forgot to take our cameras thus I had to put this pictures of a stranger from the Sanctuary website.....Afterwards we headed out to the Moroccan restaurant and we had marvelous girl time. Truly it was a fabulous 30th birthday.

Snowy Christmas in New Hampshire

Our Christmas this year was in New Hampshire with Stephen's family. It was a Christmas full of activities: Stephen really enjoyed skiing, while I enjoyed simply watching him. I was terrible at staying straight on the skies. Stephen and his brothers also enjoyed sledding and getting wet in the snow. I tried to stay away from all those crazy activities.....

Meg our new niece was a highlight of our trip. You can tell from the pictures that we pampered her a lot.


Our trip to NH also included a 2 day visit in Boston which was simply enchanting.



We played lots of games, exchanged gifts, drove around to see neat places, and ate lots of good food....I must truly join the gym now...

Dancing as a little girl.....

Of course, not to forget, Georgian National State Ballet. My mom allowed me to be part of the dance academy under National Georgian Ballet in 6th-7th grades. Since I was tall for my age and skinny I was asked to join the women's dance ensemble. It was lots of exercise, but it was so much fun. We traveled to Germany to couple performances-I cannot believe that my mom let me travel at that age....Also, we danced on the same stage as this video shows (Tbilisi National Philarmonic). I had many of the costumes as these women have...What a cultural and fun experience for a kid...I will never forget it.....It was worth it!

Too Much Free Time!

During the vacation I have been having lots of free time to enjoy videos of my favorite dancers...Here is an example of Nina Ananiashvili....She is amazing!

Some Pictures of the Holiday Party

So many friends came to our Holiday Party-friends from church, my PA school, neighbors....Food was amazing..Here are some pictures!

Our Friends in Town

Budimirs visited us this past week with their new baby Ema. Budimirs, our good friends, are raising support to go to Croatia this next year.

We held a Holiday Party in honor of them so that they could meet our friends in Charleston and share with them their mission. How sad that I did not get any pictures untill we go to the airport to say good buy to them....

Our Thanksgiving in Charleston

What a wonderful time we had with our dear friends, our sister Hope, Nadya from Atlanta, Tom from Greenville, and Kristine from Sumter.

Our Thanksgiving festivities started on Wednesday night when we picked up our Christmas tree at Lowes.

We spend most of the Thursday cooking and pampering Turkey. Our menu included: Appetizer-Broccoli Garlic Cream Soup, Main meal-Brined Turkey with Quince Glaze, Creamed Spinach, Cranberry Chutney, Glazed Pearl Onions, and Chestnut Stuffing. Our desert consisted of delicious Pear/Sour Cherry Tart with Earl Gray Tea.










Zuka kept burking at the table asking for some good food...



After dinner, we enjoyed decorating the tree and singing along to music.

Next morning, Nadya and I went for Early Bird Shopping at 4 in the morning....Now we are all tired....

Our Special Trip-Part II

Wilson's funeral on Nettere's Farm was a special occasion.

The burial took place on November 3rd, 2007 on an enchanting fall day when leaves were changing and the birds were still singing. Wilson's and Cricket's ashes were mixed together, wrapped in Vietnamese silk, and buried under oriental stones.

Our Special Trip-Part I

Stephen and I took the opportunity of being in the Northeast and we visited special people who were part of my life when I was teaching in Maryland.




I had the wonderful opportunity to catch up with my friend Alina Banu in Ft. Belvoir VA and her beautiful family.Stephen enjoyed playing batman with David Banu, while Jacob Banu was busy playing soccer.

Race for the Cure 2007

Today Charleston hosted Race for the Cure in honor to raise support for Breast Cancer Awareness and Treatment. Imaging Specialists of Charleston (Charleston Radiologists, Invisi Vein Clinic, and Women's Imaging Center) was one of the main sponsors. We got to set up a booth where we had lots of goodies for women and we walked in the honor of Susan Roble, a physician assistant before me who passed away with breast cancer.

