Graduation

D.P. was presented a certificate at "Honors Day" at his elementary school. He is a great student. While his body has many challenges, his mind is smart and absorbs all the learning he's given - and he's given the same as the other students in his mainstream class! What a boy!

We love music

Music is in the blood in our family. L.A. is no exception, with the band and chorus. This is her final choral performance for middle school (what we used to call Junior High). For part of it, you can see, they were very formal. But then they changed into their '50-'60's outfits and had some rock-n-roll fun. You know Grandma Mell loved that! Actually, I loved it all, but I'm SUCH a child of the '60's... :-) BTW, be prepared, the girls do a little screaming in the rock number - you may want to adjust your volume on that one. :-)

What a swing!

He may only be 23 months old, but our D.W. can play croquet and golf! What a sport. The croquet "game" was played at Hills & Dales Estate on the day they opened the gardens for free to families with picnic baskets. We had gorgeous weather and enjoyed the picnic, flowers, the music, and, of course, the games. Oh, there was also a horse, who sneezed in the boy's face and made him cry. :-( But he quickly got over it.

The golf practice was on his dad's "practice field" in their backyard.

Fun Food

We celebrated the June birthdays and Fathers' Day in one fell swoop last night. For dessert, we had "hot dogs." The bun was made of cake, the dog out of homemade ice cream, and the condiments were red frosting (in a ketchup squeeze bottle), whipped cream (in a mayo squeeze bottle), caramel sauce (in a yellow mustard squeeze bottle), and diced peaches (tinted green to represent the pickle relish). It was quite fun. Gayle ate her's by hand, just as though it were a real hot dog; but Jenn opted to use a fork.

Note the belly on Jenn - that's our little "Boo," so nicknamed because she's due on Halloween. Yes, it's a girl!

Easter gingerbread

L.A. & D.P. came over this evening to construct a gingerbread Easter cottage. Luckily for all, it was a kit, with the house already assembled. L.A. loves to eat gingerbread, but I have yet to feel confident about making it. This way, we skipped all that.

But the kids did mix up the frosting and then put the little decorations on it. I found the kit at Wal-Mart, in case anyone else is interested in taking this shortcut.

It was easy, but part of what Payne always calls "making memories" with our grands.

Late March

Goodness! Time does fly when you're having fun. Either that or I've been so busy working that I just crash when I get home and haven't taken the time to post anything to this personal blog. But I'm finally taking a few minutes to show you something terrific:

We had a wonderful visit from TM last week. Jenn and I took her to the Explorations in Antiquity Center where she learned about life in Biblical times. It was fascinating going through the outdoor museum and sitting down to the Passover meal was fabulous. The archeologist who owns the place explained all the elements of the meal and what they represented. You can see more of their information at http://www.biblicalresources.net/museum.htm

Along those (religous) lines, we had a terrific surprise the other day. We received the new "Lutheran Study Bible," hot off the press! It has great notes highlighting Bible concepts, Lutheran perspectives (of course), and faith reflection questions. Our pastor even pointed out that it has a Bible reading plan - a gentle hint, perhaps? :-) We love it!

Back to the working aspect of life, I do update the work blog daily and invite you to visit it: http://lgtcchamber.blogspot.com/. When you see the green water in the fountain, note the darling leprechans in front of it - two of our four grands. :-)

March Snow (3/1/09)

When it snows in west central Georgia it is a BIG Deal! The Southern gentleman was thrilled, because it's so rare. The Yankee lady was thrilled because it's such a brief, beautiful experience - unlike the tons of snow that pile up in her native north.