Teresa's Retirement Party

This picture is for Heather. Teresa heard about the half marathon, and she decided to show you her medals for winning races - she said that since most serious runners run longer races, she usually wins for her age group in the 5k and 3k's because most ladies her age (73) walk!Here we are making last minute preparations for the retirement party at Mary's house. Left to right: Teresa, Mary, Viva, Crystal (traveled to Europe with Ellen when we were in Belgium - remember her?) Ellen and John.
Teresa's graduation from Law School picture!
This one is for Lindsay. These earrings (Kathy took the picture without her glasses on - that's why it looks blurry....)are made from bottle caps taken from a soda that Robert liked on one of his trips to Mexico. They were so cute! Thought you might like the idea. Teresa has a soda bottle cap necklace, too.
Kathy and Judy - sister and niece. Judy is Ellen and Ruffin's mom.
Amanda (Philipp's wife) and Mary, my niece.
Ruffin, Andrea (Rachel's daughter), Viva and Teresa (Rachel's youngest)
Lance - Mary's 'man' and one of my favorite people!
On the right is Philipp, Teresa's son, my nephew - I don't know the other guy.
Viva, Bryce and Cody.
Ruffin and his wife - forgot the name, but she is a really nice girl.
Another earring shot... and I'm holding one of the 400 mini-cupcakes that Viva made for the party. They were pretty spectacular - especially the Persian love cakes with the dried flowers on top!
Teresa, Kathy and little Teresa.
Ellen, party planner extrordinaire!
Mary and Kathy. It was a great time together. We all want to plan to get together around Dallas next Spring. Start making plans!

How the West Was Sung

I'll just describe the pictures in order, since I can't seem to make this post follow my orders...

Thursday evening we had our first grade program "How the West was Sung". We played to a packed house, and the kids were SO CUTE! (they were probably inspired by my own 'cuteness', so they just couldn't help themselves...)

Anyway, here we are singing the Canoe Song and playing xylophones and "boomfloppers" (a creation of mine using sewer pipe, end caps and a few precise measurements - not to mention a GREAT wooden 'holder' made by my son-in-law Lyle.)

Next is my line up of Cowhands singing "Cowboy's Lament" (aka 'Saddle Sore') while riding some of the cutest stick horses ever! Ms. Deyo the art teacher made about 7 of them for the program, and she even gave them names like 'Zeke' and 'Princess'! How cute!!!
Next is the opening scene: a backyard campfire with fake marshmallows on sticks 'roasting' over a flickering campfire. We dimmed the lights and turned on the disco ball for a 'starry' night effect and sang 'Home on the Range' and 'Little Old Cowboy'. Cute is a word I'll keep using to describe this show, I promise!

The next picture is of me and my 5th grade stage crew. They love doing their jobs, and I really give them stuff to do, to! They hand out and collect props, set the stage up, run sound and lights, and help clean up and get the music room put back together after the program. They are a bunch of great kids!

And the last one is a picture I tried and failed to turn right-side up! I am posing with one of the great "Deyo Horses". She really is an artist! We had a cardboard train, sheep, cow, pig, mountain and tunnel, too! What a fun show. I had lots of help from the parents, too, so it was fun working with them and getting to know them better. What a fun evening! OK, on to passing the Praxis in 6 weeks, and I'll only have school to worry about! YEEE-HAAAW!!!