Kelley's Menagerie

Kelley gave me permission to show off her menagerie.... Hank and Barbie, and her puppy, Gunner. I believe she has to wait until May 8 to "take custody of" Gunner, but Hank the duck hangs out full time at Kelley's home, and Kelly is babysitting Barbie the chicken for a friend. Looks like lots of fun to me! Now I need some updated photos of Dolly and Sophie, especially now that Dolly is sporting a Mohawk!

93 Degrees

Even a 93 degree HOT day feels great after being sick and indoors for several days. Poor Jim Riddles was our high tech online Dell guru yesterday, answering emails about Kevin's dying laptop: "Isn't there a way to coax a laptop into surviving just a few more weeks until graduation?!" Sounds like Papa C made a spectacular recovery after his heart cardioversion - by going out for a ride on his motorcycle with friends! Andrew had a stressful but successful long week of testing at work. Hang in there, Kevin, Danny, Rachel, Danielle, Kelley and anyone else who might be counting down to the end of the semester! A few folks have emailed that they aren't able to add a comment to my posts, and being new to this blogging thing, I don't have the answer :( Gong Gong and Pop Pop are traveling in Louisiana and then on to Houston, and I hope they're having a good time. I swore I wasn't going to get hooked on American Idol this season, but it happened again. Chris has really grown on me, but Adam is so amazingly talented. Aunt Jackie is leaving on a week-long cruise with her Mom and sister - bon voyage and drink a pina colada for me! I hope Kelley will let us know when she's ready to show off her new residence, and Shannon will let me know when she's ready to go on a photo shoot, because that would be a lot more fun than the spring cleaning I have planned for this weekend. One more thing; I was looking back on some of the photos I've posted and realized that the layout I did with Mom and me was one of the first photos I posted, before I figured out how to size photos. Mom, I messed up and can't make it any larger, so I'm posting a larger photo of just you, looking beautiful. Good night.

Papa C - Monday evening

I'm so happy to report that Papa C made it through the cardioversion with no problems, and his heartbeat is now back to normal. Knowing Murr C and Papa C, they will be back to square dancing by Saturday! We send our love!!!

Papa C

I will post as soon as I hear from Andrew about Papa C's cardioversion procedure this afternoon. Andrew and Missy are at the hospital. It's my turn for the virus that's been going around, and it's no fun at all. Spent all day in bed yesterday, same today. Andrew is finally getting better, but still coughing a lot and not 100%. Danny just texted that he might be getting sick, too :( Today is the six-month anniversary of Danny & Danielle's dating! Again, keep Papa C and Murr C in your prayers.

Family Stuff...

Enjoyed a wonderful Easter buffet at Pecan Plantation, thanks to the generosity of "Gong Gong" & "Pop Pop"! I'll post some Easter photos in the next few days. Stephanie is turning into the most beautiful young lady, and Cheston and Matthew are handsome and adventurous... we spent some time in the back yard waiting for Cheston's homemade ziploc bag explosive to detonate, and also cracked some confetti Easter eggs on each other's heads! We missed Andrew (still sick, but finally went to the doctor today, and is on a Z-pack), Kevin (who had a fun day at Rachel's uncle's house, and tried eating lamb for the first time), and Danny (who raced in tons of mud, and got a great "hole shot" - first racer to the first turn after the start). I'm sorry to miss Stephanie and Matthew's school orchestra concert tonight, and hope it goes well! I'll be feeding chicken noodle soup to Uncle Andrew, but we'll be thinkin' of you! I ordered Kevin's graduation invitations today- sounds like graduation will be so much fun - the UT band playing "The Eyes of Texas", fireworks at the UT tower.... save the date - May 23rd! I hear that Kelley is renting a house near Tarleton, Mike & Missy helped build a dog run in the back yard for the arrival of a new puppy (Kelley's long-awaited-dream-come-true). Shannon has been taking some gorgeous photos at the arboretum - see samples below. She and I now have the exact same model camera....hmmm, I wonder who I could borrow a telephoto lens from....We'll be taking Danny & Danielle out for her birthday dinner this week. She and Danny sent cell phone photos of the two of them petting a baby tiger last Friday. Rachel also sent photos the same day of Dolly in her new mohawk "hairdo" - I sent a suggestion that they get her a black leather spiked collar to go with the mohawk, and she sent another photo right back with her wearing one! Papa C will be having a procedure done on Monday to "shock" his heart back into a regular rhythm; it is called cardioversion. It is day surgery. He won’t feel anything, will be under sedation. They hope it will shock his heart back into regular rhythm. When I talked to Murr C and Papa C on Friday, they were headed to a car club meeting on Saturday. Their social life is twice as active as ours have ever been! Happy 25th wedding anniversary to Mike & Margo, who are headed to New York City on Friday to celebrate. I guess that's enough for today. We send our love to everyone!

Quick Hello

Oh, to be back in East TX photographing azaleas instead of going to work this morning! We're in for a stormy Easter weekend; lots of indoor Easter egg hunts this year. I sure miss putting together Easter baskets; Andrew insists that 22 and 18-year old guys do not want Easter baskets! Oops, out of time, off to work...

Weekend Retreat

Enjoyed a wonderful weekend retreat in beautiful East Texas. Met my friend Barbara at Crossroads Country Cottage for a scrapbooking/laughing/eating/photo-taking/staying up late/wine-drinking/catching up weekend. Barbara is a truly great friend, and has been such a blessing in my life. I met many fun and talented ladies- Donna, Diane, Pauline, Dee, Cindy... - thanks for a great weekend! What a wonderful way to celebrate family, catch up with friends, be creative, and let someone else do the cooking & cleaning! Andrew worked in the yard while I was gone, and did all the dirt bike tinkering he could stand for one weekend. When's the next retreat???