Parent Night at The Wave

The kids did a great job with their Parent Night presentation last night. First was a pizza dinner for all the families in the Fellowship Hall. Then the show started. The counselor's did a very tongue in cheek performance of "A Day in the Life of a Wave Camper" through interpretative dance. So, so, so funny! Hysterical! Bailey is SUCH a ham! Lance and I were laughing our heads off. The parents truly cannot ask for a better staff to care for their kids. How special each of them are!

Darby was called on stage to do "Jiggy, Jiggy".... it's this dance song that the kids love! "Hey there, Darby, you're a real cool cat. You've got lots of this and lots of that. We all think you're really, really neat so get on your feet and do the jiggy-jiggy beat!" He was dancing all over the stage...Again, HAM!

It was a fun night and the kids have had a fantastic summer. One more week of summer camp and then it's back to thinking about school. The first full day for Darby is August 11 and Bailey begins August 18. Bailey will have cheer camp beginning next week and she is excited about that. Her first Boone Football game to cheer at will be Friday, August 29!!!!

Randy Pausch Dies of Cancer at 47

Author of The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch, passed away today at the age of 47. I have followed his struggle with pancreatic cancer since hearing his "Last Lecture" given at Carnegie Mellon in September 2007. At that time he had just been given a time frame of, "... 3 to 6 months of good health left". He defied those odds by faith, love of family, optimism, passion for life and his life's work and by prioritizing. In addition to the insightful lecture he gave in September, he also did one on Time Management at UV in November 2007. I believe this one to be extremely practical and helpful, especially for someone who can let work get the best of her.

We will all die some day. We all face the same fate, his was just faster. But I found the journey and the way he traveled to that end to be very inspiring and loving.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo The Last Lecture - Carnegie Mellon September 2007

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5784740380335567758 Time Management - University of Virginia November 2007

http://www.thelastlecture.com/ Buy the Last Lecture

Bailey's Grades

Bailey's official grades this past nine weeks were straight A's, which gives her a STRONG 4.27 GPA! Way to go, Bae!

Summer Time....1st Wedding Anniversary

I love the pace of summer - I truly do. Everyone pitched in this weekend for our garage sale on Saturday, except Darby (it was his Dad's birthday this weekend). Jacob was the mascot... wore a clown nose, big glasses and a rainbow wig. Meagan even got into the act. Cracked us all up! He welcomed everyone who walked up the drive. We had a good turn out and have decided to do it one more time on July 12th. After the garage sale we headed over to Lance's parent's house for a fun cookout.... Terry is fierce on the grill. I made marinated cucumber salad with cucumbers from our garden. YUM! All the kids went swimming and had a great time! Jacob got stung by a wasp and never made a peep. It was a red wasp too... hurt twice as bad. What a trooper. Sunday was church in the NEW Fellowship Hall which was great. Meagan was "starving" to death at about 11:30am. She and Bailey are my rabbits. They like all vegetables! So, I made an early supper of baked chicken with this buttery cracker crust on the top, turnip greens, buttered corn, mashed potatoes and chicken gravy. Jacob said, "It's so homey here." I can think of no greater compliment. The house brimming with kids is the just the best. Tonight is 'Swim Mondays' at Danny and Anita Dickey's house, one of neighbors. They have a nice pool and the kids have a lot of fun. Today is Lance's and my 1st wedding anniversary! I am so grateful for him in my life and the joy he brings to me and the rest of the family. He is my everything! We are officially celebrating our anniversary next week in Annapolis with Teresa and Justin.

WARNING: Sun Worshippers

I went two weeks ago for my yearly Dermatologist appointment based on my mother and father's history. I had four biopsies. All FOUR were dyplastic moles. They have over a 90% chance of becoming melanomas within 5 years! Not Basal cell carcinomas but the full blown BAD BOYS!!! So, there were two that were totally taken care of via the the biopsies... meaning all the cells were captured in the biopsy... GONE! There are two more... one on my right forearm and one on my abdomen that need more work. That is OK. A bit uncomfortable... just a little shot and then a slight "punch" and a stitch or two. That's the small price I pay for worshipping the sun and being a native Floridan! Bottom line is EVERYONE needs to go to the Dermo to get checked out.... it's worth 45 minutes of your time! We can still love the sun, we just need this in our yearly regimen of "check up" items.... we catch 'em early and they are no big deal!! It is sooooo worth it. I love you all!!

Lance's Garden

We were able to pick our first squash of the season! Lance literally cut them off the monterous vines and handed them to me. I washed them and cut them up, cooked them with some onion and butter for dinner last night. We are talking vine to plate in 20 minutes. Bailey says they were the BEST she ever tasted! Now remember Lance grew everything - the squash, tomatoes and cucumbers - from seeds! Completely organic and what a difference in the taste!! Lance has grown food for our family - pretty cool!

Out of the blue our neighbor, Todd Ross, brought over two huge BBQ'd chicken halves made with homemade BBQ sauce. They were absolutely delicious .... a really nice surprise because I only had to make sides for last night's dinner! Bailey and I are making pound cakes for all our neighbors this weekend. We have some really great ones.

Bailey is learning to drive... BEEP, BEEP!

Bailey has passed her Learner's Permit exam in Florida! She still needs to go to the DVM to get her official license; but, she is ready to go. My only stipulation to her getting her license when she turns 16 is that she knows how to drive a standard. My parents were both adamant about my knowing how to drive a stick because what if there was an emergency and that was the only vehicle available to drive? So I drive a standard and I am taking her to Hendersonville High School parking lot tonight and over the next few months this summer to get her comfortable being behind the wheel. I am excited to be teaching her actually. She is such a great kid and I am thinking of it as a fun new adventure!