Congratulations Alli

Alli had her little ceremony tonight for her successful completion of the 3 year old preschool program. The kids were so cute - they said the Pledge of Allegiance, then sang the Star Spangled Banner, and then sang "I can sing a Rainbow" and ended with the ABC song. Alli was not shy at all and you could definitely hear her. After the program one of the teachers came up to her and thanked her for singing so loud.

Alli is very excited because next year she gets to be one of the "big kids" because she will be in the 4 year old preschool. Because her Birthday is in October she doesn't get to start kindergarten next year, she has to wait until 2009. Most of the kids she plays with are in the 4 year old class (they are actually 5 now) and will be going to kindergarten next year. I'm sure she will miss her friends but I'm sure next year will bring a new group of 3 year olds that she can boss around! She got a very good progress report and apparently behaves much better at school than she does at home. It's hard to believe that she is growing up so fast, I know if I'm not careful I will blink my eyes and the next thing we know we won't be going to her preschool graduation but we will be going to her high school graduation!

Alli and her teacher Miss Charlotte

HAPPY 2nd ANNIVERSARY DAWN & ADAM

Last Tuesday, May 13, 2008 was Dawn and Adam's 2nd year anniversary. Since it was in the middle of the week (and I was tied up with a business function) they took the kids out to dinner and then said they would go out by themselves on Friday evening. Aunt Cathy had a slumber party with Alli and Nick and I kept Andrew overnight. We had a lazy evening where we fell asleep about 9:30 (that is totally unheard of for me any night of the week but especially on a Friday night) and then he woke up about midnight and took a bottle and went back to sleep. He woke up again about 6:00am and took his bottle and went back to sleep! Well I didn't want to wake him up so I figured I might as well go back to sleep again and then we ended up getting up about 9:00 (once again that is totally unheard of - I never sleep in that late). I guess Andrew knew I had a rough week at work so he was being a very good boy. Once he got up we laid in bed and he just talked to me and smiled and was so darn cute. He is trying to mimic things you do with your mouth by sticking out his tongue or smacking his lips. He is starting to get quite a personality and is such a sweetheart. Dawn and Adam had a fun evening - they went to Chili's and then went to Meijer and bought a couple of movies and was home by 10:00pm. They are such the party animals. Dawn did say it was nice to be able to sleep through the night without having to get up so I guess I helped a little bit. I wish them both many years together and I'm so glad that they found each other because I think they are perfect for each other. Happy Anniversary - Love ya both!

Watch out Tiger Woods

Back about a month and a half ago we were at Dicks sporting goods and Alli wanted to go look at the golf clubs. I'm not sure why but she has a fascination with golf. She saw some clubs for little kids and she asked if she could get them but we told her the were $80 and that was a lot of money. Knowing what she needed to do she said "can I call Papa and ask him if he has 80 bucks?" Well I laughed and gave her my cell phone and we called Papa but he was in Tunica with his "poker friends" and wasn't doing very well so he told her she would have to wait. Well then every time in the next few weeks after he got finished bowling she would ask "Papa, did you win 80 bucks?" I think she knows she has papa wrapped around her finger. Well she started doing chores around the house so that she could earn her 80 bucks for her golf clubs. I went on line to e-bay and I found a set of golf clubs like the ones at Dicks for $50 so I got them. We were waiting for it to get warm out so that when she got them we could play outside. The other day they were over at the house and so we got the box and gave it to her. When she opened the top she could see what was in it and said "Oh my goodness, I know what this is". She was just so excited. We went out to the backyard and let her hit a few balls. She carried those clubs around and was so excited. They are so cute, it comes with a bag and has a 7 iron, a putter, and a driver (with a head cover for the driver). They are real clubs but for little ones. Today was a nice day and Ron was actually off so Ron, Dawn, Adam, Alli, Drew and I went to Rustic Gardens so that she could try out her new clubs. We played nine holes and we had a lot of fun. I think she got tired of everyone trying to teach her what to do because at one time she said "I am only four years old you know". Well I guess she told us!

The last hole we played was a par 3 and she played it all by her self and got par on that hole. Not bad for a 4 year old!

