Hi from sunny North Carolina!

It's been an adventure already...my sister Barb and I drove 12 hours yesterday with Mama and Dad for Mama's family reunion here Sunday.

We were thrilled that our other sister Maria and her daughter Seanna arrived here from Florida too...with a trunk-load of fresh watermelons from their family farm!

Good times ahead! Hope to be home late Monday and share my adventures from our...

...family reunions.

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"Are you SURE you want to eat here?" Kim asked as I told him to stop for breakfast at this little cafe on the Indiana/Ohio state line.

 

The Amish are a fascinating people....frugal, hard-working, private, religious...but what sets them apart from other frugal, hard-working, private, religious people that I know is their embracing of a life that is plain and simple.

 

A favorite quick getaway for Kim and me is Holmes County, Ohio, home to one of the largest Amish and Mennonite populations in the world.  While we are fascinated with their simple (although certainly not easy!) lifestyle, what lures us more than anything is the beautiful rolling countryside.

 

No better way to end our late spring evenings than watching our grandsons play Pee Wee baseball at the diamond! 

A few of my favorite shots of 5 1/2-year-old Karter and 4-year-old Kaden from the past couple of weeks...

 

Hard to believe, I know, but now I'm 57 years old.

Celebrated my birthday last week with some of my special-est peeps!

 

This is the first blooming season for our irises...and they are just fabulous!  The blooms are as big as a softball!

Heading out early this morning for a weekend getaway with Kim...should come back refreshed, rested, renewed, and with an SD card full of photographs.  The forecast in our neck of the woods looks perfect and if ever we needed a couple of days away, we certainly do now.

Catch you next week!  Here's to a great holiday weekend for everyone!

 

One thing I love about my grandbabies is they all have the most gorgeous blue eyes!

 

Spending the morning with my little Krew-man while Mommy Anique heads to Indy to pick up Daddy Kamaron from the orthopedic hospital, where he spent the night following his knee surgery yesterday.

I've always wondered what it would be like to live in a downtown neighborhood, and Krew and I are enjoying this beautiful May morning listening to the birds and the distant traffic sounds. He loves it outside, so we're having ourselves some porch time together.

Life is good!

My computer is still in the shop, repaired but I haven't had time to go pick it up. I'm not great at posting from my iPhone, so this'll be short and sweet...just like my Krew!

Good morning...from me and Krew!

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(Originally posted 5 years ago in May 2009 after attending my son Kamaron's graduation from IU.  With all the college graduations happening this time of year, I recall my own very special day now 35 years ago....)

Has it really been 30 [now 35!] years ago?  Celebrating my son's graduation from IU took me on a stroll down memory lane to my own graduation from Indiana University in May of 1979.

Many things were the same.  Assembly Hall. Thousands of excited, ambitious young people ready to start their lives and change the world.  Proud parents and grandparents jockeying for the perfect seat to watch their child.

I am always amazed at how every grad has an intense need to find their cheering section in the stands and wave at them, while every parent searches every face from her distant seat to spot her baby in his graduation garb.  It is as if neither can rest until they find the other across the sea of people, and then once spotted, both can sit down and enjoy the ceremony.  At my kids' graduations, people were using their cell phones and texting their locations to their loved ones.  Back "in the day," it took a lot more effort to find each other, but somehow we always did.