Oliver!

At long last, here are pictures of Oliver!. Emily's acting debut. Ran for 3 weekends in May. She did awesome! She had 3 parts. An orphan, a vegetable selling villager, and the cute little daughter of a well-to-do villager. This was the first time that Emily has even auditioned for anything. She took 3 private voice lessons. Thank you Claire! She was so excited when we found out that she got a part. Although, we had no idea what to expect as part as practice. Wow! She had dance on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. And she had play practice on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. It was quite a balancing act! All the while having to do school work and get ready for SOL testing! And STILL made perfect scores on Reading and Math SOL! Way to go Toots! AND she won the Linda Glass Reading Award! Oliver! was so much fun! We have gained a greater appreciation for what goes on before a play is performed. They all worked so hard and seemed to have so much fun doing it. Emily can't wait to do another one.

Ellen Jackson

Ellen Jackson.....a very good friend of mine. Haven't talked to her in many years and still consider her a very dear friend. I met her in 1996 when we lived in Waco, TX. Eleven children, 17 grandchildren, and 5 more expected by the end of the year. Ellen won't get to welcome those 5 new babies this year, but hopefully she will get to send them off. Ellen has cancer, been battling for two years. She is at home on hospice and will likely not be alive on earth for much longer. Not fair. She will be dearly missed. She's the kind of woman who can raise 11 children, handle a big job at church, run the cub scouts.....all with grace and ease. Always knows the right thing to say, a soothing, calm voice. She lives a life of great deciation to her family and her beliefs. She was such a great mentor to me as a young mother. Got to talk to her today for a short while. Just hearing her voice gave me great comfort. If anyone ever deserved to live to be 100...... Ellen Jackson, you are a beautiful spirit. You will be sorely missed. One of God's true and faithful servants; I know He can't wait to have you back.

Can't Stop Dancin' 2011

Let me just say really quick that I am using Internet Explorer for the first time in a long time. Have been using Google Chrome, which I love, but it is not working right. So, I'm looking at my blog in Internet explorer for the first time in a long time and it looks funny. All the spaces between the pictures and the words. What is up with that? Doesn't look like that in Mozilla and Chrome. Weird. Anywho.....on to the dance recital. You all missed out if you didn't attend. Emily did AwEsOme! She is an amazing little dancer. We had a great time. It was the most fun that I think I've had at a dance recital. We had great girl fun together. I have many more pictues to add of other costumes that we didn't have time to take pictures of at the recital. She really did a great job being graceful and happy considering she had so much going on. Big tests at school, Oliver! was showing for two weekends prior to dance recital and dance recital weekend.

Her facial features have really started to take on the look of a young lady in the last few weeks. I feel this summer is the last summer I will have with my "little girl" so I am going to hand onto every second.

Errand boy

I have one now. It's fabulous! When I need some something I forgot to pick up at the store, I can just send him to the marina to pick it up for me. All it costs me is a soda and a candy bar. It's even earth friendly. Love it!

Happy Birthday John

I got so busy towards the end of the semester I did not post John's birthday pictures. Shame on me! And so.....let's talk about John's 15th birthday party. Had some friends over. The boys went to Buffalo Wild Wings, came home, presents and cake. A fun party. John got a kayak for his birthday. N.E.V.E.R. take a child with you to buy his/her birthday present. You will A.L.W.A.Y.S. return home poorer than you imagined. Just a quick tip to parents. We took him with us to let him pick it out. So, between John and the salesman, we were doomed. We had a small catastrophe on the day of the party. John was cleaning his fish tank before friends arrived. When they started coming I called, he came out of his room to talk to his friends. They got all excited, ran outside to do something, and John forgot that he left the water running to refill the tank......can you see where we are going here. What a mess. EVERY towel in the house was soaked. It was bad! Had to pull the carpet out. Yikes! No focusing on the bad stuff though! We had a birthday to celebrate. He is such a wonderful child. Funny, loving, cute as pie! He's going to be such a wonderful grown up. I'm so proud!