No acceptable use for nuclear weapons

During the recent Vice-Presidential debate, Governor Palin was asked, ‘What should be the trigger, or should there be a trigger, when nuclear weapons use is ever put into play?’ Governor Palin gave a somewhat typical political answer along the lines that the United States uses nuclear weapons as a deterrent to other authorities.

When is someone going to have the guts to say what is really in our hearts? I guess I hope it is what is in everyone’s heart. There is no acceptable use for nuclear weapons! No other nation, except Japan, has the authority to say that today. The two of us, know the results of being placed into that position. It is nothing that we would ever want repeated.

The following Sunday, I went into a tirade about this topic. And one of the gentle ladies in my class asked, ‘what would you do about another power that builds systems to use?’ I had to think about it for a while. I have to ask what part of not of NO ACCEPATABLE USE did you not understand? The rest of the world must understand that we will not tolerate the use of this technology in a threatening way.

I remember reading a political intrigue novel where the US vice-president who had control of the magic keys decide that first strike would bring the least amount of causalities and ordered the missiles fired. I was so angry; I threw the book against the wall.

Fortunately, authors like Tom Clancy, have made fortunes writing about men who put their hands over the button, and said, “There must be another way, we always have another option.”

I read in a Christian newsletter recently that Bono of U2 asked Christian performer, Michael W. Smith what was the one thing we could do to disarm nuclear weapons? Smith wasn’t sure, so Bono replied, .Love.’

My version of the America Dream

This election had another strange effect on me and it related to my version of the American Dream. It has taken a little while to figure out how to talk about it. But I thought of it after writing about the election. I have been fighting major depression for several years. Late this summer many things came to gather that broke through my depression. Some of the things were medical, some were based on the work I have been doing in my therapy, some were spiritual and all of those things have lead to a lot of personal growth. But one thing major thing happened that brought all the other things to a head, the nomination of a little known governor from Alaska to the office of Vice-President. In my life it was a powerful as an electric shot. It broke through all that fog of depression and brought me back to life. Where had I been? How did this happen?

That was my dream in 6th grade, not to be Vice-President, but President of the United States, My doctor told me that age 12, is a time of life when we know what we can do. I like the way it sounds.
I couldn't believe it, here was Sarah Palin living my dream. I certainly had not given her permission to steal my dream.
This was an interesting phenomena, see Hilary Clinton had never struck this chord. I believe this was true because there was Bill. No matter how talented and capable she is, no one knows where she would have ended up on her own. Sarah Palin was there on her own. It made me mad. That's all I can say. Obviousily, John McCain just didn't now about me.

Maybe the truth is that any of us could be President.

So as strange as it may seem, this election awoke in me my own version of the American Dream.
It brought me back to life in a quick and strong way. And I owe it to Sarah Palin. We will see what I do with it.

2008 Elections & the American Dream

Last night was one of my proudest moments as an American. I would like to hope that I would have felt that way regardless of my political leanings. First, aren't we all grateful that we knew the results by 9:30 (central time) instead of the end of December. I am not sure we could have stood another prolonged election. And this is going to make the transition so much better.

One of my favorite things I heard last night, and there were several similar comments from different correspondents, that people overseas could hardly believe that the same country that could elect George Bush 8 years ago, could elect Barack Obama this year. (Oh. no, I am going to have to learn to spell his name.) Don't you just love America? I think that whether you supported him or not, we all were in a place where we needed to be reminded that the American dream was still alive. Isn't it powerful, that while it maybe not be exactly our unique version of the dream, we saw it in action last night? And we saw it on the faces in the crowd that for the first time, many people could finally believe in their own version of the dream. And the world said, maybe there is something to this democracy stuff.

As I listened to President-elect Obama speak, and I have to admit that I enjoy hearing him speak, I started thinking about how this election validated so many lives and deaths. Have you been to Arlington National Cemetery? Of every thing you learn during the tour, the facts that stayed with me the most is that we lost more men during the civil war than all the other wars we have taken part in. It broke my heart. What we lost in that war. And now we have told the world what we learned, and now we can all say that those lives were not given in vain. Nor was the deaths of Abraham Lincoln, or Martin Luther King or the men and women of all colors who stood or sat for what was right in the 60's.

