20 Year High School Reunion

The Saturday after Thanksgiving was my 20 year high school reunion... I know... I know... shocking because I look so young still... ;-)

It was nice to see, in person, a lot of people with whom I had reconnected on Facebook!  Social networking sites sure have shrunk the world, haven't they!

My camera didn't like the lighting at the Holiday Inn, and circulating wasn't an option, so my pictures are few and poor in quality unfortunately.

Dave and I... doing the teenage girl thing and photographing ourselves... A little goof-up with the program changed my name for the evening...

Yup.. that's me... Karen Rector SMITH.  Program created by a longtime friend whom I've known since I was FOUR!  I told her that she wasn't supposed to tell Dave about my "other" husband! ;-)

I wasn't alone though, there were a lot of names misspelled in the program (none as bad as mine though haha). 

With Sheryl...

Sandy and Andrea...

Random pics of everyone...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't believe it's been twenty years! 

Thanksgiving

So... yeah... I'm a little behind in my blogging :-)  Thanksgiving was spent at my cousin Sunshine's house this year.  Boy did Sunshine and Shaun have a house full!  We usually have about 14 or so people... this year we numbered somewhere around 30!

That made it all the more fun though!  Amerah certainly enjoyed having more kids to play with!  I didn't take a lot of photos, I was hurting and didn't move much from my seat on the couch.  On top of that I got a strange and random bout of nausea that sent me to a seat near the rest room... just in case!

So here are the few pics that I got... not much but there you have 'em...

This was the group in the living room with me... we had two or three tables set up in the dining room as well. 

Nanny...

Brian and Becky...

Uncle Mike... (truly looking the part of the "Wildeman" haha)

Ignoring the fact that I felt like I couldn't hold anything down, it was, all in all, a nice relaxing day...

spoiled rotten dogs

it's official, we spoil Lily.  I can't deny it.  Not that we let her get away with everything, not at all, it's just that she's so dang cute we baby her!

Lily got balloons for her birthday in the end of November.  They are her favorite toy!  Through trial and error, she has learned how to carry them around by the knotted end so that she doesn't pop them.  It's funny to see her wander around the house with a balloon hanging out of her mouth.

 

She's also a very good napper... she'll nap just about anywhere...

Tonight she was cuddled up with Dave on the couch, sound asleep.  When Dave got up she barely batted an eyelash... he felt obliged to tuck her in...

 

 

Yeah... we don't love our dog at all... do we?  ;-)

Amerah: ouside of the box

Amerah is either the worst colorer ever or a creative genius.  I can't decide.  She's ten and finds it difficult to color inside the lines.  She also leaves gaping white holes in her coloring which make my inner perfectionist cringe.  Amerah is, however, incredibly gifted at making something out of nothing.  Her ability to think outside of the box is enviable and I think will be an asset to her later in life.

 

I offer the following examples...

My mother sent her some pipe cleaners (most everything begins with the words "my mother sent her..."  She made a hat (has a bit of a tiara look to it).

My mother sent her fleece... I showed her how to make a tie quilt... she tied it first into a baby hat... then a doll dress... finally a purse.  All without a single stitch.

I don't have any examples of her duct tape creations off hand but suffice to say the sky is the limit when it comes to duct tape!  In some ways I envy her.  A piece of tape is not simply a piece of tape.  A scrap of paper is not simply a scrap of paper.  She has vision and sees possibilities in the most unlikely places.

Amerah Baderah the Karate Queen

As many of you already know, Amerah studies martial arts... specifically Mu Duk Kwan Soo Bahk Do.  It's been neat to watch her progress, her instructor tells us that she has the best memory of any of the kids in her class... she just needs to focus a bit :-). 

As you can see, if you look at her belt, in Soo Bahk Do they go from a white belt to a white belt with one blue stripe.  The next step up is an orange belt.  So in the end of October Amerah went to test for her orange belt. 

 That's Amerah, third from left, in the back.  It was a much smaller test group than when she tested for her stripe (thank goodness!).

 

Amerah is again third from the left. It took just over a month for the paperwork to come back from headquarters.  When it did we had one happy little orange belt!

The following photos are of Amerah receiving her certificate and her belt... they're a bit fuzzy because I wasn't there and Dave was taking the pictures ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

She was so excited and put her all into that first class as an orange belt!  Dave got some pretty good action shots... Amerah is the blur in motion :-)

 

 

 Look at those jumps!  I'm so glad we got her into this!