June 28, 2012

We celebrated Greg and Doug's birthdays tonight by enjoying a delicious dinner at Brio at The Greene.  Today's temperatures reached a record high of 105 degrees!  We expected to enjoy dinner in the cool of the restaurant, but they had experienced some A/C problems and while it was not 105 in the restaurant it was very hot!

June 27, 2012

I learned a lesson this morning.  Never be alone on your deck without a telephone, a diet coke and plenty to read.

I had spent a nice half hour on the deck reading my book and enjoying my diet coke early this morning.  Greg came out to kiss me good-bye as he was leaving for work. I told him I only had three pages left so I was finishing my book and wished him a good day.  Three pages later I gathered my things and tried to go in the house.  Notice I said tried?  Out of habit Greg had locked the door when he went in and I was locked out--in my pjs and with no shoes!  I banged on the door with no result.  I decided to reread some parts of the very enjoyable book I had just read--The Cat Who Came in from the Cold.  I tired of this quickly and resumed my banging on the door, still with no results.  The sun has moved and the deck is now in the sun and I am getting hot, I have nothing else to read, and I am out of diet coke--not a good combination if you know me at all!  I look around for something I can use to tap on the girls' bedroom window and thankfully find a very long piece of trim board.  After a little tapping I rouse the girls and wave them down to let me in.  They all immediately saw the humor of the situation.  I, however, called my husband and informed him that if he was going to lock me out of the house to please make sure I had an unread book and a diet coke.

June 26, 2012

Smoothies--one of our favorite summer treats!

June 25, 2012

Hadley and I attended a Scentsy party given by Sara Brook tonight.  It was fun sniffing all the wonderful scents and Hadley won two prizes!

June 24, 2012

A gift from my secret sister at EBC.  How did she know that I love geraniums?

June 23, 2012

Greg, Hadley and I went to Zanesfield this morning to pick up Riley from Marmon Valley Farm horse camp.  This is one of his favorite things about summertime--he loves horse camp.

We were excited to see he was chosen to be part of the flag presentation.  They did a great job considering they had only gotten to practice for two hours.  He and his horse, Samson, got along well and had a good week together.

June 22, 2012

Our hydranga bush is loaded with flowers this year.  Such pretty colors!



June 21, 2012

Happy Birthday, Greg!  Greg and I celebrated his special day by having dinner at Logan's Steakhouse. I thought this shirt was great for my always-willing-to-cookout hubby.

(Calleigh and Riley were at camp and Hadley was having a special surprise shopping day with her friend Jess, arranged by Daniel). 

June 20, 2012

Aren't they too cute!  Today Hadley and I met Danielle, Maddy, and Mackenna at David's Bridal to try on different sashes for their flowergirl dresses.  It was fun watching them dance and curtsy in front of the big mirrors.

June 19, 2012

One Year Adventure Novel group photo.  Calleigh is second row center.

June 18, 2012

Calleigh left for Kansas this morning.  I know she thinks she is tough, I know she thinks she is all grown-up, but putting her on an airplane and sending her several states away to a conference to be picked up by the guy that she has recently broken-up with is a very hard thing for a mom.  I know the conference will be supervised by great Christian people, by I worry about her heart and I worry about her getting there safely.  Today she is a great daughter and texts her worried mother often to keep her updated on her flights and arrivals.  She does get to Kansas safely, she does get picked up, albeit hours after her arrival due to car problems, she does get to the conference safely, and he does end up acting like a jerk, and her heart does get hurt.  But she is right--she is tough, and she is a grown-up and she handles it all and she has a great week, enjoys great friends and learns a lot which was the purpose of attending this conference in the first place.  I won't hesitate to admit that she was right, everything was ok, and that I am proud of her!

June 17, 2012

Mother gave all of us a ticket to Wicked for various occasions and today was the performance!  Hadley and Calleigh had seen it before and had loved it (Calleigh more than your average person).  I knew I would enjoy it as I had heard the songs a lot, but was not prepared to love it as much as I did.  We definitely plan to attend in Columbus next year, Greg and Riley must see it too!  Thanks Mother for a wonderful afternoon!

June 16, 2012

Pomp & Circumstance

Receiving Diploma

"The tassel was worth the hassle" is a cute phrase used in connection with graduation, but I feel it was especially true for Hadley. All colleges in the state of Ohio are switching from quarters to semesters this fall so Hadley wanted to complete her degree and transfer module for Sinclair now so that she could enter Wright State as a junior with all of her classes cleanly transferring.  She worked so very hard and completed 154 hours in under two years, (taking summer classes one year and Christmas term classes), she graduated with high honors and a 3.94 grade point average.  We are so proud of her accomplishments.



Calleigh & Hadley

Two graduates in one year!

Celebrate!

June 15, 2012

After almost two years this is Hadley's last day of classes at Sinclair.  I have made countless trips taking her to class and picking her up from class-sometimes several trips in a day. (It is only a ten minute round trip)  I am thankful that I was able to have this time with her each day as with her crazy schedule and hours of homework, sometimes these trips were the only time I had to chat with her about her day and her classes.  God took what could seem to some as a hassle and and inconvenience and gave me the blessing of time with my daughter.  I will miss our mom and daughter snatches of time each day.

June 14, 2012

Up until two days ago knitting this baby blanket has been relaxing and enjoyable.  I then realized I had knitted the same row twice-several inches from behind my current position-and this skewed the whole pattern!  Hadley helped, I knitted again, it was wrong.  Hadley helped again, I knitted again, it was still wrong.  After more thought Hadley figured out the problem and I was on my way again.  It was frustrating, but hopefully a knitting lesson we will remember should the problem ever occur again.