If Obama wasn't your choice, I hope you will give him a chance. If you didn't have a chance to listen to his speech, it is available on the web in both print or video.

Hope is better than fear

Randall's tree dedication - Nov 4

Nov 4 was a big day for me, so I am going to have 2 posts. In 2006, Randall Hollis, a co-worker, passed away suddenly. We were all shocked and upset by his loss. Randall was his own indvidiual, unique in many ways. Not long after his death, George and Jill, 2 of his co-workers, came to me with the idea of planting a tree in Randall's memory. I took the idea to management and got it

approved. I collected money from co-workers, retirees and others who had worked with Randall. It turned out to be harder than I thought it would be for me emotionally to finish the task. I had to make myself do each step. It probably didn't mix well with my own depression. I guess I should mention the really bizarre way we, I, found out that Randall had died. One Monday afternoon, I stopped by the animal shelter to see of there might be a friend for my dog, Blue. As I walked by the counter, an animal control officer and worker were talking about AAFES. I stopped and said I work there, could I help. They told me they were so upset, they had to pick up an animal at a house where a man had passed away. They needed to find the man's next of kin. I asked what his name was and it was my friend Randall. Monday had been Randall's regular day off, so no one had missed him yet. Randall was buried at the DFW National Ceremony; I kept a weekly vigil until his marker was placed to make sure it was completed. I had a hard time making myself buy the tree and marker. Then the tree was planted and I had another hard time pulling together the event.

But the building staff picked a great location for the tree. It is on the path to the entrance to the building that most of the IT staff uses. They have recently installed no smoking picnic tables in the area. Randall loved to eat, and cake was his favorite. I should say FREE cake was his favorite. He would attend every reception and retirement in the building, whether he knew the people or not. So it was an absolutely necessity to have cake. We had a great turnout from the IT staff. Someone grabbed one of the first pieces of cut cake and placed it under Randall's marker. Everyone agreed it was the right thing to do. I am sure that all the other AAFES staff that passed a piece of cake under the tree yesterday, thought it was pretty weird. I put some captions identifying people I knew. If you donated money, thanks. I'm glad it is finished. Some of the photos were taken by Mike Santy, Toni Martin and Lyndie Blevins

For more photos check out my album

http://picasaweb.google.com/lyndieb3/RandallSTree#

Oh, the pains and joys of being a Longhorn

Last week's game (Texas vs Okla State) just about did me in. It is one thing to play hard, but it is something else to play up to the last 6 seconds. My poor dogs were so freaked out. The hate it when I am upset. As hard as I try, I can not get them to do something funny like set up straight and peak their ears when they hear hook 'em horns. After the game, I was done. I pretty much just went to bed. So I was dreading this week's game against another undefeated powerhouse, Texas Tech. At least the game was in the evening so it would not be so awful to go straight to bed afterwards. I even asked for prayer for myself in facing this week's game, which my Sunday School department, and anyone else that I told, thought was hilarious. But you know prayer is a powerful thing. This week, I was finishing the research and compilation of my Sunday School lesson just as the big game was starting. I was pulling in some supporting character attribute passages that were not directly related to the lesson. I could hardly believe my eyes when I read this verse in of all places, Ephesians , from THE MESSAGE.
'This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.' Eph. 6:12

That pretty much brought things into perspective for me on what is important in life. And gave me a different outlook on the game. I tried to tell myself that it wasn't really an omen, since our game was in the evening, not in the afternoon. Okay, I know that is stretching it, but we are talking about remaining number 1 in the nation. But I couldn't help but think is is a sign.

The pressure on me for us to keep up our number one status week after week has been tremendous, I can;t imagine what it has felt like for Colt McCoy or Mac Brown. I am grateful that we have a quarterback that places so much of his faith in God.

So I had a different view of the game. It was still trying to watch. There was one point where my dog, Blue, came to me and lifted his paw out to me. I always think he saying, I am here, what can I do to make you feel better, when he does that. And even though last week, I didn't believe it could be worse than playing down to the last 6 seconds, who knew that we would play to the last second this week.

