Easter, TEA and Nate

On Easter, we all enjoyed seeing and holding Avery Dedekian. She was 2.5 weeks old and just loves to sleep. Uncle Leonard is loving this! Addison got to hunt Easter eggs with no competition this year. She gets lots of help on colors to look for and locations to look from all the adult helpers. She had a great time!

Even Hazel got to enjoy a little Easter with the family this year. It was a fun time. Thanks Bob and Linda for having us!

Well, April 15th was our day to protest TAXES. We participated with hundreds of other people in and around Hanford about the over-extension of government in our lives. We were happy that there were more than Republican there.

Yea! On Friday Nate came to help us! We really appreciate Nathan's willing heart and effort to help us in our time of need. Lyle has been working on cleaning up his dad's old place which is currently a rental. Lyle has built and rebuilt fences and is now working on cleaning out his dad's old shed area. Not only is it an eye sore, it has had varmints in it. Nathan drove all the way to Hanford to help his dad with this dirty project. Thanks Nate! Clayton has been wanting a "Field Trip," so Lyle brought him over to watch. Clayton loved the outing and was treated to McDonald's lunch.

The back part of the roof is now removed thanks to Nate and Lyle's hard work on Saturday morning.

Although this is a lousy picture, I wanted to get Nate's picture on the desktop to let everyone know how much he helped me with my new computer. Annie and Bee are on my screen saver, but Nate showed me how to take pictures of us with my new Mac Book. He set it up and showed me more than I will ever remember...But, THANK YOU! YOU ARE FABULOUS, NATE!

Here is a better shot of my wonderful Birthday Toy from Lyle. Thank you! I love my new computer! It is something I have wanted for a long time.

Looking forward to doing marvelous things with my new machine. After all his hard work, Nate took his grandma Lois to lunch on Saturday. He spent the afternoon with her. She love that! And after going to church with us on Sunday, Nate treated me to an early Mother's Day lunch at Figero's Southwestern Mexican Resturant. Thanks again, Nate. We had a great weekend with him!

Vegas Fun in April

Spring Break is a wonderful thing! We got away to Las Vegas for 3 days. We like to see the new and ever changing sights. These are new sky scrapers called City Center in the place of the old Boardwalk...where we used to take the kids to the Surf Buffet for inexpensive food. Yes, that building has the illusion of leaning over. I spent some time taking pictures of Lyle because it was his birthday!

We tried to do things that he wanted to do. This is inside the Wynn Hotel. It is beautiful. The floor is white mosaic with colorful florals incorporated into the design. This is inside.

This is outside the Wynn Hotel. What a beautiful setting. This hotel was built where the Desert Inn used to be. It has a beautiful, expensive golf course built behind.

We walked next door to see the new Palazzo Hotel. We watched being built from our window at the Wynn 2 summers ago. The colorful umbrellas and the high waterfall features (over Lyle's right shoulder) were impressive. They resembled a high waterfall.

Then we drove way out west to Summerlin Planned Community to look at houses. Well, Marlene fell in love with the first one we saw! This is the last house in the Crown Series at Kingwood at The Vistas community. This model home was being sold AS IS! EVERYTHING COMES WITH IT! TV, new oversided WASHER & DRYER, Kitchen appliances, bedding, window treatments, pictures...you see it....it will stay...except they will clean the carpet. Oh My.....It is gorgeous! Unfortunately...it is out of our price range! But enjoy my dream!

Can't you see Lyle cooking it up in this beautiful kitchen?

The formal dining room has a little patio out of the sliders to the side yard. (Although not pictured, the backyard was all hard scape except a 8' square of grass...(don't know if it was fake or real...but not much to mow! Just enough for Dottie!)

The master bedroom is downstairs. It is beautiful and grand.
Fabulous bath with high double sinks and huge closet.

Also downstairs, but not pictured, is the laundry room and another front bedroom/office with a separate bath. It is down a hall that we missed the first time we did the tour.

Now upstairs, you enter to see the turret! Yes, there is a quiet sitting area in the turret!

There are 2 more bedrooms and a bath upstairs that I did not post the pictures....but they are nice!

Well here is one last look at the family room....remember all the furnishings come with this place. The realtor said they would probably accept an offer of $390,000. Just too much for us.

Too bad....but a nice dream!

We traveled on to The Kingwood Crossing, a neighboring set of houses. These are 3 of my favorite shots from the house I liked the best. These were listed about half the price of the 1st place...still nice! But not a close out...

Bee this room is for you! The bed skirt is black with white polka dots. It was darling! Lyle was setting the mood by showing one of the outfits from the closet.

On the other side of the room, the Bee theme continues....soooooo cute!

Well, we are back home...rested and relaxed from our adventures. With 38 more days of teaching....It was fun living the dream of no school during the week.

Still Enjoying Paul Coleman Concert!

A few weeks ago, we went to a free Paul Coleman concert at our church. He is one of the Newsboys. He was traveling through...and offered a free concert. He was just trying out some of his new songs he's writing for a future album. It was fun and quite uplifting. Here's a taste.

(This one is based on the idea of the prodical son.) Enjoy!

It's Show Time....