June 13, 2012

Tonight was the last night of Patch Club. We read the last of our wonderful Mrs. Miller story and enjoyed cookies and kool-aid.  Beginning on left front:  Aly, Zane, Mackenna, Maddy, Max, Noelle, Nina and Kami.  I will miss our time together and look forward to getting together again at the end of August.

June 12, 2012

I am not sure how you can look at a sky like this and question the existence of God.

June 11, 2012

Inside all the boxes are the wedding invitations.  Since the wedding is less than two months away, we thought we had better begin stuffing and stamping the invitations.  We also picked up Hadley's dress today from the seamstress as the alterations were complete.  Exciting, but no photo of the dress until August 11!

June 10, 2012

This afternoon was Hadley's last concert with the Sinclair choirs.  She has performed in both Chamber Choir and Chorale for the last two years.  Part of the concert was performed from the choir/organ loft.  In the second photo Hadley is singing her solo, a very bizzare song.  All the songs in this concert were by British composers.

Calleigh and Greg got to attend a Dayton Dragons game this afternoon.  An old friend of Greg's is part of the between innings entertainment and had extra free tickets which Greg and Calleigh were happy take off his hands.  Duncan is snapping this photo.  He and Philip were able to go to the game too.  A fun afternoon for all, especially as tickets for the Dragons are hard to come by.

June 9, 2012

Greg, Calleigh, Riley and I were at Chick-fil-A for lunch today and were asked by the manager if we wanted a "Back Stage Tour".  Calleigh said that she thought that sounded fun so they took us "Back Stage" where they showed us how they prepare the food (they hand-bread all the chicken patties and nuggets as needed), told us a little history of the founding and founders of the restaurant, and told us little bits of interesting trivia.  It was fun and we received free coupons for chicken biscuits (which they mix and hand-roll every morning by the way).  We also each received a cow mascot.   What an unexpected field trip!

June 8, 2012

We received an invitation to Hadley's bridal shower at Daniel's church, how exciting!  The wedding is 63 days away and receiving this invitation suddenly makes it clear that it is very real and very soon.

June 7, 2012

Calleigh and I had a lovely afternoon spent with old friends we had not visited with in way too long!  We had lunch and enjoyed the afternoon with the Holtreys.  In the top photo is Calleigh, Lauren (who has grown soo much!), Maree and Kaitlyn.  We were happy to finally meet the newest member to their family, Kaitlyn, who had us laughing with her funny one-year old ways.  Alan and Reggie were off to basketball camp before I got out the camera, but we were able to chat and catch up with them during lunch.  We hugged good-bye with assurances it would not be too long before we get together again.

June 6, 2012

Ben surprised Calleigh with throwing knives for Christmas (she really really wanted a set) and then she recently bought two more sets (she is over 18 and can do this).  She and Riley set up a target in the backyard and have spent a lot of time seeing who can get the most bulls-eyes.

June 5, 2012

My lavender is blooming and smells so wonderful!  I love old medicine bottles used as vases.

June 4, 2012

NEED PHOTO FROM SHARON OF RILEY AND ELIZABETH WITH CAKE

We had not had "game night" in what seemed like forever, so to celebrate Elizabeth's and Riley's birthdays, Doug fired up the grill and made his amazing ribs, Sharon and I filled in the meal with other family favorites.  We enjoyed the evening "just like old times" as close as we could as Lewis could not be there and Hadley had to leave early to attend something at school.

June 3, 2012

After church we went to Ft. Thomas to celebrate Nick's graduation.  We thought since there were two graduates this year we should have them both in their caps and gowns.  Daniel snapped this family photo for us.

June 2, 2012

After many scheduling problems and snafus, we met at the Syreks for birthday cake and then went on to the movies to see "The Avengers" in 3-D.  It had been much anticipated and we were not disappoionted.  What a fun time with friends!

June 1, 2012

I have always loved tiger lillies.  When I was little my mother had a picture that my great-grandmother had painted of these type of lillies, but I remember the lillies in the painting having brown oval-shaped spots.  I tried and tried to draw, paint, or color flowers to look like the ones my great-grandmother had painted.  I never succeeded in achieving anything even close to how wonderful I thought the ones in the picture looked.  I recently asked my mother about the painting and was told that the paper had cracked and crumbled and fell apart and I was so sad that the painting of which I had such memories was lost forever.

May 31, 2012

Hadley and Daniel's engagement photos, taken by the photographer for the wedding, arrived today.  These are a few of my favorites.  Since I spent so much time looking at all of them, I neglected to take a photo myself and deemed it fitting that these be my photo for the day.

May 30, 2012-Riley's 16th Birthday!

I can't believe Riley turned 16 today!  He, Calleigh and I celebrated with a shopping trip for gifts and lunch at Qudoba, and cupcakes from Gigi's.  Later, joined by his dad and Grandma Gloria we had a delicious dinner at Outback.  The last photo shows off Riley's new cowboy boots (size 14!), a gift from Grandma Gloria.

May 29, 2012

Tonight was Hadley's graduation recital.  A very big day in her life, and a proud day for me.  It is more important to a music major than the graduation ceremony.  It was a beautiful recital and special because it was performed with two of her best friends, Jessica and Rebecca.  Many of those who have loved and supported her were in attendance making it a wonderful event for her. 

May 28, 2012

Tonight was our Shakespeare wrap-up.  Angel, The Weird Sisters, Puck and Horatio presented a program highlighting the plays and what they have learned this past year.  It was a great way to end their study on The Bard.  We thank Angel for all her hard work and research which made this class so fun and interesting.