When all is said and done, who could feel bad about the game? We played tough with some major talent injured. We didn't give up and came back against all odds. And we had some real freshmen defending against the winning touchdown, who were there. Great freshmen can only give you hope for the future. And we lost to a great team from Texas, who needs the recognition.

God answers prayer, just sometime not quite the way you expect.

My hero - H. E. Ewing Paris Oct 2008

I was fortunate when I was growing up to be surrounded by strong male figures, my Dad, Granddads and Uncles. In my little girl’s perception of life, they stood as heroic figures of working men. I never wondered what truck drivers or mail men or preachers or soldiers or cowboys or deacons or firemen were like. I saw them every day. I saw them take care of their families, work in their churches and stand up for what was right in their communities. My Uncle Ewing was the fireman. The fact that the dangers, that went along with the job on the streets of Dallas, were never really spoken out loud at family gatherings only made them more real to us. As children, we focused more on the adventure and excitement that went with the lights and sirens than the actual work that went with handling water hoses and fighting flames.
Uncle Ewing ruled the 4th of July. This was, of course, before the community firework extravaganzas we experience today. If you were going to have fireworks, you did it yourself. We always had someone in the family who lived out in the ‘country’ and hosted the family’s 4th of July celebration. As our fireman, Uncle Ewing would decide if the conditions were okay for the evening’s fireworks. Was the wind blowing too hard? Was the grass too dry? As kids, we would tip toe around him all afternoon, trying to honor his authority, yet hoping, deep in our hearts, that he would announce,’ Yes, we can have fire works!’.
On those ‘favorable’ years he would supervise the other uncles as they set up and ignited the fireworks. From as much of a distance as he could manage, we would be in awe at each shooting star or Roman candle. As an adult, I can only wonder how hard it must have been for him to do something that could so quickly start a fire. We could sense his reluctance for the fireworks (even if we didn’t understand it.) Yet, his willingness to do it anyway, because he loved us, gave birth to a true hero.
At these family gatherings, my elders would gather in the evening to resolve the world’s problems. As I remember, Uncle Ewing would speak with reason. He has a deep, mellow voice that brings calm. I always imagined that it was exactly the right kind of voice to carry through a dark night of fire and smoke and to bring welcomed instructions to other firefighters.
From Uncle Ewing, we learned simple things like tattoos might seem exciting, but years later, you regret your youthful indulgences. Or, it is okay to sleep in the nude as long as you don’t mind being carried out of the house naked by a fire fighter. The thought of Uncle Ewing coming through the fire has kept me in PJs even on the hottest nights.
In the mid 70’s, when Uncle Ewing retired, we thought he had answered his last fire call in health. And for many years, he was able to enjoy golf, his grandkids and now his great-grandkids. However, the ravages of being a ‘smoke eater’ have become real. Years of toxic fumes and intensive heat created skin and breathing problems for him. Now, in his 80’s, he is on oxygen full time. Recently, he had a really low spell. The doctors had nothing encouraging for him, but he rallied. This weekend, we were glad when he felt well enough to attend our annual family reunion. I watched him sitting in his wheelchair, holding his oxygen bottle in his lap, and grateful to be with his family again. There in the sunlight, his inner priorities of God, family and community showed through his outer appearance. I knew he was still a hero to me.

(Hopefully this will be on the CNN site today or tomorrow)

