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Thursday, July 19, 2012

Chinese Lanterns

We like to keep our guests busy when they are here and it turned out to be a beautiful day to take John's mom, Betty, out to the Botanical Garden.  On display this summer are the Chinese lanterns.  They are awesome to see in the daytime.  I can't wait for the heat to break some so we can go back and do some night photography when they are all lit up!  Betty will probably be our last visitor in this house.  As it appears, we may have a contract soon...more on that later!














Monday, July 9, 2012

To move or not to move!

We knew when Beki graduated, we'd be facing the decision whether or not to move out of the area and over to St. Louis.  During March and April, we spent a lot of time weighing our options.  It really wasn't too hard of a decision.  We've wanted for years to be out of Illinois with its high property taxes.  So, we started researching areas over in St. Louis and found that we really liked the Fenton area.  After a few weeks of chaotic cleaning and fixing, we put the house up for sale on June 12th.  We are hoping it won't take too long to sell.  The house is in great shape and, I might be a little biased, but it looks beautiful.  We are in a great neighborhood, on a cul-de-sac.  I keep thinking, "who wouldn't want this house."  I actually hate to leave it.  We've been busy looking at potential homes in Fenton and Arnold, MO.  There are a few great possibilities.  I hope to get a few pictures tomorrow while we are over there.  One home we really like is a ranch backing a small lake in a neighborhood with a pool!

Friday, July 6, 2012

Graduation

It seems life is forging ahead as much as I try to hold it back.  These past two months have been a bit of a blur.  Beki's graduation ceremony was May 19th.  I'm a bit behind, but no surprise with everything that's been going on.  The ceremony itself wasn't too terribly long considering there were 605 graduates!  Beki graduated 10th in her class.  That's pretty impressive and we are very proud of her.  I did well getting through the day.  I thought for sure I'd be an emotional mess watching my last graduate, but I held it together.  It's a strange feeling realizing the grade school days are over.  Grandma Betty came out for the ceremony.  It was great having her here for a visit.  We did some fun things, keeping her pretty busy.





Beki and I drove to Toledo and stayed 9 days.  We celebrated with a party in Ohio with our family and friends and again later had a small party for her here in Illinois.  She invited some friends over and they got the firepit going.  Ari and Anthony came to visit then too. 









After our trip home to Ohio, we went to Missouri State University for SOAR, student registration.  She got a great schedule worked out.  It was a whirlwind of seminars for her and for us.  We took Ari and Anthony out for dinner to Lambert's Restaurant.  It's always a fun place to go and this time the wait wasn't 2 hours!!  She's officially a college student now!



The Gift

  Delivered this week, a gift I never expected arrived in the mail.  This story begins, it seems a lifetime ago, when I worked at Owens Comm...