What a Sweetheart!

I spent some time Wednesday and Thursday (30-31st) with Mandie, Brian and the kids. This morning, they took Carter for a checkup and I watched Abby and cooked a turkey dinner. I was so thrilled that Abby liked cornbread and milk - an old East Texas tradition. She kept coming to me with her mouth open for big bites. What a sweetheart! Then while I was checking the turkey, she disappeared. I found her in the bathroom - cleaning the toilet with my hairbrush. What a sweetheart!

MEMORIAL DAY FESTIVITIES

Memorial Day festivities will be at the von Bose home anytime after 1 p.m. on Monday. The usual things will be going on: swimming, games, eating (lots of eating!), roasting hot dogs & marshmallows. The zip line is up and running if you're brave. We'll try to get our neighbor's smoker again for some really good brisket, so bring whatever you would like to accompany slabs of beef. As always, you're welcome to bring assorted friends and near-relatives as you wish. See you soon!

Carter Brian McMurdie

As most of you know, little baby McMurdie came in to the world yesterday weighing in at 8lbs 1oz, 20" long and "round and sweet!" Here are some photos from yesterday. I'm sure Mandie will have many more to add soon! We all agree that he looks like Abby a little, but is all boy. Congratulations Mandie and Brian!

Art Club Mural

Chrystal & Gideon have been working with the "Committee for Painting Elementary Schools" (CPES) from Art Club to paint a 50-foot long rain forest mural in the teacher's lounge at their alma mater. Carrie also joined us for a day--she painted the iguana top left. Over 120 man-hours (woman-hours?) were put into the project. The pictures don't really do it justice--it's quite beautiful and the teachers are thrilled to have a nice lounge to rest in. The principal even ordered new furniture for the room, so it's a super nice place to be.

The pics are: The whole group with a thank you card signed by the teachers, Chrystal kissing Frank, the lemur she painted, and the whole group autographing the wall (Gideon is the one signing his name upside down.)

My apologies to Missy for the poor layout of the post. I'm just excited that I figured out how to upload the pictures without any teenagers helping me!

31-cent Ice Cream!

Tonight, Baskin Robbins is having a 31-cent ice cream cone sale, from 5-10pm. All proceeds go to the Fallen Firefighters Fund. So, support your firefighters and get some cheap ice cream! Visit http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Promotion/31cent.aspx for more details, or find a store near you.

You are Invited

Anna's dance recital is May 12, at 10:30 am at the Wylie Community Center. I realize that there's a lot going on that day, but I wanted to make sure that everyone knows that they are invited to come. Danny and I will record it for you guys to watch on Mother's Day, so you really won't miss much at all!

Um...

Since not everyone has a myspace, I'm going to post this here and see how well my family knows me...


Create your own Friend Quiz here

So yeah, enjoy!

Graduations!

Mark your calendars! Julianne graduates May 12th from UTA with her degree in English (linguistics minor). Chrystal graduates from Summit High School on May 26th at 3 p.m. at the Potter's House (at Dallas Baptist University on spur 408--Suzy's school). We'll keep you posted on other related festivities. For those who haven't heard, Julie will be leaving for Taiwan in July to teach English at a school there. And Carrie will be leaving for Austin in August to pursue her PhD in Economics. Carrie also starts a new job in Dallas on Wednesday. Chrystal got an academic scholarship to UTA and will start there in the fall. So, congrats to all!

Forest Hill Library Ground Breaking

Last week, Mom went to the ground breaking for the new Forest Hill Library. As many of you know, Dad was the first Chairman of the Library Board. We'll be purchasing two bricks, one for dad and one for Maw as a commeration to them. Here's a photo of Mom tossing some dirt at the groundbreaking with Gerlene Harvey and ex-Mayor Malinda Miller.

Zoo Pictures

Here are some photos that Mom took at the zoo. Aren't we all cute? We were very sorry that Mandie couldn't come with us, but she was where she needed to be with Brian and his family since Brian's grandfather passed away last week. Keep them in your prayers, and enjoy the photos. Hopefully we'll have some more photos that Suzy took soon (hint, hint, Suzy)!

Congratulations, Kile!

Kile graduated on Friday from fire training school. The ceremony ended with a traditional "sliding down the pole," something they can't do until graduation. Congratulations, Kile!

Grad School

Carrie is very excited to have received her first grad school offer. UT Austin has accepted her with a full tuition waiver plus a teaching fellowship worth $15,000 per year! She's still waiting to hear from other schools and should know by next week.

Help!

So something has been going wrong with my car for quite a while and John's done a few things to it, but still hasn't been able to figure out what's wrong. He wants to take it into the shop as soon as possible so it will be up and running smoothly again. We were wondering if anyone in the family has an extra car that we could borrow in the meantime? I would have to drive it to Dallas every day, that's the only problem. If anyone can help out let me know! Hopefully it won't take more than a week to get my car diagnosed and fixed!!

Kile's Graduation!

Hi everyone! I, Damaris, am trying to get as many people as I can to come see Kile graduate from Fire Academy boot camp. The graduation ceremony is going to be March 16th, 2007 at 4 p.m. to roughly 5 p.m. I know lots of people will be working but please try to attend if you can. If you have any questions or can attend please email me or call me or post a comment on the blog.