week of 11-21 July

Week of 11-21 July
First, the week of 11-18 July I determined to do something about my weight. It has been 5 years since the cancer and I was feeling strong enough that I could finally face the challenge and discipline of weight loss. I talked about my several options for approaching this with my dear friend and chiropractor, Dawn, and she really encourage me to be under medical supervision for the diet, with my past history. That made sense to me too; I went to see a Dr that she recommended. The diet made sense too, while it was a drastic reduction in calories, the food was all good and followed good nutrition practices. I mainly had to give up empty calories, diet soda, breads, most diary, etc. The diet actually was using the same food groups I need to eat for my blood type. So starting 11 July, I went cold turkey with diet sodas and chocolate from diet. I suffered caffeine and general food withdrawal, but everyday got better. Even though the food withdrawals were strong, I also had to admit that I was never hungry.
Friday, July 18, I was beginning to feel really good. I reached a stopping point on the project I have been working on for months a little after 3. Good thing, too, because mentally I was done. I was relaxing trying to figure out what I was going to do for the next 50 minutes. I was also thinking about how good I was feeling. I even said to myself, I haven’t felt this good in a long time. Just as I had spoken, I felt like I had been hit by a flash of lightning. It felt like a flash of fire went through my breast that had been affected by the cancer from my surgery scar to the other side of the breast; basically the entire area that had been radiated.
If that wasn’t scary enough, at the same time, I heard a male voice say powerfully, No You won’t feel good. As one side of my body tried to relax, the other side tightened up. That was so real, so unnerving. It made me feel very unsettled.
Immediately, after the flash of fire, I began to be chill. I suffered the worst chills I have had in a long time. I decided I had to do something and maybe I just needed to walk it off. I headed off to our store, which is on the other side of the building to get some power water. I could tell immediately that something was wrong, my gait was about a 1/3 of what it had been just 10 minutes. Several people stopped me on the way there and back to ask if I was alright, that I didn’t look well. At the time all I could do was chalk it up to the changes in my diet. When I got back to my office, I was so cold that I dug out a pair of socks. I called my brother to let him know that I was not feeling good. When it was finally time to go home, all I wanted to do was get there safely.
In a rare moment of reaching out, when I got home I called my parents and my Dad came and stayed until I had settled down a little, about 10 that night. Friday –Sunday I had chills, fever and my body ached all over. My breast that felt like it had been hit by lighting was still on fire and very sore to touch. I stayed wrapped up all weekend. All of the symptoms seemed like the flu, but it just didn’t feel like the flu.
Monday morning some of the pain, and chills had subsided, but I still felt bad. I was determined to find out what was wrong. That was before I changed out of my night gown. When I took of my gown, I almost passed out. My right breast and most of my right side down to my waist, was almost maroon. While I never had any pain or range of motion reduction from the removal of lymph nodes under my right arm, suddenly I couldn’t raise that arm and I had pain in that area. The entire surface area that was involved in the treatment of the cancer was on fire. I knew something was wrong.
I started with the Doctor that was monitoring my diet, since that was the newest thing I had added to my life. Her office said come on in and we will work you in.

what a bizzare couple of weeks

July 31, 2008
Today, I felt strong enough to sit at the computer for a while. I really appreciate those of you who have been praying for me, and I apologize to those of you that didn’t get the word, but things have been a little crazy. On Friday, July 18, around 3:12, I was struck with a cellulitis infection in the breast that had been affected by cancer. It has been one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. Because so much has happened I am going to break it up into several blogs.
The most important aspect of my story is for you to learn about cellulitis. It is a condition that is not rare, but it is not common. It is serious. You are more prone to this condition if your immune system has been impaired, in my case I do not have lymph nodes on my right chest , you have diabetes or an open wound that moves into staph or strep.
Please take a moment to look at these symptoms I have copied from a University of Virginia website. If you ever experience these symptoms, get to a doctor immediately. I didn’t take action sooner, because I just couldn’t relate my symptoms to anything. I know better know.
Here is the website that I found general information about cellulitis.
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/uvahealth/adult_derm/cell.cfm
If you would like to read about cellulitis and the breast, I found this web site from the New England journal of medicine. PLEASE BE AWARE THERE IS A VERY GRAPHIC PHOTO OF WHAT THIS CONDITION LOOKS LIKE, DON’T GO THERE IF YOU MIGHT BE OFFENDED.
One of the things that made this very scary is that there is a form of breast cancer called Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer usually grows in nests or sheets, rather than as a confined, solid tumor and therefore can be diffuse throughout the breast with no palpable mass. The cancer cells clog the lymphatic system just below the skin. Lymph node involvement is assumed. Increased breast density compared to prior mammograms should be considered suspicious
So we did a mammogram and an ultrasound which showed only the cellulitis. In addition I have responded to the antibiotic, which is a good sign for it not to be cancer. I will have several follow-up visits in the next 6 months for to be sure.
And now…
I spent Tuesday-Friday of last week in the hospital. I have given enough blood, I should have earned a t-short of some sort. I am undergoing 3 weeks of IV antibiotic treatment. Last Friday, they installed a picct line and sent me home with a week’s worth of antibiotic that I administer twice a day. In fact I am taking a treatment as I write this. It is really pretty simple, the drugs screw on the line.
Every day I feel a little better, the pain on my side has almost subsided. My coloring has really improved, most of the discoloration is gone from my abodomen and my breast color has drastically improved. But I tire easily. I hope to go back to work sometime next week, although managed disability has approved me to be off until 17 August, yeah!
I am going to post this to my blog, Keep checking my blog, I’ll write the details there. After all there were some pretty funny moments.
Please become familiar with the symptoms and how prone you might be to this condition. I guess the biggest lesson I learned is that if I suddenly feel really bad, there is a real reason for it and I need to check it out.

