Thursday, November 3, 2011

Billy Casper

We had the pleasure of spending the day with famous golfer, Billy Casper. His golfing glory days are long over, but he had many interesting and funny stories to tell, especially about Arnold Palmer.  He is incredibly accomplished, has something like 11 children, and (who knew?) is an area seventy!  He was one of the most gracious, kind people I've ever met, especially because it was a VERY long day for him (plus, he's 80).  And he had entertained people the previous night. And it was pouring rain the entire time. He gave a great clinic, and even spoke at the dinner that night. I was thoroughly exhausted, so I can't imagine how tired he must have been.


While waiting for dinner to begin, Grace sat with Grandpa Fred, and later entertained guests during the cocktail hour before dinner.  She was waiting for Grandma Jane to pick her up for a sleepover.  Grandma was picking up Andrew from football practice and running him out to the country club so that he could lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.  He was pretty excited to do it, and did a fantastic job!




Sam came to talk with Billy and joined us for dinner.  It was a terrific evening!

Church Picnic

We had a fun church picnic in the middle of September to celebrate the return of two soldiers in our ward from active duty in Iraq. It turned out to be a really nice night, even though it was threatening rain.  We had to leave a little early because Andrew had to be picked up from football practice, but we had a nice time enjoying our friends at the park.  Matt played with Avery, a little friend from nursery. Those two have a lot of fun together!  He also REALLY enjoyed his chicken. He must get that from his older brother, Mister Meat-a-tarian himself, Joey.

Haley had fun pretending to be mad. She didn't do a great job, though. I didn't believe it for a second.






Catching Up/ Lunch with Grace

The last couple of months have been busier than ever, with music, sports, photography, and just everyday life.  In fact, it's been a zoo around here, and the state of my house is enough to prove it.  But I'm going back through my pictures to try and catch up with this blog!

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Grace started Kindergarten this year, and was doing fine (or so I thought), until I got a phone call from her teacher one afternoon.  She said, "I don't know if Grace has told you, but she cries everyday at school, usually during recess and after lunch. Today she cried so hard she was heaving, and I just held her until she stopped."  I told her that, no, Grace hadn't told me, but that I'd talk to her about it.  Her teacher said that she didn't think anything had happened, but that she just missed me.

When I asked her about it, she thought she was in trouble.  But I told her it was normal to be homesick, and we thought of some ways to keep her mind off me when she got sad.  We decided that she should start making up stories if she was sad, and that would occupy her mind a little.  The first few days, she came home with 3 long stories each day, and told me about them when I picked her up.

I also made her a deal, that if she could go the whole week without crying, I'd take her to lunch on Friday.  It took a couple of weeks, but she did it!  We usually go to Wendy's.  We take Joey, too, because he has almost the same lunchtime as Grace.  We usually bring something from the restaurant for Andrew to eat, since his lunch is later.

One week, I decided to come eat in the lunchroom with her.  She sat by her new friend, Kali (making some new friends also helped stop the crying!), and had a great time.  And no more tears!  Which is good, because she is eighth overall in her class of 23, even though she is the youngest student.  Glad we made it through that one!