A Kentucky Adventure

My wonderful friend Ellen, came to visit us last week. We spent a few days in the Chicago area before venturing down to Kentucky. She had to go for a wedding and was going to rent a car from here and drive. Griffin and I volunteered to drive her down. It was 400 miles! Not a short jaunt. We left on Wednesday morning and it took all day to get there. We stopped in Marion, Illinois to visit her aunt and uncle. I've met them before so it was fun to see them. Then we continued on to Lola/Salem, Kentucky. Don't bother to look it up on a map because you won't find it. Well, maybe you can but if you blink you will miss it. You see, there is NOTHING in Lola or Salem, Kentucky. But we went to visit her family and we had a nice time.

We were also there for a wedding the occurred on Saturday afternoon. It was at a place called Patti's. Then the reception was down the road at Green Turtle Bay. The bride and groom were so happy and it was a fun day. Ellen, her sister-Kathy and I were in charge of the food during the reception. We worked hard and pulled off a great event.

We came home on Sunday evening in time to go to a farewell party for The Atchison's. They are moving to Alabama. We will miss you guys!

On Monday, we went into Chicago to Millennium Park. That is where the picture of us was taken. We had some Chicago style pizza and walked all around the park. It was a great day. It ended by taking Ellen to the airport! I miss you already!

Cathi

Pre-School days are over

Today was the last day of Little Shepard Pre-school. It was an awesome place. I'm so glad Griffin got to be a part of such a wonderful program. They spent about an hour in class then the kids and parents went to a local park to hear a couple of songs, have ice cream and play. It was a beautiful day and so much fun to play with everyone. Griffin had two great teachers, Mrs. Nicholson and Mrs. Carringella. We'll miss them very much.

Mother's Day

There was a time when Mother's day was not a day I liked to even acknowlegde. But now, I am so happy to be a mom and so glad I have my sweet little boy. He woke me up this morning by jumping on the bed and carrying with him a card and picture frame - both of which he made at school. He was so excited to give them to me. Even though it was before 7am, I clicked on the light and was happy to share in his excitement. The card had his handprint on it and the frame had his school picture in it. Too cute.

We went out to breakfast before going to church. Our friends the Atchison's, well, part of them anyway, met us at the restaurant. You see Hope stayed back in Illinios with her precious baby girl and big boy to sell her house and let said big boy finish up his school year. Her hubby left for Alabama with their 2 middle girls to start a new job. They will be moving in the next month and I am sad to see them go.

After church, I came right home and hopped in bed for a 2+ hour nap! It was great. I did forget to mention that, weather wise, this was the most awful day ever. It was pooring down rain all night and most of the day and the temperatures remained in the 40's and 50's all day. There was nothing to do except stay inside. We even had to turn on the heat (in MAY!).

Dallas made a great dinner of ribs, potatoes and salad. Griffin tried ribs for the first time and loved them. Now the potatoes and salad, not so much! :)

It was a great day and I am so thankful I am a mommy to a boy who helped me celebrate the day and to a boy who's waiting for me in heaven! I love them both!

Garden Update

I've just come back inside from watering my garden. It's only 60 degrees out and very overcast so I don't think the garden is doing much growing today. The sugar snap peas and lettuce seeds have emerged in the past day or two. The 6 tomato plants look good as does the pepper plant and the onions.

Now lets talk about the seeds. They sprouted wonderfully inside and I was anxious to transplant them to the garden. I read that you are suppose to "harden" them before taking them outside. So I took the cover off the "green house" and let them sit for a few days. Then I put them outside for a couple of hours then brought them back inside for a couple of days. Then I planted them. Well, I guess I did something wrong because there is NO sign of my plantings anywhere in the garden, except for 2 jalapeno plants are still going strong at only 2 inches tall.

I ended up buying a cilantro and basil plant and planted them today. I am still holding out hope on some of my flower seeds. I'll wait awhile longer to transplant them.

Cathi

Carly and Griffin

I feel like I should do an entire post on these two. Can you say "cute." They are good buddies and have a great time together. Carly did such a great job of sharing all her toys with Griffin, which for a 5 year old, is not always an easy thing to do.

This first picture just cracks me up! Carly has LOTS of dress-up clothes but nothing for a boy to wear. So Griffin was a trooper and wore a pretty pink dress with a pink hat (oh, and an Olympic medal around his neck). They put on a Hannah Montana (HM) dance show for us. It was impossible for Stacy and I not to crack up. They were hilarious. Griffin had no idea who HM was before we got there. By the time we left, he was singing the words to several of the songs. They listened to the CD a lot!

This picture tells a great story as well. Carly woke up on Sunday morning declaring it was the day that her and GG (she's called him that since they were one years old) were going to get married. She put on her best dress and had her mom curl her hair. She looked beautiful. It was decided that they would get married at Duke Gardens. Well, somewhere between leaving the house and Duke Gardens, Carly decided, "The wedding is off." It was because GG was not sharing his video games in the car (and I don't blame her one bit for calling it off.) She didn't really want anything to do with having her picture taken with GG but I think there was a bribe involved to snap this one real quick.

We are lucky to have such great friends!

North Carolina!!

Griffin and I were in North Carolina for 4.5 days last weekend. We had a BLAST! We visited our great friends the Strongs - Clint, Stacy, Carly and Clint. The weather was perfect and I loved every second of our visit. Well, maybe not the few seconds when Griffin had a complete meltdown and pulled the gate from the wall at the top of the steps. But otherwise, it was great.

I should mention how we know each other. Stacy and I joined MOPS (Mothers of Pre-schoolers) back in the fall of 2003 when Carly and Griffin were just 6 months old. We were with a great group of women and we all became friends. The following summer, Stacy helped watch Griffin a bit when I went back to work and Dallas was looking for a job. We have some great memories of the two kiddos growing up together. Clint accepted a new job in NC about 6 months before we moved to Illinois.

The first picture is of the Duke University Chapel. We spent a couple of hours on the campus and specifically at the Duke Gardens. They are beautiful and I could have spent the entire DAY there but the Cosmic Cantina was calling our name so we left for lunch! Then we went back to see the chapel. It was well worth the time to see it.

This is the three of them hanging out after a long day of playing! They took a bath together every night.

We went to a strawberry patch the first morning we were there. They had just opened for the season and had so many strawberries. I had never seen so many and they were awesome. The kids did the picking and Stacy and I carried the baskets. We got 9 pounds of berries in about 20 minutes. (Did I mention there were a TON of berries).

The best part of picking the berries was the many, many glasses of strawberry margaritas Stacy and I drank out in the backyard watching the kids play on the water slide. Those things are addictive. We had grand plans to make all sorts of desserts with the berries and all we made was margaritas! :)

We took the kids to two different parks for picnic lunches. You would think we tired them out but they still had a hard time going to sleep from all the excitement.

Thank you Strong family for a great time!