Why I am fascinated with puffy white clouds

I figured out this week why I am so fascinated with puffy white clouds. It has seemed like this summer has been just a long blue sky with beautiful puffy white clouds.

Here is what came to mind this week, it is pretty simple -- whip cream

My newest photo contest entries

I entered a photo in the latest Kimbell Art museum photo contest. It is a photo from our last family reunion, with some artest stuff done to it. I cheated and didn't get permission from my family. I hope they won't mind! There is a Renior painting we were suppose to use as the inspiration. If you want to go out and check the site and vote for my photo!. I am really excite, even though I am not in the top 3, the two folks who took the time to write a comment wrote really neat ones.

Here is the link: http://impressionists.kimbellart.org/contest/contest-2/page/2/

Here are 2 others I thought of entering, the one of the left is some of my Pathway classmates,

the one on the right is at my friend's retirement lunch. I really like it the most, but felt the family reunion was the best representive of the inspiration painting. If you click on the photo you can see a larger view,

Last week in Orlando

Last week I spent 5 days in Orlando on a business trip. I didn't feel like it was very ethical to blog about the trip until I had completed my trip report. I finished and mailed it today. I am glad my retirement is growing closer, because the glowing recommendations I made about the mainframe and other things are not going to score any points. The conference was good, but it did not make me want to extend my working career. This photo was taken at a break, I really thought those clouds looked like something, I just can't remember what it was.

My rent-a-car had both an easy pass and a sun pass to get through the Florida tolls. How cool is that! If you take the Magic Express Bus to the Disney properties you miss all the tolls. But if you drive anywhere at all, there is a toll about every mile and 1/2, some of them are exact change only. Traveling, I seldom have a lot of change, so a toll sign could send terror through me. Working for the government, I hardly ever get to stay at the conference hotel. This trip my hotel was about 15 minutes (in no traffic) away and 2 toll booths. It was so much fun to scoot around the traffic breeze through the easy pass booth. The charge on your bill is $1.50 a day. If I had payed the regular tolls it would have been at least $3 bucks a day, not to mention the times I went the wrong directions. I took the money I saved and got an ice cream on Wednesday afternoon.

Sunday-Wednesday, I concentrated on the conference and good thing, because it rained everyday. I was so glad I didn't have little children who had dreamed of having a great time at Disney world. I did play the license plate game. Do you every play it? It is a little hard to do by yourself on the road, but it is doable. A couple of weeks ago on a Friday afternoon at a traffic light in the middle of Duncanville I was surrounded by about 8 different states license plates. I couldn't believe it, after all I was in Duncanville.

The first challenge of the license plate game is being able to list all 50 states. Thank goodness for USA Today, where you can cheat and find that 1 missing state. The best place to play is walking through parking lots. If I ever get picked up for suspicious behavior, will you all step up and say she was just playing the license plate game? By Wednesday evening I had about 20 states.

Thursday morning, I transcribed my hand written notes to my lap top, so I wouldn't have to carry that paper with me. I had an afternoon flight and 3/4 of a tank of gas that I had paid for.

With the overcast weather, I decided to drive to Tampa to see the West Coast. (Several years ago, I went to the east coast from Orlando). I couldn't believe it when I passed a car with Alaska plates! Not long after I passed a truck with Maine plates! Since there is a lady a work who has recently returned from working in Hawaii and still has Hawaii plates, I have decide to extend the game through the summer.

