I know you can't wait to see pictures of my Spring Garden

Okay, I know I already put spring flowers on this blog - but that was way back in April - it is May now, and new ones are blooming, and the Hosta's are getting humongeous! AND I am trying to learn my new camera. This first picture I was learning to place the focus in the distance so the things up close would be blurry.

This seconed picture is placing the focus on things up close so the background would be blurry! Pretty cool, huh?

My Rhodedendrum is blooming. I began planting this garden 5 years ago, see how mature the plants are becoming. They are filling in and the garden is so "green". Everyone who comes into my back yard this year says "Wow, it is so "green" back here! Oh, well, green is better than dead!

Sara, this is the little iris that I told you the flower was about the size of my index finger. It looks bigger in this picture - the other cool thing about this flower is that it is an tall as my waist.

Okay, now this is my "artistic" picture. You're going to love it! I blurred the background, just for fun. The name of this flower is "Columbine" - can you see that there are hundreds of Columbine blooming right now? I bet there are 50 feet of them!

How are we going to celebrate?

Since all the kids are graduating with higher education degrees, we decided that we were going to celebrate by going to Disneyworld for an entire week! We leave next Tuesday (the 26th)! We can hardly wait. We will be staying in a pirate room at the Disney Resort "The Carribbean" The rooms have beds in the shape of pirate ships, there is a crow's nest for the kids to climb in. We have never stayed on the Disney resort before, so this will be a real treat! And yes, Grandma has purchased pirate "stuff" and has all kinds of wonderful things up her sleeve! Aunt Stephanie has helped Grandma figure out what to do, when how, and where! Just wait until you see the picture of all of us at Animal Kingdom with Safari sunglasses and visors! We will be the laughing stock of the entire park, I'm sure. Our son says "not on your life" will I get him in Safari glasses - well, let's see!

Our concern about this trip revolves around Stephen as he has been having alot of arm pain. He is back in rehab again and we are afraid that he will have to have another heart cath and another stent. It is our hope that the blockage is from a gas bubble that has not worked its way out from Open Heart Surgery. We are doing rehab to eliminate all possibilities before they do another surgery. He also has a slipped sturnum that could be the cause of his great pain and his arm tingling. We are still going to Disneyworld. But you may wish to pray for Steve, for strength, for wisdom and patience.

What Parent could be prouder?

This year has been the year of Higher Education Degrees in our family. The first celebration took place a few months ago, when Sara's husband, Chris, graduated from Virginia Tech Med School and as an officer in the Navy.

Kendra, Jason's wife, graduated from Ball State with her masters in Journalism. She did not go to her graduation exercise, but she definately has her diploma. Kendra teaches at Indiana Wesleyan University journalism and she loves it.

Then May 10th, Stephanie's husband, Daniel, graduated from Duke University with a Master of Divinity. They have been appointed to a little United Methodist Church in Marion Indiana, called Christland UMC and will be moving back to Indiana in mid-June.

May 18th, Jason graduated from Notre Dame.

It was an interesting year for graduation ceremonies at Notre Dame as President Barak Obama gave the commencement address. As you all know, the controversy around his coming stirred alot of press coverage. We were prepared for all kinds of rioting and demonstrations, but actually once we got on Notre Dame's campus, we did not see one sign, one protest or anything.

During the President's speech, there were 4-5 interruptions with people yelling about babies being killed and the president supported abortion. It was a highly volitle situation as Notre Dame is a catholic school who is very vocal against abortion. There was security everywhere. The interruptions only lasted a few seconds before the hecklers were escorted out.