Also, a gentle reminder to all women. Women ages 20-40 should have mammogram every 2-3 yrs, while women over age 40 should have yearly mammograms. New Guidelines state the following: Patients who should consider having an annual breast MRI screening in addition to a mammogram include those with:

• A lifetime risk of 20% or greater (based on standard risk assessment tools)
• A first degree relative (mother, father, sister, brother, child) with breast cancer before menopause
  
• A positive for BRCA gene mutation
• Prior radiation therapy to the chest for lymphoma treatment (between ages 10-30)
  
• A personal history of breast cancer
• Extremely dense breast tissue
• High-risk lesions on a previous biopsy

Hope's Suprise Birthday Party!

Today is Hope's Birthday and in honor of this special day Stephen and I made a hazelnut cake which took us about 5 hours. Definitely fits a birthday girl-I called this cake high maintenance:)

Also, in only 2 hours we planned a surpise party with cheese fundue, crusty bread from a french restaurant across the street, and bruschetta...We originally were planning with Hope to have the gettogether on Sunday but just yesterday she found out that she had to work....so We are glad that we got the opportunity to celebrate her life on the actual birthday. As Mark commented to Stephen today on the phone, Sprunger children almost never get to celebrate their birthdays on the actual date....

Anna's First Day at Work!

Wow.....These scrubs are a little too big for me.....I better change the size...
Anyways, I had the best first day at Charleston Radiologists. I was placed in the Vein Clinic for the day observing and assisting during laser vein treatments and spider vein injections. I had my breakfast too early this morning since I was getting a little "vagal" during the procedures. Vagal basically means that I was feeling somewhat dizzy, lightheaded, not to mention I heard buzzing in my head and started to sweat...What a way to start my first day-anyways I better eat a fatty and sugary breakfast before before I get to work next time (lesson for the day). During lunch hour, my fellow PA Betsy sneaked me into physicians lounge in the hospital to get some good food. You see I do not have my badge yet, thus I cannot get into secret places of the hospital. I love Betsy-she is very sweet and full of energy and good partner in "crime". I think that we will have lots of fun together. She also graduate from MUSC PA program but long time ago....So overall, I do not have a headache, and I do not feel awfully confused...We will see what will happen tomorrow when I have to start observing chest tubes, abdominal tubes, lung biopsies, vertebroplasty, and many other wild procedures.

When I came home, my loving husband had the best dinner waiting for us.
Marinated pork, sweet acorn, potatoes...Not to mention a lovely little bouquet of flowers seating on the table...He is such a sweet husband...After dinner we went for a walk....and now I feel it is time to crash.....

Indiana Trip

Stephen and I had a wonderful vacation in Indiana. For our anniversary, we took a 2 day trip to Indianapolis where we stayed at Crown Plaza Hotel which was originally an old union train station. Some of the hotel rooms were located within a train itself inside the hotel-which was very neat. Sightseeing was fun, food was fabulous. We have to tell you of our famous tiramisu-when we ordered our tiramisu at a local Italian restaurant, they brought it out in a large bowl with a commercial serving spoon-this tiramisu was a desert of champions-would have fed a whole army.

After Indianapolis, we visited our friends from college-Joel and Suzanne Starns. Actually Suzanne is a matchmaker who tried to set Stephen and I many years ago.....Joel is a chiropractor and Suzanne is an occupational therapists I had to take a picture in front of Dr. Joel's office sign. White staying with Starns, we went hiking and celebrated Joel's birthday with two delicious pies....

After visiting with Starns, we traveled to Berne, IN where we stayed with our Granpa and Grandma Sprunger. Grandparents have a beautiful home on a large piece of land with a fountain in the back yard-I loved it! One day we visited town of Berne which has a large Swiss and Amish cultural influence. I loved the Amish bakery-we got to taste a delicious Amish apple pie. During the visit, I also got to meet several of the close relatives....Please note a shoe store pictures-named after Sprungers...Wow!

It was truly an amazing trip! We loved every minute of it.....even the 12 hour car drive....

Wilson-post Vietnam

Young Wilson....