(click on the photo and look at the electric lines in the distance on the right. This is one of the ways you know you are close to the 'magic worlds'.)

I wasn't exactly sure what I would see when I got to Tampa or how much time I would have. I knew how long it took me to get to Tampa and when I would have to start back. At the end of I4, there is a 7 mike bridge across a body of water. (About a mile before the bridge there was a sign that warned you to check your gas, long bridge ahead.) I decided it was Tampa Bay, I was crossing, on one side the bay, the other side the gulf. I had just enough time on the other side to find a restroom and a snack and head back.

I managed to find my way back to Orlando and the airport in plenty of time. I have flown in and out of Orlando several times, I have to say Thursday afternoon is a great time to leave Orlando from a security perspective. I was able to walk straight to the bins and start removing my shoes. Most of the times there are long lines that snake back and forth. But it rains often in the afternoon, which it did Thursday creating a delay on our departure. It is okay if you have a straight flight, but everyone that had connecting flights had some real problems.

I had a great book to read. My sister-in-law recommended it to me, EAT, PRAY and LOVE. I probably wouldn't have ever picked it up on my own. While we were in the air, I read the section on praying which told the story of the lady's stay in India at the temple of her Guru. At a critical point one of her friends takes her to the highest point in the temple and gives her a list of questions to answer through the night to bring her closer to God. I took a break from the printed page to look out the plane's window. Looking out at the fluffy white clouds, it took my breath away to realize I was at 30,000 feet- just about the highest a normal human can reach. There was no reason I couldn't answer those questions for myself. As my heroine reached for her God on the top on the temple, I was able to reach for mine amidst the clouds in the sky. It was pretty magical...

I was listening to my MP3 player, and the last song I heard before we had to turn off electronic material was one of my favorites, "I'm ready to fly."

At DFW on the bus ride to the remote parking lot, I was fascinated to realize I had used 4 of the major modes of transportation during that day, car, train (at the Orlando airport between terminals) and now bus. I tried to figure out if there was anyway I could get into a boat before the day was over, but I wasn't that clever. However, if you were staying at the Disney property, you could get up and take the boat between hotels or one of the attractions and achieve the feat of using 5 of the major modes of transportation in one day.

Fortunately, I arrived home to a house and pets intact. All in all not bad trip...

I can't believe it is almost July

Last week we had a couple of days of beautiful skies with a lot puffy white clouds. One day I was waiting in the drive through at Luby's I saw these clouds which looked to me like a troll who is sitting, smoking...

On another day, I had to go to Whitney for the funeral of several co-workers step-father/in-law. The Hillsboro Courthouse was so striking against the blue sky, especially with the puffy clouds behind the top. I couldn't resist stopping and taking a photo

Austin's 8th grade graduation

After a hectic weekend, Austin returned to several exams before his 8th graduation on Wednesday, May 21. His graduation was held at a Mass at St. Elizabeths Church in Oak Cliff. With the exception of Kali, the same group turned out for this event. Kali had a chance to go to Florida to work on a project with a professor.

This evening turned out to be very special, we saw a smile from him that we had not seen in quite a while.

Click here to see more photos from the graduation http://picasaweb.google.com/lyndieb3/AustinGrad

I am older than fireworks- Kali's Graduation Weekend

Kali (my niece) has somehow managed to graduate from the University of Texas in 3 years. Actually, she has one class to take in the first summer session, but she was able to go through the Spring graduation for her College (Natural Science). Eight of us went down for the weekend. Everyone was really excited that all 3 of her grandparents were able to make the trip. Here is the cast of characters that went: Bill (Jr), Karen and Austin, (the proud Parents and brother) and Bill (Sr) and Lois Blevins, Bill Brents, the grand parents, and Tracy Barton and me, the Aunts. With Kali, it made 9. It was quite a gathering. Surprising enough, we arrived in 3 cars at about the same time. We went to dinner Friday Night. Austin was never far from his IPOD. Saturday mornign we went in 2 shifts to the Frank Erwin center so we would only have to find 1 parking space. Bill and Karen had a friend, Rocky, who happened to be traveling in the area stop in for the graduation ceremony. The college ceremony was a regular graduation ceremony, the professors and then the graduates marched in, speeches were made, and then the 10 seconds of hearing her name called and seeing her walk across the stage. But there was a wind ensemble that played, and of course The eyes of Texas and Texas Fight were played.

