Ketchup!

Let's see if I can remember what's been happening over the last few weeks that I have not posted!

Since April 11th, hmmm.... Ok so I don't remember anything in April yet. The first weekend of May, though, was really fun! I came up with a plan to surprise Cathy for her birthday. I enlisted Lara to help me, and of course, she enlisted Erin and Melinda. There was a wise decision to NOT tell Rick. As wonderful as he is, there was a huge risk that he might blurt it out. I flew in on Friday afternoon, Cathy's actual birthday. Lara picked me up, and the coordinating began so that Erin would get to the house at the same time. When we got to the front door, Melinda answered and said that Cathy was on the phone...wait, wait, wait. Then we decided to all go in, kids included, and wait inside. Erin had made a beautiful cake and the kids were going to sing Happy Birthday. I waited on the stairs, just below the wall to the TV/bedroom level. When they got to the ending, I jumped up and sang with them. I think I am safe to say the Cathy was indeed surprised! Speaking from experience, it is very disorienting to be surprised. We visited for a few minutes, then Lara and Erin left to take the kids home so all the girls could go out for dinner. Part of the perfect plan is that Rick was out of town, so he didn't have to deal with all the chaos.

That weekend was all about the "food". We went to Earll's on Friday night which is always delicious, then back to the house for a visit. We are not a "party" bunch. The next morning Cathy and I went to Eau Claire downtown to our favorite little breakfast place. I've probably posted about it before cause I'm having a little deja vu right now. Anyway, after that we did some errands - always fun when you run errands in another country and have someone to laugh with! We tried really hard to work off the breakfast because we planned to somehow get in a dinner at Peking Garden. We succeeded! Yes, it was all about the food. Sunday was Church and a little visit before going back to the airport. It was another quick trip, but it was so much fun! I had to keep reminding myself that it was Cathy's weekend. The fact that I was enjoying it was a bonus.

At work, the month of May started out just fine. As we progressed to the end of the month, it got more stressful and the last week was a killer. I'm just so glad it's over and that everything has basically worked out. It's very frustrating to have to depend on others to complete the job that I started, and to have others do it poorly.

I have a new great-niece! Her name is Camille, and her parents are Jeff and Alisha. We got to see her on Memorial Day, and she is just gorgeous! She has a full head of dark hair and she looks like her mama. Jillian looks just like her daddy. It looks like Camille will have huge eyes like her big sister.

I have a weird feeling that my time in YW may be over soon. Maybe not. But I think they will be making a change in the YW president after camp in a couple of weeks, and you never know what that will bring. I would be really sad to go.

The weather has been pretty nice lately. A few weeks ago it got really hot, then it cooled way down to the 50's! Weird. It has slowly warmed back up, but it's been very comfortable.

I just remembered something else from May...Kerri and Cade were down for her work. I went up to their hotel one evening to watch Luke while they went to a formal dinner. I decided to take Emma with me because Luke doesn't know me that well, and I know that babies always relate better to little people. Well, I was right. It was so funny to see him laugh at Emma, and when it was time to put him to bed and he cried, he grabbed onto Emma and wouldn't let her go. He is not that much smaller than she, but he still felt more comforted holding onto her. I even asked her to climb into the little crib with him, which she did willingly (for $5), to help him settle down. Did it work? Not really. He did settle down, but Emma fell asleep before he did. Luke was awake when Kerri and Cade came back, but the good news was that he was alive and well. I always think that's a good goal to have when you are in charge of a child!

I promise to post some pictures so my posts aren't so boring! Ta! Ta!