My second grandchild, George turned eight and was baptized on May 31. It was a pretty big day and he shared it with his cousin Jake (JoEllen's sister's boy) who was born only 3 days before him 8 years ago. We celebrated with a picnic at the water park. Good times......
Before I get on to something else, let me just say a little bit about Spencer's tomatoes....He's proud of his kids but he's pretty pumped about his tomatoes as well....He had a pretty good crop last year with much ribbing from his neighbors about planting them too close together. This year he had the nerve to plant before Derby....such a no, no....but we shall see. Tune in later for progress on his "big beefies" and "early girls" (or whatever he calls his tomatoes).....
I'm finally home....the first of May was Kentucky. The day Miller was born, Joyce and I took off in Mason's Maxima on an adventurous road trip (call us Thelma and Louise without the pistol or Brad Pitt, oh, and no dramatic ending thank goodness and we didn't rob anyone. Pretty low key. So maybe not a good analogy). We made it across Missouri in a day then decided to make Kansas our "real" road trip stopping along the way....at what, you may ask and we look back on it and are astounded that it really took us a whole day to do Kansas but we found some marvelous antique stores. Neither of us are really into antiques but that's about all Kansas had to offer (along with the Wizard of Oz memorabilia) and we met some locals and politely inquired as to why they live in Kansas....Our last day through Colorado was beautiful enough scenery that we didn't really need to stop, just gasp at the beautiful snowcapped mountains and enjoy the winding roads.
Lauri is the star this week so I'm putting more pictures so you can hopefully get a glimpse of the joy of this day. We all enjoyed being there and witnessing this great accomplishment and only hope more good things to come for her in the future. It was a very good day.
Lauri Bea graduated today.......a good day it is. It's awesome to be here at BYU Graduation and be the proud mama of a graduate. It was huge and even though I didn't know where she was in that sea of black, I was "well pleased" with this girl. She graduates with a degree in Psychology and is glad to be done. Tomorrow is the actual "get your diploma" ceremony and Uncle Gawain is the speaker so it's a double cool day all around. Congrats, Lauri. I love ya tons.
I've just returned from a few days in Beijing, China visiting friends, Janet and Mac Coleman who live there for a few more weeks. He's been there at the Embassy as an attache (meaning: A military attaché is a military expert who is part of a diplomatic mission; this post is normally filled by a high-ranking officer.) They showed us a really good time and I think we got a pretty good overview of the culture and were able to see up-close and personal the preparations that are going into the 2008 Summer Olympics. We've seen the building in progress and witnessed the outward attempts to make the city presentable even down to getting garbage cans and American toilets. It's all good though and I'll be very interested to watch it and see how that already crowded city handles the crowds of Olympic attendees. The Great Wall had to be the highlight of the trip and it's pretty cool to me that I was there..... I traveled with two other friends, Kathy McCleskey from Texas and Phyllis Snow both longtime BFF's and that in itself was a kick! We had lots of BPP time.
I thought you'd never ask.....but since you did well, I've learned a lot since the first pair. Here's a picture of my 2nd pair and there are about 5 lonely socks in the UFO (Un-Finished Object) cupboard (a couple re-wound into balls of yarn to be used again) because I found that when I finished one sock, if it wasn't impeccably perfect, I just lost interest and couldn't muster the desire to make a matching one; so guess what?????? Now I work on 2 at the same time.....and when I'm finished, perfect or not.....I have a pair!!!!! I'm sure this isn't a new idea by any means but it's nourished my addiction and given me great satisfaction. So....in my almost 3 pairs of socks, I've only made one trip to the yarn shop to help me pick up lost stitches (and I'm even kinda learning how to do that or knit more carefully so I don't have to do that.) Anyhoooooo......"I knit socks" and "darn" (pardon the pun) proud of it if you don't mind me saying so. Now, as for what I will ever do with all the socks; I wear them. As to giving them away, let's just say....I'd have to know the recipient would really appreciate them and only wash them by hand and, by the way, I'm really looking forward to finally making a pair worthy of the giving. It's coming. I've got to get a lot faster and a lot better. Hey, do any of you (my children, I'm not sure anyone else looks at this) remember when I used to make those silly pot holders that looked like citrus (there was an orange, lemon, lime and watermelon)? I was so hooked on those because I loved to give sets of them away and I thought they were the coolest things to hit my yarn basket.....I made hundreds of sets and flooded the earth with them. Then I got tired of them or they went out of style, I'm not sure (probably both). I just wonder if that's the way my sock making craze is going to be but my yarn lady sadly reassured me that this probably isn't going away anytime soon and if it does it's because I will lose interest because socks are here to stay. But there's always going to be someone who will ask "why don't you just go buy a pair at Wal-Mart for 2 bucks" and I don't have an answer for that because I'm still wondering that myself but you can bet that person won't be the first recipient of a pair of my perfect socks.........
I flew into a tornado warning (the plane hovered for 45 min. until it passed) and flew out in a snowstorm. The weather was cold but it was wonderful to be with my families in Kentucky and see the grandkids again. They just grow too fast and change too much to stay away very long. I got to hear them all play the piano, watch Drew play basketball, watch Maycee dance, take Seth and McKay to McDonalds, hold Jack and watch him crawl and climb up to things and yes, we did make it to Grandma's Hotel on Friday night. Always a fun time.