After we finished with miniature golf we went over to the driving range to practice some with our woods. At one point Ron decided he wanted to practice driving with his seven iron and so he said he liked the way he was driving with his seven iron so Alli said "hey, I have a seven iron, I want to try it" so she ran to her bag to get her seven iron. I guess they are never too young to learn.

I figure in another 12 years she will be playing golf on the golf tour so remember the name - Alli Jade Raquet - you can say you knew her when.

Congratulations and Happy Birthday Tina!

I had dinner with my friend Tina Magyar and her girls, Ameilia and Ella, on Thursday evening. We hadn't actually gotten together since New Years and it was long past due. Tina and I met at BAA back in November of 1999 and it was like a pitcher of koolaid - just add water and viola you have koolaid - but in our case it was just add smiles and it was instant friendship. We became fast friends and it is hard to believe that it has been 8 1/2 years since we met. Tina is actually closer in age to my daughters than to me and in fact one time a few years back someone thought she was my daughter - HOW DARE THEY! Tina turned 33 today and I just wanted to give her a happy birthday blog. I'm so proud of her because yesterday she ran the mini marathon and ran the whole thing. When she signed up for it she thought she would just walk it but her adrenaline kicked in and she said she wasn't sure what came over her but she decided not to walk after all. She finished in 2 hours and 25 minutes. Way to go Tina! Tina and I are going to try and do a half marathon in October at Fort Benjamin Harrison. She now has me inspired once again and I know that we can do it together. I'm also very proud of Tina because she just celebrated her 1 year anniversary of reaching her weight watcher goal. Over the years that Tina and I worked together we would both try and diet but to no avail. I saw what a great job she had done on weight watchers and it inspired me to join and I am forever grateful to her for that. She taught me some good foods that I could eat at restaurants and even took me to the grocery store to shop weight watcher style and learn that I could eat a lot of good foods that weren't just good for you but good to eat as well. I have been at goal now for 6 months and have to give Tina credit for getting me started. Anybody that knew the two of us 8 years ago would have laughed if we said that between the two of us we would lose 110 pounds!

Following is a picture that was taken 2 years ago at Dawn & Adams wedding and one that was taken this past Thursday at dinner. As you can tell there is a little bit of a difference!

Tina, thank you so much for your friendship over the past 8 1/2 years and I know we will have many more years of friendship together. even though we don't get to see each other as much as either of us would like I cherish the times that we do get together.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Me and My Long Time Friends

Last night I met my good friends Linda Schenher and Debbie Schoenherr at Olive Garden. I met Linda and Debbie back in 1991 when I started working at UMM. Linda worked in accounts payable and Debbie was working as a staff accountant. Debbie and Linda lived in the same neighborhood so they knew each other and once I started working at UMM in accounts payable they befriended me. We had such great times together. Our favorite place to eat lunch was LaChicas (once Debbie & I left UMM they shut down the place). We would go there 2 to 3 times a week because it was such a no brainer. We would walk in the door and the waitress would see us coming and would have our diet sodas at our table by the time we sat down. She would ask us if we wanted our usual (which we usually did) and she would go get it ready. After a stressful morning it was just what we needed because we were waited on hand and foot and we could just sit back and talk with each other and not have a care in the world. Man, those were the days! Debbie moved out of state and I moved on to another job and Linda stayed at UMM to hold down the fort. We still tried to get together whenever Debbie came back to town and thank goodness Debbie eventually moved back to Indy. Since Debbie has moved back we try to get together every few months to catch up, and unfortunately sometimes it just isn't that easy. We all became grandparents within 5 months of each other so that just gave us that much more to talk about. We usually get together right after work and end up spending the whole night talking. We have been known to be at the restaurant until they kicked us out! They turn on the lights and start sweeping and so that is our clue that it is probably time to say goodbye. Maybe if we got together a little more often then we wouldn't have to stay so long - or perhaps that wouldn't really make a difference. Last night was no exception, we arrived at about 6:00 and left the restaurant about 10:50 pm. We actually hadn't gotten together since January and have been trying to get together since March so better late than never and at least we got together before May (just barely) so we had a lot of catching up to do. I'm just so happy that I have such great friends and even if we can't see each other everyday we can still get together every so often and spend lots of time catching up. Thanks again Linda and Debbie for a fun evening, it was so good getting together and catching up and we need to make sure it isn't 3 months before we get together again.