The only real glitch of the entire weekend came after the graduation, and no matter what we would have done there would have been a glitch at this point. We gathered across the street from the center while Bill went to get the car. The orginial plan was to make 2 trips back to the hotel in the one car we had on campus. We had a nice corner where Bill had instructed us to wait for him. Everything looked great, it would be easy for him to pull in for the grandparents to get into the car. We enjoyed watching the law students show up for their graduations as we waited and waited and waited. Actually the sky started to cloud over and no Bill. He had parked in a parking garage, and was in one of those situations where all the cars had to exit one at a time. While we were waiting Karen ordered our dinner - BBQ from County Line. When Bill was finally able to get to the appointed corner, the younger and more flexiable of the group decided that all 9 of us could make it in the Jeep, so with every leg and arm in, we made the short trip back to the hotel.

When Karen, Kali and Tracy had retrieved the BBQ we wnt to Kali's for dinner. We had a great time and was able to get a group photo of everyone. After Dinner, Tracy and Bill Brents headed back to Dallas. Bill Sr and Lois were pretty tired so they stayed behind and the rest of us headed back to campus for the University graduation. Kali was not able to take part in this ceremony, but we enjoyed having her with us.

The Univeristy graduation is held outside on the Main Mall (or South Mall) in front of the Main Building. When Bill and I graduated, we thought it was very grand, all the pomp and circumstance. At the end of the Unveristy graduation, the tower lights are turned orange for the Academic victory represented by graduation. It is really neat, because at least once in your UT career, you had a part in turning the tower orange.

Well, that is how it use to be. Oh the tower stills turns orange, but now there the tower is lit for each college and at the end a white longhorn is run up the tower and there are fireworks! As hard as it is to believe I am older than fireworks. We sat on the east mall and watched what was happening around the corner on a large screen. They were great seats, we were at the base of the tower on the east side and had a great view of the fireworks.

After the graduation, we went to Littlefield Fountain to take pictures. It was a lot like trying to meet someone at Big Texs on OU weekend. But the crowds were a part of the fun. Everyone was exhausted andwe headed back for well deserved sleep. Sunday we headed back to Littlefield Fountain for photos. It was a beautiful day and we got some great shots. After brunch, Mom, Dad and I headed home. Bill, Karen and Austin stayed for a while. It was

a great weekend.

Warning: these photos may be disturbing to alumini of former SWC schools....

http://picasaweb.google.com/lyndieb3/KaliSGraduation

Chris & Nicki's wedding May 2008

It's been a while since, I've posted. I am going to do better. In May, my cousin, Eddie, son was married in For Worth. We were so surprised when we got there and Aunt Francine and Uncle ED were not there. Aunt Francine came down with a stomach virus after the rehearsal dinner and was extremely ill. We missed them very much. Almost as big a surprise was how grown up Eddie's other sons were, Grayson and Carson. Grayson was a Groomsman and Carson was the ring bearer. Chris's cousins, Enoch and Micah and his wife were there (Larry's sons). Before long at the reception, Austin and Grayson got together and listened to their IPODS. Austin is in one of those teen frames of mind, don't take my picture! We were really glad to get to see Chris's Mom, JoAnn and her family again.

Carson was the lucky one for the evening, one of the flower girls set her sights on him. She was never far away from him all evening, and he was a pretty good sport about it. It was a beautiful evening, the food was good and everyone had a great time catching up.
Here are some of the highlights from my photos. I was really upset, I had a new camera and had not learned how to turn the microphone on, or I would have gotten some good video of the little kids interpret the Twist, of well. I am so embarrassed, I have forgotten Micah's wife name!
I may have not gotten all the names or rhw spellings correct on the captions. (Too many Nicki's) I hope you enjoy the photos. Let me know if you want any or all the ones I took.

Lyndie


(This is my first time to use Picasa, not quite sure how it all works, or if this is the best way to get on the page...)


http://picasaweb.google.com/lyndieb3/ChrisWedding