Wilson's Party

What a honor to host a passing away party for Wilson! His wish was to have his friends and family come together and celebrate his life....About 75 guests attended the party this Saturday evening honoring Wilson's life. Our friends, Temple and Cathy, prepared fabulous food. Many guests were asking for their business cards thinking they were caterers, but I had to repeatedly say that they were simply my dear friends. Some even thought their catering company name was "Just friends" . Anyways.....Stephen did a breathtaking job on flowers, arrangements, and set up.
So many special people were here. Gil and Jane Ann and Wehners shared a special connection with us since there were here with us holding Wilson's hand when he was taking his last breath. All Wilson's home health nurses and his dear cook were celebrating with us and remembering crazy days we had with Wilson. A year ago, Ms. Janet had to come at 5AM to help me with Wilson's IV infusion line, Lynn who weakly checked on him and made him laugh with her laud laughter and giggle, Martha-Wilson swore that nobody could bath him as good as Martha (you see she followed a two bucket rule-soap with one and rinse with another-not many new LPN graduates did that per Wilson). Cookie was Wilson's cook-we love her, we cried and laughed with her.
Weather was simply beautiful-warm, with Charlestonian breeze....I just sensed that God was smiling down on us and showing us his favor through allowing us to have a such a wonderful and beautiful day. We thank the Lord for helping us be a light to Wilson's friends-so may times I was able to mention God in this picture...I trust that some picked up on it and pondered on it.....
People stayed for a long time and we got to see the video that I made of Wilson....I felt that reconnected us as a group and refocused us on the theme of the party-Celebrating Wilson's life.....
So many dear friends of Wilson were unable to make it to the party-especially Adele and David very dear friends of his from Croatia whom we have fallen in love with.....

Spoleto 2007

Stephen and I had a marvelous opportunity to attend Swan Lake ballet during Spoleto Festival in Charleston. It was simply breathtaking to see Nina dance-her arms are truly without any joints or ligaments. It was somewhat emotional for me to watch ballet since it brought memories of me as a little girl going to Tbilisi Opera Theatre with my mom to see Nina. I also go to tell one of my classmates, Jannie, about Georgian ballet visiting US. Since Jennie's grandmother was a musician who immigrated from Georgia several years ago, Jennie decided to buy tickets for Nina's performace of Swan Lake in NYC Metropolitan Theatre. Her Grandmother got to visit with Nina behind the curtains and she simply had a fabulous time. Not to mention, Jenni's granda is only 96 yrs old.....

Anna's Best Friends from MUSC

These are my best friends and sisters in Christ from my PA class. Emily was the leader of our Bible study group where we grew and learned from each other. Temple and I attend church together-she is an awesome cook. Angie-oh poor girl-we always pick on her since she is shortest of us all and so much fun to tease. Haley-she is just a doll baby and she should be awarded a perseverance award since she planned her whole wedding in between our semesters. Well, all of us are married and have wonderful husbands who have been so supportive through out schooling. When we all get together we have so much fun-we laugh and cry together. I am missing them all so much already. Only Temple, Emily, and I are still in Charleston. Haley lives in Atlanta where she will be working at the family medicine practice, and Angie will be in Gafney, SC where she will be a pediatric PA. Temple will be working at the same hospital as I am doing gastroenterology hospital consults, while Emily will be inspecting lots of skins disease ( she will be a dermatology PA). I am blessed to have gotten to know these wonderful women. I will never forget when they all suprised me and came over and brought a delicious meal for us right after Wilson's passing away. They brought laughter and joy into a house where there was sadness and lots of crying.....Well, I better stop and get back to my studying for my boards which are on Saturday!

Our Niece Is Born

Margaret Sophia Sprunger was born today in New Hampshire
Proud parents are Philip and Sarah Sprunger
Baby weighed 7 lb and 4oz and measured 20 and 1/4 inches
We cannot wait to see her and cuddle her!

oh, we forgot all about Zuka!

Zuka is our sweet cockapoo puppie who loves to be loved...He taps the door bell and rings it in order for us to know that he wants to go outside...SO cute!

Stephen's Ambitions

Currently, Stephen is free lancing to explore the event planning industry. God has opened the door for him to freelance with a very experienced event planner named Doris King that does private events. Last week Stephen was able to freelance with Planning the Globe, a corporate event planning company that does events all over the world, which is why he went to Las Vegas. In his free time, Stephen is planning events for clients of his own, and just recently coordinating a new Hospitality Ministry within Citadel Square Baptist Church.