Today's the BIG day!

The young man above is Patrick Conlen. He was Kristen's stand partner in the high school orchestra (this picture is from high school). He is a wonderful violinist and is studying music at the University of Oklahoma. Last night, Kristen invited me to go with her to see his Junior recital at the university for an elective music class she is taking. He was wonderful. I saw a couple of other parents in the audience that had children in the orchestra with he and Kristen in high school (but our children no longer play). I really loved hearing him play in high school and now he is even more enjoyable.

On to other news.... Today is the day for final try-outs for the OU pom squad. Kaitlyn is getting ready as we speak. I'll let everyone know this evening how that went.

Joe and I are walking in the American Heart Walk today through his company and Kristen is also walking with some of her sorority sisters as part of their philanthropic efforts. I may post some pictures later of the Oklahoma bombing memorial as tomorrow is the 14th anniversary of the bombing and we walk right by it on the walking route.

Kristen's "school" picture

This is Kristen's picture that will hang in the sorority composite on the wall at the sorority house. I like her hair better now that it's not so dark. Kaitlyn has finally decided on a senior picture photographer so hopefully we'll get that done here soon.

I'm a Hungry Girl!

I sent in a picture of me buying the new Hungry Girl cookbook to the Hungry Girl website in hopes of winning something in their contest drawing. HAH! I never win anything, but at least I tried! Her first cookbook actually had some really good recipes in it. I'm hoping this one does too (I'm game for anything with less than 200 calories).

Easter Sunday

This morning after church, I picked up my Easter Lilly that I had placed on the altar in memory of my brother, Mack. I have done this the past several years. It's a rainy and dreary Easter Sunday here.

Yesterday, Joe and I rode our bikes up to the stadium to see the annual Red & White scrimmage game at OU. There were 28,000 people there to watch. The stadium looked almost full to me. It was a beautiful day and a great day for a bike ride. I also read the book, The Shack, by Wm. Paul Young. I loved it and thought how appropriate to read this during Easter. And, yes, I read the whole thing yesterday! That's probably the first time I've read a whole book in one day since I had children (21 years ago). It is great to finally do some things again that I've put aside

because I was too busy.

Easter Bunny Cake

I'm off work today (Jann and I took the Good Friday holiday). Everyone else had to work or go to school so I thought I would have fun today. I baked a cake then made it into an Easter Bunny cake. I first saw this cake in my Betty Crocker Cooking for Boys and Girls cookbook I received when I was about 9 years old. I looked it up on the internet and printed out the instructions. I am not a cook, nor have I ever made this cake before but I always wanted to. Anyway, here's my plain cake cooling on the racks.

Here's the cake after I cut up and arranged it. I covered a presentation board with foil since I didn't think I had a platter or cookie sheet large enough for this.

And here's the finished product. I think I did an okay job since it was my first attempt. The whiskers are chocolate twists. The eyes and buttons are peanut M&Ms. I used sprinkles on the ears and the bowtie (which now looks like shirt) instead of coloring the coconut. The mouth is just red (probably really old) icing I had in a tube up in the cabinet. I think the girls will like it (they only like white cake anyway); however, I KNOW Kaitlyn could have done a better job. She has a thing for baking. So, HAPPY EASTER!!!

Busy Saturday

Saturday was a busy day for us. In the morning I took Kaitlyn to get her split-sole jazz sneakers she needs for OU Pom try-outs in a couple of weeks. Everyone was out of her size so we had to order them from the lady at the dance shop where we used to get our skating dresses. Then there was the pom/cheer tryouts at the high school. The seniors get to dress up and help run the try-outs. Kaitlyn ran the music for the first half of pom, then she had to perform the band chant behind the judges in case a girl forgot what she was doing in the middle of her routine. This is a picture of the seniors that are left (both of the captains got kicked off/quit). The girl in the middle with the red shorts (Brooke) will be a senior next year and made captain of next years squad. The girl on the right end is Ariana. She also made the cut for OU pom tryouts.
Saturday night, I went to a wedding with Joe. Both the bride and groom used to work with him but they went to work in Tulsa for the new BOK arena when it opened over there. The wedding was in Shawnee, OK. We were sitting in almost the last row of the church.

I really, really wanted to go to the Medieval Faire this weekend (Fri-Sun) but I just couldn't get out there. The Medieval Faire probably is my most favorite event that Norman has each year. It's a living history fair and the characters you see are great. Lots of people dress up in medieval garb - they have beggars and pickpockets, mermaids, jesters, kings and queens. The fair is put on by the University and has been in existence as long as I've lived here (since 1981). I wanted to take some pictures to post here but Friday I got off work too late. Saturday was beautiful but so windy I couldn't have made it thru the day with a decent hairdo for all the activities I had to attend. Sunday was too darned cold and the wind made it feel like it was 30 degrees outside. I also missed Parent Weekend at OU for the first time at Kristen's sorority house since she's been in college. She had to work and didn't really want to go, so we ordered the t-shirts (pink this year) and I didn't go to that either. I've had a couple of weeks off from Kohls and have really enjoyed not working the extra hours. We'll see how long that holds out!

Shawl Update

I'm one-third the way through the shawl I'm making for Crystal. I started the second skein the other night. I couldn't figure out why it didn't seem to be getting any taller. I finally realized that I cast on 157 stitches instead of 57 stitches! So I'm making it lengthwise, instead of widthwise which is what I usually do. I guess when I did the triangular shawl, it just threw me off. Anyway, here's what it looks like so far.