Graduation party

Last night, we celebrated our neighbor Alyssa's graduation from Maize High School. She is the daughter of the famous Captain Don and Missy.

I loved Alyssa's cake, especially
the photo of her as a little girl


Alyssa and Missy


Captain Don, Alyssa and Missy

Congratulations Alyssa!

River Festival fun

Tonight, me, Janette and Melissa braved the rain and went down to the River Festival to see Phil Stacey, a former American Idol contestant perform.

Melissa and I saw Phil in concert last year when he came to town, but Janette had never seen him, so we made a girls' night of it and ventured downtown.

Phil's set was pretty good. His new album is out today, but I'm not sure I'll be running out to buy it. I think I'm a bigger "Daughtry" and David Cook fan. :)

New book

I am currently reading "The Last Lecture," by Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon professor who has terminal pancreatic cancer. It's a short book with lots of life lessons, much like "Tuesdays with Morey." It's proving to be a real page-turner.

After this, I'm moving on to Barbara Walters' memoir, Audition, which I bought from Amazon since it's 612 pages and I knew there was no way I could read it in two weeks if I borrowed it from the library.

I let you know how it is...

Mother's Day

I had a pretty good Mother's Day. Unfortunately, I've been fighting some sort of cold or flu most of the day, so I haven't been feeling so whoopy.

Both the boys woke me up to give me their Mother's Day presents.

Casey painted me this beautiful butterfly painting


Brett made me a "Top 10" list of all
the things he loved about me

The Top 10 Things I Love About My Mom
10. She buys ice cream for me
9. She buys me chocolate
8. She buys me movies
7. She buys books for me
6. She makes me the best cakes!
(I can't remember the last one I baked)
5. She bought me a GameCube
4. She let me get a Wii
3. She reads me stories
2. She makes the best cookies (I do?)
1. She loves me very much! (Nothing more true has ever been said)

Brett also made me breakfast in bed as a surprise, although he kept waking me up to ask me what kind of toast I wanted and if I wanted butter and jelly on my toast. Other than that, it was a big surprise.

Brett delivering my breakfast in bed

We went to the mall later in the afternoon and I got another present, some Adidas flip flops. They have "memory foam" in them, which makes them super comfortable. If you haven't tried some, you really should.

My new flip flops

Fun on Watersedge

This afternoon, the kids were all out riding bikes and enjoying the nice spring weather.

Dan got out the ladder and attempted to clean out our gutters. As you can see, this was a big draw for the kids.

Enjoying the show

Casey and Josh loved following the water down the driveway and then "helping" it into the storm drain. I better make sure they wash their hands!

Josh and Casey "helping" the water

Fun at the medical center

On Friday afternoon, we hosted a statewide poster contest where 4th and 5th graders submitted posters on why smoking is bad.

There were lots of great entries--their imaginations and talent were wonderful.

During the event, our Respiratory Care staff created educational stations where the kids got to learn more about the repercussions of smoking.

One of the more interesting stations included healthy and diseased pigs' lungs. The kids got to put on latex gloves and actually touch and feel the lungs.

My friend Melissa got in on the action. She couldn't help herself. How often can you say you got to squeeze pigs' lungs?

Melissa touching the diseased lungs

Believe me, I think the message got through to the kids.

Spring party

Later this afternoon, Casey and I helped with Brett's second grade spring party. Janette and I decided on a Cinco de Mayo theme.

We had nachos, sopapillas and frosty drinks for the snack and then had the kids make a Mexican flag with tissue paper.

It was a blast! As with everything, you plan for weeks, and the party only lasted about 45 minutes.

Pouring the "fake margaritas"

Enjoying the snacks


Brett and the flag he made


Celebrating Cinco de Mayo