Last night we saw Ain't Misbehavin with American Idol winner Rueben Studdard and AI finalists Frenchie Davis and Trenyce Cobbins. Once in awhile it is difficult to put into words just how good a show is, this is one of them. It features the music of Fats Waller. The set is a Harlem jazz club and stays the same throughout the show. The band is on stage and faces the audience and they were beyond exceptional. There are only five singers in the show and it is what is called a "sung through" show, meaning there is vertually no dialog. The voices were really as good as you can get and they tore the place up with their energy and comedy. They all made good eye contact with us sitting in the front row and that's unusual as most performers look at the back of the house. This show is so good it easily makes it into the top ten shows we've seen, creeping toward the top five. I love live theater, but when it's this good it stays with you for awhile. I remember when my parents took me to a semi-professional production of The Music Man at the Fresno Memorial Auditorium. I was maybe ten. I have never forgotten that night it made such an impression.

It Was A Good Knight, But I Didn't See Lance Alot..........

The Tour of California came to Kings county today. We didn't get a start or finish but there were many miles of straight, flat stretches where they could really fly. Lance Armstrong is of course the big attraction and I saw him.....I think I saw him.....I must have seen him.....it all happened so fast. I feel confident that I can tell anyone that asks, that I saw him.

The first picture is of a breakaway that was about 4 minutes ahead of the peloton. For you non-French speaking readers, a peloton is a large, tightly grouped pack of riders. When these six riders came by it seemed slower than I thought it would be. That would change....

This is the front of the peloton and two of Armstong's teamates.

When one hundred riders come by in a pretty tight pack at 25 mph, it is really impressive. The wind they generate is something else.




At this point we are about 10 miles south of town and they would go about another ten miles before turning west and heading to the coast. As I'm writing this they are well into the mountains on their way to Paso Robles.

The chase cars with extra bikes etc. are very colorful and interspersed between the different groups of riders.
It's quite an amazing sight and just the logistics of closing the roads in a rolling maner is fantastic.

The first people I ran into, after the police chief, were the Bringards. Of course I would run into them at an event like this. Susan's cousin is in green. There were hundreds of locals, many of which I knew.



I feel safe in saying that the corner of 10 1\2 and Kansas has never seen a traffic jam like this. Hundreds of cars parked in all directions. It was a beautiful day and a great time to just enjoy the spectacle.

So Bye, Bye Miss American Pie.....

The day the music died, February 3, 1959. A seminal moment in music cultural history that not surprisingly has grown much larger than the actual event at the time. Fifty years ago I was 8 and try as I might I have no distinct memory of that day. I'm marking more and more of these 50th anniversaries of significant events in my life. While there are many things I remember vividly from back then, others like today have slipped away. I wonder what causes insignificant things to stick in your brain while other "bigger" things fail to gain a foothold. More on this at a later time....

Baby Bee Meets Hanford Family and Friends

Well, this is the first picture of Baby Bee at Mimi and Papa's house after her flight from NYC. We heard that it was a little traumatic for her, but she woke up calm and wide eyed to see her vacation resort for 12 days. What a beautiful baby!

Papa was very glad to get to hold this bundle of love! For those of you who do not know, Lyle loves babies! He was the major care giver of both of our boys while I taught school. He did more diapers, changed more outfits, made and fed more food, rocked and held those little guys, and met their every need day after day for years and years. He arranged his schedule to suit their sleep times and awake times. He often said, "You just go with whatever they need."

Annie is such a great mom. She attends to Bee constantly. She heard Bee's faintest cry and was on it immediately. She really loves and cares for her beautiful little girl!

Of course Cory is very proud of his lovely daughter. Here he is taunting great-grandma Lois to walk faster to catch Bee. As grandma moves forward, Bee is moved backward! What a tease! It did get grandma to the car pretty fast!

Even adopted godfather Dennis can't resist sweet little Bee! Kisses to you!
Dennis and Alex (The German) took turns entertaining Bee. They were a little unsure at first, but they caught on quickly and Bee loved all the special attention!

I know this does not quite fit, but don't you think Jeff and Kristin look good with a little one? Carson was borrowed from Heather and Vince....Just a cute shot!

Here's Bee and Mimi. I bet you couldn't tell that I love this little girl! She is such a sweetie! You know babies smell sooooo good after their bath! Annie always had Bee smelling fresh and oh....so delicious! Just gotta squeeze her!Thanks Dennis for taking some family photos at the Carniage Museum in Hanford. These pictures are very special to us!Mike and Myrna Weatherly came by to meet Bee. They both love babies and have grand children of their own.Here's Papa again with his favorite granddaughter!Bee had a great ride with all the bells and whistles thanks to my special friend, Jeanine Hill, who loaned us her grandson's former car seat.
Well, here is Bee on her way to the airport to go back to NYC. Give a baby 3-5 minutes in a moving car and they are out! What a sweet little girl!

Here are our last good bye's as they were going through security.
I am so proud of Cory, Annie, and little Bee. They are a wonderful loving family. I am grateful for their efforts to bring baby Bee to California and let us enjoy her while she is small. I wish for many more moments with them all. I miss them terribly, but I am so glad they are happy and living for the Lord. May God richly bless this precious little family!